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SATURDAY PM/SUNDAY AM UPDATE: Sony is reporting its pick-up of Peter Jackson's low-budget indie prod District 9 was big -- right now $14.2M Friday and $12.6M Saturday (-11%) 
and a projected $10.1M Sunday from 3,049 theaters. So it's a $37M weekend, much higher than rivals thought possible, and a great result considering the sci-fi pic's negative cost is only $30M. Then again, producer Peter Jackson's name means so much to aged 18-49 moviegoers. Comic-Con geeks and movie critic geezers loved it. It was the #1 most tweeted topic Friday night. And Marc Weinstock's viral marketing campaign for a year bore no Sony/Tri-Star logo on purpose so it wouldn't have a big studio's PR machine feel to it. (As if the audience had organically discovered the pic themselves.) There several web sites tied to the film's plot and characters, and an outdoor creative campaign (bus benches, bus sides, billboards, etc) that encouraged people to call a toll-free number to report non-human activity. District 9 played to its core male fan base and exit polls show 64% of the opening weekend audience was male and 57% was 25 or older.
This was a Sony pickup for North America and the English-speaking world, and a number of international territories like Italy, Russia, Portugal, Korea, China, Hong Kong, and much of Africa, for $25 million. Russia just opened the movie huge -- maybe $4M.
Here's how the pic went down: District 9 director Neill Blomkamp was supposed to be Peter Jackson's helmer on Halo, which went down in flames. But Peter and his partner Fran Walsh kept Neill in New Zealand to develop his short film, Alive In Joburg. Jackson then turned it into a hard-cover faux graphic novel. That book went to Peter's longtime manager Ken Kamins to arrange financing and set it up as a film. Ken made the decision to go indie, and contacted his former colleague and current office space roomie Bill Block, who runs QED Intl (Oliver Stone's W) which was given first shot to finance foreign pre-sales. Block, being the wily coyote he is, had to commit to fully financing the movie even before AFM was underway. What a risk -- because there was no star, no budget, no script. When the deal went down that November 2007 and hit Variety, Peter Schlessel at Sony was on the phone to Block two hours later asking for a meeting the next morning at AFM. 
So Peter looked at the graphic novel, then got on the phone with Amy Pascal and Michael Lynton, who both insisted on a confab with Block that afternoon. Over at AFM, other studios kicked the tires but didn't buy. Finally Sony picked up the domestic (but through Tri-Star, not Columbia). The result is not just another Amy Pascal pic starring Adam or Will but, according to the 88% positive reviews on Rotten Tomatoes, an imaginative, creative, cutting-edge pic made outside the studio system.
Paramount's GI Joe: The Rise Of Cobra dropped hard, down -68% (because of last Friday's $2M midnight shows) for $7M and #3 Friday. But the soldier actioner surged Saturday for $8.9M and #2 for a $22.5M weekend in line with studio estimates. Paramount still thinks it can get to $300M worldwide eventually with a $98.7M domestic cume and $91M foreign cume this weekend.
New Line/Warner Bros' The Time Traveler's Wife based on the bestselling book opened to $7.7M and #2 Friday but dropped -17% Saturday for $6.4M and #3. It was a disappointing $19.2M weekend from 2,988 runs. That's hardly the $25M rival studios expected. (Isn't it funny how New Line has gone from pumping out testerone to estrogen? But Eric Bana isn't leading man worthy. Too dull on screen.)
Sony's #4 Julie & Julia did a $12.4M (-40% from last weekend) neighborhood after making $3.6M Friday and $4.8M Saturday from 2,345 theaters. At one point midday Friday, GI Joe even fell behind Julie & Julia "because its audience is so old they are in bed by 6 PM," one studio exec quipped. Its cume is $43.6M.
Disney's secret agent guinea pigs in Jerry Bruckheimer's first 3-D foray G-Force was #5 with $6.9M weekend and $99M cume.
What the studio is saying is the last of the Paramount Vantage titles, The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard, opened to $2M Friday and $1.8M Saturday at 1,838 dates for #6 and a $5.3M weekend. The comedy stars Jeremy Piven and he's been everywhere plugging it -- even on that WWE wrestling horror Raw.
Warner Bros' Harry Potter And The Half-Blood Prince limped in at #7 with $1.4M Friday and $2M Saturday for a $5.1M weekend for a $283.3M cume. in 8th place, Sony's Ugly Truth romantic comedy took in $1.4M Friday and $1.7M Saturday for a $4.5M weekend and $77.5M cume.
Disney toon Ponyo is from Japanese filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki in 927 dates and debuted at No. 9 with a $3.5M weekend because the kiddies need something fresh in theaters.
Just slipping into the Top 10 was Fox Searchlight's 500 Days Of Summer with a $3M weekend and new cume of $17.9M. But even Fox had ahead Sony/Universal's Funny People which eked out $943K Friday and $1.1M Saturday for also a $3M weekend and very weak $47.9M cume. It looks like $1,700+ separated the two pics. Monday's actuals will decide it.
Falling out of the Top 10 altogether to No. 13 was Walden Media/Summit Entertainment's teen musical playing in 2,121 venues, Bandslam. It opened with only $1M Friday despite the fact Summit paired it with the New Moon theatrical trailer teaser from its Twilight Saga franchise. ("Ooooh, that Taylor Lautner is so hunky." Start gag reflex.) Though its weekend was a disastrous $2.3M from 2,121 theaters, Bandslam is getting great reviews across the country (84% to date on Rotten Tomatoes). But the marketing/packaging was so young that moviegoers think it's High School Musical when it's closer to School Of Rock.
Overall, the weekend looks like $130M, up +10% from last year.
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Saw “District 9″ at an advanced screening with little expectation and loved it. It has potential to be a cult classic and should do very well. “The Goods” may perform better due to the guys from “The Hangover” being featured in the TV spots.
I have to ask again, Nikki. Any analysis on “Hurt Locker?”
I work at a movie theater and would not be surprised if the goods opens higher than 6 there are two prints at this theater and it has been sold out all day in an area that traditionally had done very poorly with comedies
Eric Bana isn’t leading man worthy?! He’s one of the best actors working… if he isn’t, I don’t know who is.
This isn’t meant as a knock against “the Goods” as it stars a lot of funny people and I hope it does well but I thought the sentence “the last of the Paramount Vantage titles” was funny as it shows just how far the studio “prestige” divisions drifted from their original (alleged) purpose. Long way from “You Can Count on Me” huh?
“The result is not just another Pascal pic starring Adam or Will but, according to the 98% positive reviews on Rotten Tomatoes, an imaginative, creative, cutting-edge pic made outside the studio system.”
Don’t worry, it won’t happen again.
Is _The Goods_ really the last of the Paramount Vantage titles? I know that Ben Stiller and _The Marc Pease Experience_ will barely get a theatrical release, but what about Michael Moore’s _Capitalism: A Love Story_?
But how can you have a thoughtful sci fi actioner without power drink tie ins or happy meals or scenes built around their inclusion???!!!!
D9 appears to be worth seeing on the basis alone that it appears to have been conceived as a movie first…before a commercial or some dipshit marketing platform. They should also take a serious look at what Blokamp and Jackson accomplished with the budget they were given. The adverts have all the gloss of one of the gargantuan studio turds at less than half the cost….and people will actually want to see it, support it, and tell their friends about it. How long before the studios actually get the balls to get back in the movie business? They should be ashamed at how well this is going to come off considering that it was not bred in their poisonous laboratories of stink.
Actually, Carriers is yet to come from Paramount Vantage. It has sat on the shelf for over two years. I think the only reason it’s being released is because Paramount’s hoping to cash in on Chris Pine’s newfound stardom.
Call me a girly-man, but I loved JULIE & JULIA. Nora Ephron’s best film since 1993’s SLEEPLESS IN SEATTLE. Streep scores again, Tucci is perfect and unlike some critics, I felt the Amy Adams stuff worked and gave the film some contemporary resonance. Bon Appetit!
Saw bandslam at an early screening. It was great. Reminded me of almost famous. I think their maketing it for crap. Is it a coincidence they got rid of their head of publicity this week?
Good for Peter Jackson! It’s so refreshing to see a major, major director focusing his time and energy on only a few passion projects instead of attaching his name to everything (I’m looking at you, Steven S). I think it says a lot about Jackson that he has continued to play on the outskirts of the studio system even though he could make a lot more money if he copied Steven S. Jackson really is a great talent whose heart is in the right place.
“Bandslam” marketing consisted of promoting the “New Moon” teaser trailer in front of it, while scrambling on what to do with “The Hurt Locker”. Maybe they were also distracted with “Sorority Row”. Friedman’s deep pockets never hurt either.
Well I know now that I totally suck at B.O predictions. I predicted D9 would aonly make around $23mill this weekend and G.I Joe would be number one again. But, it looks the mvoe wil actually do over $30mill which is amazing considering it was mostly fueled by internet hype. I hope it also has great legs aswell.
“Ponyo” is a wonderful movie — like other Miyazaki anime films, adults and kids can enjoy it. While it’s nice Disney isn’t giving it a limited release a la “Spirited Away” (before it won the Oscar) and “Howl’s Moving Castle” — the lack of promotion it’s receiving is shameful. And the U.S. voice cast is wonderful… even with little Cyrus and Jonas put in there to attract kiddies.
And D9 looks really good (as well as its domestic b.o. prospects)… it looks helluva lot better than the one-trick ponies like “Blair Witch Project” and “Cloverfield.”
I saw District 9 today over an extended lunch break. (Luckily, the movie theatre is right across the strett from the office). I could not help but think of all the parallels between the criminals Bush and Cheney and this movie. District 9 is just like Guantanamo Bay and Abu Ghirab, and the aliens were treated horribly, no different than how Bush treated political prisoners in those gulags he opened. And, Haliburton and Blackwater might sue because it is clear to me that if they merged, you would have MNU. Bush only cared about keeping Haliburton’s stock prices high, no matter how many people had to die, and the MNU only care about money and weapons so they can kill. I cannot imagine that the writer of this movie did not intend to make an allegory of the Bush regime, because the parallels are so clear and obvious. I have no idea why he chose to film the movie in South Africa. I can only surmise that it was cheaper or because if it was filmed in the U.S., the only believeable plot would be that half the right-wingers in this country would be trying to convert the aliens to Jesus freaks, and the other half would be trying to shoot them all with their entire arsenal. (After all, who doesn’t need an Uzi for self-protection?). No one would have believed that under an Obama Administration the aliens would be treated so savagely. .
I hope this movie does Dark Knight numbers so everyone can see on film an example of what Bush has done to Muslims worldwide.
Not surprised to hear Peter Schlessel is behind the D9 deal … he’s always been Sony’s not-so-secret weapon.
I think whomever is selling BANDSLAM is doing the film a disservice. It’s way better than the ads. Way better.
mish, PR people don’t have anything to do with creating marketing materials like trailers and TV commercials. Two totally different things.
Saw it today. Great movie! Waaayyyy better than all the crap out there.
Vinny….you’re an idiot…..do so some research
Nice imagination, Vinny B. You just go to show that not all the hate-filled idiots who post here are Drudgebots. Just to let you know, this is a site about the movie industry.
I’m looking forward to District 9. They had a creative ad campaign and hopefully it can do big at the B.O. this weekend. I thought Eric Bana was brilliant in Munich, but never thought of him as a chick-flick type actor. That movie looks pretty terrible to be honest; but I know some people associated with it, so I hope it does decent business. GI Joe definitely doesn’t have the word of mouth Transformers did, though they looked kind of like the same movie to me, except one had Meagan Fox and juvenile jokes stuffed in.
I love it when the spastic immature thinking liberals including film critics just can’t get Bush and Cheney out of their fricking heads and attach their names to everything they hate. Last week the liberal film critics chewed up GI Joe because it reminded them of the Bush and Reagan Era and this week it is D9. Gotta love it. As for D9 I saw it today and thought the first half of the film was a “snore borefest” but the second half the film comes alive and delivers action scenes as good as any I seen in any action film. Overall I give it a B. Now I suppose if I had the same mind mentallity as Vinny B. I would have given it an F.
Took my kis to a 5:00 showing of BANDSLAM. THey loved it . But, I was surprised how much I did. Way better than any kids movie I’ve seen in a long time. Have to agree they sold it badly. I never would have gone had my daughter not insisted. I had no idea it was this smart. Wonder who’s cutting their trilers.
I think the title Band Slam is one of the worst I’ve ever heard. I liked the movie, actually, I liked it a lot – but could they have a more generic title?
If you can tell how a film’s going to do by Friday AFTERNOON, why bother even opening movies any more? Sure, this information was always available internally, but I wonder what the psychological effect of this will be on the audience, when – and you know we’re heading toward this – Saturday papers start printing box office estimates.
I love box office data as much as everyone else here, but it bothers me that movie audiences treat this info like the Tomatometer, shunning films just because it didn’t have a strong opening weekend.
Oh please Vinny B, that’s ridiculous. In fact, the dated and pathetically stupid politics of District 9 undermine the whole movie. Here it is … evil White men and governments running South Africa imprison Aliens who have … SPACESHIP. A Spaceship!
The movie right there (determined to be an Apartheid parable) FAILS the ultimate test — elementary suspension of belief. It’s like “Alternate Universe” world where Commodore Perry sailed into Tokyo Bay, and despite about two centuries technological lead inexplicably surrenders to the Tokogawa Shogunate. Aliens with Spaceships are OVERDOGS. There’s no way they can be the stand-ins for Apartheid Soweto.
It’s too bad, because there was a germ of a movie in there, either a parable on the end of the Tokogawa Shogunate under the threat of Perry’s Black Fleet and frantic modernizing, or the refusal of the Bantu tribes to recognize the Boer threat in the 17th Century and respond by modernization.
As for Gitmo, not even Obama dares release those guys, they are bad people and he’s bet it all that there won’t be another attack — if there is he’s toast. Obama could close the place down in a day and release or bring to the US all the inmates. He won’t because he’d get impeached in a heartbeat by a Dem majority Congress.
District 9 sounds like more Liberal moralizing where non-whites are props in status-displays. It’s always 1977, Steve Biko is always being murdered. Instead of the actuality of post-Apartheid South Africa being a bigger disaster than the atrocity of Apartheid. Polygamous, corrupt President succeeding one who thought AIDS caused by “spores” and cured by sex with a virgin. Not to mention rampant anti-Semitism, superstition, corruption, tribalism, sexual violence, and physical disintegration.
It would not shock me to see an old-school comedy like “the Goods” beat District 9. There’s only so many PC-driven geeks around.
Uh, Vinny, it’s set in South Africa because the filmmakers are FROM South Africa, and grew up with a close-up look at Apartheid whenever they looked out the window. Yes, the movie CAN be a metaphor for a lot of things (history has NO shortage of man’s inhumanity to man), but it is clearly, first and foremost, about Apartheid.(Not that I’m in any way defending Bush and Cheney, who look worse the more we see…)
I think Summit did a crappy job showing off “Bandslam”! Instead of promoting the movie they are promoting “New Moon” which needs no promotion right now! That kind of thinking is saying to me pay your money to see a trailer, not go see a good movie! I haven’t forgotten about Rachelle either!
Vinny B. – Your analogy stretches to pretty much every oppressive/aggressive regime. I just started reading Noam Chomsky’s “Failed States” and sure Bush was supporting terrorists at the same time he said that countries shouldn’t support terrorists, but that’s not what the film is about.
Let’s be honest it’s an oppression story from a South African perspective (remember Apartheid). Sure it rings true that’s cause humans always commit evil in the same kind of way.
@jdls08 – The first half hour of the film was the strongest part – that’s waht was ground breaking. I’m probably biased as a South African but that was where everything fantastic happened. They explained an entire world while at the same time offering visuals that felt real. Maybe it would have hit harder for you if the alien was digging through an America dumpster?
30 million, people! This movie will return fantastically. Over everything else I just liked the fact it was something original.
Why you hating on Lautner Nikki? That kid worked his ass off to keep his role in the Twilight Saga and he’s actually a lot better looking than that pasty emo boy Pattinson.
DISTRICT 9 was filmed in Johannesburg because writer-director Neill Blomkamp is South African.
Whoever was in charge of marketing for Bandslam at Summit needs to be demoted. I saw the film && the trailer, the ads, just everything was wrong.
It was a great film, one of the best teen films to come out of Hollywood in years. It’s a shame that the general public takes one glance && sees it as a rock version of HSM.
Shame that a teen film that’s been getting great reviews can’t even pull in decent numbers, yet a film like ‘I Love You, Beth Cooper’ or ‘Aliens in the Attic’ can scrape by. Shame.
bandlsam is a great example of how a marketing campaign can sink a good movie. Some genius decided to sell it like High School Musical. When, except for Vanessa Hudgens, it’s nothing like High School Musical. You can just see them in a board room going, “well we’v e got the girl from HSM, so let’s tell everyone that’s it. I only went for New Moon trailer. Decided to stay a few minutes for the movie. Honestly I was shocked at how good it was. And what a disservice the marketing did. If I waas Todd Graff I’d be p’oed.
I love it when spastic, immature thinking neo-conservatives can’t take a different point of view. Oh, and I’m glad to see an intelligent movie like District 9 doing well.
Amy Pascal does not share credit, and does not root for anyone’s success but her own. Again, the marketing department at SONY so surpasses her mediocre taste that if you look closely you’ll see just how often they’ve saved her ass. This weekend for her was all about Julie/Julia and how it got eaten alive by TTW. Note to Amy: IT’S NOT SAFE. Julie/Julia is not as good as you think. It’s like a chinese meal (and not necessarily a good one) you forget about it 10 minutes after you ate it. Maybe, (due soley to your marketing dept) you can get a nomination for Meryl. But when you look at Peter Jackson’s upcoming Lovely Bones, you’ll be looking at the next oscar movie. Save your bucks sony marketing Julie/Julia will never make it to the finish line. And Amy, thank your lucky stars that you are surrounded by good marketing who make up for the mistakes of matt and doug and of course… you.
Bandslam, a gret movie that deserved a better distributor. RIP.
Nikki be serious. Peter Jackson’s “name” doesn’t mean squat to the 18-49 year demo. Lord of The Rings ended five years ago. And Kong was a bomb. The reason why this movie is doing well is because of the well executed trailer. Period.
Nikki, I disagree with your swipe about Eric Bana. He was anything but dull in TROY, which he stole outright from Brad Pitt and was mesmerizing as the villain in this summer’s STAR TREK.
Interestingly enough, he started his career as a stand-up comedian Down Under.
I think he’s one away from being a Very Big Star. He’s a Guy’s Guy and women love him. The question is, will he get that vehicle that catapults him?
Hell, if the always surly Russell Crowe can become Big, why not Bana?
King Kong, sold over $100 million worth of DVDs in the largest six-day performance in Universal Studios history. As of April 3, 2006, King Kong has sold more than 7.5 million …
A bomb, yeah
I don’t think Summit studio execs knew they had a good movie in their hands. Achieving 80% on RT for a teen movie is a big deal. On metacritic, apart from HP, no other teen movie has a score above 60. It just wasn’t marketed well.
This is the third movie well-received critics that Summit has not exploited so I get they why their PR has been fired. The Brothers Bloom (with Rachel Wiesz) and Hurt Locker had great reviews but Summit was not marketing them well nor pushing them for awards.
Compare that to how Fox is marketing and pushing 500 Days of Summer and they’re gradually increasing the theater counts. Though it started as limited release like The Brothers Bloom, it will fare and earn better because of the studio behind it.
Summit is still very inexperienced but they have an eye for good movies. Apart from Twilight, they’ve not been able to really market their portfolio very well.
A lot of the moviebuff sites said they’d not seen any ads for Bandslam apart from NM trailer.
No use crying over spilled milk. I’ll take the critical acclaim. At least, that’s something other teen movies don’t have.
I’m happy Nikki put the blame squarely on the marketing because studios and industry insiders read her blog, and she highlighted the great reviews the movie got.
Not my comment but I agree with every word in this commet.
wow..i saw bandslam last night with some friends, and what a refreshing modern take on School of Rock. I feel so bad for Todd…he cast well, he directed well, and he managed to keep an indie feel to that film, which was so unique.
It’s sad it won’t get what it deserves as far as money, becuase being certified a critic’s choice on top of great reviews from everywhere, that will go unnoticed by most modern day idiots who can’t get past a personal bias to perhaps admit they are wrong, and end up enjoying a really good fim.
Jeremy Piven. No wonder folks are staying away–in droves!
Bandslam is a great example of bad marketing. It’s by far the best teen movie out in a long time, but no one knows about it because they put all their money on young girls, (ignoring all other demos) and didn’t get ‘em. Y they didn’t get ‘em is interesting. Maybe because Vanessa Hudgens doesn’t bring ‘em in, or maybe title, or date, or materials. But to identify yr core and miss it, is pretty bad. Especially when the movie deserves a better campagin.
Now tht I saw it – they should have trusted their source material and platformed the movie the way 500 dfays of Summer is doing. Even good word of mouth can’t help a film overcome this bad of a marketing campaign.
By the way they were sellling it – I thought bandslam was highschool musical. Also, my 14 year old daughter didn’t want to go BECAUSE of Vanessa Hudgens. Maybe now I’ll bring her, in spite of that.
If radio killed the video star, then marketing killed bandslam. Was invited to a screening a few weeks ago. By the way it played, and how blown away people were it deserved better marketing. Even after people were saying, they had no idea it was this smart. I heard that the scirpt was originally called, “dear david bowie” but that summit thought that read too ‘indie’.
Hey Nancy Kirkpatrick, Marketing 101: If you’ve got something original why package it like it’s everything else?
Jane – they sold Bandslam on Vanessa Hudgens bringing in young girls, and she didn’t. They should have sold it on the story and the dialogue the way Fox did with Juno.
Talk about swinging low and missing. And I wouldn’t only blame summit – walden was involved, too. And when have they done anything right? At least summit is doing good with Hurt Locker. Walden probably made them change the name from dear david bowie to bandslam. More “family friendly” bs.
Isn’t it funny how New Line has gone from “testerone” to “estrogen?”
Sorry for asking this n00bish question …
But i didn’t get that line
Yeah, plus the $550 million it made worldwide. Yeah, big failure…
Michael, you don’t know the meaning of irony do you?
I bought a ticket to time travller’s wife, and snuck into bandslam to see the trailer of twilight. I didn’t intend on staying in bandslam, but the movie was way better than I thought it wold be.
Nothing about the tv spots made me realize tht it was cool.
Could not agree more with the positive reviews for Bandslam or the poor marketing, including the title ‘bandslam’. I read Josh A. Cagan’s script when it sold as “Will”, and just like “Juno”, the title captured the spirit of the movie…now Juno’s financial success was an anomaly, but Will had ever bit the same charm and dialogue to it for the genre that it explored, and Toff Graff did a wonderful job bringing it to life…this was a really cute, heartwarming film, that i was so happy to take my kids to because it was actually something we could watch, enjoy and relate to together…it wasn’t the event of a twighlight, but it would be nice if there were more than 15 movies i was comfortable to go see with my kids a year and more than a handful we enjoyed…Bandslam was one of them, thank you Todd Graff and Josh a Cagan…this morning i dont feel quite so old.
I’ve been on the other side of Schlessel’s deals and he is a shrewd operator. That said, I’d gladly sit across the table from him any time.
District 9 has been trending on Twitter for days and the feedback is overwhelmingly positive. Who needs research firms anymore? Kids are doing it for free!!
The success is more because the trailers were good the viral campaign could have been much better, it was limited and soft in parts. Peter Jackson’s name being a selling point I’m sure had little to do with it. It really does look like a good movie period. Not the flaccid waste of money GI Joe is. But a thoughtful and well made piece of entertainment, with a really literal metaphor plot set up.
You’re really Glenn Beck, aren’t you?
ALBOONE is a moron. The comment ‘Peter Jackson’s name doesn’t mean squat…followed by LOTR ending 5 years ago…”
Dearest Alboone, you do realize that Jackson’s responsible for some of the best horror films of the 90s? He had a name long long long before LOTR ever saw the light of day…
Obviously, Alboone only sees studio films. For that, he should be banished from DHD.
Vinny B. might be a raging psychopath with full blown Bush Derangment Syndrome, but I have to admit his description of MNU has a combination of Haliburton and Blackwater was spot on, and his mentioning of the parallels between Gitmo and Abu Ghirab are pretty accurate as well.
He should have said the sniveling weasel from MNU reminded him of a typical government bureaucrat who always votes for Democrats because they in the pocket of unions and government lazy-ass workers.
I thought the movie was top notch, although I didn’t care for the Iron Man-esque scenes. And, one other thing I thought of. The prawns kept multiplying. They started the movie with a million and ended with 2.8 million. They should have all been killed to begin with. We know what happens when a non-native plant or insect gets introduced into a area where it doesn’t belong. It is the same concept with those aliens.
District 9 seeks to comment on racism but the film’s depiction of blacks is racist.
Vinnie B. u say crazy!
Guantanamo base is so sweet and easy, dey all get fat and read dey Koran’s all day and they got arrows on de flore so de can point to Mecca and say Howdie! Allah! How be tings wit U!
District 9 is all about Barrack Obama and how he be smokin’ de crack all dayes whilst Michelle be yellin in his ear. Dat’ damn doag pooped agin!
So South Africa sent us that damn Dave Matthews. They deserve wat dey git for dat.
I don’t think D-9 is going to be a word-of-mouth favorite outside the circles of bloggers, critics, and obese virgin-slob sci-fi nerds. There was lots of restlessness and inattentiveness among the type of patrons I saw it with yesterday who have to be engaged in order for a movie to really be put over the top at the box office. Needless to say the guys who were two hundred pounds overweight and peppered with acne seemingly ate up every second of it. I predict a bare minimum of a 60% dropoff next week. As a person who prides himself on not falling into any of the abovementioned categories, the film certainly held my attention with its ambition to transcend mindlessness, but I thought it was kind of clumsy how it mixed together a pseudo-documentary approach with a regular narrative presentation. I was left with the feeling that they would’ve been better off strictly sticking with one style or the other. Trying to be Cloverfield and War of the Worlds at the same time was disruptive to visual rhythm.
I’m really impressed to learn it only cost 30 million to make, though. They really squeezed everything possible out of their relatively meager production resources. That an fx-laden alien inhabitation film could be delivered for less than half the cost of Funny People is a true testament to the pragmatism of the production team.
Speaking of Funny People, it’s been whittled down to a single showing at most of the theatres in my area. Better luck next time, Judd. Finding a first-run theatre that has Funny People booked on Labor Day is going to be harder than finding a comment from a DHD reader that has no whiff of partisan bias.
Hmmm…are people involved with Bandslam posting on here, or something? There sure do seem to be a lot of posts from people claiming to have seen it and extolling its virtues–yet from the boxoffice, barely anyone went to see it.
Nice try, guys. But we see through it.
I don’t buy the fact that D9 was original. The last half of the picture seem to come right out of Termination Salvation including the fricking robot which did all the destruction. Anyone not seeing the supposedly surprise ending about thirty minutes into the film wasn’t paying attention. As a matter of fact the first half seem to come right out of Termination Salvation but I suppose just having the name Peter Jackson sold it for critics and those influenced by them much like when Steven Spielberg dishes out crap. It will be interesting to see how the movie does going forward.
love it when spastic, immature thinking neo-conservatives can’t take a different point of view. Oh, and I’m glad to see an intelligent movie like District 9 doing well++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
If you think Hollywood and liberals trashing Bush and Cheney in their films is taking a different point of view in filmmaking then you don’t have any idea of what you are talking about. Its the norm in hollywood nowaday. By the way..I appreciate it if you quit plagiarizing my lines.
Here are the facts:
d 9 is a great movie with great marketing
bandslam is a great movie with terrible marketing
the goods is a terrible movie with marketing designed by jeremy piven
Time Traveller’s Wife was held for a year because marketing wanted to wait until the buzz about how bad it was died down.
The real winner…. Time Traveller’s Wife – mitigated bad release dates and had a spot on campaign for a mediocre movie. New Line/Warner’s wins the round.
The real loser … bandslam, a movie that deserved a more creative marketing campaign.
They say a movie is made four times:
1.) Once when you write it.
2.) Twice when you shoot it.
3.) Three times when you put it together.
4.) And four when you market it.
Hey Bandslam – Three out of four ‘aint bad.
too bad you didn’t have the weinstien bros. – they would have known how to sell it.
Alboone, you must be pretty clueless. Have you ever visited a website geared toward the 18-49 demo? Peter Jackson is a god with this group. No other director (except perhaps Guillermo Del Toro) works so hard to please these people. In fact, when “Peter Jackson Presents” appeared on screen at the beginning of D9, my audience cheered!
As for King Kong “bombing,” you just completely made that up. It made less than hoped for, but $550 million in box office, setting DVD records with Universal, the video game tie-in, and critical acclaim do not make it a bomb by any stretch.
And your “LOTR was 5 years ago” comment doesn’t make any sense, either. People love those movies and cannot WAIT for The Hobbit to open.
I work at Sony and spent the last three months on 9… and Marc Weinstock’s credit for the marketing campaign is WAY overblown. Jackson dealt with Jeff Blake and pretty much told Blake how this movie was going to be sold. Weinstock is way up Blake’s ass and is smart enough to not speak up and does what he is told. Pretending this campaign is his isn’t right.
Marc is good at genre movies but he’s not really a great marketer. He is a great corporate politician though.
response to Vinny B. As CST pointed out, filmmaker is South African. But District 9 is a direct reference to District 6, a real area created by white South Africans as a whites only area.
Eric Bana is a good guy and talented actor — but he is NOT a star. He can’t — and won’t ever — open a movie.
Jeremy Piven is an A-1 a-hole and everyone in town knows it. One director told me the story of how JP came in to audition a few years back and said he really liked to improvise a lot. Didn’t care about the script.
That pretty much says it all.
As usual, women have jealousy of sucessfull woman. Amy Pascal is one of the best in the business. And Sony has a good variety of movies (not only dumb movies). And Julie/Julia has great reviews and is doing fine at the box office.
I’m tired of everyone saying ‘Lautner worked his ass off.’ Give me a break, going to the gym isn’t working your ass off when your getting the checks he does, it’s just common sense.
District 9 was filmed on the Red One 4K camera system. This is wonderful news for the mass acceptance of digital and helps to level the playing field for independents.
Peter Jackson was one of the original heavyweights to get behind Red when he shot a short film on the original prototype several years ago. He is clearly leading the way. Great stuff!!!
Loved it this movie ranks with Alien and Blade Runner,
I cannot wait until the next episode has all the toys and the Aliens really kick some human ass.
I rarely comment on these sites, but must say here, because I don’t know where else to say it – bandslam is a casualty of marketing. What a delightful movie. have nothing to do with it, and am only peripherally involved in this industry, but it’s a shame that more people won’t see it. Note to filmmakers, if you have any movies at Summit, make sure they don’t pre-package it into something familiar, and lose what’s special and different about your film.
Dear digital is here…
Digital has been here for a while. There are not demonstrably more good movies. Talent IS finite.
The medium makes very, very, very little difference.
Successful marketing happens when the marketer hits the wavelength and really gets what a movie is about. Funny People comes to mind – everyone I know who saw it liked it a lot but went for Apatow or Sandler not because of the lousy trailer – that was supposed to get everyone else in and it did a pitiful job.
D9 marketed itself well -the clips were sharp, provocative and held just enough back to make you want more. In marketing there’s the “I want to see this movie” audience – those you’ve already got. Then there’s the “I don’t want to see this movie” or “Ive seen this movie” audience, and those, you’re not going to get except by word of mouth.” A sharp marketing team knows how to tag a third category – “Do I want to see this movie?” And that’s why D9 is #1.
Dear BL,
Everyone you know loved Funny People??? Really???
You must live in a very small bubble.
Not only were the reviews tepid, but no one I know liked the film. They didn’t hate the film. They just felt it lost focus and direction. In other words, it flopped.
You can put lipstick on a flop, but it’s still a flop.
Great news for D9, but what the hell happend to G.I Joe ? That movie recieved a solid cinemascore last week, but is still dropping pretty hard. At this rate it probably won’t even make $140mill domestic and that’s not good for a movie that cost almost $200mill to make. Maybe Par shouldn’t have run off to make a sequel so quick if audiences didn’t really like the first movie. A sequel will probably be a huge gamble for them if the budget is even higher than the first. I also still don’t see how it’s gonna make 300mill WW with District 9 still doing solid buisness within the next couple of weeks and Inglorious Basterds coming out next week it looks like a rough road is ahead.
District 9 was great.
What the hell is Bandslam?
Time Traveler’s Wife had a narrative impossible to turn into a film.
Why does everyone hate Jeremy Piven?
Anonymous, little reported in the Western Press was a plea by the governments of the Congo, to please don’t eat the pygmies. Said eating believed to give “magical powers.” The tragedy of post-Apartheid SA and post-Colonial Africa is that every prediction by colonialists and apartheid partisans came true. This is known as a “Hate Fact” because it’s true and violates PC Multiculturalism. Which will in fact kill District 9.
“Apartheid’s bad, M’Kay?” Geez we knew that back when Steven Biko was buried in 1977. Shocking for a South African, D9 failed to draw the parallel — Aliens arrive and humans fail to adapt to technological threat and meet it, along the lines of Bantu refusal to adapt to the Dutch colonial settlements in the 1650’s. They kept their culture, and got conquered. Seventeenth Century Dutchmen like Aliens not being overcome with PC.
Agreed with Jonathon that the look is astounding, and shooting in the Southern Hemisphere is a huge threat to Hollywood. Not SA — Joburg has regular brownouts as the ANC can’t even keep the lights on. But Australia, NZ, and Chile seem good candidates. Finally digital looks as beautiful as film.
Agreed it will drop off significantly, this could have been a $100 million weekend film had it been made to appeal to all four quadrants. A tiresome lecture on a evil system deservedly dead and buried for 18 years with overdog Aliens (with Spaceships!) as stand-ins for SA Blacks is preaching to the converted. And stupid.
They have a spaceship. And lasers. It’s like a WWE Wrestler bullied by kindergartners. It’s not even remotely dramatically believable.
Okay, we get it. Bandslam is great, Summit screwed it up. I’ll see for myself when I see it tomorrow along with District 9 and The Time Traveler’s Wife.
I agree with Dixon Steele — August 15, 2009 @ 4:33 am
Eric Bana is fantastic. I never got Orlando Bloom tho.
Who knew Bandslam was such a charming movie?! These
websites are more useful than I thought.
Saw District 9, it was disturbing, I enjoyed it. FULL
of dudes in the theater, everyone seemed to dig it.
I liked Funny People, jeez, why does everyone have to
either love it or hate it?
At one point midday Friday, GI Joe even fell behind Julie & Julia “but because its audience is so old they are in bed by 6 PM,” one studio exec quipped. Its cume is $43.7M
I can hardly wait till that studio exec gets a bit older
and is fired by their studio because they are over 40.
Dear HelenofPeel
No one you know liked Funny People – really? You must live in a very small bubble.
I suppose it depends upon how you define “flop” – is it a movie that isn’t good, which is subjective, or a movie that doesn’t make money, which is not subjective. Reviews – and by that I mean the traditional print reviews or the mainstream online reviews – dont drive people into the theaters the way a good trailer will – IMHO – and the only thing that overcomes a bad trailer is the audience’s desire to see a certain actor – and again IMHO – there are very few actors who get anyone into a movie on their name alone.
BTW – while the people I know who did see Funny People had positive things to say the one movie that they are absolutely raving about is “500 Days of Summer” – which is – at least in this area – not even on the radar and one they had to make a trek to see.
It is utterly fascinating to watch the Drudgebots whining about District 9. Notice how a half-wit like Whiskey sticks to the script:
1. Complain that while Apartheid was bad and thankfully long gone, it is necessary to imply that black Africans were somehow better off under colonial rule or even apartheid.
2. Irrelevant and nonsensical complaints about “PC”, which strangely attempt to rationalize apartheid, even when the post began with the obligatory “..of course it was bad”.
I’ve seen about two dozen variations of “Whiskey’s” post on that moronic fascist Big Hollywood site, so colour me unsurprised that Drudge-luring Nikki Finke tacitly encourages that kind of politics here.
D9 felt a little like reading a boring term paper on man’s inhumanity to man. it didn’t help that you could see where every single scene was going from a mile away.
and i hate to agree but eric bana is a huge bore onscreen. love mcadams though but where has she been. she should have been doing movies like this a few years ago to capitalize on wedding crashers/redeye etc
to the people mentioning the marketing of funny people. WORST POSTER EVER. those two boys looking like self satisfied douches is enough to keep anyone away
D9 felt a little like reading a boring term paper on man’s inhumanity to man. it didn’t help that you could see where every single scene was going from a mile away.
and i hate to agree but eric bana is a huge bore onscreen. love mcadams though but where has she been. she should have been doing movies like this a few years ago to capitalize on wedding crashers/redeye etc
I must be honest – the ignorance of Americans in general never ceases to amaze me. I live in Johannesburg and this movie only allures to the apartheid regime – it deals more directly with the xenophobic attacks that took place on the almost 2 million illegal Zimbabwean immigrants that were living in squalor outside Jo’burg. Please people at least have the decency to do your research before commenting on other countries’ political backgrounds.
The major studios aim for the lowest common denominator. It is with the independents and the aim for the ‘long tail’ that will rule in the end. Peter Jackson branded movies? I will give him credit in giving Neil Blomkamp the opportunity and Sony/TriStar for staying the hell out of the way but in the end it is the story that Neil wanted to tell. It started at Comicon and with the viral campaign before that, but the story endured all the hype and people are truly enjoying this movie. I dare you to find a bad review of this movie.
Of course come awards time, this movie will be overlooked.
Tried posting last nite, but my WiFi spot ate the post, I suppose.
Got tired battling a recalcitrant drain yesterday, needed a break, so I went to the local multiplex and saw District 9. In this flyover country screen, perhaps 40 people were there for a late afternoon matinee. Not one was under 40. Not surprising either, as it was a nice day outside.
Technically, District 9 is fine. I couldn’t tell if it was shot on film, RED, or toilet paper coated with iron oxide endowed with magic. The movie looked, as I said, fine. A $30 million budget for this flick is gonna wake up a few effects houses.
As for the story telling with District 9… overall, I got the feeling I was watching a made-for-TV movie. It’s not the mockumentary parts of the story that annoy me — it’s the sense that, overall, this story just wasn’t quite worthy of cinema. I have to say it’s one of the more imaginative films to hit multiplexes lately. However, I didn’t get into the whole apartheid vibe everyone’s talking about. It’s a sci-fi movie. Get over it.
Even so, this flick has “TV series pilot” written all over it, as well as “Sequel.” Could it be “filmmakers” spend too much of their times watching “films” on video monitors?
District 9 is headed for cult classic status, which means I’m happy I got in at a matinee price. I think I would have felt cheated if I had paid full boat. Might be interesting to see the TV series or sequel, too.
Oh, one other thing. The whole “prawns” thing in District 9 is lost on an American audience. We know “prawns” as “shrimp.”
Have a nice day, all.
To the idiots who compare the marketing (or lack thereof) on Bandslam to the marketing on Funny People. There’s one giant difference.
Bandslam was good.
“But Eric Bana isn’t leading man worthy. Too dull on screen.”
And this regarding an actor who blew audiences away as Chopper.
The lesson here, I think, is that if an above-average and not cookie-cutter talent waits for Hollywood to make him a star, his career will end up on a one-line assessment like that.
Hey Pete, instead of attacking people, how about you tell us how much better South African society is now that apartheid is over? Please, list for us all the ways that country is better off now than twenty years ago. It’s okay, we can wait.
It’s one thing to decry racism, it is quite another to ignore the basic reality that South Africa is a cesspool now. Does that mean people want apartheid back? Of course not, but it does beg the question, why is the country in such worse shape now that the freedom was given?
Stupid close minded racist Liberals such as yourself refuse to answer such questions, cause you’re incapable of criticizing any black person, unless they’re a conservative, then you support lynching them.
Why the continuing cunty comments about the audience for “Julie and Julia” being old? The movie is drawing foodie fans of all ages. And even if it was only “old people,” at least they are going out to see something worthwhile, as opposed to the poor children who are being dragged to something as execrable and mind-numbing as “G-Force.” Get over your ageism, Nikki. Hollywood may be about making product for teenage boys, but do you have to feed into that mindset as well?
we know what prawns are you retard
BandSlam Rocks! It is so well done on every level. Seriously, The Twilight Trailer once again shows, those kids can’t act. They are painful to watch even over 2 minutes. But I’m sure it will make a gazillion dollars and BandSlam, well who knows. Word of mouth can be powerful.
“It’s one thing to decry racism, it is quite another to ignore the basic reality that South Africa is a cesspool now. Does that mean people want apartheid back? Of course not, but it does beg the question, why is the country in such worse shape now that the freedom was given?”
When you’re done answering your own question (please answer your own question instead of dancing around it), I would like to hear why you feel the crime rate in Moscow shot up after the fall of communism. Because, of course, it does beg the question, why was the country in worse shape after freedom was given?
I’m a close minded racist liberal, so obviously am in no position to answer the question. So maybe you could enlighten me.
Saw THE GOODS last night. Somebody had to. Not that bad, actually. Some pretty decent laughs. But those grosses just put the nail in the coffin of Jeremy Piven’s leading man feature career. A perfect Redbox DVD rental though. Or just wait a year for Showtime.
Same thing for A PERFECT GETAWAY. Glad I didn’t pay $10 bucks for it, but certainly sit-throughable. Good cast. Some nice twists. Maybe a little too meta-clever for its’ own good.
I suspect the only HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL star with any kind of movie-pull is Zac Ephon, when he’s still playing a high-schooler, like the stupid 17 AGAIN. Otherwise, like Hudgens and Tisdale, whose movies just flopped, nope.
Animal, so many places to begin with your ignorant ass.
1. It’s utterly fascinating to see conservative creatures like yourself talk the talk about “individual freedom”, but then use the argument “why is the country in such worse shape now that the freedom was given?” Freedom wasn’t GIVEN to black South Africans, bub. Until 1989, Freedom was deliberately DENIED them by the white minority. Of course, your hero, St. Ronnie Reagan didn’t lift a damn finger to help the South Africans attain their freedom during the 1980’s, now did he?
2. For all intensive purposes, SA was on the right track when Mandela was in charge. His truth and reconciliation commission was a masterstroke, and definitely kept the country from descending into a morass of retribution against the Afrikaaners. Of course, Mandela was too much of a singular figure, and was deficient in developing successors of even comparable stature or wisdom. The lack of a viable second party to compete against the ANC doesn’t help either.
However, what exactly is YOUR solution to the problems in South Africa, chief? Do you have one? Or are you so limited in your cranial capacity that all you can do is whine about African politics? Just what would YOU do?
Dear R.L.,
There is no amount of spin you can place on a film that underperformed like “Funny People”… It underperformed in the 18-49 bracket. It underperformed as a story, as a drama, as a comedy. It couldn’t make up its mind what it wanted to be.
Don’t try to dress this up as an Apatow success. Everyone gets a stinker now and then. NO matter how dear the material is to the filmmaker, it was an unfocused film that left the audience going, “Oh…”
ToddToronto – Russia is not a cesspool, they had problems sure, but the country is doing as well now as they would have had Reagan never defeated Communism.
Pete – Why such viciousness directed at white Afrikaaners? They are a minority group, and as such, are deserving of your pity and victim status, like every other minority you racist swine. Why is it Liberals stick up for every minority except Jews and Asians? Because they think minorities can’t do things for themselves, that they need help.
Bottom line is this, when white people ran South Africa, it was the most developed nation in sub-Saharan Africa. Why is that? Why is it that now that white people are no longer in charge, the country is just as bad as every other sub-Saharan African nation?
What would YOU do Pete to fix this problem? Why do you think once whitey was no longer around the country descended into anarchy and chaos?
District 9 was not that good. The first 30 minutes or so were great, but then it got incredibly boring, and had an awful third act full of boring action. Why is action so poorly done these days? Action movies have become more boring than a Meryl Streep comedy.
How on earth is Ugly Truth still in the top 10? And how does a B-list bimbo with a mere supporting role on a primetime soap opera bring in bigger opening weekend numbers than the likes of Adam Sandler, Meryl Streep, Amy Adams and Rachel McAdams?
harry potter will “limp” to 295+ and possibility 300 million in the US and 900+ worldwide. Wish I could limp like that.
@ Nikki: You did not mention the limited release of It might Get Loud. Saw the 12:30 pm showing today in Times Square. About 40 peopel showed up at $12.50/ticket. I was wondering what the per screen looked like,etc. Seemed to have good Rotten Tomatoes scores. It was a very cool documentary on the creative process of a rock guitarist.
WHISKEY: “‘DISTRICT 9′ was a great-looking, well-produced film that was nevertheless weighed down with a dated allegorical message condemning a system that was already discredited and discarded a couple of decades ago. I believe the film’s misplaced, heavy-handed ideological bludgeon will limit the greater success the film might otherwise have had by alienating large sectors of its potential audience who have grown tired of being lectured to.”
PETE: “ARGHSLOBBERSNARL DRUDGEBOTFASCIST FUMEGROWL YOUREARACIST THISISANINDUSTRYSITE SPITROARGRRRRRR FLYOVERCOUNTRY SHUTUPSHUTUPSHUTUPSHUTUPSHUTUP!!!!!!!!”
Rock on, Whiskey.
Some of the more frothy commentators do realise that Neil Blomkamp (and the overwhelming majority of ‘District 9’s cast and crew) aren’t Americans, and perhaps the whole world doesn’t revolve around jacking off your political and cultural egotism?
It’s not all about you, people. Get over yourselves.
Animal, again, I ask you a direct question. Do you feel that apartheid should have remained in place in South Africa?
By the by, you know who the only people who ever actually say “whitey”? It’s ignorant Drudgebots who try to pretend that they aren’t really bigots while extolling the virtues of apartheid era South Africa.
Dewar, so are you saying that District 9 won’t cross over commercially because in reality there are people who AGREED with apartheid that might be offended by this?
Animal, just one more thing:
Is it safe to assume that Civil War movies tick you off because they portray your beloved Confederates in such a negative light?
First District 9 is based on a short 6 minute film which the director did. I watched it and it was interesting.
Now District 9’s documentry style made it so interestintg. When I first heard the aliens settled here 28yrs ago,made me think 1981. The documentry style made it good storytelling and suspenseful. Makes u wonder if it actually happened? no matter this one was fun to watch. But a great deal of realism in is in D9.
Now the time travellor’s wife I wouldn’t mind seeing at all.
A few questions re District 9 [SPOILER ALERT! SPOILER ALERT!]:
Why didn’t any of the 1.8M Aliens have an insurrection considering they had superior weaponry and even sold them (albeit smartly) to the Nigerians for cat food?
A commentator mentioned that the lead went to hide in District 9, the only place he wouldn’t expect them to look. Why wouldn’t they look there if he’s now part Alien? It’s one of the first places I’d look.
You think the fuel used to power their ship contained their DNA too? We know their weapons could only be activated by aliens. But likely? Why the fuel canister and not something else that could’ve caused the mutation?
It would’ve been nice if the lead’s wife went looking for her or if she came looking for her. Show us some emotional balance. It was very quiet in the crowded theater and no one clapped or seemed excited about the last few minutes when the aliens made it to their ship. Again, the movie’s last Act is the best. This movie is most definitely about xenophobia, racism, segregation, etc. Yes, I knew that Neill/Peter/Fran/Philipa chose Alive In Jo’burg for the movie’s framework but so many people (mostly critics) said that the movie doesn’t beat you over the head with its social underpinning. And that’s a lie. It does. Audiences had to suspend their disbelief for the first 45 minutes of the movie to believe the parallel; which was hard to do. I guess it’s hard to believe that South Africa would be ‘the’ setting and the only country interacting with the growing Alien population. Showing other countries interest (especially when they decide to sell the lead’s body parts), even possible removal of the aliens to other countries to house them because South Africa can’t handle it… Stuff like that.
It is what it is despite its flaws. I’d watch the last 30 minutes again. The alien father and son make this movie.
@Ann – that B-list bimbo is in a film that the marketing makes look like it might be “fun” – t5hough low brow fun. Because it is a rom com, half of its job was done already.
Julie and Julia looked like a pointless film about a mousy whiner (Amy Adams).
Funny People looked like a long film about self conscious whiners (everyone).
Time Travelers Wife looked like a film about a romantic whiner (Rachel McAdams).
Sometimes people just want to have a good time, especially when they are dealing with bumps in the road themselves.
Oh, and I realize Ugly Truth looks like a film about a whiner (Katherine), but that is the entire source of the comedy – watching Gerard spin her around.
Watched ‘District 9′ on Saturday night, and the movie is deserving of all the praise it’s receiving. An outstanding, original, gritty, compelling sci-fi film. It may perhaps not be a monster hit: with the audience I watched it with, which was predomantly young and african-american, the movie got an apathetic reaction. That may have something to do with one of the film’s subplots that makes Nigerians into cannibalizing bad guys.
But, bravo, Peter Jackson and Neil Blomkamp for a superbly done film.
Whoever mentioned Eric Bana for Troy I say, “Right on.” He was so good in that movie that he tricked me into thinking he was going to beat Achilies. Screw Brad Pitt, Eric Bana was the star of that show.
He was pretty damn good in “Funny People” too. He deserves scripts that are more interesting to moviegoers.
Jo’burg:
Um, could I respectfully suggest that a whole lot of “suspension of disbelief” is required to believe in a film whose premise is that, in the present day, aliens have been living in a vast ghetto in the middle of a real city for a generation? Period.
@Robert Haynes:
I must admit — the arrogant, dimwitted pomposity of foreigners who presume to know what all Americans are or aren’t never ceases to amaze me. Please at least have the decency to do your research before making ridiculously broad assessments of whole countries’ populations.
drew — right on. Eric Bana was the only good thing about Funny People. Saw D9 last night and it was fine, but I agree that the news footage/corporate PR film/actual movie interspersing was clumsy. It needed a better framing device. I also think the realities of the alien technology was really stupidly handled. Once the ship was explored by humans the first time, It would have had non-stop human inhabitants — scientists, military, politicians, etc. Also, no one seems to ask or care why a ship with a million aliens was sent to earth in the first place. It needed more story. Seeing Julie & Julia, GI Joe, Taking Woodstock and Time Travelers Wife this weekend, but may need to add Bandslam to the list. The Perfect Getaway was slight, but fine. The ending should have been a million times better (once you figure out the very obvious plot twist, they could have twisted it further by making the female villain the mastermind behind the whole thing, then letting her get away with it — a la — The Perfect Getaway)
Finally, for the first time in nearly 20 years, I walked out of a movie halfway through because it was too unbearable to watch (and as you can see, I see everything) — The Ugly Truth. People who wrote, produced, acted and directed that movie should have bad things happen to them.
studios are addicted to their so called blockbusters and somewhere in there forgot that an engaging story and compelling characters are still the essence of good and commercial films. Gi joe and transformers were products and should have cost less and been better. Since he took the bow selling the film before it came out, why am I not reading how Rob moore is a compete no talent numbers savant and has no idea what he’s doing. His first film as co chairman is a fantasia version of genisis.So as it enters the 100 year birthday Paramount is now the toy movie, remale, factory and the home for bibical creationism. . There campaigns are all the same and even with good exits the film drops. That’s his fault not the movies. Clearly Rob’s talent extends to only taking credit for the hits. He’s the worst of the lot. True evil. Brad Grey better watch his back.
um, i kinda liked District 9 on first and second thought, but on third, it had a lot of holes. where is the advancement in technology…yes the weapons had locks on them but what about the rest of the ship? did they have ipods, toilets, gravity, food systems, the aliens might have been stupid users of systems not the designers, but what about system design, and future design. If I showed you an ipod twenty years ago, i think any scientist would be highly influenced by having a were still unknowns. Knowing something is possible is 90 % of the battle. Also, if the be all and the end all of the alien’s life was collecting fuel to get to the mothership that implies that the aliens were never going there themselves, so where the heck were the guns and mech(!) coming from. I rather doubt the humans would haul down a damn mech and then, say oh..you guys can just leave this laying around.
The other thing was where were the damn tourists? If you can’t make a billion dollars renting out LIVE aliens to zoos you have to be the worst capitalist ever.Even after 28 years there would still be unlimited interest in meeting aliens in person. People travel to africa to see lions, could you imaging what they would pay to see live aliens and a 2 mile across hovering spaceship? What about vacations ON the ship, there would have to be an elevator to satisfy the demand.
Actions figures, movie rights, the aliens would collectively OWN south africa in a couple of years.
The reprocussions of their existance was very poorly thought out.
Bandslam rocks!!! Such a great teen movie…
Vanessa Hudgens was really great as Sa5m. Love her too!