Film Excess - Free Ukraine - Stop Putin - End the war NOW!!: Pompeii (2014)

11/12/2023

Pompeii (2014) - Another mixed action bag from Anderson

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A loving embrace in front of a gorgeous display of apocalyptic volcanic eruption makes up this striking poster for Paul W.S. Anderson's Pompeii

A British army leader visits the Roman city of Pompeii and makes an impression at the local gladiator stadium, until Mount Vesuvius' volcano erupts and in a short timespan turns the entire city into a wasteland of lava, fire and ashes.

Pompeii is written by Janet Scott Batchler, Lee Batchler (Batman Forever (1995), both) and Michael Robert Johnson (Sherlock Holmes (2009)) and directed by Paul W.S. Anderson (Shopping (1994)). It is based on the actual destruction of Pompeii in Campania, Italy in 79 AD.

Anderson is and always will be a craftsman in the filmmaking business and specifically the action genre, - but he's no inspired nor a great craftsman. Here he throws beefcakes, forgettable Emily Browning (Golden Exits (2017)), a tsunami and Kiefer Sutherland (Flatliners (2017)) as a sibilant, deeply villainous Brit, (you try if you can abstract from who he really is here), after the fatal demise of Pompeii.

The volcanic eruption is handled in good-looking CGI, while other parts of the contraption, - especially when actors from green screen recordings get injected into designed surroundings, - look unconvincing. It is putting it mildly to say that there is no grand story spun behind this tapestry of destruction, and Kit Harrington's (Brimstone (2016)) delicious locks of hair and razor-cut abs are about all you can admire him for in Pompeii. Carrie-Anne Moss (Jessica Jones (2015-19)) is attractive (and seems tired) in a non-role, while Jared Harris (Chernobyl (2019, miniseries)) and Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje (Wetlands (2017)) manage to instill some personality into their characters and be actually good here.

Paul W.S. Anderson: 2004 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]

Alien vs. Predator/AVP (2004) - No one wins with Anderson's fundamentally bad monster clash

Watch a trailer for the movie here

Cost: 80-100 mil. $ (different accounts)

Box office: 117.8 mil. $

= Big flop (returned 1.30 times its cost)

[Pompeii premiered 18 February (Buenos Aires, Argentina) and runs 105 minutes. Shooting took place from March - July 2013 in Italy and in Toronto, Ontario. The film opened #3, behind holdover hit The Lego Movie and fellow new release 3 Days to Kill, to a 10.3 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it left the top 5 in its 2nd weekend and grossed 23.2 mil. $ (19.7 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were China with 15.6 mil. $ (13.2 %) and Russia with 11.3 mil. $ (10 %). The film additionally made an estimated 8.9 mil. $ on the North-American home video market. Anderson returned with Resident Evil: The Final Chapter (2016). Harrington returned with a voice performance in How to Train Your Dragon 2 (2014) and with a physical performance in Testament of Youth (2014). Pompeii is rotten at 27 % with a 4.40/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Pompeii?

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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!!

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11/12/2023

Pompeii (2014) - Another mixed action bag from Anderson

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