JANUARY, 19


NATHAN ZACHARY AND THE PILFERED PROTOTIPE

Action Adventure
Cast: Thomas Jane, Diane Kruger, Kevin Costner, Aaron Eckhart, Brent Spiner, Ashley Scott, Michael Clarke Duncan, Justin Long, Taryn Manning. Cameo by Charlize Theron.
Director and Screenwriter: Jack Hammer

Box Office: 41 mill.
Net Losses: 12 mill.

Stark’s Reaction: Ouch! Another unexpected flop… It’s not been a major disaster but still is a disappointment. I expected much more from this release but the bad times go on in CMP…

JOHN AND TOMMIE

Drama / Biographical
Cast: Anthony McKie, Derek Luke, Chris Hemsworth, Jon Voight, Will Smith
Director: Will Smith
Producer and Screenwriter: Chad Taylor

Box Office: 33 mill.
Net Gains: 13 mill.

Stark’s Reaction: I am always happy when a drama makes net gains. And you bet this one deserved it. A wonderful job by everyone involved from writer and director to the short but great cast.

COMEDY WARS

Comedy
Cast: Will Ferrell, Sasha Baron Cohen, Owen Wilson, Vince Vaughn, Teri Polo, Rutina Wesley, Simon Pegg, Seth Rogen
Director: Edgar Wright
Screenwriter: Matt Kubrick

Box Office: 30 mill.
Net Losses: 7 mill.

Stark’s Reaction: A slight flop, not too painful. But it proves that the so called CMP’s Comedy Gang is not infallible.
As a general comment, this has been a hard and most peculiar week. The Studio has released an action adventure movie, a drama and a comedy and, surprisingly, it has been the drama the only one to make net gains. Again, it is obvious that CMP is going through strange days at box office. I will repeat once again that nothing has changed in the way the Studio manages its releases but it is evident by now that they are turning out in a very unexpected way lately. We will just keep working to do it the best we can, as we always have.


NATHAN ZACHARY AND THE PILFERED PROTOTIPE

‘Jack Hammer has written and directed an entertaining adventure movie. A bit too exhausting too. I mean, you have to be a really big fan of air combats to not reaching the end of the movie feeling that you have had enough air combat sequences for the rest of your life. The extreme loyalty of Hammer adaptation to the original Crimson Skies games limits a bit the scope of the movie. I missed a certain development of the characters’ personalities and the relationships between them, focusing everything too much in the action sequences. You don’t really get to know much about the characters and, at some moments, that can create a certain distance between them and the audience.’
-Roy Winslow

‘Shooting this movie must have been a highly difficult task. Hammer has proven his directional skills filming in a spectacular way all the airplane and zeppelins fighting sequences. His daring shots’ angles, the breathtaking editing, the hair-raising sounds effects… everything has been put together in a spectacular way. In that sense, you will see in this movie things never seen before in other air combats involving productions. That, together with the inevitable Indiana Jones’ spirit that impregnates all adventure movies since Indy was born and a luxurious production design that perfectly recreates a certain vintage atmosphere, makes this feature a more than appealing product. It is a shame that moviegoers have not appreciated it the way it deserved.’
-Vic Carter

‘Last week we had ‘Uncharted’, this week we have ‘Nathan Zachary’ and both movies share a common tribute to classic adventure movies. In this days ruled by Avatar and digital effects, it is nice to see movies that recover the naïve and pure spirit of classic adventure. Thomas Jane, like Gerard Butler past week, base their heroes in old icons of the genre with the face of Tyrone Power, Errol Flynn or Burt Lancaster. There’s a nice old fashioned conception in this kind of movies that always wake up my sympathy. As the nostalgic of golden days of cinema I am, I feel so happy that Nathan Zachary is back.’
-Chris Burgess

JOHN AND TOMMIE

‘Brilliant. Interesting. Inspiring. Moving. What else can I say about this great movie? John and Tommie starred a true story that deserves to be known and remembered by the new generations. They were brave enough to put in risk all they had just to defend what they believed in. They stand as an example of how people must commit and defend their values and principles not needing the use of violence to do it. And that is told in this movie in a very entertaining way, not falling in the temptation of cheap moral speeches but telling us the simple story of two good men that did what they thought that should be done. John and Tomie are not presented as a couple of heroes but as two men that overcame their doubts and their fears to do what they believed they should do. Two ordinary guys – besides being Olympic champions – that became an inspiration for thousands of people. A wonderful story wonderfully told.’
-Charlie Kiggs

‘What I like about Chad Taylor is that each of his screenplays is different from the rest. Although he has released quite a few stories by now, you still cannot labeled him in any kind of stereotype as screenwriter. We have just seen his superhero movie ‘Booster Gold’ and now he surprises us with this very interesting biographical drama, deliciously written and perfectly directed by an inspired Will Smith. This movie would be enough to know the talent of Taylor as screenwriter. But if we look at his whole career until now in CMP, we can better understand his creative bravery, capacity and versatility. Anyway, I am sure that, among all his movies, this brilliant ‘John and Tommie’ will be remembered as one of the highlights of his writing career.’
-Jackie O’Callaghan

‘What Will Smith do I prefer? The funny one? The heroic one? Or the sensitive and artsy one? We have seen so many different Will Smiths so far on screen. Now, we have had the chance to discover another one, this one behind the screen, moving the cameras. And that one is a talented director that has known how to find the perfect pace and tone to tell this story. With the help of the splendid acting works of Luke and McKie, Smith has built up a solid movie with no weak points. ‘John and Tommie’ joins the list of selected features that CMP has produced to tell us America’s recent History, together with ‘Dream Of A King’, ‘American Tabloid’, ‘Haight-Ashbury’ or ‘Home’, among others. And Will Smith has joined the list of talents that we want to see directing more movies in the future.’
-Anne Roman

COMEDY WARS

‘A comedy based on a funny and original premise: how would be a war between stand-up comedians? ‘Comedy Wars’ develops that premise in a hilarious way, with excessive characters and nonsense violence, conscious of the absurdity of the story. Maybe there’s not much more in the movie than the premise, as the plots stays as a succession of senseless crimes not going any further in the storyline or the picture of the characters. But the movie still is a funny parody of those brainless and pretentious rap stars that consider themselves something more than what they really are: guys that cannot sing but talk in a funny way with a rhythm box supporting them. The same way that comedians are only guys good at telling jokes.’
-Amy Ratched

‘CMP has reunited again some of its regular comedians, leaded by Will Ferrell, in a silly comedy that means Edgar Wright’s debut in CMP after already working with Simon Pegg in ‘Hot Fuzz’ and directing one of the fake trailers of ‘Grindhouse’. ‘Comedy Wars’ is the kind of movie so difficult to write a review about. It has no cinematic interest beyond making you laugh. Acting works are as exaggerated as this kind of comedies demand. And the plot only looks for easy gags no matter if they make completely sense. That’s what is all about. All I can say is: watch this movie if you enjoy gross sense of humor. Wait for something else if you consider you have a sophisticated sense of humor’.
-Jack Cobb

‘This movie has made me remember another CMP’s failed comedy, ‘Crime Stoppers’. Again, this is the kind of movie where the premise is better than its development. Edgar Wright has made a kind of parody or homage to exploitation movies trying to mix wild action with comedy. And it does not completely work. As it happened with ‘Crime Stoppers’, we see here how a good concept is wasted in a movie that does not turn out as funny as it pretends to be. Not even the reunion of a nice bunch of efficient comedians has been enough to lift up the product.’
-Lilly Stevens