This week, Rolling Stone's resident film critic is "depressed." Why? Because with all the Oscar-nominated films currently residing in theaters, you, America, have made "the dreadful and appalling" Paul Blart: Mall Cop the top-grossing film for two consecutive weekends. Instead of heading to Slumdog Millionaire, Milk or Frost/Nixon, the majority of Americans have proven they prefer to watch comedian Kevin James from cinematic masterpieces like I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry and Hitch star as a shopping mall security guard. Shame on you, America.
It is late January, which is usually a dumping ground for movie studios to rid themselves of their most reviled films. Thus, Travers' Scum Bucket overflowth with Paul Blart, Underworld: Rise of the Lycans, Liam Neeson's Death Wish-esque Taken and the Renee Zellweger/Harry Connick Jr. rom-com New In Town, which Travers says is devoid of anything redeeming.
There is a light at the end of the tunnel, however:
The Best Film Oscar-nominated The Reader goes into wide release this week, partially because it was an unexpected nominee for Best Film at the Oscars (taking the place of The Dark Knight, which infuriates Travers, but we digress). The film features actress Kate Winslet in a Oscar-nominated and Golden Globe-winning role of an former SS officer who has a love affair with a much younger man. While the film is flawed, Travers notes, it is at least thought provoking, which is much more than one can say about any of the "garbage" we listed in the first paragraph. Watch the video above for Travers' full report.
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Anonymous | February 16, 2009 5:20 PM
Kate Winslet´s performance in The Reader" is A.M.A.Z.I.N.G, what a terrifc actress she is. I hope she finally wins the Oscar, she's had such a great year (RR & The Reader).
Mayor Ben | February 4, 2009 1:36 PM
My email to Peter, sent to the editor. I'm sure ;) it'll make it to his desk:
I watched your online video blog "At the Movies" and at the end you asked folks to email you why they would go see Mall Cop. Couldn't find your email on the site and thought I'd try this route.
Let me just say: I really appreciate your reviews and take the recommendations as I peruse movies to see each month. You are my favorite film critic. However, the bitterness and perplexment you have with America's movie-going folk is explainable (esp. given the film Mall Cop). First of all, the Kevin James is extremely popular and had a non-movie thing called King of Queens that was actually a funny sitcom. So he is quite popular and his humor resonates with alot of people. Second, the movie's previews look funny. I'm sure they are showing the only funny scenes (similar to Burn After Reading) but that is how most comedy movies go these days.
That right there is enough to get folks to the movies. Speaking of Burn After Reading, I am the biggest Coen Brothers fan in the world but I can't honestly say that their last offering made me laugh in a significant matter. Certainly not like their early work in Raising Arizona or O Brother Where Art Thou?
As much as you hate the Academy, you really need to not expect Americans to want to jump on board and see The fucking Reader just because it is released during Oscar Time!, it is really insulting. In case you missed it, dark movies are in the good times and the funny movies are in during the shitty times. Right now it is a shitty-bone-sucking-everyone-knows-someone-who-is-laid-off-and-lost-their-job-in-the-economic crisis time, and we wanna see something that makes us laugh.
Think about these things. I can rent The Reader, but I may not necessarily have to climb into the car and drag my wife and I to see it. BTW, I live in Tampa and this place sucks. It took a month for Slumdog to make it here and Gran Torino is nowhere in sight. Go figure. Anyhow, keep up the good work.
Dillard | February 4, 2009 1:15 AM
1. Pulp Fiction is about as close to art as a movie can get.
2. I will NEVER watch another Kevin James movie after i saw Chuck and Larry.
3. Why watch a movie like mall cop when you already know what is gonna happen? I can tell what happens and I haven't even seen it: Paul Blart(Blart/fart. Get it? It rhymes. Are you laughing yet?) is a fat mall cop who rides a segway(A fat guy on a segway? HAHA!)and is sworn to protect the mall, even though no one takes him serious. Fat man falls for pretty lady, bad guys break in, fat man saves the day and gets the girl. The end. Hope I didn't spoil anything.
4. It's criminal that Revolutionary Road isn't getting its due. Perfect cast, perfect story, perfect everything. No doubt it's the best movie of the year.
5. Instead of blowing 90 minutes of your life watching a shitty movie, why not spend time with your family? If you've got a wife and kids, sit down and play a board game or eat dinner together. Be happy with what you have and don't worry about what you don't. As bad as things may seem to you, things could be alot worse. You could be dirt poor and not have the money to see any movie, much less the mall cop.
RRK | February 3, 2009 6:10 PM
The Reader is the best movie of the year, bar none.
Bo | February 1, 2009 8:13 AM
@sbach: I think you are overreacting. Travers is the voice of a group of people who don't like so light of movies, hate the idea of them. Why can't we stress that and that we don't understand those who go and see that film after film, what's so wrong with that?
Or are you feeling a bit offended yourself? I don't think so, you sound very intelligent. I must say freedom of speech etc. and Travers doesn't offend, he's not rude IMO, but interesting and funny.
I'm just sayin' | January 31, 2009 8:06 PM
"Shame on you, America."
1) its fun to laugh and Mallcop's trailers were cute and funny (Mallcop being dragged by old man on moto-scoot; hmmph-Ha!). (I havent seen the movie...but saw Gran Torino).
2) perhaps you would feel differently if you didnt have that stick up your ass.
Mike | January 31, 2009 6:49 PM
LOL
Hey idiot, not writing for a grade, just for an intelligent response. A ripping comment like mine could only piss off the truly idiotic. Congrats!
I guess the shoe fit, huh?
"Idiot" | January 31, 2009 3:17 PM
Hey, Mike, before you calling the rest of us "idiots", how about learning some proper punctuation skills. It's "Americans", not "American's" - try checking out any basic junior high English textbook for some fundamental usage of apostrophes and posessive vs. plural........idiot.
Blartness | January 31, 2009 2:08 PM
ENOUGH of the dreary Oscar-whoring Holocaust films (we get it, it was AWFUL!); it's about time we got a movie centered around the more-relatable adventures of a mall cop...and if it makes the liberal elite clench their colons in disgust, so much the better!
elessar | January 31, 2009 11:16 AM
There's another light that Mr. Travers neglected to mention: MILK is also entering wide release this weekend. In fact, I'm finally getting a chance to see it today.
mike | January 31, 2009 10:13 AM
Gonna have to agree with Travers on this one. 70% of American's are of average or below average intelligence. The "Mall Cop" numbers shouldn't surprise anyone.
American's are idiots and are happy with the regurgitated vomitus HollyWAD spews out.
To go to a movie with the hope of learning a little history, diving into a characters psyche, or having to weave in and out of a complex plot is NOT what most American's expect when they go to a movies
these days. Hollywood is partly to blame because 95% of what they peddle is for shit, so in a sense, the odds of American's latching onto one of these floating turds is becoming more and more a common phenomenon. I lose bowel control when I consider "Mall Cop" a "sleeper" hit. It's just a fluke and most American's, well... let's face it...are just idiots!!!
Well said Trav!
sbach | January 30, 2009 11:46 PM
One more thing to set the record straight. I have no problem with Travers' review of the Mall Cop or any of his other reviews. I have problems with him ripping people for seeing any of those movies.
Flame away.
Sbach | January 30, 2009 11:30 PM
Improved:
1. I am not "SbachForMayor". Give me a break.
2. Ah, yes, the "movies are art" argument. I agree - movies can and often are art. But do they always need to be? Does every meal need to be a gourmand's wet dream? Does every pop song need to make a political statment? Does every book need to considered for a Pulitzer? No, they need not. Quentin Tarantino, who has been considered an "arty" director realized that, as he celebrated the fact with "Pulp Fiction" and "Grindhouse". There is a place for movies, books, music, etc. that don't always strive to elevate man and push him to think deeply about him and place in the world. Sometimes, we need to be able to shut it all off and revel in nonsense, if just for a little while.
3. Correct me if I'm wrong, but Travers is employed by a magazine that also revels in celebrating "go-kart tracks" and "3 watt bulbs" - how many times has this supposed beacon for entertainment which aspires to art featured the likes of Jessica Simpson and Britney Spears on the cover?
4. For the record, I voted for Obama, and couldn't be happier that Palin is no where near the White House. It's sad that in your world, a person can only like one thing and not the other; in the real world, there is a place for everyone and everything. Too bad you and Peter Travers are too cool for it.
Improved for Mayor | January 30, 2009 10:59 PM
See Sbach? I can do it too.
Sheesh - the ignorance of some people.
Improved | January 30, 2009 10:57 PM
Sbach and SbachforMayor, you two can swim in the swill of "good enough for regular folks" all you want. It's that kind of ignorance that almost gave the world Sarah Palin.
Travers is reviewing films as art, which is what they should be aspiring to, and you two are treating the movies as a go-kart track. Either way is a fine way to look at them, but if you're going to revel in the fact that the two of you are a couple of 3 watt bulbs, DON'T READ REVIEWS THAT EXPECT SOMETHING MORE FROM FILMS.
Idiots.
saad | January 30, 2009 2:06 PM
man get over dark knight not getting an oscar nomination. i mean it's a good movie, and maybe one of the 10 best of the year, but it don't deserve the oscar. yes i don't think the reader should be there but there were plenty of movies like the wrestler or doubt that could have taken it's place over dark knight.
Bo | January 30, 2009 5:45 AM
Hell I can't agree with sbach, kudos to Travers. No moralizing intended, boys, depressed everyday, if that is what you have, can in a bit longer term than an hour or so be only deepened by scum.
mj007 | January 30, 2009 5:42 AM
Hey, Travers, you asked why people went to see Paul Blart and other scumbucket-worthy movies, and I have an idea. I have made up a model called the GL-scales. It showes how Good a movie is and how much you Like a movie. It is two very different things. E.g. I think Titanic is a great movie (rated high on the Good-scale), but I don't like it (rated low on the Like-sclae). You, Travers, are very good at determining if a movie is good. But it is up to the individual if he or she likes it. And I think that it is most important if a person likes a movie, than if it is a good movie. Therefore people go to see bad movies. (E.g. for the movie Paul Blart, many people like Kevin James and the mall and stopping bad guys. People like such fiction).
ShakeSpeare | January 30, 2009 4:35 AM
Stop picking on Travers, the man is one of the best critics around! IMDB stole his formula anyway, Travers has been talking about how fucked up the oscars were, even before the nominations! Everyone knew The Dark Knight would get fucked over, him anyone who really loves film has a right to bitch about it! & yes we also have a right to bitch about Mall Cop, a film that is not funny. It shows how Amercia's Brain Cells are so down the toilet, they cant even pick a good family comedy to go see! I voted for Obama because I believed in CHANGE, hope that can rub off on to the MOVIE INDUSTRY AS WELL! Peter keep telling them how it is, and dont listen to the low browl shit eaters, on here!
SbachForMayor | January 30, 2009 2:56 AM
Nicely said, Sbach!
Anonymous | January 30, 2009 12:05 AM
anyone who thinks Paul Blart :mall cop is a comedy is a jackass. You have no rebuttal.
lmvalle | January 29, 2009 10:34 PM
In some ways I feel you are nattering Travers, yet I think well hell, if they didn't have movies this numbingly stupid i'd have no sense of personal esteem. I laughed my way through The Happening and hated the movie at the same time. Really, just like Larry King said, you get good jokes and you get the jokes that bomb so bad that people love them. Over ninety percent of our bodies have bacteria in them, so a little more scum won't hurt.
sbach | January 29, 2009 9:33 PM
Good God, Travers, lighten up. So, Americans want to take 90 minutes and forget about this hell hole of an economy we're all trapped in, and kill some braincells laughing at a moronic comedy? And you have the nerve to shovel your pretentious high-handed righteous indignation because we don't want to be depressed, or just want to put our brains on hold for a little while and laugh at a fat man's pratfalls rather than put some deep thought into a movie that we're already spending way too much to go see? You embody what is wrong with critics these days. There is absolutely a place for the films you'd rather us see, and I'd like to see them as well. But if I just want to forget about this mess I'm living in right now, who are you to tell me I'm an idiot? You really are full of yourself. Just for that, I'm gonna go see the mall cop. Just to piss you off.