The Grudge 2

In the October 16th New Yorker, with six sets of eyes glaring out at you on the colorful cover of the media issue, there is an interesting article written by Malcolm Gladwell about the attempt to predict which movies will make money. If you are interested in such things this little article is well worth tracking down. For last week The Grudge 2 made 22 million and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning made just short of 8 million for this weekend (and 30 million total since it has been open longer). I cannot say I have ever noticed a relation between quality and how many tickets a movie sold. If you look at history there are plenty of examples of great artists that were bypassed during their time for various reasons (Charles Laughton's direction of The Night of the Hunter springs to mind) but were rediscovered long after they were long gone. And if you think of it, nowadays not only can you choose all the movies that have already been made (though many silent films are sadly lost forever) but you have video games, 300 channels of cable to choose from, and the movies that are released weekly in the theaters (more than you could possibly ever watch in a single week). I have spent the majority of my week watching Laurel and Hardy shorts and movies from the 21 DVD set that I found on amazon.uk (the DVDs are in the PAL format, which is not the format that we use here in the USA). To get a feel of how many movies are out there that you never even hear of, pick up Variety when they print the movies that are showing at some of the larger film festivals. You will be shocked at how many different movies there are that you have never even heard of. One reason the filmmakers go to these festivals is because they want access to you, the buying movie public. And every once in awhile one of these movies will slip through (The Blair Witch Project) and go on to achieve great success. The majority of these movies never see the light of day. There are a whole lot of movies out there competing for your attention. I have always been a sucker for movies with special effects. I like watching them just to see what new stuff they have come up with. I plead guilty to this. I have been the same way since first seeing King Kong when I was a kid. I am the same way with first person shooters video games. One reason I like playing them is because I just like to see what they have come with now. Another thing that affects our access to all of this material is technology. When I was a kid the only way you could see a movie was to: 1) go to the theater 2) wait till it came on TV or 3) actually buy a print of the film and a film projector. I still have my short five minute print of Mighty Joe Young on regular 8mm sitting in a closet along with my other little short movies that I would buy from Sage (the local chain store way back when) or order them from Blackhawk Films. And not all of this material has shown up on DVD yet. I have a old Walter Lantz Oswald the Rabbit cartoon that I have never seen since I was kid. I have often wondered how many cartoons, short and full length movies, have fallen through the cracks through the years. I have a movie poster for an animated movie from the late 50s or early 60s called Johnny Rocket that I have still not seen or even have a clue to what the history behind it is. With VHS tapes, and now DVDs, movies are now at your fingertips in a way that has never been true before. If I sat down and watched all the DVDs in my house I am going to be busy for a very long time. It boggles the mind how far we have come in so short a time. The fact of the matter is, that because of technology, it is now cheaper to watch a particular movie than it was in the past. The same is true of CDs compared to 78s. How many 78s do you think you would have had to buy to listen to Beethoven's Ninth symphony (which can be put on one CD)?

So what is the biggest selling point of The Grudge 2? I am sure it is because that the first one did well at the box office (grossed 129 million in 2004 on a budget of 15 million). If you liked the first one there is a good chance you will like the second one. The Grudge 2 picks up right where the first one ended. They are almost the exact same movie, though with the exception of the acting is far better in the first movie. The Grudge 2 has some of the same framing devices, shock shots and even the way the whole thing is structured has a lot of similarities with the earlier film. The special effects are not over done and work very well within the movie. But this cannot cover up the fact that there is no plot in this movie. The movie uses what little of a plot there is just to move the viewer to the next ghost appearance. After a couple of times you realize there is no there there. There is not a lot going on in this movie except for if you wait ten minutes a ghost will go BOO. I have never liked movies that just scare you by having something jump out of a cupboard or a closet. I always feel like I am being cheated and the moviemakers are just to lazy to give us characters that we really care about. The best movies suck you in and turn the screws. Two scenes come to mind, not necessarily horror movies: 1) the scene in Rear Window where Jimmy Stewart sees Raymond Burr coming up the stairs, and Jimmy can also can see Grace Kelly, but he cannot let her know that Raymond Burr is coming up because if he yells then Raymond Burr will also know that Grace Kelly is there, nothing has ever tied me in knots like that scene did though parts of Blade Runner came close 2) the very creepy 1945 British Dead of Night ventriloquist sequence with Michael Redgrave, the short piece builds so nicely and will make you want to keep the lights on when you crawl under the covers (in my dreams Charlie McCarthy would have been the perfect dummy for this sequence). If you haven't seen either of these sequences the movies are well worth checking out. Dead of Night has never had a huge following, and it is a shame. The Grudge 2 is very professionally made; the music works well, and the movie looks great. But it is kinda boring.

You can write James Harper at movielover77061@yahoo.com