Monday Morning Quarterback Part II

By BOP Staff

February 19, 2014

Everyone knows his name now.

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Kim Hollis: Endless Love, another '80s remake that debuted this weekend, earned $13.3 million. What do you think of this result?

Matthew Huntley: I've seen the trailer for Endless Love with almost every movie I've gone to in the past four months, and I could never tell what it was actually about, except, of course, "forbidden love," and I only just learned it's a remake. With this in mind, I'm kind of surprised it opened as well as it did, given its ambiguous plot and lack of star power. Obviously the Valentine's Day holiday helped it, but I don't think it will go much further than $30 million overall, which is enough to cover its budget and part of its marketing costs. I'm sure it will find a larger audience on the home market, and that's likely what the studio was banking on. It's a decent figure, but nothing to write home about.

Edwin Davies: A few years ago, there was a romantic drama called Love Happens starring Jennifer Aniston and Aaron Eckhart. Hardly anyone remembers it, and they shouldn't, because it's incredibly forgettable, but I love that title as a generic, no effort spent way of suggesting that something romantic maybe happens in a movie. "Love Happens" was basically the sense I got from the trailers for Endless Love, which told me nothing about what the film involved apart from the fact that love happens at some point. That's a pretty clear indicator that the people involved realized the film wasn't up to much, but that didn't matter because the film was coming out on Valentine's Day and all people needed to know was that love happens in Endless Love. The fact that the film peaked on Friday and cratered spectacularly for the rest of the weekend bears out the idea that they were gearing it to be a one-weekend wonder, or even a one-day wonder, and the low cost served them well on this front. It'll be forgotten about by next weekend, or even by the time I finish writing this sentence, but it's made a small profit already and no one's going to bed angry over this result.




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Felix Quinonez: I think they're lucky they got what they did. I saw the trailers a bunch of times and can't even remember one piece of it. It's an incredibly generic looking movie that no one will remember. Since it benefited from Valentine's day, it will drop like a stone next weekend and then no one will ever talk about it again.

Max Braden: As with About Last Night, I saw almost no advertising for this movie. (I think I actually saw the trailer and it went over my head, except "oh, Bruce Greenwood." That's not a good sign.) Just looking for the poster makes me think they're pandering. "You should see this movie because it's a romance releasing on Valentine's Day" sometimes is enough to sell a movie, but not this time.

David Mumpower: Out of the three unimaginative remakes this weekend, I consider Endless Love to be the laziest. As Edwin mentions, it is almost stubbornly generic, shamelessly capitalizing on the Valentine's Day Friday as a means to an end for a respectable weekend of box office. Even the cast is uninspiring. Alex Pettyfer, that dude from I Am Number Four, runs neck and neck with Garrett Hedlund for least exciting lead actor in the industry. And Gabriella Wilde's best credit previously was as the survivor in Carrie. Frankly, this project is not worth the effort we are expending in evaluating its performance. All that I will take from the performance is a Lionel Richie/Diana Ross earworm. I want to know who I can sue over that.


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