Posted on 07/24/2005 10:40:27 PM PDT by Extremely Extreme Extremist
A candy man and a couple of randy men handily squelched a weak attack of the clones, though overall business suffered. The year-to-year down trend returned as the top 12 pictures generated an estimated $128.9 million, down seven percent from the comparable frame last year.
Intended as a summer tent-pole, DreamWorks' The Island transplanted a meager estimated $12.1 million from 3,122 theaters. Director Michael Bay's $122 million clone thriller, co-produced by DreamWorks and Warner Bros., earned a fraction of such similar summer science fiction events as I, Robot and Minority Report and stands as a massive misfire along the lines of XXX: State of the Union or Rollerball.
"Clearly, this is a disappointing opening," said DreamWorks' head of distribution Jim Tharp. "The tracking had indicated that we were looking at this kind of opening, but it is still disappointing. I liked the movie. We can only hope the film finds an audience down the road." According the studio's exit polling, 51 percent of the audience was male and 52 percent was over the age of 25.
The Island marked Michael Bay's first movie away from mega-producer Jerry Bruckheimer and his first outright financial failure. Guided by Bruckheimer's slick, crowd-pleasing aesthetic, Bay's track record was five for five with the hits Bad Boys, The Rock, Armageddon, Pearl Harbor and Bad Boys II. The Island looked like Bay's past movies superficially, replete with cacophonous pyrotechnics and choppy editing, and it carried over the Bruckheimer tradition of off-beat casting with leads Ewan McGregor and Scarlett Johansson.
Gone from the equation were an appealing premise and savvy marketing. The Island had a genre identity crisis, crudely mixing futuristic sci-fi with present-day action in what looked like a cross between Logan's Run and The 6th Day.
(Excerpt) Read more at boxofficemojo.com ...
Blade runner sucked. Saw it at the original release in 80 and then the directors cut some time in the 90s ..... ho hum. Yeah .... I know the androids were more human like than the humans..... blah blah blah.
But it increases the international market where hatred of America and new age counter-religious mumbojumbo prints you money.
A wise move on the filmmakers part. Get used to seeing more of it.
"People just aren't going to the movies as much"
And the industry tries to blame that on everything but the one truth--hollywood and its superstars are making crappy movies that nobody wants to support.
I thought Blade Runner was brilliant, actually. Scott did a fantastic job of creating a cohesive world that shows life under an ethos that strips humanity away and turns life into a commodity. But that's not even what it's about. It's about confronting your maker and asking "Why, if you could have given me so much more, didn't you do it?"
Memo to Michael Bay: Next time you rip off somebody else's movie, don't pick one that has been featured on Mystery Science Theater 3000.
I can't believe I'm the only one to ask: "doesn't Scarlett Johansen fall underneath the 'Ann Coulter' rule?
Robbins' part is fairly small. The camera follows Cruise around for 95% of the running time...just like Wells hewed to the POV of his narrator in the novel.
A quote from the director:
"We're ready to go and of course the actress is not there," he (Michael Bay) told reporters. He said he was summoned to Johansson's trailer, expecting to have to reassure the star of "Lost in Translation" that her privacy and dignity would be protected.Oh, for Ghu's sake -- I'm not a trained director, but even I can figure out what you do in this situations:"She's standing there and she says, 'I'm not wearing this cheap... bra. I'm going naked,"' Bay said.
"I said, 'It's PG-13, you have to wear the bra,"' he said.
1. DON'T OBJECT! GO WITH THE FLOW!
2. Suggest that the panties look pretty cheap, too, and are similarly expendable.
3. Get several shots -- some from carefully selected angles to produce images compatible with a PG-13 rating, some from more interesting angles for DVD extra scenes.
"PEARL HARBOR. Where Hollywood could take TWO movies that were classics (Tora Tora Tora & 30 Seconds Over Tokyo) and make one long bad movie.."
Amen to that. I am still wondering how a studio, with that big budget could waste the chance to make a great movie. It's just stunning to me that the intelligence was lacking from the beginning.
Ben Whats His Name?
Alex Baldwin as Jim Doolittle????
Not to mention the trashing they gave the Navy Nurse Corps.
What a wasted opportunity.
"Any way, The Island is, in my opinion, a well made film. It deserves consideration from adult and teenage audiences. It is not entirely original, but it is also not a cliche or rehashed story. For those interested, I would liken the story to a Matrix prequel. The visuals are worth going to see on the big screen."
I agree. I was especially impressed with the disiplined continuity of each character as their backround was slowly revealed.
An inherited artist's eye.
"Why does everything have to be white?"
"My Mommy is in the hospital".......Are you my mommy?"
"Five million to cheat death...is cheap"
On delivering a five million dollar product to have her organs harvested,needlessly:
"She (the insured) probably won't survive anyway, too much brain damage".
I'm not a director either but I sure know one thing,
Just as Bruce Willis really shines when he is pared with a young boy, ....Scarlett is at her best when she is oposite a much older man.
When word that War of the Worlds was being considered for remake, my first thought was "How do you improve on the original?" I then heard that the movie was supposed to be set in the time it was actually written, and thought that would be really cool. When I learned that it was a modern setting, I was disappointed. I haven't seen it, and don't have any plans to, not at the theater at least, but I can't help think that had the movie been set back during the late Victorian period (1898) when it was actually published, it might have been better received at the boxoffice. Of course, having an actor other than Tom Cruise play the lead role might have been a benefit as well.
not since she did Benicio Del Toro in the elevator...
Who in the what?
pictures of that???
Or, you can just buy the DVD for less than $20.
LOL
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