Hollywood's race to be unoriginal

I am pretty good at predicting box office failures and winners when it comes to the trailers. I've noticed recently that there's a batch of comedies coming out within the next year that has to deal with casual sex. Friends With Benefits starring Justin Timberlake & Mila Kunis - this one actually looked good to me, mainly because they released a Redband trailer that was abolutely hilarious, and I love my comedy dirty. Then there's The Freebie with Dax Shepard which looks like mostly a downer dramedy , No Strings Attached with Ashton Kutcher and Natalie Portman which looks exactly like Friends With Benefits, but more chick-flicky. Hall Pass with Owen Wilson which looked cute, but something I'd catch streaming on Netflix. Just Go With It with Adam Sandler & Jennifer Aniston - the trailer looks like most of his other shit that he's already done and the entire trailer gives away the whole movie. I'm probably forgetting a few more, but it seems like one studio gets wind of what another one is doing and they all have to crank out similar films and release them all at the same time. It's silly, preschoolish tactics.

I was working for a producer a few years ago and I was amazed at how many scripts about the same story as Catch Me If You Can as soon as Spielberg announced he was directing the film. I know all these studios want to do good and make money, but get an original idea. Stop stealing from each other. If something sounds good, look for another idea. You lost. Don't try to top another studio release with the same plot. Look at what happened with Mission To Mars & Red Planet - two movies about Mars that sucked ass. How about Sweet November & Autumn In New York - two movies about dying chicks whose sex tactics get two guys so sprung on them that they can't accept the fact that these women are going to die and with similar titles no less - both failed in the box office...Jake Gyllenhall and Anne Hathaway are coming out with a new movie with the same premise called Love and Other Drugs and I have a little higher hopes for that one considering it's based on a true story and audiences tend to eat that shit up.

So If I'm going to pick a loser for the bulk of movies on the casual sex plot, it's going to be "The Freebie." Dax Shepard isn't a big enough star to carry a movie on his own. Who knows, it might be a good movie, but they need to recut the trailer in order for me to change my mind...however Hall Pass looks pretty lame also.

The winner for me is either Friends With Benefits or No Strings Attached. Again they look almost exactly the same. Friends With Benefits has the more male appeal of an Apatow film, and women will want to see it because of Justin Timberlake. No Strings Attached has Natalie Portman for the guys, but Ashton Kutcher is losing his appeal since he married Demi Moore and he twitters as if he truly believes anybody gives a shit about anything he has to say about anything...also he's trying to redeem himself a bit too desperately from the box office disaster known as Killers.





I guess we'll soon find out.
~J