As you might have guessed from our coverage leading up to the film's release, we were impressed with the trailers for "Red" and were holding out some hope that in a year populated with rag-tag-crew films like "The Losers," "The A-Team" and "The Expendables" that disappointed, this would be the film that would be late-inning saving grace. Sadly, this is not the case. Based on the DC Comic and directed by Robert Schwentke, "Red" is essentially a more watchable version of "The Expendables" with a better cast, but plagued with the same narrative and tonal problems of Sylvester Stallone's steroid and testosterone-heavy film.
The film starts off by introducing us to Frank Moses (Bruce Willis). Retired and pretty much bored by the routine of his post-career life, his only joy is a fledgling romance started over the phone with mousy Social Security telephone helpline administrator Sarah Moss (Mary-Louise Parker). Frank tears up his pension checks just to have an excuse to talk to Sarah and plans a trip to Kansas City where she works in order to try and finally meet her face to face. Aww. But, before he can probably pack his bags, a faceless group of armed gunmen attempt to kill him and destroy his home but not before Frank, whose senses from being an ex-CIA black ops agent are still in fine form, gets the drop of them first. Now aware that he's a target -- and that anyone he's spoken to might be in danger -- Frank races to Kansas City to get Sarah out of harm's way. Obviously, she's more than slightly unnerved that a man she only knows over the phone is suddenly in her apartment with a crazy story, but Frank ties her up and soon they're hitting the road, determined to find out who is behind this and why he's a target for assassination. To help him, Frank reconnects with his buddies from the old days, including the cancer-stricken Joe Matheson (Morgan Freeman), the paranoid Marvin Boggs (John Malkovich) and the killer-turned-Martha Stewart style homemaker Victoria (Helen Mirren). And really, that's the story and in a film like this, it's about as simple as it needs be. Unfortunately, the script by Jon and Erich Hoeber makes the mistake of assuming the audience will actually care or be invested in the intricacies of just why Frank and his buddies are being put in the bullseye. So to service that end, the part of William Cooper (Karl Urban), the current CIA agent tasked with killing Frank and his cohorts, deviates from the strict bad guy role into a poorly drawn account of an agency foot solider who is questioning his loyalty. Rebecca Pidgeon seems like she walked in off the set of one of her husband David Mamet's films, doing the frosty, ball-crushing bitch routine that seems to be the only parts she ever takes. Throw in the mix something or another about Guatemala and the vice president and you have the makings of some very tedious scenes of people explaining to each other who did what and when and why -- all stuff that is particularly uninteresting, and gets in the way of stuff getting blowed up real good. This is a movie with James Remar for God's sake. We're not expecting "Inception" here; just give us a bad guy, some vague reasoning to drive the plot, leave it be, and let the very talented cast go wild. In short, we're never given enough reason to care about the past transgressions of a fictional government that doesn't come into the film until the very late stages of the story. Which leads to the film's other major issue: it's not nearly as clever or as fun as it thinks it. For one, director Robert Schwentke is never really sure if he's making an over the top explosion fest or comedic espionage tale and settles uneasily between the two. The first half of the film contains the most bonkers (and fun) set pieces (which are all pretty much given away in the trailers unfortunately) that are topped by a showdown between a handgun wielding Marvin and missile launcher armed bad guy. Somewhere along the way into the second half of the film, gone are the absurd villains and we get fairly boilerplate spy movie set ups; most of which don't ignite the way we hope and are certainly a long way from being inventive or interesting. Is it cool to see Helen Mirren shooting a huge gun on tripod? Yeah, sure. It was neat in the trailer, mildly amusing in the movie but as that sequence went on it just become sort of boring. And while the cast has some fun playing against type, the real treat in the film? Mary-Louise Parker. She's essentially a surrogate for the audience, at first in total disbelief at what she's been thrown into and then sort of thrilled by it. Her turn is great and marked by some pitch perfect comedic facial expressions; someone needs to cast her in an outright comedy to see what she can do but she's tops here. Judd Apatow, get her on the phone. Seriously. Director Robert Schwentke got a lot of heat around him in the lead up to the film but after watching "Red," it's hard to see why. The action beats in the film are hardly memorable, the comedy gets a couple of smirks and guffaws here and there and that's about it. The cast saves the film from being a total waste of time and there is some novelty to the film's premise that helps keeps things moving, but it's hardly enough. The pacing is nowhere close to that of Schwentke's "Flightplan" at the nearly two hour running time is unforgivable given how often the film lags as each minute wears on. In the film, RED stands for Retired Extremely Dangerous but for audiences, they might be warned its also Red Extremely Dull. [C+]
Like a horse race, this weekend had three photo finishers, with a Sunday winner possibly being a bit too premature to call - expect some Monday morning jostling, especially with the holiday. As in many equestrian events, there was a former first place finisher, a starry upstart, and a stoic newcomer with success painted all over its face. And like a few horse races in the past, “Secretariat” was involved.
The Randall Wallace drama, however, was a definite underperformer, and with numbers still in debate, it does look like Disney’s proud thoroughbred is going to bow before last week’s top picture, “The Social Network.” The critically-lauded internet drama has definitely won over a few fair-weather fans with a muscular second weekend hold. Those dubious about a movie garnering success by dealing with a website grown adults should be ashamed of using have reason to reassess their thoughts. Critics don’t really matter anymore unless, in the very rare case of films like “The Social Network” and “Toy Story 3,” the deafening consensus of go-alongs and reverent homers (in this case, a large number of uncritical writers and commentators blindly banging the drum for David Fincher and Pixar as if they were on studios' payrolls) pushes a film’s Q-rating into Joe PBR declaring, “This movie sounds like something Jesus would pay to see!” Not to say “The Social Network” isn’t an interesting picture, mind you, but the talk has transformed the film from “great picture” to “event movie” status. A second weekend pull isn’t a major factor against weaker competition like this, but if this picture is still doing double-digit weekends by the late October horror boom, it’s time to upgrade from a Strong Success to a People’s Choice, and the year’s first genuine Oscar lock. At this juncture, nothing can be forecast until the film reaches $100 mil., and after two weekends, it still lies on the other side of $50.
There’s a smaller margin of error for actresses than there is for actors, so while some leading men can survive a number of bombs, it only takes a small failure to sink the brand name of a leading lady. And this is two in a row for Katherine Heigl, as “Life As We Know It” landed at #2. It drew enough business to lead the pack on Friday night, but Saturday wasn’t as date-worthy, and the picture looks to land behind Heigl’s “Killers” in the realm of frail openers. While she was starring alongside human wallpaper Josh Duhamel, and the title and premise suggested a vague bummer aura, Warner Bros. used a serious marketing push to get this out to the public. The core audience for a movie where Christina Hendricks dies so Katherine Heigl gets to raise a baby in her empty house liked the film enough to give a strong Cinemascore rating, but others likely realized that it sounded like a premise from Hell and stayed far away.
Expected winner “Secretariat” was a non-starter, possibly shutting the door on a potential awards push. Nobody thought the movie was genuinely good (Ebert did, but he’s very good friends with the author of the book), but with a strong box office showing, “Secretariat” was poised to take the Movie White People Like slot filled by “The Blind Side” last year. A better comparison, obviously, is “Seabiscuit,” which benefited from having Gary Ross (as opposed to Randall Wallace, Oscar-winning writer but oblivious behind the camera), as well as a strong cast that included "Spider-Man" and The Dude. “Secretariat” could only muster chick flick star Diane Lane (playing old, therefore nixing males) and John Malkovich (playing himself, scaring children).
The smallest audience loss in the top ten belongs to “Legend of the Guardians: The Owls Of Ga’Hoole.” That opening was considered disastrous, but in its third weekend, the film is inching towards final numbers that at least hint at profitability, though this looks like a money-loser in the long run. Again, 3D helps, as it makes an average hold look muscular, but there isn’t exactly a huge kid market to compete with right now. 3D couldn’t save “My Soul To Take,” which debuted in “Piranha 3D” territory. Studios need to consider that the lure of taking a generic thriller and adding the extra visual dimension doesn’t outweigh the audience’s realization that they have to pay a premium price. Ideally, this development should lead to lowering, or maybe getting rid of, the surcharge altogether, as it’s a cynical process that potentially alienates viewers, but when the format is attached to a hit, it artificially raises grosses so a $50 million weekend becomes a $60 million weekend. Studios will never ditch a tool that helps inflate grosses, mostly because of vanity. But they might stop tagging it on tepid-looking Wes Craven thrillers that have sat on the shelf for a couple of years.
The WB's “The Town” was close behind, itself losing a small audience from last weekend, and after four weekends, it's threatening to hit $90 million provided weekday grosses remain robust. The possibility of “The Town” entering the Oscar race remains small, but the box office will likely keep Ben Affleck’s heist drama in the race. No such hope for "Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps” which is quickly making its way out of the top ten. Even during its first weekend, it was looking less like a bonafide hit/event, and more like a smash-and-grab based on brand name recognition. In other words, a typical Fox picture. But getting this over $50 million isn’t bad at all, and there should be a DVD profit if international receipts remain strong. “Easy A” is staving off small audience losses as well, close to hitting $50 million: another Screen Gems winner. It again outpaced “You Again,” which has hung around in the top ten only to be backslapped weekly by the Emma Stone comedy. Did anyone know "It's Kind of a Funny Story" had a semi-wide release this weekend? In a seeming last-minute decision, Focus Features pushed the indie into 742 engagements for a feeble per-screen, and a $2 million total to place outside of the top ten. The premise is a definite turn-off, and the title is more than a little vague, so a hard sell was needed, and Focus' strategy was more than questionable. Zack Galifianakis has been racking up the credits, but like "Hangover" co-star Bradley Cooper, he hasn't exactly broken through yet, despite a colorful mix of roles. Galifianakis, to his credit, is at least extending his range and doing some occasional quality work, while Cooper is not exactly working as leading man superhero. Both of them need "The Hangover 2."
In indie cinemas, "Waiting For Superman" is starting to break through, with a $1.4 million gross after three weeks of aggressive platforming. The per-screen returned to a solid level after spectacular showings in previous sessions, but the film is poised to be one of the year's biggest docs, if not on a par with Davis Guggenheim's previous work. "Catfish" is swimming downstream, however, and while screens are still being added, the approach by Rogue Pictures remains tentative, as the film continues to bleed viewers. The highly-buzzed doc might close under $5 million.
There were a couple of larger debuts on the indie stage. "Stone" and "Nowhere Boy" hit on six and four screens, respectively, and both had steady per-screen averages, landing at $73k and $56k. Success could come if the expansion is played right, but Overture and the Weinsteins aren't exactly in the best shape. The best per-screen average came from Charles Ferguson's "Inside Job," which exploded on only two screens with a strong $21k per. The news wasn't so good for the noxious "I Spit On Your Grave" remake, which sneaked onto twelve screens and stole $33k, while Stephen Frears' "Tamara Drewe" was lost in the shuffle, with $19k at four engagements. Meanwhile, it might be bad news for "Buried" - the Ryan Reynolds drama did $200k in weekend three, but has registered terrible per-screen numbers in each week, likely threatening the planned expansion Lionsgate was eying. Support your local indie theater, boys and girls.
1. The Social Network (Sony) - $15.5 million ($46 mil.) 2. Life As We Know It, Judging From Terrible TV Shows (WB) - $14.6 million 3. Horsey Movie (Disney) - $12.6 million 4. Legend Of The Owls: The Hooting Of Ga'Hoole (WB) - $7 million ($39 mil.) 5. My Soul To Take (Universal) - $6.9 million 6. The Town (WB) - $6.4 million ($74 mil.) 7. Wall Street: Money Presses Snooze (Fox) - $4.6 million ($44 mil.) 8. Easy A (Sony) - $4.2 million ($48 mil.) 9. Case 39 (Paramount) - $2.6 million ($10 mil.) 10. You Again (Disney) - $2.5 million ($21 mil.)
The wait is over. Michael Bay's third installment of the "Transformers" franchise now has an official title. Take a deep breath it's: "Transformers: The Dark Of The Moon."
Yeah, we have no idea what it means either. We'll leave it to the super geeks out there to try and decipher what the title might mean in the mythological world of Mattel toys, but it probably has to do the story revolving around Transformers activity on the moon (snicker, guffaw). We are mostly interested to find out what David Gilmour or Roger Waters think, having a movie about a bunch of smashy smashy robots being titled similarly to Pink Floyd's seminal album, "Dark Side Of The Moon." We kind of hope there is a lawsuit because reaction from all sides will be hilarious.
The 3D mess of metallic explosions is currently filming and stars Shia LaBeouf, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, Josh Duhamel, Tyrese Gibson, John Turturro, Alan Tudyk, Ken Jeong, Patrick Dempsey, and John Malkovich. It hits theaters on July 1, 2011. [Collider]
Your appreciation of "Secretariat" may depend on how you react to Diane Lane having a human/animal mind meld with a horse and then later, giving that same horse a pep talk before a big race. If just reading that made you even slightly amused, then you might be best advised to say away from the pure, hay-fed corn that is Disney's housewife-and-horse-overcoming-the-odds crowdpleaser, "Secretariat."
To be fair, the studio and director Randall Wallace do put some solid talent in front of the camera to tell the true story of the Triple Crown winning horse who still holds the margin-of-victory record and speed record for dirt races. Diane Lane leads the cast as Penny Chenery, the feisty housewife who throws off her oppressive apron to take over the family horse farm. John Malkovich delivers another enjoyable turn as a weirdo eccentric, playing the French Canadian trainer Lucien Laurin. "Hey it's that guy" faces like James Cromwell and Fred Dalton Thompson do their jobs well playing white-guys-with-money, while the always superb Margo Martindale brings the only real heart to the film as the longstanding Chenery family secretary Miss Ham. Rounding things out are some HBO staples, with the perpetually teenaged looking Fred Savage Syndrome victim Kevin "Eric Murphy on Entourage" Connolly growing a mustache and pretending to be a sports reporter and Nelsan "Lafayatte on True Blood" Ellis wasted in a thankless part as Secretariat's groom Eddie Sweat. If the film has some solid talent to work with -- and some great set design and lovely cinematography by Dean Semler -- it can't raise the dramatic stakes no matter how hard it tries. That's not to say that a film can't be made without knowing the result, but in the case of "Secretariat," the actual roadblocks Penny and her horse faced were not all that insurmountable making the wait for the inevitable triumph merely a chore. From the moment the horse is born, we are told it is something special by how quickly it stands up on its own four legs. During training, the horse is fast and doesn't seem to tire. It begins to easily win races and in fact, the only major hurdle Secretariat faces is an abscess in its mouth which makes this the first film we've seen in ages where a boil was a lynchpin for dramatic tension. So if the hurdles aren't on the racetrack, then they must be off right? Well, in the early part of the film Penny's brother Hollis Chenery (Dylan Baker) is eager to sell off the farm to try and pay back some of the massive inheritance tax the family will owe in the wake of their father's passing. But those worries are quickly put aside when Secretariat shows himself to be a horse that can not only save their farm, but make them millions. Ok, so what about Penny's old-fashioned husband, Jack Tweedy (Dylan Walsh)? He certainly isn't happy his wife is now splitting time between his family and her revitalized interest in the family horse raising trade, but perhaps in an effort to keep things family friendly, that discord is muted. Jack doesn't do much except ask rhetorical questions, furrow his brow and quietly exit rooms. And he eventually comes around, but of course, having your wife manage a million dollar horse certainly doesn't hurt.
Ok, then certainly if the on track troubles aren't present, and behind the scenes things aren't as bad as they seem, then surely, as a feminist message, "Secretariat" is a winner. Not quite. Chenery's arrival and conquering of the the very male world of horse racing is quickly done with a variety of quips and one-liners. There is a subplot involving one her hippie teenager daughters, Kate, that is so underwritten and contrived that its hard to know what to make of it. In one scene she wants to go to Guatemala -- Jack is agains it, Penny seems for it -- but the threat of a real dinner table discussion is quickly diffused, literally, by serving dessert. Kate is also fighting her high school to put on an anti-war skit during the Christmas pagaent, and when she wins the fight and puts on the skit, in an unintentionally hilarious scene, Penny listens long distance via a payphone outside the auditorium held up by her son (she can't make her plane due to inclement weather) as her daughter sings "Silent Night" as stoic sympathizers with placards march around her chanting "No war." While we suppose there is lesson in there somewhere about following your dreams, but that's certainly made very easy when you're upper class and blessed with the fastest race horse of all time.
Some Oscar talk has swirled around the film, with it being eyed as a potential "The Blind Side"-esque candidate but we don't see it happening. While the film will definitely play easier for older more conservative Academy members who like their films gift wrapped for them, Diane Lane's performance while perfectly adequate is far less showy than Sandra Bullock's turn. This is not the "Erin Brokovich" of horse racing. Randall Wallace's direction doesn't fuss around too much. It's reliable, and does justice to the paint-by-numbers structure of the story. He really just has to make sure everything looks nice, and it does. The horse races are about as exciting as horse races get (meaning, if you didn't like the sport before, "Secretariat" won't change your mind about it). But outside of Lane (who is longshot already facing stiff competition in a year with a number of strong female lead performances) the film's award chances seem small. And while "Seabiscuit" got nominated in seven categories including Best Picture back in 2003, in 2010 -- even with ten slots -- its a very different cinematic landscape. But don't take our sour take on the film as a note that it's terrible. It's not. It's just wholly predictable and slightly boring. It's a very handsome piece of dramatic filmmaking that is as bland and uninteresting as it is formulaic. While its built like any other sports film -- where the underdogs go on to win the big game -- "Secretariat" is curiously missing the beating heart of the characters, but most importantly, the community who rallies behind them. "Secretariat" was a national sensation but we never feel that sense except for a brief moment of archival footage. What is it about "Secretariat" that mesmerized a nation more than three decades and why has the sport failed to do the same in the years since? Perhaps those are questions for another film, but in this one, "Secretariat" races right in the middle of the pack. [C]
Given that the Martin Scorsese produced "Boardwalk Empire" was renewed for a second season HBO after just one episode (you can see the preview for episode two after the jump), it's no surprise that Warner Bros. TV is eying a series based on the stone cold classic, "Goodfellas."
Obviously, where it will pick up in the "Goodfellas" timeline remains unclear, but Nicholas Pileggi is said to be writing at least the series pilot and Irwin Winkler is on board to produce. Martin Scorsese's participation is unclear at this point, but we would imagine he will want to be involved on some level. While this is potentially exciting, TV series' based on movies have had a spotty history at best and given the film it will be tough shoes to fill the roles adequately that the likes of Ray Liotta, Robert De Niro, Joe Pesci and Paul Sorvino made so iconic.
At any rate, while we wait for more news about this project to surface, do yourself a huge favor and spend a few minutes reading GQ's excellent oral history of the film by pretty much everyone involved in the film. There are way too many juicy anecdotes to recount here but our favorite? The story that the famous "Copacabana" steadicam shot started initially as Martin Scorsese wanting to top Brian De Palma's lengthy shot in "The Untouchables." As Illeana Douglas recalls, "Brian De Palma had just done this incredibly long Steadicam shot in The Untouchables, and Marty said it would be funny to try to do it one minute longer than De Palma's. The world perceives this as 'Oh, the Copacabana scene!' But what it really is, is directors behind the scenes having fun fucking with each other." But perhaps even more hilariously, steadicam operator Larry McConkey thought that Scorsese had no idea what he doing and the shot was ridiculous saying, "The impression I had when Marty walked us through the Copacabana shot was that this is going to be the most boring, worst thing I've ever done. We're walking across the street, down the stairs, down a hallway, in the kitchen.... What is this shot about?"
Seriously, the piece is great which lots of interesting nuggets including that at one point Tom Cruise, Madonna and John Malkovich were being considered for the roles of Henry, Karen and Jimmy Conway respectively. Uh....what?
As you might have guessed from our coverage leading up to the film's release, we were impressed with the trailers for "Red" and were holding out some hope that in a year populated with rag-tag-crew films like "The Losers," "The A-Team" and "The Expendables" that disappointed, this would be the film that would be late-inning saving grace. Sadly, this is not the case. Based on the DC Comic and directed by Robert Schwentke, "Red" is essentially a more watchable version of "The Expendables" with a better cast, but plagued with the same narrative and tonal problems of Sylvester Stallone's steroid and testosterone-heavy film.
And really, that's the story and in a film like this, it's about as simple as it needs be. Unfortunately, the script by Jon and Erich Hoeber makes the mistake of assuming the audience will actually care or be invested in the intricacies of just why Frank and his buddies are being put in the bullseye. So to service that end, the part of William Cooper (Karl Urban), the current CIA agent tasked with killing Frank and his cohorts, deviates from the strict bad guy role into a poorly drawn account of an agency foot solider who is questioning his loyalty. Rebecca Pidgeon seems like she walked in off the set of one of her husband David Mamet's films, doing the frosty, ball-crushing bitch routine that seems to be the only parts she ever takes. Throw in the mix something or another about Guatemala and the vice president and you have the makings of some very tedious scenes of people explaining to each other who did what and when and why -- all stuff that is particularly uninteresting, and gets in the way of stuff getting blowed up real good. This is a movie with James Remar for God's sake. We're not expecting "Inception" here; just give us a bad guy, some vague reasoning to drive the plot, leave it be, and let the very talented cast go wild. In short, we're never given enough reason to care about the past transgressions of a fictional government that doesn't come into the film until the very late stages of the story.
Which leads to the film's other major issue: it's not nearly as clever or as fun as it thinks it. For one, director Robert Schwentke is never really sure if he's making an over the top explosion fest or comedic espionage tale and settles uneasily between the two. The first half of the film contains the most bonkers (and fun) set pieces (which are all pretty much given away in the trailers unfortunately) that are topped by a showdown between a handgun wielding Marvin and missile launcher armed bad guy. Somewhere along the way into the second half of the film, gone are the absurd villains and we get fairly boilerplate spy movie set ups; most of which don't ignite the way we hope and are certainly a long way from being inventive or interesting. Is it cool to see Helen Mirren shooting a huge gun on tripod? Yeah, sure. It was neat in the trailer, mildly amusing in the movie but as that sequence went on it just become sort of boring. And while the cast has some fun playing against type, the real treat in the film? Mary-Louise Parker. She's essentially a surrogate for the audience, at first in total disbelief at what she's been thrown into and then sort of thrilled by it. Her turn is great and marked by some pitch perfect comedic facial expressions; someone needs to cast her in an outright comedy to see what she can do but she's tops here. Judd Apatow, get her on the phone. Seriously.
Director Robert Schwentke got a lot of heat around him in the lead up to the film but after watching "Red," it's hard to see why. The action beats in the film are hardly memorable, the comedy gets a couple of smirks and guffaws here and there and that's about it. The cast saves the film from being a total waste of time and there is some novelty to the film's premise that helps keeps things moving, but it's hardly enough. The pacing is nowhere close to that of Schwentke's "Flightplan" at the nearly two hour running time is unforgivable given how often the film lags as each minute wears on. In the film, RED stands for Retired Extremely Dangerous but for audiences, they might be warned its also Red Extremely Dull. [C+]
