The Transformers Hangover (movie industry madness)

Well for months now there's been a growing drumbeat in Hollywood. The death of the star system. The death of movies for grown ups. Hollywood in crisis.

Why? After a number of big-name movies failed to do well the mainstream movie biz, already nervous, is becoming even more conservative.

Who is to Blame? The International. Duplicity. State of Play. Public Enemies and more.

What could possibility be wrong with those movies? The A-list stars? Sophisticated content? Movies exploring corporate surveillance, journalism and gangsters...

All well and good (and I enjoyed everyone one of them, well Public Enemies, not so much but that's another post.) But the problem is for all their A-list content, the box office was a D minus. You see when you pony up the dough for Russell Crowe or Julia Roberts...you expect things.

And then there's the two breakout hits of the summer so far.
Transformers Revenge of the Fallen and The Hangover. The failure of the big name stars to bring big box office, compared against the success of popcorn fluff like Transformers is making the industry think twice.



This was covered nicely last week by the KCRW entertainment program The Business. But to save you the time, I thought I'd go over some of the main points (while giving myself a chance to let off some steam.)


THE FEAR
The Land of the Lost was an expensive movie with a big name star.
Will Ferrell as a moron lost in time? How could it fail?
BECAUSE IT WASN'T FUNNY.
I lost it there, but again and again Land of the Lost is being held up as an example of how the Hollywood system is broken because A-list actors can't guarantee big box office.


But the machine isn't broken, someone just didn't vet the script of Ferrell's latest nonsense. I don't mind Ferrell. Elf is brilliant. But Land of the Lost? Sorry but jokes about dino pee and a horny monkey aren't going to cut it. Also keep in mind while your jokes might make a 16 year old giggle, who is the target audience? Presumably the people who watched Land of the Lost as kids and are now in their thirties. Congratulations you made a stupid spoof based on a TV show, half your audience never saw. Brilliant!



And yet this failure is ignored, instead executive are scratching their heads and lowing actor salaries. (By the way, guess who is the one bankable star left....Will Smith. The last movie star.)



Interestingly one of the contributors to The Business suggest the stars who will replace the actors will be the directors. JJ Abrams' actors may change, but as long as he proves he can deliver an audience, studios will keep paying his way.




THE VOID
So here we are, entering a world where the studio-made movies for grown ups could become an endangered species. What's left? On the one hand there's a handful of Oscar-worthy smart movies, and on the other hand there's the summer brand name blockbusters. Into the Void, go the middle ground, the big movies with a big Hollywood cast. Case in point, Sony just backed out of Moneyball. You'd think a movie about baseball starring Brad Pitt would be a lock. But after a couple semi-serious films floundered, everyone's getting cold feet.

THE REVENGE OF THE AUDIENCE
Another thing that might be contributing to the pre-mature death of some films is the rise of twitter and more platforms to be your own critic. If a movie's a stinker, the smell spreads a lot faster these days. Facebook and Twitter are a great way to spread the world. (I know I do.) And all the marketing buzz in the world can't stop bad word of mouth. (Update: The Wrap has more on this.)

THE FUTURE
What does it all mean? Well for starters the summers are going to be a lot dumber for a while.
Until the economy picks up again studios are scared. Risk is out, safe is in. That means lots of big brandname movies, retreads, remakes and high-concept films. When a frat-boy fest like The Hangover is considered the pinnacle of creativity, you know the industry's in trouble.
Power is shifting out of the hands of artists and actors and back to studios again.

We could see this all come to head this winter. You might remember hearing that the Academy Awards have expanded the Best Picture Nominee category to 10. Well if things stay this way, the question wont be which ten films are picked... it will be are there enough Academy-Worthy to fill 10 slots?

They Shot the Dog

If you're a film industry fan, if you follow the industry like others follow the stock market, if you've already bookmarked boxofficemojo and know who producer Brian Grazer is …you might appreciate What Just Happened. You might not like it but you will appreciate it because a lot of the ridiculous petty things that go on in this movie about Hollywood are sadly believable.

The movie is about a producer played by Robert De Niro. De Niro actually turns in a surprisingly toned down and empathetic performance (that's right he doesn’t play an angry screaming guy..welll not most of the time) as Bob, the producer of a gutsy thriller starring Sean Penn. I should mention this is a movie where some actors play themselves and other don't. So Bruce Willis is Bruce Willis, but John Turturro is Dick Bell a cowardly bow-tie wearing agent.

What Just Happened starts with a test screening of a thriller called Fiercely. Fiercely's director is Jeremy, a crazy Brit who sports a Hebrew letter tattooed on his neck (Guy Ritchie?) With Fiercely Jeremy is making not a movie, but a statement, breaking new ground, subverting the audience and all that garbage. But at the test screening the audience recoils when Sean Penn, as the hero, shoots a dog on screen. Can De Niro/Bob get the director to recut his masterpiece in time for Cannes? That's the kind a movie we're talking about. The kind a movie where the question of whether Bruce Willis will shave his beard isn't just a subplot but the major axis the entire story pivots on. Ridiculous? Sure. True? Yup. Except it was Alec Baldwin who showed up on the set of The Edge looking like Grizzly Adams.

What Just Happened is a movie that you might say is mainly for insiders. But for an industry built on the art of deception there's a surprising amount of truth on the screen. It’s not always pretty. In fact considering the way it wraps up you might say the creators of What Just Happened shot the dog themselves.
See and you’ll understand why in this case, that’s a good thing.