Peter Rogier is an English teacher at Santa Monica High School, but he has another identity, freelance film critic. Peter, who has been obsessed with movies since he was a child, tried his hand at submitting some film review articles to several newspapers while studying at the University of California, and was lucky enough to be accepted for publication, and after graduating, when he found that this extra job would allow him to provide for a nice house in the upscale neighborhood of Santa Monica, he persevered, and more than ten years later, he also became famous in the circle, and published several film review collections.

Sunday was Easter, and Peter was going to be at home with his wife and children, but he received a temporary invitation from The Hollywood Reporter for a film review of "Fear of the First Degree", an R-rated crime thriller that was not suitable for the whole family, so Peter drove to downtown Santa Monica alone after dinner.

Parking his car and walking into the multiplex cinema where he frequented moviegoers, it was nearly nine o'clock, just in time for the next screening, and joining the crowd in line to buy tickets, Peter remembered the recent media discussion about "The Seven Deadly Sins" and "Fear of the First Degree."

Peter, who received an invitation to test the screening inside the new line, had already seen "The Seven Deadly Sins" two weeks ago, and although he didn't like the film's desperate subject matter, he also had to admit that David Fincher's interlocking narrative technique was amazing, and in a film review submitted to The Hollywood Reporter, Peter gave "The Seven Deadly Sins" an 8.

As for "Fear of the First Degree", the film seems to have only ramped up its publicity efforts in recent weeks, and even wants to compete with "The Seven Deadly Sins" with great vigour.

Having been in this circle for a long time, Peter certainly knows the trickiness of it, although many newspapers have appeared in the film reviews of "First Degree Fear" overpowering "The Seven Deadly Sins", but these are basically second- and third-rate newspapers with low credibility, and most mainstream newspapers do not stand in line so rashly. However, since Paramount dares to play the slogan that "Fear of the First Degree" surpasses "The Seven Deadly Sins", this film must not be far behind, and Peter still has some expectations in his heart.

As he slowly moved forward along the ticket buying line, there was a slight commotion in front of the ticket window, and Peter looked over, and it turned out that two pairs of young men and women had a disagreement on which movie to watch, and at the urging of the conductor, the four of them finally split into two groups, choosing "Seven Deadly Sins" and "First Degree Fear" respectively.

Peter didn't care too much about this little episode, but was a little envious of the exuberant energy of a few young men and women, the temperature of the night in Los Angeles in April was still a little cold, but these young people were wearing thin clothes, and there were faint sun marks on their exposed skin, Peter judged that several people should surf on Santa Monica Beach during the day, because he liked this sport very much in college, but he looked down at his beer belly, maybe he couldn't even climb a surfboard now.

Without dwelling on his lost youth, Peter got his movie ticket, bought another popcorn, and walked towards the screening room.

Finding a place to sit down, habitually looking around, the attendance rate was about forty percent, and Peter was also surprised to find that the man and woman who had just argued with their companions were sitting in a vacant seat away from him, and the girl in it noticed that Peter was looking over, and nodded politely.

Peter also bowed his head slightly and withdrew his gaze, but heard the girl say to her boyfriend: "Zach, it's just a movie, we don't need to be separated from Vincent." ”

The young man named Zack said: "Michelle, I said it during the day, I have no interest in religious movies, and the newspapers seem to say that this film is much better than the "Seven Deadly Sins" that was hyped up by propaganda. ”

Michelle seemed to pout and said, "How do you know that this movie is not advertised?"

"But its reputation should be stronger than "The Seven Deadly Sins", it seems that there is a very outstanding actor," Zach said, hugged his girlfriend again, lowered his voice slightly, and teased: "It's not bad not to be with them, at least no one will bother us...... Uh-huh......"

Michelle pushed Zach away and scolded with a smile: "Go away, hate it." ”

Peter listened to these conversations, feeling a little uncomfortable, and was considering whether to change positions, when the lights in the screening room dimmed, and the man and woman quieted down, and Peter dismissed the idea.

After a few in-roll ads, the opening credits of Paramount Pictures appeared.

The film begins with a discussion about whether a lawyer should uphold the law or pursue justice, and Martin Weil, a lawyer played by Richard Gere, insists that a lawyer should try his best to win the court for his client, whether the other party is actually guilty or not.

If this is a film below the PG-13 rating, according to Masaharu's correct thinking, this dialogue would probably imply that the film is about Martin Weil's transformation from a mercenary and indifferent lawyer to a guardian of justice.

Of course, since this is an R-rated crime thriller, the theme is hard to predict.

The story takes place in Chicago, where a bishop is brutally murdered, and a suspect named Alan Stampler is quickly captured.

Because of some emotional entanglements with prosecution lawyer Janet Venable, Martin Weir decided to serve as Alan's defender, and in the communication with Alan, Martin Weir gradually discovered that the other party may be a mental patient with multiple personality disorder, so he applied to the court for a psychiatric evaluation of Alan.

The plot progressed to this point, Peter who was sitting in the screening room looked at his watch and found that 45 minutes had passed, and in these forty-five minutes, except for the important plot twist that Alan may be a psychopath, the movie did not give much useful information, and even, in Peter's opinion, many details seem very redundant, the director seems to be foreshadowing something, but what it is, it is confusing, however, there is no doubt that these lengthy foreshadowing will only make the audience gradually lose interest in watching the movie

Because of some disappointment with the movie, Peter unconsciously began to wander, and the couple in the neighborhood had been quiet, which surprised him a little, so he looked over and found that the girl named Michelle had fallen asleep leaning on the boy's shoulder.

Peter smiled, for most people, the slow pace of the film can indeed make people drowsy.

The plot of the movie continues, although there are many signs in Allen's body that prove the possibility that he is mentally ill, but the doctor Molly does not find conclusive evidence, but Martin, he accidentally finds a box of tapes in which the bishop forces Alan to have sex with his girlfriend in front of him, which immediately becomes the key evidence of Allen's motive for killing the bishop, Martin angrily asks Allen why he hid this from him, which accidentally inspires another person in Allen's body, Loy.

Peter, who had already lost interest in the movie, watched the submissive and even stuttering Allen on the screen suddenly turn into a violent and fierce villain, he finally cheered up, and there was a commotion in the movie theater, and some people let out a slight admiration.

Unfortunately, the onset of Allen's 'multiple personality disorder' was not filmed, and in order to prove his judgment, Martin used some means to stimulate the other side of Allen in front of him at the trial scene, and finally made the court judge Allen's illness, drop the charges against Allen and send him to a psychiatric hospital.

When it seemed that this matter was about to end, the plot of the movie was reversed again, and the last meeting between Martin and Allen, he accidentally noticed the flaws in Allen's words and found that Allen did not have multiple personality disorder, all of which was just the result of Allen's clever disguise.

Eventually, Martin walks out of the prison in a daze, and the blank freeze-frame scene in the square seems to make a mockery of Martin's own argument at the beginning of the film.

The credits were raised, and the audience in the screening room began to get up and begin to leave, and Peter could faintly hear some of the comments.

"It's so boring that I wasted more than two hours on such a movie. ”

"I would have gone to see "The Seven Deadly Sins" if I knew it, at least Diane Kruger had Diane Kruger in that movie to be eye-catching. ”

"Didn't the newspapers say that this movie is better than 'The Seven Deadly Sins,' and if both films were at this level, I'd rather stay at home and watch TV this Easter. ”

"The guy named Edward Norton was really good, but he wasn't as good as the media touted it. ”

"I almost fell asleep. ”

“……”

Peter waited for a moment, then stood up, and the couple on his left also got up and walked out, and he could see the girl leaning on her boyfriend sleepily and rubbing her eyes.

Walking out of the screening room and leaving the cinema, Peter was surprised to find that the four people he had met were walking in front of him, as if they were also going to a parking space not far away.

"This movie is so exciting, Kevin Spacey actually used himself to complete the last two original sin punishments, and besides, Diane Kruger is so beautiful, he was recently killed, but unfortunately there is no close-up of the head......"

A tall, thin young man recounted with great interest what it was like to watch "The Seven Deadly Sins", and the girl holding his arm interrupted with a smile: "Hey, Vincent, the tone of your voice is so changeable. ”

"Alright, baby," Vincent changed the subject and asked his companion next to him, "How's 'Fear of the First Degree'?"

Zach didn't answer, but his girlfriend Michelle didn't hide it, and smiled: "It's boring, anyway, I'm asleep, Zach, what do you think?"

Zach hesitated and said, "At least, that guy named Edward Norton is very good at acting. ”

"Hehe," Michelle consciously took Zack's words as a hard mouth, and said to his companion, "Or, let's watch "The Seven Deadly Sins" again tomorrow." ”

Vincent waved his arms and said, "Of course, you should really go and see, what kind of "Level 1 Fear", to hell with it." ”

It was already past eleven o'clock, and Peter had no intention of eavesdropping on the conversation of several young men, and quickly got into his car.

Driving down the slightly empty streets late at night, Peter began to think about film reviews about "Fear of the First Degree."

He feels like he can only give the film a maximum of 6.5, of which 0.5 is still Edward Norton's acting bonus. However, Edward Norton's performance, while stunning, does not make up for the film's overall mediocrity.

In order to pursue an O'Henry-esque unexpected ending, the director deliberately added a lot of unnecessary details in the early stage of the film.

Although many comments in the media these days are talking about the reversal of the film's ending, in Peter's opinion, this deliberate pursuit of the reversal is the biggest failure of the film.

If the film had abandoned this flip from the start, then the director could have told a more compact thriller and suspense based on Allen's multiple personality disorder, rather than spending a lot of space on setting the stage for the final reversal ending.

Under these redundant foreshadowing, it is not until the first 70 minutes of the film that the movie has a plot conflict that can cheer people up, but 70 minutes is enough to make 90% of people lose patience with the movie, as can be seen from the girl named Michelle falling asleep in the theater just now.

Conceiving the film review article, Peter also felt that the media manipulation about "First Degree of Fear" seemed to be a little too obvious these days, and even Peter had a hunch that Paramount was likely to shoot himself in the foot this time.

During the Easter period, the entire Hollywood film market, only "Seven Deadly Sins" and "First Degree Fear" can attract people's attention, due to the influence of the media in recent times, both movies are very popular.

However, after the large-scale release of the film, many people discovered that "Fear of the First Degree" was far from as good as the media reviews, at least, far from being compared with "The Seven Deadly Sins", which has a tight plot and interlocking plots.

The greater the expectation, the greater the disappointment.

The Internet has not yet become widely available, and it is difficult for ordinary people to express their opinions, but after the large-scale release of movies, media commentary is no longer difficult to control.

"A long-winded failure, Edward Norton's performance, while brilliant, can't reverse the overall mediocrity of the film, and I can't see the brilliance of the film compared to the tight plot setting of The Seven Deadly Sins. ”

The director indulges in creating an O'Henry-esque unexpected ending, but ignores whether the audience is patient enough to wait two hours for an ending that won't surprise them much. ”

"It's hard to imagine some people comparing this mediocre work to The Seven Deadly Sins, which is undoubtedly the best thriller and suspense film in recent years since The Silence of the Lambs, and "Fear of the First Degree" has nothing to surprise the audience except for Edward Norton's impressive performance. ”

“……”

At the same time as the media comments broke out, Firefly also stopped all the small actions of word-of-mouth manipulation of "First-Class Fear" in time, and lost the support of a large number of positive film reviews. Even, some media that were originally optimistic about Edward Norton's performance, because of the hype of "Level 1 Fear" before the release of the film, also had a backlash, and the comments on the film became more harsh.

The two films were released at the same time on April 5, and in the first three days, "Seven Deadly Sins" easily won the box office of the week with a box office of $13.9 million. Although the reputation of "First Degree Fear" fell rapidly, it still achieved a box office of more than $11.2 million in the first weekend with a topic comparable to "The Seven Deadly Sins".

Subsequently, in a full week, the box office of "Seven Deadly Sins" reached a total of $18.4 million. Although the reputation of "First Degree Fear" began to collapse, the box office still reached more than $15.5 million in the first week, compared to the 600 screens difference between the two sides, the average attendance rate of "First Degree Fear" is not much worse than that of "Seven Deadly Sins".

Paramount was originally a little worried that the bad reputation of Honkai would affect the box office of "First Degree of Fear", but after seeing the total box office figures of $11.2 million in the opening weekend and $15.5 million in the first week, he was immediately reassured. At least, the hype in the early stage still played a very important role, and Paramount originally expected the film's first-week box office to be only about 12 million.

Most film practitioners understand a truth, the marketing scale of a film determines its box office starting height, but the reputation of a film determines the length of the film's box office curve.

Although the box office of "First Degree Fear" was not much worse than "Seven Deadly Sins" in the first week with the joint promotion of "Seven Deadly Sins", as the word-of-mouth of the two films began to diverge rapidly, the subsequent box office curves of the two films also began to diverge.

With a strong reputation, "The Seven Deadly Sins" fell by a very modest 9.7% to $16.6 million the next week. The collapse of the word-of-mouth of the movie "First Degree Fear" caused a 46% drop in the box office of this thriller of the same genre in the second week, compared to the next week box office of "Seven Deadly Sins" of $16.6 million, "First Degree Fear" only received 8.37 million, which is only half of "Seven Deadly Sins".

In the third week, the box office decline of "Seven Deadly Sins" was still only a magical 15%, reaching $14.11 million at the box office, and at this time, the weekly box office data of "First Degree Fear" has been far behind, and fans have changed from expectation to disappointment, resulting in a significant decrease in movie attendance again, and only $4.77 million in the third week, almost a fraction of "Seven Deadly Sins", Edward Norton's wonderful performance has also been diluted under the influence of the film's word-of-mouth contrast.

Entering May, the box office of "Seven Deadly Sins" in the fourth week has maintained at the 10 million level, reaching $11.32 million. Although the box office decline of "First Degree Fear" began to shrink, the weekly box office of $3.19 million also indicates that the film has entered the edge of the next picture.

During the four weeks of screening, the cumulative box office of "Seven Deadly Sins" reached $60.43 million, while the total box office of "First Degree Fear" was only $31.83 million, which can be considered to break through the cost line.

With the current box office curve, "Seven Deadly Sins" is destined to survive the hot summer season, and it is not difficult to break 100 million at the box office, but "First-Class Fear" can only stay in the theater for two weeks at most.

At this point, there is no suspense about the outcome of the two movies.

It is worth mentioning that in the-for-tat confrontation between "Seven Deadly Sins" and "First Degree Fear", "Red Fan Zone" silently persisted in North American theaters for six weeks, and finally accumulated a box office of 43 million US dollars, unfortunately failed to approach 50 million, however, this box office data also made the company very satisfied, and the new line invested only 10 million US dollars before and after this film, and the company will obtain more than 100% profit just by virtue of the box office share.

"Red Fan Zone" also received good reviews in the media, and Jack Cheng even won the title of one of the cutest action actors.

Subsequently, the new line also applied for a nomination for Best Fight Scene for Jack Cheng at the upcoming MTV Movie Awards in June. It's just that, in view of the discord during the release of "The Seven Deadly Sins" and "First Degree Fear", Jack Cheng wants to win this award, and the success rate is almost none.

After all, MTV TV is a media under Viacom, and the two sides have just torn up, how can someone else give you the trophy.

What, impartiality, don't make a fuss. (To be continued.) )