Box Office Report 4/30

I really need to start tracking the Rotten Tomatoes percentage of the top ten box office movies on a weekly basis. Take a look at this.

1 R.V. -- $16.4M, 22%
2 United 93 -- $11.6M, 93%
3 Stick It -- $11.3M, 32%
4 Silent Hill -- $9.3M, 25%
5 Scary Movie 4 -- $7.8M, 38%
6 The Sentinel -- $7.6M, 29%
7 Ice Age: The Meltdown -- $7.1M, 58%
8 Akeelah and the Bee -- $6.3M, 84%
9 The Wild -- $4.7M, 19%
10 The Benchwarmers -- $4.4M, 12%

Eight of the top ten movies with "Rotten" scores (and one of the movies with a good score is actually bad, if you look a few posts below). This is actually quite normal. 7 out of ten with less than 40%, which is pretty much a ridiculous poor score. And RV's opening weekend beats out United 93's (which will probably be one of the best movies of this year) with a stellar score of *22%*. Sometimes I just do not understand who actually goes to see these movies. I realize that I am somewhat snobby in my movie tastes but sometimes I just think, COME ON! Do you really think that "RV" is going to be highly entertaining and worth $10 per person per ticket and extras? Again, this is why more good movies aren't released, there just isn't a market for it. How depressing.

May/June Movie Preview

Well the summer blockbusters look pretty weak this year, although it could improve if a couple of them which are iffy actually pan out. Also included are some counter-programming movies. This is everything I've found that looks vaguely interesting.

May 5th:
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Mission Impossible 3

Action Movie. Part Three. Starring Mr. Psycho. I will not be seeing it as I have a boycott on him.

Art School Confidential

New Terry Zwigoff (Ghost World) movie. I will probably see it, hopefully the movie is better than what is shown the trailer though.

Lady Vengeance

Directed by Chan-wook Park (Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance). Looks to be some kind of follow-up to the previous movie, which was excellent. I'm not sure when this is going to be released in San Francisco, later than the 5th I believe, but I will probably see it when it comes out.

May 12th:
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Poseidon

Remake of 1972's The Poseidon Adventure. Going to be a load of garbage I suspect, the blockbuster failure of the summer. I highly doubt I will see it.

May 19th:
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The Da Vinci Code

Adaptation of the famous novel. Tom Hanks is such a miscast for the part but I'll probably see it anyway because Audrey Tautou is in it. I'm not sure if it will actually be any good. I've heard that the producers hired consultants to dumb down the plot so that it is more accessible to the general viewing audience. This is kind of scary because I didn't think the book was very complicated in the first place.

May 26th:
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X-Men: The Last Stand

Third movie in the series. I hated the first one and liked the second so I'm not sure if I will see it. The fact that they got a different director is a little worrisome. I'll probably see how the reviews look.

June 9th:
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A Prairie Home Companion

Robert Altman! I'm so there. Cast includes Woody Harrelson, Tommy Lee Jones, Kevin Kline, Lindsay Lohan (eek?), Virginia Madsen, John C. Reilly, Maya Rudolph, Meryl Streep, Lily Tomlin

Plot Outline: A look at what goes on backstage during the last broadcast of America's most celebrated radio show, where singing cowboys Dusty and Lefty, a country music siren (Streep), and a host of others hold court.

June 23rd:
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Volver

The latest movie directed by Pedro Almodóvar (All About My Mother, Talk to Her). With Penelope Cruz, who is actually good when she's not in American movies.

Plot Outline: After her death, a mother returns to her home town in order to fix the situations should couldn't resolve during her life. Of her family left in the town, her ghost slowly becomes a comfort to her daughters, as well as her grandchild.

June 30th:
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The Devil Wears Prada

Comedy/Drama with Meryl Streep, Anne Hathaway, and Stanley Tucci. Looks potentially interesting.

Plot Outline: A young woman scores a job working for one of New York City's biggest magazine editors, Miranda Priestly (Streep).

Superman Returns

A new movie version of the comic book. Will it be more like Batman Begins or Fantastic Four? I'll wait and see what people say... but if its more like the former and less like the latter I will see it.

Strangers With Candy

Movie version of the comedy central tv series. With Amy Sedaris, Stephen Colbert, and cameos by many famous people. May be good.

Believe The Hype

United 93 (5/5 stars)

Wow. This is simply an excellent movie that deserves every single bit of hype it has been getting. I went into seeing it knowing why it would be bad, and almost hoping for it to be as I like being right, but it simply surprised me in every possible way.

What I expected from United 93 were several things. I thought it would be a showcase of the heroic actions of the passengers aboard the fatal flight that day, mythologizing them, but it is more told as a story of people who simply are scared out of their minds and want to save themselves and see their families again. I expected it to be overly melodramatic, manipulative and sentimental about the events of that day, but it was very gritty and realistic. I expected it to be politically exploitative agitprop but it was not. The movie simply has a narrow focus on the flight itself and the air traffic controllers and military groups who are watching it. Almost the entire movie is shown in real time; we do not learn anything about what the passengers on the plane or the workers in the air traffic control centers were like before the events took place, and we do not see anything of the aftermath. The only points which reference the attacks are from the viewpoint workers on the ground who see the second plane hit the World Trade Center on CNN.

One thing that most people probably don't realize about the movie before seeing it is that it is just as much about the the military and air traffic control personnel monitoring the situation of the morning as it is about the passengers of the flight. One story that is told very well is the complete lack of competence in getting any kind of response to the situation started. You know what is about to happen but you can feel the pain of the people trying to figure out what is going on and get something done as unpreparedness and bureacracy create roadblocks for any hope of preventing further catastrophe.

Not telling the backstories of the characters works so well because it allows the movie to focus on the intense, gripping drama as it unfolds rather than spending time on unnecessary character arcs that a lesser movie might have included (like the normally bad guy who turns good to save the day, etc); even though you already know as much as you can about the events of that day the movie draws you in so well you can't look away for a second, the urgency of the situation continually builds over the course of the movie and the last parts of the movie are some of the most masterfully done suspense film work I've ever seen.

Even if this movie were not based on real events (and let's face it, even though much of the movie takes place off the plane, where the information is more accurate, much of it does not, and guesswork needs to be done), it would still be one of the better thriller movies I've ever seen. The fact that this was real only adds a heavy emotional impact to it all. If you are not of the "it is too soon" camp regarding this, I highly recommend it. Although it is very early, this is definitely going to be one of the very best movies to come out this year.

Putting a Light Touch and Some Melodrama on Tragedy

Water (3/5 stars)

This movie is the story of a girl who at the age of 8 is widowed from an arranged marriage, and is forced by Hindu law to live the rest of her live in an ashram living a life of self-denial in order to atone for her wrongs that brought upon the death of her spouse.

What could have been a quite tragic story, considering that the girl is only 8 years old, and it is revealed that she does not even know her husband or remembering being married at the time of his death, ends up much less because the director decides to focus more on melodramatic distractions and even jokes rather than the horrible situation that this poor girl is put into.

Much time is spent on the story of a woman, also in the ashram, who falls into a forbidden love with a Gandhi supporter (the story is set at the time of his rise to prominence). Also much is focused on ridiculing (and if it was a little more satirical it might work) the woman who appears to be the leader of the ashram, and various other people who support the horrible practice. What it does have going for it is beautiful cinematography and information: I was not aware of this practice going on before and I am facinated (although also horrified) by it.

If this was my movie I would have made I simply would have made it much more bleak and harsh. The subject matter does not lend itself to comedy, or melodrama, it should have instead focused on hitting the point home.

Save You and Your Friends' Money

Friends With Money (2.5/5 stars)

Another catch-up review from something I saw a little while back. This is the story of a character played by Jennifer Aniston who is a former teacher turned maid whose childhood friends all happen to be very rich. They are all of course very concerned with her situation and pity her financial and romantic sufferings. They also all also have several petty and underdeveloped problems of their own. Eventually in the end she finds love and a solution to her money problems, of course.

The problem with this movie is that it tries to be both a comedy and a drama and neither part is done that well, which is a shame because when a movie is made like this and both are done well it ends up being my favorite type of movie. The jokes are not very original and neither are the contrived dramas in the characters lives.

It is really too bad, since although I do not like Jennifer Aniston, I do like Catherine Keener and Frances McDormand who are both sorely wasted in this movie (the latter moreso than the former, who is mildly funny acting ridiculously pissed off in certain parts of the movie). I'd recommend skipping it until it is on cable if you're that interested.

S-A-P-P-Y and F-O-R-M-U-L-A-I-C

Akeelah and the Bee (2/5 stars)

I didn't like this movie at all.

Take the most cheesy against all odds inspirational movie you've ever seen and multiply it by a factor of ten.

1) Protagonist starts off in a bad situation? Check.
2) Reluctant Goal? Check.
3) Various random obstacles thrown at them which they overcome? Check.
4) Egregious overusage of montages? Check.

I almost broke out laughing in the middle of it because I was reminded of the "montage" song from "Team America: World Police". Look! It is Akeelah, studying in various outfits and locations, so now we know that she is trying hard to learn how to spell over a long period of time! Look! Akeelah studies with various different people, we see she has the support of her community! Queue shots of people applauding when words are spelled correctly!

Finally, this is the funniest:

5) Cheesy freeze-frame happy ending shot? Check.

Not to mention, I called (not gonna say what it is) the end of the movie as soon as I saw the first example of the relationship between two of the peripheral characters. Sigh.

Now I've got something to put on my "most overrated" list for the year, though.

Noir High School

Brick (4/5 stars)

This would've been a really good movie had it relied a little less on its premise. The idea is to have a noir-style murder mystery with high school students. There are your typical characters: the girl in trouble, the crime lord, the guy who knows everything, and the hero trying to solve it all.

While being exciting and keeping your attention throughout, there are several moments in the film that are just so ridiculous it brings the overall quality level down. For example, do you really need to show the crime lord character having an important meeting with the hero, while his mother serves them both orange juice? I don't think the movie is actually intending to be funny, because the rest of it is so very serious except for a few moments such as that.

I suppose it is worth watching on DVD or cable, if you are willing to watch an interesting movie and turn your brain off for a couple moments to prevent yourself from breaking out in laughter.

Want To Buy A Baby?

L'Enfant (4.5/5 stars)

It's taken me so long to get to writing about this that I'm pretty sure it isn't really playing anywhere anymore, but this is definitely worth seeing once it comes out on video.

It is really more about the style and character of the people in the movie than the plot. A man who is a petty thief one day sells his girlfriend's new baby. She freaks out. He says, "we can have another one." Havoc ensues. It is very interesting to observe this character with absolutely no moral compass and what he's willing to do just to get by and to get himself out of situations.

The directing actually reminds me a lot of Cache, with its stark minimal intimacy. The camera work and complete lack of background music makes the viewing experience very tense and you just can't help being edgy and desperately wait to see what this guy is going to do next throughout. One of the best films of the year so far.

Another Failed Direct to DVD Independent Ego Trip

Little Fish (2.5/5 stars)

Little Fish, set in Australia, is the story of a video clerk played by Cate Blanchett. It takes nearly an hour into the movie to find out that she herself is a recovering drug addict and most of the people she interacts with are either addicts, dealers, or in recovery. The next part of the movie deals with her efforts to secure money for a business for which she has, due to her past, failed to get a bank loan.

What is it with people in the movie business and completely vapid vanity projects? Did Cate Blanchett decide "oh, I want to be in this super independent movie and play a recovering drug addict!" I wondered the same thing about Bubble, which was had a similarly dull plotline, similarly dull characters, and is a similar waste of time.

Despite the fact that the direction is at time okay and the acting by Blanchett, Hugo Weaving (The Matrix trilogy, the Lord of the Rings trilogy, V for Vendetta), Sam Neill (Jurassic Park) and others is up to par, the story is just so bland they simply have absolutely nothing to work with. Perhaps this one went straight to DVD not as a gimmick like Bubble, but simply because it did not have much to offer. In any case I'm glad I didn't see it in the theater, because again rottentomatoes.com has failed me with a false positive rating.