In Old Chicago (1938) - King delivers splendid period drama

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A dashing poster with three very teeth-smiling painted stars up front for Henry King's In Old Chicago

From the loving, dynamic O'Leary family comes Chicago's new mayor around the year 1870, but his brother Dion comes on collision course with him concerning the future of the growing metropolis' wood-built slums...

 

In Old Chicago is written by Sonya Levien (Hit the Deck (1955)) and Lamar Trotti (Cheaper by the Dozen (1950)), adapting the 1936 story We the O'Learys by Niven Busch (Continent's Edge (1980)), and directed by Henry King (Who Pays? (1915)). It depicts the real-life 1871 Great Chicago Fire with a mostly fictional story of the O'Learys at its center.

A thoroughly splendid and spectacular piece of escapism with delightful performances from especially Tyrone Power (Witness for the Prosecution (1957)), but also from Alice Faye (State Fair (1962)) and Don Ameche (So Goes My Love (1946)) and from Alice Brady (Three Smart Girls (1936)) as Mrs. Molly O'Leary, the mother. A compelling story with good song and dance numbers at Dion's bar, good visual ideas and a brisk pace. The blazing inferno at the end is incredibly staged and accomplished. In Old Chicago is a tremendous picture.

 

Related post:

 

Henry King: The Bravados (1958) or, Complications of Revenge!

 

Watch a trailer for the film here

 

Cost: Estimated 1.8 mil. $

Box office: In excess of 4.91 mil. $ (estimated North American gross)

= Big hit (projected return of 4.38 times its cost)

[In Old Chicago premiered 6 January (New York) and runs 111 minutes (roadshow version)/96 minutes (theatrical version). Shooting took place from June - September 1937 in Arizona and California, including in Los Angeles. The film arrived as part of a wave of big budget films that ended with a spectacular disaster: San Francisco (1936, earthquake), The Good Earth (1937, locust plague), Made at Night (1937, shipwreck). It was among the most expensive films ever made at the time, and the climactic fire sequence cost reportedly 150k $ to stage, burning for 3 days on the Fox backlot. The total cost is rumored to have been "over 1 mil. $" with IMDb listing it as reportedly 1.8 mil. $. A 1.964 mil. $ North-American rental figure from Variety in 1990 points to a domestic gross around 4.9 mil. $. The film was also launched abroad prior to WWII, and a cautious foreign estimate of 3 mil. $ would give it a 7.9 mil. $ final gross, enough to make it a big hit even if the 1.8 mil. $ estimate holds up. It was nominated for 6 Oscars, winning 2: Best Supporting Actress (Brady) and Assistant Director (Robert D. Webb). It lost Best Score (Louis Silvers) to Charles Previn for One Hundred Men and a Girl, Picture to The Life of Emile Zola, Sound to The Hurricane and Writing - Original Story to William A. Wellman and Robert Carson for A Star Is Born. King returned with Alexander's Ragtime Band (1938). Power returned in Alexander's Ragtime Band; Faye in Sally, Irene and Mary (1938); and Ameche in Happy Landing (1938). In Old Chicago is fresh at 67 % with a 6.30/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of In Old Chicago?

Pompeii (2014) - Another mixed action bag from Anderson

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+ Most Deserved Flop of the Year  + Most Expensive Flop of the Year: 42.88 mil. $ range 

 

A loving embrace in front of a gorgeous display of apocalyptic volcanic eruption makes up this striking poster for Paul W.S. Anderson's Pompeii

A British army leader visits the Roman city of Pompeii and makes an impression at the local gladiator stadium, until Mount Vesuvius' volcano erupts and in a short timespan turns the entire city into a wasteland of lava, fire and ashes.

  

Pompeii is written by Janet Scott Batchler, Lee Batchler (Batman Forever (1995), both) and Michael Robert Johnson (Sherlock Holmes (2009)) and directed by Paul W.S. Anderson (Shopping (1994)). It is based on the actual destruction of Pompeii in Campania, Italy in 79 AD.

Anderson is and always will be a craftsman in the filmmaking business and specifically the action genre, - but he's no inspired nor a great craftsman. Here he throws beefcakes, forgettable Emily Browning (Golden Exits (2017)), a tsunami and Kiefer Sutherland (Flatliners (2017)) as a sibilant, deeply villainous Brit, (you try if you can abstract from who he really is here), after the fatal demise of Pompeii.

The volcanic eruption is handled in good-looking CGI, while other parts of the contraption, - especially when actors from green screen recordings get injected into designed surroundings, - look unconvincing. It is putting it mildly to say that there is no grand story spun behind this tapestry of destruction, and Kit Harrington's (Brimstone (2016)) delicious locks of hair and razor-cut abs are about all you can admire him for in Pompeii. Carrie-Anne Moss (Jessica Jones (2015-19)) is attractive (and seems tired) in a non-role, while Jared Harris (Chernobyl (2019, miniseries)) and Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje (Wetlands (2017)) manage to instill some personality into their characters and be actually good here.

 

Related posts:

 

Paul W.S. Anderson: 2014 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED V] 

2004 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]

Alien vs. Predator/AVP (2004) - No one wins with Anderson's fundamentally bad monster clash

 

 

Watch a trailer for the movie here

 

Cost: 80-100 mil. $ (different accounts)

Box office: 117.8 mil. $

= Big flop (returned 1.30 times its cost)

[Pompeii premiered 18 February (Buenos Aires, Argentina) and runs 105 minutes. Shooting took place from March - July 2013 in Italy and in Toronto, Ontario. The film opened #3, behind holdover hit The Lego Movie and fellow new release 3 Days to Kill, to a 10.3 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it left the top 5 in its 2nd weekend and grossed 23.2 mil. $ (19.7 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were China with 15.6 mil. $ (13.2 %) and Russia with 11.3 mil. $ (10 %). The film additionally made an estimated 8.9 mil. $ on the North-American home video market. Anderson returned with Resident Evil: The Final Chapter (2016). Harrington returned with a voice performance in How to Train Your Dragon 2 (2014) and with a physical performance in Testament of Youth (2014). Pompeii is rotten at 27 % with a 4.40/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

 

What do you think of Pompeii? 

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?

Hard Rain (1998) - Spectacle and fun in Salomon's career-killing actioner

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+ 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.

 

Related posts:

 

Mikael Salomon: 1998 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess 

Far and Away (1992) - Howard, Hollywood's sweethearts visit the old West with dull result (cinematographer)

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

 

 

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.]

What do you think of Hard Rain?

Deep Impact (1998) - Leder offers one of the worst disaster pics of all time

[ZERO]

 

+ Worst Movie of the Year

+ Most Undeserved Hit of the Year

 

Things are looking grim for old mother Earth on this animated poster for Mimi Leder's Deep Impact

A gigantic comet is heading towards Earth with disastrous force. - Can it be stopped? 

Deep Impact is written by Michael Tolkin (The Player (1997, TV movie)) and Bruce Joel Rubin (Jacob's Ladder (1990)) and directed by Mimi Leder (The Peacemaker (1997)).

The film actually focuses on several other things than the overwhelming problem with the comet: A teenage romance, a relationship to a father that needs mending before the impending apocalypse, - and then there's the insufferably unaffected gravitas-enshrouded US president played by Morgan Freeman (Nurse Betty (2000)). The comet and a lame mission to alter the outcome enter the plot on occasion in this thoroughly horrendous film, which is mysteriously hideous to sit through.

James Horner's (The Life Before Her Eyes (2007)) score is splashed on as if it was an all-mending lacquer, while sentimentality pulsates from every scene, and everything rings so entirely false that it almost makes the thinking audience-member sick.

Leder's film is the upmost in grade zero trash; it makes its immediate competition Armageddon (1998) look like Doctor Zhivago (1965). Deep Impact's impact is rage.

 

Related post:

 

1998 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess 

 

 

Watch a 3-minute excerpt from the film here

 

Cost: 80 mil. $

Box office: 349.4 mil. $

= Big hit (returned 4.36 times its cost)

[Deep Impact premiered 7 May (Mexico) and runs 121 minutes. Development began in the late 1970s. The film meshes attempts to remake When Worlds Collide (1951) and Arthur C. Clarke's novel The Hammer of God (1993). Steven Spielberg had meant to direct the film but had to bow out due to making Amistad (1997), - and because the production was racing to not be left on the platform behind the year's other major comet-hitting-Earth disaster action adventure Armageddon. Shooting took place from June - October 1997 in Virginia, Maryland, Washington DC, California, including Los Angeles, and in New York. The film opened #1 to a 41.1 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it spent another 5 weekends in the top 5 (#1-#2-#2-#3-#5) and grossed 140.4 mil. $ (40.2 % of the total gross). Armageddon was released later in 1998: It cost more and grossed more, but astronomers concluded that Deep Impact was more scientifically accurate. Roger Ebert gave the film a 2.5/4 star review, translating to 3 notches over this one. Leder returned with Sentimental Journey (1999, short) and theatrically with Pay It Forward (2000). Freeman returned in Under Suspicion (2000); Téa Leoni (Bad Boys (1995)) in The Naked Truth (1998, TV-series) and theatrically in Life in the Fast Lane (1998); Robert Duvall (The Outer Limits (1964, TV-series)) in A Civil Action (1998). Deep Impact is rotten at 45 % with a 5.80/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Deep Impact?

Greenland (2020) - Butler and Co.'s largely successful disaster thriller

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Star Gerard Butler stands close with his family during a rain of comets on this poster for Ric Roman Waugh's Greenland

John is a building constructor, who receives evacuation notices from the US government for him and his family just before a major comet and fragments of it are posed to enter the Earth's atmosphere in what turns into an extinction-level event.

Greenland is written by Chris Sparling (An Uzi at the Alamo (2005)) and directed by Ric Roman Waugh (In the Shadows (2001)).
SPOILER The story soon breaks up the little 3-person family, as the son's diabetic condition removes them from the militarily executed evacuation effort, and they encounter various lunatics in the face of the nightmarish situation of society breakdown and impending doom. The son's condition is far from a new invention in the history of disaster cinema, but the portrayal of chaos, anarchy and extreme egotism feels current and eerily realistic in the 2020 of racial unrest and widespread Corona-virus fear, death and financial ruin. The plot invariably reflects parts of the disaster situations we encounter in real life, as priorities become tough as nails, with some making it to the rafts of survival while others don't.
Gerard Butler (Timeline (2003)) is no Superman in the story but a pretty normal (still cool of course) guy, - or Scottish descent, (as Butler himself.) Some will miss seeing him as a more active agent, but Greenland sees him side-lined for a good while away from his family, more or less impotent action-wise.
The film isn't exactly an action movie; one of its few action sequences involves a fight on the back of a lorry on the freeway at night, and what happens is very hard to make out. Instead Greenland follows its stressful disaster with a dramatic family story core about a normal family that's dealt with adultery but is overcoming it. The performances are very decent, and Greenland manages to create some suspenseful and affectingly emotional moments.

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 34 mil. $
Box office: 4.6 mil. $ and counting
= Still uncertain
[Greenland premiered 29 July (Belgium) and runs 119 minutes. The film was initially packaged with director Neill Blomkamp and star Chris Evans in 2018, before Waugh and Butler instead took over. Shooting took place from June - August 2019 in Georgia, including Atlanta. The release has been severely damaged by the China-virus pandemic, but it is now among the first films getting released after global shutdowns closed the cinema business. It is set to open in North America Sep. 25. Waugh is set to return with Kandahar (pre-production), another Butler-starring vehicle. Butler has 6 slated upcoming features; it is uncertain which will come first. 758 IMDb users have given Greenland a 6.7/10 average rating.]

What do you think of Greenland?

Gamera the Invincible/Daikaijû Gamera/Gamera, the Giant Monster (1965) - The birth of the child-friendly turtle kaiju

♥♥

A sensationalistic, nothing short of fabulous poster for Sandy Howard and Noriaki Yuasa's Gamera, the Giant Monster

Before the film's title sequence a Russian jet plane gets shot down and explodes in Alaska with an atomic bomb, which goes off, and an enormous fire-spouting turtle, who can fly like a UFO, gets created.

Gamera, the Giant Monster is written by Richard Kraft (American scenes) and Niisan Takahashi (Kemeko no uta (1968)) and directed by Sandy Howard (Diary of a Bachelor (1964)) (American scenes) and Noriaki Yuasa (Shiawasa nara te o tatake (1964)).
What follows after the events detailed above is what feels like quite a long movie, though the film is shorter than 90 minutes. The effects impress, as when Gamera the flying turtle knocks over nuclear reactors. But there is also a ridiculous sub-plot about a boy, who really cares for the giant monster.
SPOILER In the end Gamera gets locked inside a giant capsule and sent to Mars, meanwhile the Gamera song, (it's pretty bad yeah), gets played again, and the screen excitedly proclaims as from the mouths of its expectedly enthused audiences; Sayonara Gamera!

Related post:

Gamera franchise: Destroy All Planets/Gamera vs. Viras/Gamera Vs. Space Monster Viras/ガメラ対宇宙怪獣バイラス (Gamera tai uchū Kaijū Bairasu) (1968) - Unmitigated kaiju trash

Watch a great chronological collection of Gamera trailers that runs 20 minutes here

Cost: 40 mil. ¥
Box office: Unknown
= Uncertain - but reportedly a big hit in Japan
[Gamera, the Giant Monster was released 27 November (Japan) and runs around 78-86 minutes (different versions). Made as a more child-friendly rival to Toho's popular Godzilla (1954), the film was first intended to feature live rats attacking a miniature city. But the rats gotten for the film turned out to have fleas and were removed, the story was rewritten and resultingly the Gamera monster was created. The cost is under half of the one for Godzilla (100 mil. ¥). The film was reportedly a big hit in Japan, where production of a sequel was instantly begun with an elevated budget on par with Godzilla's. An Americanized version with some new scenes, dubbed dialog and a new theme song was created and released in December 1966. It is the only Gamera film to get a North-American release, and its gross numbers are regrettably unknown. Gamera returned in Gamera vs. Barugon (1966) and 10 later sequels. Howard returned with King of Africa/Caccia ai Violenti (1968); Yuasa with Gamera vs. Gyaos (1967). 2,533 IMDb users have given Gamera: The Giant Monster (the Japanese version of the film) an average 5.0/10 average rating.]

What do you think of Gamera the Invincible?

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

♥

+ 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?

The 33 (2015) - Great true story squandered in uninspired movie

♥♥

 

Antonio Banderas seems to be looking up in wonder at a mysterious, giant, floating number on this poster for Patricia Riggen's The 33

A greedy mine boss sends a new group of workers down into a mine, which is showing signs of imminent collapse. Soon after a part of the mine collapses, and the 33 men find themselves buried alive in a hollow space about a kilometer below the surface ...

Regrettably, no good film has been dug out of the incredible true story of the 2010 Chilean mining disaster. The 33 is deeply uninspired, flat and boring, seemingly dragging itself towards its ending, which for most of its audiences is already known. Apparently the bet of the filmmakers here has been that it would somehow become compelling storytelling, if enough stars got sprinkled on it, - but great actors employed here can't change the film's deficiency. Furthermore, the only star that really stands out is Gabriel Byrne (No Pay, Nudity (2016)), but for the wrong reason: He seems to start out here with a Spanish accent, which then turns back to his natural Irish English accent shortly after.
The 33 is written by Mikko Alanne (5 Days of War (2011)), Craig Borten (Dallas Buyers Club (2013)) and Michael Thomas (Welcome to Woop Woop (1997)) with Jose Rivera (Letters to Juliet (2010)) contributing story elements, based on Héctor Tobar's (The Tattooed Soldier (1998)) Deep Down Dark (2014) nonfiction novel, and directed by Patricia Riggen (Miracles from Heaven (2016)). It is a poorly handled, conventional film spun over an incredible story.

Related posts:

2015 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED IV]

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]

 

Antonio Banderas gives an interview about the film here

 

Cost: 26 mil. $

Box office: 27.9 mil. $

= Big flop

[The 33 was released November 6 (Chile) and runs 127 minutes. It is the first film to receive the Colombian Film Commission's incentive for shooting in the country. Jennifer Lopez had to bow out due to her work on American Idol and was replaced by Juliette Binoche. Filming took place from November 2013 - February 2014 in Colombia and Chile, including at the actual site of the event. James Horner's score is the second of two he made in 2015, just before he passed away. The film opened #5, behind behind Spectre, The Peanuts Movie, Love the Coopers (the only other new release of the 5) and The Martian, to a 5.7 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it left the top 5 in its second week and grossed 12.2 mil. $ (43.7 % of the total gross). The film is a US-Chilean co-production, and in Chile, it reigned #1 for 5 consecutive weeks and grossed 4.9 mil. $ (17.6 %). The 3rd biggest market was China with 3.4 mil. $ (12.2 %). The 33 is rotten at 44 % with a 5.5 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

 

What do you think of The 33?