{"id":1748,"date":"2011-03-28T14:04:28","date_gmt":"2011-03-28T20:04:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/?p=1748"},"modified":"2011-03-28T14:04:28","modified_gmt":"2011-03-28T20:04:28","slug":"shocking-wimpy-kid-knocks-out-sucker-punch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/?p=1748","title":{"rendered":"Shocking: Wimpy Kid Knocks Out Sucker Punch"},"content":{"rendered":"

Who’d of thunk it?\u00a0 A family friendly film opening in March –Spring Break week for many school-aged children around the country — beating a visually-stunning<\/del> trashy-looking mess of a movie at the box office this weekend.\u00a0 But, that’s exactly what happened when The Diary of a Wimpy Kid:\u00a0Rodrick Rules<\/em>\u00a0bested Sucker Punch<\/em>.<\/a><\/p>\n

All of Hollywood must be completely confused this morning following what can only be described as a disappointing debacle for Warner Brothers and director Zack Snyder.\u00a0 No one in the intelligent artistic community would have even thought that Wimpy Kid 2 <\/em>would perform as well as it did, much less take in more money that the overhyped and overpraised Sucker Punch<\/em>.\u00a0 Despite a furious last-ditch marketing campaign to boost Punch’s<\/em> numbers, the audience for this movie was limited, at best.<\/p>\n

My family and I went to see Battlefield: L.A. <\/em>last Monday.\u00a0 This was\u00a0a well made action\u00a0movie that my whole family thoroughly enjoyed watching.\u00a0\u00a0What’s not to like when a rag-tag\u00a0group of\u00a0U.S. Marines take down the alien baddies and save America from destruction?\u00a0 Before the movie started, we were “treated” to several previews of coming attractions, including one for\u00a0Sucker Punch<\/em>.\u00a0 I had previously seen the commercials for this confusing-looking movie, but after watching the trailer, my wife and I looked at each other and shook our heads in disbelief — NO WAY!<\/p>\n

Who is this movie appealing to?\u00a0 What is it supposed to be about?\u00a0 Some described Sucker Punch<\/em> as “a\u00a0wholly original escape from reality and a\u00a0bold\u00a0visual experience unlike any other.” <\/em>\u00a0<\/a>I love how some in Hollywood think that because a movie is original or visually\u00a0stunning that it will automatically translate into the American public plunking down their hard-earned cash to watch what otherwise is garbage.\u00a0 And, apparently garbage is what Sucker Punch <\/em>really is.\u00a0 High-tech, almost-porn garbage.<\/p>\n

In a scathing review at Big Hollywood<\/a>\u00a0(the review does contain spoilers), Carl Kozlowski calls Sucker Punch <\/em>“grim, dark, unpleasant, nasty and weird.”\u00a0 And, that’s just for starters.\u00a0 Mr. Kozlowski doesn’t pull any punches in his review:<\/p>\n

As a lifelong movie buff working my dream job as a film critic, I\u2019m generally pretty easy to please. I go into every movie wanting to be entertained and willing to give the filmmaker a shot \u2013 in fact, so much so that some people have wondered if there\u2019s anything I don\u2019t like.<\/p>\n

Well, have I got an answer for them: the new movie \u201cSucker Punch\u201d is the worst, most agonizing and incomprehensible movie I have ever seen.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Not exactly high praise for the supposed brilliance of director Zack Snyder.\u00a0 Snyder, whose past projects include 300<\/em>, Watchmen<\/em>, and the Dawn of the Dead <\/em>remake, has also been tapped to direct the upcoming Christopher Nolan reboot of Superman<\/em>.\u00a0 After reading about the\u00a0content — such as it is — of Sucker Punch<\/em>, I can hardly wait for Superman to hit the theaters.\u00a0 Well, on second thought, following the announcement that Amy Adams has been cast to\u00a0play Lois Lane<\/a>, I think I’ll skip watching the reincarnation of Clark Kent.<\/p>\n

Hollywood continues to limit their audience because of\u00a0questionable\u00a0content and unwise casting.<\/a>\u00a0 Sucker Punch <\/em>(and most likely, Superman<\/em>)\u00a0is not the first nor will it be the last to fall under the\u00a0weight of poor content and casting.\u00a0 It reminds me of the\u00a0dreadfully awful\u00a0Land of the Lost <\/em>movie starring Will Ferrell.\u00a0 As a child of the 1970’s, when I first heard about this movie, I thought, “This is gonna be great.\u00a0 I can’t wait to take my three boys to see this movie about\u00a0Marshall, Will, and Holly and their routine expedition.”<\/em>\u00a0 What could have been a\u00a0nice\u00a0(and very profitable) family friendly film that I and countless other parents would have enjoyed\u00a0taking\u00a0our\u00a0children to see, turned into another\u00a0box office bomb.<\/a><\/p>\n

Why?\u00a0 Because of Hollywood’s increasing isolation from mainstream American audiences and their utter fascination with all things post-modern.\u00a0 Even in a weak economy, producers and studios must have more money than they know what to do with.\u00a0 How else to explain movies getting green-lit that have no chance of\u00a0turning a profit?<\/p>\n

With all of their supposed sophistication and intelligence, you would think someone in the entertainment community would figure out what appeals to a broader audience.\u00a0 After all,\u00a0more people in the theater seats usually translates into more money.\u00a0\u00a0They’re not all communists and socialists\u00a0in Hollywood, are they!<\/p>\n

I don’t know about anyone else, but I don’t want to pay any\u00a0more money at the\u00a0box office to have a punch coming flying at me from\u00a0somewhere in the back.\u00a0 If I’m going to pay to be hit, I want to be fully prepared up front.\u00a0 No surprises.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Life is hard enough.\u00a0 People struggle to make ends meet.\u00a0 Why get beat up? \u00a0Perhaps if more Americans\u00a0researched a movie’s content and cast before getting in the car to\u00a0drive to the local multiplex, there would be a lot less surprise attacks.\u00a0 And\u00a0with less surprise\u00a0attacks, maybe\u00a0a lot less Sucker Punch <\/em>movies and their ilk.\u00a0 Wishful thinking?\u00a0 One can always hope.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Who’d of thunk it?\u00a0 A family friendly film opening in March –Spring Break week for many school-aged children around the country — beating a visually-stunning trashy-looking mess of a movie at the box office this weekend.\u00a0 But, that’s exactly what happened when The Diary of a Wimpy Kid:\u00a0Rodrick Rules\u00a0bested Sucker Punch. All of Hollywood must…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[11,26],"tags":[87,177,306,376,3385,596,3398,945,947,1036,1047,1059],"class_list":["post-1748","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-culture","category-hollywood","tag-amy-adams","tag-box-office","tag-diary-of-a-wimpy-kid-rodrick-rules","tag-family-friendly-movies","tag-hollywood","tag-land-of-the-lost","tag-movies","tag-sucker-punch","tag-superman","tag-warner-brothers","tag-will-ferrell","tag-zack-snyder"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1LP7G-sc","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1748","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1748"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1748\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1748"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1748"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1748"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}