SPEARE'S TIPS: THE FILMS OF 8/28 - Halloween II, Final Destination 4, Taking Woodstock et al.

Ahh, the fall season. This might just be my favorite time of the year. What? What’s that you say? Oh, right. The start of the summer season is right up there too, but there’s a difference. In early May, you know what’s coming: an unbroken string of potential big-budget blockbusters, one right after the other. And there’s something to be said for that. But also remember, I live in Arizona, where the temperatures between May and August are always above 100 degrees, and quite often above 110. It is too damn hot to have any kind of fun EXCEPT going to the movies. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, but three months in, you kind of want it to be over, you know?

The fall season, on the other hand, is my favorite because of the anticipation. As the high temperatures begin to abate, high-budget CGI marvels are replaced with bigger stars, bigger directors, better stories, and better acting. In other words: awards season. What do we see between now and New Years’ that will vie for gold statuettes come spring? Right now, all we can do is make a few shrewd guesses – like Invictus, Precious, Nine and Tree of Life, for example – but for now, I can guarantee that there will be highly-acclaimed movies springing out of the woodwork between now and November. One year ago today, I had no IDEA what Slumdog Millionaire was!

So as we officially transition from summer to fall, let’s offer some brief congratulations. Congrats to Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen and Michael Bay, for easily taking the 2009 Box Office Champion crown by squeaking over the $400 million mark. (It will.) Hats off also to Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, for becoming the second-biggest earner in the series, with just over $300 million. (Again, it’ll get there.) Kudos to Pixar for Up, which has the dual distinction of being not only the best-reviewed movie of the summer, but became the studio’s second-biggest grosser of all time (behind only Finding Nemo). And finally, to the folks that brought us Star Trek and The Hangover, probably the summer’s two biggest surprise smash hits, thank you. Ya done good.

One other thing that the fall season tends to bring in droves is horror films, and between now and Halloween, there are no less than seven films coming in wide release that can be labeled either a straight-up horror film, a horror comedy, or a horror thriller (plus several others in limited release). The weekend starting August 28th starts us off with two of them. The first, ironically, is Halloween II, Rob Zombie’s second chapter in the revitalized classic horror franchise from the 1980s.

Two years ago, the former hard-rockin’ metalhead, a budding director, boldly decided to reinterpret the saga of masked serial killer Michael Myers. It made a respectable $58 million at the ticket counters and ended up with a rating of 6.0 (which is pretty good for any untested horror film). The second chapter follows immediately on the events of the first one, where Myers’ sister Laurie Strode (Scout Taylor-Compton) “struggles to come to terms with her brother Michael’s deadly return to Haddonfield, Illinois; meanwhile, Michael prepares for another reunion with his sister”. Or, in short: slash, slash, gurgle, scream, running, slash, gurgle, scream. Really, does the plot even matter? The supporting cast includes Malcolm McDowell, Brad Dourif and Sheri Moon Zombie (Rob’s significant other).

Scheduled for a roughly 3,000 theater release, the #1 spot is going to be a tussle between Halloween II and the fourth Final Destination film (which I’ll talk about in a sec). The first Halloween film was able to open with $26 million, but I find it hard to believe that Part 2 will do as well. I predict $19 million for its first three days, before ending with seven Top 5 points, three PTA, a rating around 6.0 and $47 million. Not really enough for me to spend $15 on it in Ultimate leagues (nor $16 in Box Office). Maybe if it had been released in, say, October?? Or am I being too literal?

While Halloween may get an “A” for mayhem, the Final Destination series of films gets an “A” for gut-wrenching jump-out-at-you scares. People have died in this series in truly horrific ways, and judging from the trailer, that looks to continue in the fourth installment of the series, titled Final Destination: Death Trip 3D. The first three films kind of teetered on the line between success and failure: Part 1 made $53 million in 2000; Part 2 brought in $47 million in 2003; and Part 3 netted $54 million in 2006. And ho, like clockwork, three years later, here we are again.

By now you should know the premise. One person in a whole group of young people gets a premonition about something terrible that is about to happen, and is able to take the necessary steps to save the entire group. But apparently Death doesn’t work that way; if you were meant to die, that’s that, and we spend ninety minutes watching each member of the group get picked off in ever-more-increasingly gory and grisly ways. We’ve had tragedy strike in the form of a plane crash, a freeway pileup and a theme park disaster. This time, it’s catastrophe at a racecar track. And… cue music!

This film is directed by David Ellis (who direct Part 2 as well as, woohoo, Snakes on a Plane), and it, too, is being release in the neighborhood of 3,000 theaters, some of which will feature moviegoers having flaming debris flung at them in glorious 3D. (Bring a date!) I feel safe in saying that this film, too, will finish in the neighborhood of $47 million, and will also net seven Top 5 points and a rating around 5.7. Why? Well, I fully expect H2 to beat FD4 on its OW, but H2 will take the harder tumble in its second week. If history has shown us anything, it’s that. For $13 in Ultimate ($14 in Box Office), it’s definitely the better bargain of the two. Not that that is saying much.

Many movies open in limited release, and then expand to a wider release in ensuing weeks. But Taking Woodstock does it all in the same week: it opens on two screens (in NY and LA) on Wednesday, and then expands to 1,300 theaters two days later. Which, I can already tell you, puts it in that territory of “too many screens for PTA, too few for high box office dollars”. Which is a shame, as it is the first American project that Academy Award-winning director Ang Lee has fronted since he copped the Best Director Oscar in 2006 for Brokeback Mountain.

Based on Elliot Tiber’s autobiography, Taking Woodstock follows young Elliot Teichberg (Demetri Martin), an aspiring Greenwich Village interior designer whose parents owned a small motel in upstate New York who, in a serendipitous happenstance (try saying that three times fast), owned the only music festival permit in the entire town of Bethel. NY. Trying to save his parents’ livelihood, Elliot enterprisingly sets out to organize what will become quite possibly the most famous rock-n-roll weekend of all time.

If you’re old enough to remember Woodstock (I sure am… in fact, I was actually BORN on the final day of the three-day rock festival in New York), then you’ll be pleased to realized that this comedy drama has not one gay cowboy in it. Although it does, shockingly, feature the guy who played Sabretooth in Wolverine, Liev Schreiber, as a transvestite. No, that’s not a typo. The supporting cast also includes Emile Hirsch, Eugene Levy, Imelda Staunton, and Jeffrey Dean Morgan.

It’s $8 in Ultimate leagues, and even though it’s current User Rating (7.9/372) is respectable, as I said, it won’t yield you much in other categories. It might be worth it for $5 in Box Office, but that is pushing it. For me, it looks more like a good rental than a theater experience. I do hear the soundtrack is awesome, however.

And now, a few words about this weekend’s two limited-release films:

The September Issue ($5 Ult, $2 BO) – All I know about high fashion is what I’ve learned by watching Project Runway (it’s a guilty pleasure, sue me). And what I’ve learned is spelled out in this documentary’s trailer: “the most important figure in the $300 billion global fashion industry” is Vogue magazine’s editor-in-chief, Anna Wintour. And that is not an understatement, folks. Like Caesar himself, all it takes from Wintour is a thumbs-up or thumbs-down to either make a budding fashion designer’s career or break it forever.

The most anticipated fashion mag of the entire year, bar none, is the Vogue edition that comes out in September (hence the title), as it marks the start of the fall fashion year. And director R.J. Cutler takes us, up close and personal, into Anna’s world as she prepares for the publishing of her 2008 September issue.

I’ve read several reviews at RT (where it has a staggering 92% Fresh score, or 12/13), and the critics all agree that though it is a documentary, it is fast-paced, well-shot, well-soundtracked, and most of all, fun. Its current rating at IMDb is 8.6 (with only 64 votes, but still). It will be opening in six theaters this weekend, all in New York, so, needless to say, this is, by FAR, my PTA pick of the week. For $5, this could do as well for you as It Might Be Loud was earlier this month for those stalwart few who picked it (myself, regrettably, not included). Make it work, people! (I heart Tim Gunn.)

Big Fan ($5 Ult, $2 BO) – no, this is not a rehash of the forgettable 1996 DeNiro/Snipes thriller The Fan, thank God. Rather, it is an independent drama directed by Robert D. Siegel (who co-wrote the screenplay for The Wrestler). This Sundance Film Festival selection stars Patton Oswalt as Paul Aufiero, a Staten Island parking-garage attendant and the self-proclaimed “world’s biggest New York Giants fan”.

Paul leads a pretty bleak life, and football is his religion. So much so, that it comes as a shock to him when an encounter with one of his heroes ends with Paul in the hospital. Then he is faced with a choice: does he send his hero to jail, and better his own life in the process, or does he think of the team first? Seven of eight critics at RT have liked this movie; they credit Oswalt’s terrific acting job first and foremost, and Siegel’s directing second. (Many of these critics’ quotes can be seen in the trailer.)

I’m not sure exactly how many screens Big Fan will debut on, and that is a vital piece of information if you are going to consider taking this for your slate. If it’s more than ten, I’d abandon it, as this is not likely to attract women or non-sports fans. It may pull in one or two PTA and grab you a rating in the 7’s, but for $5, I would definitely opt for The September Issue over this.


My predictions for the weekend of August 28-30, 2009:

1. Halloween II - $19 million
2. Final Destination: Death Trip 3D - $18 million
3. Inglourious Basterds - $17 million
4. District 9 - $10 million
5. G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra - $7 million

Well, that will do it for me for another week. Next week, we officially usher in the fall season with five films spanning Labor Day weekend, including: Gamer, an action-thriller starring Gerard Butler and Michael C. Hall; All About Steve, the oft-postponed comedy starring the suddenly-hip-again Sandra Bullock; Extract, a comedy starring Ben Affleck, Jason Bateman and Mila Kunis; Carriers, a horror film starring Star Trek hunk Chris Pine; and Amreeka, a little film about an immigrant Iranian family growing up in a small town in Illinois.

Later!

Here are this weekend's trailers:

A little bit of food for thought: I just checked the Friday listings for one of the local theatres. They will be playing THREE prints of The Final Destination (two in REAL-D) and only one for Halloween 2. If this is the case for many other theatres, you may want to rethink those numbers.

There have been a LOT of films with 3-D capabilities to come out this year. In how many of those cases have the 3D additions actually made a SIGNIFICANT difference? I mean, how many?

And seriously, how many of these films' 3D versions were markedly better than the 2D?

There has been one this year: My Bloody Valentine. The 3-D versions outgrossed the 2-D versions 10 to 1. But still, three screens for a horror film in a mid-sized college town is pretty damn amazing.

At mine, H2 has 3 screens, while FD4 has 2 in 2D, and one in 3D.

It'll be close but I think 3D will put Final Destination over the top.

Yep, FD will win this weekend.

I'm beginning to sway that way too. I've certainly seen a lot more TV ads for FD than H2.

Hmm... FD's current IMDb rating is 7.5.

Granted, there's only 472 votes counted, and it's way WAY early, but still, it's a promising start.

This is similar to My Bloody Valentine's rating when that opened (7.1 at the time, now down to a 5.9).

Yeah, it'll end up somewhere in the 5's

Hey Shryke im not trying to nitpick or anything Rob Zombie is still making music. He has a new album coming out in November.