Birth of an actor

"Pick up your mouse and do something for Will!" "

How many of you believed Andre Acheson's score from "Entertainment Weekly", believed the film review in "New York Post", thought "Meet Joe Black" was a terrible movie, and then dismissed it Thoughts for a movie theater?

I know there are many.Because the website is too busy recently, many people are discussing "Meeting Joe Black". There are good comments and bad comments. Generally, there are mostly bad comments.

It's incredible, really.

Friends who just read a few newspapers, read a few clearly disparaging reviews of the movie, were disappointed and thought the movie was terrible, and then joined the army of critics, the attitude of the media, your behavior, this Everything felt familiar to me.

Looking back on Hollywood movies in the past 80 years, from black and white movies in the 20s to special effects blockbusters in recent years, "Partyman", "Wizard of Oz", "It's a Wonderful Life", "Citizen Kane", "Peeping Tom", "Blade Runner" ", "Heaven's Gate", "Once Upon a Time in America", "The Shawshank Redemption"... These films all had mixed reviews when they were first released, and they were disastrous at the box office. The director lost his job, the producer took the blame and resigned, and even the film company went bankrupt and was acquired.

But which of these movies is not a classic among the classics, which has influenced countless people to embark on the road of movies, and even rewritten the history of today's Hollywood movies?

I don't want to say that "Meet Joe Black" can stand shoulder to shoulder with the above-mentioned classic movies, because whether a movie can be included in the classics is not up to me alone. It is a generation or even several generations. After several years or even The most correct judgment can only be made after decades.

But just in my personal opinion, "Meet Joe Black" is great, not only because I actually went to the cinema to see it, and I have my own judgment and thinking about the film, but also because it was on the day of the premiere , I witnessed with my own eyes that the vast majority of the audience praised the film as much as I did!

A movie theater with hundreds of spectators, 3-minute applause and countless "Bravo" sounds is definitely not my own fantasy!

Since newspapers, magazines and TV began to publish film-related content, there are always a few people who can publish film reviews in the media. There are no newspapers that publish public film reviews specifically for journalists, hosts, columnists and other industry insiders. , but for a long time, ordinary movie fans who are the majority have always been led by the minority. If some media say that a certain movie is bad, the reputation of the movie will immediately become bad, and the box office will immediately hit the street. , even if it's not inherently a bad movie.

I don't know why the well-known film critic Andre Acheson criticized this movie fiercely. Maybe the movie in his eyes is not the same as the movie in the eyes of ordinary movie fans, but I want to express my gratitude to those who have been influenced by him and who have been influenced by " People influenced by newspapers and magazines like Entertainment Weekly said——

Have you ever seriously considered that what the media says must be true, and what film critics say must be true?

In other words, you don't care at all about being forced by the media to change your mind and lose your judgment?

I want to say to those who blindly believe everything in the newspapers, the media is the channel for us to get information, not the Bible, please don't let anyone or anything control your mind, not even the President of the United States!

I would like to say to those who hate being forced by the media as much as I do, keep a clear head and trust your own judgment!

I would like to say to those of you who have seen Meet Joe Black and thought it was great, please express your honest opinion like I did, we are by no means a minority!

I would like to say to every movie lover that film critics are not the only ones who can write movie reviews. Good movie reviews can come from every ordinary movie fan. We may not be able to publish articles in professional movie magazines, but we have the Internet!We have IMDB, Rotten Tomatoes and other movie rating sites!They are our Variety, Empire, LA Times and The New Yorker!

Finally, I want to say to every William Bradley fan, please go to the cinema and support "Meet Joe Black", the more media like "Entertainment Weekly" belittles it and uglifies it, the more we have to let it appear At the top of the box office list, fight back against Andre Achesons!

Get moving and do something for William!

……

After the premiere of "Meet Joe Black", there was a strange phenomenon in public opinion in major North American media.

Before the film was released, the media was not optimistic about the film's prospects. Some newspapers even said: "Since shooting the first film "Sense and Sensibility", William Bradley has never tasted the taste of box office fiasco. None of the films in which he starred or had an important role did not make money, and the box office was always two or three times higher than the shooting cost, or even ten times the cost. It sounds like William Bran Deli seems to have a magical ability to add to the box office. But the upcoming "Meet Joe Black" is likely to end his good luck. With an investment of 9000 million US dollars, the box office must reach at least [-] million US dollars. It will lose money, but according to the slow pace of the film and the current poor reputation, it is absolutely impossible to achieve a box office of [-] million US dollars-William Bradley is about to lose his magic, starting with "Meet Joe Black". "

After the premiere, big newspapers such as the "New York Times" and "Los Angeles Times", which are always very time-sensitive, did not speak out immediately for some reason. The first to publish a film review was the "Entertainment Weekly" editor. Professional film critic Andre Acheson - after Universal's previous previews in North America, he also criticized the film the most. From director to producer, from actor to screenwriter, Andre · Acheson's mouth film seems to be useless, he behaved more harshly than the editor of the British "Empire".

"The edited two-hour North American version is a bit better than the three-hour European version, but the theme is still confusing. The film seems to want to say everything, but it doesn't make it clear." William Bradley A mature and handsome face and the identity of the god of death pretending to be innocent, Anthony Hopkins' image of a loving father is not good, but there is no bright spot." Andre Acheson, as always, is unhappy everywhere, but he doesn't know The reason why he did this was to deliberately exaggerate to make a gimmick, or to maliciously target William.

Andre Acheson only gave "Meeting Joe Black" a passing score of six. As he said in his column, he gave it a passing grade because: "Two hours in the cinema are better than three." Hours are strong."

Film reviews from the "Los Angeles Times" and other media came out at this time. Different from the bad reviews before the release, many media changed their direction after the premiere. Among them, the "New Yorker" rated the best: "A film It is a touching movie that can make people sit in the cinema with a smile on their faces for 120 minutes without wanting to leave early, and maybe even shed a few tears. It is not about pure love, but also family and friendship. After savoring it carefully , will add some new insights into life.”

The New Yorker review came as a shock to many, because just a month earlier, the magazine had relentlessly called "Meet Joe Black" a "disappointing film."

"The New Yorker" made two completely different film reviews for the same movie. Now it seems a bit self-deprecating, but this is exactly the attitude that a professional and serious film magazine should have - it can be corrected in time Make a fair and objective evaluation of your previous erroneous views.

However, not all media are like "The New Yorker", who would rather sacrifice temporary fame than long-term feathers and authoritative status. The "Washington Post" is also a nationally distributed newspaper, but they don't Brave enough to suddenly correct a movie after consistently belittling it for a month.

The "Washington Post" finally gave only an ambiguous report: "From the script, the movie did not bring many surprises to the audience, but William Brandley's death is kind and innocent, full of ignorant childishness, Anthony Hopkins played the image of a mature, wise, tolerant and loving father, and the cooperation between the two actors created an unparalleled spark."

There are still many media that have made the same choice as the "Washington Post". These ambiguous comments make fans very confused: Is "Meeting Joe Black" a good movie or a bad one?Is it worth going to the cinema to watch?

At this time, the box office of the film's premiere weekend was released, and the box office of 600 million US dollars in 9000 movie theaters was not bad. Joe Black's investment was 90 million US dollars, so the box office in the first weekend seems very embarrassing-Hollywood's accounting system is very special, the production company can directly take [-]% of the book's box office in the premiere week, and then follow the release As the cycle becomes longer, the production company's share is getting lower and lower, and the theater's share is getting higher and higher.In other words, if the film company cannot recover the cost in the first two or three weeks of the film's release (because only then can the production company get the highest percentage of the bill), then the film will probably lose money.

Coupled with the fact that the box office of movies generally shows a stepwise decline, "Meet Joe Black" seems to be destined to lose money.

"Entertainment Weekly" put on a look that had been expected, and started the second round of negative reviews on the movie.

As a result, those media who spared no effort to smear the movie before it was released, and still insisted on their own opinions after the movie was released, fell into a complacent mood.

The word-of-mouth of "Meet Joe Black" is already in a mixed and extremely dangerous situation. The continuous smear of "Entertainment Weekly" and the film's box office performance are indeed not good. Although there are hundreds of fans on IMDB and other movies The rating website gave the film a high score of eight to nine points, but in the mouth of the media, it seems that the fate of the film's tragedy has been pronounced in advance.

Until Jonathan Bates championed an action on the Internet.

……

Chicago suburbs.

"Mom? What are you doing?" When Rebecca Cobden passed by the study for the third time, she saw her mother Malvina Cobden sitting in front of the computer completely ecstatically typing on the keyboard. And after three or four hours in a row, she finally couldn't help asking her own questions.

Malvina Cobden is a typical example of a good middle-class housewife in this era. She is almost omnipotent in cooking, housework, childcare and husband. Rebecca used to think that her mother was not interested in fashion or Hollywood or even had nothing. As far as she knew, she found out that her mother had been chasing stars and following the Hollywood news a lot. That new discovery shocked Rebecca. She had always thought that her mother was past the age to be interested in Hollywood stars.It's not that her mother is getting old, but just like Rebecca now that she no longer likes the Mickey Mouse Club child stars, but worships popular movie stars and rock singers, Rebecca really didn't expect her mother's taste for fashion to be different from the same as myself.

How had Malvina Cobden answered her then? "When I was your age, I had no interest in those movie star rock bands, Ruby, I thought I was a little different from others, and now I realized that the actors who fascinated me came too late. My girlish heart has also been delayed for 20 years."

However, even for Rebecca, this scene now seems too unusual—Since the computer was bought home, Malvina Cobden has not had much interest in it, and she sat in front of the computer uncharacteristically today For most of the day, Rebecca had to ask what was wrong. After being a housewife for nearly 20 years, her mother wanted to go out to work again?

"I'm writing a movie review." Malvina Cobden replied without looking up, "If you're hungry, there's pizza left over from yesterday in the kitchen, but you have to heat up Ruby yourself, I A little busy."

Rebecca Cobden stopped short immediately: "You read that post, too, Mom?" she said in a tone like a cryptic butthead.

The sound of typing on the keyboard stopped, Malvina Cobden: "Also? So you wrote it too?"

"Not only did I write a long review on IMDB and Rotten Tomatoes, but I told everyone I knew about the movie and harassed everyone around me to make them do the same if they thought it was good. The next step is to post the movie posters in every corner of the Internet, so that everyone will notice that there is such a good movie that they cannot miss..."

"You really are the one who resembles me the most among all the children." Malvina Cobden looked at her eldest daughter with a strange look and said, "We think exactly the same."

"Then what are we waiting for, let's get on with it! Time waits for no one!" Rebecca screamed and ran into the room, helping her mother scan every punctuation mark in the movie review.