Domestic Box Office Prediction - June 14-16 2013

Ok, so I picked a really bad week to try and predict the box office with The Purge earning way more than expected. Live and learn I guess.

This week, 2 new releases come forth including one of this Summer's largest offerings: Man of Steel. From director Zack Snyder (300, Watchmen) and producer Christopher Nolan (who has been mentioned more than the director, I might add) is the newest attempt at bringing Superman to the big screen. After the somewhat failure of Superman Returns, Warner Bros. brings a new reboot starring Henry Cavill in the title role.

There appears to be more buzz surrounding this reiteration of Superman than Returns and superheroes have never been more of a hot commodity than now. The posters and trailers have varied from slow-build to all-out action, which should appeal to the masses.

Along with the name recognition, a lot of promotion has focused on Christopher Nolan as part of the project. Linking his name and The Dark Knight trilogy will certainly add more viewers, though his influence is substantially low compared with The Dark Knight trilogy. With Marvel and their superhero films making a constant profit, Superman and the decades of good will that it has amassed, will certainly bring Warner Bros. good news.

The other new wide release, trying to get a jump start on Man of Steel by opening Wednesday, is the ensemble comedy This Is The End. From writer/director/star Seth Rogen and writer/director Evan Goldberg comes this end of the world comedy that features many regulars from the Rogen/Goldberg stable including: Jonah Hill, James Franco, Danny McBride, Craig Robinson and Jay Baruchel. The story revolves around the aforementioned actors playing fictional versions of themselves at a party just when the apocalypse happens.

Riding a wave of solid reviews (currently 83% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes) and a slate of known actors, this R-rated film should skewer towards the younger, male crowd. Already taking over $7 million dollars, this film should have no trouble securing second place over this weekend, obviously behind Man of Steel.

Beyond those films, the rest of the holdovers will struggle to grab the crumbs from Man of Steel and This Is The End. Last week's champ, The Purge, should fall considerably after mediocre word of mouth hit. Like most horror films, a steep plunge would not be out of the ordinary. The Internship should continue to bomb as reviews for the film have been terrible with Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn wishing that it were 2005 again.

My prediction for this week's top 5 are:

Man of Steel - $147.2 million
This Is The End - 41.4 million
The Purge - $12.1 million
Now You See Me - $11.6 million
Fast & Furious 6 - $11.2 million

Domestic Box Office Prediction - June 7-9 2013

Been a while since I last updated the site, and as usual, I do apologize. As movies for me have been hard to come by lately, I am going to offer my box office predictions each week. As I know nothing and am not, "in the know" as they say, odds are I will be way off. This is just something for me to blog about and see how far off I can be on box office predictions when I try.

Kicking off my first attempt at providing a box office prediction is a slow week in the middle of the Summer movie season. 2 new wide releases are opening and neither will make for a record weekend. Opening in 3,365 theaters, you have Google: The Movie The Internship. Directed by Shawn Levy (Night at the Museum, Cheaper by the Dozen) the film stars Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson as new hires within Google. The commercials have shown a film that appears to be tired and lazy and really only about promoting the true star of the film: Google.

Vince Vaughn has had a rough couple of years at the box office. The last 2 films that he has top-lined: The star-studded "comedy" The Watch and Ron Howard's misfire The Dilemma both tanked at the box office. Vince Vaughn has plenty of hits within his resume, but unfortunately, most of those films were early on his resume. The good news for Vince Vaughn is that his last hit was the PG-13 comedy Couples Retreat, which has the same rating as The Internship. The bad news is that Couples Retreat was four years ago.

Owen Wilson finds himself in the same boat as Vince Vaughn. Box office hits have been really hard to come by lately. Not even releasing a film in 2012, we have to go back to 2011 to see Owen Wilson's box office track record. Cars 2 was a hit, but with that film being a Pixar film, it would have made money with or without Owen Wilson as the star. Midnight in Paris was a moderate hit (especially for Woody Allen standards) but was not setting the box office on fire. The remaining 2 films from 2011: The Big Year and Hall Pass were quickly forgotten and disappeared from the box office as quickly as they arrived.

Both Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson need a hit, and I'm sure this looked like a can't miss idea. Re-team the duo from Wedding Crashers, direct them by a director who makes safe films with big returns, and this would be a slam dunk. Unfortunately, this film is not 2005 and The Internship will struggle to make it's $58 million dollar budget back domestically.

The other wide release is the small-budgeted, but high-concept; The Purge. With only a budget of $3 million dollars and starring Ethan Hawke, The Purge tells the story of a futuristic America, where one day of the year, all crime is legal for a 12 hour period. Ethan Hawke plays a family man who must survive The Purge with his family as citizens try to attack them in their home.

Coming from hit producer Michael Bay and his Platinum Dunes producing company, the small-budgeted film lacks the usual pizzazz of Summer fare, but offers the audience a different type of film as counter-programming. Ethan Hawke is coming off the similarly-produced Sinister, which became a solid hit over the Fall of 2012, and may help The Purge over perform even more than it already will. I would look for The Purge to contend for the box office lead against stale holdovers and the limp-looking The Internship.

Beyond the new releases, the remaining holdovers might hold better than past weeks due to the weak competition. Now You See Me might hold the best as the numbers during the week show the film doing solid business. Now You See Me will again contend with Fast and Furious 6 while After Earth will plummet after its disappointing opening weekend and bad word of mouth.

My prediction for this week's top 5 are:

The Purge - $19.7 million
Now You See Me - $17.7 million
Fast and Furious 6 - $17.3 million
The Internship - $16.2 million
Epic - $10.3 million

I know I will be way off, but this is just something fun. Hope you enjoy it.

A Good Day To Die Hard

Oh, John McClane. Where have you gone? 25 years after the original classic, nothing recognizable remains from the once classic action film series.

Budget restraints and a sense of greed permeate the latest entry into the Die Hard franchise as John McClane leaves American soil and must stop Russian terrorists. What is this, 1986? Stock Russian bad guy Viktor plans on silencing: whistle blower Yuri before a trial can happen that implicates Viktor as an evil, uber bad guy. CIA Agent Jack McClane, (Jai Courtney) through circumstances ends up with Yuri and tries to protect him. Once an attempt on Yuri's life has been put into motion, Jack and Yuri go on the run long enough for Yuri to provide evidence to Jack and the CIA Department.

Where does John McClane (Bruce Willis) fit into this? Not well, actually. John goes on "vacation" to Russia to help Jack out. For the main portion of the film, John really has no idea what is going on and plays second fiddle in the plot to Jack and Yuri. Most of the time, John fumbles around, surviving death-defying stunt after death-defying stunt with very little recourse of pain in this film. I understand that John has been here before, but any sense of logic, even the smallest sense, would have been welcome into this film.

Logic. That's a word that really should have been provided to writer, Skip Woods and director, John Moore. The action in the film is overblown, the stunts ridiculous and the acting very forced. One-liners come fast and furious from John, though none really have any staying power. Even Live Free or Die Hard had "I was out of bullets."

Nothing about this film is memorable except for the bad guys. Their plan: which includes harvesting weapons-grade uranium from Chernobyl (again, what is this, 1986?). Along with that, this is the first film in the Dir Hard franchise where the bad guys really don't even get their evil plan going. According to the script, they begin the motions of their nefarious plan, but then John and Jack interfere and the climax begins here. These are the most inept and least dangerous bad guys in the Die Hard franchise by far. And this includes Timothy Olyphant.

I really didn't like this film, which suffers from sub-par directing and a horrendous script. This franchise died in 1995 and unfortunately, the international market will make sure the franchise keeps ticking. Plus, who'd have thought that John McClane could read Russian? And I get it, Bruce, you're on vacation.

This film should have Died Hard.

2.7/10

Gangster Squad

This generation now has its version of The Untouchables!

After being rescheduled due to the Aurora Shooting back in July, Director Ruben Fleischer's period gangster drama finally graces the silver screen. As are my feelings with the similarily-themed The Untouchables, this is a stylish, mixed-bag of a crime drama.

In the late 1940's, Jewish mobster Mickey Cohen (Sean Penn) runs the city of Los Angeles. Feeling that he is losing control of the City of Angels, Police Chief Bill Parker (Nick Nolte) assigns respected police officer John O'Mara (Josh Brolin) to an off-the-books police unit created for the purpose of taking down Mickey Cohen. John uses this chance to recruit the police officers that fill the title characters: playboy Jerry Wooters, (Ryan Gosling) old-hand Max Kennard, (Robert Patrick) his younger prodigy Navidad Ramirez, (Michael Pena) street-wise detective Coleman Harris (Anthony Mackie) and tech-savvy Conway Keeler (Giovanni Ribisi).

The Gangster Squad begin disrupting Mickey Cohen's operations while Mickey struggles to find out who is responsible. During this time, conflicts arise between John and his pregnant wife Connie (Mireille Enos) about the dangers of the job and Jerry and Mickey's girlfriend Grace Faraday (Emma Stone) who begin a dangerous affair.

There is nothing in this film that hasn't been seen before, yet that doesn't make Gangster Squad all bad. The Gangster Squad is made up of cliches and all the actors bring their A-Game to these cliches. The stand-out of the Gangster Squad is Robert Patrick who really embellishes the role given and has lot of fun with it. Ryan Gosling chooses an interesting accent which initially comes off as annoying, but throughout the course of the film, the annoyance died down. Josh Brolin's John is tough as nails and doesn't offer a lot except for his determination to bring Mickey and his empire down. I will say that, although there is narration by Josh Brolin, it was welcome that the narration was sparse as Josh Brolin's tone seemed muted and not something I would want to hear throughout the film.

Which brings me to what I consider the weak links of the story. Emma Stone's Grace easily falls for Jerry, but their affection for one another comes very quick and lacks any spark or chemistry. They seemed more like friends than a real hot couple that skirts the dangers of Mickey Cohen. And speaking of Mickey Cohen, Sean Penn seems to be in a completely different film than the rest of the actors. His accent comes off as if he is struggling with it, and his emotions are much darker and violent than scenes that involve the Gangster Squad. I really enjoy Sean Penn and am glad to have seen him tackle this role, but it really doesn't gel as it should.

The comparisons with The Untouchables are very blatant and in your face. Everything from the stylized setting to the cliched character who you can pretty much tell will die to the facts being very misconstrued, this reminded me so very much of the Brian DePalma/David Mamet classic: The Untouchables. This isn't a bad thing, as I truly enjoy The Untouchables and overall, I enjoyed Gangster Squad as well.

The snappy dialogue comes doesn't fire on all cylinders like a David Mamet script and director Ruben Fleischer occasionally adds touches to liven up the scenes; especially gunfights, which he sometimes chooses to slow down and use some CGI along with the slow motion to add enhancements to what should already be action-packed scenes.

I love film noir and films set during this period, so I might be a bit biased when rating this film. As enjoyment, this is a solid, if uneven affair. A great cast and some good locations really push this film as a recommendation.

6.1/10

The 85th Annual Academy Awards: Nominations & Thoughts

So the nominations for the 85th Annual Academy Awards have been released, and like usual with me, there are more snubs than joyous feelings. Even with the solid slate of really good Hollywood films, judging by the nominations, this feels like it might be another film where the Academy goes for smaller films.

Yes, Lincoln did get the most nominations out of every film, but other films that should have scored some nominations didn't. Ben Affleck lost out on what seemed to be a sure thing directing nomination for Argo along with John Goodman for supporting actor. Alan Arkin was fun in Argo, but John Goodman, out of all the supporting actors, felt like he should have secured a nomination.

Not surprisingly, The Master was only nominated for acting categories. As a film that polarizes every viewer, I am at least glad the Academy still offered nominations to Joaquin Phoenix, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Amy Adams.

Robert De Niro and his return to being an Oscar contender in Silver Linings Playbook. It is always a welcome sight when a veteran actor comes out of the doldrums of awful films and returns with a solid performance.

Samuel L. Jackson's turn as a house slave in Quentin Tarantino's Django Unchained missed a nomination, which I feel might be the biggest snub of the year. His role and performance were damn good and a shame that it was overlooked. Also overlooked was a directing nomination for Quentin Tarantino. This is not as surprising, but still a snub.

Also missing was Kathryn Bigelow's directing nomination for Zero Dark Thirty. For a film that has been in the press a lot and getting a lot of critical love, this feels more like a political move than providing the correct nominee. Politics at the Oscars? Who knew!

And Tom Hooper didn't get nominated for Les Miserables. He must only get nominated when David Fincher does, so he can steal away David Fincher's Oscar. (Sorry, sore spot for me.)

So anyway, below are all the nominations for the 85th Annual Academy Awards. From what was nominated, I now think that Lincoln is the obvious front runner. The Academy hasn't shown Steven Spielberg love in a while, and this might be his year again. Beyond that, it seems small movies again run wild throughout the nominees, which can be a good thing. It just feels like some films that could have had a chance to compete with Lincoln (Zero Dark Thirty and Argo come specifically to mind) have lost a lot of steam with the nominations that were announced.

We will find out, though, on February 24th, when Seth MacFarlane hosts the Oscar ceremony.


Performance by an actor in a leading role
*   Bradley Cooper in "Silver Linings Playbook"
*   Daniel Day-Lewis in "Lincoln"
*   Hugh Jackman in "Les Miserables"
*   Joaquin Phoenix in "The Master"
*   Denzel Washington in "Flight"


Performance by an actor in a supporting role
*   Alan Arkin in "Argo"
*   Robert De Niro in "Silver Linings Playbook"
*   Philip Seymour Hoffman in "The Master"
*   Tommy Lee Jones in "Lincoln"
*   Christoph Waltz in "Django Unchained"


Performance by an actress in a leading role
*   Jessica Chastain in "Zero Dark Thirty"
*   Jennifer Lawrence in "Silver Linings Playbook"
*   Emmanuelle Riva in "Amour"
*   Quvenzhané Wallis in "Beasts of the Southern Wild"
*   Naomi Watts in "The Impossible"


Performance by an actress in a supporting role
*   Amy Adams in "The Master"
*   Sally Field in "Lincoln"
*   Anne Hathaway in "Les Miserables"
*   Helen Hunt in "The Sessions"
*   Jacki Weaver in "Silver Linings Playbook"


Best animated feature film of the year
*   "Brave" Mark Andrews and Brenda Chapman
*   "Frankenweenie" Tim Burton
*   "ParaNorman" Sam Fell and Chris Butler
*   "The Pirates! Band of Misfits" Peter Lord
*   "Wreck-It Ralph" Rich Moore


Achievement in cinematography
*   "Anna Karenina" Seamus McGarvey
*   "Django Unchained" Robert Richardson
*   "Life of Pi" Claudio Miranda
*   "Lincoln" Janusz Kaminski
*   "Skyfall" Roger Deakins


Achievement in costume design
*   "Anna Karenina" Jacqueline Durran
*   "Les Miserables" Paco Delgado
*   "Lincoln" Joanna Johnston
*   "Mirror Mirror" Eiko Ishioka
*   "Snow White and the Huntsman" Colleen Atwood


Achievement in directing
*   "Amour" Michael Haneke
*   "Beasts of the Southern Wild" Benh Zeitlin
*   "Life of Pi" Ang Lee
*   "Lincoln" Steven Spielberg
*   "Silver Linings Playbook" David O. Russell


Best documentary feature
*   "5 Broken Cameras"
Emad Burnat and Guy Davidi
*   "The Gatekeepers"
Nominees to be determined
*   "How to Survive a Plague"
Nominees to be determined
*   "The Invisible War"
Nominees to be determined
*   "Searching for Sugar Man"
Nominees to be determined


Best documentary short subject
*   "Inocente"
Sean Fine and Andrea Nix Fine
*   "Kings Point"
Sari Gilman and Jedd Wider
*   "Mondays at Racine"
Cynthia Wade and Robin Honan
*   "Open Heart"
Kief Davidson and Cori Shepherd Stern
*   "Redemption"
Jon Alpert and Matthew O'Neill


Achievement in film editing
*   "Argo" William Goldenberg
*   "Life of Pi" Tim Squyres
*   "Lincoln" Michael Kahn
*   "Silver Linings Playbook" Jay Cassidy and Crispin Struthers
*   "Zero Dark Thirty" Dylan Tichenor and William Goldenberg


Best foreign language film of the year
*   "Amour" Austria
*   "Kon-Tiki" Norway
*   "No" Chile
*   "A Royal Affair" Denmark
*   "War Witch" Canada


Achievement in makeup and hairstyling
*   "Hitchcock"
Howard Berger, Peter Montagna and Martin Samuel
*   "The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey"
Peter Swords King, Rick Findlater and Tami Lane
*   "Les Miserables"
Lisa Westcott and Julie Dartnell


Achievement in music written for motion pictures (Original score)
*   "Anna Karenina" Dario Marianelli
*   "Argo" Alexandre Desplat
*   "Life of Pi" Mychael Danna
*   "Lincoln" John Williams
*   "Skyfall" Thomas Newman


Achievement in music written for motion pictures (Original song)
*   "Before My Time" from "Chasing Ice"
Music and Lyric by J. Ralph
*   "Everybody Needs A Best Friend" from "Ted"
Music by Walter Murphy; Lyric by Seth MacFarlane
*   "Pi's Lullaby" from "Life of Pi"
Music by Mychael Danna; Lyric by Bombay Jayashri
*   "Skyfall" from "Skyfall"
Music and Lyric by Adele Adkins and Paul Epworth
*   "Suddenly" from "Les Miserables"
Music by Claude-Michel Schönberg; Lyric by Herbert Kretzmer and Alain Boublil


Best motion picture of the year
*   "Amour" Nominees to be determined
*   "Argo" Grant Heslov, Ben Affleck and George Clooney, Producers
*   "Beasts of the Southern Wild" Dan Janvey, Josh Penn and Michael Gottwald, Producers
*   "Django Unchained" Stacey Sher, Reginald Hudlin and Pilar Savone, Producers
*   "Les Miserables" Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, Debra Hayward and Cameron Mackintosh, Producers
*   "Life of Pi" Gil Netter, Ang Lee and David Womark, Producers
*   "Lincoln" Steven Spielberg and Kathleen Kennedy, Producers
*   "Silver Linings Playbook" Donna Gigliotti, Bruce Cohen and Jonathan Gordon, Producers
*   "Zero Dark Thirty" Mark Boal, Kathryn Bigelow and Megan Ellison, Producers


Achievement in production design
*   "Anna Karenina"
Production Design: Sarah Greenwood; Set Decoration: Katie Spencer
*   "The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey"
Production Design: Dan Hennah; Set Decoration: Ra Vincent and Simon Bright
*   "Les Miserables"
Production Design: Eve Stewart; Set Decoration: Anna Lynch-Robinson
*   "Life of Pi"
Production Design: David Gropman; Set Decoration: Anna Pinnock
*   "Lincoln"
Production Design: Rick Carter; Set Decoration: Jim Erickson


Best animated short film
*   "Adam and Dog" Minkyu Lee
*   "Fresh Guacamole" PES
*   "Head over Heels" Timothy Reckart and Fodhla Cronin O'Reilly
*   "Maggie Simpson in "The Longest Daycare"" David Silverman
*   "Paperman" John Kahrs


Best live action short film
*   "Asad" Bryan Buckley and Mino Jarjoura
*   "Buzkashi Boys" Sam French and Ariel Nasr
*   "Curfew" Shawn Christensen
*   "Death of a Shadow (Dood van een Schaduw)" Tom Van Avermaet and Ellen De Waele
*   "Henry" Yan England


Achievement in sound editing
*   "Argo" Erik Aadahl and Ethan Van der Ryn
*   "Django Unchained" Wylie Stateman
*   "Life of Pi" Eugene Gearty and Philip Stockton
*   "Skyfall" Per Hallberg and Karen Baker Landers
*   "Zero Dark Thirty" Paul N.J. Ottosson


Achievement in sound mixing
*   "Argo"
John Reitz, Gregg Rudloff and Jose Antonio Garcia
*   "Les Miserables"
Andy Nelson, Mark Paterson and Simon Hayes
*   "Life of Pi"
Ron Bartlett, D.M. Hemphill and Drew Kunin
*   "Lincoln"
Andy Nelson, Gary Rydstrom and Ronald Judkins
*   "Skyfall"
Scott Millan, Greg P. Russell and Stuart Wilson


Achievement in visual effects
*   "The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey"
Joe Letteri, Eric Saindon, David Clayton and R. Christopher White
*   "Life of Pi"
Bill Westenhofer, Guillaume Rocheron, Erik-Jan De Boer and Donald R. Elliott
*   "Marvel's The Avengers"
Janek Sirrs, Jeff White, Guy Williams and Dan Sudick
*   "Prometheus"
Richard Stammers, Trevor Wood, Charley Henley and Martin Hill
*   "Snow White and the Huntsman"
Cedric Nicolas-Troyan, Philip Brennan, Neil Corbould and Michael Dawson


Adapted screenplay
*   "Argo" Screenplay by Chris Terrio
*   "Beasts of the Southern Wild" Screenplay by Lucy Alibar & Benh Zeitlin
*   "Life of Pi" Screenplay by David Magee
*   "Lincoln" Screenplay by Tony Kushner
*   "Silver Linings Playbook" Screenplay by David O. Russell


Original screenplay
*   "Amour" Written by Michael Haneke
*   "Django Unchained" Written by Quentin Tarantino
*   "Flight" Written by John Gatins
*   "Moonrise Kingdom" Written by Wes Anderson & Roman Coppola
*   "Zero Dark Thirty" Written by Mark Boal

RIP: David R. Ellis

I heard about this story a few hours ago, and really haven't seen much in the way about this story. Director David R. Ellis has passed away at 60 years old. As this is still recent news, as of this writing, details are obviously sketchy and no known cause of death has been reported at this time.

David R. Ellis never made it to the A-List of directors, but made films that gained small, cult-like audiences. After making Homeward Bound II: Lost in San Francisco in 1996, David R. Ellis really broke through with 2003's Final Destination 2. Though not my personal favorite of the Final Destination franchise, it is almost unanimously considered one of the best in the Final Destination series. Once this film hit, David R. Ellis kept his level of success consistent through the rest of his life.

After making the small, yet appreciated, Cellular, David R. Ellis gained prominence by directing the internet-hyped Snakes on a Plane. Though the film failed to meet the almost-impossible anticipation, the film did open number 1 at the box office and turned a small profit. Along with that, the film is infamously known for the classic line delivered by Samuel L. Jackson "I've had it with these mother fuckin' snakes on this mother fuckin' plane."

Afterwards, David R. Ellis made 'Asylum' before he returned to the Final Destination franchise with 'The Final Destination'. Panned by most, and considered to be one of the worst of the franchise, David R. Ellis made the horror/comedy Shark Night 3D. The film was a small success, though never really ascertained the cult status as some of his prior films.

David R. Ellis passed away in Johannesburg, South Africa where he was scheduled to film the movie 'Kite' with his 'Snakes on a Plane star Samuel L. Jackson. I was never David R. Ellis' biggest fan, but I did appreciate some of the films he brought to the screen and feel that he had many more films to offer before his untimely passing.

Cosmopolis

Director David Cronenberg adapts the book of the same name and provides one of the coldest movie-going experiences of the year.

Rich, young, 20-something businessman, Eric Packer (Robert Pattinson) decides that the day that the United States president visits his city is the perfect day to have a haircut. With his trusty bodyguard, Torval, (Kevin Durand) by his side, he sets off on an odyssey that is unlike any other day.

While stuck in traffic due to the aforementioned visit, along with a riot that continues to gather steam, Eric does not waver in his attempt to be freshly-shorn. His luxurious limo/even more luxurious office remains the main film location as the day presses on.

Eric meets with various associates, co-workers and lovers while venturing throughout the city. After receiving a prostate exam in the limo, (!) Eric starts to become worried and paranoid about his surroundings. As warnings from his associates state that his finances are dwindling and Torval informs Eric that there is a legitimate threat against his life, things begin to spiral out of control for the man who is used to having control of everything.

I pretty much have to start by saying that I didn't like this movie at all. Every single character speaks in large chunks of over-stylized and unnecessarily complicated dialogue while firing at a rapid pace. I have not read the book this film is based on, but I have to assume the book is the same way. This comes off as very annoying and could turn most people off of the film immediately.

Beyond that, there were many more things wrong with the film. From the wooden and cold acting of every participant (though intentional) to the horrendous CGI effects outside of the limo, this is a film that never really clicked for me. Kevin Durand's Torval stood out the most as his scenes were almost laughable at how Kevin Durand played the role and delivered his lines.

With that being said, I loved the overall sense of dread as the film built towards its climax. The bleakness and sense of doom was something that only a few directors could have pulled off; and David Cronenberg did just that. As the film builds, the riots get more intense and the threat on Eric Packer's life becomes more real. By the time we get to the third act, the film brims with dread but also a sense that we have been building towards something and David Cronenberg tries not to let the audience down. If you have made it to the third act, which basically consists of Robert Pattinson and Paul Giamatti talking (shocking, I know) then at least this was a film you could stand.

This movie did its job of isolating me and not caring about any of the players in this film. Just because the film did what it wanted, doesn't make it a good film. What saves it, in my eyes, is how much mood that director David Cronenberg is able to fit into every inch of this film. I was highly curious about this film, and though disappointed, I did not hate what I saw.

As a film, 1/10. As a mood piece, 10/10.

Overall experience is a 5/10