The Good, the Bad and the Ugly of: I Am Legend

I'm going to go with this format of reviewing movies for the time being. I like this concept when the fine folks over at Reality News Online use it to discuss a television episode so hopefully it will work for movie reviews.



The Good: 1. The first hour. It was a solid, tight hour, that introduced the world nicely and set up the character of Robert Neville. You can really get the sense of what it must be like to be the last person on Earth, how the simple act of going through a specific routine each day keeps insanity in check.

2. Will Smith. I'm not his biggest fan, but I really enjoyed his performance. He threw off his joking persona (I refuse to watch The Pursuit of Happyness, so I don't care what he did there) and really got to the heart of the character. He got the audience to feel empathy for the character and what he was going through.

The Bad: 1. The Last Half-Hour. What happened? It was such a great movie for 60 minutes then suddenly it all went to pot. It was almost as if the screenwriters ran out of ideas and just decided to end the film as quickly as possible. As beautifully paced the first hour was, the last 30 minutes were rushed and riciculous.

2. The mother and son. They're obviously supposed to play a major part in the film, but when they have less than 30 minutes of screentime, it's hard to feel a connection to them.

The Ugly: 1. The ending. !!Spoilers herein!! Uh....a cure? He spent the whole movie looking for a cure and all he needed was some ice cubes? And what was that about "It's in the blood."? It didn't appear to be in the blood before. He uses the same compound that killed the mutant before only with ice this time but yet it's in the blood?

2. The mutants. I liked the special effects. Though it looked as if they were going to go down some mutant adaptation route then didn't. And if you're going to have a great actor like Dash Mihok in the film...give the man a scene that's not fx'ed over.

3. The title. Call it something else. It's one of these adaptation that aside from the title and main character name, has nothing in common with the source material. Either a different title or an "inspired by" credit would have worked better than claiming it's a adaptation.

There you go.....my opinions of the film....let me know yours! Seriously....please....I'm happy to take comments.

Finally

Granted....almost nobody who reads this will understand it...but for my own satisfaction....

From Daymaker to Essence.....8 years 5 months 20 days....228 puzzles.....I'm all done with The Stone.

Legendary Box Office

Yep....it's a day later than when I said I'd post it. Christmas caught up with me and I had to get a ton of things done in preparation for the weekend....but I refuse to deny my (non-existent) regular readers the box office receipts.

Rank / Title / Weekend Gross / Total Gross

1 / I Am Legend / 76.5 / 76.5

2 / Alvin and the Chipmunks / 45.0 / 45.0

3 / The Golden Compass / 9.0 / 41.0

4 / Enchanted / 6.0 / 92.3

5 / No Country for Old Men / 3.0 / 33.6

6 / Perfect Holiday / 3.0 / 3.6

7 / Fred Claus / 2.3 / 69.0

8 / This Christmas / 2.3 / 46.0

9 / Atonement / 1.9 / 3.0

10 / August Rush / 1.8 / 28.1

I am Legend certainly performed up to expectations. I saw it over the weekend and hope to have a review of it up soon. This will guarantee many more holiday Will Smith films (summer and winter). Alvin! Ugh.....I can't in good faith see this movie. When a trailer for a film has to resort to a poop joke to get a laugh...it's not something I want to see. With $45 million though, I expect to hear that a sequel is being developed sooner rather than later. AIE! There goes The Golden Compass....down....down...down to the depths of failed films. New Line is going to take a hit on this one, though foreign BO is slightly better. I'm not going to hold my breath for the next film in the series. Not to much to say about the others....they made very little for the weekend...I think it shows the dearth of great holiday films this year that appeal to a wide audience. No Country for Old Men is a fantastic film.....but as I suspected...and as a friend of mine confirmed for me....audiences in the suburbs are hating the ending and spreading that word around. Good for Atonement though....it's only in 117 theaters and still beats out August Rush.

Century Mark

Hey Hey! I hit 100 people! Granted, most seem to stop by, realize this isn't what they want and leave immediately....but at least 100 people have stopped by in less than a month. Ego boost!



Box Office Roundup tomorrow......

Well......that's depressing

So I spent most of yesterday and today attending the wake and funeral of the father of a close friend of mine. Which got me thinking again, is it better for a loved one to go quickly or slowly? Quickly leaves no time to have a proper goodbye, while slowly does, but obviously it's worse for the loved one. This just might be one of those life questions that have no good answer. I'll probably be pensive now for the weekend.

See everyone on Monday with the Box Office roundup. For, as I learned the morning after my own father died, life keeps going on.

FDot

American (Well...International) Idiocy-- Chug-a-Lug Edition

Too bad.....he almost earned a Darwin Award.

Chug-a-Lug

Box Office Roundup

Kind of a meh week for Hollywood. Let's look though.

rank / title / weekend gross / total gross

1. / The Golden Compass / 26.1 / 26.1

2. / Enchanted/ 10.7 / 83.9

3. / This Christmas / 5.0 / 42.8

4. / Fred Claus / 4.7 / 42.8

5. / Beowulf / 4.4 / 76.0

6. / No Country for Old Men / 4.2 / 28.9

7. / August Rush / 3.5 / 25.1

8. / Hitman / 3.5 / 35.8

9. / Awake / 3.3 / 10.7

10. / Bee Movie / 2.6 / 121.0

Not so good when the number one movie makes only $26 million and numbers 2-5 together don't even equal that. Enchanted keeps a nice run going, it will probably hit $100 million. No Country for Old Men is still taking in small amounts of money. Hopefully, they'll expand or it will be one of those Oscar contenders that few people saw. Looking down the list: This Christmas did quite nicely. Fred Claus will go down as a disappointment. As will Beowulf. I don't think anyone expected August Rush to do any better than it has. I'm actually surprised Hitman made over $30 million, considering it's supposed to be awful. Awake is about where it should be. Bee Movie did quite nicely, probably will drop off the top ten next week when I am Legend opens.

Early B.O.

I'll get the whole shebang up in a day or two....but for now the compass points to:



This must stand for NNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! Only $26.1 million for a movie that cost $180 million to make. Ow! I hope overseas makes up the difference or I doubt we'll be seeing the two sequels anythime soon.

Finally---All Done Shopping

And a bit early too this year...more time for movies!

Bringing the Funny

I just got back from seeing Rita Rudner's standup act. I haven't laughed so hard and so long in quite some time. UGH! Why won't she come to New York more often? It's been almost 10 years since I've seen her last. I require more Rudner for 2008.

At least I have Kathy Griffin to look forward too in January.

Fool, I'm a Fool, I Say!

My God! Why did it take me so long to get around to watching Battlestar Galactica? I finally sat down and watched consumed the original miniseries today and completely geeked out for the entire running time. I will so completely race through the rest of the episodes to get ready for the new season. Yay new obsession! And a huge thanks to JA of the fantastic blog My New Plaid Pants (a daily read for me) for providing the last little push I needed to get myself watching this show!

Grah!

It's been a rather frustrating night for me, I won't bore with the details....but I need something to make me feel better....



Ah...Bret Harrison...nerves calming....knees weakening....going to happy place.

Me, Glorious Me!

I guess the time has come to say a little bit more about myself...

I actually recently saw my birth certificate again, so I can state with accuracy that I was born on Monday, April 30th, 1973 at 10:27am at St. Vincent's Hospital in Manhattan. Shortly thereafter, I was adopted and shuttled 35 minutes north to beautiful Mamaroneck where I've been ever since. Yes this does mean I live at home still, and yes, I know I'm 34..... let's just say there were some family issues that led to this decision and it really couldn't have played out any differently. However, I am now on the lookout for an apartment, hopefully somewhere in NYC.

Upbringing was quite normal, nothing too salacious to report. I worked for 14 years at Blockbuster Video as I went through college, master's degree and even a few years of full time work. Technically, I'm a Special Education teacher, but there was a snafu at my last job, so I'm currently working for a tutoring agency while searching for another position.

I spend most of my time devouring pop culture. If it can be watched, read or listened to, I'm all for it. Movies are my number one passion. I see at least 250-300 a year. It's nice being near NYC since there are so many screenings to go to :)

The only thing I lack right now is a boyfriend. Life has seen to it that I have remained involuntary single for an exceptionally long time. It's something I'd like to remedy soon, really soon. I consider myself a nice, decent guy; it's gets irritating after a while not having anybody truly close to share thing with.....and I'm going to stop there before this turns into a pity fest.

I'm still not entirely sure what direction this blog will take; I'm certainly open to suggestions as to what people would like to see here. My MySpace and Facebook links are finally up so feel free to become a friend, I'm always looking for more.

Posting again soon,

FDot

I Have B.O.!

Box Office that is. Boring week, but let's see how Hollywood fared.

Rank/ Title / Weekend Gross / Total Gross

1/ Enchanted / 17.0 / 70.6

2/ This Christmas / 8.4 / 36.9

3/ Beowulf / 7.9 / 68.6

4/ Awake / 6.0 / 6.0

5/ Hitman / 5.8 / 30.2

6/ Fred Claus / 5.6 / 59.8

7/ August Rush / 5.2 / 20.4

8/ No Country For Old Men / 4.5 / 23.0

9/ Bee Movie / 4.5 / 117.6

10/ American Gangster / 4.3 / 121.7

It looks like The Mist has dropped out of the top ten, chalk that one to being a bomb. Enchanted holds onto the top spot for the second week in a row, certifying Amy Adams as a new star (go watch Junebug!). Otherwise, the rest of the box office looks meh. Everything else is under 10 mil for the weekend. Beowulf turned out to be a disappointment, the only bright spot there is that the 3d screenings sold well compared to the regular screenings, so hopefully theaters will install more 3d projectors for when films with better scripts get released in that format. Awake managed to open in 4th place, but with only a 6 mil take, that's not saying much. Jessica Alba better find a hit quick, or we might not be seeing much more of her. Fred Claus also turned out to be a disappointment, I remember advertising for that film last Christmas. No Country for Old Men is holding on nicely, hopefully it will expand a bit further, as this film is almost a lock for major award nominations come next month (commence salivation over awards season). Bee Movie and American Gangster look like they're wrapping up their runs, respectable numbers for them, but I bet the studios were hoping for a little more.

As to next week, I'm not expecting Atonement to shake things up, it's coming in too quietly. The Golden Compass should fare better, but the short running time (1:54), and the ok but not great early reviews coming in might keep it from exploding at the box office.

Tonight's the Night......

8:00pm Lincoln Center