Mr. Floppy 01.05.08: Sunshine

Posted by Peter Bielik on 01.05.2008

How can a movie this good flop so bad?

Now, the year has ended and everybody is going wild with their Top 10s and whatnots. I won't do that since I still wasn't able to see many films from the end of the year that I wanted to see (No Country for Old Men, American Gangster, There Will Be Blood) so the list wouldn't be worth much. With that said, I'm going to join in the fun of predicting the year 2008 just like many good people on many websites do. To go with the mood of this column, I'm not going to write about films I'm looking forward to, but films I think are going to bomb in spectacular fashion.




So here are the 5 films I expect to aspire for the Mr. Floppy award in 2008 (I don't rule out however, that except for no. 5, the movies might make decent money):

5. In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale

Budget: $40,000,000

Now this is a no-brainer. Anytime maestro Uwe Boll sits behind the camera, magic happens. Very dark magic, that is. I don't expect this to be any different and just like previous Boll efforts, I fully expect this to BOMB completely.
What's really headscratching however, is the answer to the question- Who the fuck is giving Boll the money to make his films?!! I mean seriously- all of his previous films stunk worse than my uncle's armpit and made NO money whatsoever, yet his budgets continue to rise. $40 million? What the fuck?!
Right now, I'm fully behind the idea that Boll has compromising information about someone VERY high in the 20th Century Fox. There is simply no other explanation.

4. Mamma Mia!

Budget: $90,000,000

Yes, the musical itself is famous, yes the song by ABBA is famous too (even though it sucks), but releasing this right in the middle of the summer? And on the same weekend that one of the most anticipated films of next year, The Dark Knight is released? That doesn't sound like a good business move to me. The odd pairing of Pierce Brosnan and Meryl Streep might be interesting, but I don't think this can turn into a big success. Plus, I think the budget is way too generous for a movie like this.

3. Jumper

Budget: $100,000,000

Now I'm not in the Hayden Christensen hate camp (I think he did a good enough job in Star Wars--certainly no worse than Mr. Meat Face, Mark Hamill himself), but this doesn't look very appealing. The entire teleportation idea is OK, but I'm afraid the trailer showed us all the fun tricks that can be done with it and it was tiring already. The plot looks extremely cliched and Samuel L. Jackson looks like a friggin' idiot with the white hair. And just like the previous number- if the budget was lower, it might look more promising, but 100 million dollars? For a movie starring Hayden Christensen as a guy teleporting himself? If I had to bet money on a film flopping, it'd probably be this one.

2. The Spiderwick Chronicles

Budget: $100,000,000

OK, I'm starting to grow REALLY fucking tired of the fantasy films. I didn't even like Lord of the Rings that much and have enjoyed only Stardust since then, but this is getting out of hand. And judging by the lukewarm response to Eragon, Stardust and Golden Compass- other people aren't that fantasy-hungry either.
Another thing I have to ask is---aren't ANY other boy actors out there, other than Freddie Highmore? This guy is getting seriously overexposed to the point where even Haley Joel Osment is shaking his head.

I hope this f'n flops and ends the fantasy parade once and for all.

1. Valkyrie

Budget: $80,000,000 (so far)

I still somehow can't imagine who exactly might be interested in seeing Tom Cruise portray a Nazi.
The HUGE problem this film has (at least for me) is that it's in English. Really, authenticity is sometimes very important (just ask Mel Gibson, if he's sober, he'll tell you) and making a film about an assassination attempt on Adolf Hitler by german officers seem like just the occassion. The English in the trailer looks very out of place to me and Cruise might deliver a good performance eventually, but right now looks terribly miscast. WW 2 movies are generally very serious matter and when they are concentrated on the german side of things, I firmly believe it's them who should tell the stories.
Plus, Cruise still has that couch-jumping stigma attached to him, so that makes his Nazi even less credible and the audience even more disinterested. I guess we'll see.


So that's my list and whithout further ado, let's roll right to this week's inductee.




Year of the cock-up: 2007

Budget: $50,000,000 (£26,000,000)

Domestic gross: $3,675,753

Foreign gross: $28,205,975

Worldwide gross: $31,881,728


Year 2007 was very good for the studios. Basically every single projected hit raked in truckloads of money, many times exceeding the box office expectations. Even pieces of crap like Ghost Rider ($228,738,393 worldwide), Norbit ($158,983,426 worldwide), Rush Hour 3 ($255,023,214 ) and others, were able to make good money, meaning the audiences were particularly movie-hungry this past year. That's all well and dandy, but of course even amidst the sea of big hits, there were a couple flops hidden here and there. What is the most irritating fact is that the aforementioned suckfests earned big bucks, while too many great films flopped quite badly. Black Snake Moan (not a big budget, but deserved better), The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (ditto), Grindhouse, The Kingdom and Stardust (this movie didn't fare that bad internationally, but being the best fantasy picture since Lord of the Rings, it certainly deserved more attention). All these will hopefully gain some following on DVDs (of Stardust, I'm almost certain) as they all are pictures well worth your while. And this week's inductee also is a terrific film that somehow didn't attract the audience like it should.

Sunshine is a sci-fi flick about a group of astronauts flying to the Sun to rescue basically all life on Earth. The year is 2057 and the Sun is dying with our only hope being that this group is able to re-ignite it via a huge thermonuclear bomb. This group is comprised of 2 women and 6 men. They're flying on board of a ship called Icarus II and are the Earth's very last hope after the previous group on Icarus I failed to complete the mission for reasons unknown.

That's a very basic summary of the film's plot. It may sound a bit far fetched, but believe me- there is no better time to use the suspension of disbelief than with Sunshine. The story about saving the Earth is a HUGE cliché, but thankfully, the final form is surprisingly fresh and engaging. If Michael Bay directed the film (and nothing against him, really- I liked Transformers a lot), it might have turned into Armageddon 2, but Danny Boyle (director of Trainspotting and 28 days later) and Alex Garland (writer of 28 days later) are much more ambitious in their vision.
These two worked together for the first time, when Boyle was adapting Garland's The Beach. While the film didn't end being half as good as the book, the relationship between both men remained unharmed. In 2002 they got together again and this time it was a full-on collaboration as Garland wrote the script and Boyle directed. The resulting horror film- 28 days later- was very positively received. It had a little more depth than your typical zombie film and its trademark fast-running zombies have since been copied in many other films of the same genre. The film was well received also by the audiences as it's budget was payed many times over.
Thus, the duo was more than happy to work together for the third time and now they were sailing into the risqué waters of science fiction. Alex Garland based the script on an article about the heat death of the universe he read in some scientific magazine.
The story sounded a bit preposterous however, so they hired an astrophysicist Brian Cox (not the known actor) as a science advisor, who was basically there to make sure complete nonsense wouldn't be unfolding before the audience's eyes. The physicist gave regular lectures to the film's cast members about solar physics. Cox also advised the filmmakers to scale down the nuclear weapon in the film from the mass of the Moon to the size of Manhattan.
Prior to the shooting, Boyle and Garland removed many romantic undertones and subplots between the characters, as well as humor, because they both felt it wouldn't fit with well with the story. This was actually a very brave and in the end rewarding decision.

The cast also had their own fun while making this film, as they were forced by Doyle to live together in one apartment for a few weeks. At the beginning of the film, the characters had been together for sixteen months, so Boyle desired to capture of a sense of togetherness among the actors. The assembly cast was also underwent a space and scuba diving training.

When designing the interiors of Icarus II, Boyle was inspired by classic films such as Das Boot, Alien and 2001: A Space Odyssey. Originally the director wanted the interiors to be as claustrophobic as the ones in Das Boot, but he eventually changed his mind and thus Icarus II is more resembling of today's mammoth submarines. Boyle reasoned this decision by saying- "If those guys have to be locked inside for three years, I don't think the designers would let them live in conditions where they step over each other's heads." The film however still retains a good enough claustrophobic atmosphere, with the pale characters always moving around in enclosed and smallish areas.

The principal shooting was finished all the way back in 2005, with post production taking a huge chunk of time. Sunshine was originally slated for a theatrical release in October 2006, but the release was later changed to March 2007 and this date was changed yet again to April 2007, which ended up being the final one. The film didn't have any significant success, making only circa $20 million in April. By the end of that month, Sunshine had opened to most markets, with the notable exception of the United States, for which a release date had yet to be established at the time.
The film was originally slated to be released in the United States in September 2007, but the release date was moved earlier to July 2007. The movie was released with exactly ZERO hype or marketing and subsequently got lost in the summer season.

The film's failing is quite a shame, because it really is terrific (apart from a little misstep near the end). The story is very engaging, no matter how ridiculous it sounds.
The visuals of Sunshine are downright jaw-dropping. The film cost only $50 million, but the visual effects looked as if it cost three times the sum. The Sun is presented as something incredibly imposing and powerful in the film, and through the film's plot and visual effects, the feeling of astonishment is perfectly translated on the viewer.
What also worked in perfect symbiosis with the visuals was the sound. I rarely go out of theater thinking about sound effects, but in Sunshine they simply blow you away.
I've seen the film on DVD since then and that's when I really felt sorry for the film. It's still great and if you got a good sound system, the experience might be very good, but really NOTHING comes close to seeing Sunshine in cinema. It's one of those movies that when you finish watching them, you know they were tailor-made for theater.

Like I said, the story is engaging and that can be largely attributed to the fabulous cast. Cillian Murphy, Rose Byrne, Cliff Curtis, Chris Evans, Troy Garity, Hiroyuki Sanada, Benedict Wong and Michelle Yeoh all do a tremendous job. I had to name them all out, since it's really been a very long time that an ensemble cast has won my sympathies over like these guys. You will care about those characters and not one of them appears like a mere disposable figure. They just click amazingly well together and are a joy to watch.

Hopefully, this film will gain the respect it deserves and finds its audience on DVDs. It would be a terrible shame, if this little gem got overlooked. Go check it out! Now!




This week, the award won't go to the brains behind this picture. Sure, they flubbed the ending a bit, but that wasn't the reason it flopped.
The reason was probably that Fox simply failed to market the movie better and the movie-going public had better things to see in the theaters- like I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry, which opened on the same weekend in the US.

So since the reason this movie flopped were the studio and movie-going public, I hereby award them the title Mr. Floppy.



and let's not forget the good people:




So remember- go get this movie as soon as you can. If you are dissapointed I'll give you your money back. Someday...

- Peter