Paranormal Activity (2007) - Peli's record-breaking found footage horror smash

♥♥♥♥

 

The chilling footage from a home surveillance camera makes up most of this poster for Oren Peli's Paranormal Activity

Micah and Katie have moved together in a nice house in San Diego. But strange occurrences begin to take place at night, so Micah begins to document the happenings with home surveillance cameras, as Kate divulges that the supernatural is nothing new in her life.

 

Paranormal Activity is written, produced, directed, photographed and edited by debuting Oren Peli (Chernobyl Diaries (2012, writer)). It is the first film in the Paranormal Activity franchise.

Although the film sometimes almost gets stuck in the conflicts that make its otherwise sweet central couple pathetic, the effects of the simple shock footage, - and especially of the really scary ending, - are impressive and effectively spooky. The marketing and over-all feat of the film must here be taken into account and recognized as incredible. SPOILER The demon overtakes Katie. Mad scary.

 

Related posts:

 

The Paranormal Activity franchise: 2010 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]  

2010 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]

2010 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]

2010 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess 

Paranormal Activity 2 (2010) or, Haunted California Idiots 

 

 

A video of scary clips from the film - DON'T watch this if you haven't yet seen the film

 

Cost: 215k $

Box office: 193.3 mil. $

= Mega-hit (returned 899 times its cost)

[Paranormal Activity premiered 14 October (Screamfest Horror Film Festival, USA) and runs 86 minutes. Katie Featherston (Paranormal Activity 4 (2012)) and Micah Sloat (The Death and Return of Superman (2011, short)) were initially paid 500 $ each for their performances. The film originally had a 15k $ budget. Shooting took place from in just a week from April - May 2007 in San Diego, California. In a hectic period leading up to Paramount acquiring the film's release and sequels rights for 350k $, spending 200k $ by shooting new endings and editing the film, DreamWorks first had a plan to buy the film to remake it immediately, but a decisive screening left an impression that the film was effective as was. Paramount's overtaking DreamWorks meant that the release was delayed for a long period, finally getting a broad release in 2009. It opened #48 to a 77k $ first weekend in 12 theaters in North America, where it peaked at #1 and in 2,712 theaters (different weeks), grossing 107.9 mil. $ (55.8 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were the UK with 16 mil. $ (8.3 %) and France with 9.6 mil. $ (5 %). The film was nominated for an Independent Spirit award. Roger Ebert gave it a 3.5/4 star review, translating to a notch over this one. The film's success, sometimes referred to as making it the most profitable of all time (compared to its budget) spun a franchise of 6 direct sequels so far, as well as an unrelated sequel and a wave of similar found footage low budget horror films. The first sequel is Paranormal Activity 2 (2010), without Peli or the original stars front and center. Peli returned with Area 51 (2015). Featherston returned in Psychic Experiment (2010); Sloat in Paranormal Activity 2. Paranormal Activity is certified fresh at 83 % with a 7.00/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

 

What do you think of Paranormal Activity?

Paul (2011) - Pegg, Frost and Mottola delve into SF with mixed results

♥♥♥

A cool, funky poster for Greg Mottola's Paul

QUICK REVIEW:

Two science fiction nerds go on a road trip after the San Diego Comic-Con, on vacation from their safe home country England. Soon they meet an actual alien, and together the three get into a real mess.

Paul sports a really impressive cast: Among them Joe Lo Truglio (Knight of Cups (2015)), Kristen Wiig (Welcome to Me (2014)) and Jeffrey Tambor (Branded (2012)) are especially funny. Simon Pegg and Nick Frost (The World's End (2013), both) work together, as on-screen actors, but they play somewhat bland characters here.
Paul is based on a funny and weird idea; it is a very sympathetic mash-up of more than 40 years of science fiction culture. Unfortunately it is needlessly hostile towards religion.
It is written by Pegg and Frost after their success with Shaun of the Dead (2004), and just like Shaun is a real zombie film as well as a comedy, Paul is a real piece of science fiction while also being a comedy. Paul just doesn't reach the same level of hilarity or innovation that Shaun did.
The film is directed by Greg Mottola (Superbad (2007)), who is now filming spy comedy Keeping Up with the Joneses (2016) starring Jon Hamm and Isla Fisher.

Watch the trailer for the movie here

Cost: 40 mil. $
Box office: 98 mil. $
= Minor flop
[Pegg and Frost wrote the script inspired by an American road trip they had taken themselves, and Paul got green-lid just before the 2008 financial crash. Mottola has stated that he doesn't think it would have been made after the crash. The film opened to a 13 mil. $ first weekend in the US, curiously released for Valentine's Day. It grossed 37.3 mil. $ (38 % of the total gross) in North America.]

What do you think of Paul?

Haywire (2011) - Soderbergh's taut, stylish ensemble actioner is a masterpiece

♥♥♥♥♥♥

1 Time Film Excess Award Winner:

Best Practical Effects

4 Time Film Excess Nominee:


Best Film (lost to The Descendants)
Best Director: Steven Soderbergh (lost to Agnieszka Holland for In Darkness)
Best Cinematography: Steven Soderbergh (lost to Phedon Papamichael for The Descendants)
Best Practical Effects (won)

+ Best Breakthrough of the Year (Gina Carano)
+ Sexiest Movie of the Year
+ Most Undeserved Flop of the Year

The appropriately stylish, cool poster for Steven Soderbergh's Haywire

Mallory is an American assassin and a damned skilled one at that. On a job in Barcelona, she gets set up. - And when she kills the British agent, whose mission it was to kill her, things have really gone haywire!

Real-life MMA-fighter Gina Carano (Blood and Bone (2009)) is deeply impressive and a wagonload of cool in her starring debut as an actress, and not just in the fight scenes, which are masterly choreographed. Master director and cinematographer Steven Soderbergh (The Informant! (2009)) creates striking images with minimal use of lighting, which plays neatly with David Holmes' (Ocean's Thirteen (2007)) score that seduces with bulging, cool 70s-like percussion. The sound side features lots of periods of bold uses of silence, and the noiseless aspect of Haywire is liberating, since modern action movies in general seem to have cultivated a bad habit of reveling in being as infernally noisy as possible.
Haywire is consistently stylish, self-conscious in its teasing us cinephiles playfully. It is a huge pleasure to watch it, and its ending is the coolest that has come around in any film in a long while.
Haywire is written by Lem Dobbs (The Score (2001)). Although Soderbergh has made many great films in recent years, this is his best in a long while. It is a raw, girl-power-infused martial arts action gift. - Yeah!

Related posts:



Steven Soderbergh: Side Effects (2013) - Modern people screw up in excellent thriller 
Behind the Candelabra (2013) - Restraint and extravagance 
Magic Mike (2012) - Soderbergh and Tatum score big with cheeky male strip romp 
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
Contagion (2011) - Soderbergh's global pandemic creep-out  
Che Part One - The Argentine (2008) - Soderbergh's sober depiction of the Cuban revolution 
Solaris (2002) - A suffering space question mark  

Gina Carano in camouflage in Steven Soderbergh's Haywire

Cost: 23 mil. $
Box office: 33.3 mil. $
= Huge flop
[The public didn't respond warmly to Haywire, and many have even ridiculed Carano's great performance in it. A sophisticated, highly intelligent, polished piece of super-entertainment with a female hero for the decade of course is quite an unpleasant shock... After an opening weekend of 8.4 mil. $, it ended up grossing 18.9 mil. $ in the US (57 % of its total gross).]

What do you think of Haywire?

Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy (2004) - Ferrell's Burgundy reigns supreme

♥♥♥♥♥♥

+ 2nd Best Movie of the Year

+ Best American Movie of the Year + Best Big Hit Movie of the Year + Best Comedy of the Year + Best Period Movie of the Year + Best San Diego Movie of the Year

The hilarious cast sell the film for any comedy fan on this fun-spelling poster for Adam McKay's Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy

Anchorman is a romantic adventure crazy-comedy satire set in San Diego in the 70s on a local TV station, where news anchor Ron Burgundy rules. But when a female co-host enters this male-dominated, closed circuit, it alters television forever.

Co-writer/star Will Ferrell's (The House (2017)) totally outrageous humor has free reign in Anchorman, which he wrote with Pennsylvanian master director Adam McKay (Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby (2006)). The film is a perfect mix of hysterically funny and far out lines, a completely lunatic and yet utterly controlled storyline, and stellar, comedic performances from an incredible comedy ensemble: 
Aside from a dynamite Ferrell, perhaps the funniest comedian of the 00s, we have Steve Carell (Freeheld (2015)), Paul Rudd (The Catcher Was a Spy (2018)), David Koechner (The Soul Man (2016, TV-series)) and not least Fred Willard (Roseanne (1995-97)) as station chief. Christina Applegate (The Book of Life (2014)) is the physically appetizing and deeply funny comedienne, who is able to share screen with Ferrell and not at all disappear altogether in his shade. Anchorman also sports an almost endless line of grand cameos. Ferrell himself calls the film the most satisfying thing he has ever done.
And did I mention that it all takes place in gleefully decadent and/or gaudy 1970s sets and costumes?
Anchorman is a perfect comedy, and perhaps the funniest from the 00s.

Related posts:

Adam McKay: The day after the day after ... the Oscars 2016
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]
The Big Short (2015) or, Something Rotten in America
Ant-Man (2015) - Reed and Rudd succeed with light, refreshing, FX-driven 3D spectacle (co-writer)  

2004 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I] 
2004 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess
Top 10: Best comedies reviewed by Film Excess to date

Watch a great 3-minute clip from the film here

Cost: 26 mil. $
Box office: 90.5 mil. $
= Box office success (returned 3.48 times its cost)
[Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy premiered 28 June (Los Angeles, California) and runs 94 minutes. The project went through many forms before production and at one point had Paul Thomas Anderson attached to produce. Shooting took place in San Diego and Los Angeles, California in and around July 2003. The film opened #2, behind Spider-Man 2, to a 28.4 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it spent another week in the top 5 (#3) and grossed 85.2 mil. $ (94.1 % of the total gross). The film's reception in the rest of the world may be called tiny save for two other markets, where it took off: The UK with 2.9 mil. $ (3.2 %) and Australia with 1.6 mil. $ (1.8 %). Roger Ebert gave it a 3/4 star review, translating to two notches harder than this one. McKay and Ferrell returned with a sequel with the supporting cast back as well with Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues (2013). McKay returned first with Wake Up, Ron Burgundy: The Lost Movie (2004, video), - based on outtakes from the feature, - and theatrically with Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby (2006), - both with Ferrell starring. Ferrell returned first in Melinda and Melinda (2004). Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy is fresh at 66 % with a 6.29/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy?