Back Seat Producers

#1 Jack the Giant Slayer from Warner Bros. (New Line) opened at #1 with a gross of $27.2 million in 3,525 theaters.  Budget was $195 million.

#2 Identity Thief from Universal fell from #1 to #2 with a gross of $9.7 million (-30.8%) in 3,230 theaters (+8).  Total gross to date is $107.4 million.  Budget was $35 million.

#3 21 and Over from Relativity opened at #3 with a gross of $8.8 million in 2,771 theaters.  Budget was $13 million.

#4 Snitch from Summit Entertainment fell from #2 to #4 with a gross of $7.8 million (-41%) in 2,511 theaters.  Total gross to date is $24.5 million.  Budget was unknown.

#5 The Last Exorcism Part II from CBS Films opened at #5 with a gross of $7.7 million in 2,700 theaters.  Budget was $5 million.

#6 Escape from Planet Earth from Weinstein Company fell from #3 to #6 with a gross of $6.6 million (-38%) in 3,110 theaters (-243).  Total gross to date is $43.1 million.  Budget was $40 million.

#7 Safe Haven from Relativity fell from #4 to #7 with a gross of $6.3 million (-39.9%) in 2,951 theaters (-272).  Total gross to date is $57.1 million.  Budget was $28 million.

#8 Silver Linings Playbook from Weinstein Company fell from #7 to #8 with a gross of $5.7 million (-0.5%) in 1,836 theaters (-176).  Total gross to date is $115.3 million.  Budget was $21 million.

#9 A Good Day to Die Hard from 20^th Century Fox fell from #5 to #9 with a gross of $4.6 million (-55%) in 2,589 theaters (-966).  Total gross to date is $59.7 million.  Budget was $92 million.

#10 Dark Skies from Weinstein/Dimension fell from #6 to #10 with a gross of $3.5 million (-57.6%) in 2,313 theaters.  Total gross to date is $13.4 million.  Budget was $3.5 million.

#11 Warm Bodies from Summit Entertainment fell from #8 to #11 with a gross of $2.6 million (-46.6%) in 1,930 theaters (-714).  Total gross to date is $61.9 million.  Budget was $35 million.

#12 Life of Pi from 20^th Century Fox rose from #14 to #12 with a gross of $2.4 million (+48%) in 626 theaters (+54).  Total gross to date is $117 million.  Budget was $120 million.

The combined gross of the top 12 movies this weekend was $92.8 million.

Sources:
Box Office Mojo

Following the events of the first movie in which the Reverend Cotton Marcus re-discovered his lost faith and sacrificed himself to taking down the demon Abalam from hatching it’s plans, it seems that the only survivor of the event was the object of Abalam’s possession, the young girl Nell Sweetzer. Nell has escaped her fate and now begins to put her life back together, with help from the people of a halfway house in New Orleans. Nell starts to turn her life around, but soon discovers that Abalam wasn’t destroyed at all, and soon her life begins to take another horrific turn.

That’s the premise to The Last Exorcism Part II, once again from producer Eli Roth, but this time with a new director and writer in tow, director Ed Gass-Donnelly who also serves up the screenplay with writer Damien Chazelle. It’s certainly understandable why a sequel to the first would be made; it was a cheap production and it made a boatload of dough… and, it just happened to be a pretty darn good movie as well. Even though the title of the first would indicate that it should be the only word on the subject, I’m certainly willing to give a the idea of a sequel a shot as long as it offers up something that’s just as catchy as the original.

Unfortunately, that’s just not the case with The Last Exorcism Part II and what we have here just seems to totally dilute the effectiveness of the original. The first film is very much part of the “found footage” sub-genre, and it’s pretty effective, but what adds to it’s effectiveness is the other story which was what Cotton Marcus was doing in trying to expose the “reality” of exorcisms. That character was absolutely magnetic in the first film thanks to one terrific performance from actor Patrck Fabien. This sequel decides right off the bat that it’s not going to go the “found footage” route and that it will present itself as a traditional narrative, with the main focus being on the Nell Sweetzer character. No disrespect meant at all to actress Ashley Bell who’s reprising her role here, but the way this is presented, she’s just not strong enough to carry the film. But that’s only the start of the film’s problems.

As this movie starts off, it pretty much follows horror tropes that you’ve seen time and again. The opening few minutes are pretty good, but after that it falls into predictability- Nell starts to get better, she makes friends, she gets a job, she discovers a boy her likes her and it’s all peppered with little bits that act as jump scares that slowly start to unhinge the character again. That’s fine if you can come up with a way in which it all pays off effectively, but here, the solution from the filmmakers comes at us from left field.

Spoilers ahead here – two thirds through the film, the footage from the documentary that was being made around Cotton Marcus is discovered and has made it’s way to YouTube. Nell is discovered by a guy on the street who recognizes her from the video and soon starts to suffer from the consequences of that. As a crowd starts to gather, Nell is grabbed by a VooDoo practitioner named Cecile who says that her “group” has been watching her since she’s come to New Orleans, though this is the first overt way that we the audience are seeing it. Cecile takes Nell and tells her about her group, I believe it was called the Order of the Red Hand, and then they in turn try to help Nell by performing another exorcism on her. Now this would be all well and good if this group had been introduced right from the start, but as it is introduced, it just comes out of nowhere and just feels like it was put in because the filmmakers couldn’t think of anything else to do. What should’ve been done (or at least what I would’ve done- though I like to think I wouldn’t even have made a sequel in the first place) is that the “found footage” format should’ve been retained and this group should’ve been introduced from the start, filming what they were doing as a matter of posterity. You could’ve gone through the same motions of “curing” Nell, but seeing this from a group that was absolutely counter to the first group who were trying to raise Abalam with the “found footage” format adding much more needed immediacy to the events. In addition, this could’ve added a character or two (say like a more fleshed out Cecile) who could’ve added a whole other layer to the film, just as Cotton Marcus did in the first.

Ashley Bell isn’t the only actor from the first film to reprise her role here. Louis Herthum, who played her father is also back. Nell’s father starts to show up as tempting visions from Abalam to try and reclaim Nell. Again, not a bad idea but the execution is what’s at question; in the first film Herthum was clean shaven and when he shows up here he has a beard. Now when I first saw him with the beard, I didn’t even think it was the same actor, but as he showed up later, I did recognize him. This is just sloppy visual continuity, and there’s no excuse for it, or there should be no excuse for it (I get the feeling that the production was only going to get Herthum for a brief time, he needed the beard for another part and couldn’t shave it off for the time frame that he was needed for).

I don’t know who is ultimately to blame for this mess, but really this project should never have even been greenlit in the first place. I’ve read an interview with Eli Roth in which Roth has talked about decisions to go certain ways here, and I’d like to think that he should know better, but really I can’t say how much control he even had in the first place. I didn’t write a review of it, but I can say the same thing a movie from last year that Roth also produced called The Man with the Iron Fists written, directed and starring The RZA. This was also a pretty sloppy mess and what I came away from with was that as a writer, director and actor, The RZA is a good musician. I got the feeling that Roth’s connection with that was to basically make sure the train was running on time and I get the feeling that may be the case with The Last Exorcism Part II as well.

To be fair, I do think Ed Gass-Donnelly has a good eye and I certainly like the composition of the shots here. I also think the idea of the Order of the Red Hand is a good one, I just wish it hadn’t been so clumsily inserted in the film and instead it should’ve been the focus of the movie. Even with that said, The Last Exorcism Part II is still a huge mess and should just be avoided entirely. Between this and Texas Chainsaw 3D, so far 2013 isn’t a good year for horror films.

Long ago, in the kingdom known as Cloister, a young peasant boy named Jack and the young princess Isabelle are simultaneously being told the story of a land of fierce and deformed giants that’s suspended in the sky, the giant beanstalk that connects the two and the ferocious appetite that the giants have for the taste of human flesh. To the children, it’s just a simple bedtime story but as they grow older, they soon discover that there’s truth to this tale.

Jack, now in his late teens, lives with his uncle, after his father has passed away. Times are tough for the two and the uncle charges Jack with the task of selling their horse and cart for enough money to repair their home. Isabelle has grown to want to have big adventures before she has to live a life of responsibility and eventual marriage to the suspicious Roderick who has his own devious plans for the kingdom. Soon the paths of both Jack and Isabelle cross, and that’s when they discover that the bedtime story of their childhood was indeed very true.

That’s a simplified premise to Jack the Giant Slayer the latest movie from director Bryan Singer, who’s best known for films like The Usual Suspects, the first two X-Men movies, Superman Returns and Valkyrie. I’m certainly a fan of Singer’s and was pretty keen to see what he’d do with this. We’ve seen a few classic fairy tales get a big-screen update, two of those, Red Riding Hood and Snow White and the Huntsman I can’t say I was very interested in seeing. The third, Hansel & Gretel; Witch Hunters was different for me and I enjoyed the movie very much. The biggest selling point for Jack the Giant Slayer was indeed the fact that Bryan Singer was directing it, and I gotta say, I had a lot of fun with this.

Now to be honest, there really isn’t a lot of huge depth to this story or to it’s characters. In fact, the characters are very two-dimensional, but in the context of the style of the film, I really don’t mind that. And the style of the film is pure broad spectacle and absurd action with the characters being the simplest strokes of good and evil. That in itself will probably be a huge turn-off for some, but for myself I was glad to see this “tall tale” approach taken to the classic story. Now of course, by what I described with the premise above, there’s liberties being taken here, but thanks to a clever little bit of business at the end of the film, that’s all put in some nice context to the nature of tall tales and how they change over the course of generations.

The movie is absolutely gorgeous and I’d even go so far as to say that I think it’s Singer’s best-looking film to date. The visual effects are spectacular and I really like the look of the giants. The look of the giants here, at least to me, share a commonality with the look of the trolls in the movie Troll Hunter in that they all look like they’re more designed to resemble the look of classic storybook illustrations instead of being overdone in a more realistic way. I chose to see the movie in 3D and I’m glad I did, Singer’s got a good understanding of what he wants to accomplish with it and he gets a world that’s very immersive as a result. Sure, it also has a smattering of “in-your-face” 3D effects, but immersion is the bigger result.

I was very impressed with the sheer absurdity of various situations and action in the film. There’s a bit midway through where one of the giants is preparing to eat a defender of the princess (Elmont played by Ewan McGregor) and he literally wraps him up in dough and puts him next to two pigs treated the same way, “pigs in a blanket” indeed. It was shown in the trailers, and I thought it was clever there, but seeing it in context was of course even more fun. Late in the movie, the giants of course start to attack Cloister and in the course of their attack they start to fling flaming trees into the village. This sort of action strikes me as the type of thing that you might see in a Monty Python film or more specifically a Terry Gilliam film, and while it makes sense that the giants do this, there’s also something that’s just very broad about it that I find totally appealing.

As I said, the characters are very two-dimensional, but here I don’t take that as a slight in the least. I think it serves Singer’s purpose and further, I think he’s cast it quite well. Nicholas Hoult and Eleanor Tomlinson play Jack and Isabelle respectively. I’m not really that familiar with Tomlinson, but Hoult gave a memorable performance as Hank McCoy, the X-Man known as The Beast, in X-Men: First Class. I think the two are extremely likable and have nice chemistry with each other. There’s a few aspects to Hoult’s Jack that make me think of Nigel Terry’s young King Arthur from the movie Excalibur and I think this kid will be one of those to watch out for in the future, to be sure. As mentioned above, Ewan McGregor plays Elmont, one of the kingdom’s elite warriors, and I think McGregor’s having a ball here, sort of giving us a combination of what you might get if Eddie Izzard played Obi-Wan Kenobi. Stanley Tucci plays Roderick and he’s very appropriately cast for the part, Roderick is full of smarm and that’s certainly been a big part of a lot of the character roles that Tucci’s played in the past. Ian McShane plays the King of Cloister and while the actor doesn’t get to be as showy as he’s been in past roles, his presence certainly adds gravity to being the king.

Not exactly for sure how the giants were created here- oh sure CGI is obvious but just not for sure if motion capture was involved using the real actors. The great Bill Nighy is credited with the part of General Fallon the two-headed leader of the giants with John Kassir being credited as playing his small head. I found it amusing to watch the two heads interact even though those interactions are fairly simplistic, but still you’d hear one grunt at the other in a knowing way and I’d certainly like to think there was some play between the actors on that, but I don’t know for sure. But still it’s a nifty character as are Fallon’s lead warriors, Fee, Fye, Foe and Fumm.

I know some will probably just find Jack the Giant Slayer totally boring just because there isn’t great depth to the story or the characters, but I just don’t think that was the point. I think Bryan Singer set out to make a basic good versus evil story and just wants to entertain you with the sheer spectacle of the idea. Will that be enough? Well, it certainly worked for me and I was surprised at just how much I had a smile on my face during the film and gently laughed over the absurdity of some of the situations. For that, of course, I can’t help but recommend it… this is fun stuff.

#1 Identity Thief from Universal rose from #2 to #1 with a gross of $14 million (-40.8%) in 3,222 theaters (+57).  Total gross to date is $93.6 million.  Budget was $35 million.

#2 Snitch from Summit Entertainment opened at #2 with a gross of $13.2 million in 2,511 theaters.  Budget was unknown.

#3 Escape from Planet Earth from Weinstein Company rose from #4 to #3 with a gross of $10.7 million (-32.8%) in 3,353 theaters (+65).  Total gross to date is $34.8 million.  Budget was $40 million.

#4 Safe Haven from Relativity fell from #3 to #4 with a gross of $10.5 million (-51.1%) in 3,223 theaters.  Total gross to date is $47.6 million.  Budget was $28 million.

#5 A Good Day to Die Hard from 20^th Century Fox fell from #1 to #5 with a gross of $10.2 million (-59.1%) in 3,555 theaters (+2).  Total gross to date is $52 million.  Budget was $92 million.

#6 Dark Skies from Weinstein/Dimension opened at #6 with a gross of $8.2 million in 2,313 theaters.  Budget was $3.5 million.

#7 Silver Linings Playbook from Weinstein Company rose from #8 to #7 with a gross of $5.8 million (-7.9%) in 2,012 theaters (-190).  Total gross to date is $107.2 million.  Budget was $21 million.

#8 Warm Bodies from Summit Entertainment fell from #5 to #8 with a gross of $4.8 million (-45.6%) in 2,644 theaters (-253).  Total gross to date is $58.2 million.  Budget was unknown.

#9 Beautiful Creatures (2013) from Warner Bros. fell from #6 to #9 with a gross of $3.6 million (-52.4%) in 2,950 theaters.  Total gross to date is $16.8 million.  Budget was $60 million.

#10 Side Effects from Open Road Films fell from #7 to #10 with a gross of $3.4 million (-46.5%) in 2,070 theaters (-535).  Total gross to date is $25.1 million.  Budget was unknown.

#11 Zero Dark Thirty from Sony/Columbia fell from #10 to #11 with a gross of $2.2 million (-25.6%) in 1,197 theaters (-325).  Total gross to date is $91.5 million.  Budget was $40 million.

#12 Argo from Warner Bros. held at #12 with a gross of $1.8 million (-16.3%) in 802 theaters (-101).  Total gross to date is $129.7 million.  Budget was $44.5 million.

The combined gross of the top 12 movies this weekend was $88.3 million.

Sources:
Box Office Mojo