comment #1

D.Z. says ...

Not really a big deal until Friday. People are usually busy on Wednesdays and Thursdays. Anyway, I guess we can finally explain why Tim Burton's output was so wretched after Ed Wood. http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080808/ap_en_mo/people_tim_burton

comment #2

D.Z. says ...

Oh, and Ebert gave PE 3.5 stars.

comment #3

BurmaShave says ...

3 star movie at best. Really don't understand the hyperbole on this one. Don't get me wrong, the first 70% or so are very, very good, and Franco and McBride both give starmakers, but this isn't even SUPERBAD, much less MIDNIGHT RUN.

comment #4

kinks541 says ...

Am I the only one not put off by the last 30% of PE? I was kind of keyed in by that point on what they were going for... the absurdity of action movies and how childlike and unrealistic they can be.

I mean, every time someone runs out of bullets, there just HAPPENS to be giant piles of weaponry laying around right behind them. Maybe they should have played up the surreal aspect even more, but I was pretty prepared simply from the fact that one of the characters gets shot multiple times and just keeps on trucking. It didn't feel like a tonal shift at all. If anything, it became MORE comedic.

That last scene had more laughs than the rest of the movie. I wanted that to go on for another hour.

Not a perfect movie by any means, but a damn fun ride with its own strange sense of comic timing and attitude.

comment #5

Gordie Lachance says ...

Am I the only one not impressed with the first 70% of PE?

It's okay and all, engaging and amusing, but there are no real belly laughs, and no plot at all. Two stoners get chased by bad guys. That's Act 1, 2 and 3. No twists, no reversals, no subplots.

And people really mention this in the same breath with Big Lebowski?

comment #6

corey3rd says ...

Tonight is all about getting baked and watching the Olympic fireworks on an HD set.

comment #7

BrianBouton says ...

Could it be that Seth Rogen is not a big enough star to open a movie on his own? And the second lead is James Franco who most people only know from Spider-Man. For me personally, I'm kinda bored after watching the ads and don't find it worth pursuing in the theater. I'll likely rent it after finding most Apatow product, whether produced or directed, to be too long and in serious need of editing.

comment #8

K. Bowen says ...

I liked it. Not a lot to it. But I like its headfirst commitment to being exactly what it is.

comment #9

Chase Kahn says ...

I thought PE was great. Sure, the last 20 minutes go on too long and its pretty unnecessary, but It still had a few laughs.

Franco is amazing, and I loved some of the little touches that most people won't even catch like when Rogen tells his 18 year-old girlfriend that she'll, "go to college and start listening to THE SHINS", or when Franco wonders if there is a Rancor in the marijuana underground pit.

comment #10

Gordie Lachance says ...

There are about 6-7 good laughs in this movie (not nearly enough) but 4 of them are in the trailer, which really really sucks.

comment #11

jesse says ...

kinks, I wasn't put off by the last 20-30% either, and found it both a logical extension of the first two-thirds, and very funny.

The 50% drop on Thursday really means very little. People rushed out to see it on opening night. People will go out to see it on Friday and Saturday. Thursday is sort of neither here nor there; the people who were dying to see it already went, and the more casual fans aren't going to go out to a movie on Thursday night. I'm guessing it'll bump back up to 10-12 for Friday. I'm still mystified by the way that 50% drops are still vaguely attributed to word-of-mouth or lack of excitement, even as movies get more and more frontloaded. For some movies, a 50% drop means that a huge portion of the audience already saw it, not that people are getting especially convincing negative texts from their friends.

That said, I actually saw it Thursday night at the Union Sq Regal in NYC, and it was packed. I don't know if our show sold out (it wasn't when I got there, but I tend to get there early), but the show before it was (and our show had been moved to the biggest auditorium they have).

comment #12

Joe Leydon says ...

D.Z.: I loved this final graf in the Tim Burton piece:

"Burton met Helena Bonham Carter, whom he is currently dating, while filming "Planet of the Apes." The couple have two children."

Er, after the second child, don't you have to describe it as something more than DATING?

comment #13

corey3rd says ...

Joe, I don't know your situation, but having been married for a while, i can assure you that wives enjoy "date night." They like the fact that you're still dating them and not merely treating them as the ball and chain at home.

The wife gives you a smile when you say, "Do you want to go out on a date" versus "let's eat out."

What's disturbing is the rumor that Burton liked having sex with Helena when when was in full Ape make up.

comment #14

Jay T. says ...

A lot of theaters (around Northern California at least) aren't showing the film until today...

comment #15

Cadavra says ...

"I was kind of keyed in by that point on what they were going for... the absurdity of action movies and how childlike and unrealistic they can be."

Already done--and brilliantly--in HOT FUZZ.

comment #16

EB says ...

I have failed to see the reason for seeing this movie. Lately it seems Hollywood is reaching for something to show and coming up short. Granted there is shall I say a brain dead portion of movie goers who would find such a movie hilarious. Maybe these are the same folks who voted for Bush and probably will vote McCain why am I not surprised!But the rest of us who have some sense about us quickly pass this movie by as just another stupid movie. If its trying to be comical be comical not stupid.

comment #17

C-PhreekII says ...

You really, really should stop commenting on box office numbers. You have pretty much no ability to discern trends and question bad predictions.

" took in only $6.25 million on Thursday, which represented a 50% drop from its first-day tally of $12.1 million."

Are you even aware that the Wednesday tally was a record? That mid-week openings typically drop big, especially if it was something with the built in must-see quotient of a Rogen/Apatow project? Had the film sustained that opening, THAT would have been out of the norm.

comment #18

kinks541 says ...

EB....

Yeah, Republicans LOVE drug movies.

Ridiculous.

comment #19

D.Z. says ...

So I saw it, and generally liked it, though some ideas and sub-plots seemed to be randomly wedged into the main story and go nowhere... But I still appreciate DGG's ode to classic HK films like Pedicab Driver and Hard-Boiled, as well as his ability to keep the story focused and well-paced.