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Kirk Cameron gets all the miracles this week

Kim Hollis: Miracle at St. Anna, an early contender for Oscars consideration, was poorly reviewed and earned only $3.5 million. What do you believe went wrong here?

David Mumpower: I'm not exactly sure because the trailer for this had me thinking it would be a marvelous release. The end result here is that I picture Clint Eastwood texting Spike Lee "Ha! Ha!" messages every ten minutes this week. Spike should have spent more time doing re-shoots and less time "teaching" Eastwood how to be a better movie maker.

Scott Lumley: Spike's ego seems to have gotten the better of him lately, and getting into a pissing match with Clint Eastwood seems like the equivalent of doing a flaming bag of dog poop on the door of a local nunnery - questionably amusing and in very poor taste. I think there may have actually been some backlash at Spike over the whole thing. The public is fickle and will turn on someone in a second, and nothing motivates disdain from the movie going folk like a movie star with a overinflated ego. (See: Cruise, Tom.)

Shane Jenkins: I think this was a clear-cut example of example of reviews chasing the audience away. This is currently sitting at 29% at Rotten Tomatoes, which ties it with Igor, and is within spitting distance of the wretched Righteous Kill. The reviews I read have been brutal enough to give me second thoughts about seeing it, and I'm apparently not the only one.

Reagen Sulewski: Is there anyone not telling Spike Lee to sit down and shut up these days?

Kim Hollis: I'm in agreement with Shane here. Word seemed to get out that Miracle was overlong and not worth the trouble. It was actually marketed pretty well, with a good trailer and commercials that followed suit, so I have to think that when people realized this was being talked up as a potential awards contender, they paid attention to its actual perceived quality before spending their hard-earned dollars.

Scott Lumley: What award are we talking about here? A Razzie?





Jason Lee: I'm not sure how many people here are tennis fans, but I think that Miracle at St. Anna basically performed like Novak Djokovic this year in Wimbledon: trash talking a proven champion to anyone that would listen and then flaming out in the second round.

Sean Collier: I have a brilliant idea. Let's throw together a Web site called "Which number will be higher: Miracle at St. Anna's box office total, in millions, or the Knicks' 08-09 win count?" Spike Lee will throw a trashcan through the window of the palatial BOP offices within 45 minutes.

Max Braden: David's a sucker. I looked at the trailer and thought "what do I care about a severed statue head?" And I like old things. I think the public had the same reaction. Not to mention that we've mentioned audiences not responding to war films in the last year or two.

David Mumpower: Hey, a severed statue's head was a big deal when it was Jebediah Springfield's.

Daron Aldridge: A noble spirit embiggens the smallest man. This is by no means a jab at Spike Lee (who, in my opinion, has flashes of genius like Malcolm X and Do the Right Thing) but rather the chance to quote Jebediah Springfield. Don't forget the film is three hours long. People dedicating three hours to a movie of questionable quality is rarely gonna happen. The runtime also might have limited the box office. We know the venue count of 1,185 but I wonder how many showings the film got in a day per screen. Probably not more than three times a day.

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