Film Excess - Free Ukraine - Stop Putin - End the war NOW!!: The Hudsucker Proxy (1994) - The Coen's satirical firecracker mega-flop

4/25/2023

The Hudsucker Proxy (1994) - The Coen's satirical firecracker mega-flop

♥♥♥♥

+ Best Mega-flop of the Year + Most Expensive Flop of the Year: 20.48 mil. $ range + Best Satire of the Year + Worst $ Return of the Year: 0.45

Tim Robbins is holding a Hoola-hoop on this greyish-white poster for Ethan and Joel Coen's The Hudsucker Proxy

New York's Hudsucker Industries lose their CEO, when things are going their very best. The company's bylaws dictate a watering down of the company's wealth, but a member of the board comes up with a plan to manipulate the prize down for a while and avoid the risk: Hiring an impossible imbecile as the new CEO.

The Hudsucker Proxy is written by Sam Raimi (Drag Me to Hell (2009)) and Minnesotan master filmmaker brothers, co-writer/producer Ethan Coen and co-writer/director Joel Coen, (Blood Simple (1984), both) whose 5th feature it is.

Visually astounding, energetic and a fun period satire, The Hudsucker Proxy is too wacky to really say something of import, but it is tremendously entertaining and imaginative nonetheless. Roger Deakins' (In Time (2011)) photography is a pleasure.

Tim Robbins (The Spoils of Babylon (2014, TV-series)) is at times taxing as the ridiculous buffoon, who is new to the big city and goes from mail room job to the CEO's seat, (but also invents the Hoola-hoop.) Jennifer Jason Leigh (Annihilation (2018)) is uncharacteristically grey and hard as granite. Paul Newman (Twilight (1998)) is excellent.

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Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 25 mil. $

Box office: 11.3 mil. $

= Mega-flop (returned 0.45 times its cost)

[The Hudsucker Proxy premiered 27 January (Sundance Film Festival) and runs 111 minutes. The Coen's met Raimi and worked on his Evil Dead (1981), at which point they began working on the script, which was finished in 1985. Filming had to wait some years longer, until they were trusted with a sizable budget. Shooting took place from November 1992 - March 1993 in North Carolina and Chicago, Illinois. The film opened #22 to a 104k $ first weekend in 5 theaters in North America, where it grossed 2.8 mil. $ (25.5 % of the total gross). It did better abroad but still made far less business than was needed. A further 15 mil. $ were reportedly spent marketing the film. It competed for the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival, lost to Pulp Fiction. Roger Ebert gave it a 2/4 star review, translating to 2 notches under this one. The Coen brothers returned with Fargo (1996). Robbins returned in The Shawshank Redemption (1994); Leigh in Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle (1994); and Newman in Nobody's Fool (1994). The Hudsucker Proxy is fresh at 60 % with a 6.40/10 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.

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Jean-Luc Godard has passed away

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

Eagerly anticipating this week ... (14-24)

4/25/2023

The Hudsucker Proxy (1994) - The Coen's satirical firecracker mega-flop

1994 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess

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