BuzzSugar

Box Office: Superbad Has Super Staying Power

BuzzSugar — Mon, 27 Aug 2007 00:01:15 -0700

Teen raunch comedy Superbad continued to get tons of McLovin from audiences this weekend as it reigned at the box office for the second weekend in a row. Overall, this weekend's box office sales were somewhat unusual, with older movies taking the top three slots before the new releases. The Bourne Ultimatum came in second place - a nice accomplishment in the movie's third weekend in theaters - while Rush Hour 3 stayed strong at No. 3.

Mr. Bean's Holiday came in just slightly ahead of Jet Li's action flick War, the two films taking fourth and fifth places respectively. Meanwhile, The Nanny Diaries opened at No. 6 in the box office lineup, raking in just $7.8 million.

Superbad actually has a chance of taking the top slot a third weekend in a row this upcoming holiday weekend. The only real competition comes from Rob Zombie's Halloween and the bumbling comedy Balls of Fury. My money's on McLovin and Co.

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The Nanny Diaries: Hugely Disappointing

BuzzSugar — Fri, 24 Aug 2007 09:30:00 -0700

Having enjoyed the delightful book, The Nanny Diaries movie was a massive disappointment. Overall it feels empty, frantically rushed, and insubstantial. The book versions of things are often better than the movie versions, but in this case, it's not quite worth it to bother with the movie at all.

I, along with many of you, had some reservations about Scarlett Johansson playing the main character in The Nanny Diaries, and it appears these anxieties were not ill-founded. In this performance, she's flat and seemingly bored with the role herself. She plays Annie, a recent college graduate who is looking for work so she can move out of her mother's house and fulfill her mother's ambitious dreams for her. Yet her degree in anthropology doesn't leave a ton of options, so she randomly decides to nanny a child on the Upper East Side - but not tell her mom about it. There's more, of course (though not much more), so read more

Annie narrates the film as though she's writing an application essay for grad school, so at some point she decides to treat her story as a case study, of sorts, and says that everyone referred to her as "Nanny" instead of her real name. In the book, Nanny really likes kids and has experience with them so it makes sense that the discerning Mrs. X would be sort of a stickler about Nanny's background and resume. In the film, however, Mrs. X has exceedingly high expectations about everything else in her world, though the fact that all Annie knows about babysitting is what she "learned from the movies" doesn't faze her.

So, Annie moves into the Xs' apartment and becomes the nanny to their son Grayer. Soon, a cute guy who lives in the building becomes interested in her, though she seems to think their economic backgrounds are way too different to allow any kind of relationship. In the end, Annie learns a bit about life, herself, kids and rich people.

Laura Linney as Mrs. X is truly the brightest spot in the whole movie. She's so rigid, cold and misguided you can't help but hate and fear her. Yet the humanity that Linney brings to everything she does causes us to actually pity Mrs. X as well. She almost makes the movie worth watching. Almost.

As for the script, everything in it feels forced and completely rushed. One moment the little boy hates Annie's (Nanny's) guts, and in the blink of an eye he's her best-best friend. Not that kids aren't fickle sometimes, but everything in the movie comes about that quickly and easily. Like her unlikely relationship with the cute guy who she rather cruelly and out of nowhere insists was raised with a silver spoon in his mouth. His instantaneous obsession with Annie seems weird and stalkerish.

It all just feels bizarrely disjointed and frustrating. There's even a trippy dream section in which Annie grabs hold of a red umbrella and drifts away from her stern mother and a whole bunch of people in suits representing the rat race. You know when people tell you about their dreams, and it's not that interesting to you? This is just like that.

Alicia Keys is perfectly fine as Annie's best buddy who rarely ventures above 14th Street (because, you know, she's so real), and is basically propped up as Annie's one thread connecting her to her former hip and cool life. Yet Johansson herself seems empty, distracted and emotionless. Like a robot, but worse. Rosie the robot maid on "The Jetsons" had more passion in her metal claw than Scarjo has in her whole being in this film. Nanny is supposed to be the beating heart of this story, but instead it's like there's no pulse.

Do You Read the Book Before You See the Movie?

BuzzSugar — Fri, 03 Aug 2007 04:30:00 -0700

I've been writing a lot about the book-to-movie adaptation of The Lovely Bones, and two other high-profile adaptations, Stardust and The Nanny Diaries, will be released this month. I always prefer to read the book half of an adaptation before I see its film counterpart, but sometimes that leads to ridiculous situations - for example, I still haven't seen Seabiscuit because I'm convinced I'll get around to the book someday. What about you?

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The Nanny Diaries to Open August 24

BuzzSugar — Thu, 19 Jul 2007 12:29:07 -0700

Having changed release dates several times, the film adaptation of bestselling novel The Nanny Diaries finally has a definite opening date: August 24. A few months ago there came news that the movie wasn't going to open in April as planned, causing people to speculate whether the filmmakers were dissatisfied with the end product and lacking confidence in the film's potential. Studio chief Steve Bunnell assures us that's not the case however, saying that in fact, opening just before Labor Day weekend will hopefully get more people to see the movie: "If we had a movie in June or July and moved it back to August, then that could be a dumping ground, but this isn't that situation at all." Harvey Weinstein himself says, "We really believe in the movie and people like it."

Well, that's reassuring. I'd had my qualms about the movie based on the trailer, but I'm really pulling for this one to succeed because I thought the book was such a fun read. My biggest concern might be Scarlett Johansson. I often like her in movies, but I just envisioned someone quite different in the role of Nan. Any other Nanny Diaries fans out there? Do you think you'll check out the movie version come August 24? To see the trailer, read more

"The Nanny Diaries" Release Gets Delayed

BuzzSugar — Thu, 29 Mar 2007 14:54:06 -0700

It's usually not a good sign when movie release dates get delayed. But in the case of The Nanny Diaries, it sounds like the studio might be making the right decision. According to Variety, the Scarlett Johansson movie will be released on Sept. 7, instead of next month as planned. The movie will now premiere at the Venice Film Festival, and producer Harvey Weinstein says he hopes the new date will be better for its awards contention, since the home video release will now be timed to the Golden Globes.

Either that, or the movie - based on the popular novel of the same name - is totally doomed. I liked the directors' last movie, American Splendor, and I'm a big fan of Laura Linney, but judging from the trailer, The Nanny Diaries doesn't look particularly great. Hard to tell, though. Take a look and let me know what you think when you read more

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