Friday, August 13, 2010
EAT PRAY EXPLODE: This weekend at movie theatres is fascinating, because I can't remember a weekend in recent memory when the two films squaring off for #1 are so blatantly gender-focused. There's little to no question in my mind that 80+% of the audience for Eat Pray Love will be women, while 80+% of the audience for The Expendables will be men. (Also interesting is that both seem to be heavily targeting the 30+ demographic rather than teenagers, though Eat Pray Love has been aggressively pushing Ryan Murphy's Glee connection of late.) Add to the calculation the weekend's other major release--Scott Pilgrim--which is pretty blatantly targeted toward under-35s, and you have an interesting combination. What're you seeing? (For me, Scott Pilgrim is top priority, given that Edgar Wright has yet to make a bad film, while Ryan Murphy has yet to make a good one, though Running With Scissors was interesting.)
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I'm pretty sure I'll end up seeing both Scott Pilgrim and Eat Pray Love, though I don't know which I'll see this weekend and which might be at a later date. I have absolutely no interest in The Expendables.
ReplyDeleteWhat movies has Ryan Murphy done, other than Running With Scissors and Eat Pray Love?
Damn, I wish I could find the article I saw yesterday talking about the weird condescending tone a lot of the mainstream reviews for Scott Pilgrim have.
ReplyDeleteWas it this one from Linda Holmes (fka Miss Alli)? http://www.npr.org/blogs/monkeysee/2010/08/12/129150813/-scott-pilgrim-versus-the-unfortunate-tendency-to-review-the-audience
ReplyDeleteWas it Linda Holmes's "Scott Pilgrim Versus the Unfortunate Tendency to Review the Audience," at NPR Monkey See? Great article.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.npr.org/blogs/monkeysee/2010/08/12/129150813/-scott-pilgrim-versus-the-unfortunate-tendency-to-review-the-audience
I think I want to see Scott Pilgrim (unless the video-game-ness of it means that it has lots of flashes of light, which is a big migraine trigger). But I have the 'rents here this weekend and they will definitely not want to see it. Have to check screenit to see if it's possibly appropriate for the tween kiddo, who would like to see it.
As a Glee fan and a 40-ish woman, I still have zero interest in "Eat Pray Love." (Couldn't finish the book and not a fan of Julia Roberts after, say, Mystic Pizza)
Ah, that's the one! Thanks to you both!
ReplyDeleteThis is what I like about Screenit: "For those concerned with bright flashes of light on the screen, there's some of that during the opening credits. Later, there's a near (but slow) strobe effect late in the film during a fight scene." Now I know when to shut my eyes.
ReplyDeleteAlthough I loved the book Eat Pray Love, I don't see it translating well to the screen, particularly with the surface-only charms of Julia Roberts (Laura Linney, on the other hand, perhaps maybe could have pulled it off). So although I am also a 40+ woman, Scott Pilgrim holds more interest than the other two. But nothing this weekend; I'll be catching up on work, rewatching The Wire S3 and clearing out the DVR.
ReplyDeleteScott Pilgrim for sure. I don't care what anyone says about Michael Cera -- I still like watching him, and I think he's hilarious.
ReplyDeleteI agree, Tina. My sister thought Hope Davis would have been a better choice, but I love Laura Linney and could definitely see her in the role, too. I *may* end up seeing the movie anyway, but I think I'll let my sister be the guinea pig (she's seeing it on Thursday) before I see it. It'll probably be Scott Pilgrim for me this weekend.
ReplyDeleteWell I'm seeing the one in my avatar and so is everyone else I know!
ReplyDeleteI'm so thoroughly entrenched in a community of people pre-disposed to like this movie that the very entertaining NPR article linked above was my first hint that anyone was hating on the movie or its intended audience. Yeah, we're nerds, we play video games, we read comic books, we take graphic novels seriously...we're also media professionals in our late 20s and 30s. We're not 12-year-old boys. Weird.
I'm a 35 year old woman and I have definite plans in place to see The Expendables, tentative plans to see Scott Pilgrim (I will see it, but it might not be this weekend), and will never see Eat, Pray, Love, if I can help it.
ReplyDeleteJeez, is there an actress who isn't a better choice than Julia Roberts? (Wait, that's for every part.) But then, EPL isn't much more than you're typical "I'll go somewhere else and feel better" tripe, a genre that translates well to visuals in movies but not much more (despite Diane Lane doing as well as she could with the Tuscany movie).
ReplyDeleteI should note that I will probably see all three at some point, Eat Pray Love because of the supporting cast (James Franco, Richard Jenkins, Javier Bardem in particular) and that while Murphy's work is highly inconsistent, it usually has at least a couple of interesting moments/performances.
ReplyDeleteI have very little interest in EPL. I could probably be convinced to see Scott Pilgrim, but can't see me being the motivating force for a viewing. I have no interest in seeing the Expendables.
ReplyDeleteIf I have kid-free movie, I would hope to see Scott Pilgrim (every single time I say that I have to stop to remember whether it's Scott or Billy Pilgrim; thanks a ton, Vonnegut), or else go see The Kids Are All Right. If I wind up at a movie with child (more likely), it's probably going to be The Karate Kid. But the weekend movie about which I'm most excited, in either case, is Ghostbusters, which my little one (almost 7) has wanted to see for a few weeks now and which I picked up on DVD for $5 last weekend.
ReplyDeleteEverybody seems down on Julia Roberts. She made Pretty Woman you know.
ReplyDeleteI'm a 21-year-old woman, and definitely want to see both The Expendables and Scott Pilgrim. I've only read the first of the graphic novels though, so I may wait until after I've read all of them before seeing it - although I might not, since they're about 14$ each up here in Canada. As much as I really liked the first one, I wasn't super happy about spending that much money on something that took me 15 minutes to read.
ReplyDeleteVisually, Scott Pilgrim is the most imaginative movie since Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. It drags in the last half, but by that time it's earned so much goodwill that I didn't care. EPL is better than OK but far short of great. The memoir was about a woman looking to nourish her underfed gut, soul and heart. The movie gets the gut and heart parts but doesn't get the spiritual component. While transcendence is a hard thing to represent, it's not impossible.
ReplyDeleteI really like Julia Roberts - it's Elizabeth Gilbert I'm less than enamored of.
ReplyDeleteExactly. They can't pay me to see Eat, Pray, Love but my dad and I have a date for The Expendables. Just seems like mindless fun to me.
ReplyDeleteAh, Carrie, that's what I was afraid of. I liked the Eat and Love parts of the book but really loved the Pray section, and despite the presence of Richard Jenkins as my favorite person she meets in the book, I sense the movie will give the spiritual the short end. Sad, because you're right, it's not at all impossible.
ReplyDeleteIs Karate Kid still playing around here, Russ? We never saw it and the kiddo would like it (and the 'rents might like it for the China scenography).
ReplyDeleteI loathe Pretty Woman, except for Hector Elizondo.
ReplyDeleteI despise the message/morals of Pretty Woman, but I find Roberts quite charming in it.
ReplyDeleteShe's one of those movie stars that when she seems genuninely happy and smiling in a movie I want to be her, want to be there with her. Tom Cruise does that for me too sometimes. I guess I'm a sucker for a megawatt smile.
Very eager to hear everyone's thoughts on Scott Pilgrim. I wanted to love it and instead felt quite the opposite. I'm mystified by all the good reviews - some of which sound like "I don't get it but I know it's supposed to be hip so I'm afraid to admit I didn't like it." Agree the visuals are cool, but when you spend 80 million bucks on a movie, they better be. The real problem is how unlikable the characters are - hated every single one of them (save, maybe, Chris Evans' turn as Lucas Lee).
ReplyDeleteEat Pray Love: Someone I hate playing someone I hate. No thanks.
ReplyDeleteAmen to that, sister. I haaaated that book within the first few pages and then obstinately finished it hoping that it would get better. It got much worse.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad Spacewoman feels that way, because I'd probably be more likely to see Diet Sin Irritate.
ReplyDeleteIt is. At University Mall, right by GMU (discount theater). I've sent you a link separately.
ReplyDeleteI'll have a longer post on this later I expect--dug the visual style a lot, but had problems with the story logic (do people fight and explode randomly every day in this universe?) and my biggest problem was that while we're repeatedly told about how wonderful Ramona Flowers is, there didn't seem to be a whole lot of there there beyond "bold rejection of social norms as evidenced by your dyed hair." (My crushes on Anna Kendrick and Audrey Plaza, however, got a little deeper.)
ReplyDeleteamy, that was Twilight for me. How are there women my age who couldn't put it down?
ReplyDeleteThanks! And hope the little one loves Ghostbusters. Someone at the local Lego show made the scene with the Stay-Puf Marshmallow man (man not made from Lego), pic in the Post somewhere I think.
ReplyDeleteOh, if it has Anna Kendrick, that ups my likelihood of seeing it by a factor of 10.
ReplyDeleteWhat made it worse with Eat, Pray, Love was that a friend gave me the book with the "You will so love this! It will totally change your life! I can't wait for you to read it so we can talk about it!" endorsement, and then she was offended when I tried to gently explain why I thought it sucked. I was lukewarm on Twilight, but thought that the movie with the ultra-sparkly makeup on Edward was a riot. (was it not supposed to be a comedy?)
ReplyDeleteI also hated Eat Prey Love. While every woman in my book club (and America it seems) loved it. I refuse to read Twilight (and I love YA books).
ReplyDelete