Monday Morning Quarterback Part I

By BOP Staff

October 11, 2010

You can't beat him.

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Reagen Sulewski: I'm surprised at the relative failure of both of the top two films this week, but definitely at this one most of all. Perhaps Killers hurt Heigl more than we thought, but the combination of Heigl + baby comedy really should have hit regardless of whether the premise is old and busted or not (and it is). Saying audiences are tired of baby jokes is like saying they're tired of explosions - this just shouldn't happen. The most logical explanation is that the bloom is coming off Heigl's rose somewhat - expect a ridiculous amount of publicist-planted stories in the media about Heigl in the coming months.

Jim Van Nest: My thought is that all the people who want their "raising a baby" comedy decided to skip this and stay home to watch Raising Hope.

David Mumpower: In reading the earlier replies, I have the following to say:

1) People are describing the idea of Heigl with a baby as innately marketable. I do not see it that way. In fact, such a premise screams Mommy Dearest reboot to me. Then again, maybe the breast feeding might suck out some of her evil.




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2) Projects want to be like 27 Dresses in that as awful as the film was (and it was in my bottom 10 for 2008), it earned $76.8 million. I think that points 1 and 2 tie together in that the appeal of romantic fantasy seems to be the idea of falling in love and getting married whereas the babies are where the fun of casual sex is signified as over. Right or wrong, that's probably true and before someone argues the point about Knocked Up, the funny trigger there was the doomsday scenario itself. It's different than the natural order of fall in love, get married, then raise children. Different actors are better suited for each of these phases and I think it's safe to say that Katherine Heigl is no Bill Cosby.

3) Who hates Scrubs? If you say something bad about Cougar Town or Clone High next, I'm going to make you watch 27 Dresses until you willingly swallow your own tongue.

4) Reagen is right that this is fallout from Killers to an extent. What Heigl's people have done is push her to the middle. She got lucky with Knocked Up then she picked the right projects in terms of marketability with 27 Dresses and The Ugly Truth. Rather than do something different, she chose or was pushed to do more of the same and saturation has set in. I think she has to do something surprising now in the same way that Anne Hathaway did Havoc and Brokeback Mountain in order to shake off the current typecasting. Then again, this may be all she can do.

5) I think Matthew's point is astute in that this reinforces that Hollywood cannot drive the conversation about what makes life hard. People already know these things and saying that someone who has everything on the surface might struggle with being a good parent in no way, shape or form makes them interesting as a movie premise without further explanation. There just didn't seem to be enough to sell here.


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