Monday Morning Quarterback Part I

By BOP Staff

April 1, 2014

You can't stop him. No, really. You can't.

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Kim Hollis: Bad Words, Jason Bateman's comedy about a foul-mouthed adult competing with grade school kids in a spelling bee, expanded to 842 locations and earned $2.6 million. What do you think of this result?

Edwin Davies: This seems pretty bad to me, considering that the film is, by most accounts, a very broad comedy that is pretty funny, if a little dark. I'm really surprised that Focus decided to go with a platform release since it seems entirely unsuited to the kind of film that it is. It seems like it would have benefited more from the kind of broad release they gave to Burn After Reading, rather than trying to aim for the smaller, limited release audiences who might not be as open to such a filthy, raunchy comedy.

Brett Ballard-Beach: I must quibble with our Curt David and declare that this had the best tagline of the new wide releases this weekend: "The end justifies the mean." Beyond that, no, it wasn't a good result. Glad to see Jason Bateman and Diego Luna both branching out behind the camera this weekend, but seeing the normally put upon nice guy from Arrested Development and Identity Thief embrace his inner asshole apparently was neither thrilling or enthralling. "Bad Santa... at a spelling bee" has its possibilities but Billy Bob is still the modern standard by which these types of characters must be measured.




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Bruce Hall: My initial reaction is "meh". A modest expansion for a title that's technically been in existence for 17 weeks now. It's an unremarkable result and it's hard to see us discussing this movie again - but I do foresee another feather in Jason Bateman's cult classic cap.

David Mumpower: I honestly don't even care about the box office for Bad Words. All I know is that I laughed harder at that trailer than I have for any in at least a calendar year. If it bombs in theaters, it seems destined to become a cult classic on video. If the tone mirrors the advertising - and I've been assured that it does - Bad Words is exactly the kind of daring comedy that we lack in an industry chock full of Owen Wilson/Vince Vaughn retreads.


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