Weekend Box Office: Oz tops twice, The Call tops Burt Wonderstone, and Spring Breakers explodes in limited release.

There is an amusing phenomenon, going back at least as long as I can remember, to underestimate the box office potential of films featuring actors of color.  We don't see it coming, we're shocked when it happens, and then studios don't actually factor this new information into their production slate.  Anyway, The Call was the top new release of the weekend, earning $17.2 million.  Yes the film played strongly among African Americans, at least partially because the movie bothered to feature a few (Halle Berry and Morris Chestnut among many others) in more than just token roles.  Tracking this debut compared to Berry's previous efforts is tough because she has had co-starring roles in stuff like Die Another Day ($47 million debut), The Flintstones ($29 million), and the X-Men trilogy ($54m, $85m, and $102m).  In terms of starring vehicles, this is bigger than the likes of Catwoman ($16 million), and A Perfect Stranger ($11 million), but below Gothica ($19 million).  The marketing smartly highlighted that it was a film about one woman rescuing another woman from peril, with no clear male lead.  It played 61% female and 53% over-30.  The picture cost just WWE just $13 million before selling the rights to Sony and earned a B+ from Cinemascore, so it may just have legs.  Even if its appeal is about "black audiences have nothing for them right now", Warner Bros' Jackie Robinson biopic 42 doesn't open until April 12th.

Review: The Call (2013) is much better than you were expecting, at least for the first hour.

The Call

2013
95 minutes
Rated R

by Scott Mendelson

For the first hour or so of The Call, you'll think you're watching a new B-movie classic.  The picture is staged as a typical 'special location' thriller.  We get a solid prologue, a decent chunk of the movie set during the actual situation we paid to see, and then, as must always be a the case, a finale set away from the prime location.  Speed had to eventually leave the bus, Shoot to Kill had to eventually get out of the mountains, and Red Eye couldn't just end on that plane.  It's how a film like this handles the eventual disembarking that determines its overall success.  Sadly, The Call blows the dismount by a considerable margin, trading plausible real-world tension for generic genre cliches.  But up until that time, it is a superior thriller, and a successful return to the somewhat lost art of what Roger Ebert liked to call the bruised-forearm movie.  For the first 2/3, The Call is a nearly perfect example of what it's trying to be.  

Despite Skyfall's regressive sexual politics, Bond Girls have been "Bond Women" since, oh... 1987.

Spoiler warning for Skyfall (non-spoiler review HERE)...

As happens every time a new 007 film opens, pundits and critics are generally quick to point out how this new 007 picture has one of the very best 'Bond girls' ever.  Oh this time she's strong, independent, able and willing to hold her own with James Bond, and not merely there to be a sex object.  So if critics pretty much say that nearly every time, at what point do we have to acknowledge that the meme of the helpless and useless Bond Girl is mostly a myth.  To put it simply, many of the so-called Bond Girls were, if not champions of feminism, presented as mostly capable and independent characters who happened to be obscenely attractive and (often improbably) attracted to Mr. James Bond.  From Dr. No onward to Skyfall, the hapless sex object who exists purely to be ogled and bedded is more exception than rule.  And quite frankly, over the last 25 years (or after Roger Moore left), almost every major 'Bond Girl' was a relatively well-developed character or at least played an important role in the story.  Ironically, perhaps in a misguided attempt to appease the fans, the treatment of women in Skyfall is actually comparatively regressive.  In short, it takes the series back to a certain misogynistic mindset that hasn't been prevalent since the Connery years.

Review: Cloud Atlas (2012) says little but does so beautifully.

Cloud Atlas

2012
165 minutes
rated R

by Scott Mendelson

At a glance, Cloud Atlas is exactly the kind of movie we say we want from mainstream Hollywood.  It is a grandly ambitious and visually dynamic adventure story, filled with a parade of fine actors and often unexpected plot turns.  It is a piece not about things but about ideas, delivered with high style and in a mostly entertaining fashion.  But if I am honest with myself and with you, I must confess that the many nuggets of wisdom to be found in Lana Wachowski, Andy Wachowski, and Tom Tykwer's sprawling epic don't amount to much.  There is little to challenge the mind and nothing beyond fortune cookie platitudes and the philosophy seems to explicitly apply to the main characters.  But if the philosophy doesn't dig any deeper than "Everything is connected." or "What is an ocean, but a multitude of drops?", the film is indeed a mostly entertaining piece of unconventional popcorn cinema.  There is much to admire and appreciate in the world of Cloud Atlas, even if it doesn't amount to a hill of beans.

Brandon Peters dissects the 007 series part 20: Die Another Day.

With Skyfall dropping in theaters in just a few weeks, along with the 50th anniversary of the James Bond series, a close friend and fellow film nerd, Brandon Peters, has generously offered to do a comprehensive review of the entire 007 film franchise. Today is the twentieth entry, with a full review of one of the worst films in the franchise, Die Another Day. I hope you enjoy what is a pretty massive feature leading up the November 9th release of Skyfall. I'll do my best to leave my two-cents out of it. But just because I'm stepping aside doesn't mean you should. Without further ado...

Die Another Day

2002

Director: Lee Tamahori

Starring: Pierce Brosnan, Halle Berry, Rosamund Pike, Toby Stephens, Rick Yune, Judi Dench, John Cleese

PG-13

I’m Mr. Kil

                        ~Mr. Kil

Okay, so I’m starting a little early, but I have to mention this.  This moment is so horrible.  Bond gets out of his car and this big goon by the side of the road just awkwardly and out of place says this to him.  FOR NO REASON.  Bond doesn’t acknowledge the guy or anything.  Its almost very “I like turtles” variety.  And seriously?  Mr. Kil?  That’s like calling Oddjob ‘Mr. Hat’.  Or Red Grant “Blonde Strong”.  Or calling Jaws…uh…oh…well…”Giant Metal Mouth Biting Man”. 

STATS

Kills:  16

Bond Girls:  Jinx, Miranda Frost

Cars:  Aston Martin Vanquish

Locales:  North Korea, Cuba, Iceland

Odd Villain Trait:  Zao has the side of his face embedded with diamonds

Song:  “Die Another Day” performed by Madonna

Ridiculous.  If I were to describe Die Another Day with just one word, that’s what I would choose.  Bond’s 20^th film, released on his 40^th anniversary features poor direction, performance and much absurdity with an overabundance of call backs (some obvious and some very Where’s Waldo-ish).  Like the other long tenured Bonds, Roger Moore and Sean Connery, before him, Pierce Brosnan bows out on an obvious sub par entry and one of the worst films of the series.  Funny, both Pierce and Sean left off with diamond related satellite-laser beam plots by madmen who are having DNA reconstruction done to change faces.

Trailer Analysis: Visually dazzling Cloud Atlas seems like the exact sort of ambitious film-making we claim we want.

Wow... just wow.  This went up a few days ago in a bootleg form, but it was worth the wait for the pristine 1080p version.  This is exactly the kind of film that we claim Hollywood lacks the nerve to make and yet here it is.  It's based on an acclaimed science fiction novel.  It stars the likes of Tom Hanks, Halle Berry, Hugo Weaving, Jim Sturges, Susan Sarandon, Hugh Grant, Keith David, Jim Broadbent, and James D'Arcy.  It cost $100 million to make yet looks like it cost $500 million.  It's rated R.  It runs 164 minutes.  For those who claim that Hollywood doesn't make movies for adults anymore, you kinda have a duty to check this out in three months.  Tom Tykwer and the Wachowskis are co-directing this Warner Bros pick-up and it looks pretty spectacular to say the least.  Since I have not read the 2004 book that this film is based on, I cannot say how spoiler-ish this footage is, but considering how under-the-radar this picture is 90 days before its debut, I'd argue that this is a necessary marketing tool to get people talking.  Long story short, this looks spectacular and instantly shoots to the upper-realms of my 'must-see' list for fall/winter 2012.  To be fair my secret wish is for Cloud Atlas to be so good that it causes people to reevaluate the inexplicably undervalued brilliance of Speed Racer and even (to a lesser extent) the Matrix sequels.  Cloud Atlas opens on October 26th.  I suppose 'we'll see', but yeah, go see it regardless.

Scott Mendelson