A Beautiful Day To Box Office
Sunday, February 17, 2013 at 3:00PM I should've gone to a movie today because it's the most instantaneous cure I know for the blues. But I'm too backed up with work. Maybe tomorrow if I'm a good boy for President's Day? Bruce Willis & Jai Courtney's father/son tough guy act for A Good Day To Die Hard topped the Valentine's Weekend as the only "manly" option with several softer options competing for similar demographics. Safe Haven came in third just behind last week's champ Identity Thief. The romzomcom Warm Bodies somehow fended off the other supernatural romance Beautiful Creatures which was surely aiming for the same crowd. Was it the simplicity of the Warm Bodies concept or just its strong word of mouth in a 3rd week?
Or maybe it's those totally chaotic Beautiful Creatures commercials. What the hell is it? And can we talk about how much the posters for Beautiful Creatures looks like perfume ads!?! Especially Alice Englert's "Lena"... (I hope the bottle looks just like her necklace.)
From the commercials I'm guessing that Emmy Rossum's "Ridley" perfume smells like succulent ham.
What did you see this weekend?
If you saw Beautiful Creatures, spill. Aromatic or rotten? And you think Jane Campion ever expected her baby daughter to go so mainstream so fast?
Reader Comments (25)
I saw Shy People at a Konchalovskiy retrospective. What an odd and fascinating picture! Plimpton is very good and Hershey flies so high that I have to rethink my entire 1987 lineup.
What happened to the Coen brothers? From the BP Oscar for No Country for Old Men and universal praise, to having Gambit opening without a decent marketing strategy? I'm not the most informed guy, sure, but only when I saw the (terrible) poster* I realized there's a new Coen brothers movie in theaters. And even the poster seems to be selling it as Cameron Diaz comedy.
*
http://www.peliculones.net/?movies=un-plan-perfecto-gambit-se-estrenara-el-15-de-febrero#
I saw "Amour," again. Didn't think I could do it, but a friend who hadn't seen it insisted. Both actors are equally good. Don't see how any other nominee deserves Best Actress.
Saw the documentary shorts. Seems pretty clear the one to beat is "Inocente."
I saw "Beautiful Creatures" and it was GREAT and anybody who turns up their nose at it is MISSING OUT.
peggy sue -- Hershey was so on fire in the mid 80s. between that and "a world apart" it was like HOW THE HELL DID THIS NOT KEEP HAPPENING FOR HER :) so few people have seen "shy people" but it's definitely an interesting picture. wish it were on dvd but i don't think it is
Joe -- good to hear! did emmy reek of succulent ham?
I saw "A Good Day To Die Hard" and "Beautiful Creatures" today. AGDTDH was completely disposable but so much so that it was harmless. As for Creatures, some of the ideas/visuals were fun, the two leads had decent chemistry and Emma Thompson made for a surprisingly sexy - at least to me, anyway - villainous. Unfortunately, the script is too convoluted and repetitive for its own good. It also drags on for far too long and doesn't know who its main character is. Despite those things working against it, however, BC is still FAR more engaging than any of the Twilight films.
I actually thought Beautiful Creature looked great and it's a shame it flopped. I guess I should be embarrassed to say that I saw Identity Thief, but it was funny.
I saw "Side Effects " which was good but should have been better- it's also hard to believe that a woman who is married to Channing Tatum would need treatment for depression?!
Saw Elena again. Some diminishing returns on second viewing (that almost makes me want to switch Not Fade Away or Magic Mike from its place in my top ten of 2012) but still a good lead performance, great cinematography, and a Phillip Glass score.
May see Amour again later this week and also will finally see How to Survive a Plague and The Invisible War (because I feel like I need to emotionally prepare myself for both).
Watched a bunch of wonderful Abbas Kiarostami movies courtesy of Lincoln Center and Hulu Plus. It was a great little mini-vacation from new releases/2012 catch up, though I also saw and did not at all like Keep the Lights On, so it wasn't an all retro weekend.
I saw Due Date (long last - terrible) and Identity Thief - McCarthy for everything.
http://soverymiddleclass.blogspot.co.nz/2013/02/best-director.html
FINISHING best director was my more pressing task as I have just a few days to do everything, but here we are.
I hope you don't mind me plugging my blog, I'm not sure where to begin in terms of promotion and here seems like the best place to start :)
I saw Beautiful Creatures and it was deliciously over-the-top silly. I enjoyed the heck out of it. Where the Twilight films drove me crazy, Beautiful Creatures had me smiling.
One scene, which sets up the tension with a dramatic confrontation between two powerful witches, started out all hammy moodiness, and then the theme from "A Summer Place" starts playing -- it was too fun. The young heroine's eyeliner clues you in if she's slipping towards the dark powers. You don't have to ask "Are you a good witch or a bad witch?" in this world, you just have to look at how much eye makeup is troweled on.
Daniel is right, the movie is too drawn out, a half hour could have easily been cut and improved the movie. But for a movie about curses, witches, destiny, and true love (for teenagers only, us middle-aged folks get left out when destined true love is mentioned), it's entertaining.
We saw Beautiful Creatures, mainly because of the cast. The ads were I
uninformative, except to say who the cast was. We enjoyed it, although I was puzzled as to what era it was set in.
Emma Thompson played sexy witty wicked- when she moves I remember that actors are supposed to have bodies not just be talking heads. The cast was great but it's cruelly tantalizing to cast Margo Martindale and only have her in a few scenes.
But Alden Ehrenrich was my favorite. I'd seen him in Coppola's Tetro and he reminded me of a young Montgomery Clift. He's a fascinating actor to watch because he seems to be motivated by artistic curiousity and draws his character sources from all different eras and styles of acting. It's a rich, textured, sincere, funny performance. (And he moves beautifully too). It's like he never got the memo that young contemporary actors have to stick to a narrow prescribed spectrum if they want to be cool and employable.
Really enjoyed Beautiful Creatures. It's not groundbreaking or even that original, but is has a terrific cast and two fresh leads with a heated chemistry, something sorely lacking in Twilight; the obvious comparison I know.
Emma Thompson even gets to tear into a few scenes. The movie just has a personality and lack of solemness that drags so many films of its genre.
I also saw Die Hard (garbage) and Safe Haven (reheated but decent romance stuck in a terrible, just terrible thriller).
How to Train Your Dragon and Oslo, August 31st. It's a long weekend, so I'm hoping to add a couple more to that tally.
@Arkaan: I loved Oslo, August 31st - was 8th on my Top 10 list.
Not sure about the last weekend, but over the past few nights I've been catching up with various films. Here's what I've seen recently (from Australia):
- Afterschool (seriously disturbing)
- La Cienaga (ending is a shocker, rest of the film not so much)
- Bicycle Thieves (charming)
- Hard Eight (great performances elevate a rather thin story and minor work from PTA)
- Beau Travail (haunting and beautiful film)
- Fat Girl (ditto La Cienaga)
So my favourite was probably Beau Travail, followed by Bicycle Thieves and then Hard Eight.
I started my weekend early with a Thursday night viewing of "Amour," and I'm sorry to report that I am not as enraptured as its admirers. It has a perverse voyeuristic quality that almost makes it seem like torture porn to me, mainly because there's a peculiar lack of insight into what it genuinely means to experience that type of love in the face of certain mortality. Death is painful and difficult. Really? Tell us something we don't know. I felt neither moved nor enlightened.
Having said that, I think Jean-Louis Trintignant's work is absolutely award-worthy -- more so than that of Emmanuelle Riva -- and wonder why his performance didn't gain more traction.
I finally (FINALLY!) saw Amour this weekend. It was very difficult to watch, as my grandmother died a few years ago and went through a similarly drawn-out process. When I was finally dragged to see her in the hospital, my belief that she would NEVER want to be seen in that state was confirmed and I felt horrible. Amour dredged all that right back up. I didn't cry during, but afterwards, hours afterwards, both my man and I broke down (he had to care for a family member in their last days and he said he has never seen or read such an accurate depiction of what it's like). Powerful, powerful filmmaking. And Emmanuelle Riva does more acting IN ONE SCENE than any other actress nominated for an Oscar this year does in their WHOLE MOVIE. I actually had to remind myself while I was watching that it was not real, that she was not really suffering from dementia and dying. Absolutely gut-wrenching. And great. We both agreed that we don't see how anyone can see this film and NOT vote Riva for Best Actress. Here's hoping the Academy watches it!
Saw ARGO again this weekend with my roommate who hadn't seen it yet and thus becomes the only Best Pic nominee this year I've seen more than once. I also saw the Live Action short films with a few friends and we all had different ideas as to which one we liked the best, which I think speaks well to this year's (somewhat dark) slate. Mine was CURFEW which I contend would make an amazing pilot for an HBO/Showtime series.
All I know is this Oscar season needs to end soon as I was talking to somebody who thinks Naomi Watts in The Impossible HAS to win the Oscar (only seeing ZD30 among the actress nominated films) and proceeded to compare Jessica Chastain in ZD30 to Sofia Coppola in The Godfather Part III. I thought I was done after Maureen Dowd's column on historical accuracy in movies but I am DONE now.
Troy H.- I agree. I just assume many thought Best Actor was stronger than Actress.
Watched Skyfall on DVD. I couldn't believe this was a Bond movie! Stunning photography, exciting setpieces, gorgeous score...and a lovely turn by Albert Finney..."Welcome to Scotland." HA
Thoroughly enjoyed it, even though the length was a bit daunting. I am not a Bond fan, and I read online that the Bond fanboys are up in arms at to the dismantling of the Bond myth. Hmmmm.
For me, it was grand, old-fashioned escapism.
I saw "A Royal Affair" and "No." Here in DC, National Geographic shows all the foreign nominees. Both really strong movies, and nice to see progressive politics celebrated so well.
I also LOVED Alicia Vikander. A new indie star, perhaps?
I went to see Beautiful Creatures with a friend who read the book, and I wanted to claw my eyes out. I actually yelled at the screen. Incoherent and sloppy.
Saw both Skyfall and The Sessions (2nd time). Great cinematography in Skyfall, but I missed the cheesy oneliners that make Bond so enjoyable. Opening sequence was AWESOME, but no great love scenes, and Craig just doesn't do it for me, even with his amazingbod. In fact, he reminds me too much of Ed Harris, and not in a good way.
Saw The Sessions again, and on second viewing, I believe it is totally category fraud that Helen Hunt is up for Supporting.