A Good Year, reviews and predictions

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“An absolute dog.” -Decanter

“A three-P movie: pleasant, pretty and predictable. One might add piddling.” -Stephen Holden, NY Times

“Even judged by the not excessively demanding standards of middle-aged renovation fantasies, ‘A Good Year’ isn’t much…Stocky and bullish, [Crowe] looks great on the bridge of a ship or holding off barbarians with a lance but exceptionally unhappy in a bespoke suit.” -Anthony Lane, The New Yorker

Russell Crowe “manages to make Max unremittingly dislikable. What’s more, Mr. Crowe inflicts on Max, and himself, a painfully clumsy version of the clownish physical comedy that Cary Grant once did so well. “A Good Year” is “Sideways” gone sour, the dregs of faux Provence.” - Joe Morgenstern, WSJ

The reviews of “A Good Year” are out! And Ridley Scott, Peter Mayle, and Russell Crowe must be drowning sorrows in Aussie shiraz. Hopefully not a Penfold’s Grange from 1964, Crowe’s birth year. The actor just sent back a $4,400 bottle of it while dining at Marco Pierre White’s Mirabelle in London last month. But, hey, at least he didn’t throw it back!

So, how much will this vaguely wine-y movie, set in Provence, take in this opening weekend? I’m going with $8 million. “Borat,” by comparison, made $26 million last weekend. Post your thoughts in the comments below!

Related:
“Stopping to smell the vintner’s bouquet” NY Times
“Tasting sized pours” [Dr. V]

UPDATE 11/12: Well, it looks like the movie did even worse opening weekend than any of the predictions taking $3.77 million from 2,066 theaters showing the movie. The production budget was $35 million. [BoxOfficeMojo]

tags: wine | a good year | Russell Crowe

Permalink | | TV and movies

This entry was posted on Friday, November 10th, 2006 at 12:57 pm and is filed under TV and movies. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Nov

2006

3 Responses to “A Good Year, reviews and predictions”

On November 10th, 2006 at 10:57 am ,Anonymous wrote:

$6M, tops. Haven’t even seen it advertised. Who knows it’s coming?

On November 11th, 2006 at 2:40 pm ,mph wrote:

Good for Russell. Returning the bottle, that is, not the movie. I enjoyed the book, but it looks like I may as well skip the film.

Wine-searcher is showing plenty of 1964 Grange for under $1,000 in Europe and Australia. For a $3,000+ premium, I think he should be able to get a bottle he’s happy with.