Tuesday, November 21, 2006

Tenacious drink

According to Box Office Mojo, The Fountain will open on over 1,400 movie screens in North America this Thanksgiving weekend, while about 1,800 screens will showcase Tenacious D in: The Pick of Destiny. While neither film is getting the standard, full scale, 3,000 screen release, these numbers are still remarkably high. I've seen advanced screenings of both, and while each are mercifully short, they have very limited appeal to general audiences.

The Fountain is esoteric and uncompromising. Anything else I say gets complicated: Hugh Jackman plays 2-3 characters (depending on your interpretation; I say 2) who seek a medicinal or spiritual means to live and love forever with Isabel (Rachel Weisz). It takes place in the 16th, 21st, and 26th centuries. Waiting for plot development requires extreme patience. And Hugh Jackman has perfect teeth. (I'll save the spoiler discussion for the comments, if anyone is interested.)

Tenacious D in: The Pick of Destiny really tests one's tolerance for Jack Black. His hyperactive antics and ego are on full display here, and there are times when I wondered if he was acting or just being himself. There's a fairly funny all-musical intro featuring some welcome vocals by Meat Loaf, who plays the father (above, left). Things spiral downward after that. Of course, my appreciation of Tenacious D was tempered by the fact that I wasn't on any drugs during the sneak preview. (I can't imagine what spoiler discussion could take place in the comments, but go ahead.)

4 comments:

K-Lyn said...

I wanted to see both but with questionnable reviews they both get relagated to the NetFlix queue.

I'm going to see Bond...

Neel Mehta said...

I saw Casino Royale last weekend. Bottom line: good at times, questionable at others. Eva Green is terrific. Daniel Craig is a good actor, but still too ugly to play Bond, even in an origin story.

K-Lyn said...

I concur...if he had been a little hotter it would have been the best Bond ever. Still, I did not hate him as I expected to. I thought Vespar was awesome!!

pilgrimchick said...

I'll have to say that I have already reached my "Jack Black" tolerance level given he does the same thing in every movie he is in. As for the Fountain, I really didn't know what to think of it--I see that as a "rent that as a backup if you and your date can't agree on something" movie.