2011 year-end wrap-up part I: The Underrated.

 This is the first of several year-end wrap essays detailing the year in film.  First up, here are ten films that qualify as 'underrated'.  Some of them are good, if not great films, that were unfairly maligned.  Others were mediocrities that nonetheless did not deserve the level of scorn which they received and/or had content that was worth pointing out and praising within the flawed final product.  As always, they are in alphabetical order, with one special mention at the end for the 'most underrated film of 2011'.  I'm sure anyone who has been reading me this year can guess which film that is...

Scott Mendelson returns to podcasting.

For those interested, here is a 90-minute podcast which I participated in on Sunday night with three other film critics (Aaron Neuwirth, Abraham Moua, and Matt Levin).  The primary topics are A Very Harold and Kumar Christmas and Tower Heist, with any number of random digressions tossed in.  Hope you enjoy it, I had a good time and I will, barring unforeseen variables, likely be returning to their show on December 18th to discuss Mission: Impossible: Ghost Protocol and Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows.


Scott Mendelson

Thoughts on the Brett Ratner mess: When explicit slurs become part of everyday language and how to deal with their casual and out-of-context use.

I don't think Brett Ratner is a homophobe, at least not from the current evidence.  He may be an ignorant or thoughtless person, but I no more think he is a homophobe for using the word 'faggot' then I do believe that any of you are homophobes for using the word 'sissy'.  Nor do I believe that most of you hold any prejudicial inclinations towards gypsies even if you occasionally use the word 'gyp' (or 'gypped') in everyday conversation.  There are words that have highly prejudicial origins that have just happened to become commonplace expressions in the English language.  Their original meanings have been lost to time, and they have been accepted as part of normal (if crude) conversation.  For much of my lifetime (and I presume much longer than that), the term 'fag' or 'faggot' had a meaning completely separate from its explicit use as an anti-gay slur.  It basically had a secondary meaning as a derogatory term that, while perhaps related to certain stereotypes about homosexuals (weak, uncool, etc), was not intended as an explicit put-down of homosexuals.  Point being, you can call someone or something a 'fag' without referring to homosexuality.  You probably shouldn't, as doing so shows either ignorance of the word's origins or an indifference to its real meaning, but you can.

Weekend Box Office (11/06/11): Puss in Boots tops again with record hold, while Tower Heist and A Very Harold & Kumar Christmas slightly underperform.

 Well it looks like the answer to last weekend's big question was "B".  Dreamworks did indeed trade one boffo opening weekend for two rock-solid weekends after all.  Last weekend, after being moved onto Halloween weekend at the last minute, Puss In Boots (review and trailer) debuted with a mediocre (for Dreamworks Animation) $34 million.  I speculated that perhaps Dreamworks simply was hoping to have an extra weekend before facing off against Happy Feet 2 (November 18th) and were hoping to use positive word of mouth to fuel a strong hold this weekend as well.  Puss In Boots topped the box office again, with another $33 million.  That's a drop of 3% from last weekend.  The Shrek spin-off pulled in the smallest second weekend drop for a Dreamworks animated film of all-time, behind only the 0.2% rise of the first Shrek, which had the Memorial Day weekend holiday behind it.  In fact, give-or-take how the final numbers measure up to the 3.6% drop of the second weekend of The Sixth Sense, and the 2.8% increase for My Dog Skip (coming off just a $5 million debut , Puss In Boots may have snagged the record for the smallest second-weekend drop for a non-Holiday weekend.

Review: Tower Heist (2011) is a solid, low-key comedic caper that respects its own story and doesn't sacrifice its own reality for laughs.

Tower Heist
2011
110 minutes
rated PG-13

by Scott Mendelson

Brett Ratner's Tower Heist is an unassuming caper film that works because it doesn't try to force laughs or excitement down our throats.  The film is arguably more of a light drama than a pure comedy, and its laughs never come at the expense of the inherent seriousness of the situation.  Director Ratner and writers Ted Griffin and Jeff Nathanson take the story that they have created as seriously as they can, while respecting the intelligence and viewpoints of all the major characters.  It is not a great film, but it occasionally flirts with being a great movie.  At its core, Tower Heist is basically as good as every major studio concoction should be as a matter of principle.

Universal to offer Tower Heist on Video On Demand 3 weeks after theatrical debut.

It could be a game-changer or could just be an irrelevant blip (it's so hard to tell sometimes).  The Los Angeles Times is reporting that Universal has announced a (very) limited test run with offering premium-priced Video On Demand for Brett Ratner's all-star caper comedy Tower Heist (trailer) just three weeks after the film's November 4th theatrical debut.  Long-story short, if you live in Atlanta or Portland and get your cable TV via Comcast (which now of course owns Universal), you will have the option of purchasing a (I presume) one-time viewing of the Ben Stiller/Eddie Murphy film for 'just' $59.99 just three weeks after the theatrical opening weekend (which I presume means the start of its fourth weekend in theaters).  Other online or cable companies will allegedly have the option to offer this same service at the same time, but we'll see if anyone else bites.  The price point is obviously intended to appeal for larger families or large groups of friends who don't have to see the newest releases right away, but don't want to wait until DVD and the other various home-video platforms.

Brett Ratner's all-star caper Tower Heist gets a trailer.

This one has been on the radar for awhile purely due to the huge cast.  The big trump card is of course Eddie Murphy returning to slightly harder-edged comedy after 15 years of being a family-friendly entertainer.  The rest of the lineup (Ben Stiller, Alan Alda, Tea Leoni, Gabourey Sidibe, Matthew Broderick, Casey Affleck, Michael Pena, Judd Hirsch, etc) makes this a must-see almost by default, while the fact that the first credited writer (out of eight) is Noah Baumbach gives hope regarding its quality (the other seven writers are a mixed bag).  I know this isn't a popular opinion, but I'm a big fan of Ratner's Red Dragon, primarily because he apparently was smart enough to stand back and let his equally terrific cast just do their thing (major caveat - Why was Scott Glenn not asked back to play Jack Crawford this time around?).  Hopefully the same 'go off and play, just come in before dark' mentality will apply here.  It is slightly odd that Eddie Murphy is arguably playing the same type of character he played in 48 Hrs and he doesn't look that much older than he did in 1982 (he turned 50 this past April).  Anyway, this one comes out November 4th from Universal so, as always, we'll see...

Scott Mendelson