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SATURDAY PM/SUNDAY AM: Here are the weekend numbers (Sunday estimates):
1. The Final Destination 3-D (NL/WB) NEW, Fri $10.9M, Sat $10.2M, Wkd $28.3M
2. Basterds (Weinstein/Uni) WK 2, Fri $5.8M, Sat $8.1M, Wkd $19.5M, Cume $73.2M
3. Halloween II (Weinstein) NEW, Fri $7M, Sat $5.6M, Wkd $17M
4. District 9 (Sony) WK 3, Fri $3M, Sat $3.9M, Wkd $10.7M, Cume $90.8M
5. G.I. Joe (Paramount) WK 5, Fri $2.2M, Sat $3.5M, Wkd $8M, Cume $132.4M
6. Julie & Julia (Sony) WK 4, Fri $2.1M, Sat $3.2M, Wkd $7.4M, Cume $70.9M
7. Time Trav Wife (WB) WK 3, Fri $2.1M, Sat $2.8M, Wkd $6.7M, Cume $48.1M
8. Shorts (WB) WK 2, Fri $1.2M, Sat $2.1M, Wkd $4.8M, Cume $13.5M
9. Taking Woodstock (Focus) NEW, Fri $1.1M, Sat $1.4M, Wkd $3.7M
10. G-Force (Disney) WK 6, Fri $710K, Sat $, Wkd $2.8M, Cume $111.8M
As the summer winds down, studio execs needing a vacation are getting punchier (and their quotes to me snarkier). But even Hollywood is embarrassed by the fact that this weekend's Top 4 competing films featuring horror, death, gore, mayhem, war, Nazis, aliens, and sci-fi all did so well at the box office. "What a sad statement on movie-going humanity," a top studio exec emailed me. "And let's look at the ratings for the top 4 movies at the box office tonight: 'R', 'R', 'R', and 'R'. Yikes." While Final Destination 3-D and Halloween II were playing in almost the same number of theaters (3,121 vs 3,025), 3-D made the big difference in gross receipts at 1,678 outfitted dates. 
Sure, The Weinstein Company has been claiming that the sequel to its Rob Zombie horror reboot cost half ($15M) what New Line/Warner Bros' suspense thriller did ($30M). But the fact that these two movies stayed on the same weekend to battle for the same horror fans stunned marketing experts -- especially when this Friday through Sunday is traditionally weak moviegoing-wise as college kids head off to school again. "How stubborn/stupid can two distributors be?" one promotion pro asked me. (It's Chinatown, Jake...) And it's just as inexplicable why The Weinstein Co would compete one week later with its own Inglourious Basterds; the Quentin Tarantino World War II pic wound up beating Halloween II for second place because of a better-than-expected -49% hold -- hardly the -70% expected. But The Weinstein Co has been in such dire financial straits that it couldn't even hold Halloween II until October. Ang Lee's comedic Taking Woodstock for Focus Features platformed in 2 theaters -- NY and LA -- Wednesday but opened in 1,393 venues Friday. Nice bit of upcoming Labor Day weekend counter-programming; then again it was co-written by Focus chief James Schamus so he's especially protecting the pic.
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Rob Zombie is the biggest hack in Hollywood. He fails at filmmaking on every conceivable level.
[SPOILER ALERT! SPOILER ALERT!] Serves RZ right in the effect that he made a half-assed film. I’m sorry, even his first attempt in 2007 was pretty bad, but this was far worse.
People were slack-jawed at the premiere last monday night. After RZ’s rant at the beginning, cursing like Courtney Love every other word…to paraphrase:
“This was a badass mutherfucker to make…some days we looked at the script and were like WTF are we doing…”
I sat through IRREVERSIBLE twice in the theatre because through the brutality, Gasper Noe created a beautiful film. Sitting in Grauman’s 5 days ago, I was so disgustedly repulsed at what Zombie put on the screen. Beyond the horrible dialogue, watching the violence was like – well, I’ve never experienced this before – but the violence was comparable to being skullfucked by your retarded Uncle Curly err Zombie.
Beyond the laughter of Sheri walking around with a white pony through most of the film, laughter flooded the theatre at the worst times – unintentional of course – along with people gasping and whispering WTF is this?
Outside the theatre, the cast was pretty quiet. People stared at each other as if they were at a funeral. Yes, Rob Zombie massacred a cinematic legend and robbed fellow cinema goers at the same time (beginning today). Everything that Carpenter created from inception to conception, RZ knocked up the Weinstein’s and ABORTED the film at the end of term.
I’m sorry for the vulgarities. Being a fan of House of a 1000 Corpses, I was let down by ‘Rejects’ and disappointed by Halloween 2007 (especially the scene with young Michael wearing the mask, chasing Hanna Hall – he looked like Mini-Me.)…with this film, RZ has raped my youth. He took the boogeyman and made him a trailer trash talking homeless man that eats dogs.
EPIC FAILURE.
The premiere for FD4 last night in Westwood was a helluva good time. The audience loved every second of it.
I pray that Zombie does NOT reboot the Blob. I cannot sit through 95 minutes of seeing his wife Sheri run around the screen, flashing her ta-ta’s and saying ‘WTF is the OOZE doing in my trailer park” and seeing her high school sweetheart, played by Bill Mosely, run out in a wife beater and make ooh-lala in it with her.
How come The Weinstein’s can’t make a single successful movie anymore? What has happened?
Yeah, horror movies did well…what else came out this weekend? If you want “family films” to do well, someone’s going to have to release something that isn’t as totally unappealing as “Shorts.”
H2 which was doing add photo and tr shots up until a few weeks ago is well north of 20 mil now; not to mention the 30 plus ad push…BW and HW are way out of luck and time. Don;t even get into the omney they had to put down to get prints done…rest in no peace you jerks. Mhy only regret is the filmmakers and hard working people you have screwed for so long.
Horror, Nazis, aliens, and Julia Child. What a weekend, indeed.
And why did The Weinstein Company drop “Halloween II” onto “Basterds” second weekend?
best part is BW fired Zombie off of the Crow years ago for his horrible script…it comes round doesn’t it…and to be fair Rob would be better without that tool.
Pretending that Inglorious’s drop was better than expected? 60% drop is still horrible, no film should ever be expected to drop ~70% opening friday to the following friday. Inglorious didn’t have the luxury of a massive midnight opening number which could attempt at justifying a horrible decline.
“What a sad statement on movie-going humanity,” a top studio exec emailed me tonight. “And let’s look at the ratings for the top 4 movies at the box office tonight: ‘R’, ‘R’, ‘R’, and ‘R’. Yikes.”
Wah, wah, wah. Quit your bitching, execs. You made the films. Live with them.
“What a sad statement on movie-going humanity.”
So a studio executive is now blaming the public for all the creatively-bankrupt films that open week after week? Way to perform in a leadership role.
Do these “top” executives recognize that they are on watch while the poison is pouring into the well?
Consumers once bought Ford Pintos too. And smarmy Ford executives counted the money and quietly laughed behind the backs of their stoopid customers.
That was a great business model. Yeah, keep emulating it…
Yeah I know Nikki. All movies should be made for the mantality of a 14c year old. The studios almost completely stopped making rated R movies for trhe last three years, but if you have your way we will all be sucking on our thumb and having conversations about plastic balls and play dates while all the imature people talk about philosophy and culture>GOO GOO GA GA
“What a sad statement on movie-going humanity,”
Compared to what? Garbage based off of toylines like Transformers 2 (with racist robots!) and GI Joe have been box office smashes. At least Inglorious Basterds and District 9 are good movies. Why the prudish attitude toward R rated movies. What is this, 1970?
FD=$45mil (not $30mil)
Agreed that RZ is the worst filmmaker in Hollywood, but really, is this quote really justified? “What a sad statement on movie-going humanity.”
What are we supposed to watch, agenda-driven nostalgia like SAVING WOODSTOCK? If Hollywood would give us another Gladiator, or a Braveheart we would go. But FINDING WOODSTOCK–Yeesh!
I believe the sole purpose for The Final Destination 3-D estimated victory is, Halloween is basically “Friday The 13TH”.The kids have already seen “Halloween” once this year, so when it came down to which of the two horror films to see, they chose the movie they haven’t seen already.Friday the 13th came out in february and it’s still fresh in the horror fans minds, and as any horror fan would know, Jason, the main character from the Friday the 13th franchised is a cheap Knockoff of Mike Myers from Halloween.Why would anyone want to see the same quiet slasher stalking the clueless teens storyline twice in a 7 month span?
“How come The Weinstein’s can’t make a single successful movie anymore? What has happened?”
Two successful movies in two weeks says otherwise.
Staying Home, you took the thoughts right outta my brain with that final comment. nice sleight of hand there, eh?
I love all this hating on RZ and the Weinstein’s! They are truly deserving of the vitriol. They are despicable, rude, disloyal, greedy pigs, and don’t deserve an ounce of respect or $1 in profits. I wish H2 made even less than it did, but hopefully it will never make a profit. Until Weinstein Co starts making better films in a more professional manner, I wish them the worst.
I loved “Halloween 2!” I thought the first one was just awful – a really terrible film – but the second one was great. I double-featured it with “Final Destination” and though it was fun to see, it feels like with every new “FD” sequel, they hunt for worse and worse and worse actors – almost like it’s a joke to cast the worst auditioners as the filmmakers know it’ll make the movie funnier (the “FD” movies have always been odd black comedies, not really horror films).
It’s nice to have good films in the theater, though – I loved “Julie & Julia,” “District 9,” “Basterds,” etc. The first half of the summer really had nothing for me!
There’s nothing wrong with “R’ ratings, or “horror” films (despite the hypocritical moralizing of the “insiders” who profit from them); but when your 2 top films are a sequel to a sequel to a sequel and a REMAKE of a sequel, it becomes impossible not to choke on the sheer creative backruptcy of it all.(It doesn’t help that all Rob Zombie’s films are the same- Rob, if you’re that intent on imitating Tobe Hooper, at least remember that HE could tell the difference between the backwoods and the suburbs…)
Work at a local theater and saw these two films today. “Halloween 2″ is just a travesty, even people who liked the first RZ remake will hate this. I’m not a RZ fan but this film was chock-full of misogny, violence for no particular reason (especially in the strip club/whore house scene) and awful acting.
FD4 is a different story. If you loved the first three movies, you’ll probably like this one. If you didn’t, there’s no changing your mind the fourth time around. And unlike H2, it didn’t make its audiences go to actively hate it. And it runs a short 82 minutes, so it’s over before it has time to grate the nerves.
eff the executives for crapping on all the R rated movies. At least the recent successes are all ORIGINAL. No sequels or remakes seen in D9 or Basterds! Complain all you want about all the R ratings. There is still an audience that thrives on those and doesn’t want (a crappy) one put in there just because.
Bad or not, this further emphasizes how Weinstein put all their eggs in the Nazi basket. I must’ve seen two or three commercials a day for Basterds, but I think all month I probably saw three for Halloween II. It never had a chance of reaching the first installment’s $26mil opening.
Down 60 is the new Down 70, Nikki. It must be all those “women” who love the movie
What really surprises me is with so much on the line for Inglorious basterds, why on earth would the Weinstein Brothers put another R rated, male skewing film that they controlled in the marketplace to compete against inglorious?
“What a sad statement on movie-going humanity,” a top studio exec emailed me tonight.
WTF does a studio exec know about humanity?
The problem is that Rob Zombie made this film to INTENTIONALLY piss off the people who dared to dislike his remake to begin with. Remember, it’s not about the movies, it’s all about Rob. The Weinsteins allowed Rob Zombie to use their money to film a “F*ck You! Letter” to his critics. Bob… Harvey… what didn’t you get or understand after the first film dropped nearly 70% it’s second week???
You deserve this one boys. Right in the kisser.
I, for one, am glad to see some R-rated films at the top of the box office. We need more weekends like this with R-rated actions, comedies and horror.
Why did the Weinsteins release H2 so close to IB? Cannibalizing much?
What is that exec babbling about. It’s a sad statement on the studios that this is the type of movie released four fold. If studios would release something other than gore [or frat boy movies. comic book heroes or remakes of everything not nailed down] the movie audience would be better rounded
The Halloween remakes to me are nothing more than cash grabs. Cynical attempts at pandering to the Horror crowd by just serving up sadistic violence without any tangible substance to support it. Its obvious by the lazy plotting, amateurish acting, and blunt sadism for shock value’s sake that the makers just don’t care about their product.
I don’t understand how one can craft a fairly engaging and I dare say ’smart’ Horror movie with the “Devils Rejects” and come out with two sub par efforts two years out? I guess Zombie caught the ‘FUCK YOU PAY ME! I DON’T GIVE A SHIT’ syndrome.
And I mean ’shockingly’ sub par efforts.
As many have pointed out already, why didn’t the weinsteins give IB more breathing room? And furthermore, IB was good but that has nothing to do with the weinsteins. Quentin can do no wrong where Harvey’s considered so harvey didn’t have a chance to get in there and muck it up. can’t say the same for most of their other stuff. they don’t let filmmakers be. they bring in writing teams and “fix” scripts that don’t need it. then they test the movies and have to “fix” them some more because they killed whatever was good about the original in the first place and people hate the movie. they’re like cockroaches– I’m beginning to think even nuclear fallout wouldn’t stop them– so I doubt they’re going anywhere soon. they’ll cling on for as long as they can.
I though Zombie’s first Halloween reboot was brilliant. He went under the basic story to show how in the modern age a maniac is made.
It had scares, laughs and a depth that no other horror film in recent history had. I feel it was a better film than the original in this regard.
The only failing of the film was that you could not credibly make a sequel from it. It was so grounded in reality that any attempt to resurrect Meyers would seem silly.
Zombie himself on the Howard Stern Show said that he didn’t want to do the sequel and was forced into by TWC who were going to STD the sequel (that’s Straight-To-DVD people, keep up)
Zombie should have listened to his conscience. I haven’t seen H2 and don’t plan to. I know it’s shit because of the superior film he made the first time.
But I disagree with the notion that Zombie should not get a chance at another franchise. He is a great filmmaker and has a love of the genre.
Sorry Rob. I love you but you sold out on this one.
“What a sad statement on movie-going humanity. Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to finish snorting blow off the naked corpse of the 15-year old runaway I killed last week.”
Up yours, Hollywood. If no one was going to these films, you’d be crying “WHY WHY WHY OH LORD, WHY ISN’T ANYONE SEEING THESE FINE R-RATED FILMS!?!!?”
I’m just wondering why no one has commented on the absurdity of releasing a movie named “Halloween II” in August? Talk about a good reason to move the release date… Wouldn’t it be a rational thought to think you just might get more butts in the seats in October??
“What a sad statement on movie-going humanity,” a top studio exec emailed me tonight.
totally agree. what the movies need are more recylced rom-coms like ugly truth and the proposal that sell empty happily ever afters and juvenile toy-action porn like GI Joe and Transformers that only exist to sell your kids more shit they don’t need. bravo hollywood!
I’m confused in what universe is a film like Taking Woodstock “agenda driven”. Pray tell, Drudgebots, what is the “agenda” of that movie that you find so intolerable?
It’s not like the actual Woodstock festival had the issues of, oh, Altamont.
Maybe you ought to watch the excellent Michael Wadleigh documentary on Woodstock.. THAT film probably had more to do with the historical perception of the festival than anything else. Without it, I suspect that it wouldn’t have the cache it does with Baby Boomers.
I wonder who was on this date first WB or TWC, if it was TWC somebody is saying something. Plus why would they(TWC) even think of putting 2 in a row. Its not like they have so many movies they couldnt spread them out. At least WB has a full schedule. Bob and Harvey I know are smart or should I say used to be smart
I would be curious to know the average age of the people commenting. There are plenty of Wilshire Blvd politically correct movies being released every year. Thank god for the Weinsteins and their desire to bring something edgy and raw to the table two weeks in a row. These are the only two movies which have gotten me out of my own home theater two weeks in a row for as long as I can remember. Long live edgy counterculture entertainment.
@ Nick
In some ways Inglorious Bastards was a remake: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0076584/
At least Tarantino is being a bit more honest about the exploitation films he rips off….
Releasing H2 against FD4 in 3-D is a really boneheaded move – the week after Basterds, especially so. FD4 had to come out now, between other 3-D pics, but H2 could easily have come out later in the year. WTF is right.
I agree with “Matt C”’s comments about H2 and FD. FD was fun, not as good as part two but on par with 3 and better than one (I never cared for its attempts to be scary, the dark comedy vibe of the subsequent films fits the premise better). H2 was terrible. What was Rob Zombie thinking and who in their right mind would now give him the task of remaking The Blob? Why do we need a remake of that, let alone from him?
The fact that your source is lumping those four films together because one has Nazis, one has aliens and all have profanity and violence tells you exactly what is wrong with American films. (Hint: It isn’t the audience.) This might be news to him or her, but some of the greatest films of all time have been about Nazis or aliens. Why, I believe some of them were even rated R.
District 9 is a fantastic film–moving, imaginative, exciting and far more thoughtful than any Kate Winslet sobfest I’ve ever seen. (No offense to Winslet, who is of course very talented.) I’ve yet to see IB, so I can’t offer my own opinion, but it has an 88% on RT and I can’t imagine that Tarantino would make a film that wasn’t at least entertaining and imaginative.
“I, for one, am glad to see some R-rated films at the top of the box office. We need more weekends like this with R-rated actions, comedies and horror.”
Indeed. The hell with the pompous trophy hunt wankery. Bring on the entertainment!
Does anyone else think that this has been one of the worst years for movies in recent memory? I’ve only seen 1 movie this year (Terminator and it wasn’t good at all), which is a record low for me. And, besides Hurt Locker, the Hangover,and Public Enemies, I’m not really interested in seeing any other movie that’s been released so far in 2009.
Why should anyone be so surprised that “films featuring horror, death, gore, mayhem, war, Nazis, aliens, and sci-fi all did so well”? This has literally been the Summer of Death — going right into this weekend with Ted Kennedy, Dominick Dunne and DJ AM joining a three-month period which took Ed McMahon, David Carradine, Billy Mays, Robert Novak and, of course, Michael Jackson (whose birthday was Saturday, BTW). No wonder folks decided to take in absurdist views of death given what REAL reality is showing them.
Justin,
Yes.
And it’s fixin’ to get even worse (does the world really need a Karate Kid remake or a Stretch Armstrong movie?)
I disagree Justin. While there have been the usual disappointments here and there, 2009 has had some really terrific movies thus far, including UP (completely original story and emotionally satisfying) STAR TREK (an excellent reluanch of an old clasic property) MONSTERS VS ALIENS (another excellent animated film with a great concept, good humor and story), WATCHMEN, (An excellent and original experience) and one of my fovorites of the year, KNOWING. A film that I believe will be recognized as the great film that it is. And we still have AVATAR, THE LOVELY BONES, and THE PRINCESS AND THE FROG to look forward to. Alll films by excellent flmmakers with some classic films to their credit. And who knows? SHERLOCK HOLMES might be good too. And hell, I want to see 2012 too!
On the other hand, if you really want to be depressed about films coming out, look at Summer 2010’s line up. Outside sequels to IRON MAN and TOY STORY, you are looking at like 4 to 8 films a month, and very few looking like big winners. I’m already looking ahead to Summer 2011 when some of the really promising titles will be arriving.
HURT LOCKER was way overrated by the way. Mediocre at best.
Good for QT that Basterds is holding fairly strong. Anyone who bitches about Transformers and all the intelligence insulting, cookie cutter, 4 quadrant baiting nonsense that’s been churned out by this town this summer, they MUST see Basterds as an encouraging sign. You may hate the people behind it (Weinsteins, QT, etc), but you cannot deny that they had balls to make their last stand with something this bold and transgressive, and deserve not only whatever success they get but, gulp, our admiration as well.
Um, the Weinsteins released the first Halloween on the same date two years ago, so clearly they were trying to catch lightning in a bottle again. Yes, the FD movies are utterly pointless, but they are entertaining, especially in 3-D, and Warners did a great job selling it. Nikki- since when did you become Jerry Falwell with the R-rated issues??? Basterds is a fantastic movie, and District 9, while long and uneven, is worth seeing. It’s f-ing August for God’s sake…be glad that people are going to the movies right now.
“I’m just wondering why no one has commented on the absurdity of releasing a movie named “Halloween II” in August?”
It is absurd. But then again, it’s about as absurd as the Halloween display my local supermarket has already set up.
The reason they released Halloween 2 in the summer is to capture the horror film “date” crowd so they can release it on dvd on Halloween.
Nikki wrote:
“What a sad statement on movie-going humanity,” a top studio exec emailed me. “And let’s look at the ratings for the top 4 movies at the box office tonight: ‘R’, ‘R’, ‘R’, and ‘R’. Yikes.”
I reply:
Two words: Fucking hypocrite. Perhaps you could share with us what G-rated, life-affirming intellectual works of heart-breaking genius this “top studio exec” has greenlit recently. Hey, I get that rivals are going to bitch each other but does it have to couched in pompous bloviating about the supposed moral degeneracy of the movie-going public?
I’m impressed by the Inglourious Basterds retention, even if I’m not impressed by the picture itself.
The reason “H2″ was released the week after “Basterds” was so that they could save on marketing costs. Attach a trailer to prints of “Basterds” and it saves big time. Or are people really that thick?
And those so-called execs are, for starters, the ones MAKING these R-rated movie and, secondly, have been making these R-rated movies for decades. Sequels to horror movies have always been around so why start complaining now? At least people are going to the see them and staving off another “slump”.
Inquisitive, only half of the ten “Halloween” franchise was released in October. And considering Zombie’s first remake was the highest grossing “Halloween” movie ever was released in August, and “H20″, the second highest grossing, was also released in August then you can’t blame them for releasing this one in August too. It will probably overtake “Halloween Resurrection”s $30m gross too to become the fourth highest grosser of the franchise.
Besides, October is basically “Saw” zone, unfortunately and no other studio has the balls to release a major horror movie against it.
Pete sees “drudgebots” everywhere. perhaps he should make a movie about them
RZ’s HALLOWEEN remake made a majority of it’s revenue the first week of release, capitalizing solely on the HALLOWEEN name.
Second week, it dropped over 60% once word of mouth hit that it was a POS.
The trailers for HOBOWEEN were terrible, word of mouth was terrible, reviews were terrible — I would expect another 60% drop for this one as well.
Sounds like a lot of sour grapes out there – turn off Dr Laura, grow some talent and make a movie kids want to see.
The problem is that Hollywood has lost the ability to make good middlebrow movies for the masses that both entertain and enlighten. The only (too-rare) good ones are made by filmmakers outside the U.S. — Slumdog Millionaire, Lord of the Rings. The blame rests squarely on Hollywood’s death-embrace of bleak moral relativism and a loss of confidence in their own cultural legacy.
Agreed with the above. Unless the exec who bitched about all “R” is from Pixar, he might as wel STFU.
Good filmmaking is good filmmaking, and the rating is a tool to inform the public as to what it is. It’s sad that people would pay to see H2, but I have no problem if flocks showed up at “Inglorious Basterds” which is good filmmaking.
CineFileX,
Are you serious? That was a joke right? Rob Zombie, is that you?
Who cares what the top movies are rated? A “sad state on the humanity of the film-going public?” WHAT? That is just a sad, pathetic studio suit trying to deal with is own insecurities as studios are so scared to put money behind R-rated films for fear that it will limit the size of the audience they think they could get. Now that we have four R-rated movies in the top of the box office, they realize quite dramatically that they have no idea what they are doing.
Chris:
Indeed — and, back in the day, how soon we forget that in the supposed Golden Age of Cinema it wasn’t all La Règle du jeu, Mr Smith Goes To Washington, Gone With The Wind and The Wizard of Oz. There were plenty of highly profitable POS out there and people to bewail the supposed moral degeneracy of our grandparents — the difference being that they’re, for the most part, justly forgotten.
Well, I saw Public Enemies and thoroughly enjoyed it. While the first runs are out and I’m not really interested in slasher movies (though I love a good, funny zombie flick!) the choices are rather limiting.
So I’ll wait and wait until I see something I want to see. Just because there is a lot of hype out there does not mean that one must respond to it.
Hey Pete — the “agenda” of the Woodstock movie (I can’t be bothered to remember the title) is simply that it’s the umpteen-zillionth attempt to cram Woodstock down our throats. It’s coming off several weeks of endless 40th-anniversary media slobbering over Woodstock. Nobody watched that coverage and nobody watched this movie, because the cold hard reality is that nobody under 50 is buying these attempts to tell us that one of the most important events in American history was a bunch of rich little fucks rolling around in the mud for three days.
How funny–just two nights ago as my husband and I were searching the program guide for a movie to watch on TV, I turned and said to him, “this list of movies makes me wonder how much hope there is for humanity.” It was all gratuitous horror, death, violence.
We ended up picking a comedy, Pineapple Express, which although it’s a comedy, was filled with gratuitous horror, death, and violence.
The whole evening was kind of depressing, actually.
I say this as someone who absolutely despised Rob Zombie’s previous HALLOWEEN film–a mishmash of Zombie’s and Carpenter’s directorial styles that just didn’t work ala’ FRANKENSTEIN V. THE SPACE MONSTER: ROB ZOMBIE’S HALLOWEEN 2 is the best HALLOWEEN film after the original.
Its number one cardinal sin is to have the ambition to be more than just a simple point by point slasher film like last years FRIDAY THE 13TH remake. By no means is it a perfect film, its edges are definitely frayed (the whole scene at the Stripping Club could’ve been cut without detriment to the plot, the general weirdness of the dreams do get a little too heavy by the end and Zombie sadly botches the way he shoots the climax).
But whatever problems, they are compensated by what Rob Zombie does achieve: character development especially for Laurie Strode and the Sheriff. For all the talk of brutal over the top violence, Zombie acknowledges and shows the consequences of said violence (especially in the scene in the bookstore between Loomis and the grieving father of a victim from the first film). The dream sequences, which as I said get a little much by the end, but do produce some great moments. Especially the Jack o’ Lantern head dinner scene that reminds one of a Hieronymus Bosch painting meets an old COFFIN JOE movie. This leads to my next point that Zombie as a filmmaker does have his own personal vision, HALLOWEEN 2 is an amazingly well shot film. Zombie has a great handle of mise en’ scene, my favorite shots were the wide angle helicopter shots of Michael trekking back to Haddonfield. And finally Rob Zombie gave HALLOWEEN 2 a great cast, with special mention given to Brad Douriff.
Before HALLOWEEN 2 started a preview for THE STEPFATHER re-make played and it looked so flat and dull that it might of well have been a TV movie from the Hallmark channel. HALLOWEEN 2 may ultimately fail in the theater but I wouldn’t be surprised if its rediscovered later on like JOHN CARPENTER’S THE THING. I leave FINAL DESTINATION 4 to the undemanding teeny boppers of the world.
As for Hollywood exec’s being embarrassed by this weekends top films? I find it hard to believe that any of them were able to pull themselves away from their coke piles to even make such a cognitive thought.
Considering how many of the Hollywood liberal elite cry out about supposed American torture of Muslim thugs, not a word is said about the American war crimes featured in “Bastards”. Beating a prisoner to death with a baseball bat, or cutting Nazi symbols in their foreheads. This is the most brutal fictional movie I’ve seen in my 61 years.
What does it teach young Americans male or female? Anything goes against the right sort of enemy. In real life this kind of thinking brings us government acts such as Ruby Ridge and Waco. Rich in content and in the art of film making, but UGLY in message.
@ Rhubarb
I am serious and duh, I am not Rob Zombie. I don’t recommend the movie. I loved the first Halloween and so did $80 million dollars worth of fans worldwide. But it should have been a stand alone film.
You know it always tickles me how people on this site cannot abide someone else’s opinion on a film. Someone like just about every film ever made. I’m not pissing on the people who like Final Destination or on people who like Tarrantino’s marathon ego masturbation.
Zombie’s first Halloween remake was a fuckin’ masterpiece and that’s why they made a sequel.
Also horror fans see Dee Synder’s Strangeland and Tom Shankland’s The Children both are brilliant.
Ok now we can be sure CinefileX is trying to pull a fast one.
Well, I went to see Taking Woodstock today and all I can say is James Shamus is both a bad film exec and a bad screenwriter.
I can’t even begin to explain how bad the script is, and considering how bad it is I would normally ask how in god’s green earth it ever got greenlit but this time it is sooo obvious.
Maybe he should just produce.
Coming in late with my opinion, but, surprisingly ‘The Final Destination’ turned to be the best of the two horror flicks out this past weekend. Just watched ‘Halloween II’ and it’s just an awful mess. I read that Rob Zombie will not be back for ‘Halloween 3D’.. and I think it’s for the best.
Agree with you Armando. I saw FD3D on Friday, and while it was badly acted and written even worse, it was undeniably fun with inventive kills, nifty 3D and a great opening disaster sequence. I just saw H2 and…ick. I “get” the brutality and everything, but it was all just so grim and ugly. Zombie is an effective gorehound, but does so at the expense of suspense. The mumbo-jumbo with the white horse and his stupid wife running around was just unwatchable nonsense, and his teen girl dialogue was just as bad as it was in Halloween 1. H2 certainly bookends Zombie’s “vision” of the Halloween series, so perhaps we should all just let it die right here and right now. I don’t want to see any more Halloween with Zombie’s trademark white-trash characterization and over the top brutality without even a hint of fun and imagination, which is something that even the best and most terrifying horror flicks have. I could only imagine going to the premiere of that slop and having to sit through it with the people who worked really hard on it, so I’m going to lay the blame on Rob Zombie. TWC obviously gave him complete control here, and it’s on them to live with it. Everyone involved obviously knows what a complete failure this is or else Zombie’s next project AND the announcement of the next Halloween sequel (in 3D, which leads me to believe that the uberserious take is over) wouldn’t have come within literal HOURS of the final opening weekend numbers.
Rob Zombie + Halloween = FAIL.
I think we can all confirm this as of now.
It was such a great movie. I watched it in 3D theater so I could see it like a real !
There is nothing in content just having good idea on how each people die ^^!
Let’s watch it !