Judging from recent box office results, we're all either in the mood for mindless comedy or anything in the horror genre. (In fact, judging from all the horror films that have opened in the past few months, low-budget horror is apparently a license to print money.)
Last week was Scary Movie 4 (comedy making fun of horror, so it scores bonus points), this week Silent Hill. Last month, Madea's Family Reunion (for TWO weeks) and Big Momma's House before that. And Hostel kicked off the year in grisly horror fashion.
Meanwhile, satire is limping along, with Thank You For Smoking going into wide release (and nobody noticing) and American Dreamz opening in 8th with under $4 mil in ticket sales. And let's not even discuss V for Vendetta which, while not in the satire vein, was arguably in the "challenging preconceptions, try to make you think a little" camp. This was one of the best movies I've seen so far this year, so the fact that it's made less than $70 million so far is just depressing. (But let's be real… when has satire ever been big box office?)
Not that I'm contributing anything to satire's success. I've been meaning to see Smoking for a couple of weeks now, but now that we're outside of LA, finding these limited release pics becomes problematic. And movies simply didn't happen for me at all last week, so American Dreamz didn't get any of my patronage either.
In fact, the last movie we got out to see was rooted firmly in the horror/comedy genre, so I'm right up there with the rest of the country. Not that the rest of the country has been beating down the doors to see Slither, but they should be. Funny, tongue-planted-firmly-in-cheek, it managed to work alien invasions, zombies, killer slugs and even a little Japanese tentacle sex into the mix for a pretty damn amusing movie. Kudos for the great closing credits song — The Yayhoos "Baby I love you" (but leave me the F alone) — and one of the best music call-backs in recent memory. When they reprised Starla & Grant's song near the end of the film, I was laughing so hard I almost missed the rest of the movie. Seriously, a good time was had by all, even if there were fewer than a dozen of us in the theatre at the time.
Last week was Scary Movie 4 (comedy making fun of horror, so it scores bonus points), this week Silent Hill. Last month, Madea's Family Reunion (for TWO weeks) and Big Momma's House before that. And Hostel kicked off the year in grisly horror fashion.
Meanwhile, satire is limping along, with Thank You For Smoking going into wide release (and nobody noticing) and American Dreamz opening in 8th with under $4 mil in ticket sales. And let's not even discuss V for Vendetta which, while not in the satire vein, was arguably in the "challenging preconceptions, try to make you think a little" camp. This was one of the best movies I've seen so far this year, so the fact that it's made less than $70 million so far is just depressing. (But let's be real… when has satire ever been big box office?)
Not that I'm contributing anything to satire's success. I've been meaning to see Smoking for a couple of weeks now, but now that we're outside of LA, finding these limited release pics becomes problematic. And movies simply didn't happen for me at all last week, so American Dreamz didn't get any of my patronage either.
In fact, the last movie we got out to see was rooted firmly in the horror/comedy genre, so I'm right up there with the rest of the country. Not that the rest of the country has been beating down the doors to see Slither, but they should be. Funny, tongue-planted-firmly-in-cheek, it managed to work alien invasions, zombies, killer slugs and even a little Japanese tentacle sex into the mix for a pretty damn amusing movie. Kudos for the great closing credits song — The Yayhoos "Baby I love you" (but leave me the F alone) — and one of the best music call-backs in recent memory. When they reprised Starla & Grant's song near the end of the film, I was laughing so hard I almost missed the rest of the movie. Seriously, a good time was had by all, even if there were fewer than a dozen of us in the theatre at the time.
Comments
I saw TYFNS. I thought it was OK. Doug thought it was funnier than I did. Personally, I thought it played the satire too big and it felt horribly dated to me. 10 years ago, this may have been cutting edge hilarity.
AMERICAN DREAMZ looks like absolute garbage, and the critics mostly seem to agree. I'll stay away.
V is a great movie - but, I'm not surprised at the numbers. It's a long, talky/wordy, political film that everyone THOUGHT (thanks, marketing guys) was an action film. And, it ain't. Thus, bad word of mouth.
The season starts now. UNITED 93 will be interesting - will it make money? It is very powerful (yes, I saw it), and I don't recommend you see it alone. It is more of an event than an actual movie. It demands to be discussed afterward.
Then, we get MI:3 (which, apparently, is very good), POSEIDON (also getting great buzz), DA VINCI CODE, and X-MEN. Wow.
Q
I don't think I can see 93. I respect the intent behind it, I'm certainly not offended by it, and I'm humbled by the thought of what these people did in this situation, since I have no idea how I'd respond in a similar situation. But I don't think I've got the emotional wherewithal to see it.
I know I've mocked "blockbuster season" in the past, since there's just so much that substitutes loud and effects for content, but I'm looking forward to this one. MI III does look good (I hear the preview audiences have been cheering when Tom gets beat up… I don't know if there's any truth to it, but it's an amusing thought). And I can't wait for Da Vinci and X 3. I never saw the original Poseidon Adventure… maybe that means I'm the best audience for the new one, since I don't have anything to measure it against.
It ranks right up there with the "if you don't see this movie, the terrorists win" crap I've heard from callers on KROQ this week.