Monday Morning Quarterback Part II

By BOP Staff

August 28, 2012

Infinite.

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Some things are better left forgotten.

Kim Hollis: Hit and Run, allegedly an action-comedy starring Dax Shepard and Bradley Cooper, earned only $5.7 million in five days, including $4.5 million this weekend. What went wrong here?

Bruce Hall: This looked like the sort of forgettable dreck we've come to expect from Gerard Butler and/or Jennifer Aniston, only they replaced Butler with a guy who looks like Adrian Brody's nose married Dave Grohl's face, and swapped Aniston with the only person who interviews less well than she does. Now, there's no reason for anybody to see it. Even scruffy Bradley Cooper in a supporting role couldn't soak up this mess.

Jason Barney: Again, I just don't think there was anything here. I saw the trailer for this one only once, and going to see it didn't even cross my mind. I went to see over 25 films this summer, but there was nothing about this that looked interesting. When you aren't dealing with huge stars, or story concepts that really aren't entertaining, I think it is a tough sell to get people to spend money on movies that are "meh". It is expensive to go nowadays. People aren't just going to pay to see anything. They are hoping to be entertained and want some assurance of that before they put their hard earned money down. They didn't get that feeling with this week's openers.




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Felix Quinonez: Again, this just doesn't look good and according to the reviews, it actually isn't. I think this is the kind of movie that actors with box office draw can actually trick people into seeing. But instead it stars Dax Sheppard and Veronica Mars, so yeah, the opening sounds about right.

Matthew Huntley: Kim asks, "What went wrong here?", as though anyone ever expected anything about Hit and Run to go right. Honestly, this performance doesn't surprise me in the least. Bruce, Jay and Felix all summed it up quite well that the trailer for this movie simply made it look bad, and from what friends have told me, it lives up to that impression all too well. This feels like one of those movies that was made a long time ago and released now just to squeeze a few bucks out of moviegoers. But Open Road wasn't fooling anyone. If we ever hear about this movie again, I'm guessing it will only be on Razzie night.

Edwin Davies: If you're looking for an answer, I think it's contained in the phrase "action-comedy starring Dax Shepard". I like him in Parenthood and he's pretty funny in Idiocracy, but he's pretty much the last guy you would expect to be able to headline a movie, and if he hadn't written and directed it I'm sure he wouldn't have been the star in the first place. No one knows who he is, so there was no marquee draw there, and the film itself never looked interesting enough to make up for that central issue. It also doesn't help that action-comedy is a tricky genre that rarely delivers good films, let alone big hits. If even Tom Cruise failed to make Knight and Day a hit a few years back, what luck did Dax Shepard have?


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