Here is my follow-up to last month’s question of what mainstream movie will feature on the most top ten movie lists. And the winner is … Ratatouille. Oh wait, didn’t I disqualify that one for being too obvious? No? Well, I should have. Yes, according to Movie City News’ Big Ass Chart (aka Scorecard) of critics’ top tens, the Pixar movie made it on to 51 best-of lists, making it the best-grossing best movie of the year. But maybe it wasn’t the most mainstream, if you define mainstream as studio-produced fare. Under that qualification Zodiac was the best mainstream movie of 2007, having been made jointly by Warner Bros. and Paramount and showing up on 70 best-of lists. Other Warner successes include Michael Clayton, which featured on 54 lists, Sweeney Todd, which received 44 mentions, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, which showed up on one list, and Letters From Iwo Jima, which showed up a little late on one list.
As far as those mainstream movies I predicted would feature heavily, Knocked Up (34 lists) ended up defeating Superbad (25 lists) — meanwhile, the third Judd Apatow movie of the year, Walk Hard, managed to get on one critic’s list — though both were actually behind The Bourne Ultimatum (28 lists), when it came to “average vote” (average numerical placement on the list). If we’re going by mainstream appeal (and if Karina is correct in her view of the film), then Juno was the best mainstream comedy of the year with 63 lists. Hairspray (13 lists) beat out its crappy musical siblings Across the Universe (7 lists) and Enchanted (8 lists). In addition to showing up on Richard Corliss’ list, Beowulf managed 3 other mentions. And Transformers not only showed up on a top ten list, it featured on 3! Of course, it’s more surprising that Spider-Man 3 made it on 4 lists. The greatest thing to happen, of course, was Manohla Dargis listing The Kingdom as one of her favorites. Joining her is Don Payne. If I had made a top ten list (instead of this thing), the film could very well have beaten Transformers. Oh well, at least nobody put the shocking blockbuster Alvin and the Chipmunks on their list … yet.
The biggest box office news of Christmas weekend was the utter failure of Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story. Sony launched a wide and varied marketing campaign, the film was fairly well-reviewed (it earned a 78 percent “Fresh” rating on Rotten Tomatoes), and yet, it only managed to gross $4.1 million over three days. That’s $1,547 per screen, so assuming tickets sold at an average $10, and each theater hosted roughly five screenings a day, that adds up to about 10 ticket buyers per show per screen. This would be a crap opening under any circumstances, but it’s expecially crap considering that it ends a long winning streak for producer Judd Apatow. So what went wrong? Let’s go to the blogs:
- Nikki Finke quotes a rival studio exec with the snipe, “This shows Judd Apatow is not god. Sometimes you can be too clever for your own good.” Her own diagnosis? “The problem was the movie skewed overwhelmingly male, but that guy audience went for action-adventure and sawe National Treasure and I Am Legend instead.”
- Leonard Klady at The Hot Blog offers six possible reasons for Walk Hard’s failure. Perhaps most damning is #6: “A running series of “Cox” jokes that were barely funny the first time, much less the 3000th time… unless third graders are suddenly in the market for mock biopics.”
- Pajiba offers the Apatow fan perspective: “Walk Hard is that movie everyone thought would do really well, but that no one actually wanted to see. Indeed, my Apatow credentials are pretty well known, but I just had no interest. None. I guess the Apatow backlash now begins.”
- Jeff Wells is one of many who blames John C. Reilly’s lack of star power. It didn’t seem to be a problem for Seth Rogen or Michael Cera, but in any case: “It’s funny, clever, sharp, absurdist..what happened? My theory in a nutshell: (a) people figured that a spoof of Walk The Line and Ray wasn’t vital enough to see in theatres, and (b) John C. Reilly isn’t a star, doesn’t put butts in seats.”
- Finally, for Defamer, it all comes down to anatomical detail. “Judd Apatow gets his first taste of box office disappointment–something that surely could have been avoided had the marketing better highlighted the film’s frequent close-ups on a flaccid penis.” Meanwhile, sister site Idolator seems personally offended to have been embroiled in said penis-less marketing, branding Walk Hard the “Snakes On A Plane of parody biopics, the ‘hey let’s make a movie comprised of references to old bands and then aggressively market it to music bloggers because surely they will BRING THE NEWS TO THE PEOPLE’ flick.”
Eventually Judd Apatow’s schtick will no longer be fresh. But it may continue to be funny, even after the viral marketing backlash. Case in point: this new sketch/advertisement for Walk Hard, which takes Apatow’s viral brand to a mega-meta level. As much as the idea of fake fights involving Apatow and his actors is now a tired concept, the video is hilarious. And as much as Apatow’s self-referential jokes about being self-referential about being self-referential are as obvious as they are mind-wrapping, the video is still hilarious.It helps that this time around, there’s more funny guys involved and more going on at once. It’s not simply funny to watch Craig Robinson chasing after Judd Apatow because he’s pissed about being in another one of his “fucking commercials”, but it’s comedic gold to inter-cut it with Paul Rudd, Jonah Hill and Justin Long realizing they no longer have to talk about Apatow’s movies and can freely discuss their desire to see Michael Clayton.
Funny is funny, regardless of the situation or the motive.
…Read more
It’s so easy to criticize the Academy Awards’ ignorance of the merits of comedy (even if such criticism is unfounded), but the Golden Globes have rarely been so deserving of scrutiny in their exclusion of the funny business. After all, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association actually has a category for best comedies of the year. Sure, the genre is still considered second fiddle to drama and has to share its category with musicals (which are sometimes musical dramas), but at least we know there’s a place that honors Trading Places, A Fish Called Wanda, Ghostbusters, Back to the Future and Crocodile Dundee as one of its year’s best pictures (thank goodness for the musical-less ’80s!). The problem is, now that the musical genre is back in (near) full force, comedies are not getting as much recognition, even in their own (shared) category.
Following the Globe nominees yesterday, there was a good deal of complaining going on that Knocked Up wasn’t one of the Best Motion Picture Musical or Comedy nominees. At New York magazine’s Vulture blog, they said, “what’s a Comedy award for, if not to reward the best-reviewed and most successful comedy of the year? Apparently, it’s to reward quasi-musicals like Across the Universe, quasi-comedies like Charlie Wilson’s War, or quasi-movies like Hairspray.” Dave Karger at Entertainment Weekly actually thought the “best-reviewed comedy of the year” got snubbed in the best actress and best supporting actor categories, too. And Carpetbagger David Carr points out that if the Best Motion Picture Drama category can have seven films listed, the Musical or Comedy box should get to have two more picks. But would Knocked Up have really gotten one of those two slots?
…Read more
