Ol’ George still has the touch

By Keith Williams

Clooney's Red White and Blue beats Machete

HOLLYWOOD, CA (Hollywood Today) 9/5/10 — Schmoozing and snoozing its way to the very top of the charts, George Clooney’s new “thriller” assassinated an estimated $12.9 million at 2823 europlexes this Labor Day weekend.   Close behind came action/adventure Machete slicing a bloody $11.3 million at 2670 immigration centers, but Drew Barrymore’s romcom Going the Distance failed to take off on 3030 runways, accumulating few air-miles with an earthbound $6.9 million.

Directed by music video thesp Anton Corbin, whose previous feature Control won a lot of acclaim for its style and sensitive treatment of Ian Curtis of techno band Joy Division, The American, a European-set thriller, has been attracting lousy reviews and even worse audience response due to the fact that a thriller is not what it is, notwithstanding Focus’s attempt to convince everyone otherwise.

More a smoky character piece (i.e talkathon), with Clooney excellent in the lead role of an assassin hiding out in Italy for that hoariest of reasons, “the last assignment”, moviegoers have been venting their fury at being thus deluded by walking out or demanding their money back.

When will Hollywood ever learn that deception in trailers may lead to a bigger bang opening than might otherwise have been achieved by being honest, instead of a slow-burn attraction that would rake in more in the long-run by appealing to those more likely to enjoy what it really is?

Audiences get confused by Clooney.  On the one hand he’s a classic American movie star, delighting them when he appears in plex-pleasing pix like Ocean’s 11/12/13 and Up in the Air, on the other he has this tendency to feature in arty, serious fare like Syriana, The Good German and Good Night and Good Luck, with weirdies like Leatherheads and The Men Who Stare at Goats tucked in between.  All fine roles for an actor, but for building up a dependable ticket-buying base, prone to turning fans neurotic.

For connoisseurs of trivia, the screenplay was written by Rowan Joffe, son of The Mission/Killing Fields Roland, and whose directorial debut, a remake of Brighton Rock is creating quite a buzz in the UK where it’s due to open shortly.

At 2, last week’s uncrowned champ The Takers stole $11.5 million on a 44.2% decline in bank robberies (grand haul of $37.9 million to date), edging Machete into third place.

Based on a faux trailer in the ill-fated Grindhouse double-bill back in 2007, Robert Rodriguez’s new splatter-fest continues his love affair with the comic-book genre, even though the box-office returns can waver wildly.

Coming to the attention of Hollywood with his sophomore low-budget effort El Mariachi in 1992, since then his peaks have included From Dusk Till Dawn, Spy Kids, Sin City, and arguably Planet Terror, the more fun half of the afore-mentioned Grindhouse for which Tarantino contributed the less exciting Death Proof.

A true maverick, Rodriguez also wrote the screenplay for this summer’s Predators which came and went pretty fast, despite being a distinct improvement on the wretched Alien vs Predator: Requiem.  If nothing else, the cast of Machete should raise interested eyebrows, featuring as it does Robert de Niro, Steven Seagal, Don Johnson, Jessica Alba, and Lindsay Lohan as a machine-gun toting nun.

Reviews have been as bloody as the title weapon itself, enjoyment being based on whether your sense of humor extends to over-the-top gore and sly political allegory.  Its opening gross however is typical for this time of year as summer splutters to a close, so expect home video sales and rentals to be much more remunerative come winter.

At 4, The Last Exorcism did indeed go straight to Hell, saving 62.5% less souls for a diabolical $7.6 million (that’s $32.4 million in tarnished crucifixes), though keeping Going the Distance at bay which flew in at 5.

Poor Drew Barrymore.  Despite winning a Golden Globe for her performance in HBO’s Grey Gardens, her last effort as actress, Everybody’s Fine, died, her directorial debut Whip It! went nowhere, and her only box-office success of late seems to be the voice of a dog in Beverly Hills Chihuahua.

Romcoms can be treacherous territory.  What makes one a massive hit and another a smoking crater?  Is it the basic concept (though how innovative can you actually be in this tried-and-true genre?), the pairing of the male/female leads involved (ask Sandra Bullock, veteran of such efforts) or the timing of when it’s released?  Is familiarity preferable to originality, or does it come down to who chicks really get turned on by the most, since it’s they who empathise with the female role and have to decide whether the male role is someone, in this case Justin Long, they’d want to spend a night out with.

Therein lies the mystery not only of box office appeal but Life itself.  Don’t ask me, it’s Machete I’d choose should the situation arise, even though I like Drew Barrymore a lot and thought Whip It to be one of the most enjoyable movies of the year.

Puffing and wheezing at 6, The Expendables dropped by a none-too-shabby 30.8% for $6.5 million worth of male corsettery (yay, $8 million short of the $100 million mark), whilst at 7 the other Other Guys declined by a mere 14.1% for $5.4 million and $106 million in the bank.

Preferring to eat in rather than dine out, Eat Pray Love slid a slow 28.8% to $4.8 million and almost $70 million in travel bookings, Inception dozed at 9 with $4.5 million with the dream of $277 million becoming reality on a miniscule 7.1% drop, whereas at 10, Nanny McPhee Returns hitched up her skirt to depart the charts, falling 24.2% for $3.5 million and $22 million in nursery fees.

Weekend Estimates courtesy boxofficemojo.com