Midway (2019) - Emmerich's big WWII turkey

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+ 2nd Worst Movie of the Year

+ Most Deserved Flop of the Year  

 

Glossy stars and huge explosions outline this good-looking poster for Roland Emmerich's Midway

The relationship with the increasingly hostile Japanese had gradually deteriorated ahead of the devastating Pearl Harbor attacks on the US Navy in Hawaii in December 1940. The Pacific Theater gets a decisive battle in Midway.

 

Midway is written by Wes Tooke (Jean-Claude Van Johnson (2017, TV-series)) and directed by Roland Emmerich (Franzmann (1979)).

Variegated and uninteresting, Emmerich here gives us his version of the famous Battle of Midway, which feels at least as phony and super-glossed as Michael Bay's Pearl Harbor (2001). Filled with wide-angled effects shots, which impress, but their feeling subsides fast, and then it doesn't help Midway that most will have Christopher Nolan's masterpiece Dunkirk (2017) still in fresh memory.

The whole starry cast of Midway are wasted in respectful, historical parts: Foremost stands Ed Skrein (The Model (2016)) in an awful, scenery-chewing performance with a horrible New York accent as the film's hero, who is named Dick Best, (no kidding!) Credit titles ascertain that he was real enough, but it just, regrettably, doesn't seem like it during the elapsed movie.

 

Related posts:

Roland Emmerich: 2019 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]

White House Down (2013) or, Duck, Mr. President!
2009 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]    
2012 (2009) or, Giant Mega-Stupid Movie!

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

10,000 BC (2008) - Emmerich's mammoth turkey 

 

Watch a trailer for the film here

 

Cost: 100 mil. $

Box office: 127.4 mil. $

= Big flop (returned 1.27 times its cost)

[Midway premiered 24 October (Germany) and runs 138 minutes. Emmerich had attempted to get the film green-lit by a major studio since the 1990s, without luck. His assembling the budget of 100 mil. $ makes it one of the costliest independent movies of all time. 15 companies and governmental support bodies were involved in the financing and making of the film. Shooting took place from September - December 2018 in Hawaii and in Montreal, Québec. It opened #1 to a 17.8 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it spent another two weekends in the top 5 (#2-#5), grossing 56.8 mil. $ (44.6 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were China with 42 mil. $ (33 %) and South Korea with 7.3 mil. $ (5.7 %). Lionsgate reportedly spent 40 mil. $ promoting the film. Emmerich returns with Moonfall (2022). Skrein returned in Naked Singularity (2021). Midway is rotten at 42 % with a 5.20/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Midway?

10,000 BC (2008) - Emmerich's mammoth turkey

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+ 3rd Worst Movie of the Year
+ Most Undeserved Hit of the Year

A man perched on a cliff against a sabre-toothed tiger near a couple of pyramids under construction makes up this dramatic poster for Roland Emmerich's 10,000 BC

A nomadic tribe centered around hunting mammoths head out on a perilous journey.

10,000 BC is written by Harald Kloser (2012 (2009)) and Roland Emmerich (Universal Soldier (1992)) as one of the relatively few films that take place long before historic time, (historic time being defined as the period that we have written historic records from.)
The film first tries to capture us with a mammoth hunt, which only succeeds partially: It is often evident that the actors play in front of a green screen and are only in post production pitched against grand landscapes. Similarly the prehistoric animals, - and in particular the enormous sabre-toothed tiger that comes along later on, - are not convincing enough.
10,000 BC made me long for Mel Gibson's pre-Columbus' North-American arrival masterpiece Apocalypto (2006) and the lesser but still much better neanderthal adventure The Clan of the Cave Bear (1986), because Emmerich's action adventure in contrast lacks even the shade of an exciting story. None of the characters really spring to life either, and boredom allows us as audiences time to reflect on their eclectic racial mix and how they rapidly move from mammoth-strewn ice country to bamboo jungle to what we must take to be Egypt, mostly by foot...
Meanwhile Kloser and Thomas Wanker's (Dresden (2006, TV movie)) grandiose score pounds away and clearly tells us that we are meant to take the improbable, humor-bereft junk that is 10,000 BC seriously. This is one mammoth stinker.

Related posts:

Roland Emmerich: White House Down (2013) or, Duck, Mr. President!
2009 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]    
2012 (2009) or, Giant Mega-Stupid Movie!

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

2008 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II] 
2008 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
2008 in films - according to Film Excess 
Mentioned movie: Apocalypto (2006) or, Journey to An Extinct World

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 105 mil. $
Box office: 269.8 mil. $
= Box office success
[10,000 BC premiered 22 February (Tokyo, Japan) and runs 109 minutes. Columbia Pictures and Sony dropped the project due to a "busy release calender", and Warner Bros. picked it up. Star actors, visual effects details and using ancient languages were skipped for budget reasons, and to make the production easier. Shooting took place in New Zealand, Namibia, South Africa and Thailand from April 2006 - ?. The film opened #1 to a strong 35.8 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it spent two more weeks in the top 5 (#2-#5) and grossed 94.7 mil. $ (35.1 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were Mexico with 17.2 mil. $ (6.4 %) and Spain with 13.1 mil. $ (4.9 %). Emmerich returned with another bona fide tentpole turkey, disaster epic 2012 (2009). 10,000 BC is rotten at 8 % with a 3.2 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of 10,000 BC?

2012 (2009) or, Giant Mega-Stupid Movie!

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+ 3rd Worst Movie of the Year

A Tibetan monk looks on as an ocean suddenly engorges the Himalayan mountain peaks on this poster for Roland Emmerich's 2012

The Mayan Indians had figured it out centuries ago: Atypical solar activity makes 2012 a fateful year for planet Earth, which reacts with earthquakes, volcano eruptions and monstrous floods.

2012 has one thing going for it and one thing only: Insane CGI effects, SPOILER as when lead John Cusack's (The Paperboy (2012)) limo drives through a disintegrating Los Angeles... As incredible as this is to stare at is the ridiculous, trite and just plain stupid plot around it, which consists of inordinate amounts of screaming, wailing and obscurities.
Danny Glover (Dirty Grandpa (2016)) is the US president who wants to die. Oliver Platt (Chicago P.D. (2015-16)) is a villain because he wants to live... Chiwetel Ejifor (The Martian (2015)) has the film's perhaps dumbest role as an idealistic geologist. 2012 is just too asinine.
It is written by Harald Kloser (White House Down (2013)) and co-writer-director Roland Emmerich (Stargate (1994)).

Related posts:

Roland Emmerich: White House Down (2013) or, Duck, Mr. President!

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]
2009 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]  

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 200 mil. $
Box office: 769.6 mil. $
= Big hit
[2012 premiered 11 November (9 countries) and runs 158 minutes. Emmerich has said about it that he "always wanted to do a Biblical flood movie." The 2012 doomsday theory that the film propagates is a Western concept, which draws from the Mayans and their talent for astronomy. The Mayans did not actually think the world would end in 2012. Filming took place in Las Vegas, Nevada, Los Angeles, California and in British Columbia, Canada, including in Vancouver, from July - October 2008. The film's marketing made use of a polemic Internet campaign that made people think that the world was actually going to end soon. The film opened #1 to a 65.2 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it stayed in the top 5 for another two weeks (both at #3) and grossed 166.2 mil. $ (21.6 % of the total gross). Luckily for the filmmakers, the rest of the world were more thrilled; the film's 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were China with 68.6 mil. $ (8.9 %) and France with 44 mil. $ (5.7 %). It was the 5th highest-grossing film of the year and Emmerich's second highest-grossing film, after Independence Day (1996). Roger Ebert gave it 3½/4 stars, completely opposite this review. The film was banned in North Korea, where 2012 was going to be an anniversary for the nation's founder, and several people were arrested for possessing or viewing the film there. Plans for a TV spin-off were eventually canceled. Emmerich returned with the William Shakespeare conspiracy theory movie Anonymous (2011). 2012 is rotten at 39% with a 5/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of 2012?

White House Down (2013) or, Duck, Mr. President!

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+ Most Expensive Flop of the Year: 67.88 mil. $ range

The two stars appear fairly comfortable in a vortex of fiery chaos on the White House lawn on this poster for Roland Emmerich's White House Down

An under-qualified, but highly motivated security agent goes to a job interview with the Secret Service at the White House and brings along his politically obsessed tween daughter. But this turns out not to be a regular day: The White House gets attacked, and this job applicant suddenly has the life of the President of America to protect! And world peace!!!

 

White House Down is written by writer/co-producer James Vanderbilt (Zodiac (2007)) and directed by Roland Emmerich (Franzmann (1979)).
Channing Tatum (A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints (2006)) is no Bruce Willis, and certainly no Arnold Schwarzenegger, but he does have charm and great on-screen chemistry with Jamie Foxx (Django Unchained (2012)) playing President Obama - ahem, I mean, President James Sawyer, - and that does cover for the fact that he is no real action star. And Joey King (The Conjuring (2013)) puts some real emotion and fine acting into playing his daughter, Emily.
The film has two great villains in Jason Clarke (Zero Dark Thirty (2012)) and James Woods (Once Upon a Time in America (1984)). Clarke looks like a mean son of a bitch throughout, and Woods uses his integrity and great face to full effect as the embittered, loony Secret Service boss. Other endeared actors in the movie include Richard Jenkins (The Shape of Water (2017)) and Lance Reddick (The Wire (2002-2008)).
White House Down takes some time to get started action-wise, which is fine; we get into the characters and are presented with some fascinating White House facts. There are some clichés in its first act, but none fatal.
Then the action begins, and the movie grows sillier by the minute. You're either charmed by it and will want to be stay on the pony ride and enjoy it, or you'll pout your way through it to the end, (or turn it off.)
I was charmed by White House Down. It does the new thing of having the president participate pretty extensively in the action. Foxx does an excellent effort in avoiding making an impression of Obama, and yet being Obama in most viewers' inner subtext, though of course under another name, and it is pretty funny to see him firing a rocket launcher at another vehicle from 'Ground Force One' in motion across the White House lawn. This scene was my favorite in the film, where huge, beautiful cars chase each other across the White House garden. What a thing to behold for a boy of any age. -It looks amazing, no least considering that the entire film was shot in Canada! 

White House Down is cheesy and over-the-top in most every way. Tatum's character apparently can NOT die. Foxx is a fun, cool and jovial president ALL THE TIME. And Clarke is MEAN. Without the film ever being overtly political, though, chances are that you'll like it best, if you're not a die-hard Republican.
Luckily, the cheesiness of White House Down does not extend to a romantic ending between Tatum and Maggie Gyllenhaal's (Secretary (2002)) weak, whimsical character. That might have broken the camel's back for me.
White House Down is a really outrageous and irreverent action-party, and if you can enjoy it as such, you'll probably have fun watching it, as I certainly did. Emmerich's films are not intellectual propositions. They are popcorn movies and pure escapism. White House Down is a good example of this. It is good, fun entertainment.

 

Related posts:

Roland Emmerich: 2019 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]

Midway (2019) - Emmerich's big WWII turkey 

2013 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED VI] 
2009 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]    
2012 (2009) or, Giant Mega-Stupid Movie!

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

10,000 BC (2008) - Emmerich's mammoth turkey

 

Have a look at White House Down in its cool trailer here

Cost: 150 mil. $
Box office: 205.3 mil. $
= Big flop (returned 1.36 times its cost)

[White House Down premiered 21 June (Washington, D.C.) and runs 131 minutes. Vanderbilt was paid 3 mil. $ for his script by Sony Pictures. Shooting took place around August 20112 in Montreal, Quebec and in Washington, D.C.. Sony competed with Millennium Films in producing the film, as they were up against another high-profile White House attack actioner: Millennium Films' Olympus Has Fallen (2013) came about about 3 months prior to theatrical success. White House Down opened #4, behind holdover hit Monsters University, fellow new release The Heat and holdover hit World War Z, to a 24.8 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it left the top 5 in its 2nd weekend and grossed 73.1 mil. $ (35.6 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were China with 28.4 mil. $ (13.8 %) and Germany with 12.7 mil. $ (6.2 %). Emmerich returned with Stonewall (2015). Tatum returned in a short, a TV-series and a voice performance prior to his theatrical return in Foxcatcher (2014); Foxx in a short, 2 music videos and a voice performance prior to his theatrical return in The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (2014). White House Down is rotten at 51 % with a 5.40/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

 

What do you think of White House Down?