The Hot Blog Archive for May, 2010
Mini-Review – Robin Hood
There is nothing wrong with Robin Hood that some prudent cutting of the first 90 minutes couldn’t fix.
The irony is that I’m pretty sure that Ridley Scott made the movie in order to explore the density of that first 90 minutes.
The film, a prequel to the Robin Hood stories that have been done so many times, has a compelling central movie idea. What really happened to make Robin Hood become Robin Hood? Do it with attention to the history and detail. Don’t cheat too much by making Brad Pitt play Robin Hood to Scarlett Johansson’s Marian or continuing distortions that have been in virtually every other telling of the tale.
Great.
But somehow, in all the interest in truth, boredom and confusion set in. Dramatically, stuff works. But it too often feels unmotivated, as though another 30 minutes of the film was missing. We’ve been here with Sir Ridley before, with Kingdom of Heaven… but it’s hard to imagine that this film would become the masterpiece that director’s cut was if there was more.
As a result, the film is a bit of a potential girl/boy-friend who is perfect in every way except for the one that makes your heart sing.
That said, the last 30 minutes of the movie is quite brilliant. No one does it better than Ridley Scott. And I would love the see the sequel with this crew, playing out the Robin Hood story that we all know. How wondrous it might have been had they shrunk this script down to a first act or maybe even half a movie… and then got on with the fun.
Ir’s telling that in the first 10 minutes, we see a 12th century version of a bomb, as sacks of oil get attached to a castle gate, followed by fire arrows, leading to an explosion and a push through with battering rams.
COOL! Our Robin is a great fighter and smart… must know all these tricks… it’s medieval, but smarter than we have ever seen it before.
And about 90 minutes later, we see some of that energy again.
(more to come… about 5p pdt)
Ahem… to continue where I so rudely interrupted myself…
Robin Hood is the kind of movie in which William Hurt gets one real speech… and gets through it more on craft than on passion.
But again… it’s also the kind of movie where they hired Bill Hurt to play British reserve with a touch of passion. A really odd, interesting choice. But not balanced with Hurt’s talent or the material.
Another great choice… Danny Huston. And Von Sydow. And Matthew Macfadyen. All delivering interesting work. All less memorable than they should have been.
Then there is Mark Strong, who remains a bridesmaid after his turn here. He was fine. Perfect, in some ways. But as much as the movie wants you to HATE him, you only really hate him because you are at a movie. In some ways, he’s no more of an opportunist than Robin… he just has no moral compass of any kind.
And that, I think, is really what is so right and so wrong about Robin Hood. It’s a movie about men who make hard choices. The Good Guy is the hard man who cares about orphans and the poor. The Bad Guy is the hard man who doesn’t. How wide is the line between the two men? Narrow. And that is interesting, dramatically. But only if that’s the movie you’re making.
Sometimes, Scott is making that movie. Sometimes, not so much. And at some times, he gets caught up the subtlety.
Prince John, played by Oscar Issac (a fast-riser who has one of the big roles in Agora), turns into a fantastic character in the last part of this movie. He’s pretty good in one early scene in the movie. But in between… nothing.
The movie is really as much about the origin of Robin Hood as it is the origin of Prince John. And it may have been true that they weren’t really on each other’s radar very much until the end of this story. But damn… he was so much more interesting than the central villain of this film.
You know, you can’t be petty and whine about how the role was a waste of Douglas Hodge, who is about to win a Tony for playing the opposite of butch in La Cage A Folles. One expects this in films like this. Great little-internationally-known UK actors in minor roles is not unusual. The history of period films is littered with them.
So it’s not about wasting actors I like. It’s about the story vs the legend. If big studio filmmaking is about anything, it’s about printing the legend. Maybe you adjust the legend to the truth… but to be great, you make the truth into something legendary. This was what Bill Goldman has done so brilliantly in his career. (Side note: The great Richard Lester film, Robin & Marian, was written by Bill’s brother, James.) Butch Cassidy & The Sundance Kid, All The President’s Men, Chaplin… even the fictional The Great Waldo Pepper, Marathon Man, which he adapted from his novel and The Stepford Wives, which he adapted from Ira Levin’s novel… all were either from real life or near real life, but made iconic with Goldman’s turns of phrase.
And going back to my digression, look at the list of actors who were little known in America but have become legendary since Robin & Marian… Nicol Williamson, Ian Holm, Denholm Elliot. Scott found a terrific crew of actors, but none who will be as well defined as those of the past. To turn Jessica Rabbit’s phrase, they just aren’t written that way.
There is some fascinating, gorgeous, exciting, fun, glorious work here. I don’t care about the age of the actors… not one bit. But we do know that Robin and Marian and The Merry Men aren’t going to die in this story. So that bit of tension is shot. But there is plenty here to play with. It’s rich material.
It’s an odd thing. Attacking this film feels very anti-artist to me. But when it comes to big movies, the artist has a certain responsibility to make a movie that is as high quality and as widely accessible as possible, no? And the critic has the responsibility yo take the art seriously… but to also deal with how they felt about the film at a gut level, no?
Unabashed love or profound hate are easy. Movies like this… not so much.
BYOB Wednesday Cannes Begin
Robin Hood is not nearly as bad as some have claimed.. it’s even quite brilliant at times….more later…
48 Comments »PRESS RELEASE – Newmarket Hires Lionsgate For Home Ent Distribution
Sounds much like the Henson deal.
Oddly, no mention of EPIX.
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LIONSGATE AND EXCLUSIVE MEDIA GROUP
Apparition Returns To The Dead
Apparition never was a real distributor. And now, it will likely become another logo that shows up on cable now and again, prompting a, “I seem to remember something like that… when were they in business?”
The answer… never. Not really.
Padded by their output deal with Sony Pictures Worldwide Acquisitions Group, Apparition released 3 movies in its first year of operation that it purchased or owned rights to itself – Bright Star, The Runaways, and The Square. Total domestic gross (which is all they had the rights to): $8.15 million.
Since Apparition set up shop, Roadside Attractions – the former key Sony external release partner – has grossed over $11.4 million with 11 releases and an Oscar win for documentary.
So why do people keep acting as though Apparition was ever a major player to be?
Two reasons. Bob Berney’s rep. Bill Pohlad’s money. And neither went as fae as everyone hoped they would.
Aside from The Square, which was dumped into 24 theaters total, grossing less than $10,000 per screen in its brief history (aka Apparition as SPWAG… living for the DVD), Apparition did not acquire a single movie since Bright Star… their “we’re in business” pre-Cannes splash buy last year. Not a single real theatrical acquisition. Not one.
Get it?
Why did Apparition release the Pohlad funded The Runaways? How did Tree of Life fall back into Pohlad’s hands for distribution?
Whether The Runaways was Berney’s test or Berney’s opportunity, it failed. Was there another distributor that would have coughed up enough to make it worth Pohlad’s while to sell off the movie? None that I know of. But it’s possible that one might have stepped up. Regardless, it was the only seemingly commercial film Berney had a chance to distribute on Apparition’s own steam.
There is a lot of fighting about how the film was (barely) released, with the accusation coming from Berney’s side that Pohlad made promises and then pulled the rug out from under him and the Pohlad side simply pointing to the numbers the film opened to, in spite of a lot of awareness coming out of K-Stew and the sexualization of Dakota Fanning (who needs to do a coming of age movie without her singing… it’s bad luck). But either way, one of the year’s highest profile bombs.
The Malick film fell back into Pohlad’s hands, with no distributor in town willing to buy in, after David Bergstein’s situation fell apart yet again. But as of last summer, that film’s distribution was slotted for Bergstein’s company… before that round of employees started suing him.
But I digress…
Why do people announce they are leaving indie distributors right before film festivals? Because going to a film festival with the Sword of Damocles hanging over your head, being pitched endlessly when you know you can’t buy anything, with impotence to do anything… it’s PAINFUL.
If you believe that Berney blindsided Pohlad and that this is the reason why the company is not going to be buying in Cannes, I have some rooms at the Hotel du Cap to rent you during the festival for $125 a night. Cash only.
And if you believe that Bill Pohlad’s people didn’t drop that in-house e-mail to Mike Fleming so they could spin the story their way before Jeanne Berney got her spin on it, you’d be wrong again.
What was the real tipping point? We’ll find out one of these days. It will filter out through someone safe and it will be spun. But it will come down to money and the amount of it that Apparition was not going to spend either buying or distributing movies.
Pushed or jumped? Timed for maximum damage? The end of something or the beginning of a Bob Berney blog on indieWIRE?
There is only one question and answer that will have any significant effect on the future of the film business… who gets SPWAG’s output deal next? Well… first we’ll have to find out if a Berney’s exit voids the deal. And then… who… Phase 4? Back to Roadside or Sam Goldwyn? Daniel Battsek’s ambitious Nat Geo? Magnolia or IFC? Weinstein/Miramax? One of the new distributors trying to get a foothold/secure funding?
And Apparition? Bob Berney’s Heaven Can Wait with an unhappy ending… his spirit is still floating out there, looking to land, while his body just keeps getting killed.
Fade to… memory…
Meaningless Stat Of The Day
Iron Man 2‘s “actual” is $128.1m.
About a 4% variation from the studio estimate on Sunday morning.
Not enough for competing studios to complain about. A little less thrilling for Disney and Paramount… but still the same kind of okay-against-expectations start.
I Heart Lesbian Supremes
They will discuss her alleged judicial activism all summer.
They will whisper about her “lifestyle.”
Oh…. and she’s a Jew!
With two Supreme Court appointments, The Big O has delivered two women, the first Hispanic, the first lesbian (that we know of), and a Jew… all in these two women. Reminds us why we love him.
Obviously, neither woman deserves to be reduced to the groups of which she is a part. They are more than that. But they are also symbols of a world view of humans as humans, not as closeted perceptions… which I guess makes this post ironic. But every door opened, is a door that doesn’t need to be broken down.
Now, O, start looking for the queer Asian Catholic dude…. he’s next!
Lena Horne, 93
I knew a little about Lena Horne. I had seen her in this and that. I had watched That’s Entertainment, which gently kissed on race and her unique position in changing racial perceptions in film.
But I got the story of Lena Horne’s life from Lena Horne herself… she on the stage at 64 years of age… me in the audience. I also got the story from my father, whose excitement about the show was palpable. He was a year older than her.
The reason this obit is personal is, I suppose, because Lena Horne was so personal. Her singing, which made songs “hers” in an era when standards were sung by scores of talented, well-known names, always felt like it came from the bottom of her soul. It was never just her singing, though her voice, while not the most beautiful, was forever compelling. It was a story told by your favorite aunt, wise friend, hero, or object of desire. She knew things. Or at least it felt that way.
And there was her beauty. Ahhhhh…
Lena Horne has been a private person for some time. I saw her a few months before the end of her Broadway run. That was 28 years ago. But she is one of those who will truly be with us forever.
Weekend Box Office by Klady (IM2, Not To Be Confused With I:M2)
$230 million.
$533 million.
This is the range of domestic grosses for films that have opened with 3-days of over $100 million. (Iron Man 2 is the 15th such opening.)
On the low end of the scale of the highest releases, the low domestic total is just under $300 million. That also happened ot be the most recent $100m launch… last November… Twilight: New Moon.
We have very little history to work with here. No movie opened to more than $115m until 2006. It happened twice in 2007, once in 2008 and 2009, and now, already, twice in 2010.
There was, by estimate, a 36% uptick in the opening weekend for Iron Man 2 from the first film. But the real question is… will this be a Twilight 2 (project to $278m) or a Trannys 2 (project to $495m)? Or somewhere in between? I’ll make the third – and easy – guess. But I would also lean more towards Team Abs than toward Team Bay.
Surprise that the first film was, it had a multiple of 3.2x with overwhelmingly positive Word of Mouth
Friday Estimates by Klady (aka Cash Machine)
So we’re looking at, what, $130m for the weekend?
Hardly sucks. Not breathtaking. Probably a little disappointing for Disney and Paramount, actually… but not very.
If this holds, look for the domestic number to be almost identical to the first film… maybe $10 million higher. And look for about $50m more internationally than the last time. About $650m worldwide. And look for that to be lost – in comparison from the first one – off of the post-theatricals.
The one big advantage the movie has is that there are no films close to the specific genre for two weeks, until P of P. This could well spare the film a more massive drop next week, where it will surely win the weekend again with no less than $60 million.
I actually think they spent a little less on this film than on the first, so the net might be up a little. Paramount comes out fine. And Disney starts getting itchy.
Dragon will hit $200 million this weekend. But I am fascinated that anyone would consider – with an even higher percentage of gross 3D bump than Avatar – these number to be a breakthrough of some kind. The movie is clearly well liked… nice holds… but not a single game-changing thing about the film for DreamWorks Animation. If someone wishes to disagree, great… please explain why.
The FCC Copy Block Ruling
It’s happened. But it’s not really the point.
The freedom to put limits on any form of delivery is a non-issue with me… it’s an obvious right that a copyright owner should have.
The question is how the market would bear an idea like day-n-date… full stop. Then, it’s a question of how the market will bear day-n-date when the basic service people expect at home, including having a movie on their DVR, is limited at the same time the pricing is highly inflated.
“Fight pricing” has been the studios’ wet dream for years… but it is not the reality we live in. A movie is not a one-time-only event. Opening Day must-sees are a narrow part of the market… and of course, the greatest potential for one-time VOD premieres – unless the must-see-now market expands, which I don’t think it will – is to cannibalize theatrical…. which is stupid on its face.
The studios have no obligation to keep movie theaters in business. None. Sorry. But they do have their own self-interest to protect. And theatrical is the only window that is not and is not likely to be subject to price competition. One thing that DVD should be teaching the industry… price competition for entertainment leads to lower prices, not higher.
There is a chance that in 10 years, we will be discussing the last movie in the last franchise that was released without a day-n-date VOD opening. We will have been through some $500 million opening weekends with a $30 PREMIERE VOD price… and the discussion about whether the films actually generated more revenue and then, profit, because of PREMIERE VOD. (Think Harry Potter) We’ll have the first “might have flopped in traditional windows” film that opens to $8 million theatrical and $85 million in PREMIERE VOD with $10 per view pricing. (Think Harold & Kumar or Kick-Ass) We’ll have the first movie whose bad buzz limited it to $8 million total between its 1500 screen theatrical and PREMIERE VOD at $15 a pop. And we’ll see all kinds of stuff in between.
And like the last couple of years, the media will hype the grosses that are bigger than they have ever seen before… and people will wonder why studios are still firing people and VOD Stars are being paid less and less. They will also wonder why the post-2 month finances of a movie drop precipitously as the only way studios can create value for their libraries is with a monthly subscription base for all-access to their catalogs, perhaps with tiers for breadth and width of that access.
Maybe these guys can kill the movie business after all…
Doubling Down with David & Anthony – Episode 2, May 6, 2010
Babies, Machete, 3D, and more…
PRESS RELEASE – LA Treks It Up All Summer
Simply 70 (mm) Star Trek Spectacular-Spectacular Saturdays
For Immediate Release.
Homing beacon to all Trekkers: this summer the cavernous Royal Theatre in West L.A. is the 600-seat craft which will return you to outermost outer space via midnight screenings of the first six Star Trek features in galactic-size 70mm.
June 12 ~ STAR TREK: THE MOTION PICTURE (1979) Actress Arlene Martel* (T’Pring from original series episode
Summer 2011
Next Summer is all the rage this week.
Thor, Pirates 4, and Hangover 2 have locked into May.
Panda 2, X:Men First Class, Green Lantern, Cars 2, and Planet of the Apes (with CG apes) are set for June.
Trannys 3, the last Potter, Cap’n America, and Cowboys & Aliens are set for July.
And Spielberg & The Smurfs are due in August.
Right now, only 3 of these 13 are in 3D. Sane.
Next summer sounds a lot more interesting than this summer, no?
