Posted on 02/11/2015 10:04:50 AM PST by C19fan
While this year’s domestic box office is off to a great start with $1.2B, it’s also produced too many bombs. Following Universal/Legendary’s Blackhat ($70M cost, $16.6M global B.O.) and Lionsgate’s Mortdecai ($60M cost, $19.1M global B.O.), this weekend brought Jupiter Ascending from Warner Bros./Village Roadshow (estimated cost $205-$210M) and Seventh Son (estimated cost $105M-$110M) from Universal/Legendary.
(Excerpt) Read more at deadline.com ...
CGI is a horrible crutch for film makers. Even Ridley Scott is addicted to it... a shame for a man who made Blade Runner in the pre-CGI days.
And that is about the best summation I have read so far.
... And there was a time in this country, a long time ago, when reading wasn’t just for fags and neither was writing. People wrote books and movies, movies that had stories so you cared whose ass it was and why it was farting, and I believe that time can come again!
I think just the very limited subset of sci-fi that Hollywood has backed is burned out. There is about a hundred years of material they could choose from, that would be very fresh as movie content, but so far it has been relegated to smaller scale, indy-type movies.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_science_fiction_films_of_the_2010s
The “Uncle Buck” wart scene for example (reality/art):
Anita: I’m Anita Hoargarth.
Buck Russell: [Staring at it] I’m Buck Melanoma. Moley Russell’s wart. Not her wart. Not her wart! I’m... I’m the wart. She’s my tumor. My... my growth. My... uh, my pimple. I’m Uncle Wart. Just old Buck “Wart” Russell. That’s what they call me, or Melanoma Head. They’ll call me that. “Melanoma Head’s coming.” I’m s... uncle! Maisy Russell’s uncle!
Blade Runner is a masterpiece. Many of the scenes remind me of the art of Maxfield Parrish or even Caravaggio, with its play of light and darkness.
I did my HS Senior Fine Arts Thesis on Walt Disney, specifically ‘Snow White” which was ground-breaking in animation.
“Frozen” reminds me of a cross between Anime and cheap Saturday morning stop-action cartoons. I can’t watch more than a few seconds of it.
The fact the marketing budget was 50% of the production budget tells me they sold the film on marketing not quality of production. I am always skeptical of films with huge marketing budget. A good film should sell itself.
Script, script, script.
Haven’t seen Jupiter yet, saw Blackhat. Needed editing, script cleanup, just dragged. Had a good concept, but some tough love would have made it a very good movie.
Here’s a quarter. Go pay a rat to gnaw that thing off.
That was the scene I was thinking of when I posted. ;-)
Is it the kind of movie you watch when you’re Drunk or were they Drunk when they made it ?
All movie budgets are bogus. I know of a film that was under budget when it got back from location to Hollywood. One “big shot” was given a special screening and the budget was charged $75,000. After a bunch of other charges in a week it was over budget.
And the original budget was only 5 million dollars. The director only wanted 3 million but the studio demanded it be 5 million. There’s 2 million bucks in someone’s pocket before one scene was shot.
Cloud Atlas, was one of the most marginal stories ever used for a movie. I woke up at the half-way point and just gave up. It might have been a great book....but it’s a loser when converted to a movie.
I’ll even throw in another movie....Eternal Sunshine on the Spotless Mind...which was so weird, and suddenly tied itself up in the last five minutes. I ended up having to watch it a second time, and realized all the hints along the way.
I’ve heard that is the case with Cloud Atlas. You have to watch it more than once.
Interesting side story: We have not had TV since 1997. When I saw Cloud Atlas at Redbox I’d never head of it. I Assumed it was a B movie but was pleasantly surprised. And the colored* girl in it was pretty cute and I was surprised to see tom hanks.
*or girl of color if you prefer
Yup. Remember how the Tolkien estate got taken on LoTR. Christopher (and his legal team) made the rookie mistake of being paid as a % of profits, rather than gross.
When the movies failed to turn a “profit” ... Predictable outcome from predictable results.
Sorry about the triple post. Internet troubles here. I really did try to avoid it.
They write weird stories that have way too much mythology and don’t actually make sense. That’s what everybody failed to notice when the Matrix distracted them with bullet cam. They make really good looking movies though, just don’t put them in charge of the story. Which is why I have high hope for Sense 8, JMS will hopefully be in charge of the story, they’ll just make it look good.
Wha, wha, what?
:-)
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