"Chuck and Larry" overtakes "Potter" at box office
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Adam Sandler's faux gay comedy, "I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry," charmed moviegoers, who spent $34.8 million at weekend movie box offices, sweeping "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix" from the No. 1 spot, according to studio estimates on Sunday.
"Potter," the fifth film based on the blockbuster fantasy book series that saw its seventh and final novel debut this weekend, had a weekend box office sweep of $32.2 million.
"Hairspray," the movie musical starring a cross-dressing John Travolta, Michelle Pfeiffer as a racist and a chubby singer as its star, brought in $27.8 million to land at No. 3.
HOMER GOES TO HOLLYWOOD
To say that “The Simpsons Movie” has been a long time coming is like saying Homer is a bit full-figured or principal Skinner has a few mommy issues. Severe understatement.
In the years between when the film was first proposed and when it finally made it to the big screen, baby Maggie could have grown nearly old enough to get legally Duff-faced at Moe’s.
The film finally - finally - hits screens Friday, but its genesis actually goes back to the early days of the series, which enters its 19th season this fall and is celebrating 20 years since it debuted on “The Tracey Ullman Show” in 1987.
“When I heard they were making a movie, I felt like a lot of people. I thought, what took them so long?” says Joe Mantegna, who voices gangster “Fat Tony” in the movie and TV series. “I was surprised they hadn’t done one sooner, because they’ve made movies of lesser things a lot sooner. I kept hearing, ‘It’s coming out next month, next week, next year.’ There’s been a buzz about it for a long time.”
Assembling the resources for a full-length feature proved to be the holdup.
“In the early years of the show, a movie was talked about in an offhand way. Really, we didn’t have enough writers and directors to do a show and the film simultaneously. We only had eight writers and five directors,” says Al Jean, one of the film’s writers, who’s been with the series since its beginning.
“We were all busy on the show,” says writer David Mirkin, who joined the show in its fifth season. “It takes a year and a half to do one season of the show. It takes nine months to do one episode. We’re literally working on two seasons at once, with no time off.
There always were just a handful of people who really knew how to write the show, and there were never enough of us to peel off and do the film.”
Then, six years ago, the pieces - and more important, the legal contracts - to get a movie made fell into place.
“We accumulated more [staff] over the years, and in 2001, when the cast signed a deal to do the new seasons, they also signed a deal to do a film,” Jean says.
With the cast in place, series executive producer and guiding force James L. Brooks - a veteran of “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” and “Taxi” - began assembling writers to hammer out the script. And those he picked have fans - even lapsed ones who haven’t watched the show in a few seasons - as excited as Ralph Wiggum after 11 Pixy Stix.
“When Jim finally decided [to move forward with the film], he chose the classic writers, the show runners, and that’s how the team came to be. It was Jim’s vision that it be this group who are considered the key Writers,” Mirkin says.
If you’ve been watching the show for any length of time, the names should be familiar. In addition to Jean and Mirkin, Brooks tapped John Swartzwelder (who holds the writing record for most episodes of the series at nearly 60), Ian Maxtone- Graham, George Meyer, Mike Reiss, Mike Scully, Matt Selman and Jon Vitti.
The group commenced writing in November 2003 - and alarmingly enough, were making changes up until just a few weeks ago. The script went through at least 100 revisions over the years. Scenes, even those that had been fully animated, were cut and reworked, and Jean estimates that enough for an entire film was left on the cutting-room floor. Look for some of it on the DVD.
But the forces behind the film are adamant that you shouldn’t wait for the DVD. They insist “The Simpsons Movie” is a cinematic experience that differs from the TV show.
“We’re trying to tell a story that’s emotionally involving for 90 minutes, that compels you to not just sit there and laugh, but to care about what happens for the full length of a movie - as they do in a Pixar film or a great Disney film,” Jean says. “It’s also in wide-screen format. We tried to be more ambitious in the directing, in the use of color and shadow.”
Plus, you reportedly get to see Bart’s wee-wee. “I can’t confirm or deny that,” says Nancy Cartwright, who voices the oldest Simpson child.
There’s not much else anyone can confirm or deny about the movie, because the producers have been incredibly secretive about plot details, giving guest stars only their relevant script pages (with the star’s name plastered on every page, to prevent leaking) and booking recording sessions under a fake movie title.
What we do know is that the plot centers around Homer’s biggest d’oh moment yet. He poisons Springfield with a silo full of pig droppings, incurring the wrath of his family, the town - and president Arnold Schwarzenegger. Yep.
“I think the movie will be successful. It’ll be interesting to see,” says Albert Brooks, who has done frequent guest voices over the years and has a role in the movie. “I think if they can pull this off, it’ll be considered an amazing achievement. There’s all these people with preconceived notions of, oh, what’s it gonna be? Is it too late? Is it the right time? You’re getting a lot of people walking in with something they think they should be seeing.
“Listen, that’s one of the pitfalls of being the most successful animated series in the history of the world.”
Everyone's talking Potter; last book out
NEW YORK - The books are out; the word is spreading. "The last Potter is amazing. It has definitely gone way beyond what I expected," Deb Kiehlmeier, 16, of the Philadelphia suburb of Cherry Hill, N.J., says of "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows," which was released Saturday to worldwide ecstasy.
"Harry Potter fans are always trying to predict what will happen next, and J.K. Rowling always gives them something different," Kiehlmeier, who had completed the book 759-page book by late Saturday afternoon, told The Associated Press.
On Day 1 of the A.H. (After Harry) Era, reviewers and readers mourned the end of a historic series that proved young people can still crave the written word like the crispiest French fry. It was a day for the sleepless and the sleepy to enjoy and to recall one last, fresh taste of Potter.
The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times and the Chicago Tribune were among those bowing before Rowling's achievement. She was compared to the greats of children's and fantasy authors — J.R.R. Tolkien, L. Frank Baum, Roald Dahl — and held in awe for living up to the most intimidating standards.
"To create such an extraordinary world, fill it with complicated characters and convergent back stories is beyond the reach of most writers," wrote the Los Angeles Times' Mary McNamara.
"To sustain that world and grow those characters over seven books filled with plot twists, folklore and even a magical curriculum and then bring it all to an articulate, emotionally wrenching conclusion — that is a truly epic quest."
The AP's Deepti Hajela called the seventh and final Potter a "classic," writing that Rowling "completes her entertaining, compulsively readable series with a book that is both heartbreaking and hopeful, one that left this reader sad to say goodbye to Harry but thoroughly satisfied at how it all went."
Some readers, ironically, were tougher than the critics, especially about the 759-page book's brief epilogue. One reader on the Potter fan site http://www.mugglenet.com even suggested skipping the last chapter, or at least getting to it later so the rest of the book could be thoroughly enjoyed first.
For those who can't wait to find out whether Harry lives, Potter fan Julie Neal advises patience. In a customer review on Amazon.com, she writes, "Regardless of the temptation, don't skip to the end. It doesn't work. The answers to all those key questions everyone wants to know unfold throughout the story."
Potter is a pastime and a business. Before the release date, booksellers competed worldwide to sell the $34.99 book, with some cutting the price by two-thirds. Now, the re-sales are starting. On Amazon.com, some individuals were hawking used copies, and some new ones, for as little as $16, $1.99 less than Amazon's price. On eBay, where just a few days ago a pre-release copy was worth $250, "Deathly Hallows" was offered Saturday for immediate purchase for $10.99.
The first six Potter books have sold more than 325 million copies, and in some places demand for "Deathly Hallows" is already exceeding supply. Taylor Books, an independent book store in Charleston, W.Va., quickly sold out of the 100 copies of the book it had put on sale.
Employee Dane Klingaman said Saturday that customers had been asking for the book all morning, but that only 12 copies that had been specially ordered remained.
"I've had to turn people away," he said.
Seven of the top 10 best sellers on Amazon.com were Potter books Saturday, including a box set of the whole series coming out in September with a list price of $195. The British retailer Asda Group Ltd., which discounted "Deathly Hallows" to $10, said Saturday it had sold 450,000 copies of the book between midnight and 4 p.m. and was selling it twice as fast as the previous Potter. Waterstone's, a British bookstore chain, said that at the height of the overnight sales frenzy, staff members were serving 20 customers a second.
Even people in war zones are reading Harry Potter. About 50 foreigners working in Afghanistan got their hands on a copy of "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" on its release date, beating many of their friends back home.
"I sent several text messages to friends and none of them had it yet, and they all said 'I can't believe you're in Kabul and you got the book before us,'" said U.N. worker Jayne Cravens, 41, of Henderson, Ky.
John Connolly, an executive with Paxton International, a logistics and moving company, bought 50 copies of the book in Dubai at 3:01 a.m. Saturday, the exact time of the book's release in London. He boarded a plane to Kabul a couple hours later with the books on board.
"Harry Potter is released worldwide at the same time. As a logistics company based in Afghanistan for five years, we saw every reason to include Afghanistan," said Connolly, who asked customers to donate a book to the American University in Kabul in exchange for the free shipping on the book. "It was not on the publisher's list, that's for sure."
The Couch Potato Report - July 21st, 2007
This week The Couch Potato Report peels four films that might entertain you on a hot summer night and documentary about coffee.
As I am sure you know, it is summer.
This is the time of year when many of us spend most of our leisure time outside in the sun having fun.
The folks at most of the movie studios know this, and they are out doing the same.
That at being the case, there haven't been any huge new DVD releases of late.
The studios are saving those films for release at the end of the summer, just in
time for Back To School sales and the impending holiday buying season.
But there are still new movies being released each week on DVD, and I have four of them for you that you might mildly enjoy, even though none of them are what you might call "a great movie".
First up is a film called GRAY MATTERS.
In this film Canadian actor Tom Cavanagh from TV's ED and the beautiful Heather Graham from BOOGIE NIGHTS star as a brother and sister who both fall in love...with the same woman.
The two are so close that they live together and dance together and even finish each other's sentences, and after an incident at a party when they are thought to be a couple, they decide that they need to start looking for other people to love.
So Sam agrees to look for a guy for his sister and Gray, that is his sister's name, Gray says she'll look for a girl for her brother.
And Gray succeeds!
But once Gray realizes that she loves the woman too, she has to ask some serious questions...like, does she even like men.
GRAY MATTERS isn't great, and it has an awful ending, but it does have a good heart at it's core, and some nice characters.
So if you are looking for a light romantic comedy to watch on a summer evening, this one might do the trick.
Next up is FACTORY GIRL.
This movie tells a fictionalized story of mid-sixties socialite and Andy Warhol
superstar Edie Sedgwick.
Edith Minturn Sedgwick - better known as Edie - was an American model actress, and heiress who starred in many of Andy Warhol's short films in the 1960s.
I could sit here and give you multiple facts about Edie, but all of them would just
be things I found on Wikipedia.
No, prior to watching FACTORY GIRL the only reason I knew who she was came courtesy of a song.
The band The Cult wrote a song about her life called "Edie (Ciao Baby)" which was on their Sonic Temple album released in 1989.
Other than that...I only knew she was one of Andy Warhol's gang who all gathered and worked and hung out at a place in New York called The Factory.
But after watching this movie, I guess I know a little bit more...however, I am not really that curious about her.
I suspect the real Edie Sedgwick lead a very interesting life, but the movie about
her isn't very interesting at all.
The problem with this film has nothing to do with the cast - Sienna Miller is great
as Edie, Guy Pierce is spectacular as Andy Warhol, and Canadian actor Hayden
Christensen from the STAR WARS films does a good enough job Bob Dylan impersonation as a character who is, but isn't named Bob Dylan- but their movie is just too artsy fartsy.
The filmmaker uses multiple camera angles and technicques, shoots on video, digital and film, and is constantly changing from film mode to documentary mode to too many other modes to care about.
And I get it, Edie Sedgwick and the Andy Warhol gang were creative and artistic, so they want the film to be artistic...but it ends up being a movie that has too much style and not enough substance.
I like artistic films that take chances, but FACTORY GIRL is just too artistic...thus, it is too artsy fartsy for me.
And yes, that is the first time I have ever called any film that...and hopefully it
is the last!
If you want to see something that is a bit different than the mainstream films that are the norm, the FACTORY GIRL is for you.
If you don't...check out THE ASTRONAUT FARMER.
Billy Bob Thornton plays a former NASA astronaut who was forced to retire years earlier so he could save his family farm.
But he has never give up his dream of space travel, and he builds his own rocket in his barn and plans on going into space...despite the government's threats to stop him.
THE ASTRONAUT FARMER isn't a movie based in reality.
It is a story of a dreamers, and a movie for full of hope, and as such it requires
the viewer to take a huge leap of faith.
I was willing to do that, and I found it to be a good little film with some great
surprises, none of which I will spoil for you now.
So, if you suspend disbelief, and maybe dream just a little, you might enjoy THE
ASTRONAUT FARMER as well.
I mentioned that if you suspend disbelief, and maybe dream just a little, you might enjoy THE ASTRONAUT FARMER.
Well, if you have a kid who can do that, and that kid has never seen E.T. - THE
EXTRA-TERRESTRIAL, well then they might enjoy THE LAST MIMZY.
THE LAST MIMZY is a fantasy film for the whole family about a brother and a sister who discover a mysterious box while they are at the beach.
They open it and inside they find a magical stuffed rabbit who tells the girl that
it's name is Mimzy.
Also inside that box are other mystical toys, which give the children some unique
and exceptional powers.
Soon, the kids begin to attract the attention of their parents, teachers... and even the FBI.
The source material for THE LAST MIMZY pre-dates E.T. by nearly four decades, but that film is so iconic that this movie suffers by comparison.
It isn't a bad movie, in fact, it is a pretty good movie for kids, but as an adult,
all I kept thinking was: this would be a pretty good movie for kids.
So, if you have some young kids you need to entertain, or just need some grown-up time this summer, this might be the film for you...I mean them.
Finally this week, our FOREIGN FILM FESTIVAL ON DVD continues with the British
documentary BLACK GOLD about the international coffee trade and its ramifications for the farmers who grow coffee.
Around the world, more than two billion cups of coffee are drunk everyday and coffee is an eighty-billion-dollar-a-year business.
Personally, I have never had a cup of coffee in my life, so I sat down to watch this film with the eyes of an outsider.
However, if you do drink coffee, and you see this film, you may start to look
differently at your cups of java from now on.
BLACK GOLD takes us from the first Starbucks in Seattle to the region in Ethiopia where they grow some of the beans the chain uses.
In moments, we go from excess to famine.
If you are a coffee drinker, you might want to avoid this movie or your cup of black gold may never taste the same!
BLACK GOLD is entertaining, interesting and very insightful. It is a superb
documentary and the latest entry in our FOREIGN FILM FESTIVAL ON DVD!
The superb documentary BLACK GOLD, and the good but not great quartet of THE LAST MIMZY, THE ASTRONAUT FARMER, FACTORY GIRL and GRAY MATTERS are all available now on DVD.
Coming up on the next Couch Potato Report
Jim Carrey stars as a man who can't escape THE NUMBER 23 and the classic cartoon UNDERDOG returns to DVD
Plus, our FOREIGN FILM FESTIVAL ON DVD continues with the documentary IRAQ IN FRAGMENTS, featuring stories from modern day Iraq as told by Iraqis living in a time of war, occupation and ethnic tension.
I'm Dan Reynish. I'll have more on those, and some other releases, in seven days.
For now, that's this week's COUCH POTATO REPORT.
Enjoy the movies and I'll see you back here next time on The Couch!