Forum - View topicRE: NY Daily News Article(Mostly off Topic)
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GATSU
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"The most startling failure of the bunch is Steven Soderbergh's "Solaris," a philosophical meditation on love, dreams and the afterlife that critics called "elegant," "intelligent," "dazzling," "brave," "hypnotic," and "darkly brilliant," and paying customers called something we can't repeat here."
To be fair, critics were just as mixed as audiences on the film. And from what Clooney said, FOX didn't seem to know how to market it. The irony is that there was a bigger audience for the original, when it played at my theater. So the factor of an expensive re-make with big names might've been what killed it. And test audiences don't always determine the success of a film, any more than critics. (Otherwise the residents of the Twin Cities would've made Spirited Away as much of a failure as Princess Mononoke.) "Another critical hit found wanting at the box office is Paul Thomas Anderson's "Punch-Drunk Love," a quirky romantic comedy starring normal marquee magnet Adam Sandler and released by Columbia Pictures." I think the pattern, as I've said earlier, is big names. When you typecast yourself as a mumbling retard for so long, as Adam Sandler has done, it's tough to break yourself out of the mold. Hell, that's why I stopped watching Jim Carrey movies after the Cable Guy. To me, his mugging really does not work in a serious context. "Spike Jonze's "Adaptation," another Columbia film, may be joining the list this weekend." Yet another pattern seems to be that these films aren't being released during the holiday season, when people would rather see movies like Harry Potter. If the studios were allowed to release them in January, and still get nominated, the movies might make more money, because of the lack of competition from any big franchises that month. "And the gap between critic and viewer widens. The truth is that each of these movies is flawed in significant ways for mainstream audiences. "Far From Heaven" is emotionally cold. "Solaris" is opaque and elusive. "Punch-Drunk Love" is often self-indulgent. "Adaptation" is totally self-indulgent." That might be another factor. When you create an anti-blockbuster, you end up with no blockbuster. "Yet Disney sat on it, convinced it was a minor art-house film, spending accordingly." That isn't even the beginning of it. It looks like-as I predicted-their money will be in promoting Lilo and Stitch for Best Animated Film, as there was yet ANOTHER ad for that category, but none for Spirited Away. |
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