Gosford Park (2001) - Smith triumphs in Altman & Fellowes' exquisite whodunit

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Scarlet roses and a menu attached to a waiter's backside with the title, tagline and impressive list of stars make up this inviting poster for Robert Altman's Gosford Park

A British family patriarch invites to a grand hunting weekend in 1930s upper class England. The family and their servants cultivate etiquette, gossip and viciousness as usual. But then a murder occurs!...

Gosford Park is written by Julian Fellowes (Romeo and Juliet (2013)), based on an idea by co-producer/co-star Bob Balaban (The Last Good Time (1994)) and co-producer and Missourian master filmmaker Robert Altman (The Delinquents (1957)), whose 33rd feature it was.
It is a wonderful multi-character film with a terrific ensemble of whom especially Maggie Smith (Keeping Mum (2005)) and Kelly Macdonald (Finding Neverland (2004)) impress. Smith is tart and incredibly funny here.
Altman serves the whodunit in a breezy style without giving the misdeed more room than is necessary.
The British social reservation that's integral to Gosford Park may affect my own feelings about it a bit to the cool side, but it is certainly still a splendid picture.

Related post:

Robert Altman: The Company (2003) - Campbell, Turner and Altman's fine ballet picture

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 19.8 mil. $
Box office: 87.7 mil. $
= Big hit (returned 4.42 times its cost)
[Gosford Park premiered 7 November (London Film Festival) and runs 137 minutes. Balaban asked Altman if they could develop a film together in 1999, and upon Altman's response of an Agatha Christie-like whodunit introduced him to Fellowes. Shooting took place in England from March 2001 - ?. Filming took place with two cameras perpetually moving in opposite directions, forcing all actors to stay in character throughout every scene, all of which has at least one servant in them. The film opened #23 to a 241k $ first weekend in 9 theaters in North America, where it peaked at #9 and in 918 theaters (different weeks), grossing 41.3 mil. $ (47.1 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were the UK with 17.1 mil. $ (19.5 %) and Australia with 4.5 mil. $ (5.1 %). It was Altman's most commercially successful film, following MASH (1970). The film was nominated for 7 Oscars, winning for Best Screenplay. It lost Best Picture, Supporting Actress (Smith and Helen Mirren) to Jennifer Connelly, Director to Ron Howard, all for A Beautiful Mind, and Art/Set Decoration and Costume Design to Moulin Rouge!. It won 1/5 Golden Globe nominations, 2/9 BAFTAs, 1/4 AFI award nominations, was nominated for a César award, 3 European Film awards and several other honors. Roger Ebert gave the film a 4/4 star review, translating to 2 notches higher than this one. Fellowes was inspired by the film to create his hit-series Downton Abbey (2010-15). Altman returned with The Company (2003). Smith returned in Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood (2002); Macdonald in Brush with Fate (2003, TV movie), State of Play (2003, miniseries) and theatrically in Intermission (2003). Gosford Park is certified fresh at 86 % with a 7.51/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Gosford Park?

The Last Station (2009) or, The Genius, the Countess and the Secretary

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+ Most Undeserved Flop Movie of the Year + Best Russian Movie of the Year + Best Drama of the Year

Two intimate bedside situations make up the warm-colored poster for Michael Hoffman's The Last Station

We follow a young secretary to Russian literary genius Leo Tolstoy, who ventures to his master's country estate to act as his faithful helper. But he finds a contradictory man with a temperamental countess wife and a foaming, fanatical publisher.

The Last Station is written and directed by great Hawaiian filmmaker Michael Hoffman (Privileged (1982)), adapting the same-titled novel by Jay Parini (Town Life (1988), poems). The period bio-drama is a joy from start to finish, a film with classical virtues in its story, which centers on the great man Tolstoy and in the universal and ever relevant theme of love.
The Last Station is impressively staged and shot with many closeups (cinematographer Sebastian Edschmid (Sweet Mud/Adama Meshuga'at (2006))), which gives it an intimate feeling. We never wallow in period details or get distracted by any unrelated elements. And The Last Station features outstanding performances from Christopher Plummer (Syriana (2005)), - who bizarrely won his long career's only Oscar the subsequent year for the both lesser film (Beginners) and performance in it, - and Helen Mirren (Losing Chase (1996), TV movie); Paul Giamatti (Sideways (2004)) and James McAvoy (The Conspirator (2010)) are also very good. The Last Station is a touching and thoroughly lovely film. 

Related posts:

2009 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED IV]
2009 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]
2009 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 18 mil. $
Box office: 13.5 mil. $
= Huge flop (returned 0.75 times the cost)
[The Last Station premiered 4 September (Telluride Film Festival, Colorado) and runs 112 minutes. Hoffman had chanced to buy Parini's book to read on a train ride and fell for it. Shooting took place in Germany and Russia, including Moscow and St. Petersburg, ending in April 2008. The film opened #40 to a 73k $ first weekend in 3 theaters in North America, where it peaked at #15 and in 354 theaters and grossed 6.6 mil. $ (48.9 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were Germany with 1.7 mil. $ (12.6 %) and Australia with 1 mil. $ (7.4 %). Roger Ebert gave the film a 3/4 star review, translating to a notch harder than this one. The film was nominated for 2 Oscars: Lead Actress (Mirren), lost to Sandra Bullock in The Blind Side, and Best Supporting Actor (Plummer, strangely subjugated to the supporting category), lost to Christoph Waltz in Inglorious Basterds. It was also nominated for 2 Golden Globes, 5 Independent Spirit awards and some other honors. Hoffman returned with Gambit (2012). Plummer returned in Beginners (2010), Mirren in Love Ranch (2010) and McAvoy in The Conspirator (2010). The Last Station is fresh at 71 % with a 6.7/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of The Last Station?

RED (2010) - Schwentke's utterly hollow comic book adaptation

♥

 

This poster for Robert Schwentke's RED manages to make it look like some low-on-brains, very hot action fun

 

A former CIA agent, who is now deemed 'Retired, Extremely Dangerous' [hence the film's title], is attempted murdered. Along with 3 other similar old-timers, a Russian and a sweet girl, he will now try to reverse the conspiracy.

RED is an adaptation of the same-titled 2003-04 comic book miniseries by Warren Ellis (Thor #491-494 (1995-96)) and Cully Hamner (Green Lantern #58 (1995)), written by Jon and Erich Hoeber (Battleship (2012)) and directed by Robert Schwentke (Flightplan (2005)).

Bruce Willis (Die Hard (1988)) has a bland romance with a mousy pension office lady (Mary-Louise Parker (R.I.P.D. (2013)); John Malkovich (Beowolf (2007)) is an LSD-addled paranoid, and Helen Mirren (The Pledge (2001)) just looks good. Morgan Freeman (Along Came a Spider (2001)), Brian Cox (Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011)), Richard Dreyfuss (The Big Fix (1978)) and a few others lend the film their integrity but don't make it any more interesting.

The very easygoing style is punctuated with an endless stream of perfunctory score music (created by Christophe Beck (Get Hard (2015))). There is no dramatic core or any exciting characters at play in RED, a movie which seems to want to live solely on the apparently (thought to be) top-entertaining ingredient of watching old people use weapons.

No one in the talented cast get any opportunity to show their real skills in this overly polished, comic book flat abomination of a film. - A project that reeks of being strictly a paycheck movie for its many stars. Ugh!

Here's an interview with Mirren and Willis, talking about the sequel, RED 2

Cost: 58 mil. $

Box office: 199 mil. $

= Box office success

[RED premiered September 29 (Austin Fantastic Fest) and runs 111 minutes. It was the first DC Comics adaptation not produced by Warner Bros. Filming took place in and around Toronto, Canada, LA and New Orleans for 9 weeks from January - March 2010, with reshoots in August 2010. The film opened #2 (behind Jackass 3D) to a 21.7 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it stayed in the top 5 for three more weeks  and grossed 90.3 mil. $ (45.4 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were Japan with 14.2 mil. $ (7.1 %) and the UK with 10.9 mil. $ (5.5 %). Roger Ebert gave the film 2 stars, equal to a notch better than this review. The film got nominated for the Golden Globe for Best Film - Musical or Comedy. A sequel, RED 2, was released in 2013, and another sequel is now in development. RED is certified fresh at 71 % with a 6.3 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of RED?

The Debt (2010) - The Nazi war criminal thriller is back in a welcome return

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The slick but not very informative poster for John Madden's The Debt

QUICK REVIEW:

In 1965 the Israeli intelligence agency Mossad sent three agents to East-Berlin to assassinate an infamous Nazi war criminal, the Surgeon of Nuremberg, who was then a practicing gynecologist.

The Debt lifts the rich inheritance from Nazi war criminal thrillers like The Marathon Man (1976) and The Boys from Brazil (1978) without the elements of diamonds, clones or wild car chases from those films, but instead with a sober and intense story, SPOILER which ends as an uncompromising defense for truth in all contexts.
The film could have benefited from an opening text about East-Berlin and that Mossad had just localized the Surgeon there, and there are also some difficulties in seeing all the well-known actors as Jews, - but, more importantly, they all do well. Particularly Helen Mirren (The Last Station (2009)), who simply becomes her character here, but also Jessica Chastain (The Martian (2015)) and Jesper Christensen (Spectre (2015)), who is icy as the Nazi war criminal, mixing psychopathic diabolism with rationality and sympathetic qualities.
The Debt is a remake of the Israeli The Debt/Ha-Hov (2007), written by Matthew Vaughn (Kick-Ass (2010)), Jane Goldman (Stardust (2007)) and Peter Straughan (The Men Who Stare at Goats (2009)), and directed by great English filmmaker John Madden (The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (2011)). It is an attractive, good film.

Related review:

John Madden: The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (2011) - Elderly Brits me in India in Madden's delightful film

Watch a short trailer for the film here

Cost: 20 mil. $
Box office: 45.6 mil. $
= Flop
[The film premiered at the Deauville American Film Festival in France September 4 and runs 113 minutes. The Debt was finished and ready for release in July 2010, but due to the sale of distributor Miramax, the North American release was delayed until August 31 2011. The film opened #2 to 9.9 mil. $ in North America, where it grossed 31.1 mil. $ (68.2 % of the total gross.) The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were Spain with 4.6 mil. $ (10.1 %) and the UK with 2.3 mil. $ (5 %). The Debt is certified fresh at 76 % with a 6.5 critical average on Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of The Debt?

Arthur (2011) - Frenzied, colossal egotrip remake, irredeemable DOA

ZERO

+ Worst Movie of the Year
+ Stupidest Movie of the Year

The poster for Jason Winer's Arthur seem innocent enough, but ...

Arthur is born stinking rich. He lives with his nanny Hobson and driver in a giant apartment in New York, when his unloving mother gives him an ultimatum; to commit to a forced marriage or to lose his fortune.

Arthur is, luckily, an extreme rarity as a major studio production; it is a film completely bereft of value.
The gamble here, it seems, must have been that Russell Brand's (Forgetting Sarah Marshall (2008)) exhausting personality could carry an entire film on its own. - It can't.
Instead both he and the film here is extremely strenuous to sit through. Arthur is a remake of Steve Gordon's 1981 movie of the same name with Dudley Moore in the title role, written by Peter Baynham (Hotel Transylvania (2012)) and directed by Jason Winer (Modern Family (2009-14)). It is obvious just minutes into the film that it has no real content besides fluff and puff about a pampered billionaire without connection to reality.
Everyone besides Brand, who is kind of excused because a wealth of people must have propped him up to do this, (the starry cast also includes Helen Mirren (The Queen (2006)), Greta Gerwig (Frances Ha (2012)), Jennifer Garner (Juno (2007)), Luis Guzmán (Carlito's Way (1993)) and Nick Nolte (The Thin Red Line (1998))), should have known better than to accept as tasteless, dumb material as Arthur. The film is, simply put, formulaic and cringe-worthily poor, uninspired on all levels.
Arthur is also large and expensive to boot, a truly great waste of money and human energy. Tonally, it splats out across several chairs: Light, breezy fantasy-comedy/raunchy comedy/indie-feel/New York quirk ... None of it works for it. - Arthur is a Hollywood-constructed eyesore of dimensions.
Brand has had a down period since Diablo Cody's very low-rated Paradise (2013), but is set to make a comeback in funny-sounding Nicholas Cage-starring comedy Army of One (2016). 

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
 

Yes. Jason Winer makes Helen Mirren wear this outfit for his movie Arthur

Not only is the trailer for Arthur long like it'll never end ... even worse, characteristically tastelessly, it uses David Bowie's Rebel Rebel to promote itself

Cost: 40 mil. $
Box office: 45.7 mil. $
= Big flop
[Perhaps the most uplifting thing about Arthur is that it was poorly received by critics and audiences alike and bombed commercially. It was nominated for Razzie Awards for Worst Actor (Brand) and Worst Prequel, Remake, Rip-Off or Sequel. It made 32.8 mil. $ (72 % of its total gross) in the US and a big chunk of the rest of its gross (3 mil. £) in Brand's native UK.]

What do you think of Arthur?

Caligula (1979) - Depravity galore in the Penthouse-produced Roman emperor biopic

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An alluring, brooding poster for Tinto Brass's Caligula

QUICK REVIEW:

The subject of the film: Caligula, who was a Roman emperor approximately 100 years A.C., as well as a sex-crazed maniac.
The film in itself is only worth 3 ♥'s, however, the place it has carved out for itself in film history, (along with the not irrelevant fact that it didn't spin an intolerable avalanche of accompanying epic, swords-and-sandal-art-porns in its vein), contributes to Caligula's growth beyond its own potential.
In a way it is refreshing to see an epic costume drama like this that suddenly both entails fisting and cumshots, and yet still ... Caligula, produced by Penthouse magazine, (it's only film to date), is a complete 70's freak-show.
The ending SPOILER with the appointment of the new emperor and the mooing-scene are spot-on, and the execution-scene impresses, but the film is generally wildly stagy, uncinematic and technically poor.
It was directed by Italian Tinto Brass (Salon Kitty (1976)) with additional footage, - more accurately all of the pornographic material in the film (spurting cocks etc.), - directed by the film's producer Bob Guccione (Lowball (1996)), who insterted the footage against Brass's wishes. The film is based on a script by Gore Vidal (Myra Breckinridge (1970)), which had way too many homosexual sex scenes in it (to suit the Penthouse taste) and was therefore rewritten by Brass. Both Brass and Vidal later disowned the film, which became a success fueled by the free press it got from the courts around America that actually (sensationally) tried to ban the film, but without luck; it was repeatedly deemed 'not obscene'. - It was, however, banned in Australia, where the uncut version has been banned at least into 2011!
That is the version this review is based on, which runs 156 minutes.

Watch an original trailer here

Cost: 17.5 mil. $
Box office: 23 mil. $
= Minor hit

What do you think of Caligula?