Is there a homicidal maniac stalking your child's preschool? No.
Cheap right? Something that local news does all the time right? Yet now, twice in two days, Showbizdata (or whomever writes the stories on that site and the Studio Briefing on the IMDB) has engaged in this kind of bait and switch.
First, they had a headline proclaiming: 'Can Knight Beat Titanic?'. Of course the story eventually came to the (correct) conclusion that The Dark Knight has no chance of unseating Titanic as the top domestic grossing film in history. Basically, they are advertising a falsehood and then debunking said falsehood at the very bottom of the story. So, the answer is 'nope, but we wanted you to click on the link'.
Now, today, we have a headline stating: 'If It's Wednesday, It Must Be Friday'. This one again deals with the erroneous assumption that studios are now beginning to open many of their films on a Wednesday instead of Friday. Ironically, at the very end of the article, gives a very specific and reasonable explanation for why these last two weeks have seen major Wednesday openings (the studios want to get a few more extra days in before the school year starts up again). So, you have a headline advertising a falsehood, then have an article trumpeting said falsehood, then at the very end of your article, you basically disprove said falsehood (talk about burying the lead).
In response to the fifth comment on the Jon Voight post from a couple weeks ago, this one regarding Barack Obama's approach to the Russia/Georgia conflict. To said commenter (who was alas anonymous), thank you for breaking my writer's block. For those who come here purely for the geeky movie news, please re title this post - 'Steve Rogers vs Tony Stark against Dr. Doom' (or, perhaps 'Hawk Vs. Dove against Black Adam').
I prefer Barack Obama's diplomatic approach to John McCain's saber rattling when he knows full well that we have no saber to rattle. Besides, John McCain's absolute support for Georgia is a conflict on interest, since his chief campaign adviser, Randy Scheunemann, was until recently a paid lobbyist for Georgia. Fortunately, this is slowly coming out in the mainstream media. Neither are perfect solutions and this is a terrible situation that has been bubbling for years under the 'watchful' eye of Bush and alleged Russian expert Condoleezza Rice.
For the record, Vladimir Putin is, pardon the simplification, a power-mad wannabe dictator, and I've said so for nearly a decade. I've constantly joked that he had an internship under Blofeld in his college years and took Dr. Evil under his wing in grad school. His hard-line counter terrorism tactics ('if terrorists don't kill their hostages, we will!') showed that he had absolutely no regard for human life, to the point where it made Bush look like a tree-hugging pacifist hippie. He is popular because, after a good fifteen years or so of post USSR economic misery, he made Russia look and feel large and strong again (Reagan's popularity in the 1980s similar). Never mind that he has more or less ended democracy in Russia and put a serious dent in the capitalistic systems and the free press, he made Russia look tough and most of them loved him for it. No wonder he and Bush got along so well at the beginning.
But remember, this is a situation that was at least partially caused by the Bush administration. Georgia's future actions that brought this on were apparently condoned or at least acknowledged by Rice and company during a visit last month, or at least not . Neither the US or Georgia expected Putin to retaliate so brutally. And while Georgia did 'cross the line' first, and they are responsible for the initial deaths of civilians and Russian peacekeepers, it is also correct that Putin used this as an excuse to show off how powerful Russia was and how impotent the rest of the world was in response.
As for the lessons of World War II, I personally think that the lessons of World War I apply in a far more disturbing sense. If Georgia had been allowed into NATO, this would have been considered an act of war against all of the allies of NATO and we would have had World War I again. So does that mean it's good that Georgia wasn't in NATO? Maybe, or maybe if Georgia had been in NATO they wouldn't have engaged in the initial aggression and/or Russia wouldn't have come down on them so hard.
Obama's performance in this moment has not been his finest hour, on that we can all agree. He seemed ill-at-ease, unsure of himself, and not terribly confident in the strategy he was laying out (he also should have worn a suit for the occasion). Still, just because he gave a lousy speech doesn't mean the contents of that speech were incorrect. He understands that we can't really threaten Russia with force, since all of our army is in Iraq and Afghanistan. He knows that we can't really condemn Russia for invading a sovereign nation and attempting regime change, because the US has been engaged in that for years and it was likely the invasion of Iraq that convinced Putin that he could get away with his present actions. Israel's crushingly disproportionate response in Lebanon two years ago probably didn't help either.
What Barack Obama also should have said is that this was a perfect example of blow back from the foreign policy of the Bush administration, emboldening both sides of an armed conflict and then being more or less helpless to resolve that conflict. In the same way that the invasion of Iraq, a country with no nukes, has restarted an arms race in the Middle East, our immoral and illegal acts of aggression (spying, invasions, torture, rendition, etc) has shown to the world that this kind of behavior will more or less be tolerated on the world stage. And, John McCain's all-but declaration of war against Russia, despite our current tactical disadvantage, is a sign that John McCain will really give us more of the same.
Of course, that's what Obama should have said. He's not the perfect candidate and he won't always say exactly the right thing. Heck, he wasn't even my top pick in the primary (my favorite candidate was Chris Dodd), but I still mostly agree with him on the issues and vigorously disagree with McCain's outlook on the world, which if anything seems more draconian, militaristic, and authoritarian than Bush. Despite what Clinton said back in 2002 in regards to US voters, I'd rather have a president who is weaker but right, rather than one who is stronger but wrong.
Here's an article with samplings of reactions to the candidates' performances on this new development. So far, it's still advantage McCain. I guess Clinton may be right.
In honor of this week's Olympic games, here's a lovely video compilation of the best Olympic bloopers caught on film. I used to have all of these as separate videos on my computer, how nice that someone was willing to combine them into one file. The last one in particular is lovely. Enjoy.
As I predicted, and as I mentioned in a post last week commenting on the fallacy of Wednesday openings, both of the new openers shot themselves in the foot by opening on Wednesday, drawing precious viewers away from that all important three-day weekend. While the five-day totals of both of the openers were just fine, both films would have benefited, PR-wise, by just opening on Friday with much larger three-day takes to boast about on Monday morning. Ironically, while both were hurt by the spread, the one I expected to hold up better was the one that more or less collapsed.
The Pineapple Express - $23.2 million 3-day, $41.3 million five-day. Obviously most of the must-see demand for this picture was used up on its colossal $12 million Wednesday opening day. Now, had the picture opened on Friday, we likely would have seen a $35 million three-day and Pineapple Express would have been the number one movie of the weekend (as opposed to Mr. "I'm not wearing hockey pants!"). It's an issue of appearances, as the headline 'Pineapple Express is number one, defeats The Dark Knight!' looks a lot better than 'Dark Knight number one again, Pineapple Express is second with pretty terrific five-day take'.
Little of this matters in the long run, and this $27 million budgeted picture will now turn a big profit even if it collapses. Alas, it might do just that, as the demand was obviously front loaded, the word-of-mouth has been 'eh', and Tropic Thunder is going to crush it starting on Wednesday the 13th (will I be writing next weekend about a potential $40 million three-day vs. a $50 million five day?). The film has already out grossed both Harold And Kumar pictures (the masterpiece and its craptacular sequel), and it will probably be the highest grossing stoner comedy of all time (for whatever that's worth). Come what may, Mazel tov David Gorden Green.
Sisterhood Of The Traveling Pants 2 - $10.7 mill three-day, $19.6 million five-day. Next up is another Wednesday opener, one that proved even more front loaded than I expected. Despite opening to almost 2.5x the Wed-Thurs number of the opening five-day weekend of the original ($8.9 million x $3.7 million), Sisterhood Of The Traveling Pants 2 ended its three-day portion with only $10.6 million, which is just over the $9.8 million three-day of the original. So, despite starting out 241% ahead going into Friday, the five day total of the sequel was only 46% ahead of the original.
Obviously, massive front loaded took place here, and I now doubt that this $27 million-budgeted sequel will even equal the $39 million that the original grossed. The reviews were not that much different (67% for part 2 vs. 77% for part 1), and I have no idea what the word of mouth is, so I can offer no real reasons for this anamoly. Hopefully, this is a case of the fan base not feeling the need to rush out right away (or perhaps, the fan base's parents staying home to watch the Olympics).
The Dark Knight - $26.1 million. The third-biggest fourth-weekend of all time, behind Titanic and Spider-Man (and Spider-Man's fourth weekend was cushioned by the Memorial Day holiday). Titanic's fourth weekend was the one after the Christmas and New Years weekends. IE - a normally brutal weekend for holdovers and the first weekend where it had no cushion and was left to fend for itself. It still only dropped 13%, at which point I completely accepted that this wasn't just a well-loved mega-hit in the Jurassic Park/Forrest Gump vein, but something truly beloved that comes along once in a generation. The Dark Knight is still closer to the former category, which makes it no less impressive. By this time next week, it will have sailed $461 million and surpassed Star Wars to become the 2nd-highest grossing domestic grosser of all-time.
This is still an incredible performance and The Dark Knight will in all likelihood be the highest domestic grossing film of the decade. At the end of the 1980s, Batman was number 3, behind ET 's $399 million and Return Of The Jedi's $264 million. Of course, it has absolutely no chance at making it to $600 million. And it may not even be the highest grossing film of the year worldwide, as it's still $100 million behind Indiana Jones 4 and still has fellow Warner Bros juggernaut Harry Potter And The Half-Blood Prince to contend with (again, no shame as Batman films have never been all that strong overseas).
The Mummy: Curse Of The Dragon Emperor - $16.5 million. Down 59%, the newest Mummy picture is now at $71 million and stands a good chance of ending up behind Journey To The Center Of The Earth (now at $81.7 million at still only dropping 27%). Who could have seen that coming even a month ago?
Speaking of things no one saw coming, Space Chimps (which somehow cost $37 million) has now crossed the $25 million mark and is also dropping less than 40% per week. It will likely make it to about $35 million. Not bad for a movie that has basically been a punchline since the week or so before its release. Yes, this punchline will vastly out gross The X-Files: I Want To Believe (Fox put them both out, how embarrassing for them) and may defeat Disney's The Wild from 2006 ($37 million).
A ship has officially sailed. Iron Man was actually ahead of Indiana Jones in both theater count and box office this weekend. Iron Man is now $2 million ahead and, barring a release or a saturation of second-run theaters, Indy cannot catch up and Iron Man will remain the domestic champion. And, alas, I fully expect Iron Man to defeat Indian Jones on the home theater front as well, as many fans will be hesitant to buy Indiana Jones 4 (especially on Blu-Ray) as they may wait for the inevitable box set with all four films on Blu Ray or another version of DVD. Mama Mia has crossed $104 million, defeating Dreamgirls. Expect it to pass Hairspray to be the third-highest grossing musical ever, behind Chicago and Grease (not adjusted for inflation, or The Sound Of Music would be the third highest grossing film ever behind Gone With The Wind and Star Wars).
Hellboy II now has $74 million, Hancock has $221 million (Smith's fourth-highest grossing movie ever), Wall-E has $210 million and will pass Kung Fu Panda next weekend (it has $211 million now), and Midnight Meat Train continues to barrel towards the $100,000 mark.
The Olympics are less than a day old, and there's already been a murder of an American on Chinese soil. Yeesh. Hopefully this won't be a trend. Sympathies and condolences yet again, this time for friends and family of 62-year old Todd Bachman. He was the father in law of the coach of the US Mens Volleyball team. Granted, I shouldn't be too critical. Last time we held the Olympics, one of our right-wing extremists blew up a building and killed two people. At least no one is going to pin this on Richard Jewell this time.
I had no idea he was that ill. I knew he was in the hospital for a few days, battling an infection. My goodness. Anyway, here's the article. Apparently, he suffered for years from sarcoidosis, but that was not the apparent cause of death. A true jaw dropper. Sympathies and condolences to friends and family of course. Geez.
On one hand, it was incredibly narcissistic of John Edwards (with the full knowledge and consent of his wife) to run for president with this major and recent skeleton in his closet. On the other hand, myself and others have been saying for years that the unrealistic expectations concerning the private behavior of public officials has been one of the reasons that so few genuinely good and interesting people choose to get involved with politics. It's a complicated situation and I don't claim to have any more wisdom on it than anyone else. I still highly approve of John Edwards's politics and where he stands on social and economic issues. I voted for him in 2004 and was seriously considering voting for him this time around before he dropped out. Were he to run again, I'm not certain that I wouldn't vote for him, depending on who his competition was. I've always said 'it's about the issues, not whether you like the person'. This may be the ultimate test of said philosophy.
Here's an insane idea. Maybe Barack Obama should pick Elizabeth Edwards as his vice presidential candidate. Even before the much-rumored story was confirmed, Edwards was arguably the most loved woman involved with the Democratic Party, and one of the most respected people period. It would kill two birds with one stone. It would help neutralize what will be two big sores for the Obama campaign heading into the convention (the stink of John Edwards' private behavior and the remaining bitterness over Senator Clinton's defeat).
It will also be the kind of gutsy move that finally puts Obama back on the offensive after two weeks of fumbling the ball and letting McCain control the narrative. Politically, she has many of the same ideas and stances on the issues as her husband, especially on issues like health care and the working poor, but she has often been more forceful about their shared progressive agenda. And, pardon the frankness here, but if Edwards' breast cancer were to cause her to step down or pass away after the (hopefully victorious) election, Obama would have carte blanche to pick whomever he wants to be the new vice president and presumptive Democratic nominee in 2016.
I find it a little sexist and/or unfortunate that CNN has on its cover a serious-looking and resolute John Edwards next to a much less flattering, awkward, caught in the headlights picture of his mistress, Riele Hunter. The picture in the actual article is far more flattering, but the contrast on their homepage is striking and disconcerting.
It'll be interesting to see how much credit The National Enquirer gets for breaking this story long before the mainstream media would touch it. It's no secret that the majors were loathe to write about it, although there is the question of how much of a role they played in creating the story. IE - the photos at the hotel in the dead of night.. Was that a set-up arranged by the tabloid after Riele realized that Edwards was not the father, and that she only so much story to tell? David Poland of Movie City News has a nice blurb about this.
I wonder if the veracity of this much discussed tabloid story will cause anyone to think again about the 'tabloid rumors' that occasionally pop up concerning the crumbling of the Bush marriage (a librarian and an anti-intellectual illiterate - I really thought they could make it) and allegations of infidelity between George W. Bush and Condoleezza Rice.
For what it's worth, here is an article on MSNBC detailing how they major news outlets were scooped by The National Enquirer. They basically claim that the story was hard to prove and that, according to the Associated Press, they thought it 'better to get it right even if we couldn't get it first'. A nice motto if I ever heard of one, in fact, it's the same motto I use here ("I'd rather be right than first").
A valid question, and one that has puzzled me since I recall seeing screen shots from a gaming magazine several months ago (whenever I fly, I indulge and buy a video game magazine from the airport book stores, the ultimate in guilty-pleasure light reading). Here's a nice Associated Press article, most of it being speculation, discussing why there was no official video game tie-in for The Dark Knight. There was a mobile phone game, but there was no video game released for any of the consoles.
I'm guessing it was a quality issue since the speculation involving only making games for sure-fire blockbusters is absurd. Speed Racer and The Incredible Hulk had video games, as did Kung Fu Panda and Prince Capsian. None of these films were expected to set any records.
The Batman franchise has had a mixed success history in video games. The Super Nintendo versions of Batman Returns and The Adventures Of Batman And Robin (ie - Batman: The Animated Series) are arguably the best Batman games ever made. But for every Batman: Vengeance, there have been mediocre or downright terrible games (the infamous Batman: Dark Tomorrow is probably the cream of the crap). But, unlike other franchises, most Batman games have been at least enjoyable (I'm fond of the 1991 Atari arcade adaption of Tim Burton's Batman).
I can only assume that The Dark Knight game was shelved because it brought up memories of the dreaded Superman game for Nintendo 64. Released in May of 1999, it was a game so astoundingly terrible that it quickly became the definitive adjective in describing poor video games ('dude, this game is Superman 64 bad!').
On the plus side, there's a good chance that Lego Batman will be one of the greatest Batman games ever created. If it's anywhere near as much fun as the Star Wars and Indiana Jones Lego video games, we'll have a new classic on our hands come Fall.
Oddly enough, despite the presence of two Wednesday openers, there is still a bit of mystery to how the weekend will run itself out.
The Pineapple Express - $23 million. Despite a shocking $12.1 million start on Wednesday (a record for a Wednesday opening in August), there is great danger of a front-loaded five-day weekend. As I mentioned the other day, a Wednesday opening can hurt you with movies that are heavily front loaded. The Thursday estimates are already proclaiming a 51% drop to $6 million. Thus, the first day, a Wednesday, will end up being by far the highest day of the opening lane. If the pattern holds, expect a $8 million Friday, a $8 million Saturday, and a $7 million Sunday, give or take a few bucks. Thus, we have a $23 million three-day which will combine for a $41 million five-day take.
This is quite impressive, but the front loaded Wednesday prevented what could have been a $35 million or so three-day, which would have easily taken number 01 for the weekend and allowed bragging rights on two levels. A: The second biggest Apatow-related opening weekend of all time (besting the $30 million hauls for Superbad and Knocked Up and coming in second to the $47 million opening of Talladega Nights). B: Allowing Pineapple Express to brag about taking down The Dark Knight and being the number one film of the weekend. Now there is a real risk that it will come in second, if not third (behind Sisterhood Of The Traveling Pants 2, which is likely a lot less front loaded). $40 million+ in five days is terrific, especially when you consider the genre (it will have out grossed both Harold And Kumar films by Sunday), its budget ($25 million) and the previous filmography of director David Gorden Green, who's previous (justifiably) critically acclaimed intimate dramas about poverty and struggle in rural America have grossed, in total, $134,527 . For once, I finished watching a David Gorden Green film and didn't feel the need to make a donation to the local food bank. For what it's worth, I can say with certainty that Pineapple Express is the least depressing film he has ever made (though to be fair, I have yet to see Snow Angels, but I'll catch it on DVD as soon as it becomes available). Still, I wonder if Sony would have rather had the bragging rights of debuting at number 01 for the weekend and dethroning The Dark Knight by a large margin. Tomato/Tomata I suppose.
Sisterhood Of The Traveling Pants 2 - $17 million. Oh, to stand in for Alexis Bedel in that picture. It was a rare thing to render Rory Gilmore second choice in any ensemble, but the then-unknown Lively Blake pulled it off three years ago. The sequel to the modest ($39 million) hit from 2005 seems to have built on its fan base, grossing literally 3x the Wed/Thurs number of the original heading into the weekend. Chalk it up heavy renting of the original, or the fortunes of Lively Blake and America Ferrera in the past three years, but this is playing like a Bourne sequel in regards to an upgrade in box office. Truth be told, the fact that the original was a pretty darn good movie didn't hurt (the climax of the America Ferrera/Bradley Whitford subplot packed a surprising emotional wallop). If you recall, when the original came out the other two stars, Alexis Bledel and Amber Tamblyn, were the ones with hit hour-long television shows. The original made $3.7 million in its first two days and $9 million over the Fri-Sun portion. Now the original only dipped 10% from Wed to Thurs and this sequel dropped 44%. So the front loading is there, but matinees for this one should be on par with Pineapple Express at the moment. I don't think it'll overtake Pineapple or Dark Knight, but it's possible. Either way, it's yet another relatively high-quality female-centered drama from those sexist, sexist bastards at Warner Bros.
Mummy: Tomb Of The Dragon Emperor: $16 million. A drastic tumble is in the works for this allegedly terrible would-be franchise. Unless the flurry of Olympic ads do the trick, expect this to end up as Brendan Fraser's second highest grossing film of the summer.
The Dark Knight - $24 million. I'm seriously running out of new pictures to post. Expect the sheer amount of new product to cause a 45% tumble, but it could still hold on to the lead position, if only for another five days. Ironically, the film that takes it down will be Tropic Thunder, which is getting much of its buzz from a wacky star turn by Robert Downey Jr, whose Iron Man was pantsed by Mr. Bale and company just a month ago. Call this a token amount of revenge. I've never written the word 'pantsed' before. I hope I spelled it correctly.
This is a fake 'Quantum of Solace' theme song, done by Joe Cornish which touches on something I've brought up a couple times. IE - how the hell to make a song titled or even containing the lyric 'Quantum Of Solace'. It's not as 'real' of a Bond song as I was hoping when I read about it. It uses clips from the two Craig movies when it should have tried to make a traditional Bond credit sequence (the silhouettes, the curvy shadows, etc) and it's admittedly funny lyrics mock the franchise as opposed to trying to create a Bond-theme-type song. But I did laugh several times. Anyway, enjoy.
Is there a homicidal maniac stalking your child's preschool? No.
