Dream House

The trailer's out there, spoiling plenty of the story.

http://www.comingsoon.net/news/movienews.php?id=80024

GeneralGogol wrote:

The trailer's out there, spoiling plenty of the story.

http://www.comingsoon.net/news/movienews.php?id=80024

I don't need to watch it now. Terrible trailer. It looks like a mixture of Shutter Island and The Shining.

DREAM HOUSE appears to be on track to debut at #6 this weekend, behind a Seth Rogen film, a 17 year old cartoon, and a movie starring a handicapped dolphin. I had seen a few television spots for the film over the past few weeks and then completely forgot about the film and was surprised to see that it was released yesterday into cinemas. I don't think it's too soon to suggest that Craig needs a hit film. COWBOYS AND ALIENS was a complete box office disaster, DREAM HOUSE will be even worse (though since the film didn't cost as much as the impact is relative), and films like THE GOLDEN COMPASS, FLASHBACKS OF A FOOL, and DEFIANCE not doing much at the box office. He won't be able to claim credit for TINTIN being a hit (not that I think it will be; it looks d.o.a. as far as I'm concerned), so somehow, someway, against all odds, GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO really needs to be a success for him (and as curious as I am about the movie, I'm just not sure releasing this film at Christmas is going to work, no matter how much of a counter-programming move it is, or how much it plays up itself as the "Feel Bad Movie of Christmas").

http://www.deadline.com/2011/09/first-box-office-courageous-no-1/

Craig has had a very bad run with projects. Most of the problem, I suspect, is with Craig attaching himself to projects helmed by questionable directors. THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO is precisely the kind of picture he should have been doing all along (though, like you, GS, I have concerns about how well the "Feel Bad Movie of Christmas" approach will work, though I suppose SWEENEY TODD did all right in that slot).

I think the biggest problem with this particular release is that they've spoiled quite a bit in the trailers. DREAM HOUSE is exactly the kind of film that I would go for regardless of the cast, but adding Daniel Craig, Rachel Weisz, and Naomi Watts makes it even more enticing for me. Since it appears as though I know pretty much all of the plot twists (unless they're holding a couple back from the trailers), I'll pass on it and wait for it to arrive on Netflix.

Craig is crap.

No one to blame but himself.

Harmsway wrote:

Craig has had a very bad run with projects. Most of the problem, I suspect, is with Craig attaching himself to projects helmed by questionable directors.

Jim Sheridan ain't a "questionable" director. Sure, he's had his stinkers (GET RICH OR DIE TRYIN), but along with Neil Jordan, he's the best Ireland's got.

Sharky wrote:

Harmsway wrote:

Craig has had a very bad run with projects. Most of the problem, I suspect, is with Craig attaching himself to projects helmed by questionable directors.

Jim Sheridan ain't a "questionable" director. Sure, he's had his stinkers (GET RICH OR DIE TRYIN), but along with Neil Jordan, he's the best Ireland's got.

Then Ireland hasn't got much.

Harmsway wrote:

Sharky wrote:

Harmsway wrote:

Craig has had a very bad run with projects. Most of the problem, I suspect, is with Craig attaching himself to projects helmed by questionable directors.

Jim Sheridan ain't a "questionable" director. Sure, he's had his stinkers (GET RICH OR DIE TRYIN), but along with Neil Jordan, he's the best Ireland's got.

Then Ireland hasn't got much.

Neil Jordan's easily up there with Mike Leigh.

Sharky wrote:

Neil Jordan's easily up there with Mike Leigh.

No way, no how. His career is crowded with stinkers. Jordan makes someone like Scorsese look like the equal of Murnau. I'm still trying to get rid of the bad taste his adaptation of THE END OF THE AFFAIR left in my mouth.

dalton wrote:

I think the biggest problem with this particular release is that they've spoiled quite a bit in the trailers.

Absolutely. Clearly they'd given up on the film because no one in their right mind would have given away the entire plot in the trailer if they'd thought there was even the slightest chance they'd be able to get an audience to come in and sit for this. It's got 3 well known stars in the film and yet there's been almost no publicity for it that I can see and it was dumped at the ass-end of September, which is usually a dumping ground in and of itself for movies the studios have no faith in.

Harmsway wrote:

Sharky wrote:

Neil Jordan's easily up there with Mike Leigh.

No way, no how. His career is crowded with stinkers.

That doesn't negate the quality of his finest films - THE COMPANY OF WOLVES, MONA LISA, THE CRYING GAME, BUTCHER BOY, and ONDINE.

Sharky wrote:

That doesn't negate the quality of his finest films - THE COMPANY OF WOLVES, MONA LISA, THE CRYING GAME, BUTCHER BOY, and ONDINE.

Alas, not really crazy about any of 'em.

Harmsway wrote:

Sharky wrote:

That doesn't negate the quality of his finest films - THE COMPANY OF WOLVES, MONA LISA, THE CRYING GAME, BUTCHER BOY, and ONDINE.

Alas, not really crazy about any of 'em.

You need to 'em watch them again, Harms. Especially WOLVES.

I don't think Harms understands anything from England.

Wolves is a good film. Angela Carter is out of fashion, but the best of her work had a certain magic.

Erica Ambler wrote:

I don't think Harms understands anything from England.

It's the accent.

Harmsway wrote:

Erica Ambler wrote:

I don't think Harms understands anything from England.

It's the accent.

There are hundreds of different regional accents in England.

I rest my case.

"It took some years for Dan to realize that the total failure in England to develop a decent commercial movie industry, let alone something better than a constipated trickle of serious film-makers, is at least partly due to our unerring flair for backing bad directors . . . or to the corollary notion that some semi-illiterate cameraman or ingratiating phony must know more about reproducing life than anyone else. He should have learned from that first director, who had merely managed to fawn his way into the grand conspiracy of mediocrity that has dominated the home industry for the last twenty-five years."

~ DANIEL MARTIN by John Fowles

If only we had decent film directors like Hitchcock and Chaplin.

Utter bollocks. We've got Edgar Wright, Shane Meadows, Alex Cox, Joe Cornish, along with a gaggle of others, and Mike Leigh's still going strong.

To clarify, John Fowles was writing in 1977.

(Not that I'm head-over-heels for the line-up of directors you posted, Sharky, though I am fond of Wright and Leigh.)

Next up, Michael Bay on the modern novel.

Fuckwit.