Is This Something?

Kevin Costner's two part (at least!) would-be epic western opens today:

Part one opens today, part two in August. And they're already filming part three in Utah. Costner intends to make it a four parter.

Assuming any of these make money.

Then again, he's largely funding this with his own Mad Stacks of money. Maybe he's willing to do part four even if the first three parts wind up losing him money.

Is it any good? This British reviewer says it is.

Good news! Remember the film everyone keeps begging Hollywood to make? The one that returns to old-fashioned values of layered storytelling and real-world spectacle? Created by a seasoned, impassioned artist rather than a soulless business model? That goes out of its way to cater to the older audiences typically not that well-served outside of awards season? And in which voguish political agendas are nowhere to be found? That film? Well, someone has finally made it. And the industry is convinced it's going to flop.

Kevin Costner's uber-traditional western epic Horizon: An American Saga canters into cinemas this Friday, following a much-memed premiere last month at Cannes. (It received a seven-minute standing ovation, during which the stoic face of its director and star grew streaked with manly tears.) The film is its director-star's first foray behind the camera in 21 years -- and by all accounts, he was prompted by the success of the contemporary western streaming series Yellowstone, in which he starred until recently, and which in the United States draws more than 12 million regular viewers.

Unfortunately, though, that audience doesn't yet appear to have bought many tickets. According to the latest figures, Horizon is likely to take around $10 million at the US box office on its opening weekend: around a fifth of Bad Boys: Ride or Die's opening a few weeks ago, and two thirds of the gen-Z love triangle tennis drama Challengers. Here in Britain, where westerns are relatively niche, that suggests it is likely to open on the wrong side of the talismanic 1m [pounds] mark.

...

Studios are less willing than ever to underwrite big swings, as Costner found to his literal cost. He sunk $38 million of his own money into Horizon, and scared up the rest of its $100 million-plus budget from private investors. That means if it bombs, a lot of spreadsheety types will look back at Hollywood's recent creatively conservative swerve and think to themselves: phew, smart move.

Here's something: While the Indian characters are written with depth and humanity, the film does not resort to liberal virtue signalling about it:

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Horizon's ambling pace and classical perspective were both sticking points at Cannes -- especially when an Apache raid on Frances's township is portrayed as a straightforwardly savage attack, without any of the anti-colonial karmic rib-prodding you might expect in 2024. The film's Native American characters are written and played with as much depth as its white ones, but its lack of overt moral signposting here did feel like an intentional bucking by Costner and his co-writer Jon Baird of current Hollywood mores.

These sorts of choices should intrigue us. But for a younger generation of critics and cinema-goers, who are used to having films' messages spelled out for them, and drawn from an approved list, they can be reason enough to write them off.

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Hollywood take note. On the surface, Costner's film might be a misty-eyed throwback, but it's just the sort of thing that drives cinema forward.

I'm debating whether or not to see it. I like Costner's westerns. I am a big fan of Wyatt Earp, which is an epic about not just Earp and the OK Corral but of all the old west and its various heroes. I think people got hung up on the fact that Costner tried to play Earp as a sixteen year old, and yeah, he was way too old for that, but what are you going to do? He was telling Earp's life story, not just the bit about the Clantons and Cowboys, so he could either cast another actor who looked little like him, or play the young Earp himself.

Did everyone believe the actor with the completely different facial structure playing Clark Kent at 16 suddenly turned in Christopher Reeve playing Clark Kent at 21? No, no one did.

It's a movie. You need a little suspension of disbelief, yeah?

Open Range was good, too.

On the other hand, it's three hours long, and I don't mean part one is 90 minutes and part two is 90 minutes. I mean part one is 181 minutes long.

TJM just linked this: Mark Wahlberg in Flight Risk. Directed by Mel Gibson. I do like a plane thriller. Ooh, Mark Wahlberg is the villain. Plot twist. And he seems to be having a lot of fun with it.

Robert Zmeckis directed another special-effects-heavy drama, again with Tom Hanks. It uses de-aging technology to show the progress of time, with Tom Hanks going from Bosom Buddies age to Joe Biden age.

Eh. I mean, it's a cute gimmick, but what do I care?

How about this one? Is this something?

On one hand, Hugh Grant is really leaning in to what he calls the "Scoundrel Phase" of his career, and he's great at it. I like the girls, I like how they figure out they're in danger (he says there's a pie in the oven, but one girl notices all he's done is lit a blueberry pie scent candle). And the premise is interesting.

But can you trust Hollywood not to make a movie that winds up asking the question, "Sure, this guy is a vicious murderous psychopath, but who's the real lunatic here? The psychopathic killer, or the Christians who believe in God? Hmmm? Hmmmm?!"

I don't really trust it. I don't think that Huge Grant would sign up for a movie like that, but then, I also didn't think that my former favorite Doctor would become a mad proponent of child mutilation, and tell one of the only black women in Parliament to "shut up" because she's sounding notes of caution on experimental trans surgeries.

Here he is accepting an award from the (checks notes) "British LGBT" organization, for the (checks notes) "Best Ally" award.

More of pro-child-mutilation zealot David Tennant here.

WTF is wrong with Scotland? And Ireland? And the UK?

They've always been more leftwing and "progressive" than the US, and they've prided (pun intended) themselves on that. So now they see the US going absolutely insane, and they all think, "Wow, if we want to keep virtue signalling as sicker than the US, we've really got to up our game!"

On August 30, Reagan premieres. Dennis Quaid says he supports Trump so maybe this won't be a hatchet job.

posted by Disinformation Expert Ace at 04:33 PM

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