Craig's MovieBlog

Funny Games Trailer

I wasn't going to post anything about this, but the concept has been literally haunting me every since I watched this trailer for Funny Games.  Apparently, writer/director Michael Haneke is remaking his own 1997 French film in English, starring Tim Roth, Naomi Watts and Michael Pitt. 

I can't really speak rationally about this without getting upset.  I am all for freedom of speech, and I will fight to my death for Mr. Haneke to have the right to make this film.  I have seen Reservoir Dogs, Natural Born Killers, and Pulp Fiction dozens of times, and violence in film doesn't generally bother me.

However, (and this is just a theory) I think something happens to you once you have children.  I don't mean to be preachy or pedantic, and I deeply apologize if this comes out that way.  Something happened to me ever since the birth of my first son, and I now can't even remotely stomach the concept of bad things happening to children in movies (and when something tragic happens to a child in real life, I get almost physically ill).  It just feels as if there are some lines you can, but shouldn't, cross.  For example, Atlanta Football quarterbacks shouldn’t drown, hang, or electrocute dogs that don't perform, and horrible, torturous things shouldn’t happen to children in movies. 

Was Ratatouille a Flop?

This is a little older, but the Vulture Blog is reporting on Jim Hill's Media Blog that not only does Disney feel that Pixar's Ratatouille was a flop at the box office, but Pixar feels that Disney did a lame job of marketing the product.

To this, I have two things to say:

• To Pixar: Shut up.  The next time you want someone to market a movie to children about a rat in a French restaurant (in a summer with Spidey, Captain Jack, Transformers, and Shrek) why don't you try it yourself?
• To Disney: Shut up.  According to Box Office Mojo, the film has made over $413 million worldwide (with a production budget of $150 million).  May we all have flops as disastrous as this.

Evan Almighty and the Mysterious Domestic Box Office

Some of you may remember when I did my weekly box office analysis over at www.craigbe.com.  Sadly, with two young boys and a day job, I completely ran out of time to to that work to the level that I wanted it, and this blog is where I get to talk about movies.

Over at The Jay.com, however, our friend has done a PHENOMENAL job on calling bullsh*t on Universal and their efforts to convince us that Evan Almighty hit the not-so-magical-anymore threshold of $100 million domestically.

I've seen movies do things like this in the past, and it always bugged me (I'm looking at you Shakespeare in Love and Collateral) but The Jay has documented this film's idiosyncrasies perfectly.  At the end of the piece, however, he says:

"I’m not deploring the tactic, box office tampering has been going on for decades, and in the long run who really cares anyway; I take pause with the egregiously conspicuous way in which it went down. Slowly pump up the numbers for a couple days during the week so you can prove the film was tracking higher, and then evenly distribute the money across the entire weekend. Don’t let the film do the exact amount of business expected for a full week and then dump $130k on a single day!!! That’s how you get caught. It’s just a terrible way to perpetuate a harmless fraud."

All I'll say in response is this: since no one really cares, since there are no repercussions, the studios have no incentive to do the extra work to "sneak" his by us.  Yes, it's hacky and obvious, but there is no reason whatsoever for them to change their practice.

Stephen Colbert and Jon Stewart At the Emmys Again

Every year after the Emmys, my site gets pinged by Google a whole lot as people are searching for what hijinks Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert were up to.

To ease your pain, and thanks to Tim Goodman, here are their performances from the last two years:

 

Free Tickets to See Brad Pitt and Casey Affleck

I just received a very nice mail from the team behind The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, because they have a screening coming up, and a few tickets they'd like to give away.  If you need to refresh your memory, here's a link to the trailer.

So, if you live in the Hollywood area, and you are free this Wednesday night (tomorrow, September 19th), send me a quick piece of mail with "Jesse James Tickets" in the subject line.  The first two four in my inbox each get two free tickets.  I'll send the winners the theater and time information.  There's an email link right there on the left sidebar.  If you're looking at this in an RSS reader, just go to the site for a second - there are no ads, it won't hurt.  :)

Note: I've never done this before, so it could be a complete disaster.  Consider yourselves forewarned...

Juno Trailer

Wow... take Thank You for Smoking, Hard Candy, and Arrested Development and blend it on puree to get Juno.  Here's just a taste of the dialog from the trailer that you'll be wishing you could write:

"Where have you been?" 
"Just out... dealing with things way beyond my maturity level."

-------

"Your parents are probably wondering where you are."
"Naw, I mean, I'm already pregnant so what other sort of shenanigans could I get into?"

Iron Man Trailer

And now we can see that the decision to cast Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark in Iron Man was an absolutely brilliant one.  I love his attitude in the first 30 seconds or so of the trailer, and the intensity needed at the end is clearly something he can wrap his arms around.

I was a bit turned off by the "first" Iron Man that we see, when the movie seemingly turns into something akin to a bad Japanese B-movie, but then the real suit arrives, much sleeker, much more agile, and frankly, much more watchable and exciting.

Can't wait.  I love seeing what actors like Downey, Christian Bale (and soon Ed Norton in The Incredible Hulk) can do in these comic book roles.

Jon Stewart to Host Oscars

Excellent.  I think Ellen is great, I think Chris Rock is a brave choice, and I think Steve Martin is sublimely brilliant... but I do love my Jon.

Now, people absolutely have the right to disagree, but this article by Nikki Finke is just plain mean.  To wit, here's a quote from her review the last time he hosted:

"Then he sets up what starts out like a winner, noting how 'a lot of people say this town is too liberal...out of touch with Mainstream America...a moral black hole where innocence is obliterated in an orgy of sexual gratification and greed...' But then he ends with, 'I don't really have a joke here.' Why not, for chrissakes? Didn't this gig pay you to write punch lines?"

Um, Nikki?  That is the punch line.  Someone has lost their sense of humor somewhere along the way methinks.

Creepy Things Are Afoot in the Movie Blogosphere

Ick.  Just plain icky.

• Nikki Finke published this.  How very low of her.
• David Poland commented about not commenting about it.  How very David of him.
• Jeff Wells responds.  How very gross of him.

But the best part is that New York Magazine's Vulture Blog has summed it up with this one question: "Who is Vinessa Shaw?"

"Oh."

Ebert Gives Shoot 'Em Up Three 1/2 Stars

"I don't need a lot of research to be confident in stating that never before have I seen a movie open with the hero delivering a baby during a gun battle, severing the umbilical cord with a gunshot, and then killing a villain by penetrating his brain with a raw carrot."

The Bourne Ultimatum: The Abridged Script

I love The Editing Room.  Here's The Bourne Ultimatum: The Abridged Script, and a sample:

MATT DAMON: Will you help me get my life back and betray your organization?

JULIA STILES: The same organization that has killed people for betraying them, with my assistance?

MATT DAMON: Yeah, that one.

JULIA STILES: Sure, why not? I definitely trust you, even though the last time I saw you, you held a gun to my head and made me cry in a subway broom closet.

Maybe Ben Should Stay Behind the Camera?

Gone Baby Gone among top crime movies of decade says Kirk Honeycutt of the Hollywood Reporter.