MAY, 4


SILVER SABLE AND THE GENESIS COALITION

Action / Superhero
Cast: Katherine Heigl, Gerard Butler, Clive Owen, Sam Elliott, Dominic Monaghan, Eric Balfour, Bo Hoskins. Cameo by Tobey Maguire.
Director and Producer: Bryan Singer
Screenwriter: Joey Stark

Box Office: 138 mill.
Net Gains: 239 mill.

Stark’s Reaction:
For some unknown reason, American moviegoers decided that they preferred to watch the movie at home on DVD. That’s the reason of the big difference between box office and net gains (I remember something very similar happened with ‘The Fantastic Mansion’). So the movie is probably the bestselling DVD ever in American market. Anyway, the franchise keeps being one of the most profitable sagas for the Studio.

THE SECRET OF MONKEY ISLAND: THE THREE TRIALS

Adventure / Comedy
Cast: Jesse Eisenberg, Michelle Rodriguez, Judy Reyes, Michael Chiklis, Seth Green. Voice of Tim Curry
Director: Mike Newell
Screenwriter: David Makalaster

Box Office: 145 mill.
Net Gains: 135 mill.

Stark’s Reaction:
I never expected that this movie would make a better box office than Silver! I think, for once, the Studio’s Marketing Department made a wise move designing the promotional campaign of the movie oriented to children and families as target market. It has worked out in a wonderful way. I can only hope that some day Makalaster will decide to write sequels for this one!

GET DOWN

Drama / Action
Cast: Khleo Thomas, Anthony Mackie, Kyla Prat, Terrence Howard, Rob Brown, Cobie Smulders, Mos Def
Director: Spike Lee
Screenwriter: Dawson Edwards

Box Office: 22 mill.
Net Losses: 14 mill.

Stark’s Reaction:
Net loses always piss me off. But specially when I think we were dealing with a quality movie. According to the marketing experts, only the urban middle age afroamerican audience showed interest for this movie. A shame. I think it was a really good one.


SILVER SABLE AND THE GENESIS COALITION

‘Joey Stark and Bryan Singer had to face a complex challenge with this movie. They had to develop a new installment of the most successful CMP’s movie ever. And I can say that they have survived to such risky task with dignity. This ‘Silver 3’ is a well structured screenplay and a well paced action movie. Stark and Singer have built up a story based on the sum of a sucesion of action set pieces: the opening sequence, the stealing of the Harmodium, Silver’s escape from the Genesis Coalition’s hideout and the final destruction sequence. All of them spectacular sequences that make all together an entertaining show for not too demanding audiences.’
-Vic Carter

‘Silver Sable proves again to be a direct heir of Lara Croft. Although labeled as a superhero movie, the spirit of this new installment, following the spirit of the whole franchise, is again more an action adventure movie than a traditional superhero movie ala The Avengers, Wonder Woman or Justice League. That doesn’t make it better or worse than those other movies. Silver Sable follows the immutable rules of this kind of movies and it works the same way all of them usually work: quality entertainment without big surprises. We could watch a thousand movies like this and still enjoy them as long as we remember they won’t offer anything new beyond what we can expect from them.’
-Jake Cobb

‘The debate about a possible fourth ‘Silver Sable’ movie stays open after the good numbers made by this one. But does that really matter? Stark has created some wise ‘mcguffins’ for this third movie to attract moviegoers' attention: the reappearance of Silver’s father, the fight between Silver and Spiderman… And he has also left some cliffhangers in case a fourth movie is developed, like that mysterious Harmodium or Foreigner’s destiny. But, at the end, we can live either with or without another Silver’s movie, as this franchise can be perfectly lost in the shuffle of all the superheroes’ sagas managed by CMP without any particular difference from all of them.’
-Amy Ratched

THE SECRET OF MONKEY ISLAND: THE THREE TRIALS

‘I must begin making a statement: I ended up hating the ‘Pirates Of The Caribbean’ movies. They became so complex, confusing, pretentious, ambitious and inconsistent that the nice idea of making a parody of pirates’ movies was lost in the way. In that sense, this ‘Monkey Island’ inspires me more sympathy than the Verbinski’s trilogy. ‘Monkey Island’ is a funny parody of the genre clichés made with much more humility than the famous trilogy and based on a nice and simple sense of humor. It is its simplicity and modesty – compared to the Verbinski’s trilogy – what I think are its main virtues. Maybe, on the negative side, I would say that, at some moments, the plot and settings of the storyline are a bit too childish, too oriented to the youngest moviegoers, and that may make older moviegoers to lose a bit the interest in the story. But, all in all, the final balance is positive and the movie is a nice entertainment production undoubtedly advisable.’
-Roy Winslow

‘Jesse Eisenberg keeps growing as a young comedian on screen. His composure of a nerd / brave guy that worked so well in movies like ‘Zombieland’ works again in this very different movie. He is the best of this movie – together with the always interesting presence of Michelle Rodriguez, in a work far away from ‘Reform School Girls’. On the other side, Seth Green does not survive to the impossible challenge of making a parody of Jack Sparrow. A parody always has to be funnier than the original and, this time, the original Jack Sparrow is still more grotesquely funny than Green’s version.’
-Lilly Stevens

‘David Makalaster proves again in this last story coming from him – at least before the announcement of his temporary retirement – that he knows how to manage the resources to build up blockbusters. He knows what can please wide audiences, something Mike Newell has proved in his CMP’s works to know too. This movie is perfectly designed to become a box office’s success. Besides the strong and almost inevitable influence of ‘Pirates Of The Caribbean’ – something that the authors have not even pretended to avoid -, this ‘Monkey Island’ is a very entertaining movie for all the family that does not care about cinematic quality but looks only to fill up movie theatres and to sell as much buckets of popcorns as possible.’
-Tim Reeve

GET DOWN

‘I am writing this review a couple of days after watching ‘Get Down’. And still I am not sure if I liked the movie or not. Dawson Edwards has written a very original story. And the funny thing is that it looks very original although it uses all kind of stereotypes seen before in so many movies. Everything is invented. The talent of Edwards is to make us feel as if we were watching something new when in fact it is not as new as it seems. In that sense, I have to applaud Edwards’ writing talent. ‘Get Down’ is not ‘Fallen Kings’, ’24 Hours To Live’ or ‘Gaspipe’ but, at the same time, it fits so well in that tough, dark, ambiguous, violent and hopeless universe that Edwards is creating movie by movie.’
-Charlie Kiggs

‘It is a shame that wide audiences may fall in the mistake of considering Edwards & Lee’s movies like productions only oriented to the afroamerican audience. ‘Get Down’ is probably one of the most interesting movies about gangsters and crime made in years. The movie is the perfect complement to other Edwards’ story, ‘Gaspipe’. Here, we don’t take a look at the big boss but at the world of the midlevel mobsters in an appealing story that chooses the point of view of a kid – with reminiscences of ‘A Bronx Tale’ – and dares to include a fantasy element with the appearance of a peculiar ‘angel’. The presence of Spike Lee behind the cameras and a cast of almost all colored talents should not mislead potential audiences as I think it has. ‘Get Down’ tells an universal story highly interesting for anybody who can appreciate quality moviemaking.’
-Jackie O’Callaghan

‘I must say I missed Jaden Smith during all the length of this movie. Some wrong cast choices are, in my opinion, severe burdens for this movie. Khleo Thomas has an obvious lack of screen presence to carry the weight of the whole story. And I just could not believe Cobie Smulders as the district attorney. That, together with some weakness in the plot – the relationship between the two main young characters does not work and sometimes even bother the main storyline – and a certain lack of visual strength in Spike Lee’s directional work, have prevented this movie from becoming the big great movie it could have been, downgrading it to the correct and nice little movie it finally is.’
-Bill Calloway


SILVER SABLE AND THE GENESIS COALITION

OPENING STATEMENT: I'm usually never so caught up on the subtitles that go along with the title, particularly these days: Example 'The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor' if you don't fall asleep just reading the title, you're already halfway there. I'm glad the film got made as it's more of a saga that has to find a conclusion at some point, but what is CMP to do when it does get finished? What will become of the smash hits?

BEST OF IT: A lot more fleshed out than I was expecting for a third film in the saga. I've usually been disappointed by number three's lately. The action is once again ON FIRE!

WORST OF IT: Not even a mention or cameo of AnnaSophia at all? Dialogue like 'I love you. Now I have to kill you' comes across as pretty cheesy.

SHINING STAR/DEAD WEIGHT: Gerard, Katherine and Clive(who was an alright Dr. Doom) stood out as the shining stars. The rest of the cast seemed to be just there, nothing outstanding but nothing deplorable.

THE BRAINS BEHIND: Singer can do a correct job as a superhero director, Joey Stark tried and partially succeeded with delivering a third film in the series, but he has to really really try to keep us entertained and give us something that will outdo the previous films. Otherwise it will feel like the same damn movie every time. The rest of the production manages to keep us awake for the action and stunts.

IN CONCLUSION B- entertaining for an action summer blockbuster popcorn flick

THE SECRET OF MONKEY ISLAND: THE THREE TRIALS

OPENING STATEMENT: Woah, another movie where the title could put you to sleep by the time you're finished reading it. I do think it's a nice change to have a pirate film since many other films are intimidated by the Pirates films for being so intriguing. Makalaster did an alright job adapting the PC game to the screen.

BEST OF IT: Leaves enough adventurous spirit for those looking for a swashbuckling good time. Definitely another film worthy of competing for being the number 1 in box office during the summer season.

WORST OF IT: There really isn't a whole lot in terms of having an interesting plot. The action tends to overlay it a lot and some moviegoers will pick up on that and criticize it.

SHINING STAR/DEAD WEIGHT: Since Adventureland and Zombieland, Jesse Eisenberg has proven to be a great film comedian; someone who isn't playing the same kind of role, doing the same stuff(glares at Will Farrell). He is definitely one who stands out here. I didn't really buy Seth Green as a believable Jack Sparrow, even as a parody and the rest of the cast like I said in Silver Sable was just there.

THE BRAINS BEHIND: Not really the movie for Makalaster to take a temporary leave of absence with. Mike Newell did okay with what he was given. He gave us a correct film to feed our fantasies of wanting to be pirates.

IN CONCLUSION: C+ Hey, a C is average in grade school. I just don't think it's a grade any movie wants to be labeled with.

GET DOWN

OPENING STATEMENT: As the season is drawing to a close soon, we are expecting GMA-worthy films to flood theaters. After reading those long titles of previous films, I was relieved that two words in the title is fine. Not Get Down: The trials and tribulations of eating a hot dog in downtown Brooklyn. Edwards has proven yet again that his talents for gangster dramas and he has managed to give talented colored actors a chance to shine brighter than the ridiculous Tyler Perry films.

BEST OF IT: Some great writing, dialogue, director, performances. The storyline was also nicely fleshed out. Definitely a Dawson Edwards classic.

WORST OF IT: I don't have a problem so much with the film, but the release of it might make it suffer in box office.

SHINING STAR/DEAD WEIGHT: Khleo Thomas, Anthony Mackie, Kyla, Terrance, Rob, Mos, all managed to churn out great performances. I left Cobie out though because from what we've seen of her as Wonder Woman, we needed to see her do something different to not typecast her as Wonder Woman. And get this, she stood out perfectly among this cast. Nobody was really a dead weight in this one.

THE BRAINS BEHIND: Spike Lee and Dawson Edwards have proven to be a powerful team. They keep us invested in the story and characters and deliver good on the action and intense moments. The cinematography left a little more to be desired though, but not too bad.

IN CONCLUSION: A- not into the action/adventure superhero films? This one makes good to replace them.

MR. THUMBS' CERTIFIED MUST SEE OF THE WEEK:

GET DOWN