ALLIGATORS IN A HELICOPTER

a pro script reader ponders movies, reading, writing and the occasional personal flashback

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

10,728... and counting.

Every once and a while, I crack my records to figure out how many pieces of paid coverage/notes I've written.

It's higher than the Dow, now.

Work is pretty steady. I'm actually working for a bunch of companies that give me a couple of things a week, so it generally adds up.

If I ever get to 20,000, though, I'm going to go on a killing spree.

*****

Though I haven't gone to an actual movie theater in way too long, I caught up with the Al Pacino film "88 Minutes" last night.

It occurred to me that if Pacino had died 20-30 years ago, we'd be talking about all the great movies he never got to make, all of the great performances he never got to give.

Unfortunately, Al keeps throwing his career under the bus, making bad movie after bad movie in which he seems to keep playing characters with the same basic arc: they get louder as the movie goes on.

I like him as an actor (in theory), and he's always interesting to watch, but he really needs to start making good movies again.

88 Minutes is the classic example of a movie in which the "why" of the character being run through a lot of hoops is really the central mystery. But at the end, when the "revelations" come, the why really doesn't make any real sense at all.

C'mon Al. Really.

******

At the box office this past weekend, the Chihuahuas won again, doing $17.5 million.

Quarantine did $14.2, while Body of Lies did only $12.8. Not great considering the budget was somewhere around $100 million (depending on who you ask).

The Express did poorly, at only $4.6 million despite being in a lot of theaters. The Duchess only found $3.3 million, while City of Ember limped in with only $3.1 million.

Rachel Getting Married, RockNRolla and Happy-Go-Lucky are all doing well in limited release.

4 Comments:

At 10:31 AM, Blogger Recovering Booth Rat said...

Pacino, DeNiro, Nicholson. Freeman. Just like for women, I don't think there are a ton of great roles out there for these icons. They're few and far between, as all four of them have pretty much sold out over the past ten years.

I would assume that's part of the reason that you never see Warren Beatty, Gene Hackman, or even Robert Redford unless he's also directing.

It's tough to criticize a guy or girl getting up there in years that just wants to put away some cash for when he's too old to work at all.

 
At 11:08 AM, Blogger Unknown said...

Happy-Go-Lucky is hilarious! Just saw it at the Warsaw film festival and it was great - like all Mike Leigh films (but this time less depressing). If the Academy could understand working class British accents (and not just posh ones) the main actress would be a shoe-in for best actress!

 
At 5:56 PM, Blogger E.C. Henry said...

Spot on with your comments on Al Pacino.

$100 million and it only did 12 million on its opening weekend?! Yikes! I feel for the studio that's taking that hit.

Glad to hear your work is going well. Doesn't surprice me that several companies are using your services. You are a very talented person, Scott. You need to post more often though...

- E.C. Henry from Bonney Lake, WA

 
At 10:53 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Al is supposed to be playing Salvador Dali in a bio pic which I think he will be great in

 

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