UK Box Office Top Ten - weekend commencing 03/07/09

UK box-office top ten and analysis for the weekend of Friday 3rd - Sunday 5th July 2009.

There were big changes at the top of the UK box office this past weekend as 3D animated sequel Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs became the second biggest opener of the year with an impressive haul of £7,639,884. Meanwhile, Michael Mann’s 1930’s gangster film Public Enemies – starring Johnny Depp and Christian Bale – debuted in second place, pushing Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen down two places to third after three weeks on release.

Transformers’ three week haul of £20,785,050 means that Michael Bay’s heavily criticised blockbuster leapfrogs the cumulative takings of both Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian (the oldest release in the chart) and Angels & Demons (which disappears from the top-ten after eight weeks on release), and puts it in second place behind Star Trek for the highest grossing movie of the year. With Transformers adding another £2.2m to its coffers this week it looks certain to become the biggest hit of the summer so far, although Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is likely to put up a strong challenge for the honour.

The two new releases at the top of the chart means that The Hangover also drops two places from last week to fourth, while My Sister’s Keeper fares a little better, slipping just one place to fifth in its second week. Less fortunate are Jack Black comedy Year One, Ben Stiller sequel Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian, and sci-fi actioner Terminator Salvation, which all drop three spots from last weekend. Romantic comedy Kambakkht Ishq is another new entry in seventh (although it seems there’s only room for one Bollywood film in the top ten as New York falls out of contention), while Sunshine Cleaning props up the chart for the second consecutive week.

An interesting side-note; S. Darko - the unnecessary sequel to Richard Kelly's 2001 debut Donnie Darko - grossed all of £777 over nine screens on special Friday showings ahead of its DVD release yesterday.

Pos.	Film	Weekend Gross	Week	Total UK Gross
1	Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs	£7,639,884	1	£7,639,884
2	Public Enemies	£2,228,291	1	£2,228,291
3	Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen	£2,214,505	3	£20,785,050
4	The Hangover	£1,524,356	4	£13,983,605
5	My Sister's Keeper	£762,061	2	£2,509,452
6	Year One	£489,864	2	£2,010,735
7	Kambakkht Ishq	£299,533	1	£299,533
8	Night at the Museum 2	£150,463	7	£19,282,019
9	Terminator Salvation	£149,993	5	£13,926,699
10	Sunshine Cleaning	£54,076	2	£257,935

Incoming...

Sacha Baron Cohen will be hoping that Bruno proves as popular as his last feature Borat (2006), but with an 18 certificate the Austrian fashion presenter will have his work cut out to topple Ice Age, which should continue to appeal to family audiences until Harry Potter hits our screens in just over a week's time. Other releases this week include teen comedy Fired Up and drama The Private Lives of Pippa Lee.

Five Essential... Films of Alfred Hitchcock

Gary Collinson selects his Five Essential Films of Alfred Hitchcock…

Without question, legendary director Alfred Hitchcock is among the very best filmmakers in history, and in my opinion the greatest British directing talent of all time. The Master of Suspense enjoyed a long and hugely influential career across six decades, beginning in the silent era and leading to a dominance of British cinema and celebrated Hollywood career. In this time Hitchcock produced a number of cinematic masterpieces, demonstrating true genius of his craft, and his body of work includes enough quality movies to fill several of these lists.

Alas, there can be only five, so here (after much struggle) are what I consider to be the Essential Films of Alfred Hitchcock...

5. Shadow of a Doubt (1943)

With the next four entries unquestionable, the decision of what to include in fifth place (and therefore, what to exclude) proved most difficult. Shadow of a Doubt makes it due to Joseph Cotten’s performance as Uncle Charlie, a.k.a. the Merry Widow Murderer, who seeks refuge from the police with his sister’s family in small-town America. Hitchcock’s personal favourite, the film is filled with suspense as niece Charlie (Teresa Wright) comes to suspect her uncle, who then sets about to make her his next victim. Perhaps a little dated, but with nail-biting tension through-out.





4. Vertigo (1958)

Based on Boileau-Narcejac’s novel D’entre les morts (The Living and the Dead), Vertigo stars James Stewart as retired police detective ‘Scottie’ Ferguson, who happens to suffer from a fear of heights. Scottie is approached by a former acquaintance Gavin Elster to investigate the bizarre behaviour of his wife, Madeleine (Kim Novak). Scottie falls in love with Madeleine but believes she has committed suicide until he meets another young woman, Judy, who bears a striking resemblance to the deceased. Packed with twists and turns and a genuinely shocking ending, Vertigo initially failed to meet with critical and commercial success but is now recognised as one of Hitchcock’s finest mysteries.



3. Rear Window (1954)

I found it immensely challenging to decide the order between Vertigo and Rear Window, as James Stewart provides another captivating performance as L.B. Jeffries, a photographer confined to his apartment due to a broken leg. Stewart – in addition to Hitchcock’s masterful direction - thoroughly engages the viewer into Jeffries’ voyeuristic world as he spies on his neighbours, and comes to suspect that a salesman in the opposite apartment may have murdered his wife. Grace Kelly co-stars as Stewart’s sceptical love interest. Gripping from start to finish, and it is a testament to Hitchcock’s overall body of work that this film is not higher.




2. North by Northwest (1959)

Hitchcock had been playing with and refining the ‘chase’ through-out his career, and by 1959 he had the formula tweaked to perfection. North by Northwest was Hitchcock’s fourth and final collaboration with star Cary Grant, and the screen legend delivers a classic performance as the innocent man caught up in a MacGuffin that sees him pursued across the country. The movie expertly blends action, suspense and humour, and includes one of the most famous and iconic scenes in cinema history as Grant is chased by a crop-dusting plane, in addition to a memorable finale on Mount Rushmore. A true classic in every sense of the word.




1. Psycho (1960)

After the double-header of Vertigo and North by Northwest, Hitchcock wanted to make a small, low-budget film using the crew from his television show Alfred Hitchcock Presents. The result is Psycho (based upon Robert Bloch’s novel of the same name), a chilling film that shocked audiences worldwide and ultimately revolutionised the horror genre. Hitchcock’s fascination with the ‘mother-son relationship’ is taken to the extreme with Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins), a disturbed young motel proprietor with a murderous split personality and penchant for drag. Quite simply, one of the greatest films of all time.

Read more of my Psycho thoughts here.


Final Thoughts

As I said in the introduction to this list, narrowing Hitchcock’s best movies into such a small number is a near-impossible task, and solely dependent on personal taste. While I think my selection provides a good cross-section of his filmography, I’m also 100% sure there are many who would disagree.

Honourable mentions have to go to other classics such as The 39 Steps (1935), Rope (1948), Strangers on a Train (1951), The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956), and The Birds (1963). I’ve also got a soft spot for Lifeboat (1944) and The Trouble With Harry (1955), but now I’m just being greedy.

Agree? Disagree? We'd love to hear your comments on the list...

Gary Collinson

Essentials Archive

I Sat Through That? #1 - Hostel (2006)

In which Gerry Hayes explains why Hostel is pointless twaddle...

Hostel, 2006.

Written and directed by Eli Roth.
Starring a bunch of people you’ve probably never heard of.
Presented by Quentin Tarantino?

Hostel wins the award for Most Flagrant Use Of A Tenuous Relationship To A Famous Name To Foist Tripe On The Public. Tarantino was executive producer. His involvement consisted mainly of saying “is it ready yet, Eli?” and “can I have my money now?”

It is entirely possible that I may be the only man in Christendom who, were he to meet Quentin Tarantino, would not fall to his knees and rigourously fellate him. This is the reason that I don’t start automatically drooling like some Pavlovian porn star at the mention of his name attached to a film. Add to this, the fact that I wouldn’t kneel, open-mouthed, on the merits of Eli Roth’s other films and it’s fair to say I came to Hostel with a hint of preconceived bias.

I needn’t have worried. Even if I’d never heard of Roth and Tarantino, I’d still have felt the same numbing emptiness on sitting through this film.

Hostel’s premise is reasonable; three backpackers stumble into a torture-and-murder-for-profit ring. Cue much gory nastiness. So high-concept, so good.

One of the biggest problems, however, is that the three protagonists are so achingly disagreeable that, far from caring what happened to them, I wilfully and fervently wished dreadful harm upon them.

We join our heroes as they attempt to rut their way through a European holiday. They’re in Amsterdam, eagerly absorbing all of the clichés that city has to offer a lazy writer/director. There, they encounter an unconvincing Russian who tells them of an eastern-European, sexual Shangri-La and, horny dogs that they are, they waste little time in getting there.

Once ensconced in the sumptuous, five-star hostel with piping hot girls in every room, much nooky ensues. The three over-excited idiots can’t believe their luck and the last thing they expect is that anyone is for the chop… Or the drill… Or the pointy metal thing from the poster.

As gore movies go, it’s not that bad for about twenty minutes or so. The trouble is that, in getting to that bit, it’s necessary to sit through forty minutes of vapid soft porn. Boobs abound - I watched the DVD during the afternoon and felt like I should close the curtains in case some Jehovah’s Witnesses called and glanced through the window.

If I were to map Hostel, it would be:

- Forty minutes of annoying people trying to touch ladies’ breasts.
- Twenty minutes of, relatively entertaining, bloody grisliness.
- Thirty minutes of ludicrous nonsense.

If that sounds like your thing, or if you’re the sort of person that dreams of mouth-congress with Quentin Tarantino, off you pop and rent a copy - I’m sure you’ll love it.

Read more I Sat Through That? right here.

Gerry Hayes is a garret-dwelling writer subsisting on tea, beer and Flame-Grilled Steak flavour McCoy’s crisps. You can read about other stuff he doesn't like on his blog at http://stareintospace.com or you can have easy, bite-sized bits of him at http://twitter.com/gerryhayes

Movies... For Free! The Last Man on Earth (1964)

Welcome to this week's "Movies... For Free!" column, where we showcase classic movies freely available in the public domain (with streaming video!). Read the article and watch the movie right here!


The Last Man on Earth, 1964.

Directed by Ubaldo Ragona and Sidney Salkow.
Starring Vincent Price.

Based on Richard Matheson's classic 1954 sci-fi/horror novel I Am Legend (with Matheson contributing the screenplay under the pseudonym Logan Swanson), The Last Man on Earth is an Italian production starring horror legend Vincent Price as Dr. Robert Morgan, the sole-survivor of a plague that has turned the world's population into vampire-like creatures.

Morgan spends his nights locked away in his house and by day he hunts the creatures and burns their bodies. He comes to suspect that he is immune to the virus and believes that he may be able to create a cure for the infected. His suspicions are proven correct when he discovers a partially infected woman Ruth, who he is able to cure, but this only serves to endanger him further...

Originally set for production under the British studio Hammer Films, the property was transferred to to American producer Robert L. Lippert who then shot the low-budget film in Rome, Italy. A suspensful and chilling thriller, the film served as a strong influence on director George A. Romero's zombie classic Night of the Living Dead (1968), and its popularity has continued to grow over the years. While Matheson was disappointed with the final film (and felt that Price was miscast in the role), The Last Man on Earth is considered by some to be the finest adaptation of his novel (with the other official incarnations being the 1971 Charlton Heston movie The Omega Man, and 2007 Will Smith vehicle I Am Legend).



Embed courtesy of Internet Archive.

Click here to view all previous entries in our Movies... For Free! collection.

Thoughts on... I, Robot (2004)

I, Robot, 2004.

Directed by Alex Proyas.
Starring Will Smith, Bridget Moynahan, and Bruce Greenwood.


SYNOPSIS:

In the year 2035 a techno-phobic cop investigating the death of a scientist suspects that the crime may have been committed by a robot, leading to a greater threat against humanity.


Starting off within the prolific field of science fiction, it seems the team behind I, Robot could do no wrong. However, far from following on from the success of Hollywood with yet another Matrix remake, they have used this film as a vessel with which to summon a rebirth of ‘the machine’ within this sector, following on from films such as Blade Runner and The Terminator, and bring back the theme of aliens through this modern medium of robotics.

Aliens have been a common focal point throughout science fiction; venting our fears of the unknown through these extra terrestrial life forms. Though, I, Robot, gives a subtle twist to the conventional alien invasion, as we see human creations revolt against their masters, and overcome the knowledge of man. In doing this they have integrated our inner fear of higher knowledge, while triggering anxieties that our own kind are capable of inflicted great chaos upon us. This shows intertextuality with Frankenstein, in which we see a human creation rebel against his creator.

This idea of Frankenstein also links in with references to the horror genre, which have been incorporated into the text, most predominantly visible when the robots begin to chant ‘one of us’, taking on the chilling characters of zombies. This again enhances the idea of an invasion from within our own world, building fear and tension as the narrative progresses.

Further links can be seen through the idea of a Faustian figure, highlighting the idea of creating life and taking on the powers of God. Again this enhances links between I, Robot and Frankenstein, both of which concentrate of a central character created by a Faustian figure who ultimately failed to control their power.

I also feel that references can be made between I, Robot and Blade Runner, through the production of a robot that has human emotion, linking with Blade Runner’s Rachel and her dream of being human. These links entwined within the narrative then cause us to think of dystopian visions, such as those featured within Blade Runner, and turn us against this evolution of the machines.

Altogether I feel the depth of this narrative gives a compelling viewing enhanced by Smith, who delivers a dominant performance throughout in his role as Del Spooner, a policeman with extreme anxieties over the robots. In this technological interpretation of the future, Del gives the audience a character to identify with. He longs for a conventional life where he is in control, without the constant suspicion of the ever present robots. The use of signifiers such as his ‘retro’ Converse All Stars, help link Del within modern society, giving a feeling that he is one of us, in contrast with the inhabitants of 2035. The addition of this character helps lighten the narrative, as well as helping give contrast throughout, helping to produce a successful sci-fi adventure that can enjoyed by all.

Rosie Cammish

World Cinema: The rise and fall of Italian Neo-realism

Santosh Sandhu discusses Italian neo-realism...

In Italy, the fascist movement came to power in 1922. Fascist leader Benito Mussolini took advantage of the Italian peoples’ disillusionment with the liberal government and its inability to bring prosperity in the aftermath of the First World War which saw mass poverty, inflation and unemployment. Having created a totalitarian state by 1939, Mussolini was now controlling all the political, economic and social activities of the Italian people without question.

Having taken over national cinema in 1935, this government was now subjecting Italy’s strong cinemagoing culture to formulaic costume dramas, farcical entertainments and propaganda films which promoted the cause of the fascists. The government had also introduced protectionist measures such as import restrictions and quotas to limit the number of imported Hollywood films and to promote the growth of the now centralized national cinema. Under this regime films and other media were also heavily prone to censorship and control by the state.

By the early 1940s and Italy’s entry into the Second World War, many people had become disillusioned with this government. Mussolini’s promises of prosperity had not materialized and the standard of living had depleted further for the common people. The Italian army had suffered a series of defeats at the hands of the allies with the Italian people and the Italian economy ill prepared for the war. Whilst support for the fascist regime was declining, a new wave of experienced filmmakers began making movies which honestly depicted the difficult times they were living in unlike the manufactured or idealized world the fascist propaganda movies had depicted.

An early example towards the post war trend for neo-realism was Luchino Visconti’s Ossessione (Obsession, 1943) based on American author James M. Cain’s The Postman Always Rings Twice. American fiction had been popular with Italian writers at the time for its gritty realism and melodrama and would be an influence on neo-realist writers and directors.

Ossessione was about a drifter who has an affair with a married woman and together they murder the woman’s husband. The story was reset in Italy with much of the melodrama removed and the characters changed to suit the environment. This film subjected Italian audiences to a new kind of national cinema. It was rebellious and allowed a form of protestation which was forbidden under the fascist regime. Its characters were natural, passionate, flawed and individualistic. Whilst not a neo-realist film in the conventional sense, Ossessione was certainly a major influence.

The first truly neo-realist film and box office success would be Roberto Rossellini’s Roma, citta aperta (Rome, Open City,1945). Many of the distinguishing characteristics of neo-realism would be employed here. These included a leaning towards realism by employing a documentary style approach and social and political commentary as the film took place during Nazi occupation and focused on the true story of a catholic priest and a communist partisan working for the resistance.

The film also featured a preference for location shooting as most of the film was shot outdoors utilizing natural light. Non professional actors were employed in many of the roles, with children often giving good naturalistic performances. The film was also shot without sound, with the dialogue recorded later in a studio. Though some of these techniques may have been employed by Rossellini due to material constraints. These included the unavailability of studio facilities (they had been bombed by the allies) and low production costs limiting the number of trained actors.

Rossellini would follow Rome, Open City with another neo-realist film Paisa (Paisan, 1946). Paisa featured a series of short stories about life during and after the Second World War. Shot in Italian and English (the film was partly funded by the Americans), it featured real documentary footage of Allied troops landing in Sicily before entering the first of six invented stories. The first story introduced the film’s recurring motif of misunderstanding between the Italian people and their liberators in which a local girl is mistakenly blamed for the death of a GI by a group of soldiers.

The second story featured a sympathetic black GI whose boots are stolen by a young boy he has befriended. When he catches up with the boy, he realizes the boy’s actions were only those of survival as he lives in a cave with other destitute people. Liberation has not improved the lives of these people just like victory will not improve the life of the black GI when he returns to a segregated and oppressive America. This was a truly groundbreaking depiction of a black soldier as Hollywood films at this time rarely acknowledged their existence.

The third story in Paisa would continue this theme of how liberation and the post war world were not living up to expectation. Six months after liberating Rome, an American soldier was now disillusioned whilst the innocent girl he had met at the time was now working as a prostitute. The fourth story was about a nurse desperately searching for her former lover who was a partisan leader. When she reaches her destination she receives news that he is dead rendering her journey meaningless. The fifth story was surprisingly comedic in its execution as it concerned a group of monks fasting to save the souls of two visiting chaplains, a protestant and a Jew. The final story was again dramatic. It concerned a group of partisans and allied soldiers captured by the Germans who are then all executed. As with Rome, Open City, Paisa made many social and political comments but also managed to punctuate the drama with comedy and uplifting moments.

One of the best known of the neo-realist films would be Vittorio De Sica’s Ladri di biciclette (Bicycle Thieves, 1948) about a working class man who having been unemployed for a long time accepts a job as a bill sticker. In order to do this job he must be in possession of a bicycle. Having pawned his bed sheets in exchange for his bicycle, he sets out on his new job only to have it stolen. He then sets off on a fruitless quest with his young son to find it. Driven to the point of desperation he tries to steal one himself only to be captured and then released by the sympathetic owner.

This film told a simple story very well. The social commentary was very profound as to examining a society in which the theft of a simple bicycle can have such damaging repercussions. Although the protagonist was a sympathetic character, the effect this incident would have on his impressionable son had a greater resonance. As with many of the neo-realist films, Bicycle Thieves did not present any easy answers with the father and son disappearing into a crowd at the end.

Italian films of this period had often ignored the fact that they were once Germany’s allies (Mussolini had declared war on Britain and France in 1940) and suggested that many were against fascism and working with the resistance against the Nazi occupation. In 1943 Mussolini had lost power and Italy had joined the allies which would eventually bring the fascist regime to an end. Mussolini would be captured and executed in 1945 by anti- fascist freedom fighters.

At the end of the war and looking towards a democratic future, Italy was obviously attempting to wash its hands of its fascist past and did not want to present itself in this way to its own people and to the rest of the world. Acknowledging such facts in cinema would also undoubtedly have limited the commercial prospects of Italian films at home and abroad. By the early 1950s Italian cinema began concentrating on a more positive image of Italian culture eschewing neo-realism which was by now being considered as derogatory.

During the war years, Hollywood had been unable to distribute its films across Nazi occupied Europe. By the end of the war, Hollywood had a backlog of films waiting to be released including all time greats Gone with the Wind (1939), and Citizen Kane (1941). With the post war Italian economy in recovery, the Italian people demanded and received Hollywood films signaling an end to its once protectionism. It appeared that the need for spectacle, melodrama, and slick Hollywood entertainment had returned. Domestic Italian cinema was now being swamped by the popularity of Hollywood films with Italian filmmakers having to change tact to compete. Whilst neo-realist films were winning audience approval abroad and were being praised by critics such as Andre Bazin they were no longer appreciated in their domestic market as a commercial force. The directors who had made neo-realism famous were by now also embracing different styles. The early 1950s would also signal the beginnings of a trend for international co-productions. Italy would be making films with other European countries and also with Hollywood well into this decade. Whilst neorealism was no longer commercially viable its influence would undoubtedly continue even to this day.

Santosh Sandhu graduated with a Masters degree in film from the University of Bedfordshire and wrote the short film 'The Volunteers'.

R.I.P. Karl Malden (1912 - 2009)

Acting legend dies aged 97...

Oscar winning actor Karl Malden has died of natural causes at his home in Los Angeles on July 1st, aged 97. The star enjoyed a long and successful Hollywood career, making his screen acting debut in 1940 and claiming an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his work in the 1951 classic A Streetcar Named Desire, in which he appeared with the late Marlon Brando.

Malden was reunited with Brando in On The Waterfront (1954) (for which he received a second Best Supporting Actor nomination), and One-Eyed Jacks (1961) (Brando's only directorial effort), and his other notable credits include Baby Doll (1956), How The West Was Won (1962), and Patton (1970). Malden was also known for his television roles, including his work alongside Michael Douglas in the police drama The Streets of San Francisco, and his last perfomance came in 2000 with a guest appearance on The West Wing.