By Robert Sims, Special to Hollywood.com
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Thursday, August 14, 2008
Hear that ticking? Yes, it’s the sound of another summer bomb about to explode at a theater near you. For every Dark Knight and Iron Man, Hollywood’s popcorn season also has a Love Guru and Speed Racer. These are the big-budget disasters in the making that suffer early from bad buzz and arrive to scathing audience reaction. Hollywood.com’s decided to reassess 10 of the biggest summer bummers to be forced upon us during the past decade. Bombs away!
10. Kingdom of Heaven (2 ½ stars)
Year of Release: 2005
U.S. Box Office Gross: $47.3 million
Reported Budget: $130 million
The Reassessment: Yes, Ridley Scott’s 194-minute director’s cut of this contemplative Crusades-era epic is vastly superior to the shorter version that didn’t satisfy the bloodlust of the Gladiator crowd. Extended and reinserted scenes not only clarify plot developments and previously unexplained relationships, but also provide greater meaning behind many of the characters’ otherwise questionable actions. But some of the theatrical cut’s problems—from its grueling pace to the truncated battle scenes that leave you wanting more—still exist. You never truly get a sense of what this dark moment in history means to Orlando Bloom’s blacksmith turned knight until the end, when he passionately denounces all the suffering that’s been carried out in the name of religion. By then, though, you may have already switched off Kingdom of Heaven to once again cheer on Gladiator.
Photo courtesy of 20th Century Fox