'Super 8' may actually live up to the hype

By Sarah Sluis

Since its teaser trailer first hit in May of last year, Super 8 has been high on the anticipation list for movie bloggers like myself. Last night, Paramount hosted a preview of twenty-odd minutes of Super 8 footage at the Walter Reade Theater in New York City. Paramount CEO Brad Grey gave an enthusiastic introduction for J.J. Abrams, the writer/director, identifying him as an important member of the talent stable the studio has assembled.

Set in 1979, Super 8 has a pleasant, nostalgic feel. Hallmarks of Steven Spielberg (who teamed with Abrams as a producer and collaborator) abound, but when I spoke to Abrams afterwards he said he wasn't trying to create a homage or imitation, but a "recreation" of how he felt as a kid and the movies that were important to him. In fact, Abrams was thirteen in 1979, right around the age of the group of kids in his film. What I liked most about the preview footage was how Abrams creates a world that feels very familiar, from a cinematic perspective, without being derivative. His characters feel real and sweet, and Elle Fanning (who I took a liking to in Somewhere) is a standout.

The footage fills in some of the gaps created by the trailer. (Spoiler alert). The first scene we saw, about twelve minutes into the movie, sets up the night of the film's momentous train crash. Fanning steals her Dad's car and agrees to star in the kids' amateur monster movie. First-time actor Joel Courtney is the son of the sheriff whose mother just died in a mill accident. He's the group's makeup artist and harbors a huge crush on Fanning. As they're filming a scene at the train station, Joel witnesses a pickup truck drive into an oncoming freight train, derailing it and unleashing the unseen monster. The kids escape with nothing more than sooty faces and scratches. White Rubik's cube-like things spill out from the wreckage, and Joel leaves with one. The crashing part of the scene went on a little too long, and Abrams confirmed that the scene will be cut shorter.

The second scene, later on in the movie, confirms Abrams as a master movie-maker. When it comes to monster encounters, this man knows what he's doing. The concealment and suspense come not from cutting away (though there's some of that), but some really satisfying auditory wizardry. A sheriff drives into a gas station to fill up, but has trouble getting the attention of the zit-faced gas station attendant, who has the volume up on his new-fangled Walkman. When he goes back outside, his lights and radio turn on and start flashing. The gas meter, which has been steadily clicking out the dollars and cents, goes progressively faster and faster, turning into one long tone by the climax. The Walkman boy can't hear any of it, so his eventual realization has a satisfying punch to it. Without the use of the Walkman and the gas station meter, this scene would be completely run-of-the-mill. This kind of sleight-of-hand suspense replaces the usual: gory play-by-plays or exhausting flagellation of a character by a monster. We even get a peek at the monster in a reflection from pooling gas, but I won't say what I see.

I'll make a reckless, premature guess: Super 8 will be the Inception of summer 2011. The June 10th release will probably have a PG-13 rating, making it a teen and family-friendly outing. There are also (gasp) characters. This monster feels like a means for a small town to band together and a group of friends to grow closer and grow up. There's also a strong undercurrent of innocence. The trailer shows more cars flashing their headlights, and one of the first signs that something is amiss are the town's missing pets. Missing pets! You can't get more small town than that. The tinkling, chiming score brings to mind vintage John Williams scores for Spielberg. There's also an interesting theme running through the movie that will feel familiar to fans of Jaws, Close Encounters of the Third Kind and E.T.: That of a small town and its authority being overrun by outsiders (be they media or military) after something terrible is unleashed there. Super 8 may be the nostalgic, just-scary-enough monster movie that takes place in the small town we all wish we lived in and could protect.

'Iron Man 2' kicks off blockbuster season

By Sarah Sluis

Iron Man 2 racked up an astounding $133 million over the weekend, a dramatic improvement over Iron Man's

$98 million debut in 2008. The superhero movie had its strongest

performance on Friday, and fell

slightly through the rest of the

weekend. Overseas, Iron Man 2 is already in its second week and going strong. Stateside, it will have to compete with the action-driven Robin Hood releasing

this Friday. Last year, X-Men Origins: Wolverine dropped 70% in its

second weekend, when Star Trek bowed. Even a 70% drop will still give Iron Man 2 a $40 million second weekend, but given its stronger reception than Wolverine, it will likely post a much higher second weekend.

Babies debuted at number ten with $1.5 million. The documentary followed four babies around the world from birth to first steps. Reviews were starkly separated between baby-haters and those that just

couldn't stop oo-ing and aa-ing

over the cute creatures. While the per-screen average could be higher

(just $2,900 per screen at 534 locations), the movie has a chance at

performing well in coming weeks if it attracts positive word-of-mouth.

Besides Babies, Mother and Child also opened this weekend to take advantage of the Sunday Mother's Day holiday. At four locations, the movie earned $11,000 per theatre, the strongest per-theatre average for a specialty film this week. Please Give, in its second week, posted $9,000 per location as it quintupled the amount of theatres in its release (5 to 26).

A Nightmare on Elm Street tumbled 72% in its second week to $9.1 million, a fall expected for the horror movie. Iron Man 2 drove competing action movies downward: Clash of the Titans fell 60%, The Losers went down 69%, and Kick-Ass dropped 66%.

Family movies and comedies emerged unscathed. How to Train Your Dragon crossed the $200 million mark with a $6.7 million weekend, a 36% drop. Date Night dropped 30% to $5.3 million and The Back-up Plan fell 40% to $4.3 million. Even Furry Vengeance dropped just 40% after a disappointing first weekend, adding $4 million to its gross for an $11 million cumulative gross.

This Friday, Gladiator duo of director Ridley Scott and star Russell Crowe re-team for Robin Hood. The Queen Latifah romantic comedy Just Wright and Italy-set romance Letters to Juliet will go up against the male-driven fare.

Academy's expanded Best Picture category rewards 'top 10' films

By Sarah Sluis

When the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced that it was expanding the number of Best Picture nominees from five to ten, most people speculated two things would happen: 1) crowd-pleasing, high-grossing movies would receive nominations. 2) smaller, independent movies would receive nominations. Well, the answers are in: the first thing happened, and the second not so much.

Three of the ten Oscar nominees for Best Picture were in the 2009 box-office top ten. Avatar is currently #1 for 2009, Up is #4, and The Blind Side is #8. If any movie was a long shot for Best Picture, The Blind Side was it. Many critics would have preferred to see Bright Star, a tiny but well-reviewed film, in that spot.

The last time a top ten film was even nominated was at the 76th Academy Awards, when Lord of the Rings: Return of the King (the #1 film of the year) swept the awards in Titanic-like fashion. That means that before this year, five years passed where no movie in the top ten received a Best Picture nomination. If the goal of expanding the number of nominees is to boost ratings and make more average, non-eclectic moviegoers feel the Academy Awards reflect their own "Best Films," it appears the Academy has succeeded.

That's not to say these movies are bad or don't deserve to be nominated. Last year seemed to be a particularly strong one for blockbusters. I'm right there with Avatar and Up. District 9 (#27) was good, but it didn't make my top ten and I don't think it's quite original enough (beyond its opening sequence) to deserve the nomination. But with a heavy-handed look at racism a la Crash, I guess I shouldn't be surprised it was nominated.

On the other hand, movies at the other end of the spectrum haven't entirely been neglected. The Hurt Locker (#130), A Serious Man (#142) and An Education (#144) all received nominations. Last year, the lowest-ranked film was #120 (Frost/Nixon), so not only are these films a bit lower on the list, there are also three of them instead of the expected two you would get when you double the amount of nominees.

Overall, I think the inclusion of ten nominees better reflects the amount of quality movies out there, and does allow for more commercial (to a greater extent) or more specialized (to a lesser extent) films to receive nominations. At least when a so-so movie squeezes in, there are nine, instead of four, other movies there to balance it out.

Top Ten Summer Movies by the numbers

By Sarah Sluis

Sure, it's not Labor Day yet, but all the movie moneymakers of the summer have already been released. So far, the top ten grossing movies of the summer (from May 1st on) are as follows:

1. Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
2. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
3. Up
4. The Hangover
5. Star Trek
6. Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs
7. X-Men Origins: Wolverine
8. Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian
9. The Proposal
10. Angels & Demons

By the numbers:

• 7 of the 10 are sequels or franchise relaunches



• 2 are animated



• 1 comedy and 1 romantic comedy made the list



• 9 have a rating of PG-13 or lower



• the #1 movie made 3 times as much as the #10 movie ($400 million vs. $133 million)



• 4 of the 10 have colons in the title



• 7 of the 10 involve creatures with human properties (talking animals, machines, aliens...)



• The average score on Rotten Tomatoes was 57.6%; 4 of the 10 had approval ratings above this number

I love this information. From one perspective, you could look at the statistics and decide that if you want to make the next blockbuster, you need to find a franchise with human-like creatures, include a lot of action but not enough that it reads as a comedy, make it PG-13 or under, and use a colon in the title if necessary. And don't really worry too much about the critics. Just your audience.

The other way involves looking at all the ways these titles don't fit into the mold. The Hangover is the biggest outcast of the bunch, an R-rated comedy that came out of nowhere, with no franchise, pre-sold title, or even A-list stars.

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen was the #1 movie, but an absolute bomb (19% on Rotten Tomatoes) among critics. I know I still haven't fully figured that one out. Pixar's Up is an incredibly original movie, but it actually fits into the mold of a "top ten" film: it's rated PG, involves (ingeniously) talking creatures, and is an animated kid-to-adult movie. It's also part of a franchise, not one defined by repeating characters or plotlines, but by its studio, Pixar, which has cultivated a must-see reputation among its films.

There's still a chance for movies to rise into the ranks of the summer top ten, but right now the mix seems about right: a few CGI/animated movies that appeal to kids, action and action franchises, and at least one dark horse (in 2008, it was Mamma Mia!). The past few years, six of the movies in the top ten were released in the summer, three or so in the November-December holiday season, and a fourth in March, during the Spring Break holidays. At least six of these movies are going to hang around with Monsters vs. Aliens in the 2009 top ten. With summer movie season coming to a close, my eyes are on the three or so movies that will make their way into the top ten: New Moon? Avatar?