Bullhead/Rundskop (2011) - Roskam's tragic macho crime drama debut

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+ Best Belgian Movie of the Year

Matthias Schoenaerts resembles a bull himself, bared here on the poster for Michaël R. Roskam's Bullhead

When a policeman is killed, who was investigating the hormone mafia of Belgium, it has a snowballing effect for an unhealthy muscle-beast of a man, who was disabled in his childhood.

Bullhead is written and directed by feature-debuting Michaël R. Roskam (The Drop (2014)) based on the actual 1995 murder of livestock inspector Karel Van Noppen. The film thematically wrestles with the essence of masculinity in a macho world and does so with technically impressive consistence.
Matthias Schoenaerts (Girl/Meisje (2002)) creeps completely into his self-destructive, traumatized character here. Luckily the film has humor and a lively pace, because the story is very dark and oppressive.
I think Bullhead may be a bit overrated, or perhaps it is just that I can't identify with its blunted protagonist and the film therefore seems somewhat distant for me. Still this is a strong and different kind of film that's recommendable for anyone up for such a treat.

Related post:

2011 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III] 

Matthias Schoenaerts talks about the film here

Cost: Estimated 2 mil. €, or approximately 2.36 mil. $
Box office: Reportedly approximately 5.4 mil. $
= Some uncertainty, but likely a minor flop
[Bullhead premiered 2 February (Berlin International Film Festival) and runs 128 minutes. Shooting took place in Belgium. The film opened #60 to a 32k $ in 7 theaters in North America, where it peaked in 34 theaters and grossed 151k $ (2.8 % of the total gross). The film made almost all of its money in its native Belgium, reportedly 4.3 mil. € or approximately 5.07 mil. $ (93.9 %) in rentals. Roger Ebert gave the film a 3/4 star review, translating to the same level as this review. The film was nominated for the Best Foreign Film Oscar, which it lost to Asghar Farhadi's great A Separation. It won 2 AFI Fest Awards, was nominated for a César Award (France's Oscar), won 4 out of 9 Magritte Awards (Belgium's Oscar) and several other awards and honors. Roskam returned with American crime drama The Drop (2014). Bullhead is certified fresh at 86 % with a 7/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Bullhead?

The Incredible Story of the Giant Pear/Den Utrolige Historie om den Kæmpestore Pære (2017) - A high-spirited, charming, family-friendly animation adaptation

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A light-hearted, wild adventure is promised by this colorful poster for Amalie Næsby Fick, Jørgen Lerdam and Philip Einstein Lipski's The Incredible Story of the Giant Pear

In Sun Town, popular mayor J.B. disappears inexplicably one evening. When friends Mitcho and Sebastian receive a message in a bottle from him containing a seed, an adventure to a mysterious island for his rescue soon begins!

The Incredible Story of the Giant Pear is a family-friendly adventure comedy animation written by Bo Hr. Hansen (Speed Walking/Kapgang (2014)), based on the same-titled 2012 children's book by Jakob Martin Strid (Vi Hader Alting!! (1997)), and directed by Amalie Næsby Fick, Jørgen Lerdam (Hugo the Movie Star/Jungledyret 2 - Den Store Filmhelt (1996)) and Philip Einstein Lipski (Ronal the Barbarian/Ronal Barbaren (2011)).
The adventure is a classic Strid creation of untamed imagination and a healthy dose of humor, featuring pathetic pirates, a bureaucratic, power-hungry vice-mayor villain, a strange, lonely dragon-ship captain, ghosts and giant pears. It is never too dramatic for little children and still has the ability to entertain and make bigger children and adults laugh as well.
The original Danish voice cast do very well, and Peter Frödin (Motello (1998)) as the absentminded professor is especially funny. The animation of Sun Town is cute and funny, and the storm portion, ghost section and mysterious island also have well-made looks. The characters, including leads Mitcho and Sebastian, who are a kiddie cat and an elephant without that fact ever raising any eyebrows, are sweet and well-defined, and the film's showing the insides of vessels as cut open in the middle may be inspired from Wes Anderson films like The Darjeeling Limited (2007) and probably especially his oceanic adventure The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004).
The 'camera' is mostly fixed low near the leads' perspective and don't move around much, even when it would have been exciting. Budget restraints and Danish animation custom may have had a say in this. There's just one small song in the movie, (by the pirates), and it could have been a real kicker, but isn't really, unfortunately.
SPOILER In the film's most dramatic moment, of course towards the very end, Mitcho and Sebastian are caught together far underwater, and Mitcho helps swim her friend to the surface. They are clearly really in danger, but the scene as they surface strangely doesn't reflect this, perhaps made so with the youngest audiences in mind, - but it is a bit of a strange conclusion.
These minor drawbacks don't change that The Incredible Story of the Giant Pear is a delight and enormously recommendable cinema fare for the whole family.

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: Unknown
Box office: Unknown
= Unknown
[The Incredible Story of the Giant Pear premiered 12 October (Denmark) and runs 78 minutes. The film has received support from the Danish Film Institute. It opened #1 in Denmark, its only market to date, where it sold 138k tickets in the 12-22 October Autumn break period, more than 60k more tickets than the #2 film, The Snowman. The film only has one foreign release scheduled yet, in Hungary on 8 February 2018. The film's budget has not been made public. 61 IMDb users have given the film a 7.3/10 average rating.]

What do you think of The Incredible Story of the Giant Pear?

The Butler/Lee Daniels' The Butler (2013) - Whitaker and Winfrey shine in Dainels' cathartic, insightful historic drama

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+ Best Political Movie of the Year

A refined butler shows a protesting world a brave face from a window in the White House on this powerful poster for Lee Daniels' The Butler

A black boy,s whose father is murdered on the cotton farm in the South where he grows up, is later in life accepted as a butler in the White House under president Eisenhower, continuing to serve under the leadership of the seven subsequent presidents, as the country goes through great changes.

The Butler is a distinguished film written by Danny Strong (Game Change (2012, TV movie), based on the Washington Post article A Butler Well Served by This Election by Wil Haygood (Two on the River (1986)), which concerned White House butler Eugene Allen, and directed as the 4th feature by great Pennsylvanian filmmaker Lee Daniels (Shadowboxer (2005)). Although the film is only very loosely based on Eugene Allen's life, which was different in many ways from the film's butler, Daniels' film comes off as a soberly and thoroughly professionally handled historical biopic drama.
It is led by Oscar-worthy performances from Forest Whitaker (Repo Men (2010)) and Oprah Winfrey (Selma (2014)), who are truly moving as the titular butler and his wife. The Butler is eminent storytelling that should heal wounds and contribute to a deeper understanding of the different experiences and circumstances of especially whites and blacks during the 20th century, - in America as in many other parts of the world.
The Butler is emotionally charged without ever becoming too much. Among its fine supporting actors David Oyelowo (Nightingale (2014)) as Whitaker's rebellious son, Cuba Gooding Jr. (Life of a King (2013)) as his work-pal, Robin Williams (August Rush (2007)) as Pres. Eisenhower, Liev Schreiber (Defiance (2008)) as Pres. Johnson and Alan Rickman (David Harbor (1998)) as Pres. Reagan all give commendable, strong performances.

Related posts:

Lee Daniels: 2013 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED VI]

2013 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED V] 

2013 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED IV]
The Paperboy (2012) - Daniels' off-putting and interesting Florida-yarn huffs and puffs

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 30 mil. $
Box office: 176.5 mil. $
= Huge hit
[The Butler premiered 5 August (New York) and runs 132 minutes. Funding for the independent production began coming together in 2011 as something of a puzzle. The title was changed to Lee Daniels' The Butler in North America, because Warner Bros. made a claim to the title due to a now-lost 1916 short of the same title ('The Butler' that is). Filming took place in Louisiana, including New Orleans, from June - October 2012, delayed from a scheduled August end due to Hurricane Isaac. Among the things in the film that were different in Allen's real life is that he wasn't from Georgia, didn't experience the trauma concerning his parents that's in the film, and that his son wasn't a radical. The film's portrayal of Pres. Reagan's stance towards South-Africa's apartheid is also contested. The film opened #1 to a 24.6 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it stayed #1 for another 2 weeks before spending a week as #2 and one as #4 and then leaving the top 5, grossing 116.6 mil. $ (66.1 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were France with 16.9 mil. $ (9.6 %) and Italy with 7 mil. $ (4 %). Roger Ebert gave the film 3/4 stars, translating to a notch less than this review. The film was nominated for 2 BAFTAs and many other awards and honors, - but not a single Oscar. Daniels went on to work on TV-series Empire (2015-17) and Star (2016-17) as director-writer-producer. He is slated to direct a remake of the 1983 drama Terms of Endearment starring Winfrey. The Butler is fresh at 72 % with a 6.6/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of The Butler?

Bad Teacher (2011) - Diaz and fine co-stars make Kasdan's weak-premised romcom float

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Cameron Diaz's naughty school teacher look's sex appeal is a major selling point for Jake Kasdan's Bad Teacher

A morally questionable woman is forced to continue her life as a teacher in a middle school, when her relationship to a rich jerk falls apart, so she can afford the breast operation she wants.

The premise's drive (getting those breast implants) unsurprisingly doesn't result in comedy gold, as it is simply too arbitrary. But Bad Teacher is saved primarily by Cameron Diaz (The Holiday (2006)), who is wonderful in the lead and just as endearing as Jason Segel (Sex Tape (2014)), although their romance here doesn't make one's heart race out of control.
Justin Timberlake (Runner Runner (2013)) is convincing as a preppy fool/substitute teacher, and several wacky comedic actors amuse in side parts: Lucy Punch (Someone Marry Barry (2014)) is energetic; Phyllis Smith (The Office (2005-13)) is delightful; Thomas Lennon (Bob's Burgers (2012-16)) is funny, and John Michael Higgins (Tween Fest (2016), TV-series) as the dolphin-obsessed school leader is fantastic. They all help make Bad Teacher go down much better than it otherwise might have.
The film is written by Gene Stupnitsky and Lee Eisenberg (Hello Ladies (2013-14), both) and directed by great Michigander filmmaker Jake Kasdan (Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story (2007)).

Related post:

Jake Kasdan, with Diaz and Segel: Sex Tape (2014) - Sex comedy fun with beloved stars Diaz & Segel

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 20 mil. $
Box office: 216.1 mil. $
= Mega-hit
[Bad Teacher premiered 17 June (the UK and Ireland) and runs 97 minutes. Columbia Pictures bought Stupnitsky and Eisenberg's spec script in 2008. Filming took place in California, including Los Angeles, and in Illinois around March 2010. The film opened #2, behind fellow new release Cars 2, to a solid 31.6 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it remained in the top 5 for two more weeks (#3, #5) and grossed 100.2 mil. $ (46.4 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were Germany with 18.7 mil. $ (8.7 %) and Russia with 13.4 mil. $ (6.2 %). Roger Ebert gave the film a 2 star review, translating to a notch harder than this review. Kasdan directed for TV-series Ben and Kate (2012) and New Girl (2011-13) before returning with the less successful but slightly better next pairing of Diaz and Segel, Sex Tape (2014). Bad Teacher is rotten at 44 % with a 5.3/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Bad Teacher?

Brooklyn (2015) - Ronan captivates in Crowley's exquisite, soaring period romance drama masterpiece

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+ 3nd Best Movie of the Year
+ Most Deserved Hit of the Year 
+ Best Irish Movie of the Year  
+ Best Period Movie of the Year 
+ Screen Couple of the Year: Saoirse Ronan & Emory Cohen

Saoirse Ronan encapsulates the formidable power of John Crowley's Brooklyn in her look on this poster

In 1951, a young Irishwoman takes the big decision of moving to the US, where she makes a life for herself and falls in love, until an event in her family drives her back home again.

Don't judge Brooklyn out based on the possibly a bit unassuming quality of its poster and trailer; the film is pure gold!
Saoirse Ronan (Death Defying Acts (2007)) breaks out as a true star here, and she (and her incredible blue eyes along with her) simply becomes the moving Eilis Lacey here. She and Emory Cohen (Afterschool (2008)) as her Italian-American beau suit each other and the silver screen magnificently and seem destined to be the year's best movie pairing. Jim Broadbent (Another Year (2010)) also deserves singling out; here he is great as a priest.
Brooklyn has elegant, simple production design (by François Séguin (The Karate Kid (2010)) and photography by Yves Bélanger (Demolition (2015)) and a beautiful, Irish-inspired score by Michael Brook (The Perks of Being a Wallflower (2012)), which seems to play right into our very souls.
Brooklyn is a true winner that moves, inspires, causes recognition and joy, - and transforms your heart into a veritable lump of melting butter. It is written by Nick Hornby (Wild (2014)), based on the same-titled 2009 novel by Colm Tóibín (The Empty Family (2010)), and is the 5th feature directed by Irish master filmmaker John Crowley (Intermission (2003)).

Related posts:

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

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

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 11 mil. $
Box office: 62 mil. $
= Huge hit
[Brooklyn premiered 26 January (Sundance) and runs 112 minutes. Shooting took place from March - April 2014 in Ireland, including Dublin, New York and in Montreal, Canada, which doubled for Brooklyn. Funding came together as a puzzle from no less than 20 companies and governmental bodies. The film opened #30 to a 187k $ first weekend in 5 theaters (a solid 37k $ average) in North America, where it spread to peak at #9 and in 947 theaters (different weeks) and grossed 38.3 mil. $ (61.8 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were the UK with 8.5 mil. $ (13.7 %) and Australia with 4.5 mil. $ (7.3 %). The film was nominated for 3 Oscars: Best Film, lost to the great Spotlight, Best Actress (Ronan), lost to Brie Larson in masterpiece Room, and Best Adapted Screenplay (Hornby), lost to Charles Randolph and Adam McKay for masterpiece The Big Short. The film was also nominated for a Golden Globe, won 1 out of 6 BAFTA nominations, 1 out of 5 British Independent Film Awards, 2 out of 7 Irish Film and TV Awards and many other awards and honors. In Canada, which was one of the countries behind the film, it was the highest-grossing Canadian or part-Canadian film of 2015, making 4 mil. C$. In Ireland, it had the biggest opening (650k $) for an Irish or part-Irish film since 1996's Michael Collins. The film ranked on more than 120 film critics' Top 10 lists of the year. Crowley followed up his success with directing two episodes of True Detective's 2015 S2. His next feature is the much bigger (40 mil. $) budgeted drama The Goldfinch, starring Ansel Elgort and Aneurin Barnard, which is in pre-production. Brooklyn is certified fresh at 96 % with an 8.4/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Brooklyn?

Bachelorette (2012) - Headland's unfunny raunch comedy debut

♥

+ 2nd Worst Movie of the Year

Andrew Rannells (Girls (2012-17)) is the stripper who delights the girls here on a poster for Leslye Headland's Bachelorette

A high school clique of four girls gather in New York as grown women, when one of them is getting married, but the coming bride is soon made ill by her dishonest friends, who also accidentally ruin her dress.

Bachelorette is written and directed by debuting Leslye Headland (Sleeping with Other People (2015)), adapting her own same-titled play. Headland wants it to be the youth comedy of a new era, but its overstrung characters are about as sympathetic as hemorrhoids, - but what is worse is that they are not funny, either.
Self-centered they swish around a plot that consists of the torn, abused dress with lavish doses of sex talk and drugs, apparently following the credo that anything that is raunchy in any way is also funny.
That credo is put to shame here, as Bachelorette effectively disproves it. The film is downright agonizing to sit through. What Kirsten Dunst (Marie Antoinette (2006)) is doing in this solid turkey, so far beneath her talent, is one of the despairing questions it leaves in its wake.
The best thing to be noted about Bachelorette is its relatively short length.

Related post:

2012 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED V]
2012 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED IV]

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 3 mil. $
Box office: 11.9 mil. $
= Big hit
[Bachelorette premiered 23 January (Sundance) and runs 87 minutes. Shooting took place in New York on an admirably, relatively low budget. The film opened #35 to a 181k $ first weekend in 47 theaters, its peak position (topping in 60 theaters though) in North America, where it grossed tiny 447k $ (3.8 % of the total gross). The 3 biggest markets were Australia (Rebel Wilson's home country) with 2.7 mil. $ (22.7 %), Italy with 2.2 mil. $ (18.5 %) and France with 1.1 mil. $ (9.2 %). The film made an additional 8 mil. $ on VoD (probably solely from North America, making up for the weak theatrical performance there), which, if added to the theatrical gross, would make change the film's status to 'huge hit'. Headland followed it up with Sleeping with Other People (2015). Bachelorette is rotten at 56 % with a 5.5 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Bachelorette?

Admission (2013) - Despite messy script, Fey is hilarious in Weitz's romcom

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The film's two stars are the whole show on this simple poster for Paul Weitz's Admission

Portia Nathan is a Princeton admissions officer, who is competing for a raise while also interacting with the critical leader of a small school, who has a special student who is eying the prestigious university for his further studies.

Tina Fey (Martin & Orloff (2002)) is really funny here, and a fan of hers will enjoy most of Admission simply for her performance and several divine line deliveries in it. Lily Tomlin (The Pink Panther 2 (2009)) is also funny as Fey's feminist mother, as is Oleg Krupa (Blood Ties (2013)) as her Russian romantic interest. Paul Rudd (Wanderlust (2012)) is good as the critical school leader, although he isn't heading the fun factor in Admission.
The film has a problematic script: SPOILER A leading plot thread concerns Fey's realizing that Rudd's prodigy student (cute Nat Wolff (Stuck in Love (2012)) struggles with the part) must be her biological son, and it doesn't really work. Rudd is a single father to an adopted son from Africa himself here, and that almost completely unproblematic aspect also seems like something of an assertion. - Is the story mainly about Fey's finally taking a stance against her difficult mother, her situation with her strange job, about her discovering she may have a son, or is it about the educational system in general, her romance with Rudd, - or Rudd's sweet adopted son? (He is played by Travaris Spears (Freedom (2014)).
Karen Croner (One True Thing (1998)) has written the messy script, adapting the same-titled 2009 novel by Jean Hanff Korelitz (The White Rose (2006)), and great New-Yorker filmmaker Paul Weitz (Grandma (2015)) directed it. Admission gets by mainly due to Fey's hilarious main performance.

Related post: 

Paul Weitz: American Pie (1999) or, Losing It Before Prom

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 13 mil. $
Box office: 18.6 mil. $
= Big flop
[Admission premiered 22 March (North America and the Philippines) and runs 108 minutes. Filming took place in New Jersey, including at Princeton University, and in New York, from May 2012 - ?. The film opened #5, behind fellow new releases The Croods and Olympus Has Fallen and holdover hits Oz the Great and Powerful and The Call to a 6.1 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it left the top 5 in its second week and grossed 18 mil. $ (96.8 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were Russia with 343k $ (1.8 %) and the UK with 104k $ (0.6 %). The film's terrible international performances killed its chance of becoming theatrically successful. Weitz returned with Grandma, again with Tomlin. Admission is rotten at 38 % with a 5.5/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Admission?

The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (2014) - Webb's Spidey sequel squanders time and money in boring blind alleys

♥

+ Worst Poster of the Year

The two male stars of Marc Webb's The Amazing Spider-Man 2 stand amazingly close in the rain before a giant phallus on a poster that promises to end a time of secrets - but please don't get your hopes up

Peter Parker fights bad memories and a new Russian criminal in New York, when engineer Matt Dillon suffers a freak accident that turns him into super-villain Electro!

The Amazing Spider-Man 2 is the sequel to The Amazing Spider-Man (2012). It is written by Alex Kurtzman (Star Trek Into Darkness 2013)), Roberto Orci (Star Trek Beyond (2016)) and Jeff Pinkner (The Beast (2001), TV-series), with James Vanderbilt (Zodiac (2007)) contributing story elements, and directed by returning great filmmaker Marc Webb (500 Days of Summer (2009)).
The film has some action sequences that look expensive (and truly were), but they most often make one think of computer games, and they made me want to play that game much more than watch the film.
The Amazing Spider-Man 2 clearly wants to appeal to young teenagers, and Webb makes a puppy-eyed Andrew Garfield (Hacksaw Ridge (2016)) and Emma Stone (Gangster Squad (2013)) play well below their actual ages. The chemistry between them is slight, and it is in stern contrast to Garfield's scenes with Dane DeHaan (Two Lovers and a Bear (2016)), who plays Parker's childhood friend Harry Osborn here. They lend their scenes together an erotic magnetism, SPOILER until DeHaan becomes the ghastly-looking Green Goblin. Sally Field (Lincoln (2012)) is tiring as aunt May in several scenes in which the only thing on her mind seems to be Spidey's dirty underwear. Sexy Jamie Foxx (Ali (2001)) is made to look unattractive as the engineer, - an ambition that's hard for me to accept, - and the super-villain he turns into is a poor and incomprehensible heavy. Finally Paul Giamatti (Sideways (2004)) is slightly agonizing as the film's third bad guy, the screaming simpleton Rhino.
The Amazing Spider-Man 2 suffers from a messy structure, incoherent plotting and being just plain boring.

Related posts:

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

2014 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED IV]
2014 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]
The Amazing Spiderman (2012) or, The New and Unimproved Spidey
(500) Days of Summer (2009) or, Cute & Cuter

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: Estimated 200 mil. $ - possibly as high as 293 mil. $
Box office: 708.9 mil. $
= Some uncertainty, but likely a minor flop (and a big flop if also figuring in the colossal marketing budget)
[The Amazing Spider-Man 2 premiered 10 April (London) and runs 142 minutes. Filming took place from February - June 2013 in New York and California. Shailene Woodley shot scenes as Mary Jane Watson, but these were scrapped by Webb, who wanted to focus on Peter's relationship with Gwen Stacy. The Times Square action scene in the film was incredibly tedious to make, with computer designers working a full year to complete it. The film was shot on 35 mm film and converted to 3D in post production. The marketing budget was reportedly 180-190 mil. $, which would put the film's success point at around 1 bil. $, if the budget was indeed the enormous, reported 293 mil. $. The film opened #1 to a 91.6 mil. $ first weekend in North America, almost 30 mil. $ higher than the first film. It stayed in the top 5 for 3 more weeks (#2-#3-#5) and grossed 202.8 mil. $ (28.6 % of the total gross) domestically. The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were China with 94.4 mil. $ (13.3 %) and the UK with 40.4 mil. $ (5.7 %). The 2014 North-Korean hack on Sony Entertainment revealed in leaked e-mails that Sony had courted Sam Raimi to return for a new trilogy of Spider-Man films. Plans for a 3rd and 4th film were scrapped following the disappointing performance of the film, and the Spider-Man film rights befell Marvel exclusively after negotiations, with a new Spider-Man seeing the world in Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017). The Amazing Spider-Man 2 is rotten at 52 % with a 5.8/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of The Amazing Spider-Man 2?

Halloween Movie 2017: Candyman (1992) - Racial tensions inform Rose and Barker's Chicago-set horror favorite

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A mysterious and curiosity-sparking poster for Bernard Rose's Candyman

As part of her thesis project on urban legends, Helen and a student friend visit Chicago's Cabrini-Green housing project, where the feared Candyman is said to have killed...

Candyman is a hugely suspenseful, heavily loaded horror favorite that treads new ground in a thought-provoking way. Virginia Madsen (Joy (2015)) is outstanding and a trooper for the genre here, and the same goes for Tony Todd (Agoraphobia (2015)), SPOILER who among other things endures having bees in his mouth for his performance in Candyman. Madsen and Kasi Lemmons (The Silence of the Lambs (1991)), who plays her friend in the film, both have the added quality here of irresistible, glamorous hairdos, and Xander Berkeley (Nikita (2010-12)) is perfect as Madsen's disloyal partner.
Candyman also has a cute boy performance (by DeJuan Guy (Make It Rain (2008))), a strong score by Philip Glass (No Reservations (2007)) and a gruesome core to it that is interpretable in several ways: There are undeniable sexual overtones in the relation between misty-eyed Madsen and Todd with his huge hook (yes, the mandingo fantasy kind), but the film could also possibly stand as a conservative warning against 'slumming' on 'the wrong side of the tracks.' SPOILER The ending also made me speculate whether the black populace of Cabrini-Green want to burn Candyman for his bloodlust or for crossing racial barriers with his ancient romance? The film taps right down into the still boiling, rich stew that is the fraught race relations in modern America and in this could be seen as a precursor of recent huge hit Get Out (2017).
Candyman a a film scoffs at the supercilious academic world in favor of the superstition and religion that is held high by the under-privileged black community. It is over-lit more than once, - perhaps so we won't miss the great production design (by Jane Ann Stewart (About Schmidt (2002))) and strong use of colors.
Candyman is written and directed by great English filmmaker Bernard Rose (Paperhouse (1988)), adapting Clive Barker's (Sacrament (1996)) short story The Forbidden from his Books of Blood: Volume 5. It is a major horror favorite in my book.

Watch the title sequence for the film here

Cost: 8 mil. $
Box office: 25.7 mil. $ - North America only
= Some uncertainty; at least a box office success and likely a big hit
[Candyman premiered 11 September (Toronto International Film Festival) and runs 99 minutes. Although Barker's story was set in his native Liverpool, Rose changed the setting to Chicago and found shooting in the US easier than in England. Eddie Murphy was sought for the Candyman part but was too costly. For the lead, Rose cast his then wife Alexandra Pigg, but when she found out she was pregnant, the role was offered to Madsen. Sandra Bullock, who had not broken through yet as an actress, was also in contention for the part. Rose held meetings with the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) before shooting to avert racial controversy, but relates that when they read the script they felt it was all "just good fun." Madsen was also worried about the race aspect and related fear that Spike Lee would not like the film. Shooting took place in Chicago, Illinois, including in the real Cabrini-Green project, and in California, including Los Angeles, from November - December 1991. The film opened #4, behind Under Siege, The Last of the Mohicans and The Mighty Ducks, to a 5.4 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it spent the next two weeks at #3 before leaving the top 5, grossing 25.7 mil. $. The foreign grosses are not reported, but if the world gross is set at a conservative 35 mil. $, the film rates as a big hit. Roger Ebert gave film a 3/4 star review, translating to a notch harder than this review. The film inspired two lesser performing sequels; Candyman: Farewell to the Flesh (1995) and Candyman: Day of the Dead (1999, video), both without Madsen and Rose but with Todd. Candyman is fresh at 70 % with a 6.3/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Candyman?