Tuesday, December 15, 2015

Sleeper Hit Films

Hollywood will always blow millions of dollars on advertisement for their flms. They want you to know as much as possible about their films so you can spend your money and go see. They'll put the poster of their film in your stores, a picture of it in your magazine, have its trailer pop up on youtube before seeing your video, and have it on your TV constantly. If they don't let you know how would you know about it. If the studio feels the film will do great it will do whatever it takes to make sure you know about it. Don't worry it is not some evil conspiracy by Hollywood it is that they believe without advertisement their is no chance for their movie to make money.
Above is an example of advertisement for the new Star Wars: the Force Awakens movie coming out. Above is an example of a tie-in advertisement. You see Walmart promoting Star Wars:The Force Awakens, and the film intern promoting Walmart. Stuff like this is used all the time to promote a movie that will be expected to be successful. If a movie is not expected to be successful it would never get promotion such as this.
However that is not the case for these movies. My blog is about the movies that were expected to be losers. The bums of the film industries. The movies that would get beat up and mangled and kicked to the side by critics and movie goers. The movies in my blog are about Sleeper Hits. Sleeper Hits are films that had a small opening or were poorly promoted or not promoted at all and went to receive huge mainstream success anyway. Some of the films went on to become cult classics and something that film critics always get caught off guard by. Sleeper hits to me are what the film industry is all about. It proves that the audience decides what movies will be considered successful purely on their entertainment and originality instead of on their advertisements. In my investigation and reading of the sleeper hits I wrote about I found most of them to be comedies. From that fact I can assume comedies are always a category that is tricky. It can either be a huge bust or a huge success depending on the audience. I focused on my favorite sleeper hit films and I wrote about what I enjoyed about them individually and its impact to its viewers.
http://images.fandango.com/ImageRenderer/0/0/redesign/static/img/default_poster.png/0/images/masterrepository/other/Sleeper-1.jpg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eSXNSdkFt4o
http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/01589/rocky-ap_1589404a.jpg
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The Karate Kid: The remake

For my last post I thought I talk about the remake of my favorite movie. The Karate Kid (1984) is my favorite movie of all time. I know everything there is to know about that movie. I know the actors, where they are from, the story, the director you name it. So when the remake of my favorite movie came out needless to say the bar was high. The first thing that popped in my head is they better not try to make this movie just like the original because if they do that is it! Ive always had a secret hatred for remakes and if they did it with this one then they already messed up. As you have noticed most remakes have not been good. Whenever you here complaints about remakes it is usually that the movie did  not do the original justice. It is rare to find a good remake. Especially with bad ones off the top of my head like The Sandlot, Conan the Barbarian, and almost every horror movie remake has not been good.
 I didn't want to make any assumptions yet so I thought I should give this movie the benefit of the doubt and not prejudge it, besides it was the remake of my favorite movie so I thought that alone should make it good. When I finally saw the movie my initial reaction was positive. I thought it was a solid movie, and it was entertaining. I wasn't completed wowed or amazed like the original, but it was good enough not for me to be disappointed and I didn't consider this movie as another sorry remake. Fortunately for all Karate Kid fans this film was a decent remake.
The film grossed over 343 million worldwide which was a huge surprise to critics. Critics expected for the movie to do poorly in their numbers and did not expect the movie to garner this much money. It made 56 million over the opening weekend which was twice what critics were expecting for it to make. Which made this the sleeper hit of the year in 2010. However many are confused to how it did so great since the main actor Jaden Smith did not do so great as an actor. However others will agree Jackie Chan did a exceptional job in his part. Its funny because the same was thought about in the original. Ralph Machiho did a alrite job to some critics, but Pat Morita did a phenomenal job which earned him a best supporting actor nomination.
This film while loved by some and hated by some it showed Jackie Chan's wide acting range. He wasn't just some martial artist who did films he was now looked at as an exceptional actor with martial arts skills. So he filled the need for great acting in the film. Jaden Smith supplied the need of comedy and attractiveness. He definitely got his humor and charm from his farther so he does attract a family audience. The title of the movie brought in viewers seeking that nostalgia. Jackie Chan brought in all the martial arts enthusiasts into the theater and Jaden Smith brought in the families and viewers expecting a great performance from him like his father.

The Karate Kid: PG: 2h 20min: Action,drama,family: 2010
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hkORWn_wbcY
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There's Something About Mary: The Farrelly Brothers genius

This is the peak of the Farrelly Brothers power and genius! The Farrelly brothers were both raised in Cumberland Rhode Island. When they finished highschool they both decided to go to college with the dream to become film writers and Directors. The two hilarious Directors made the movie There's Something about Mary which is the third movie out of the first four classic they made. I call their first four movies the gospels of comedy! This film was their next stab at  making people laugh and they did not disappoint the film grossed over 370 million!
In the first four films the Fareelly brothers made including There's something About Mary they all share common themes. The first is they all start in a road trip specifically in Providence except for Kingpin. If you play close attention their films as well always show intelligent able bodied people in their films as stupid, while the people with disabilities will seem very intelligent or inspirational. In general the Farrelly brothers use people with mental or physical disabilities in their movies all the time especially this one. For example in There's something about Mary you see intelligent people like Ted and Pat the private investigator always making a fool of themselves or looking stupid, and you can't help but dislike them at times and pity them. While Mary's brother Warren while mentally disabled is such a lovable character. The film focuses on his strengths instead of his faults such as solving the rubix cube in less than a minute in the beginning of the movie. This was something I appreciate the most about the Farrelly brothers which is their willingness to have people play mentally disabled people and actually have mentally disabled people in their movies without doing so in a over the top offensive way but at the same time making it still be funny. When seeing their movies one could be caught off guard at first, because a person will think "ok am I suppose to find this funny or not?". I believe since the Directors show these characters in strong roles they do not receive so much backlash as people would expect.

So as you can see in this interview with W. Earl Brown the Farrelly brothers were always willing to stretch that political correctness barrier. To be honest they are able to get away with  a lot with what they do because it's just funny. If it wasn't funny they would receive a lot more negative feedback. The farrelly brothers were known to introduce ideas and scenes in their movies for their actors to do that would make even the actors feel uncomfortable at first. In There's Something About Mary when they told Cameron Diaz about the "hair gel scene" she thought it was a terrible idea and that the audience would be disgusted at the idea that the "gel" in her hair was being acted as semen. When they showed the scene to a small audience to test it they all found it hilarious and they went with it.
Obscene? Inappropriate maybe? Most people would answer no way! The Farrelly brothers movies have always been successful and especially in this films case. There's something about Mary was only fourth in gross income in sales that year. So obviously people really enjoy the crude, and slapstick humor. The Farrelly brothers however know when the joke needs to end. They were asked to do a sequel to the movie but declined becasue they felt a sequel just wouldn't make sense. They still continue to make movies and make people laugh. There's Something About Mary happens to be their best

There's Something About Mary: R: 1h 59 min: comedy, romance: 1998
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lSEiOD2vXYg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mbFx0CbaIlY
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Juno: Ellen Pages Breakout Role


Seeing this movie the first thing that caught my attention was the performance of Ellen page. It was the first time I was introduced to her as an actress. The only movie Ellen Page did was Hard Candy the year before and the other works she was involved in were all roles she landed in television in Canada. Juno was her breakthrough performance and earned her nominations for Academy Award, Golden Globe, and Screen Actors Guild Award for best actress.

When I first heard about the movie the first thing I noticed from the trailer was Michael Cera who was also from Superbad. Side note that movie was also awesome! All the hype and great things about this movie were not coming from Michael Cera but coming from Ellen page's impactive performance. Watching the movie seeing Ellen page's hilariously cynical attitude towards her pregnancy and life in general is what carried the movie. The movie introduces that a lead female character can have an impact on the movie and bring movie sales without being over sexualized, romantic, or stupid (sexuality and culture 241).

The character Juno was a short, un curvy, simple young high school girl. When you just read that last sentence you probably already prejudged it as a boring movie. But she was hilarious, strong, and original. You would think watching a movie about a young pregnant girl would be full of crying and senseless drama, and her wondering why her boyfriend doesn't love her. But that wasn't the case at all she is just a cool girl who happens to be pregnant and that she deals with it by treating it as a joke and hiding behind her sarcasm. Over the course of the  movie she tries to answer her own question that she raises which is "I don't know what kind of girl I am". She also figures out that she really loves that goof ball Paulie. "goldfigure". But her unique performance as a strong female lead is what this made this sleeper hit come awake. Its a must see!

Juno: PG-13, 96 minutes, romantic comedy, 2007
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http://static.stereogum.com/uploads/2008/12/juno.jpg
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Thursday, December 10, 2015

Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon: The East Coming to The West

Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon the most successful foreign language film in the U.S! It was the first foreign-language film to break the US $100 million mark in box office receipts. It is a huge surprise because Americans are known for being put off once a foreign language film is released. There is the stigma that it is going to be silly if it is dubbed. If it is subbed instead you will have to deal with the tiring job of reading the subtitles while trying to keep up with the movie. So as you can see the films in the foreign-language category already deal with a lot of obstacles before people even see their movies. While the movie being a success in the East wasn't a surprise; it being a success in the West was. It is unknown that the East does just as well in the West with their own movies. They often do well domestically in their own countries, but internationally that is another story. The U.S. is always looked at as the leader in film making and a film is only considered truly successful when it is successful in the U.S.
The director Ang Lee is a very extraordinary and versatile director. After Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon Ang Lee directed The Hulk and Brokeback Mountain. What is interesting is how diverse he makes all his films from each other. You would rarely see one of his films and think "wow this is so much similar to the other" or "this is definitely Ang Lee's work". To be able to make something so mystical and action packed such as Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, and then to make something so romantic and Taboo such as Brokeback Mountain is truly something unique. Ang Lee was able to make the movie in such a way that it was relatable not to just an Asian audience but to an American audience as well. 
Over the years the fascination for Asian culture has been growing in America. You can see it in the growing interest in the kung-fu movies in the 1970's, and then later the global success in the Japanese video games and  cartoons in the 1990's (Chan, Wu 195). While the success will seem a bit of a surprise initially, when you really think about it Americans were getting more used to accepting the entertainment that the East was offering. All it took was a great movie like Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon to ignite that interest. Their were already fans of the Asian culture and entertainment within the United States before this movie, but once this movie came out it shed even more light on Asian films. 
As you see here in the clip it is something extremely different from what American viewers would be used to. First off you see two females fighting in this scene. In most American films during this time it was very rare you will see females fighting and if they did it would be no where near as proficient as this. This particular film also had it's focus on the beauty and skill of martial arts particularly wuxia which is Chinese swordsmanship. While we have action in our films it is not as intricate and focused on the person such as this movie. If you see a movie like Rambo it is not really him fighting the enemy using his fists the whole time. It is him using a gun, a bazooka, a bomb, etc. In this film you see the characters use their bodies, a bamboo stick, and a sword. The focus is more on the characters' skill as a martial artist and what they can do instead of what they can use. With that said their is a focus in romance in this film as well. A stigma that many viewers may have on the Martial arts films is that it is always about action and it is pointless and confusing. In this film their is a clear focus on plot and romance and while the older "kung-fu" movies may have been that way it was definitely not the case for this film.

Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon: PG-13: 120 min: Action, Drama, Romance: 2001


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Napoleon Dynamite


Apparently Napoleon is not the only one who appreciates his own awkwardness. To be honest my first reaction was like "what the hell" how is this movie so popular. I was pre-judging however before I saw the movie, the only advertisement that I have seen is the trailer. I did not see the trailer in till about a year later when I saw the DVD version of Dodgeball in my house. My niece was hounding me about how funny it was so I gave the film a chance and I watched the whole film. The best phrase to describe it was that it was the driest, funniest, most awkwardly refreshing movie I've seen. All I kept thinking is why do I think this is funny right now, it shouldn't be funny. Why I thought something so simple as Napoleon stuffing tatter tots in his back pocket to be hilarious? Also the fact I started to believe Kip was a ladies man like he said he was. 

Why is it that a movie that I knew nothing about came to be something I felt "how could I have lived without seeing this movie? How is it that something that seemed to have no hope for success become so successful? The only thought that came to me was its originality. I'll admit that is such a typical answer, every great movie is deemed "original" and "new". However it really does deserve to be called original. When I saw the trailer the first thing I thought was "good lord what the hell is Jared Hess thinking?" Jared Hess is the director of Napoleon Dynamite. In the trailer it seemed to be a random, typical coming of age movie, and also depressing. Everyone in the trailer has a serious, emotionless mug on their face; it almost seemed the actors themselves were depressed. So at first glance that turned me away. Second non of the actors in the movie seemed recognizable, and Jared Hess the director was a new name to me as well. The only thing that brought me to watch this movie and for most viewers was word of mouth which saved this movie. The movie made only over 100,000 in it opening weekend. Then it kept doubling in its earnings every week instead of decreasing in till it got to a steady increase by week 6. All together it made over 45,000,000!
You can see as Jon Heder explains the impact his character has for the audience. His character Napoleon Dynamite almost became a sort of an icon for viewers everywhere. He became a character that everyone recognized and someone frequently quoted and mimicked in other shows, movies, and peoples lives. I can't tell you how many Napoleon Dynamites I see walking around during Halloween.

 Napoleon Dynamite: 1hr 36: comedy: 2004

 http://resizing.flixster.com/UqHzQPFdhnqZlhZX7klD3Clee9o=/800x1200/dkpu1ddg7pbsk.cloudfront.net/movie/11/17/82/11178227_ori.jpg
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NZJrGuC92U8
  http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=napoleondynamite.htm



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MAD MAX: The Futuristic Western


 
MAD MAX! One of the best science fiction movies out there. Critics and regular movie goers love this movie. Its obviously a cult classic appearing on all TV stations as reruns and it came out almost 30 years ago. Mad Max is almost like the futuristic version of old westerns. The hero (Mel Gibson) is a Australian cop stuck to deal with the lawlessness in a post-apocalyptic world. The world is filled with famine, disease, and violence because their lacking humanity's most treasured resource oil. Its full of some of the best car chases, crashes, and violence. Here is a clip to see how similar it is to the beloved old westerns but at the same time how unique it is. 

 
Not bad for 1979 right! It looks like a film that has a little Dirty Harry in it, some Death Wish, mixed in with like some samurai legend elements. In the course of the film Max Rockatansky is viewed as some unwilling hero who is thrown in this whole mess to save whats left of the torn up world he lives in. Mad Max is similar to a old western ranger in a sense that while he is a product of his environment he still overcomes and becomes redeemed and a redeemer for the world that's around him. 
 

George Miller the creator and director of the film franchise Mad Max is a special character as well. One question when watching this movie is why is it so Gorey and violent. George Miller based the violence and gore on his accident that he experienced in his life. The budget for the film was only 350,000. For a movie with so much car crashes, chases, and violence its a huge surprise on how they pulled it off. What is also interesting is that George Miller was a practicing medical doctor while he was filming this movie. The money that he received for the production were mostly donations from his other medical associates. So the fact that he as a director put his own money into this movie and made it himself makes it that much more special. You can see the creativity in the movie that could not have come from another Director other than George Miller. If he wanted, George Miller probably could have sold the rights of the film to a bigger corporation and let them deal with it but he most likely than would not be the director and a lot of bogus changes would have been made to the movie and it wouldn't be the movie we love today.


George Miller with actors Tom Hardy and Mel Gibson
It is a film that garnered the attention of a lot of viewers because it brought back that nostalgia of old western and strong gritty heroes. American Film always had that, but with the Mad Max franchise it brought a new twist to it, because instead of being a film that has senseless violence; which it has don't get me wrong, it also had a very important message or theme to it we can learn from. In one way you can take the message that the film represents our destruction as a society because of our importance in technology has taken over our lives, and because of that it is leading to our destruction. Or you can take the humorous satire message out of it that it represents a doomed world that keeps going back to its old patterns which will eventually destroy it.

Mad Max: R: 88 min: 1979: Action, Sci-Fi
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 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oh2MX0EftaU
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https://www.thewrap.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/mad-max-premiere-george-tom-mel.jpg
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0079501/












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