Comedians Being Serious – Jim Carrey

At this point, Jim Carrey has starred in a number of genuinely brilliant films where he gave amazing performances that stretched his range, whether that be comedic, dramatic or a mix of both. The two that particularly stand out to me are Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (for which everyone involved should have gotten an Oscar from the director to the fake dead bird) and The Truman Show. This was made in 1998 and followed a string of commercial successes in Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, The Mask, and Dumb and Dumber. The Jim Carrey from these films was an almost uncontrollable ball of energy, twisting his face into weird permutations, being incredibly loud and behaving ridiculously. Jim Carrey’s career trajectory would have been to star in more wacky comedies until people got bored. Instead, Carrey did something very different – he starred in The Truman Show. Truman is a quiet, sensitive and kind man, put upon by various pressures in his life, yearning after a lost love he cannot understand. The only moments of manic Carrey come in what are played as distressing and upsetting moments, not comedy. It is a revelatory performance.

Franchises

For this, we have the child stars of Daniel Radcliffe, Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart. Radcliffe as Harry Potter, Pattinson and Stewart as Edward and Bella in the Twilight series. They spent years at the beginning of their careers playing one character, often in films that were not well-received outside the fanbase. Stewart and Pattinson in particular have been on a mission to break the stereotype of franchise star to serious actor. One of Stewart’s first films after this franchise was Camp X-Ray, where she played a soldier based at Guantanamo Bay. The same year the final Twilight film was released Pattinson was in Cosmopolis, a David Cronenberg film, which is enough of a description to know that it would be a very different film to Twilight. Radcliffe seems to have gone down the route of not doing as much but just whatever interests him; popping up in odd roles like Swiss Army Man or Guns Akimbo, starring in the not-as-well-known-as-it-should-be Weird: the Al Yankovic Story.

Romantic Comedies

Few people are having a better third act of their career than Hugh Grant. Grant rose to fame in Four Weddings and a Funeral and then spent years starring in romantic comedies about befuddled Englishmen. At some point though something seems to have snapped in Grant leading him to take very different roles. In Paddington 2 (which let’s not forget is a contender for the greatest film ever made) he plays a thieving cad, in Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Amongst Thieves he also plays a thieving cad, in the recently released Heretic he is neither a rom-com lead or thieving cad but is quietly terrifying in the trailer of this horror movie.

Sandra Bullock was one of the most well-known actors in the world and this was for mainly appearing in rom-coms. She starred in, amongst others, While You Were Sleeping, Hope Floats, Two Weeks Notice, and The Lake House. In fairness some of these rom-coms have a surprising amount going on in terms in plot – so The Lake House features time travel letter writing and While You Were Sleeping through a convoluted turn of events Bullock pretends to be the fiancé of a man in a coma. IMDb lists her nicknames as America’s Sweetheart and The Girl Next Door. And then she won an Oscar for The Blind Side. Sandra Bullock was always a very good actor but after The Proposal it didn’t seem likely she would soon win an Oscar. Bullock went on to make Gravity essentially being without any other actors, let alone romantic interests for the whole film.

Nice British People

It is hard to think of a more complete transformation than Hugh Laurie playing Prince George in Blackadder to Hugh Laurie in House. Along with Stephen Fry, Laurie had cultivated an impeccably English idiot comedy persona, a meticulous work of cultural understanding of being English. And then he played Gregory House a doctor so mean and unpleasant they really shouldn’t have let him be a doctor anymore. Matthew Macfadyen was another nice British actor – he played Mr. Darcy for God’s sake – who then went over to Hollywood and played Tom Wambsgans in Succession a cruel bullying obnoxious caricature of a person who’s saving grace is only that he never personally murdered someone. Then Olivia Colman who for twenty or so years was an excellent sitcom actor, Peep Show, 2012, Rev and so on, and it’s not to say her acting isn’t brilliant in Peep Show but she is now working on a different scale.

Also Read: 1994: The Year of Jim Carrey

The post When Actors Break Free From Stereotypes appeared first on Big Picture Film Club.

What are Stand-Alone Movies, Anyway?

A stand-alone movie is a film that is made as a single body of work. The story, characters or fictional world of these movies are not part of a franchise. There’s no doubt that there’s a certain artistry to be able to tell a complete story in the span of one film. While serial films are amazing in their own right, not every story is meant to be dragged out for as long as possible.

As recently as the 90s, stand-alone movies were the norm. They were everywhere, from romances like Sleepless in Seattle (1993) to gritty dramas like The Shawshank Redemption (1994). While they definitely still exist, they are in a clear decline. Almost every recent hit movie is part of a franchise or a cinematic universe. Fast and Furious has endured 10 instalments and Spiderman: Across the Universe is the second of a planned trilogy. Even the recent Barbie blockbuster is rumoured to be the beginning of a toy-inspired Mattel cinematic universe.

How did we get to this point? The answer is simple; money.

Movie Industry Capitalism

Don’t get me wrong, stand-alone films definitely make money. Some of the biggest blockbusters in history were stand-alone films. Movies like E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial (1982) and Inception (2010) have had an immense cultural impact while still putting money in the bank. That being said, the last couple of years have had the highest box office revenue from franchises in history. Although franchises have been a thing since at least the 70s, they really hit their rhythm in the last 15 years.

In the early 2000s, serial films like Fast and Furious and Harry Potter proved that it was possible to draw out movies for longer than was previously expected, and it raked in millions. And then Marvel changed the game with the popularisation of the cinematic universe. A studio just needs to build one good fictional world and the number of films you can put in it is endless. This brings in far more revenue because fans are compelled to watch every movie in the set.

As profits increased, studios started expecting higher profit margins than before. 10% profit used to be a solid expectation, but studios are now going for 30% or higher. This makes them more inclined to opt for franchises and cinematic universe films that are guaranteed to bring in money at the cinemas. With the introduction of streaming and the death of the DVD, the box office is the main source of income for film studios. Consequently, most of their funding goes to guaranteed commercial box office hits. Indie studios struggling to create a few stand-alone films every year are suffocated against the monopoly of big studios making franchises. Stand-alone movies pale in comparison when the main metric is profit.

So Where Does That Leave Us?

With the focus now on franchises and cinematic universes, stand-alone films have hit the same decline as mid-budget movies. Cinema is an extremely expensive art form, and without funding, movies simply aren’t made. Unfortunately, commercial success is often at odds with artistic diversity and creativity. Without less and less stand-alone movies, the industry is characterised by films that sell, and not necessarily films that are good. While recent strikes in the film industry might destabilise the status quo, it will take a huge economic shift for stand-alone movies to come back into vogue.

Also Read: Did High-End TV Replace The Mid-Budget Indie Film?

The post Single and Outnumbered: Stand-Alone Films in the Era of Cinematic Empires appeared first on Big Picture Film Club.

So let’s look at six movies from different genres that either tried to start or continue a franchise. And we will look at the various reasons why these films failed to spark enthusiasm for their brands. 

1. Dredd (Comic Book Movie)

Dredd proves that not all failed franchise starters are bad. Following Judge Dredd and rookie Judge Anderson on a mission to bring down the head of a Highrise crime syndicate, the film was a gloriously fun and violent alternative to most comic book movies of the time. Unfortunately, Judge Dredd was too obscure a character for mainstream audiences. Along with this, it had generally poor marketing which meant it didn’t make its budget back. Many critics also derided it for having a similar plot to “The Raid“. Nevertheless, Dredd gained a loyal cult following whose hopes for a franchise will never be dashed. 

2. Halloween 3: Season of The Witch (Horror)

After definitively ending Michael Myers’ story in Halloween 2 the producers decided to make the series into an anthology. With each entry telling a different Halloween-themed story. This time focusing on an evil businessman’s plans to destroy the youth of America using masks that kill the wearers when a certain advert is watched. But this attempted change failed. Audiences were confused by the lack of Michael Myers, critics saw it as generally bad and it made less than either of its predecessors. Because of this lack of success, the anthology franchise was scrapped in favour of reviving Myers. A disappointing end for an amazing idea. 

3. Batman and Robin (Superhero)

The film that killed the Batman film franchise for almost a decade. Despite being a fun romp about the ever-growing Bat-Family working together to beat Mr. Freeze and Poison Ivy, it was despised by audiences and critics. With reasons ranging from the change of tone from the darker Tim Burton films to the inclusion of aesthetics more potentially appealing to LGBTQIA audiences. This outcry and the overall poor financial reception led to the cancellation of the planned sequel “Batman Unchained“. Ending the then-current Batman series until the Batman Begins reboot 8 years later.

4. The Last Airbender (Fantasy)

Avatar: The Last Airbender is one of the most beloved animated shows ever made. And Nickelodeon Movies certainly hoped its success would translate to film. A three-movie series following the tale of Airbender Aang and his companions was planned. Unfortunately, The Last Airbender underperformed in cinemas, and it displeased everyone. Fans hated the film’s handling of the show’s story. And casual viewers, as well as critics, found the film to be a poorly put-together slog. Snuffing out any hope of the live-action films continuing.

5. John Carter (Sci-fi)

Nothing quite kills a potential franchise like being one of the biggest box office flops of all time. Despite having a middling rather than a hostile reception by audiences and critics John Carter lost over £87 million during its run, which ended any hope for future adaptations of John Carter’s adventures on Mars. According to writer Michael Sellers, the marketing sank the film by not driving home connection to its book source material. Ironically saying the film would have faired better if it was more open about its intentions to start a franchise.

6. Carry On Columbus (Comedy)

The Carry On films were never high art and by today’s standards contain more than a few offensive moments and attitudes. But they always found a way to entertain audiences with their double entendres and funny performances. Until Carry On Columbus. The 31st series entry follows the fictionalised life of the eponymous coloniser. It was released 14 years after Carry On Emmanuel (itself quite poorly received). The film flopped. Additionally, it failed with audiences and was dubbed the “worst British film ever” in a 2004 British film workers’ poll. We have seen no other series entries since. It’s safe to say the series ended because the world had moved on from Carry On’s brand of comedy.

Those are just a few movies that sent their franchises to the grave. Did we miss any big franchise killers? Please let us know.

Also Read: How To Revive A Franchise After Many Years

The post Film Franchise Graveyard: Movies That Killed Off Their Own Franchise appeared first on Big Picture Film Club.