Jack Black and Eli Roth to live in The House with a Clock in its Walls

[Manasrepublic]

I wonder how Blanchette agreed to do this. Not saying it’s bad but an Eli Roth fantasy film with Jack Black... very odd strange combination. The script and pay must have been solid. The movie looks great and black and blanchette look to have solid chemistry

Did anyone see them on Jonathan Ross yesterday? They were hilarious together and had very good chemistry

 

[terry78]

Once you do a Marvel film, as acclaimed as they are, you're kinda like....why the **** not? Cumberbatch is the goddamn Grinch for Christ's sake.

 

[Finarfiniel]

I wonder how Blanchette agreed to do this. Not saying it’s bad but an Eli Roth fantasy film with Jack Black... very odd strange combination. The script and pay must have been solid. The movie looks great and black and blanchette look to have solid chemistry

Did anyone see them on Jonathan Ross yesterday? They were hilarious together and had very good chemistry

Cate Blanchett is my absolute favourite actor (as anyone here who knows me at all will no doubt verify ), I've been following her career since the LotR trilogy nearly 20 years ago, and this move isn't that unusual for her. She's always mixed art films and awards friendly fare with more mainstream Hollywood franchises and blockbuster types. LotR, The Hobbit, Indiana Jones, How to Train Your Dragon, Thor, Ocean's 8 and now this. She's not pretentious at all like some prestige actors on her level of acclaim are, if a movie sounds like fun and she can fit it into her schedule she'll do it. I also get the impression that she's making more films that her kids can watch these days, she's said as much, hence HTTYD, Thor: Ragnarok and now this.

Me and Iceman were discussing her and Jack Black's appearance on Jonathan Ross in the Cate thread on the Ragnarok forum. I agree they have great chemistry and they seem to get on really well. I was absolutely cracking up when Jack was dancing at the end and Cate stuck her hand through his legs. The look on his face was priceless.

 

[Blitzkrieg]

@Finarfiniel

 

[terry78]

I admit the combo of Eric Kripke writing and Roth directing have my intrigued. I'm not a massive Black or Blanchett fan though I like their respective work.

 

[Aximili86]

Had to google who the hell Kripke is, doesn't mean much to me, but really loved the trailer for this. Maybe a Roth movie I won't hate with a passion - I feel dirty even saying that.

Looks really good though, exactly the type of movie I loved in the 90s that kids don't seem to get mch of these days.

 

[Finarfiniel]

@Finarfiniel

Thanks @Blitzkrieg

There have been some advance screenings the past couple of days, seeing some reactions pop up on twitter and most seem to be positive. The only really negative one I've seen so far was from some genius who said it was one of the 'worst things he'd ever seen', and when his buddy asked why, he answered because it was too 'kiddy'. Oh really, the movie that's clearly marketed itself all along as being a childrens film and is based on a popular childrens book is too kiddy? Really?

 

[Finarfiniel]

 

[DarthSkywalker]

Still early, but review okay so far.

The House with a Clock in Its Walls

 

[terry78]

Caught this after work, it's a fun movie that does hearken back to those old school Amblin flicks. Black and Blanchett have insanely good chemistry, I wouldnt be shocked if they work together again. The movie gets genuinely scary and unsettling at times, probably Roth reigning himself in as much as he could for a PG rating.

 

[Web-Head]

This caught my attention from the trailers and I'm glad to see it's a pretty fun movie. I think I'll catch it Sunday afternoon

 

[Pfeiffer-Pfan]

I enjoyed this one. It might not set the box office on fire... but I feel it will grow in stature in the years to come.

Heartwarming, filled with whimsy and seriously spooky in places. I can totally see why Blanchett signed on for this.

 

[Finarfiniel]

Caught this after work, it's a fun movie that does hearken back to those old school Amblin flicks. Black and Blanchett have insanely good chemistry, I wouldnt be shocked if they work together again. The movie gets genuinely scary and unsettling at times, probably Roth reigning himself in as much as he could for a PG rating.

I enjoyed this one. It might not set the box office on fire... but I feel it will grow in stature in the years to come.

Heartwarming, filled with whimsy and seriously spooky in places. I can totally see why Blanchett signed on for this.

I'm not going to see it until Monday, but I'm so glad that people seem to be liking it. Forbes (Scott Mendelson) and Birth.Movies.Death both gave it glowing reviews, and they're two of the very few sites who's reviews I actually care about and usually agree with, so I'm definitely excited.

 

[terry78]

I did like that the entire reason

Spoiler

="Izard created the clock in the first place was due to him being a WW2 vet who felt after that war humanity was too evil to exist."]

 

[Finarfiniel]

Variety says it's heading towards a $24 mil opening weekend which is above the previous top estimates of $20 mil. For a movie that, according to reports, only cost $44 mil to make, that's a very good start. Looks like it'll almost definitely end up making a decent profit for Universal/Amblin.

 

[samsnee]

I’m surprised they didn’t release this closer to Halloween but guess they didn’t want to compete with Goosebumps.

 

[Finarfiniel]

'House With A Clock In Its Walls' Tops Box Office With Boffo $27M Weekend

Universal/Comcast Corp.'s season of non-stop movies (11 newbies in 14 weeks) got off to a very promising start this weekend, as Eli Roth’s The House with a Clock in Its Walls earned a terrific $26.85 million. That includes a whopping $11.4m Saturday gross (+46% from its $7.8m Friday gross) and gives the film an excellent 3.4x weekend multiplier.

 

[tzarinna]

I saw this last night. It was a sweet little film. I had no idea Eli was the director, pleasant surprise watching the credits. My son loved it and I was hoping he'd want to read the book, no interest.

 

[Web-Head]

It was fun. Nothing great or anything and got a little too weird in the third act but the first two acts I really enjoyed

 

[DarthSkywalker]

Just got back from this, and I rather enjoyed it. It is rough around the edges, but its is classically 80s Spielberg, and a lot of fun. The kind of movie I am going to watch every October from here on out.

 

[Finarfiniel]

I still haven't seen it yet. Was supposed to go on Monday but I got called into work, hoping to finally go at some point tomorrow.

Pretty interesting, in-depth article about the VFX and how the movie was created.

 

[DarthSkywalker]

I hope you get to see it soon Finarfiniel, and that you enjoy it.

 

[Finarfiniel]

I hope you get to see it soon Finarfiniel, and that you enjoy it.

Thanks, I finally saw it earlier today. Overall I loved it, it's not a perfect movie by any stretch but the positives far outweigh the negatives. I think it stumbles a little bit in the finale, but the first three quarters are very solid, magical, whimsical 80's Amblin style fun. What I found particularly surprising was how genuinely creepy and unsettling it is in places, I mean devil worship and blood magic in a kids movie? But it totally works, most kids love to be scared and I don't think it ever crosses the line into being too much or too dark.

Another surprising thing was the underlying theme of dealing with grief and loss and learning to move on, I wasn't expecting to be emotionally invested in this film but there were a couple of scenes that got me right in the feels, Mrs Zimmerman's conversation with Lewis in her (purple ) house and her later argument with Jonathan. I went into this movie knowing that Cate Blanchett would be my favourite part, and she definitely didn't disappoint. Mrs Z is awesome. Who knew that Blanchett and Jack Black would be such a great, and funny onscreen pairing? And perhaps more surprisingly, who knew that Eli Roth could actually direct something like this? I'm impressed, I think he may have found his niche. Maybe he'll end up being the next Tim Burton.

 

[Spider-Fan]

I liked this overall. My biggest issue would be I don't think the kid was a particularly good actor. Some of his line delivery was VERY clunky. But the movie is entertaining.

 

[Finarfiniel]

I liked this overall. My biggest issue would be I don't think the kid was a particularly good actor. Some of his line delivery was VERY clunky. But the movie is entertaining.

Yeah, I actually agree. For a majority of the movie he was fine, but there were a couple of scenes where his acting bothered me, especially when he was supposed to be crying and/or expressing grief. I guess it's understandable, that level of emotion must be incredibly difficult for an adult actor to pull off convincingly, let alone a child.