JULY, 14
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AQUAMAN

Action / Superhero
Cast: Paul Walker, Emily Deschanel, Timothy Olyphant, Sean Bean, Dominic West, Sean Patrick Thomas, Robert Forster, Alberta Watson. Voice of Laurence Fishburne
Director: David Yates
Screenwriter: Dawson Edwards

Box Office: 177 mill.
Net Gains: 220 mill.

Stark’s Reaction: Ladies and Gentlemen, besides all expectations, this movie becomes the Alltimes Top 4 Net Gains release. Also, fourth best release of this Season. Outstanding DVD sales and also outstanding box office results for a production nobody bet for. Audiences just loved it.

DEEP SILENCE 2: RED CODE HIGH

Action / Sci-Fi
Cast: Jessica Alba, Ryan Reynolds, Jim Caviezel, Eric Balfour, Clea Duvall
Director: Renny Harlin
Screenwriter: Joey Stark


Box Office: 107 mill.
Net Gains: 168 mill.

Stark’s Reaction: ‘Deep Silence’ made 147 millions back in Season 2, so this sequel hasn’t done bad at all after so much time. Again, great DVD sales, particularly in the Foreign Market, where it has become a DVD market record breaker. After all, I was right: it was a sequel worthy to produce.

BORGEL

Sci-Fi / Comedy
Cast: Dustin Hoffman, Spencer Breslin, Alan Arkin, Jack Black, Edward Asner. Voices of Bill Murray, Seth Rogen, Will Ferrell.
Director: Terry Gilliam
Screenwriter: Ben Tyler

Box Office: 138 mill.
Net Gains: 177 mill.

Stark’s Reaction: Yeah, three ‘100’s’ in the same week! Here is the 4th most profitable release of the Season. And again, DVD market has gone crazy this week! Besides numbers, I personally love this eccentric and very creative movie. And a general comment: with 17 movies with net gains released in a row, CMP has broken its own record of winning strikes. And we are getting closer to another record: this Season, only one movie (‘Gears Of War’) has flopped!


AQUAMAN

‘Here is a mix between previous CMP’s movies: Steven Spielberg’s ‘Atlantis’ and Andrew Adamson’s ‘He-Man’. But both references were much better than this one. ‘Aquaman’ is a childish fantasy tale where the expensive production designs hardly hides the poorness of the story and the lack of interest of it. Again, CMP – like many other Hollywood’s Studios – designs a luxurious package to hide the emptiness of the product inside. The formula, according to box office’s numbers, works. But, beyond business, this is a most dispensable production that does not contribute with nothing to the art of moviemaking’.
-Roy Winslow

‘Director David Yates should take all the credit for the success of this movie. He has printed a great visual power to the story, recreating and appealing underwater fantasy world that turns to be the best of the show. Acting works and screenplay do not reach the level of the visually suggestive world created by Yates and his production team.’
-Jackie O’Callaghan

‘This is one of those cases when audiences and movie critics go there very own separate ways. Personally, I don’t find anything interesting in this movie. Paul Walker, with his pretty ridiculous Aquaman’s costume, may join Vin Diesel and his female Lobo version as an icon in a radical gay festival. Besides that, I don’t think anyone will remember this movie in a week or two.’
-Amy Ratched

DEEP SILENCE 2: RED CODE HIGH

‘We all know by now Harry Stark has a good smell for money. And that’s the only objective of this poor movie: making some money. Jessica Alba and Ryan Reynolds look like two Calvin Klein models posing with diving suites. The thrill of the story falls down as time passes and at the end you just wish the creatures win and eat them all so we can go home. It is a shame that CMP keeps renouncing to quality and betting for these superficial products to make profits. But I bet Stark is already considering developing a third installment of this poor franchise.’
-Vic Carter

‘Funny. The first ‘Deep Silence’ had so many things in common with ‘Alien’. And now this second episode has so many things in common with the sequel of ‘Alien’, ‘Aliens’. CMP keeps trying to turn Jessica Alba as the new Ripley, the legendary character of the Alien saga. But these movies are so far away from those. The story is hard to believe. And Renny Harlin is not Ridley Scott or James Cameron. And Alba has not the charisma of Weaver. So it all ends up in a B-series show good enough for a DVD session but not to be considered as a creative big screen show.’
-Andrew Morrow

‘Renny Harlin has almost copied himself with this movie. Some of its sequences are almost taken from his own movie from 1999, ‘Deep Blue Sea’, just changing killing sharks for mutant creatures (not mentioning some similarities also with another Harlin’s movie, CMP’s ‘Taurus 3’). Watching Alba and Reynolds running through the submarine’s corridors can be ok for a while but, at the end, it all becomes a repetitive and superficial story that does not reach the thrill it pretends, just like it happened with ‘Deep Blue Sea’.’
-Anne Roman

BORGEL

‘I am so happy this movie has worked. A rarity in the middle of all those superhero and action flicks CMP is developing lately, ‘Borgel’ shines as a wonderful piece of entertainment avoiding any kind of cliché or pre-stablished concept. The best thing about this movie is that you just can’t point out a reference for it. It is so original and different. Mostly surrealist. And mainly hypnotizing. A definitely must see for all those who still keep the faith on watching something new and different in a movie screen from time to time.’
-Charlie Kiggs

‘Once again, Terry Gilliam breaks all the industry rules to make the movie he wants to make. The original novel – and Ben Tyler’s brilliant adaptation – was the perfect material for Gilliam to develop again his visual talent and his very personal way of telling stories. ‘Borgel’ is not as good as what I consider Gilliam’s masterpiece, ‘Big Fish’, but it shares part of its enchantment, its capacity of surprise and its peculiar sense of imagination.’
-Tim Reeve

‘A masterpiece in its very own special way. Gilliam and Tyler have been so brave betting for this project. Both have let their talents to run free creating this movie that sometimes work as a children story and some others becomes a strange fable without moral for adults. Hoffman is just absolutely fantastic as Borgel. And probably Murray, Rogen and Black have had a great time lending their voices to all those peculiar characters. I had one of the greatest time I have spent lately in a movie theatre watching this wacky movie.’
-Chris Burgess


AQUAMAN

CRITIQUE: Sigh. Not only do we get the usual superhero flick of the week(seriously, no matter what superhero it is, can you really eat the same flavored ice cream everyday of your life?) but come on, Aquaman? There's a reason he's the black sheep of DC comics. A reason why studios aren't investing big bucks into an Aquaman film series. I can admire that it tried to be differet from other superhero films with the fantastical elements in play, the only good side to a relatively bad idea. Ever watch Animaniacs? That good/bad idea guy?
ACTING/CAST: D-
DIRECTION: C
WRITING: F I like Dawson Edwards, but wow! This is the guy who wrote the very good 'Fallen Kings' earlier this season?
PRODUCTION VALUES: B-
CONCEPT/PLOT: D-
REWATCH VALUE: F Last week I said that if you are a comic book movie collector, get Hawkeye to add to your collection. This would be an embarassment to your collection. Like having the Fantastic Four movies on your shelf. You just can't do it.
OVERALL: D-

DEEP SILENCE 2: RED CODE HIGH

CRITIQUE: There was a time when great movie sequels had subtitles. Terminator 2. Star Wars. Heck, even the Naked Gun had great subtitles. But nowadays, a subtitle in a movie title is already a warning to stay away. The Mummy 3: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor, for example. Deep Silence 2: Red Code High, by the time I am done saying the title of the film, I am already bored stiff. This 'Alien Under the Sea' sequel proves to the old saying 'Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me. Me being the moviegoers who pay a theater price to see this.
ACTING/CAST: F+ Jessica. Alba. Can't. Act. The only thing she is good for in any movie is standing there and looking pretty, a job a busy boss gives a ditzy blonde girl when she asks if she can help.
DIRECTION: F
WRITING: D-
PRODUCTION VALUES: D-
CONCEPT/PLOT: D-
REWATCH VALUE: F+ There shouldn't be a rewatch value cuz you shouldn't see it in the first place
OVERALL: F

BORGEL

CRITIQUE: This takes me back to those weird movies you just have to see to believe and wonder if the film makers were all high while making it. Of course, it's Gilliam's style, so we know what we're expecting. It gave me a Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy feel, and I enjoyed that movie. Spencer Breslin has really been making an impression on CMP writers, being just as demanded as his uberpopular little sister. It's not a movie that I would expect last season's GMA nominee, Dustin Hoffman to take, but it's nice he's still getting attention. Looking at the films this week, this is your best bet if you want to see a new movie this week.
ACTING/CAST: C+
DIRECTION: B
WRITING: C+
PRODUCTION VALUES: B
CONCEPT/PLOT: B-
REWATCH VALUE: B
OVERALL: B

MR. THUMBS' CERTIFIED PICK OF THE WEEK

BORGEL