New at BOP: Review: Matrix Resurrections Movie Review: Moonfall Movie Reviews: Scream The #1 Movie in America November Forecast The Many Saints of Newark October Forecast New Trivia Question All site updates Share & Save   Tweet Print this column

Dear Writers' Strike: We hate you.

Kim Hollis: What do you think of the relative quality of December's major releases?

David Mumpower: In terms of the blockbusters, lackluster is the applicable word. If Bedtime Stories and Yes Man do what is expected of them, we have a pair of big hits. If either of them fails on the heels of The Day The Earth Stood Still disappointing, December box office is in trouble. The good news is that the major awards contenders are unusually viable from a commercial perspective. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and Frost/Nixon are both titles that should earn north of $50 million, and Reservation Road has the huge selling point of being a Titanic reunion. Effectively, the smaller titles are stronger, which should absorb some of the damage from the frontline titles being mediocre.

Brandon Scott: I'm reserving judgment until I get to see the ones that have a big interest to me like Benjamin Button and The Wrestler (this may not be considered major, though), but early reviews scare me. So what seemed as though it could have been a great month is off to a rocky start. There's still some time to go, though, and the list of films of interest to me is long so check back with me on this in a month.





Joel Corcoran: I think the overall quality of the wide releases is much better compared to last year. The blockbusters as a group aren't as good as December 2007, simply because there doesn't seem to be an equivalent to I Am Legend. The films this month seem to be about on par with National Treasure: Book of Secrets, Alvin and the Chipmunks, and The Golden Compass (all of which opened a year ago). But the films that you might call "mid-majors" are much better than the crop we saw a year ago - or even several years ago.

Scott Lumley: I haven't been very impressed so far, although I have added Milk and the Wrestler to my "Go See" list. However I'm fairly certain that we have a potential box office supernova coming in Yes Man. It's the first real pure Jim Carrey comedy we've had in years, right in the middle of what has been the most horrific economic downturn in the last 50 years. Timing is everything, and this one is perfectly positioned to pull in some impressive box office numbers.

Jason Lee: Apart from some of the really great indie/Oscar fare that's coming out, I think this December is pretty pathetic. Like David said, you could have really only pointed to The Day The Earth Stood Still, Yes Man and Bedtime Stories as "blockbuster fare," and even some of those are questionable. Couple this with a Will Smith picture that's more Pursuit of Happyness than I Am Legend that you have a decidedly mediocre December.

Reagen Sulewski: Really, it's only recently that we've come to expect much out of December releases. What has been happening in the past couple of years is that Christmas week hasn't quite lived up to expectations, which is really what makes or breaks films. We're due for a random breakout film this year.

Continued:       1       2       3       4       5