August
23rd 2010
Proof that the American male is not yet totally feminized.
Interestingly, Piranha 3D, which I thought looked fun in an intentionally campy sort of way, did poorly. I don’t think the viewing audience knows what to do with high production value but intentionally campy movies like this or, for another example, the much anticipated but underperforming Snakes on a Plane. Audience like intentional spoofs like this weekend’s Vampires Suck, and they like (on TV at least) intentionally campy but obviously B movie fair, but they don’t know what to do with intentionally campy mainstream releases that look like they belong on the Syfy Channel. That’s my take on Piranha 3D’s underwhelming performance at least.
RonL on 24 Aug 2010 at 12:09 am #
I’m not spending $12 to see B movies in 2D or 3D. That’s what Blockbuster monthly is for.
Kirt Higdon on 28 Aug 2010 at 1:53 pm #
“Proof that the American male is not yet totally feminized.”
Get serious. Action movies have been popular since there were movies. Since when does sitting around watching roided actors fake shoot and explode their way out of fake perils constitute proof of masculinity? I suppose all the geeks playing World of Warcraft on their computers constitutes similar proof. I’m not knocking action movies as mindless junk entertainment for guys anymore than I would knock chick flicks as mindless junk entertainment for girls. Everyone needs some of that just to relax, but it’s hardly proof of any favorable trend.
And from the standpoint of movies currently in release, I’d rate The Expendables inferior to Salt, Predators, and The Other Guys. The latter two may not rate as pure action movies since Predators is a science fiction action movie and The Other Guys an action comedy, but in a time of economic depression, these three may still be worth your theater money. Save Expendables to your netflix queue if you must, next to The A-Team.
RedPhillips on 28 Aug 2010 at 9:46 pm #
Kirt, you continue to demonstrate your utter lack of taste and discrimination when it comes to movies. Predators was entertaining to watch, but the premise was so far fetched that I found it hard to totally suspend disbelief. (It deserves credit for casting ex-UFC star Oleg Taktarov.) I haven’t seen Salt or The Other Guys.
The success of an old school testosterone driven action movie is a positive sign precisely because it is old school and testosterone driven and has been derided by the critics for that very reason.
You must be either too old or too young to have come of age in the 80s. If you had you would understand the emotional appeal of this movie especially with the Stallone, Willis, and Schwarzenegger angel.
Kirt Higdon on 28 Aug 2010 at 11:04 pm #
I came of age well before the 80s which means I’ve seen Stallone, Willis and Schwartzenegger do far better work. Conan the Barbarian is one of my favorite movies of all times; I’ve seen it more than ten times. Again – it’s admittedly not a pure action movie due to the fantasy element. Commando, Predator (the original), and Total Recall were also far superior to the Expendables as were Die Hard and First Blood.
I’m not sure what you found so “far fetched” about Predators unless you find science fiction in general far fetched. It was basically The World’s Most Dangerous Game plot set on another planet with an ensemble cast. I’ve seen this done on several other occasions but never seen it done better. I was happy to see that the ending was left wide open for a sequel. I’d also like to see more of Taktarov on the screen. He used to be an instructor at the Krav Maga MA studio in LA which I belonged to and has a very menacing screen presence.