KNIGHT AND DAY Bombs on Opening Day

[AndyDursin]

...as I've said before, this IS, officially, THE worst summer movie season -- EVER.

And it won't be getting any better!

This is a failing grade for the 20th Century Fox film starring Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz on the first day of what will be its 5-day opening weekend. According to rival studios, a figure of $5+M would have been hopeful. But Fox announced just now that Knight and Day did only a nervous $3.8M. (Rival studios had it at $3.6M this morning "apparently not knowing that there was a data feed problem with one of the big circuits", Fox tells me.) "It's normally 5-times Wednesday for 5 days, but that's a number below even the most evil estimates," one rival studio exec emails me.

http://www.deadline.com/2010/06/tom-cru ... ting-3-6m/

[Paul MacLean]

...as I've said before, this IS, officially, THE worst summer movie season -- EVER.

Really? I thought last year was!

I'd like to think audiences are getting tired of the same lowest-common denominator pabulum with the same overused stars and the same CGI gimmicks and the same stunts all underscored with the same Remote Control scores.

[Eric W.]

...as I've said before, this IS, officially, THE worst summer movie season -- EVER.

Really? I thought last year was!

I'd like to think audiences are getting tired of the same lowest-common denominator pabulum with the same overused stars and the same CGI gimmicks and the same stunts all underscored with the same Remote Control scores.

Doesn't seem like it.


It just gets worse and worse every year, amazingly.

The only can't miss winner as usual is Pixar. Toy Story 3. I bet that ends up being the best movie of the year outright, you watch.

It probably will be for me easily at the rate this is going.

[AndyDursin]

I don't think anyone will be surprised if TOY STORY 3 ends up being the highest grossing film of the year -- but as outstanding as I'm sure it is, it's still the third entry in a series of animated movies...and it's in 3-D. (And even with all of those things, it didn't break a record last weekend).

There's just nothing coming out. EVERYTHING is either a sequel or a remake or a reimagining with "brand awareness" dominating anything and everything. And most of them aren't any good -- STAR TREK was one of the exceptions, as much as folks cherry-picked issues with it, it was a very solid piece of studio filmmaking with some good ideas, and that's something we haven't seen this summer at all.

Even Nolan's INCEPTION looks like "The Dark Knight," just with Leonardo DiCaprio instead of Batman. The poster is the same, the advertising is the same, the music is the same, the cast ("...and Michael Caine") is the same. I hope it's going to be good but it looks like a remake of DREAMSCAPE.

I do want to see Stallone's THE EXPENDABLES but man, there is not much coming out -- at all. And the box-office revenues, so far, are showing that people would rather stay home.

[Monterey Jack]

Even Nolan's INCEPTION looks like "The Dark Knight," just with Leonardo DiCaprio instead of Batman. The poster is the same, the advertising is the same, the music is the same, the cast ("...and Michael Caine") is the same. I hope it's going to be good but it looks like a remake of DREAMSCAPE.

Looks more like a riff on Dark City to me (only with a young, curvy Jennifer Connelly replaced with...Ellen Page?! ). Still, it's one of the only films coming out this summer (hell, YEAR) that's not an adaptation, remake, or sequel, so it's one of the few I'm looking forward to.

[mkaroly]

EXPENDABLES and INCEPTION are the only two films I want to see this summer...nothing else strikes my fancy.

[AndyDursin]

Looks more like a riff on Dark City to me

Have you read the plot synopsis? It's almost like a carbon copy of DREAMSCAPE --

"Dom Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio) is a skilled thief, the absolute best in the dangerous art of extraction, stealing valuable secrets from deep within the subconscious during the dream state, when the mind is at its most vulnerable. Cobb’s rare ability has made him a coveted player in this treacherous new world of corporate espionage, but it has also made him an international fugitive and cost him everything he has ever loved."

Plug DiCaprio in for Dennis Quaid and there you have it.

I'm sure it'll be much different in execution, of course, but the thematic concept is VERY similar.

[Eric W.]

EXPENDABLES and INCEPTION are the only two films I want to see this summer...nothing else strikes my fancy.

Same here.

[Monterey Jack]

I have never seen Dreamscape, so I'll take your word for it, Andy.

[AndyDursin]

I have never seen Dreamscape, so I'll take your word for it, Andy.

MJ?!?! Never seen DREAMSCAPE?!?!

Well worth a watch! Rent it! Dated -- but fun. And has a few good, well executed scenes in it.

[Monterey Jack]

It's in my Netflix list. It's just one of those 80's genre flicks I never saw as a kid for whatever reason (I watched Tron for the first time a few months ago, and man, has that movie aged badly).

[AndyDursin]

It's in my Netflix list. It's just one of those 80's genre flicks I never saw as a kid for whatever reason (I watched Tron for the first time a few months ago, and man, has that movie aged badly).

Yeah don't get me wrong -- it IS dated. But some of the ideas and scenes still work effectively.

Jarre's all synth score is a bit much too, but it does have Quaid smugging it up (as he did in every performance around that time) and cute Kate Capshaw with the frizzy '80s mop. And George Wendt as a bad guy!

It's probably due for a remake...now that I said that...

[Monterey Jack]

Okay, I Netflix'ed Dreamscape today, and it's...okay. Oddly, I watched 1983's Brainstorm for the first time a few days ago on Turner Classic Movies, and while the ending is limp, Douglas Trumbull's film had much superior visual effects and music (although it's maddening to realize how much of Horner's score was recycled for pretty much EVERY film he's done since ). Jarre's music for Dreamscape is one of those totally unlistenable 80's Casio nightmares, all swooshing and banging and clanging (I was amused to listen to the commentary and hear that the producer requested an orcehstral score, but Jarre handed him the synth score promising "I owe you an orchestral one someday!"). I liked seeing Max Von Sydow and Christopher Plummer sharing scenes together, Quaid is ingratiatingly rascally as always, and Capshaw looked awesome, but the makeup is kind of low rent (that "Snakeman" looked pretty stupid) and Quaid gains any psychic ability he needs at the whim of the screenwriters. Had I seen this at a more impressionable age, I might have enjoyed it more, but seeing it "cold" 25+ years later, it's a handful of interesting ideas that have simply been better executed elsewhere.

[John Johnson]

Oddly, I watched 1983's Brainstorm for the first time a few days ago on Turner Classic Movies, and while the ending is limp, Douglas Trumbull's film had much superior visual effects and music (although it's maddening to realize how much of Horner's score was recycled for pretty much EVERY film he's done since ).

I remember there was a screening for Brainstorm in London, just prior to it's release. The film stopped suddenly, freezing on an image of Natalie Wood. LOL

[John Johnson]

(although it's maddening to realize how much of Horner's score was recycled for pretty much EVERY film he's done since

I would rather listen to Horner from the 80s, than some of the scores that are being churned out today.