Monday Morning Critic – Anatomy of a Failure: Both Reasons Why I, Frankenstein Flopped Hard – Repo Man & Emilio Estevez

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The big story coming out of this weekend was the spectacular failure of I, Frankenstein, the graphic novel turned film turned probable money loser. I reviewed it for the site, of course, but the film’s $8mm opening against a rumored budget of $65 million (not including marketing and P&A) domestically doesn’t bode well for the film’s future. It has yet to open overseas, where it might be able to make its budget back, but so far it appears to have a total domestic gross around $20 million or so as its ceiling.

With this being the end of January, and competition starting to heat up with the spring releases in sight, I, Frankenstein is going to wind up being a flop even if worldwide grosses are able to put the film into the black. It’s what has made the Resident Evil films a continuing reality despite a fairly defined audience stateside. For some reason international audiences love Alice and her fight against the Umbrella Corporation significantly more than their American counterparts.

It’s why we’re looking at Resident Evil in Space, or whatever lame title they give it, and why despite how awful the first film was we’re potentially looking at an Aaron Eckhart franchise. But why did it fail? I think it’s time to take another one of my cinematic anatomy courses and figure out why I, Frankenstein flopped. It comes down to two reasons, I think.

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1. Frankenstein’s Monster is played out as a cinematic character

There’s nothing new that can be said about Frankenstein’s Monster as a character in a typical horror film. No one is highly anticipating a horror film, or an action film, with Mary Shelley’s literary character. We’ve seen him so often, and even yukked it up with Abbot & Costello, that there’s nothing new in the traditional sense to do with the character.

You know what would’ve been interesting? To see Aaron Eckhart with a character who’s been given immortality and a human’s form but no clue on what to do with it. There’s something interesting that could be done with Frankenstein’s Monster instead of just make him into a generic action hero.

Its why, for all its flaws, The Frankenstein Theory was a much more interesting film. It took the mythos and transformed them into something that was different. Frankenstein as a Bigfoot style monster felt unique because it took the “found footage” style documentary and at least tried something new with it.

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2. January is the worst month of the year for starting a franchise

January is the worst month of year for film for a specific reason: it’s a dumping ground for films no one wanted to release during the year but didn’t want to dump direct to DVD. Ride Along has managed to find an audience but at best it has to be considered a modest hit; it’s more than doubled its production budget but this isn’t a runaway hit, either. It’s another Paul Blart type of hit, a genre film that isn’t completely rancid that brings in enough of the quadrants to matter.

Look at Jack Ryan. That’s a near perfect franchise setter but arguably would’ve been better in March, occupying a sort of Fast & Furious sequel early spring release, instead of as a throwaway January release. It would’ve worked better as it feels like a summer tentpole type film, not a throwaway action film.

Stuff for General George S. Pimpage, Esq

From elsewhere in the Inside Pulse Network:

I reviewed I, Frankenstein, currently in theaters. Jack Ryan was a lot better, so click here for that.

Mike Noyes wrote vampire here for a DVD review of Kiss of the Damned.

My boy Short Fuze has a new album out. $2.99 for progressive hip hop, yo, so check it out.

Tim Marchman of Deadspin wrote a great piece on MMA coach Greg Jackson here. Crazy thing was that I sat next to Tim for UFC on Fox 6 in Press Row.

Inside Fights was all over UFC on Fox 10. You can check out all our coverage by clicking here.

And now on MMC … we DANCE!

If you want to pimp anything email me with a good reason why. It helps to bribe me with stuff, just saying ….

A Movie A Week – The Challenge

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This week’s DVD – Repo Man

Can you make a film about repossessing cars without a recognizable cast, add in some crazy sci-fi elements and make it funny while also making it weird? Repo Man dared to do so in the ‘80s and turned out to be one of the great cult films of the decade.

The film has a simple premise. Otto (Emilio Estevez) is an ‘80s punk who just lost his job. Stumbling into a job as a repo man, Otto finds himself in an odd place as he deals with unique co-workers and situations. All the while a ’64 Chevy Malibu has everyone’s interests, from the government on down.

A good way to describe the film is what happens when you take an interesting take on the lifestyle of a burnout trying to find his life path and make it a little off-beat. Throw in what was an unconventional choice for a star in Estevez, who had yet to really become a star at that point, and this was a $160,000 film that somehow managed to find an audience.

It’s such an oddball film that it manages to find its way into being pretty good. Is it one of the best films of the ‘80s? I don’t think so. But it’s certainly one of the more unique ones. It captivates your attention because it dares to be different. I can get behind a film that dares to be different and goes full bore; sometimes you can be interesting cinema by just saying “screw it” and going full bore different. This is a film that we’d label as just another weird indie today but something back then that just went completely different and found a way to stand out.

It’s definitely worth a viewing, at a minimum. Strongly recommended.

What Looks Good This Weekend, and I Don’t Mean the $2 tall boys of Red Fox and community college co-eds with low standards at the Fox and Hound

Labor Day – Josh Brolin is an escaped convict who holes up with Kate Winslet and her teenage son. Bonding occurs.

Skip It – My gut says Jason Reitman has another stinker on his hands after Young Adult wound up being an intergalactic level turd … this is getting a January dump after a qualifying run in L.A and no onslaught of meaningful awards nominations. That tells you everything you need to know about this film.

That Awkward Moment – Miles Teller, Michael B. Jordan and Zach Efron deal with dating shenanigans as young twenty-somethings.

See It – So far it looks tolerable … either this’ll be a great comedy that the trailer undersold or this is a lukewarm comedy that the trailer oversold. So far it looks like the former.

Scott “Kubryk” Sawitz brings his trademarked irreverence and offensive hilarity to Twitter in 140 characters or less. Follow him @ScottSawitz .