Posted on 06/16/2012 8:21:43 AM PDT by jimbo123
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New Line/Warner Bros’ Rock Of Ages (3,470 theaters) is falling to earth with a thud. Which Hollywood expected because the pic had been tracking poorly for weeks (and even went down at one point week to week). The studio felt the 1980s period piece was a hard sell to younger moviegoers. I suspect the problem was casting. Russell Brand has been repellant to moviegoers, while Tom Cruise as iconic rocker proved just too incredulous for audiences.
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The early days he did well, Jaws is one of my all time favorite movies. Since the mid-80s it’s a different story. Script matters, Vertigo is one of my least favorite Hitchcock movies, it’s just all around annoying.
‘Empire of the Sun’ had a good script for one - Tom Stoppard wrote it. And SL had a superb script by Steven Zaillian - one of the most literate of contemporary screenwriters. Vertigo works like a haunting dream.
There’s 2, and dozens of others (Jurassic Park, Minority Report, WOTW, etc etc etc) that are really just thin pap. Vertigo works like an insomnia cure.
——Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol was great, one of the best movies of 2011.——
Fun popcorn movie. Even my wife and girls enjoyed it.
I was shocked to learn that the skyscraper stunts were real —not CGI. I read an interesting interview about it with Brad Bird somewhere on-line. You have to give Cruise credit for bravery, or insanity.
MR was of above average intelligence - it had more ideas than most contemporary SF films. That’s what people said about Vertigo when it was released. It has as much in common with Antonioni and Resnais as it does with other Hitchcock films.
I think I recall the director saying something like they didn’t go with ‘A Princess of Mars’ because boys don’t go see movies with princesses and girls don’t dig movies about other planets, so ‘John Carter of Mars’ was out too. Combined with other ‘Mars’ floppage and they lose one of the best titles ever...
Freegards
MR was a fun ride until that horrible ending. The whole idea of the ex-wife just waltzing in and solving everything was just bad. If credits roll when Cruise is lowered into the cryovat it’s one of Spielberg’s best, but he can’t do unhappy endings.
They were right about Vertigo the first time. It’s dull.
I’m not as plot centered as you are so Vertigo wasn’t dull at all for me.
I’m curious. I know you said it should be obvious, but, what two words should have been added to John Carter?
disregard my earlier question, thanks.
I had the same feeling when Cruise was cast as LeStat in Interview With A Vampire. Rutger Hauer or Julian Sands would have been perfect for the part.
Hmmmm...that’s a good idea...let me think about it.
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