#1 Hotel Transylvania from Sony/Columbia opened at #1 with a gross of $42.5 million in 3,349 theaters. Budget was $85 million.
#2 Looper from TriStar opened at #2 with a gross of $20.8 million in 2,992 theaters. Budget was $30 million.
#3 End of Watch from Open Road Films fell from #1 to #3 with a gross of $7.8 million (-40.6%) in 2,780 theaters (+50). Total gross to date is $26 million. Budget was $7 million.
#4 Trouble with the Curve from Warner Bros. fell from #3 to #4 with a gross of $7.3 million (-40.2%) in 3,212 theaters. Total gross to date is $23.5 million. Budget was unknown.
#5 House at the End of the Street from Relativity fell from #2 to #5 with a gross of $7.1 million (-42%) in 3,083 theaters. Total gross to date is $22.2 million. Budget was $10 million.
#6 Pitch Perfect from Universal opened at #6 with a gross of $5.1 million in 3,083 theaters. Budget was $17 million.
#7 Finding Nemo (3D) from Buena Vista fell from #4 to #7 with a gross of $4 million (-58.1%) in 2,639 theaters (-265). Total gross to date is $36.4 million. Budget was unknown.
#8 Resident Evil: Retribution from Sony/Columbia fell from #5 to #8 with a gross of $3 million (-55.4%) in 2,381 theaters (-635). Total gross to date is $38.7 million. Budget was $65 million.
#9 The Master from Weinstein Company fell from #7 to #9 with a gross of $2.7 million (-39%) in 856 theaters (+68). Total gross to date is $9.6 million. Budget was unknown.
#10 Won’t Back Down from 20th Century Fox opened at #10 with a gross of $2.6 million in 2,515 theaters. Budget was unknown.
#11 Dredd from Lionsgate fell from #6 to #11 with a gross of $2.4 million (-62.3%) in 2,557 theaters (+51). Total gross to date is $10.9 million. Budget was $50 million.
#12 The Possession from Lionsgate fell from #8 to #12 with a gross of $1.4 million (-48.4%) in 1,618 theaters (-980). Total gross to date is $47.4 million. Budget was $14 million.
The combined gross of the top 12 movies this weekend was $106.7 million.
Sausagefest is less than two weeks away! Go to our website, sausagefeststl.com, and donate to The Breast Cancer Research Foundation. There are lots of perk levels so you can also get nifty stuff for your donations!
Release date: 12/16/2000
Toei Company
Directed by
Kinji Fukasaku
Produced by
Masao Sato
Masumi Okada
Teruo Kamaya
Tetsu Kayama
Screenplay by
Kenta Fukasaku
Based on
Battle Royale, by Koushun Takami
Cast
Takeshi Kitano
Kitano-sensei
Tatsuya Fujiwara
Shuya Nanahara
Aki Maeda
Noriko Nakagawa
The hosts review:
Darrell liked the movie, with all its gore, and thought it held up quite well. David agreed, thought it was okay and a bit rough. The hosts brought up comparisons to The Hunger Games and Lord of the Flies. Going all the way back to Lord of the Flies, these were children that were unintentionally put in their position. The Hunger Games and Battle Royale came at the story line from a slightly different place and from a similar background, with children being placed/forced into survival. Another difference in The Hunger Games and Battle Royale are the different roles that the “audience” played. In The Hunger Games, the games were a form of entertainment to the wealthy, but in Battle Royale, the media was only seen once in the beginning of the movie.
The hosts discussed the girl shown in the beginning of the film who appears to be a winner of Battle Royale, but there was no one winner *SPOILER* in this specific battle. Darrell thought it was the girl who survived (one boy and one girl survived) but David didn’t think that made sense in the story. Lena (chat room) at first thought the girl was a stand-in used to fool the public into thinking the battle was successful, but later found out that the girl was a winner of a previous battle… who shows up in the second Battle Royale movie.
Another Hunger/Battle comparison was the depiction of females. The Hunger Games had a strong “girl power” theme but that was definitely not the case in Battle Royale. The Japanese girls were, for the most part, portrayed as hysterical and without any leadership. This, naturally, brings up the question of, “What would you do if you were in that position?” Would you kill your best friend, would you hide out as long as you could, would you commit suicide or purposely put yourself in line to be killed so that you wouldn’t have to participate at all?
The discussion took at odd turn at this point, in the direction of Sausagefest 4 = Battle Royale… with kielbasa.
Darrell discussed how Battle Royale had difficulties finding an American distributor due to its high level of violence. The Japanese DVD release was even postponed because of a slashing incident (an 11 year old girl slashed and killed a female 12 year old schoolmate) in which the child had read Battle Royale.
One thing that Tony liked about Battle Royale, in comparing it to The Hunger Games, is how much more visceral the violence was. He didn’t find that it glorified violence but rather showed it respectfully and showed what a horrific thing has happened.
Trivial bits ‘n pieces:
The painting of all the students was created by Takeshi Kitano.
Battle Royale is one of the top-10 highest-grossing films in Japan.
Director Kinji Fukasaku has said that he based this movie on his experiences in World War II Japan, where he worked in a factory that was regularly bombed by Allied aircraft and many of his fellow workers were killed on their first or second day on the job and he never got to know any of them.
Awards:
Battle Royale was nominated for nine Japanese Academy Awards in 2001 and won three (Outstanding Achievement in Film Editing, Popularity Award and Newcomer of the Year for Tatsuya Fujiwara and Aki Maeda)
As our movie starts, the year is 2044. Time travel hasn’t been invented as of yet, but it soon will be. When it is invented, it’s taken control of by the criminal element of the future. When this mob of the future wants to get rid of someone, they dispatch them into the past where a hired gun, known as a Looper, awaits, ready to execute the target. Joe, one of the more reliable Loopers out there, is doing his job, collecting his money, getting high and living his life until one day, his future self is sent back for him to execute, closing the Loop, so to speak.
That’s the broad premise of Looper the latest movie from writer/director Rian Johnson who’s previously directed movies like Brick and episodes of one of the best shows on television, Breaking Bad and as far as I’m concerned, this is an instant science fiction classic deserving of multiple viewings. Johnson has given us something here that’s extremely meaty and very intelligent.
Now, I’ll certainly grant you that there’s plenty to question about the big picture premise, like how does the mob get ahold of time travel and addressing that isn’t really a concern of Johnson’s and that’s just fine. He’s basically giving you the premise and asking you to go with it, but there’s also enough meat built into this with one other character that it’s pretty easy to come to your own rationalization why such things happen. That’s not what’s important to this movie though; what’s really important here is what happens in the past and it’s implications for the future and how it shapes and molds individuals. The world can be explained, but it’s mostly through what you see happening with all of the various characters in the film.
Time travel films can almost always come with some sort of plot holes or paradoxes that will leave some sort of bewilderment. That’s not the case here and it certainly seems to me that Johnson has gone to considerable lengths to make sure that he’s got all of his bases covered. Everything works and yet Johnson has done such a wonderful job of crafting his characters that you never quite know what’s going to happen next. When the final resolution comes, we’re not expecting it and yet it all makes sense thanks to some very important character growth from the film’s main character, the Looper, Joe.
Joe is played by both Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Bruce Willis and the performances from both are just outstanding, I’d even go so far as to say Oscar-worthy, especially for Gordon-Levitt who I think is simply one of the best actors working today. Gordon-Levitt is wearing some pretty heavy make-up to make him look like a younger version of Willis, and he’s also studied Willis’ mannerisms quite well. Sometimes, the make-up might be a little distracting, but more often than not it does work. One scene in particular shows Gordon-Levitt in a wife-beater type of t-shirt and the first thing that came to mind to me when I saw that was Bruce Willis in Die Hard. The thing is, Gordon-Levitt is not just doing a Bruce Willis impersonation, but he’s building an entirely different character, especially after both versions of Joe have a conversation face-to-face.
At the same time, Willis is just doing some brilliant stuff here. The majority of the film deals with the younger Joe, but thanks to one terrific montage scene that accelerates time, we get to see the transformation that the younger version makes to the older version and a whole different form of growth taking place. Willis’ older Joe has become a new character shaped from different life experiences. When the older Joe comes back to the past, he comes in with a hard plan to change the future and it’s through a task that is extremely distasteful. It’s something that the younger Joe would’ve done in a heartbeat without any effects, but the older version now deals with it in a very hard manner.
Gordon-Levitt and Willis carry the movie, no doubt about it, but they’ve got quite a bit of capable support and it’s all quite strong. Emily Blunt plays a character named Sara who the younger Joe encounters after he’s met his future self. Sara is caring for her young son, Cid on a farm and has her own problems to deal with, which I just can’t talk about without revealing more about the film. Jeff Daniels plays Abe, a representative of the mob from the future who’s in the past corralling the Loopers and handing out their assignments. It’s nice to see Daniels and Gordon-Levitt back together on-screen as their previous movie that they worked on together, The Lookout is what really made me take huge notice of Gordon-Levitt. Most impressive for me though was young Pierce Gagnon who plays the little boy Cid. Again, I just cannot go into the details about this character without spoiling aspects of the film, but whenever this boy is on-screen he commands your attention, most particularly after one very brutal bit of violence.
Looper is just absolutely terrific entertainment. It’s a smart science fiction film that gets there due to great characters and dialogue more than it does by action, but yet it’s action sequences are also quite well done. Looper grabbed me right from the start and just didn’t let go. Don’t miss this one…
There are no other movies in wide release this weekend.
There’s just over two weeks before Sausagefest 3! Check out our website, sausagefeststl.com, donate, join us. Every little bit helps breast cancer research.
Jeff has challenged himself to make a donation to Sausagefest of the total number of points that Tony, Lena and Scott get for this weekend’s picks. Great idea, Jeff, thanks!!
#1 End of Watch from Open Road Films opened at #1 with a gross of $13.2 million in 2,730 theaters. Budget was $7 million.
#2 House at the End of the Street from Relativity opened at #2 with a gross of $12.3 million in 3,083 theaters. Budget was $10 million.
#3 Trouble with the Curve from Warner Bros. opened at #3 with a gross of $12.2 million in 3,212 theaters. Budget was unknown.
#4 Finding Nemo (3D) from Buena Vista fell from #2 to #4 with a gross of $9.4 million (-42.2%) in 2,904 theaters. Total gross to date is $30.2 million. Budget was unknown.
#5 Resident Evil: Retribution from Sony/Columbia fell from #1 to #5 with a gross of $6.7 million (-68.2%) in 3,016 theaters (+4). Total gross to date is $33.5 million. Budget was $65 million.
#6 Dredd from Lionsgate opened at #6 with a gross of $6.3 million in 2,506 theaters. Budget was $50 million.
#7 The Master from Weinstein Company rose from #19 to #7 with a gross of $4.4 million (+496.4%) in 788 theaters (+783). Total gross to date is $5.4 million. Budget was unknown.
#8 The Possession from Lionsgate fell from #3 to #8 with a gross of $2.6 million (-54.2%) in 2,598 theaters (-262). Total gross to date is $45.3 million. Budget was $14 million.
#9 ParaNorman from Focus Features fell from #6 to #9 with a gross of $2.3 million (-24.2%) in 1,617 theaters (-709). Total gross to date is $52.6 million. Budget was unknown.
#10 Lawless from Weinstein Company fell from #4 to #10 with a gross of $2.28 million (-47.4%) in 2,614 theaters (-449). Total gross to date is $34.5 million. Budget was unknown.
#11 The Bourne Legacy from Universal fell from #8 to #11 with a gross of $1.6 million (-43.6%) in 1,431 theaters (-739). Total gross to date is $110.4 million. Budget was $125 million.
#12 The Odd Life of Timothy Green from Sony fell from #9 to #12 with a gross of $1.5 million (-40.6%) in 1,752 theaters (-663). Total gross to date is $48.7 million. Budget was unknown.
The combined gross of the top 12 movies this weekend was $75 million.
Darrell thought the movie wasn’t bad but had trouble getting into it because of the length of it, he thought the plot point dragged on. The hosts break into a side discussion about Stephen King’s books and, when he writes about lighter supernatural elements and the characters are real, the stories are much better. The human elements in this story aren’t driven by the supernatural events; the story is driven by the characters. Another example of this is Shawshank Redemption, which has no supernatural elements at all.
David liked the movie, but he doesn’t like the use of older characters used to tell their stories from years ago, as Tom Hanks character does to begin and end the movie. Tony brought up that in this particular case, it gives you a few hints as to what the “gift” is that John Coffey gave Paul Edgecomb. This brought up the question of, ‘Just how old is John Coffey? How long has been around before he’s ready to leave?’ Lena (chat room) thought that the scars on his arms might have meant that he might have been a slave.
In discussion the actors, the hosts agreed that Tom Hanks did a great job, and his best quality as an actor is the ability to be understated and to improve the quality of everyone working with him (see: Wilson – Castaway). Michael Clarke Duncan did a really great job at playing Coffey’s character and switching from an innocent to someone with the power to heal. The hosts thought Sam Rockwell did a fantastic job at Wild Bill. Michael Jeter as Del, Doug Hutchison as Percy, David Morse as Brutal, James Cromwell as Warden Moores… all believable, all really good characters.
In true Stephen King style, a lot of the movie showed each character’s set up; who everyone is, what their role is, how everyone interacts, and each part was necessary. There has to be three executions because each one sets up information about the next one. Percy have to have every one of his scenes to show what kind of a character he is so that it’s understood why Coffey gives a small part of himself to Percy so that justice could ultimately be done to Wild Bill. Edgecomb’s back story had to follow that particular path to understand why Coffey gives part of his gift to him.
The hosts go into short, impromptu lists of top boob movies and top dong movies… yeah, that’s what I said.
Trivial bits ‘n pieces:
At the beginning of the movie, when the old Paul Edgecomb is walking to get some breakfast after waking from that bad dream, he is walking on a tiled floor that is very green, as if it’s his Green Mile.
In actuality, Michael Clarke Duncan (6’5”) is only one inch taller than David Morse (6’4”) and two inches shorter than James Cromwell (6’7”). Among other things, creative camera angles were used to create the illusion that Duncan as John Coffey towered over the prison staff, even Brutal Howell and Warden Moores.
When Stephen King visited the set he asked to be strapped into Old Sparky to see how it felt. He didn’t like it and asked to be released.
When the producers were having trouble finding the right actor to fill the role of John Coffey, Bruce Willis suggested Duncan, who co-starred with him in Armageddon.
Many actors in this film have previously or subsequently appeared in other Stephen King adaptations. Morse appeared in the Langoliers and Hearts in Atlantis. Cromwell was in Salem’s Lot. Patricia Clarkson acted in Carrie. Jeffrey DeMunn and William Sadler were both in Shawshank Redemption and The Mist. Harry Dean Stanton appeared in Christine and Gary Sinise was in The Stand.
Awards:
1999 Academy Awards – 4 nominations
Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role-Michael Clarke Duncan
Best Picture
Best Sound Mixing
Best Adapted Screenplay
2000 Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films – 3 wins
Best Supporting Actor
Best Supporting Actress-Patricia Clarkson
Best Action/Adventure/Thriller Film
The Green Mile also won the following awards:
2000 Black Reel Award (Best Supporting Actor)
2000 Blockbuster Entertainment Award (Favorite Actor)
2000 Broadcast Film Critics Association (Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Supporting Actor)
2000 People’s Choice Award (Favorite All-Around Motion Picture and Favorite Dramatic Motion Picture)
We’re tentatively scheduling each episode/review for the first Saturday of each month. We encourage comments on the backseatproducers.com website. You can also leave us a voicemail at 618-207-4794 or use our free Google “Call Me” feature in the upper left of this website. We also have a Goodreads.com Back Seat Book Club group that is open the public. We hope you’ll join us and let us know what you think. We plan on having feedback episodes for each book and, hopefully, author interviews whenever we can get them.
Also, Back Seat Quickies is going to start including book reviews, so if any one wishes to send us a quickie, please do!