Day: August 16, 2010

By Jason Apuzzo. • As you probably know by now, The Expendables was tops at the box-office this past weekend … yet still didn’t have quite as as big an opening weekend as Angelina Jolie’s Salt (we posted below on this comparison here).

The two films are worth comparing because one features a nasty, anti-CIA plotline featuring Eric Roberts as an ex-CIA drugrunner who waterboards women; Jolie’s film paints a much more flattering picture of the CIA and our intelligence services in general, besides being completely pro-American.

What’s more, The Expendables was supposed to be the film that revived the male action genre that – so the argument goes – has been stolen away, or something, by gals like Jolie.  Yet Jolie on her own managed to outgross Stallone & his many friends (Schwarzenegger, Bruce Willis, Statham, et al) … which effectively puts the nail in the coffin on that argument, at least among men who are secure enough in their own masculinity to enjoy watching women do action movies.  Ahem.

This is also a major wake-up call on the whole matter of who the real stars actually are, nowadays.

Another interesting footnote to the weekend was how badly Scott Pilgrim did (only $10 mil).  Nerdy fanboy fare not playing well these days due to extreme over-saturation in the marketplace.

• The other big news out of the weekend is that Star Wars – the entire film series – is finally coming to Blu-ray in the fall of 2011. [See here and here.]  The Star Wars films will apparently be coming out all at once, in one big set featuring “extensive special features – including documentaries, vintage behind-the-scenes moments, interviews, retrospectives and never-before-seen footage from the Lucasfilm archives.”

This is great news – exactly what Blu-ray was made for.  The announcement was made in Orlando this weekend at Star Wars Celebration V, where George Lucas also showed something really delightful: a deleted scene/moment from Return of the Jedi, in which we see Luke building his new lightsaber … as Vader tries to lure him to the dark side.  It was apparently supposed to be the first image we see of Luke in the film, but was cut from Jedi at the very last minute.  Judging from the audience’s reaction to the clip at Celebration, I think George perhaps should have kept it in!  It certainly gives Luke a darker edge, and echoes nicely in Hayden Christensen’s characterization in the prequel trilogy.  Here’s the clip:

[UPDATE: YouTube has taken the clip down, citing a Lucasfilm copyright claim.  I saw the clip before it was removed: it was wonderful.  Looking forward to the Blu-ray.]

• In somewhat related news, Variety has an article out today about how 3D may save Blu-ray, a medium that many people believe has only had a so-so debut.

To the extent that Blu-ray is having a problem right now, I think it has more to do with two factors: 1) asking the public to undertake a major format shift during a bad econony; 2) the lack of blockbuster films (see directly above) on the Blu-ray format to motivate such a shift.  Blu-ray is still basically a medium for aficionados, but there really aren’t enough movies for aficionados being released at the moment.  Star Wars will be filling one gap in that area, but we need a lot more classics of that variety before people start to switch en masse.

You know what sold me on Blu-ray?  The Searchers.

• In other sci-fi news, James Cameron will (appropriately) be spending his birthday underwater in a Russian lake, he’ll also be helping to plant a million trees for Earth Day, and the new trailer is out for the forthcoming Avatar: Special Edition.  Cameron’s life seems to be a blur of rain forests, digital creatures, underwater dives and green activism nowadays.  Can you imagine how envious Gore must be right now?

• Speaking of which, Obama’s in Hollywood right now looking for campaign money.  [See here and here.]  I’m actually surprised, reading about his visit, how relatively few industry players – particularly of the younger variety – are showing up to see him.  It’s interesting how people are cooling out here right now toward The One, without saying it out loud …

• In what may have been her final interview, actress Patricia Neal lauded Ronald Reagan as a “generous” actor and a “very good” President.  Neal was a class act, and I think The Gipper was her kind of guy – not unlike other strong, masculine co-stars of hers like The Duke and Gary Cooper.  She was the coolest.  She’ll be missed.

• I had a very interesting debate in the comments section recently with a reader named Mr. Rational on the subject of Christopher Nolan and his films.  In light of that debate I wanted to mention an interesting piece over at MUBI comparing Nolan’s Inception to the Anthony Mann/Kirk Douglas classic, The Heroes of Telemark.  [The two films share something unusual in common.]  The writer, Doug Dibbern, comes down very much in favor of Mann’s film.  In somewhat related news, we wanted to wish Kirk Douglas’ talented son Michael the very best as he begins treatment for a tumor.

• AND IN TODAY’S MOST IMPORTANT NEWS … the verdict is in.  Legendary Beach Boy Brian Wilson has come down in favor of Katy Perry’s “California Gurls,” which riffs (to some extent) off The Beach Boys’ original classic, “California Girls.”  Btw, the New York Post has a big feature on Perry today, covering her early career struggles in the Christian music scene.  She was actually temping just a few years ago, so good for her.

And that’s what’s happening today in the wonderful world of Hollywood …

[UPDATE: Special thanks to our friend Patrick Goldstein at The LA Times for linking to this piece.]

Posted on August 16th, 2010 at 2:51pm.

By Jason Apuzzo. Isn’t this funny, as well as satisfying. In a head-to-head comparison of their opening weekend totals (see here and here), Angelina Jolie’s pro-American, anti-communist Salt beat Sly Stallone’s CIA-trashing/women-waterboarding The Expendables by the slender margin of $36 million (Salt) to $35 million (Expendables).

Fabulous.

In box office terms, that means that Sly Stallone, Bruce Willis, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jason Statham, Jet Li, Dolph Lundgren, Mickey Rourke, Terry Crews, Randy Couture, Steve Austin and a nasty storyline weren’t worth quite as much as Angelina Jolie and a little patriotism.

How refreshing.  [And by the way, Salt did that against much tougher competition.]

To celebrate, I’ve picked out one of the tastier pictures of Jolie from the Moscow Salt premiere (there are many).  She’s certainly a lot better to look at than Stallone, isn’t she?

If any of you think I enjoy knocking Stallone by the way, I most certainly don’t.  But when you trash your own country – and portray our intelligence agents as drug peddling, waterboarding torturers of women – then that’s the treatment you’re going to get here at Libertas.  We’re not Hollywood star/celebrity suck-ups here.  You can find enough of that on other sites.

I’d like Stallone to explain his depiction of the CIA in The Expendables to the widow of CIA agent and former Atlanta narcotics detective Scott Roberson, who was killed earlier this year in Afghanistan while working for the Agency.  [Roberson was one of seven CIA agents killed in the same bomb blast in January.] The timing of his death was deeply tragic; the 39 year-old Roberson never got to meet his child, born in February to his surviving wife Molly, who now lives in Knoxville, Tennessee.  You can hear more about Roberson’s life here.  In its own way, Roberson’s life was a quiet and elegant rebuke to the hateful image Stallone is peddling in his film.

Posted on August 16th, 2010 at 10:38am.