The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus (2009) - Gilliam's rambling mess

♥

 

An celestial array of surreal elements and many stars stand ready on this poster for Terry Gilliam's The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus

In London a traveling group of weirdos attempt to entertain ungrateful, rude drunks from a wagon that includes the ancient Parnassus' imaginarium.

 

The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus is written by Charles McKeown (Brazil (1985)) and American-born British master filmmaker, co-writer/co-producer/director Terry Gilliam (Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975)), whose 11th feature it is.

Despite a dragging beginning, this chaotic film flows out and becomes enormously testing to watch. This is less astonishing when considering that it is a Gilliam creation that was completed with three new stars cast in the lead, since the original suddenly passed away in real life, in a script that was already bonkers. (Heath Ledger (A Knight's Tale (2001)) died at age 28 from accidental prescription medication poisoning.) All involved do what they can, in ugly hair, beards and many layers of ugly costumes, often in ugly lighting, in ugly images, with many sequences also featuring ugly 'fantastical' CGI elements.

Ledger's Tony character, as a side note, is a man who is rescued from wanting to hang himself. Gilliam's messy procession is anything but uplifting. 

 

Related posts:

Terry Gilliam:  For No Good Reason (2012, documentary) or, Ralph Steadman, Artist (interview subject)

The Brothers Grimm (2005) - Gilliam's European misadventure sort-of entertains

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

Top 10: Best drug-themed movies reviewed by Film Excess to date 

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998) - Depp's Thompson lives and breathes in Gilliam's outrageous, drug-fueled masterpiece

12 Monkeys (1995) or, What's the Time?

1991 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess 

The Fisher King (1991) - Gilliam and Co. win with unpredictable story with major heart and amazing Williams 

 

Watch a trailer for the film here

 

Cost: 30 mil. $

Box office: 64.3 mil. $

= Flop (returned 2.14 times its cost)

[The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus premiered 22 May (Cannes Film Festival, out of competition) and runs 123 minutes. 12 companies and support bodies were involved in the financing and production of the film. Shooting took place from December 2007 - April 2008, with a month-long hiatus due to the demise of Ledger, in British Columbia and in England, including in London. Gilliam engaged friends and colleagues of Ledger, Johnny Depp, Jude Law and Colin Farrell to all overtake the actor's part following his tragic death, and the three decided to donate their (unknown) salaries to Ledger's daughter Matilda. The film went about 5 mil. $ over budget. Co-producer William Vince also passed away prior to release. The sensation surrounding Ledger's death meant that the film reportedly made back its budget through presales before even getting released. It opened #20 to a 415k $ first weekend in 48 theaters in North America, where it peaked at #11 and in 607 theaters, grossing 7.6 mil. $ (11.8 % of the total gross). This was the film's 3rd biggest market. The biggest two were Italy with 11.1 mil. $ (17.3 %) and Japan with 6.5 mil. $ (10.1 %). The film was nominated for 2 Oscars, winning none: It lost Best Costume Design to The Young Victoria and Art Direction to Avatar. It was also nominated for 2 BAFTAs, a British Independent Film award and other honors. Roger Ebert gave it a 3/4 star review, translating to 3 notches over this one. The film reportedly additionally made in excess of 11.7 mil. $ on the North-American home video market alone. Gilliam returned with The Legend of Hallowdega (2010, short) and The Wholly Family (2011, short) and theatrically with The Zero Theorem (2013). This was Ledger's final film; Christopher Plummer (All the Money in the World (2017)) returned with voice performances in My Dog Tulip (2009) and 9 (2009) prior to his physical theatrical return in The Last Station (2009). The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus is fresh at 64 % with a 6.0/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus?

I, Frankenstein (2014) - Monster nonsense, thick and bland

♥

 

A doom-ish landscape invites on this poster for Stuart Beattie's I, Frankenstein

Frankenstein's monster has survived for more than 200 years up until today, where the scientists around an old man get near to mastering the resurrection technology again, and thus a battle between creatures breaks out.

 

I, Frankenstein is written and directed by Stuart Beattie (Tomorrow, When the War Began (2010)), adapting the digital-only graphic novel I, Frankenstein Genesis (2013) by Kevin Grevioux (Wetworks Mutations (2010)). 

Fantasy fiction as a genre is open to being far out, - but it can also be compelling, if the presented universe is persuasive. I, Frankenstein is regrettably only utterly ridiculous nonsense, and the only thing it has in common with Mary Shelley's 1818 masterpiece Frankenstein is her title character, which it steals without crediting her.

Aaron Eckhart (Midway (2019)) looks resolute in the title part, but that he is supposedly 200+ years old and made of various severed body parts is only revealed through a scar on his face, - which carries through down his pumped up, muscly chest and abdomen... The modern, blond scientist woman (Yvonne Strahovski (The Tomorrow War (2021))) refers to Dr. Frankenstein as if he was a recently passed colleague; while Bill Nighy (Living (2022)) as the film's villain attempts to find new ways of spewing dialog in vicious manners, reminding us of his work in other fantasy films, among them the related Underworld series (2003; 2006; 2009; 2012; 2016), also co-created by Grevioux. Miranda Otto (Downhill (2020)) is a gargoyle queen with attractive male gargoyles Jai Courtney (Jolt (2021)), Chris Pang (Charlie's Angels (2019)) and others, (regrettably none of them take their clothes off.)

The plot also includes blasphemous baloney such as that Satan comes from heaven, and that there is an eternal and holy war between demons and gargoyles. 

This is tiring, very dark and self-congratulatory junk, however in short moments amusing junk, and if you are able to switch your brain very thoroughly off, some of the animated, made-for-3D fight scenes are mildly entertaining. But taken as a film, I, Frankenstein is another example of how comics-based offal litters the silver screens. 

And, by the way, what city are we in in I, Frankenstein? It is filled with ancient buildings, many of them Gothic, including one enormous, Gothic church? Melbourne, Australia? That's where it was shot :-D

 

Related posts:

 

Stuart Beattie: G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra (2009) - Sommers tries to fire up Hasbro's second, less interesting movie venture (co-writer)

Derailed (2005) - Håfström's pointless romance thriller (writer) 

 

Watch a trailer for the movie here

 

Cost: 65 mil. $

Box office: 76.8 mil. $

= Big flop (returned 1.18 times its cost)

[I, Frankenstein premiered 20 January (Buenos Aires, Argentina) and runs 92 minutes. Shooting took place in Argentina and Melbourne, Australia. The film opened #6 to an 8.6 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it grossed 19 mil. $ (24.7 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were Russia with 11.3 mil. $ (14.7 %) and China with 7.5 mil. $ (9.8 %). Beattie has not returned as a director since the film; instead he has turned to producing and especially writing. Eckhart returned in My All-American (2015). I, Frankenstein is rotten at 5 % with a 3.40/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

 

What do you think of I, Frankenstein?

I Married a Witch (1942) - Stars shine in Clair's bubbly screwball fantasy magic

♥♥♥♥♥

 

A sexually charged and very elegant poster for René Clair's I Married a Witch

A refined gentleman, who is poised to marry a fine woman, has his plans altered when he rescues a strange blond out of a burning hotel. This alluring female turns out to be a centuries old witch, who wants to change his life drastically!

 

I Married a Witch is written by Marc Connelly (Reunion in France (1942)) and Robert Pirosh (A Gathering of Eagles (1963)), with André Rigaud (Bright Eyes (1929)), Dalton Trumbo (Hawaii (1966)) and co-writer/producer/director, great French filmmaker René Clair (Paris Asleep/Paris qui Dort (1925)) contributing lines. It is an adaptation of The Passionate Witch (1941) by Thorne Smith (Rain in the Doorway (1933), finalized after his death by Norman H. Matson.

With a stunning visual energy (cinematography by Ted Tetzlaff (I Want a Divorce (1940))) and a splendid special effects tangent, I Married a Witch is an atypical screwball comedy that waltzes right into your heart and activates your laugh muscles. Fredric March (The Buccaneer (1938)) is a joy as usual, and he is wonderfully matched here with Veronica Lake (Isn't It Romantic (1948)), who is almost superhumanly lovely, - and a bit eerie, - as a cute housewife with allure and frighteningly huge power. A prime example of the 'monstrous female' on film.

Cecil Kellaway (Spinout (1966)) who plays Lake's father in the film is also delightful. Witty dialog, a rapidly flowing plot, and a beautifully carried out production, I Married a Witch is cheeky fun all the way. A bright favorite. 

 

Related post:

 

René Clair: Entr'acte (1924, short) - Clair's creative experiment in movement

 

Watch a trailer for the film here

 

Cost: Unknown

Box office: Approximately 2.75 mil. $ (North America alone)

= Uncertain but likely a huge hit (projected return of 6.5 times its cost)

[I Married a Witch was released 30 October (North America) and runs 77 minutes. Shooting took place from April - May 1942 in Los Angeles, California. Hostilities ran between March and Lake during the shoot. Variety reported that the film earned a 1.1 mil. $ rental figure in North America, coming to approximately 2.75 mil. $ in box office. The foreign release was impeded by WWII and went slow over the next several years, likely with similarly stunted results. A 3.25 mil. $ final gross projection takes this into account, while a projected cost of 500k $ belies March, - the film's leading star's salary level of 100k $ per picture at the time. This would make the film a huge hit. It was nominated for one Oscar, for Best Music, Drama/Comedy (Roy Webb (Top Secret Affair (1957))), lost to Max Steiner for Now, Voyager. Clair returned with a segment in Forever and a Day (1943) and with an entire feature with It Happened Tomorrow (1944). March returned in The Adventures of Mark Twain (1944); Lake in Star Spangled Rhythm (1942). I Married a Witch is fresh at 96 % with a 7.50/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

 

What do you think of I Married a Witch?

The Indian in the Cupboard (1995) - Oz and Mathison create profound family magic

♥♥♥♥♥♥

 

A pintsized Indian stands erect in a boy's hand palms on this imagination-teasing poster for Frank Oz's The Indian in the Cupboard

Omri is a boy who lives with his parents and two brothers in New York, and on his ninth birthday he receives a cupboard with magic properties: It turns a plastic Indian toy into a real, live, miniature Indian!

The Indian in the Cupboard is written by Melissa Mathison (The Black Stallion (1979)), adapting the same-titled 1980 children's novel by Lynne Reid Banks (Bad Cat, Good Cat (2011)), and directed by English-born American master filmmaker Frank Oz (The Dark Crystal (1982)), whose 7th feature it is.

An imaginative, fantastical story, perfectly adapted by glorious Mathison and directed impeccably by Oz in what is likely his best picture. The Indian in the Cupboard is irresistible.

The actors portraying the family and the child actors are natural, and Hal Scardino (Searching for Bobby Fischer (1993)) as Omri is enormously good, especially his whispering intonations to his 'creations'. Litefoot (Adaptation. (2002)) as the Indian, David Keith's (Heritage Falls (2016)) cowboy and Steve Coogan (The Lost King (2022)) as a World War I medic are all outstanding. The film is well-acted all the way around, elegant and shot (by Russell Carpenter (Avatar: The Way of Water (2022))) and scored (by Randy Edelman (The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor (2008))) without ostentation. The narrative tickles our conventional expectations and instead gives us a deep tale (not unlike Harold Ramis' comedy masterpiece Groundhog Day (1993)) with themes of childhood, respect for life, racism and death. The Indian in the Cupboard is moving and unique.

 

Related posts:

Frank Oz:  Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones (2002) - Despite stale romance and Anakin, Episode II excites (voice actor)
1999 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess 

Bowfinger (1999) or, Making Chubby Rain  

In & Out (1997) or, Come Out and Dance 

 

 

Watch a trailer for the film here

 

Cost: 45 mil. $

Box office: In excess of 35.6 mil. $ (North America alone)

= Uncertain but likely a big flop (projected return of 1.22 times its cost)

[The Indian in the Cupboard was released 14 July (North America) and runs 96 minutes. Shooting took place from July - October 1994 in California, including in Los Angeles, and in New York.The film opened #6 to a 7.7 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it grossed 35.6 mil. $. The foreign gross numbers are regrettably kept hidden away somewhere, but a likely projection would be a 55 mil. $ final gross, which would rank the film a big flop. Roger Ebert gave it a 2/4 star review, translating to 4 notches under this one. Oz returned with In & Out (1997). Scardino returned in Marvin's Room (1996). The Indian in the Cupboard is fresh at 70 % with a 6.40/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of The Indian in the Cupboard?

Longlegs (2024) - Auspicious marketing and hype surrounds Perkins' so-so fantasy horror

♥♥♥

 

An eerie and viciously red font across an ominous still of a girl in front of her snow-draped house looking back at someone unseen make up this effective poster for Osgood Perkins' Longlegs

Lee Harker is a young female FBI agent who is tasked with apprehending North America's most confounding serial killer, an unknown, letter-leaving perp who seemingly gets normal families to eradicate themselves completely. 

Longlegs is written and directed by Osgood Perkins (The Blackcoat's Daguhter (2015)).

Successfully marketed in a The Blair Witch Project (1999) type online focused scheme and critically hyped beyond reason, Perkins arrives in a big way after 3 mostly unnoticed prior efforts (and a 2020 The Twilight Zone episode), all of them similar horror mood pieces with satanic elements.

Longlegs starts well and succeeds in creating suspense early on, especially in a scene in Harker's home. The film seems to intentionally make you think of The Silence of the Lambs (1991) and Se7en (1995), but neither of the these comparisons to towering films in the horror-thriller genre are to Longlegs's advantage. 

The film is packaged so neatly, made with such self-assured style, - changing formats, color choices, unusual compositions and music, - all working to the film's 'hip' appeal: Maika Monroe (It Follows (2014)) is the strange Harker, whose prowess is explained early on by the deux ex machina writing trick of 'she's psychic'. SPOILER It seems unprofessional that she doesn't act on or report when the mass murderer comes to her home, but then her boss (Blair Underwood (Bad Hair (2020)) is no paragon of professional inspiration himself. SPOILER Longlegs veers from its rolemodels' realistic serial killer narratives, as it becomes clear that its killer has supernatural powers (from Satan), which he infuses his unlucky victims with through freaky dolls that a strange fake nun (Harker's hoarder mother) brings into their homes and then removes again after their deaths.

Cult icon actor Nicolas Cage (The Croods (2013)), who also co-produced the film, gives a strange performance as the strange Longlegs, singing, moving and screaming as only Cage could do. Stills of rock music icons Lou Reed and The Cure front man Robert Smith hang on the walls of Longlegs' strange dollmaker dungeon home, and he himself looks like a Smith look-a-like, who has undergone several facial filler injections and a nose job. Little to nothing in terms of details are given about the man. Cage looks strange more than scary, and he never hurts anyone other than himself by his own hands in the film. We move into The Boys from Brazil (1978) territory, and you may also think of Psycho (1960), the perennial horror classic starring Anthony Perkins, director Osgood's father. There's a deep, driving paternal connection to Perkins' career, and he seems to think of himself as a horror savant, and now one with huge success. But the referenced pictures are all infinitely better than Perkins' own creations. Longlegs is not without merit at all, but it is also something of a copycat card-in-a-hat trick. 'She's psychic.' 'The devil did it.' Alright then. Never truly haunting.

 

Watch a trailer for the film here

 

Cost: 10 mil. $

Box office: 90.5 mil. $ and counting

= Mega-hit (has returned 9 times its cost so far)

[Longlegs premiered 31 May (Beyond Fest, USA) and runs 101 minutes. The budget has only been revealed as 'under 10 mil. $'. Shooting took place from January - February 2023 in British Columbia, Canada. The marketing budget was also 'under 10 mil. $'. The film opened #2, behind holdover hit Despicable Me 4, to a 22.4 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it spent another 2 weekends in the top 5 (#4-#5), grossing 71.2 mil. $ so far. The film is slated to open in 10 more international markets, including big markets like Mexico and Italy. Perkins returns with The Monkey (2025). Monroe returns in In Cold Light; Cage in The Gunslingers (2025) or The Prince (2025). Longlegs is certified fresh at 86 % with a 7.50/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

 

What do you think of Longlegs?

In the Mouth of Madness (1994) - Carpenter in a Lovecraftian house of mirrors

♥♥

 

A fantastic tagline ('Lived any good books lately?') and a well-made, chilling composited effect image of horrific elements springing from a book's pages make up this poster for John Carpenter's In the Mouth of Madness

 

Our protagonist is an insurance company investigator, who gets locked up in a padded cell, seemingly insane. What made him so? He was on a mission to locate the world's best-selling horror author, but said author's disturbing fiction led to a town that doesn't exist ...

 

In the Mouth of Madness is written by Michael De Luca (Dark Justice (1991-93)) and directed by New-Yorker master filmmaker John Carpenter (Dark Star (1974)), whose 13th feature it is. 

Winding, dark and strange, In the Mouth of Madness has good monster effects but also becomes involuntarily funny along the way. Julie Carmen (Killer Snake (2004, short)) is really bad as the character Linda Styles, and Sam Neill (Rams (2020)) fails to carry this post-modernist-enthused deconstructionist invention.

 

Related posts:

 

John Carpenter: Cigarette Burns (2005, TV movie) - Carpenter burns out in weird, tiresome TV movie

Dario Argento: An Eye For Horror (2000, TV documentary) - Great bio-doc of master filmmaker Dario Argento (interview subject)

Escape from L.A./John Carpenter's Escape from L.A./Escape from Los Angeles (1996) or, Snake Plissken in Crazy-World! 
Christine (1983) or, Bad Plymouth!

Halloween III: Season of the Witch (1982) - Evil masks ravage in Wallace's under-appreciated horror (uncredited writing)

Top 10: Best future-set movies
Escape from New York (1981) - Carpenter introduces Kurt Russell as action star in dystopic dream

Top 10: Best first-of-franchise movies 

Halloween (1978) - Carpenter's haunting slasher classic 
Top 10: The best action movies and TV-series reviewed by Film Excess to date
Assault on Precinct 13 (1976) - Solid action guerilla film-making 

 

 

Watch a trailer for the movie here

 

Cost: 8 mil. $

Box office: In excess of 8.9 mil. $ (North America alone)

= Uncertain but likely a big flop (projected return of 1.87 times its cost)

[In the Mouth of Madness premiered 10 August (Fantasy FilmFest, Germany) and runs 95 minutes. De Luca wrote the script in the late 1980s. Carpenter has himself stated that it was given a 7 mil. $ budget, but as it is listed as 8 in several places, it must have gone over budget by a million. Shooting took place from August - October 1993 in Ontario, including in Toronto. The film opened #4, behind holdover hit Legends of the Fall and fellow new releases Boys on the Side and Jerky Boys, to a 3.4 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it left the top 5 in its 2nd weekend and grossed 8.9 mil. $. The film's international gross numbers are regrettably not reported. If it had a subdued reception internationally, a 15 mil. $ final gross is likely, which would rank the film a big flop. Roger Ebert gave it a 2/4 star review, equal in rating to this one. Carpenter returned with Village of the Damned (1995). Neill returned in Country Life (1994). In the Mouth of Madness is fresh at 60 % with a 5.80/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

 

What do you think of In the Mouth of Madness? 

Indestructible Man (1956) or, The Nearly Indestructible Man!

♥♥♥♥

 

Scantily dressed young women screaming with intense fright competes with firetruck red, a fearfully intense star Lon Chaney Jr. and terrific title art on this tremendous poster for Jack Pollexfen's Indestructible Man

A wrongfully condemned man returns after his electrical execution with super powers with only one mission in mind: Revenge!

 

Indestructible Man is written by Sue Dwiggins and Vy Russell (Monstrosity (1963), both) and produced and directed by Jack Pollexfen (Dragon's Gold (1954)).

The homicide case that opens the narrative is handled in the best Raymond Chandler style. Lon Chaney Jr. (Buckskin (1968)) is 'Butcher', the (nearly) indestructible man! Not even the police's bazooka or flamethrower can stop him!

The weak dialog (almost none of it given to Chaney) is weighed up with several other qualities: Car-driving scenes shot from a car driving in front of the action are cool (cinematography by John L. Russell (Billie (1965)); Chaney's "eye effect", illustrating the electrical intensity, is fantastic; the grandiose ending at a Los Angeles power station is great; the score (by Albert Glasser (Tormented (1960))) is wonderful, and there's a romantic end scene that is extremely corny. Indestructible Man is an enormously rad picture for fans of low-budget strange fare of this period.

Related post:

Jack Pollexfen: Monstrosity/The Atomic Brain (1963) - Crazed doctor schlock

 

 

Watch a trailer for the film here

 

Cost: Unknown

Box office: Unknown

= Uncertain

[Indestructible Man was released 25 March (USA) and runs 72 minutes. Shooting took place around November 1954 in California, including in Los Angeles. The film was shown on a double bill in North America with World Without End (1956) and in other areas with Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956). It was also released in at least 6 other markets, but details of its budget and box office results are regrettably not readily available. The film has fallen into public domain and is available for free and legal download and streaming right here. Pollexfen returned with Monstrosity (1963). Chaney Jr. returned in Telephone Time (1956, TV-series) and theatrically in The Black Sleep (1956). 3.2k+ IMDb users have given Indestructible Man a 4.4/10 average rating.]

 

What do you think of Indestructible Man?

The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies (2014) - Jackson's Tolkien engagement ends on a note of cinematic ruin

♥

 

+ Worst Movie of the Year

+ Most Undeserved Hit of the Year 

 

A plethora of fantastical characters and dramatic vistas meets the eye on this poster for Peter Jackson's The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies

The dragon Smaug is exterminated, and its enormous gold treasure leads to strife and a resulting gigantic battle.

 

The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies is written by Philippa Boyens (The Lovely Bones (2009)), Guillermo del Toro (Crimson Peak (2015)), co-writer/co-producer Fran Walsh (King Kong (2005)) and New Zealander master filmmaker, co-writer/co-producer/director Peter Jackson (Bad Taste (1987)), adapting The Hobbit (1937) by J.R.R. Tolkien (The Silmarillion (1977)). It is Jackson's 13th feature and the 3rd and last in his Hobbit trilogy.

The last Hobbit most of the time looks, just like its two high frame rate predecessors, like a long, dubious video sequence from a computer game rather than the immersive, 'real' adventure feel of Jackson's great The Lord of the Rings trilogy (2001; 2002; 2003).

Countless hairy, ugly, British-speaking dwarfs and other characters fail to ignite one's interest here, and the surreal ultra HD CG universe mostly impels one to shut the thing off or walk away. Lots of LoTR stars return in The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies, which only heightens its offense. It is a disaster.

 

Related posts:

Peter Jackson: 2014 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED V] 

The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (2013) - Jackson returns with overrated, artificial-looking turkey 

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (2012) - Jackson's megalomania gives birth to the first third of an enormous fantasy whopper

The Lovely Bones (2009) - Despite qualities, Jackson's metaphysical crime drama is a wasteful jumble 
The Frighteners (1996) - FX-driven ghost comedy madness

Top 10: Best gore movies 

1992 in films - according to Film Excess 
Top 10: The best big flop movies reviewed by Film Excess to date
Braindead/Dead Alive (1992) - Jackson's best film ever is a gore classic!   
Bad Taste (1987) or, Peter Jackson's Hungry Aliens in New Zealand 

 

 

Watch a trailer for the film here

 

Cost: 250 mil. $

Box office: 962.2 mil. $

= Big hit (returned 3.84 times its cost)

[The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies premiered 1 December (London) and runs 144 minutes. Shooting took place from March 2011 - July 2012 and from May - July 2013 in New Zealand and the UK. The production reportedly gained a 41 mil. $ incentive in New Zealand. The film opened #1 to a 54.7 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it remained #1 for another 2 weekends and then spent another weekend in the top 5 (#4), grossing 255.1 mil. $ (26.5 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were China with 121.7 mil. $ (12.6 %) and the Germany with 72.4 mil. $ (7.5 %). The film was nominated for the Best Sound Editing Oscar, lost to American Sniper. It was also nominated for a BAFTA, among other honors. The film additionally made in excess of 77.9 mil. $ on the North-American home video market alone. Jackson returned with a small handful of documentary projects and is set to return theatrically with an unnamed Tintin sequel. Martin Freeman (Ode to Joy (2019)) returned in 7 TV and short credits prior to his theatrical return in Whisky Tango Foxtrot (2016). The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies is rotten at 59 % with a 6.30/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

 

What do you think of The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies? 

Puss in Boots (2011) - Catty spin-off has issues

♥♥

 

The titular cat and a wealth of other fantastical elements attract on this poster for Chris Miller's Puss in Boots

Puss is a feared, sword-carrying cat who meets a thrilling female cat and reunites with his old friend Humpty Dumpty for an adventure for the magic beans that lead to the golden goose!

 

Puss in Boots is written by Tom Wheeler (Empire (2005, miniseries)), with William Davies (Flushed Away (2006)) and Brian Lynch (Hop (2011)) contributing story elements, and directed by Chris Miller (Shrek the Third (2007)). It is a spin-off of the Shrek franchise (2001; 2004; 2007; 2010). It has its basis in the same-titled, 16th century European folk fairytale.

The film begins with energy and fun for a time, with cat characters and adult concepts intermingling in a colorful family package (not unlike in the Shrek movies), but later the film runs out of juice, as the Puss/Dumpty relationship that's meant to carry the film, simply isn't strong enough or exciting enough to do so. That leaves one sighing for other characters, - or, even worse, reminiscing about how much fun those first two Shrek movies were. 

The animation here is handsome; there's lots of action, but Puss doesn't impress one as a great character in Puss in Boots. 

 

Related posts:

Shrek franchise: Shrek the Third (2007) - Declined quality but still loads of fun to be had with third Shrek (also by Miller)

Shrek 2 (2004) - Fun and adventure reign in tremendous family animation romp 

 

 

Watch a trailer for the film here

 

Cost: 130 mil. $

Box office: 554.9 mil. $

= Big hit (returned 4.26 times its cost)

[Puss in Boots premiered 23 October (Austin Film Festival) and runs 90 minutes. Originally envisioned as a video release, the film was elevated to a theatrical release. Production took place in the US and India. It opened #1 to a 34 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it spent one more weekend at #1 and then 2 more in the top 5 (#3-#5), grossing 149.2 mil. $ (26.9 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were Russia with 50.5 mil. $ (9.1 %) and Germany with 34 mil. $ (6.1 %). It was the year's 3rd highest-grossing animated film, behind Kung Fu Panda 2 and Cars 2. The film was nominated for the Best Animation Oscar, lost to Rango. It was also nominated for a Golden Globe, among other honors. The film additionally made in excess of 70.4 mil. $ on the North-American home video market alone. The character returned in Puss in Boots: The Last Wish (2022). Miller has not returned as a director since. Antonio Banderas (The Body (2001)) returned in Day of the Falcon/Black Gold (2011) and also returned to voice Puss in the 2022 sequel. Puss in Boots is certified fresh at 86 % with a 6.90/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Puss in Boots?