1. Charlie & Chocolate Factory – $20.8m
2. Wedding Crashers – $10.8m
3. Fantastic Four – $6.5m
4. War of the Worlds – $4.4m
5. Batman Begins – $1.6m
6. Mr. & Mrs. Smith – $1.5m
7. Dark Water – $1.5m
8. Herbie Fully Loaded – $1.1m
Well, it
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It shows how out of it I was in trying to be in it, acknowledging that I was out of it to myself, and then thinking, “Okay, how do I stop being out of it? Well, I get some legitimate illogical narrative ideas” — some novel, you know?
So I decided on three writers that I might be able to option their material and get some producer, or myself as producer, and then get some writer to do a screenplay on it, and maybe make a movie.
And so the three projects were “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep,” “Naked Lunch” and a collection of Bukowski. Which, in 1975, forget it — I mean, that was nuts. Hollywood would not touch any of that, but I was looking for something commercial, and I thought that all of these things were coming.
There would be no Blade Runner if there was no Ray Bradbury. I couldn’t find Philip K. Dick. His agent didn’t even know where he was. And so I gave up.
I was walking down the street and I ran into Bradbury — he directed a play that I was going to do as an actor, so we know each other, but he yelled “hi” — and I’d forgot who he was.
So at my girlfriend Barbara Hershey’s urging — I was with her at that moment — she said, “Talk to him! That guy really wants to talk to you,” and I said “No, fuck him,” and keep walking.
But then I did, and then I realized who it was, and I thought, “Wait, he’s in that realm, maybe he knows Philip K. Dick.” I said, “You know a guy named—” “Yeah, sure — you want his phone number?”
My friend paid my rent for a year while I wrote, because it turned out we couldn’t get a writer. My friends kept on me about, well, if you can’t get a writer, then you write.”
~ Hampton Fancher
“That was the most disappointing thing to me in how this thing was played. Is that I’m on the phone with you now, after all that’s been said, and the fundamental distinction between what James is dealing with in these other cases is not actually brought to the fore. The fundamental difference is that James Franco didn’t seek to use his position to have sex with anyone. There’s not a case of that. He wasn’t using his position or status to try to solicit a sexual favor from anyone. If he had — if that were what the accusation involved — the show would not have gone on. We would have folded up shop and we would have not completed the show. Because then it would have been the same as Harvey Weinstein, or Les Moonves, or any of these cases that are fundamental to this new paradigm. Did you not notice that? Why did you not notice that? Is that not something notable to say, journalistically? Because nobody could find the voice to say it. I’m not just being rhetorical. Why is it that you and the other critics, none of you could find the voice to say, “You know, it’s not this, it’s that”? Because — let me go on and speak further to this. If you go back to the L.A. Times piece, that’s what it lacked. That’s what they were not able to deliver. The one example in the five that involved an issue of a sexual act was between James and a woman he was dating, who he was not working with. There was no professional dynamic in any capacity.
~ David Simon
Is the bad big terrible Slump over yet?
If something is constantly labeled a sleeper, is it in fact a surprise when it does well?
I don’t think I have a short attention span, but I don’t recall ever reading about any box-office slump.
I believe the increase in this weekend’s box-office is a massive rebuff to the dvd because what people are saying is that “I don’t want to see Vince Vaughn in the new unrated DVD of Dodgeball because it’s not going to be much different than the previous DVD of Dodgeball, I want to see Vince Vaughn in The Wedding Crashers in the theater because I love going to the theater and the studios aren’t giving us what we want to buy on DVD.”
I don’t see Charlie getting the Saturday bounce of Nemo or Incredibles for two reasons:
1. The two Pixar flicks were released while much of the nation’s youths were still in school. And…
2. Harry Potter. It may not have a huge impact on the box office, but there are bound to be a fair number of kids who want to stay in all weekend until they devour all 652 pages.
Doggummit D-po! Stop kicking the FF in the bloody nards. Such vicious hate should be left to others, that like, read scripts early and call me a ballwasher, not to such a refined gentleman such as yourself. But hey, I have no idea what can be so favourable about The Wedding Crashers. Does it’s level comedy come anywhere close to Green Wing? Arrested Development? Scrubs even? Wedding Crashers just seems so caucasian to me, that I cant garner any interest to even see it.
I don’t know what the hell Green Wing is, but I did finally see Fantastic Four, and you know what? It’s not the worst movie in theaters this year. It’s not even the worst movie playing right now (Bewitched). It’s not good either, but the reaction to it is a little overdramatic.
JW: “So Caucasian”? Hell, I coulda showed you Caucasian last Sunday night, when I was doing karaoke on Beale Street. Here’s my song line-up: Gordon Lightfoot’s “Sundown,” Dido’s “White Flag” and The Rolling Stones’ “Let It Bleed.” Unfortunately, there was no Nelly on the song list. Otherwise I coulda belted out: “What does it take to be No. 1?” And you coulda yelled an answer from the audience: “The Fantastic Four, you cracker!”
JW, are you really a person of color? If so, you truly defy stereotypes.
Jeff, I think you’re right on the nose about the hyper-antagonistic reaction to “Fantastic Four.” The movie’s a too-amateurish disappointment, especially to fans (like I used to be) of the comic book, but it also got a lot of stuff right and doesn’t deserve the rabid hatred that’s been heaped on it.
It deserves all the bad press and bad word of mouth its been getting. The movie is a huge disappointment when it had so much potential.
Jeff, that’s a long story, but I mean in the comedy style. It just has a very, white-bread feeling to me. I felt this way seeing the trailers. Not like these guys have made comedies I hate. I do enjoy Old School (Ellen Pompeo got paid, WOO!), Dodgeball (the original ending would have been the funniest ending of an underdog film ever), Starsky and Hutch, and so on. Wedding Crashers, just not feeling it.
Green Wing, Jeff, happens to be one of the better British comedies in years.
And how can FF be seen as a “HUGE DISAPPOINTMENT?” We are not talking about film that would ever bet put on EW’s “15 Films Winning Early Oscar Buzz” column. Funny and comedic action hero fare never deserves this treatment. Except D-Po, loves kicking comic book films in the nards. Poor Mark Steven Johnson still has phantom pains from the Daredevil berrating. It makes him quirky.
Well, Wedding Crashers couldn’t be whiter than Bewitched, which made a joke about how normal life consisted of being an actor in Hollywood with everything you want, and then didn’t seem to get the full implications of its own irony.
The most disappointing thing about FF was how they ruined the character of Doctor Doom. I’m surprised you’re not more outraged by this.
It’s not a huge disappointment? How about for the millions of the comics fans who expected a great movie filled with great action and even better storytelling? You don’t think thats a disappointment. I get it that you’re an apologist for the movie.
Spiderman fans got greatness. X Men fans same. Batman was redeemed. Even Blade has gotten 2 good flicks. FF is a total drop of the ball. How does one ruin Dr Doom?
I keep hearing how F4 destroyed a great character in Dr. Doom. I am unfamiliar with the comic and haven’t seen the movie. What makes him such a great character in the comic? I’m assuming that the movie reduces him to yet another lame, over the top villain?
I’m no comic expert, but to me it always seemed like Doom was Darth Vader, Blofeld from the Bond movies, and Stalin rolled into one. In the movie he became our era’s most obvious bad guy, the evil vain Donald Trump-esque capitalist, performed in exactly one note, and who was defeated incredibly quickly.
SB, I’m one of those who agree that the main problem with FF was its uninvolving portrayal of Dr. Doom. Apart from the fact that the movie swept to the sidelines his royal standing as ruler of Latveria, he simply wasn’t much of a villain as depicted. Just as one basic example, he didn’t plot anything! He was just deformed, financially ruined, dumped by Sue Storm, and pissed off. Not much at stake there.
One of the things I found most interesting about seeing Dr. Doom on screen was how much of his character could be seen in Darth Vader. I’m sure a lot of people who are new to FF think Doom is a poor man’s Vader, but in fact the scarred Doom came first (more than 40 years ago). I thought Julian McMahon was fine as Doom, but when he finally puts on the mask and you hear his own natural voice emanating from it, man-oh-man was I missing the deep, menacing rumble of James Earl Jones!
just saw FF and BB. And I gotta say that FF gratified while BB was just grating. You gotta admit that FF was lighter on it’s feet and with all the bad buzz on this board and others I went in w/ lower expectations — and was pleasantly surprised. BB was just too full of itself to ever get off the ground. Not one joke (unless the count the chemistry between KH and CB). Big yawner! At least FF had it tongue placed firmly in it’s cheeck when it came to doing the obvious…plus we got some great action/reaction from the human torch. And what the hell was that ridiculous WWF voice CB chose for batman? Don’t talk about Doom w/out taking a look at the lame ass villians in BB (gas to induce fear?) but his first attempt at destroying the city was to undermine the “economy”. The villian in BB is fucking Alan Greenspan. It’s a bunch of bullocks. Bring on FF anyday. Regarding Spiderman…or rather SpiderPuss and his Overacting friends… that piece of shit was a total disappointment. Boring, laughable villians, bullshit love interest the whole 9 yards. Best comic book movie (American Splendor doesn’t count) has gotta be Xmen2 and/or MIB1.
Peace out
Oh I forgot Batman: always be aware of your environment…cause you never know when a log will come crashing on top of your head. I half expected RazAlGhoul (shizzle my nizzle Ducard) to tie up katie holmes to the “L” train tracks ala Snidely Whiplash! Now that’s drama.
If you’re unfamiliar with the real Doctor Doom you should pick up a few comics and get familiar. Because he is a great villian and it is more than worth it. I like Julien McMahon on Nip Tuck but they needed an Alan Rickman for this. And a better script.
Look, they didn’t even get his name right: They never referred to him as DOCTOR Doom.
And did anyone else notice that, after all the pre-release malarky about how they were going to call her Invisible WOMAN, the only time she’s referred to by nickname is when Johnny Storm calls his sis Invisible GIRL?
But I have to admit: If I were 12 years old, I would have loved “Fanatstic Four” a lot more than “Batman Begins.”
I saw wedding crashers this afternoon and it was pretty pack and anyone like it…..(They love Vince Vaugh and seem upset when it became clear him was becoming the second man behind Owen as the movie went along.)
It seems like somewhere along the line they decided that they were going to make a dumb, fun summer comic book movie, not necessarily an accurate, intelligent FF movie. They knew they would get the comic geeks no matter what, so they made a movie that regular dummies could enjoy, a 10 year old boys wet dream. Seems to be working for them at the box office too.
You can still make a smart movie that also caters to fun and kids. Examples Spiderman and X Men and SUperman and even The Incredibles. It’s not hard. I don’t buy that excuse.
Yes Martin, i think that’s it exactly. My comic collector pals/relatives were upset (late20s-40s), and kids seemed to like it probably becasue they compare it to “superfriends” type stuff they view on cable.
They messed up by getting the director of Taxi. Yes. Someone saw the dailies of that and decided to give him one of the biggest jewels in comic history. He might have had photos of Avi Arad’s wife in compromising positions.
I think this means we will be seeing Fantastic Four 2. That is a pretty safe bet at this point.
My advice. A good script. I’m not asking for much.
for all those who insist that we should “get to know” Doc. Doom:
Victor was born to Werner von Doom, a noted Roma healer, and Cynthia von Doom, who was said to be a witch. His mother was killed when Victor was an infant. She had attempted to gain power to protect her gypsy tribe from persecution by the reigning authorities of Latveria. Unfortunately, she bargained with the demon Mephisto for power, and as is so often the case when dealing with demons, she was betrayed and killed. Later, Victor’s father was hunted by the authorities for his failure to cure a Latverian baron’s wife of terminal cancer. Werner von Doom died from exposure whilst fleeing and the young Victor von Doom was placed in the care of the remaining gypsy tribe. Victor vowed to make the entire world pay for his loss of his parents.
While a child, he discovered his mother’s magical artifacts and von Doom began his studies into the occult as well as developing his innate scientific abilities. His astounding reputation came to the attention of the dean of science at State University in America, and von Doom was offered a full scholarship. At State, von Doom first met both Reed Richards and Ben Grimm, two men who would go on to become his enemies in later years as Mister Fantastic and the Thing, respectively. Richards, in particular, represented a substantial threat to Doom’s self-perceived superiority. Doom began conducting hazardous extra-dimensional experiments.
The focus of Doom’s research was to construct a trans-dimensional projection device with which he could communicate with his dead mother. There was a flaw in the design which Richards pointed out to him, but Doom’s pride prevented him from accepting Richards’ advice and fixing the device before testing it. The machine worked perfectly for two minutes and 37 seconds, in which time Doom discovered that his mother was trapped in Mephisto’s Hell. Then the device exploded, permanently marring his right cheek with a long, jagged scar. Other Marvel stories have advanced the idea that Doom is massively and permanently scarred all over his face. Whatever the truth about his appearance may be Doom refused to acknowledge his own fault in the matter and blamed Richards for the accident, finding it easier to believe that Richards had sabotaged his work out of jealousy than admit to his own imperfection.
Cover to Fantastic Four Annual #2. Art by Jack Kirby. Dr.Doom’s origin is revealed.
Enlarge
Cover to Fantastic Four Annual #2. Art by Jack Kirby. Dr.Doom’s origin is revealed.
Doom was expelled from school afterward, and traveled the world searching for a cure for his scarred face. In some versions the scarring was not particularly severe, but Doom was overly sensitive about it as a symbol of his failure. Eventually Doom discovered a village of Tibetan monks amongst whom he lived for a number of years. They assisted him in crafting a suit of body armor that concealed his “deformity,” and in some versions of the story (small-scar Doom) seriously burning himself when he ordered the mask be put on while it was still red-hot. This suit would become his trademark, and thanks to his technological enhancements puts him on par in terms of personal power with most superheroes in the Marvel universe. He then returned to his homeland, overthrew the standing government, and crowned himself king. Ruling with an iron fist and an equally strong will, Doom began to redirect the small nation’s resources to help him realize his goals.
Doom was briefly deposed by Zorba, a prince from the royal family Doom had previously overthrown. Doom soon killed Zorba and reclaimed his throne, but in the process one of his loyal Latverian subjects was killed before his eyes. Doom adopted the fallen woman’s son, Kristoff Vernard, and raised the boy as his heir. In addition, as Doom considers his genius and leadership to be priceless assets to the Earth, he used Kristoff as a fallback plan to be used in the unlikely event of his premature death. When Doom was indeed seemingly killed, his robots enacted this plan and copied Doom’s knowledge and memories into young Kristoff’s brain. For a time, Kristoff even believed himself to be Doom, but eventually realized the truth and submitted to the true Doom’s rule. Ironically, Kristoff seems to be the half-brother of Doom’s hated rival Reed Richards, though neither of them (nor Kristoff himself) seems to be aware of this fact.
Although Von Doom has significant scientific knowledge and ability, he lacks an advanced university degree. Von Doom apparently likes the sound of “Doctor Doom”; as the absolute ruler of a country, he simply started calling himself that. It has been suggested that Doom granted himself an honorary doctorate from a Latverian university, though he has never formally obtained a doctorate and considers it a mere technicality.
In 2003, Doom realized he was unnecessarily limiting himself by focusing on technology, and only occasionally his magical birthright. He sold his childhood sweetheart’s soul to a trio of demons in exchange for unlimited magical ability and new leather armour made of her skin. As a direct result of this storyline, Doom possessed Ben Grimm, forcing Richards to kill them both. Ben Grimm was later brought back from the dead, but Dr. Doom’s whereabouts are unknown.
A Doombot built by Ultron to trick his “son,” Victor Mancha recently appeared in Runaways, sporting his original metal armour.
THE ULTIMATE DOOM
In the Ultimate Marvel universe, Doctor Doom is Victor Van Damme, a direct descendant of Vlad Tepes Dracula, and was part of the Baxter Building, a government think-tank of young geniuses, such as Reed Richards and Susan Storm. He worked to help Reed Richards develop a teleporter to the “N-Zone,” but reprogrammed its coordinates without telling anyone. This caused the accident that gave the Ultimate Fantastic Four their powers. Van Damme was caught in the same accident, and his skin was changed into a metallic hide (with a somewhat reduced ability to perceive tactile sensations and pain), clawed hands, his legs transmogrified into demonic goat-hooved legs, and he re-appeared on Earth at an undisclosed location in Europe. He is now leading a small micronation called “Free State”, “Freezone”, or “The Keep”, a Permanent Autonomous Zone located in Copenhagen, Denmark, where citizens live without rent in a shanty town under squatter’s rights, and are given free comforts and necessities in exchange for loyalty to Van Damme. There, a tattoo is given to new settlers, which is made up of microfibres that mate with the brain stem so Van Damme can control his followers, however the Fantastic Four eventually freed them from Doom’s control during their first battle and all subsequently left. The Ultimate version of Dr. Doom could expel the remains of his internal organs as a poisonous gas and could grow and fling porcupine-like volleys of quills from his forearms. He also possesses a fantastic regenerative power, though he cannot heal any wound caused by his own body, so the scar Reed made on Van Damme’s face with one of his own quills remains.
I guess the point being that there isn’t a consistent Doom character in the Marvel universe to be true to. You can’t fault the film for not delivering the Doom you wanted when the comics never nailed him down to begin with.
saw the wedding crashers…vince vaughn is the funniest guy in the movies right now…he KILLED in every scene…if only the movie had had an ounce of style or inspiration in its direction…it was PATHETIC…i cannot believe how slap-dash it felt, and I am blown away that more critics are not saying this in their reviews. It was so flat-footed, with a ridiculous amount of pop-music tinged montages it was sickening. Amazing premise but terribly underdeveloped script. And you’ve got to be talented to COMPLETELY WASTE Chirstopher Walken…he’s given nothing to do. Owen Wilson is predictably good, the girls are HOT, there’s some nice titty-action, but the only reason why I recommend the movie is for Vaughn, who completey owns everyone in this flick. He’s funny just standing in frame, saying nothing. Look at his face. Fucking brilliant. I just keep thinking what if Ivan Reitman or Jon Vavreau (Made is one of the funniest movies ever) or Todd Phillips or Harold Ramis had directed it how much better it would have been. Anyways, its funny for sure and worth seeing. The big cameo is funnier than people have said in other postings I thought. And Rachel McAdams is smoking…I might see Red Eye just to look at her. And one more thing–tthe girl who played VAughn’s love interest, the psycho-hottie, Isla something-or-other…hysterical all throughout. She’s gotta get more work…big crush on her now.
And one more thing…why ISN’T the trailer to the 40 Year Old Virgin funnier? In a sold out theater last night, nobody said a peep during it. I mean, the idea is great, the casting, everything about it looks perfect on paper…but i don’t know…everyone online is going nuts for it, so it’s gotta be one of those things where it’s really raunchy and they can’t show the funny stuff in the ads because it looks flat as hell. anyways, i am outta here…WONKA next up.
Doctor Doom is better than any comic book villian in Batman and Spidermans and Supermans world. He is Marvel’s number one guy.
21, how can you be an apologist for something you like? This whole apologist sentiment absolutely befuddles me. It’s just another way the internet seemingly cannot let someone have a differing opinion. Seldom if ever does anyone uses a qualifier to their comments, and the beat goes on. So, I love Formula 1. Does that make me an apologist for the sport? See? Faulty logic abounds.
joyfool demonstrates how DOOM does not have a consistent story throughout the Marvel Universe. While easily the second or third top Marvel villian (Magneto and Apoc have commited acts far worse than Doom). This film deals with a very faustian like deal for immortality that Doom sort of agrees to with Reed. He wanted to use those gamma rays for so much more than scientific research. It just cost him everything he held dear from his appearance to Sue.
Hopefully FF2 (that makes me happy to type) will be the first comic book film to have a recurring villian.
superman had lex
x-men have magneto
regarding recurring villains
Good news for Charlie there! It’s so good seeing all the naysayers get proven wrong lately. “Nobody will see F4. It’ll make $20mil and thats it” “CHarlie and the Chocolate Factory looks too weird. It won’t even make $50mil total”
pessimism sucks.
I can think of a couple of movies playing right now that are worse than Bewitched and Fantastic Four and their names are War of the Worlds and Star Wars Episode III. Maybe it was because I dirt low asperations for Bewitched and F4 but I ended up sorta enjoying them. While I have big major issues with both of them they sorta just seems like light popcorn movies. There was hilarious lines in Bewitched along with some nice individual scenes and the supporting performances (Heather Mills, Kristen Chenowith, Shirley MacLaine and Michael Caine) were ace. “Why would you want to live in the Valley?”
I’ve already talked about F4.
Am I the only one turned off by a movie entitled The 40 Year Old Virgin? (to be pedantic, shouldn’t it be The 40-Year-Old Virgin?)
Curse you Camel, and your SW hatred. Yet, even loving Lucas and SW as much as I do, any brother on the “HATIN ON WOTW EXPRRESS” gets some slack from me any day of the week. As Josh Lymon would say, “Celebrate Diversity, yo!” If only he would have added the ‘yo.’ An unintentional comedy classic for years!
Joy, though John Cryer rules all, Superman IV and it’s predecessor never happened! That being said, Lex not exactly the MAIN villian in Supes 2. He’s just sort of there. The sameway Mags sort of just hangs out in X2. Though, you are right about their recurring nature. They were not the main villians, and Im very eager to see a MAIN VILLIAN return to a comic book film, and reak havoc.
“Am I the only one turned off by a movie entitled The 40 Year Old Virgin? (to be pedantic, shouldn’t it be The 40-Year-Old Virgin?”
Yes, it should be. I think the same issue was raised a few years ago with “Eight Legged Freaks.” Obviously that movie wasn’t about killer spiders; such a movie would be titled “Eight-Legged Freaks.” The new Harry Potter book was originally announced as “The Half Blood Prince,” which was very quickly corrected.
Lex is great. Magneto is great. Joker is also. Doc Ock. Venom. But Dr. Doom is right there with them and maybe even ahead of them and he didn’t get justice.
Im not going to give anything away. I just want to post this however; The Half-Blood prince can go straight to hell! The bastard!
Well, I guess we all know what Young Dr. JW has been reading — or should I say SPEED reading — tonight.
KCamel: Oy! Preferring Bewitched and FF to Star Wars and WOTW? You really are topsy-turvy down there. FF I could buy, a little, but this is the first Bewitched defender I’ve seen.
Joe, I usually spend HARRY POTTER SATURDAYS reading the book at my local Target. Thanks to her yearly structure, it’s sort of easy to skim through those books. She also has a great way, I mean this seriously, of recapping earlier events in the book right at the end. JK has mad recapping abilities.
I do notice one very strong difference between the books and the films; Harry. An impetulent as in one world, and not in the way most people might remember the character; the films. Unless he’s going to have a BIG ASSHOLE DEVELOPMENT issue in Goblet of Fire. It makes me wonder why JK would be involved in films that alter her lead character so much.
I had to stop watching the Harry Potter movies after the little girl started looking good to me. I’m depraved, but I’m not THAT depraved.
As Brother Bill pointed out in the Matrix Reloaded commentary; “There is just something inherently creepy about male heterosexuality.”
Joe, that just proves that everything works.
I guess now we know that the Half-Blood Prince isn’t a good guy. Don’t say anything more, I won’t be able to read the book for another month. 🙁
“Impetulent”–is that supposed to be a combo of impetuous and petulant? I think you’ve coined a neologism here, JW.
40 yr old virgin isn’t getting laughs because it’s from the guy that did Freaks and Geeks. Which means it’s probably very smart and amusing, but not easily cuttable into a laugh out loud trailer. A little too low-key. I’m not a big fan of the lead actor but it’s good to see that fat dude from Freaks and Geeks and Undeclared back. Good actor.
Also, it’s possible that the audience you saw the trailer with was mostly 40 yr old virgins, who would probably not find the idea amusing as much as depressing.
the audience was most definitely not made up of 40-year-old-virgins…it just doesnt look funny. it’s all obvious humor and nothing seemes fresh at all. i am going to assume there’s a ton of funny, cruse shit that can’t be shown in theaters…but i will say that Universal really should put a red-band, fucking-hysterical clip online or in the theaters to get regular joes more excited for this one.
According to showbizdata, Charlie’s Saturday box office is down from Friday. The Wedding Crashers increased to $12.3 million.
WC’s sat. is good news for the long-term, 80-90 mill for WC would be considered a major success. BTW, anyone else think it’s funny that WC also means toilet?
Where does Will Ferrell stand after this summer? $55 mill for Kicking, $60 mill. for Bewitched, then a small role in a 90 mill hit? I guess that means his star status is still up in the air waiting to be confirmed.
WOTW’s is not a great start for Grey. $220 mill domestic for a giant tentpole Cruise/Spielberg has to be seen as nothing less than disappointment. I think Spielberg came out of it OK, Cruise less so, depending on how MI3 works out.
The 40 yr old Virgin looks hilarious. Syaing it doesn’t look funny? To each his own but if you don’t like comedies in that vein then thats your choice. But it has a great premise and a terrific lead actor.
the premise: AMAZING. I would buy it in a minute if I were a studio exec. the casting: BRILLIANT. as good as getting Will Ferrell to put on a giant elf suit. But the trailer just isn’t funny…c’mon…it really isn’t. What’s funny about about someone screaming about a “box of porno” at the top of his lungs in the middle of an open air apt complex? Seeing someone with a hairy chest being waxed at a salon in a rough fashion…? Everything in the trailer that’s out is old and tired. But, I am still for sure going to see it opening weekend. The hosanas and cart-wheels that everyone online is doing has got to mean that it’s funny…and the humor just isnt in the ads.
Now, the bad news bears…that looks 50% funnier than I was expecting for some reason.
Yes it looks like HP6 hold down CATCF numbers Saturady. Nice to see WC not get a saturady drop like other movies aim at that target demos have been getting (Longest Long).
I don’t really go by trailers alone when thinking about seeing a comedy. Trailers never do justice.
true…very true
Wedding Crashers is much, much funnier than its trailer, so maybe the rating has something to do with it. Can’t show the good parts in a trailer when the movie is rated R. I think Virgin looks very promising. Crashers is hilarious for 90 minutes, but the last half-hour sort of sucks. Becomes a cliched, boring romantic comedy and overstays its welcome by at least 15 minutes. Did not need to be 2 hours long. Thankfully, the first 3/4 more than makes up for a weak finish.
How many romantic comedies aren’t cliched? That is the genre.
Yes, but I was hoping this movie would avoid that. Not every movie has to stick closely to the cliches of whatever genre its in. It would have been nice if WC avoided those cliches. I was hoping it would. I suppose it was inevitable in order to appeal to both genders.
So Minority Report was a disappointment at $130mil and now WotW is also a disappointment at $220mil? Crazy world. Shouldn’t Minority Report be considering a disaster on those terms.
Saw the trailer for 40-Year-Old Virgin on ET and… meh. Some of the jokes ARE very old (the bra thing) and I’m not Steve Carrel’s biggest fan. Nor is that genre of comedy my favourite. So don’t yell at me, it’s just not my thing. I did laugh at the Bad News Bears though!
So Minority Report was a disappointment at $130mil and now WotW is also a disappointment at $220mil? Crazy world. Shouldn’t Minority Report be considering a disaster on those terms.
Saw the trailer for 40-Year-Old Virgin on ET and… meh. Some of the jokes ARE very old (the bra thing) and I’m not Steve Carrel’s biggest fan. Nor is that genre of comedy my favourite. So don’t yell at me, it’s just not my thing. I did laugh at the Bad News Bears though!
Jeff, The main reason I liked Bewitched and F4 more than Star Wars III and WotW as because I had looow expectations for the former 2 and high expectations for the latter 2. I was pleasantly surprised when Bewitched and F4 weren’t the complete and utter dreck that people had said, yet I was bitterly disappointed that SW and WotW were shit.
How can someone actually see Bewitched and like it better than Star Wars? Is that possible from a sane human being?
I find the 40 yr old Virgin to be offensive because Steve Carell doesn’t look 40 and he doesn’t look unattractive. I’m sure I’m missing the core of the story, but when you’ve got a good-looking 30-something actor a 40 yr old virgin, I call foul. Steve Buscemi? Ok, I get it. But I getting the feeling of a sellout on Apatow’s part when he so perfectly cast “Freaks and Geeks” and apparently went hollywood one this one.
Minority Report was not sold as a tentpole, it was sold as serious sci-fi, not popcorn. Very few moviegoers know Dick. But HG Wells? War of the Worlds? Everyone knows that, gets the concept immediately. $130 for MR was adequate, $220 for THE big summer movie (outside of Star Wars) is not so hot. I don’t necessarily think the Cruise craziness killed it. It was just too dark for popcorn crowds. Which leads me to believe that Spielberg is finally shying away from trying to please everyone in the audience. I think he was really trying for something with WOTW, even if it didn’t quite work out.
Steve Carell turns 42 later this year, according to IMDB.
Steve Carell does indeed look 40. And not the good-looking rugged masculine 40. Oh, sorry, lost track of things there.
BluStealer, have you seen Bewitched?
I’ve said before why I liked it more. There were very funny one-liners, some good supporting performances (Kristen Chenowith, Heather Mills, Shirley MacLaine and Michael Caine predominately), some fun set-pieces and a cast that looked like they were enjoying themselves, which rubs off on me.
Whereas Star Wars was really long, over-plotted, poorly acted (although I can forgive this because it’s Star Wars), horrible dialogue, boring and repetitive action and one of the most ludicrous “birth of a character” scenes I’ve ever seen.
NOOOOOO indeed.
Well Star Wars may not have been perfect, and expectations do count for a lot, but can you at least understand why so many of the rest of us HATED Bewitched? I’m mostly thinking about the torturous and unnecessarily complicated script, the wildly inconsistent range of performances, and a total lack of self-awareness in the irony every time they referred to “normal life” as living in a huge house in Beverly Hills.
Camel, you must have never seen Frankenstein. Since, Lucas, quite literally, ripped that scene straight off from that film. Poorly-acted? God, such a subjective statement, that no one ever quantifies. A brother needs a quantifier! Is that too much to ask? At least Camel hated WOTW.
Now JW, I liked Star Wars (not as much as you, but then nobody does), but that moment with the arms up and the NOOOO was pretty overwrought. Come on. Nobody says NOOOOO in Frankenstein. And what do you mean subjective? Of course it’s subjective. Do you want a rating on a scale of 1-10?
That scene was better than anything Julian McMahon did in Fantastic Four, though.
DP,
About six weeks ago I slapped together a “Summer Movie Preview” article for Rotten Tomatoes. In that piece and regarding The 40 Year-Old Virgin I wrote “We call it the sleeper comedy hit of the whole darn season.”
Haven’t seen the movie yet, but my hopes are pretty high on it.
Mac, people online never ever quanitfy their comments. It’s great to say, “THIS SUCKS”, but what kind of discussion/argument does it make? So many superlatives thrown around without any really grounding to them. Everyone gives Knowles a hard-time for his hyperbole. Yet, just blatantly stating, “this sucks”, just does not do it for me.
Also, I have no idea why people have a problem with Anakin becoming Vader. He’s suffering. It’s as if the people who have a problem with that scene. Totally ignore that he’s IN PAIN, he’s in a NEW BODY, and he has just been told that his WIFE, a woman he shared a mental connection with, he killed. I might be a lot of things. If those events happened to me. Im screaming just as much. Hating that scene just reveals a cynicism that I will never have. To each their own, but I love that scene.
Knocking Julian McMahon Mac? You and D-po must get Nip/Tuck on DVD. He ranks as one of the better actors out there, easily.
JW, I said I could forgive the poor acting because the acting in Star Wars movies has never been particularly good.
Are you talking about in Frankenstein when the monster wakes? Because he screams, but not NOOOOO (or am I forgetting that movie. It was about 2 years ago that I saw it). The NOOOO bit just seemed so incredibly hokey. The most evil villain ever created (as some say) doing a bad Broadway play.
But, yes, I can see how people would dislike Bewitched (Hate seems a bit venousous. Just like Monster-in-Law what is here that is not in 50% of Hollywood movies that makes it just that much worse?) but I did not say “How can you all hate Bewitched? It was great” I merely said that I thought there were worse movies at the cinema right now than Bewitched and F4.
But seriously JW, do you really want us to critique every single thing about every single movie in a paragraph long review? Because if we did that there would just be complaints from people saying “We didn’t ask for a book!”
Something like that might work on AICN but this is simply a blog. David Poland’s blog. Not mine. If I want to do a full review I’ll waddle along over to my blog and do so.
Is that alright?
er, venousous is meant to read venomous.
Like, you know, whatever.
Camel, no, but a QUANTIFIER would be nice from time to time.
Secondly, Vader not the EVILEST VILLIAN EVER. Sorry. You totally missed the character there. Thus the reason, why some people such as yourself, might find the NO, hokey. When we meet him. He’s the subordinate to a man that turns away from in at the end of Revenge. He’s a broken down part-machine/part-man that lost his wife, his kids, and his best-friend.
But Camel, my larger problem with the internet critique by most people remains a one very simple thing: IGNORANCE. As if people ignore what goes on, and substitutes it with what THEY BELIEVE happened. You can BELIEVE Vader to be the most evil villian of all-time. Yet, you can watch all six films of the saga, notice that’s bollocks, and understand what Lucas always wanted the character to be.
We can disagree of course, but facts cant be denied.
JW, you say that things SUCK without quantification all the time. Like WOTW. Also, everyone I know thinks NOOOO is hokey. You are the only person I know of to defend it. Everything you say about that moment in the movie is correct, but it still doesn’t change the fact that it’s a silly moment in the movie.
As for Julian McMahon, he might be great on Nip/Tuck but I’ll never know because he was so incredibly horribly in FF that I don’t think I want to bother.
He is great on Nip Tuck. But all that goodwill has just been zapped after this terrible movie.