Mixed Bag for ‘Incredible Hulk’ Opening
The opening weekend results for Marvel’s The Incredible Hulk pretty closely mirrored my experience catching the film on Friday afternoon: The theater wasn’t packed, but everyone had a good time.
According to USA Today, the new Hulk came through with $54.5 million for its first weekend take, which is actually less than Ang Lee’s Hulk took in the opening weekend in 2003 ($62 million). And while critics didn’t especially love the new take on the green goliath (Rotten Tomatoes gives it approval from 64 percent of reviewers), fans seemed to dig the Louis Letterier-Edward Norton combo.
CinemaScore notes the new Hulk earned a very solid A- from viewers, which bodes well for continued success. The 2003 version brought in almost nothing after the first week on the way to becoming a massive flop.
The showing I caught was between half and two-thirds full, and for the most part the audience seemed completely sucked into the movie. The only complaint came after the semi-endless credits when no extra features rolled. For what it’s worth, I enjoyed the flick.
This was also a pretty competitive weekend for movies. According to USA Today ticket sales increased from the same weekend last year, and a string of movies did well. Kung Fu Panda took second with $34.3 million, M. Night Shyamalan’s The Happening took third with $30.5 million and a couple others were above $13 million.
Hulk 2 took in about $86 million worldwide; not bad for a three-day weekend.Personally, I enjoyed it. And I liked it even more after I left the theater and thought about it some. The CGI looked a lot better in the movie than it did in the trailers. It was a straight-forward, fun movie with great performances from Norton and Hurt and — like Iron Man — an awesome last scene.
Gee, I thought the CGI looked terrible — so bad it kept knocking me out of the story. And Liv Tyler was awful. Norton was fantastic, and I always enjoy Tim Roth.
Roth was great — you're right; he always is. As for Ms. Tyler… well, she's usually okay, but rarely anything more. I've always thought that was actually my problem: I see her and try to figure out if she's really related to Steven.
I wasn't aware Liv's paterage was still (indeed, ever) under dispute. Liy Tyler is about the only woman on the face of the Earth who looks good with those big crazy pillowy lips. Her face is genetically bred to pout.I fell for her way back in Empire Records, but it was in "That Thing You Do!" that The Wife and I looked at her and said "We're gonna see more of her", the same way we did when we did when we saw Marisa Tomei in Oscar.
Liv Tyler was "Liv Rundgren" when she was born in 1977. Todd Rundgren's daughter. It was after meeting Steven Tyler's daughter Mia and noticing a strong familial resemblance that Liv questioned her mother, former Playboy Playmate Bebe Buell, about her parentage. Buell told Liv the truth when Liv nine years old. She changed her name to "Tyler" when she was twelve. Her relationship with Steven Tyler wasn't made public until 1991, about three years before her first movie. One of Liv Tyler's first acting gigs was in Aerosmith videos, alongside Alicia Silverstone, around 1993.
Oh.Ick.
I see her and all I can see is Steven, especially when she pull her hair back, she certainly has his mouth.
I got the distinct impression that the scene with Ross and Stark was supposed to run after the credits like the one in Iron Man, but they panicked and tacked it on the end of the film proper, as many people missed the Nick Fury clip in their zeal to beat the crowds out of the theater. but this time, the people who "knew better" were staying, and rewarded with nothing. The Wife and I always stay nowadays, as you can never tell what film is gonna have a tag now. "Kung Fu Panda", for example, had a great one.I thought the film worked perfectly well. I would like to see the missing footage, including the allaged scene with Cap in the ice block. The in-jokes were very smooth and didn't jolt you out of the film at all. The scene from Courtship of Eddie's Father worked great, as was the moment they "play(ed) the sad going-away song from the end of The Incredible Hulk". Fans of the comic will notice that the origin they gave The Abomination actually had more than a few similarities to the comics origin of Doc Samson. Using the "cure" for the Hulk as a way to create the new gamma-charged beast, and Banner forced to bring Hulk back to fight him. And if you weren't paying attention, Samuel Sterns is the given name of another Hulk villain, The Leader. And considering the reaction we saw from Sterns when the Hulk Blood got into him…we may have seen the set-up for Hulk 2 already. We''l likely hear about a Hulk 2 yay or nay after a couple weeks, to see if the film has long-term legs. But based on what I saw here, I'd like to see more.
The numbers for the second week of Kung Fu Panda are OUTSTANDING!I think Hulk is a better movie than Iron Man. As to the CGI, it was better than what was shown in the trailers, but I think they should have gone with a coarser looking face for Hulk. He should look like Brother Theodore.
Brother Theodore? Sigh. The older I get…There's a Brother Theodore documentary coming out on DVD sooner or later. I'll probably review it when it comes out, but, while on the subject, I've got to tell you one of my personal top 10 highlights of 2007: when Harlan Ellison did his impression of Theodore for me on the phone one afternoon. Harlan had him completely nailed.
My only exposure to Brother Theodore was a few of the times Letterman had him on the show. He did a Halloween reading with only a flashlight under his chin to illuminate him. Spookiest damn thing I'd seen on teevee since a Twilight Zone episode or two back when I was a kid.Brother Theodore's "on" persona wasn't too far from Professor Irwin Corey's, in a way, but Corey's lunacy seemed lighter. Brother Theodore took it to the extreme, not unlike a mad scientist gone evil. One could almost feel the spittle on one's face as Brother Theodore spat out the words.
Oh, Theodore lived in a condo well past the Edge. His appearances on Letterman were over-rehearsed (as are all such "interviews"), and of course he was at the end of his life. He was a LOT more scary on his own. If you can find any of his appearances on Steve Allen back in the early 60s or the other talk shows of the period, you'll get an idea of what the man was like.As for Professor Corey, well, damn, he's still at it, or at least he was until recently. 94 years old and not a hint of white in all that Red. I love the man, and am proud to say I have an autographed picture. His website: http://www.irwincorey.org/
I got to catch Theodore's one-man show in NYC many a year back – he was just as insane in person as he appeared on the TV shows.I recall one appearance on Letterman where after a brilliant tirade about nothing in particular, Dave calmly asks him, "Where do you get your shirts?" Theodore came damn close to breaking character, starting to laugh.I recall what I THINK was an appearance of Theodore on of all things, Wonderama. It was just a head with a flashlight under it (like on Letterman) but all video-effected so it was just a shadow on an orange background. The head did a monologue about a jack-the-ripper like killer, with traditional wind and lightning sound effects in the background. Surreal.