Eagerly anticipating this week ... (5-24)

Eagerly anticipating this week ... (5-24)
Alex Garland's Civil War (2024)

3/30/2017

Top 10: Best 'box office success' movies reviewed by Film Excess to date

Explanation
Following 'minor flop' and 'even' status on Film Excess, 'box office success' is the first label that marks a real theatrical hit, which in most cases has grossed between 2.5 - 3.49 times its own budget at the box office. Some older films with unknown budgets and/or grosses end up in this category if reported theatrical hits elsewhere



1. The Leopard/Il Gattopardo/Le Guépard (1963) - Luchino Visconti



2. The Perks of Being a Wallflower (2012) - Stephen Chbosky

3. The Shining (1980) - Stanley Kubrick



4. Casino (1995) - Martin Scorsese



5. The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari/Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari (1920) - Robert Wiene



6. Mommy (2014) - Xavier Dolan



7. Carol (2015) - Todd Haynes



8. Elephant (2003) - Gus Van Sant



9. Bad Hair/Pelo Malo (2013) - Mariana Rondón



10. 21 Grams (2003) - Alejandro Gonzáles Iñárritu

Other great 'box office success' movies (in alphabetical order)

A Star Is Born (1937) - William A. Wellman, Jack Conway
August: Osage County (2013) - John Wells
Biloxi Blues (1988) - Mike Nichols
The Bird With the Crystal Plumage/L'uccello Dalle Piume di Cristallo (1970) - Dario Argento
Brave (2012) - Brenda Chapman, Mark Andrews, Steve Purcell
The Constant Gardner (2005) - Fernando Meirelles
Cria Cuervos/Cría Cuervos/Cria! (1976) - Carlos Saura
Date Night (2010) - Shawn Levy
The Deer Hunter (1978) - Michael Cimino
Die Another Day (2002) - Lee Tamahori
El Dorado (1966) - Howard Hawks
Elizabeth (1998) - Shekhar Kapur 
Enough Said (2013) - Nicole Holofcener
Exotica (1994) - Atom Egoyan 
The Expendables (2010) - Sylvester Stallone 
GasLand (2010, documentary) - Josh Fox 
Live Free or Die Hard/Die Hard 4.0 (2007) - Len Wiseman
Men in Black 3 (2012) - Barry Sonnenfeld
Mr. Popper's Penguins (2011) - Mark Waters
Mud (2012) - Jeff Nichols
The Place Beyond the Pines (2012) - Derek Cianfrance
Saving Mr. Banks (2013) - John Lee Hancock 

Good 'box office success' movies (in alphabetical order)

17 Again (2009) - Burr Steers
Alien 3 (1992) - David Fincher
Anchorman: The Legend Continues (2013) - Adam McKay
Bus Stop (1956) - Joshua Logan
Charlie's Angels (2000) - McG
Congo (1995) - Frank Marshall
Creepshow (1982) - George A. Romero
The Day the Earth Stood Still (2008) - Scott Derrickson
Demolition Man (1993) - Marco Brambilla
Due Date (2010) - Todd Phillips
Friends with Money (2006) - Nicole Holofcener
How to Train Your Dragon (2010) - Dean DeBlois, Chris Sanders 
Iron Man 2 (2010) - Jon Favreau 
Lone Survivor (2013) - Peter Berg
Piranha 3D (2010) - Alexandre Aja 
Predators (2010) - Nimród Antal 
Primal Fear (1996) - Gregory Hoblit
Sex and the City 2 (2010) - Michael Patrick King 
Shame (2011) - Steve McQueen
Twilight Zone The Movie (1983) - John Landis, Joe Dante, Steven Spielberg, George Miller

Less than good 'box office success' movies (in alphabetical order)

127 Hours (2010) - Danny Boyle 
The American (2010) - Anton Corbijn 
The Car (1977) - Elliot Silverstein
City Lights (1931) - Charlie Chaplin
Corpse Bride (2005) - Tim Burton, Mike Johnson
Crazy, Stupid, Love (2011) - Glenn Flicarra, John Requa
Days of Thunder (1990) - Tony Scott
Deep Blue Sea (1999) - Renny Harlin
Derailed (2005) - Mikael Håfström
The Devil's Rejects (2005) - Rob Zombie
Die Hard 2 (1990) - Renny Harlin
Dumb and Dumber To (2014) - Bobby and Peter Farrelly
Julia's Eyes/Los Ojos de Julia (2010) - Guillem Morales 
Kick-Ass (2010) - Matthew Vaughn 
The Last Exorcism Part 2 (2013) - Ed Gass-Donnelly
This Life/Hvidsten Gruppen (2012) - Anne-Grethe Bjarup Riis
War Horse (2011) - Steven Spielberg
Warm Bodies (2013) - Jonathan Levine 
Weekend at Bernie's (1989) - Ted Kotcheff
Wreck-It Ralph (2012) - Rich Moore 

Turkey 'box office success' movies (in alphabetical order)

A Good Day to Die Hard (2013) - John Moore
A Nightmare on Elm Street (2010) - Samuel Bayer 
The Crazies (2010) - Breck Eisner 
Legion (2010) - Scott Stewart 
RED (2010) - Robert Schwentke 
World War Z (2013) - Marc Forster 

[78 in total] 


Previous Top 10 lists:

The best action movies reviewed by Film Excess to date
The best adapted movies reviewed by Film Excess to date
The best adventure movies reviewed by Film Excess to date
 

The best big flop movies reviewed by Film Excess to date
The best B/W movies reviewed by Film Excess to date
The best true story movies reviewed by Film Excess to date 

The best big hit movies reviewed by Film Excess to date

The best biopic movies reviewed by Film Excess to date 

Do you agree on the list?
Make your opinion known in a comment

3/26/2017

Elf (2003) - Favreau and Ferrell supply belly laughs and Christmas magic



+ Best Christmas Movie of the Year + Best Huge Hit of the Year 


Will Ferrell is strapped for hijinks inside a Christmas ball on this poster for Jon Favreau's Elf


Buddy is a human who is raised in the elf world, who now discovers his different origin and decides to travel to New York to find his father. - But life is hard in the big city for an elf!

Will Ferrell (Semi-Pro (2008)) lights up every scene like a Christmas lantern in the title role here in this wonderful family comedy. Elf flies high on his spirited performance, the strange and creatively accomplished elf world on the North Pole, and a great sense of absurd comedy coupled with genuinely sweet moments.
Ferrell receives enthusiastic backup from Zooey Deschanel (Our Idiot Brother (2011)), Michael Lerner (The Mod Squad (1999)), Peter Dinklage (Human Nature (2001)), James Caan (Viva Las Nowhere (2001)) and Mary Steenburgen (I Am Sam (2001)) in supporting parts.
Elf is written by David Berenbaum (The Haunted Mansion (2003)) and directed by great New-Yorker director Jon Favreau (The Jungle Book (2016)). It is handsomely produced, funny, thrilling and has Christmas magic in spades. It is a favorite with just about everyone.

Related posts:

Jon Favreau2016 in films - according to Film Excess

The Jungle Book (2016) - Favreau's great, widest appealing movie to date
2010 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
2010 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess   

Iron Man 2 (2010) - Favreau and Theroux's boisterous, entertaining sequel

2003 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II] 

2003 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]

 





Watch a trailer for the movie here

Cost: 33 mil. $
Box office: 220.4 mil. $
= Huge hit
[Elf premiered 9 October (Austin Film Festival) and runs 97 minutes. Jim Carrey was offered the role, but turned it down, and Terry Zwigoff was offered to direct but turned it down in preference for his Christmas movie, Bad Santa (2003). Shooting took place in Vancouver, Canada and in New York from December 2002 - March 2003. Buddy's (Ferrell) singing in Gimbel's' Santa-land wasn't scripted; Ferrell reportedly made it up on the spot. The film opened #2, behind The Matrix Revolutions, to a 31.1 mil. $ opening weekend in North America, where it rose to #1 in its second week (a substantially quieter week at the box office) and spent a total of 6 weeks in the top 5, grossing 173.3 mil. $ (78.6 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were the UK with 28 mil. $ (12.7 %) and Australia with 6.1 mil. $ (2.8 %). Roger Ebert gave the film 3/4 stars, equal to a notch harder than this review. It has since its release been listed as one of the best Christmas films of all time by several respected publications. The film has spun a 2010 Broadway musical and a 2014 NBC special, with Jim Parsons playing Buddy. Elf is certified fresh at 84 % with a 7 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Elf?

3/21/2017

Kong: Skull Island (2017) - Kong reigns supreme in Vogt-Roberts' flawed but entertaining monster spectacle





+ Best Kaiju Movie of the Year


One of the awesome, deliciously colored posters for Jordan Vogt-Roberts' Kong: Skull Island

Kong: Skull Island is the reboot of legendary cinema monster King Kong, who first came to life in Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Shoedsack's King Kong (1933) and was most recently seen in master director Peter Jackson's overloaded, bad King Kong (2005), which was a remake of the original. Kong: Skull Island tells us a new story of Kong:

During the last stages of the American Vietnam War, two scientists are able to get a US senator to back a plan to investigate an uncharted island in the South Pacific, where something extremely large and unknown waits for modern man to discover it.

Kong: Skull Island is written by Dan Gilroy (Nightcrawler (2014)), Max Borenstein (Godzilla (2014)) and Derek Connolly (Jurassic World (2015)), with John Gatins (Flight (2012)) contributing story elements, and directed by Jordan Vogt-Roberts (The Kings of Summer (2013)).
It begins with an effective pre-credit sequence with handsome Japanese actor Miyavi (Unbroken (2014)). It then turns to its setting in America and South-East Asia in 1973, using the Vietnam War as basically a playground for some colorful exoticism. I couldn't help but wonder what a Vietnam veteran or an aging Vietnamese person might make of this. In any case, the Vietnam War is obviously so far in the past now that this type of escapade is, according to the unwritten rules of the creative industry, allowed. 
Still, especially during the first act of the film, it is striking how unscarred the supposedly veteran soldiers we get as our team are; how 21st century the entire vibe of the expedition is, and how shallow, in consequence, the impression made feels. This also registers due to the sleek visual style and fast editing which also made previous commercial and music video director Vogt-Roberts' debut, The Kings of Summer, a hollow experience. It is apparent that the filmmakers have gone to great pains to conjure up a kind of dirty 1970s look to the color schemes in the film, which is also quite gory and brutal, but the digitally enhanced look works the opposite way, making for an extremely clean and artificial visual side.
The film sports a big cast, and its need for monster action and urge to prettify and remain upbeat disables most of the characters in really establishing themselves. Leads Tom Hiddleston (Only Lovers Left Alive (2013)) and Brie Larson (Room (2015)) are both too well made up and pretty (which grates with the viciously hostile jungle setting as well) to ground their characters with me here. Larson is new in this type of mega-movie job and attempts acting against the invisible post production monsters with some intense crazy-eyes, which don't help her to connect. (See still documentation below.)
Samuel L. Jackson (Old Boy (2013)) is the cast's strongest card, and I think the writers might have created a stronger film, if they'd focused more on him. He plays another villain, and the performance is sure to go down as a classic in Jackson's already stuffed list of memorable credits. - He gets to spew some golden lines in Kong: Skull Island, - easily the film's best.
In the rest of the cast, we find: Richard Jenkins (Olive Kitteridge (2014), miniseries) as the senator who is persuaded; John Goodman (Trumbo (2015)) has lost a lot of weight and stars as the senior scientist; Corey Hawkins (Straight Outta Compton (2015)) is the junior scientist, a role that is a mismatch for Hawkins, who is also starring as Kiefer Sutherland's tough guy replacement on the new version of the 24 TV-series at the moment, - a better match for him. Hawkins' Straight Outta Compton co-star Jason Mitchell (Keanu (2016)) also stars in Kong: Skull Island; he is a soldier with an unpleasantly vulgarly scribed helmet, and that's about all the detail ascribed to his character. Shea Whigham (The Lincoln Lawyer (2011)) lends his powerful presence to one of the film's best death scenes but also looks as if he has to strain himself in a scene in which all the soldiers hug in a way that just doesn't seem period-appropriate. Thomas Mann (Me and Earl and the Dying Girl (2015)) plays the aggravating Slivko, and Toby Kebbell (The East (2013)) is shamelessly handsome as Chapman and Kong, who is apparently shaped on the young Brit. Finally, the cast has John C. Reilly (The Lobster (2015)) in a role that is very much drawn from Dennis Hopper's part in Apocalypse Now (1979), - a film which several parts of Kong: Skull Island riffs humorously off, - and Reilly has some fun with it. I certainly couldn't but break out laughing every time he mentioned his old fallen friend 'Gunpei', which I'm pretty sure was intended by the filmmakers.
Kong: Skull Island rushes to get its many thinly sketched characters established and on to the island of horrors, and once there they immediately act with horrendous stupidity. This alienates to begin with but later becomes a part of the film's mythical wrestling of man and nature, together and against each other, which culminates after countless attacks and exciting monster creatures in an epic monster battle that is exhilarating. Kong, who is, of course, the biggest star of the film, and the rest of the island's monsters are tremendously designed and animated; - an achievement that deserves to be remembered come Best Visual Effects Oscar time in almost a year.
Despite its flaws, stretches and physical ridiculousness, Kong: Skull Island is tall, fine and very entertaining monster fun, which gets its job done. It is miles better than Jackson's 2005 remake if not at level with recent, comparable mega-monster hits Godzilla (2014) and Jurassic World (2015). Kong: Skull Island is actually more like a very expensive version of corny monster favorite Congo (1995)) and, because of the vast technical evolution since then, not really fit to compare to the original King Kong.

Related reviews:

Apocalypse Now (1979) Redux version - The horror of war
Jordan Vogt-Roberts2017 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
2017 in films - according to Film Excess
The Kings of Summer/Toy's House (2013) - Vogt-Roberts' charming but empty coming-of-age venture






Both here and in the still above, Brie Larson sports the crazy-eyes she has set to 'on' for pretty much all of Jordan Vogt-Roberts' Kong: Skull Island, - maybe following the lead of veteran Samuel L. Jackson. The problem is as unfair as it is inexplicable: His crazy-eyes in the film work. Hers don't








Tom Hiddleston visits Jimmy Kimmel in a gorilla suit to promote the film here

Cost: 185 mil. $
Box office: 260.7 mil. $ and counting
= Too early to say
[Kong: Skull Island premiered 28 February (London) and runs 118 minutes. The film is the second in Warner Bros./Legendary's planned 'MonsterVerse' franchise, which kicked off with Godzilla (2014). It is planned to spawn another Godzilla (Godzilla: King of the Monsters) movie in 2019 and then the culminating Godzilla vs. Kong movie in 2020. Filming took place in Hawaii, Vietnam and Australia from October 2015 - March 2016. Kong: Skull Island opened over studio projections but under Godzilla's 2014 93 mil. $ domestic opening weekend: It took in 61 mil. $ at #1 in North America, where it has grossed 109.1 mil. $ to date, decimated already in its second week by the release of Beauty and the Beast. It was reportedly sent up with a colossal 136 mil. $ marketing budget. It made the biggest opening ever in Vietnam (2.5 mil. $), where much of it was shot; a huge Kong model caught fire there at the film's premiere, implicitly indicating the film's heat in the country. It opens in key markets China and Japan March 24th and 25th. Kong: Skull Island is certified fresh at 79 % with a 6.6 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Kong: Skull Island?

3/20/2017

Lemon Tree/עץ לימון [Etz Limon] (2008) - Israel-Palestine meet over an endangered lemon patch in Riklis' dull drama




An idyllic poster for Eran Riklis' Lemon Tree


An aging widow decides to pick a fight, when her lemon farm gets targeted for demolition, because the Israeli minister of defense, who is her neighbor, fears that it may foster terrorists. - Can she overturn his decision?

The drama of neighbors that is Lemon Tree seems an obvious metaphor for the Israel-Palestine conflict in general, although it is also based on an actual story of defense minister (2002-06) Shaul Mofaz's charge against his neighbors' lemon trees, SPOILER a case which ended up in Israeli Supreme Court, where the minister won, and the trees of the Palestinian neighbors were cut down.
Lemon Tree doesn't lift the monumental task of making this strife of dinosaurs, (which the Israel-Palestine conflict more or less resembles in the eyes of the surrounding world after all these years), seem important and alive for all of us on the outside.
SPOILER Slowly, the female hero (played by Hiam Abbass (I Still Hide to Smoke/À Mon Âge Je Me Cache Encore pour Fumer (2016))) falls for the lawyer. Lemon Tree has a mitigating warmth to it and some fine, humanistic acting, - but it is fatally boring. SPOILER - In the end, half of the trees go down. Of course, it is entirely possible that you will care more than I did.
Lemon Tree is written by Suha Arraf (The Syrian Bride (2004)) and co-writer-director Eran Riklis (Zaytoun (2012)).

Related posts:

2008 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]
2008 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]  

2008 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
2008 in films - according to Film Excess
 



Watch a trailer for the film with German subtitles here

Cost: Unknown
Box office: 7.3 mil. $
= Unknown (but likely a minor flop)
[Lemon Tree premiered 8 February (Berlin International Film Festival) and runs 106 minutes. Riklis developed the film based on watching a news story of the actual event. Shooting took place in Israel, including in and around the Supreme Court in Jerusalem, Palestine and in Washington, DC. Financing came together as an Israeli-German-French co-production of no less than 15 companies and support funds. If the cost was kept at a relatively low and likely 3 mil. $, the film would still rank as a minor flop theatrically. It opened #63 in 2 theaters to a 14k $ first weekend in North America, where it peaked at #38 in 29 theaters and grossed 569k $ (7.8 % of the total gross). That was the 3rd biggest market for the film. The biggest and 2nd biggest were France with 2.8 mil. $ (38.4 %) and Italy with 1.4 mil. $ (19.2 %). It reportedly did poor business in Israel, where it was by many viewed as pro-Palestinian and polemical. In the only Muslim market registered on Box Office Mojo, Turkey, the film made only 3k $. It was the highest-grossing Israeli film of the year. It won a Berlin audience award, a David di Donatello nomination (Italy's Oscar), two European Film Award nominations, and Abbass won Best Actress from the Israeli Film Academy, who also bestowed the film with 6 other nominations. Lemon Tree is certified fresh at 93 % with a 7.1 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Lemon Tree?

Exorcist: The Beginning (2004) or, The Exorcist: Back to Africa!



+ Most Deserved Flop of the Year  


A somewhat bland poster for Renny Harlin's Exorcist: The Beginning


Father Merrin is a priest who has fallen from his faith, as he gets hired to work as an archaeologist at a buried church in Africa, which shouldn't exist. SPOILER - It turns out the be a church of Lucifer!

Exorcist: The Beginning, written by Alexi Hawley (The Following (2014-15)), with Caleb Carr (Dominion: Prequel to the Exorcist (2005)) and William Wisher Jr. (Judge Dredd (1995)) contributing story elements, and directed by Renny Harlin (Cliffhanger (1993)), is a tolerably decent prequel to William Friedkin's original masterpiece The Exorcist (1973).
Stellan Skarsgård (Beowuld & Grendel (2005)) is ideally cast as a younger version of Merrin, so memorably played by Max Von Sydow in the original. Exorcist: The Beginning is a totally different type of film, and its best moments are primarily in the devious, subterranean church. It is marred by an ugly CGI-rendered hyena attack and general overuse of closeups.
Exorcist: The Beginning is an unobtrusive and forgettable horror.

Related reviews:

Renny Harlin: Cleaner (2008) or, Suit-Wearing Papa Cleaner-Man! 

2004 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
Deep Blue Sea (1999) or, Big Hungry Fish
Die Hard 2 (1990) or, John McClane: Back for Seconds!  







Here's the first minute of the film from a VHS release


Cost: 50 mil. $
Box office: 78 mil. $
= Big flop
[Exorcist: The Beginning premiered 18 August (Hollywood) and runs 114 minutes. The film came to be as a reaction to Paul Shrader's Dominion: Prequel to the Exorcist (2005), the original prequel film, which Shrader had made too talky, slow and un-gory for the studios' (Morgan Creek Productions and distributor Warner Bros.) liking, and so he was fired, and a new prequel was produced: Skarsgård stars in both films, but Harlin is reportedly responsible for most of what is seen in Exorcist: The Beginning. Shooting took place from November 2003 - February 2004 in Casablanca, Morocco and Italy, including in Rome's Cinecittà Studios. The film isn't consistent with the facts stated in Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977) about the African setting and possessed boy there. It opened #1 with 18 mil. $ in North America, where it fell to #5 in its second week before leaving the top 5 and grossed 41.8 mil. $ (53.6 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were Italy with 7.5 mil. $ (9.6 %) and Spain with 5.2 mil. $ (6.7 %). Shrader was subsequently allowed to release his 30 mil. $ movie, which grossed an even worse, catastrophic 251k $ domestically. Sometimes the Exorcist: The Beginning cost is erroneously listed as 80 mil. $, the combined budget of the two films. Friedkin has called Exorcist: The Beginning his "most humiliating professional experience." Exorcist: The Beginning is rotten at 11 % with a 3.5 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Exorcist: The Beginning?

Eagerly anticipating this week ... (4-24)

Eagerly anticipating this week ... (4-24)
Niclas Bendixen's Rom (2024)