Poseidon (2006) - Petersen's disastrous disaster flick

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+ Career Killer of the Year: Wolfgang Petersen + Costliest Flop of the Year: 87.36 mil. $ range

 

An upside-down cruise ship underwater makes up this disaster-teasing poster for Wolfgang Petersen's Poseidon

 

The giant cruise ship the Poseidon gets hit on new year's night by a 'rogue wave', which turns it upside down. Chaos ensues inside, as a group of survivors fight their way to the surface!

 

Poseidon is written by Mark Protosevich (I Am Legend (2007)), adapting The Poseidon Adventure (1969) by Paul Gallico (Miracle in the Wilderness (1975)), and co-produced and directed by German-born American master filmmaker Wolfgang Petersen (Ich Werde Dich Töten, Wolf (1971)). The novel has previously been adapted as The Poseidon Adventure (1972) and Beyond the Poseidon Adventure (1979).

Really handsome visual effects, especially in the beginning of the film and around the impact of the freak wave, keeps Poseidon above water for a while as a more good-looking, appropriately silly update of the well-known, silly, tiring 1970s movie. We are introduced to plentiful characters, but the encounters become very superficial one and all, and more than once outright laughable in their corniness. Popstar Fergie (Nine (2009)), the black and the latino characters all die relatively quickly, and so the film lives up to the old Hollywood race-profile cliché of letting the white characters outlive other races.

Despite controlled length the film develops sort of like the original Poseidon movie with many long, thrill-less scenes with wet stars, flames and screaming. Petersen fails to elevate this shipwreck.

 

Related posts:

 

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

Top 10: Best epic movies reviewed by Film Excess to date

The Boat/Das Boot (1981) - Petersen's awe-inspiring WWII epic 

 

 

Watch a trailer for the film here

 

Cost: 160 mil. $

Box office: 181.6 mil. $

= Big flop (returned 1.13 times its cost)

[Poseidon was released May 10 (Philippines, Thailand) and runs 98 minutes. Shooting took place from June - October 2005 in California, including in Los Angeles. The film opened #2, behind Mission: Impossible III, to a 22.1 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it spent another 2 weekends in the top 5 (#4-#5), grossing 60.6 mil. $ (33.4 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were South Korea with 14 mil. $ (7.7 %) and Japan with 9.9 mil. $ (5.5 %). The film was nominated for the Best Visual Effects Oscar, lost to Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest. Roger Ebert gave the film a 2/4 star review, equal in rating to this one. The film additionally made in excess of 27.1 mil. $ on the North-American home video market. Petersen returned with Vier Gegen die Bank (2016). Kurt Russell (Vanilla Sky (2001)) returned in Death Proof (2007). Poseidon is rotten at 33 % with a 4.90/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Poseidon?

Breakdown (1997) - Mostow arrives with action-packed, flawed thriller

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A blue-faced Kurt Russell seems to be caught in a scarlet dilemma on this poster for Jonathan Mostow's Breakdown

On their way through Arizona's raw desert, an attractive couple's Jeep breaks down, and the wife catches a ride to the next café, while her husband waits and lets the engine cool down. But when he is able to get to the café shortly after, his wife has disappeared...!

 

Breakdown is written by Sam Montgomery (Sawbones (1995, TV movie)) and co-writer/director Jonathan Mostow (Beverly Hills Bodysnatchers (1989)).

It starts well as a typical 'country-folk-are-cruel-and-hostile' thriller with a well-playing Kurt Russell (Captain Ron (1992)), who gives good fullness to his character. The film develops increasingly action-packed with some good cardboard-type villains, and despite Russell pouring plenty of emotions into his performance, it is correct what one critic noted: The third act especially needs that Russell's character gets mad and shows that he is capable in terms of violence, - because Breakdown wants plenty of action. (Speaking of the action, there is a scene in which Russell hangs under a truck, in which it is obvious that it isn't driving fast, when he drops an object down onto the road.)

But Mostow can stage suspense and action, which some other scenes in Breakdown demonstrate, but on the whole this is a lightweight and thin-legged time-killer.

 

Watch a short TV spot for the film here

Cost: 36 mil. $

Box office: 50.1 mil. $ (North America only)

= Uncertain, but probably a flop (projected return of 2.22 times its cost)

[Breakdown premiered 24 April (Los Angeles) and runs 93 minutes. Russell was paid 15 mil. $ for his performance. Shooting took place from April - June 1996 in Nevada, Utah, Arizona and California. The film opened #1 to a 12.3 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it remained in the top 5 for another 3 weekends (#3-#3-#5), grossing 50.1 mil. $. The international gross figures are regrettably not reported online. Figuring on an 80 mil. $ world gross total, the film would rank as a flop. Roger Ebert gave the film a 3/4 star review, translating to 2 notches over this one. Mostow returned with Directors on Directors (1997, TV documentary series), From the Earth to the Moon (1998, miniseries) and theatrically with U-571 (2000). Russell returned in Soldier (1998). Breakdown is certified fresh at 82 % with a 7.20/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Breakdown?

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017) - Gunn returns Marvel's top franchise in fine shape

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+ Best Action Movie of the Year

A stuffed, eye-popping, deliciously colorful poster for James Gunn's Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2

Peter 'Star-Lord' Quill leads the Guardians in space, as they are saved by a mysterious stranger with tremendous powers, who just might be Quill's mysterious biological father...

The sequel to crowd-pleasing hit Guardians of the Galaxy (2014) sees its writer-director James Gunn (Slither (2006)) return with a new vision and story, set in the same universe of hijinks and colorful, witty glee as the first one. Gunn did not write this based on any single Guardians comic book, - but the film has a staggering 10 (!) additional character writing credits listed, (which I won't deign to award more space here.)
Chris Pratt (Her (2013)) is still an ideal Quill, who goes through a larger dramatic arc here, as he searches out his father and his feelings about him versus stepfather Yondu. Michael Rooker (Undisputed (2002)) is back as the flawed, ostracized Yondu, who seeks redemption, and he is great in the part. SPOILER Kurt Russell (The Barefoot Executive (1971)) turns out to be Quill's biological father, a God with his own planet by the name of Ego, who unsurprisingly turns out to be less benign than the first shots of him leads us to believe, (scenes which also implicitly poke fun at Russell's own voluminous hairdo in the 1980s.)
Vol. 2 has many storylines, and it may not be clear all the time, which is the main one, but much of this also comes from its ambition to further our connection with each of the Guardian characters. The first film was similar in this, which is also why you will likely have a hard time recounting the plot of the film today, (if you haven't rewatched it recently.) - The Guardians movies seem to be more about the fun had along the way than the actual stories involved. - Which is fine, especially because they are fun and dazzling. The use of 3D makes sense here, and the film makes use of music in untraditional ways, which heightens the enjoyment. (Only I found that Pratt sometimes seems to be pushed together when in full character in the screen's middle, making him appear at those times disproportional and stocky.)
Zoe Saldana (Blackout (2007)) is still a cool fan-boy fantasy as Gamora; Dave Bautista (Spectre (2015)) is one of my favorite parts of the film and gets to laugh loudly several times, which is for some reason hugely enjoyable. Vin Diesel (Strays (1997)) returns for another one of the easiest top billings perhaps in cinema history, voicing now adorable Baby Groot's "I am Groot" several times, (and to be fair, this time in no less than 16 languages, for different major markets, I read.) The film also has Sylvester Stallone (Rocky V (1990)) in a fairly small part that seems likely to build in the next movie; Pom Klementieff (Borderline (2011)) is funny as Mantis, who shares some good scenes with Drax, and Elizabeth Debicki (The Night Manager (2016), miniseries) is an icy and comic villain in all-gold.
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 is light and breezy good entertainment that announces the coming of the summer blockbuster season with a joyous roar. The visuals and CGI is top notch, but the CGI is also so ubiquitous that we are not as awed as we otherwise might have been by its most impressive aspects. Somehow the overall feeling isn't as real as in the first film and there are significantly fewer wow-moments. It is also a bit long and definitely not made with anything resembling a less-is-more attitude. Instead it is more of all the stuff Gunn served so appealingly and enthusiastically in the first film.
And, luckily, that still seems to go over very well.

Related posts:

2017 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
2017 in films - according to Film Excess
2014 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2014 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
Guardians of the Galaxy (2014) - Get giddy with this pretty awesome, the silliest summer blockbuster of the 2014

Watch an official trailer for the film here

Cost: 200 mil. $
Box office: 431.5 mil. $ and counting
= Too early to say
[Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 premiered 19 April (LA) and runs 136 minutes. Shooting took place in and around the Pinewood Atlanta Studios in Atlanta, Georgia from February - June 2016 with reshoots in November 2016. It is the first film to be shot with an 8K resolution camera, the Red Weapon 8K. More sets were created for the shoot than for the first film. If the above-stated cost is accurate, which it may not be, it is down 13.9 % from the ballooned 232.3 mil. $ budget of the first film. Vol. 2 has opened on 400 IMAX screens in China as part of its release in the country, the highest number of such screens ever for a release. It opened to a stellar 146.5 mil. $ first weekend in North America (up 55 % from the first film's 94.3 mil. $), and has already become the 6th highest grossing film of the year. Gunn is already announced to be coming back for a third Guardians movie. Vol. 2 has already gained traction onto IMDb's user-generated Top 250: It sits at #211, between The Princess Bride (1987) and Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015). Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 is certified fresh at 81 % with a 7.1 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2?

Escape from L.A./John Carpenter's Escape from L.A./Escape from Los Angeles (1996) or, Snake Plissken in Crazy-World!

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+ Costliest Flop of the Year: 31.12 mil. $ range

Kurt Russell looks cool in the intense colors on this poster for John Carpenter's Escape from L.A.

Snake Plissken is back, this time in the year 2013, in which he avoids deportation by getting imposed an assignment by the mad president of the United States to capture his daughter and a weapon on the prison island that is Los Angeles.

Escape from L.A. is a colorful an very wacky sequel to New Yorker master co-writer-director John Carpenter's (Halloween (1978)) own great Escape from New York (1981). It features some early CGI, which looks curious today, and an exaggerated plot that doesn't reach the heights of the first film or another comparable 1990s sci-fi-action great like Paul Verhoeven's Total Recall (1990).
But Escape from L.A. does have its own kind of charm and a cast that contains several smaller scoops, including a scene where Bruce Campbell (Burn Notice (2007-13)) plays a crazy plastic surgeon, which is a favorite, and Pam Grier (Linc's (1998-2000)) playing a male-to-female transgender, (hadn't seen that coming.)
Escape from L.A. is co-written with Debra Hill (The Fog (1980)) and returning star Kurt Russell (Dark Blue (2002), actor). It is a noisy and nonsensical piece of super-kitsch. SPOILER Especially the film's ending is odd, as Plissken "bombs the world 500 years back" by turning off the power with a satellite.

Related posts:

John Carpenter: Cigarette Burns (2005, TV movie) - Carpenter burns out in weird, tiresome TV movie 

1996 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess
Christine (1983) or, Bad Plymouth!
Escape from New York (1981) - Carpenter introduces Kurt Russell as action star in dystopic dream
Top 10: The best action movies and TV-series reviewed by Film Excess to date
Assault on Precinct 13 (1976) - Solid action guerilla film-making

Watch an ad for the film from a VHS tape here - featuring creative marketing that changes the film's huge flop status by referring to it as a "25 mil. $ box office smash", - some 20 years after movies broke the 100 mil. $ mark at the domestic box office ...

Cost: 50 mil. $
Box office: 47.2 mil. $
= Huge flop
[Escape from L.A. was released 9 August (North America) and runs 101 minutes.  The film was in development for almost a decade but was sped up by the 1992 LA riots, the 1994 LA earthquake as well as Russell's wish to play Plissken again. The budget was more than 8 times that of the original film. Shooting took place in California, including at Universal Studios, Texas and Miami, Florida from December 1995 - March 1996. The film opened #3, behind fellow new release Jack and hold-over hit A Time to Kill, to an 8.9 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it fell out of the top 5 in its second week, only played 4 weeks and grossed just 25.4 mil. $ (53.8 mil. % of the total gross.) Roger Ebert gave the film 3½/4 stars, equal to two notches better than this review. Escape from L.A. is rotten at 53 % with a 5.6 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Escape from L.A.?

Escape from New York (1981) - Carpenter introduces Kurt Russell as action star in dystopic dream

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This terrific poster for John Carpenter's Escape from New York recalls the iconic images and posters for sci-fi classic Planet of the Apes (1968) of the beach-inundated Statue of Liberty

Snake Plissken is a prisoner for life in the near future of 1997, but he also possesses fantastic abilities that get him hired, when metropolis-turned-walled-in-prison Manhattan gets a new inhabitant, who wasn't supposed to crash-land there: The US President!

A seductive kind of dystopic air hangs over every part of the marvelous, character-driven Escape from New York, the 5th feature from New-Yorker master co-writer-director John Carpenter (The Thing (1982)), co-written with Nick Castle (Tap (1989), writer-director). It establishes its strong action-thriller concept well and remains compelling entertainment throughout.
Kurt Russell (Tango & Cash (1989)) is the very cool, chivalrous Plissken and is joined by a great cast that includes Lee Van Cleef (Lawman (1958-60)), Ernest Borgnine (Oliviero Rising (2007)), Isaac Hayes (Ninth Street (1999)), Harry Dean Stanton (Stars and Bars (1988)), Donald Pleasence (Eye of the Devil (1967)) and Adrienne Barbeau (The Fog (1980)). It is a film with lots of thrills and a dark beauty to it. It also has a great, electro-synth score, composed by Carpenter and Alan Howard (Boo (2005)), terrific costumes, visual effects and production design.

Related reviews:

John Carpenter: Cigarette Burns (2005, TV movie) - Carpenter burns out in weird, tiresome TV movie
Christine (1983) or, Bad Plymouth!
Top 10: The best action movies and TV-series reviewed by Film Excess to date
Assault on Precinct 13 (1976) - Solid action guerilla film-making

 

Watch the animated opening credits for the film here

 

Cost: 6 mil. $

Box office: 25.2 mil. $ (North America only)

= Huge hit

[Escape from New York was released 10 July and runs 99 minutes. Carpenter conceptualized the film based on Death Wish (1974), specifically its portrayal of New York City as a jungle-like crime center, and on the cynicism that resulted from the 1972-74 Watergate scandal that led to President Nixon's resignation. Big studios were not interested; Carpenter has said that they thought the script was too scary, weird and violent. A worn-down stand-in for a future New York was found in East St. Louis, Illinois, which was mainly rubble after a destructive 1976 fire, and St. Louis, Missouri, with additional shooting in California, Arizona and New York, where the mostly nightly shoot took place from August - November 1980. It involved the production buying a bridge for a dollar from the local government (for liability issues) and selling it back to them for a dollar again after shooting; shutting off electricity of up to ten blocks at night at a time, and the first night shoot on Liberty Island ever permitted. James Cameron (Titanic (1997)) worked as a photographer on the film and helped with the simulated computer-graphics rendition of NYC, which was accomplished with a miniature lined with reflective tape. The film became a summer hit in the US, where it was the year's 32nd highest-grossing film, and was also successful abroad, particularly in West Germany, where it reportedly grossed more than 10 mil. $ alone. The film led to a novelization, a video game, comic books and a less interesting sequel by Carpenter with Russell, Escape from LA (1996). A remake with Gerard Butler was proposed but didn't happen; it now seems a remake and possibly more than one film might be in the works at Fox. Escape from New York is certified fresh at 85 % with a 6.9 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Escape from New York?

Death Proof (2007) - Tarantino's awesome, rubber-burning Grindhouse homage

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+ Best Los Angeles Movie of the Year + Best Car Movie of the Year + Best Car Chase of the Year (final girls vs. Stuntman Mike chase) + Best Comeback Actor of the Year: Kurt Russell

The gritty-cool poster for Quentin Tarantino's Death Proof

QUICK REVIEW:

Stuntman Mike is a distinguished stunt driver in Los Angeles, and a homicidal maniac! He preys upon attractive young women to kill with his death proof stunt car, - but some women are out of Mike's league.

Death Proof is master filmmaker Quentin Tarantino's (Jackie Brown (1997)) contribution to Grindhouse (2007), a double-feature release that paid homage to the 70s exploitation double feature culture in American so-called Grindhouse cinemas. The other feature is Robert Rodriguez' equally smutty and great Planet Terror (2007). Grindhouse was released as one long double-feature presentation in America and as two individual movies everywhere else, with Death Proof's playing time buffed up with 27 minutes. This is a review of the stand-alone movie.
The film is more Tarantino than Roger Corman, who headed some of the kind of films that are celebrated here, in that writer-director Tarantino doesn't restrain his own style and talents according to genre conventions here but make his own footprint in the car movie genre. But since the film is 100 % bad-ass fun, it's totally cool.
The empowering girls are the main attraction: Especially Zoë Bell (Raze (2013)) as herself, Sydney Tamiia Poitier (Hood of Horror (2006)) as Jungle Julia, Tracie Thoms (Veep (2014), TV-series) as Kim and Rosario Dawson (Eagle Eye (2008)) as Abernathy are some butt-kicking babes here. Kurt Russell (The Thing (1982)) is great fun and really creepy as a girl-munching wolf of a man, and it's very strange to think of the fact that Tarantino had 8 other male stars in mind, who were all unavailable, before he got the bright idea that Russell should play Stuntman Mike.
The music is all source here, meaning that the film has no score but just a lot of great songs and score tracks from other films, and it's a real treat for the ears. Finally, the many minutes long final car chase is one for the books.

Related post:

2007 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2007 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I] 

Watch the trailer for the movie here

Cost: 67 mil. $ (together with Planet Terror/full Grindhouse production cost)
Box office: 25 mil. $ (North America only) - for Grindhouse
= Uncertainty
[There aren't many numbers out on the unsuccessful release of Grindhouse and its two individual movies, but there is no doubt that the films flopped theatrically. Audiences didn't embrace the double feature throwback in America, and internationally, the films didn't accrue enough to change things around. Some are hard on Death Proof for this reason alone, and Tarantino has even himself stated that he considers it his worst film, probably greatly affected by suffering his first real flop. Death Proof, Planet Terror and Grindhouse were, regrettably, a huge flop.]

What do you think of Death Proof?

Backdraft (1991) - Ron Howard's giant, stupid Chicago-set firefighter movie

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French poster for Ron Howard's Backdraft

A pair of brothers in the Chicago Fire Dept., one already a veteran there and the other one barely making his entrance in their world, trail in their father's footsteps, when a series of terrible fires are set off by an unknown, crazed arsonist.

 

Ron Howard's (Frost/Nixon (2008)) tries to make the broadest possible action-adventure here, and in this he succeeds. Is the story, fire philosophy (laid out by Robert De Niro's fire investigator) and general environment preposterous, and the characters thin and one-sided? Sure. But the camaraderie and going-for-broke, massive score and ambitious production width is enticing. Backdraft has solid photography, - by Mikael Salomon (Hard Rain (1998), director), - and very impressive fire scenes, with stunts that defy expectations and are worth the time in themselves. Donald Sutherland is a compelling lunatic, and you couldn't ask for better hams than Kurt Russell and William Baldwin's (The Squid and the Whale (2005)) as the film's brothers.

Gregory Widen's (Highlander (1986)) scripted. Backdraft may be a somewhat stupid film but it is also the kind of spectacle that you want to pull out and watch again with admiration nonetheless from time to time.


Related review:

Ron Howard: A Beautiful Mind (2001) - John Nash given the Epic Treatment

Brothers (in the film) Kurt Russell and William Baldwin in their fire uniforms

Watch the overly long trailer for the overly long Backdraft here

Budget: 75 mil. $
Box office: 152.3 mil. $
= Flop

What are your thought on Backdraft?