Jamón Jamón (1992) - Lunas' delicious and lively erotic melodrama

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Under the (mighty) ballsack of a mighty monument of a mighty bull, a woman lustily flaunts her stuff on this poster for Bigas Luna's Jamón Jamón

The son of the owners of a large Spanish underwear factory has impregnated one of the workers. His mother sends local 'bull' Raúl after the girl, but she winds up with him herself.

 

Jamón Jamón is written by Cuca Canals (Diary of a Nymphomaniac/Diario de una Ninfómana (2008) and great Spanish co-writer/director Bigas Luna (Bilbao (1978)), with Quim Monzó (Pa d'Àngel (1984)) contributing dialog. The Spanish title translates to 'ham ham'. It is the first in Luna's Ibérica trilogy, with Golden Balls/Huevos de Oro (1993) and The Tit and the Moon/La Teta y la Luna (1994) being the other films.

The affairs are many, SPOILER and in the end Raúl beats protagonist José Luis to death with a ham as his weapon. Why is Spain apparently so filled with passion, one may wonder when watching such a vivid Luna film as this. The film pulsates with sex, has speedy, thrilling editing, delicious performances and enough symbolism to satisfy a classroom full of secondary school teachers. It is a treat of a film.

 

 

Watch a very short clip from the film here

 

Cost: Unknown

Box office: 13-23.5 mil. $ (different reports)

= Uncertain but surely a mega-hit

[Jamón Jamón premiered 2 September (Barcelona) and runs 95 minutes. The film marks Penélope Cruz's (The Brothers Grimsby (2016)) film debut, filmed when she was 17 years old. Shooting took place from September - December 1991 in Spain including in Barcelona. The film reportedly grossed 6 mil. $ in Spain and Italy and had rentals of 7 mil. $ internationally. If the latter number really is a rental and not a gross, then the final gross would be in the neighborhood of the 23.5 mil. $ noted above; otherwise the final gross is in the 13 mil. $ area, still impressive. With a probably budget of 1-2 mil. $, the film was definitely a mega-hit. It was nominated for 6 Goyas. Roger Ebert gave it a 3.5/4 star review, equal in rating to this one. Luna returned with a commercial and theatrically with Golden Balls (1993). Cruz returned in Belle Epoque (1992); Javier Bardem (Being the Ricardos (2021)) in Crónicas del Mal (1992, TV-series) and theatrically in El Amante Bilingüe (1993); and Jordi Mollà (Ibiza (2018)) in Shooting Eliazabeth (1992). Jamón Jamón is fresh at 60 % at Rotten Tomatoes.]

 

What do you think of Jamón Jamón? 

Imitation of Life (1959) - Sirk's last film, an oppulent race melodrama

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Fabulously crafted and deliciously colored poster for Douglas Sirk's
Imitation of Life

Lora, a struggling widow and single mother actress in New York, out of compassion takes a black maid and her rebellious daughter into her home. Soon success arrives, but at home revolt brews.

 

Imitation of Life is written by Eleanore Griffin (Good Morning, Miss Dove (1955)) and Allan Scott (The Four Poster (1952)), adapting the same-titled 1933 novel by Fannie Hurst (Anitra's Dance (1934)), and directed by Douglas Sirk (April, April! (1935)).

Emotionally driven drama meant to induce sobbing with excessive pathos. The poshness often encountered in soap operas beleaguer every scene in Sirk's version of the popular story that had already been adapted by John M. Stahl in 1933 with Claudette Colbert. The film is very much a matter of personal taste but for me it is simply too much.

Lana Turner (The Big Cube (1968)) is rock solid in a part that is deliberately over-shadowed by the issues of the dark-skinned characters. Audiences outside of the American context of Imitation of Life could possible view it as propaganda for a 1950s American utopia in which race was treated just. But the truth of Imitation of Life is, of course, that the problem and the very progressive way the film deals with it was bold for its time.

 

Related post:

 

Douglas Sirk: All That Heaven Allows (1955) or, Not The Widow and Her Gardener!

 

 Watch a trailer for the film here

 

Cost: 1.2 mil. $

Box office: In excess of 6.4 mil. $ (North American rentals alone)

= Uncertain but certainly a huge hit (returned 5.33 times its cost in North America alone)

[Imitation of Life premiered 17 March (Chicago) and runs 125 minutes. Turner was reportedly paid 50 % of the film's profits but the final amount is regrettably unmentioned. She reportedly wore jewelry worth 1 mil. $ in the film, besides 34 costumes worth 78k $. Shooting took place from August - October 1958 in California, including in Los Angeles. The film collected 6.4 mil. $ in North-American rentals according to Variety in 1960. If met with a less interested public abroad, - not unlikely due to its highly American race theme, - an 8 mil. $ total gross may be projected, which would still make the film a huge hit. It was twice Oscar nominated - in the same category, Best Supporting Actress: Juanita Moore (Paternity (1981)) and Susan Kohner (The Gene Krupa Story (1959)) both lost to Shelley Winters for The Diary of Anne Frank. It also won 1/2 Golden Globe nominations, among other honors. Sirk retired to Switzerland after the film's release and only directed three more short films nearly two decades later. Turner returned in Portrait in Black (1960); John Gavin (Keep It in the Family (1973)) in A Breath of Scandal (1960). Imitation of Life is fresh at 82 % with a 7.80/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Imitation of Life?

Pearl Harbor (2001) - Bay's stuffed war melodrama baloney

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A sensual romance between two very photogenic young specimens of the human race and a dramatic war-plane situation attracts attention on this poster for Michael Bay's Pearl Harbor

Two brothers in the US Air Force: SPOILER One crashes, - and everyone expects him dead, - so his younger brother takes over his lady. But big brother returns alive, - Oahu's Pearl Harbor air base gets bombed by the Japanese, - and the younger brother dies in the attack!

 

Pearl Harbor is written by Randall Wallace (Braveheart (1995)) and directed by Michael Bay (Bad Boys (1995)).

Handsome flight sequences stand out in Bay's otherwise horrid and history-distorting film that's both grotesquely overlong and filled with tawdry romance. 

 

Related posts:

 

Michael Bay: 13 Hours/13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi (2016) - Bay portrays controversial recent history in generally thrilling actioner 

Armageddon (1998) or, Macho Men Save Earth From Disaster!  

Top 10: Best cop movies reviewed by Film Excess to date 

Bad Boys (1995) - Bay's successful buddy cop debut is still fun

 

 

Watch a trailer for the film here

 

Cost: 140 mil. $

Box office: 449.2 mil. $

= Box office success (returned 3.20 times its cost)

[Pearl Harbor premiered 21 May (Pearl Harbor, Hawaii) and runs 184 minutes. Wallace was paid 2 mil. $ for his script. Bay and producer Jerry Bruckheimer requested a 208 mil. $ budget from Disney, who turned that down and also demanded the film have a PG-13 rating. Ben Affleck (Reindeer Games (2000)) made approximately 10 mil. $ from his performance, coming from a 250k $ salary and a 7 % back-end participation deal. Kate Beckinsale (Underworld: Blood Wars (2016)) was paid a flat 50k $ fee. Shooting took place from April - September 2000 in Mexico, Indiana, Texas, including in Houston, California, including in Los Angeles, in Nevada, Hawaii, including at the actual Pearl Harbor, and in England. Disney lavished a 5 mil. $ premiere for almost 2,000 patrons at Pearl Harbor. The film opened #1 to a 59 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it spent another weekend at #1 and then 2 more in the top 5 (#3-#5), grossing 198.5 mil. $ (44.2 % of the total gross). It was the 6th highest-grossing film of the year. It reportedly later made more than 130 mil. $ on domestic home video sales in its first week of release alone. Bay's gross earnings pay reportedly eventually added up to 25 mil. $. The film has been lambasted for its countless historical inaccuracies. It was nominated for 4 Oscars, winning one, for Best Sound Editing. It lost Best Sound to Black Hawk Down, Visual Effects to The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring and Song (There You'll Be by Diane Warren) to If I Didn't Have You by Randy Newman from Monsters, Inc.. It was also nominated for 2 Golden Globes and a Grammy, among other honors. Roger Ebert gave it a 1.5/4 star review, translating to a notch under this one. Bay returned with Faith Hill: There You'll Be (2001, music video) and theatrically with Bad Boys II (2003). Affleck returned in Daddy and Them (2001). Pearl Harbor is rotten at 24 % with a 4.50/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

 

What do you think of Pearl Harbor? 

The Flower of My Secret/La Flor de Mi Secreto (1995) - Paredes star turn in charming Almodóvar work

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A buxom female figure typewrites against a sea of roses on this kitschy poster for Pedro Almodóvar's The Flower of My Secret

Leocadia lives in longing for her military husband Paco. Meanwhile she writes a novel, and the editor of newspaper El Pais falls in love with her, while she tries to test boundaries with her romance written using a pseudonym. 

 

The Flower of My Secret is written and directed by Spanish master filmmaker Pedro Almodóvar (Folle... Folle... Fólleme Tim! (1978)), whose 12th feature it is. It is an adaptation of the short story The Lovely Leave by Dorothy Parker (Enough Rope (1926)).

Marisa Paredes (Continental (1989)) is wonderful as our tested protagonist, and particularly the scenes of Leocadia with her sister and their vision-impaired, constipated mother are divine. Visually the film is attractive with primary colors galore and strong faces to go with them.

Almodóvar fares well in this comedic melodrama that's less sensationalistic than some of his previous efforts, despite an ending that isn't completely satisfying and the fact that the film might be slightly overlong.

 

Related posts:

Pedro Almodóvar: 2019 in films - according to Film Excess  

Pain and Glory/Dolor y Gloria (2019) - Almodóvar's 8½ 
The Skin I Live In/La Piel que Habito (2011) or, Almodóvar's Extreme Make-Over
Broken Embraces/Los Abrazos Rotos (2009) or, Mysteries in Love and Life

Talk to Her/Hable con Ella (2002) - Almodóvar's beautiful coma love drama 
Live Flesh/Carne Trémula (1997) or, A Spanish Fix

High Heels/Tacones Lejanos (1991) - Superficially worthwhile Almodóvar crime melodrama 
Labyrinth of Passion/Laberinto de Pasiones (1982) - Sexual mix-ups in screwball Madrileña style 

 

 

Watch a trailer for the film here

 

Cost: 3.8-4.5 mil. $

Box office: Reportedly 15.3 mil. $

= Box office success or big hit, depending on the actual cost (returned 3.4-4.02 times its cost)

[The Flower of My Secret was released 22 September (Spain) and runs 102 minutes. Shooting took place in Spain, including in Madrid. The film earned 1 mil. $ (6.5 % of the total gross) in North America, and JPBox-Office reports the total gross listed above, as well as a 3.73 mil. € cost, approximately 3.8 mil. $. Wikipedia lists, instead, 4.5 mil. $. (Also, the € currency was not in existence before 1999.) The film was Spain's entry for the Oscars of the year but wasn't nominated. It was nominated for 7 Goya awards, among other honors. Roger Ebert gave the film a 1.5/4 star review, translating to 3 notches under this one. Almodóvar returned with Pastas Ardilla (1996, short) and theatrically with Live Flesh/Carne Trémula (1997). Paredes returned in Three Lives and Only One Dead/Trois Vies et une Seule Mort (1996); Juan Echanove (Arcibel's Game/El Juego de Arcibel (2003)) in Suspiros de España (y Portugal) (1995). The Flower of My Secret is fresh at 85 % with a 7.0/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

 

What do you think of The Flower of My Secret?

Humoresque (1946) - Everything works in Negulesco's music melodrama classic

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Passionate romance - and a violin - is promised on this poster for Jean Negulesco's Humoresque

A stubborn male violinist with big dreams and talent to back it up gets discovered by Mrs. Wright, an alcoholic woman of wealth, whose marriage is platonic. But can he have her as his patron and mistress for the long run?

Humoresque is written by Zachary Gold (Top Man (1943)) and Clifford Odets (Winter Journey (1962, TV movie)), adapting the same-titled 1919 short story by Fanny Hurst (Back Street (1931)), and directed by Romanian-born American master filmmaker Jean Negulesco (Singapore Woman (1941)), whose 6th feature it was.

It is a formidable film, which mixes the juicily erotic and the keenly humorist with strongly melodramatic lines and wonderful music, - and a great venerable air around it. You'll hear pieces of Dvorák, Wagner, Tchaikovsky, Shostakovich, Mendelssohn, Brahms, Grieg, Bach, Prokofiev, as well as Gershwin and Cole Porter, in the luxurious musical side to the romantic drama, making it an absolute treat for music lovers. The photography (by Ernest Haller (The Boy and the Pirates (1960))) is outstanding; the technical expertise surrounding the film is likewise.

Joan Crawford (When Ladies Meet (1941)) is legendary, intense and awe-inspiring, and John Garfield (The Fallen Sparrow (1943)) is just as intense and tough here. Oscar Levant (The Cobweb (1955)) is incredibly funny and eminently believable in his piano scenes. J. Carrol Naish (The Texan (1958, TV-series)) and Ruth Nelson (Shock (1946)) as the young musician's parents are flawless. 

Humoresque is one of the undying melodramas, and a truly refined film to boot. SPOILER Something to ponder over: Is Mrs. Wright's suicide in the end propped up too much in the cinematography? Or does it simply point towards her larger-than-life quality?

Watch a trailer for the film here

 

Cost: 2.1 mil. $

Box office: Reportedly somewhere between 3.3-3.7 mil. $

= Big flop (returned 1.61-1.76 times its cost)

[Humoresque premiered 25 December (New York) and runs 125 minutes. Hurst's story was first adapted by Frank Borzage with the same title in 1920. Crawford was paid 167k $ for her performance, though IMDb also lists 500k $ as her salary, which looks like it must be a mistake. Shooting took place from December 1945 - April 1946 in New York and California. The William Shaefer Warner Bros. ledger recorded a 2.2 mil. $ North-American gross for the film, but Variety reported a 2.6 mil. $ North-American rental in 1947. The two numbers account for the uncertainty in the figures above listed. The international gross was listed as 1.1 mil. $. Despite the small gross compared to the considerable cost, the film is curiously described as a theatrical success. It was nominated for 1 Oscar: For Best Music - Drama/Comedy (Franz Waxman (Elephant Walk (1954))), lost to Hugo Friedhofer for The Best Years of Our Lives. Negulesco returned with Deep Valley (1947). Crawford returned in Possessed (1947); Garfield in The Postman Always Rings Twice: The Radio Play (1947, voice) and theatrically in Body and Soul (1947). 4.4k+ IMDb users have given Humoresque a 7.3/10 average rating.]

What do you think of Humoresque?

Home from the Hill (1960) or, Family Scandal!

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A classy poster for Vincente Minnelli's Home from the Hill, which tries to paint it out to be the next big thing

The skies almost come down for a young man in the story here, when he learns that his and his family's good friend is really his father's bastard son. With enormous abhorrence he now distances himself from his old man.

 

Home from the Hill is written by Harriet Frank Jr. (Hombre (1967)) and Irving Ravetch (Hud (1963)), adapting the same-titled 1958 novel by William Humphrey (Proud Flesh (1973)), and directed by Vincente Minnelli (Cabin in the Sky (1943)).

It takes a good while before you reach the point in the story indicated above, because the film gets spiced with a lot of hunting symbolism, including a wild boar hunt. George Peppard (Damnation Alley (1977)), George Hamilton (Roots (1977, miniseries)) and Robert Mitchum (Maria's Lovers (1984)) are all terrific here, but their efforts don't make a great film, regrettably.

The focus is generally on the youngest son's hysterical wish to sentence his father's past behavior, - but ask yourself exactly how interesting or sympathetic this driving vehemence really is? Minnelli lets the melodrama go overboard at least once in Home from the Hill, and he seems most primed on surface in this dated, overlong, conservative film. Home from the Hill is an example of one of the Hollywood peacock movies that the youth at the time (and some adult moviegoers too) were getting fed up with.

 

 

Watch a trailer for the film here

 

Cost: 2.3 mil. $

Box office: 5 mil. $

= Flop (returned 2.17 times its cost)

[Home from the Hill premiered 3 March (New York) and runs 150 minutes. Shooting took place from April - July 1959 in Texas, Mississippi and in California. The film made 3.2 mil. $ (64 % of the total gross) in North America, and the Eddie Lannix ledger recorded a 122k $ loss from the film. It was shown in the main competition in Cannes, was nominated for a BAFTA and won 3 National Board of Review awards, among other honors. Minnelli returned with uncredited directing work on All the Fine Young Cannibals (1960) and as official director with Bells Are Ringing (1960). Mitchum returned in The Night Fighters (1960); Eleanor Parker (Escape From Fort Bravo (1953)) in The Gambler, the Nun and the Radio (1960, TV movie), Buick-Electra Playhouse (1960, TV-series) and theatrically in Madison Avenue (1961). Home from the Hill is fresh at 90 % with an 8.10/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

 

What do you think of Home from the Hill?

High Heels/Tacones Lejanos (1991) - Superficially worthwhile Almodóvar crime melodrama

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A sexy leather stiletto blends into a revolver on this tomato-red-and-black poster for Pedro Almodóvar's High Heels

A young, beautiful news anchor reconnects with her beloved but selfish mother, who had abandoned her in favor of a pop star career for a number of years. Now the daughter murders her husband.

 

High Heels is written and directed by Spanish master filmmaker Pedro Almodóvar (Folle... Folle... Fólleme Tim! (1978)), whose 10th feature it is. The original title translates to 'distant heels'.

It is an unfocused, woman-adoring, stylized, minor Almodóvar picture, complete with drag appearances, drag sex, a women's prison and two well-acting, emotionally gushing women in the leads: Victoria Abril (Libertarias (1996)) and Marisa Paredes (Salvajes (2001)), and a young Javier Bardem (The Counselor (2013)) in a supporting role.

High Heels isn't terribly original nor successful and is rather soap opera-like but still worthwhile due to Almodóvar's flourishes and vivid ideas.

 

Related posts:

Pedro Almodóvar: 2019 in films - according to Film Excess  

Pain and Glory/Dolor y Gloria (2019) - Almodóvar's 8½ 
The Skin I Live In/La Piel que Habito (2011) or, Almodóvar's Extreme Make-Over
Broken Embraces/Los Abrazos Rotos (2009) or, Mysteries in Love and Life

Talk to Her/Hable con Ella (2002) - Almodóvar's beautiful coma love drama 
Live Flesh/Carne Trémula (1997) or, A Spanish Fix
Labyrinth of Passion/Laberinto de Pasiones (1982) - Sexual mix-ups in screwball Madrileña style 

 

Watch a 3-minute clip from the film here

 

Cost: Unknown

Box office: In excess of 7.7 mil. $ (North America and projected Spain gross only)

= Uncertain - but likely a huge hit

[High Heels was released 23 October (Spain) and runs 112 minutes. Shooting took place from April - July 1991 in Spain, including in Madrid. The film opened #13 to a 74k $ first weekend in North America in 13 theaters, where it went on to gross 1.7 mil. $. It was a big hit in Spain, where it reportedly sold 1.5 mil. tickets, coming to 6 mil. $ if projected at a low 4 $ average prize. It was reportedly also popular in Italy, but gross numbers are regrettably kept secret. It was released in many markets, almost all Western. If made on a realistic 1-2 mil. $ budget, the film would likely rank as a huge hit. It won a César award, was nominated for a Golden Globe and 5 Goya awards, among other honors. Roger Ebert gave it a 3/4 star review, translating to a notch over this one. Almodóvar returned with Kika (1993). Abril returned in Demasiado Corazón (1992); Paredes in Golem, l'Esprit de l'Exil (1992) and Migual Bosé (Oui (1996)) in La Nuit Sacrée (1993). High Heels is rotten at 53 % with a 5.60/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of High Heels?

Heaven's Gate (1980) - Much to admire in Cimino's incredible western epic disaster

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An incredibly dramatic sky and the three central stars set against a frayed Stars and Stripes make up most of this impressive poster for Michael Cimino's Heaven's Gate

Two men fight over the same woman and a bloody plan to murder 125 immigrants in Wyoming's Johnson County in the 1890s.

 

Heaven's Gate is written and directed by great New-Yorker filmmaker Michael Cimino (Thunderbolt and Lightfoot (1974)).

Kris Kristofferson (Blade (1998)), Christopher Walken (Kiss Toledo Goodbye (1999)) and Isabelle Huppert (White Material (2009)) are the three actors who form the center of this possibly the - financially speaking - most spectacular flop in cinema history. Heaven's Gate is full of lavish and incredible images (cinematography by Vilmos Zsigmond (Deliverance (1972))) and a production width and beauty of rare fabric. The problem is more with the narrative and the grotesquely prolonged, detached, abstract structure of it all, and with dialog scenes in which the dialog is nearly unaudible. 

 

Related post:

 

Michael Cimino: The Deer Hunter (1978) - Cimino's great, colossal Vietnam epic

 

Watch a trailer for the film here

 

Cost: 44 mil. $

Box office: 3.4 mil. $ (North America only)

= Box office disaster (returned around 0.11 times its cost)

[Heaven's Gate premiered 18 November (New York) and runs 219 minutes. Though the plot has historical basis, several things are invented and changed for the film. Cimino had submitted the original Heaven's Gate script in 1971 but failed to find support for it until after the runaway success of Deer Hunter (1978). He was given an 11.6 mil. $ budget and carte blanche. Shooting took place from April 1979 - April 1980 in England, Montana, Idaho, Massachusetts and Rhode Island. At the 6th day of shooting, legend says, the shoot had already fallen 5 days behind on the schedule. An entire street was built and then taken down to be re-assembled, because Cimino thought it should be 6 feet wider. An irrigation system was devised and placed underground for a central battle scene so that the grass would be freshly green and contrast, as intended, with the red blood. Cimino demanded up to 50 takes of the same scene. John Hurt waited around so long on the shoot that he was able to fly away and star in The Elephant Man (1980) and come back to continue work on Heaven's Gate. Though United Artists considered firing Cimino many times, they ultimately never set the foot down. Nearly 220 hours of footage was shot, a new record. Cimino's first cut ran five hours and 25 minutes, 15 minutes longer than the final cut should, Cimino informed the baffled executives. Unsurprisingly, the studio executives refused to release the film at that length, and Cimino cut it down to 3 hours 39 minutes. This version was shortly released but then pulled back. Months later UA released a 149 minute cut, which played for a few weeks, before it was also pulled. It made 3.4 mil. $ in North America. Regrettably the gross numbers from foreign markets are not public, but the 0.11 time return above figures on a 5 mil. $ projected final world gross, - which is likely set too high. The film was nominated for the Best Set Decoration/Art Direction Oscar, lost to Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark. It was shown in competition in Cannes. Roger Ebert gave the film a 1.5/4 star review, translating to 2 notched under this one. The film's flop was deciding in United Artists getting bought up by MGM and thereby losing autonomy and their status as a successful independent studio. It was also instrumental in the Hollywood power change away from young New Hollywood directors such as Cimino, Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorsese, Francis Ford Coppola and others, and back to tighter controlled studio pictures and high concept 'package' arrangements. Finally the controversy concerning animal cruelty on the production of Heaven's Gate, - involving horses, cows and chicken killed for scenes, - gained the American Humane Society the momentum to become standard monitors of animal safety on all major American productions. Cimino in his own words was after Heaven's Gate never again able to make the films he wanted to make, - but he did continue making films. Though critically smashed at the time, the film has grown in esteem since and was hailed as a masterpiece at a 2012 Venice Film Festival restoration screening, much to Cimino's delight. Cimino returned with Year of the Dragon (1985). Kristofferson returned in Rollover (1981). Heaven's Gate is rotten at 59 % with a 6.70/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Heaven's Gate?

At First Sight (1999) - Kilmer goes blind in Winkler's awful turkey

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+ Worst Movie of the Year

 

 

The two stars walk around in an out-of-focus New York looking snug on this poster for Irwin Winkler's At First Sight

A blind masseuse massages a woman so deeply that she cries (...), and the two fall in love. She locates the doctor who can operate his sight back, - but it is more important to see with the heart.

 

- In other words, back to being blind. At First Sight is written by Steve Levitt, based on the essay To See and Not See from An Anthropologist on Mars (1995) by Oliver Sacks (Migraine (1970)), in turn based on the true story of Shirl Jennings, and directed by Irwin Winkler (Guilty by Suspicion (1991)).

Nothing works in this lame, intolerable melodrama flunk, which unintentionally inspires roaring laughter a couple of times. The plot nearly feels like the film is a spoof on itself. Canadian jazz singer Diane Krall plays in a scene, and her music is used effectively to make some of the hairy meatball of a film go down a little more smoothly.

Val Kilmer (Gun (2010)) is ridiculous as the blind masseuse; Mira Sorvino (WiseGirls (2002)) is tiring. At First Sight manages to make Nathan Lane (Find Out Why (2000, TV-series)) dull. This is an epic turkey.

 

Related post:

 

1999 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess 

Watch a trailer for the film here

 

Cost: 60 mil. $

Box office: In excess of 22.3 mil. $ (North America only)

= Mega-flop (returned 0.37 times its cost in North America)

[At First Sight premiered 12 January (USA) and runs 128 minutes. Kilmer was paid 9 mil. $ for his performance; Sorvino 3 mil. $. Shooting took place from January - April 1998 in New York. The wildly over-budgeted film opened #5, behind Varsity Blues, Patch Adams, A Civil Action and The Thin Red Line, to an 8.4 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it left the top 5 in its 2nd weekend and grossed 22.3 mil. $. The international gross numbers are regrettably unreported but almost certainly were unimpressive. If the final gross landed on a likely 30 mil. $, the return would be 0.5 times the cost, and the rank on the cusp of 'merely' huge flop. More than 24.4 mil. $ was reportedly spent additionally to market the film. Roger Ebert gave it a 2/4 star review, translating to a notch over this one. Winkler returned with Life As a House (2001). Kilmer returned in Joe the King (1999); Sorvino in Summer of Sam (1999). At First Sight is rotten at 32 % with a 5.40/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of At First Sight?