Reel Entropy

The Möbius strip: The Martian takes another crown as another weekend flops

Posted on November 2, 2015 by reelentropy

The Martian won the weekend again as all three new releases laid eggs. The weekend’s total, $70.1 million, is the year’s lowest, though this is predictable for a Halloween weekend- Box Office Mojo

Bradley Cooper and Sandra Bullock vehicles Burnt and Our Brand is Crisis finished at no. 5 with $5 million and no. 8 with $3.4 million, respectively. For Cooper, this is the second major failure of the year after May’s Aloha. For Bullock, this represents the worst wide release opening of her career- Deadline

Worse, both films were passion projects for the stars. Cooper was involved in editing and pushing for the film’s release, and Bullock loved the script so much that she pushed for producer George Clooney to make the lead character female so she could play it and waived her fee. These kinds of projects may be limited to direct-to-VOD releases in the future- Variety

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Posted in The Möbius strip | Tagged #20th Century Fox, #aloha, #ant-man, #aziz ansari, #Batfleck, #batman vs superman, #Ben Affleck, #black lives matter, #burnt, #china, #daniel craig, #dirty grandpa, #django unchained, #don bluth, #dragon's lair, #george clooney, #harrison ford, #hillary clinton, #hurricane sandy, #imax, #indiana jones, #jamie foxx, #jar jar binks is an abomination, #jem and the holograms, #jurrassic world, #lisa kudrow, #martin scorsese, #noriyoshi ohrai, #our brand is crisis, #paramount, #parks and recreation, #quinten tarantino, #robert de niro, #roman polanski, #sandra bullock, #sicario, #spectre, #star wars, #steve jobs, #suffragette, #suicide squad, #the empire strikes back, #the exorcist, #the force awakens, #the graduate, #the hateful 8, #the martian, #until dawn, #william friedkin, #zac efron, bradley cooper, Jason Blum, Transformers | Leave a comment

The Möbius strip: All new releases bomb, Batman vs. Superman getting expensive, Star Wars apparently just for boys

Posted on October 26, 2015 by reelentropy

Four new wide releases bombed this weekend, putting The Martian back on top for the third time in four weeks. Two of them, Rock the Kasbah and Jem and the Holograms, rank among the worst opening weekends of all time- Box Office Mojo

Presumed no. 1 was The Last Witch Hunter, which tumbled all the way to no. 4 after the week-old Goosebumps and Bridge of Spies. This disappointment could further hamper the career of star Vin Diesel- The Wrap

The next new release, Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension, fell all the way to no. 7 after an experimental release strategy caused most theaters to boycott it. It only released in 1,656 theaters- Variety

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Posted in The Möbius strip | Tagged #al queda, #amy schumer, #aurora theater, #Batfleck, #Batman, #batman vs superman, #bill cosby, #braveheart, #DC comics, #fandango, #french blood, #green lantern, #indiana jones, #james bond, #jar jar binks is an abomination, #jem and the holograms, #justice league, #paranormal activity: the ghost dimension, #rock the kasbah, #spectre, #star wars, #star wars: the force awakens, #steve jobs, #suffragette, #superman, #the last witch hunter, #the martian, #the revenant, #the witch, #trainwreck, Paranormal activity | Leave a comment

Maureen O’Hara dies at 95

Posted on October 24, 2015 by reelentropy

Maureen O’Hara, one of the last living Golden Age actors, died in her sleep this morning in her home in Boise, Idaho. She was 95.

O’Hara was known for her red hair and for playing characters that were just as fiery. Highlights of her 56-film resume include her most enduring film, Miracle on 34th Street, and her biggest critical success, The Quiet Man. Though she was never nominated for any competitive award, O’Hara was presented with an honorary Oscar late last year and has been honored since 2004 by the Irish-American community.

She is survived by her daughter and grandchild.

Posted in The Möbius strip | Tagged #maureen o'hara, #miracle on 34th street, #rip, #the quiet man | 3 Comments

Witch Hunter a half-baked mess

Posted on October 23, 2015 by reelentropy

The Last Witch Hunter is a lot like a burnt steak — most people could turn quality raw materials into a tasty treat, but the chef it was given to has ruined it.

Dialogue from the romance subplot stands out in a good way, and contributes a lot to viewers learning about the world of The Last Witch Hunter. Chloe is initially terrified of Kaulder, having been raised on the stories of the witch hunter who would find and punish bad witches, but finds him to be as compassionate as he is dangerous. Photos courtesy Summit Entertainment.

In this case, the raw materials are solid lead actors and a great story. The movie follows Kaulder (Vin Diesel), an 800 year old witch hunter who was cursed with immortality while slaying the witch queen (Julie Englebrecht) in the Dark Ages. His handler, the 36th Dolan (Michael Caine), one of a long line, retires early in the film, but is murdered in his office soon after. Kaulder begins to hunt down the witch responsible, and after finding the newly sworn 37th Dolan (Elijah Wood) to be little help, he is thrust together with a young dream-manipulating witch, Chloe (Rose Leslie).

The first thing to notice about this movie is how fundamentally bad it is. In its first scene, The Last Witch Hunter makes Fellowship of the Ring’s key mistake, opening with a long, high-fantasy prologue that’s going to be gone through again in detail later and should have been saved in full for that time. This movie would have been so much better with a cold open of Kaulder doing his thing in the 2000s, and then when he’s told to re-visit the day he was cursed, it’s a painful memory he hasn’t thought about in a long time — and neither have the viewers, because it wasn’t shoved down our throats immediately on entering the theater. Then the whole thing would have much more emotional impact as we actually learn something new about the character.

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