Luke Donald – Woohoo!
I have to open with some golfing related news. For those who don’t know, I have a love for both film AND golf. The two streams only seem to clash when they make a movie about golf (e.g. Happy Gilmore, Tin Cup) but that’s not very often.
Last Friday I was elected to the Board of Golf Queensland which is a great honour and will keep me busy promoting the game over the next two years. Should be fun.
Just as importantly, I stayed up until 3:30am on Sunday night / Monday morning to see Luke Donald win the BMW PGA Championship and become the new number 1 golfer in the world. Donald has been my favourite golfer for the past 6 years and I’ve followed him through highs and lows. It’s kind of hard to believe that he’s now the top ranked golfer in the world but it’s well deserved and I couldn’t be happier for him. I back him in every major so hopefully a U.S. Open trophy will adorn his mantelpiece in a few weeks time.
The Hangover: Part 2
Studios take fewer and fewer chances when it comes to sequels and never has that been more evident than with The Hangover: Part 2. It feels like a carbon copy of the original! The guys wake up in a filthy hotel room (this time in Bangkok) with no recollection of the previous night. One of them is missing and the rest have roughly 24 hours to track him down and make it to the wedding on time.
Has there ever been a sequel with such a similar plot? I can’t think of one off the top of my head. Let me say that I still enjoyed the film but I’m just surprised that it played it so “safe”.
The irony is that the film has made a ridiculous $137m in its first 5 days of release in the United States. It took $86m over the Friday to Sunday period and to put that into perspective, only two R-rated comedies have ever broken the $50m barrier – Sex & The City (if you can call that a comedy with $57m) and Jackass 3D (with $50.4m).
The numbers were similar here in Australia. The film took in $11.3m – the biggest 4-day opening for a film so far this year. It’s well beyond the $3.4m that was earned by the original film in its first 4 days.
I guess there’s a lesson to be learned here. If you’re a big Hollywood studio and you want guaranteed cash, stick with a winning formula. Don’t change anything!
Snowtown
It’s been dwarfed at the box-office by The Hangover 2 but I want to point out that the Snowtown is still performing strongly. I’m sure its controversial subject matter is contributing to people’s intrigue.
It dropped just 19% in its second weekend (that’s good, trust me) and has now earned $389,000 in its first 11 days. That’s pretty good for a movie showing on just 17 screens. By comparison, Pirates Of The Caribbean is on 600 screens.
I’m a fan of the film and so am very happy to see the Australian public getting behind it.
The Tree Of Life
I didn’t get a chance to mention it last week but Terrence Malick’s The Tree Of Life took the top prize, the Palm D’or, at the Cannes Film Festival. I’ve mentioned my keenness to see the film a few times and this will only add to the build up.
The reclusive Malick didn’t turn up to the ceremony to accept his prize but it turns out he was in attendance at the Cannes premiere. It looks like he made a concerted effort to avoid the camera but someone managed to snap a photo. You can check it out and a quick story on the Awards Daily website by clicking here.
A friend said it best with “privacy is the new celebrity”. The fact that we know so little about Malick (he hasn’t given an interview since 1973) and yet he’s such an acclaimed director only adds to his mystique and makes us want to know more.
The Tree Of Life is out on June 30 but the Palace Centro is offering a preview for its movie club members on June 17. If you’re not a member, now’s the time to join!