April 30, 2024
The Hot Blog
amit on: Review: Frozen 2 (spoiler-free)
movieman on: BYOB Fall Back, Film Forward
Christian on: BYOB Fall Back, Film Forward
movieman on: Review: Marriage Story (spoilers only in the broadest sense)
movieman on: BYOB Fall Back, Film Forward
movieman on: Review: Frozen 2 (spoiler-free)
YancySkancy on: Review: Little Women (no spoilers)
Hcat on: Why You Should Be Afraid Of The End Of The Paramount Decree
movieman on: BYOB Fall Back, Film Forward
movieman on: I Should Be Doing Box Office
Review: Little Women (no spoilers)
Why You Should Be Afraid Of The End Of The Paramount Decree
Review: Frozen 2 (spoiler-free)
Review: Marriage Story (spoilers only in the broadest sense)
see all »
[twitter-widget username="DavidPoland" hiderss="true" hidereplies="true" hidefrom="true" items="3" showts="60" title=" " targetBlank="true"][twitter-widget username="MCNTweets" hiderss="true" hidereplies="true" hidefrom="true" items="3" showts="60" title=" " targetBlank="true"]
Quote Unquotesee all »
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
Pay It Forward
Moonlight Mile
The Life of David Gale
Juwanna Man
Juwanna Mann was a solid choice. LOL.
I go with last year. Phantom. Worldwide recognition. Super hit musical. A veteran director. Large expectations. Complete flop.
Really good question. There have been so many that they escape my mind at the moment. Just this year we have Jarhead, Proof, Unfinished Life to name three off the top of my head.
If Munich fails it would go up to the top of my list.
As of now I’ll go with The Majestic. A lot of hype. Darabont coming off Green Mile and Shawshank. Carrey in a drama. Failed miserably.
All the Pretty Horses
Evita
The Shipping News
The Missing
Any Kevin Spacey movie since American Beauty
Cinderella Man (oh wait… that didn’t happen yet)
“Beloved” looked on paper like a surefire lock for nominations at least. Then, the movie came out.
MOONLIGHT MILE got me thinking about how Dustin Hoffman may be the king of prestige pic flops. Consider…
FAMILY BUSINESS (w/ Lumet and Connery a year after the latter’s Best Supporting Actor win)
BILLY BATHGATE (reunites with Robert Benton, Stoppard adapting “instant classic” Doctorow novel)
HOOK (which did get five nominations, but all tech)
HERO (Frears was still a hot property, script was touted as Chayefsky-level satire from David Webb Peoples, co-stars were then Academy faves Geena Davis and Andy Garcia)
SLEEPERS (w/ Pitt, De Niro, Patric, Bacon, Levinson, etc.)
MAD CITY (Travolta not yet a joke again, Costa-Gavras still respectable)
I HEART HUCKABEES
Is there an actor working today who can challenge that stellar run over the last twenty years? Shirley MacLaine maybe?
Have we already forgotten Cold Mountain?
I like this topic. Aside from Hoffman (off the top of my head)…
Havana
Fat Man and Little Boy
The Mirror Has Two Faces
Ironweed
At Play in the Fields of the Lord
Hoffa
City Hall
Amistad comes to mind. So does Anna and the King. The biggest flop in the last ten years is Stone’s Alexander, a truly misunderstood movie.
Malcolm X wasn’t a flop, but more of a disapointment on the part of voters. Elder white voters are scared of Spike Lee.
Oh how can anyone forget The Ice Storm.
What about the completion of Stone’s Vietnam trilogy, HEAVEN & EARTH? Also, quite a bit was expected from CRY FREEDOM. And speaking of Attenborough, what about CHAPLIN?
“The Evening Star” immediately comes to mind.
You can’t put Cold Mountain on a flop list because it did get 7 nominations. That is an achievement.
Anything by Jonathan Demme since Silence of the Lambs.
There’s a big difference between flops, which suggests total failure, and mere disappointments. Cold Mountain was not a total flop. Neither was Huckabees, which was never going to win a lot of awards or make a lot of money anyway. Jarhead isn’t a flop, with $60m in the bank. Moonlight Mile was a decent little movie that would have liked a nomination or two but didn’t get any.
2005 flop awards[Razzies will be exceedingly busy this year]:
well there are plenty that have effectively lost alot of money at the US box office, but my “2005 so far” awards:
Lame guy who wins “sexiest man” award (yecch) + money loss for 2005 USBO= SAHARA.
Biggest fake-ass romance for 2005= A lot like Love
Likely biggest flip-flopping studio in all genres for 2005: Paramount (Honeymooners, Sahara, Weatherman, ELizabethtown)
most painful TV-show-as-a-movie: Bewitched
“who told you that you could act” award to Jessica Simpson for Dukes of Hazzard. Check your undercarriage honey.
The Looked Slick but sucked the hind tit: Stealth, Lords of Dogtown(skateboarding IS a crime), DOmino
Worst Irony Flop: The Island (irony being it was Bay’s best movie).
Recent past years WINNERS: Life of David Gale, From Justin to Kelly, Envy. Pay if forward is a good thing to watch for suicide preparation.
Historical favorite flop: Showgirls.
the dialog alone puts it in a special category. I admire Paul Verhoeven (who I like very much) for accepting his own razzie. Good on ya mate. Oddly enough, Showgirls probably should have been classed as a documentary.
BIGGEST FUTURE FLOP: Tough crowds await Aeon Flux and Fun with Dick and Jane.
BOX OFFICE POISON of the MILLENIUM: Jimmy Fallon
“Lords of Dogtown(skateboarding IS a crime)”
Now there’s a sequel I can’t wait to see.
Showgirls is too entertaining to be put in that category. It really deserves better.
MAGNOLIA.
It’s the best film of the last ten years, yet it didn’t win anything. I like AMERICAN BEAUTY, but please.
Recent:
The Missing
The Alamo
The Red Violin
Pinnochio
Wasn’t Nicholas Cage in a movie about a lute a few years ago? I believe that was touted as posible Oscar bait. What was it called?
Captain Corelli’s Mandolin, where he sported both a crappy faux-Italian accent and a similar hairpiece. Good call.
^ That’s the one. Lute, mandolin, same thing.
Showgirls was undeservedly maligned. Seriously. One of the funniest movies I have ever seen. “I’ve got towels!”
Movies I would include
Vanilla Sky – much like Elizabethtown, it was a contender purely because of Crow… and then it was released
Molly – I don’t know if this was ever considered, but this Elisabeth Shue as a handicapped person was pure trashy awfulness
Pearl Harbour – blech!
Spanglish – my god, that was awful!
The Legend of Bagger Vance – zzzz
I would say Matrix Reloaded and Revolutions.
I love the two films to death, but I remember the two being touted as possible Best Picture candidates in early 2003. Yikes!
By who, Poland?
The Crucible: A movie designed to the last detail to garner awards–big stars, big production team, big historical subject, big provocative, challenging material, even a little behind-the-scenes romance in Daniel Day-Lewis and Rebecca Miller getting together–but which ended up with zilch in 1996.
Vanilla Sky: Should have contended with Crowe hot off Almost Famous and the presence of Cruise combined with intellectual material. Didn’t because it stank.
In Cold Blood: Sounds like hearsay because it IS an acknowledged masterpiece…but my judgment has nothing to do with the film itself and everything to do with how it should have taken the fifth Best Picture slot in 1967 instead of Doctor Doolittle.
Amistad: Dare the Academy to not give your film major Oscar nominations. Watch them accept said dare. Ditto happened to a lesser degree a few years later with The Hurricane.
The Royal Tenenbaums: Wes Anderson’s most entertaining movie (to me, anyway) and most accessible outside of his cult, but while nominated for its screenplay, no love.
Eyes Wide Shut: Stanley Kubrick’s last movie. Too much Kubrick, not enough orgy for younger critics and viewers. Summer release didn’t help. I liked it myself.
A.I.: While on the topic of Kubrick, his and Spielberg’s project seemed like a dream. Two of the best ever behind the camera with Kubrick’s deep meaning and Spielberg’s heart. What came out? A maddeningly annoying movie that doesn’t make sense the more you think about it and shows that Spielberg should never EVER direct death metal again.
The Cider House Rules: Okay, this one won a couple, but it really SHOULDN’T have. It’s one of those movies that won Oscars that no one talks about, and is only remembered for the Weinsteins somehow hyping it as American Beauty’s rival. The only thing I remember is hating it.
Big Fish was a little over-hyped. Tim Burton never really has contended in awards season though. Ed Wood was about the closest thing.
re: A.I.
Spielberg may be the only director around who can make a scene featuring a little teddy bear skipping through crowds of fanatical rednecks rocking out to Ministry seem, within context of the story, perfectly normal.
The Majestic is on the top of my list. So much potential turned into such an awful movie. Excrutiatingly banal.
Anyone remember The Shipping News? Me neither.
Is it too late to add Rent? 😉
I’m surprised that no one mentioned Kevin Costner’s “The Postman” – that was supposed to be not only the next Dances, but also a huge B.O. hit from the start…until the press screening started.
I’ve never seen Solaris, some I know love it, some despise it. But no argument that it was a flop that some thought would be Oscar Gold.
I actually saw The Postman in a theater. I’m one of the few people I know who’ve actually seen the movie. It’s not as awful as the press has described it….it’s worse.
i don’t remember one person saying the matrix sequels were going to win awards.
The Postman would have been a real good series. HBO. Where you get to actually tell a story over time. Post nuclear war. Survivors. Trying to start anew. No technology. Everyone on their own. Just too much for a 3 hr movie especially from a notorious long guy like Costner.
“Poor Mr. Costner. He tries so hard.”
the moral? don’t give costner final cut on anything.
Eyes Wide Shut was a huge awards flop. I don’t think it took any nom’s.
You got those two Scorsese movies no one likes: Kundun and Bringing out the Dead, even Casino was expected to be this big Oscar Contender and it wasn’t.
I’m not saying they’re all bad movies (Bringing out the Dead is), but they certainly didn’t get any awards to help their cause.
I also expected awards from AI.
HEAT and CASINO should have been up for multiple awards in 1995.
Heat is a masterpiece. One of the finest films ever made. I am still shocked and saddened by the way it was treated at awards time. A total crime.
Yeah most critics were pretty so-so on Heat, I think it is a modern classic.
Another one from this year, Kingdom of Heaven. Yeesh
“Molly” – wow, good call.
How ’bout Hilary Swank’s post-“Boys Don’t Cry” period mess “The Affair of the Necklace?” What is it about Oscar wins that send people immediately into costume dramas?
How about the Michael Hoffman triple-feature of: “Restoration” “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” and “The Emperor’s Club?” All three hyped as Oscar pics, all three rather bad misfires.
I remember THE SHIPPING NEWS–and adored it. Ditto CASINO.
Lumet’s NIGHT FALLS ON MANHATTAN certainly deserved to be in there, as did Winkler’s LIFE AS A HOUSE.
I’m now bracing myself for the invective on that last one.
I really like Night Falls on Manhattan, and enjoyed Life as a House more than I should have.
Heat holds up better today and so does Casino. No one expected major awards from either movie. They cannot even be considered flops. It’s ridiculous.
Kevin Spacey has been bad luck since American Beauty.
the idea that HEAT wasn’t nominated at least for writing and CASINO for cinematography still pisses me off to no end…arguably, those 2 flicks could have been nominated for a slew of awards in all categories. Over time, they have held up incredibly well.
Michael Mann has directed a number of great movies that were flops in the “awards” sense in that they were shamefully passed over.
I thought it was sad that Collateral was passed over for many things including Director & Jamie Foxx’s performance–Ray was so lukewarm in comparison.
History of Violence and David Cronenberg could get ignored this year. I wasn’t so convinced of Viggo’s abilities and he really was tops in that.
And Award-deficient & bombs must include the adaptations of Edith Wharton’s novels like Age of Innocence (& didn’t clear budget either), Ethan Frome (suicide movie), and House of Mirth. Adaptations of F Scott Fitzgerald movies, assumed Oscar bait…but turned into Awards bombs (except for costume/music awards) of no small measure despite killer casts.
Just because a movie doesn’t get award nom’s doesn’t mean its an awards flop. Heat is a great example. Award flops are movies that are front runners for awards based on preconceived notions. Like Munich and Memoirs of a Geisha are this year. I can’t recall anyone saying Heat was an early Oscar pick.
That may be true Joefitz, but i can’t remember ’95 re. awards except I thought there was discussion re. DeNiro & Pacino (the biggest guys at that time) and the screenplay. So if there’s discussion/acclaima nd no nom, it still seems like a “awards flop”, although not due to the movie itself. Perhaps it should be a wannabee award flop or snub.
I hope Cinderella Man, the earliest bleating Oscar campaigner, gets F*ck-all after the Hit on Max Baer.
Gangs of New York.
It certainly didn’t win, but “Gangs of New York” did manage ten nominations…which is more than it may have deserved.
Virtually nobody cares about Max Baer. Cinderella Man will go nowhere because it was a deeply mediocre movie (although it’s competition ain’t looking too hot either).
Are you out of your mind???
Gangs got ten Academy Award nominations. And you say that’s a flop? Get your head screwed on right.
I forget the exact numbers, but it’s also Scorsese’s 2nd or 3rd highest-grossing film ever.
It’s sad that “Casino” got only one nod, but I could not be more happy for the recipient of said nomination – Sharon Stone. She was THE greatest thing about that movie, and the one thing I truly remember from it (apart from somebody’s death scene towards the end. ouch.) Absolutely heartbreaking too that she is just so… nothing now. Oh well, I will always have “Casino” and “The Muse”.
How about To Die For? Nicole Kidman WON the Golden Globe and still didn’t get nommed. That was the only nod it could have gotten and didn’t, so it’s not a FLOP but it was still a bizarre choice.
I could definitely put “Eyes Wide Shut” here, as others have. I remember reading before it came out some people saying Kubrick could become the first posthumas director winner. And, unfortunately, it got nothing. Not even cinematography! Or, quite by accident in this reply, Nicole Kidman!
And I do remember The Matrix movies getting Oscar buzz. Mainly because the original won everything it was nominated for, and the second/third was meant to be all that and more. But, alas, it definitely was not.
How about this: “The Terminal”. That horrible Spielberg movie was touted early as a big movie but then as soon as it was released it was relegated to “it might get a production design nomination”.
And, also. “Cast Away”
It’s hard to think of Cast Away as any kind of flop considering that it made so much money. Sure it only got two nominations, but I don’t think anyone was really disappointed by how it did.
Cast Away got nom’s. Some people are not getting the concept of awards “flop” here.
This is why I love you guys…
“Heat” was like my favorite movie of the decade.
Rock on Hot Blog!
Heat gets better on repeat viewings. They could have made that 4 hours long and I wouldn’t have cared. So much story to tell.
“The Terminal”. That horrible Spielberg movie was touted early as a big movie but then as soon as it was released it was relegated to “it might get a production design nomination”.
I don’t agree that The Terminal was in any way horrible, in fact it was only a couple of screenplay drafts from being a great film in my opinion.’Horrible’ means The Pacifier, Man of the House, Monster in Law or Miss Congeniality 2. The Terminal has at least two GREAT visual moments in it, the first being when Tom Hanks tries on the reflection of the suit in the window, the second being when Hanks leaves the terminal and we pan up to the reflection of the NY skyline on the side of the building. And look at the rhythm of the sequence where Hanks discovers he can get quarters by returning the carts, purely from a film-making perspective. Great stuff. And John Williams contributes one of his most toe-tapping scores. The Cyrano subplot and the Catherine Zeta-Jones part needed work, but other than that Terminal is elegant, grown-up entertainment.
We’re not talking flop money wise here. The reason I said Cast Away was because many, before its released, thought it was a Tom Hanks/Helen Hunt movie and that it would get a whole bunch of noms, but then it got Actor and, like, Best Sound Editing or whatever.
And Terminal was horrible because in this day and age I find it disgusting that any movie with that plot would not even mention anything along the lines of terrorism or the like. I know it wasn’t MEANT to be a serious movie but it should have been. The only mention to war in it is with Tom Hanks’ character’s home country. And even that is a fictional country!
Like, what it turned into was a movie that fluffy and sugar-coated. For Spielberg, who turned WotW into one big fat 9/11 & WW2 analogy, that was pretty bad…
Troy
Kingdom of Heaven
Vanity Fair
Man on the Moon
The Others
The Station Agent
Love Actually
Before Sunset
Wonder Boys
Well golly…
Talented Mr Ripley was sort of a flot with voters
Enemy at the Gates was miss for sure
Oscar and Lucinda
Ice Storm
Titus
Topsy Turvey
Ladymerlin, The Others was barely a flop. It’s only real possibility was Best Actress for Kidman, and she got in for Moulin Rouge! and you’re only allowed one perf per category.
Before Sunset also had no real hopes apart from the category it did get nominated for (screenplay).
How is Kingdom of Heaven a flop if the awards haven’t been held yet? Yes, it’ll get nothing probably (maybe Costume) but, still…
Dave, great article.
Kamikaze,
With respect to The Others, I think that Dimension was hoping for a “Sixth Sense” type of awards run. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen.
“Before Sunset” had a strong critical response and hopes for award glory, but ran out of momentum and promotion.
“Kingdom of Heaven” was one of those epic-style movies for which some had hopes of a “Gladiator”-style run. It didn’t (and won’t) happen.
Poland wasn’t joking when he said “help write a column”. He basically just cut and pasted what he liked without much in the way of commentary.
I’m sure Dimension was _hoping_ for a Sixth Sense-type smash, but such an event was already such an anomaly that they couldn’t have been hoping very hard. Before Sunset had no hopes outside of Independent Spirit Awards. Kingdom of Heaven was inferior to Gladiator in pretty much every step along the way of its conception.
The Others a flop? You can’t be serious. It made a fortune in what wasn’t supposed to be a huge hit. Awards? I don’t think they were out for any awards except for box office.
Josh,
I was referring to the awards tally of The Others, not the box office tally.
There are more than a few “Wannabe Oscar Bait” flops I’ve seen:
Boogie Nights
Wag the Dog (OK, it made money, but it came out the same year as “Titanic”)
The Butcher Boy (spring ’98, handled by WB as an arthouse title)
Bulworth (prescient — the politics spooked the Oscar types)
There’s Something About Mary (Oscar types hate comedy)
Next Stop Wonderland (OK, it was from Miramax, but it launched Hope Davis’ career)
A Soldier’s Daughter Never Cries (fall ’98)
Practical Magic
Pleasantville
The Siege (fall ’98 — very prescient)
Patch Adams (Oscar types hate comedy)
The Thin Red Line (superior to Saving Private Ryan — but no Stvn Splbrg, thus no awards)
Arlington Road (Oscar types spooked by the politics)
The Straight Story (dir. by David Lynch; US release by Disney — very underappreciated)
Being John Malkovich
The Green Mile (3 hours long, worth every minute)
Liberty Heights (another WB arthouse title)
Cradle Will Rock (Disney’s “Oscar Bait” title for Y2K; the Mouse got spooked by the politics)
Saving Grace (Oscar types don’t like to toke)
Best in Show (Oscar types don’t like canines)
Billy Elliott (Universal’s first Focus release — deserved picture and actor at least)
Focus (from fall ’01 — Oscar types don’t want to revisit McCarthyism)
Far from Heaven
The Quiet American (holiday ’02/winter ’03 — reluctantly released amid drumbeat for war)
The Magdalene Sisters (a Miramax release in US — Oscar types think religionists are perfect)
Under the Tuscan Sun (superior to Lost in Translation)
Calendar Girls (Oscar types are prudes)
I’ll even throw in 2 foreign-language titles:
El crimen del Padre Amaro (fall ’02, from Mexico — I saw it the day after a prominent cardinal was forced to resign)
Tae Guk Gi: The Brotherhood of War (fall ’04, from South Korea — about the Korean War)
How about The People vs. Larry Flynt? Has anyone mentioned that yet?