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| Marc |
 Posted: Sun Jul 12, 2009 3:24 pm |
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Joined: 19 May 2004
Posts: 8424
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I stand by my prediction that THE HURT LOCKER will top out at $10-12 million
box office. |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Sun Jul 12, 2009 4:35 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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Marc wrote: I stand by my prediction that THE HURT LOCKER will top out at $10-12 million
box office.
Not saying you are necessarily wrong, Marc, though I think you are (I'm hearing more and more people getting excited about seeing it), but exactly why are you sticking to this POV, which reminds me of your wrongheaded, mule-like (and ultimately completely wrong) prediction about Chicago ??? You were convinced Chicago would be a loser at the box office, presumably because you didn't like the movie and couldn't believe there were that many people out there who did. This time it seems to be because you made an early decision that the marketing and distribution on The Hurt Locker was faulty, and the suggestion that it may possibly not have been is making you dig in your heels. |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Sun Jul 12, 2009 5:01 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
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Location: New York City
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| I predict that whether or not The Hurt Locker becomes a box office hit, it will be an award magnet at the end of the year, and Kathryn Bigelow and Jeremy Renner will be the major beneficiaries of the movie's already solid reputation. |
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| Marc |
| Posted: Sun Jul 12, 2009 5:16 pm |
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Joined: 19 May 2004
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I predict nominations for THE HURT LOCKER in the director, actor and possibly the screenplay category.
I want THE HURT LOCKER to be seen by as many people as possible. I've been plugging it on Facebook. The reason I've been focusing so much on its boxoffice is because I have seen a trend recently in fine films being ignored by
audiences more so than usual. That would include ADVENTURELAND. People have become so conservative in their filmgoing. It's a shame. I wonder if films like CHINATOWN or SHAMPOO would be hits if released today. |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Sun Jul 12, 2009 5:32 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
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Location: New York City
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Marc wrote: I predict nominations for THE HURT LOCKER in the director, actor and possibly the screenplay category.
I want THE HURT LOCKER to be seen by as many people as possible. I've been plugging it on Facebook. The reason I've been focusing so much on its boxoffice is because I have seen a trend recently in fine films being ignored by
audiences more so than usual. That would include ADVENTURELAND. People have become so conservative in their filmgoing. It's a shame. I wonder if films like CHINATOWN or SHAMPOO would be hits if released today.
I think The Hurt Locker has word-of-mouth potential. If they can downplay the Iraq connection in the publicity I think the suspense thriller side of the movie should pay off at the box office. Because the movie has next to no political agenda. Make that "none at all." |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Sun Jul 12, 2009 5:33 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
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Location: New York City
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Marc wrote: I predict nominations for THE HURT LOCKER in the director, actor and possibly the screenplay category.
Film editing is a real possibility, too, as is supporting actor for Anthony Mackie, who is excellent. |
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| Marc |
| Posted: Sun Jul 12, 2009 8:09 pm |
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Joined: 19 May 2004
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from one of my favorite film critics, Stephanie Zacharek:
Quote: And while we're all supposed to tread carefully around the land mines of gender generalizations, there's no escaping the fact that "The Hurt Locker" is a war movie made by a woman. Even though women fight wars too -- more so today than ever before -- Bigelow happens to be focusing on three men here, and if their sense of honor and duty aren't exclusively male traits, Bigelow accepts that their machismo plays a role in how they go about their job, and in how they survive it. She's sympathetic toward her characters without coddling them or infantilizing them. Bigelow is an outsider looking in and she knows it, but that status also allows her some freedom. The guys in "The Hurt Locker" are human beings first and men second. The point, maybe, is that you don't have to have a dick to understand what they're going through. |
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| Marc |
| Posted: Sun Jul 12, 2009 8:18 pm |
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Joined: 19 May 2004
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billy, gromit,
what is a "hurt locker"? There is a shot in the movie of a locker, but I don't recall if we ever see the contents of the locker. |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Sun Jul 12, 2009 9:45 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
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Location: New York City
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Marc wrote: billy, gromit,
what is a "hurt locker"? There is a shot in the movie of a locker, but I don't recall if we ever see the contents of the locker.
I explained this earlier--much earlier--and I guess you missed it.
"The hurt locker" is roughly equivalent to "a world of pain." If you put someone in "the hurt locker," it means you make them hurt real bad. These guys are in "the hurt locker" 24/7. Great title when you know what it means. |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Sun Jul 12, 2009 9:47 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
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Location: New York City
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This is my original post.
billyweeds wrote: Even after seeing the movie, I had to Google the meaning of the title. I had assumed it meant something about a faulty mechanism or something. What it actually is, apparently, is another term for "a world of pain." To put somebody in "the hurt locker" is to inflict pain on them. And war can do that. What I failed to mention earlier is that it's also the best war movie I've ever seen. (But I don't much care for the genre, so that's less praise than everything else.) |
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| Marj |
| Posted: Sun Jul 12, 2009 9:52 pm |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
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Location: Manhattan
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Marc wrote: PUBLIC ENEMIES is a stunner. Michael Mann is the most exciting American director working today. What he's done with hi-def digital cinematography is groundbreaking. I've never seen a movie that has the visual intensity of PUBLIC ENEMIES. Every moment in this movie exists to be savored. The casting is amazing. It's not the A-list stars (Depp, Bale) that commands your attention. It's the second tier actors, the B actors, the character actors, that come at you like classic thugs of the 30s. The attention to detail, from costumes to city streets and automobiles and airplanes are lovingly true to their period. It's like being plunged into the era, not just watching, but total immersion.
Is Depp good? Depp is very very good. He's doing a Gable/Presley riff and it works.
An astonishing work of art that defines what cinema is: movement, energy and beauty.
You'll all probably hate it. I expect to be the minority opinion on this one.
PUBLIC ENEMIES is a glorious film. I can't wait to experience it again.
I had to use Marc's quote because he described so beautifully my reaction to Public Enemies. What Michael Mann does with a camera is difficult to describe. It really must be seen, in a theater, to appreciate it. It is certainly a work of art. I think even if people don't like this kind of film, the skill of this director cannot be denied.
I also want to add how mesmerized I was by Johnny Depp and Marion Cotillard's performances. Dillinger was a man of tremendous charisma. Depp found that and ran with it. Indeed it was whenever the two of them were on the screen that the film came alive, in spite of Cotillard's accent. They smolder together but never seem to be working at it. It's as if we are intruding on a private moment between the two.
I'm not a fan of shoot-em-ups or action films in general. But once this film grabbed me, I was riveted. And I stayed so until the credits rolled.
Marc -- While there may be some who will hate this film, I hope that even those can appreciate the artistry of this film. |
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| gromit |
| Posted: Mon Jul 13, 2009 3:37 am |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 9008
Location: Shanghai
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Marc wrote: billy, gromit,
what is a "hurt locker"? There is a shot in the movie of a locker, but I don't recall if we ever see the contents of the locker.
That shot which briefly lingered on the isolated locker in the warehouse was a bit awkward. Because my mind immediately jumped to the title, and then the locker was never opened and quickly forgotten. Since that was in the bomb-making factory, I assumed that they intended perhaps a longer scene and to show a full array of nasty components in the locker, but decided not to go with it. Or were going to make it a symbol of evil, or something. As it was, it seemed like an odd editing decision, a moment where something didn't flow right. But only for a few seconds.
I guess if you squint, the poor bastard with the bomb fastened on to him is an extreme example of a "hurt locker" -- though I don't know if that's intentionally related to the title at all. But the locks become an important component, and noone is forced deeper into a hurt locker than him. |
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Killing your enemies, if it's done badly, increases their number. |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Mon Jul 13, 2009 6:11 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
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Location: New York City
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Marc--From indiewire.com:
Also impressive was the expansion of Kathryn Bigelow’s The Hurt Locker, which went from 9 theaters to 60 as Summit Entertainment cautiously rolls out what seems like a rare Iraq War-themed hit. The film jumped into the overall top 20, grossing $623,000. $20,000 of that came from its sole Canadian location in Toronto, where distribution rights are actually held by Maple, not Summit. Its overall average held at $10,383 - only 30% less than last weekend, when the film had a significantly more minimal screen count. After three weekends, Locker‘s total now stands Redacted grossed in its entire run. Locker will continue to expand over the coming weeks. |
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| Syd |
| Posted: Mon Jul 13, 2009 9:43 am |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
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| Of course, outdoing Redacted isn't that difficult. It's like outgrossing Delgo (which The Hurt Locker has probably done by now). |
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I had a love and my love was true but I lost my love to the yabba dabba doo, --The Flintstone Lament |
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| lshap |
| Posted: Mon Jul 13, 2009 12:42 pm |
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Joined: 12 May 2004
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Moon
If Franz Kafka had written sci-fi he might've come up with something like Moon. No alien bugs crawl out of craters, don't get excited. Moon, directed by David Bowie's son, Duncan Jones, tells a surreal, self-reflective story of an astronaut living all alone during his three-year stint on a lunar energy station. It's a dreary, dirty future, and it is a sci-fi story with the requisite technology, but like Kafka, the spooky thrills are found within, from the astronaut's confrontation of his own identity, rather than from any alien monster attack. This ain't your film if you expect a special effects joyride through intense action sequences. Go to this film in a thoughtful mood, imagine spending three years all alone on an extraterrestrial hunk of rock, and watch the weirdness unfold, not explode.
Sam Bell is the astronaut who's been alone for three years, with nothing for company but video messages from his wife, the occasional missive from mission control, and the onboard computer, Gerty, a cross between H.A.L. and Robbie the Robot, voiced by Kevin Spacey. Gerty's voice is everywhere, and there are stirrings of H.A.L.-like foreboding as Spacey's calm monotone tries to keep the astronaut, Sam Bell, safe from himself. Gerty also has arms and a kind of body that follows Sam around, complete with happy/sad face avatars that make it a bit difficult to take seriously. But it's a smart robot, it's running a space station, and I sat there waiting for it to enter its rebellious stage, cause, you know those robots.
Sam, the self-reflective astronaut, is played by Sam Rockwell, which is kind of a contradiction in terms, given how I feel about the actor. Rockwell is one of the least self-reflective actors I've seen. On the mere basis of his name I question whether it's worth seeing a film. Why? Cause there's something inescapably superficial about him, an almost amateurish self-consciousness. I always feel a distance between him and the character he's supposed to be. Plus, aside from the argument that he may simply be a bad actor, I just don't like the characters he plays.
This is fine when he's one of the supporting players, like Frost/Nixon, and it actually works well if the role plays to Rockwell's strength, demanding a smug distance from authenticity, like Confessions Of A Dangerous Mind, where he may in fact be pretending to be someone else. He can at least fake with authenticity. But the cracks really show when Rockwell has to Act on center stage, as he did in last year's Choke. A cute indy film shot down by Rockwell's innate superficial blandness.
So, yeah, having said all that, Moon sounds like the last film I'd wanna' see, given my previous paragraphs, because it's all Rockwell, all the time, in full dramatic press. But, thankfully, this is one of those stories where Rockwell's emotional ambiguity comes in handy. Sam Bell's been there so long he's numbing over, starting to talk to himself, imagining faces and things, and there's a suspicious inability to get a direct com line to Earth. Something's up, and Gerty the happy-faced robot seems to be sincerely trying to help him figure it out. Moon is spooky, sad and thoughtful, not because the actor transcends the role, but because the story calls for the role to transcend him. Sounds like double-talk, I know, but see the film and you'll say, "Oh". |
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