Click Here

Click Here

Click Here

Click Here

Discland

edited by Jonathan Doyle

Mafioso (The Criterion Collection, 3.18.2008) Nino Badalamenti is a supervisor in a car manufacturing plant who hasn't taken a vacation in over two years. On his way out the door to visit his beloved childhood hometown of Sicily -- with his blonde wife and daughters -- Nino is handed a package by his boss and asked to deliver it to a powerful and influential Sicilian gangster named Don Vincenzo. Once in Sicily, Nino has a hoot seeing friends and family, but his wife has trouble fitting in and is unfairly dismissed as a snob by Nino's family. Even more worrisome, Nino finds himself entangled in an intricate web of secret mafioso dealings and is eventually sent on an unexpectedly... elaborate errand. (continued)

Upcoming

May 2

The Favor

Fugitive Pieces

Mister Lonely

XXY

May 9

A Previous Engagement

The Babysitters

Noise

OSS 117: Cario - Nest of Spies

The Tracey Fragments

What Happens in Vegas

May 16

The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian

Reprise

Sangre de me Sangre

May 21

The edge of Heaven

May 22

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

May 23

The Children of Huang Shi

May 30

Bigger, Stronger, Faster

The Foot Fist Way

Savage Grace

Sex and the City

Stuck

The Unknown Woman

Saturday, December 31, 2005

I don't like the trailer

I don't like the trailer for The DaVinci Code at all. Does anyone? Ron Howard's thriller (due 5.16.06 from Columbia) might be a clas- sic, but the trailer makes it seem like shameless formulaic dreck. That shot of an alarmed Tom Hanks and Audrey Tatou running together and holding hands...is there a more detestable action- thriller cliche in the book? I still say Hanks looks too old and too big for Tatou -- she's this little French Tinkerbell...Read More

posted by Jeffrey Wells at 9:34 AM on Saturday, December 31, 2005

I'm now using Dada Mail

I'm now using Dada Mail to send out the column, and some who've asked to be unsubscribed are going to have to tell me again... sorry. I couldn't figure how to cherry-pick their names and remove them.

posted by Jeffrey Wells at 9:25 AM on Saturday, December 31, 2005

November and early-December tracking figures

November and early-December tracking figures indicated The Family Stone wouldn't do terribly well, but that hasn't been the case. The campaign was clumsy but the word-of-mouth saved it. The Thomas Bezucha-Michael London film will be up to $45 million (it did $2.747 yesterday, up 16%) by weekend's end and will probably end up with $60 million at the end of the run. The only unfortunate factor is that Stone distrib 20th Century Fox is opening Grandma's Boy on Friday, 1.6, which will likely result in Stone...Read More

posted by Jeffrey Wells at 8:41 AM on Saturday, December 31, 2005

Yesterday's figures (Friday, 12.30) show

Yesterday's figures (Friday, 12.30) show that most films are enjoying holiday increases this weekend. The Chronicles of Narnia was up 22% from last Friday for a $9.6 million haul and a projected 4-day weekend tally of $36 million. King Kong, up 12%, did around $8.7 or or 8.8 million and a projected $30 million for the weekend, which will put it up to $173 million and a likely $225 to $250 million when all is said and done. Fun With Dick and Jane's $6 million (up 17%) indicates $22 million for the 4-day weekend. ("It'll do okay...Read More

posted by Jeffrey Wells at 7:53 AM on Saturday, December 31, 2005

No question about it: Orlando

No question about it: Orlando Bloom was looking like a very hot package a year ago with his leading-man performances in the upcoming Kingdom of Heaven and Elizabethtown yet to be seen but everyone thinking nonetheless, "Yeah, he's really the guy... teenage girls love him, and how can he miss in major films by Ridley Scott and Cameron Crowe?" But both films tanked and Bloom didn't do well by the critics in either one, and now he's really in Shit City because New York Times reporter Sharon Waxman has written an obituary...Read More

posted by Jeffrey Wells at 7:17 AM on Saturday, December 31, 2005

It's snowing in New York

It's snowing in New York City now...faintly. I tried taking a picture of what I was seeing out my kitchen window, but the snowflakes wouldn't reigster.

posted by Jeffrey Wells at 7:08 AM on Saturday, December 31, 2005

I can't tell if the

I can't tell if the 190-minute "Extended Cut" version of Ridley Scott's Kingdom of Heaven opened at the Laemmle Fairfax...Read More

posted by Jeffrey Wells at 7:06 AM on Saturday, December 31, 2005

Wells postscript: Big studios have

Wells postscript: Big studios have knowingly and deliberately gutted great (or very good) films in the editing room and turned them into merely good or passable theatrical cuts before...Sergio Leone's Once Upon a Time in America and Cameron Crowe's Almost Famous (far better as the "Untitled" version on DVD) are the two best-known examples. If Poland's take on Kingdom of Heaven's "Extended Cut" becomes generally accepted, this will be another big example of this syndrome. What are some other films that went through this? (And don't mention Robert Wise's longer Star Trek: The Motion Picture...that's not allowed).

posted by Jeffrey Wells at 7:05 AM on Saturday, December 31, 2005

A certain critic says that

A certain critic says that 2005 "was a fairly crappy year at the movies" and "while every year I seem to come up with more than 30 movies that I really cherish...this year 20 seemed like a bit of a reach." That seems gruff and unduly dismissive to me. I came up with 41 films -- 15 creme de la creme and 26 that were pretty damn okay. In any event, 2005 ends at midnight Paris time (6 pm in Manhattan, 3 pm in Los Angeles) and here they are again: Creme de la Creme: ...Read More

posted by Jeffrey Wells at 5:44 AM on Saturday, December 31, 2005

Friday, December 30, 2005

Newsday's John Anderson has decided

Newsday's John Anderson has decided Munich star Eric Bana deserves an A...for effort, talent and general coolness of character. Being a selective Bana fan myself (having really liked him in Chopper, Black Hawk Down), I have no beef with this. Here's hoping Bana's performance in Curtis Hanson's Lucky You will be the charm.

posted by Jeffrey Wells at 7:18 PM on Friday, December 30, 2005

"I thought you'd enjoy what

"I thought you'd enjoy what I consider to be the ultimate proof that Brokeback Mountain is a crossover hit," Toronto Star critic Peter Howell wrote today. "This afternoon, my 16 year-old son Jake and his same-age pal Connell went off to see BBM at the local bijou. They were curious about all the hoopla. Jake saw it as No. 2 on my Top Ten list, right after A History of Violence...Read More

posted by Jeffrey Wells at 2:18 PM on Friday, December 30, 2005

Richard Eyre, the director of

Richard Eyre, the director of the London's West End musical of Mary Poppins that's based on the 1964 Julie Andrews-Dick Van Dyke Disney flick, has told the Independent's Louise Jury that he's been in talks with Steven Spielberg over a new film version. The story doesn't say Spielberg wants to direct this, so let's hold off for now. But if Spielberg does intend to direct a Mary Poppins musical, that's it...his getting-older, wants-to-make-more-meaningful- movies cred is out the window.

posted by Jeffrey Wells at 12:14 PM on Friday, December 30, 2005

"If this was a political

"If this was a political campaign and this happened to a Presidential candidate, they be out...they'd be down in the polls and gone," Pete Hammond told Kim Masters on her 12.30 NPR show. He was speaking of Munich, of course. I feel differently. If Munich was a middle-aged Presidential contender, he would still be in the race...but his aides would be telling him to think seriously about preparing a press conference in order to announce his withdrawal.

posted by Jeffrey Wells at 11:04 AM on Friday, December 30, 2005

Here's an unsurprising but very

Here's an unsurprising but very concise National Public Radio discussion led by Hollywood analyst and chronicler Kim Masters about which films are the leaders for Best Picture, with commen- tary by Los Angeles Times columnist Patrick Goldstein and Maxim critic Pete Hammond. The piece was recorded about two weeks ago, which is a long time in terms of the twists and surges that can manifest in an Oscar race... but it's worth a listen. Will Good Night, and Good Luck do as well as Hammond claims? I wonder.

posted by Jeffrey Wells at 10:45 AM on Friday, December 30, 2005

"Who's afraid of a couple

"Who's afraid of a couple of gay cowboys? Not moviegoers, who helped Brokeback Mountain post the highest per-screen average over the film-flush holiday weekend, reports Newsday's Sandy Cohen. "The Ang Lee film, which follows the 20-year forbidden romance between two roughneck ranch hands, earned $13,599 per theater, compared with $9,305 for weekend winner King Kong and $8,225 for The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe." If only Cohen didn't quote box-office interpreter Paul Dergarabedian so much. What's wrong with that? To explain I have to move on to another item...

posted by Jeffrey Wells at 10:33 AM on Friday, December 30, 2005

I wrote a column piece

I wrote a column piece nearly three years ago that lamented the persistent presence of the soul-stifling industry stooge Paul Der- garabedian, the Exhibitor Relations spokesperson who's always quoted in box-office stories. My January '03 piece, called "The Man Who Would Be Dull", described Dergarabedian as "a nice, depend- able guy who always has the numbers at hand and is always ready to discuss them on Sunday afternoons, when box-office stories are usually written. And yet I feel he's giving the art of Hollywood box-office analysis an unfortunate taint of roteness and tedium. His pronouncements are almost oppressively mundane...Read More

posted by Jeffrey Wells at 9:59 AM on Friday, December 30, 2005

In his well-written distributor-by-distributor summation

In his well-written distributor-by-distributor summation of the great DVD year that was 2005, New York Times columnist Dave Kehr includes a very curious judgment. He calls Daryl F. Zanuck and Nunnally Johnson's The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit, the 1956 Gregory Peck-Jennifer Jones drama that Fox Home Video recently released as a "Studio Classics" DVD, "nearly unwatchable" and then double-slams it by equating it with Song of Bernadette. Please...this film is entirely watchable for various reasons (an intriguing 1950s time-machine aura, sturdy performances, handsome photography, solid dialogue) and more than respectable if...Read More

posted by Jeffrey Wells at 8:32 AM on Friday, December 30, 2005

Here's a comprehensive, perceptive and

Here's a comprehensive, perceptive and well researched piece about the Chinese film market ("Crouching U.S. Studios, Hidden Chinese Market") by L.A. Times...Read More

posted by Jeffrey Wells at 8:08 AM on Friday, December 30, 2005

Thursday, December 29, 2005

A Canadian exhibition guy named

A Canadian exhibition guy named Robert Wales says the reason Match Point sounded so shitty at the Leows Lincoln Square on Wednesday night is because Woody Allen is an old fart when it comes to state-of-the-art sound recording. "Are you aware that Allen has never made a film in stereo?," Wales begins. "There are going to be differences comparing a big film with a full 5-channel mix to one of Allen's dialogue-driven pieces. I work for a major theatre chain, and every Allen film inevitably brings us customer complaints about presentation that are almost always related to the fact that Read More

posted by Jeffrey Wells at 9:30 PM on Thursday, December 29, 2005

I love the term "Fandango

I love the term "Fandango paranoia" because I know what it is...I've been there myself. It's defined by New York Times reporter Ben Sisario in a 12.30 story as "[Fandango ticket] purchases made far ahead in the expectation of others chasing after the same limited pool of tickets." There's also "Fandango depression," which results when a given show doesn't sell out and thus the Fandango purchaser has paid an unnecessary surcharge. "I always feel ripped off when I pay the surcharge and then there are empty seats," Sisario is told by a gay (i.e., has a "partner") legal research guy.

posted by Jeffrey Wells at 9:19 PM on Thursday, December 29, 2005

Oh-Six Starters

Oh-Six Starters

There are four January releases that definitely cut the mustard in my pantry, and two or three with one or two problems but are recommended regardless. So things are starting off reasonably well. For a month known for so-so product, I mean.

The absolute must-see's are Lajos Koltai's Fateless (Thinkfilm, 1.6), Eugene Jarecki's Why We Fight (Sony Pictures Classics, 1.20), Steven Soderbergh's Bubble (Magnolia, 1.27) and Michael Winterbottom's Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story (Picturehouse, 1.27).

From Lajos Koltai's Fateless (and not what it seems to be)

posted by Jeffrey Wells at 9:16 PM on Thursday, December 29, 2005

Here are two bona fide

Here are two bona fide Terrence Malick quotes -- reported only today and uttered only last Monday -- about his direction of The New World and thoughts about his future filmmaking plans. Quote #1: ’ÄúI knew [The New World] would have a slow, rolling pace...Read More

posted by Jeffrey Wells at 8:56 PM on Thursday, December 29, 2005

Screenwriter Josh Friedman (David Koepp

Screenwriter Josh Friedman (David Koepp nemesis and co- scripter of War of the Worlds, The Black Dahlia) almost worked on Snakes on a Plane and might have...well, who knows what he might have added to the damn thing?...but he really wanted to polish the sucker, but he didn't see eye-to-eye with some Machiavellian ass-head New Line production executive who is almost certain to shoot himself in the mouth before the year 2010 and the idea went south. Friedman has a blog and here's his story about what happened.....Snakes on a Plane!......

posted by Jeffrey Wells at 8:26 PM on Thursday, December 29, 2005

Oh-Six Starters

Oh-Six Starters

There are four January releases that definitely cut the mustard in my pantry, and two or three with one or two problems but are recommended regardless. So things are starting off reasonably well. For a month known for so-so product, I mean.

The absolute must-see's are Lajos Koltai's Fateless (Thinkfilm, 1.6), Eugene Jarecki's Why We Fight (Sony Pictures Classics, 1.20), Steven Soderbergh's Bubble (Magnolia, 1.27) and Michael Winterbottom's Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story (Picturehouse, 1.27).

From Lajos Koltai's Fateless (and not what it seems to be)

posted by Jeffrey Wells at 2:16 PM on Thursday, December 29, 2005

You can always tell how

You can always tell how a film is doing (or how much confidence it has among exhibitors) by the size of the theatres it's playing in. I was in Loew's Lincoln Square last night, located in Manhattan's heavily Jewish Upper West Side, and Munich was playing in one of biggest auditoriums and to a heavily packed house . I went inside and watched for a bit -- large, crisply projected widescreen image, and the sound was strong and sharply defined. But Woody Allen's Match Point...Read More

posted by Jeffrey Wells at 7:55 AM on Thursday, December 29, 2005

"Some of my critics are

"Some of my critics are asking how [Steven] Spielberg, this Hollywood liberal who makes dinosaur movies, can say anything serious about this subject that baffles so many smart people," the 59 year-old filmmaker said to Roger Ebert during a phone interview on 12.22. "What they're basically saying is, 'You disagree with us in a big public way, and we want you to shut up, and we want this movie to go back in the can.' That's a nefarious attempt to make people plug up their ears...

posted by Jeffrey Wells at 7:50 AM on Thursday, December 29, 2005

Wednesday, December 28, 2005

That "uppity nigger" line from

That "uppity nigger" line from a draft of Stephen Gaghan's Syriana script was revealed on Boing-Boing earlier today (12.28), and then a link appeared on Defamer. Tim Blake Nelson doesn't blurt this term out to Jeffrey Wright in the film (certain people probably would've freaked) but I'm sorry Gaghan didn't just let it rip anyway. The rumpus would have been fun.

posted by Jeffrey Wells at 9:37 PM on Wednesday, December 28, 2005

Two or three times Adam

Two or three times Adam Curtis's The Power of Nightmares is listed as one of the 2005's best in the Village Voice's 7th Annual Film Critics Poll. I knelt down to pray in front of this film when I first saw it a year ago and spewed my praise in a column piece that ran on 12.17.04...which is why I didn't think to include The Power of Nightmares...Read More

posted by Jeffrey Wells at 9:07 PM on Wednesday, December 28, 2005

I was so taken with

I was so taken with Norman Lloyd's short penetrating cameo performance in In Her Shoes -- he nails it like a champ in one five- or six-minute scene -- that the least I could do was write a tribute piece about him last September. Now there's another actor who's delivered another one of those rock-solid, feet-planted, holy-shit performances. I'm speaking of Roberta Maxwell, whose acting as Jake Gyllenhaal's mom in Brokeback Mountain's second-to-last scene (i.e., when Heath Ledger pays a visit) totally slays. It's obvious that Maxwell and her scowling homophobic husband (the great Peter McRobbie...Read More

posted by Jeffrey Wells at 8:23 PM on Wednesday, December 28, 2005

As long as we're on

As long as we're on a Maxwell jag, here's a 12.21 profile of this New York-based actress by the Toronto Star's admiring Martin Knelman. He starts it off by saying, "If there were an Oscar for best performance by an actor with only one scene, surely the winner would be Roberta Maxwell as the repressed mother in Brokeback Mountain."

posted by Jeffrey Wells at 8:22 PM on Wednesday, December 28, 2005

A friend says, "I agree

A friend says, "I agree on your take about the downturn of King Kong's ticket sales. But look everywhere else also -- all the Oscar contenders are petering out at the box office. Brokeback is stalling and so is Munich. Geisha is a bomb. It's not just Kong...it's everything except, I guess, Walk the Line."

posted by Jeffrey Wells at 10:18 AM on Wednesday, December 28, 2005

The first time it hit

The first time it hit me that the public was starting to really rebel against allusive or metaphorical broad-brush movie titles was when it was decided in 1984 that Taylor Hackford's remake of Jacques Tourneur's 1947 film noir Out of the Past...a title with an obviously haunting quality...would be retitled as the dumbly-macho and aggressive-sounding Against All Odds. That was 21 years ago, and now things have downshifted to the next level of primitivism with New Line's upcoming Snakes on a Plane (currently slated for August '06). The fact that Samuel L. Jackson...Read More

posted by Jeffrey Wells at 9:30 AM on Wednesday, December 28, 2005

Variety has recently let some

Variety has recently let some folks go, they're cutting back at the L.A. Times, some Time bureau chiefs have received pink slips, etc. The reasons are varied, but all of this is tracable in part to diminishing ad revenues on the print side. And not just in the movie-ad realm. This shouldn't figure as far as Variety's ad revenues are concerned, but ad buyers are realizing more and more how little impact print ads are having on younger viewers (my sons never buy a newspaper or even a classy monthly glossy like Vanity Fair...

posted by Jeffrey Wells at 8:38 AM on Wednesday, December 28, 2005

There's something missing in this

There's something missing in this AP story about the King Kong shortfall. It says that Peter Jackson's film "eked out" a box-office win last weekend but "has little so far to be thumping its chest about" because it's "falling well short of blowout blockbuster status like that earned by such box-office gorillas as the Star Wars, Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings franchises." And it has the relentlessly bland Paul Dergarabedian...Read More

posted by Jeffrey Wells at 8:06 AM on Wednesday, December 28, 2005

I'm just doodling here and

I'm just doodling here and the man on the street will shed no tears, but could the situation at Paramount right now be analogous to the reign of terror in France (1793 to '94) that led to many impassioned people feeling the kiss of steel? Distribution chief Wayne Lewellen...whacked. DreamWorks' TV distribution honcho Hal Richardson moving in and the Paramount exec now handing this...soon to be whacked. As Slate's Edward Jay Epstein wrote a little more than a week ago, Paramount Pictures chief Brad Grey ...Read More

posted by Jeffrey Wells at 7:27 AM on Wednesday, December 28, 2005

Reader Sean McDonald feels there's

Reader Sean McDonald feels there's a valid analogy between sex scenes directed by Steven Spielberg and Paul Herhoeven. Spielberg "has no idea how to end this mess" -- i.e., Munich -- "so he chooses to do it half a dozen times, each time less engaging than the last, only to push me over the edge with the most ridiculous sex scene ever put on film. My friends and I could only come up with the flopping-goldfish pool scene in Showgirls as more ridiculous." This warrants a list...the dopiest (i.e., most excessive) boot-knocking scenes of all time. Suggestions?

posted by Jeffrey Wells at 7:15 AM on Wednesday, December 28, 2005

Tuesday, December 27, 2005

I was puzzled by some

I was puzzled by some of Slate critic David Edelstein's choices for best films of the year, but no matter. Point is that he hit the bulls-eye when he said that Rodrigo Garcia's Nine Lives, released earlier this year, "boasts the best performance of the year, by Robin Wright Penn as a very pregnant woman who bumps into her old flame in a supermarket. As she circles the store with her grocery cart, her face alternately flushed and ashen, it's as if we're looking directly into her soul."

posted by Jeffrey Wells at 9:02 PM on Tuesday, December 27, 2005

Woody Allen's Match Point "is

Woody Allen's Match Point "is a champagne cocktail laced with strychnine," observes New York Times critic A.O. Scott. "You would have to go back to the heady, amoral heyday of Ernst Lubitsch or Billy Wilder to find cynicism so deftly turned into superior entertainment. Mr. Allen's accomplishment here is to fool his audience, or at least to misdirect us, with a tale whose gilded surface disguises the darkness beneath. Comparisons to Crimes and Misdemeanors are inevitable, since the themes and some elements of plot are similar, but the philosophical baggage in Match Point...Read More

posted by Jeffrey Wells at 2:49 PM on Tuesday, December 27, 2005

Legend has it there's a

Legend has it there's a significant clue at the very end of Michael Haneke's Cache (Sony Pictures Classics, 1.11.06)...some kind of visual tipoff about who's behind the stealth videotaping of Daniel Auteuil and Juliette Binoche's home, lives, histories, etc. Esquire film writer Mike D'Angelo mentions the clue...Read More

posted by Jeffrey Wells at 1:39 PM on Tuesday, December 27, 2005

A whole lotta noteworthy critics

A whole lotta noteworthy critics have submitted their Top Ten films of '05 lists to Movie City News, and Capote is third-ranked with 242 points, only 8 and 1/2 points behind the second-ranked A History of Violence with 255.5 points. (Top-ranked Brokeback Mountain is way in front with 299.5 points.) Good Night, and Good Luck (212 points) and King Kong (191.5 points) are fourth and fifth-ranked. But if you look at Rotten Tomatoes, which posts another critical ranking system, Capote has the 2nd highest general rating among these five (92%) and ...Read More

posted by Jeffrey Wells at 11:33 AM on Tuesday, December 27, 2005

Monday, December 26, 2005

Can we talk? Munich's 532-theatre

Can we talk? Munich's 532-theatre release starting last Friday (12.23) resulted in $5.7 million and a $7,706 average....not fantastic but not bad. But this doesn't portend an ecstatic reception when it plays Boobville in the hinterlands. This Steven Spielberg thriller has been booked into urban uptown theatres where it was expected to do very well...and it didn't. It played pretty well, and if they couldn't do seriously vigorous business in these theatres, it's going to start slowing down and then bombing out when it plays the rube territories. Some of you are thinking I'm so anti-Munich...Read More

posted by Jeffrey Wells at 12:34 PM on Monday, December 26, 2005

King Kong's weekend tallies suffered

King Kong's weekend tallies suffered a sobering 58% drop from last weekend, which is a pretty strong indication that people are not exactly over-the-moon about it, and yet Peter Jackson's monkey movie edged out The Chronicles of Narnia for the four-day holiday weekend (12.23 through 12.26) with a $31.4 million haul vs. Narnia's $30.1 million. Narnia opened on 12.9 (five days ahead of Kong's 12.14 debut) and has earned a total of $163.5 million to Kong's $118.7 million cume. Variety...Read More

posted by Jeffrey Wells at 11:08 AM on Monday, December 26, 2005

Still haven't found the right

Still haven't found the right Sundance accomodation. If anyone knows of any last-minute shares, please get in touch. Maybe I just won't go this year...I can roll with that. But habits die hard.

posted by Jeffrey Wells at 9:57 AM on Monday, December 26, 2005

Forget that Variety's Lisa Nesselson

Forget that Variety's Lisa Nesselson is calling it "a sort of It's an Adequate Life with token bad guys...as if the color-coded gangsters in Reservoir Dogs decided to get together and form a rainbow." And that Screen Daily's Benny Crick is calling it "a modest directorial comeback." All I care about Angel-A, which opened in Paris five days ago (on 12.21), is that it's (a) a new Luc Besson film, his first since '99's The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc...Read More

posted by Jeffrey Wells at 9:21 AM on Monday, December 26, 2005

Christian critics feel that Ang

Christian critics feel that Ang Lee's telling of the sad saga of Ennis del Mar and Jack Twist may be affecting, but is also influencing social norms in the wrong (i.e., contrary to Christian rightist views) way. What are ya gonna do with these people? But speaking from an anti-right Blue State perspective I wonder if there's any such thing as going sexually-emotionally too far afield in terms of movie subjects? Like the story of Harold G. Hart of Neillsville, Wisconsin, for instance. What if the activity described in this story was the most profound, emotionally deep-down thingRead More

posted by Jeffrey Wells at 8:16 AM on Monday, December 26, 2005

Here's a graph by New

Here's a graph by New York Times arts and cultural editor Edward Rothstein in a 12.26 piece that's critical of Munich, and it's worth quoting: "If terrorism is solely the result of injustice, then without the injustice there would be no terrorism...Read More

posted by Jeffrey Wells at 6:54 AM on Monday, December 26, 2005

Sunday, December 25, 2005

Nathan Lane and four chorus-line

Nathan Lane and four chorus-line guys performed a funny spoof, about Brokeback Mountain a la "Oklahoma" on Late Night with David Letterman last week. Funny like skits on the "Carol Burnett Show" used to be in the '70s. Funny if you just sit back and give in to the lame-itude for the sake of seeming like a good sport. But if you think about where Lane is coming from for more than two or three seconds...no, don't! Then it won't be funny. And nobody wants to be a sourpuss ...Read More

posted by Jeffrey Wells at 11:34 PM on Sunday, December 25, 2005

My best Christmas moment so

My best Christmas moment so far was coming upon those carolers on East 3rd Street a few days ago, but my second best moment (and I'm a little ashamed to admit this) was walking around a Wild Oats store in Norwalk, Connecticut, on Saturday afternoon and hearing this impossibly dippy Paul McCartney song playing and starting to quietly hum along. I'm sorry but those McCartney hooks get me, and I always feel like a sap when I cop to this. I also feel Christmassy when this old Beatles chestnut plays...jeez.

posted by Jeffrey Wells at 9:13 PM on Sunday, December 25, 2005

In his King Kong review,

In his King Kong review, New York press critic Matt Zoller Seitz says that the film's "unwelcome intrusion of refrigerator logic" recalls a moment from the 1998 crime thriller Phoenix, in which Ray Liotta "poses a question the original Kong never gave us a chance to ask: If the natives built that wall to keep Kong out, why'd they make doors big enough for him to get through?" In fact, that observation was first delivered by the late film scholar and archivst Ron Haver on the 1985 Criterion Collection King Kong laser disc...Read More

posted by Jeffrey Wells at 7:38 PM on Sunday, December 25, 2005

The typeface is screwed up

The typeface is screwed up (i.e., all italic) but sufferin' suckotash, New York Press critic Armond White has found an angle or two to admire in The Family Stone. I don't know if the support of Manhattan's most ardently contrarian wack-jobber means Thomas Bezucha's home-for-the-holidays dramedy is doomed or has a new lease on life. Oh, and Armond? When Sarah Jessica Parker says "I dont care what you think about me," the "grinning Stone" (i.e., Rachel McAdams) coolly replies, "Oh...of course you do"....NOT "Yes, you do."

posted by Jeffrey Wells at 7:12 PM on Sunday, December 25, 2005

It's not the purgatory of

It's not the purgatory of "Christmas" that I mind so much...I've dealt with the myriad oppressions of this wretched holiday for years...but all the stores being shuttered. The greatest thing is the day after when everything starts up again. There is no greater sound or vibe than the hustle-and-bustle of commerce.

posted by Jeffrey Wells at 10:23 AM on Sunday, December 25, 2005

I've had it with slow-to-react

I've had it with slow-to-react protagonists wearing those dull, stunned looks. I've seen them in heavy drama after heavy drama...younger lead characters who go through all kinds of hell and all they seem to do is suffer and take it and look blown away. No more of these! If your life is threatened you don't shut down, dammit...you snap to attention...Read More

posted by Jeffrey Wells at 10:00 AM on Sunday, December 25, 2005

I've seen my first near-great

I've seen my first near-great film of '06...shot in '04 and shown at several film festivals (including Telluride, Toronto and Karlovy Vary) in '05, and apparently due for release by ThinkFilm before long. "Near-great" because the exquisite wide-screen framing and destaurated color and note-perfect editing make it, to my eyes, the most visually immaculate Holocaust death-camp drama ever made. (As well as one of the most realistic seeming and subtly-rendered in terms of story). It's called Fateless, and it's no surprise that director is Lajos Koltai, one of the great all-time directors of photography (Max, Being Julia, Read More

posted by Jeffrey Wells at 9:29 AM on Sunday, December 25, 2005

In between my Munich postings,

In between my Munich postings, which have been precise and exacting but have struck some as obsessive, I've been suppressing a fear that I may sound like (and may be perceived as) George Grizzard's Senator Fred Van Ackerman character in Otto Preminger's Advise and Consent (1962). If that were so I think I'd need to jump off a bridge as an act of atonement.

posted by Jeffrey Wells at 9:19 AM on Sunday, December 25, 2005

New York Times critic Manohla

New York Times critic Manohla Dargis has explained better than anyone else why Brokeback Mountain and Heath Ledger's hurtin' cowboy are connecting all over: "It's partly because [Ledger's] character in Ang Lee's romantic tragedy, Ennis Del Mar, represents a kind of impacted masculinity that a lot of us recognize...Read More

posted by Jeffrey Wells at 9:04 AM on Sunday, December 25, 2005

Saturday, December 24, 2005

Toasting Herzog

Toasting Herzog

Time's Richard Corliss and Richard Schickel are both smart and crafty film critics, but I've never regarded them as providers of radiant cinematic wisdom...until today.

They've both chosen a Werner Herzog documentary as their favorite film of '05 -- Corliss going for The White Diamond and Schickel for Grizzly Man -- and the passion behind these choices seems especially right and gives me a sublime pre-holiday feeling.

Werner Herzog during chat at L.A.'s Director's Guild theatre -- Friday, 12.16.05, 12:25 pm

posted by Jeffrey Wells at 9:48 AM on Saturday, December 24, 2005

Here's a Reuters story by

Here's a Reuters story by Dan Williams detailing a list of complaints made about Munich...Read More

posted by Jeffrey Wells at 6:00 AM on Saturday, December 24, 2005

Friday, December 23, 2005

King Kong nudged ahead of

King Kong nudged ahead of The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe on Friday, $8.4 million to $8.2 million. And yet on Wednesday Narnia was slightly ahead, $5 million to Kong's $4.9 million. Are we talking further monkey shortfalls or is Narnia merely deriving a holiday boost from out-of-school kids? Kong was "a gentle giant" and "strong but disappointing" after the first five days, but more vigorous earnings were expected to kick in once the holiday vacation commenced.

posted by Jeffrey Wells at 9:34 PM on Friday, December 23, 2005

Miller's Crossing

Miller's Crossing

On Thursday afternoon I hitched across the Williamsburg Bridge (the trains didn't start running again until Friday morning) and then walked up to East Soho to pay a visit to Capote director Bennett Miller.

The idea was mainly to say hello (we've been talking since last summer on the phone) and to take stock of the year-end situation, I suppose. Only we didn't get down to the latter, in part because I got sidetracked by some very cool Dick-and- Perry photos.

Capote director Bennett Miller -- 12.22.05, 5:20 pm

And so I didn't get into Capote...Read More

posted by Jeffrey Wells at 12:41 PM on Friday, December 23, 2005

By what circuitous aesthetic strategy

By what circuitous aesthetic strategy is Slate's David Edelstein's claiming that Munich "is the most potent, the most vital, the best movie of the year"? It's not that I disagree as much as Edelstein has made a decision to climb out to the tip of the the mainmast for the sake of climbing out to the tip of the mainmast. And yet there's a graph halfway through his review that's quite persuasive: "Is Munich...Read More

posted by Jeffrey Wells at 8:58 AM on Friday, December 23, 2005

MSNBC critic-commentator Erik Lundegaard is

MSNBC critic-commentator Erik Lundegaard is on the Kevin- Costner-is-back train...yes!...following my similar riff about eight or nine days ago. "Costner's best work has an element of the rascal in it," Lundegaard concludes. "[And] his roles this year -- Denny Davies in The Upside of Anger and Beau Burroughs in Rumor Has It... -- help underscore the point. In both he plays nice guy/rascals comfortably surrounded by women; in both he plays his age. But in the end Beau is a little dull because he's too much nice guy and not enough rascal, while Denny is classic Costner: Read More

posted by Jeffrey Wells at 8:28 AM on Friday, December 23, 2005

Terrence Malick's The New World

Terrence Malick's The New World (New Line, 12.25) is almost in theatres but enveloped in a deafening silence. I mean, except for the put-down quotes in the Rotten Tomatoes selection of reviews. Salon's Stephanie Zacaharek says Malick "may not care much for people, but he never met a tree he didn't like." (Somebody previously said this when The Thin Red Line came out, only they used "leaf" instead of "tree.") She calls it "so much atmospheric tootle...his idea of using actors in a movie is straight out of 'Where's Waldo?'" The L.A. Weekly's Scott Foundas...Read More

posted by Jeffrey Wells at 7:47 AM on Friday, December 23, 2005

Manohla Dargis's New York Times

Manohla Dargis's New York Times review of The New World is probably the most sponge-like and respectful. She tries to fully absorb and relate what this generally fascinating (though finally unsatisfying) film does to you...not just its intentions and accom- plishments, but the dewy organic atmosphere of it. As well as pay oblique tribute to the legend of its shadowed, hidden-from-plain- sight creator, Terrence Malick. It's a funny review because although she says admiring things about it, you're not convinced she's 100% on the boat. And yet she's tried harder than most to really convey what this World...Read More

posted by Jeffrey Wells at 7:31 AM on Friday, December 23, 2005

Opening day and Munich's creme

Opening day and Munich's creme de la creme Rotten Tomatoes rating is still in the 50s....58%, to be exact. Which means that among the big guns it's pretty much a split vote. Does this mean the Academy will respond more or less the same way? Wait a minute...why am I even asking this question? The current p.c. attitude is "poor Munich"...prematurely bashed, unfairly tarnished, etc., so why can't I just get with the program? I really do agree with this view. Forget the big guns...forget all that crap. Just see it ...Read More

posted by Jeffrey Wells at 7:07 AM on Friday, December 23, 2005

Here's a very thorough point-by-point

Here's a very thorough point-by-point piece by USA Today's Scott Bowles on Oscar likelies, tendency tips and possible wind-shif- tings...but I don't know. Too much in the way of intelligent rational assessment has a way of sapping passion and draining color. Does Bowles loathe or cherish anyone or anything in this year's race? Let's hear a little of that "kill the umpire!" Bleacher Bum spirit. USA Today...Read More

posted by Jeffrey Wells at 6:33 AM on Friday, December 23, 2005

Thursday, December 22, 2005

Reader/listener alert: I don't think

Reader/listener alert: I don't think I can manage a fresh "Elsewhere Live" broadcast today. Tech problems, no speaker phone, continuing transit strike, stranded in Brooklyn, etc. It's insane. I was going to talk about this and that but mainly run my interview with the great Werner Herzog so here it is. I'll put up the MP3 file as a stand-alone link in Elsewhere Live either late tonight or tomorrow morning. (I may also run a portion of the q & a in transcript form.) Herzog's Grizzly Man...Read More

posted by Jeffrey Wells at 11:40 AM on Thursday, December 22, 2005

I believe what I believe

I believe what I believe about Munich's worthiness as a Best Picture contender, but I'm at least flexible enough to realize that the "poor Munich" thing has kicked in, and I'm adaptable enough to go with it. It has been beaten up by right-wing political types, and does deserve sympathy and understanding in the wake of this.

posted by Jeffrey Wells at 11:37 AM on Thursday, December 22, 2005

From late August to roughly

From late August to roughly mid-November, Capote's Phillip Seymour Hoffman was the far-ahead front-runner to take the Best Actor Oscar. But Heath Ledger...Read More

posted by Jeffrey Wells at 9:18 AM on Thursday, December 22, 2005

I should have mentioned this

I should have mentioned this earlier, but kudos to the Pheonix Film Critics for announcing an original independent thought by giving its Best Picure award to Ron Howard's Cinderella Man...and also by naming George Clooney as Best Director for his helming of Good Night, and Good Luck.

posted by Jeffrey Wells at 9:07 AM on Thursday, December 22, 2005

Finally got around to reading

Finally got around to reading the piece by Salon's Michelle Gold- berg about the political attacks against Munich (all by the pro- Israeli right), and I agree -- it's a very thorough and perceptive analysis. And the sympathy surge for this Steven Spielberg film continues...and that's fine.

posted by Jeffrey Wells at 8:50 AM on Thursday, December 22, 2005

Looks like the transit strike

Looks like the transit strike will be over by tomorrow (i.e., Friday) or thefreabouts. Perhaps only one more exercise day remaining! Hollywood Elsewhere is planning another 140-block visit in Man- hattan later today. A visit with Capote director Bennett Miller, stopping by to pick up a script of Mike Binder's Reign Over Me, visiting the AMC plex on 42nd Street, etc.

posted by Jeffrey Wells at 8:35 AM on Thursday, December 22, 2005

Fun With Dick and Jane...what

Fun With Dick and Jane...what is that? A movie? The title is on the marquees, the cans of film are in the booths, but to paraphrase Richard Burton's line in Peter Glenville's Becket, "In me there is only...a void."

posted by Jeffrey Wells at 8:25 AM on Thursday, December 22, 2005

Wednesday, December 21, 2005

How is Munich faring so

How is Munich faring so far with the critics? The big weigh-in happens on Friday, 12.23, with the limited opening...but right now it's got an overall 70% favorable Rotten Tomatoes rating (not bad but not wonderful), and a 55% favorable with cream-of- the-crop critics. The thumbs-up crowd includes Entertainment Weekly's highly respected Owen Gleiberman, Ebert and Roeper's Richard Roeper, Rolling Stone's Peter Travers (renowned for being an easy lay), the New York Post's Lou Lumenick, the Hollywood Reporter's Kirk Honeycutt and Reelview's James Berardinelli. The thumbs-down contingent includes The New Yorker...Read More

posted by Jeffrey Wells at 5:32 PM on Wednesday, December 21, 2005

Kong Badness

Kong Badness

I don't want to start off on the wrong foot here. I'm a fan of Peter Jackson's King Kong...after the 70-minute mark. A modified fan, I should say, because I'm not over-the-moon about it. I liked the rousing CG stuff and the emotional stirrings during the scenes between Kong (i.e., Andy Serkis) and Naomi Watts...but let's not get carried away.

The point is that this 187-minute movie is full of bits that drive me up the wall, and now that Kong...Read More

posted by Jeffrey Wells at 4:14 PM on Wednesday, December 21, 2005

I'm the last guy to

I'm the last guy to run this but yeah, I see it...a subliminal flash-frame of bearded Apocalypto director Mel Gibson on the just-up preview trailer for the film on Apple's movie trailer site. The movie looks intriguing....very high-end spooky stuff. But it's wacko Mel's appearance that's getting all the media attention. Pause the trailer about 3/4 of the way through and start pushing along bit by bit, and suddenly there's Mel, standing next to a couple of extras covered in white body paint and looking like a mad prophet from the outback on Ecstasy...Read More

posted by Jeffrey Wells at 8:40 AM on Wednesday, December 21, 2005

I actually agree with the

I actually agree with the Broadcast Film Critic's Association's decision to give special Distinguished Achievement in Performing Arts Award to ape impersonator Andy Serkis and the King Kong special effects gang on 1.9.06 at the 11th annual Critics' Choice Awards gala. The group is creating the award to recognize "the singular achievement in creating this character, representing a revolutionary leap forward in synthesizing visual effects with an actor's performance," said BFCA president Joey Berlin . The award will be accepted by Serkis and Kong animation guys Christian Rivers and Joe Letteri.

posted by Jeffrey Wells at 8:31 AM on Wednesday, December 21, 2005

Tuesday, December 20, 2005

Reader Tom Van watched the

Reader Tom Van watched the Brokeback Mountain discussion on Fox News' "The O'Reilly Factor" last night and didn't think it amounted to much. "The main push of this piece was Bill's assertion that the left-wing media constantly pushes films on people that support the liberal political agenda, and in the case of Brokeback the gay movement and gay marriage," Van reports. "O'Reilly said that a paper like the New York Times does it all the time through 'stealth' methods and yet the at same time he said it's constantly 'in your face.' Conservative film critic ...Read More

posted by Jeffrey Wells at 11:07 AM on Tuesday, December 20, 2005

Munich supporters will probably curse

Munich supporters will probably curse me for saying this, but I think it's entirely fair to observe that after today's "Big Picture" Patrick Goldstein column in the L.A. Times about the media's pre-release bashing of Munich that the game is all but over. Munich was hurting already but this is the crashing left hook to the jaw. Munich has not fallen to the canvas, but -- quickly pop in a DVD of Raging Bull and chapter-search to the final fight between Jake La Motta and Sugar Ray Robinson -- this pretty good movie...Read More

posted by Jeffrey Wells at 9:45 AM on Tuesday, December 20, 2005

Carmike Cinemas Inc. has pledged

Carmike Cinemas Inc. has pledged to install 2300 digital projection systems in its 37-state theatre chain by October 2007....good. Carmike is the first U.S. exhibitor to step up to the plate, dig deep and start rolling with this. The investment will cost them about $150 million. There are currently only about 100 screens in the entire country capable of showing digitally-projected movies. There are roughly 36,000 movie screens in the U.S., so this is only a small first step.

posted by Jeffrey Wells at 9:44 AM on Tuesday, December 20, 2005

Words about Steven Spielberg's Munich

Words about Steven Spielberg's Munich from a Manhattan- dwelling Academy member: "I have not seen it but I know several people who have and they are unanimous -- it is too long, it is repetitive, it is pretentious, and they all wondered if anyone would have the guts to say that. I mean, Jeffrey...I have not heard more negative responses on what is supposed to be a quality film this year."

posted by Jeffrey Wells at 9:17 AM on Tuesday, December 20, 2005

That mention by my Manhattan

That mention by my Manhattan friend about whether people will "have the guts" to critique or give a general thumbs-down to Munich is indicative of a lingering notion that Spielberg is a dispenser of great tribal power, and to say anything against him or one of his films could conceivably result in a negative reaction down the road. You have to at least consider that this psychology was part of the reportedly positive reactions to Munich at the Beverly Hills Academy screening last Sunday night. Take it with a grain of salt, but that's what The Envelope's Steve Pond

posted by Jeffrey Wells at 9:16 AM on Tuesday, December 20, 2005

And I love, by the

And I love, by the way, that boldfaced photo caption that ran with Pond's piece: "Munich" was definitely not a bomb with the academy audience. It reminds me of that very-first-reac- tion to 1995's Waterworld that got around after the first junket screening: "It doesn't suck."

posted by Jeffrey Wells at 9:12 AM on Tuesday, December 20, 2005

The NYC transit strike began

The NYC transit strike began this morning, but this will not interfere with Hollywood Elsewhere's plans to see Terry Zwigoff's Art School Confidential, which is screening this evening at 6 pm at Sony headquarters on Madison and 55th. That's right -- I'm prepared to leg it both ways because I doubt I'll be able to get a cab. From my Brooklyn apartment, which is near the corner of Montrose and Bushwick, I'll have to walk a mile and a half west to the Williamsburg Bridge and then hump across the damn thing (which will not be pleasant due to the Read More

posted by Jeffrey Wells at 7:58 AM on Tuesday, December 20, 2005

I don't mind the transit

I don't mind the transit strike. Walking is good for your mind, body and soul. Hardship is always a good thing when it comes to friendliness and community relations and people actually treating each other with caring and good cheer. Manhattanites are famous for coming alive when things are really tough. I wonder if anyone will be hitchhiking? So today's forthcoming four-and-a-half-hour walk isn't just about seeing the Zwigoff film. If nothing else, it'll be about (hopefully) taking some good pictures.

posted by Jeffrey Wells at 7:49 AM on Tuesday, December 20, 2005

The San Diego Film Critics

The San Diego Film Critics made some bright interesting calls with their 2005 Awards. Capote's Bennett Miller as Best Director and Phillip Seymour Hoffman for Best Actor, The Upside of Anger's Joan Allen for Best Actress, Broken Flowers' Jeffrey Wright for Best Supporting Actor, The Constant Gardener's Rachel Weisz for Best Supporting Actress, Best Documentary Award to Werner Herzog's Grizzly Man and a Best Screenplay Award to Shane Black's Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang. Thought- ful independent-minded choices, all...and then the group went and gave their Best Picture award to Read More

posted by Jeffrey Wells at 6:27 AM on Tuesday, December 20, 2005

I am comfortable with a

I am comfortable with a certain lack of consistency in myself. Life is duty, beauty and criteria, but it's also a series of moods and passages from one thing to another...highs and detours and occasional levitations and floatings. All to say I don't what the hell happened when I ran my Best 14 Movies of 2005 list in the column a while back and omitted James Mangold's Walk The Line...Read More

posted by Jeffrey Wells at 6:08 AM on Tuesday, December 20, 2005

Monday, December 19, 2005

Slate's Edward Jay Epstein has

Slate's Edward Jay Epstein has written a blunt down-to-it piece about why Paramount honcho Brad Grey really bought DreamWorks, "according to people at Viacom, Paramount's corporate owner." When he took over in early '05, Grey, who'd been handed a mandate by Viacom's Sumner Redstone "to totally revamp moviemaking at Paramount," got rid of just about every holdover project from the Sherry Lansing-Jonathan Dolgen (like that Secret Life of Walter Mitty...Read More

posted by Jeffrey Wells at 8:12 PM on Monday, December 19, 2005

I haven't heard anything about

I haven't heard anything about the Munich Academy screening at Wilshire and La Peer last night (sorry...I'm in New York now and running around) but I'm waiting with bated breath and will probably have something to report later on.

posted by Jeffrey Wells at 5:30 PM on Monday, December 19, 2005

King Kong and Titanic both

King Kong and Titanic both run over three hours and both have experienced an unspectacular first week at the box-office...fine. But take no notice of anyone trying to draw further further analogies.

posted by Jeffrey Wells at 5:11 PM on Monday, December 19, 2005

Slate's Seth Stevenson has a

Slate's Seth Stevenson has a riff about Spike Jonze's "Pardon Our Dust" Gap ad. As noted in this column a while back, there are two versions of this ad -- the much cooler Jonze-approved version...Read More

posted by Jeffrey Wells at 4:16 PM on Monday, December 19, 2005

The Producers star Nathan Lane

The Producers star Nathan Lane had some fun with Brokeback Mountain on the Today show last Friday morning, as reported in Lloyd Grove's "Lowdown" in the N.Y. Daily News...Read More

posted by Jeffrey Wells at 3:08 PM on Monday, December 19, 2005

Reader Patrick Cassano thinks I'm

Reader Patrick Cassano thinks I'm "dead-on about women turning Brokeback Mountain into a financial hit. My married friend and I go to the movies all the time, and his wife usually stays at home with the kids. She burned out on going to the movies with us long ago after the bloody trifecta of True Romance, Pulp Fiction and Natural Born Killers. She hasn't been to a non-kid movie in 9 years. But the other day she asked about this Brokeback Mountain...Read More

posted by Jeffrey Wells at 8:36 AM on Monday, December 19, 2005

Pre-Xmas family doings in Boston

Pre-Xmas family doings in Boston and Connecticut and no broadband to dip into last night (i.e., Sunday evening)...so "Elsewhere Live" fell by the wayside. Once you start a twice-weekly routine you have to stick to it or people will lose interest, so me bad. I'll be running an interview with Werner Herzog on Thursday from my Brooklyn abode.

posted by Jeffrey Wells at 8:09 AM on Monday, December 19, 2005

King Kong had a good

King Kong had a good weekend ($50.1 million) and has pulled down an estimated $66.2 million since it opened on 12.14. It's had a successful start and will continue to be successful, etc. Why, then, do audience pulse rates so far seem so profoundly tepid? Why are readers saying over and over again, "I expected huge lines but we got right in wihout a wait," etc.? It's Christmas and King Kong...Read More

posted by Jeffrey Wells at 7:32 AM on Monday, December 19, 2005

Sunday, December 18, 2005

I know we're all taking

I know we're all taking off for the holidays, but the failure of major entertainment reporters to step up and face the reality of the Great Middle-American Ho-Humming of King Kong is amazing. This is a hugely surprising story and....zzzzz. Joseph Jones , a reader, says he "saw King Kong last night at an AMC multiplex here in Tampa. We arrived an hour prior to the show, expecting a line (I remember arriving an hour before a showing of Jurassic Park...Read More

posted by Jeffrey Wells at 5:45 AM on Sunday, December 18, 2005

Saturday, December 17, 2005

King Kong is weaker than

King Kong is weaker than expected because the girls aren't into him, or so goes the theory. "Judging by the women I've spoken with, there's a definite non-interest in Kong," says reader Matthew Meyerotto. "The movie has no sex symbols. Adrian Brody is too obscure and Jack Black is too chubby. Even if Kong is a love story at its core, the average female movie going audience is too shallow to be brought into the theater without a pretty face."

posted by Jeffrey Wells at 10:02 AM on Saturday, December 17, 2005

The Chronicles of Narnia: The

The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe is looking at a projected $34.7 million this weekend, or a 47% drop from the opening round. Syriana is looking at a 55% drop....dead. The Family Stone is projecting a $10 million weekend at $4 thou- sand a print...not launching. But Brokeback Mountain, now in 69 theatres, will pull down about $2.3 million this weekend or $33,000 per print...solid healthy numbers. I know this sounds a bit confusing, but this is what the hard-nosed guys are saying.

posted by Jeffrey Wells at 8:53 AM on Saturday, December 17, 2005

The Producers will earn a

The Producers will earn a projected $159,000 at six theatres this weekend, or $26,000 a print. Trackers are saying this is D.O.A. business...finito. A guy keeping tabs on the numbers at New York's Ziegfeld theatre told a friend he knew The Producers was dead after Friday's first matinee. Too many bad reviews, too cornball, no under-25 attendance to speak of and Susan Stroman can't direct with any pizazz or sense of style...down for the count and off to DVD.

posted by Jeffrey Wells at 8:12 AM on Saturday, December 17, 2005

A Birmingham guy named Chance

A Birmingham guy named Chance Shirley (great name!) says he and the missus "went down to the local multiplex last night for a 7:40 Family Stone screening. After hearing your concerns that Fox had dropped the ball marketing-wise, I was surprised that we had trouble finding a seat -- the place was packed. It wasn't long before a theater manager stepped in to let us know Stone...Read More

posted by Jeffrey Wells at 6:22 AM on Saturday, December 17, 2005

King Kong finally surged and

King Kong finally surged and took in $14.2 million yesterday (Friday, 12.15) following Thursday's paltry $6.4 million and Wednesday's disappointing $9.8 million. It'll probably tally $46 to $47 million for the three-day weekend and about $62 million for the first five days. Figure a domestic total of $250 or $275 million after all is said and done...which is less than what Universal was hoping for. Kong will turn a handy profit down the road, but there's a definite shortfall thing happening here and it's hard to figure why. What happened to the monster revenues that were expected from the get-go?

posted by Jeffrey Wells at 6:11 AM on Saturday, December 17, 2005

Friday, December 16, 2005

Del Mar Nation

Del Mar Nation

Brokeback Mountain is starting to spread out (it went into 69 theatres on Friday), and that means that sooner or later those gay cowboy jokes on "Late Night with David Letterman" and in Aaron McGruder's "Boondocks" comic strip will be coming to an end.

The more people see Brokeback, the greater the likelihood that a certain percen- tage will start to understand that gay cowboys and high-altitude pokin' in the pup tent ain't the point. It's a way into the film's real subject, which is the terrible price of letting a good thing go.

posted by Jeffrey Wells at 4:16 PM on Friday, December 16, 2005

Thursday, December 15, 2005

"The trouble [with King Kong]

"The trouble [with King Kong] is that Jackson, an exuberant director, fresh from his triumph with the Lord of the Rings trilogy, likes to shoot up a storm, and here his exuberance spills over into senselessness," writes David Denby in his New Yorker review. The Depression background, just a few shots in the original [Kong...Read More

posted by Jeffrey Wells at 3:35 PM on Thursday, December 15, 2005

When I told my 16

When I told my 16 year-old son a couple of hours ago that King Kong earned $9.7 million on its opening day (i.e., Wednesday, 12.13), he said, "Really? That sucks!" And the Drudge Report is using the headline "Kong bomb." It's not as bad as all that, although it's certainly disappointing. The $9.7 million Wednesday opening for the most ballyhooed heavyweight spectacle movie of the year (as well as one with a built-in Peter Jackson fan base) is only the 21st highest all-time Wednesday opening. Universal was looking for Kong...Read More

posted by Jeffrey Wells at 1:04 PM on Thursday, December 15, 2005

Wednesday, December 14, 2005

Best and Worst of '05

Best and Worst of `05

I can't do a Ten Best of '05 of list -- the number has to be fourteen. And I had to include 28 films on the "Pretty Damn Good" roster, and I had to make a special mention of Terrence Malick's stunningly see-worthy shortfaller, The New World.

That's a total of 43 very good-to-sublime films released this year, or a little less than one every nine days. Not a bad tally, and arguably one of the more distin- guished in recent years, and with the makings of a rip-snortin' Oscar fight in January and February.

posted by Jeffrey Wells at 4:41 PM on Wednesday, December 14, 2005

It's 11:48 am and a

It's 11:48 am and a press release just came into my inbox: "The National Lampoon is excited to announce its collaboration with Half Shell Entertainment Films to create new feature films based on archived material from the revered and classic National Lampoon magazine." This is basically hooey and nothing new because those great old Lampoon short stories by Chris Miller and Doug Kenney will only be weakened or bloated up if they're adapted for a feature film. Half Shell won't do this, but they should make a short film...Read More

posted by Jeffrey Wells at 11:43 AM on Wednesday, December 14, 2005

<