Halloween (2007) - Zombie's remake is a bloody stinker

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A mask that seemingly holds back a mass of bothersome memories lights up this well-made poster for Rob Zombie's Halloween

Escaping after 17 years in a sanatorium, murder convict lunatic Michael Myers escapes and returns to Haddonfield and his little sister Laurie...

Halloween is written and directed by Rob Zombie (The Devil's Rejects (2005)), remaking John Carpenter's great slasher classic Halloween (1978). Zombie adds content to tell of Myers' almost comical childhood and his mask fetish, but seemingly only because most other areas of the Halloween universe have already been covered in the franchise's 8 preceding films.
Halloween features no real sense of character development or scene building, as everything is shot shakily and ultra-close in gritty images with a continually stressful quality. There is lots of blood but little in the way of actual, dazzling special effects. Worst for the film is that we are not made to care about a single one in it. This is an awfully bad remake.

Related posts:

Rob Zombie: 2007 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2007 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
The Devil's Rejects (2005) - Zombie's crazy serial killer Americana

Hear the theme for the film here, - which naturally reuses Carpenter's legendary original 1978 ditto

Cost: 15 mil. $
Box office: 80.2 mil. $
= Big hit (5.34 times the cost)
[Halloween was released 31 August (North America) and runs 110 minutes. Carpenter is a friend of Zombie, and when Zombie informed him of the remake plans, he urged Zombie to "make it his own." Shooting took place in California, including Los Angeles and in the neighborhood Carpenter shot in for the original film, from January - March 2007 with reshoots in June. 4 days before the release, a workprint, which Zombie stated was an older version of the film, was released online. The film opened #1 to a stellar 26.3 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it spent another 2 weeks in the top 5 (#2-#5) and grossed 58.2 mil. $ (72.6 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were the UK with 3.6 mil. $ (4.5 %) and Italy with 3.4 mil. $ (4.2 %). It is the highest-grossing Halloween movie to date, unadjusted for inflation. Zombie returned with the much less successful Halloween II (2009). Halloween is rotten at 25 % with a 4.1/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Halloween?

Gone Baby Gone (2007) - Difficult decisions await in Affleck's Lehane adaptation crime drama debut

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Casey Affleck holds a gun and has turned his back turned towards the camera against a dramatic sunset on this poster for his brother Ben Affleck's Gone Baby Gone

Two private detectives are hired to investigate the abduction of a girl by the name Amanda. A missing person's case that gets deeper with each step.

Gone Baby Gone is written by Aaron Stockard (The Town (2010)) and great, debuting, Californian co-writer-director Ben Affleck (Argo (2012)), adapting Dennis Lehane's (The Given Day (2008)) same-titled 1998 novel. The plot moves in similar thematic waters to Clint Eastwood's great Lehane-adaptation Mystic River (2003), also a crime drama about child endangerment in Boston, Massachusetts.
The casting is on point, the performances and the local Boston colors are fine, (Affleck grew up in Boston.) But something about the film's structure is off, and the third act seems to last the whole second half of Gone Baby Gone.
Ben Affleck's little brother Casey Affleck (The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007)) plays our protagonist private investigator Patrick Kenzie, SPOILER who seems to make the wrong decision in the pensive, stone-in-the-shoe ending to the film. Affleck the filmmaker deserves a compliment for staying in the difficult story here, and for making moral questions a cornerstone in it.

Related posts:

Ben Affleck: Argo (2012) or, The Hollywood Hero (producer-director-star)

The Town (2010) - Renner stands out in entertaining, flawed training picture for Affleck (co-writer/director/co-star)

Armageddon (1998) or, Macho Men Save Earth From Disaster! (actor)

Dazed and Confused (1993) - Linklater's stoner youth nostalgia is a blast (actor)

Watch the opening three minutes of the film here

Cost: 19 mil. $
Box office: 34.6 mil. $
= Big flop (1.82 times the cost)
[Gone Baby Gone premiered 5 September (Deauville Film Festival, France) and runs 114 minutes. Shooting took place in Massachusetts, including Boston, and in California from May - August 2006. The film opened and peaked #6 to a 5.5 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it grossed solid 20.3 mil. $ (58.7 % of the total gross). Its 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were the UK with 3.6 mil. $ (10.4 %) and France with 2.7 mil. $ (7.8 %). Its performances in many other markets were too small for it to succeed theatrically overall. Roger Ebert gave the film a 3.5/4 star review, translating to a notch better than this review. It was nominated for an Oscar: Best Supporting Actress (Amy Ryan), lost to Tilda Swinton for Michael Clayton. The film was also nominated for a Golden Globe, won 2 National Board of Review awards and many other honors. It has been listed on annual top 10 lists by at least 65 film critics. Ben Affleck returned with UNHCR-themed video short Gimme Shelter (2008) and theatrically with inferior, Boston-set heist movie The Town (2010). Casey Affleck returned in The Killer Inside Me (2010). Gone Baby Gone is certified fresh at 94 % with a 7.7/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Gone Baby Gone?

2008 in films - according to Film Excess

The 10 Best Movies of 2008:

1. Doubt - John Patrick Shanley + Best American Movie of the Year + Best Drama of the Year + Best Religious Movie of the Year + Best Play Adaptation of the Year

2. Forgetting Sarah Marshall - Nicholas Stoller + Best Romcom of the Year + Best Debut Movie of the Year + Best Comedy of the Year + Best Music Movie of the Year + Best Hawaii Movie of the Year + Shooting Star Actress of the Year: Mila Kunis

3. Burma VJ/Burma VJ: Reporter i et Lukket Land/Burma VJ: Reporting From a Closed Country, documentary - Anders Østergaard

4. The Dark Knight - Christopher Nolan + Best Superhero Movie of the Year + Best Blockbuster of the Year + Best Villain of the Year: The Joker (Heath Ledger)

 
5. The Reader - Stephen Daldry + Best Adaptation of the Year + Best Shooting Star Actor of the Year: David Kross

6. Frost/Nixon -Ron Howard + Most Undeserved Flop of the Year

7. Bolt - Byron Howard, Chris Williams + Best Dog Movie of the Year + Best Family Movie of the Year 
 

8. Appaloosa - Ed Harris + Best Western of the Year + Best Train Movie of the Year

9. The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas - Mark Herman + Best War Movie of the Year

10. 30 Rock - season 3 - Tina Fey, creator + Best New York Title of the Year + Best Returning TV-series of the Year + Best Sitcom of the Year 

Other great 2008 movie:

Eagle Eye - D.J. Caruso

Good, recommendable 2008 movies (in alphabetical order):

24: Redemption (TV movie) - Jon Cassar + Best TV movie of the Year

Bronson - Nicolas Winding Refn + Best Prison Movie of the Year + Most Violent Movie of the Year

Buddenbrooks/Die Buddenbrooks/Buddenbrooks: The Decline of a Family - Heinrich Brelouer + Best German Movie of the Year + Best Period Movie of the Year

Che: Part One - The Argentine - Steven Soderbergh  + Best Political Movie of the Year

The Class/Entre les Murs - Laurent Cantet + Best French Movie of the Year + Best Debate-sparking Movie of the Year

Cloverfield - Matt Reeves  + Best Poster of the Year + Best Found Footage Movie of the Year + Best 'Huge Hit' Movie of the Year

The Day the Earth Stood Still - Scott Derrickson + Best Remake of the Year + Best Science Fiction Movie of the Year

Departures/おくりびと (Okuribito) - Yôjirô Takita + Best Japanese Movie of the Year

Il Divo/Il Divo - La Spettacolare Vita di Giulio Andreotti - Paolo Sorrentino + Best Italian Movie of the Year

Flame & Citron/Flammen og Citronen - Ole Christian Madsen  + Best Danish Movie of the Year + Best Thriller of the Year

Frozen River - Courtney Hunt + Best Low-Budget Movie of the Year + Best Social Realism Movie of the Year

Mesrine: Killer Instinct + Mesrine: Public Enemy No. 1/Mesrine: L'Instinct de Mort + Mesrine: L'ennemi public n°1 - Jean-François Richet + Best Two-Part Movie of the Year + Best Gangster Movie of the Year + Biggest Flop Movie of the Year (range of 40.85 mil. $ loss collectively)

Terribly Happy/Frygtelig Lykkelig - Henrik Ruben Genz

The 10 Worst Movies of 2008:

1. 10,000 BC - Roland Emmerich + Most Undeserved Hit of the Year

2. Body of Lies - Ridley Scott

3. Take the Trash/Blå Mænd - Rasmus Heide 

4. A Christmas Tale/Un Conte de Noël - Arnaud Desplechin

5. Lemon Tree/עץ לימון [Etz Limon] - Eran Riklis + Most Overrated Movie of the Year

6. Bangkok Dangerous - Danny Pang, Oxide Chun Pang + Worst Poster of the Year

7. The Eye - David Moreau, Xavier Palud

8. Eden Lake - James Watkins + Most Unpleasant Movie of the Year

9. Cleaner - Renny Harlin

10. The Escapist - Rupert Wyatt

Other failed, poor or mediocre 2008 movies (in alphabetical order):

The Baader Meinhof Complex/Der Baader Meinhof Komplex - Uli Edel
Be Kind Rewind - Michel Gondry
Bottle Shock - Randall Miller
Burn after Reading - Ethan and Joel Coen
The Burning Plain - Guillermo Arriaga
The Changeling - Clint Eastwood 
Deadgirl - Gadi Harel, Marcel Sarmiento + Sickest Movie of the Year
Ticket to Romance/En Enkelt til Korsør - Gert Fredholm

[42 titles in total]

Notes

Most 2008 movies, good and bad, are missing on this first, tentative listing of the year, some of which will emerge on the first updated list in some months.
There was no doubt as to which of the reviewed 2008 titles would command the #1 spot, - excuse the pun, - John Michael Shanley's electric clergy drama Doubt stands tall. Nicholas Stoller's hilarious, multifaceted romcom Forgetting Sarah Marshall and Anders Østergaard's stirring Burmese revolt documentary Burma VJ take silver and bronze, respectively. The rest of the Top 10 are crowded with 7 excellent offerings: Christopher Nolan's best Batman movie, the spectacular, huge The Dark Knight; Stephen Daldry's poignant WWII drama The Reader; Ron Howard's terrific political interview portrait Frost/Nixon; Byron Howard and Chris Williams' irresistible stunt dog family animation adventure Bolt; Ed Harris' old-school western Appaloosa; Mark Herman's devastating children-around-the-time-of-Holocaust war movie The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas; and finally the third, uproariously funny season of Tina Fey's 30 Rock.
Other noteworthy movies of the year includes a thrilling surveillance actioner Eagle Eye, the first of two Che Guevara movies, Che: Part One - The Argentine with Benicio del Toro as the title revolutionary, a sizzling, French classroom drama called The Class, a New York-chomping kaiju thriller, Cloverfield, and a Danish WWII resistance thriller with impressive scope, Flame & Citron.
The worst of the year are topped by Roland Emmerich's ludicrous, uncompelling major adventure 10,000 BC, followed by Ridley Scott's boring and dispiriting Middle East thriller Body of Lies and Dane Rasmus Heide's clumsy and immature comedy debut Take the Trash. The list is completed by Arnaud Desplechin's aggravating A Christmas Tale, Eran Riklis' dull, unengaging Lemon Tree, The Pang Brothers' unpersuasive hitman actioner Bangkok Dangerous, David Moreau and Xavier Palud's flawed horror remake The Eye, James Watkins' relentlessly unpleasant horror Eden Lake, Renny Harlin's immaterial thriller Cleaner and Rupert Wyatt's flawed prison escape movie The Escapist.
Great and master filmmakers who churned out sub-par efforts in 2008 include Uli Edel (The Baader Meinhof Complex), Michel Gondry (Be Kind Rewind), The Coen Brothers (Burn after Reading) and Clint Eastwood (The Changeling).

Biggest flops of the year:

[The loss is based solely on the cost and box office earnings for the films. Marketing costs and additional revenue (home video, TV rights and other auxiliary profits) are not taken into account] 

1. Mesrine: Killer Instinct & Mesrine: Public Enemy No. 1 - collective two-part movie loss in the range of 40.85 mil. $, or around 20.4 mil. $ per movie
2. Bangkok Dangerous - 28 mil. $ range
3. Bolt - 26 mil. $ range
4. Cleaner - 23.4 mil. $ range
5. Body of Lies - 21.1 mil. $ range
6. Che: Part One - The Argentine - Part 1 & 2 endured a collective loss in the range of 41.6 mil. $, split in two coming to about 20.89 mil. $
7. Burning Plain - 17.7 mil. $ range
8. The Baader Meinhof Complex - 13 mil. $ range

2008 titles currently on the watchlist:

Pedro, Not Quite Hollywood: The Wild, Untold Story of Ozploitation!, The Good the Bad the Weird, Three Monkeys, Medicine for Melancholy, Paris 36, French Roast, Granny O'Grimm's Sleeping Beauty, A Matter of Loaf and Death, Instead of Abracadabra, The Door, Food Inc.

Previous annual lists:
2017 in films - according to Film Excess
2016 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I] 
2016 in films - according to Film Excess 2015 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II] 
2015 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
2015 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess   
2014 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]
2014 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II] 
2014 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
2014 in films - according to Film Excess  
2013 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED IV]
2013 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]
2013 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2013 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I] 
2013 in films - according to Film Excess    

2012 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED IV]
2012 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]
2012 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2012 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
2012 in films - according to Film Excess 

2011 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]
2011 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2011 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
2011 in films - according to Film Excess 

2010 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2010 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
2010 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess    

2009 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
2009 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess

What do you think of the 2008 lists?
What films of the year are your favorites and least favorites?
Is any essential title/s missing on the watchlist? 

Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (2018) - Ideals blow up in Bayona's grand and timely dino spectacle

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The cataclysmic volcano eruption leaves even the T-rex looking small on this amazing poster for J.A. Bayona's Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom

A few years after the disaster at the newly opened Isla Nublar Jurassic Park, a volcanic eruption threatens to end all life on the island, and Claire Dearing is engaged by the Lockwood estate, heirs to John Hammond's genetic dinosaur invention, to help move some of the dinosaurs to a sanctuary island, with the help of velociraptor wrangler Owen Grady of course.

Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom is the sequel to Colin Trevorrow's (The Book of Henry (2017)) great Jurassic World (2015) and is the second film in the new Jurassic trilogy. It is written by Derek Connolly (Monster Trucks (2016)) and Trevorrow and directed by great Spanish filmmaker J.A. Bayona (The Orphanage/El Orfanato (2007)).
I am a huge fan of the Jurassic franchise and therefore will probably always have a lot of thoughts on the films, - so here goes:
I saw the new film in a 4DX cinema in 3D, which is a cinema with seats that move, while blitzing lights, water drops and sprays, air whistling, smoke and smells are issued to enhance the experience. And although it didn't make me forget that I was not a part of the action on the screen, I thought it was a thrilling added layer and a fun elevation of the experience. It is certainly an added expenditure that a film like Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom is tailored for. So I recommend it.
Critics of this franchise will sneer that the films are so silly and all tell the same basic story. - But that isn't true. Ultra-short summaries of the four previous films may run like this:

1. Jurassic Park (1993): Billionaire philanthropist John Hammond creates Jurassic Park on Pacific Island Isla Nublar, but a greedy employee and hybris run afoul, and his grand children and others struggle to survive there.
2. The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997): 4 years later Hammond sends a team to prevent his greedy nephew's guys from capturing the dinosaurs on a neighboring island (Isla Sorna), but they fail to stop the military honchos, and dinos are taken to San Diego, where they wreak havoc but are ultimately returned to Isla Sorna, now pronounced a natural preserve.
3. Jurassic Park III (2001): A divorced couple trick Dr. Alan Grant from the first film to accompany them on a flight that ends on Isla Nublar, where their son is stranded after a parasailing accident.
4. Jurassic World (2015, franchise reboot): 22 years after the first film's events, a new dinosaur park has emerged and operated on Isla Nublar for 10 years. But to pander to the demanding audiences and lure more cash from them, a genetically modified species has been developed, the Indominus Rex. But as it breaks free, the park is ravaged by mayhem and chaos.

So, as you see, a different story each time, to be precise.
The new film rejoins Bryce Dallas Howard (Hereafter (2010)) and Chris Pratt (Moneyball (2011)), who are an immensely likable couple. Howard's Claire's coldness in the previous film has stifled here as she now heads a youthful dinosaur preservation organization. They venture to the island with two fresh young faces: Justice Smith (Every Day (2018)) and Daniella Pineda (Newlyweds (2011)), representations of what might be termed the idealistic, loud, 'woke' Parkland generation, with appropriately reversed (compared to traditional convention) gender balance: Smith spends most of the film being less than useful and scared witless, while Pineda's resourceful Zia takes action and stays cool. Both also seem like they may be gay, (and a lesbian scene with Zia was actually shot and dumped for trimming reasons), but the film has no time to get into this, regrettably, for Fallen Kingdom is in a rush!
Of the rest of the cast, most noteworthy is Ted Levine (Bleed for This (2016)) as the film's ruthless mercenary villain, SPOILER who removes teeth from dinosaurs as souvenirs. Levine brings back memories from The Silence of the Lambs (1991), in which he portrayed Jame 'Buffalo Bill' Gumb so terrifyingly, and makes another memorable super-villain here. - And Toby Jones (Agent Carter (2015), TV-series) who is also rather slimy with fake teeth and a lisp as a shameless auctioneer swine. - They both get their becoming in two of the film's most satisfying scenes.
Fallen Kingdom also has distinguished actors Geraldine Chapman (Sand Dollars/Dólares de Arena (2014)) and James Cromwell (Hawkeye (1995), TV-series), who are good without becoming really memorable in smaller parts. With Ron Howard's daughter, Charlie Chaplin's daughter and all the rest, the film brings feels like something of a golden trust of cinema establishment. Jeff Goldblum's (The League (2011-12)) return as chaos theory mathematician Alan Grant has made headlines of anticipation, but really he is only in two scenes, or rather one scene, which is cut in two, spouting some more or less prophetic wisdom about our messing with dinos and genetics at an official hearing, I suppose, which there also isn't any time to really make us understand. (What is this concerned gathering?) Nevertheless he manages to be great once again. And BD Wong (Oz (1997-03)) also returns as Dr. Wu, who may evolve into a real villain on his own in the next film I expect.
The film encompasses so much that we inevitably feel rushed through to some degree. - There is also a new child, SPOILER the Lockwood patriarch's (Cromwell) grand-daughter, who is revealed to be a clone, - but there also isn't time to really go into this, which may also likely be an element to revisit in the next film.
Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom naturally needs the time for its dinosaurs and action scenes, which are many, seamless and expectedly thrilling. - We are harder to woo at this point, and making a Jurassic movie may therefore inevitably become harder by each film. Fallen Kingdom lacks the scenes of wonder and bright thrills that its predecessor had plenty of; instead this is the darkest Jurassic movie yet, most comparable in the bunch to The Lost World, although it is a significantly better film. SPOILER It is a matter of taste if audiences prefer the first half of the film, which culminates with the impressive but also despairingly sad volcanic destruction and pillaging of species, or the second half, which mostly takes place at the North-Californian Lockwood estate. Great production and set designs have gone into this semi-Gothic mansion, which reeks of old money and appealed to my imagination. SPOILER: My favorite scene in Fallen Kingdom: The auction scene, and especially its breakup by an energetic Stygimoloch!
Owen's relationship to Velociraptor Blue plays a major part in Fallen Kingdom, which is pulled off impressively.
Bayona's Jurassic movie is a giant beast that doesn't match the amusement park ride-like greatness of Jurassic World - or, of course, the original 1993 masterpiece for that matter, - but which charters new ground with a steady hand and is an impressive, hugely expensive-looking elephant of a spectacle movie with teeth and enthusiasm.

Related posts:

J.A. Bayona: 2018 in films - according to Film Excess
2016 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
A Monster Calls (2016) - Bayona forgets the sugar in overly gloomy adaptation turkey
2012 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED IV] 
2012 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]
2012 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2012 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
2012 in films - according to Film Excess
Top 10: The best true story movies reviewed by Film Excess to date 
The Impossible/Lo Imposible (2012) - The 2004 tsunami depicted in one of the strongest disaster films ever 

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 170-187 mil. $ (different reports)
Box office: 717 mil. $ and counting
= Already a big hit (at least 3.83 times the cost at time of writing)
[Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom premiered 21 May (Madrid, Spain) and runs 128 minutes. Filming took place in England, including London, Scotland and Hawaii from February - July 2017. Shooting reportedly required more stunt work of Pratt than the previous film, and more dinosaurs than any of the previous films. The film opened #1 to a 150 mil. $ first weekend in North America, down significantly from the previous film's spectacular 208.8 mil. $ opening. But the film is bigger in China than the preceding film; here it has made 170 mil. $ in just 10 days; the previous film made 228.7 mil. $ in China overall. Fallen Kingdom has a long way to go to match Jurassic World's staggering 1,671.7 mil. $ world gross, which seems unlikely to happen, but less will also suffice. A whopping 185 mil. $ was reportedly spent by Universal on the global marketing campaign for the film, which, if added into the budget cost, would raise the film's break-even point to the 930 mil. $ area. It has one market left to open in: Japan on 13 July. Trevorrow is set to return to the franchise to direct the finishing film in the proposed trilogy for a June 2021 release. Bayona's next project is not sure yet. Pratt has two scheduled releases approaching, both for 2019: The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part and Cowboy Ninja Viking, as well as the yet unscheduled Vincent D'Onofrio-directed The Kid, about western legend Billy the Kid. Howard is returning as herself in Arrested Development (2018, TV-series) and has no other projects lined up officially right now. Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom is rotten at 50 % with a 5.7/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom?