Hello again, my fellow geeks.
I am sorry about there being no new column last week but work sort of climbed right into the way of everything else and I didn’t get a chance to look up and catch a breath until about 30 minutes ago.
What did we miss? Let’e see. We missed Stallone’s misguided attempt to soften R rated violence and language into a PG-13 mess that no one under the age of 35 even cares about. The Expendables 3 opened to a series low 16 million dollars.
There are those who are blaming the poor showing of the film on the leaked version of the film that found its way online several weeks before it’s release, but I don’t really think the target audience for this film, which is guys, between the ages of 35 and 70 who watched and loved the action films of the 70’s and 80’s and always fantasized about a dream team film with all the old hereos, are really the kind of guys who download films online and they certainly aren’t the kind to go looking for a pirated version of the film that is a little hard to find. They might download it from Itunes or Amazon, but they aren’t searching for it in the places you have to, to find this one.
No, the primary reason this film failed is due to the premise of the film wearing thin and the film being rated PG-13. The one major thing these films had going for them was the full on violence and mayhem. The film being softened to a PG-13 feels like a betrayal of the basic premise. Most guys just figure they will wait for the eventual unrated or R rated version on Bluray.
This week brings us 3 films. First up is the long, and I mean LONG awaited follow-up to 2005’s SIN CITY, titled SIN CITY: A DAME TO KILL FOR. (R 102 Minutes) Some people have said that 9 years is actually too long to wait before releasing this film and that people have lost interest. I’m not sure about that, but I do know that there is not a lot of buzz about the film out here in the theater business. We held a screening for the film that was hosted by Time Warner last night and there were only 160 people in a 328 seat theater for a FREE screening. That does not bode well for paying customers. I could be completely wrong and the film could make 70 million dollars this weekend, but I doubt it.
The film that we also had a screening for and this screening was packed to the walls and we had to turn people away for it, also opens this weekend. WHEN THE GAME STANDS TALL (PG 123 Minutes) based on a true story, the film tells the story of a high school team with an incredible winning streak and tragedy and is filled with great speeches and inspirational music cues and has the good fortune of being a true story about high school football coming out right at the end of summer when many people are starting to think about school and football, so this film could do twice or three times the business of Sin City, at least in the South East.
Finally, we have IF I STAY (PG-13 103 minutes) which is based on a novel and based on people I’ve talked to and conversations I’ve overheard the last few weeks, is a film that every single female alive wants to see at least twice. I don’t believe for a second that this film will do the same kind of business, but the last film that had this much female interest going into opening weekend was The Fault in our Stars.
Well that just about does it for this week, but again, I am sorry about last week and for the fact that this weeks column is coming in late. It’s been a rough week at work and on a sad note, it’s been a pretty rough week at home as well. On Monday morning, I had to say goodbye to my beloved toy poodle, Bridget, who was almost 12 and had been failing in health for a while and last weekend she was suffering to the point where it was breaking my heart and on the vets recommendation, we had her put to sleep. She was like a member of our family and it shattered my heart saying goodbye. She was always so full of love and just so happy to see me when I came home from work or just from the store, and I am going to miss that sweet litte dog for a long long time. I know this isn’t movie related, but I felt like I needed to honor her memory by saying goodbye to her here in the column that she sat and watched me write on many nights.
Goodbye, Bridget. I’ll see you in another life.
And I’ll see all you guys, my geek family, next week.
Until then, Keep the projector threaded.
…and keep the doggy treats handy.