I knew it. When we went to see Crank: High Voltage, the Carousel was swarming with teenage girls, and as we were leaving, a contingent of Girl Scouts were setting up sleeping bags to spend the night there. I jokingly suggested they were all there to see Crank, but the reality is that there's only one reason that many teenage girls were in one place: Zac f'n Efron.
The Cap'n doesn't know much about Zac Efron. Hell, I don't really know anything about him other than he's in those High School Musical movies and that he was in the Hairspray that isn't Hairspray*. Oh, and that his new movie, 17 Again, came out on Friday.
For those of us who grew up during the 80s, seeing trailers for that film were groan-inducing because they reminded us of a series of "Body Swapping" movies that were all the rage between 1980 and 1990. 18 Again, Like Father Like Son, Vice Versa, Big, Dream a Little Dream. All of them essentially borrowed the Freaky Friday premise (with the exception of Big) and came out within a few years of each other. They also all sucked (again, with the exception of Big), so it wasn't a huge loss when they went the way of the dodo.
But now it's back, and not in the Freaky Friday remake** or The Hot Chick one-off way. Now it has Zac f'n Efron to guarantee interest, and sure enough 17 Again was tops at the Box Office. As much as I'd like to think that Studio Sixty on the Sunset Strip and Reno 911 fans had something to do with it***, I think we all know who forked over their babysitting dollars to see shirtless Zac Efron (yes, that was actually in a review).
Crank: High Voltage, on the other hand, was number six, behind 17 Again, State of Play, Hannah Montana: the Movie, Monsters vs Aliens, and Fast and Furious.
I'm not truly broken up over this, although it is sad. Crank: High Voltage is not the kind of movie that's going to appeal to... well, just about everybody. There's a very specific audience to this film, and you can usually tell by their reaction to the title. If they say "What's that?", change the subject. If they say "Holy Crap! There's a Crank TWO???" and then proceed to jump around like a maniac, get that person a ticket. After all, that's going to be one out of a hundred or so people you talk to.
Still, I'm bummed it didn't do better. That movie is so gleefully subversive that I'd love to see more of them (especially in light of how Crank: High Voltage ends) but the Box Office is boss as far as Hollywood is concerned. We can instead look forward to the return of the Body Swap genre with tween stars in the lead. Oh boy.
Again, nothing personal to Zac Efron. Don't know the guy, haven't seen his work, not planning on doing so either. Your movie just landed opposite a film that at last figured out how to bring exploitation cinema back into the multiplexes and did it very well. That, and I really hated Vice Versa and 18 Again. And Like Father, Like Son. Hell, I hate all of them, except Big. So forgive my lack of enthusiam for your triumph.
* Speaking of successful adaptations that supplanted the original film. You can't even mention Hairspray anymore and expect a conversation about John Waters to follow. Such a shame...
** Again, now people think of that stupid Lindsay Lohan movie. Poor Jodie Foster.
*** Matthew Perry and Thomas Ian Lennon are in the movie too. And Leslie Mann, of Apatow movie fame.
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