Every Monday morning, InsidePulse Movies Czar Scott “Kubryk” Sawitz brings an irreverent and oftentimes hilarious look at pop culture, politics, sports and whatever else comes to mind. And sometimes he writes about movies.
Two things happened this week that gave me a bit of pause. The trailer for Jodie Foster’s directorial opus The Beaver and its subsequent announcement of a spring release date. Once thought to be buried after Gibson’s domestic shenanigans made him persona non grata for a while, and leaving Foster’s debut in a bit of a bind, The Beaver is going to get a theatrical release after all. I would’ve thought it was going to get buried, then DTV’d in a couple years, but Summit and Anonymous Content have $20 million riding on this so it’s not all that shocking they’d release it right before the summer blockbuster season. Summit can probably take a loss on the film, like they have with most of their releases, because they have the Twilight series functioning as their “Black Friday” of sorts. If they want to make an experiment or take a risk they can because teenagers will flock to poorly made films about vampires and stuff. It’s a good catch-all for this film because it’s now gone from a prestige picture to a risky venture based on Mel’s off screen behavior.
And it will either be a massive success or a massive failure with no mid-point. Why? Because this is a zero-sum game for Summit as far as this film goes. Why? Because only one of two scenarios is going to happen and it’ll either be spectacular or it’ll be the end of an era.
Mel Gibson is one of the last big, bonafide movie stars still around. There are only maybe a dozen or so genuine movie stars in Hollywood still alive, and still working, and he’s one of them. As much as we can argue the merits of him as a person he’s still “The Man.” His name on a marquee still means something, despite his personal “quirks,” if you can call anti-Semitism and potential domestic abuse a personality quirk, and if this film flames out spectacularly I think you can reasonably call his career as a relevant Hollywood actor/director over. Gibson was never beloved for his personality, as he was always a raging douche bag. But he always delivered when it came time to do so in a way that was above and beyond. Off screen you didn’t want to have a drink with him in the same way you would with a guy like Denzel Washington, a star in a similar status but infinitely more liked.
It’s the matter of how you’d hang out with them at a bar. Washington is the guy you’d have a beer with while watching the game, eating chicken wings, whereas Gibson is the guy you go out with once in a while but it always ended up with someone throwing hands or being tossed out for attempting to do so. When Mad Mel’s out something bad is going to happen, everyone knows it and acts accordingly. But Gibson always delivered on screen, to the point where we could forgive his homophobia because he did Braveheart, Lethal Weapon, The Road Warrior and a lot of other great flicks.
But there comes a point when you can’t accept someone’s predilections because of their talent and the leaked phone calls were probably it. Roman Polanski may have raped a girl, and fled prosecution for it, but he’s been a remarkably good citizen since. Well, as much of a good citizen as a fugitive from justice can be I suppose, but Gibson’s personal life has become significantly more prominent than his professional one.
At least Polanski has a string of crappy films to point to, plus he did Chinatown. Like Michael Jackson proved with Thriller, making a masterpiece can forgive an artist’s intentions to be a little bit rapey amongst young children.
Gibson has been behind the camera, for the most part, and his big return to fame wasn’t the sort of success it was supposed to be. Edge of Darkness was a modest hit, hitting $80 million internationally on an R-rated action thriller, but had a fairly big budget ($80 million not including publicity and advertising) and using the 55% rule (a film only sends 55% or so of its total gross back to the studio) the film’s in the red before things like tax credits/rebates and DVD/VOD sales are figured in. So unless those are all much more massive than the film’s meager box office grosses, I’d imagine the film broke even at best.
The true test of a star is the ability to overcome and this is a fairly innocuous test. He has a low production budget to go against, which helps, and the film has had a lot of hype behind it. The buzz on The Beaver was such that before TMZ and the like turned him into a caricature he was considered a near shoe-in for an Oscar nomination and a front runner alongside Jesse Eisenberg and Colin Firth. With the film being pushed outside of contention it’ll fall into the category of something like State of Play, intended as an Oscar pic but due to circumstance pushed out into the spring.
If the film finds that sort of groove that a film like Little Miss Sunshine did, with Gibson’s powerful performance getting a strong word of mouth and raising box office receipts with it, we might be looking at a return to prominence for Mel. If the film does as well as Darkness it’ll have made a tidy profit in theatres going into VOD/DVD sales. I think that’s probably the most likely outcome for Jodie Foster’s debut, which was set up with all the right intentions but just had a massive misfortune hit it after it was completed. Summit has actually been really good at making their smaller features into something that’ll at least break even when all is said and done. But that’s the problem.
The film has a problem in that it’s a redemptive tale involving an actor still viewed as one of the worst people in Hollywood. The cast and crew of The Hangover 2 voiced enough displeasure that Gibson was removed from a cameo role, with most people thinking it was a good move because of the negative publicity Gibson brings. If audiences stay away from this small film it could end up being minimal. I think at a minimum the gross will probably hit $6-8 million domestically, with another $1-2 million from overseas, but the damage will be done. A good comparison would be the Michael Douglas-headlined indie Solitary Man, which hit $5 million all in. It was a solid film with a brilliant performance from Douglas, overshadowed because he reprised Gordon Gecko one more time around the same time, and Gibson’s name alone should be able to garner that much for a film like this.
If the film is able to capture the hearts and dollars, and manages to become the sort of $100 million grosser (and earn Mel an Oscar nomination at next year’s Oscars) that it has the potential to be, we’re looking at the sort of comeback that would dwarf Mickey Rourke’s by quite a large margin. Rourke was loved but just made a ton of bad choices, then made a few good ones and wound up back near the top again. Gibson is despised right now but people will forgive someone’s bad behavior with their check books if they do something extraordinary with a film.
Will audiences still come out to see him? That’s an awfully big “if” but imagine if it does. It might be the biggest, most unexpected comeback by a movie star.
A Movie A Week – The Challenge
This Week’s DVD – Way of the Gun
Some people just need a punch to the mouth. And frankly Sarah Silverman has always been one of them for me. I don’t think she’s all that funny and never understood why people think she is; add 100 pounds to her and she’d be asking “Would you like fries with that?” in between sessions of World of Warcraft. But alas life isn’t fair and she’s a famous “comedian” who once dated Jimmy Kimmel. And Way of the Gun opens with the most awesome scene ever; Ryan Philippe punches her repeatedly because she won’t stop spewing vile obscenities in his direction. Granted he and his partner, Benicio del Toro, end up on the wrong side of a bar brawl but you can’t top that opener for fun.
Philippe and Del Toro top-line Way of the Gun as a pair of small time crooks who fall into a big time crime and bite off more than they can chew. Del Toro is the brains of the duo, which isn’t saying much, while Philippe is a bit of an idiot who shoots first and asks questions later. Trying to raise cash by donating sperm, they fall into the potential score of a lifetime: a pregnant woman (Juliette Lewis) carrying the seed of a rich couple. On the run with her, they discover that what they think will be an easy score is infinitely harder than it appears to be. Why? Because the old guy is a combination of rich and crazy, the kind of rich guy who’s made a fortune while picking up all sorts of enemies. That and he has James Caan to clean up his messes whenever things need get a little dirty. And no one gets out alive.
The backstory is a bit more interesting than the film itself, as Chris McQuarrie (the writer behind The Usual Suspects) had wanted to do his own biopic of Alexander the Great and needed a commercial hit before getting the funding for it. This was it, as this wasn’t a hit when it came out and has found a niche as a cult film. McQuarrie hasn’t directed a film since, making this his lone directorial effort.
It’s an ok film, nothing special, but it’s a solid crime thriller. Released in 2000, this was right at the point when ripping off the hard-boiled noir style of Pulp Fiction(but without the good story-telling and dialogue) was about to end. It’s remarkably violent, never a bad thing, and it at least is a good effort with people trying to make a good film. It’s just so derivative of the era that it’s more of a good curiosity than anything else now.
Recommendation for a boring afternoon.
What Looks Good This Weekend, and I Don’t Mean the $2 Pints of Bass Ale and community college co-eds with low standards at the Alumni Club
How Do You Know – Paul Rudd, Reese Witherspoon and Owen Wilson have a wacky love triangle brewing. And Jack Nicholson shows up for some awesomeness.
See It – Paul Rudd has a knack of finding things that are at least entertaining, if not good to great. With this cast I can’t see it being bad.
Tron: Legacy – Once more back into the computer realm for Jeff Bridges.
See It – Easily the coolest looking film of the year by far, it should be an a/v wonder at worst, a poor man’s version of Avatar but without the Smurf-related sex.
Yogi Bear – The continual raping of my childhood continues.
Skip It – If Alvin and the Chipmunks, and its sequel, proved there’s a market for the crass exploitation of childhood cartoons for commercial profit via film.
Rabbit Hole – Nicole Kidman and Aaron Eckhardt are parents dealing with the loss of their young son. In limited release.
See It – One of the films I’ve been genuinely excited about for the past couple months, this has been tabbed as Oscar bait for both its leads.
Do you have questions about movies, life, love, or Branigan’s Law? Shoot me an e-mail at Kubryk@Insidepulse.com and you could be featured in the next “Monday Morning Critic.” Include your name and hometown to improve your odds.
Scott “Kubryk” Sawitz brings his trademarked irreverence and offensive hilarity to Twitter in 140 characters or less. Follow him @MMCritic_Kubryk.
