Image Credit: Joaquin AvellanBased on Friday’s returns, Machete, with $3.9 million, has cut off the competition so far, but the full weekend box-office report isn’t in yet. (There could well be a horse race for first place.) When the 1-2-3-4 slots are as closely lumped together as it appears they might be, it can be a challenge to look at the numbers and say what they really mean — assuming, that is, that they mean anything at all. (Sorry, but I’m not here to parse the metaphysics of pop-culture consumerism.) My gut analysis is this: Going the Distance (my favorite of the three films), which took in a scant $2.2 million on Friday, had a softer opening than it should have, and The American (my least favorite), which made $3.8 million, did stronger than I expected — a sure testament to George Clooney’s star power, but also, perhaps, to a genuine audience desire to seek out a quiet-cool, dramatically oblique ’70s-Euro-style thriller. What I want to know is this: How did you feel about these three films? Do you think I was too kind to Going the Distance? Or too hard on The American? (I wanted to like it; I just found it unconvincing on its own terms.)
And I’m especially curious about what people thought of Machete. In a strange way, Robert Rodriguez’s gory-witty badass-illegal-immigrant revenge thriller is two movies bundled in one. If you loved the now-classic, super-sly trailer for it in Grindhouse (“He just f—ed with the wrong Mexican!”), then you may well have gone in seeking out a rush of smart/dumb pulp-movie action that dances on the knife blade of parody. In a sense, though, the whole inside joke of Machete becoming a feature-length, wide-release movie is that a trailer conceived as knowing trash could now be expanded, a touch subversively, into a meat-and-potatoes lunkhead action movie for the same crowd that flocked to The Expendables — in other words, for a lot of people who might never dream of watching a movie like Grindhouse. I hope that we can at least agree on one thing: Danny Trejo (pictured above), as the brooding, monosyllabic slasher-stud Machete, rocks, rules, and does everything else that is awesome.
So who liked which movie? And why? And who disgrees with me about Going the Distance? Did it open soft because it didn’t fill the romantic-comedy bill, or because Drew Barrymore and Justin Long, charming as I think they are, still don’t pack the star power of a George Clooney?
Saw the American, liked it but didn’t think it was very original. It was beautifully shot though. Plan on seeing Machete tomorrow.
I saw The American and was very very disapointed in Goerge. The was movie was very slow and if I had wanted to see a porn I would have rented one. I am sad that our movies have gone this far to show this kind of to porn with no meaning at all. It had nothing to do with the story nor did it make the movie any better. As far as I am concerned I am ashamed that I went to the movie
Brenda
Stick to Marmaduke then, you ignorant prude. Its people like you, who are so easily offended and so rigid in their beliefs that are the enemy of art. It was an R rated movie obviously marketed toward adults, so STFU!
Distance was cutesie and boring and cliched and silly. I never laughed once, never questioned whether they would stay together, never even had a reason to care. I am seriously questioning Owen’s taste in movies lately.
Ohhhhh please…
I couldn’t agree more with you Brenda. We actually walked out. Art, what art! I couldn’t believe how slow this movie was. NOTHING happened seriously in the first hour! I really hated it!! DON’T BOTHER!!
AY YAYAY very disappointing movie (The American) very, very slow…some episodes have no meaning, I wonder if this movie was meant to the American audience?
The real Ceballos could’ve made the same point without being a complete a$$. Better luck next time.
Wow, ‘The American’ did much better then expected. Too bad that Clooney is still a show-off douche. Helping others instead of helping people in his own country. We’re suffering here Clooney, we’re suffering.
Criticizer – you crybaby bedwetting liberal. Waaa…help others in other countries instead of helping people here. Waaa!! Shut the F Up. Americans have every opportunity afforded them thanks to everyone from soldiers fighting abroad for our interests to outstanding workers fighting for a stable economy. You’re suffering? At your laptop sipping your coffee right? with your hipster beard and your hangover…you’re suffering. Someone should smack the smug off your face. Any american that is suffering needs to shut the f up and go to work…you lazy f’s.
“The American” was quite good. Those going to see it expecting to see a Jason Bourne film, will be disappointed – because it’s not that type of film. It has a few action sequences, that are well done, but not many – and that isn’t what the movie is about. It’s much more suspense/thriller and drama, and mystery, than an actioner. I actually liked it. In most films I find Clooney to be cloying – smug, and bobbleheaded. In this one, he has a grimness and a real vulnerability – he plays a hardened loner weary of the solitude, the loneliness, who awakens to a need for connectedness and even love. It’s a pretty good film, beautifully shot, and well acted by all involved. If you appreciate a film of this type, with a head on its shoulders, you’ll probably like it. If you’re wanting tons of action in a smart film in the action genre, rent a Bourne movie. If you’re wanting great over-the-top action that’s fun, with leading he-men, see The Expendables. If you want a brain-dead film with no entertainment value, with lousy writing acting and producing, see Machete.
Saw Machete last night. It was hilariously over the top, but in a good way. Non-stop violence and that’s even before the opening credits. The audience I was with even spontaneously burst into applause at the end. Sequels predicted, and even a series of films with Michelle Rodriguez headlining.
Machete was probably the most asinine, worthless, stupid film I have ever seen. In spite of being loaded (over-loaded) with mayhem, I was utterly bored throughout, nearly falling asleep. I wish I could think of a single redemptive quality it had, but it was pathetic. Wish I had those two hours and $7.50 back. With the usual abysmal “acting” performances by dullards like Jessica Alba (who couldn’t act her way out of a paper bag), and the equally incompetent Lindsay Lohan, whose career is probably well on its way down to the porn industry, did this movie ever have a chance to be even passable? What’s surprising is that even has-beens like Don Johnson and Cheech Marin would stoop to doing something like this. Jeff Fahey, I can understand – but Don Johnson didn’t need this. And to see American acting royalty like Robert DeNiro in trash like this, is just disheartening – what was he thinking? Ditto the lovely and talented Michelle Rodriguez, this was so beneath her. Because I had seen RobRod’s Desperado and Dusk ‘Til Dawn, both of which were great, I thought this might be at least passable, but it was just awful beyond words. How can anything this repulsive and offensive somehow fail to even be interesting? The film was even blasphemous, and still dull. The monosyllabic Danny Trejo was a complete dullard and bore as the so-called “leading man”..and I almost threw up a little when Jessica Alba was implausibly kissing this unattractive, haggard thug who is old enough to be her grandpa. The whole thing was just pathetic and dull and stupid. To see Steven Seagal fall to this, with his on-again, off-again “Hispanic” dialect, was so sad – he has fallen so far since Above The Law and Under Siege, etc., it just breaks my heart. What was he thinking when he turned down “The Expendables”, which was a far better film in every respect, for this trash?
“To see Steven Seagal fall to this, with his on-again, off-again “Hispanic” dialect, was so sad – he has fallen so far since Above The Law and Under Siege, etc., it just breaks my heart.”
What? Steven Seagal’s fall into bad acting breaks your heart? It can’t have been much of a fall, because to be able to fall, you have to be good at one point. and comically bad doesn’t count as good
Actually, given what he’s been doing lately (an A&E reality show that makes him look like a joke), I considered “Machete” to be a step UP for Seagal.
Greggyboy, you are not the target audience. Looks like you didn’t know what you were getting yourself into. If you’re not in on the joke, you won’t be laughing.
The American was good and Machete was crazy and awesome. hahah Lindsey Lohan
MACHETE WAS AWESOME. A CLASSIC…a CUT above the rest. Don’t walk…RUN to this movie!!!
Machete was a lot of fun.
It’s the over-the-top, action-packed movie The Expendables should have been.
Saw distance, dragged by the gf, going to see american tonight, distance blows, but most of drewbarrymore’s movies do.
Distance sucked!
There’s no love chemistry between Drew and Macguy on screen imo
not to say movie got push back to this week
so…
Machete for me
Robert De Niro Lindsay Lohan and Seagal best cast ever.
The only movie on my list to see is “Machete.” Partly because it stars a guy who usually plays a heavy (Danny Trejo) as the anti-hero. Plus, I loved the preview during “Grindhouse,” and totally wanted to see the movie. On the downside I’m not sure how many beheadings I can take. But, Rodriguez’s approach to this kind of movie is basically horror comic, so I might be able to handle it.
i know you didn’t grade inception, but if you had, what would you have given it?
I saw Going the Distance and was pleasantly surprised by how modern and fun the dialogue was and how they did not treat men and women as stereotypically as in other romantic comedies. It was really funny and Justin Long really surprised me. He is super cute too!! I hate Drew Barrymore but this is definitely better then most of the crap she has come out with over a couple of years so I think that everyone should go out and see the movie.
MACHETE!! Amazingly awesome in a cheesy yet crazy gory kinda way. GO SEE IT!!
Mr. Buttlefly And that prostitute were awesome. Machete, Lindsey, Michelle and Jessica wero funny Wow… The two were good movies i enjoy very much. machete was more entertaining.
Saw Machete. Totally enjoyed the show. That’s two we’ve seen in the last couple of weeks that where good. The expendiables and this one.
Yeah, it’s only Saturday, did anybody see all three movies?