baby geniuses Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Early Wednesday morning, versatile filmmaker Bob Clark was killed in a car crash that also killed his 22-year-old son, Ariel. According to investigators, the accident, which occurred on the Pacific Coast Highway in Pacific Palisades, California, was caused by the driver of the other vehicle, who was under the influence of alcohol and had no license. That man survived the crash with minor injuries, as did his passenger, and he will be arrested on DUI and vehicular manslaughter charges once he is released from the hospital.

Depending on who you ask, Clark was best known for any one of his varied classic films. Most people probably associate him first with A Christmas Story, though some would remember him more for Porky's, which is apparently being remade by Howard Stern, or Black Christmas, a horror film which was just recently remade. He was twice-nominated for the Razzie for worst director (for Rhinestone and Superbabies: Baby Geniuses 2) and his most recent pictures, The Karate Dog for instance, were anything but great, but he was at the time of his death attached to a few pics that might have brought him back into favor, including a remake of his Children Shouldn't Play with Dead Things.

Even if he hadn't made any more classics, though, Clark would be forever thought of as a terrific storyteller with a talent for writing and directing in different genres, including horror, teen sex comedy, mystery, holiday and family films. Also, for those of us who like to praise Joe Dante's Homecoming episode of the Masters of Horror series, it seems that Clark may have been the first to come up with the idea with the Vietnam zombie pic Deathdream (a.k.a. Dead of Night).

A couple weeks ago I pondered the question: does the opinion of a bunch of white film critics matter when it comes to a film like Madea's Family Reunion? Three weeks of box office later, the numbers tell me the answer is a resounding, "Hell, no!" To date, Madea has raked in an impressive $60 mill at the box office (although this week there was a serious drop off - the film only made $5 million in the last week), off an estimated budget of $6 million. Pretty darn impressive take for a film that has a less-than-impressive 30% over at Rotten Tomatoes. The film's success pretty much guarantees we'll be seeing a lot more Madea, and Tyler Perry, no doubt, is chuckling all the way to the bank. Big Momma's House and Big Momma's House 2, which also targeted primarily African-American audiences, also ripped up the box office in spite of being panned by critics. The original Big Momma, with an RT score of 30%, took in $117.5 million off a $30 million budget. Big Momma 2, with a dismal 6% over at RT, still managed to make a $27 million profit ($67 million on a $40 million budget).

If the success of Madea  and the Big Momma films are flukes, it would be one thing, but they aren't. Year after year critics and movie fans alike bitch and moan about how much crap comes out of Hollywood, and year after year the critics try their darndest to point audiences to what they consider to be good, even great films, only to watch, befuddled, as audiences flock to the dreck with relentless tenacity. Hollywood, meanwhile, continues to churn out heaps of mediocre (or worse) films, because all too often, mediocrity is what brings in the bank, and it takes lots of cash to support Hollywood in the opulent lifestyle to which it's become accustomed.