Film Excess - Free Ukraine - Stop Putin - End the war NOW!!: Goosebumps (2015) - Enthusiastic cast carry Letterman's CGI adventure

3/15/2021

Goosebumps (2015) - Enthusiastic cast carry Letterman's CGI adventure

♥♥♥

Eye-popping CGI creations collide around Jack Black and his 3 young co-stars running on an open book on this lively poster for Rob Letterman's Goosebumps

Our sweet teenage hero Zach moves with his vice principal widow mother to a quiet Delaware town, where their neighbors are a sweet, same-aged teenage girl and youth horror writer R.L. Stine, whose series of popular novels have a dangerous secret ...

Goosebumps is written by Darren Lemke (Shrek Forever After (2010)), with Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski (Man on the Moon (1999, both)) contributing story elements, based on the Goosebumps novel series by R.L. Stine (Give Yourself Goosebumps (1995-00)). - Stine is the world's best-selling author: More than 400 mil. Goosebumps novels have been sold; at one point in the 1990s, more than 4 mil. Goosebumps novels were sold a month. The film is directed by Rob Letterman (Shark Tale (2004)).

It is an enthusiastic movie that begins with a charming mother-son chemistry (hunky Dylan Minnette (The Open House (2018)) and Amy Ryan (Green Zone (2010))); Jillian Bell (Bridesmaids (2011)) as a fun aunt and Jack Black (Bernie (2011)) enjoyable as Stine, whose entire body of work (or, more precisely, a carefully selected group of ghouls from it) comes to life in one single film. Zach also has a fun 'loser' friend called Champ (Ryan Lee (Song of Back and Neck (2018)).) The filmmakers behind Goosebumps are obviously very comfortable signing over their special effects needs to CGI teams, and the film has good-looking creatures (the werewolf and garden gnomes especially), but the digitally created environment is also clearly artificial, blocking any wow-reaction, which is a real loss.

The editing pace is too short of breath, so the emotional beats of the story never ground themselves. It moves over hedge and ditch, this Jumanji-like experience, which is formulaic and not all that one could have wished for, but certainly entertains.

Rob Letterman: 2010 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]
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

Gulliver's Travels (2010) or, Gulliver's Travesty

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 58-84 mil. $ (different reports)

Box office: 158.2 mil. $

= Uncertain - big flop or a box office success, depending on the actual cost (returned 1.88 - 2.72 times its cost, depending on the actual cost)

[Goosebumps premiered 3 October (San Diego Film Festival) and runs 103 minutes. Development began in 1998 with Tim Burton slated to direct. Black reportedly received 6-8 mil. $ for his performance; Minnette 150k $. Shooting took place from April - July 2014 in Georgia, including Atlanta. The film opened #1 to a 23.6 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it spent another 3 weeks in the top 5 (#2-#2-#4) and grossed 80 mil. $ (50.6 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were the UK with 13 mil. $ (8.2 %) and Venezuela (!) with 7.9 mil. $ (5 %). Ari Sandel directed the smaller hit sequel Goosebumps: Haunted Halloween (2018), with Black back as Stine. Letterman returned with Pokémon Detective Pikachu (2019). Black returned in The Little Shop of Horrors (2015, video), Kung Fu Panda: Secrets of the Scroll (2016, short) and theatrically with a voice performance in Kung Fu Panda 3 (2016); Minnette in Don't Breathe (2016). Goosebumps is certified fresh at 78 % with a 6.50/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

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Donald Sutherland has passed away

Born in Canada, Sutherland battled polio as a child. His first credit was in Suspense (1963, TV-series) and his first film was The Castle of the Living Dead (1964). Later credits in his remarkable career include The Saint (1965-66), The Dirty Dozen (1967), M*A*S*H (1970), Kelly's Heroes (1970), Klute (1971), Don't Look Now (1973), 1900 (1976), Casanova (1976), The Eagle Has Landed (1976), Ordinary People (1980), A Dry White Season (1989), JFK (1991), Outbreak (1995), Fallen (1998), Virus (1999), Fierce People (2005), Pride & Prejudice (2005), Lord of War (2005), The Hunger Games (2012), The Undoing (2020, miniseries) and many more. He passed away at age 88. R.I.P.

Roger Corman has passed away

Born in Detroit, Michigan, Corman had a sprawling, intellectually hungry life as a youth and young man before arriving with his first film in 1955, Five Guns West. He would follow that with titles such as Apache Woman, It Conquered the World, Attack of the Crab Monsters, Teenage Cave Man, A Bucket of Blood, House of Usher, The Little Shop of Horrors, The Pit and the Pendulum, The Intruder, The Raven, The Terror, The Masque of Red Death, The Tomb of Ligeia, The Wild Angels, The Trip, Bloody Mama and many more. As a producer he was behind almost 500 films. Arguably among the most important filmmakers of the 20th century, Corman passed away at age 98. R.I.P.

William Friedkin has died

Born in Chicago, Friedkin accrued TV credits prior to his advance to the big screen as the director of Good TImes (1967), The Birthday Party (1968), The Night They Raided Minsky's (1968) and The Boys in the Band (1970) before his major breakthrough, The French Connection (1971), for which he won his only Oscar. He followed it up with the even bigger smash, The Exorcist (1973), arguably the best horror film of all time, for which he was Oscar-nominated. Later credits include Sorcerer (1977), Cruising (1980), To Live and Die in L.A. (1985), Rampage (1987), Rules of Engagement (2000), Killer Joe (2011) and The Devil and Father Amorth (2017, documentary). Friedkin passed away at age 87. R.I.P.

Louise Fletcher has passed away

Born in Alabama to deaf parents, Fletcher got her first credits in late-1950s TV-series.She took a 10 year-long sabbatical to devote her time to motherhood after the release of A Gathering of Eagles, but then came back and soon saw her career's most important part, as Nurse Ratched in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975), for which she won her sole Oscar. Later credits include Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977), The Lucky Star (1980), Brainstorm (1983), Two Moon Junction (1988), Cruel Intentions (1999), A Perfect Man (2013) and many more. Fletcher passed away at age 88. R.I.P.

Jean-Luc Godard has passed away

Born in Paris, France, Godard lived much of his life in Switzerland. He wrote for French film criticism magazine Cahiers du Cinema and became foundational for the New French Wave that inspired new waves in scores of other countries across the world with his Breathless (1960). Later credits include A Woman Is A Woman (1961), Vivre Sa Vie (1962), Le Petit Soldat (1962), Contempt (1963), Alphaville (1965), Pierrot le Fou (1965), 2 or 3 Things I Know About Her (1967), Weekend (1967), Every Man for Himself (1980), King Lear (1987), Century of Cinema (1995, documentary), Goodbye to Language (2014) and many more. Godard died of assisted suicide at age 91. R.I.P.

Wolfgang Petersen has died

James Caan has died

Caan was born the son of Jewish immigrants from Germany in New York. He got his start on TV in the early 1960s. His credits include El Dorado (1966), The Rain People (1969), Brian's Song (1971, TV movie), The Godfather (1972), - for which he earned his only Oscar nomination, - Slither (1973), The Gambler (1974), Funny Lady (1975), Rollerball (1975), Silent Movie (1976), Hide in Plain Sight (1980), - the only film he also directed, - Thief (1981), Misery (1990), Honeymoon in Vegas (1992), Bottle Rocket (1996), Eraser (1996), Dogville (2003), Elf (2003), Las Vegas (2003-07), Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (2009) and many more. Caan passed away at age 82. R.I.P.

Jean-Louis Trintignant has died

Born in Vaucluse, France, Trintignant's theatrical debut as an actor was in If All the Guys in the World... (1955). Later credits include ...And God Created Woman (1956), The Seven Deadly Sins (1961), Inferno (1964), A Man and A Woman (1966), My Love, My Love (1967), A Man to Kill (1967), The Great Silence (1968), Z (1969), The Assassination (1972), Three Colors: Red (1994), Amour (2012), Happy End (2017) and many more. He also wrote and directed two films in the 1970s. Trintignant passed away at age 91. R.I.P.

Ray Liotta has died

Adopted from an orphenage at a young age, Liotta got hooked on acting in high school. He had various TV credits in the late 1970s and early 80s, with his film debut in The Lonely Lady (1983). Later credits include Something Wild (1986), Field of Dreams (1989), Goodfellas (1990), Cop Land (1997), Hannibal (2001), Blow (2001), Narc (2002), John Q (2002), Identity (2003), Observe and Report (2009), Youth in Revolt (2009), The Details (2011), Killing THem Softly (2012), The Place Beyond the Pines (2012), Shades of Blue (2016-18), The Simpsons (2018, TV-series), Marriage Story (2019), The Many Saints of Newark (2021), Black Bird (2022, TV-series) and many more. Liotta passed away at age 67 in his sleep while on production in the Dominican Republic. R.I.P.

Philip Baker Hall has died

Born in Ohio, Hall didn't start acting until he was 30. His long list of credits include Zabriskie Point (1970), Miami Vice (1987, TV-series), Midnight Run (1988), Ghostbusters II (1989), Cheers (1993, TV-series), Hard Eight (1996), The Rock (1996), Air Force One (1997), Boogie Nights (1997), Seinfeld (1991-98), Rush Hour (1998), The Insider (1999), Magnolia (1999), The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999), Bruce Almighty (2003), Dogville (2003), The Zodiac (2005), Zodiac (2007), Curb Your Enthusiasm (2004-09), Mr. Popper's Penguins (2011), Modern Family (2011-12) and many more. Hall passed away at age 90. R.I.P.

Film Excess - Free Ukraine - Stop Putin - End the war NOW!!

Eagerly anticipating this week ... (15-24)

3/15/2021

Goosebumps (2015) - Enthusiastic cast carry Letterman's CGI adventure

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