The House of the Devil (2009) - West's energetic, scary throwback period horror

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An effective, spine-tingling poster that includes the pretty awesome tagline for Ti West's The House of the Devil

A college student desperate for some money takes a babysitting job one night in a house in the country, where she is to sit for an old woman, whom she never sees, while the aging couple who employ her assign themselves to a lunar eclipse.

Four racing, big hearts go out to this retro-styled horror from writer-director Ti West (The Innkeepers (2011)). SPOILER Greta Gerwig (You Wont Miss Me (2009)) gets brutally murdered early on, (around 30 minutes into the film, echoing the iconic Janet Leigh death of Alfred Hitchcock's horror classic Psycho (1960)), which establishes an 'anything-can-happen' type of anxiety. This works terrifically for the following 45 minutes of the film, which follow a less-is-more approach to horror and achieve a high general scare level. West also treats us to around 100 camera zooms and other neat stylistic and musical references to the 1980s, which the film is set in; the horror films of the 1970s and 1980s are paid satisfying homage to in this way. Also note the stand-out poster works for the film, which also smell wonderfully of a bygone cinematic era.
SPOILER When The House of the Devil 'goes nuts' in blinking lights, blood and ritualized violence, the fright quickly leaks from it. It suddenly seems to adopt a believe in more-is-more at this late point towards its end, and it comes across a bit like the common script issue of tying up a satisfying end in the third act. Leading up to this, though, The House of the Devil is a damned scary companion.

Related post:

Ti West: V/H/S (2012) - Energetic, periodically intensely creepy if flawed found footage horror anthology (segment writer-director)

Watch the great opening credit sequence from the film here

Cost: 0.9 mil. $
Box office: 101k $ - North America only
= Mega-flop
[The House of the Devil premiered 25 April (New York's Tribeca Film Festival) and runs 95 minutes. Shooting took place in March 2008 in Connecticut on 16mm film. The film opened #58 in 3 theaters to a 25k $ first weekend in North America, where it peaked in 7 theaters and never attained a higher position and grossed 101k $. In foreign markets, it almost only played at festivals, and its gross from these ventures are unlisted. Roger Ebert gave the film a 3/4 star review, equal to the rating it gets here. The film was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award. Despite the disappointing theatrical run, West was employed on other projects immediately after, and it is likely that the film has made a tidy sum through TV, VoD and home video. The House of the Devil is certified fresh at 86 % with a 7.1/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of The House of the Devil?

Harry Brown (2009) or, Old Man Vengeance

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Michael Caine is a determined-looking gentleman on the poster for Daniel Barber's Harry Brown

Harry is an aging ex-Marine, who lives in a crummy neighborhood and only has one friend, whom he plays chess with. When his friend gets murdered, Harry takes up killing off the young hoods responsible. Along with some other criminals.

Michael Caine (Shadow Run (1998)) does well in the semi-comical titular part as the avenging, walking-impaired vigilante here.
Harry Brown takes itself very seriously but is really one-dimensional and reactionary. It proposes that by shooting around 10 people, old man Brown makes his neighborhood safe again. The evil drug-pushing villains seem like mostly fantastic clichés.
England is (still) ugly and bleak in Harry Brown. It is written by Gary Young (Spivs (2004)) and directed by feature debuting Daniel Barber (The Keeping Ground (2014)).

Related post:

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

Michael Caine gives an interview to Empire Magazine about the film here

Cost: 7.3 mil. $
Box office: 10.3 mil. $
= Big flop
[Harry Brown premiered 12 September (Toronto International Film Festival) and runs 103 minutes. Shooting took place in November 2008 in Essex, London and in the Elstree Studios in the UK. The film opened #27 in 19 theaters to a 173k $ first weekend in North America, where it peaked in 67 theaters but never achieved a higher position and grossed 1.8 mil. $ (17.5 % of the total gross). The film's biggest market was its native UK with 6.6 mil. $ (64 %). North America was the 2nd biggest market, and the 3rd biggest was Australia with 1.4 mil. $ (13.6 %). Roger Ebert gave the film a 3/4 star review, translating to one notch better than this review. Harry Brown is fresh at 64 % with a 6/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Harry Brown?

The Human Centipede (First Sequence) (2009) - Six puts Dutch film back on the map with notorious gross-out horror

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This chilling poster for Tom Six's The Human Centipede (First Sequence) lets the viewer imagine for himself, what is actually behind the glass ...

In Germany, two American and one Japanese tourists are kidnapped by a prominent, retired surgeon, who, in his own words, doesn't like humans. What he does like is a twisted plan for the three: To form a human centipede, mouth-to-anus.

The idea behind The Human Centipede (First Sequence) is deeply sick, but the Dutch writer-director Tom Six (I Love Dries (2008)) carries it out with an admirable determination and enthusiasm.
Dieter Laser (The Elixirs of the Devil/Die Elixiere des Teufels (1976)) makes an eminent villain out of the doctor and is the best part of the film. The acting of the American girls by Ashley C. Williams (Julia (2014)) and Ashlynn Yennie (L.A. Slasher (2015)) is just so-so.
Although the revolting details are almost entirely implicit in this the first film in Six's Human Centipede trilogy, the film is still extremely disgusting to watch (and listen to.)

Related post:

Tom Six: The Human Centipede 2 (Full Sequence) (2011) - Six's rancid meta nightmare

Here is a very short video of Tom Six, posted in 2017

Cost: Estimated 1.5 mil. €, equaling approximately 1.7 mil. $
Box office: In excess of 325k $
= Mega-flop
[The Human Centipede (First Sequence) premiered 30 August (London FrightFest Film Festival) and runs 92 minutes. The idea came to Six when he talked with a friend about possible fair punishments for child molesters. Inspirations count Pier Paolo Pasolini's infamous Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom/Salò o le 120 Giornate di Sodoma (1975), films of Takashi Miike, David Lynch and David Cronenberg, the Dutch version of reality TV phenomenon Big Brother as well as historic facts of WWII, not least the medical experiments of Joseph Mengele at the Auschwitz concentration camp, which also informed Laser's performance. Another factor in that was the actor's knowledge of his own father's active service for Nazi Germany during the war. Six has alleged he did not disclose specifics about the plot's 'centipede' to the film's financiers, who remained in the dark until the film was finished at which point (he claims), they were happy with it. Shooting took place in Holland. Paintings of conjoined twins in the doctor's house were done by Six. Laser remained in character while filming, which led to him shouting, kicking a cast member followed by an on-set fight and him hurting one at another instance. The posters' claim that it is '100 % medically accurate' is a catchy tagline but at best a contested fact. The film was released unrated in North America: It opened #71 in 1 theater to a 12k $ first weekend, peaked at #44 and in 19 theaters (different weeks) and grossed 181k $ (55.7 % of the total gross) there. The gross listed above only accounts for 4 markets, of which the 2nd and 3rd biggest are Peru with 72k $ (22.2 %) and Taiwan with 61k $ (18.8 %). The film played almost exclusively at horror film festivals around the world. Roger Ebert refused to give the film a star rating, stating, "It is what it is and occupies a world where the stars don't shine." It netted in excess of 2.1 mil. $ on home video sales. It is impossible to know whether the film was profitable in the end (especially due to home video sales) with so little known of its theatrical run and expenses, but the figures known indicate it was a theatrical mega-flop. It has nevertheless gotten two sequels: The Human Centipede II (Full Sequence) (2011) and The Human Centipede III (Final Sequence) (2015). The Human Centipede (First Sequence) is rotten at 49 % with a 5.1 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of The Human Centipede (First Sequence)?

The Haunting in Connecticut (2009) - Virginia Madsen as strong mama leads eerie haunting horror

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+ Best Haunting Movie of the Year

One of the inexplicable, horrific events of the film has made its way onto this poster for Peter Cornwell's The Haunting in Connecticut

A hard-pressed working class family with four children, including one who has cancer and undergoes expensive treatment, relocate to a house in Connecticut, where an experimental mortuary formerly resided...

The Haunting in Connecticut is a classic haunting story, SPOILER which uses at least its first half with characters wondering, if they really saw this or that or are losing their minds. The filmmakers make at least one too many references to Stanley Kubrick's horror masterpiece The Shining (1980), and the use of CGI does go a bit out of control towards the end.
But this is still a seriously unsettling story, which is well-orchestrated and furnished with credible acting. Virginia Madsen (Candyman (1992)) stands at the center in an inspiring, strong part as the family's indomitable wife and mother.
The Haunting in Connecticut is written by Adam Simon and Tim Metcalfe (Bones (2001), both) and directed by feature-debuting Peter Cornwell (Mercy (2014)).

Related posts:

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

Young star Kyle Gallner gives an interview about his work in the movie here

Cost: 10 mil. $
Box office: 77.5 mil. $
= Huge hit
[The Haunting in Connecticut was released 27 March and runs 92 minutes. The film is based on an actual 1986 Connecticut case, which was investigated by Ed & Lorraine Warren (known from The Conjuring films), but the truthfulness of the haunting is disputed. Filming took place in Manitoba, Canada, from September - December 2007. The film opened #2, behind fellow new release Monsters vs. Aliens, to a 23 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it stayed in the top 5 for another week (#3) and grossed 55.3 mil. $ (71.4 % of the total gross). The film's 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were the UK with 6.1 mil. $ (7.9 %) and Mexico with 2.7 mil. $ (3.5 %). Roger Ebert gave the film a 2/4 star review, translating to two notches harder than this one. The success resulted in a sequel: The Haunting in Connecticut 2: Ghosts of Georgia (2013) and a proposed second sequel set on Long Island, which is still in development. The Haunting in Connecticut is rotten at 16 % with a 4.3 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of The Haunting in Connecticut?

The Hangover (2009) - Phillips & Co. hit the mother lode with hilarious crowdpleaser

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+ Best Comedy of the Year

The three crapped-out stars, - and a baby wearing adult-sized sunglasses, invite us to Todd Phillips' The Hangover

Four guys celebrate a bachelor's party in Las Vegas for one of them. Another of them secretly drugs the others to enhance the party, but the morning after the groom is missing, and the remaining three have a baby, Mike Tyson's tiger and a stolen police car that they apparently acquired during their binge.

The Hangover doesn't reinvent the wheel, but it does make men and women alike laugh out loud and enjoy themselves silly. Mike Tyson (Signal Lost (2013)), Ken Jeong (Despicable Me 2 (2013)) and Heather Graham (Boogie Nights (1997)) add color to this decidedly colorful fiesta. Rob Riggle (Absolutely Anything (2015)) and Cleo King (Dude, Where's My Car? (2000)) also bring some memorable zaniness.
The four guys' characters, portrayed by Bradley Cooper (Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol. 2 (2017)), Ed Helms (The Lorax (2012)), Zach Galifianakis (Little Fish, Strange Pond (2009)) and Justin Bartha (National Treasure (2004)), are in themselves recognizable, funny company.
The Hangover is written by Jon Lucas (Bad Moms (2016)) and Scott Moore (Four Christmases (2008)) and directed by great New-Yorker filmmaker Todd Phillips (Due Date (2010)).

Related posts:

Todd Phillips: The Hangover Part II (2011) - Phillips & Co. follow up their sensational comedy hit with a disappointing sequel  
Due Date (2010) or, Riding with Tremblay

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

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 35 mil. $
Box office: 467.4 mil. $
= Mega-hit
[The Hangover premiered 30 May (Holland) and runs 100 minutes. The film is inspired by an experience one of its producers' friends had of blacking out and getting extorted upon visiting a strip club. The script was sold to Warner Bros. for 2 mil. $. An uncredited rewrite by Phillips and Jeremy Garelick added Mike Tyson, the baby and police car to it. Lindsay Lohan was first offered Graham's escort/stripper part but deemed the project without potential and later regretted it. Filming took place in Las Vegas, including at Caesar's Palace, and in California in October 2008. Helms' missing tooth was no effect job; he has a dental implant for an incisor, which was removed for shooting. The film opened #1 to a stellar 44.9 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it stayed atop for another week before getting thrown to #2 by The Proposal. It stayed in the top 5 for 5 consecutive weeks, played for a 28-week long period and grossed 277.3 mil. $ (59.3 % of the total gross). It became the highest-grossing R-rated comedy in North America ever, beating Beverly Hills Cop's (1984) 25 year record. The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were the UK with 36 mil. $ (7.7 %) and Germany with 20.8 mil. $ (4.5 %). Roger Ebert concurred with me in his giving the film 3.5/4 stars. It won an AFI Movie of the Year award, a Golden Globe and was BAFTA-nominated. It also beat My Big Fat Greek Wedding by selling more than 8.6 mil. DVD and Blu-rays domestically as the biggest comedy home release ever. Two sequels followed: The Hangover Part II (2011) and The Hangover Part III (2013). The Hangover is certified fresh at 79 % with a 6.8 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of The Hangover?

Get Low (2009) - Great stars caught in not very good period drama about a hermit and his funeral

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Contours of the stars against a dark sky and a Robert Duvall looking wise fill out this poster for Aaron Schneider's Get Low

An odd, old hermit, who has lived alone in his forest house for 40 years, comes out into society with a peculiar wish: To arrange his own funeral, which he wants to attend while still alive.

Audiences who expect a comedy will be disappointed here. Despite the involvement of Bill Murray (Coming Attractions (1978)) as an undertaker and short moments of some amusing value along the way, Get Low is clearly most of all a drama, and a small, short story-inspired-like one at that, (although it is actually inspired by a true 1938 Tennessee man.)
The overshadowing problem for the film is that for its entire duration it feels unclear, why this story is relayed to us. This is despite good efforts by Sissy Spacek (JFK (1991)) and particularly grand old man lead Robert Duvall (The Detective (1968)), whose character's outlandish, several decades long hermit life remains a claim that is never illuminated.
Get Low is written by Chris Provenzano (Silicon Valley (2017), TV-series) and C. Gaby Mitchell (Blood Diamond (2006), story), with Scott Seeke (Boxes (2013), short, producer) contributing story elements, and directed by debuting Aaron Schneider (Kiss the Girls (1997), cinematographer), who has kept himself to only operating the camera in his few credits since.  
Get Low is set in Tennessee in the 1930s but doesn't present a vivid portrayal of its time or place either. It is a film with some good parts and an interesting premise, which only makes it more of a shame that it simply doesn't work.

Related post:

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

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: Reportedly 7 - 7.5 mil. $
Box office: 10.5 mil. $
= Big flop
[Get Low premiered 12 September (Toronto International Film Festival) and runs 100 minutes. Shooting took place in Georgia, including in Atlanta. The film opened #32 in 4 theaters to a 88k $ first weekend in North America, where it peaked at #16 and in 570 theaters (different weeks), played for a very long 29 weeks and grossed 9.1 mil. $ (86.7 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were Australia with 491k $ (4.7 %) and Poland with 407k $ (3.9 %), (the film is a US-German-Polish co-production.) Roger Ebert gave it a 3/4 star review, translating to two notches higher than this one. The film was nominated for two Film Independent Spirit Awards, winning for Best First Feature. Get Low is certified fresh at 85 % with a 7.2/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Get Low?

Baby Driver (2017) - Wright's coky Elgort love letter is mostly for excited teens

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A stylized and cool-to-look-at poster for Edgar Wright's Baby Driver, - but don't the speed stripes in front of the red car indicate that it's speeding backwards, and soon right into at least two other cars? - What's going on?

Baby is a uniquely skilled driver, who is driving for a serious crime kingpin to work off his debt, as he falls for a young waitress and comes to realize that his chances of leaving the criminal path he is on might be very small.

Baby Driver is a hip and happening film this summer according to many critics and audiences, (though their number isn't up there with the tentpole monsters it competes against.) It is written and directed by Edgar Wright (Shaun of the Dead (2004)). As a fan of good heist, car and action movies, I enjoyed some of the car chases in the film, especially one after a heist in which an incensed army veteran takes after the criminals and tries to stop them. The action and chases are well-done, though with no chance of going down in cinema history as something extraordinary.
Through the film, - which to me seems youth-eschewed to the point where I'd label it a youth movie (besides a romance, action, heist and car movie), - I felt strongly that Wright must have been on drugs while doing it, likely cocaine. The exhaustive pace, shallow playfulness and incredible love the film seems to have for itself throughout, coupled with its technical astuteness, were what made me jump to this personal conclusion, (I have no way of knowing if it's in any way true.)
The film revolves around Ansel Elgort (The Fault in Our Stars (2014)), whom Wright and his camera seems positively infatuated with. Elgort does fine, I think; I just felt too old to really get into this fantasy, where someone who mostly looks like an average teenager is a key player for a band of hardened criminals. I might have swallowed it whole, if I were one myself, but what exactly is supposed to be the attraction in this for adults? Perhaps Wright knows something I don't see; or perhaps he is just a teenager at heart still, and I am not. Elgort falls for Lily James (Pride and Prejudice and Zombies (2016)), who is pretty but fast forgotten here in a movie romance that recalls countless past movie romances in a pretty self-satisfied, referential style and is very neat and didn't succeed in raising my heartbeat for even a second.
Jon Hamm (Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie (2016)), Jamie Foxx (Stealth (2005)) and Kevin Spacey (Shrink (2009)) are all excellently cast heavies here, but they function mostly as adult eye candy in a universe so stylized and far off that unless the very combination of them here in this dazzles you, or you're an enthusiastic younger movie lover (aged 12 - 19), it may feel like a distant revisitation of the Quentin Tarantino-ruled 1990s school of filmmaking.
The film is hailed for its artist-filled soundtrack, just as Tarantino's works often, and in some cases rightly, have been and are, but it isn't all that it's cranked up to be, and many of the songs are only dropped very briefly in the rushed narrative.
Baby Driver is a gimmicky ride from a talented filmmaker who seems intent on his own juvenile fixations (and might be doing tons of coke.) Maybe it will be more for you than it was for me.

Related posts:

Edgar Wright: Ant-Man (2015) - Reed and Rudd succeed with light, refreshing, FX-driven 3D spectacle (writer) 
Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (2010) - Wright's comic book nonsense is a terrible and costly studio misstep

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 34 mil. $
Box office: 70.8 mil. $ and counting
= Too early to say
[Baby Driver premiered 11 March (SXSW Film Festival, Austin, Texas) and runs 113 minutes. Wright conceived the idea for the film in 1994, when he was 20 years old (!), and managed to get backing for this 20-year-old dream after leaving directing Ant-Man (2015), - which was then directed by Peyton Reed. Michael Douglas and Emma Stone were in talks for parts eventually filled by others. Filming took place in New Orleans, Louisiana and in Georgia, including in Atlanta from February - May 2016. The film opened #2, behind fellow new release Despicable Me 3, to a 20.5 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it has now in its second week fallen to #3 and already grossed 56.8 mil. $. It will open in several large foreign markets from now until September and is likely to gross way past 100 mil. $, perhaps ending as high as 150. A sequel is already proposed. Baby Driver is certified fresh at 97 % with an 8.1 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Baby Driver?

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

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A sexually suggestive, fire-and-ice-color-schemed concept define this character-filled poster for Stephen Sommers' G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra

A team of international, secret super-soldiers, the G.I. Joes, get their work cut out for them, when a new so-called nanomite weapon gets stolen by its very evil, Scottish manufacturer.

G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra, based on the Hasbro comic strip series which began in 1942 and the G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero action figure toyline (1982-94), is written by Stuart Beattie (I, Frankenstein (2014)), David Elliot and Paul Lovett (Four Brothers (2005), both), with Michael B. Gordon (300 (2006)) and director Stephen Sommers (The Mummy (1999)) contributing story elements. 
The completely idea-vacuumed Joe universe only becomes less engaging from the fact that is consists of an enormous ensemble of characters who are all one-sided and colorless. Channing Tatum's (Stop-Loss (2008)) cheating 'hero' characters takes the cake. Marlon Wayans (The Ladykillers (2004)) and Byung-hun Lee (The Influence/In-peul-loo-eon-seu (2010)) have charm and improve matters some.
G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra is a huge-budgeted monstrosity; SPOILER in its almost constant barrage of mostly CGI-based action, the scene of the destruction of the Eiffel Tower of Paris was, to my eyes, a spectacle. But it can't change, however, that this is a braindead dud.

Related posts:

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

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 175 mil. $
Box office: 302.4 mil. $
= Big flop
[G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra premiered 27 July (Tokyo) and runs 118 minutes. The film had been in development for about a decade and only moved into production following the success of Hasbro's first feature franchise, Transformers (2007). Shooting took place from February - June 2008 in California, including Los Angeles, the Arctic, the Czech Republic, including in Prague, in Tokyo, Japan and Paris, France. The film opened #1 to a 54.7 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it spent its first 4 weeks in the top 5 (#1-#2-#3-#5) and grossed 150.2 mil. $ (49.7 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were South Korea with 15.9 mil. $ (5.3 %) and the UK with 10.3 mil. $ (3.4 %). Roger Ebert gave the film 1.5/4 stars, translating to a star harder than this review. The film was nominated for 6 Razzie awards, winning one for Sienna Miller as Worst Supporting Actress. Though the huge-budgeted movie didn't recoup its costs theatrically, it undoubtedly sold plenty of tie-in merchandise. In its first week of home video release in North America, it grossed 40.9 mil. $ from sale of 2.5 mil. discs. A 2013 sequel, G.I. Joe: Retaliation, was also critically panned but made more financially smart, grossing 375 mil. $ on a 'mere' 93 mil. $ budget. G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra is rotten at 35 % with a 4.6 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra?

The Good Heart (2009) - Cox/Dano paired again in Kári's financially disastrous, original, warm and great dramedy

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+ Best Icelandic Movie of the Year + Most Overlooked Movie of the Year








Jacques is a bar owner in New York, who has no family or friends and is dying. So when a young vagrant by the name of Lucas, who has attempted suicide, shows up in his life, he trains him in his trade and makes him his heir.

The Good Heart, the third feature written and directed by great Icelandic filmmaker Dagur Kári (Dark Horse/Voksne Mennesker (2005)), is a small but incredibly warm and well-told film. It is also extremely well-acted: Brian Cox (The Veteran (2011)) is outstanding as the old geezer, and Paul Dano (Weapons (2007)) doesn't shrink away next to the great alderman. For those who have seen the two together in Michael Cuesta's masterpiece L.I.E. (2001), it is an added joy to see them dramatically engaged in something very worth their capacities again here.
The great theme of The Good Heart is to be good and able to give unconditionally, which is an important and noble core to a film that takes place mostly in a brown tavern. Countless scenes stand out and radiate with awesome dialog and originality. Kári also manages to somehow make the mythic metropolis seem almost small in a still credible way, - quite a feat. SPOILER The ending with its heart transplantation is the weakest point of this generally brilliant movie.

Related posts:

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

Cox and Dano discuss marriage in this scene from the film

Cost: Reportedly 3.8 mil. $
Box office: 343k $
= Box office disaster
[The Good Heart premiered 11 September (Toronto International Film Festival) and runs 95 minutes. Filming took place around April 2008 in New York, Iceland and the Dominican Republic. It opened #81 to a 5k $ opening weekend in 5 theaters in North America, its peak there, where it grossed just 20k $ (5.8 % of the total gross). The film's 3 biggest markets were Spain with 138k $ (40.2 %), Germany with 124k $ (36.2 %) and Iceland with 30k $ (8.7 %). Roger Ebert gave the film a scathing 1½/4 star review. It was nominated for the Nordic Council's Film Prize and won 4 out of 8 nominations for Edda Awards (Iceland's Oscar). Six years went by before Kári was ready with another film: Icelandic Virgin Mountain/Fúsi (2015). The Good Heart is rotten at 31 % with a 4.5 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]


What do you think of The Good Heart?