The Dark Knight Is Still Number 1
It will always be number one. By the time it stops being number one, it will have been so long since the first week's people saw it that they'll inevitably have to go again, thus rendering it ... number one.
I did NOT take a third stab at The Dark Knight this weekend, instead opting to put my hungover energies into Pineapple Express. I'm not gonna say I got a contact high from watching the marijuana silo go up in an inferno. I'm just saying that I came away from that movie with a major case of the munchies that prevented me from getting in a much-needed Sunday night run. But I prattle on.
I get the sense that the media is concerned about the whole Judd Apatow Dynasty we're currently embroiled in. Everyone likes to say it all got started with 'The 40 Year Old Virgin', but if you want to be technical about it, he produced 'Anchorman' a year earlier. Of course, the true diehards will tell you 'Freaks & Geeks' was his television masterpiece that put him down this road. Then again, the REAL diehards will look before to his work on 'The Larry Sanders Show' and even 'The Ben Stiller Show'. But forget all that, he's top of the pops now and look at this run of comedies he was involved in, whether writer, director, or just producer:
2004 - Anchorman
2005 - The 40 Year Old Virgin
2006 - Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby
2007 - Knocked Up
2007 - Superbad
2007 - Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story
2008 - Forgetting Sarah Marshall
2008 - Drillbit Taylor
2008 - Step Brothers
2008 - Pineapple Express
I've seen all but the previous three released this year, but that's not because I didn't want to. I just never got around to it.
Regardless, the point being: Judd Apatow is on the roll of a generation. We haven't seen this kind of run since Mel Brooks in the 70s and 80s or John Hughes in the 80s and early 90s. Only unlike those two legends, Apatow isn't trying to appeal to a mass audience. With the subject matter, the bevy of R ratings, the no-name actors, Mr. Apatow is making the kind of movies he and his friends find funny. If it just so happens that this kind of humor coincides with a sufficient segment of the American population, all the better to eat you my dear.
My only problem lies in these writers who worry of Apatow-overload. Why would you want to take a great thing and limit it? Don't worry, eventually Apatow and his cronies will sell out or lose their verve or whatever it is that happens when the John Hughes's of the world make their own "Curly Sue"s. But for now, enjoy the fucking ride! There's generally a small window for an artist's genius to peak! Would you rather Apatow have spent the bulk of that window fretting over every little thing to the point where he makes a movie every five years? These are comedies, he's not documenting genocide in Darfur; I say pump out as much quality work as quickly as possible and damn the naysayers!
That having been said, what's with Pineapple Express still not getting the number one slot in this week's box office? The Dark Knight was good, but damn man!
I did NOT take a third stab at The Dark Knight this weekend, instead opting to put my hungover energies into Pineapple Express. I'm not gonna say I got a contact high from watching the marijuana silo go up in an inferno. I'm just saying that I came away from that movie with a major case of the munchies that prevented me from getting in a much-needed Sunday night run. But I prattle on.
I get the sense that the media is concerned about the whole Judd Apatow Dynasty we're currently embroiled in. Everyone likes to say it all got started with 'The 40 Year Old Virgin', but if you want to be technical about it, he produced 'Anchorman' a year earlier. Of course, the true diehards will tell you 'Freaks & Geeks' was his television masterpiece that put him down this road. Then again, the REAL diehards will look before to his work on 'The Larry Sanders Show' and even 'The Ben Stiller Show'. But forget all that, he's top of the pops now and look at this run of comedies he was involved in, whether writer, director, or just producer:
2004 - Anchorman
2005 - The 40 Year Old Virgin
2006 - Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby
2007 - Knocked Up
2007 - Superbad
2007 - Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story
2008 - Forgetting Sarah Marshall
2008 - Drillbit Taylor
2008 - Step Brothers
2008 - Pineapple Express
I've seen all but the previous three released this year, but that's not because I didn't want to. I just never got around to it.
Regardless, the point being: Judd Apatow is on the roll of a generation. We haven't seen this kind of run since Mel Brooks in the 70s and 80s or John Hughes in the 80s and early 90s. Only unlike those two legends, Apatow isn't trying to appeal to a mass audience. With the subject matter, the bevy of R ratings, the no-name actors, Mr. Apatow is making the kind of movies he and his friends find funny. If it just so happens that this kind of humor coincides with a sufficient segment of the American population, all the better to eat you my dear.
My only problem lies in these writers who worry of Apatow-overload. Why would you want to take a great thing and limit it? Don't worry, eventually Apatow and his cronies will sell out or lose their verve or whatever it is that happens when the John Hughes's of the world make their own "Curly Sue"s. But for now, enjoy the fucking ride! There's generally a small window for an artist's genius to peak! Would you rather Apatow have spent the bulk of that window fretting over every little thing to the point where he makes a movie every five years? These are comedies, he's not documenting genocide in Darfur; I say pump out as much quality work as quickly as possible and damn the naysayers!
That having been said, what's with Pineapple Express still not getting the number one slot in this week's box office? The Dark Knight was good, but damn man!