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Carter Glace writes that there have been some decent video game movies, like 'Prince of Persia' or one of the 'Resident Evil' films but plenty of bad ones too just remember 'Super Mario Bros'. But Doug Liman's 'Edge of Tomorrow' shows how to take one of video games' most tried and true mechanics and use it to make an excellent and utterly creative film. In the film Tom Cruise plays a PR officer named Cage who, blessed with the power of infinite lives, has to continually progress through the day while figuring out how to win the battle and the war kind of a cross between 'Groundhog Day' and 'Starship Troopers.'
"The use of the words "infinite lives" is no accident," writes Glace. The premise of the film comes from a Japanese graphic novel titled 'All You Need Is Kill', but it is steeped in the classic video game lore: restarting the game over and over until you are prepared for every conceivable threat. This is a fact director Liman openly celebrates and it works here on countless levels. Cruise's efforts to train are all chronicled through an efficient, fun and fluid montage that serves as an excellent progression through the "levels," while cutting out the more mundane, frustrating repetition it "stands as an incredibly creative, intelligent piece of sci-fi filmmaking." "Taking inspiration from an underutilized resource, Cruise has made an incredible return to form," concludes Glace. "Unfortunately, 'Edge of Tomorrow' is already a box-office dud, but I implore you to support this excellent film."
(Score: 2) by GreatAuntAnesthesia on Monday June 16 2014, @09:48AM
>Wikipedia says: $178 million production, $100 millions marketing (and I haven't heard of it 'til now) and $237.6 million worldwide after its second week (probably some more weeks to come + disk editions).
What am I missing or... what does make a movie a dud?
Hollywood accounting: Hollywood movies exist in a strange superposition of being both a massive hit and a complete failure at the same time: Basically when the taxman comes knocking, the film was a complete flop and everyone is making sad faces and pulling their empty pockets inside out. When they want some new legislation against filesharing, then all movies are total losses and the industry is just churning out multi-million dollar titles out of their own savings just for the love of it. When the people and businesses who worked hard on the film ask for their cut of the profits then, what a surprise, turns out there were no profits to share.
However, when they want to impress people with how awesome and successful the studios are, suddenly every film is a box office smash taking in millions of profit.
If you want the truth, just take a look at the lifestyles these Hollywood folks leave. If they were as poor as the pretended to be, I doubt they'd be driving Lamborghinis.