Comments on: Michael Clayton Returning to Theaters Nationwide

By: RedandJonny

RedandJonny — Mon, 21 Jan 2008 16:40:24 +0000

I saw it…and it was a lot better than I thought it would be….but theres way to many better movies to see right now. If it wants to compete with “there will be blood” it will fail miserably…. again.

By: Jonathan

Jonathan — Mon, 21 Jan 2008 15:54:07 +0000

I will probably end up seeing it, because I was on vacation almost the entire time it was showing, and I am a big fan of George Clooney

By: Molly Cullen

Molly Cullen — Mon, 21 Jan 2008 14:55:30 +0000

I saw it because my mother dragged me to it and I was surprised. I thought it would be…boring to me, the lawyers’ daughter to have to sit through all the legal jargon and that one scene they get slightly wrong. But I was pleasantly surprised. It was a really good film. I’d definitely see it again, if not just to see the last few scenes.

By: Eric

Eric — Mon, 21 Jan 2008 07:32:51 +0000

The marketing is my guess. The only thing I knew about this film was a picture of GC holding a cell phone in the news paper.

By: Liz

Liz — Mon, 21 Jan 2008 07:27:49 +0000

I hadn’t even heard of it until some bloggers started mentioning it. I don’t think it ever played here. A lack of marketing was definitely the problem, and maybe, as Anon. said, that’s just because it’s really hard to market effectively.

By: Scott Perry

Scott Perry — Mon, 21 Jan 2008 07:17:00 +0000

Michael Clayton was a great thriller in my opinion. I saw it one Saturday afternoon early November along with Gone Baby Gone that same day. Clayton had crisp storytelling. I agree with the person above about ticket sales. I don’t think it was the right time to release Clayton on top of some of the “serious” pictures being showing at the same time.

I haven’t seen the Verdict and I love Sidney Limet’s work so I cannot compare notes with you, Hunter. When I saw “Clayton” I was very suprised with it’s ending. It was an attention grabber. I was shocked at how I lost my guard half way into the film and thought this was going in a predicitable route. It turned me upside down! I think that’s what excited me.

Someone also tipped me about Clayton being released again at a local AMC theater. Clayton might be one of the nominees. You know as well as I do there’s at least one oddball nom in the mix for the best picture category every year.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Mon, 21 Jan 2008 06:52:35 +0000

I think that for October and November there were a lot of other appealing R rated “serious” movies out this fall to compete with it… 3:10 to Yuma, Eastern Promises, The Kingdom, We Own The Night, Gone Baby Gone (I know the last few didn’t do so well, but I think they took away some of the audience), also American Gangster, etc. and on a smaller scale No Country For Old Men, Before The Devil Knows You’re Dead.

And then in December all of the “big” movies started to come out. Whether it be I Am Legend or Oscar fare like Atonement or There Will be Blood or even Sweeney Todd. And people who had meant to see it, people that it appealed to, just forgot about the movie that came out in October that looked good. They just never got around to seeing it.

I think another thing that held the movie back was (and this is cynical and maybe depressing to say, but I really think that it is the case) the fact that the movie doesn’t necessarily have a distinctive one or two sentence blurb for a plot that sounds compelling. What would you say? “George Clooney is a corporate lawyer who fixes problems but has a crisis of conscience going up against the big bad guys, but it’s supposed to be much better than a bland Grisham movie and the cast is great.” I don’t think that grabs people or sounds distinctive and they thought, oh, I bet it’s well done, but opted for something else. I think that the basic premise doesn’t have that catchy of a hook and people who hear it will just think “oh, well I bet he sides with his conscience.”

All of which is probably unfair. I’ve wanted to see it since it came out and just didn’t get around to it. My friends would always want to see other things (but things that I was also interested in seeing as well), so I never did. And then in December it was only playing a few times a day at a few places in the city, which made it harder, plus I was clearly going to see more “exciting” movies that had more buzz like Sweeney Todd and There Will Be Blood. The short of it is. I’d definitely like to see it, but I can understand why it was sort of passed over.