Ouija (2014) - Yawn your way to the netherworld

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A dark and anticipation-building poster for Stiles White's Ouija

 

A young woman, who has recently played with a Ouija board, hangs herself. But her friends are not 'finished' with her and contact her in the beyond, - with the Ouija board. That was a bad idea!

 

Ouija is written by Juliet Snowden (Knowing (2009)) and debuting co-writer/director Stiles White (Boogeyman (2005, writer)).

With uninteresting characters - and actors - and a deeply yawn-worthy plot, where dialog and action reeks of Movie as opposed to reality, - Ouija turns out a vapid and exceedingly dull time. It is strictly for the youngest and newest arrivals to the exciting world of horror.

 

Related post:

 

Stiles White: The Possession (2012) - Bornedal's possession horror struggles with the demon of mediocrity (screenplay, also co-written with Snowden)

 

 

Watch a behind the scenes feature here

 

Cost: 7.9 mil. $

Box office: 103.6 mil. $

= Mega-hit (returned 13.11 times its cost)

[Ouija was released 23 October (Malaysia, Singapore, Slovenia) and runs 89 minutes. Development began in 2008, and scores of talent were involved over the years, with the film envisioned as a big-budget (up to 125 mil. $) tentpole picture for the first several years of development, before the scope and project changed to a 5 mil. $ film. Shooting took place from December 2013 - January 2014 in California, including Los Angeles, with extensive re-shoots in May-June 2014 after poor test screenings. Reportedly half the film was re-shot; Lin Shaye was also cast in a new character to bolster the film at this point, and the extensive re-shoots are likely what caused the budget to balloon 58 % over-budget to 7.9 mil. $. The film opened #1 to a 19.8 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it spent another weekend at #1 and then one more in the top 5 (#4), grossing 50.8 mil. $ (49 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were Mexico with 6.6 mil. $ (6.4 %) and the UK with 5 mil. $ (4.8 %). The success prompted a sequel (without the involvement of White and Snowden or any of the film's cast), Ouija: Origin of Evil (2016). White has not returned to directing but is announced to be writing an untitled Bermuda Triangle movie. Olivia Cooke (The Signal (2014)) returned in Me and Earl and the Dying Girl (2015). Ouija is rotten at 6 % with a 3.20/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

 

What do you think of Ouija? 

Oceans/Océans (2009, documentary) - Marvels galore in Cluzard/Perrin's outstanding work

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+ Best Nature Movie of the Year

 

A stunning image of a majestic blue whale adorns this poster for Jacques Perrin and Jacques Cluzard's Oceans

The oceans are home to a virtual galaxy of diverse life, which we don't normally see and fail to protect adequately.

Oceans is written by François Sarano (Le Clan des Cachalots (2019, TV movie)), Michael Katims (Ciudad Baja (1994)), Laurent Gaudé (Nulle Part en France (2016, short)), Stéphane Durand (Winged Migration/Le Peuple Migrateur (2001)), Christophe Cheysson (Voyager/Homo Faber (1991, second assistant director)), Laurent Debas and great French filmmakers, co-writer/co-director Jacques Cluzard and co-writer/co-producer/co-director/narrator Jacques Perrin (Winged Migration/Le Peuple Migrateur (2001), both).

It is a formidable nature documentary with exceptionally beautiful recordings as pearls on a string. Dolphins, sea turtles, seals, crabs, sharks and whales are captured in ways that make the spectator almost doubt his eyes. The sublime grandness of the wild spectacle of life can make one zone out some, simply because its veracity is so staggering. The beauty can at times seem as if it must be from another planet entirely (or manufactured with computer programs.)

But then Oceans takes a sharp dive, as it takes on a portrayal of man's over-exploitation and horrific pollution of the seas. (SPOILER A shark loses its fins in a heartbreaking, seemingly reconstructed scene.) The film cries out against the aquarium cultivation of the vast natural life in our oceans and for a changed course and responsible human behavior. 

Oceans also has sequences of marine life in motion that rivals any ballet dancer in elegance, and the film makes the viewer want to support the world seas. One wonders afterward how come the ending doesn't endorse some trustworthy organization involved with the protection of the oceans. (The diverse list of benefactors to the film's production, including an oil and energy company, royals and a sheikh, may indirectly explain this.)

 

Related post:

 

Jacques Perrin: 2009 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED IV]

Cinema Paradiso/Nuovo Cinema Paradiso (1988) - Tornatore's timeless masterpiece (co-star)

 

Watch a trailer for the film here

 

Cost: 80 mil. $

Box office: 83 mil. $

= Huge flop (returned 1.03 times its cost)

[Oceans premiered 13 October (Middle East International Film Festival, UAE) and runs 104 minutes with an alternative Disney edit without the parts about humanity's negative influence on the oceans running 84 minutes. A staggering 37 companies and support bodies collaborated in the financing and production of the film. Shooting reportedly took place in more than 50 countries over the course of 4 years. The film opened #8 to a 6 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it grossed 19.4 mil. $ (23.4 % of the total gross). North America was the film's 3rd biggest market. The two biggest were Japan with 25.5 mil. $ (30.7 %) and France with 23.8 mil. $ (28.7 %). The film won 1/3 César award nominations. Cluzard and Perrin returned with Le Peuple des Océans (2011, miniseries)) and theatrically with Seasons/Les Saisons (2015). Oceans is certified fresh at 80 % with a 7.40/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Oceans?

Holy Spider (2022) - Blood on the hands of Iran's Islamic system and its leaders

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A woman with pronounced makeup lures from the inside of a Persian-style carpet on this poster for Ali Abbasi's Holy Spider

An Islamic fundamentalist serial killer is at large in the Iranian city Marshhad in 2000-01, and a female journalist travels there to investigate the matter and probe the police's lack of progress in the case.

 

Holy Spider is written by Afshin Kamran Bahrami, 'story supervisor' Jonas Wagner and great Iranian-Danish filmmaker, co-writer/co-producer/director Ali Abbasi (Shelley (2016)). It is based on the actual case of Saeed Hanaei, who killed 16 prostitutes in Marshhad.

It is a horrific watch and may well make you feel physically unwell at its conclusion, as it should be, but it is also an illuminating, captivating, important and angry film, a film incensed at the misogynistic constraints of repression, abuse and ongoing blood sacrifice that is the shadow side of Iran's Islamist regime, still very much jarring and painful to observe today, as scores of people, including teenagers, are murdered by the state to uphold a fundamentalist system of Islamic repression where women are second-grade citizens and culture and freedom of expression are largely banned.

Not often do we come to ponder the cruel, dangerous and unpleasant life as a street prostitute in a country such as Iran, but in this very well-produced film we do. Martin Dirkov's (Enforcement/Shorta (2020)) sparse, eerie score heightens the feeling of urban dissolution and palpable danger.

The film is no traditional thriller, no whodunit, no procedural, and also not a film that wallows in gory excesses. It also doesn't shrink away from the horrific acts of murder and the chilling disposal of the bodies. Mehdi Bajestani (Whisper (2018, TV-series)) is incredibly convincing as the religious nut murderer. The context of Iran however seems to remove some of the guilt from the man's shoulders: Of course there is a prostitute slayer in Iran, one comes to think, and I'm sure there have been others since him also. In a country so centered on eradication of anything impure to Islamic standards, it isn't really all that strange as an occurrence. 

The same line of thought haunts the protagonist, the female journalist sublimely portrayed by Zar Amir-Ebrahimi (Morgen Sind Wir Frei (2019)) as a very brave, intelligent and yet inevitably victimized individual, who tries to fight the overwhelmingly patriarchal, male chauvinist  system. Forouzan Jamshidnejad (Mitra (2021)) is powerful as Saeed's wife, and Mesbah Taleb is heart-breaking as their oldest child, 14 year-old Ali, who is pushed towards embracing and embellishing his father's murders by the people around him. 

This spider's web is only half-way spun by the homicidal spider himself. The other part is constructed by the society around him. In the words of Abbasi, it is described as Iran's serial killer society.

That regrettably still stands. And Holy Spider is a very powerful call out for its downfall.

 

Related post:

 

Ali Abbasi: Border/Gräns (2018) - The second Lindqvist adaptation is another wtf-experience with muddled implications if any 

Watch a trailer for the film here

 

Cost: Estimated 2.5 mil. $

Box office: 1.37 mil. $

= Huge flop

[Holy Spider premiered 22 May (Cannes Film Festival, main competition) and runs 117 minutes. 21 companies and support bodies collaborated in the financing and production of the film. The shooting was impossible in Iran and also, it turned out, in Turkey. Shooting eventually took place from May-June 2021 in Jordan. The film has so far only 2 recorded markets at Box Office Mojo: France with 635k $ and Hungary with 2k $. The film has furthermore so far sold 23k tickets in Denmark, coming to around 360k $. The film has primarily screened at film festivals so far, but is set to release in Netherlands, Canada, Turkey, Germany and Sweden in coming months. It has already been chosen as Denmark's entry to the 2023 Oscars. The film won the Best Actress award at Cannes. Iran's regime has indirectly threatened the filmmakers and cast by calling the film 'insulting' and comparing it the Salman Rushdie's novel The Satanic Verses (1988). Abbasi returns with The Last of Us (2023, TV-series) and does not have his theatrical return announced yet. Bajestani does not have his next gig announced yet; Amir-Ebrahumi returned in Les Survivants (2022). Holy Spider is fresh at 86 % with a 7.50/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Holy Spider?

Once Upon a Time in the Midlands (2002) - Good performances in Meadows' warm Nottingham dramedy

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A simple, good-times promising poster for Shane Meadows' Once Upon a Time in the Midlands

 

Dek proposes to his girl Shirley and gets a 'no', - even though he does so on live TV, - and Shirley's ex Jimmy then returns home to Shirley and their daughter. - But Dek is not about to give up so easily.

 

Once Upon a Time in the Midlands is written by Paul Fraser (TwentyFourSeven (1997)) and great English filmmaker, co-writer/director Shane Meadows (Small Time (1996)). The midlands that the title refers to is the East Midlands region of England, as the film is set in Nottingham in that region.

A very English and 1990s kind of ugliness meets the eye in the clothes, hair and locations here in a film with a Quentin Tarantino-inspired western grip that is never really integrally explained in the narrative. The plot pendulates between Shirley's wobbling between partners, and some will undoubtedly lose patience with this going back and forth. 

Still I find the film worthwhile, and it has warmth emanating from the strong performances from Shirley Henderson (Filth (2013)), who is lovely, Robert Carlyle (Eragon (2006)), who is ideal as the ego-driven Jimmy, - the type you might jump in the sack with but likely not form a life with, - and Rhys Ifans (Rancid Aluminum (2000)) as the solid but very uncool Dek. Besides these three Finn Watkins (Eden Lake (2008)) is excellent as young Marlene, and Kathy Burke (The Martins (2001)) and Ricky Tomlinson (Safe As Houses (2000, TV movie)) are fine as a loving couple who have quit having sex. Once Upon a Time in the Midlands also has clownish violence and excessively drawn out end credits.

 

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: Estimated 1.95 mil. £, approximately 2.5 mil. $

Box office: 544k $

= Box office disaster (returned 0.21 times its cost)

[Once Upon a Time in the Midlands premiered 20 May (Cannes Film Festival, out of competition) and runs 104 minutes. Shooting took place in England. The film opened #59 to a 21k $ first weekend in 6 theaters in North America, where it never attained a higher rank, although it widened to 16 theaters, grossing 172k $ (31.6 % of the total gross). North America was the film's 2nd biggest market, the biggest being the UK with 202k $ (37.1 %). Australia was the 3rd biggest with 86k $ (15.8 %). Roger Ebert gave the film a 3/4 star review, translating to a notch over this one. Meadows returned with Dead Man's Shoes (2004). Carlyle returned in Black and White (2002); Henderson in Close Your Eyes (2002); and Ifans in Danny Deckchair (2003). 4.6k+ IMDb users have given Once Upon a Time in the Midlands a 6.1/10 average rating.]

What do you think of Once Upon a Time in the Midlands?

Of Gods and Men/Des Hommes et des Dieux (2010) - Creeds at odds in powerful and deeply moving true-story drama

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Two monks embrace under an overwhelming, bright sky on this effective poster for Xavier Beauvois' Of Gods and Men

The French Catholic monks in a monastery in Algeria are threatened by Islamic fundamentalists, when the civil war that broke out in 1991 comes to their area in 1996, but what does one do in such a situation?

 

Of Gods and Men is written by co-writer/co-producer Etienne Comar (Haute Cuisine (2012)) and French master filmmaker, co-writer/director Xavier Beauvois (Nord (1991)), whose 6th feature it is. It is based on a real life chapter of the Algerian Civil War, which ended in 2002. The original French title translates to 'of men and of gods' and refers to a line in the Bible's Book of Psalms.

It is an eminent and sober portrayal of a true tragedy from our recent past. The film bares with clarity and anguish the way that Islam demands blood sacrifice again and again.

The film is acted with sensitive empathy and humanism from a set of excellent French actors, whose characters do not stand unified or without doubts as to their worrying predicament, giving the strong film a wealth of nuances. Of Gods and Men is, in short, masterly.

 

Watch a trailer for the film here

 

Cost: 4 mil. €, approximately 3.89 mil. $

Box office: 43.8 mil. $

= Mega-hit (returned 11.25 times its cost)

[Of Gods and Men premiered 18 May (Cannes Film Festival, main competition) and runs 122 minutes. Beauvois stayed 6 days at the Tamié abbey in Savoie as research, consulted a theologian and sent the screenplay to the families of the monks, getting positive response from most. The actors trained chanting for a month and were also sent for a week to the Tamié for preparation. 10 companies and support bodies collaborated in the financing and production of the film. Shooting took place from December 2009 - February 2010 in Morocco. The film opened #26 to a 308k $ first weekend in 33 theaters in North America, where it peaked at #22 and in 120 theaters (different weeks), grossing 3.9 mil. $ (8.9 % of the total gross). The film was a massive hit in France, where it was #1 for 4 consecutive weeks and grossed 27.2 mil. $ (62.1 %). North America was the film's 2nd biggest market and Germany the 3rd biggest with 2.1 mil. $ (4.8 %). The film was nominated for a BAFTA, won 3 prizes at Cannes, including the Grand Prix, 3/11 César awards, was nominated for a David di Donatello award and 2 European Film awards and won a National Board of Review award, among other honors. Roger Ebert gave the film a 3/4 star review, translating to 2 notches under this one. Beauvois returned with The Price of Fame/La Rançon de la Gloire (2014). Lambert Wilson (The Belly of An Architect (1987)) returned in a music video prior to his theatrical return in À l'Aveugle (2012); Michael Lonsdale (The Suspects/Les Suspects (1974)) in Hitler à Hollywood (2010). Of Gods and Men is certified fresh at 92 % with a 8.30/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Of Gods and Men?

Ocean's Eight (2018) - Commercially mandated spin-off sinks

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Eight increasingly diminutive female stars line up on this cinema-red poster for Gary Ross' Ocean's Eight

Danny Ocean's sister is released from prison with a plan: Along with a crew of seven other gifted women she wants to steal a lot of diamonds from the big Met gala in New York.

 

Ocean's Eight is written by Olivia Milch (Dude (2018, story)) and co-writer/director Gary Ross (Pleasantville (1998)). It is a reboot spin-off of the Ocean's franchise begun with Ocean's 11 (1960) and directly related to Steven Soderbergh's Ocean's trilogy (2001-07).

Good musical choices, smashing dresses and a fitting lack of regular action, (there is no pasted on car chase or shoot-out, which suits the film well) are worth commending this mildly entertaining film for, - but regrettably its success is still hindered by several problems:

Sandra Bullock (Love Potion No. 9 (1992)) is the protagonist thief, whom we are naturally supposed to root for, but at this point her heavily surgically 'enhanced' face seriously hamper this engagement, just as her friendship, - or possibly more than friendship (?), - with Cate Blanchett's (Knight of Cups (2015)) character, (Blanchett on the other hand is hidden behind enormous bangs (and often also shades) here, - never becomes really exciting. You can enjoy Rihanna (Guava Island (2019)) solely for who she is in real life here, and Anne Hathaway (Bride Wars (2009)) and Helena Bonham Carter (Shadow Play (1996)) are fairly good, but Ocean's Eight is never very funny or really exciting. It also clings to elements of the preceding films with a clumsy scene with Elliott Gould (Puckoon (2002)) SPOILER as well as a tame, lame ending, in which Bullock makes herself a cocktail in front of (George Clooney's) Danny Ocean's gravestone and saying, "You would have loved it!" In this way Ocean's Eight sticks to the shadow of Soderbergh's films, while a revenge motive behind the big heist never really gets us pumped.

Ocean's Eight is failed; it is unnecessary, disappointing and poor.

 

Related post:

 

Gary Ross: The Hunger Games (2012) - A global, teen-centered sci-fi smash

Watch a trailer for the film here

 

Cost: 70 mil. $

Box office: 297.7 mil. $

= Big hit (returned 4.25 times its cost)

[Ocean's Eight premiered 5 June (New York) and runs 110 minutes. The film was announced in October 2015. Shooting took place from October 2016 - March 2017 in New York and Los Angele, California. The film opened #1 to a 41.6 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it spent another 3 weekends in the top 5 (#2-#3-#5), grossing 140.2 mil. $ (47.1 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were the UK with 14 mil. $ (4.7 %) and Australia with 13.6 mil. $ (4.6 %). Ross has not returned as a director since, but is returning as co-writer of Desert Warrior (2022). Bullock returned in Bird Box (2018). Ocean's Eight is fresh at 68 % with a 6.20/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Ocean's Eight?

Olympus Has Fallen (2013) - Fuqua's rough and unrefined actioner

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Not a still from the actual, real-life, presidentially commanded storm on the Washington D.C. Capitol Building of January 6 2022, this is instead an explosive poster for Antoine Fuqua's Olympus Has Fallen

Mike Banning was a Secret Service agent who was close with the US President, until he was involved in the accident that cost the first lady her life. Now the White House comes under attack by North-Korean terrorists, and Banning decides to return!

Olympus Has Fallen is written by Creighton Rothenberger and Katrin Benedikt (The Expendables 3 (2014), both) and co-produced and directed by Pennsylvanian master filmmaker Antoine Fuqua (Bait (2000)), whose 7th feature it is.

The film attempts to marry In the Line of Fire (1993) with 24 (2001-10) but doesn't get anywhere near the quality of either of these thrillers. It is a shame, because Olympus Has Fallen has so many of the right ingredients. But although Fuqua is good, he is no John McTiernan here, and Olympus Has Fallen fails first and foremost because it is lacking suspenseful scenes.

Instead there is sketchy CGI by the barrel load, and scores of scenes of co-producer/co-star Gerard Butler's (Dracula 2000 (2000)) Banning torturing and punishing bad-guys. (You'll also get Melissa Leo (Bottled Up (2013)) as Secretary of Defense getting beaten up at length and forced to walk on shattered glass.) Without the necessary suspense one mostly just thinks 'yikes' at this and other unpleasantness - and the preposterous plot, which involves a bomb program in the basement of the White House that no-one at the Pentagon has contact to ... Olympus Has Fallen is also souped up in more than enough jingoistic prattle and possibly more presidentially sounding drums than in any film ever before. 

 

Related posts:

 

Has Fallen franchise: London Has Fallen (2016) - Jingoistic and irrelevant actioner that passes the time

Antoine Fuqua: The Magnificent Seven (2016) - Fuqua makes a noisy party trick out of the western

2014 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess 

The Equalizer (2014) or, Mr. Swift Justice

 

 

Watch a 2-minute clip from the film here

 

Cost: 70 mil. $

Box office: 170.2 mil. $

=  Minor flop (returned 2.43 times its cost)

[Olympus Has Fallen premiered 18 March (Los Angeles) and runs 119 minutes. Shooting took place from July - September 2012 in Louisiana, including in New Orleans, and in New York. Production scrambled through to be the first of 2013's two big White House attack action movies, beating White House Down to the punch by around 3 months. The film opened #2, behind fellow new release The Croods, to a 30.3 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it spent another 3 weekends in the top 5 (#4-#4-#5), grossing 98.9 mil. $ (58.1 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were the UK with 9.5 mil. $ (5.6 %) and China with 5.8 mil. $ (3.4 %). Rothenberger was sued by a John S. Green over authorship of the script with Rothenberger winning 175k $. Butler sued Nu Image/Millennium Films for 10 mil. $ over perceived unreported profits and failure to pay him according to a 10 % net profit participation deal. The conclusion of that suit has been kept under wraps. The film spun two sequels with Butler but not Fuqua returning; London Has Fallen (2016) and Angel Has Fallen (2019), with a third sequel entitled Night Has Fallen currently in production. The film additionally earned more than 38.2 mil. $ on the domestic home video market. Fuqua returned with The Equalizer (2014). Butler returned with a voice performance in How to Train Your Dragon 2 (2014) and physically in Gods of Egypt (2016); Aaron Eckhart (Thursday (1998)) in I, Frankenstein (2014); and Morgan Freeman (Edison (2005)) in Oblivion (2013). Olympus Has Fallen is rotten at 50 % with a 5.40/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Olympus Has Fallen?