When I first heard the title ages ago I had a little chuckle and thought "cool". It reminded me of that brief and shiny moment back in nineteen-ninety-godiamsoold when that Nicolas Cage / Bridget Fonda movie was not called the generic It Could Happen To You but was referred to as Cop Gives Waitress 2 Million Dollar Tip. Mmmmm, high concepty. I like truth in titling but I had only a marginal interest in the movie. What killed it for me was the huge media dollars push for it which masqueraded as a grassroots fan movement. I was so sick of hearing about it. My opinion: Real cult movies are always accidental.
Now, if the snakes had dialogue or musical numbers and were all voiced by Sterling Holloway I woulda totally been on board. Especially if they resurrected that great Jungle Book sequence "Trust in Me" and made Samuel L Jackson's eyes go all hypnotic spiral. That woulda put my ass in a seat.I'm not sure that this is as big of a disappointment as people are saying ($15 million for a B movie in late August? Sounds impressive to me) but then again... I'm fully aware that I'm not a numbers guy. I don't really get the box office fascination --or rather I get it but I could never indulge because I'd get too depressed.
Consider the following fact:
John Tucker Must Die, a cheap Mean Girls knock-off made something like 40 times what Heathers made. It also made more than the (completely unrelated) masterpiece Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. So did these fine 2006 releases: Date Movie, Little Man, RV, Scary Movie 4, The Lakehouse, Firewall, and dozens of others.
I'm sorry, here's a tissue. No. No. You can't have this bottle of pills. No! I don't trust you when you get like this.
In happier news, Monster House is holding well (good WOM) and the summer's WOM champ, The Devil Wears Prada is finally in the year's top ten. Go Meryl! This is now officially her biggest hit ever having surpassed even Lemony Snicket. Unless you adjust for inflation in which case I believe Kramer Vs. Kramer is still the champ. Either way, it's more than enough of a success to insure year-end awards play.
It won't stay in the top ten of course. We can't have a movie that good in the top ten, are you crazy? Gotta make room for Talladega Nights any second now... and more Clicks and DaVinci Codes and maybe a few more sequels like M:i:III that people want to see but no one will care about next year this time or even in a few months time.
