The Player (1992) - Altman's overrated Hollywood satire

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Film strip is fashioned in a noose across a glitzy Hollywood background on this neat poster for Robert Altman's The Player

A famed Hollywood studio executive receives death threats from an incensed screenwriter and meets him one night, but the meeting goes horrible wrong, - and then the question gnaws, if the writer at the meeting was indeed the person behind the threats?

 

The Player is written by Michael Tolkin (Deep Impact (1998)), adapting his own same-titled 1988 novel, and directed by Missourian master filmmaker Robert Altman (The Delinquents (1957)), whose 26th feature it was.

It is a cleverly constructed tongue-in-cheek satirical, cinephile's treat, which both loves cinema and Hollywood and hates it and displays the disconnect, cynicism and hollowness that's so rampant in Tinseltown. 

Tim Robbins (Portlandia (2012, TV-series)) is good, but best here is Greta Scacchi (Palm Beach (2019)), Peter Gallagher (Palm Springs (2020)) as Robbins' studio opponent and Cynthia Stevenson (Scandal (2013, TV-series)) as his assistant, among a sea of celebrity cameos. The film is mildly entertaining, - and mostly for the Hollywood interested audience, - for others it may prove less fun or thrilling than one might hope. The Player is elegantly staged but, as the environment it portrays, a bit distant and safe, or perhaps simply overly well-behaved and padded.

 

Related posts:

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

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

Ready to Wear/Prêt-à-Porter (1994) - Paris fashion week through the Altman lens 

 

 

Watch a trailer for the film here

 

Cost: 8 mil. $

Box office: 28.8 mil. $

= Big hit (returned 3.6 times its cost)

[The Player premiered 3 April (Cleveland International Film Festival) and runs 124 minutes. Shooting took place from June - August 1991 in California, including in Los Angeles. The film opened #16 to a 302k $ first weekend in 23 theaters in North America, where it peaked at #4 and in 452 theaters (different weeks), grossing 21.7 mil. $ (75.3 % of the total gross). The film was nominated for 3 Oscars, losing all. It lost Best Director to Clint Eastwood for Unforgiven, Editing also to Unforgiven, and Adapted Screenplay to Ruth Prawer Jhabvala for Howards End. It also won 2/5 BAFTA nominations, 2 awards in Cannes, losing the Palme d'Or to The Best Intentions, was nominated for a César award, won 2/4 Golden Globe nominations, an Independent Spirit award, a National Board of Review award. Roger Ebert gave the film a 4/4 star review, translating to 3 notches over this one. Altman returned with Short Cuts (1993). Robbins returned in Bob Roberts (1992); Scacchi in Desire (1992). The Player is certified fresh at 97 % with a 8.70/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of The Player?

Ready to Wear/Prêt-à-Porter (1994) - The Paris fashion week through the Altman lens

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Danish supermodel Helene Christensen sells the film with her beauty but goes uncredited on this poster for Robert Altman's Ready to Wear

Fashion week in Paris: Kitty is a TV personality there to cover the stories: A hated fashion boss suffocates in a sandwich, - but the press screams that it must be murder. Meanwhile the shows take place, the magazine editors schmooze over an Irish photographer, and two foreigners share a room in an over-booked hotel.

 

Ready to Wear is written by Barbara Shulgasser and co-writer/producer/director, Missourian master filmmaker Robert Altman (The Delinquents (1957)), whose 29th feature it was. The North-American title is a literal translation of the French fashion term that was the title in most of the rest of the world.

Though widely discarded critically, this scathing Altman look at the fashion world is an urbane, bubbly, light dish filled with great clothes and beautiful people. There's fun with cinema icons Sophia Loren (Arabesque (1966)) and Marcello Mastroianni (8½ (1963)) among loads of other stuff in this star-stuffed film that features plenty of slaps and appropriately shallow cheek kisses to the fashion industry.

 

Related posts:

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

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

 

Watch a trailer for the film here

 

Cost: 18 mil. $

Box office: 46.8 mil. $

= Box office success (returned 2.6 times its cost)

[Ready to Wear premiered 23 December (New York) and runs 133 minutes. Altman had the idea for the film after attending a Sonia Rykiel fashion show in Paris in 1984 with his wife, commenting: "I couldn't believe what I saw. It was such a circus. It was just too theatrical not to want to film". Shooting took place from March - May 1994 in the US, Paris, France and in Moscow, Russia. The film opened #14 to a 2 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it peaked the following weekend at #13, grossing 11.3 mil. $ (24.1 % of the total gross). It was nominated for 2 Golden Globes and won a National Board of Review award, among other honors. Roger Ebert gave it a 2.5/4 star review, translating to a notch under this one. Altman returned with Kansas City (1996). Mastroianni returned in One Hundred and One Nights/Les Cent et Une Nuits de Simon Cinéma (1995); Loren in Grumpier Old Men (1995). Ready to Wear is rotten at 24 % with a 4.70/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Ready to Wear?

The Hudsucker Proxy (1994) - The Coen's satirical firecracker mega-flop

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+ Best Mega-flop of the Year + Most Expensive Flop of the Year: 20.48 mil. $ range + Best Satire of the Year + Worst $ Return of the Year: 0.45

Tim Robbins is holding a Hoola-hoop on this greyish-white poster for Ethan and Joel Coen's The Hudsucker Proxy

New York's Hudsucker Industries lose their CEO, when things are going their very best. The company's bylaws dictate a watering down of the company's wealth, but a member of the board comes up with a plan to manipulate the prize down for a while and avoid the risk: Hiring an impossible imbecile as the new CEO.

 

The Hudsucker Proxy is written by Sam Raimi (Drag Me to Hell (2009)) and Minnesotan master filmmaker brothers, co-writer/producer Ethan Coen and co-writer/director Joel Coen, (Blood Simple (1984), both) whose 5th feature it is.

Visually astounding, energetic and a fun period satire, The Hudsucker Proxy is too wacky to really say something of import, but it is tremendously entertaining and imaginative nonetheless. Roger Deakins' (In Time (2011)) photography is a pleasure.

Tim Robbins (The Spoils of Babylon (2014, TV-series)) is at times taxing as the ridiculous buffoon, who is new to the big city and goes from mail room job to the CEO's seat, (but also invents the Hoola-hoop.) Jennifer Jason Leigh (Annihilation (2018)) is uncharacteristically grey and hard as granite. Paul Newman (Twilight (1998)) is excellent.

 

Related posts:

Ethan and Joel Coen: Hail, Caesar! (2016) - The Coen brothers serve a whimsical, flashy letdown
Unbroken (2014) - Despite good elements, Jolie's Grand WWII Biopic is mostly distant and weak (co-writers)

2013 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED VI] 

2013 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED V] 
2013 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED IV]
2013 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]
2013 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
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Inside Llewyn Davis (2013) or, The Man Who Wasn't Dylan  
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Top 10: Best dramedies reviewed by Film Excess to date 

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

2009 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II] 
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O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000) - Much to love in fabulous Coen music yarn 
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Top 10: Best films about filmmaking 
Barton Fink (1991) or, The Writer's Hell

 

 

Watch a trailer for the film here

 

Cost: 25 mil. $

Box office: 11.3 mil. $

= Mega-flop (returned 0.45 times its cost)

[The Hudsucker Proxy premiered 27 January (Sundance Film Festival) and runs 111 minutes. The Coen's met Raimi and worked on his Evil Dead (1981), at which point they began working on the script, which was finished in 1985. Filming had to wait some years longer, until they were trusted with a sizable budget. Shooting took place from November 1992 - March 1993 in North Carolina and Chicago, Illinois. The film opened #22 to a 104k $ first weekend in 5 theaters in North America, where it grossed 2.8 mil. $ (25.5 % of the total gross). It did better abroad but still made far less business than was needed. A further 15 mil. $ were reportedly spent marketing the film. It competed for the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival, lost to Pulp Fiction. Roger Ebert gave it a 2/4 star review, translating to 2 notches under this one. The Coen brothers returned with Fargo (1996). Robbins returned in The Shawshank Redemption (1994); Leigh in Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle (1994); and Newman in Nobody's Fool (1994). The Hudsucker Proxy is fresh at 60 % with a 6.40/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of The Hudsucker Proxy?

Howard the Duck (1986) - Legendary flop is more duck than turkey

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The duck called Howard is lounged with a Rolling Stones magazine on this colorful poster for Willard Huyck's Howard the Duck

From Duckworld lands Howard the Duck on earth, where he gets a girlfriend from a rock band and tries to get back home. - But a dark emperor stands in his way!

Howard the Duck is written by co-writer/producer Gloria Katz (American Graffiti (1973)) and co-writer/director Willard Huyck (French Postcards (1979)), based on the Marvel Comics character created by Steve Gerber and Val Mayerik in 1973.

It is a really strange and childish vision, which has become an incredibly thorough but completely demographic-less explosion of color with groundbreaking visual effects, a rad villain (Jeffrey Jones' (Valmont (1989)) character becomes Dark Overlord of the Universe) and monster. There's also an impressive ultralight flight chase sequence and many fine, bizarre moments, even if the duck-related humor is likely to cause a mild headache. Howard the Duck is a unique film to be sure.

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 37 mil. $

Box office: 37.9 mil. $

= Huge flop (returned 1.02 times its cost)

[Howard the Duck was released 1 August (North America) and runs 111 minutes. Executive producer George Lucas was reportedly the one who drew attention to Marvel's duck character and suggested to make the film as a live-action rather than an animation. Shooting took place from November 1985 - March 1986 in California, including in San Francisco. The film opened #3, behind holdover hit Aliens and fellow new release Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives, to a 5 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it left the top 5 in its 2nd weekend and grossed 16.2 mil. $ (42.7 % of the total gross). Universal production chief Frank Price was reportedly fired over the film's disastrous flop; and Lucas had to sell his company's CGI animation arm to Apple Computer's Steve Jobs, - the company which later became Pixar Animation Studios. The film made in excess of 1 mil. $ on its 2011 DVD release. Huyck never directed again but did write a few screenplays, mostly for TV movies. Lea Thompson (Thin Ice (2011)) returned in Some Kind of Wonderful (1987); Tim Robbins (Dark Waters (2019)) in Saturday Night Live (1986, TV-series) and theatrically in Five Corners (1987); and Jones in The Pest (1997). Howard the Duck is rotten at 13 % with a 3.90/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Howard the Duck?

Mission to Mars (2000) - De Palma's awful space turkey

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A beam of light strikes down in what looks to be the very orange planet of Mars on this poster for Brian De Palma's Mission to Mars

The first manned mission to Mars is launched, out searching for alien life.

 

Mission to Mars is written by Jim Thomas (Executive Decision (1996)), John Thomas (Predator (1987)) and Graham Yost (Justified (2010-15)), with Lowell Cannon contributing story elements, and directed by great New Jerseyite filmmaker Brian De Palma (Murder à la Mod (1968)).

Mostly good effects and typically ambitious De Palma-style camerawork cannot save this stinker, which grows completely intolerable after the first half hour or so: The script and dialog are the main crooks: SPOILER When sand monsters attack and kill one astronaut, the spaceship-bound colleagues are still giddily romantic, led on by the crew's women, who seem to mentally be around the age of fourteen.

This goes on with pointless, exhausting scientific mumbo-jumbo, and one soon has had enough of Tim Robbins (Arlington Road (1999)) and Gary Sinise (Open Season (2006)) also, while the film's scientific part also fails to convince, as for instance the US flag flaps in the Martian wind...

SPOILER Mission to Mars ends with typically designed aliens and a spaced-out ending. It is an awful film. Ennio Morricone's (Money (1991)) score remedies parts of it.

 

Related posts:

Brian De Palma: Carlito's Way (1993) - De Palma's best gangster movie

The Fury (1978) - De Palma's telekinetic powers run amuck! 
Carrie (1976) or, Don't Bully the Strange Girl!  

 

Watch a trailer for the film here

 

Cost: 100 mil. $

Box office: 110.9 mil. $

= Big flop (returned 1.1 times its cost)

[Mission to Mars premiered 6 March (USA) and runs 114 minutes. De Palma boarded the already written and cast film at a late stage, when the originally hired director bowed out. Shooting took place from July - October 1999 in California, Vancouver, British Colombia and in Jordan. The film opened #1 to a 22.8 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it stayed in the top 5 for another two weekends (#2-#4) and grossed 60.8 mil. $ (54.8 % of the total gross). Roger Ebert gave it a 2.5/4 star review, translating to two notches higher than this one. De Palma returned in Femme Fatale (2006). Sinise returned in Bruno (2000); Robbins in High Fidelity (2000). Mission to Mars is rotten at 24 % with a 4.20/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

 

What do you think of Mission to Mars?