Monday Morning Quarterback Part II

By BOP Staff

November 30, 2010

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Matthew Huntley: Joshua, your assumption about the ending is damn near close to the real thing, so I'd say you can skip seeing this movie entirely in theaters. In fact, I'd say everyone can. It really brings nothing new to the table and you're left with just a feeling of "eh."

Reviews aside, though, Fox should not be pleased with this result. Although the movie only cost $30 million to produce, the drop-offs and competition from here on out are going to be too fierce and it will likely not stick around long enough to put the studio in the green. Speaking of drop-offs, I really think they'll be uncharacteristically large for this one, because all the reactions coming out of the theater were lackluster and I bet more couples/females (the target demographic) will opt to see Tangled next weekend instead of Love and Other Drugs.

What went wrong? I honestly think the problem is the source material. It was so uninspired and uninteresting that there was just no way of marketing it so it looked appealing/fresh. Marketing can usually disguise crap, but not in this case. They needed to go back to the root of the problem: the screenplay.




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Brett Beach: Not sure if this contributed or not to the so-so opening, but my take on the film's performance is exemplified by the shot (s) of Gyllenhaal and Hathaway on the front of Entertainment Weekly last week: On the one hand they both look hot, yet on the other, it seems more like a brother/sister type of chemistry, which considering that they are both naked, is thankfully not as ick-inducing as it could be, but still...watching them have lots and lots of sex may not be the biggest erotic turn-on for the nation at large.

I was surprised to be see that Ed Zwick was behind this. Since the studio couldn't reasonably tout this as "From the director of Glory, The Last Samurai and The Blood Diamond" and expect audiences to come running for an unusual drama, they were left to airbrush him out (as from the movie poster) and instead try to sell this as an Apatow-esque tale of bawdy behavior and sweet love. Low budget, respected stars, not a lot at stake. The studio probably expected this result (trying to shoehorn a fake romance into someone's non-fiction account of the pharmaceutical industry is an odd adaptation choice) and thus should be mildly pleased. From the sounds of it, Hathaway may at least be up for a Golden Globe nod and, depending upon her fellow actress' regard for her, perhaps a surprise Oscar nom, which could help rentals, etc. down the line.

Reagen Sulewski: Josh (and Joshua), ordinarily I'm right on board with you but this is Thanksgiving. There is no logical reason to skip the Wednesday and Thursday portion of the week at this holiday - that's when all the people are out. You're throwing away money if you don't. This and Christmas are the two weekends of the year where the three-day numbers really don't tell the tale.

Personally I'm surprised that the all-out charm offensive with the two leads, who pretty much got naked upon request, didn't succeed. This feels like a campaign that needed a couple more weeks to bake to really ping with the public. The reality of Thanksgiving weekend, though, is that with four new films and some high profile stuff still out there, something is going to lose out.


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