The Reel Report - February 2007

01-  $80,160,774  -  'Ghost Rider'
02-  $75,247,509  -  'Norbit'
03-  $47,624,587  -  'Bridge to Terabithia'
04-  $38,269,240  -  'Because I Said So'
05-  $33,400,113  -  'The Messengers'
06-  $32,197,968  -  'Music and Lyrics'
07-  $26,023,427  -  'Hannibal Rising'
08-  $25,416,931  -  'Tyler Perry's Daddy's Little Girls'
09-  $23,583,551  -  'Night at the Museum''
10-  $20,715,250  -  'Breach'

'Ghost Rider'

"The visuals are what in the end strive to be the focal point of the film.  The fire doesn't always appear to be real, but everything is just plain cool looking."

'Norbit'

"I must admit that even with the predictabiliy in the usage of that line, there were a couple of things that did shock me a tad."

(click a film title to read full review) 

'300'

'Postal'

'Zodiac'

Never Say Never, Bousman
Have you lost interest the ‘Saw’ franchise yet?  After being quoted many times saying he wouldn’t return to direct another installment, director of ‘II’ and ‘III’ Darren Lynn Bousman obviously hasn’t since he is now eating his words.  Just a little over a week ago it was announced he would be back to direct ‘Saw IV’.  The following is what Bousman had to say about the matter.  “This script was good... no... not good... GREAT... I was totally prepared for this script to JUMP THE SHARK - - I mean - we are on our THIRD sequel - where in fucks sake to you go from here? In the case of this script... UP!  I met with writers to give them my two cents... The next thing I knew I was all giddy like a school girl about where the film and the franchise was headed...  SHOW ME WHERE TO SIGN I screamed inside Twisted Pictures quite office...“.  How true that is, no one knows for sure.  Personally, I think they offered him a nice chunk of change and that’s what caused the instant change of heart.  Regarding the films, I myself am no longer interested in them.  I’ll see this next one of course, but I have no expectations or hopes for it.  Who knows, maybe ‘IV’ will reignite my interest.

Anna Nicole's Last Film an Unsure Thing
As almost everyone knows earlier this month Anna Nicole Smith, 39, died shortly after being found in a South Florida hotel unconscious.  Promotion for what will now be her final film, ‘Illegal Aliens’, was to begin this month.  However as a result of her death, director David Giancola canceled three screenings for it.  He reportedly said, “I don’t think it’s appropriate, based on the content of the film, to be screening it at this time”.  The film which is a comedy is being called “Charlie’s Angels goes sci-fi” by Edgewood, the studio releasing it.  Giancola doesn’t know whether or not if her sudden death will increase interest in the film.  He says, “We’re all kind of in shock right now”.

Brody and Mendes as Hulks?
He took on King Kong in 2005 and now Adrien Brody just might be taking on the role of a super-sized character himself in 2008.  Rumor has it Brody will be playing Bruce Banner in the re-start of the Hulk franchise which will be directed by Louis Leterrier.  Nothing is confirmed at this time.  In other Hulk news Nicolas Cage whose recent box office hit ‘Ghost Rider’ grossed $80 million this month says he wants to produce a She-Hulk film.  Who does he hope will play the title role?  Well, actually his co-star in ‘Ghost Rider’, Eva Mendes.  Cage said, “Can’t you see her as the She-Hulk?  I think she’d be great in a bikini kicking a lot of ass, throwing cars.  Awesome!”.  I agree with the bikini part, but I’m not too sure how well she’d do overall in the film.  We’ll just have to wait and see if and when the film is made.

Uwe Boll Is Going 'Postal'
When you hear the film titles, ‘Alone in the Dark’, ‘BloodRayne’, & ‘House of the Dead’ what do you think?  If you have any sense at all, you probably feel the urge to vomit.  All those notably awful films are the work of German director Uwe Boll.  So if they’re all so bad, why am I finding myself oozing with excitement over his next film ‘Postal’?  In it 9-11 is the butt of numerous jokes as Osama Bin Laden is a central character, dead school kids (reference to Columbine shooting) are sprinkled about, a religious cult leader played by Dave Foley takes a dump on camera, & Boll is even shot in his crotch.  Each of those things are featured in this videogame adaptation comedy. Are you as excited as I am yet?  Probably not considering those things don’t really appear to be considered acceptable to present in a film.  (Well, maybe the crotch shot.)  Seriously though, this has got to be one of the boldest projects to ever be done.  Which is why I’m ecstatic about it, because it’s bold.  I’m not saying it’s going to be good or even mediocre, but there’s no doubt it’ll be interesting.  Make sure to check out the trailer in this month’s Trailer Park section to the left.

'Bridge to Terabithia'    

Once again my favorite movie of the month has surprised me.  I didn’t think a children’s film would end up with the title.  I had never read the book ‘Bridge to Terabithia’ is based on of the same title and I’m actually glad I didn’t.  I think had I done so, the film wouldn’t have had the same appeal to me.  It’s not what I had expected at all with it’s trailers that are just a little misleading.  I can’t go into detail as to why though since that would end up compromising it for those who haven’t seen it.  I will say though, the event at the end is totally striking.  It left me thinking to myself, wait, are they serious?  Everything ends up coming full circle as the title is explained in the finale.  Mainly I’d recommend ‘Bridge to Terabithia’ to women and children, but for the shock value, I recommend it everyone.

Wow, oh wow, March going to be an exciting month for movies.  Frank Miller’s war epic ‘300’ is finally here, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are back after fourteen years of silence, & once again the hills are alive in ‘The Hills Have Eyes 2’.  

This month is sort of interesting though because most of the releases have the potential to be really good, or really bad.  The creator of ‘Saw’ James Wan, is back with his next effort ‘Dead Silence’.  Whether or not he’ll hit the jackpot once again is uncertain.  ‘Shooter’ starring Mark Wahlberg looks like it wants to be good, but for me it’s just not settling right.  The highly promoted ‘Blades of Glory’ is looking like it’ll turn out to be this year’s ‘Talladega Nights’.  Same as for ‘Shooter’ though, I’m just not feeling it.  From what I’ve heard, (and I’ve heard quite a bit, including spoilers) ‘TMNT’ is going to blow.  I already had my doubts about it and they’re pretty confirmed now that I know a great deal about it.

Probably the most talked about film to be released this month is David Fincher’s ‘Zodiac’.  For the longest I was so excited about it and as time passed, my excitement slowly deteriorated.  I guess partly due to the long wait, but mainly because now I’m hearing it isn’t all that and a bag of chips as I had hoped.   ‘Zodiac’ is about a serial killer of the same name who tormented California police in the late 60’s and early 70’s.

What releases am I most anticipating?  Well for starters, ‘Black Snake Moan’.  It was the one I was looking forward to the most in February, but days before it’s release date it was pushed back to this Friday, March 2.  Also there’s ‘The Hills Have Eyes 2’.  Originally I was disappointed in learning a sequel to last year’s remake since it didn’t follow the story of the original second film.  Then I saw the trailer and I was completely into it.  I still have some concerns with it, but nothing like I did.  Above all for this month though, ‘300’ is what I can’t wait for.  Directed by Zack Snyder, Frank Miller’s graphic novel coming to the big screen looks like it’s going to be THE film of March.  Don’t be surprised if it passes the $100 million mark at the box office.

Well, to conclude this edition of the Reel Report I guess it’s no surprise I’ll be doing a recap of the 79th Annual Academy Awards.  Last month I made my predictions of which films would be voted to win in each category and boy was there some shockers.  Some good, and some just horrible. 

The show, hosted by Ellen DeGengeres, was nothing too exciting to be honest.  The biggest highlights were Jennifer Hudson’s winning speech, musical number by Jack Black, Will Ferrell, & John C. Reilly, the cute award announcement mistake from youngsters Abigail Breslin (‘Little Miss Sunshine’) and Jaden Smith (‘The Pursuit of Happyness’), & the ‘Dreamgirls’ medley performance which featured the three nominated songs from the film.  Aside from those things, the rest of the show was just the dull handing out of awards with the added lame jokes of the presenters and Ellen.  (She was pretty good in at the opening though.)

Awards wise there were what I believe to be five categories that were absolutely wrong.  ‘Happy Feet’ won Best Animated Feature leaving ‘Cars’ and ‘Monster House’ in the dust.  This was pretty much already revealed well before the award was even handed out considering the intro was of Mumble (the main character from the film) making his way to the awards.  I had predicted ‘Cars’ would have won easily.  For me, ‘Happy Feet’ relied too much upon it’s music and not so much other aspects.  Even ‘Monster House’ was more deserving of the award than those dancing penguins.  The other awards that were stolen from what I consider the rightful owners include:

Foreign Language Film; awarded to ‘The Lives of Others’ instead of ‘Pan’s Labyrinth’
Cinematography; awarded to ‘Pan’s Labyrinth’ instead of ‘Children of Men’
Costume Design; awarded to ‘Marie Antoinette’ instead of ‘Curse of the Golden Flower’
Art Direction; awarded to ‘Pan’s Labyrinth’ instead of ‘The Prestige’

Oh well.  It’s all said and done and there’s nothing that can be changed to alter the results so even though I may not agree with the choices, I still congratulate the winners.  The biggest shocker of the night was the victory in the Best Supporting Actor category of Alan Arkin for his performance in ‘Little Miss Sunshine’.  I don’t think even he thought he had a chance of beating out Eddie Murphy.  It just comes to show that you never know what to expect come awards night.

The best part of the evening was director Martin Scorsese’s wins.  After five times of being nominated for best director, the sixth time was a charm as he won this year for ‘The Departed’.  Not only that but he also won best picture for the film as well.  He deserved both so I’m very happy for him.  ‘The Departed’ also won two other awards for film editing and adapted screenplay.  All in all, I’m content with the results of the awards.  I’m already looking forward to next year’s ceremony.