The new action film sequel Crank: High Voltage is being advertised with the tagline “He was dead…But he got better.” Aside from sort of ruining the ending to the first Crank for those of us who haven’t seen it, this copy from the posters has been receiving a lot of attention for how ridiculous it sounds. Fans of the original have to disagree with the tagline, because they know Chev Chelios (Jason Statham) was not dead; in fact it is clear from the final scene that he miraculously survived that fall from the helicopter. Meanwhile, people less familiar with the movie simply find the idea of a dead character being resurrected for the benefit of a sequel to be laughably unacceptable, as if such an idea is unheard of in Hollywood.
But even if Chelios had been officially declared dead at the end of Crank, the sequel certainly wouldn’t be the first to revive a main character for a follow-up. Obviously horror films do it all the time, and it’s not exactly uncommon in sci-fi, fantasy, action and comic book genres, either. Even while ignoring the invincibility convention of contemporary slasher films, we were able to select six sequels in which a deceased (or presumed deceased) character returns.
Warning: Spoilers may be found after the jump. …Read more
While Karina (and indieWIRE) sits off to the side celebrating the recent indie box office record-breaker, most of the interweb is talking about the weekend’s mainstream achievements. Well, actually people are mostly focusing on just the shocking success of Friday the 13th, which I believe broke records for its franchise, its genre, its rating and for President’s Day weekend (though not for the month of February). As for the other monumental marker, Paul Blart: Mall Cop, I’ve seen maybe twobloggers comment on how it’s just passed $100 million. How is this a remarkable feat? Well, not only does this make Paul Blart the highest grossing January opener ever, but the oft-derided comedy is also the first film to debut in January to reach the $100 million point (not counting the special edition re-release of Star Wars, that is).
As this is a holiday and most of the web cinephiles are celebrating appropriately by watching North by Northwestor Point Break, there isn’t much else being written about, so here are some noteworthy quotes and links regarding the stunning box office figures:
Even before Annaliese Griffin at the Vulture blog detailed why Sex and the Cityis the female equivalent of superhero movies, a genre mostly appealing to men, a female friend of mine noted the same. It’s apparently an obvious parallel, despite the fact that earlier this summer the supposed gender battle between Iron Manand Made of Honorresulted in the awareness that many women are in fact fond of some superheroes.
Nevertheless, Griffin’s post made me think of the conversation in Sleepless in Seattlein which real-wife married couple Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson discover the connection between An Affair to Rememberand The Dirty Dozen. Of course, Hanks’ character was probably joking about crying at the end of the latter film, but he still had a point. There are certain equivalents between specifically female film genres and specifically male film genres, as you can see from the following list:
Melodrama (female) = War Film (male) - Already touched on with the aforementioned Sleepless in Seattle scene, there is a correspondence between tearjerking melodramas and gutwrenching war films. Maybe it’s because of the similar focus on death and/or other crippling tragedy. Maybe it’s because the female spectator weeps for her ego ideal, who is often the terminally ill or wronged woman character, and the male character weeps for his ego ideal, who is often the hero that lives yet suffers the experience of viewing the demise of his brothers in arms. …Read more
We’ve had a bit of trouble getting this episode to go through the iTunes feed, so we hope this re-post will fix the problem. The original post, with episode description and embedded player, is here.
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While Karina (and indieWIRE) sits off to the side celebrating the recent indie box office record-breaker, most of the interweb is talking about the weekend’s mainstream achievements. Well, actually people are mostly focusing on just the shocking success of Friday the 13th, which I believe broke records for its franchise, its genre, its rating and for President’s Day weekend (though not for the month of February). As for the other monumental marker, Paul Blart: Mall Cop, I’ve seen maybe two bloggers comment on how it’s just passed $100 million. How is this a remarkable feat? Well, not only does this make Paul Blart the highest grossing January opener ever, but the oft-derided comedy is also the first film to debut in January to reach the $100 million point (not counting the special edition re-release of Star Wars, that is).
