People Are Stupid: 10 Summer Blockbusters That "Flopped" But Are Still Awesome
These summer blockbusters from days past deserve another look.
Image via Complex Original
The months of May through August mark an important interval for both Hollywood and moviegoers. For us common folk, ‘tis the season where we gleefully submit to the deluge of superhero orgies, furiously fast car chases, family-friendly animated fun, or magnum-sized magical Mikes. For the Hollywood brass, summer movie season is industry parlance for “let’s fuck up some commas!”
Without the huge summer tentpole releases that audiences fiend for, the movie industry would permanently be in the red. These are the only months where Hollywood can proudly flaunt its commerce > art ethos and get away with it. Big price tags beget big profits which begets having a deeper financial reservoir to fund the smaller, artsy movies in the remaining months of the year. It’s a win-win!
That is, unless those big summer movies bomb. Which brings me to the crux of this article: It’s time to pay tribute to those neglected summer movies from the days of yore—movies that deserved much better than the critical guillotine and/or box office gallows they suffered through, unfairly overlooked by audiences and bullheadedly maligned by critics. And before you go accusing me of #fakecare or ironically appreciating these gems that were treated like pebbles for skipping, I can assure you I’m not viewing them through rose-colored glasses. They truly are enjoyable—and some are legitimate classics—that require another viewing and perhaps a discussion about their place in the canon. Allow me to lead the charge on their vindication.
Now that the $191 million dust has settled after Avengers: Age of Ultron’s opening weekend, take the time to revisit these forgotten gems of summers passed. You might have heard they sucked, or you might have not heard of them at all. But now you might hear me whisper “I told you so” as you run these movies back and see that they were really great all along.
The Avengers
Release Date: Aug. 1998
Rotten Tomatoes Score: 5%
Domestic Box Office: $23.3 Million
No, not those Avengers. Nearly 15 years before Iron Man, Thor, Captain America, The Hulk, Hawkeye, and Black Widow assembled to take the MCU to an unprecedented financial altitude, this campy, silly adaptation of a '60s British TV series of the same name left theaters quicker than you can say "Joss Whedon." Overwhelmingly panned by critics, The Avengers enlisted Ralph Fiennes and Uma Thurman as secret agents tasked with stopping a nefarious Sean Connery, the rouge mad scientist plotting world domination by controlling the weather.
Sounds like rubbish? Well, that’s because it is. But you can still salute a film that gleefully commits to its uncanny (read: cartoonish) visual vocabulary and energetic set pieces. Also, Ralph Fiennes bringing his A-game gravitas and cheeky Brit swagger to deliver some of the worst dialogue in recent history is worth the price of admission.
The Avengers suffered from massive rewrites thanks to poor test screenings, so Warner Bros. left it to perish in a mid-August release—right as Armageddon’s box office domination had metastasized into its terminal stage (it would go on to be the highest grossing movie of 1998). And it’s a shame, because if The Avengers had a stronger script and tighter direction it could have been called Kingsman: The Secret Service.
A Perfect Getaway
Release Date: Aug. 2009
Rotten Tomatoes Score: 61%
Domestic Box Office: $15.5 Million
Director David Twohy (G.I. Jane, the Riddick trilogy) doesn’t try to trick the audience into thinking he has reinvented the wheel with this tensely paced, expertly written genre exercise about a pair of killers stalking honeymooners on a remote Hawaiian island. And that's what makes A Perfect Getaway one of the best thrillers of the last decade. It doesn’t insult the audience’s intelligence while providing jarring plot twists and an awesome WTF-denouement.
Timothy Olyphant, Steve Zahn, Milla Jovavich, and Kiele Sanchez each lend their dependable character-actor chops as they play stock thriller personalities: a charming ex-Marine with a screw loose; a milquetoast dweeb of a screenwriter; the bashful simpleton from a small Southern town; a beautiful tomboy with survival skills to boot. They’re all suspicious of one another because—you guessed it—no one is who they say they are! I know it sounds trite, but with deliberate character development, some good ol’ fashioned red herrings and Twohy’s sleight of hand, this B-movie delivers some grade-A suspense and shock.
A movie with this small of a budget and character actors (Chris Hemsworth’s minor role doesn’t count since it was anti-Thor) was destined to be overlooked, especially with Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, The Hangover and a Harry Potter movie dropping that same summer. But A Perfect Getaway is worth a visit for the beautiful Hawaiian landscapes, the taut thrills, and for reminding us of what a national treasure Steve Zahn is.
Hulk
Release Date: June 2003
Rotten Tomatoes Score: 62%
Domestic Box Office: $132.1 Million
Right after directing a tiger-crouching, dragon-hiding ballet, Ang Lee treated comic book mythology as poetry with Hulk. This served as the origin story for Marvel’s difficulty with making a stand-alone Hulk film that connected with audiences and critics, and it’s easy to see why this installment had a lukewarm reception. Lee’s unconventional direction, complete with comical Adam West-era Batman scene transitions, seemed at odd with its heavy, existential tone. There are only about 23 minutes of action, which means about two hours of navel gazing on id vs. ego, inherent rage, and daddy issues. But it was a ballsy risk to treat destruction so delicately, and Hulk is as asinine as it affecting.
While a $132 million gross might not seem like a flop, it didn’t even break even against its $140 million budget. Add in marketing costs, and it barely recouped after worldwide box office receipts were tallied. But Hulk still deserves a watch, if not for Lee’s insanely vibrant color palette then definitely for Nick Nolte’s loony performance.
Land of the Lost
Release Date: June 2009
Rotten Tomatoes Score: 26%
Domestic Box Office: $49.4 Million
Will Ferrell at the height of his powers, a reimagining of a beloved children’s television show, PG-13 to allow enough puerile humor while not being audience-prohibitive with an R rating—what could possibly go wrong?
Well, everything, apparently. Land of the Lost bricked so badly that it makes Evan Almighty seem like a success story. Early critical hate surely dampened anticipation from audiences, who also might’ve been suffering from Ferrell-fatigue. Which sucks for them, because they missed out on some of Ferrell and Danny McBride’s best comedic interplay this side of Eastbound & Down.
Sure, there is plenty of uninspired toilet humor and too many special effects, but overall the comedic rhythm remains up-tempo and the alternate dimension setting is a creative blend of past/present/future worlds that looks delightful. Homage to the original series is nearly pitch-perfect, with an appearance from the Sleestak aliens and fun, jaunty action sequences that focus more on adventure than peril. Unfortunately, Land of the Lost feels like a victim of its own preemptively assumed success.
Also, Will Ferrell telling Matt Lauer to “suck it” is an iconic moment that deserves to be seen by every one of all ages.
Fright Night
Release Date: Aug. 2011
Rotten Tomatoes Score: 72%
Domestic Box Office: $18.3 Million
As you can tell by the Rotten Tomatoes aggregate rating above, Fright Night was well regarded by critics, and that is largely due to director Craig Gillespie's (Lars and the Real Girl) smart winks to its cult classic 1985 predecessor. But moviegoers failed to care at all, probably because it starred McLovin' (Christopher Mintz-Plasse) and that kid who does a cringe-worthy Russian accent in J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek universe (Anton Yelchin).
Their ability to be completely unlikable is overshadowed, however, by Colin Farrell’s best performance since In Bruges as the vampire next door. Farrell hits all the necessary beats of Vamp-core with aplomb: He's hilarious, sexual, and fucking frightening. His intense bloodlust is a pleasure to watch, and the stylized violence and gore are up to par for a horror lover’s standards.
Fright Night is further proof that solid horror movies are still being mined from pre-existing properties, and that Colin Farrell is at his best when playing against type in bizarre supporting roles.
Speed Racer
Release Date: May 2008
Rotten Tomatoes Score: 39%
Domestic Box Office: $43.9 Million
Speed Racer, starring Emile Hirsch as the titular hero, marked the beginning of the end for the Wachowskis. But it shouldn’t have been. Never has a children’s Saturday morning cartoon been handled so maturely without losing its youthful vigor, and while also delivering messages about love and art that are refreshingly honest instead of cynically ham-fisted.
Speed Racer’s fatal flaw is of course its bloated running time, but those two and a half hours are a visual dreamscape—a kaleidoscopic maze that feels like staring at ROYGBIV sequence on molly while hydroplaning in a Subaru Sport at 150 mph. All of your senses are heightened watching this movie, and it is an intoxicating experience.
A movie that looks this gorgeous and original should not have taken such a cultural L. It was doomed at the box office from the start (that’s what happens when your release date is couched between Iron Man and The Dark Knight) and critics were just waiting to unleash animus towards the Wachowskis after the self-indulgent Matrix Revolutions neutered the trilogy of all its acclaim.
Watch it after a dull work week and feel resuscitated. Just don’t watch it on molly for real. You might die.
MacGruber
Release Date: May 2010
Rotten Tomatoes Score: 47%
Domestic Box Office: $8.5 Million
Director Jorma Taccone (one-third of The Lonely Island crew) accomplished a Herculean task when he brought MacGruber to the big screen. Some quick context: MacGruber is based on a 20-second sketch from SNL. The hero (Will Forte) is the anti-MacGuyver; while he may possess the same resourcefulness and sangfroid as Richard Dean Anderson’s character, he is constantly killing himself, not to mention the hostages he’s supposed to save.
The genius of MacGruber was Forte and Taccone’s decision to keep the smug lack of self-awareness of the character and his non-violent morality, provide an absurd origin story, then fully flesh out a plot that serves as both a love letter to, and satire of, big-budget '80s action flicks. MacGruber is genre parody at its apex—the attention to detail in the slick, active cinematography, the preposterous dialogue and, of course, collateral-damaging action sequences—all while taking itself very, very seriously.
Forte and Kristen Wiig are in top form, and Val Kilmer is perfect as the pony-tailed villain with the villain-y name of Dieter Von Cunth. Unfortunately, it couldn’t even make back its paltry $10 million budget, but it still lives next to Wayne’s World as the rare SNL movie done right.
Miami Vice
Release Date: July 2006
Rotten Tomatoes Score: 47%
Domestic Box Office: 63.4 Million
I still can’t figure out how this movie flopped. Colin Farrell and Jamie Foxx filling the loafers of Crocket and Tubbs in a Michael Mann-helmed adaptation of the O.G. series that he executive produced should’ve been movie magic. To me it was, but to the majority of audiences and critics, Miami Vice was a snooze-fest.
Mann’s decision to go muted and brooding definitely disappointed people expecting the bright Miami scenery of the TV show. But everything you love about Mann’s signature style is present: the existential crossroads of professional men at work, hyper-masculinity, visceral handheld camera work, and expertly staged gunfights. God damn, those gunfights. Nobody captures first person shooter shootouts like Mann, and the set pieces from Miami Vice rival those from Heat.
The love story between Farrell and Li Gong definitely distracts and drags—B-stories tend to do that. But overall, this is action vérité at its finest and should be regarded as one of Mann’s best. It's definitely better than Public Enemies.
The Iron Giant
Release Date: July 1999
Rotten Tomatoes Score: 97%
Domestic Box Office: $23.1 Million
Before he was Groot, Vin Diesel was an iron giant in the most profound, poignant animated film of the '90s. Directed by Brad Bird (The Incredibles, Ghost Protocol), The Iron Giant was all but ignored at the box office even though it lasso'ed in universal critical acclaim. Here’s an hypothesis as to why: Four years after Pixar revolutionized the animation game with Toy Story’s CGI photorealism, Bird’s creative decision to use traditional 2D visuals to better represent the film’s 1950s Cold War setting was rejected by those who wanted more of that dazzling CGI magic. Also, it’s one of the more thematically challenging animated features that’s been made: it's anti-war, anti-gun, and anti-commerce at the expense of humanity. Not your typically buoyant Disney fare.
But The Iron Giant had more heart than any other film—including the live action ones—that year. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll empathize as little Hogarth befriends the fallen space giant during an Eisenhower era that feared a technological holocaust. This is the most adult “kids movie” ever made, and one of the most redemptive.
Box office numbers lie, 2D sentient robots don’t.
Wet Hot American Summer
Release Date: July 2001
Rotten Tomatoes Score: 31%
Domestic Box Office: $295,000
Once upon a time, Bradley Cooper, Paul Rudd, Amy Poehler, Janeane Garofalo, Michael Ian Black, David Hyde Pierce, Christopher Meloni, Molly Shannon, Ken Marino, Joe Lo Truglio, Marguerite Moreau, and A.D Miles were so underground that director David Wain could afford to have them all star in the same movie. That movie was about a single day at a wacky Jewish summer camp. That movie only made $295,000 (I repeat, THOUSAND) dollars. To put that in terms you may understand: it grossed less than 1/20th of Bradley Cooper’s current salary demands.
That movie is called Wet Hot American Summer, and it’s the only film on this list I’m happy about flopping. It’s been able to retain its cult allure; an in-movie filled with in-humor so esoteric that I use it as a barometer to gauge people’s sense of humor. If you cry laughing at this movie, we now have a cosmic friendship by default. If you don’t cry laughing at this movie, I judge you. Yeah, I’m a smug Wet Hot American Summer elitist. Sue me. Every cineaste has that one movie they are a snob about. This is mine. This is the Deer Hunter of comedy.
But I want everyone to see it. Please watch it this weekend. I love hearing people’s thoughts after seeing it with fresh eyes. If you love it, I can’t wait to dap you. If you don’t, I can’t wait for you to block me back on Twitter.