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Musical Nine is this year’s box office turkey
Daniel Day-Lewis and girl dream team stuffed by bad reviews and word-of-mouth
So, James Cameron does it again - taking Avatar through the $1bn box office barrier in record time, as The First Post's business columnist Edward Helmore reports today.
And Cameron's not the only one with a Christmas hit to celebrate: Guy Ritchie, who made his name a decade ago with Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels - before spoiling everything by marrying Madonna - came second in the US box office chart with his new Sherlock Holmes film, starring Robert Downey Jr and Jude Law as Holmes and Watson.
But this year's Christmas's turkey is undeniably Nine. Despite a star-studded cast that includes Daniel Day-Lewis and a supposed female dream team - Penelope Cruz (pictured above in the film), Nicole Kidman, Kate Hudson, Sophia Loren and Marion Cotillard - the film has stalled at the box office, grossing just $9.8 million in the US during its first fortnight. Compare that with $117m for Sherlock Holmes.
The fact that Avatar had only one recognisable name in Sigourney Weaver, while Nine featured three recent Oscar winners - Day-Lewis (best actor for There Will Be Blood), Cotillard (best actress for La Vie en Rose) and Cruz (best supporting actress for Vicky Cristina Barcelona) - will not be lost on Hollywood executives.
To be fair, most critics blamed director Rob Marshall rather than any of the actors. The Los Angeles Times critic Charles McNulty wrote: "If a Hollywood genie ever offers to cast your movie musical with an international assortment of Oscar winners, tell him to get lost."
Neither Cruz showing a lot of leg, nor Kidman as a heavenly muse, nor Cotillard putting in a powerful performance as Day-Lewis's put-upon wife, could do anything to stop the poor reviews being followed by dreadful word-of-mouth from early cinema-goers. ·
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This film is a failure for three reasons:
1) Forgettable music - Quick, hum me a tune from it.
2) Lousy, uninspired choreography. You can see better at the Academy Awards. THAT'S how bad it is. (apologies to Ms. Cruz's fantastic gams.)
3) No story.
All that talent; and there was plenty of it involved, can't save a lackluster piece of crap like "Nine". I couldn't wait for it to be over.
Pardon Hazel? I think most of the movie-going public aren't bothering with "Nine" simply because it's packed full of STARS and it's a musical. Didn't "Mamma Mia" get a lukewarm reception as well? It was also a STARRY musical. Most of us prefer more traditional fare when we want to see a musical. I'll happily sit through "Kiss Me Kate" or "Singin' in the Rain" and maybe even "Chicago" over and over.
I really can't understand it as a long time Fellini fan and a former dancer, I was quite amazed. 1)Because there are some badly informed reviews going around from neophytes who don't understand that "recitative" was given to Daniel Day-Lewis as it often is on Broadway for the lead male actor if he surpasses any likely vocalist for charisma. 2) the mass ensemble choreography is standard to the Broadway performance and it certainly was high-lighted by Penelope Cruz's opener!
Maybe the movie going public has just become jaded and sexual comedy bores them? It is a little much to expect pathos in that kind of situation but Cotillard pulls off that affect amazingly in that you see Giulietta Masina's eyes through Marion Cotillard's. Now, that is expressive acting. Every one of the ladies in this venture is beautiful and absolutely gorgeous including "Mama" Sophia Loren and Dame Judi Dench as the sole confidant of Guido Contini. I worry a little about Nicole Kidman who, although doing a flawless unselfconscious delivery of an emotional confession, appeared to be a bit lacking in physical pulchritude. True, if one is not slim enough, you can't wear a full length fur coat very well. But, having to shoot from below to fill out a strapless boned corset gown, when you are supposed to represent Anita Ekberg is a bit of a draw-back. Fergie plays out Seraghina very well, bringing back memories of those past movies. I'm not sure what Kate Hudson does except to remind us of Diane Johnson's novel made into the also bad review receiving movie: Le Divorce, about whether one should be a mistress to a man who hands out designer hand-bags to all his mistresses. I think what Sophie Taylor is saying here is that,"Nine" became something on a level of Merchant-Ivory film with Ruth Prawer Jhabvala dialogue that didn't float along the Seine like a touring boat because non-French audiences have been spoiled with scenic French films that have nothing of importance to say. I translate that as "Nine" had nothing to say about Fellini other than a script insisting that he was burnt out as a film maker. Why did I like it? Because it was a lovely way to do a nostalgia trip.