15. The Princess Bride - The Chatty Duelists

“You seem a decent fellow. I hate to kill you.”

Never before has an action sequence relied so squarely on excellent dialogue as the initial swordfight in Rob Reiner’s classic 1987 William Goldman adaptation. The scene wastes no time using that dialogue to infuse its action with character, as Inigo helps enemy-soon-to-become-ally Westley up a cliffside because Inigo’s impatient to start the fight.

If #37 introduces how to reveal character through action, this is that scene on crack. Before the fight even begins, we learn the codes of honor by which these duelists operate, a civility that carries over into the actual swordplay. We get the backstory on Inigo and hear, for the first time in the film, the movie’s most famous line.

Once the fight begins, we see how equally matched they are not only through their swordplay, but by how they talk about it, name-checking famous fencing strategies (actual period maneuvers researched by Goldman), a rare instance where showing AND telling pays off, because it lets us know these are the type of people to talk about their chess game while they play it.

This choice is important because it reveals the joy they take in swordplay for its own pleasure, and that joy infects the audience. You get the sense that even if Westley didn’t need to get past Inigo to save Buttercup, they’d spar anyway for fun, or go looking for a pick-up duel.

Another near-revolutionary aspect of this sequence is its post-modernism. Before there was Shrek, there was The Princess Bride. What Scream would become to horror, The Princess Bride already was to fairy tales almost ten years earlier. Creating a work that at once satirizes and exemplifies a genre is no mean feat, and there’s hardly been better before or since.

This sequence exemplifies that balance, with self-commentary (the aforementioned swordplay analysis and Inigo’s crack about there being little money in revenge) and action both ridiculous (the needless flips and swordcatching) and sublime (that hand-switching move Westley does right before he defeats Inigo is straight-up bad-ass). The pinnacle of this combo, of course, comes when Westley reveals that he, too, is not left-handed. When I saw this moment for the first time in a sneak preview (having no idea what the film was), the audience burst into applause.

Another revolution predicted by this sequence is the age of the stunt double-less fight scene (at least in America - in Hong Kong, that was already standard). After The Matrix, it became de riguer for actors to spend months training with some Wuxia artist to master all sorts of sweet Kung Fu moves or learn how to fence, but Mandy Patinkin and Cary Elwes were spending the better part of a year learning their moves a decade before it was cool. The only stuntmen in this sequence are the ones doing the flips. (If you think about it, that means the actors had to learn how to swordfight ambidextrously. Damn.)

In the screenplay, William Goldman describes this sequence as the “second greatest swordfight in film history,” following that with “the first comes later.” For Rob Reiner’s money (and mine, too) the better one comes first.

Contains more than you need, but you get the point.

See also: The rest of The Princess Bride, Erroll Flynn provides the template for Westley in The Adventures of Robin Hood, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. performs “the most thrilling swordfight ever filmed” (at least according to the tagline) in The Prisoner of Zenda.

Next: A horrible movie spawns our highest-rated duel.

So, I finished this a while ago, but suddenly I started getting all these e-mails about it. Lo and behold, turns out somebody posted it to Whedonesque, and the comments rolled in.

Apparently, it ended up in IMDB’s Hit List, too.

If you’re as much Lost’s bitch as I am, you won’t hesitate to watch all three “missing pieces” posted on ABC regardless of how little they actually say. I have to admit, I really do like the first one and I’m hoping Frogurt (from the second) turns out to be the evil mastermind behind everything. All his segment does for now, though, is remind me that they never wrapped up Libby’s backstory.

I promise to return to the countdown soon. Just have to tie up the December Movie Preview first.

You throw Disney in the mix with four other wide releases over a holiday weekend, and you see what happens.

The big story, though, is This Christmas outta nowhere with a $27mil five-day haul.  This plus the Why Did I Get Married? boffo b.o. equals a greenlight for every “urban” holiday comedy in the pipe (if, you know, all the writers weren’t on strike).  And we still have The Perfect Holiday on the way.

This weekend, wide releases mostly take a break for some reason. They’ll do it next weekend, too, but for a much better, avoid-the-holiday-tentpole reason.

11/30

Wide

AWAKE

WHAT’S THE PITCH?
Man (Hayden Christensen) overhears his own murder being plotted while under really ineffective anesthesia.

WILL IT SUCK?
Early buzz is good. Terrence Howard plays the doctor who may have betrayed Christensen.

HOW WELL WILL IT DO?
A little competition from the second frame of The Mist, but next week Golden Compass obliterates everything in its path. $14mil.

WILL ANYBODY REMEMBER IT AT OSCAR TIME?
Hustle & Flow it is not.

Limited

THE SAVAGES

WHAT’S THE PITCH?
Philip Seymour Hoffman and Laura Linney play siblings putting their father in a home.

WILL IT SUCK?
Early buzz is outstanding, having this surpass writer/director Tamara Jenkins last effort as a double threat, 1998’s The Slums of Beverly Hills.

HOW WELL WILL IT DO?
Fox Searchlight has got to get the word out. $1mil.

WILL ANYBODY REMEMBER IT AT OSCAR TIME?
Provided enough people see it, Linney and Hoffman could get some love.

THE DIVING BELL AND THE BUTTERFLY

WHAT’S THE PITCH?
The French Sea Inside

WILL IT SUCK?
Early buzz is fantastic. Like, best director at Cannes award for Julian Schnabel (Before Night Falls) fantastic. Ron Harwood (The Pianist) adapts the memoir written by Elle France editor Jean-Dominique Bauby one blink at a time after he suffered a stroke. Mathieu Amalric (Louis in Munich) plays Bauby. Oh, and cinematographer Janusz Kaminski works for someone besides Spielberg for once.

HOW WELL WILL IT DO?
Has an uphill battle. Foreign, indie and no star. $3mil.

WILL ANYBODY REMEMBER IT AT OSCAR TIME?
Looks lined up to be that foreign film that gets nominated for more than just Best Foreign Film.

Next Week: Rock-em, sock-em polar bears.

…on this blog. Click here now.

Pretty sure that just got posted.

Remember when Hollywood first introduced 3-D to lure audiences away from the new invention that brought us Lucille Ball and cigarette commercials? Well it’s back. Again. But this time it seems to be working. 40 percent of the gross of number one movie Beowulf came from its 3-D screenings. And, yes, when I see it, I do plan on seeing it in 3-D.

11/23

Wide

ENCHANTED

WHAT’S THE PITCH?
Animated princess is banished to the very real New York City.

WILL IT SUCK?
Early buzz has this pulling off the Shrek satirical vibe well. Director of the underrated Tarzan and writer of the I’ve-heard-it’s-underrated Blast From the Past on board with Amy Adams, James Marsden and Susan Sarandon rounding out the cast.

HOW WELL WILL IT DO?
Very crowded field, but this has the Disney label. $54mil.

WILL ANYBODY REMEMBER IT AT OSCAR TIME?
No, but this could put former nominee Amy Adams on the mainstream map.

AUGUST RUSH

WHAT’S THE PITCH?
Musical prodigy (Freddie Highmore) and his birth parents (Keri Russell, Jonathan Rhys Meyers) try to find each other with a little help from Robin Williams.

WILL IT SUCK?
Early buzz is good. This film has a very strange pedigree. It’s directed by Jim Sheridan’s daughter Kirsten, who co-wrote In America with him and her sister, and its writers include scribes behind Escape From New York and Coppola’s Dracula. If this somehow turns out to be a combination of those three films, I am so going.

HOW WELL WILL IT DO?
A crowded time of year for this sort of fare. $12mil.

WILL ANYBODY REMEMBER IT AT OSCAR TIME?
I think Russell’s got a better shot with Waitress.

THE MIST

WHAT’S THE PITCH?
Group trapped in store vs. big-ass monsters shrouded in the title.

WILL IT SUCK?
This is the first time recidivist Stephen King adapter Frank Darabont has decided to envision one of the author’s horror stories - and he picked an especially creepy one at that. If he can make this half as good as Shawshank or The Green Mile it’ll be light years beyond most of this year’s horror crop. Early buzz is good.
HOW WELL WILL IT DO?
Relatively little competition, and a lot of King fans love this story. $30mil.

WILL ANYBODY REMEMBER IT AT OSCAR TIME?
If anyone can get horror on the Academy radar, it’s three-time Oscar nominee Darabont. But it’s not gonna happen.

HITMAN

WHAT’S THE PITCH?
Guy kills people for money. What did you think it would be about?

WILL IT SUCK?
Interesting combination of talents here. You’ve got the director of the film-fest-fave horror flick Frontières and the writer of the shameless-yet-addictive Swordfish, so I’m thinking this will turn out to be a good 3 a.m. TNT watch. In addition to Timothy Olyphant in the lead, I’m liking the casting of Dougray Scott and Henry Ian Cusick (Desmond on Lost) as well.

HOW WELL WILL IT DO?
Video game on which this is based has a decent following and there’s little or no action competition. $29mil.

WILL ANYBODY REMEMBER IT AT OSCAR TIME?
No, but Olyphant’s turn in Die Hard IV puts me in mind of adding an Oscar for films that exceed expectations.

THIS CHRISTMAS

WHAT’S THE PITCH?
Why Did I Come Home for Christmas?

WILL IT SUCK?
Early buzz is good, which is better than you’d expect from Preston A. Whitmore II, writer/director of Crossover (Check the IMDB bottom 100. Lower. Lower. Lower.) I’m liking the casting of Delroy Lindo and Regina King, and the trailer actually looks decent.

HOW WELL WILL IT DO?
That Tyler Perry crack is for real (and I swear I thought of it before I saw IMDB do the same thing). Expect a similar marketing campaign with diluted results given the glut of holiday fare. $22mil.

WILL ANYBODY REMEMBER IT AT OSCAR TIME?
If either ever do make it to the show, it’ll be Perry will before Whitmore.

Limited

I’M NOT THERE

WHAT’S THE PITCH?
Christian Bale, Cate Blanchett, Marcus Carl Franklin, Richard Gere, Heath Ledger and Ben Whishaw ARE Bob Dylan.

WILL IT SUCK?
Early buzz is good. Props to Todd Haynes (Far From Heaven, Velevet Goldmine) for pulling off an audacious project and getting his best IMDB love ever. Also, you gotta love that David Cross is Allen Ginsberg.

HOW WELL WILL IT DO?
Diving Bell and the Butterfly and The Savages will be kind of big deals next week, but none of them have six people playing Bob Dylan. $9mil.

WILL ANYBODY REMEMBER IT AT OSCAR TIME?
This is the kind of quirky fare that could maybe get a screenplay nod. Poss. supporting actress nod for Blanchett since she’s been there before and is playing, you know, a dude.

STARTING OUT IN THE EVENING

WHAT’S THE PITCH?
Grad student (Lauren Ambrose) tries to rejuvenate old writer (Frank Langella).

WILL IT SUCK?
Early buzz is mixed with audiences not nearly as in love with it as critics.

HOW WELL WILL IT DO?
Like, five people in New York are gonna watch this thing. $750,000.

WILL ANYBODY REMEMBER IT AT OSCAR TIME?
Langella’s performance is getting mad buzz, but will anyone see it?

NINA’S HEAVENLY DELIGHTS

(Delayed from October)

WHAT’S THE PITCH?
Indian woman returns to Scotland to save her deceased father’s failing restaurant.

WILL IT SUCK?
Early buzz is mixed. From the screenwriter of Dear Frankie.

HOW WELL WILL IT DO?
They’ve moved this to a less crowded weekend, but it’s still in over it’s head. $500,000.

WILL ANYBODY REMEMBER IT AT OSCAR TIME?
Not enough eyeballs.

Next Week: The release date that most studios forgot.

16. Lethal Weapon 4 - Unwelcome Guests

“Hey, Bruce. Nice pajamas.”

There are some action scenes that surpass the films that spawn them. Richard Donner’s 1998 final (?) installment of the seminal buddy cop franchise isn’t the best action film you’ll ever see nor is it the worst (it actually has some of the best set pieces of the series). But what it does have is one of the most important moments in chop-sockey history:

The American introduction of Jet Motherfucking Li.

You know how I know Jet Li is a bad-ass? While Mel and Danny are taking out his entire strike force, he just stands at the top of the stairs. Watching. Waiting. Smiling. He’s probably not even planning strategy at all. He’s done that already. He’s probably wondering if he left the stove on. Or if he remembered to TiVo Battlestar Galactica.

The last thing he’s thinking is, “Oh, shit. They’re taking out my crack tactical assault squad and I’ll have to fight them both myself.” He’s probably thinking, “I sure hope they take out my crack tactical assault squad so I get to fight them both myself. And then I’ll have to figure out what to do with the rest of my day because that will only take 40 seconds.”

That is exactly how long it takes him to smack down three armed police officers.

When Mel goes for the gun, it’s all over. Jet Li gets this look on his face like, “Jet don’t play that gun shit,” and jumps down one story and disarms Mel with his legs. You could have cut off Jet’s arms and he STILL would have disarmed Mel.

(By the way, he really don’t play that gun shit. During the entire course of the film, he never once fires a weapon. He pistol-whips some punks with an automatic rifle and he dodges a bullet, but he never shoots.)

Before we go any further, let’s step back and appreciate that Richard Donner had to take Jet Li aside and say, “Jet, baby. Love the kick-ass moves and the whole hardly-speaking thing, but my camera can only capture 30 frames per second so could you, you know, slow it down a bit?”

That’s right. His moves are so fast that even if you watch them 1/30th of a second at a time, you will still miss them.

A great way to establish someone, especially a villain, as a bad-ass is to make them better at something the hero is already good at. The first three Lethal Weapons establish Mel’s character as an adept martial artist. Here, he doesn’t get in a single punch. It’s a straight-up spanking.

It’s practically to the point where you have to ask yourself the same question you ask about the T-1000. You can’t shoot him. You can’t kick his ass. How are you going to stop him?

This scene builds to two Holy Shit moments. The first is what I call The Move. Jet does a brief hand-stand and, while inverted, kicks Danny in the chest and grabs a gun. (I think all I could accomplish while inverted would be to think, “I’m going to fall down.”) He comes back up into a three-way Mexican standoff. The music, very wisely, stops.

This all happens in about two seconds.

This is the kind of move that shocks the audience into a stunned silence minus the one guy in the back yelling “Whoo!” (literally what happened when I first saw this film). This is also the kind of move that Donner had to slow down artificially (note the semi-slow-mo) just to make it coherent. Also note that, during the standoff, Jet’s the only one not breathing hard.

Which brings us to the second Holy Shit moment. Normally, at this point, our villain would be down for the count. Two guns on him at point blank range. He only has one, which he drops. But then he flashes that “You don’t know it, but I’m about to fuck you up” smile and we have what I call The Other Move in which he not only disarms Mel and Danny, but takes Mel’s gun apart.

Let me say that again. He takes the gun apart. And it’s not like he sits down with a screwdriver and shit. No. In the course of doing other things like kicking both of them unconscious and knocking the other gun out of Danny’s hand and I think doing his taxes, he takes the gun apart.

(This move, apparently, is totally doable with that model of gun, but a couple of steps were removed to make it a little more jaw-dropping.)

Now do you understand why I say this?

Finally, as an afterthought, he knocks out armed Renee Russo without even looking.

The role of Wah Sing Ku was originally offered to Jackie Chan, but he refused because he doesn’t play bad guys. Truth be told, Jet brings a completely different vibe, and makes for a more formidable adversary. If Chan is the more slapstick, Chaplinesque martial artist, Li is the more deadpan Keatonesque performer.

Donner’s take on Li in this scene? “He’s only in first gear.”

See also: The rest of Lethal Weapon 4, all of Fist of Legend, all of Romeo Must Die.

Next: As we’ve already seen on this list, sometimes it’s best when the good guys fight each other.

17. The French Connection - The Chase

“Police emergency. I need your car.”

The signature sequence of William Friedkin’s 1971 procedural-to-end-all-procedurals begins with a little bit of foreshadowing - a shot of an elevated train. The entire premise of this chase is based on the fact that it lives in the shadow of Bullitt. Friedkin had been given a mandate to outdo that film’s seminal car chase, at that point only three years old. After walking for 55 blocks through New York with his producer, Philip D’Antoni, it occurred to him their edge could be the city’s elevated train system. What the Bullitt chase is to San Francisco (hills and open spaces), the French Connection chase is to New York (flat and enclosed), and that opening-shot train makes all the difference.

Before we even get to the train, Friedkin begins crafting a masterpiece of action. The sniper shot that kills a woman pushing her baby in a stroller right next to our anti-hero, Popeye Doyle, comes out of nowhere. These days, we’re used to the mundane visual (somebody buying groceries, for example) being the prelude to Something Bad happening, and in a sense, this is no different. Doyle has just been kicked off the case and now he’s walking home. Why are we watching that if Shit isn’t about to Go Down? (Seriously, can you watch a passenger’s-eye-view shot a driver anymore and NOT expect a semi to plow into them?)

And yet the shot still surprises us, and launches us into one of the best cinéma-vérité-style action sequences ever conceived. Part of the effectiveness of this style stems from how it suggests that anyone could go out and shoot this. That had you been there, with a camera in your hand, this is the footage you would have got. In other words, You. Are. There.

The reason it feels like they just grabbed a bunch of cameras and shot this shit is because they just grabbed a bunch of cameras and shot this shit. No planning. No permits. Just do it. The guerrilla-style filmmaking that would become a hallmark of 90’s independent cinema was the Best Picture big-studio filmmaking of 1971. Narc, among other films, would inherit this intensity - note that #22 also uses heavy breathing as a soundtrack. But the execution of that guerrilla stye, however, gets very sketchy, very quickly.

To this day, Friedkin and company freely admit that they sent a stunt driver (the same one from Bullitt, actually) down 26 blocks of uncontrolled New York traffic with nothing but a fake siren on the roof to encourage people to get out of the way. At 90 mph. And did I mention they didn’t warn anybody?

Today, Friedkin describes the choice as the act of a “callow heedless youth” and concludes that he would not make the same choice now. At best, it’s irresponsible and at worst it’s criminally negligent. There was an accident (besides several stunt cars getting banged up) in which the unsuspecting vehicle only got grazed. But it could very easily have been one of those stories of a tragic on-set death you hear about in Hollywood lore given a split second one way or the other.

(I could go on to scold Friedkin for some of the shit he pulled on the set of The Exorcist, but here I am praising his action sequence, so I’m kind of conflicted here.)

Putting aside, for a moment, the question of the end justifying the means (it doesn’t), in terms of accomplishing the goal of outdoing Bullitt, I think Friedkin more than pulls it off. Frankly, I wasn’t that impressed by the Bullitt chase to begin with, so I am a little predisposed to give plaudits elsewhere. But this sequence scoops up the intensity that I felt was lacking in Bullitt.

And as reprehensible as the surrounding circumstances are, the simple act of placing that camera on the grill of that car puts this sequence light years ahead of most chases that came before. The lack of music is another point in the sequence’s favor. (Note to future filmmakers: Vast epics like Ben-Hur and gritty thrillers like The French Connection both know when not to use music, so the genre doesn’t necessarily dictate the score, or lack thereof.)

Once again going back to the old revealing-character-through-action chestnut, here it’s Doyle’s obsessiveness that’s on display. He will do anything, including endagering innocent lives, to get his man. And by man, I mean shot. And by Doyle, I mean Friedkin. All right. I’ll stop now.

A note on performance: In a car chase, an actor has very little to work with to emote. Hands at ten and two, mister! So he or she pretty much has to rely on their face. Hackman’s face works wonders here in this department, and Friedkin’s smart enough to cut to it aplenty. Doyle’s becomes the visage of all road rage.

Finally, Friedkin concludes the sequence with one of the most 70’s anti-hero endings to an action scene you could hope for: The good guy shoots the bad guy in the back in an act of cold-blooded murder. Nice.

Missing the beginning and end, but you get the point…

See also: Roger Moore chases down an assassin on the streets of Paris in A View to a Kill, Bruce Willis and Sam Jackson cab it through Central Park to beat a train in Die Hard: With a Vengeance, pretty much any car chase in Ronin.

Next: You better have more than a gun if you’re gonna take on Jet Li. Or, like, three guns, actually.

via Freewilliamsburg.com

Here’s a counterpoint, still in favor of the writers, if not their rhetoric.

Bee Movie showing incredible legs, surpassing Gangster in its second weekend to take the top spot which, by all rights, should have been Fred Claus‘ anyway, but that movie had to go and suck for both audiences and critics. In other news, I finally got around to seeing Gone, Baby, Gone, and holy shit can Affleck direct a motherfucker. No Country for Old Men was a bit more problematic - both brilliant and a pain in the ass. More on how here.

11/16

Wide

BEOWULF

WHAT’S THE PITCH?
Guy kills monster. Pisses off monster’s mom. Naked motion capture Angelina Jolie ensues.

WILL IT SUCK?
Robert Zemeckis doesn’t exactly suck as a director, and his FX team seems to have learned a thing or two since Polar Express. He’s also got Neil Gaiman and Roger Avary on screenplay duty. Add to that a stellar voice cast (Anthony Hopkins, Ray Winstone, Robin Wright Penn, Crispin Glover, John Malkovich, Alison Lohman, Brendan Gleeson) and you’ve got anticipation.

Early buzz is good.

HOW WELL WILL IT DO?
Audiences may have a tough time resolving the 300-style mood with the often kid-friendly medium. Families will go see Mr. Magorioum’s Wonder Emporium instead, but the die hard goth/renfest faithful will turn out. $57mil.

WILL ANYBODY REMEMBER IT AT OSCAR TIME?
Have you seen Angelina Jolie all Grendel’s mommed-up? Shoo-in for Best Animated nod (even though a lot of folks, Zemeckis included, don’t consider motion capture animation). Also, there were some rumors at Comi-Con that Anthony Hopkins could get the first-ever nod for a CG performance.

MR. MAGORIUM’S WONDER EMPORIUM

WHAT’S THE PITCH?
Old guy (Dustin Hoffman) leaves magical toy store to young woman (Natalie Portman).

WILL IT SUCK?
Zach Helm, who wrote Stranger Than Fiction, writes and directs here. That’s the only reason I’m interested in this.

HOW WELL WILL IT DO?
Has a head start on next week’s slew of family films, but that head start is abbreviated by the fact that they all open on a Wednesday. $41mil.

WILL ANYBODY REMEMBER IT AT OSCAR TIME?
Hoffman has to do more than be a wacky old guy to cut it.

LOVE IN THE TIME OF CHOLERA

WHAT’S THE PITCH?
Lovers separated by time and distance, blah, blah, blah…

WILL IT SUCK?
Should an adaptation of a Gabriel Garcia Marquez have a MySpace page and a soundtrack by Shakira? While you ponder that, know that the early buzz is not good, in spite of combining director Mike Newell with the screenwriter from The Pianist and casting Javier Bardem as the lead. The trailer does, however, seem to be a collection of Jane Austen clichés.

HOW WELL WILL IT DO?
It’s almost noble to use MySpace and Shakira to get the kids interested in the magical realism, but I don’t think it’s going to work. $4mil.

WILL ANYBODY REMEMBER IT AT OSCAR TIME?
The reviews are getting progressively worse.

Limited

MARGOT AT THE WEDDING

WHAT’S THE PITCH?
Two sisters clash over one of the sister’s choice of fiancé.

WILL IT SUCK?
This is Noah Baumbach’s follow-up to The Squid and the Whale and it’s not getting nearly the same kind of unanimous approval. Critics overall are down on it (though some love it) while audiences are mostly on board. I have to admit I’m curious to see what he can do with Nicole Kidman, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Jack Black, Ciaran Hinds and John Turturro in his line-up.

HOW WELL WILL IT DO?
Has to deal with the higher-profile I’m Not There next week plus I’m not even sure most people who liked The Squid and the Whale know this is coming out. $8mil.

WILL ANYBODY REMEMBER IT AT OSCAR TIME?
If the best they could do for Squid was a screenplay nod, I don’t have high hopes for this.

SOUTHLAND TALES

WHAT’S THE PITCH?
Richard Kelly’s Donnie Darko follow-up has weird goings-on in L.A.

WILL IT SUCK?
Early buzz is not good. Even audiences seem to be kind of “meh.” Does have an ecclectic cast, however, including The Rock, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Sean William Scott, Mandy Moore, Cheri Oteri, Miranda Richardson, Jon Lovitz, Kevin Smith, Wallace Shawn, John Larroquette, Amy Poehler, Justin Timberlake, Curtis Armstrong, Janeane Garofalo, and Christopher Lambert. You could probably just spend the whole movie playing “spot the celeb.”

HOW WELL WILL IT DO?
Delayed releases and multiple trips to Cannes and Comic-Con could actually help this open before word of mouth kills it. $5mil.

WILL ANYBODY REMEMBER IT AT OSCAR TIME?
Conceptual and Wacky tend not to go over so well with the Academy, especially with bad reviews.

REDACTED

WHAT’S THE PITCH?
Casualties of War: Iraq Edition

WILL IT SUCK?
This is the kind of movie over which people get their panties in a bunch long before anyone actually sees it. A fictional depiction of a real life rape and murder committed by U.S. troops against an Iraqi family, it has managed to piss off even the writer/director Brian De Palma (you may have heard of him), who is incensed that actual images of dead Iraqis have been…wait for it…redacted from the close of the film. For all the controversy (which is the majority of ink it will get) the actual reviews are middling.

HOW WELL WILL IT DO?
Just like Death of a President generated a whole lot of controversy and not a lot of box office, this, too looks to be much ado about a very limited release. $1mil.

WILL ANYBODY REMEMBER IT AT OSCAR TIME?
The controversy could help if the reviews were there to support it, but that just isn’t the case here.

Next Week: What does it mean when the most realistic looking Bob Dylan is Cate Blanchett?