Hollywood Hunter

Between the Thanksgiving and Christmas files, the "Piano Love" produced by Gaomen Films officially opened on December 6th in Los Angeles, New York, Chicago and other major theaters on the scale of 21 screens.

This film, which won the Golden Lion Award at the Venice Film Festival in September, received almost overwhelming praise after its release. The overall score of the film was as high as 9.2, making it another high-scoring masterpiece second only to "Toy Story" at the end of the year.

Roger Albert, a well-known American film critic, has not hesitated to comment on this film as "the most extraordinary and unforgettable film I have ever seen".

After the first week of screening, "Falling Piano" finally received US$1.55 million in seven days, and the museum reached US$73,000.

Another award-winning film "Grand Canyon" released at the same time as "Piano Love" was produced by Fox Pictures and directed by well-known Hollywood screenwriter and director Lawrence Kasdan. It talks about the racial conflicts caused by a black man who strayed into the white community. , This film only has a smaller screen size on two screens. It is solely for the nomination of the awards season. The two screens opened in the first week won a box office of 190,000 U.S. dollars.

However, as a prize-winning film, the film's critics' reputation is only average, with a comprehensive score of only 7.6 points, which is obviously difficult to make a difference during the awards season, compared with the 9.2 points of "Piano Love".

Friday, December 13th.

Although in theory this week is still an intermittent period between two major schedules, if you look at the scale of the films being released, the Christmas file is opened in advance.

Because this week, Steven Spielberg's "Captain Hawk" was officially released, and at the same time, "Assassination of Kennedy" produced by Paramount Pictures.

Columbia Pictures has given great expectations to "Captain Hawk". The final production budget of the film has reached 70 million U.S. dollars, and the opening screen size is 2,197 yuan.

However, with the beginning of the film, the reputation of "Captain Hawk" was directly destroyed, and the media rating dropped to 2.8 points. "Variety" magazine criticized the film as "messy and unrestrained", "Newsweek" Even more harshly commented that watching "Captain Hawk" is like watching an 80,000-pound dwarf dancing.

After three days of painting, the box office of "Captain Hawk" was only $13.52 million in the first weekend, which was far short of Columbia Pictures' expectations.

In the original time and space, the North American box office of "Captain Hawke" finally exceeded 100 million US dollars. Relying on the global box office of more than 200 million US dollars and subsequent earnings, this film barely allowed Columbia Pictures to recover its costs.

However, this time, this poorly known blockbuster will no longer have such good luck.

Because in the following week, another new movie "The Flash" in the highly anticipated DC movie universe will be released soon.

"Assassination of Kennedy", which was drawn at the same time as "Captain Hawk", Simon’s memory, Oliver Stone’s new film should have been produced by Warner, but because Warner’s schedule at the end of this year was mostly focused on " In Flash, the project was abandoned.

Compared with "Captain Hawk", the situation of "Assassination of Kennedy" is much better. This slightly offbeat historical drama has received an excellent media rating of 8.3 after its opening.

In terms of box office, the opening screen of "Assassination of Kennedy" was 1,164 yuan, and the box office in the first three days of the first weekend finally reached 5.22 million U.S. dollars, which is far from satisfactory.

You know, because of the success of Oliver Stone's previous films and the addition of Kevin Costner in this film, the production budget of "Assassination of Kennedy" is as high as 40 million US dollars. Although it did not reach the level of "Captain Hawk", the budget of 40 million US dollars is definitely a big production.

The box office of $5.22 million in the first three days of the first weekend, compared with the production budget of $40 million and the announcement expenditure of about $20 million, if the film can’t make a good long-term follow-up, Paramount may have to be fired again. .

On the original timeline, the box office of "Assassination of Kennedy" was very good.

He also became one of the big winners of the 1992 Oscars.

However, this time, no one is sure.

The same is because, on December 20, "The Flash" will be released soon.

Such a highly anticipated heavyweight blockbuster lay ahead, and other films of the same period have a tragic feeling.

The first two works of the DC Cinematic Universe are really too strong.

Moreover, according to the news from within Warner Bros., the filming effect of "The Flash" is also amazing.

After intensive publicity in the last two months, the Los Angeles premiere of "The Flash" was held on December 18.

Because of the confidence in the film, Warner mentioned this premiere to the same specifications as the summer file "Batman: The Dark Knight", and still chose to be a superstar in the Los Angeles Sacred Citizens Auditorium, which is large enough to accommodate two thousand people.

Du Mui Point Manor.

At about five o'clock in the afternoon, Janet finally took care of her makeup and walked downstairs with her skirt, accompanied by the two women AB.

Simon, who was waiting in the living room downstairs, turned his head on the sofa and looked over. The woman was wearing a burgundy silk gown that she had always liked very much, with small black high heels, loose fluffy blonde hair, and the skin on her shoulders because of her pampering during pregnancy The more white and moisturized, people can't help but have an urge to take a bite.

Yingying floated to Simon, Janet bent down beside the sofa and smiled and said, "Little boy, do you want to take a bite?"

This tone is the same as before.

With a smile on Simon's face, he raised his head and kissed Janet who had approached him, and said, "Let's go."

"Hmm, I'll say goodbye to Moore first."

Janet walked to the crib near the floor-to-ceiling window in the living room. Girl D Deborah was guarding a little guy who was sleeping in the crib.

Compared to the inevitable ugly appearance when he was just born, in two weeks, the little guy has recovered the delicate appearance that a baby should have, and the shadows of Simon and Janet can be seen between his brows.

They looked at the child for a while by the crib, and then explained the three ABD girls before Simon and Janet drove to the city.

In the evening, Los Angeles was somewhat congested. Until 5:40, Simon and the two arrived outside the Sacred Citizens Auditorium in the city center. The premiere ceremony began at six o'clock. The previous hour was red carpet time, although there was no red carpet like Oscar. The scale, but the lively battles here are no less than the Oscars.

Just now Simon and the two got off the car at the entrance of the red carpet, and there was always a pleasant cheer in their ears.

Never thought of stealing the limelight from the protagonist. With a smile on his face, Simon nodded slightly to the media and fans on both sides, and walked into the auditorium without stopping.

After taking a photo in front of the photo wall, Warner Bros. Pictures CEO Terry Semel has greeted him.

Everyone greeted and entered the backstage of the auditorium, which was also star-studded at this time.

Clint Eastwood, Barbra Streisand, Cher, Don Johnson, Melanie Griffith and many other stars came to join us.

Of course, Adam Baldwin, Valerie Galino, Tommy Lee Jones, Anthony Hopkins, etc. of the "Batman" series are also indispensable. Naturally, the main creators of "Wonder Woman" will not be absent. Jensen, Linda Hamilton, and Joanna Cassidy are all present.

In comparison, the director of "The Flash" George Cosmatus, the male protagonist Jason Jedric, and the female protagonist Robin White seem a bit unremarkable among the big names.

Of course, everyone understands that considering the popularity of Adam Baldwin and Valerie Galino before the "Batman" series, the "inconspicuous" of several creators will be completely changed in the next few weeks.

After a brief greeting and entertainment, six o'clock approached, and everyone began to enter the hall of the auditorium.

After everyone was seated and the host gave a speech, the screening officially began.

The story of the first "Flash" mainly tells the origin of this superhero.

Simon doesn’t like the old-fashioned narrative model that began in childhood. Therefore, the original "Batman: Hour of War" started the story directly from Bruce Wayne becoming a superhero, and it turned out to be very important. success.

The later "Wonder Woman" is also not going to involve Diana Prince's childhood.

However, for this "Flash", the story must return to a certain kind of "moderate".

Similar to the murder of Bruce Wayne's parents in the alley, the childhood shadow of the Flash Barry Allen witnessing his mother being killed when he was a child is also a topic that the superhero cannot bypass.

However, out of instinctive resistance to the childhood narrative, Simon still made Barry Allen's childhood experience into a plot wedge for the opening.

By the time the feature film began, Barry Allen was an adult.

The story continues most of the basic settings of the comics. As an adult, Barry Allen is a physical evidence technologist at the Center City Police Department.

Of course, in order to adapt to the changes in the movie version is essential.

The general plot of this origin story tells that Barry Allen, an expert in evidence technology at the police station, accidentally encountered a laboratory accident in a collaboration with Professor Albert Swann. Obtained extreme speed superpower in the accident.

However, Professor Swann was paralyzed by the accident.

Barry Allen told Professor Swan about his superpowers, trying to find the reason, and at the same time, he also had to deal with the "climate wizard" who also gained superpowers because of the accident.

As the plot progresses, Allen successfully defeated and arrested the "climate wizard", but unexpectedly discovered that he had fallen into another conspiracy without knowing it.

It turned out that Professor Swann, who was paralyzed on the surface, actually also gained extreme superpower.

However, because of the accusations and difficulties made by all parties to Professor Swann after the laboratory accident, this super-powered person has become anti-social.

To sum up, this origin story has three lines.

The first is Barry Allen's life experience and childhood, including the unsettled case of his mother's murder and his father who is still in prison.

The second is the determination of Barry Allen’s superhero attributes as the Flash, which was obtained in the confrontation with the Climate Wizard.

The third is the duel between Barry Allen and the hit enemy "Reverse Lightning" Professor Albert Swann.

The first and third day of the story line are actually closely related. Professor Swann is the'murderer' who killed Barry Allen’s mother. This Reverse Lightning unexpectedly returned to the past in a duel with Allen. , Thus creating Allen’s childhood tragedy.

For the audience in the Hall of Sacred Citizens, the three intertwined story lines are not at all complicated and very clear.

However, most people's attention is attracted by the special effects of this "Flash".

In the "Superman" series launched in 1978, Clark Kent's ‘special effects’ of flying around the earth and reversing time are simply too crude to bear.

However, this "Flash", with the technical support of Daenerys Special Effects Company, the film not only perfectly shows Barry Allen's high-speed motion scene, but also made a similar to the original time and space "X-Men "Slow motion shots of the fast silver series.

The specific effect is certainly not up to the level of twenty years later. However, in the eyes of the audience of this era, the degree of stunning is no less than the visual impact brought to the audience by the two previous "Batman" series.

When the final battle on the big screen ended and the subtitles came up, suddenly, thousands of spectators in the Hall of Sacred Citizens realized that the two-hour screening had ended in this way.

Simon has always felt that the most important criterion for evaluating the quality of a film is to see whether the audience appreciates the passage of time during the viewing process.

If a movie allows the audience to see from the beginning to the end without knowing it, or even forget the Coke popcorn in their hands, then the project will be difficult to fail.

Conversely, if a film always allows the audience to play, other ideas pop up in their minds, or even the idea of ​​abandoning the movie, then the box office prospects of this film are evident.

This "Flash" may not reach the height of the two "Batman", but in terms of plot, the fluency in one go is definitely better than that. Coupled with the popularity of the IP itself and the brilliant high-speed special effects of the film, there is basically no possibility of failure.

The subtitles go to the end, the usual plot egg.

This time the Easter egg, it was the catwoman played by Valerie Galino.

This female superhero, who is both righteous and evil, looks tired on the big screen. She seems to have experienced battles, and the catwoman uniforms are all damaged.

In Barry Allen's surprised and puzzled eyes, Catwoman didn't talk too much nonsense, she said straightforwardly: "Hey, tricks, I know you are special, so now some guys need your help."

When the words ended, the big screen was completely darkened.

For the core movie fans, just this simple interaction is enough to make people excited.

Of course, the Flash and Catwoman in the comics have had encounters, but the encounter between Catwoman and the Flash, who has become one of the goddesses of DC, and the subsequent development of the story, it is so exciting.

Even people who don't know much about comics, have seen the first two "Batman", are full of expectations for the DC superhero contract.