How do we evaluate Watchmen’s box-office performance, given that most of the assessments so far are based on unrealistic expectations that it would do Batman or Spider-Man business? Fear not: I am watching those watching the Watchmen. Even though I haven’t watched Watchmen.
‘Let the Right One in’ – Tonally coy, it expands on Romero’s ‘Martin,’ crosses it with Poe’s ‘William Wilson,’ and haunts retrospectively.
‘Rachel Getting Married’ – Contrivances of setup and situation are, by the end, obliterated by unerring emotional authenticity. Truth-filled
‘Vicky Cristina Barcelona’ – Pretty, obvious, tiresome, and cynical, Allen’s latest starts literally golden and fades to a trite ‘reality.’
Up to six times the resolution of DVD! Perfect picture and sound! Sparkling high definition! The marketing push for Blu-ray players and discs has been full of these and similar pronouncements, trying in a shitty economy to get you to upgrade your DVD player and (ideally) replace your current movie collection with this relatively new format. Concurrent with that has been the debate about whether Blu-ray will “survive” after winning the “format war” with HD DVD in February 2008. Concurrent with that have been silly partisan arguments using adoption rates and sales figures to show that Blu-ray reigns victorious! or that Blu-ray is already dead!
I’ve often pointed out in the Box Office Power Rankings when I’ve thought a movie had a poor release strategy, and in that spirit I have to wonder why Tyler Perry’s movies are still only being released at 2,000 sites. His last five movies have opened in about that many theaters, and their first-weekend grosses have ranged from $17 million to $41 million. The worst performer among those movies earned nearly $8,400 per theater in its opening weekend, which is just a hair shy of what The Day the Earth Stood Still did in its debut. The new Tyler Perry’s Madea Goes to Jail topped $20,000 per theater, better than anything since Milk the last weekend of November and barely eclipsed by Twilight in its first three days. Give Tyler Perry some damned screens!
‘Diving Bell & the Butterfly’ – Aggressive direction overcompensates for decidedly uncinematic material, but it doesn’t matter. Still lovely
‘Frozen River’ – Gripping, authentic, tight, and heartbreaking, this working-class thriller strangely derails with two tries at high drama.
It appears that Scanners’ Jim Emerson has a renewed interest in his fantastic Opening Shots Project, after a hiatus of more than a year for the series.
What could possible explain Friday the 13th’s $43.6-million holiday-weekend take? Let’s be honest: The first one sucked – yes, I have seen it as an adult – and the movies didn’t exactly improve as the franchise progressed. The series proper (1980’s first installment through 2002’s Jason in Space [I know, I know]) has gotten less popular as it’s gone on, with its domestic gross shrinking in spite of inflation. I’m generally not bothered by remakes/reboots/re-imaginings, and I certainly believe fresh eyes and contexts can find new uses for recycled material. But Friday the 13th was a threadbare knock-off of a movie that skated by (quite well, admittedly) on technique over originality.
