2011 year-end wrap-up part III: Good films you missed.

This is the third of several year-end wrap essays detailing the year in film.  This time, it's about highlighting the good or great films that slipped under the radar somehow.  Some got rave reviews and wide releases but stiffed at the box office while some never made it out of limited release.  All are worth tracking down and all are, with one exception I will point out, now available on DVD/Blu Ray/download/etc.  And nearly all of them are not hardcore independent films, but seemingly mainstream dramas and comedies that would have likely merited a wide release even a few years ago.  Once again, these will be in alphabetical order. 

Weekend Box Office (10/30/11): Puss In Boots makes muted (for Dreamworks) number-one debut, while Timberlake/Seyfried's In Time and Depp's Rum Diary underwhelm.

 

Dreamworks seems to have paid a price for their risky release date, as Puss In Boots (review) debuted with a comparatively soft $34 million over the weekend.  We'll find out for sure on Monday if it broke the Halloween opening weekend record (Saw III grossed $33 million on this weekend in 2006), it's still a pretty disappointing number and well below the norm for major Dreamworks cartoons.  The studio has had a healthy run on the first weekend in November for the last several years (Megamind, Madagascar 2, Bee Movie, Flushed Away), but the decision was made recently to move the film back one weekend right into the heart of the kid-friendly holiday known as Halloween. As it stands for the $130 million production, the debut is the lowest opening for a Dreamworks cartoon since Flushed Away, which debuted with just $18.8 million in November 2006 (an Aardman Animations production, it nearly doubled its $64 million US gross overseas).  While a massive snowstorm on the East Coast likely kept moviegoers indoors on Saturday and possibly Sunday, the film's $9.6 million opening day was below par as well.  As it is, the film played 59% female and 55% over-25.  It also played to a 35% Hispanic audience, while 51% of the tickets were in 3D and 7% were in IMAX.  The comparative uptick in 3D sales makes sense, since it's some of the better 3D we've seen to date.

Review: Puss In Boots (2011) is enjoyable, exciting, and intelligent all-ages entertainment plus a master-class in doing 3D 'right'.

Puss In Boots

2011
90 minutes
rated PG

by Scott Mendelson

Puss In Boots could have just been a 'one-off' picture from the prolific Dreamworks Animation department.  As a spin-off for a popular supporting character from the Shrek series, it has arguably more built-in appeal than something along the lines of How to Train Your Dragon or Megamind.  The film is already likely to be a big hit no matter how good or bad it is.  But the gang at the current House of Katzenberg refuse to take such easy roads to profitability.  What could have been a cheap and easy spin-off is instead a surprisingly engaging and richly constructed adventure film.  It is yet another sign that Dreamworks is every bit the equal of the Mouse House and they plan on staying there not by 'having their finger on the pulse of popular culture', but by merely making really good cartoons that respect their audience.  And that's what Puss In Boots is.  It's not as breathlessly exciting as How to Train Your Dragon nor is it as epic and emotionally profound as Kung Fu Panda 2.  With strong vocals, a simple-but-satisfying story, occasionally eye-popping visuals, and another master-class in 3D, Puss In Boots is simply a darn good cartoon.

Trailer: Puss In Boots goes for easy jokes, mimics The Mask of Zorro in a most unexpected fashion.

I remember walking out of Monsters Vs. Aliens with basically a single thought: this movie really could have been something if they were willing to play it real.  Yes, the 3D was dynamite and the IMAX screen only added depth and scope, but at the end of the day, it was still a jokey 1950s spoof aimed at very young kids.  What a great movie it could have been if it had the courage to be a real science-fiction adventure about monsters fighting off invading alien forces...  Dreamworks has proven they can play for keeps since then, with Kung Fu Panda, How to Train Your Dragon, and Megamind.  But Puss in Boots seems to be going the Monsters and Aliens route.  Yes, this is just a trailer, but how wonderful would it be to see a full-blown and red-blooded Zorro adventure in animated form where our Zorro happened to be an animated feline?  Speaking of The Mask of Zorro, I fully expected Dreamworks to use the James Horner score for Martin Campbell's masterpiece in this new trailer.  But instead, they used the same piece of music from Drop Zone that Sony used in the original Mask of Zorro trailers back in 1998.  Weird... Anyway, this one comes out on November 4th.  As always, we'll see...

Scott Mendelson    

The Mask of Zorro finally arrives on Blu Ray today.

Nearly two years after the Blu Ray release of the less-successful (but still pretty darn good) sequel, The Legend of Zorro, Sony finally feels fit to release the original modern classic on Blu Ray today. It's no secret that I probably love this film more than anyone else on the planet. Heck, it's probably my favorite film of the 1990s and perhaps my all-time favorite superhero adventure. Before I got married, The Mask of Zorro used to be the litmus test. You didn't have to like Batman, Star Wars, Airplane!, or The Silence of the Lambs. But if you couldn't see the obvious quality at work in this Martin Campbell reinvention, then it just wasn't going to work out.

This film is why I'm such a hardcore Martin Campbell junkie. Everything about it just works. The action is full of real stunt work, and it's shot in long, fluid takes. The special effects are mainly practical and you can see the blood, dirt, and sweat on each and every actor. The swordplay is copious and varied. And while the film is pretty violent (especially in the first act), the body count is just low enough for it to be shocking whenever a life is lost (like all Martin Campbell action films, the violence stings and the dead are mourned).

Although there are four major action set pieces, the 135-minute film is long enough to have ample heapings of plot and character development. Even the villain (Stuart Wilson) is given shadings and moments of empathy, and his grand scheme is both brilliant and logical. Eleven-and-a-half years after its release, The Mask of Zorro remains Antonio Bandaras and Catherine Zeta Jones's finest hours, and it contains one of Anthony Hopkins's best performances. If by some fluke you haven't seen this one yet, you now have absolutely no excuse. If you value my opinion at all, you'll buy or rent The Mask of Zorro today.

Scott Mendelson