April 26, 2024
BYOB
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BYOB: 235 Years Of Relative independence
BYOB Weekend: Hop, An April Fool’s Gag?
| Friday | Screens | % Chg | Cume | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Title | Gross | Thtr | % Chgn | Cume |
| Venom | 33 | 4250 | NEW | 33 |
| A Star is Born | 15.7 | 3686 | NEW | 15.7 |
| Smallfoot | 3.5 | 4131 | -46% | 31.3 |
| Night School | 3.5 | 3019 | -63% | 37.9 |
| The House Wirh a Clock in its Walls | 1.8 | 3463 | -43% | 49.5 |
| A Simple Favor | 1 | 2408 | -50% | 46.6 |
| The Nun | 0.75 | 2264 | -52% | 111.5 |
| Hell Fest | 0.6 | 2297 | -70% | 7.4 |
| Crazy Rich Asians | 0.6 | 1466 | -51% | 167.6 |
| The Predator | 0.25 | 1643 | -77% | 49.3 |
| Also Debuting | ||||
| The Hate U Give | 0.17 | 36 | ||
| Shine | 85,600 | 609 | ||
| Exes Baggage | 75,900 | 62 | ||
| NOTA | 71,300 | 138 | ||
| 96 | 61,600 | 62 | ||
| Andhadhun | 55,000 | 54 | ||
| Afsar | 45,400 | 33 | ||
| Project Gutenberg | 36,000 | 17 | ||
| Love Yatri | 22,300 | 41 | ||
| Hello, Mrs. Money | 22,200 | 37 | ||
| Studio 54 | 5,300 | 1 | ||
| Loving Pablo | 4,200 | 15 |
| 3-Day Estimates | Weekend | % Chg | Cume |
|---|---|---|---|
| No Good Dead | 24.4 (11,230) | NEW | 24.4 |
| Dolphin Tale 2 | 16.6 (4,540) | NEW | 16.6 |
| Guardians of the Galaxy | 7.9 (2,550) | -23% | 305.8 |
| Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles | 4.8 (1,630) | -26% | 181.1 |
| The Drop | 4.4 (5,480) | NEW | 4.4 |
| Let's Be Cops | 4.3 (1,570) | -22% | 73 |
| If I Stay | 4.0 (1,320) | -28% | 44.9 |
| The November Man | 2.8 (1,030) | -36% | 22.5 |
| The Giver | 2.5 (1,120) | -26% | 41.2 |
| The Hundred-Foot Journey | 2.5 (1,270) | -21% | 49.4 |
Review: Little Women (no spoilers) - The Hot Blog
Box Office First Look - The Hot Blog
Why You Should Be Afraid Of The End Of The Paramount Decree - The Hot Blog
Caught “Angels & Demons” at an increasingly rare daytime Cleveburg press screening today.
While marginally better than the stultifying “Da Vinci Code,” it’s still a pretty terrible movie.
The script is laughable (blame Dan Brown’s penny-dreadful novel for the asinine plotting and most of the beyond-clunky expository dialogue), the performances (with the exception of Stellan Skarsgard’s) are either wooden or inept, and–just like
“Da Vinci”–it’s criminally, sadistically overlong.
The nicest thing I can say is that–also like “Code”–it does suffice as a nice travelogue for those of us unable to afford a summer vacation in Italy.
If the original did $700-million internationally, this should easily pull in comparable numbers. Snooze.
*”The Brothers Bloom”?! I can’t believe they’re still planning to give that Toronto ’08 flatliner a theatrical release.
It’s faux Wes Anderson (who I love), and every bit as excrucating as that description makes it sound. Only Wes Anderson can get away with “doing” Wes Anderson (most of the time anyway).
I just read that Keanu Reeves is doing a “new take” on Jekyll and Hyde. For a minute I got super excited because I thought maybe they meant he was remaking “Jekyll and Hyde… Together Again,” with Keanu in the Mark Blankfield role. Good idea.
Really, Howard couldn’t have at least made Angels and Demons SHORTER? Ugh. “Brothers Bloom” looks like one of those movies where the female lead(s) are “just one of the guys!” and thus doing some mannered vocal tics and screwball-era bug-eyed mugging and pratfalls, always shot through a distorted lens or “absurdist” framing, which as we all know is the single unsexiest and most unappealing thing in the world. See also, the entire early ’90s filmography of Jennifer Jason Leigh. Cringe.
Bad dialogue in a book is the novelist’s fault. Bad dialogue in a movie is the fault of the screenwriters — who either wrote it or chose to stick with it. (And I do think Ayelet Zurer is a trade up from Audrey Tautou.)
I liked Brothers Bloom. I might go see it again. Yes, the “Wes Anderson-y” influence is clearly there. But it’s a fun movie on it’s own merit…well, for the most part. I recommend it.
Why do women have to be sexy in a screwball comedy? You don’t have to jerk off to EVERY movie Lex.
And Chris, a lot of times when there’s bad dialogue in a movie the screenwriters aren’t to blame. They don’t choose to stick with anything, a lot of times they’re told what to do and then their stuff is changed on them.
OK, then it’s the director. It still makes no sense to blame a novelist — even a lousy one — for the bad dialogue in a movie.
Haven’t entire movies been made about everyone screwing up with a screenwriter’s perfect dialog?
How about blaming the producer for buying a book with lousy dialogue and refusing to give a screenwriter enough time to fix it?
On the “death of print” front — I was in a Wal-Mart the other day and they were selling $10 Rolling Stone T-shirts (old covers printed in that trendy “Affliction” style) which come with a coupon for a year’s subscription to RS.
I assume this is their way of guaranteeing eyeballs to advertisers, but still – the shirts alone look like more than $10 worth of shirt. Eventually one of these major magazines is gonna be completely free…before going under completely.
And what will publicists do if Peter Travers ever finds himself out of a job?
fwiw — saw terminator: salvation last night and didn’t hate it…but any and all faults (and there are soooooo many) sit directly on mcg… he really should stick to tv……
“See also, the entire early ’90s filmography of Jennifer Jason Leigh. Cringe.”
Okay: Miami Blues (1990), Buried Alive (1990), Partners In Life (1990), Backdraft (1991), Crooked Hearts (1991), Rush (1991), The Prom (1992), Single White Female (1992), Short Cuts (1993), The Hudsucker Proxy (1994), Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle (1994), Dolores Claiborne (1995), Georgia (1996), Kansas City (1996), Bastard Out of Carolina (1996)…
Lex, I think your expertise in films stops somewhere short of the late 80s. Did you mean a different early 90s, or another actress altogether?
PS – fuck I miss the early 90s…
THE BROTHERS BLOOM is a great payoff for those of us looking forward to the follow up to BRICK. And Rachel Weisz couldn’t be more fun in the film.
Yes, there is the Wes Anderson thing…however Rian Johnson for the most part steers clear of the precious tendencies.
And, as great as Weisz is, Rinko Kikuchi as ‘Bang Bang’ steals the film as far as I’m concerned.
Very few performances are as sexy as Jennifer Jason Leigh in Miami Blues.
or as gleefully psychotic as alec baldwin in ‘miami blues’
Basically, everything about Miami Blues kicks ass.
You know what movie has great dialogue? Koyaanisqatsi.
But it’s very repetitious.
Sshh… Joe. Quiet. You just said more than was spoken in the entire movie.
“See also, the entire early ’90s filmography of Jennifer Jason Leigh. Cringe.”
Speaking of JJL, I just saw Synecdoche, New York the other day (it came out on Thursday) and was absolutely horrified by her face. It wasn’t that frightening in Margot at the Wedding, was it?
Whenever I think of Jennifer Jason Leigh the first thought to pop into my head is always her lying on the bench in dug out in Fast Times w/dude unbuttoning her sweater and her breastestesses falling out. “She must be somebody’s baby…” Not in an I can never take her seriously as a thespian kind of way. On the contrary, there’s a certain amount of timelessness I associate w/her.
Although, right after seeing Dolores Claiborne w/a friend of mine, a film we both liked, he said he thought it was “pretty good but not a huge fan of Jennifer Jason Leigh because she always tends to over act.” Ever since then just about any movie I’ve seen w/her in, shot prior to or after, I’ve now tended to notice that. Grrrr, a little frustrating, he kinda killed her for me. It’s not so bad if I don’t think of it but I forget what film it was Kansas City or Georgia that I came across flipping channels one night and I swear I couldn’t make it 5 mins w/out getting up to get some mustard and pickles for the ham sandwich she was serving up.
At first I wasn’t sure if I was going to believe her but I thought she had a natural sexiness and affability in eXistenZ and did rather well in that role.
from Flesh + Blood to the present day I think JJL is great and underrated. Her voice can be annoying, but she’s unique. Miami Blues rocks.
Yes, “The Brothers Bloom” is getting a (platform) release but it still will be D.O.A. You get one guess as to why.
@LYT: Peter Travers can always get a job with the U.S. government or any Beltway think tank. This quote whore did a hatchet job on “Rendition” two years ago so Today’s Army could continue to buy ads in RS.
Calling Joe Leydon . . . Alright, no more Yao. So, can the Rockets win even one more game?
Hal: I would agree with you. If I could remember the 90s. Unfortunately my memory of the early 90s begins and ends with Kris Kross, Cross Colored Jeans, and the Bulls. Outside of that… fuck the 90s?
That aside; I prefer JJL in The Big Picture. Easily the best Kevin Bacon movie, that only three people have seen.
JJL is spectacular in HUDSUCKER PROXY and almost as good in MRS. PARKER. Mebbe the only contemporary actress who regularly gets criticized for being too good. (Critics didn’t like her voice in MRS. PARKER? Too bad–that’s what Dorothy Parker sctually sounded like.)
JJL is spectacular in HUDSUCKER PROXY and almost as good in MRS. PARKER. Mebbe the only contemporary actress who regularly gets criticized for being too good. (Critics didn’t like her voice in MRS. PARKER? Too bad–that’s what Dorothy Parker actually sounded like.)
Sorry for the double post.
BTW, Goldstein sez Apatow’s FUNNY PEOPLE is currently at 150 minutes and may end up very close to that. Seriously? Two-and-a-half hours of two of the least “funny” people on the planet in what appears to be a male TERMS OF ENDEARMENT? Who are they making this for? I could barely get through the trailer.
Blackcloud: Hell, yes.
Joe: Hell, yes, indeed!
Cadavra, that Hudsucker/Vicious Circle bullshit is exactly the kind of campy, flumpy, stupid-hat-and-costume-wearing hambone female overacting I CANNOT FUCKING WATCH, because it’s so embarrassing.
See also, Cate Blanchett in Aviator (I don’t care if it’s a good Hepburn imitation, Hepburn was embarrassing too), or just about any Meryl Streep performance of the last decade, or pretty much any woman in any Altman or Coen movie EVER, which is what Weisz and the other chick seem to be channeling into Brothers Bloom.
Women in unflattering outfits MUGGING with stupid affected voices is CRINGE-INDUCING, not sexy, not funny, and just REPULSIVE on every level.
Oh yeah, see also, whatever Barrymore and Lange are doing in that Grey Gardens trailer (fuck knows I wouldn’t sit through the actual movie.)
Women + comedy ONLY mix if the lead actress is FLIRTY AND CHARMING, not CAMPY AND BROAD. There is a whole faction of male movie critics, even hetero ones, who have this misbeggoten affection and nostalgia for the CLASSIC SCREWBALL ERA (ie, movies that fucking SUCK where everyone is annoying and frustrating and campy), and as such have this hardon for “BLOWZY BROADS” vamping it up.
I do not. I only want to see HOT CHICKS wearing TINY OUTFITS, and if they’re going to God forbid do some “comedy,” it better be some cute, flirty Ricci, Brittany Murphy, Lindsay Lohan, Kat Dennings, Anna Faris kind of thing where they are POSITIVELY CHARMING and sunny and delightful, not some vulgar Bette Midler buffooning.
Blackcloud: But of course, once again, ESPN wasn’t reporting that the Rockets won. No, they were reporting that the Lakers lost. Once again: What was wrong with Kobe? Why did the Lakers make mistakes? Is the team on the verge of a meltdown? Thank God for Phil Jackson, who memorably (and profanely) said of the Rockets: “Give them some fucking credit!”
Phil will tell it like it is. Especially when he wants his team to get the message.
LexG: Are you dissing Bringing Up Baby and His Girl Friday? If so, I may have to hurt you real bad.
Yes, Joe, I sort of am. Actually, His Girl Friday doesn’t bother me AS much. Bringing Up Baby is that “escalating mayhem” kind of screwball in which the HATEFUL heroine causes so much destruction, frustration, humiliation, and general annoyance, by minute 40 I’m hoping Grant will make like fucking Jigsaw and chain her up in some septic-sheened underground Buffalo Bill lair for a full hour of “Captivity”-esque payback. Because no jury in the world would convict that sorry son of a bitch.
Worst movie ever made. Ever. EVER.
Cad: I will enjoy those two and a half hours, and I will not take one pee break! I WILL ENDURE! I WILL ENDURE!
“Women in unflattering outfits MUGGING with stupid affected voices is CRINGE-INDUCING, not sexy, not funny, and just REPULSIVE on every level.”
And that’s why Lex writes for MCN and nobody else!
Random question:
What happened to MARS CALLAHAN?
And how did he get where he was for the roughly 11 minutes he was there? Only to disappear completely?
Lex: I’ve seen Callahan’s 2007 What Love Is listed in the schedule for one of the premium channels and On Demand. The plot summary for it on imdb makes it sound like an excruciating talk fest. It’s got Cuba Gooding, Jr., Matthew Lillard, Sean Astin, Gina Gershon, Anne Heche and the charisma-deprived Callahan himself. He’s also the writer/producer of something called Spring Break ’83, supposedly to be released this year.
I thought Poolhall Junkies was watchably bad, with a fantastic Christopher Walken performance. The thing cost 4 mil and made over 50. Amazing.
Cadavra: Funny People will either work at that length or it won’t, but I was rather taken aback by Goldstein’s article. It’s nothing but the usual received wisdom about the “ideal” length for comedy. The other two films Apatow directed were considered overlong by many, so I’m sure the issue is never far from his mind in the cutting room. Personally, I don’t think his style of character-based comedy needs to be as tight and sleek as farce or plot-driven comedy. At any rate, Goldstein comes off as a presumptuous ass who was desperate for a column topic.
As for “who are they making this for?” — it’s always a risk to mix comedy and pathos, especially when your stars have no track record with the latter, but I’m all for Apatow trying to stretch a little in his more personal projects.
Yancy, I was not defending Goldstein–far from it. I agree that he has no right to tell filmmakers how to make their pictures. My dislike of the Apatow School Of Comedy is no secret, and I was opining that his ego seems to be getting to the point where he thinks his fans will happily accept a 2.5-hour tragicomedy with two stars who have zero success even in semi-serious films. Yes, it’s good to stretch, but not if it’s beyond your ability. This is why I will never get in the ring with Mike Tyson, get into an ad-libbing contest with Robin Williams, or ask Salma Hayek out on a date.
I agree (to a point) with Lex about Bringing Up Baby. Hepburn is so manic and destructive in the film that I had very little sympathy for her and the outrageous situations she put herself and Grant into. It’s almost like she’s retarded or something.
His Girl Friday, on the other hand, is rock solid entertainment and one of the best films ever made.
Cadavra: Oh, I realize you weren’t defending Goldstein – I just wanted to make sure somebody called him on his b.s. 🙂
I’ve liked almost everything Apatow has been involved with, so obviously we’re coming at this from opposite directions. I don’t know Apatow, so I won’t speculate as to what extent his “stretching” is driven by sheer ego, a simple desire to grow as a filmmaker, or some combination thereof. But his attempt fills me with more hope than dread, because I like his track record, going back at least to Freaks and Geeks (probably my fave TV show ever, and one that mixed comedy and drama with great success).
Ugh. What Love Is… UGH. It made me want to hurt myself. No more of that ever please. The combination of that cast alone…
Bringing up Baby has never been one of my favorites, but I absolutely loved His Girl Friday, even though yes ‘screwball’ comedies can be filled with affectations etc. The really great ones like Friday, My Man Godfrey, Libeled Lady and Palm beach story…and many others, I don;t care if some of the characters are annoying…at least they are funny.
If you want to see hot chicks in tiny outfits 24/7 go to Vegas Lex. They would be all too pleased to take your money.
Kinda dead tonight and this BYOB is pretty played out, but by chance did anyone else actually see “The Soloist”?
Didn’t really dislike it, probably enjoyed it a little more than would have anticipated due to lowered expectations… until that HAT. That SAILOR HAT in the closing scenes. And that montage of the SAINTLY HOMELESS PEOPLE.
Some of Wright’s setpieces were pretty impressive, the lighting and staging was top-notch, but the Foxx-Downey stuff which should have been 100% of the movie kept taking a back seat to this sanctimonious MESSAGE! stuff about L.A.’s poor, in scenes that are of PATCH ADAMS levels of shoveled-on BULLSHIT.
Also, was Foxx supposed to be playing a *60 YEAR OLD MAN*????? We keep getting flashbacks to him as a 10-year-old boy in what MUST be the very early Civil Rights-era ’60s, then as a 25-year-old man in scenes set “THREE DECADES AGO.”
How old is the real guy? And what was with Downey’s come-and-go chalkdust in his eyebrows and hair? An homage to Mickey Rourke as STAN WHITE?
“How can anybody care too much?”
Also, I said it on my blog, but these new El Pollo Loco commercials where the EPL owner is all shit-talking KFC are REALLY petty and mean-spirited. What a fucking DICK.
Sorry, but anyone who thinks Bringing Up Baby isn’t a great movie is wrong. It is not even a matter of opinion. It’s like someone saying, “Oh, the drawing by my child that I have attached to my refrigerator door, it’s more beautiful than the Mona Lisa” — you may believe that in your heart of hearts, but you’re wrong. It’s that simple. It’s like disagreeing with the law of gravity.
“It’s like disagreeing with the law of gravity.”
Didn’t we just have a lengthy discussion here last week about why that isn’t the case, and can’t be?
Joe, you don’t find Hepburn’s character frustrating to the point of PHYSICAL RAGE while watching it? At some point it stops being breezy, or charming, or fun, or funny, and becomes high-blood-pressure-inducing.
I’ve scarcely ever DESPISED a screen character more in all of cinema. If you threw Hepburn’s character into a ring with Clifton Collins’ villain from “187” or Buffalo Bill or Waingro from “Heat” or the dude who raped Aceveda on “The Shield” or Alex from “Fatal Attraction,” ANY of those terrifying psychos would have the MORAL HIGH GROUND against Hepburn’s irritating, charmless, hateful, destructive, idiotic, loathesome piece of human garbage character.
Like, I literally want to DESTROY PROPERTY or take out my rage on a punching bag watching “Bringing Up Baby.”
I’m dead fucking serious when I say I despise it more than ANY movie I’ve ever seen, with the POSSIBLE exception of “I Spit on Your Grave.”
I simultaneously think that Hepburn’s character in Bringing Up Baby is grating, yet that the movie is, if not a masterpiece then very, very good. And I agree with Wrecktum that His Girl Friday is absolutely outstanding.
Lex – I Spit on Your Grave? What a bizarre second choice. Given your alleged love for vile misanthropy, you should love that one.
LexG: If you really want to experience a truly loathsome version of this character, check out the totally unnecessary remake of Sweet November. Great God Almighty, please don’t let Charlize Theron ever play a lovable kook again. Especially a lovable dying kook.
http://www.movingpictureshow.com/archives/mpsSweetNovember.htm
Agreed Joe, that Bringing Up baby is a ‘great’ movie in that it is well made, I just never warmed much to it. Screwball I never warmed to as a genre but there are a few movies I like especially and certain actors and actresses I like them so much that also increases my tolerance to screwball (eg. Jean Harlow).
I don’t really like slapstick either but I love the Three Stooges and worship Curly.
You know, it’s not exactly heresy to dislike Bringing Up Baby. It was a flop upon first release, contributed to Katharine Hepburn being labeled “box office poison,” and even Hawks had disparaging things to say about it. Hepburn was so unschooled in comedy, she got coaching from castmate Walter Catlett. Personally, I go back and forth on the film. Haven’t seen it lately, but I’d say I generally enjoy it only every OTHER time I see it. It was on TCM this morning — kinda wish I’d taken a fresh look.
And I love me some good screwball comedy. I’d rank McCarey’s The Awful Truth among the best films of any genre, and certainly in the top ten comedies of all time. Hawks was hit and miss with comedy, but he did a number of good ones, including Monkey Business with Cary Grant and Ginger Rogers.
Lota – speaking of Harlow, I recently rewatched Victor Fleming’s Bombshell, which is a lotta smart fun.