Next weekend, 2 films with a lot of similarities both open on the exact same day. The Love Guru and Get Smart are two major comedies put out by big studios, both having major comedy names in the leads (Mike Myers and Steve Carell), both were highly anticipated when they were first announced…. and unfortunately both have lost a lot of anticipation ever since their respective trailers have begun showing.
I was beside myself with total glee when they first announced they would be doing a “Get Smart” film… and as good as casting Robert Downey Jr. was for Iron Man… it was even BETTER casting putting Steve Carell in the shoes of the immortal Don Adams. He is PERFECT for this role. But I’ve got to say… as much as I love the idea of the movie and Carell, the previews haven’t exactly pushed my enthusiasm into overdrive. On the contrary, Get Smart went from being one of my most anticipated movies of the summer, down to “meh… I’ll see it”. Not good.
As far as The Love Guru goes… I don’t even know where to begin. My love for the comedy of Mike Myers knows no limits, I was beyond excited that he was going to lead in another live action comedy that wasn’t Austin Powers (don’t get me wrong, I enjoy Austin Powers as much as the next guy… But I’ve been dying to see Myers stretch out a bit again. Ya well… all that got totally flushed right down the toilet the moment I saw the first trailer for the flick. This film looks ass awful. Worse than ass awful actually. Pathetic would be a better word. I honestly don’t know if I can even bring myself to watch it.
But the point of this post isn’t about how both of these films look like they’re going to disappoint… the shocking thing is that the geniuses at the studios have opted to release these two movies on the exact same day. WHAT THE HELL ARE THEY THINKING?!?!?! These two movies are going after the EXACT same audience. They will split the audience, and both movies are going to make a LOT less money then if they had opened on different days.
I know that the summer is a hard time to find good release dates since it’s so jam packed already, but even I see 2 dates that would have made much more sense for one of these two movies to move to.
August 1st – Ok, yes you’ve got Pineapple Express on that date… but this movie is at least a very different kind of comedy than Guru and Smart, not to mention it’ll be restricted and not make that much money (that’s not to say that it won’t be good… just that it’s not going to be any sort of blockbuster. Other than that, you’ve got Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2 which targets a different demographic, and the animated film “Fly me to the Moon”. Not a great weekend, but certainly better than going up against another major comedy of the same kind.
August 29th – Yes it’s late in the game, but all that slated to open right now are “Traitor” and “College”. Again, both different films (even though College is a comedy… it’s a very different kind of comedy and not put out by a major).
It’s one thing to put out two comedies on the same day… but two exact same kind of comedies, each with a major name and major studios behind them??? This was really insane, and both The Love Guru and Get Smart will suffer for it. Not that either of them really look like they deserve to succeed anyway.
