Welcome to Movie Musings with Laremy, a weekly feature that dives into the weekly happenings around the cinematic landscape.
I won’t lie, there are issues with From Paris with Love that probably doomed it to a February release date. Jonathan Rhys-Meyers’ American accent is laughable. There are logic problems throughout. But if you’re a fan of the vio-com (violent comedy) then you’ll find a lot of enjoyment here. Travolta cackles his way through about sixty solid minutes of gunplay. It actually rains bodies at one point in the film. There’s a better than average chase scene. All this set to the score of heavy guitars and one-liners, plus there’s a Pulp Fiction callback thrown in for good measure. You could do waaaaay worse for a Sunday matinee.
Bonus Random Thought: When Travolta acts like a tough guy lunatic, good things tend to happen. Face/Off.Swordfish. Get Shorty. No, they aren’t classic movies by any stretch of the imagination, but they’re eminently watchable. On a snowy and rainy February weekend? You’ll take watchable.
Who was snubbed? I’ve gotta say Clint Eastwood, director of Invictus. He was snubbed so hard that Whitney Houston could have been singing “The Greatest Snub of All” to him as he woke up for his morning cup of coffee. If you can’t get a nomination for a story about Nelson Mandela…well, the world has turned upside-down. That the film wasn’t tremendous is immaterial; Oscar generally rewards the themes and the pedigree. But who will win? Jeff Bridges and Christoph Waltz are mortal locks, as is Mo’Nique. See if you can get someone, anyone, to bet against you on those three. Kathryn Bigelow is another 99.9 percenter. The only big categories still up for grabs are Best Picture and Lead Actress.
Bonus Random Thought: I still think Inglourious Basterds is going to pull off an upset for Best Picture. It may not get the most first place votes, but it will be high on most ballots. Avatar will get dinged by a few people as being too CGI-laden. The conservative wing of The Academy will rank Hurt Locker low simply because it’s a movie about the Iraq war. That’s when The Weinstein brothers will strike, getting just enough people to rank Basterds in the top three,securing a monumental upset in March.
Studios continually tend to think that 3-D is the reasons audiences flocked to Avatar to which I say “Not so fast.” Harry Potter is the latest franchise to jump on the bandwagon, indicating that parts one and two of The Deathly Hallows will require glasses to watch. Why? The Potter franchise has made billions of dollars worldwide, are there really people out there skipping it because it wasn’t presented in 3-D? Or could something more nefarious be at workhere?
Bonus Random Thought: Perhaps it’s just a blatant money grab. After all, it costs $2 to $3 more dollars per 3-D ticket, and you can do it under the auspice of “giving the fans what they want!” Whether they want it or not is irrelevant, you’re going tomake extra money on the equation, and you’re going to do it in a manner that’s socially acceptable. Pretty clever, actually.
The good news is that there’s a script. The bad news is that Paul Greengrass and Matt Damon won’t be involved with the next Bourne film, and it will be at least fiveyears until we see Damon as Bourne again. Another actor will be taking on the role in a Bourne Prequel, hopefully it won’t turn out to be the American Pie 4: Band Camp Waterloo of the franchise. If they choose Channing Tatum we’re done for. If they choose Ryan Gosling we’ve got a chance. How about it Universal? Can we get a Gosling over here? Heck, I’d even consider promoting that movie in 3-D.
5. About That Watchmen Sequel…
Upon reflection, the amount of money the studio lost on Watchmen is pretty staggering. The production budget was listed around $130m. Evidently around $50m was spent in marketing. The film made $185m worldwide at the box office. The math indicates that, given the studio-theatrical split,Warner Bros. had to have lost around $50m on Watchmen, even after DVD sales came in. Folks, that’s a lot of million to throw away. And so, even when word comes down about a new Watchmen
On that note, I hope you all have a pleasant Super Bowl weekend. Don’t eat too much chips and/or dip!
Checkout last week’s Movie Musings here
Laremy is the lead critic and senior producer for a website named Film.com. He’s also available on Twitter, where he’s picking the Saints to win.
