EMPIRE – Live Tweet!

The hit FOX show Empire returns tonight!  To celebrate the return, I’m going to do a live Tweet!  Never done this before, so hopefully it won’t be completely screwed up!

Come follow us on Twitter at @CultureCastZN!

~N

ANCC: The X-Files

Just in time for the show’s return, Nick and the Gorehound discuss the popular ’90s sci-fi drama, The X-Files!  Like aliens?  Government conspiracy?  Random abductions?  Increasingly convoluted backstory?  It has it all!  The truth is in this episode!

Click here or on the image to listen to the podcast!

Here is a special link/plug to The X-Files Files, a podcast hosted by Kumail Nanjian (Silicon Valley).

I Saw Dawn of the Planet of the Apes

I don’t think 2011’s Rise of the Planet of the Apes could possibly have been less anticipated. Ten years previous, Tim Burton’s adaptation of the 1968 Charlton Heston-starring classic sci-fi film left viewers befuddled and angry. Thus, a prequel film starring James Franco (who is not necessarily known for his prowess in action/sci-fi films) from an unknown director dumped into the dregs of August didn’t exactly inspire confidence from studio Fox. The film, however, was surprisingly well reviewed and went on to big box office success and fan acclaim. I doubt many thought it would be possible to resurrect this decades-old franchise, but Fox managed to pull it off.

A follow-up film was immediately put into production, with Andy Serkis reprising his role as Caesar, the charismatic super-intelligent chimpanzee and leader of the apes. Matt Reeves (Cloverfield) was hired to direct and Austalian actor Jason Clarke was tapped to play the lead human, with Keri Russell and Gary Oldman in supporting roles. Unlike the first go-round, the hype surrounding Dawn of the Planet of the Apes was a tad more palpable. Many thought Serkis deserved an Oscar nomination for his work in the first film, and the prospect of another amazing Serkis performance as well as a bigger budget and bigger scale were obviously enough to draw audiences in (the film opened with a massive 73 million dollars last weekend domestically).

I caught Dawn of the Planet of the Apes last Saturday night, and while I definitely liked it, I also have quite a few reservations about this film. It’s taken me almost a week to write this review. Dawn is a complicated film with an incredibly ambitious yet limited scope. It’s also an incredibly violent film, filled with murder and warfare. It is quite possibly the hardest PG-13 rated film I’ve ever seen and certainly the hardest since The Dark Knight in 2008. It is a dystopian future in this film with very little hope. This is a film where even the protagonists (particularly Caesar) make difficult decisions that are not easy to admire. No one comes off smelling like roses in this film, which makes it a very different kind of summer blockbuster, where the good guys win and everything is black and white.

Dawn is also a very long film. It is nearly a half hour longer than the film that preceded it. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing except that Dawn is a nearly joyless and hopeless affair. Every short measure of success met by our protagonists is almost always shortly erased by a setback. Take, for example, Caesar’s decision to let the humans, led by Malcolm and Ellie (Jason Clarke and Keri Russell), into ape territory to repair a hydroelectric power plant. This decision is not taken lightly by Koba, the second-in-command bonobo monkey, who protests that Caesar is a human sympathizer. On the human end, Carver, a member of Malcolm’s repair group, smuggles a shotgun into ape territory, which immediately creates distrust between the groups. A powerful and trusting decision by Caesar leads to two betrayals.

Another criticism I have of this film is in Gary Oldman’s villainous character Dreyfus. Dreyfus is the leader of the band of humans and it is largely his idea to get power plant up and running. However, he also refuses to believe that the apes present a serious threat to the humans. The problem with this character is that he, like Carver, is almost too stupid to live in this environment. He should certainly be able to see the threat the apes exhibit to the humans, and this threat should lead to a certain amount of fear and respect of the apes’ culture. But he continually refers to them as nothing more than animals, despite the climactic battle at the end of the first film demonstrating otherwise. Dreyfus also disappears for long stretches of the film and is never very particularly threatening or upsetting on-screen. I’m not sure if the problem is particularly with the script or with Oldman himself, but I’d be willing to guess it’s more of a scripting issue.

With so much going on in this film, it is easy to forget how small the scale is. I don’t really have a problem with this, although to be honest I was expecting the scale to be a bit more epic, especially considering the fact that Fox doubled the budget of Rise for the second installment. Even though Maurice and Caesar claim to not have seen the humans in a few years, it is shortly after revealed that the humans are still bunkering down in San Francisco, where a pocket of a few hundred humans has tried to re-establish society. I have a hard time believing that Caesar would not have known about this. The apes are highly intelligent with keen senses – they would have known about the humans immediately.

The best parts of this film for me are the relationships between Malcolm and Caesar and Koba and Caesar. Malcolm and Caesar become unlikely allies and even friends, eventually gaining a mutual respect and admiration for one another. On the other hand, Koba and Caesar go from being respected friends and comrades to enemies, as Koba attempts to upend ape society in order to destroy the humans and become leader and near dictator of the apes. Koba is an amazingly accomplished character, perhaps even exceeding Caesar in some respects of characterization. Koba’s motivations are almost always understandable, which is a testament to the better aspects of the script as well as Toby Kebbell’s fantastic motion-capture performance coupled with the amazing special effects (which are even better here than in Rise). Speaking of motion-capture, Andy Serkis remains amazing as Caesar.

Dawn of the Planet of the Apes is an incredibly complicated film with deep, thoughtful themes and conflict. It is simultaneously ugly and beautiful. It is difficult to watch but also immensely entertaining. Nearly one week after viewing Dawn, I am still having difficulty parsing out whether or not I liked the film, really liked the film, or loved the film. In some ways, I’m still not sure what I watched. It is an incredibly heavy film that I would almost compare to something like Apocalypse Now. Fox has taken an incredible gamble with this franchise, and it appears to have paid off not only for them but also for critics and audiences. I am incredibly interested in where things go for here. I’m not sure how the creative side behind Dawn of the Planet of the Apes can top themselves with the next installment. What an ambitious accomplishment.

-Z-

I Saw X-Men: Days of Future Past

How much money does it take to make an X-Men feature film that allows multiple superheroes to use their powers on-screen all at the same time? It’s apparently about 250 million dollars, but based on the results of this movie it was all well worth it. X-Men: Days of Future Past, directed by the returning Bryan Singer (who directed X1 and X2), is the latest (and probably the best) film in the long running series (it’s still a bit too early to call it the best). It doesn’t always work neatly and perfectly, but what’s on screen is a pretty damn good summer blockbuster with more than enough intelligence and solid character interaction to make it stand out in the crowded superhero film genre.

Days of Future Past jumps back and forth between roughly ten years in the future and fifty years in the past. In 1973, Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence) murders wealthy industrialist and anti-mutant advocate Bolivar Trask (Peter Dinklage). This sets off a chain reaction of anti-mutant sentiment, leading to the creation of the Sentinel program. The government is able to use Mystique’s unique shape-shifting DNA to create the ultimate anti-mutant weapon, which eventually wipes out virtually every mutant on earth as well as millions of regular human beings. Very few of our mutant heroes are left alive. Thus, Professor X (Patrick Stewart), Wolverine (Hugh Jackman), Storm (Halle Berry), and Magneto (Ian McKellen) must find a way to win the war and save both humankind and mutant-kind.

Meanwhile, in the near future, Kitty Pryde (Ellen Page) and a band of mutants face off against the Sentinels. When the Sentinels gain an advantage, Pryde sends mutant ally Bishop (Omar Sy) back in the past a few days by transferring his present conscious into his past self. Bishop then warns his friends about the incoming Sentinels, and they are able to move locations before the fight begins. Professor X convinces Pryde to send X-Man Wolverine back into the past, so that Wolverine can find the younger version of the professor (James McAvoy) and the younger version of Magneto (Michael Fassbender) and help stop Mystique from murdering Trask and thus setting the stage for the creation of the Sentinel program.

The plot is fairly complex, as it is in most mediums concerning time travel. The script does a great job of simplifying it, however. Days of Future Past is the kind of film that fosters questions only after one has watched it and thought about it for a while. In the midst of things, I was able to suspend my disbelief and just ride with things. The film also does a great job of trying to retcon the past films into a more cohesive narrative. It isn’t always successful, but it mostly works. It had to be a real beast to make sense of all the things this film franchise has done, things both and right and wrong, and get them into one shared universe. I give the filmmakers credit for what they’ve done here.

The best parts of the movie are its character moments. Like X-Men: First Class, Days of Future Past is incredibly successful in what it does with the little moments in between the action set pieces. McAvoy and Fassbender continue to do good work together as young Professor X and Magneto. Jennifer Lawrence’s Mystique is much better realized in this film (though still not quite given enough to do). Hugh Jackman is still Wolverine (which is good). Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart are still both amazing in their roles as well, especially considering their somewhat limited screen time. Only the future mutants (Bishop, Warpath, Blink, Sunspot, Iceman) aren’t given all that much to do throughout the film. But they look really cool throughout the film, and their Sentinel fights are very well done (especially Blink’s portals).

The film has surprisingly few action set pieces for a summer blockbuster, but this is almost a good thing. Though the future is at stake, the film feels a bit low-key due to its solid character interaction. I would have liked a great big action scene in the middle of the film, because it did start to drag just a bit and could have used something to help with the pacing. I almost always complain about unnecessarily long running times in these kinds of films, so I do appreciate that Days of Future Past only ran about two hours and ten minutes instead of what seems like the now mandatory three hour run time. The special effects are pretty great throughout, with one huge notable exception that I won’t mention here (you’ll see it for yourself and maybe cringe or chuckle). The future stuff looks the best out of everything I thought.

Days of Future Past does a pretty great job of trying to clean up the continuity problems in the X-Men film franchise, but it also stands out for being a decently smart action-thriller with great character moments. Once again the Professor X/Magneto relationship shines, just as it did in First Class. Though it has its fair share of flaws (which include Singer’s need to shoe-horn in corny jokes), it is a very solid summer blockbuster and probably the best X-Men movie yet. The balance between past and future doesn’t always work neatly, but it is incredibly compelling, and the special effects are outstanding. The film really gets a lot out of its budget, and it really feels like the X-Men are finally allowed to use their powers as a team. It only took us 14 years and 250 million dollars to get there.

-Z-

What I Want to See This Summer

I’ve decided to write about a few films I am looking forward to seeing this summer and perhaps put into words why I’m looking forward to them. I can’t promise this won’t be an incoherent write-up, but I’ve not yet done anything resembling a “Summer ’14 Preview,” so I’m counting this. You may see a few notable films not on the list – that was done purposely, as I’ve decided this is going to be the summer I’m pretty much not going to see any more damn comic movies for quite some time (with a notable exception). Anyway, sound off in the comments if you agree or disagree with some of my choices.

May 23^rd

X-Men: Days of Future Past

Why do production companies insist on these super-busy posters?

This is the one comic book movie I am allowing to see, for reasons covered in the linked post above. I’ve been following the X-Men since early 90s and I’ve seen all of the X-Men films in theaters with the exception of 2011’s First Class (which I later caught on DVD). That is a movie I have liked more and more each time I watch it, with Michael Fassbender and James McAvoy anchoring a mostly good cast. This new installment adds the Hugh Jackman/Patrick Stewart/Ian McKellan original cast to the First Class actors in an attempt to seamlessly blend the timelines and create a better continuity. The trailers have been decent and the film looks like it’s going to be a blast.

Blended

Sandler’s movies get worse with each passing year.

Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore – yeah, no. I’m not going to see this. It looks like total garbage.

June 27^th

Transformers: Age of Extinction

The addition of Mark Wahlberg to the Transformers franchise is interesting.

The Transformers series of movies are big dumb fun. I don’t care how badly acted and scripted they are, I’ve had a blast with them. Even the notoriously bad second movie is entertaining and watchable. 2011’s Dark of the Moon was a huge step in the right direction for the series and a legitimately good action film. In this fourth installment, Mark Wahlberg replaces Shia LaBeouf in what is certainly a trade that no one in the history of movie-going audiences will mind. The trailers have been strong thus far, the script seems like it’s going to be leagues beyond the first few films, and the special effects obviously look eye-popping. It remains to be seen if this will be as good as or better than Dark of the Moon, but I get a feeling this is going to surprise more than a few people by being a quality summer blockbuster.

July 11^th

Dawn of the Planet of the Apes

This has the potential to be the best blockbuster of the summer.

I really liked 2011’s Rise of the Planet of the Apes when I saw it in theaters. Watching it again on home video, I don’t think it held up as well. That being said, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes looks absolutely tremendous so far. It’s the kind of film that could end up like The Dark Knight – a stunning second entry after a well-liked first film. Trailers have done a great job helping to build anticipation for this sequel, and the added human characters (played by Jason Clarke and Gary Oldman) are a bonus for sure. It’ll be interesting to see how this plays out. It has a chance to be the best movie of the summer by far, and also one of the only films that has the potential to truly surprise audiences. Fox is doing a great job rebooting this series. Other film studios could learn a thing or two from how this is being handled.

August 8^th

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

This movie is not directed by Michael Bay.

I almost want to see this solely because of all the unfair hate and criticism it has drawn online, hate and criticism that began well before a completed script had been written, a character had been cast, or a single frame of film had been story-boarded or shot. It has been referred to, over and over, as “Michael Bay’s Ninja Turtles movie” which makes about as much sense as saying that Transformers are “Steven Spielberg’s movies” (Bay is NOT directing TMNT). The first teaser trailer did a fine job of introducing the film and it seems to have some pretty funny moments. If anything, this will be a perfectly disposable entertaining summer movie. It is in no way worthy of all the incredibly harsh and unfair criticism internet trolls have lodged against it solely because it happens to be produced by Michael Bay.

August 15^th

Expendables 3

Stallone and company return for another installment of the Expendables franchise.

I really thought Expendables 2 was a huge improvement over the first film, which was drab and slow when it should have been exciting and peppy. The second film injected a bunch of self-referential humor into the series, which some people didn’t like but I absolutely expected and wanted. These films are playing off of the 1980s roles of the primary stars. I want to hear Schwarzenegger and Stallone make dumb references to their glory years. That’s what I’m paying to see. Though Willis sadly isn’t involved in part three, Stallone has given us Kelsey Grammar, Mel Gibson, Wesley Snipes and Harrison Ford, who are all more than welcome. Gibson, a Hollywood punching bag (rightfully so) these past few years, looks absolutely deranged and hilarious as the big bad. I expect this will be the last film in the franchise, and if so then I really hope they go out with a bang. This is my number one most anticipated movie of the summer.

-Z-

What Went Wrong?: Vol. 44 – Spectacular Wonderful Failed Remake Edition (Vol. 2!)

For years and years big names in Hollywood have threatened the movie-going public with an updated film adaptation of the James Thurber-penned short story The Secret Life of Walter Mitty. The story had already been adapted for the screen starring Danny Kaye in the 1947 classic film I once sat through in Freshman year English class. But Hollywood heavyweights like Jim Carrey and Steven Spielberg had long wanted to update the property. Their ideas mostly languished in development hell until Sascha Baron Cohen took over (by this point – sometime in the mid-2000s – Owen Wilson was attached to star), but even this project never materialized. In April 2011, some 16 years after Samuel Goldwyn Mayer sold the film rights to a project he expected to see completed in the 90s, it was announced that Ben Stiller would star in and direct the project. So, besides all of this pre-production turmoil, what exactly went wrong?

Ben Stiller is a fine comic actor and an underrated comedy director. He is responsible for some dark gems, including The Cable Guy, a 1996 flop that nearly ruined Jim Carrey’s film career. He also directed (and starred in) Zoolander, a cult classic from 2001 that largely failed at the box office due to the September 11^th terrorist attacks on New York City. In 2008, Stiller directed and starred in Tropic Thunder, a war parody film that was a substantial hit and even garnered supporting actor Robert Downey, Jr. an Oscar nomination. It has long been clear, however, that Stiller tends to overreach as a director at times, and The Secret Life of Walter Mitty is a clear case of this. Additionally, Stiller is a fine comic actor who certainly has the ability to be dramatic, but I’m not sure he was suited for the role of the lead. Stiller is great at playing a neurotic, indecisive Woody Allen-type, but I just don’t see him as the daydreamer Walter Mitty is supposed to be. Stiller can play neurotic, but he doesn’t play pathetic so well (see: Mystery Men) and there’s a certain aspect of Mitty that is innately pathetic.

Additionally, pre-release buzz for Mitty turned negative after a sneak October 2013 preview. The early trailers drew high initial praise for the project, but the sneak peak at the New York Film Festival divided audiences and fostered a mixed critical response. Upon release, the film continued to draw negative reviews to the tune of a 50% Rotten Tomatoes score and 54/100 Metacritic rating. The film, which was expected to contend for Oscars, instead became almost forgotten over its Christmas release platform, as bigger films like The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, Frozen, and more adult-targeted films like American Hustle and The Wolf of Wall Street dominated the box office. The Secret Life of Walter Mitty then fizzled at the domestic box office, accumulating a 58 million dollar gross against a budget of 90 (some say as high as 125) million dollars. Though the film saved some face overseas, it likely will be a long road to profitability for Fox.

Similar to Fox’s hopes for The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, Sony also believed Robocop, their recently released reboot/remake, would click with audiences. Robocop was definitely not intended to compete for a family audience like Mitty, but the PG-13 rated film nevertheless met with mixed critical reception and low domestic box office as well. Robocop also spent a significant amount of time in pre-production. Originally planned for a 2010 release, the film was to be directed by none other than Darren Aronofsky, Academy Award-nominated director of films like Black Swan and Requiem for a Dream. The reboot/remake was then planned for a 2013 release, but pushed back once again to 2014, perhaps to avoid a crowded late summer film schedule. So, besides the pre-production hoopla, what exactly went wrong?

The reboot of Robocop, starring Alex Kinnaman (of AMC’s The Killing), Samuel L. Jackson, and Michael Keaton, was met with disdain by fans online due to its announced PG-13 rating (something that had happened with Live Free or Die Hard several years back). While I typically tend to shy away from and also generally discourage online fandom due solely to principle, on this I must agree. The idea of a PG-13 Robocop is ridiculous. The 1987 Paul Verhoeven/Ed Neumeier/Peter Weller original is gloriously violent and over the top. A PG-13 film would certainly be a neutered, bland, uninteresting thing by comparison. The film ultimately drew in mediocre reviews, garnering a 49% Rotten Tomatoes score. Though the cast was praised for their work, the film suffered negative comparisons to the original, as was to be expected.

The Robocop reboot/remake ultimately failed in the American box office, partially due to is PG-13 rating (there was literally nothing new in the theaters for a more mature audience). The biggest factor in its domestic failure, however, was perhaps the unexpected success and universal acclaim for Warner Bros. The Lego Movie, a film so popular it transcended its target demographic of children and young families and spilled over into adult territory. Of course, opening a futuristic science fiction thriller over Valentine’s Day probably wasn’t a great idea either. In the end, Robocop will gross less than 60 million dollars in domestic receipts, which is even less than last year’s hated A Good Day to Die Hard. It has saved some face overseas, but probably not enough to spawn a franchise like Sony had planned. The Verhoeven/Neumeier/Weller original remains the best in the series and an unassailable science fiction classic.

-Z-

I’m Burned Out

I’m about through with pop culture in general. I’m sick of shitty memes clogging up my Facebook wall and the good majority of the Internet in general. It has gotten to the point where I’d completely delete Facebook if only it didn’t allow easy access to contacts I don’t get to see that often in real life (example: Nick!). It seems like everyday I am subjected to people re-posting image macros of inane superhero and/or Disney bullshit that I roll my eyes at whenever I see it. I have, in the past, been somewhat guilty of this as well, but I have more recently drawn a line in the sand that I shall no longer cross. I will partake no more in this kind of behavior, and neither will I condone it. I will hide people who post it from my wall so as not to subject myself to it. I will be more conscious of what websites I visit (The AV Club and IGN are both really trending downwards) and how often I give them my page views. In addition, I will only be going to see one superhero movie in theaters this entire year. I’m just through with it.

X-Men: Days of Future Past is the only comic book to film adaptation I plan to see in 2014.

That is the one of the aspects of pop culture that has completely drawn my ire over the last few years. The continued film adaptation of comic books has done nothing but completely irritate me. The last few years have seen an absolute glut of comic book adaptations, with films like The Dark Knight Rises, The Avengers, and Iron Man 3 each grossing over 400 million dollars in domestic box office, and over one billion in terms of worldwide grosses. Last year alone, Iron Man 3, Man of Steel, Kick-Ass 2, Thor: The Dark World, and The Wolverine hit theaters. This year we are at the very least slated to see Captain America 2, The Amazing Spider-Man 2, X-Men: Days of Future Past, and The Guardians of the Galaxy. Not long after, we’ll be treated to the likes of The Amazing Spider-Man 3, Batman vs. Superman (aka Man of Steel 2), Avengers 2, Ant Man, Sand Man (the Neil Gaiman one, not the Spider-Man villain), and perhaps a few more “phase 2” or by that point “phase 3” Marvel films.

TASM 2 has had one of the most insufferable marketing campaigns in recent memory.

It’s all too much. Furthermore, these films rarely take real risks, serving as nothing other than creatively bankrupt cash cows for multi-billion dollar film corporations. They are designed by committee to appeal to absolutely everybody, which kinda makes them honestly feel like they are really for nobody at all. It is for that reason that I have resigned myself to see only one superhero movie in theaters this year. I’ve chosen to see X-Men: Days of Future Past. Not only is it a franchise I’ve actively sought out at the theaters since 2000, it’s also a comic book franchise that I identify with my childhood years the most. The nostalgia I have for the X-Men goes back to the fourth grade, and it is probably the one comic book I purchased the most of in the 90s. I’ve seen every X-Men-related film in theaters, and have found something to enjoy about each one – even the terrible ones. This means no Disney/Marvel “phase 2” horseshit, which I’m sick of anyway. It also means no more pimping out of Spider-Man on Sony’s behalf (the projected sequels to this film make my head hurt and the marketing for TASM 2 has been insufferable). There aren’t any DC movies coming to theaters this year, so I don’t have to worry about that, thankfully.

Speaking of DC, the recent film “rivalry” between DC and Marvel has been another load of bullshit I just can’t take anymore. First, who cares which company has the most successful comic book movies (really, in the end is there a difference between one grossing 300 million and another grossing 250 million? It’s not like any of you are seeing that money). We get nothing out of it except for maybe two hours worth of disposable entertainment once or twice a year. Secondly, should we not be rooting for them both to succeed? Do people actively want bad Batman or awful Thor movies? I can’t figure out why we seem to live in a world where two things must be pitted against each other at all times. It’s like I’m living in 1993 again and having to hear which is the superior console, the SNES or the Genesis. It also doesn’t make sense to just lump Marvel together completely anyway, because Fox and Sony pump out Marvel movies as much as Disney does due to character licensing (which we’re not going to get into here – Sony owns the film rights to Spider-Man and Fox owns the film rights to X-Men and Fantastic Four, get the fuck over it and grow up).

Getting back to the Internet, I recently saw a completely insufferable image macro (an oxymoron, I

Guardians of the Galaxy is considered a risk — but is it really?

know) about how DC is somehow “afraid” to make a Wonder Woman movie, but Marvel is “brave” enough to make a movie about a CGI space raccoon. Not only was this dumb, even for the Internet, but its also completely false. DC has already cast a wonder woman, who will be played by Gal Godot, of Fast and Furious fame. We know that Godot will portray Wonder Woman in some aspect of the Man of Steel sequel, and we know we’ll probably get a standalone Wonder Woman film at some point in the next few years. Meanwhile, Guardians of the Galaxy is hardly a film about a CGI space raccoon. The CGI space raccoon is a supporting player in an ensemble film with an extremely bankable actor giving him his voice. We have heard the argument for years now that Marvel has “more effectively” built their film empire while DC has somehow “languished” behind (the receipts from the Nolan Batman movies should declaw this argument, but they don’t). Shouldn’t this popular perception then help explain exactly why Disney took a chance on Guardians of the Galaxy? You can’t have it both ways, people.

Disney, DC, Marvel, Fox, Sony, Warner Bros. – I need to shield myself from any and all of these for the next couple of years. I’m allowing myself a visit to the theaters to see X-Men: Days of Future Past (mostly based at this point on the twenty+ years of nostalgia I have for the property) and that is that. I refuse to partake in the nonsense that is the DC/Marvel fanwank war. I refuse to post inane image macros of insufferably stupid horseshit. And I refuse to be a part of any of the nonsense that permeates what we call fan culture at this point in time. Nick recently pontificated about when the comic book film adaptation bubble would burst. With a slated 10+ films to release in just the next two years alone, I have to imagine it’s going to be soon, and I don’t think I’m going to miss it all that much.

-Z-

What Went Wrong? Vol. 38 – Vince Vaughn Edition

I’ve written in the past about at least two different Vince Vaughn vehicles that underperformed at the box office. In the past six months, Vaughn has failed to deliver positive box office results twice, starring in what seems like the exact same movie yet again in the form of both The Internship and Delivery Man. Once one of the most in demand Hollywood heavyweights, Vaughn has turned into box office poison. I’ve always liked his quick talking ways and razor sharp wit, so today I’m going to explore why I think his two comedies this year both failed.

The Internship (2013)

The Internship is the story of two grown men (Vaughn and Owen Wilson, reteaming from their Wedding Crashers glory days) who, upon losing their jobs as salesmen, apply to become interns at Google. Accepted as part of a diversity quota (because they’re old, ha ha), the two are placed on a team of last-picked losers including a sheltered mama’s boy, a misunderstood bad boy, and a girl who is into anime and manga (because it’s apparently 2007). Vaughn and Wilson (let’s be honest, they’re playing themselves, and honestly that’s the one of the few things not wrong with the movie) must overcome adversity at every end, win their respective love interests and such, and lead their rag-tag team of rejects to the top, ultimately hoping to win jobs with the prestigious, highly successful Google tech company. So, what exactly went wrong?

Back in 2005, Vaughn and Wilson starred in the much better received Wedding Crashers, a film that grossed over 200 million dollars at the box office (almost unheard of for an R-rated comedy film). It was met with near universal critical and audience acclaim. The Internship to many felt like nothing but a cheap re-tread of that film, complete with similar directing style by Shawn Levy (who may as well just have the same filmography as Crashers’ director David Dobkin). Because of this perception, it is likely that The Internship was probably doomed to failure from the start. Mockingly dubbed “2007’s best comedy!” (a joke I just made literally one paragraph ago) by several film critics and smart asses online, The Internship debuted to horrid reviews (35% rating on RT) and tepid box office (just 17 million over its first weekend, a huge drop-off from Vaughn and Wilson’s previous collaboration). Blasted by many as nothing but a blatant cash grab, The Internship quickly faded from box office as other big summer comedies, like The Heat and We’re the Millers, succeeded in its stead.

Additionally, it didn’t help that The Internship is barely even a movie. Like Adam Sandler’s two “Let’s go to the woods on vacation and film it!” Grown Ups movies, The Internship is basically an hour and a half long commercial for Google. Wilson, Vaughn, and their team use Google translate, develop apps for Google devices, and do other Google stuff as part of their Google challenges. Their ultimate goal is to work for Google, which is made out to be some kind of workplace heaven with free coffee and bagels and adult-sized fun slides that twist and turn from one floor to the next. The “script” (“co-written” by Vaughn) is nothing but blatant product placement in both the foreground and the background of this tired slobs vs. snobs movie. Yes, The Internship is part of a comedy sub-genre so well worn that it was beginning to feel dated in the mid-1980s. Why are we still getting these kinds of movies? Who is financing this stuff?

Delivery Man (2013)

From 2004 to 2009, Vince Vaughn starred in a series of commercial hits that grossed buckets of money and were typically greeted by a significant amount of critical acclaim (Dodgeball and Wedding Crashers were surprisingly well-reviewed films) or at least audience appreciation. That trend started to turn a bit in late 2007 when Vaughn starred in Fred Claus, a film obviously meant to be a kid-friendly cash magnet. Fred Claus, however, met with tepid reviews and middling box office. The next year, Vaughn struck gold commercially with another holiday film, Four Christmases. Like Fred Claus, however, it was met with atrocious reviews. 2009’s Couples Retreat was Vaughn’s last big hit (and a terrible movie), but was also met with a critical trashing. Vaughn hasn’t scored a commercial or critical hit since.

I bring this up only because Delivery Man actually had promise. It could have been a well-reviewed, funny, and heartfelt film in the vein of one of Vaughn’s earlier hits. Why? Because unlike The Internship and those four crappy movies mentioned earlier, Delivery Man actually has something resembling a story and fleshed out characters (it is based on a highly regarded Canadian film from the same director, Ken Scott). Vaughn stars as David Wozniak, a man who lacks direction and passion in his life until he founds out that a sperm donation mix-up resulted in him siring over 500 children. While it is true that this is a wacky scenario that probably has little to no basis in reality, it at least seems to have a coherent story and a script instead of substituting product placement and charismatic actors in place of a story. So, what exactly went wrong?

I really feel like Delivery Man was marketed as a thoughtful, contemplative dramatic film. Trailers and TV spots for the film feature sappy music (the same song, incidentally, as is used in an insurance commercial) interspersed with moments of comedy and then dramatic bits about how Vaughn needs to get his life together. I really feel like this was the most proper way to market this movie. Other than the sap, I think it was wise for Disney to market Delivery Man the way they did. Critics actually praised Vaughn’s work in the film as well, describing him as likable and “quietly reactive” instead of his usual fast-talking persona. Critics praised it as work unlike more recent, typical Vince Vaughn movies, as if it were a step in the right direction for Vaughn’s career. The film, however, just couldn’t shake overall bad reviews, having compiled a poor 36% rating on Rotten Tomatoes despite Vaughn’s best acting effort in years.

The big problem for Delivery Man (in addition to the poor reviews) was opening against The Hunger Games’ first sequel, Catching Fire. Catching Fire debuted to a mammoth 160+ million dollars over its first weekend, leaving little for the other films at the theater. Even mega-budgeted tentpole Thor: The Dark World crumbled in its third weekend. Other films like The Best Man Holiday and Last Vegas saw significant dips in their grosses as well. Vaughn’s film was a clear attempt by Disney at counter-programming (when studios release a smaller film targeted at a different section of the audience than a tent-pole release), but this kind of thing only rarely succeeds, and when it does it’s usually in the form of a romantic comedy with a bankable actress at the helm. The modestly budgeted (26 million dollars) Delivery Man will probably not end up profitable, making it two flops in six months for the once dependable Vaughn.

-Z-

Looking Ahead: Avatar 2, 3, and 4

James Cameron’s Avatar, released by Fox during the incredibly lucrative 2009 Christmas holiday season (which saw three films top 200 million domestically), is the highest grossing movie of all time, having amassed a haul of over 2.5 billion dollars worldwide during its lengthy run in theaters (I remember going back to see it again in first-run theaters in March 2010, nearly three months after its initial release – this almost never happens anymore). Barring the outside chance that a few highly anticipated and upcoming 2015 tent-poles such as the Man of Steel sequel (unlikely, considering the ceiling of Superman movies thus far), Marvel’s Avengers 2 (which has an outside shot, but may also depend slightly on the reception of Marvel’s Phase 2 films), or J.J. Abrams’ Star Wars VII (which will probably be delayed to 2016) surpasses it, Avatar will likely remain the highest grosser for the foreseeable future. Christmas 2016 is over three years away, and despite some online buzz, I’m wondering if anyone will be left to care much about the Avatar sequels.

IGN’s Avatar 2 Wallpaper

In the past few months, the internet has been abuzz with the news that James Cameron plans to shoot Avatar 2, Avatar 3, and Avatar 4 back-to-back-to-back. A long-standing rumor claims Cameron will set one of the sequels primarily underwater, using his revolutionary deep-sea camera equipment (which was hilariously and fairy accurately lampooned on a 2012 episode of South Park) to film the movie. Main characters Sam Worthington and Zoe Saldana are slated to reappear as Jake Sully and Neytiri, and rumors have Cameron figuring out a way to have Sigourney Weaver come back as well (spoiler alert for 2009’s biggest movie: Weaver died in the first Avatar). Recent buzz also has Arnold Schwarzenegger in talks to play Avatar 2’s big bad, which sounds completely awesome. Fox almost immediately came out and dispelled those rumors however. We here at the Culture Cast are loathe to talk casting rumors, but the prompt response from Fox probably indicates Schwarzenegger at least took a meeting with Cameron. Casting Arnie as the villain would be a huge coup for the production, as it would re-team the Terminator with Cameron for the fourth time, the previous three collaborations having been mega-successful additions to pop culture. It would also mean high-profile work for Schwarzenegger, and that’s always a good thing.

Fox and Cameron would have to do a lot of additional work to get audience interest in any Avatar sequels to the level the original was at back in 2009. Though I love Avatar (it was probably my favorite movie in 2009, considering I saw it in theaters four times and own the 3D Blu Ray, which I bought for an inflated price in 2011 on eBay due to Panasonic having its exclusive rights for years…), audience interest has understandably gone done over the past four years due to numerous factors, which mainly include an enormous backlash against the film and its success. Avatar wasn’t nearly as revolutionary in terms of its script, story, and characters as it was in terms of its use of special effects and 3D camera work, and the biggest knock against it is that it combines properties like Dances with Wolves and Pocahontas into a preachy film about the environment (The Hunger Games saw pretty much the same criticism due to its similarities with other works of fiction by Stephen King and Shirley Jackson, among others). Cameron’s script for the Avatar sequels would have to be a fairly daring work of originality and bravado that built upon the interesting universe established in the first film to draw audiences back in, perhaps even something on the level of The Dark Knight compared to Batman Begins.

This fan-made Avatar 2 wallpaper incorporates the underwater scenery James Cameron has teased a few times thus far.

Blockbuster filmmaking has arguably changed since Avatar’s 2009 release as well. Gimmicks like IMAX formatting and 3D (especially post-converted 3D) don’t really mean anything anymore. 3D itself has seen a slide into near irrelevance outside of the occasional tent-pole film release. The share of box office grosses for 3D screens continues to shrink throughout the years, hitting the lowest point so far this past summer. The Marvel machine has seemingly dominated the box office in the years since Avatar as well (Iron Man 2, Captain America, Thor, The Avengers, Iron Man 3, Thor 2, Captain America 2, The Guardians of the Galaxy, The Avengers 2, and Ant-Man have either all released or will release before Avatar 2 comes out). DC will counter with the hotly anticipated Man of Steel sequel, where Batman and Superman will finally face off on the big screen for the first time. Universal will launch another Jurassic Park movie in theaters. Michael Bay’s Transformers 4 will hit multiplexes everywhere next summer. The previously mentioned Star Wars sequel will be out. Another Star Trek will probably release, as will another Mission: Impossible film and Sam Mendes’ follow-up to Skyfall. These are properties that continually deliver for audiences, have characters people know and care about, and most importantly don’t have seven year lay-offs the way the proposed Avatar franchise will have by the time part two arrives in 2016. By then, will anyone care anymore unless Cameron really brings it?

I have no doubt that the Avatar sequels will be hits. I just don’t think they’ll arrive with the same kind of cultural gravitas that the original did. I’ve long been a proponent of striking while the iron is hot. This year’s Star Trek Into Darkness is a good example of a sequel coming a bit too late to take advantage of the goodwill of the first film. While Into Darkness was a critical and commercial hit for Paramount, it didn’t have the same kind of legs that Star Trek did when it was released in 2009 (it also faced a much higher level of competition at the box office). A long four year gap and a script that felt duct-taped together somewhat didn’t help anyone either. If Avatar 2 is on track for 2016 (and Cameron has said that it is), then it will have been a very long seven year wait in between films. However, if Avatar 2 is a stupendous achievement not only in technical filmmaking but also in storytelling, then it has a shot. Mark me down as cautiously optimistic.

-Z-

The Wolverine Podcast

This week, Zack and Nick sink their claws into the latest addition to the X-Men francise, The Wolverine!  What did they think of this sequel/spin-off starring Hugh Jackman?  Did they find the film to be the best there is at what it does?  Download the episode to find out!

Click HERE or on the image to listen to the podcast.

Also, check out Zack’s review of The Wolverine and our earlier podcast covering X-Men: Origins – Wolverine.

And as always, click HERE to follow us on iTunes!