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Hollywood avoids critics seeing stinkers
By DUNCAN CAMPBELL
LOS ANGELES
Thursday 12 October 2000
Cinema reviewers in the US have begun to complain bitterly that film studios are adopting a new tactic to avoid their worst movies receiving a mauling: they are releasing them without letting the critics see them.
The latest example of the tactic was the release of the remake of Get Carter originally a 1971 British gangster movie set in Newcastle and starring Michael Caine; now a violent thriller set in presentday Seattle, starring Sylvester Stallone.
Warner Brothers, at the request of the producers, Franchise Pictures, did not give critics the usual advance showing, which meant that the US entertainment guides had no chance to warn filmgoers how bad the movie was.
The audience at the premiere in Los Angeles last week was mainly made up of the cast and crew, who cheered every name in the credits and giggled every time Stallone punched someone to a pulp. Critics who caught up with it when it opened in cinemas found it less entertaining.
Most critics were unable to review the film before the first weekend's screening, the period which can make or break a picture. The studios hope that by maximising their advertising they can get round a potential drubbing by critics.
In a review in the New York Times last Saturday, Elvis Mitchell wrote: “It's so minimally plotted that not only does it lack context and subtext, it also may be the world's first movie without even a text.” He wrote that some audience members left within 30 minutes of the film starting.
It appears that the walkout was repeated in other cinemas outside New York. The box office takings for Get Carter hovered around the $6.7m mark, less than a quarter of the takings by the other main film
released that weekend, Meet The Parents, a comedy starring Ben Stiller and Robert De Niro. Variety rated its takings as an “unimpressive bow”.
Earlier this year the films Autumn in New York, starring Winona Ryder and Richard Gere, and Highlander: Endgame were also not shown to critics. Bless the Child, featuring Kim Basinger, was shown at the last moment, and could not be reviewed by monthly and weekly publications.
Scott Brown, of Entertainment Weekly, called the trend “disturbing” and asked if “this criticdissing phenom” was “reaching critical mass”. He warned that the studios could not afford to alienate too many of the critics, as studios ultimately depend on the goodwill of people who are trusted by readers, even though an increasing number of filmgoers now take their reviews from internet sites that make a speciality of passing on early warnings on duff films.
A prominent critic, Roger Ebert, said it was clear why certain films were not given a critical screening: “The studio has concluded that the film is not good and will receive negative reviews.”
The Get Carter remake is the third film based on the novel Jack's Return Home, by Ted Lewis. The bestknown version remains the 1971 film, directed by Mike Hodges. Its star, Caine, appears in a smaller role in the latest film as a ruthless British criminal.
Stallone plays the part of a Las Vegas security man seeking to avenge his brother's death, which mainly involves beating people up, throwing them off roofs and shooting them. By chance, Hodges's film Croupier, a cult hit in the US, is showing in a neighbouring theatre to the one where the Stallone's film was premiered.
GUARDIAN
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