According to the International Movie Database, Michael Greenspan’s debut movie,
Wrecked grossed under $5,000 at the box office. For its lead star, Adrien Brody (Best Actor Academy Award for 2002’s
The Pianist), this is a far cry from the early part of the decade when his movies like
The Village (2004) and
King Kong (2005) were each earning over $110,000,000 at the box office. Brody has made some terrible movies since 2005. These have included
The Darjeeling Limited, The Brothers Bloom, and
The Experiment. The trailer for Wrecked looked intriguing enough. I also wanted to know if Brody had the ability to do what Tom Hanks (
Cast Away) and Will Smith (
I Am Legend) were able to do successfully…star in a movie in which he is (for a majority of the film) the only actor. After watching the film, there is a reason why
Cast Away and
I Am Legend each earned $233,000,000 and $256,000,000 at the box office, respectively, while
Wrecked brought in less than $5,000.
Continue reading Wrecked (2011) →
Continuing to get my Michelle Williams (Blue Valentine, Incendiary) fix, I caught the directorial debut of Marcel Langenegger, 2008’s Deception. While captivating initially with its slow, almost methodical building of suspense, this movie ultimately tries to outsmart itself by offering twist after twist after twist. By the time the movie crawled to its conclusion, we either figured out the twists, or they were so far-fetched and ridiculous that we didn’t care about them.
The Ledge is one of many movies with a trailer that hooked me and made me think the film would be terrific. I reevaluated my decision when I saw that it made just $ 5,000 at the box office and earned a whopping 11% on Rotten Tomatoes. Unfortunately, as I was updating my Netflix queue, I saw it was already coming to my house. So I gave the movie a chance that very night it arrived, thinking I’d have it on, but I would probably be glancing at it while doing some work online. However, I gave it a chance, and it hooked me. Usually, this type of movie would be one I would mock (see below). But for reasons unknown, the story caught me, and while the situation did get a little absurd, I didn’t see it as being unreasonable because of the characters and what drove these characters.
After watching 
Insidious was one of the few horror movies that lived up to the hype. It seems like any “horror” flick can make a trailer that looks exciting and terrifying. However, a select few can duplicate the rush you feel when you see the preview for the first time. It’s even rarer when a horror flick can come up as an original idea that hasn’t been duplicated dozens of times. I’ve probably seen 50 new horror movies that have since 2000. I felt bored by many of those movies, a feeling of been there/done that, not remotely scared, and sometimes even cheated.