Blogs and Stories
The Oscar Recession
Seven Pounds, December 19, 2008
Storyline: Will Smith reteams with the director of Pursuit of Happyness to play a depressed IRS agent (is there any other kind?) who decides to help seven strangers.
Status: Another flick no one has seen and isn’t being much discussed because the trailer makes it look cheesy. But never count out box office Midas Will Smith.
Gran Torino, December 17, 2008
Storyline: Clint Eastwood goes a little Dirty Harry on us as a grizzled Korean War vet who tries to reform the teenager that stole his favorite gun.
Status: Last time Clint acted in one of his films and then hid it from critics and audiences until the end of December, the picture, Million Dollar Baby, won it all.
The DISAPPOINTMENTS—Best Picture hopefuls, until they opened
Body of Lies, October 10, 2008
Storyline: Leonardo Dicaprio and Russell Crowe play trans-Atlantic cat and mouse in this Middle East-based thriller directed by Ridley Scott.
Status: Leo and Russell in a timely, serious film seems like guaranteed Oscar bait, but piddling box office ($37 million) and bad reviews (It was described by the New York Times as a “grinding tedium”) axed its chances.
Changeling, October 31, 2008
Storyline: Mega macha Angelina Jolie shimmers in Clint Eastwood’s film about a mother who (rightly) refuses to believe her kidnapped son has been returned to her.
Status: a Cloche-wearing Jolie is still viable in the Best Actress category, but the film itself doesn’t seem to have the legs for a Best Picture run—especially with Eastwood’s Gran Torino coming out in December.
Willa Paskin is a writer and former editor of Radar magazine. She lives in New York City.
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As vice chairman of Public Strategies and president of Maverick Media, Mark McKinnon has helped meet strategic challenges for candidates, corporations and causes, including George W. Bush, John McCain, Governor Ann Richards, Charlie Wilson, Lance Armstrong, and Bono.
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Willa Paskin is a writer and former editor of Radar magazine. She lives in New York City.
Death of a Hollywood Cliché
Willa Paskin is a writer and former editor of Radar magazine. She lives in New York City.
magentagreenx
I don't think it's any secret that the movie industry is going down like a led balloon, fast. You see actors going on talk shows and willingly admitting their movies suck, and that's even more of a sign. I mean, what are you going to do?
Rdschenkel
It's interesting that a political movie like "W" would be panned by both Republicans and Democrats alike. Perhaps it's time to admit that Oliver Stone has gone the way of other great directors like Stephen Spielberg. Once great. But now cannot direct there way out of a paper bag.
PeacePot
Edits. . . "rein in" - not "reign in," please, in paragraph 4. And the login screen should be "fill out," not "fill-out."
Arg.
Please respect meat-world rules of grammar; please don't let the immediacy of the Web drag us down!!
ColoradoCynic
Why the two references to Batman being "lowbrow" and "low subject matter?" Maybe back in the days of pulpy 10-cent comics, but not now. Comic books, graphic novels, whatever you want to call them, are succeeding as an industry in developing stories with a far more compelling, varied and vivid palette of creativity and talent than either the film or TV industries. While few were looking, comics grew up. And now it's time to stop looking down your nose at them.
What's funny to me is the growing backlash against "all these comic book movies" while seeing, as a reader of comics, that most of these adaptations pale in comparison to their source material. The darly shining exception is this "low" Batman film, which expertly draws inspiration from some of the best stories published in recent memory and adds to them in ways that only moviemakers can. That's what makes this one so special.
MeMeMe
"The Curiours Case of ..." is three hours. Won't be seeing that. Isn't this one of the issues that is having a negative effect on movie ticket sales? Who wants to sit in the movie theater for three hours. Aside from the review, the most important factor in whether I will spend my time and money on a movie is the length of the film. An hour, forty-five is perfect. Two hours is pushing it. I broke my daughter's heart when I refused to see the Chronicles of Narnia sequel which clocked in at some ridiculous time, but I would've chewed my hand off if I had to sit through a two-hour, forty-five minute film. We settled for Baby Mama. Good, not great, but I was in and out of the theater without feeling like I'd given half my day. Am I the only one who checks the length of the movie? Surely, I can't be.
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