The Shallows (2016) or, Stuck on a Rock

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Star Blake Lively, with a shark fin protruding ominously from the sea in the background, looks ready to take action - and great in a bikini - on this poster for Jaume Collet-Sera's The Shallows

A beautiful blond medical student from Texas has gone to Mexico in a fit of grief and doubt concerning the direction of her life, but she now has to learn the hard way that it is unadvisable to surf alone in unknown waters ...

The Shallows is written by Anthony Jaswinski (Killing Time (2002)) and directed by great Spanish filmmaker Jaume Collet-Sera (House of Wax (2005)).
It is a well-oiled high-concept shark thriller, which has unfortunately exorcised some heart in its narrative in favor of its slender concept. Held together with its well-shaped star Blake Lively (Hick (2011)), who does well but is ridiculously hot and is utilized for her full visual thrill here, the film leaves a somewhat shallow impression, (no pun intended). - An impression of a filmmaker giving himself a creative dare coupled with visual showing off, rather than of well-earned gasps and terror.
But The Shallows is exciting on its way, and Marco Beltrami (Little Evil (2017)) sometimes cuts a menacing score. There are visually impressive elements, - one involving a buoy attached to concrete blocks, - although the CGI shark and jellyfish still sometimes appear somewhat fake. It isn't as good as Collet-Sera's best to date, thrill-ride Non-Stop (2014), and it is far from a match for its sub-genre's eternal classic, masterpiece Jaws (1975). But The Shallows is worth seeing for fans of shark movies.

Related post:

Jaume Collet-Sera: Non-Stop (2014) or, The Text Messaging Terrorist!

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 17 - 25 mil. $ (different reports)
Box office: 119.1 mil. $
= Big hit (returned at least 4.76 times its cost)
[The Shallows premiered 21 June (New York) and runs 86 minutes. Louis Leterrier was hired to direct but dropped out in 2015. Filming was supposed to take place in the Gulf of Texas but the filmmakers were denied a film permit there for safety concerns. Shooting instead took place in New South Wales and Queensland, Australia, from October 2015 - January 2016. Lively reportedly did many of her own stunts. The film opened #4, behind holdover hit Finding Dory, fellow new release Independence Day: Resurgence and holdover hit Central Intelligence to a 16.8 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it left the top 5 in its 2nd week and grossed 55.1 mil. $ (46.3 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were China with 15.2 mil. $ (12.8 %) and France with 4.1 mil. $ (3.4 %). Collet-Sera returned with The Commuter (2018). Lively returned in All I See Is You (2016). The Shallows is certified fresh at 79 % with a 6.49/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of The Shallows?

Sully (2016) - Eastwood's miracle landing biopic is inert and overrated

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Star Tom Hanks seen from an airplane window in pilot's uniform on this stark poster for Clint Eastwood's Sully

A cold January day captain Sullenberger, a pilot with more than 40 years of experience, flies a passenger carrier, when, shortly after take-off, birds cause the engines to malfunction, and Sullenberger manages to land the plane safely on New York's Hudson River. - But was this the safest option available?

Sully is written by Todd Komarnicki (Perfect Stranger (2007)), based on the autobiography Highest Duty (2009) by Chesley Sullenberger and Jeffrey Zaslow (The Last Lecture (2008)), and directed by Californian master filmmaker Clint Eastwood (Play Misty for Me (1971)).
Sully stands permanently in the shadows of another recent film of an unusual landing of a defect plane, Robert Zemeckis' fictitious and masterful drama Flight (2012). It appears that a riled up miracle atmosphere at the time of the blessed Hudson landing determined that the sensational event must also result in a good film, - but things are just not that simple.
Chesley 'Sully' Sullenberger is a good man, who suffers some qualms after the landing, but of course he pulls through, although Tom Hanks (Ithaca (2015)) sculpts his face in so many wrinkled, worried folds that one could almost doubt it at times. Laura Linney (Maze (2000)) is the wife, who is exclusively shown in the Sullenberger home, and mostly worried, on the phone.
That Sully doesn't contain that much dramatically, except for the landing itself, of course, (which is anxiety-provoking), is only underscored by the film's continually returning to its portrayal of that formidable event, so that we experience it not only from the cockpit but from the passenger seat and the control tower as well.
The end credit roll is laced with pictures and video from reality, which are shown in great haste, as if Eastwood himself is also aware and doesn't want to give the wrongful impression that Sully can compare to the quality of his preceding bio-drama, masterpiece American Sniper (2014). 
Technically and in terms of special effects, Sully is naturally top shelf, which is the best thing about this generally misjudged contraption.

Related posts:

Clint Eastwood:  2014 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED IV]
2014 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]
Top 10: The best biopic movies reviewed by Film Excess to date 
2014 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2014 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
American Sniper (2014) - Eastwood conveys an American man and myth in electric masterpiece  
2011 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2011 in films - according to Film Excess   
J. Edgar (2011) - Eastwood, Black and DiCaprio's great, intense biopic   
The Changeling (2008) or, The Christine Collins Story 2006 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]   2006 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess
Letters from Iwo Jima/硫黄島からの手紙 [Öjima Kara no Tegami] (2006) - The Japanese side of Eastwood's remarkable WWII two-parter  Flags of Our Fathers (2006) - Eastwood's Iwo Jima portrayal is captivating and profoundly moving
The Dead Pool (1988) - The highly entertaining last Dirty Harry movie (actor)
City Heat (1984) - Eastwood and Reynolds wrestle dispassionately in Benjamin's messy period affair (actor)
Tightrope (1984) - An undervalued Clint Eastwood sex killer thriller (actor)
Any Which Way You Can (1980) or, More Monkey Business! (actor)
Escape from Alcatraz (1979) - Siegel, Tuggle and Eastwood's phenomenal prison escape thriller (actor)
Every Which Way but Loose (1978) or, Honky Tonk Monkey Business! (actor)
The Enforcer (1976) - Eastwood teaches revolutionaries a lesson in third, less punchy Dirty Harry (star)
The Eiger Sanction (1975) - Eastwood's mountain climbing dud
The Beguiled (1971) - Intense, erotic Civil War kammerspiel thriller (actor)  
Dirty Harry (1971) - Eastwood's great, signature renegade cop character comes to life (actor)
Coogan's Bluff (1968) or, Dopes and Hippies, Beat It! (actor) For a Few Dollars More/Per Qualche Dollaro in Più (1965) or, Return of the Poncho Killer (actor)
A Fistful of Dollars (1964) or, Killer in a Poncho (actor)    

Watch a 4-minute clip from the film here

Cost: 60 mil. $
Box office: 240.7 mil. $
= Big hit (returned 4.01 times its cost)
[Sully premiered 2 September (Telluride Film Festival, Colorado) and runs 96 minutes. Producers Frank Marshall and Allyn Stewart optioned the rights in 2010. Shooting took place in New York, Charlotte, North Carolina, Georgia, including Atlanta, New Mexico and in California from September 2015 - April 2016. The film opened #1 to a 35 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it spent another week at #1 and 2 more in the top 5 (#3-#5) and grossed 125 mil. $ (51.9 % of the total gross). It set a new global IMAX 2D opening record with 5.1 mil. $. A US comScore audience survey showed that 39 % of the film's audience saw it due to Hanks. The film's 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were Japan with 12 mil. $ (5 %) and Australia with 9.8 mil. (4.1 %). The National Transportation Safety Board objected strongly to its portrayal in the film, which was called 'mean-spirited dishonesty' and 'detrimental to aviation safety' as well as 'unfair'. Real-life Sullenberger agreed and asked that the NTSB investigators' names were changed for the film's characters representing them. The film was nominated for the Best Sound Editing Oscar, lost to Arrival. It won an AFI award, a National Board of Review award and several other honors. Eastwood returned with The 15:17 to Paris (2018). Hanks returned in Inferno (2016). Sully is certified fresh at 86 % with a 7.21/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Sully?

Slow West (2015) - Maclean's contemporary-minded, digital, forgettable West

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Its four stars' faces against blue cloudy skies make up this untraditional poster for John Mclean's Slow West

A bounty hunter helps an enamored teenager with his young lady, who has a high prize on her head, through the perils of the deadly wild west.

Slow West is written and directed by debuting John Maclean (Man on a Motorcycle (2009, short)).
It is a kind of reconstructivist western, which conjures up a portrait of the mystical west, which doesn't conform to the established facts that the genre's past classics have taught us as moviegoers. Instead character after character here share related reflections, which more seem to come from our present day, (and surely hail directly from writer-director Maclean.)
No one really distinguishes themselves in Slow West, and I continually wondered why Michael Fassbender's (William and Mary (2005, TV-series)) character continually helps the smitten Kodi Smit-McPhee (The Road (2009)) character.
In terms of style and technique, the film also doesn't lean on the genre's traditions and conventions, and its very digital texture (or in actuality a lack thereof; a crisp, modern smoothness) is profoundly hard to swallow for this western fan.
Slow West is a small, easily forgotten, and not very promising debut, - and an extremely overrated film.

 

Related post:

 

2015 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED IV]

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: Estimated 2 mil. $
Box office: 1.2 mil. $
= Huge flop (returned 0.6 times its cost)
[Slow West premiered 24 January (Sundance Film Festival, Utah) and runs 84 minutes. Shooting took place in New Zealand and Scotland around October 2013. The film opened #36 to a 67k $ first weekend in 50 theaters in North America, where it peaked the following week at #35 and in 54 theaters and grossed 229k $ (19.1 % of the total gross). The biggest market was the main production country the UK with 559k $ (46.6 %); North America was 2nd biggest and Germany 3rd biggest with 225k $ (19 %). In North America, the film was simultaneously released as video-on-demand, which may have contributed to the low gross. Numbers from its performance on VOD are unreleased. The film won a Sundance award and was nominated for a British Independent Film award and a European Film award, among other honors. Maclean has stayed clear of directing since but made some music instead. Fassbender returned in Macbeth (2015); Smit-McPhee in Gallipolli (2015, miniseries) and theatrically in X-Men: Apocalypse (2016); Caren Pistorius (Mortal Engines (2018)) in The Light Between Oceans (2016)) and Ben Mendelsohn (Vertical Limit (2000)) in Mississippi Grind (2015). Slow West is certified fresh at 92 % with a 7.47/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Slow West?

Superhero Movie (2008) - Some light spots in subpar spoof

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Familiar spoof stars and a couple of new faces adjoin on this Scary Movie-franchise poster-modeled poster for Craig Mazin's Superhero Movie

Young Rick Riker is bitten during a high school trip by a dragonfly and attains superpowers, which he uses to attract the girl he is eyeing and fight the evil Hourglass Man!

Superhero Movie is written and directed by Craig Mazin (The Specials (2000)). It doesn't begin very well with some scenes in a school bus, and the ending is also pretty shabby.
A good deal of the spoof comedy's antics fall flat to the ground, and a good deal should simply have been funnier, - such as a scene with Tracy Morgan (Deep in the Valley (2009)) as X-Men's Dr. Xavier as well as Regina Hall (When the Bough Breaks (2016)) and Pamela Anderson (Home Improvement (1991-97)), which certainly had the potential.
Superhero Movie still has laughs for undiscriminating spoof lovers; they come from Leslie Nielsen (Day by Day (1988, TV-series)), Christopher McDonald (My Sexiest Year (2007)), who does well as the predictably ridiculous Hourglass Man villain, and from young Drake Bell (Jungle Shuffle (2014)) and Sara Paxton (Pepper Dennis (2006, TV-series)) as protagonist Riker and his blond flame Jill Johnson. Both are game and well-cast.
Superhero Movie's running time is buffed grotesquely with an extremely long gag reel and extra scene-crammed credit sequence.

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 35 mil. $
Box office: 71.2 mil. $
= Flop (returned 2.03 times its cost)
[Superhero Movie premiered 27 March (Russia) and runs 86 minutes. David Zucker was originally supposed to have directed the film under the title Superhero!. Shooting took place around September 2007 in Vancouver, British Colombia, California and in Kansas City, Missouri, where the New York flyover transition shots were made. The film opened #3, behind fellow new release 21 and holdover hit Horton Hears a Who, to a 9.5 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it left the top 5 in its 2nd week and grossed 25.8 mil. $ (36.2 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were Germany with 5.5 mil. $ (7.7 %) and the UK with 5.3 mil. $ (7.4 %). Mazin has left directing alone since the film and turned to writing several successful movies and miniseries Chernobyl (2019). Bell returned in College (2008); Paxton in Wizards of Waverly Place (2008, TV-series short) and theatrically in The Last House on the Left (2009); McDonald in Player 5150 (2008). Superhero Movie is rotten at 17 % with a 3.64/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Superhero Movie?

Shin Godzilla/シン・ゴジラ (Shin Gojira) (2016) - A sensational Japanese comeback

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The striking, retro-styled, boosted look of its gargantuan title character adorns this awesome poster for Hideaki Anno and Shinji Higuchi's Shin Godzilla

When a mysterious earthquake occurrence in Tokyo Bay turns out to stem from the resurgence of a prehistoric giant monster, the country's government gets busy trying to come up with an appropriate response and salvage what they can.

Shin Godzilla is written by writer/co-director/co-editor Hideaki Anno (Zaku (1980)) with Sean Whitley (Over Your Dead Body/Kuime (2014)) making English-version contribution, co-directed with Shinji Higuchi (Minimoni ja Movie Okashi na Daibouken! (2002)). It is the 31st film in the long-running Godzilla franchise that began with Godzilla/Gojira (1954) and now spans 35 movies, with more on the way. It is the 29th Toho studio Godzilla movie, the first since Godzilla: Final Wars (2004), effectively rebooting the franchise in Japan, - unrelated to the great American reboot Godzilla (2014).
Shin Godzilla is an exciting major motion picture, which gives us a new Godzilla story that feels as no-frills fact-based and realistic as is imaginable now. It stays coolly distanced from anything romantic or family-centered, from emotional or very recognizable characters and instead focuses on the nation's worried top of more or less nerdy men. - As well as a single representative of the fairer sex, in round numbers, who is a babe that pretty incredibly imagines a future for herself as president of the US!
Overall the admiring relation to the American super power stand as one of the film's few weak points, - together with the fact that none of the film's characters (probably due to its concept) really stand out.
- Except, of course, for Godzilla, who is the whole show in Shin Godzilla: Fantastically designed in a transformed version, a kind of destructive god. The effects are impressive, and the film glistens with boyish military fascination, hardware and mechanics, coupled with an orchestral, terrific, sometimes retro-cool score by Shiro Sagisu (Evangelion: 2.0 You Can (Not) Advance/Evangerion shin gekijôban: Ha (2008)) - Shin Godzilla rocks!

Related post:

Hideaki Anno: The Wind Rises/風立ちぬ [Kaze Tachinu] (2013) - Miyazaki's beautiful but languid last film (voice actor)

Watch a video from the film's Japanese premiere here

Cost: Reportedly 15 mil. $
Box office: 78 mil. $
= Big hit (returned 5.2 times its cost)
[Shin Godzilla premiered 25 July (Tokyo, Japan) and runs 119 minutes. 'Shin' means 'true', 'new' or 'god'. Development began in 2013. Shooting took place from September - October 2015 in Tokyo, Japan. The film opened #19 to a 458k $ first weekend in 34 theaters in North America, its peak in the market, where it grossed 1.9 mil. $ (2.4 % of the total gross). The film's 3 biggest markets were its production country Japan, where it debuted #1, which it held for a total of 3 weeks, spending 8 weeks in the top 5, grossing 75.3 mil. $ (96.5 %), becoming the year's 2nd highest-grossing title at the Japanese box office (behind Your Name). 2nd biggest was North America, and 3rd biggest Thailand with 322k $ (0.4 %). The film was commended in Japan for taking inspiration from recent Japanese nuclear and natural disasters as well as political malaise. It sold more than 675k home video copies in Japan and more than 106k copies in North America, the latter totaling an additional 3.4 mil. $. The film won 1/2 Asian Film award nominations, 7/11 Japanese Academy awards and other honors. Due to Toho's contract with American Legendary Pictures about the Godzilla property, they are unable to release another Japanese Godzilla film until the contract ends in 2020. They have instead made an animated Godzilla trilogy in the meantime (2017-18), while Legendary have released their Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019) and their coming Godzilla vs. Kong (2020). Anno has returned only with a 2019 short in the Evangelion franchise for which he is making the concluding feature for a tentative 2020 release date. Higuchi has returned with a video game and a TV-series and is set to return to features with Shin Ultraman (2021). Shin Godzilla is certified fresh at 86 % with a 6.74/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Shin Godzilla?

Sherlock Holmes (2009) - Ritchie's unappealing morass

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Robert Downey Jr. is gelled up and stares out as a man who knows he is a super-star on this well-made poster for Guy Ritchie's Sherlock Holmes

Holmes, the highly gifted London detective with the heightened senses, is reluctantly in the process of losing his companion Dr. Watson to a female, all the while he fights the feared Lord Blackwood.

Sherlock Holmes is written by Michael Robert Johnson (Pompeii (2014)), Anthony Peckham (Silo 3 Jane (1995)) and Simon Kinberg (Jumper (2008)), based on a story by Johnson and Lionel Wigram (The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (2015)), in turn based on the legendary character created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (the first story with Holmes was printed in 1887). The film is directed by Guy Ritchie (Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (1998)).
If you favor Ritchie's brand of postmodernist, hot-air-bloated, Quentin Tarantino-cramming style, you'll devour Sherlock Holmes raw. I don't, and I mostly see here a plot that has the refinement and depth of a weak children's movie, which gets blown up and served to fully grown adults.
Robert Downey Jr. (Lucky You (2007)) and Jude Law's (Black Sea (2014)) banter here, deliberately fashioned to bear the likeness of two old lovers quarrelling, can be diverting, - but regrettably the tension remains coy subtext. Rachel McAdams (Wedding Crashers (2005)) is pretty but has little to do in the film.
Holmes is now a champion boxer, and although his fistfights look cool, it is still incredible that Downey Jr. should damage one of literature's most alluring figures like this.
The sound design and mix are excellent, but Sherlock Holmes is too long and is also marred by an enormous faith in CGI, which give large parts of the film an unreal, ghastly look.

Related post:

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

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 90 mil. $
Box office: 524 mil. $
= Huge hit (returned 5.82 times its cost)
[Sherlock Holmes premiered 14 December (London, UK) and runs 129 minutes. Shooting took place in England, including London, and in New York from October 2008 - January 2009. The film opened #2, behind Avatar, to a 62.3 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it spent another 3 weeks in the Top 5 (#2-#2-#5) and grossed 209 mil. $ (39.9 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were the UK with 39.7 mil. $ (7.6 %) and Italy with 26.9 mil. $ (5.1 %). The film was nominated for 2 Oscars: Best Score (Hans Zimmer (The Road of Love (2017))), lost to Michael Giacchino for Up, and Art Direction, lost to Avatar. It won a Golden Globe and was nominated for a Grammy, among other honors. Roger Ebert gave it a 3/4 star review, translating to 2 notches higher than this one. The film has additionally made in excess of 44.9 mil. $ on the North-American home video market. Ritchie, Downey Jr., Law and McAdams returned with sequel Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows (2011), with similar success, and Downey and Law are set to return with a fresh director for a 3rd film, set to release in 2021. Ritchie made short Un Rendez-vous (2010) before the Holmes sequel. Downey Jr. returned first in Iron Man 2 (2010); Law in Arena (2010, TV-series documentary) and theatrically in Repo Men (2010); McAdams in Morning Glory (2010), and Mark Strong (Revolver (2005)) in Kick-Ass (2010). Sherlock Holmes is fresh at 69 % with a 6.22/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Sherlock Holmes?

Splice (2009) - A poor script bogs down good performances, effects

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The evocative creature design of the first spliced human creates chills on this poster for Vincenzo Natali's Splice

Two of the world's most eminent scientists in the field of genetical splicing are also a couple who are tired of making ugly animal clones, and so now they are mixing some human DNA into their latest attempt ...

Splice is written by Antoinette Terry Bryant (I Can See You (2014, short)), Doug Taylor (The Carpenter (1988)) and co-writer/director Vincenzo Natali (Cube (1997)).
Sarah Polley (Guinevere (1999)) and Adrien Brody (Love the Hard Way (2001)) are both capable and each do their best here. Splice has its root in The Fly (mostly David Cronenberg's 1986 version) and its kind of sci-fi-horror; but its stars cannot act their way out of a story that gets too obscure and unlikely. The script is not particularly inventive, and that is the main problem for the gross Splice, which has terrific practical and digital effects.
The relationship between the two scientist leads never becomes important or exciting enough for us to really jump on the film's wagon.

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 30 mil. $
Box office: 26.8 mil. $
= Huge flop (returned 0.89 times its cost)
[Splice premiered 6 October (Sitges International Festival of Fantastic and Horror Cinema, Spain) and runs 104 minutes. Shooting took place in Ontario, including Toronto, from December 2007 - February 2008. The film opened #8 to a 7.3 mil. $ first weekend in North America, its peak there, where it grossed 17 mil. $ (63.4 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were France with 1.4 mil. $ (5.2 %) and Russia with 1.3 mil. $ (4.9 %). Roger Ebert gave the film a 3/4 star review, translating to 2 notches higher than this one. Natali returned with Haunter (2013). Brody returned with a voice performance in Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009) and physically in High School (2010); Polley in Trigger (2010), her last film to date as actress, before she turned to writing and directing instead. Splice is certified fresh at 76 % with a 6.62/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Splice?

Sicko (2007) - Moore beats the US health care insurance system to a bloody pulp

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A less than desirable health care system gets an unflattering characterization on this satirical poster for Michael Moore's Sicko

The USA has the world's most expensive health care system, but 50 mil. of its populace do not benefit from it, since they are uninsured; and the majority who are insured can easily end up getting catastrophically bad or no treatment at all.

Sicko is a documentary from great Michigander documentarian Michael Moore (Roger & Me (1989)).
As usual, Moore acts as insistent man-of-the-people himself in the film, and he is in top shape intellectually here with a topic that has his full interest, namely the comparison between the US insurance health care system and the universal health care systems that he portrays in Canada, Cuba and France.
Sicko is an - especially for Americans - exceedingly depressing watch, because it exhibits how atrociously awful the state of affairs are for such a central area of every American's life. SPOILER Emotionally the film peaks with the section of how the weakest US patients are dumped on sidewalks. Another strong segment shows sick 9/11 heroes finding treatment in Cuba.
Luckily Sicko also has loads of welcome humor, especially coming from Moore himself, who plays his assumed naive Moore-American role to perfection. The filmmaker is thorough, passionate and a bit didactic, - but he has a hell of a strong case in Sicko, which may be his best film. It is role-model activist documentary filmmaking.

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 9 mil. $
Box office: 36.1 mil. $
= Big hit (returned 4.01 times its cost)
[Sicko premiered 19 May (Cannes Film Festival, out of competition) and runs 123 minutes. Shooting took place in Havana, Cuba, Ontario, Detroit, Michigan, New Jersey, Los Angeles, California, London, England, New Mexico, New York, Paris, France and Kansas City, Missouri. The film reportedly received a 17-minute standing ovation after its Cannes premiere. It opened #31 to a 68k $ first weekend in 1 theater in North America, where it peaked at #9 and in 1,117 theaters (different weeks) and grossed 24.5 mil. $ (67.9 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were Italy and France, each with 2 mil. $ (5.5 %). The film was nominated for the Best Documentary Oscar, lost to Taxi to the Dark Side. Roger Ebert gave the film a 3.5/4 star review, in line with its rating here. Moore returned with Slacker Uprising (2007, documentary). Sicko is certified fresh at 92 % with a 7.71/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Sicko?

One Child Nation (2019, documentary) - Wang and Zhang illuminate the Chinese mass infanticide

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A recreation of China's bountiful one-child policy propaganda that shows one of the hidden effects of its implementation screams loud on this poster for Nanfu Wang and Jialing Zhang's One Child Nation

In an effort to avoid mass hunger and provoke better life circumstances, China's effective 1979-2015 one-child policy was unique, but came with very tall human costs.

One Child Nation is a documentary by Chinese Americans Nanfu Wang (Hooligan Sparrow (2016, documentary) and Jialing Zhang (Complicit (2017, documentary)). Both were born in China during the one-child policy, and Wang is able to search out family members in her quest for answers. The film's strength is very attached to its personal relevance for the filmmakers. 
What is uncovered in One Child Nation is not completely shocking for those with prior insight into China's evil Communist system, but hearing the stories and seeing images and contemplating the massive scale of the effects, - at one point the forced abortions and baby killings are counted in the hundreds of millions, - is shocking nevertheless. Forced sterilizations of women, destruction of homes and arrests of those who violated the policy, as well as babies left to die - especially baby girls - as a normalized practice for decades, the one-child policy comes to stand as another pitch black era of inhumane evil in the already packed annals of death and horror in the 20th century.
One Child Nation follows its story to the adopted Chinese children in the US, who may not want to know about the truth of their heritage, and one person working for these connections regrets this towards the film's end. - But can you blame these individuals for not wanting to know about this unfathomable mass of abuse, terror, inhumanity and disempowerment that is China? People are only cogs in a machine in that most distasteful of countries.

Related post:

Nanfu Wang, Jialing Zhang: 2019 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]

2019 in films - according to Film Excess

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: Unknown
Box office: 271k $
= Uncertain
[One Child Nation premiered 26 January (Sundance Film Festival, Utah) and runs 89 minutes. Shooting took place in China and in Utah. The film opened #54 to a 20k $ first weekend in 2 theaters in North America, where it peaked at #40 and in 36 theaters (different weeks) and grossed 270k $. The only other market reported is the UK with 1k $. The film has screened at numerous festivals around the world, winning the documentary prize at Sundance, among other honors, with 3 more scheduled festivals for 2019, and it is a hot contender for the Best Documentary Oscar. Wang and Zhang have not announced their next project. One Child Nation is certified fresh at 99 % with an 8.44/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of One Child Nation?

Salt (2010) - Engaged Jolie in Noyce's lacking actioner

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Star Angelina Jolie poses with a gun and makes 'sexy face' on this poster for Phillip Noyce's Salt

CIA agent Evelyn Salt is accused by a defected Russian spy of being a Russian agent...!

Salt is written by Kurt Wimmer (Relative Fear (1994)) and directed by Phillip Noyce (Good Afternoon (1971)).
It is a simple cat-and-mouse type action chase thriller, made with clear role-models in the James Bond and Mission: Impossible franchises. But it has neither the fun and exciting characters nor the seriously wild action of those films.
Angelina Jolie (Beyond Borders (2003)) does well in the physically demanding title role, but the plot is thin and not spectacular enough. Salt is a film that thunders away to regrettably little effect.

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 110 mil. $
Box office: 293.5 mil. $
= Box office success (returned 2.66 times its cost)
[Salt premiered 19 July (Hollywood, California) and runs 104 minutes. The script was in the works since 2002, with Tom Cruise in mind to star since 2007. He turned down the offer, as the role was thought too similar to his M:I character Ethan Hunt. The script was rewritten to suit Jolie, who did a mass of stunts for the film shortly after having birthed twins. Shooting took place in New York, Washington DC and in Russia from March - June 2009, with reshoots from December - January 2010. The film opened #2, behind holdover hit Inception, to a 36 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it stayed in the top 5 for another 2 weeks (#3-#4) and grossed 118.3 mil. $ (40.3 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were Japan with 23.5 mil. $ (8 %) and South Korea with 18.2 mil. $ (6.2 %). The film was nominated for the Best Sound Mixing Oscar, lost to Inception. Roger Ebert gave it a 4/4 star review, translating to 4 notches better than this one. Despite the film's success, sequel plans have not come together. Noyce returned with 5 TV credits and a short before his next theatrical feature The Giver (2014). Jolie returned in Kung Fu Panda Holiday (2010, short) and theatrically in The Tourist (2010). Salt is fresh at 62 % with a 5.99/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

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