'Transformers': Worst-reviewed $400 million hit?

LOS ANGELES - After just five days, "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen" is halfway to $400 million domestically, a box-office milestone only eight other movies have reached. If it climbs that high, the "Transformers" sequel will be by far the worst-reviewed movie ever to make the $400 million club.


Critics and mainstream crowds often disagree, but "Revenge of the Fallen" sets a new standard for the gulf between what reviewers and mass audiences like.


The movie pulled in $201.2 million since opening Wednesday, the second-best result for a movie in its first five days, just behind "The Dark Knight" with $203.8 million. Even after its whopping $60.6 million opening day, "Revenge of the Fallen" was packing theaters, a sign that unlike critics, who mostly hated the movie, audiences felt they were getting their money's worth and were giving the flick good word of mouth.


Critics "forget what the goal of the movie was. The goal of the movie is to entertain and have fun," said Rob Moore, vice chairman of Paramount, which is distributing "Transformers" for DreamWorks. "What the audience tells us is, `We couldn't be more entertained and having more fun.' They kind of roll their eyes at the critics and say, `You have no idea what you're talking about.'"


According to Paramount's exit polls, 91 percent of the audience thought the sequel was as good as or better than the first "Transformers," which received far better reviews.


Most of Hollywood's all-time biggest hits are accompanied by either good or at least passable reviews, and some can be among the year's most-acclaimed, such as this year's "Up" and "Star Trek" and last year's "The Dark Knight," "WALL-E" and "Iron Man."


Not so for the new "Transformers." On Rottentomatoes.com , a Web site that compiles critics' opinions, the sequel had only 38 positive reviews out of 187, a lowly 20 percent rating usually reserved for box-office duds.


Many critics who liked the movie had reservations, praising the movie's visual effects and relentless action but generally advising audiences to check their brains at the door.


The critical drubbing was a new low for "Transformers" director Michael Bay, never a favorite among professional movie reviewers. But he has long been a favorite among fans, scoring hits with the first "Transformers" and such flicks as "Armageddon," "Pearl Harbor," "Bad Boys II" and "The Rock."


Like blockbuster maestro Jerry Bruckheimer, who produced many of Bay's movies, the director aims to please audiences, not critics.


"He really had blinders on when it comes to what he believed the picture needs to be, and then he executed it," said Brad Grey, Paramount chairman and chief executive officer. "He's a director who is the definition of blockbuster at this point. His grosses speak for themselves."


Bay's previous worst score on Rottentomatoes was 23 percent for "Bad Boys II," followed by 25 percent for "Pearl Harbor." Even his commercial flop "The Island" rated well above the "Transformers" sequel, with 40 percent positive reviews.


Of the eight movies that have grossed more than $400 million domestically, four scored 90 percent or higher on Rottentomatoes: "The Dark Knight," "Spider-Man," "E.T. the Extra-terrestrial" and "Star Wars." Two others, "Shrek 2" and "Titanic," topped 80 percent.


The other two had mixed reviews but still came in far higher than "Revenge of the Fallen," with "Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace" scoring 63 percent and "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest" rating 53 percent.


This year's biggest hits so far had terrific scores, "Up" with 97 percent and "Star Trek" with 95 percent. Both movies have grossed about $250 million, a number the "Transformers" sequel will soar past by next weekend.


On Metacritic.com, a site that assigns ratings of zero to 100 based on movie reviews, "Revenge of the Fallen" received a 36, a lowly score barely above those given to recent box-office duds "Year One" and "Land of the Lost."


Bay has said that if there is a third "Transformers" movie, he would like to come back for it. But his next project could be far quieter than the explosions and action for which he is known.


"I've got to take a little time off from the robot world," Bay said before the movie opened. "I've got to do something totally different. It's enough of this for right now. I keep saying I'm going to do my small movie. I've got one I want to do."



By AP

`Transformers,' `Potter' aim to revive box office

LOS ANGELES (AP) — If Hollywood were a poker game, this summer's question would be: Can a pair beat one of a kind?

The pair are this year's surefire blockbusters "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen," opening Wednesday, and "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince," coming in mid-July.

The one of a kind was last year's "The Dark Knight," the biggest box-office behemoth in more than a decade.

If history holds true, the combination of "Transformers" and "Harry Potter" should more than match the whopping $533.3 million haul of "The Dark Knight" and keep the movie business on track to beat last year's summer record revenue of $4.2 billion.

While ticket sales have been brisk this season, Hollywood fell into a bit of a slump this month, when receipts three weekends in a row fell short of business over the same periods last year.

Nearing the halfway mark of the season, revenues are at $1.7 billion, a fraction ahead of summer 2008's, according to Paul Dergarabedian, box-office analyst for Hollywood.com.

But at this point a year ago, the debut of "The Dark Knight" was still a month away. The film was a phenomenon, giving Hollywood a stellar second wind at a point in summer when the box office often starts to trickle off.

Things trailed off this month, significantly eroding the record box-office pace studios have been maintaining for the entire year.

"June gloom definitely hit the box office, but I think things are going to turn around," Dergarabedian said. "We've got that one-two punch of `Transformers' and `Harry Potter.'"

The first "Transformers" did $319 million domestically in summer 2007, while the "Harry Potter" tales typically come in near $300 million. If the latest installments match that, they will combine for a $600 million infusion into this summer's totals.

The first "Transformers" had a $70.5 million opening weekend, a big start for a tale based on children's toys and starring two relative unknowns at the time, Shia LaBeouf and Megan Fox.

The sequel is expected to do far more business as an established franchise with hot stars.

"Shia and Megan have both become much bigger stars and personalities since the first movie," said Rob Moore, vice chairman for Paramount, which is releasing the DreamWorks production.

Anticipation for Paramount's "Transformers" is so high that it could lift that sequel into the $400 million realm, while Warner Bros. is opening "Half-Blood Prince" the same weekend it debuted "The Dark Knight," hoping lightning strikes again. "Harry Potter" fever is growing, with "Half-Blood Prince" the lead-in to the two-part big-screen adaptation of the final book in J.K. Rowling's fantasy series.

"I think summer is just starting in a big way this coming week," said Rory Bruer, head of distribution at Sony, which released "Angels & Demons" and has Katherine Heigl's romance "The Ugly Truth" and the Julia Childs tale "Julie and Julia" with Meryl Streep still to come.

Sandra Bullock's romantic comedy "The Proposal" did better business than expected this past weekend, giving the industry a lift on the eve of "Transformers."

"There's quite a number of big movies yet to come," said Mark Zoradi, president of the motion-picture group at Disney, which released "The Proposal" and scored a $200 million smash with the animated adventure "Up." "I was convinced beforehand that this summer was going to be bigger than the last, and I remained convinced that it's going to be."

Fourth of July weekend brings the animated sequel "Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs" and the gangster saga "Public Enemies," starring Johnny Depp and Christian Bale.

The string of potential hits continues with "Bruno," "Borat" creator Sacha Baron Cohen's new mock documentary; "G-Force," a family action comedy from blockbuster producer Jerry Bruckheimer; "Funny People," teaming Adam Sandler and Seth Rogen with comedy maestro Judd Apatow; "G.I. Joe," an action thriller based on the military toys; and "Inglourious Basterds," Quentin Tarantino's World War II epic starring Brad Pitt.

Before summer, Hollywood had been on a box-office tear, filling the typically slow winter and spring months with hits such as "Paul Blart: Mall Cop," "Taken" and "Fast & Furious."

Revenues for the year had been up as much as 17.4 percent, according to box-office figures compiled by Hollywood.com. But for all the big summer hits of May, studios began losing ground to a stronger slate from a year ago.

For the year, revenues now are at $4.8 billion, up 10.4 percent from last year's.

While other studios did not want to tread too closely to the release date of "Transformers," Hollywood may have stuffed too many action flicks into May, when "X-Men Origins: Wolverine," "Star Trek" and "Terminator Salvation" all opened within a few weeks. Meantime, June swooned, loaded with comedies and light on action until "Transformers."

"Star Trek," the year's biggest hit so far with $239.4 million domestically, landed in theaters just a week after "Wolverine," the two movies likely gobbling up some of each other's business.

"Those two movies went after the same audience. It sort of became gluttony at the buffet table," said Chris Aronson, head of distribution at 20th Century Fox, which released "Wolverine." "You can only eat so much."

Sony Pictures is a unit of Sony Corp.; Paramount is a division of Viacom Inc.; Disney's parent is The Walt Disney Co.; 20th Century Fox is owned by News Corp.; Warner Bros. is a unit of Time Warner Inc.


By DAVID GERMAIN

"Transformers" director rips studio in leaked memo

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Powerhouse Hollywood director Michael Bay, who returns to theaters worldwide on Wednesday with a "Transformers" sequel, has blasted the marketing efforts of the film's studio, Paramount Pictures.

In a memo sent last month to top brass at the Viacom Inc unit, and published on Sunday by celebrity gossip Web site TMZ.com, Bay complained there was no buzz surrounding "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen."

"Right now we are not an event. We are just a sequel, which is very different. There is no anticipation. Remember back to 'Spider-Man 2' -- it was everywhere," he wrote.

Bay added that advance word on the $200 million robot extravaganza in publications like Entertainment Weekly, the Los Angeles Times and the New York Times had been an "abject failure," and he described as "lame" a plan for him to preview a small clip at the MTV Movie Awards this month.

"I cannot figure if this is a cash issue with your company? Is there some clever idea why we are not spending? I'm not sure," he said. "I'm sure though the movie will do fine, but not to your internal expectations because right now we are fooling ourselves by being cocky."

But in a second e-mail, sent June 6, Bay compared Paramount to a family and thanked the executives for "busting your butts and bringing your 'A game' for the release of Transformers."

A Paramount spokeswoman declined to comment other than to point out that the latter e-mail "clearly speaks to a differing stance than the former." Two of the top production executives on Bay's e-mail list were coincidentally ousted on Friday amid a failure to speed up production of in-house movies.

"Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen" is the follow-up to "Transformers," which earned $708 million worldwide in 2007. Bay, 44, recently told Forbes magazine that he earned $80 million from that film.

Early reviews of the latest film have been unfavorable. In Britain, where the film debuted at No. 1 this weekend, The Guardian newspaper said the 150-minute movie was "like watching paint dry while getting hit over the head with a frying pan."

(Reporting by Dean Goodman, Editing by Stacey Joyce)

Movie review: The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3 - 9.5 out of 10

The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3 rates a 9.5 out of 10. As usual, this review will be as spoiler-free as possible. Let’s look at the Good, the Bad, and the Bottom Line.


The Good

Tony Scott has another directorial masterpiece starring Denzel Washington. Their previous collaborations include Déjà vu, Man on Fire, and Crimson Tide. Scott’s style is apparent once again with some really cool cinematography. For example, there is a scene when a helicopter is flying over New York City and there are some very nifty “blur” or “blend” effects. It’s tough to describe, but keep that in the back of your mind as you watch the film and you’ll see when you get to that part. This is just one example of many classic “Tony Scott stylized” scenes in this film. Watching these scenes brought back thoughts of Déjà vu when the computer technicians were controlling the “time viewing” computer and whipping around a room, looking at it from all sides. Or, the satellite view scenes from Enemy of the State.

The dialogue was terrific and the writing team should get all the credit here. Both John Travolta and Denzel Washington delivered these lines brilliantly, but the movie wouldn’t be half as good without some fantastic writing. There is just enough comic relief to ease the non-stop tension of the film, but not enough to turn an intense thriller into a campy cliché-fest. And make no mistake about it, the film is very intense from the moment Travolta and his crew make their first move, and this happens pretty close to the beginning of the movie.

This is one of John Travolta’s best performances. The criminal he plays is brilliant, and a master of “controlled chaos.” After seeing the film, there is no one else who could have pulled off the character as well as he did.

The film really is excellent all around and is the surprise smash of the summer.


The Bad

The only thing to mention here is the issue of “Movie Time” versus “Real Time.” We have come to expect that movies do not usually occur in “real time.” If they do they are usually advertised as such and make it obvious throughout the film, like Johnny Depp in Nick of Time. Pelham 1 2 3 was certainly not a “real time” movie and there were some places it was obvious. For example, if a character has, we’ll say 5 minutes to get to a place several miles or more away, in reality you would be jumping out of your chair and sprinting; like Bruce Willis and Samuel L. Jackson in Die Hard With a Vengeance. Instead, this film chooses to show more character development, showing people pondering intensely about the situation for a while. There were even times when they would stand around talking to each other or on a cell phone while the clock is ticking. In most cases, “movie time” is not an issue and usually goes by virtually unnoticed. But, Pelham received some minor deductions for this being a bit obvious.


The Bottom Line

See this film in the theaters at your earliest convenience. It is just that good.