Review: The Incredible Burt Wonderstone (2013) will make your laughter and interest disappear.

The Incredible Burt Wonderstone
2013
100 minutes
rated PG-13

by Scott Mendelson

Among its many other faults, The Incredible Burt Wonderstone makes a solid case for the old 'television is better than the movies' argument.  The film is written by four different screenwriters all swimming in television writing experience and directed by a man who has directed almost nothing but television since 1990 and all of their various television projects are likely, by default, better than this film.  It features two actresses (Olivia Wilde and Gillian Jacobs) who did shine or are currently shining in well-developed three-dimensional roles on episodic television and uses them here merely as props for the boys to screw or ogle.   It contains a script seemingly written by committee that features less wit and smarts than any one of the 38 episodes of 30 Rock  by director Don Scardino.  But putting aside the film vs. TV debate, The Incredible Burt Wonderstone is an inexplicable missed opportunity, showcasing subject matter that isn't the least bit timely and highlighting the unmerited 'redemption' of a pointlessly horrible human being whose downfall is completely his own fault.  More importantly, save for Jim Carrey's supporting turn and a few grace notes along the way, it isn't very funny.

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: The Change-Up (2011) would have been better with a PG-13.

The Change-Up
2011
100 minutes
rated R

by Scott Mendelson

I'm not going to do a full-on review, but there are a few things I'd like to touch on.  First of all, the film isn't nearly as bad as many other critics seem to believe, nor is the film nearly as lurid or distasteful as its been advertised (I rather hate the above-poster, but there were no other one-sheet designs to choose from).  In terms of what it's about, it's actually a classical western, in that it primarily concerns the struggle between untamed freedom and orderly civilization.  The film is not as crass as 'gee, I'm shackled to a family while my friend gets to run around boning chicks'.  At its best, the David Dobkin picture hints at a simpler truth: that there are pluses and minuses to every sort of life we choose.  What makes the picture work better that it ought to is that the screenplay by Scott Moore and Jon Lucas (who also wrote the smarter-then-expected Ghosts of Girlfriends Past) gets at the heart of the matter: Two best friends, one with everywhere to be but no time to be there, while the other has all the time in the world and nowhere to be.

Weekend Box Office (08/07/11): Rise of the Planet of the Apes rises to the top, The Change-Up under-performs, Horrible Bosses crosses $100 million while Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part II is the #3 global grosser ever..

While not quite as mighty as the first series reboot ten years earlier, Rise of the Planet of the Apes had a muscular debut big enough to easily win the weekend.  Scoring $54 million, the Rupert Wyatt science-fiction drama very-nearly played like an old-fashioned, adult-targeted blockbuster.  It opened on Friday with $19.7 million and dropped just 1% on Saturday and ended with the weekend with a solid 2.74x weekend multiplier.  The film scored an A- from Cinemascore and played 56% male.  It's another solid win for Fox, as the film allegedly cost just $90 million.  It's also pretty darn good, even if I'm not a fan of the last twenty minutes (if I may avoid spoilers, I think the film does itself a slight disservice by attaching itself to the Planet of the Apes franchise).  Even if he'll get little credit, it's a solid win for James Franco, as it's easily his biggest debut outside of the Spider-Man franchise, nearly doubling the $23 million debut of The Pineapple Express on this weekend of 2008.  And after the relative under-performance of Cowboys and Aliens (-56% this weekend, for a $15.7 million weekend and a $67 million running total for a miserable and utterly worthless mediocrity), this is an encouraging sign that you don't need to be 3D to be successful in the big-budget genre marketplace.  Ironically, Fox (home of Avatar) is the first studio this year to have two 2D films opening over $50 million (after X-Men: First Class).  For what it's worth, Rise of the Planet of the Apes scored the fourth-biggest 2D opening of the year, behind The Hangover part II ($87 million), Fast Five ($86 million), and X-Men: First Class ($55 million).

Apparently domestic audiences don't like aliens or armed women... A tale of two Cowboys and Aliens posters.

 

The poster on the left is domestic and the one on the right is international.  For what it's worth, the domestic poster is a better piece of art.  It is moodier, with more natural looking photo-shopping for the two leads.  However, the international poster is interesting for two reasons.  First of all, the international poster actually has alien imagery on the poster while the domestic one does not.  Is this mere artistic choice, a choice to not reveal certain visual elements a month prior to release, or is Universal concerned that casual moviegoers will be turned off by explicit outer-space imagery in their western poster art?  Second of all, most obviously, the international poster actually features (and bills) Olivia Wilde, while the domestic one leaves her off.  So the question is, was the domestic omission a matter of trying to sell a more arch-typical 'two men against the world' western iconography, or is Universal somehow under the impression that putting Wilde on the poster (armed and ready no less) will turn off certain traditionalist segments of the audience?  You make the call, but there you have it.  Cowboys and Aliens opens on July 29th.  Expect the phrase 'in glorious 2D' to be thrown around quite a bit in junkets.

Scott Mendelson

Cowboys and Aliens gets a more plot-heavy second trailer.

Truth be told, I kinda like the moodier, scarier first teaser better. Favreau gets points for giving little away even in this longer trailer, especially when it comes to the visuals. I really don't care for the punk-rock western music that kicks in during the second half, as it really takes me out of the material. Everyone looks solid, although it's apparently obvious that Olivia Wilde has nothing to do other than look hot, get naked, and eventually get kidnapped. It's a shame about Clancy Brown, but it appears that he will not be in the sequel. In a summer filled with reboots, remakes, and sequels, Cowboys and Aliens still stands out as a genuinely original project, which this summer means that it's based on a comic book that no one has heard of. Nonetheless, this still looks like solid entertainment, and I'm always thrilled to see Harrison Ford in something that feels like a different kind of role (Morning Glory was a mediocre picture, but its just the kind of character role that Ford should be doing). This one comes out July 29th, so we'll see...

Scott Mendelson

Cowboys and Aliens gets a terrific Super Bowl teaser.

I'm not going to do a rundown of every single Super Bowl movie ad, primarily because there were just too many of them. One of the better spots of the night was another stellar showing by Universal for Jon Favreau's cult-comic book adaptation. Like the fantastic teaser, this one is selling the reality of its premise first (it's a real western, that happens to involve aliens), and holding off on the money shots until later. I've heard that much of the two teasers is mainly comprised of material from the first 40 minutes of the movie, so that's a promising sign. The nerds will already show up for this in droves. The key is convincing the general moviegoers who rediscovered their love of westerns through True Grit to buy a ticket on July 29th. So far, so good.

Scott Mendelson