DECEMBER, 13


DEUS EX

Sci-Fi / Action
Cast: Jonathan Rhys-Meyers, Olivia Wilde, Gong Li, Ben Kingsley, Garcelle Beauvais, Jackie Earl Haley, Michael Douglas
Director: Larry and Andy Wachowski
Screenwriter: Steve Connors

Box Office: 120 mill.
Net Gains: 225 mill.

Stark’s Reaction:
This is another one of those times when most of the audience prefer to watch the movie at home in DVD than in theatres. That explains that correct box office below expectations but the wonderful net gains. ‘Deus Ex’ won’t be remembered as an outstanding box office’s success. But it has been a great business for the Studio.

THE ALAMOGORDO

Western / Action
Cast: Eric Bana, Zooey Deschanel, Viggo Mortensen, David Morse, Lucas Black, John C. Reilly, Garrett Dillahunt, Michael Pena
Director: Sam Mendes
Screenwriter: Dwight Gallo

Box Office: 29 mill.
Net Losses: 11 mill.

Stark’s Reaction:
The curse of westerns is back… There were reasons enough to expect better numbers for this solid western, but we just didn’t get to save it from that curse…

FLICKER

Thriller
Cast: Alden Ehrenreich, Kirsten Dunst, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Jon Hamm, Philip Baker Hall, Terence Stamp, John Lithgow, Rooney Mara, Val Kilmer, Ty Burrell
Director: Francis Coppola
Screenwriter: John Malone

Box Office: 14 mill.
Net Losses: 3 mill.

Stark’s Reaction:
And the curse of thrillers is also back… As the big fan of thrillers I am, I hate to see this kind of movies failing at box office. It is so unfair. Specially when it is such a great movie like this. Yes, I am enraged by this flop… Grrrrr….


DEUS EX

‘Sophisticated and cool. Those are the two words that better describe this new movie from the Warchowski brothers. Or, at least, that’s how they have wanted to make it look like. But the days of ‘Matrix’ will never return. Usually, an author of any artistic discipline, can only be revolutionary once in their lifetime. The Wachowski Brothers completely redefined the cinematic language with ‘Matrix’. The visual and narrative findings of that movie became a landmark in the evolution not only of the sci-fi genre but in the whole way of filming a movie. The two sequels of ‘Matrix’ proved that the first film was a unique and unrepeatable experience. And this ‘Deus Ex’, with all its futuristic sophistication and its desperate will to look as a cool movie, does not reach either the impact of ‘Matrix’. As long as we all accept that there’s only one ‘Matrix’, ‘Deus Ex’ can be accepted as an interesting and entertaining – yes, and sophisticated and cool – futuristic adventure that will please mainly the most extremist sci-fi freaks.’
-Vic Carter

‘Steve Connors has not taken any risk when putting up the cast for this movie. I mean, everybody fit in their characters without problems. I particularly liked the final appearance of Michael Douglas, playing that nasty millionaire, with the looks of a futuristic Gordon Gekko. It’s great to have Douglas back on track after all his recent health issues. Rhys-Meyers and Olivia Wilde make an efficient starring couple and Gong Li has shown before in other CMP films that she can play an intimidating villain when an Asian woman is needed for the role. It was also fun to see Jackie Earl Haley playing that freaky hacker. As said, no risks taken in the casting choices. The stylish wardrobe, the exotic scenarios and the display of CGI helped them all to look as futuristic and fashionable as it was pretended.’
-Amy Ratched

‘Some moviemakers – and Larry and Andy Wachowski are the perfect example of that – mistake ‘confusing’ with ‘intelligent’. They think that if the plot of their movies is confusing enough that will make them look more intelligent and deeper (Nolan’s ‘Inception’ could be another good example of that). ‘Deus Ex’ is nothing more than a top budget action film – following the pattern of each and every game adaptation: changing scenarios, a regular pace of action sequences, no limits in the use of digital effects… -, but Connors and the Wachowski Brothers have tried to make it look as a more complex story than it really is with a confusing plot not completely coherent. Never mind. At the end, this is the kind of movie where production design eats it all, including the story in it.’
-Tim Reeve

THE ALAMOGORDO

‘Dwight Gallo has tried what Richard Franzwa (‘This Far From Heaven’), Jack Hammer (‘Dakota North’) or Marcus Trax (‘Fortune City’), among others, have tried before in CMP: resurrecting the most classic western. And he has crashed against the same wall than all of them. We have said it before... Movie business is mainly supported these days by teen audiences. And teen audiences do not have western as part of their cultural background (presuming that teenagers do have a 'cultural background'). You cannot make them choose between ‘Deus Ex’ and ‘The Alamogordo’, just because they have grown up watching sci-fi movies and they see westerns as a peculiar curiosity of old times. People can accept watching a western on tv late at night or during a boring Sunday evening. But they won’t pay a theatre ticket anymore to watch a western. Only some innovative approaches to the genre, like Edwards’ ‘The Sheriff, Saloon and the Storm’, can still wake up a little interest from audiences. But, beyond that, it is confirmed again here that westerns are condemned to make weak box office’s numbers.’
-Roy Winslow

‘Sam Mendes has always used CMP to try luck with new movie genres in his directional career. From musicals (‘Carousel’) to biopics (‘The Beatles’) or teen love stories (‘When Dreams Die’), together with dramas closer to his career out of CMP (‘The Rock Star’, ‘American Way’). Now, he has decided to have a good time making a western. And he shows again how well he adapts to all kind of movie genres. If ‘The Alamogordo’ would have been made forty or fifty years ago, we could be talking here of a directional talent for western close to John Ford or Howard Hawks. Being made in 2011, this movie is only a nostalgic ‘divertimento’' from Mendes. Made without any author-esque pretention, the movie is deliberately out of time and - same way it happened past Season with Eastwood’s ‘This Far From Heaven’ - it can only be taken as a homage to the classics.’
-Mark Anderson

‘Dwight Gallo has decided not taking the easy way in his writing career in CMP. No big sci-fi shows, no console games adaptations, no superheroes movies… He made his debut with an adult and complex drama like ‘Atlas Shrugged’, now he has tried luck with western and soon he will be releasing the thriller ‘Bunny Lake Is Missing’… And that means that, in his first Season in CMP, he will visit the three most difficult genres of them all in terms of box office’s success in CMP’s world. In fact, both ‘Atlas Shrugged’ and ‘The Alamogordo’ have already made net losses. It’s a shame. But at least he has already shown a writing talent not to be despised. And it deserves to be appreciated when an author take risks and not only settles into safer territories.’
-Jackie O’Callaghan

FLICKER

‘Francis Coppola has directed two movies before for CMP: the historical adventure ‘The Toymaker’ and the drama ‘Prison Letters’. Both were more than interesting movies. But, without doubt, ‘Flicker’ is his most personal project in CMP. Here is Coppola letting run free all his creative concerns and his very personal way of understanding the art of moviemaking. Coppola, one of the latest masters of cinema still active, makes a cinephile movie for cinephile moviegoers. Underneath the thriller elements of the story, this strange movie is an act of love to the magic of cinema and a metaphor about the power that movies have to change and influence our life. ‘Flicker’ is the work of an artist and also the work of a lover of movies. Coppola is a moviemaker who does not need to prove anything. He is already part of the big History of Cinema. So he can allow himself to make sophisticated author-esque movies like this not caring about critics or box office.’
-Charlie Kiggs

‘John Malone has made a big effort to adapt the complex book by Theodore Roszak. And the result is also a complex screenplay. Too dense, too twisted, too hard to follow the plot at some moments and, definitely, way too long, ‘Flicker’ is not an easy movie to watch. It is one of those movies that demand a big concentration from the viewer to be followed and understood. Maybe, Malone should have simplified a bit the story in the book to adapt it better to the movie language. This is not a movie oriented to wide audiences. In some way, it is an elitist product only suitable for quality moviegoers. And that’s both its greatest virtue and its greatest flaw. There are not commercial concessions in Malone’s treatment of the story and Coppola’s directional job. And that is something that us, movie reviewers, always praise but it is also something that make wide audiences turning their back to a movie.’
-Andrew Stampton

‘There are a lot of things in this movie. I will quote here something taken from an editorial review of Roszak’s book: ‘a magical mystery tour of the history of cinema, an acid satire on Hollywood and what passes for today's cultural avant-garde, a metaphysical puzzle, an exploration of the psychological impact of films and a parable about the modern spiritual wasteland.’ Well, all that can be said too about Coppola’s movie. Beyond the wonderful premise of the story – the search of old movies that can provoke in people to commit suicide or to have wild sex -, there is a deep reflection about several elements that turn this film in something much more than just an ordinary suspense movie. Only a gifted moviemaker like Coppola could have made a movie like this.’
-Chris Burgess