2007 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]

The Top 10 of the Year:

1. Into the Wild - Sean Penn + Best American Movie of the Year + Best Adventure Movie of the Year + Best Youth Movie of the Year + Best Road Movie of the Year

2. Lust, Caution/色，戒/Sè, Jiè/Sik1Gaai3 - Ang Lee + Best Big Hit Movie of the Year + Best Taiwanese Movie of the Year + Best Erotic Movie of the Year + Best Period Movie of the Year + Best Spy Thriller of the Year

3. In the Valley of Elah - Paul Haggis + Best Political Movie of the Year + Best Crime Drama of the Year + Best True-Story Movie of the Year

4. American Gangster - Ridley Scott + Best Gangster Movie of the Year + Best Epic Movie of the Year + Best New York Movie of the Year

5. The Early Years: Erik Nietzsche Part 1/De Unge År: Erik Nietzsche Sagaen Del 1 - Jacob Thuesen + Best Danish Movie of the Year + Best Mega-flop Movie of the Year + Best Autobiographical Movie of the Year (Lars Von Trier, screenplay, as Erik Nietzsche)

6. Earth, documentary - Alastair Fothergill, Mark Linfield + Best Nature Movie of the Year

7. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix - David Yates + Best Adaptation of the Year + Best Fantasy Movie of the Year + Best Blockbuster of the Year (939.8 mil. $ world gross) + Most Profitable Movie of the Year (minimum 175.92 mil. $ range)

8. Death Proof - Quentin Tarantino + Best Los Angeles Movie of the Year + Best Car Movie of the Year + Best Car Chase of the Year (final girls vs. Stuntman Mike chase) + Best Comeback Actor of the Year: Kurt Russell

9. Eastern Promises - David Cronenberg + Best London Movie of the Year + Best Mob Movie of the Year + Best Villain of the Year: Viggo Mortensen as Nikolai + Best Fight Scene of the Year (the bath house fight) + Most Undeserved Flop of the Year

10. The Counterfeiters/Die Fälscher - Stefan Ruzowitzky + Best Austrian Movie of the Year + Best War Movie of the Year

Other great movies of the year (in alphabetical order):

The Darjeeling Limited - Wes Anderson + Best Dramedy of the Year

Hostel: Part II - Eli Roth + Best Horror Movie of the Year + Best Gore Movie of the Year + Best Exploitation Movie of the Year + Best Comeback Actress of the Year: Heather Matarazzo 

Live Free or Die Hard/Die Hard 4.0 - Len Wiseman + Best Action Movie of the Year 

 

The Savages - Tamara Jenkins + Best Big Flop Movie of the Year + Best Drama of the Year 

Sicko, documentary - Michael Moore 

Other good, recommendable movies of the year (in alphabetical order):

1408 - Mikael Håfström

Battle for Haditha - Nick Broomfield + Best English Movie of the Year

The Brave One - Neil Jordan

Cecilie - Hans Fabian Wullenweber

Charlie Bartlett - Jon Poll + Best High School Movie of the Year

Control - Anton Corbijn + Best Music Movie of the Year + Best Debut Movie of the Year: Anton Corbijn + Best B/W Movie of the Year

Daisy Diamond - Simon Staho + Best Feel-Bad Movie of the Year

Epic Movie - Jason Friedberg, Aaron Seltzer + Most Under-appreciated Movie of the Year + Best Low-brow Movie of the Year

Fighter - Natascha Arthy + Best Kung Fu Movie of the Year

Flight of the Conchords - season 1 - James Bobin, Jemaine Clement, Brett McKenzie + Best Musical Comedy of the Year + Best New TV-Series of the Year

Fracture - Gregory Hoblit

Funny Games - Michael Haneke + Best Home Invasion Thriller of the Year

Gone Baby Gone - Ben Affleck

He Was A Quiet Man - Frank A. Cappello + Best Box Office Disaster of the Year

The Heartbreak Kid - Bobby & Peter Farrelly + Best Crazy-Comedy of the Year

Hot Rod - Akiva Schaffer

I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry - Dennis Dugan + Best Crude Comedy of the Year + Best Buddy Movie of the Year + Best LGBT Movie of the Year

Lars and the Real Girl - Craig Gillespie + Best Canadian Movie of the Year

Shrek the Third - Raman Hui, Chris Miller

Sunshine - Danny Boyle + Best Huge Flop Movie of the Year + Best Science Fiction Movie of the Year
 
  The Bottom 10 of the Year:

1. End of the Line - Maurice Devereaux

2. Dan in Real Life - Peter Hedges + Most Tasteless Movie of the Year + Most Undeserved Hit of the Year

3. Love in the Time of Cholera - Mike Newell + Most Deserved Flop of the Year

4. Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street - Tim Burton + Most Overrated Movie of the Year

5. AFR - Morten Hartz Kapler

6. How to Get Rid of the Others/Hvordan Vi Slipper Af med De Andre - Anders Rønnow Klarlund

7. Halloween - Rob Zombie

8. Evan Almighty - Tom Shadyac + Most Expensive Flop of the Year (lost approximately 105.7 mil. $) + Worst Poster of the Year + Biggest Career Killer of the Year: Tom Shadyac 

9. I Am Legend - Francis Lawrence
 

10. Disturbia - D.J. Caruso

Other poor, mediocre and/or failed movies (in alphabetical order):

4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days/4 Luni, 3 Săptămâni și 2 Zile - Cristian Mungiu + Best Romanian Movie of the Year 
28 Weeks Later - Juan Carlos Fresnadillo
Blades of Glory - Josh Gordon, Will Speck
The Bucket List - Rob Reiner
Cassandra's Dream - Woody Allen
Eagle vs Shark - Taika Waititi
Hallam Foe/Mister Foe - David Mackenzie
Hannibal Rising - Peter Webber 

I'm Not There - Todd Haynes 
Lions for Lambs - Robert Redford 
My Blueberry Nights - Wong Kar-Wai
Shelter - Jonah Markowitz 

[57 titles in total]

Notes:

The second updated version of the 2007 lists adds 10 titles to the mix, most of them good, with one breaching the Top 10 and another getting a high placement on the Bottom 10 list.
Sean Penn's high-impact, true-story spiritual journey and American odyssey Into the Wild still ranks supreme as the year's masterpiece and best; followed by Ang Lee's spy thriller period adaptation, the erotic and sumptuous Lust, Caution. Paul Haggis' excellent, troubling Iraq War aftermath crime-drama In the Valley of Elah is the year's 3rd best film. The Top 10 goes on with Ridley Scott's huge gangster epic American Gangster; Jacob Thuesen's hilarious, subversive film school tell-all The Early Years: Erik Nietzsche Part I; Alastair Fothergill and Mark Linfield's majestic nature documentary Earth; David Yates' terrific magic fantasy and best Potter film of all, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix; Quentin Tarantino's girl-power-fueled, just-having-fun Grindhouse homage Death Proof; David Cronenberg's brutal and thrilling Russian mob-themed Eastern Promises; and finally new entry Stefan Ruzowitzky's evocative WWII drama The Counterfeiters, which boots Eli Roth's enthusiastically cruel horror Hostel: Part II from the list.
Among the year's other noteworthy, great films are Len Wiseman's fierce actioner Live Free or Die Hard, Michael Moore's health care system attack Sicko and Tamara Jenkins' terrific drama The Savages. Among the good entries of 2007 can be highlighted Nick Broomfield's harrowing Iraq War massacre story Battle for Haditha and a pair of silly American comedy offerings; Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer's spoof Epic Movie and Dennis Dugan's crude I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry: Both still funny and also both critically panned by most critics. Also of note; a new New York-set musical comedy series (Flight of the Conchords) and a visually captivating sci-fi (Sunshine).
On the other end of the spectrum, a small Canadian horror movie, Maurice Devereaux's quality-bereft End of the Line takes the cake as the year's unquestionably poorest film. It is followed by Peter Hedges' nauseating romcom Dan in Real Life and Mike Newell's disastrous romance adaptation Love in the Time of Cholera. Following are new entry Tim Burton's cataclysmically overrated, morose musical Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street; Morten Hartz Kapler's mockumentary rubbish AFR; Anders Rønnow Klarlund's amateurish comedy How to Get Rid of the Others; Rob Zombie's unredeemed Halloween remake; Tom Shadyac's major flop, Biblical FX bonanza Evan Almighty; Francis Lawrence's dumb apocalyptic hit I Am Legend, and finally D.J. Caruso's also dumb teenage romance-thriller Disturbia. Leaving the unenviable list in this update is Peter Webber's disappointingly flat Hannibal Rising.
Notice how Steve Carell in 2007 managed to star in two of the year's worst flicks, Dan in Real Life and Evan Almighty - and still hold his career firmly (and impressively) on its tracks.
Great and master filmmakers who gave us sub-par work this year include Woody Allen (Cassandra's Dream), Taika Waititi (Eagle vs Shark), David Mackenzie (Hallam Foe), Todd Haynes (I'm Not There), Robert Redford (Lions for Lambs), Rob Reiner (The Bucket List) and Wong Kar-Wai (My Blueberry Nights).

On the 2008 Oscars:

Jon Stewart returned (after hosting in 2006) to helm the night, which he did poorly, as the ratings dropped steeply from Ellen DeGeneres' headlining ceremony the previous year: 32 mil. viewers watched it all, down 22 % from 2006. The night was unusually clip-heavy, as a writers' strike had threatened to change the show radically, only getting resolved shortly before the event.
The most nominated films of the year were the similarly bleak dramas No Country for Old Men and There Will Be Blood, both getting 8 nods. The night's biggest winner turned out to be No Country for Old Men with 4 statuettes, and The Bourne Ultimatum coming in 2nd with 3. - So not an Oscar night with one majorly Oscar winning movie.
It all played out like this:
No Country for Old Men won Best Picture and Best Director for its brother creators Ethan and Joel Coen. Best Actor went to Daniel Day-Lewis for There Will Be Blood, and Best Actress to Marion Cotillard for La Vie en Rose. Best Supporting Actor went to Javier Bardem for No Country for Old Men, and Tilda Swinton took Best Supporting Actress for Michael Clayton. Diablo Cody won Best Original Screenplay for Juno, and the Coens also took Best Adapted Screenplay for No Country for Old Men.
Best Animation Feature went to Ratatouille; Best Foreign Feature to The Counterfeiters, and Best Documentary to Taxi to the Dark Side. The short film Oscars went to Freeheld (documentary), The Mozart of Pickpockets (live action) and Peter and the Wolf (animation).
Dario Marianelli won Best Score for Atonement; Best Song went to Falling Slowly from Once, and both Sound Editing and Sound Mixing went to The Bourne Ultimatum. Best Art Direction went to Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, and Best Cinematography went to Robert Elswit for There Will Be Blood. Best Makeup went to La Vie en Rose; Best Costumes to Elizabeth: The Golden Age; Best Editing to The Bourne Ultimatum and Best Visual Effects to The Golden Compass.
An honorary Oscar went to Robert F. Boyle.

Biggest flops of the year:

[The loss is based solely on the cost and box office earnings for the films. Marketing costs and additional revenue (home video, TV rights and other auxiliary profits) are not taken into account] 

1. Evan Almighty - 105.7 mil. $ range
2. Love in the Time of Cholera - 37.48 mil. $ range
3. The Brave One - 31.7 mil. $ range
4. Eastern Promises - 27.5 mil. $ range
5. Sunshine - 27.2 mil. $ range new entry
6. Death Proof/Planet Terror (not reviewed yet) - 22 mil. $ range
7. Hot Rod - 19.58 mil. $ range
8. Hannibal Rising - 17.16 mil. $ range
9. I'm Not There - 15.36 mil. $ range
10. Funny Games - 11.84 mil. $ range new entry
= Combined losses: 315.52 mil. $

Biggest hits of the year:

[The gain is based solely on the cost and box office earnings for the films. Marketing costs and additional revenue (home video, TV rights and other auxiliary profits) are not taken into account] 

1. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix - minimum 175.92 mil. $ range
2. Shrek the Third - 159.56 mil. $ range new entry
3. I Am Legend - 84.12 mil. $ range
4. Live Free or Die Hard - 43.4 mil. $ range
5. 1408 - 27.76 mil. $ range
6. Disturbia - 27.12 mil. $ range
7. The Bucket List - 25.12 mil. $ range
8. Halloween - 17.08 mil. $ range
9. Epic Movie - 14.72 mil. $ range
10. Lust, Caution - 11.8 mil. $ range
= Combined profits: 586.6 mil. $

2007 titles currently on the watch-list:

Kill Bulko: The Movie, Life Kills Me, You, Me and Him, Puffball: The Devil's Eyeball, Atonement, Michael Clayton, Charlie Wilson's War, The Golden Compass, Across the Universe, Elizabeth: The Golden Age, 3:10 to Yuma, Norbit, Once, August Rush, Enchanted, Even Pigeons Go to Heaven, I Met the Walrus, Madame Tutli-Putli, At Night, The Substitute, Freeheld, Salim Baba, Taxi to the Dark Side, No End in Sight, Operation Homecoming: Writing the Wartime Experience, War Dance, 12, Beaufort, Katyn, Mongol: The Rise of Genghis Khan, Surf's Up, The Visitor, Lavatory Lovestory, Oktapodi, Toyland, Manon on the Asphalt, New Boy, On the Line, Encounters at the End of the World, Meet Bill, XXY

Previous annual lists:
    
2018 in films - according to Film Excess  
2017 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
2017 in films - according to Film Excess
2016 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2016 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I] 
2016 in films - according to Film Excess
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]
2015 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess  
2014 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED IV]
2014 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]
2014 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II] 
2014 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
2014 in films - according to Film Excess
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]
2013 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I] 
2013 in films - according to Film Excess    
2012 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED V] 
2012 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED IV]
2012 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]
2012 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2012 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
2012 in films - according to Film Excess
2011 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]
2011 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2011 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
2011 in films - according to Film Excess
2010 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]
2010 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2010 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
2010 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess  
2009 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2009 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
2009 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess   
2008 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
2008 in films - according to Film Excess
2007 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
2007 in films - according to Film Excess
2006 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
2006 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess   
2005 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess 2004 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess
2003 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess 

 

What do you think of the 2007 lists?
What films of the year are your favorites and least favorite?
What essential title/s is/are missing on the watch-list? 

The Shallows (2016) or, Stuck on a Rock

♥♥♥

Star Blake Lively, with a shark fin protruding ominously from the sea in the background, looks ready to take action - and great in a bikini - on this poster for Jaume Collet-Sera's The Shallows

A beautiful blond medical student from Texas has gone to Mexico in a fit of grief and doubt concerning the direction of her life, but she now has to learn the hard way that it is unadvisable to surf alone in unknown waters ...

The Shallows is written by Anthony Jaswinski (Killing Time (2002)) and directed by great Spanish filmmaker Jaume Collet-Sera (House of Wax (2005)).
It is a well-oiled high-concept shark thriller, which has unfortunately exorcised some heart in its narrative in favor of its slender concept. Held together with its well-shaped star Blake Lively (Hick (2011)), who does well but is ridiculously hot and is utilized for her full visual thrill here, the film leaves a somewhat shallow impression, (no pun intended). - An impression of a filmmaker giving himself a creative dare coupled with visual showing off, rather than of well-earned gasps and terror.
But The Shallows is exciting on its way, and Marco Beltrami (Little Evil (2017)) sometimes cuts a menacing score. There are visually impressive elements, - one involving a buoy attached to concrete blocks, - although the CGI shark and jellyfish still sometimes appear somewhat fake. It isn't as good as Collet-Sera's best to date, thrill-ride Non-Stop (2014), and it is far from a match for its sub-genre's eternal classic, masterpiece Jaws (1975). But The Shallows is worth seeing for fans of shark movies.

Related post:

Jaume Collet-Sera: Non-Stop (2014) or, The Text Messaging Terrorist!

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 17 - 25 mil. $ (different reports)
Box office: 119.1 mil. $
= Big hit (returned at least 4.76 times its cost)
[The Shallows premiered 21 June (New York) and runs 86 minutes. Louis Leterrier was hired to direct but dropped out in 2015. Filming was supposed to take place in the Gulf of Texas but the filmmakers were denied a film permit there for safety concerns. Shooting instead took place in New South Wales and Queensland, Australia, from October 2015 - January 2016. Lively reportedly did many of her own stunts. The film opened #4, behind holdover hit Finding Dory, fellow new release Independence Day: Resurgence and holdover hit Central Intelligence to a 16.8 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it left the top 5 in its 2nd week and grossed 55.1 mil. $ (46.3 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were China with 15.2 mil. $ (12.8 %) and France with 4.1 mil. $ (3.4 %). Collet-Sera returned with The Commuter (2018). Lively returned in All I See Is You (2016). The Shallows is certified fresh at 79 % with a 6.49/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of The Shallows?

Sully (2016) - Eastwood's miracle landing biopic is inert and overrated

♥♥

Star Tom Hanks seen from an airplane window in pilot's uniform on this stark poster for Clint Eastwood's Sully

A cold January day captain Sullenberger, a pilot with more than 40 years of experience, flies a passenger carrier, when, shortly after take-off, birds cause the engines to malfunction, and Sullenberger manages to land the plane safely on New York's Hudson River. - But was this the safest option available?

Sully is written by Todd Komarnicki (Perfect Stranger (2007)), based on the autobiography Highest Duty (2009) by Chesley Sullenberger and Jeffrey Zaslow (The Last Lecture (2008)), and directed by Californian master filmmaker Clint Eastwood (Play Misty for Me (1971)).
Sully stands permanently in the shadows of another recent film of an unusual landing of a defect plane, Robert Zemeckis' fictitious and masterful drama Flight (2012). It appears that a riled up miracle atmosphere at the time of the blessed Hudson landing determined that the sensational event must also result in a good film, - but things are just not that simple.
Chesley 'Sully' Sullenberger is a good man, who suffers some qualms after the landing, but of course he pulls through, although Tom Hanks (Ithaca (2015)) sculpts his face in so many wrinkled, worried folds that one could almost doubt it at times. Laura Linney (Maze (2000)) is the wife, who is exclusively shown in the Sullenberger home, and mostly worried, on the phone.
That Sully doesn't contain that much dramatically, except for the landing itself, of course, (which is anxiety-provoking), is only underscored by the film's continually returning to its portrayal of that formidable event, so that we experience it not only from the cockpit but from the passenger seat and the control tower as well.
The end credit roll is laced with pictures and video from reality, which are shown in great haste, as if Eastwood himself is also aware and doesn't want to give the wrongful impression that Sully can compare to the quality of his preceding bio-drama, masterpiece American Sniper (2014). 
Technically and in terms of special effects, Sully is naturally top shelf, which is the best thing about this generally misjudged contraption.

Related posts:

Clint Eastwood: 2016 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]

2014 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED IV]
2014 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]
Top 10: The best biopic movies reviewed by Film Excess to date 
2014 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2014 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
American Sniper (2014) - Eastwood conveys an American man and myth in electric masterpiece  
2011 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2011 in films - according to Film Excess   
J. Edgar (2011) - Eastwood, Black and DiCaprio's great, intense biopic   
The Changeling (2008) or, The Christine Collins Story 2006 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]   2006 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess
Letters from Iwo Jima/硫黄島からの手紙 [Öjima Kara no Tegami] (2006) - The Japanese side of Eastwood's remarkable WWII two-parter  Flags of Our Fathers (2006) - Eastwood's Iwo Jima portrayal is captivating and profoundly moving
The Dead Pool (1988) - The highly entertaining last Dirty Harry movie (actor)
City Heat (1984) - Eastwood and Reynolds wrestle dispassionately in Benjamin's messy period affair (actor)
Tightrope (1984) - An undervalued Clint Eastwood sex killer thriller (actor)
Any Which Way You Can (1980) or, More Monkey Business! (actor)
Escape from Alcatraz (1979) - Siegel, Tuggle and Eastwood's phenomenal prison escape thriller (actor)
Every Which Way but Loose (1978) or, Honky Tonk Monkey Business! (actor)
The Enforcer (1976) - Eastwood teaches revolutionaries a lesson in third, less punchy Dirty Harry (star)
The Eiger Sanction (1975) - Eastwood's mountain climbing dud
The Beguiled (1971) - Intense, erotic Civil War kammerspiel thriller (actor)  
Dirty Harry (1971) - Eastwood's great, signature renegade cop character comes to life (actor)
Coogan's Bluff (1968) or, Dopes and Hippies, Beat It! (actor) For a Few Dollars More/Per Qualche Dollaro in Più (1965) or, Return of the Poncho Killer (actor)
A Fistful of Dollars (1964) or, Killer in a Poncho (actor)    

Watch a 4-minute clip from the film here

Cost: 60 mil. $
Box office: 240.7 mil. $
= Big hit (returned 4.01 times its cost)
[Sully premiered 2 September (Telluride Film Festival, Colorado) and runs 96 minutes. Producers Frank Marshall and Allyn Stewart optioned the rights in 2010. Shooting took place in New York, Charlotte, North Carolina, Georgia, including Atlanta, New Mexico and in California from September 2015 - April 2016. The film opened #1 to a 35 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it spent another week at #1 and 2 more in the top 5 (#3-#5) and grossed 125 mil. $ (51.9 % of the total gross). It set a new global IMAX 2D opening record with 5.1 mil. $. A US comScore audience survey showed that 39 % of the film's audience saw it due to Hanks. The film's 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were Japan with 12 mil. $ (5 %) and Australia with 9.8 mil. (4.1 %). The National Transportation Safety Board objected strongly to its portrayal in the film, which was called 'mean-spirited dishonesty' and 'detrimental to aviation safety' as well as 'unfair'. Real-life Sullenberger agreed and asked that the NTSB investigators' names were changed for the film's characters representing them. The film was nominated for the Best Sound Editing Oscar, lost to Arrival. It won an AFI award, a National Board of Review award and several other honors. Eastwood returned with The 15:17 to Paris (2018). Hanks returned in Inferno (2016). Sully is certified fresh at 86 % with a 7.21/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Sully?

Slow West (2015) - Maclean's contemporary-minded, digital, forgettable West

♥♥

Its four stars' faces against blue cloudy skies make up this untraditional poster for John Mclean's Slow West

A bounty hunter helps an enamored teenager with his young lady, who has a high prize on her head, through the perils of the deadly wild west.

Slow West is written and directed by debuting John Maclean (Man on a Motorcycle (2009, short)).
It is a kind of reconstructivist western, which conjures up a portrait of the mystical west, which doesn't conform to the established facts that the genre's past classics have taught us as moviegoers. Instead character after character here share related reflections, which more seem to come from our present day, (and surely hail directly from writer-director Maclean.)
No one really distinguishes themselves in Slow West, and I continually wondered why Michael Fassbender's (William and Mary (2005, TV-series)) character continually helps the smitten Kodi Smit-McPhee (The Road (2009)) character.
In terms of style and technique, the film also doesn't lean on the genre's traditions and conventions, and its very digital texture (or in actuality a lack thereof; a crisp, modern smoothness) is profoundly hard to swallow for this western fan.
Slow West is a small, easily forgotten, and not very promising debut, - and an extremely overrated film.

 

Related post:

 

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

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: Estimated 2 mil. $
Box office: 1.2 mil. $
= Huge flop (returned 0.6 times its cost)
[Slow West premiered 24 January (Sundance Film Festival, Utah) and runs 84 minutes. Shooting took place in New Zealand and Scotland around October 2013. The film opened #36 to a 67k $ first weekend in 50 theaters in North America, where it peaked the following week at #35 and in 54 theaters and grossed 229k $ (19.1 % of the total gross). The biggest market was the main production country the UK with 559k $ (46.6 %); North America was 2nd biggest and Germany 3rd biggest with 225k $ (19 %). In North America, the film was simultaneously released as video-on-demand, which may have contributed to the low gross. Numbers from its performance on VOD are unreleased. The film won a Sundance award and was nominated for a British Independent Film award and a European Film award, among other honors. Maclean has stayed clear of directing since but made some music instead. Fassbender returned in Macbeth (2015); Smit-McPhee in Gallipolli (2015, miniseries) and theatrically in X-Men: Apocalypse (2016); Caren Pistorius (Mortal Engines (2018)) in The Light Between Oceans (2016)) and Ben Mendelsohn (Vertical Limit (2000)) in Mississippi Grind (2015). Slow West is certified fresh at 92 % with a 7.47/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Slow West?

Superhero Movie (2008) - Some light spots in subpar spoof

♥♥

Familiar spoof stars and a couple of new faces adjoin on this Scary Movie-franchise poster-modeled poster for Craig Mazin's Superhero Movie

Young Rick Riker is bitten during a high school trip by a dragonfly and attains superpowers, which he uses to attract the girl he is eyeing and fight the evil Hourglass Man!

Superhero Movie is written and directed by Craig Mazin (The Specials (2000)). It doesn't begin very well with some scenes in a school bus, and the ending is also pretty shabby.
A good deal of the spoof comedy's antics fall flat to the ground, and a good deal should simply have been funnier, - such as a scene with Tracy Morgan (Deep in the Valley (2009)) as X-Men's Dr. Xavier as well as Regina Hall (When the Bough Breaks (2016)) and Pamela Anderson (Home Improvement (1991-97)), which certainly had the potential.
Superhero Movie still has laughs for undiscriminating spoof lovers; they come from Leslie Nielsen (Day by Day (1988, TV-series)), Christopher McDonald (My Sexiest Year (2007)), who does well as the predictably ridiculous Hourglass Man villain, and from young Drake Bell (Jungle Shuffle (2014)) and Sara Paxton (Pepper Dennis (2006, TV-series)) as protagonist Riker and his blond flame Jill Johnson. Both are game and well-cast.
Superhero Movie's running time is buffed grotesquely with an extremely long gag reel and extra scene-crammed credit sequence.

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 35 mil. $
Box office: 71.2 mil. $
= Flop (returned 2.03 times its cost)
[Superhero Movie premiered 27 March (Russia) and runs 86 minutes. David Zucker was originally supposed to have directed the film under the title Superhero!. Shooting took place around September 2007 in Vancouver, British Colombia, California and in Kansas City, Missouri, where the New York flyover transition shots were made. The film opened #3, behind fellow new release 21 and holdover hit Horton Hears a Who, to a 9.5 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it left the top 5 in its 2nd week and grossed 25.8 mil. $ (36.2 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were Germany with 5.5 mil. $ (7.7 %) and the UK with 5.3 mil. $ (7.4 %). Mazin has left directing alone since the film and turned to writing several successful movies and miniseries Chernobyl (2019). Bell returned in College (2008); Paxton in Wizards of Waverly Place (2008, TV-series short) and theatrically in The Last House on the Left (2009); McDonald in Player 5150 (2008). Superhero Movie is rotten at 17 % with a 3.64/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Superhero Movie?

Shin Godzilla/シン・ゴジラ (Shin Gojira) (2016) - A sensational Japanese comeback

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+ Best Kaiju Movie of the Year + Best Tokyo Movie of the Year

The striking, retro-styled, boosted look of its gargantuan title character adorns this awesome poster for Hideaki Anno and Shinji Higuchi's Shin Godzilla

When a mysterious earthquake occurrence in Tokyo Bay turns out to stem from the resurgence of a prehistoric giant monster, the country's government gets busy trying to come up with an appropriate response and salvage what they can.

Shin Godzilla is written by writer/co-director/co-editor Hideaki Anno (Zaku (1980)) with Sean Whitley (Over Your Dead Body/Kuime (2014)) making English-version contribution, co-directed with Shinji Higuchi (Minimoni ja Movie Okashi na Daibouken! (2002)). It is the 31st film in the long-running Godzilla franchise that began with Godzilla/Gojira (1954) and now spans 35 movies, with more on the way. It is the 29th Toho studio Godzilla movie, the first since Godzilla: Final Wars (2004), effectively rebooting the franchise in Japan, - unrelated to the great American reboot Godzilla (2014).
Shin Godzilla is an exciting major motion picture, which gives us a new Godzilla story that feels as no-frills fact-based and realistic as is imaginable now. It stays coolly distanced from anything romantic or family-centered, from emotional or very recognizable characters and instead focuses on the nation's worried top of more or less nerdy men. - As well as a single representative of the fairer sex, in round numbers, who is a babe that pretty incredibly imagines a future for herself as president of the US!
Overall the admiring relation to the American super power stand as one of the film's few weak points, - together with the fact that none of the film's characters (probably due to its concept) really stand out.
- Except, of course, for Godzilla, who is the whole show in Shin Godzilla: Fantastically designed in a transformed version, a kind of destructive god. The effects are impressive, and the film glistens with boyish military fascination, hardware and mechanics, coupled with an orchestral, terrific, sometimes retro-cool score by Shiro Sagisu (Evangelion: 2.0 You Can (Not) Advance/Evangerion shin gekijôban: Ha (2008)) - Shin Godzilla rocks!

Related post:

Hideaki Anno: 2016 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]

The Wind Rises/風立ちぬ [Kaze Tachinu] (2013) - Miyazaki's beautiful but languid last film (voice actor)

Watch a video from the film's Japanese premiere here

Cost: Reportedly 15 mil. $
Box office: 78 mil. $
= Big hit (returned 5.2 times its cost)
[Shin Godzilla premiered 25 July (Tokyo, Japan) and runs 119 minutes. 'Shin' means 'true', 'new' or 'god'. Development began in 2013. Shooting took place from September - October 2015 in Tokyo, Japan. The film opened #19 to a 458k $ first weekend in 34 theaters in North America, its peak in the market, where it grossed 1.9 mil. $ (2.4 % of the total gross). The film's 3 biggest markets were its production country Japan, where it debuted #1, which it held for a total of 3 weeks, spending 8 weeks in the top 5, grossing 75.3 mil. $ (96.5 %), becoming the year's 2nd highest-grossing title at the Japanese box office (behind Your Name). 2nd biggest was North America, and 3rd biggest Thailand with 322k $ (0.4 %). The film was commended in Japan for taking inspiration from recent Japanese nuclear and natural disasters as well as political malaise. It sold more than 675k home video copies in Japan and more than 106k copies in North America, the latter totaling an additional 3.4 mil. $. The film won 1/2 Asian Film award nominations, 7/11 Japanese Academy awards and other honors. Due to Toho's contract with American Legendary Pictures about the Godzilla property, they are unable to release another Japanese Godzilla film until the contract ends in 2020. They have instead made an animated Godzilla trilogy in the meantime (2017-18), while Legendary have released their Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019) and their coming Godzilla vs. Kong (2020). Anno has returned only with a 2019 short in the Evangelion franchise for which he is making the concluding feature for a tentative 2020 release date. Higuchi has returned with a video game and a TV-series and is set to return to features with Shin Ultraman (2021). Shin Godzilla is certified fresh at 86 % with a 6.74/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Shin Godzilla?

Sherlock Holmes (2009) - Ritchie's unappealing morass

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Robert Downey Jr. is gelled up and stares out as a man who knows he is a super-star on this well-made poster for Guy Ritchie's Sherlock Holmes

Holmes, the highly gifted London detective with the heightened senses, is reluctantly in the process of losing his companion Dr. Watson to a female, all the while he fights the feared Lord Blackwood.

Sherlock Holmes is written by Michael Robert Johnson (Pompeii (2014)), Anthony Peckham (Silo 3 Jane (1995)) and Simon Kinberg (Jumper (2008)), based on a story by Johnson and Lionel Wigram (The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (2015)), in turn based on the legendary character created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (the first story with Holmes was printed in 1887). The film is directed by Guy Ritchie (Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (1998)).
If you favor Ritchie's brand of postmodernist, hot-air-bloated, Quentin Tarantino-cramming style, you'll devour Sherlock Holmes raw. I don't, and I mostly see here a plot that has the refinement and depth of a weak children's movie, which gets blown up and served to fully grown adults.
Robert Downey Jr. (Lucky You (2007)) and Jude Law's (Black Sea (2014)) banter here, deliberately fashioned to bear the likeness of two old lovers quarrelling, can be diverting, - but regrettably the tension remains coy subtext. Rachel McAdams (Wedding Crashers (2005)) is pretty but has little to do in the film.
Holmes is now a champion boxer, and although his fistfights look cool, it is still incredible that Downey Jr. should damage one of literature's most alluring figures like this.
The sound design and mix are excellent, but Sherlock Holmes is too long and is also marred by an enormous faith in CGI, which give large parts of the film an unreal, ghastly look.

Related post:

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

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 90 mil. $
Box office: 524 mil. $
= Huge hit (returned 5.82 times its cost)
[Sherlock Holmes premiered 14 December (London, UK) and runs 129 minutes. Shooting took place in England, including London, and in New York from October 2008 - January 2009. The film opened #2, behind Avatar, to a 62.3 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it spent another 3 weeks in the Top 5 (#2-#2-#5) and grossed 209 mil. $ (39.9 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were the UK with 39.7 mil. $ (7.6 %) and Italy with 26.9 mil. $ (5.1 %). The film was nominated for 2 Oscars: Best Score (Hans Zimmer (The Road of Love (2017))), lost to Michael Giacchino for Up, and Art Direction, lost to Avatar. It won a Golden Globe and was nominated for a Grammy, among other honors. Roger Ebert gave it a 3/4 star review, translating to 2 notches higher than this one. The film has additionally made in excess of 44.9 mil. $ on the North-American home video market. Ritchie, Downey Jr., Law and McAdams returned with sequel Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows (2011), with similar success, and Downey and Law are set to return with a fresh director for a 3rd film, set to release in 2021. Ritchie made short Un Rendez-vous (2010) before the Holmes sequel. Downey Jr. returned first in Iron Man 2 (2010); Law in Arena (2010, TV-series documentary) and theatrically in Repo Men (2010); McAdams in Morning Glory (2010), and Mark Strong (Revolver (2005)) in Kick-Ass (2010). Sherlock Holmes is fresh at 69 % with a 6.22/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Sherlock Holmes?