It really is pathetic.
As far as Spielberg goes, he has blown all the goodwill and credibility he built with Shindler's List and Saving Private Ryan with this horrible Munich movie. He goes overboard trying to draw a moral equivalent between the cold blooded murder of 11 Israeli athletes and bringing to justice the same murderers by the Mossad.
It has been claimed by critics that "Munich" seems to sympathize with the Pali murderers and not the Israeli athletes who were killed at the Games. If true, few Jews are going to see the movie, nor will I.
We thought our 4 year old grandaughter might not be able to sit through a movie this long, and thought some of the scenes might be too intense for her. She sat on the edge of her seat through most of the movie, though, and was able to discuss it in depth the next day. The folks that made this movie did an incredible job!
I saw Narnia last week and intend to see it with my whole family over Christmas. It's a great Christmas film - snow, ice, family oriented, and even Father Christmas and gift giving.
It is like Lord of the Rings, except a bit more child oriented and of course the message is wonderful. I thought it a touch slow in the beginning but it picked up later on. The special effects were better than I thought they would be.
It really does create a wonderful world. I can't wait to see it again.
(Although the movie sucked, Rachel McAdams just made my "must watch" list.)
Merry Christmas, everyone...
Since you all commented to a previous article I wrote about the failure of Brokeback Mountain, I thought I'd update you:
Friday, Brokeback Mountain expanded to 217 theaters, 10 more than the number of theaters last week. And yet, the total box-office take was down this week. Even with many people having the day off, and box-office in general soaring. The per-theater take is down 70% from last Friday, and more than 90% since its debut.
The extra-fast exppansion is not a sign of success, I believe, but failure... The initial statements by the filmmakers was that they were going to tightly control access to the movie to keep it virtually sold out. So why the change if not to responde to high demand? I believe theater owners were starting to complain that they were going to end up paying first-run prices for what would be a second-run movie by the time they got their hands on it?
Like I told some strange FReepers who were "optimistic" of Borkeback Mountain: You can't extrapolate from a premier, ultra-exclusive, mega-theater, initial box-office take to what the movie will do in the larger nation; in spite of appearing in more than 40 times more theaters, the movie took in less than four times its premier take.
I did say that the movie would not top what it took in last week, and its on a pace not to. Howver, the movie is shown in 50% more theaters than it was announced for. So I could imagine it improving on Sunday over the previous week.
Another wierd thing: Box Office Mojo is now claiming the movie cost only $14 million to make. I had first seen $30 million. When BOM said $18, I presumed that the difference was that the $30 million figure included marketing costs, which would be infered to be $12 million. Now I figure that BOM is going along with a campaign to make the movie LOOK like it is making mney when it is failing; $14 million is an easier target than $30 million, and actually is about what I'd estimate the movie will make, before the Oscar nominations.
Whatever the claimed costs, you can'ta ssemble that cast, crew and on-location sets for $14 million. If it did cost that little, it's because the makers were foregoing normal rates to get the movie made. So whether the studio loses money, or the principles lose money, the point is the movie loses money. On the other hand, BOM has, without explanation, raised the production costs of Narnia from $150 million to $180 million. 'salright... Narnia will make about $250 million.
Brokeback is expected to expand to over 400 theaters by the end of January... I'm thinking some theater owners may ask why they should shell out first-run dough for a second-run movie.