The Proposal Tagged Articles at Cinematical
Spin-ematical: New on DVD for 10/13
Filed under: New Releases », DVD Reviews », New on DVD », Home Entertainment »
Drag Me to Hell
Girl says no to woman at the bank, and soon falls under the wrath of the woman's witchy gypsy ways. It sounds like you're regular ol' horror movie, but it's also Sam Raimi's return to the genre. I wasn't the biggest fan of the film, but considering the fact that most of the people I know loved it, I'll defer to them. In his review, Peter Martin said: "Raimi has made a joyful romp through his personal horror playground and come up with a very entertaining horror-comedy that gets back to the basics." Buy it. Also on Blu-ray.
Add to Netflix queue | Buy at Amazon
The ProposalSandra Bullock is an easy-to-hate boss ... until she's about to be deported back to Canada. Desperate to keep her job and stay in the U.S., she whips up a marriage of convenience with her assistant Ryan Reynolds. In her review, Jette Kernion said the film "offers little that is fresh or new for romantic comedy fans ... but perhaps watching Sandra Bullock in her element will be enough for many of her fans. Me, I'm still waiting for her to find a film that better matches her talents." Still, Rent it to hang with Betty White. Also on Blu-ray.
Add to Netflix queue | Buy at Amazon
Land of the Lost
In Hollywood's ever-moving push to remake old Hollywood, we got the picture you'd never imagine, taking the most cult classic of super-low-budget television and turning it into a big-money experience. I wish they stuck to the old formula. But Todd Gilchrist says "Land of the Lost offers a sobering alternative to the pre-packaged and otherwise conventional blockbuster fare offered by studios this summer, even if its charms would ultimately benefit from (if not require) chemical enhancement of some kind to be properly enjoyed." Rent it. Also on Blu-ray.
Add to Netflix queue | Buy at Amazon
Also out: Natural Born Killers Director's Cut, The Stepfather, Hardware, The Most Wonderful Time of the Year, Happy Birthday to Me, Moonlight & Mistletoe, An Old Fashioned Thanksgiving, Wuthering Heights, A Christmas Carol, Infestation, The Christmas Choir, American Violet, The Killing Room, The Objective, iMurders, Shark City, West 32nd
Weekend Box Office: Let's See What This Mr. Potter Can Do
Filed under: New Releases », Box Office »
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is only the second Harry Potter film to open on a Wednesday, after 2007's Order of the Phoenix. By the Sunday of its opening weekend, Order of the Phoenix was looking at a pretty impressive $140 million, on its way to being the year's 5th highest grosser, and a solid #2 in the franchise. By the Sunday of its opening weekend, Half-Blood Prince has $160 million in its coffers, as well as a slew of rapturous reviews and positive fan responses. (Well, mostly. There will always be whining from Rowling purists who don't know what an adaptation is.)That raises a real possibility that Half-Blood Prince could dethrone current domestic franchise king Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, which holds the top spot with $317 million. At the very least, it looks like it might be the only movie other than Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen to break the $300 million mark in 2009. (Transformers itself is already at $363 million -- #13 of all time! Christ!* -- and is looking unbeatable.)
Brüno took the tumble that its front-loaded opening weekend suggested (it made more than half its first weekend gross on the Friday of its release), dropping over 70% to fourth place. It will end up with around half of Borat's $129 million final number. The other summer comedies in circulation, The Hangover and The Proposal continue to hold up very well, with the former boosting from #6 to #5 in its seventh week of release.
(500) Days of Summer, opening on 27 screens in advance of a steady expansion in the coming weeks, got off to a promising 12th place start with a per-screen average over $30K.
The full top 12 after the jump.
Do Guys Quote Movies More Than Girls?
Filed under: Fandom »
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Reading through Todd's interview with The Proposal director Anne Fletcher, I came across this quote that stuck right out. While discussing Fletcher's most memorable summer moviegoing experience, she says, "You know, it's funny, but I have this generalization, it's completely general, but I really believe in my soul that men quote and women don't. Women will experience a movie on a totally different level, generally speaking, and they'll go, "I loved that movie" or "I didn't like that movie" and that will always stay on them, but they won't remember a single quote. And men will experience a movie in an entirely cerebral way and be able to quote lines 50 years from now – and they connect with each other through them."
Now of course there's always an exception to the rule (an example being our own Elisabeth Rappe, who can probably quote me under the table), but this is generally the case for most of the women in my life -- where they're perfectly happy discussing a movie at length, but the ladies around me will never randomly quote. Meanwhile, all my guy friends do is quote movies; in fact, I'd say they're all movie quote whores.
I'd love to hear from both sides on this -- especially from those females who love movies, but never really find themselves quoting any. Is it that guys are more interested in the quick reference, whereas the girls would rather sit down and have a conversation? Is Fletcher right? What do you think?
Interview: 'The Proposal' Director Anne Fletcher
Filed under: Disney », Interviews »
If the summer movie season wasn't originally designed for guys, it's certainly been appropriated by them, both in theaters and behind the camera. Where the hottest months of the year once served as an even playing field for films of all kinds, they now operate with one edict in mind, bigger is always better, unless you're a shrewd enough filmmaker to find an opening and exploit it with a clever bit of counter-programming. Anne Fletcher hopes to be the exception that proves this rule with the release of The Proposal (which took the number one spot at the box office this past weekend with $34 million) a romantic comedy starring Sandra Bullock. And while there's only two action scenes, one involving falling off of a boat and another about surviving a face-to-crotch attack by an overeager amateur stripper, the film seems poised to capture at least as many female hearts as its competition does male ones.
Cinematical recently spoke to Fletcher via telephone to discuss her work on the film, which is her third directorial effort after the original Step Up and last year's 27 Dresses, in addition to talking about taking a film straight into summer's heart of darkness, she reflects on what if anything her gender means to the movies she makes, and speaks about an early '80s Spielberg movie that still proves inspirational (and it's none of the ones you might think).
Weekend Box Office: 'The Proposal' Wins a Busy Weekend
Filed under: New Releases », Box Office »
It may have seemed like an "off" week by summer standards in terms of releases, but two debuts and two strong holdovers meant that four films grossed $20 million or more, which is rare for a non-holiday weekend. The top dog, surprisingly, turned out to be The Proposal, which rode a genial marketing campaign and a set of sneak previews to $34 million dollars -- Sandra Bullock's best opening weekend ever, by far. (Related question: did Bullock "open" this movie? I'm inclined to think not, though it's a perfect role for her.)Year One is a bit tougher to read. Certainly with the Cera/Black/Ramis combination, it was expected to open bigger. Generally poor reviews didn't help; I haven't seen the film, so I'm a bit handicapped in the analysis. If I had to guess, I'd say that people saw it as a bit of a novelty item. Silliness can be hard to sell if it's not low-brow.
But the weekend's real story, I'd say, is once again The Hangover, which stuck around in second place after dropping less than 20% in its third weekend. It's hard to find a precise analogue for it at this point; Box Office Mojo stretches with "R-rated summer comedy breakout," which category it will dominate after it speeds ahead of Wedding Crashers in about two weeks. The movie did add nearly 200 new screens; still, when people talk about word-of-mouth giving a movie legs, this is what they're hoping for.
Meanwhile, Up is now pretty much running neck-in-neck with Finding Nemo for the title of highest-grossing Pixar release. It will be close.
The full top 10 after the jump.
Cinematical Seven: Most Contrived Rom-Com Scenarios
Filed under: Comedy », Romance », Cinematical Seven », Lists »
Let me make this clear: when I say that I'm compiling a list of the most contrived rom-com scenarios, I'm not saying that they're automatically the worst -- although a glance at the titles doesn't exactly stray far from that correlation. Tomorrow's The Proposal finds Sandra Bullock forcing Ryan Reynolds into marriage for the sake of holding off immigration authorities and keeping her/their jobs (I guess it's not too soon to remake Green Card and Picture Perfect after all), so we're talking about seven plot points along those lines of high-concept, close-quarters thinking, with some (dis)honorable mentions along the way...
Review: The Proposal
Filed under: Comedy », Romance », New Releases », Disney », Theatrical Reviews », Summer Movies »
I love watching Sandra Bullock, who is enjoyable even in the lamest of films. And sadly, there are so many lame movies starring Bullock, and so few that I would enjoy watching more than once -- Infamous is a rare exception. After I saw Speed, I said that I thought Bullock could be this generation's Carole Lombard, but unfortunately the actress has not yet found her Howard Hawks or Ernst Lubitsch. The Proposal is yet another Bullock-starring formulaic romantic comedy with little to offer except sparkling performances, and not just from Bullock.
Margaret Tate (Bullock) is the terror of the Manhattan publishing office where she's editor-in-chief, and even her charming assistant Andrew (Ryan Reynolds) is scared of her. Her Achilles heel turns out to be that she's ... Canadian, and she's about to be deported for a year due to some visa problems. So Margaret hurriedly declares that she's engaged to Andrew, who's American. You don't have to have seen Green Card to guess the rest of the story.
Box Office: One Year, One Proposal
Filed under: Comedy », Box Office Predictions »
The Hangover held on to the top spot once again last week, edging out newcomers The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3 and Eddie Murphy's Imagine That (which placed sixth). Star Trek finally fell out of the top five landing in seventh place for its sixth week. Here's the top five:
1. The Hangover: $32.7 million
2. Up: $30.8 million
3. The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3: $23.4 million
4. Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian: $9.6 million
5. Land of the Lost: $9 million
Two new comedies out this week:
The Proposal
What's It All About: Romantic comedy about a high power executive (Sandra Bullock) who faces deportation back to Canada. In order to stay in the States she plans to marry her assistant (Ryan Reynolds) who she has treated like dirt for years.
Why It Might Do Well: The two leads are appealing as is the supporting cast which includes Mary Steenburgen, Craig T. Nelson, and Betty White.
Why It Might Not Do Well: The basic plot has been done to death in film and episodic TV and there's no shortage of comedies this week.
Number of Theaters: 2,950
Prediction: $28 million
Year One
What's It All About: A stone age comedy directed by Harold Ramis and starring Jack Black and Michael Cera as two guys who embark upon adventures after being booted out of their village.
Why It Might Do Well: This kind of has a Life of Brian feel without the religious overtones.
Why It Might Not Do Well: Jack Black can be a real love him or hate him kind of guy.
Number of Theaters: 2,900
Prediction: $24 million
1. The Hangover: $32.7 million
2. Up: $30.8 million
3. The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3: $23.4 million
4. Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian: $9.6 million
5. Land of the Lost: $9 million
Two new comedies out this week:
The ProposalWhat's It All About: Romantic comedy about a high power executive (Sandra Bullock) who faces deportation back to Canada. In order to stay in the States she plans to marry her assistant (Ryan Reynolds) who she has treated like dirt for years.
Why It Might Do Well: The two leads are appealing as is the supporting cast which includes Mary Steenburgen, Craig T. Nelson, and Betty White.
Why It Might Not Do Well: The basic plot has been done to death in film and episodic TV and there's no shortage of comedies this week.
Number of Theaters: 2,950
Prediction: $28 million
Year OneWhat's It All About: A stone age comedy directed by Harold Ramis and starring Jack Black and Michael Cera as two guys who embark upon adventures after being booted out of their village.
Why It Might Do Well: This kind of has a Life of Brian feel without the religious overtones.
Why It Might Not Do Well: Jack Black can be a real love him or hate him kind of guy.
Number of Theaters: 2,900
Prediction: $24 million
Insert Caption: The Proposal
Filed under: Fandom », Contests », Insert Caption »
Welcome back to another edition of Insert Caption -- the game that won't propose marriage, but will instead wine and dine with movie swag until your stomachs are full of awesome. Last week we asked you to toss a caption our way for a photo from the new Eddie Murphy film, Imagine That. And imagine our surprise when you all came up with some pretty funny stuff. Congrats to our three winners, featured below.
1. "Surprisingly, the little girl and the pile of mustard are also played by Eddie Murphy." -- Joe B.
2. "Bah .... I had to eat worse in Daddy Daycare!" -- Jason F.
3. "Are you sure this is the way to make a model volcano?" -- Chris U.
See full image and all captions
This week we're in search of rom-com wedding bells as Sandra Bullock and Ryan Reynolds prepare to debut The Proposal. In the film, Bullock plays a high-powered exec who, when faced with deportation back to Canada, announces that she's suddenly become engaged to her assistant (Reynolds), and both create this fake relationship in order to keep her in the country. But will their fake love turn into something a little more ... real? Hmmm ... The three folks behind our favorite captions this week will walk down the aisle with one The Proposal mug, one set of The Proposal post-its, and one pair of ear buds. Sound off below ...
Read the official rules for this contest
1. "Surprisingly, the little girl and the pile of mustard are also played by Eddie Murphy." -- Joe B.2. "Bah .... I had to eat worse in Daddy Daycare!" -- Jason F.
3. "Are you sure this is the way to make a model volcano?" -- Chris U.
See full image and all captions
This week we're in search of rom-com wedding bells as Sandra Bullock and Ryan Reynolds prepare to debut The Proposal. In the film, Bullock plays a high-powered exec who, when faced with deportation back to Canada, announces that she's suddenly become engaged to her assistant (Reynolds), and both create this fake relationship in order to keep her in the country. But will their fake love turn into something a little more ... real? Hmmm ... The three folks behind our favorite captions this week will walk down the aisle with one The Proposal mug, one set of The Proposal post-its, and one pair of ear buds. Sound off below ...
Read the official rules for this contest
Watch This: Betty White Talking Dirty with Ryan Reynolds
Filed under: Comedy », Romance », Movie Marketing », Trailers and Clips »
If there is anything more fantastic than seeing Betty White flip off Ryan Reynolds; I haven't found it. In a nifty new marketing piece for the romantic comedy The Proposal; Sandra Bullock, Reynolds, and Betty White sat down to make a video for Funny or Die, and even at the age of 87, Ms. White proves once again, that she is still one of the best comedians around. Posing as a 'behind-the-scenes' look, both Bullock and White get a chance to terrorize Reynolds to comic effect. But, that's not the only reason to click play, because frankly it isn't often that you get to see someone tell a comedy icon to "suck a hot ****".
Now I have to tell you, I've got nothing against either Bullock or Reynolds, but there wasn't a chance in hell I was going to be lining up to see The Proposal. Romantic comedies usually aren't my thing at the best of times, and this one seemed to be one of those films that was counting on the charm of its two leads to sell tickets; rather than things like, you know, a story -- plus I can't help but think that both of these actors really deserve better than this. But, I give credit where credit is due, and no matter what I may think of The Proposal, one thing is for sure: this is a funny little video. It may even be funnier than the film it's supposed to be promoting...what do you think?
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