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Craig (Craig)
Username: Craig

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 75.5.3.97
Posted on Thursday, November 19, 2009 - 04:25 pm:   

This week's Entertainment Weekly (11/20/09) has an article, heading: "Could The Box Be The Year's Most Hated Movie?" It goes on to say how Richard Kelly's film "earned straight Fs across all age groups from CinemaScore, the research company that polls moviegoers as they exit theaters on opening weekend." Only three other films in the last 6 years have bottomed-out so badly. It's even worse according to CinemaScore's president Ed Mintz: "...we're polling opening-night audiences, people who really wanted to see the movie. If they give it an F, something's wrong."

Another piece of sh*t, by all accounts, from the criminally-overrated Richard Kelly. Coming, remember, after his film SOUTHLAND TALES was laughed out of Cannes, and had to be released some two years later - a $17 million dollar movie that made less than $300k in its full run.

DONNIE DARKO itself was a flop, bombing at the box-office. Then some deranged morons revived it, ala the reviving that brought ROCKY HORROR back from its early grave. Audiences knew Kelly's first film was beyond bad, but then they were brainwashed into thinking it wasn't.

Finally, reality is setting in - Richard Kelly was handed the keys to a series of cars he had no business driving. It's only cost the studios many millions of dollars to figure that out.

Do not doubt me, people....
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Hubert (Hubert)
Username: Hubert

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 78.22.228.92
Posted on Thursday, November 19, 2009 - 04:43 pm:   

Schadenfreude.
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Craig (Craig)
Username: Craig

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 75.5.3.97
Posted on Thursday, November 19, 2009 - 04:50 pm:   

Promise I'll spell it correctly next time, if Richard Kelly will go away forever.
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Stephen Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 194.32.31.1
Posted on Thursday, November 19, 2009 - 05:06 pm:   

You have me wanting to watch 'Donnie Darko' again to make my mind up on it.

I've only seen it once when first released and couldn't decide if I liked it or not but the film did stick in my mind.

I usually find that a good thing (e.g. 'Eraserhead' and 'Antichrist' the first time I saw them) which is why I bought the DVD when I saw it going cheap.

So is 'Donnie Darko' a visionary work of art or a load of pretentious twaddle? I'll get back to you...
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Huw (Huw)
Username: Huw

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 218.168.185.221
Posted on Thursday, November 19, 2009 - 05:49 pm:   

Wow, you really seem to have it in for Richard Kelly, Craig. Did he break your Optimus Prime action figure or what? Perhaps he should make a Transformers movie next.
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Carolinec (Carolinec)
Username: Carolinec

Registered: 06-2009
Posted From: 82.38.75.85
Posted on Thursday, November 19, 2009 - 07:02 pm:   

Stephen - Donnie Darko is a visionary work of art, you mark my words! (sorry Craig)
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Craig (Craig)
Username: Craig

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 75.5.14.126
Posted on Thursday, November 19, 2009 - 08:00 pm:   

Here's what it is, Huw:

TRICK 'R TREAT languishes for 3 years on a shelf, and gets an ignoble release straight to dvd.

THE BOX gets a bells-n-whistles theatrical release.

Enough said. It may not be famine or world peace, but it does prove that, indeed, life is terribly cruel and unfair.
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Zed (Gary_mc)
Username: Gary_mc

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 81.96.240.106
Posted on Friday, November 20, 2009 - 02:15 am:   

Yeah, that kind of thing bugs me too, Craig.
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Ramsey Campbell (Ramsey)
Username: Ramsey

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 195.93.21.74
Posted on Friday, November 20, 2009 - 03:26 pm:   

Is it really necessary to gloat on this board over the box-office failure of a film nobody here appears to have seen? Presumably my fellow Sitges jurors and I were "deranged morons" for finding merit in the film.
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Zed (Gary_mc)
Username: Gary_mc

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 213.219.8.243
Posted on Friday, November 20, 2009 - 03:32 pm:   

Total Film magazine also gives it a good review this month.
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Jonathan (Jonathan)
Username: Jonathan

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 91.143.178.131
Posted on Friday, November 20, 2009 - 03:32 pm:   

I though Trick R Treat was pants to be honest. It looked nice but the stories weren't up to much. Haven't seen The Box but I very much liked Donnie Darko.
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Craig (Craig)
Username: Craig

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 75.4.252.230
Posted on Friday, November 20, 2009 - 04:09 pm:   

Your opening question is kinda (unintentionally?) funny, when you read it a second time, Ramsey....

But as to your second sentence, no, of course I don't think you or your panel were "deranged morons." I just like painting vivid word-pictures - and "in my opinion mistaken individuals" has so much less impact than "deranged morons."
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Ramsey Campbell (Ramsey)
Username: Ramsey

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 195.93.21.74
Posted on Friday, November 20, 2009 - 04:11 pm:   

'Is it really necessary to gloat on this board over the box-office failure of a film nobody here appears to have seen? Presumably my fellow Sitges jurors and I were "deranged morons" for finding merit in the film.'

That's poorly worded, probably because I'm losing patience. The Sitges film was Donnie Darko, for the record.
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Craig (Craig)
Username: Craig

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 75.4.252.230
Posted on Friday, November 20, 2009 - 04:30 pm:   

I won't gloat again. And again, my main/actual frustration is that some keep getting to make films, while others go wanting; let alone their work, unreleased. This is more a touchstone for my anger at an unfair Universe - but it's clear how far that will get anyone, complaining about that all day....
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Weber_gregston (Weber_gregston)
Username: Weber_gregston

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 194.176.105.56
Posted on Friday, November 20, 2009 - 05:10 pm:   

OK, let's list some films that were slated on first release but have gone on to be classics

Vertigo
Shawshank Redemption (and Darabont is now a definite a-lister in Hollywood even if Craig doesn't like him)
Heavens Gate


C'mon, lets name some more
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Craig (Craig)
Username: Craig

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 75.5.8.37
Posted on Friday, November 20, 2009 - 05:19 pm:   

I loved SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION - where am I not liking Darabont, except for that one film, THE MIST?... although... I didn't love THE GREEN MILE a whole lot either... he did that, right?...
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Hubert (Hubert)
Username: Hubert

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 78.22.228.92
Posted on Friday, November 20, 2009 - 05:29 pm:   

Heaven's Gate is an absolute masterpiece. There's a documentary on YouTube about the 'disastrous' making of the film and the subsequent bankruptcy of the studio.
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Carolinec (Carolinec)
Username: Carolinec

Registered: 06-2009
Posted From: 82.38.75.85
Posted on Friday, November 20, 2009 - 06:30 pm:   

I hadn't actually realised Donnie Darko was a box-office flop at first. It was one I specifically went to see at the cinema on first release because I liked the sound of it - and I certainly wasn't disappointed. Mind you, there was only me and one other person in the whole cinema! I did think that was rather strange.

Wasn't The Wicker Man a box-office flop at first?
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Allybird (Allybird)
Username: Allybird

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 80.47.89.2
Posted on Saturday, November 21, 2009 - 09:39 am:   

Donnie Darko is a wonderful film!
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Simon Bestwick (Simon_b)
Username: Simon_b

Registered: 10-2008
Posted From: 212.121.214.114
Posted on Saturday, November 21, 2009 - 11:43 am:   

'...my main/actual frustration is that some keep getting to make films, while others go wanting...'

Yes. This sums up my attitude to Michael fucking Bay's entire career.
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Simon Bestwick (Simon_b)
Username: Simon_b

Registered: 10-2008
Posted From: 212.121.214.114
Posted on Saturday, November 21, 2009 - 12:02 pm:   

And yes, I think Donnie Darko was a great film. And I want to see it again. And no, I haven't been 'brainwashed'. I saw it on its original release and liked it.

If you want to talk brainwashing, the climate change denial horseshit is on another thread.
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Ramsey Campbell (Ramsey)
Username: Ramsey

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 195.93.21.74
Posted on Saturday, November 21, 2009 - 01:53 pm:   

Caroline, The Wicker Man was actually released in Britain on the lower half of a double bill with Don't Look Now. Quite an evening out!

The film was noted by several critics, not least whoever reviewed it enthusiastically for the Monthly Film Bulletin.
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Stephen Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 82.0.106.15
Posted on Monday, November 23, 2009 - 12:49 am:   

I think I'm right in saying 'Citizen Kane' was a flop on first release. The rest is history...
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Ramsey Campbell (Ramsey)
Username: Ramsey

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 195.93.21.74
Posted on Monday, November 23, 2009 - 01:23 pm:   

Others include Letter from an Unknown Woman, Make Way for Tomorrow, The Night of the Hunter, Sunrise and perhaps most infamously, The Magnificent Ambersons.
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Steve Jensen (Stevej)
Username: Stevej

Registered: 07-2009
Posted From: 82.0.77.233
Posted on Monday, November 23, 2009 - 01:40 pm:   

Welles did himself no favours. He left Ambersons in the less-than-capable hands of studio editors; Chimes at Midnight had obvious sound problems; It's All True was an unfinished mess etc etc.
I think that, once Orson's initial inspiration for a project waned, he lost interest.

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