Black Sheep @ The Box Office

Box office analysts everywhere are freaking out because of how this summer's tentpoles have been underperforming.  I've gotta say I'm not sure how they didn't see it coming.  What movie has come out in the last month that actually incited any summer worthy excitement amongst audiences?  IRON MAN 2 roared but it is hardly doing any better than the first.  SHREK FOREVER AFTER has managed three straight weeks at number one, the only Shrek film to accomplish that feat, but it is still not going to match the grosses of its green giant predecessors.  Last week's disappointments continued to do just that, as PRINCE OF PERSIA and SEX AND THE CITY 2 both dropped off steeply, certainly due to poor word of mouth for both.  I actually saw them both last weekend and have been spreading most of that bad word of mouth myself.

And this week's batch of wide releases, no less than four, did absolutely nothing to inspire anyone.  GET HIM TO THE GREEK was the biggest "success" of the bunch, coming in second place with a total of $17 million.  It opened slightly lower than director, Nicolas Stoller's first film, FORGETTING SARAH MARSHALL, but that one came out in April.  Still, it managed to narrowly beat the first major Katherine Heigl flop.  KILLERS, also starring Ashton Kutcher, in which a woman unknowingly marries a spy, opened to approximately $16 million and abysmal reviews should make sure it does not linger. Speaking of lingering, that smell in sixth place is the CGI extravaganza, MARMADUKE.  I'm glad at least to see that people are not just buying every piece of dog poop being forced on them this summer.  Audiences also did not buy the Adrien Brody-Sarah Polley thriller, SPLICE.  Bombing in eighth place means that even great reviews could not get people to see this one.  It just looked too scary for little old me.

NEXT WEEK: The summer continues with another two massive releases.  On the art house side of things, which, contrary to popular belief, does not just shut down during the summer months, handfuls of theatres will begin screening the Sundance favourite, WINTER'S BONE, as well as the documentary, JOAN RIVERS: A PIECE OF WORK, and the stylish COCO CHANEL AND IGOR STRAVINSKY.  Opening on an arguably much larger handful of screens, 3000+ as it turns out, is the remake of THE KARATE KID.  I will be taking my chances on THE A-TEAM.  If it sucks, at least I will get to see those gratuitous shots of Bradley Cooper's chest.

Source: Box Office Mojo

GET HIM TO THE GREEK

Written and Directed by Nicolas Stoller

Starring Jonah Hill, Russell Brand, Elizabeth Moss and Sean Combs

In director, Nicolas Stoller’s first film, FORGETTING SARAH MARSHALL, North American audiences were formally introduced to Russell Brand, a British comedic sensation. Brand played rocker, Aldous Snow, the man responsible for stealing the title character from leading man, Jason Segel. You are supposed to hate this guy considering what he did to our quite lovable protagonist but there is just something about him that keeps you from ever getting there. Maybe it’s the seemingly uncontrollable vulgarity that flows from his mouth every time he opens it or maybe it’s just the way he struts around in his sister’s skinny jeans as if he were some sort of hyper-sexualized chicken. Whatever it is, it works.

It works so well that Stoller decided to focus his second directorial effort, GET HIM TO THE GREEK, with Brand’s Aldous as the central character. Aldous is now completely washed up and off the wagon once again. There is still hope though. Young music biz keener, Aaron Green, has decided to restage a famous concert Aldous once put on at the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles in order to miraculously awaken a dying music industry and save Aldous’s career. Both are a pretty tall order but anything is possible in the crazy world of rock ‘n’ roll and Stoller is banking on you knowing that in order to buy his movie. Aaron must get Aldous to the Greek on time but somehow, things go awry.

As comedic as Brand and Hill are together (complimented perfectly by refreshing turns from Mad Men's Elizabeth Moss and Diddy himself, Sean Combs), GET HIM TO THE GREEK is far too stepped in convention to be truly raucous. The jokes are crass and definitely funny but Stoller tries too hard to come up with the most outlandish rock star obstacles possible to deter them from their destination. When they’re crazy, it’s crazy. When they have lulls though, so do we. With this kind of set up, you should never want the twosome to get where they’re going. In this case, I wanted them to get there a good day earlier than they were supposed to.

FORGETTING SARAH MARSHALL

Written by Jason Segel
Directed by Nicholas Stoller
Starring Jason Segel, Kristen Bell, Mila Kunis, Russell Brand, Jonah Hill, Paul Rudd & Bill Hader


The writer/star of FORGETTING SARAH MARSHALL, Jason Segel, is the kind of artist who isn’t afraid to let it all hang out there for everyone to see and subsequently appreciate or pick apart. He writes his pain on to the screen and isn’t afraid to get naked on the path to true understanding. In the writer’s world, naked is a fairly obvious metaphor for vulnerability but here it just means nude. And so, as Segal’s penis flaps back and forth against his painfully pale body, moments before Sarah Marshall (Kristen Bell) breaks up with him, the Judd Apatow movie machine unleashes its latest raw comedy from the mind of the modern male.

This particular male is Peter Bretter (Segel), a slob who can barely pick up after himself but somehow manages to maintain a serious relationship with a gorgeous actress girlfriend and holds down a job as a composer for schlock television. He’s not unattractive nor without his charms but he does raise the question as to how he ever managed to get himself this well positioned. He also has no trouble at all finding numerous beautiful women to help him take his mind off Sarah. And while forgetting Sarah Marshall proves much more complicated than Peter had hoped - it doesn’t help that they have found themselves both at the same Hawaiian resort – he can at least have the last laugh by vilifying her as a horrible human being before the credits role. Without giving too much away, he will have the option, as the sympathetic character, to walk away happy but Sarah, as the heartbreaker, has been doomed since Hester Prynne was sent to prison with that darn scarlet letter across her chest.


If I were Apatow, I would be a little tired of hearing my name being attached to all of these projects. If anything, he should make sure to have a firmer hand in the process in the future. FORGETTING SARAH MARSHALL is not without the hilarity and genuine character development that his past productions have captured so poignantly but its bizarre subplots and many rushed moments make it somewhat forgettable.