Monday Morning Quarterback Part II
By BOP Staff
March 6, 2012
BoxOfficeProphets.com

That's $1,000 for you and $2,000 for you and....

Let's just go ahead and get the Matthew Broderick ape jokes out of the way.

Kim Hollis: Project X, the found footage teen party comedy, opened to $21.1 million. What are your thoughts on this performance?

Tim Briody: You could probably make the argument that this opening is an even bigger surprise than The Lorax's opening. We did just have Chronicle kind of do the same thing a month ago, but that had a super-hero/sci-fi hook. This just felt like another "one wild and crazy night" and not the sort of thing that would star nobody and make $20 million.

Shalimar Sahota: Not exactly breakout spectacular, but good. To me, the initial teaser trailer with its confessional intro and shots of a whole street on fire had me hooked, suggesting that maybe there was something more here than just a party film. However, the reviews would suggest that I'm wrong. I've also seen adverts for this running on TV almost every day during the last two weeks (sometimes two during the same commercial break). Also, for some people, I imagine just reading why it's R-rated may have been reason enough to go see the film.

Reagen Sulewski: It's kind of an interesting reflection of the social media age - teens are used to living their lives on Facebook and Twitter and texting naked pictures of themselves to their entire school, so it makes sense that this sort of film would connect with them. This is the kind of party that they'd probably all like to attend. American Pie probably feels impossibly quaint at this point.

Brett Beach: Shalimar, the MPAA explanation for the rating was fabulously verbose. I thnk it is riding the Chronicle wave to some extent (curiosity about how the found footage genre would be reflected in a teen party comedy milieu) and found a way to market The Hangover to an even younger bunch for which new sensory-assaulting kicks are always the rage. Looking at the ads made me think of nothing so much as Underworld's still prophetic mantra from "Born Slippy (Nuxx): "Shouting lager lager lager shouting mega mega white thing mega mega white thing."

Max Braden: How do you compete after years of American Pie knockoffs and YouTube fail videos? You make your movie *dangerous.* Project X combines both the party and the found-footage look, and dangles the idea: "imagine the biggest party you've ever seen, and it got out of control. Now double it. What would that be like?" I think people just went to find out.

Jason Dean: There was the aspect of wanting to see a party just get completely out of hand but I have to admit that I wanted to see the how and why of the bouncing dog in the promos

Edwin Davies: To echo points that were made about Act of Valor last week, a key part of the success of Project X was probably the novelty value of seeing the found footage style applied to a comedy. There have been plenty of mockumentaries over the years, but the idea of a film purporting to be real footage of the most out of control party imaginable probably interested people a lot more than if they had just made a film on the same subject using a more straightforward style. This was probably the case with Chronicle, too, in that both films applied a familiar form to a genre that it had not been applied to, generating a lot more interest along the way. I also think that people were probably intrigued to see how far the film would go with its almost apocalyptic tone, which made the film seem like a disaster movie in some of the trailers.

Kim Hollis: I think that the result is not terribly surprising. It's a movie that is perfectly suited to its demographic, and presents a Hangover-esque story aimed at that age group rather than 30-something dudes. I'm slightly surprised that the found footage gimmick isn't losing some steam, but I guess if they're going to use it in new and different ways rather than repeating the same stuff over and over again, it can have its place. I am amused by the audience extremes that the two new movies this weekend would have created in theaters - on one side, you have the party kids, and on the other side you have the little kids and their parents.

David Mumpower: To a larger point, I am impressed by all the creative wrinkles movie makers are finding in the evolving Found Footage genre. I thought Apollo 18 as a premise was genius and this is even more original. It takes that closing bit of The Hangover where we recount the night through pictures and shapes it into an entire video of forgotten events. I congratulate the person/people who had that idea, because it is an instant money concept. The opening weekend triumph is the culmination of that.

We watch movies. Hooray!

Edwin Davies: I had a rather intense weekend watching a bunch of really oppressively bleak films, all of which were good, even if I had to chain watch episodes of Parks & Recreation afterwards to restore my faith in humanity.

Carancho (The Vulture) - An Argentinian thriller about insurance which- wait, come back, it's really good! Anyway, the film focuses on the relationship that develops between an ambulance chaser whose job is to essentially con victims of traffic accidents into signing contracts that will ensure that they receive hardly any money whilst the insurance companies walk away rich, and a relatively naive doctor who doesn't realise the depths of the corruption around her. It's a really compelling film that offers an insight into a sub-culture that I knew nothing about by putting it in the trappings of a genre film. The end result is something that is hugely exciting, but which manages to examine some very difficult moral issues.

Martha Marcy May Marlene - When people look back on the 2012 Oscars, I hope that they will cite the lack of recognition for this film as a clear sign that they got it very, very wrong. A really beguiling examination of the mindset of a young woman who escapes from a cult that uses a non-linear narrative to establish her confused state of mind, jumping from past to present to suggest a sense of memories being confused with reality and vice versa. Elizabeth Olsen is superb as the main character, and the ever brilliant John Hawkes is amazingly creepy as charismatic the cult leader.

Michael - I really have trouble talking about this film because the subject matter is so distasteful and awful, so I'll kind of skirt around it as best I can. It's essentially about an Austrian man who keeps a young boy prisoner in his cellar for...well, reasons. Horrible, horrible reasons. However, it's not sensational or horrific since all the abuse happens off-screen. What's really disturbing is the way in which the captor tries to make everything seem normal by taking the boy out to the park or singing Christmas carols with him. It's a deeply unsettling watch that I found really effective, even though I don't think it ultimately has anything meaningful to say about the abuse itself, or the society that could allow such abuse to occur.

48 Hours - Man, Eddie Murphy used to be amazing.

Max Braden:

The Iron Lady: I feel like this movie was promoted falsely, because all the clips shown are of Thatcher in her prime political moments. But the movie is really about aging and loss, with just as many scenes with Thatcher as an elderly woman having visions of her dead husband. Streep is even better in emoting through the heavy makeup and prosthetics. It's a disjointed movie but I think the point pathos comes across well. She earned her Oscar this year.

The Big Year: Another movie that becomes far more clear after you see it. How small a percentage of the population knows that a "Big Year" refers to the world record in birding? Even with the vague impression that the three characters in the movie liked birds, I had no idea. Like the original Rocky, this movie sells the idea that winning the title isn't everything.

Rocky I & II & III: Working on quizzes for these I've watched them again in succession for the first time in many years. I'm always interested in movies that take place in the mid 1970s, a time I lived through (briefly) but have mostly forgotten. Compared to today's economic crisis, the average Joe in the 1970s had it rough. It's also struck me how good a storyteller Stallone was. Rocky I is almost more romance than boxing, and Rocky II drags by today's standards, but Stallone kept it simply and dealt with recognizable themes of devotion, insecurity, and ego. Everybody loves a rags to riches story, and watching the mean and indulgent get their comeuppance.

Twilight: Breaking Dawn: I *cannot* understand the appeal of this series. The wedding in this was the least romantic I've ever seen in film.

The Rum Diary: Just when you expect the reluctant hero to take up the torch... the movie ends? It's like they filmed the first act for something that isn't big enough to make a trilogy.

David Mumpower: In re-watching United 93 again the other day (yes, I'm capable of watching it more than once), I noticed a moment in the film that captivated me. The pilot who has hijacked United 93 recognizes that the cockpit is about to be overrun. As he prepares to crash the plane, he puts on his seatbelt. That moment is easily missed yet a fascinating example of subtle character development by Paul Greengrass. And even on this, my fifth viewing, I briefly hold out hope that the passengers will overwhelm the terrorists and save themselves. United 93 is in the discussion for best movie of the 2000s.

I finally got around to watching Burn After Reading and was thoroughly non-plussed. I guess that I am annoyed when George Clooney is anything other than the focus of a movie. Still, it's hard for me to imagine a Brad Pitt/George Clooney film with fewer satisfying moments than this...and I include Ocean's Twelve in that.

I also checked out Survival of the Dead, George Romero's most recent zombie film. At the risk of alienating BOP writer emeritus Chris Hyde, Romero has lost his touch as a zombie film maker. I didn't understand the Irish family feud, I didn't understand the horse eating and I really, really didn't understand the "ironic twist" ending. Frankly, the Dawn of the Dead remake is better than anything Romero ever did in his career and I say that as a huuuuuuge fan of the zombie genre.