Boy, David Mamet was right... Things Change!

(before Sunday) Well, I don't know who's going to be #1 this week, but I think I know which one Disney's hoping will do well!  Sam Raimi's Oz The Great and Powerful... well, if it doesn't do well, then L. Frank Baum's estate will take the blame, and it will be called L. Frank Baum's Oz The Great and Powerful.  But I know it's not your fault, Sam, because you wanted more terror and Disney wanted less.  Ain't working for Disney a bitch?

(Sunday) I'm reminded of the shift in publicity that Hell's Angels got when it was released to great triumph in The Aviator.  Scorsese's 2004 biopic about Howard Hughes, that is.  I know, I know, The Dictator pooh-poohed it on SNL, but he couldn't pick Gangs of New York because it's so awesomely violent, and he couldn't pick The Departed because if you badmouth that movie, two Boston mafias will come after you.  But Disney picked the right director to helm another potential trilogy.  I mean, did you see the box office totals of the first Spider Man trilogy?  The populist touch!  But Sam Raimi does arguably have trouble by the time we get to the third installment.  He gets too experimental, and in a bad way.  But still, you gotta have respect for a director who can go from the R-rated Evil Dead series to a PG-rated blockbuster.  Don't worry, Kevin Smith will never be able to do that.  And Jersey Girl doesn't count, as it's a hard PG-13.
Oh, right.  The other debut this week: we've gone from Dead Man Walking to Dead Man Down.  For that movie-going demographic stuck in permanent adolescence, this apparently didn't pass the smell test.  Sure, it's got car crashes and guns going off, but it's probably got a bunch of that icky stuff called character and plot development.  I mean, they said in the ads it's from the original Girl with the Dragon Tattoo director, so that can't be good, right?