Peter Rogier is an English teacher at Santa Monica Middle School, but he also has another identity, a freelance film critic. Peter has been obsessed with movies since he was a child. When he was studying at the University of California, he tried to submit some film review articles to several newspapers. Fortunately, he was accepted for publication. When the community provided a good house, it persisted. After more than ten years, it has also become a little famous in the circle, and has published several collections of film reviews.
Sunday is Easter, and Peter planned to stay at home with his wife and children, but he received an invitation from The Hollywood Reporter to criticize "First Fear", which is an R-rated crime thriller, which is not suitable for him. The family watched the movie together, and after dinner, Peter drove to downtown Santa Monica alone.
After parking the car, he walked into the multiplex cinema where he often watched movies. The time was approaching nine o'clock, which happened to be the moment when the next screening was about to start. Joining the crowd queuing up to buy tickets, Peter remembered the recent news about "Seven Deadly Sins" and " Media Discussion of Fear of the First Order.
Peter received an invitation for an internal screening of New Line. He had watched "Seven Deadly Sins" two weeks ago. Although he didn't like the desperate theme of this film, he had to admit that David Fincher's The interlocking narrative technique is amazing. In the film review submitted to the "Hollywood Reporter", Peter gave "Seven Deadly Sins" 8 points.
As for First Fear, it looks like the movie has only ramped up its hype in recent weeks, and it's even threatening to take on the Seven Deadly Sins.
After staying in this circle for a long time, Peter is of course aware of the tricks. Although there are many newspapers with "First Fear" overwhelming "Seven Deadly Sins" film reviews, these are basically second- and third-rate newspapers with low credibility. Most mainstream newspapers did not take sides so lightly. However, since Paramount dared to make the slogan that "First Fear" surpasses "The Seven Deadly Sins", this film must not be far behind, and Peter still has some expectations in his heart.
He was slowly moving forward along the line of buying tickets, and suddenly there was a slight commotion in front of the ticket window. Peter looked over, and it turned out that two couples of young men and women had a disagreement on which movie to watch. Under the urging of the ticket seller, the four finally Divided into two groups, they chose "Seven Deadly Sins" and "Level One Fear" respectively.
Peter didn't pay too much attention to this little episode, but he was a little envious of the vigorous energy of the young men and women. The temperature in Los Angeles was still a bit cold in April, but these young people were wearing thin clothes, and there was still a faint tinge on their exposed skin. Sunburn, Peter judged that a few people should be surfing on Santa Monica Beach during the day, because he liked this sport very much when he was in college, but, looking down at his beer belly, maybe he can’t even climb a surfboard now Alright.
Not entangled in the lost youth, Peter got the movie ticket, bought another popcorn, and walked towards the screening hall.
Finding a place to sit down, he looked around habitually. The occupancy rate was about 40%. Peter also unexpectedly found that the man and woman who had a dispute with his companions just now were sitting in a space separated from him. The girl among them Noticing that Peter looked over, he nodded politely.
Peter also nodded slightly, looking away, but heard the girl say to her boyfriend: "Zach, it's just a movie, we don't need to separate from Vincent and the others."
The young man named Zach said: "Michelle, I said it during the day, I am not interested in religious movies, and the newspapers seem to say that this movie is better than the "Seven Deadly Sins" that was hyped up by propaganda. There are many."
Michelle seemed to curl her lips, and said, "How do you know this movie wasn't advertised?"
"But its reputation should be stronger than that of "Seven Deadly Sins". It seems that there is also a very brilliant actor," Zach said, hugging his girlfriend again, lowering his voice slightly, and teasingly said: "It would be nice not to be with them Ah, at least no one will bother us... umm..."
Michelle pushed Zach away and scolded with a smile: "Go away, I hate it."
Listening to these conversations, Peter felt a little uncomfortable. He was considering whether to change seats, but the lights in the auditorium dimmed, and the couple fell silent, so Peter dismissed the idea.
After a few pre-rolls, the opening credits from Paramount Pictures appeared.
The movie begins with a discussion about whether lawyers should adhere to legal principles or pursue justice. Lawyer Martin Weir, played by Richard Gere, insists that lawyers should try their best to win the court for their clients, regardless of whether the other party is really guilty or not.
If this was a sub-PG-13 film, the dialogue, in the right way, would suggest that the film is about Martin Weir's transformation from profit-seeking lawyer to guardian of justice.
Of course, since this is an R-rated crime thriller, the subject matter is hard to predict.
The story takes place in Chicago, where a bishop is brutally murdered and a suspect named Alan Stapler is quickly captured.
Because of some emotional entanglements with the prosecution lawyer Janet Venable, Martin Weir decided to act as Allen's defender. The patient, so he applied to the court for a psychiatric evaluation of Allen.
At this point in the plot, Peter, who was sitting in the screening hall, looked at his watch and found that 45 minutes had passed, and in these 45 minutes, except for the important plot twist that Allen might be a mental patient, the movie did not give any details. There is too much useful information, and even, in Peter's view, many details are superfluous. The director seems to be laying the groundwork, but what exactly is it is confusing. However, there is no doubt that these lengthy foreshadowings It will only make the audience gradually lose interest in watching the movie
Disappointed with the movie, Peter unconsciously began to distract himself. The couple nearby had been quiet, which surprised him. Then he looked over and found that the girl named Michelle had fallen asleep leaning on the boy's shoulder.
Peter smiled. For most people, the slow pace of the film really makes people drowsy.
The plot of the movie continues. Although many signs on Alan's body prove the possibility of him suffering from mental illness, the doctor Molly did not find any conclusive evidence. Instead, it was Martin who accidentally discovered a box of cards that the bishop forced Alan to live with. The video tape of his girlfriend making love in front of him immediately became the key evidence of Allen's motive for killing the bishop. Martin angrily asked Allen why he concealed this from him, which accidentally inspired another personality in Allen's body Lowe.
Peter, who had already lost interest in the movie, watched the submissive and even stammering Allen on the screen suddenly turn into a violent and fierce villain. He finally cheered up, and there was a commotion in the movie theater. Someone gave a slight admiration.
Unfortunately, the process of Alan's 'multiple personality disorder' attack was not filmed. In order to prove his judgment, Martin used some means to bring out Alan's other side face to face at the trial scene, and finally made the court rule that Alan Allen's illness, the charges against Allen were dropped and he was sent to a mental institution.
When this incident seemed to be coming to an end, the plot of the movie turned again. Martin and Allen met for the last time, accidentally noticed the flaws in Allen's words, and found that Allen did not have multiple personality disorders. All of this, It's all just the result of Allen's subtle camouflage.
In the end, Martin walks out of the prison with a confused expression. The desolate and deserted freeze-frame picture in the square seems to be a great mockery of Martin's own argument at the beginning of the film.
The subtitles came up, and the audience in the auditorium began to get up and leave. Peter could faintly hear some people's comments.
"It's so boring, I wasted more than two hours on such a movie."
"If I knew it, I would have watched "The Seven Deadly Sins". At least there is Diane Kruger in that movie, which is eye-catching."
"Didn't the newspaper say that this movie is better than The Seven Deadly Sins? If both movies are at this level, I'd rather stay at home and watch TV this Easter."
"That guy named Edward Norton did a really good job, but not as good as the media made it out to be."
"I almost fell asleep."
"..."
Peter waited for a while, then stood up, and the couple on the left also got up and walked out, and he could still see the little sleepy movements of the girl leaning on her boyfriend and rubbing her eyes.
Following the flow of people out of the screening hall and the cinema, Peter was surprised to find that the four people he met were walking in front of him, as if they were going to a parking space not far away.
"This movie is so exciting, Kevin Spacey actually used himself to complete the last two original sin punishments, and, Diane Kruger is so fucking beautiful, she was killed recently, unfortunately without a head close up… "
A tall and thin young man was enthusiastically narrating his feelings about watching "The Seven Deadly Sins", and the girl who was holding his arm interrupted with a smile: "Hey, Vincent, your tone of voice really changed when you said this. "
"Okay, baby," Vincent changed the subject and asked his companion, "How about "First Fear?"
Zach didn't answer, but his girlfriend Michelle didn't hide it, and said with a smile: "It's boring, anyway, I fell asleep, Zach, what do you think?"
Zach hesitated for a moment, and said, "At least, that guy named Edward Norton is very good at acting."
"Hehe," Michelle consciously took Zac's words as hard-spoken, and said to her companion, "Or, let's watch "The Seven Deadly Sins" again tomorrow."
Vincent waved his arms and said, "Of course, you should really go and see that "Level One Fear", let it go to hell."
It was past eleven o'clock. Peter had no intention of eavesdropping on the conversation of several young people, and quickly got into his car.
Driving on a slightly empty street late at night, Peter began to think about the film review of "First Fear".
He feels that he can only score 6.5 points for this film at most, of which 0.5 points are still added by Edward Norton's performance. Still, Edward Norton's stunning performance doesn't make up for the film's overall mediocrity.
In order to pursue an O'Henry-style unexpected ending, the director deliberately added a lot of unnecessary details in the early stage of the film.
Although many comments in the media these days are talking about the reversal of the movie's ending, in Peter's view, this kind of deliberate pursuit of reversal is the biggest failure of the film.
If the film abandons this reversal from the beginning, then the director can tell a more compact thriller and suspense film based on Allen's multiple personality disorder, instead of spending a lot of space on paving the way for the final reversal ending.
Under these redundant foreshadowings, the movie did not have a plot conflict that could cheer people up until more than 70 minutes into the film. However, 70 minutes is enough to make 90% of people lose patience with the movie. You can see this from the girl named Michelle falling asleep in the theater just now.
Conceiving a film review article, Peter also felt that the manipulation of media public opinion on "Level One Fear" these days seemed a little too obvious, and even Peter had a premonition that Paramount might shoot himself in the foot this time. .
During Easter, in the entire Hollywood film market, only "Seven Deadly Sins" and "First Degree Fear" were able to attract people's attention. Due to the recent influence of the media, the popularity of both films is very high.
However, after the film was released on a large scale, many talents discovered that "First Fear" is far from being as good as the media commented, at least, it is far from being able to compare with "Seven Deadly Sins", which has a tight plot and interlocking plots.
The greater the expectation, the greater the disappointment.
The Internet has not yet been popularized on a large scale, and it is difficult for ordinary people to express their opinions. However, after the film is released on a large scale, media comments are no longer difficult to control.
"A failed work with a lengthy plot. Although Edward Norton's performance is wonderful, it can't reverse the mediocrity of the film as a whole. Compared with the interlocking and compact plot setting of "Seven Deadly Sins", I can't see it. Where is the beauty of the film."
"The director is obsessed with creating an unexpected O'Henry-style ending, but ignores whether the audience has enough patience to wait for two hours, just for an ending that will not bring them many surprises."
"It's hard to imagine that some people would compare this mediocre work with "Seven", undoubtedly the best thriller and suspense film in recent years since "The Silence of the Lambs", and "First Fear" "didn't surprise the audience with any surprises, aside from a solid performance by Edward Norton."
"..."
At the same time when the media comments broke out, Firefly also promptly stopped all small actions to manipulate the word-of-mouth of "First Fear", and lost the support of a large number of positive film reviews. style of slipping. Even some media who were originally optimistic about Edward Norton's performance, because of the hype of "First Fear" before the film's release, also had a backlash, and their comments on the film became more harsh.
The two films were released simultaneously on April 5. In the first three days, "Seven Deadly Sins" easily won the box office championship of the week with a box office of 13.9 million US dollars. Although the word-of-mouth of "Fear of the First Level" has declined rapidly, it still achieved a box office of more than 11.2 million US dollars in the first weekend by virtue of its topicality comparable to that of "Seven Deadly Sins".
Then, for a full week, "Seven" grossed $18.4 million. Although the word-of-mouth of "First Fear" has begun to collapse, the box office of "First Fear" still reached more than 15.5 million US dollars. Compared with the screening scale of the two sides with a difference of 600 screens, the average attendance rate of "First Fear" is not worse than that of "Seven Deadly Sins". How many.
Paramount was still a little worried that the bad reputation would affect the box office of "Level One Fear", but after seeing the first weekend's 11.2 million US dollars and the first week's total box office data of 15.5 million US dollars, it immediately felt at ease. At least, the topic hype in the early stage still played a very important role. Paramount originally estimated that the box office of the film in the first week was only about 12 million.
Most film practitioners understand the truth that the marketing scale of a film determines the starting point of its box office, but the word-of-mouth of a film determines the length of the film's box office curve.
Although the box office of "First Fear" in the first week is not much worse than that of "Seven Deadly Sins" due to the joint promotion with "Seven Deadly Sins", but as the word-of-mouth of the two films began to diverge rapidly, the subsequent box office curves of the two films also changed. Started very differently.
Relying on its strong reputation, the box office of "Seven Deadly Sins" fell by only a very weak 9.7% in the second week, reaching 16.6 million US dollars. The collapse of word-of-mouth for the movie "First Fear" has caused a 46% drop in the box office of this same type of thriller in the second week. 8.37 million, which is only half of that of "Seven Deadly Sins".
When the time came to the third week, the box office drop of "Seven Deadly Sins" was still only a miraculous 15%, and the box office reached 14.11 million US dollars. At this time, the weekly box office data of "First Fear" has been far behind. The rebellious psychology of turning from expectation to disappointment led to a sharp drop in the film's attendance rate again. In the third week, it only earned 4.77 million US dollars, which was almost a fraction of "Seven Deadly Sins". Edward Norton's wonderful performance was also affected by the film's reputation. , there is very little that is diluted.
Entering May, the box office of "Seven Deadly Sins" in the fourth week has remained at the tens of millions level, reaching 11.32 million US dollars. Although the box office decline of "Level One Fear" has begun to shrink, the weekly box office of 3.19 million US dollars also indicates that the film has entered the verge of falling.
During the four-week screening time, the cumulative box office of "Seven Deadly Sins" reached 60.43 million US dollars, while the total box office of "First Fear" was only 31.83 million US dollars, which can break through the cost line.
With the current box office curve, "Seven Deadly Sins" is destined to be able to survive the hot summer season, and it is not difficult to break through 100 million at the box office, but "First Fear" can only stay in theaters for at most two weeks.
So far, the two films are better and worse, and there is no suspense about the outcome.
It is worth mentioning that during the tit-for-tat process between "Seven Deadly Sins" and "First Degree Fear", "Red Fan District" silently persisted in North American theaters for six weeks, and finally accumulated a box office of 43 million US dollars. It was close to 50 million. However, the box office data also made the company very satisfied. New Line invested only 10 million US dollars in this film. The company will get more than 100% of the profit just by virtue of the box office share.
"Red Fan District" also received good reviews in the media, and Jack Cheng even won the title of the cutest action actor.
Subsequently, New Line also applied for a nomination for Best Fighting Scene for Jack Cheng at the upcoming MTV Movie Awards in June. However, in view of the discord between the release of "Seven Deadly Sins" and "First Fear", Jack Cheng wants to win this award, and the success rate is almost zero.
After all, MTV is a media owned by Viacom, and the two sides just tore it up, so how could anyone else give you the trophy.
What, fairness, stop making trouble. (To be continued.)