Ken Berwitz
As anyone who reads this blog knows, I don\’t make predictions. But I do have expectations.
Here\’s one that, I am happy to say, has been exceeded: the first set of reviews for “13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers Of Benghazi” are, on average, ok. Not great and not good, just OK. Metacritic.com, which compiles and assesses movie critics\’ reviews, rates “13 Hours”, on average, 49% out of 100% (other reviews will follow, which might move this average up or down, but that is where things stand as of about 10:30 this morning).
Why did that 49% exceed my expectations? Because this is the entertainment industry, which is so deep in Ms. Clinton\’s pocket that I sometimes think they should name it Hillarywood. If a movie which, though it never mentions her by name, makes it crystal-clear that the Benghazi massacre could have been avoided if we had a Secretary of State who was competent and who gave a damn about the people there, can achieve 49%, it must really good.
And here is the basis for my excessive expectation. In the latter part of 2015, Hollywood has given us to movies straight from the leftward lean of Tinseltown: “Truth” , which tried to convince us that Dan Rather and Mary Mapes were right about George Bush missing some National Guard duty 35 years before (which, even if true, would have all the importance of coming in third in the National Tiddlywinks Open) and “Trumbo”, which turned a very great screenwriter but very bad political thinker, the lifelong unrepentant communist Dalton Trumbo, into a near-flawless superhero.
The excessive expectation? “13 Hours” will exceed the entire gross of “Truth” (which has been out for the past three months) and “Trumbo” (almost two and a half months) by the end of its first week in release – quite possibly by the end of its first weekend.
I\’ll let you know one way or the other.
One more expectation: Hollywood, which has made it clear that it is willing to lose its shirt on anti-USA crap like The Green Zone, “Syriana”. “In The Valley of Elah”, and “Recacted” among others, will learn nothing from it.
Learning and Hollywood don\’t much seem to go together.
==========================================
Oh yeah, let me toss in a final note: since we\’re talking about movies and how they\’re doing, you may be interested to know that “The Hateful Eight”, from Quentin Tarantino, who was so happy to call police murderers, based far more on his personal hard-left views than actual evidence, is doing lousy business.
“The Hateful Eight” was released on Christmas day. As of now, after three weeks in general release, it has barely grossed its production costs – which its producer, The Weinstein Company, only keeps a fraction of anyway. That, of course, is before we get to the costs of promoting it, distribution, and other assorted goodies. Unless something monumental changes, this is going to lose money. Lots and lots and lots of it.
Try to imagine how hard police officers around the country are taking this…….
