Hereafter (2010) - A movie so bad it might kill you

[ZERO]

 

Star Matt Damon blocks most of his unnamed female co-star (Cécile de France (The French Dispatch (2021))) on this mysterious, greyish blue poster for Clint Eastwood's Hereafter

A French woman passes away in the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. Two brothers have a neglectful parent in London. And in the States George is having a tough time, since he is a clairvoyant.

 

Hereafter is written by Peter Morgan (The Queen (2006)) and co-produced, directed and scored by Californian master filmmaker Clint Eastwood (Play Misty for Me (1971)), whose 31st film it is.

Eastwood attempts to make a metaphysical 'fates-intertwine' type of film here, (he has seen Babel (2006), it seems), but the result is the worst film of his career. Hereafter wallows in pointless roughness and saccharine sentimentality. 

Matt Damon (Ocean's Eleven (2001)) as a clairvoyant is teeth-grindingly god-awful. His predictable romance with Bryce Dallas Howard (Rocketman (2019)) at Steven Schirripa's (Jersey Boys (2014)) cooking class is simultaneously colossally uninteresting and the movie's most watchable scenes, which says something.

Hereafter is a film that depends entirely on a connection with its audience in order to work. But here is no connection, and its serving of phony mumbo-jumbo as thoughtfulness is enough to drive good people into their graves.

 

Related posts:

Clint Eastwood: The Mule (2018) - Drug-runner true story proves another fine fit for screen legend Eastwood 

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

2008 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III] 

2008 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
Gran Torino (2008) - Eastwood's actor persona comes full circle in absolute smash (co-producer/director/starring actor)
The Changeling (2008) or, The Christine Collins Story  

2006 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III] 

2006 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II] 
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 

Blood Work (2002) - Eastwood churns out uninspired thriller adaptation (producer/director/starring actor)

1997 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess 

Absolute Power (1997) - Eastwood stumbles with low-caliber thriller (director/co-producer/co-starring)

The Dead Pool (1988) - The highly entertaining last Dirty Harry movie (starring actor) 

Heartbreak Ridge (1986) - Lots of deficiencies in Eastwood's weak Marine movie (producer/director/starring actor)
City Heat (1984) - Eastwood and Reynolds wrestle dispassionately in Benjamin's messy period affair (co-starring actor)
Tightrope (1984) - An undervalued Clint Eastwood sex killer thriller (starring actor)
Any Which Way You Can (1980) or, More Monkey Business! (starring actor)
Escape from Alcatraz (1979) - Siegel, Tuggle and Eastwood's phenomenal prison escape thriller (starring actor)
Every Which Way but Loose (1978) or, Honky Tonk Monkey Business! (starring actor)

The Gauntlet (1977) - Locke/Eastwood cast sparks in corny shoot-em-up (director/starring actor)
The Enforcer (1976) - Eastwood teaches revolutionaries a lesson in third, less punchy Dirty Harry (starring actor)
The Eiger Sanction (1975) - Eastwood's mountain climbing dud (director/star)

High Plains Drifter (1973) - Eastwood cleans up red town in great western (director/star)
The Beguiled (1971) - Intense, erotic Civil War kammerspiel thriller (starring actor)  
Dirty Harry (1971) - Eastwood's great, signature renegade cop character comes to life (starring actor)
Coogan's Bluff (1968) or, Dopes and Hippies, Beat It! (starring actor)  

Hang 'Em High (1968) - Post and Eastwood make spaghetti in the West (starring actor)
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966) - Leone ends his poncho trilogy with certified classic (starring actor)
For a Few Dollars More/Per Qualche Dollaro in Più (1965) or, Return of the Poncho Killer (co-starring actor)
A Fistful of Dollars (1964) or, Killer in a Poncho (starring actor)

 

 

Watch a trailer for the film here

 

Cost: 50 mil. $

Box office: 106.9 mil. $

= Flop (returned 2.12 times its cost)

[Hereafter premiered 12 September (Toronto International Film Festival) and runs 129 minutes. Eastwood was paid 6 mil. $ to make the film. De France received 300k € for her performance in it, approximately 327k $. Shooting took place from October 2009 - February 2010 in London, England, France, including in Paris, California, including in San Francisco, and in Hawaii. The film opened #28 to a 220k $ first weekend in 6 theaters in North America, where it peaked the next weekend at #4, behind new release Paranormal Activity 2 and holdover hits Jackass 3D and RED, staying in the top 5 for one more weekend (#5), grossing 32.7 mil. $ (30.9 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were France with 16.7 mil. $ (15.6 %) and Spain with 14 mil. $ (13.1 %). The film was nominated for the Best Visual Effects Oscar, lost to Inception. It won a David di Donatello award and a National Board of Review award, among other honors. Roger Ebert gave it a 4/4 star review, translating to 6 notches over this one. Eastwood returned with J. Edgar (2011). Damon returned in True Grit (2010). Hereafter is rotten at 47 % with a 5.70/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Hereafter?

Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (2018) - Ideals blow up in Bayona's grand and timely dino spectacle

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The cataclysmic volcano eruption leaves even the T-rex looking small on this amazing poster for J.A. Bayona's Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom

A few years after the disaster at the newly opened Isla Nublar Jurassic Park, a volcanic eruption threatens to end all life on the island, and Claire Dearing is engaged by the Lockwood estate, heirs to John Hammond's genetic dinosaur invention, to help move some of the dinosaurs to a sanctuary island, with the help of velociraptor wrangler Owen Grady of course.

Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom is the sequel to Colin Trevorrow's (The Book of Henry (2017)) great Jurassic World (2015) and is the second film in the new Jurassic trilogy. It is written by Derek Connolly (Monster Trucks (2016)) and Trevorrow and directed by great Spanish filmmaker J.A. Bayona (The Orphanage/El Orfanato (2007)).
I am a huge fan of the Jurassic franchise and therefore will probably always have a lot of thoughts on the films, - so here goes:
I saw the new film in a 4DX cinema in 3D, which is a cinema with seats that move, while blitzing lights, water drops and sprays, air whistling, smoke and smells are issued to enhance the experience. And although it didn't make me forget that I was not a part of the action on the screen, I thought it was a thrilling added layer and a fun elevation of the experience. It is certainly an added expenditure that a film like Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom is tailored for. So I recommend it.
Critics of this franchise will sneer that the films are so silly and all tell the same basic story. - But that isn't true. Ultra-short summaries of the four previous films may run like this:

1. Jurassic Park (1993): Billionaire philanthropist John Hammond creates Jurassic Park on Pacific Island Isla Nublar, but a greedy employee and hybris run afoul, and his grand children and others struggle to survive there.
2. The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997): 4 years later Hammond sends a team to prevent his greedy nephew's guys from capturing the dinosaurs on a neighboring island (Isla Sorna), but they fail to stop the military honchos, and dinos are taken to San Diego, where they wreak havoc but are ultimately returned to Isla Sorna, now pronounced a natural preserve.
3. Jurassic Park III (2001): A divorced couple trick Dr. Alan Grant from the first film to accompany them on a flight that ends on Isla Nublar, where their son is stranded after a parasailing accident.
4. Jurassic World (2015, franchise reboot): 22 years after the first film's events, a new dinosaur park has emerged and operated on Isla Nublar for 10 years. But to pander to the demanding audiences and lure more cash from them, a genetically modified species has been developed, the Indominus Rex. But as it breaks free, the park is ravaged by mayhem and chaos.

So, as you see, a different story each time, to be precise.
The new film rejoins Bryce Dallas Howard (Hereafter (2010)) and Chris Pratt (Moneyball (2011)), who are an immensely likable couple. Howard's Claire's coldness in the previous film has stifled here as she now heads a youthful dinosaur preservation organization. They venture to the island with two fresh young faces: Justice Smith (Every Day (2018)) and Daniella Pineda (Newlyweds (2011)), representations of what might be termed the idealistic, loud, 'woke' Parkland generation, with appropriately reversed (compared to traditional convention) gender balance: Smith spends most of the film being less than useful and scared witless, while Pineda's resourceful Zia takes action and stays cool. Both also seem like they may be gay, (and a lesbian scene with Zia was actually shot and dumped for trimming reasons), but the film has no time to get into this, regrettably, for Fallen Kingdom is in a rush!
Of the rest of the cast, most noteworthy is Ted Levine (Bleed for This (2016)) as the film's ruthless mercenary villain, SPOILER who removes teeth from dinosaurs as souvenirs. Levine brings back memories from The Silence of the Lambs (1991), in which he portrayed Jame 'Buffalo Bill' Gumb so terrifyingly, and makes another memorable super-villain here. - And Toby Jones (Agent Carter (2015), TV-series) who is also rather slimy with fake teeth and a lisp as a shameless auctioneer swine. - They both get their becoming in two of the film's most satisfying scenes.
Fallen Kingdom also has distinguished actors Geraldine Chapman (Sand Dollars/Dólares de Arena (2014)) and James Cromwell (Hawkeye (1995), TV-series), who are good without becoming really memorable in smaller parts. With Ron Howard's daughter, Charlie Chaplin's daughter and all the rest, the film brings feels like something of a golden trust of cinema establishment. Jeff Goldblum's (The League (2011-12)) return as chaos theory mathematician Alan Grant has made headlines of anticipation, but really he is only in two scenes, or rather one scene, which is cut in two, spouting some more or less prophetic wisdom about our messing with dinos and genetics at an official hearing, I suppose, which there also isn't any time to really make us understand. (What is this concerned gathering?) Nevertheless he manages to be great once again. And BD Wong (Oz (1997-03)) also returns as Dr. Wu, who may evolve into a real villain on his own in the next film I expect.
The film encompasses so much that we inevitably feel rushed through to some degree. - There is also a new child, SPOILER the Lockwood patriarch's (Cromwell) grand-daughter, who is revealed to be a clone, - but there also isn't time to really go into this, which may also likely be an element to revisit in the next film.
Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom naturally needs the time for its dinosaurs and action scenes, which are many, seamless and expectedly thrilling. - We are harder to woo at this point, and making a Jurassic movie may therefore inevitably become harder by each film. Fallen Kingdom lacks the scenes of wonder and bright thrills that its predecessor had plenty of; instead this is the darkest Jurassic movie yet, most comparable in the bunch to The Lost World, although it is a significantly better film. SPOILER It is a matter of taste if audiences prefer the first half of the film, which culminates with the impressive but also despairingly sad volcanic destruction and pillaging of species, or the second half, which mostly takes place at the North-Californian Lockwood estate. Great production and set designs have gone into this semi-Gothic mansion, which reeks of old money and appealed to my imagination. SPOILER: My favorite scene in Fallen Kingdom: The auction scene, and especially its breakup by an energetic Stygimoloch!
Owen's relationship to Velociraptor Blue plays a major part in Fallen Kingdom, which is pulled off impressively.
Bayona's Jurassic movie is a giant beast that doesn't match the amusement park ride-like greatness of Jurassic World - or, of course, the original 1993 masterpiece for that matter, - but which charters new ground with a steady hand and is an impressive, hugely expensive-looking elephant of a spectacle movie with teeth and enthusiasm.

Related posts:

J.A. Bayona: 2018 in films - according to Film Excess
2016 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
A Monster Calls (2016) - Bayona forgets the sugar in overly gloomy adaptation turkey
2012 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED IV] 
2012 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]
2012 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2012 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
2012 in films - according to Film Excess
Top 10: The best true story movies reviewed by Film Excess to date 
The Impossible/Lo Imposible (2012) - The 2004 tsunami depicted in one of the strongest disaster films ever 

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 170-187 mil. $ (different reports)
Box office: 717 mil. $ and counting
= Already a big hit (at least 3.83 times the cost at time of writing)
[Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom premiered 21 May (Madrid, Spain) and runs 128 minutes. Filming took place in England, including London, Scotland and Hawaii from February - July 2017. Shooting reportedly required more stunt work of Pratt than the previous film, and more dinosaurs than any of the previous films. The film opened #1 to a 150 mil. $ first weekend in North America, down significantly from the previous film's spectacular 208.8 mil. $ opening. But the film is bigger in China than the preceding film; here it has made 170 mil. $ in just 10 days; the previous film made 228.7 mil. $ in China overall. Fallen Kingdom has a long way to go to match Jurassic World's staggering 1,671.7 mil. $ world gross, which seems unlikely to happen, but less will also suffice. A whopping 185 mil. $ was reportedly spent by Universal on the global marketing campaign for the film, which, if added into the budget cost, would raise the film's break-even point to the 930 mil. $ area. It has one market left to open in: Japan on 13 July. Trevorrow is set to return to the franchise to direct the finishing film in the proposed trilogy for a June 2021 release. Bayona's next project is not sure yet. Pratt has two scheduled releases approaching, both for 2019: The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part and Cowboy Ninja Viking, as well as the yet unscheduled Vincent D'Onofrio-directed The Kid, about western legend Billy the Kid. Howard is returning as herself in Arrested Development (2018, TV-series) and has no other projects lined up officially right now. Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom is rotten at 50 % with a 5.7/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom?

Pete's Dragon (2016) - Lowery plays Disney remake safe

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Newcomer Oakes Fegley (This Is Where I Leave You (2014)) looks comfy on this poster for David Lowery's Pete's Dragon

 

As a 5 year-old boy, Pete loses his parents in a tragic car crash and survives in the following 6 years as the friend of the forest's secret dragon, whom he names Elliot. Then discovery of the two occurs.

 

Pete's Dragon is a remake of the same-titled, part-animated 1977 Disney hit musical, written by Toby Halbrooks (Ain't Them Bodies Saints (2013), producer) and co-writer-director David Lowery (St. Nick (2009)).

It is recommended to watch it with kids, because they might have a stronger, more wondrous reaction to it than adults who have seen other, better films. Disney and Jon Favreau's great The Jungle Book (2016) is a recent boy-centered, part-animated adventure that it is best not to remember too clearly when consuming the milquetoast cousin, Pete's Dragon. If you have seen E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982), it inevitably comes to mind in connection with Pete's Dragon, and that comparison hurts the film even more. - The short end of it is that Pete's Dragon isn't up to snuff with those films. It isn't as funny and it isn't as dramatic or intense either.

 

But it is a sweet enough story, and dragon Elliot is a thoroughly well-animated, obviously dog-based creature and the best part of the film. - Who wouldn't want to have him for a friend, and believe that dragons like him might be out there in the woods? Pete's Dragon boasts a nice interest in the outdoors, which it should be commended for. Everything that gets kids (and adults) away from screens and exhaust fumes and out in nature is welcome in 2016.
Contributing to the soggy quality of the adventure is the performances: While Fegley is a sweet enough boy, Lowery has chosen a girl counterpart with grotesquely oversized eyes, which seems like a cheap gimmick, (unless the girl goes on to become an accomplished actress in which case I would be shown wrong).) Bryce Dallas Howard (Jurassic World (2015)) has put on some maternal pounds but her acting is wooden in parts of the film. Robert Redford (Truth (2015)) is a dragon-believing dad to her, and if you're like me, you'll sit through his scenes mostly thinking about what a prune he is turning into by now, (and feeling sort of bad about it, naturally.) Karl Urban (Star Trek Beyond (2016)) plays the possessive, moronic villain, who isn't really a villain. If you've seen and felt emotionally powerful children/family movies before, the softness and lack of emotional depth in Pete's Dragon will disappoint. It seems played safe in a way, and in its unclearly time-dislocated, (it is 1977 and '83, the Wikipedia summary informs), uncompelling way, parts of it depressed me a bit.

Watch an official trailer for the film here

Cost: 65 mil. $

Box office: 135.8 mil. $ and counting

= Too early to say (but looks like a flop)

[Pete's Dragon premiered August 8 (Hollywood's El Capitan Theatre) and runs 102 minutes. Disney announced its 'title-only' (meaning that only the title and basis of a boy and a dragon is kept) remake plans in 2013. Michael C. Hall was first cast in what became Urban's tree lugger role. Filming took place on location in New Zealand from January - April 2015. The film opened #3, behind holdover hit Suicide Squad and new release Sausage Party, to a 21.5 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it spent 4 weeks in the top 5 and grossed 75.1 mil. $. The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets are the UK with 6.4 mil. $ and Australia with 5.1 mil. $. The film has yet to open in one important market: Japan, where it opens December 23. Pete's Dragon is certified fresh at 86 % with a 7.3 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Pete's Dragon?

Jurassic World (2015) - The best huge event movie since Avatar is this summer's must-see

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+ Best 3D Movie of the Year

+ Best Action-Adventure of the Year

One of the many incredibly cool posters for Colin Trevorrow's Jurassic World

It's here! - It's finally here!
I am one of the many fans of the Jurassic Park universe and franchise who has been waiting eagerly for years for the 4th movie, which has been a very long time in the making, going through a decade of countless unmade versions also known as 'development hell'. It follows Steven Spielberg's (Schindler's List (1993)) masterpiece, the original Jurassic Park (1993), and sequels The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997) and Jurassic Park III (2001). 14 years of waiting for the next chapter in your favorite mega-movie franchise is simply too long. Luckily, Jurassic World is a kick-ass return!

More than 20 years since the events in John Hammond's original, ill-fated dino theme park, Isla Nublar's Jurassic Park has been running stably for many years. But to continue to attract huge crowds with deep pockets, the company behind it has designed a new, ferocious dinosaur. And guess what ... - It breaks loose!

Spielberg, the master director of the original, formidable film and the less than good first sequel, still only acts as executive producer on Jurassic World, which is co-written and directed by surprise career-catapulting Colin Trevorrow (Safety Not Guaranteed (2012)), who has only directed 3 small films before this.
Trevorrow succeeds tremendously here, although it is nearly impossible to say how much credit rightly befalls him. Jurassic World looks like a billion dollars, (cinematography by John Schwartzman (Saving Mr. Banks (2013))); it sounds incredible, - any Jurassic Park fan knows how important the soundscapes are to these movies, - and its mix of CGI and practical effects is top shelf. Michael Giacchino (Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol (2011)) has composed the effective, elegant score, using John Williams' legendary theme and generally doing a great job of making a very Williams-like score that still has something different here and there.
The story kind of erases the two middle films, (which few will seriously object to), and it is definitely designed with an especially keen eye on the original, which is a good choice. It uses some very known devices, but it does so playfully. A wonderful thing about it is that you can take from the movie so many different things: Implicit critique of corporate management, consumerism, military logic, environmental damages by humans etc. etc. etc. - or just marvels, thrills and laughs. The film is, as it should be, a ride, perhaps even more so than a conventional film. 
It is a summer cineplex blockbuster dream, but also a very well-crafted, carefully and intelligently written film. The screenplay is attributed to both Trevorrow, Derek Connolly (Safety Not Guaranteed), Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver (Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011), both), who have been waging a credit battle against each other before the film's release.

The only part of Jurassic World that I didn't feel was completely right was its very end, the last, climactic few minutes, SPOILER in which the T-Rex is let out to fight the monstrous Indominus Rex, along with raptors, until, finally, the huge sea monster concludes the battle (and the movie) by dragging the anti-social beast into the sea. This may sound cool, and I know that many think it is a great, exciting end to the film, but I personally thought it was a little too much, and also that the T-Rex/raptor-fighting culmination was a bit too similar to the end of Jurassic Park. I would have liked the new ending to be more its own. Instead, it felt a little convoluted and perhaps a little as an ending that the writers have had a hard time pulling together. And also a little too similar to the end of the great, recent Godzilla (2014): SPOILER There Godzilla, delightfully, turned out to be our savior; this year in Jurassic World, T-Rex does practically the same...
But let it be said straight away that this is a small detractor to a near-perfect film of a very rare breed. - Everything leading up to this climax is spectacular. Jurassic World ups the savagery, deaths and blood significantly, which is to be expected, and the PG-13 rating's limit has certainly stretched since its inception for Spielberg's masterpiece Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984) over 30 years ago. - Some will undoubtedly feel that the film is too savage for its audience, (SPOILER particularly the amusingly included character of the evil, British nanny's demise, devoured by both flying and water dinos, could be argued in poor taste and probably is), but this critic goes with the kid inside him and shrieks out in loud Wooow's throughout it all.
The cast is superior, a very exciting gathering in themselves, and the film gives many characters room to stand out:
Chris Pratt (Wanted (2008)) and Bryce Dallas Howard (Manderlay (2005)) are a great screen match: He as an Indiana Jones/Steve Irwin-type he-man, and she as an emotionally disconnected symbol of some of our problems today. They are both strong here, charming and sweet. And as to the gender criticism of the film that some have raised, (calling it 'male-chauvinist' and the like), - I just don't buy into that one bit.
BD Wong (Jurassic Park) is the only actor here who has been in any of the previous films, and he is great as Dr. Wu, - someone I predict we'll see in the (hopefully) not too distant next film in the franchise.
Crucially, the two kids of Jurassic World work: Adorable and good actor Ty Simpkins (Insidious (2010)) and Nick Robinson (The Kings of Summer (2013)) do a great job, even if they are not as completely natural as the siblings of the original film. Together, they act in my favorite scene in the film, SPOILER the glass bubble attack scene, the film's arguably most spectacular and a clear reworking of the intense T-Rex car attack scene of the first film. Judy Greer (Tomorrowland: A World Beyond (2015)) is also very good as the boys' mother.
Omar Sy (Untouchable/Intouchables (2011)) is good as Pratt's right hand man; Irrfan Khan (The Lunchbox/Dabba (2013)) makes a fine, new, somewhat clueless Hammond-like billionaire owner; Jake Johnson (Safety Not Guaranteed) gets a humorous part as an office charmer; and finally Vincent D'Onofrio (The Judge (2014)) is great as a sort of evil John Wayne-ish military honcho.
Jurassic World is pretty much the film anyone who has ever loved seeing a film in the cinema should allow themselves to go see. It is easily the best huge event movie since Avatar (2009). What's best about it, to me, is that it makes me feel like an 11 year-old again for a couple of really awesome hours. In 3D, IMAX or 2D doesn't matter too much. - Just don't miss it!

Related posts:

Top 10: Best franchise movies

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

2015 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]
2015 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2015 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]

Watch the official trailer for Jurassic World here - and then run to a cinema to watch it!!!

Cost: Estimated 150-190 mil. $
Box office: 17.8 mil. $ - and counting
= Too early to say
[The figure listed above is only from the film's opening day and previews in China. Jurassic World is actually a US-Chinese co-production. Trevorrow, btw, has already shared that he for some reason will not be directing any possible sequel to the film. It opens in America tomorrow, June 12th. And if it doesn't break a billion $ gross worldwide within the next month, I'd say there's something wrong with the world!]

What do you think of Jurassic World?

The Help (2011) - Taylor and an impeccable ensemble portray heart-thumping change in Jackson, Mississippi

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3 Time Film Excess Nominee:


Best Film (lost to The Descendants)
Best Director: Tate Taylor (lost to Agnieszka Holland for In Darkness)
Best Supporting Actress: Octavia Spencer (lost to Agnieszka Grochowska for In Darkness)

+ Best Mississippi Movie of the Year
+ Best Ensemble Movie of the Year

The late-summer treat of 2011, Tate Taylor's The Help

Jackson, Mississippi in 1963: An aspiring young, white female writer persuades a black housekeeper ('the help') to tell her about her life, plagued by the racism that defined the South at the time. That starts a change.

Splendid, handsomely produced, shot in Mississippi, (the biggest production there since O Brother Where Art Thou (2000)), The Help is an empowering, uplifting, marvelous film about a multitude of women.
In it plays an ensemble to be reckoned with: Emma Stone (Magic in the Moonlight (2014)), Viola Davis (Doubt (2008)), Bryce Dallas Howard (Manderlay (2005)), Octavia Spencer (Fruitvale Station (2013)), Jessica Chastain (Zero Dark Thirty (2012)), Allison Janney (Mom (2013-15)), Cicely Tyson (Diary of a Mad Black Woman (2005)) and Sissy Spacek (The Straight Story (1999)) are all inspiring and stand out individually. - Bravo!
Social and political change for the better is a powerful thing, which we witness in The Help. Tate Taylor (Pretty Ugly People (2008)) adapted the same-titled, bestselling 2009 novel by his childhood friend Kathryn Stockett and directed the film, making a precise and edifying heartbreaker and certainly one of the year's best films.

Related posts:

2011 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]
2011 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2011 in films - according to Film Excess 

Octavia Spencer and Viola Davis in Tate Taylor's The Help

Watch the fantastic trailer for the film here

Cost: 25 mil. $
Box office: 216.6 mil. $
= Huge hit
[The Help took America by storm: Opening #2, behind Rise of the Planet of the Apes, the film took 26 mil. $ in its first weekend, but then rose to first place, which it held for impressive 25 days, the longest #1 streak for a movie in the US since The Sixth Sense (1999, 35 days #1), also an August premiere. The film ended up making a spectacular 169.7 mil. $ in the US (78 % of the total gross). At the Oscars, Spencer won her first Oscar so far as Minnie Jackson, and the film was nominated for three more statuettes.]

What do you think of The Help?
Other good films about racism and fighting it?