Summer Movie Review Part Deux

Alas, summer 07 has finally come to an end. The little ones are all back in school, the weather is turning colder and it looks like OJ is headed for prison.

Ok, I wanted to give readers my final 07 summer movie review.

First a quote from an article from EW

"For the first time ever in a year, let alone a single 14-week period, four movies took in more than $300 million domestically. And nobody — except their profit participants — cared. Thanks to Spider-Man 3, Shrek the Third, Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, and Transformers, all of which will wind up among the 25 highest grossers in history, 2007 has earned its spot in the record book — but that's the only place it'll be remembered. We're living in the Year of the Buzzless Blockbuster."

You may remember my previous post about the craptastic start of the summer but if not, don't bother looking for it, just know that Pirates, Shrek & Spidey were all horrible.

So was the second half any better? That would be a giant YES!

Ocean's Thirteen
I was skeptical about this when I first saw the trailer but in the end I really enjoyed it. It is very fast paced and they pack a lot of characters into 2 hours so there's not much depth but I would assume anyone making it this far into the franchise has already seen the first two, so need for all the details. There are a number of really far fetched ideas that sort of spoil some of the classic caper but it does go on to further prove the old phrase "the rich get richer". Overall I would give this one a solid B.

Fantastic Four : Rise of the Silver Surfer
Well what did you expect with a comic book movie? This movie pretty much lived up to my expectations. Only two reasons to see this and they are both related to Jessica Alba. Ok, the scenes with the surfer were definitely well done and using Laurence Fishburne as the voice was perfectly cast. Overall a B- and up to that point the best sequel of the summer.

Ratatouille
Classic Pixar! Wonderful animation, great story line. Perfect family movie. Best "kids" movie of the year. At points in the movie I totally forgot I was watching animation. I even forgot that rats can't actually talk. It is a little long in parts for an animated movie but the final cooking sequence at the end is worth the wait. Overall a A-

Transformers
One Word...Awesome! Way better than expected. By far the best special effects of the summer and the best toy becomes movie adoption ever. The transformations of the main characters is awe inspiring. Megan Fox was definitely competition for Jessica Alba.
Here is one snippet of a review
"Gets this critic's seal of approval as another overblown Michael Bay extravaganza, for it succeeds in bringing a cornucopia of beloved robots to life for a concatenation of epic battles worthy of a bombastic summer blockbuster."
Ya, what he said. Overall B+

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
Ok, my first bad movie for the second half of summer. This movie just seemed to drag along. I agree with Roger Ebert's first paragraph of his review.

"Whatever happened to the delight and, if you'll excuse the term, the magic in the "Harry Potter" series? As the characters grow up, the stories grow, too, leaving the innocence behind and confusing us with plots so labyrinthine that it takes a Ph.D from Hogwarts to figure them out. "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix" still has much of the enchantment of the earlier films, but Harry no longer has as much joy. His face is lacking the gosh-wow-this-is-really-neat grin. He has internalized the secrets and delights of the world of wizards, and is now instinctively using them to save his life."
Overall C+ simply because it's a Harry Potter movie

The Bourne Ultimatum
The following statement has never been more true "Saved the best for last." To me this was the best movie of the summer. When I got up to walk out of the theatre I distinctly remember thinking, 'Woah, that was the fastest two hour movie I have ever seen." For example, I wish you could buy just the second half of Titanic because that's what this whole movie felt like. Even if you aren't a Matt Damon fan, there's not much to criticize with the end of this trilogy. I haven't read any of these books but I was definitely interested after seeing all of the Bourne movies.
Overall A, and that's all I have to say about that.

So, if you have followed this post all the way to here a few more minutes shouldn't matter.

Out of curiosity I thought I would summarize the 2007 movie season in terms of $$$ since lately it seems like the "big" studios are simply making sequels to make cash regardless if they are even remotely good movies. Artistic presence seems to be less and less prevalent. My example of this would be the Matrix trilogy. The last two movies should not have been made but the studios saw the $$$$ even with a horrible script.

The 2007 Box Office Top 20

Rank	Movie Title	Studio	Total Gross	Weekend	% of open
1	Spider-Man 3	Sony	$336,530,303	$151,116,516	45%
2	Shrek the Third	P/DW	$321,012,359	$121,629,270	38%
3	Transformers	P/DW	$315,175,018	$70,502,384	22%
4	Pirates of the Caribbean:	BV	$309,404,152	$114,732,820	37%
5	Harry Potter	WB	$290,175,378	$77,108,414	27%
6	The Bourne Ultimatum	Uni.	$222,788,180	$69,283,690	31%
7	300	WB	$210,614,939	$70,885,301	34%
8	Ratatouille	BV	$203,360,412	$47,027,395	23%
9	The Simpsons Movie	Fox	$181,983,159	$74,036,787	41%
10	Wild Hogs	BV	$168,273,550	$39,699,023	24%
11	Knocked Up	Uni.	$148,761,765	$30,690,990	21%
12	Rush Hour 3	NL	$137,669,996	$49,100,158	36%
13	Live Free or Die Hard	Fox	$134,397,016	$33,369,559	25%
14	Fantastic Four:	Fox	$131,879,346	$58,051,684	44%
15	Chuck and Larry	Uni.	$119,318,320	$34,233,750	29%
16	Superbad	Sony	$118,858,438	$33,052,411	28%
17	Blades of Glory	P/DW	$118,245,842	$33,014,202	28%
18	Hairspray (2007)	NL	$117,990,718	$27,476,745	23%
19	Ocean's Thirteen	WB	$117,154,724	$36,133,403	31%
20	Ghost Rider	Sony	$115,802,596	$45,388,836	39%
	Paramount/ DreamWorks		$754,433,219
	Disney		$681,038,114
	Warner Brothers		$617,945,041
	Sony		$571,191,337
	Universal		$490,868,265
	Fox		$448,259,521

What does this show?
Further proves that movies are relying much more on franchise capacity versus word of mouth.

For example, Spider Man 3 and Fantasic Four did almost 50% of their total 07 revenue on their respective opening weekends, whereas Knocked Up did only 21% yet it's number 11 on the list.