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Co-star Philip Seymour Hoffman features most prominently on this eclectic poster for Richard Kwietniowski's Owning Mahowny
Successful bank manager Mahowny makes a dangerous digression, when at work he starts covering his increasing gambling debts using fictive customer loans.
Owning Mahowny is written by Maurice Chauvet (The Basement (2005)), based on the 1987 nonfiction book Stung by Gary Ross, and directed by Richard Kwietniowski (Love and Death on Long Island (1997)).
Philip Seymour Hoffman (Magnolia (1999)) is epically great as the gambler, (the person struggling with a self-destructive nature), and John Hurt (Lost Souls (2000)) is good as the casino boss, and Minnie Driver (Stage Fright (2014)) ditto as his loving wife. The plot is a downwards spiral without big wild developments, but it is well-told, and Hoffman makes Owning Mahowny a late-night gem of a film.
= Box office disaster (returned 0.12 times its cost)
[Owning Mahowny premiered 23 January (Sundance Film Festival) and runs 104 minutes. Shooting took place around March 2001 in New Jersey and Ontario, including in Toronto. The film opened #59 to a 33k $ first weekend in 9 theaters in North America, where it peaked at #50 and in 24 theaters (different weeks), grossing 1 mil. $ (83.3 % of the total gross). It was only released in a little handful of other markets. Roger Ebert gave the film a 4/4 star review, translating to 2 notches over this one. Kwietniowski returned with Regret Not Speaking (2011), which was seemingly never released and remains his last finished credit. Hoffman returned in Mattress Man Commercial (2003, short) and theatrically in Cold Mountain (2003); Driver in Hope Springs (2003); and Hurt in a short, a voice performance and a music video prior to his theatrical return in Hellboy (2004). Owning Mahowny is certified fresh at 78 % with a 7/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]
+ Best Heist Movie of the Year + Best Indiana Movie of the Year + Best Mega-flop Movie of the Year + Costliest Flop of the Year: 57.6 mil. $ range + Worst $ Return of the Year: 0.52 Times its Cost
Heavy downpour soaks a man on the run on this strong poster for Mikael Salomon's Hard Rain
Two related armored truck drivers are ambushed by a team of bank-robbers during a torrential rainstorm in a town in Indiana.
Hard Rain is written by Graham Yost (Justified (2010-15)) and directed by Mikael Salomon (A Far Off Place (1993)).
Randy Quaid (Davis Rules (1991-92)) is priceless as the greedy sheriff villain in this hugely entertaining action picture. The pace is high from beginning to end; there's humor and charming side characters as well as Christian Slater (Ask My Anything (2014)) and Morgan Freeman (Levity (2003)) skillful as the leads. The score by Christopher Young (The Tower (2002)) is involving, and the action scenes are impressive and sometimes innovative. It is also well done the way Yost manages to get the water element to work for his script, paired with a 3 mil. $ heist.
There are a few loose ends, and the shoot-outs may become a tad too numerous at some point, but Hard Rain is still one heck of an action spectacle.
Watch the opening title sequence from the film here
Cost: 70 mil. $
Box office: 26.6 mil. $ - 31 mil. $ (different accounts)
= Mega-flop (returned between 0.38-0.44 times its cost)
[Hard Rain was released 16 January (North America) and runs 96 minutes. John Woo was slated to direct but bowed out to do Face/Off. 10 companies were involved in the financing and production of the film. A 6 mil. $ set was created in an aircraft hangar in California. Shooting took place from August 1996 - January 1997 in California, Indiana and Toronto, Canada. The ending of the film was changed due to poor test audience feedback. It opened #5, behind holdover hit Titanic, fellow new releases Good Will Hunting and Fallen and holdover hit As Good As It Gets, to an 8 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it left the top 5 in its 2nd weekend and grossed 19.8 mil. $. One source claims the film only made 6.8 mil. $ abroad, while another claims that its final gross was 31 mil. $ (11.2 mil. $ abroad in that case.) Roger Ebert gave the film a 1/4 star review, translating to 4 notches under this one. Slater was imprisoned for about 90 days on drug and violence charges directly following the premiere. Freeman later publicly dissed the film, and Minnie Driver said in an interview in 1997 (so before the film was even released) that she hated working on it due to the wet conditions (...). Salomon turned to TV and a prolific career directing there but did return theatrically with Freezer (2014). Freeman returned in Deep Impact (1998); Slater in Basil (1998). Hard Rain is rotten at 30 % with a 4.40/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]
+ Best American Movie of the Year + Best Drama of the Year + Best Massachusetts Movie of the Year
Warm autumn colors and a wonderful still of stars Matt Damon and Robin Williams make up this classic poster for Gus Van Sant's Good Will Hunting
Will Hunting of South Boston cleans at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and in secret solves mathematical problems on a blackboard in a hallway, while he in his spare time gets into some trouble with the law.
Good Will Hunting is written by co-writer/co-star Ben Affleck (Live by Night (2016)) and co-writer/co-star Matt Damon (Promised Land (2012)) and directed by Kentuckian master filmmaker Gus Van Sant (Mala Noche (1986)), whose 6th feature it is.
Damon convinces in the title part as the simultaneously incredibly smart and incredibly dumb Will Hunting. Robin Williams (The Night Listener (2006)) is formidable as the psychology doctor who begins seeing Hunting as a patient, and there is also impeccable supporting performances from Stellan Skarsgård (Hope (2019)), Casey Affleck (Ocean's Twelve (2004)), the other Affleck and Minnie Driver (Goats (2012)).
Good Will Hunting is a handsomely shot (by Jean-Yves Escoffier (Gummo (1997))), superiorly directed drama with a lot of fun lines and stories in it; it is fresh, exceedingly well-written and structured to a T. It may be said to stretch some of the relationships depicted, in particular the patient-psychologist relationship, but then Hunting is a obviously a very special case, and so it is entirely forgivable. It never compromises the film, which has an excellent beginning and just goes on being excellent.
Good Will Hunting is a marvelous motion picture, awe-inspiring and full of heart and brains.
[Good Will Hunting premiered 2 December (California) and runs 126 minutes. Damon began writing the script in his playwriting class at Harvard University. He wrote the complete script with Affleck, and they sold it for 675k $ to Castle Rock Entertainment, where president Rob Reiner asked them to remove its thriller aspect. Castle Rock was not interested in production with the two writers as stars, and they got 30 days to find another buyer, which became Miramax, where Harvey Weinstein stepped up to buy the project. Damon was paid 650k $, Affleck 300k $; Williams' participation was the film's scoop; he took a drastically reduced salary (reports say anywhere between 1.5-5 mil. $) but profit participation means he eventually landed an undisclosed, much bigger payday from the film. Shooting took place from April - June 1996 in Massachusetts, including Boston, and in Toronto, Ontario. The film opened #13 to a 272k $ first weekend in 7 theaters in North America, where it peaked at #2, staying in the top 5 for another 8 weeks, grossing 138.4 mil. $ (61.3 % of the total gross). The film was nominated for 9 Oscars, winning 2; for Best Original Screenplay and Best Supporting Actor (Williams). It lost Best Actor (Damon) to Jack Nicholson in As Good As It Gets, Supporting Actress (Driver) to Kim Basinger in L.A. Confidential, Director to James Cameron for Titanic, Editing to Titanic, Score (Danny Elfman) to James Horner for Titanic, Original Song (Elliott Smith's Miss Misery) to Cèline Dion's My Heart Will Go On from Titanic, and Picture also to Titanic. It also won 1/4 Golden Globe nominations, the Silver Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival, a European Film award and 2 National Board of Review awards, among other honors. Roger Ebert gave the film a 3/4 star review, translating to 2 notches lower than this one. IMDb's users have rated the film in at #87 on the site's Top 250, between Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi (1983) and Like Stars on Earth/Taare Zameen Par (2007). Van Sant returned with Hanson: Weird (1998, music video) and theatrically with Psycho (1998). Williams returned in Disney's Math Quest with Aladdin (1998, video game) and theatrically in What Dreams May Come (1998); and Damon in Saving Private Ryan (1998). Good Will Hunting is certified fresh at 98 % with a 8.00/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]
