Movie Nation

“Insurgent” is going to make a lot of money this weekend for Summit. The “Hunger Games” formula seems bulletproof — well-cast but middling sci-fit dystopia rescued by a young heroine. But they’ve never put the directors, screenwriters or polish on either of these series that match the money they make from them.

So “Insurgent” isn’t opening as big as “Divergent,” which was a little worse than most of the “Hunger Games” pictures. It’ll do $47 million this weekend, a 10% drop (more or less) from “Divergent.” Our teens are growing up. Or getting over this glut of copy cat sci-fi.

It’s doing well, it’s not blowing anything up. Maybe the next film will seal the deal. Or? They’re getting over it.

Sean Penn will likely draw better overseas with “The Gunman.” Half decent CIA assassin being hunted, some politics about corporations killing and manipulating foreign policy, it’s set to hit $5.5 to $6.

“Do You Believe” is a Christian film opening on a lot of screens, and looks to clear $3 -3.7 million over the weekend.

“Cinderella” is losing 60% of its audience, “Run All Night” even more, “Kingsman” is well over $100 million, “Focus” looks like it will finish its run short of $60.

Hard to work up a lot of enthusiasm for this week’s big screen offerings.

“Insurgent” never overcomes the cynical hackwork “commissioned” YA novel —  cut and paste formula fiction without an original thought in it — that was its source. Robert Schwentke’s film is more straight action, which doesn’t hide characters who are cardboard cutouts by design. I like Naomi Watts and Octavia Spencer’s inclusion in it, and the twists in the third act.

But “Natural” Girl Next Door Shailene Woodley has discovered makeup, and lip gloss.  The Revolution will never be the same. Widely panned, “Insurgent Daughter of Divergent” will swallow up the box office, but not be a red letter entry on anybody’s resume.

Will it clear $50 million? Probably.

Sean Penn doesn’t work often, but the chance to shoehorn in some of his big political worries — Corporate Collusion in Third World exploitation, CIA manipulation of governments to benefit Big Corp –– in a formula hitman thriller got his interest.

“The Gunman” has solid action beats, decent characterizations, predictable conclusion. I think the mid-60s Alfa Romeo Giuletta that he “borrows” to make an inconspicuous get away steals the movie, and stops it dead in its tracks. Panned pretty much across the board.

“Tracers” may be the Not awful, him or the movie,last chance Taylor Lautner has to star in an action pic.  Not awful, him or the movie, but his box office appeal is gone baby gone and this limited release is all we need to know about his declining fortunes.

The best reviewed limited release of the weekend is a “Fargo” tribute, “Kumiko the Treasure Hunter.” Sort of a film festival favorite, it’s about a young Japanese woman confused into hunting for the ransom cash she sees buried in the snows of Minnesota in the movie “Fargo.” Daft, deft, dark.

“Do You Believe” is one of those movies that turns Christian filmmakers into liars. As in, “We can’t screen this for critics, it’s not ready.” Liars. It is opening in over 1300 theaters, is from the same people who made the angry, victimhood embracing “God’s Not Dead.” It could do well, but the Christians releasing it are liars.

Junk horror (“Ghoul”) and horror spoofs (“Zombeaver,” “The Walking Deceased”) also flesh out a weekend where not a lot is opening wide. Wish I’d seen The Police documentary, but you cannot get to them all.

If Hollywood was to adopt “The Walking Deceased” business model, they’d never spend another dime on actors, known writers and L.A. film crews for a horror spoof.
It would be the end of the “Scary Movie” phenomenon, as we know it.
Because “Walking Deceased,” a broad, low parody of “The Walking Dead,” “Zombieland,” “Warm Bodies,” “28 Days Later” and the entire career of George A. Romero, is no worse than most of those.
If you’ve ever seen a zombie movie or TV series, you’ll get the jokes — such as they are.
There’s a nerdy, virginal kid (writer Tim Ogletree) who narrates the story and gives us the “rules” of zombie land. He hooks up with a survivor of the zombie apocalypse dressed and acting like Woody Harrelson and calling himself “Chicago” (Joey Oglesby). Last name? “Style Pizza.”
“Romeo” (Troy Ogletree) is a “vegan zombie,” dreamily staggering through a Texas mall where survivors have gathered, narrating his romantic narration in his head.
“It’s hard to push open sliding doors with zero motor skills.”
Then there are the siblings, Brooklyn (Sophia Taylor Ali) and the nonspeaking Harlem (Danielle Garcia).
Deputy Sheriff Lincoln, who has survived a month-long coma, hunts for his son, whom he insists on calling “Karl” when his name is “Chris.” Two “Walking Dead” gags in one. Andrew Lincoln plays Deputy Grimes on “The Walking Dead.”
The funniest thing in the film may be the kid’s survival strategy. He’s running a strip club, with zombies and his momma pole dancing for tips.
It seemed wittier on the page, with the Romeo/Romero puns and know-the-credits jokes with names and characters. Strictly low-hanging fruit, even for a lame horror parody. But after seeing it, you really do wonder if Hollywood will ever make another if they can do no worse with no budget attempts like this.

MPAA Rating: unrated, nudity, graphic violence, language

Cast: Tim Ogletree, Joey Oglesby, Sophia Taylor Ali, Troy Ogletree, Dave Sheridan
Credits: Directed by Scott Dow, written by Tim Ogletree. An Arc Entertainment release.

Running time: 1:23

Since we’ve seen this killer’s blackouts and dizzy spells, viewed his X-rays and heard a doctor tell him to avoid any more concussions, head trauma or even loud noises, we know what constitutes “stupid.”
But naturally, that’s exactly what Jim Terrier (Sean Penn) does, a guilt-ridden man whose efforts to atone for his past sins count for nothing when those sins come home to roost.
In “The Gunman,” Penn shoehorns a few of his pet causes — non-governmental aid organizations (NGOs), CIA interference in the Third World and multi-national corporate misconduct — onto an utterly conventional assassin-hunted-by-assassins thriller.
It works better than it should, because the high mileage Penn playing a high mileage killer is an easy fit, and Penn’s got chops.
But “Gunman” plays like a vanity project for an actor long past his vanity project age. With every shirtless moment (he even surfs, in the Congo), every dramatic drag on his ever-present cigarette, every scene with the do-gooder doctor who “got away” (Jasmine Trinca), Penn tests our reserve of good will.
Terrier was the trigger man in the team shooting of a Congolese official who was interfering with rapacious multi-national mineral corporations. Eight years later, he’s digging wells to get fresh water for the villages there. And that’s when assailants show up to get him.
Revenge? A desire for his silence? Terrier makes improbable escapes, implausible ones and preposterous ones as he ventures from London to Barcelona and Gibraltar is search of answers.
Winstone’s the old pal, Javier Bardem plays the old romantic rival who “got the girl.” Mark Rylance is a savvy old colleague and a mysterious Idris Elba flicks away at a pricey cigarette lighter, not revealing his hand until the third act.
I like the hard-boiled dialogue, even the preachier stuff.
“Not all of us wanted to turn our sin into profit.” “Do you keep a diary of all the horror we created?”
Bardem and Rylance stand out in the cast, with Elba and Winstone reduced to set-dressing roles. Penn does his best Liam Neeson in the lead, a hard “ex special forces” type who wipes out whole teams of killers in assorted lovely Spanish settings. The violence is very bloody and personal, and Penn has never had trouble conveying violence.
But the only novelty here is those settings as characters slip into stock “types” and the hard-boiled lines devolve into big speeches, delivered at gunpoint, by hero to villains, and vice versa.
Penn doesn’t work much, and this idea of combining his two careers — as actor, producer and co-writer, and as humanitarian — may have its heart in the right place. But take away the preaching, and this is just Penn’s version of a late-career Mel Gibson movie. He should be better than this.

MPAA Rating: R for strong violence, language and some sexuality

Cast: Sean Penn, Javier Bardem, Jasmine Trinca, Idris Elba, Mark Rylance, Ray Winstone
Credits: Directed by Pierre Morel, written by Don MacPherson, Pete Travis and Sean Penn, based on a Jean-Patrick Manchette novel.
An Open Road release.

Running time: 1:55

Taylor Lautner squanders a little more of his “Twilight” heat on “Tracers,” a B-movie thriller built around the urban obstacle course sport of “parkour.” It’s a stunt-heavy chase picture with some arresting camera work, but not much else to recommend it.
Lautner is Cam, a wildly-skilled bicycle messenger with more than his share of bad luck. He’s lost his parents, is in hock to some Chinatown loan sharks (Johnny M. Wu, Sam Medina) and behind on his rent. Then some parkour-crazed hottie (Marie Avgeropoulos) causes a crash that crushes his bike.
She crushes on Cam and gives him a new bike. He tracks her down, and that’s when he falls in with her crew, guys (Rafi Gavron, Adam Raynor, Luciano Acuna Jr., Josh Yadon) who skitter up walls, scamper over rooftops, hurtle cars and leap, balcony to balcony in an effort to prove they can cover the shortest distance between two points — parkour. It’s also called “free running” and “tracing.” That’s what Cam learns.
It took four screenwriters to concoct this “Point Break” style story, with Miller (Raynor) as the group’s leader and guru.
“There are no limits, my friend, only plateaus.” “The real obstacles aren’t out there. They’re in your head.”
These practitioners use their parkour for heists, one of which is staged with a little verve (the rest, not so much). Cam, with reservations, joins in the lucrative fun.
Lautner seems to do enough of his own stunts to have credibility on a bike or clambering down a wall. He’s charismatic enough to make this work, and director Daniel Benmayor (“Paintball”) has the camera crew chase him through some scenes, an invigorating touch.
But the limp, derivative script and thin supporting cast work against “Tracers.” There’s little heft to the villains, little spark with the leading lady and not much to recommend this aside from those chases and Lautner’s mastery of some of the stunts.

MPAA Rating: PG-13 on appeal for some intense violence, perilous action, sexual content and language

Cast: Taylor Lautner, Marie Avgeropoulos, Rafi Gavron, Adam Rayner, Johnny M. Wu
Credits: Directed by Daniel Benmayor, script by Leslie Bohem
Matt Johnson, Kevin Lund, T.J. Scott . A Lionsgate release.

Running time: 1:34

Octavia Spencer has spent the years since her 2012 Oscar night cashing in on the success “The Help” brought her.
She was the mother of a police shooting victim in the critically acclaimed “Fruitvale Station,” an alcoholic helping a much younger drunk change her life in “Smashed,” the fatalistically brave Tanya in the fanboy favorite “Snowpiercer,” the formative aunt in James Brown’s childhood in “Get on Up” and an enterprising mom who somehow raised a crackhead in “Black or White.” She headlined the cult TV series “Red Band Society.”
That’s a pretty good career, and that’s just the last three years.
“I’m very lucky to have great representation at WME (William Morris Endeavor),” the Best Supporting Actress winner says, as if giving another Oscar speech. “That’s their charge, to procure the most interesting work for me. That’s all I want. And they’re doing it, aren’t they?”
Critic fans such as Jackie Cooper of The Huffington Post admire her ability to “not rest on her laurels” and take low-paying, challenging films which “keep her relevant” and ensure she’ll “be around for a long time to come.”
But her newest film? Not low budget, not “indie.” She did “Insurgent,” the second film in the “Divergent” series, for love.
“Listen, there is no bigger fan,” Spencer admits. “I didn’t care what I played. I was just excited to be doing a part in a series that I really enjoyed as a reader. Not quite ‘Erudite’ of me, I know. But I’m such a fangirl!”
Spencer is Joanna, motherly leader of “Amity” in a post-Apocalyptic future where society has re-started, organized into “factions.” The smart, rational types are in “Erudite,” the truth-tellers are “Candor,” the fearless fighters are “Dauntless,” and so on. Spencer, the 44 year-old Alabama-born fangirl, has given some thought as to what Faction this future might sentence her.
“If they forced me into a Faction, they might give me credit for enough wisdom to be in Erudite, the selflessness of Abnegation. You hope that you can be Dauntless in your most fearful moments. And yes, I have Candor. Oh YES. Funny, but that was Joanna’s first Faction, before she moved to Amity. I have Amity. I can be easy to get along with.”
Spencer laughs at her intimate familiarity with the jargon and the world set-up in Veronica Roth’s novels.
“We’re all a little too complicated, as people, to fit into one Faction, aren’t we? And me? I must be DIVERGENT! Or ‘Factionless.'”
She’s too busy to be pigeon-holed, too much the polymath. The end of March sees her second children’s novel in the “Randi Rhodes, Ninja Detective” series come out. And she was an unexpected star of last month’s Oscars, even though she wasn’t nominated. Host Neil Patrick Harris enlisted her to watch a locked briefcase where he allegedly hid his picks for all the Oscar winners.
“Not planned, at least on my part,” Spencer laughs. “That was fun, getting all that camera time for that ‘bit.’ I thought it was hilarious.”
So she’s not leery of getting that seat a little too close to the stage on future Oscar nights? Even if none of these critically-acclaimed performances find their to an envelope?
“Honey, if you go to the Oscars and you’re NOT sitting in the front row, that’s a reason to stay home.”

George Lucas was once quoted as saying “Figure out what 11 year old girls want, and you’re set for life.” Or words to that effect.

That’s certainly true in the land of Disney Princesses. “Cinderella” opened huge Friday and seems headed for a $70 million weekend.

Sure, it’s a laugh-starved, stately stiff of a movie. Reviews were respectful (I thought it a 2 hour bore), but unless word of mouth pounds it, and little girls don’t tweet hate like teen girls do, it will perform.

Liam Neeson has one more “hard man rescues his kid” thriller in him as “Run All Night” jogs to a respectable $11-12 million.

The new film with the killer per screen average is TWC/Radius’s “It Follows,” a horror film that will only see limited release before switching to VOD. That’s a mistake. It’s good, it’ll draw since the word is out. The Weinsteins, leaving box office money on the table? They’re losing their touch.

The crappy “Chappie” is falling off, and the Vince Vaughn comedy “Unfinished Business” has fallen off the table.