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I’m gonna say that Battleship should have been released in the U.S. earlier in the year.
on May 19, 2012 at 1:55 pmPosted In: Blog
Early numbers for the weekend are in, and it looks like The Avengers will hold on to the number one spot for yet another week. I don’t blame the PTB for assuming that Battleship, another Hasbro property with lots of stupid & lots of explosions, would be a summer hit like the Transformers films. They had no idea when planning a release date that Avengers would be such a monster. Considering that it was decided to release Battleship overseas a full month before its Friday debut in the States, it seems like there are now TWO good reasons to have made the mid-April release a worldwide release. Not only did Battleship have a chance at audiences without that pesky crowd-pleaser in the way, the overseas reports came in hard: Battleship is stupid.
Even though the projected earnings look decent, they aren’t blockbuster numbers. So now the succubus has gotten Battleship. It really bugs me when Hollywood leapfrogs over an American debut. I understand the financial reasons, and they are sound, but blockbuster popcorn movies are an American tradition. The world continues to change, and the success of Hunger Games this year also points to the fact that there is room for big movies outside of summer and Christmas. I suspect that Battleship could have grabbed some extra American coin if they had the same nerve they had when they decided that American audiences were not as important as, say, making Belgians happy. Belgians.
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P.S. Sorry, Belgians. Just making a point.
I have been confused about the Dark Shadows movie ever since the first trailer. I love setting it in 1972 – not only does it homage the original show, it keeps the story away 
from all of the modern baggage vampire stories have. The super-funky music, along with the amount of jokes, seems to play up the film as being a straight-up comedy. The soundtrack by Danny Elfman (naturally) ladles on some very Dark Shadows-esque sounds over conventional thriller music. Lonely flutes lumber and echo, xylophones tinker about and appropriately out-of-date soap opera stings give the music a unique feel. I now simply don’t know what to expect. If this wonderfully creepy music is any indication of the tone of the film, I have no idea how large a role McDonalds product placement and fish-out-of-water jokes have in the final product.
I remember seeing the Depp/Burton Sweeney Todd and enjoying it, but the packed house let out a collective sigh of frustration after having to deal with a bummer ending on top of tons of songs. One person actually exclaimed out loud that the movie was not what they were expecting. Understandable, because the advertising avoided even hinting that Sweeney Todd was a musical, or that it was ultimately a tragedy. Time & time again I see movie studios patting themselves on the back for good advertising, but if the advertising is deceptive, you aren’t doing anybody any favors. If Dark shadows follows the horror soap opera roots, I’m in. If it is campy comedy, I’ll wait until cable or Netflix to see it. So which is it, movie. You tell me.
I know this is no surprise to anyone reading this, but The Avengers is cleaning up this weekend. It is looking to break the domestic weekend opening record with $200.3M. That’s in dollars, y’all. It’s even going to trounce Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows Part 2 that previously set the record with $169M. This is good news for people that like good movies everywhere. I’m sure everyone that attended a meeting or signed a paycheck is feeling like taking some credit for this success.
It is easy to point to the issues John Carter (of Mars) had, especially the not-quite-right marketing. While it’s appropriate to credit the marketing for Avengers for not being lousy, the fact that fans generally like Whedon & trust him to bring in something entertaining, THEN the marketing & word-of-mouth showing that it IS a good, fun superhero is where the kudos should be given. The creative choices going back decades are the bedrock for this success. For example, there was nothing wrong with the marketing for the Ghost Rider movies – it’s just that any footage with the actors in it showed just how bad it was, and word of mouth backed that up.
Lesson learned: make good films. People will flock to entertaining films that don’t dumb it down, pander or otherwise cut corners in attempt to reach the lowest-common-demominator. Sigh… if only Whedon had done Transformers.
Adam Yauch, known as “MCA” of the Beastie Boys, has left us
on May 4, 2012 at 3:12 pmPosted In: Blog
I remember buying the Beastie Boys’ Licensed to Ill album. On vinyl, no less. If I’m correct, my brother and I found it at the Galleria downtown, along with the other “underground” rap albums – not at your average retailer. There was buzz about this album – and one song in particular – which was said to tell a tale of murder and crime. It was “Paul Revere,” a classic Beastie song no doubt, and favorite of many (myself included). I was some nerdy kid in high school, these three boys from New York were rapping and having loads of fun. Not only that, they mugged for the camera and spoke about dumb junk like Abe Vigoda and Mr. Ed – just like me.
I took the album to a party in a fella’s basement, and the album had something for everybody. “Brass Money” had tons of booze references and you could dance to it. “Girls” had a punk-like chant for a chorus, and the girls at the party loved it, crowding in the center of the room and jumping about, despite the horrible things the Boys were saying. Led Zepplin samples for Pete’s sake! And, of course, “Paul Revere” had that crazy drumbeat playing in reverse, and was all about shooting people in the back and, you know, THE WIFFLE BALL BAT. The group was enjoying the album, but it was about to get bigger. It was a New Year’s Eve party and the B-Boys performed live on MTV that night. Being children of the 80′s, we were watching. Joe Piscopo was the forgettable host, but when Mike D, The King Adrock and MCA came on stage – visibly drunk – indeed, drinking right there during the performance, except what they spat back out at the crowd. They stumbled, they jumped into the audience. It was hard to tell who was part of the actual group with the dancing girls and the bouncers moving about around them. Now, young people, this might not strike you as odd because you can see that on Real Housewives of Orange County any day of the week, but when a TV station broadcast this train wreck of a performance in the 80′s, it impressed the hell out of Generation X. They were there to perform and promote their album, but gave us a (now, as the B-Boys tell us, partially faux) middle-finger-in-our-faces rock star lifestyle performance. We ate it up.
You know the rest. The move from Def Jam. Paul’s Boutique confusing some, impressing others. Check Your Head and Ill Communication cementing the Beasties as more than a one-hit wonder with rock-solid albums and killer singles: “So Whatcha Want” and “Sabotage.” They stayed together. Kept making music. They are a part of American music history. They, along with RUN-DMC, changed the course of popular music. And never sold out to the man.
Flash forward a bit more to when my daughter was in Middle school. She approached me and asked if I had any Beastie Boys albums. Of course, I did – she wanted the CD for Licensed to Ill. One of her friends was on the phone and telling her she “HAD to hear this song.” The song in question was “Paul Revere.”
I know this is not where my mind should be going now, but I can only assume that with Yauch’s passing, the Beastie Boys are officially no more, much like RUN-DMC is no longer RUN-DMC without Jam Master Jay. It is the unfortunate truth. I do not know if Mike Diamond and Adam Horowitz will continue making music. Perhaps they will in some fashion. R.I.P. MCA. R.I.P. Beastie Boys.
I have plenty of clips on my YouTube channel of the Boys, but here are a few classics. Of note is MCA stage diving on Soul Train… on SOUL TRAIN. That’s how they did things back then. They were living life.