In lieu of anything interesting today, here is an image from Michael Winterbottom’s “The Trip“, which stars Steve Coogan as “Steve Coogan” and Rob Brydon as “Rob Brydon” and is one of my most eagerly anticipated TIFF films.
Don’t get excited; I’m not seeing it today or anything. I just wanted to share the still. It makes me smile.
It’s not the low box-office numbers for the weekend that smarts so much as the way the Reuters writer treats the movies. I mean, sure, “The American” taking the top spot with a Friday-to-Sunday gross of $13 million (for $16.1 million overall) isn’t exactly a triumph, but is this description really appropriate?
The film, in which Clooney plays a stone-faced gun enthusiast holed up in a picturesque Italian town, was directed by rock photographer Anton Corbijn.
Note the clever juxtaposition of “stone” and “rock”. (And note my sarcastic usage of “clever” just there.) Also, “gun enthusiast” isn’t really an accurate summation of Clooney’s character.
But let’s not forget this:
The opening is slightly better than industry forecasts, but is similar to that of his 2008 flop “Leatherheads,” which ended its brief run with $31.3 million.
The opening may be similar, but there’s really no other connection to “Leatherheads” — a period rom-com that opened in the springtime — besides the fact that both films starred Clooney.
After that, we go on to smack Drew Barrymore around for a bit:
“Going the Distance” stars Barrymore and Justin Long as bi-coastal lovers. It is the latest in a string of rom-com flops for the actress, including “Lucky You,” “Music and Lyrics” and “Fever Pitch.”
“Lucky You” wasn’t a romantic comedy, and “Music and Lyrics” wasn’t a flop, was it? It made, like, $50 million. I know it’s a long weekend and the regular beat reporter’s probably taking the kids to college, but really, even a throwaway piece like this should be as accurate as possible. And maybe a little less bitchy.
If it’s September — and it is — then it must be time for my elaborate Fall Movie Preview, now up at MSN Movies.
My one regret is that there wasn’t room for the M. Night Shyalaman-produced “Devil”, which seems to suggest that the former wunderkind’s future lies exclusively in thinking up ideas that wouldn’t have passed muster on the original “Twilight Zone”, and letting someone else make them.
(See, there’s a bunch of people stuck in an elevator … and apparently one of them is … THE DEVIL!!!)
(Yes, seriously.)
(No wonder people are laughing the trailer off the screen.)
The weekend before Labour Day is traditionally the slowest of the year for moviegoing. Everyone has something else they have to be doing — packing for school, enjoying the last free days of summer, avoiding whatever garbage the studios usually dump.
But this year, the selection is better than average. In fact, I liked all three of this week’s new releases … didn’t love them, but enjoyed them well enough. Here, I’ll walk you through ‘em:
“The American“: Technically, Anton Corbijn’s broody Eurothriller — with George Clooney hiding out in an Italian village and discovering the redemptive joys of smoking-hot whores — isn’t a Labour Day weekend release, since it opened on Wednesday. But still.
“Going the Distance“: In which real-life couple Drew Barrymore and Justin Long struggle with a long-distance relationship, while various wacky friends and family members egg them on in different directions. The stars are charming, the script is just a little smarter and funnier than it could have been, and it has Charlie Day from “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia”. Wild card!
“Machete“: When Robert Rodriguez announced he’d be reverse-engineering a whole movie out of that “Grindhouse” trailer, I scoffed. (Didn’t everyone?) But he’s done a really entertaining job of it, and if this doesn’t vault Danny Trejo to the top of the action-hero A-list, nothing will. (I’m kidding. Nothing will. But he’s pretty awesome, all the same.) My review should be going online later this afternoon. UPDATE: There it is!
And there you have it! Go see something!
The latest issue of NOW is on the stands, inviting you to leap headfirst into the gathering TIFF madness — you’ll find our first wave of reviews, my five most-anticipated titles and much more.
But there’s non-festival stuff happening, too — like the release of “Going the Distance”, for which I spoke to Drew Barrymore, Jason Sudeikis and director Nanette Burstein a couple of weeks back. And the world premiere of the documentary “Song of the Lodz Ghetto” tonight at the Sheppard Centre as part of the Ashkenaz Festival. Oh, and the release of “The American” yesterday. So, you know, busy times for all.
Not exactly the week you’d want to come down with a cold. Still, better now than next Thursday, right?
The weekend box-office results are in, and “The Last Exorcism” has claimed the top spot — barely. The virally marketed creeper earned just $300,000 more than its closest competition, the anonymous actioner “Takers”. The former made $21.3 million; the latter, $21 million. (Sylvester Stallone’s “The Expendables” dropped to third place with $9.5 million.)
Imagine what a savvy producer could do with a movie about fashionably dressed hoods who try to rob the Vatican, only to accidentally unleash all the demons stored in its vault. That’s a $42.3 million opening weekend, guaranteed!
… aw, crap. Someone’s going to make that now.
Ah, Friday. An insanely busy Friday, what with TIFF 2010 now less than two weeks away and my major deadlines earlier than ever. But there are movies, and there are reviews. Let’s take a look.
“Flipped“: Hey, remember when Rob Reiner was a director of remarkable range and tenderness? I do, and that’s why this pleasant but featherweight attempt to reclaim his “Stand by Me” auteurship feels so thin on the ground.
“The Human Centipede (First Sequence)“: Technically, Tom Six’ gross-out cult classic-to-be doesn’t start its Toronto engagement until tomorrow, but I’m lumping it in with the rest of the reviews to make it easier on everybody. And by everybody, I include myself; this way, I can go with an image from one of the week’s other new releases, thus letting everyone keep their breakfast down. I’m thoughtful like that.
“The Last Exorcism”: Daniel Stamm’s faux documentary about a fraudulent exorcist who runs afoul of the real deal is being marketed with all the booga-booga you’d expect from an Eli Roth production. But Andrew says it delivers at least some of the goods.
“Life During Wartime”: More than a decade after “Happiness” made writer-director Todd Solondz’ dark-comedy bones, he revisits that movie’s characters — played by an entirely new cast — in this left-field sequel, which I’ve been trying to catch for nearly a year now. Susan was wowed, which makes me even more annoyed that I don’t have two hours to spare right now.
“No Heart Feelings“: Full disclosure: I didn’t enjoy this charming little no-budget relationship dramedy entirely because two-thirds of it was shot within a hundred yards of my front door. But it certainly didn’t hurt. Let’s try that again: The fact that two-thirds of this charming little no-budget relationship dramedy was shot within a hundred yards of my front door isn’t the only reason I enjoyed it. But it certainly didn’t hurt. (Thanks, Kate!)
“Teenage Paparazzo”: “Entourage” star Adrian Grenier turns the camera on the shutterbugs — well, one of them, anyway — in this documentary about baby-faced shooter Austin Visschedyk. Glenn liked it well enough.
“The Tillman Story”: Amir Bar-Lev, who made the excellent “My Kid Could Paint That” a few years ago, looks at the death of U.S. Ranger Pat Tillman, whose death by friendly fire in Afghanistan was not only covered up by a morally bankrupt military, but used as a recruiting tool by Donald Rumsfeld and George W. Bush. Until his family refused to play along, that is. Susan didn’t like it as much as I did, but she’ll come around someday.
And if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got to run off and see … I dunno, something at the Varsity, probably. Catch you later.
I have a lot of stuff to do today, but there’s very little to blog about. Well, except for the sad news that Japanese director Satoshi Kon has died, at age 46, of pancreatic cancer. He made “Millennium Actress” and “Paprika”, which were “Inception” before “Inception” was “Inception”, if you know what I mean.
You should take a look at them one of these days; “Paprika” is on Blu-ray and everything. I’d love to dive back into it, but I’ve got to get going …
Some people live for them. Me, I won’t even be in the same room with them if it’s possible. They are spoilers — pieces of information regarding the plots of movies and television shows that will give you too much knowledge in advance of actually watching said movie or television show.
Like all knowledge, spoilers are neither good nor bad; they’re just there, with the potential to be used or abused as the holder sees fit. I like knowing as little as possible about whatever I’m about to see — I won’t even watch a trailer if I can help it — and I try to extend my readers that same courtesy in my reviews. I try not to mention anything that happens after the first reel of a film; it just doesn’t seem fair.
Sure, sometimes it’s unavoidable; the heist sequence of “Inception” doesn’t start until more than an hour into the picture, but that’s the meat of the movie. Still, I did my best to dance around the specifics.
Anyway, I’m mentioning this because the AV Club has just posted Zack Handlen’s excellent essay about what really constitutes a spoiler, and whether you agree with him or not, it’s a good read for this fine late-summer morning.
It’s also tied to the new season of “Mad Men”, so fans of that show may want to bear that in mind …
The weekend box-office is in, and Sylvester Stallone’s ’80s shoot-em-up “The Expendables” remains in the number-one spot with a second-week gross of $16.5 million. And if you think the title of this blog post refers to that, well, you’re only half right.
See, the weekend’s number two movie — with $12.2 million in ticket sales — is “Vampires Suck”, the latest from hack parodists Josh Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer, who’ve foisted “Date Movie”, “Epic Movie”, “Disaster Movie” and “Meet the Spartans” upon our screens over the past few years. Now, in fairness, I haven’t seen the new one, but I know the template, and I know Friedberg and Seltzer’s sense of pop-culture humour, which is roughly adjacent to Jay Leno’s.
It’s lowest-common-denominator stuff — bringing out a Britney Spears impersonator and smacking her with a mallet, because everyone wants to see Britney Spears get smacked in the face with a mallet. It’s the same impulse that led Jay Roach to throw Jeff Dunham into “Dinner for Schmucks” — a sop to the Middle Americans who might not recognize Jemaine Clement, Lucy Punch, Kristen Schaal or Chris O’Dowd but sure do love that ventriloquist guy. (And here I must pause and point out that for all his failings, Roach is a more astute director of comedians than Friedberg and Seltzer, who just hire lookalike actors and make them repeat the dialogue from whatever they’re mocking with one eyebrow raised.)
So, yeah. “Scott Pilgrim vs. the World” barely stays in the game, holding tenth place with a $5 million take, but “Vampires Suck” just made half its budget back, guaranteeing it’ll be profitable by the time it hits DVD (which should be presently). And Friedberg and Seltzer will have another insta-parody in theatres by Christmas — probably going after the “Harry Potter” series. That’s on you, moviegoers. Damn you all to hell.