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Last week the Tom Cruise/Cameron Diaz action comedy Knight and Day opened on a Wednesday, ostensibly to avoid the Friday opening, two days later, of the Adam Sandler “family” comedy Grown Ups. It looks — to my eyes, having seen both films as well as examined the marketing of them — as if the two … more…
U.S. AND CANADA/OPENING WIDE Knight and Day: Tom Cruise does some spy stuff and runs around a lot, while Cameron Diaz does a lot of screaming and runs around like a girl. If you can’t make it to the multiplex, try: • The 39 Steps (1935): Robert Donat and Madeleine Carroll are mismatched maybe-spies in … more…
Is it too overblown to suggest that what passes for the modern American mainstream comedy has finally descended into the downright sociopathic?
Item: NBC will pay Conan O’Brien a severance of $40 million— no, wait, maybe it’s $45 million. Well, some of the dough will go to O’Brien’s laid-off staffers, but still: that’s a ton of money to not work. Item: NBC is going to lose hundreds of millions of dollars broadcasting the Winter Olympics next month. … more…
Joe’s ohs are lots of zeroes at the end of its weekend tally: 1. G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra: $54.7 million (NEW) 2. Julie & Julia: $20 million (NEW) 3. G-Force: $9.9 million (3rd week; drops 44%) 4. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince: $8.9 million (4th week; drops 50%) 5. Funny People: $8 … more…
It wasn’t a terribly happy opening for the Apatow/Sandler flick: 1. Funny People: $22.7 million (NEW) 2. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince: $17.9 million (3rd week; drops 39%) 3. G-Force: $17.5 million (2nd week; drops 45%) 4. The Ugly Truth: $13.2 million (2nd week; drops 52%) 5. Aliens in the Attic: $8 million (NEW) … more…
We know how it is: You’d like to go to the movies this weekend, but Adam Sandler dying of some awful disease isn’t your idea of a good time. But you can have a multiplex-like experience at home with a collection of the right DVDs. And when someone asks you on Monday, “Hey, did you … more…
Tears of a Clown Oh, people are gonna hate this movie. Look, the jokes are not jokes in Funny People. The humorous-sounding bits of dialogue are not intended to make you laugh so much as they are intended to make you wonder why the characters uttering them are trying to make those around them laugh. … more…
If you’ve been reading my online writings for any length of time, you may already be aware that I’m a fan of the works of William Strauss and Neil Howe, who’ve proposed a generational theory of history and culture that involves a regular, pendulumlike shift in attitudes every 25 years or so — that is, … more…
Take a break from work: watch a trailer… I know I’m known as a Judd Apatow hater, and it’s true I haven’t liked most of his recent work, but I’ve always got an open mind and I always go into the next movie hoping that this is the one that changes things. Substitute Adam Sandler … more…
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