MARCH, 1


MODERN WARFARE

Action / War
Cast: Christian Bale, Daniel Day-Lewis, Clancy Brown, Chris Pine, Sam Worthington, Jay Hernandez, Benicio del Toro, Mehcad Brooks, Karl Urban
Director: Peter Berg
Producer: Tony Scott
Screenwriter: Chad Taylor

Box Office: 50 mill.
Net Losses: 3 mill.

Stark’s Reaction:
It is so shocking that a movie that has made 50 millions in box office does not reach net gains. I can only find two reasons. First, the production budget was pretty high (including shooting in different locations all over the world and the high salaries demanded by Bale, Day-Lewis or Del Toro). Second, the poor sales at the DVD market. People were not interested in buying an expensive DVD full of extras this time. So this movie means a sad record: Tony Scott has worked either as producer or director in 12 CMP’s movies and Christian Bale has worked in 14 CMP’s movies. And this is the first box office’s flop for both ever in their prolific CMP’s career.

F-ZERO GX

Animation / Action / Racing
Cast Of Voices: Josh Hartnett, Famke Janssen, John Malkovich, Alan Rickman, Forest Whitaker, Terrence Howard, Spencer Breslin, Katie Holmes
Director: Karyn Kusama
Screenwriter: Dawson Edwards

Box Office: 50 mill.
Net Gains: 10 mill.

Stark’s Reaction:
Half the box office made by ‘F-Zero’… The Studio will go on with the announced new installments of this franchise. But I hope it can be revamped.

THE SHIELD

Horror / Slasher
Cast: Jerry O’Connell, Kelly Brook, Vinnie Jones, R.Lee Ermey, Sarah Shahi, Monica Keena, Tony Todd, Kelly Rowland, Christopher Lloyd
Director: Lexi Alexander
Producer: Midnight Movies
Screenwriter: Matt Kubrick

Box Office: 19 mill.
Net Losses: 18 mill.

Stark’s Reaction:
Hit or miss? Ok, this was the turn for ‘miss’. Horror slashers are always such uncertain releases. Pffff, this has been a much harder week than I could have expected…


MODERN WARFARE

‘A few Seasons ago, the now retired Ben Tyler adapted the popular console game ‘Command & Conquer’, directed by Michael Bay. And watching this ‘Modern Warfare’, I could not stop thinking that Berg and Taylor have repeated almost the same formula of that movie. Political fiction, tough guys, lots of testosterone and pretended sophisticated dialogues like ‘Captain, the platoon from the USMC 1st Force Recon is ready to fly to the Behring Sea. The NEST is also on its way according to the information provided by SEAL…’ You know what I mean… This is the kind of movie where you don’t know very well what’s going on. You just seat and enjoy the action show besides all the military paraphernalia. And yes, having the feeling that you have seen it all before.’
-Roy Winslow

‘ ‘Modern Warfare’ develops an alternative geo-political reality. It has obvious parallelisms with the real situation in Middle East and world terrorism. But I wonder why Taylor considered necessary to create that alternative reality instead of developing a plot based on real events and characters. I mean, there are things happening in the real world interesting enough to not needing the use of the fictional characters and scenarios of a console game. Relating the plot to real events (Al-Qaeda, the current conflicts in nations like Egypt or Libya, etc.) would have provided more interest and credibility to this production. Besides that, you can notice the effort made by Berg and Scott to build up a luxurious production including some spectacular action sequences. But underneath the production design effort, there is a certain lack of entertainment in the story told on screen.’
-Vic Carter

‘I am not a member of that segment of audience that loves 3D and CGI and enjoy superheroes movies and silly action comedies as much as the popcorns and the soda. I am an adult. And I miss good action movies oriented to adult audiences and not only to brainless teenagers with their faces full of pimples. So I must thank Taylor, Berg and Scott for making an action movie looking more for usually ignored moviegoers like me. I had a wonderful time watching ‘Modern Warfare’. Taylor has worried to create an elaborated plot and not only a ‘superhero-faces-wannaruletheworld-villain’. Bale and Day-Lewis enrich the movie with their screen presence. And Berg has shot the story with nerve and not falling into silly excesses just to make an easy impact. I hope CMP keeps worrying about more adult audiences in future movies.’
-Chris Burgess

F-ZERO GX

‘This sequel of the brilliant ‘F-Zero’ has a problem: it has no plot. ‘F-Zero’ developed a plot with goods and bads and an ‘anime’ spirit that perfectly matched with the visual style of the movie. It had a story. This sequel is only about a race. ‘F-Zero GX’ completely abandons the plotlines opened in ‘F-Zero’ and focuses during its whole length in a race. And watching a race during nearly 90 minutes is probably one of the most boring experiences I have gone through in years. I just can’t understand the effort made by Dawson Edwards to ruin what promised to be the most successful and spectacular animation franchise ever developed by CMP’.
-Jackie O’Callaghan

‘The problem adapting console games is that sometimes the adaptator (I mean, the screenwriter) feels obliged to stay too loyal to the original game. I can understand that ‘F-Zero GX’ can be a very entertaining console game to play driving those futuristic vehicles in a vertiginous race. But when that’s translated to a big screen feature, the entertainment of it all simply disappears. It is not the same playing a console game than sitting on a movie theatre to watch a race. All the talent that Karyn Kusama and Dawson Edwards showed in the first movie of this franchise has suddenly evaporated in this sequel. I just hope they change the course of it in the already announced sequels.’
-Tim Reeve

‘These ‘F-Zero’ movies are a spectacular example of the technical virtuosity that have reached nowadays animated movies. Everything is possible in animation. And Kusama takes the best of all the chances that offers today the quality of animation. The camera angles, the editing, the use of colours, the visually outstanding design… Everything is perfect in this movie… from a technical point of view. But, as we often say in movie reviews, it is important not to forget that beyond all the technicalities there is an essential element in the art of moviemaking: entertainment. I understand that Kusama must have enjoyed the creative talent she has developed making this movie. But she has forgotten that she had to make a movie not only technically perfect but also entertaining.’
-Amy Ratched

THE SHIELD

‘How can be made so many mistakes when putting up a cast? Matt Kubrick should consider firing the Casting Director of Midnight Movies. While watching this movie, I made a peculiar experiment: I kept watching it but imagining the same sequences with other talents playing the characters. And you know what? The result in my imagination was a pretty entertaining and worth to watch movie. I know big stars do not like to work in horror movies. But between ‘First Division’ stars and the ‘Amateur League’, there is a wide range of talents to choose. So I wonder why Kubrick or Alexander or whoever put up this cast decided to choose a group of people with only one thing in common: an embarrassing lack of the minimum acting talent possible.’
-Charlie Kiggs

‘’The Shield’ is a honest effort to offer something more than the routine ‘slasher’ movie full of gory scenes and produced with a restricted budget. In fact, it is much more elaborated in terms of storyline, scenarios, special effects and production design that many of the previous Midnight Movies’ features. Maybe, its main problem is that, together with that, it is also one of the less scary horror movies developed by Kubrick’s company. ‘The Shield’ is more a solid action movie than a horror movie strictu sensu. So, if you are expecting to be scared, you will be disappointed with this movie. Better enjoy the sexy chicks in it and some worthy action moments and leave the fright for a better occasion.’
-Andrew Stampton

‘Would you pay a ticket to watch a movie starred by Kelly Brook and Jerry O’Connell with a villain played by Vinnie Jones? Probably, the answer of a high percentage of moviegoers would be the same than mine. And that’s the reason why this movie has flopped so painfully at box office. It is very difficult to find a reason to choose this movie. You just cannot trust a movie production directed by Lexi Alexander and with such a shocking cast of non-appealing talents (at least for something that is not an erotic or soft porn movie). Some times it is so easy to understand why things simply do not work.’
-Anne Roman

SEASON 15’S FINAL REPORT

(Brackets: Same data from Season 15)

MOVIES RELEASED: 30 (30)
SEQUELS RELEASED: 7 (6)
ORIGINAL CONCEPTS: 17 (17)
ADAPTATIONS: 13 (13)

MOVIES WITH NET GAINS: 27 (26)
MOVIES WITH NET LOSSES: 3 (4)

NET GAINS TOTAL: 2157 (3415)
NET LOSS TOTAL: 45 (76)
FINAL BALANCE: 2112 (3339)

MOVIES WITH BOX OFFICE SUPERIOR TO 200 MILL.: 3 (5)
-The Dark Tower (Sam Raimi / Matt Kubrick)
-Noon (Martin Scorsese / Chad Taylor)
-Athena (Zack Snyder / James Bradley & Joey Stark)

MOVIES WITH BOX OFFICE SUPERIOR TO 100 MILL.: 6 (8)
-Silver Sable And The Ultimate Alliance (Bryan Singer / Joey Stark & Matt Kubrick)
-A Tangled Web (Joel & Ethan Coen / Richard Franzwa)
-Freedom City (Brett Ratner / Steve Connors)
-Gaga (Chad Taylor / Chad Taylor)
-Whatever Happened To Holden Caulfield? (Wes Anderson / Josh Collins)
-Pride And Prejudice And Zombies (Tim Burton / James Bradley)

TOP 1 NET GAINS:
THE DARK TOWER – 414
TOP 1 NET LOSSES:
VIRAL – 24

SCREENWRITER’S ACTIVITY
(Number of releases / Best Release)

-MATT KUBRICK: 6 (‘The Dark Tower’)
-CHAD TAYLOR: 5 (‘Noon’)
-JOSH COLLINS: 4 (Whatever Happened To Holden Caulfield?)
-DAWSON EDWARDS: 4 (‘Love Lost’)
-JAMES BRADLEY: 4 (‘Athena’)
-JOEY STARK: 3 (‘Athena’)
-STEVE CONNORS: 3 (‘Freedom City’)
-RICHARD FRANZWA: 2 (‘A Tangled Web’)
-TRENT NIELSEN: 1 (‘Snow’)
-MICHAEL BANNO: 1 (‘Viral’)
-LAWRENCE ABERNATHY: 1 (‘Thrust From Skyline’)

SOME CONCLUSIONS
By Harry Stark

Season 16 has been another extraordinary Season in terms of box office’s success. Although it has not reached the amazing numbers of Season 15, still seems like almost everything works in box office lately for CMP. It is true that the last two weeks of the Season have been pretty disappointing but I hope that does not mean a downward trend. We are far away from the hard times we had at box office only a few Seasons ago.

The good thing is that I think Season 16 has also been an extraordinary Season in terms of quality. In my very personal opinion, it is the Season with a highest number of top quality movies. That’s what makes the upcoming GMA Edition particularly intriguing for me. Voters have so many good things to choose from.

This Season, we had some remarkable farewells but also some nice welcomes.

On the farewell side, three iconic CMP’s franchises reached their end this Season: ‘The Dark Tower’, ‘Silver Sable’ and ‘The Forgotten’. They are all now part of CMP’s history. It feels kind of sad when a saga that has become part of the Studio’s identity gets to an end. But I am sure none of us will ever forget these three brilliant series of movies.

On the welcome side, we had two new screenwriters joining us: Michael Banno and Lawrence Abernathy. It is always nice having someone new on board. The shame here is that I can’t still confirm if they will keep writing for the Studio as I have never heard from them again after they released their movies.

But still we have other new screenwriters making their debut too during next Season…

The good news

‘The Dark Tower’ is the only release of the Season that enters into the alltimes’ top lists. The 414 millions of net gains generated by the movie turns it into the top 3 highest net gains ever.

The balance between adaptations and original concepts keep balanced the same way than past Season: 17 original concepts and 13 adaptations. I like that. That means that the creativity of our writers stay fresh and always looking for new concepts and ideas.

Only 3 flops at box office. One less than Season 15. That can make us think that anything works in box office. And that would be a big mistake. But it is nice watching most of CMp’s movies making net gains!

You know I love ‘sleepers’. It is a great feeling when a movie you do not expect a big box office from suddenly becomes an unexpected blockbuster. And we had quite a few of them this Season: ‘Foreclosed’, ‘The Show’, ‘Love Lost’ or ‘Whatever Happened With Holden Caulfield?’ made box office’s numbers way much higher than expected. I love that!

The bad news

Another Season with not too many bad news…

As it happens some times, quality and box office’s numbers didn’t go the same way all the time. Movies I considered top quality productions didn’t make too remarkable box offices. ‘The Cool’, ‘Dark Shadows’ or ‘The Respected’ were unfairly punished by moviegoers.

Reviews were controversial some times. We need to remember that movie reviews are only individual opinions. We can agree or disagree with them. But that’s how it works… Personally, I disagree often with things I read at ‘The Critics Corner’ but, you know, movie critics have their own prejudices against certain genres or talents. We have to live with that.

And talking about reviews, I miss Mr. Thumb!

TOP LISTS

SEASON 16

TOP BOX OFFICE

1.THE DARK TOWER – 227
2.ATHENA – 225
3.NOON – 211
4.FREEDOM CITY – 157
5.WHATEVER HAPPENED TO HOLDEN CAULFIELD? – 137
HIGHEST NET GAINS

1.THE DARK TOWER – 414
2.WHATEVER HAPPENED TO HOLDEN CAULFIELD? – 224
3.ATHENA – 197
4.NOON – 186
5.FREEDOM CITY – 139

ALLTIMES

TOP BOX OFFICE

1.SILVER SABLE AND THE WILD PACK – 352
2.THE ICE PRINCESS – 316
3.JUSTICE LEAGUE 2 – 298
4.THE DARK TOWER: THE DRAWING OF THE THREE – 285
5.METROID – 279
6.GAMEBOY 2: WARLANDS – 265
TOP NET GAINS

1.JUSTICE LEAGUE 2 – 588
2.SILVER SABLE AND THE WILD PACK – 420
3.THE DARK TOWER – 414
4.METROID – 406
5.DEVIL TRIGGER – 382
6.THE DARK TOWER: THE DRAWING OF THE THREE – 349