The Hot Blog Archive for July, 2006
Snakes On A Playdate
My take on Snakes on a Plane has long been that the biggest problem for New Line would be showing the movie, regardless of how good or bad the film is. No movie is without critics and with so much internet buzz already built up, it can
28 Comments »Irony In The Water
I will get into the movie itself later this week – the movie is not as bad as some say… not as good as Night hoped – but two things did jump out at me.
1. The movie is co-financed by Legendary… so I guess Alan Horn didn’t believe in Night as much as Night thinks in the book.
2. There is an animated opening sequence, which really feels like they forced him to add it because test audiences couldn’t follow the complex and slowly developing fairy tale story. Why would you give away story points up front otherwise? It is done with style, but it seems completely the opposite of Shyamalan film thinking.
World Trade Center
Even after seeing the powerful opening 25 minutes of the film from Cannes, I was not prepared for how the movie evolved into a story about individuals. Screenwriter Andrea Berloff and Oliver Stone, who must get a lot of credit for the text as so much of the film is visual, took the Apollo 13 route. The event is historic. The people are human. And with due respect to that Oscar nominee, they did a much more profound and intense job here. Perhaps it is because the landscape is not four men fighting for life, but thousands whose lives and deaths were determined in less than 24 hours.
The Full Review
Owner of Hooters Restaurant Chain Dies At 69
Insert Tasteless Joke Here.
(The obit)
Triple Feature Monday
It’s been a crazy Monday… three films and a cancelled lunch. (Cancelled by me when I found I couldn’t get there on time.)
Talk amongst yourselves… and here is a little sneak of a piece going up later tonight on MCN… can you guess the film?
The emotional wallop of the film does come in throbbing fists of FEEL IT. It comes from the small, personal, human places where we all live. It is in the eyes of our children, the small regrets, the unfinished work around the house
Directors Who Have Had A More Impressive Start Than Night
In an article in the Philadelphia Inquirer, the enthusiastic Anne Thompson says,
88 Comments »Clear Enough For Crazy People To Understand
Just to be clear for the whack jobs that wish to spin otherwise this weekend
28 Comments »Sunday Estimates by Klady
After 10 days, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest is the fastest grossing film ever by an estimated $21.5 million.
And, it is likely once again, that Disney has done its best to estimate low to get another success story on Monday afternoon, when
Friday Estimates by Klady
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man
62 Comments »The Seven Day Arrrrrrrrrrrrch
Wel, Pirates did it again… but again, so close to the record that it makes you scratch your head and wonder about scurvy.
Disney reported $12.36 million for Thursday while the previous record for non-opening/non-holiday Thursday was Episode III’s $12.31 million.
Yesterday, it was $14.15m vs Potter II’s $14.13m.
Wondering what the record for best second Friday is? $22.987m for Potter I. After that, it’s Potter II ($22.771m) and Toy Story 2 ($22.606m).
(4:38p – Corrected for bad Potter counting)
Another Self-Immolation
The good folks at iKlipz, a new website that is aiming at being a MySpace for movie lovers, with more services for movie lovers (eventually… still ramping up this week), have asked me to take internet surfers to lunch every week to discuss Hollywood.
I taped my first meal yesterday, and here it is…
Prada Love
Fox, very cleverly, got USA Today to a story on men who LOVE The Devil Wears Prada.
My MCN headline is: Fox Spins: Men Without Penises & Men Who Love Penises LOVE Prada
Am I being too unkind… or not unkind enough?
Poseidon Suffers Another Loss
The great Red Buttons is dead at 87. Another reason to watch the original The Poseidon Adventure.
Who is getting up there who you will be most upset to see go?
Pirates 6, Record Book 0
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest grossed $14.1 million yesterday, Wednesday, though it is not clear whether the final number will set a new record for a non-opening Wednesday. That record has been held by Harry Potter & The Goblet of Fire, which grossed $14.13 million on the day before Thanksgiving last year. (The Wednesday all-time leader is Spider-Man 2‘s opening day $40.4m in 2004.)
One thing is 100% clear. Pirates has passed Star Wars: Episode Three – Revenge of the Sith to become the highest grossing film after six days in release ever. Pirates