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Universal exec apologizes, admits Cowboys & Aliens, The Wolfman sucked

Dream

Admiral
Admiral
It has not been an easy few years for Universal. While they've had some nice successes (DESPICABLE ME, BRIDESMAIDS and FAST FIVE among them), there have been way too many high-profile disappointments. From THE WOLFMAN to LAND OF THE LOST to COWBOYS & ALIENS to YOUR HIGHNESS, Universal has sunk a lot of money into movies that just didn't perform. When asked about his studio's performance, President of Universal Studios, Ron Meyer explained it succinctly. "We make a lot of shitty movies."

Meyer spoke at the Savannah Film Festival in a brutally honest speech, opening up about Universal's recent and frequent disappointments.

COWBOYS & ALIENS? "Wasn’t good enough. Forget all the smart people involved in it, it wasn’t good enough. All those little creatures bouncing around were crappy. I think it was a mediocre movie."

LAND OF THE LOST? "Just crap. I mean, there was no excuse for it."

THE WOLFMAN?? "One of the worst movies we ever made...WOLFMAN and BABE 2 are two of the shittiest movies we put out. The script never got right...the director was wrong. Benicio [del Toro] stunk. It all stunk."

Tell us how you really feel, Ron... But seriously, this is exactly what needed to be said. Some people probably won't like hearing it (perhaps Joe Johnston and Jon Favreau) but we, as audience members and movie fans, need to hear an admission of guilt. I may not have my $10 back, but I feel better knowing that they have failed. If they can admit to us some of their movies are crap, maybe that's enough for them, behind office doors, to admit to themselves what they're doing is crap and make some changes.

http://www.joblo.com/movie-news/universal-exec-apologizes-admits-cowboys-aliens-wolfman-sucked

This is SO funny. At least he's being honest. I wish more studios would do this. :rommie:
 
Re: Universal exec apologizes, admits Cowboys & Aliens, The Wolfman su

The real question is, if they know the movies suck, why do they allow them to be made in the first place?
 
Re: Universal exec apologizes, admits Cowboys & Aliens, The Wolfman su

Let me be the first to point out that, though this kind of thing clearly tickles the fanboise to death, it's classless and cowardly. His remarks and the gleeful reaction to them are the equivalent of little kids hiding under the covers, repeating dirty words to one another and sniggering at their own daring.

This is a business guy who doesn't necessarily know squat about making movies. Universal, like all studios, releases some mediocre and dreadful movies that make them a lot of money. You won't see Ron dissing any successful films, though, identifying their problems, or saying that their directors "stunk" regardless of how bad other people think those movies aren. He's taking a dump on movies that are already known to have underperformed or failed for the sake of some cheap applause, and there's not one iota of evidence that going forward he or his fellows at Universal are capable of making better decisions than they were in the past.

Come on, Ron, be a man - tell us which of the movies you currently have in development you're willing to admit look like stinkers (JoeBlo astutely notes the upcoming Battleship) and diss the people working on those. You won't and you can't - it would be impolitic, damaging to your business interests and relationships, and if you had the taste and acumen you're pretending to have you wouldn't be underwriting them...except, of course, for the fact that as long as you think they may make money, they're all genius work until proven otherwise.

Someone once remarked that Jimmy Carter's idea of a self-deprecating remark was to make fun of his staff. Be that true or not, Meyer's behavior here is even more contemptible.

The real question is, if they know the movies suck, why do they allow them to be made in the first place?

You put your finger on the question that the Ron Meyers of the business can't answer truthfully. The plain fact is that if they had the insight or taste to make that kind of assessment accurately when it matters and not simply in hindsight the entire industry would be a very different one.
 
Re: Universal exec apologizes, admits Cowboys & Aliens, The Wolfman su

It has not been an easy few years for Universal. While they've had some nice successes (DESPICABLE ME, BRIDESMAIDS and FAST FIVE among them), there have been way too many high-profile disappointments. From THE WOLFMAN to LAND OF THE LOST to COWBOYS & ALIENS to YOUR HIGHNESS, Universal has sunk a lot of money into movies that just didn't perform. When asked about his studio's performance, President of Universal Studios, Ron Meyer explained it succinctly. "We make a lot of shitty movies."

Meyer spoke at the Savannah Film Festival in a brutally honest speech, opening up about Universal's recent and frequent disappointments.

COWBOYS & ALIENS? "Wasn’t good enough. Forget all the smart people involved in it, it wasn’t good enough. All those little creatures bouncing around were crappy. I think it was a mediocre movie."

LAND OF THE LOST? "Just crap. I mean, there was no excuse for it."

THE WOLFMAN?? "One of the worst movies we ever made...WOLFMAN and BABE 2 are two of the shittiest movies we put out. The script never got right...the director was wrong. Benicio [del Toro] stunk. It all stunk."

Tell us how you really feel, Ron... But seriously, this is exactly what needed to be said. Some people probably won't like hearing it (perhaps Joe Johnston and Jon Favreau) but we, as audience members and movie fans, need to hear an admission of guilt. I may not have my $10 back, but I feel better knowing that they have failed. If they can admit to us some of their movies are crap, maybe that's enough for them, behind office doors, to admit to themselves what they're doing is crap and make some changes.
http://www.joblo.com/movie-news/universal-exec-apologizes-admits-cowboys-aliens-wolfman-sucked

This is SO funny. At least he's being honest. I wish more studios would do this. :rommie:

If he was being honest he should be resigning as the person who is ultimately responsible for greenlighting these failures. As it is, with these movies being such obvious stinkers to him from the start (but conveniently not mentioned until after the fact), it sounds little different from a Wall Street exec who gives himself a bonus and a pat on the back while making bad investments that ruin the company, and then blaming the lower-level guys for screwing everything up.

As far as the movies listed, I enjoyed Fast Five as the fun fluff it was, but I'm hard-pressed to give you some technical or artistic reason why it was a vastly superior film to Cowboys & Aliens (going by the "money = quality" scale implied by Mr. Meyers). I think Fast Five had a built-in audience that C&A didn't which contributed greatly to its success, plus the nostalgia of getting together the original Fast and Furious characters.
 
Re: Universal exec apologizes, admits Cowboys & Aliens, The Wolfman su

It does sound satisfying on the surface in a schadenfreude way, but what alternative is proposed here, or any idea at all? Are we to expect he and other Universal execs will play a more micromanaging role in the process or less or any at all? If the studio is funding the film they do have a right to check up on their projects since it is their money being spent. Directors and actor can wail for artistic freedom all they want, but total freedom isn't a guarantee of excellence, nor is studio interference always a bad thing when the film makers keep over running deadlines and budgets. This looks more self serving on the speakers part, since he isn't suggesting anything that would fix future bad films from happening and isn't suggesting as the one at the top that he has ultimate responsibility and should face some penalty for these stinkers.
 
Re: Universal exec apologizes, admits Cowboys & Aliens, The Wolfman su

When is he gonna apologize for Men in Black?
I do believe he's braging like if a woman says, I'm such a bitch.

Mediocrity rules Hollywood en mass.

It's better that ten lions eat than one eats too much because they gang up un that one lion.
 
Re: Universal exec apologizes, admits Cowboys & Aliens, The Wolfman su

The real question is, if they know the movies suck, why do they allow them to be made in the first place?

Um...money.

What else?
 
Re: Universal exec apologizes, admits Cowboys & Aliens, The Wolfman su

Ummmm.... Wolfman, sure. It was a bit much.

But... Cowboys and Aliens didn't suck... did it?

I mean it didn't do well in the BO, but I enjoyed it.
 
Re: Universal exec apologizes, admits Cowboys & Aliens, The Wolfman su

It didn't suck, but it wasn't awesome. For a movie about aliens invading the wild west, it was pretty slow in places.
 
Re: Universal exec apologizes, admits Cowboys & Aliens, The Wolfman su

If he was being honest he should be resigning as the person who is ultimately responsible for greenlighting these failures. As it is, with these movies being such obvious stinkers to him from the start (but conveniently not mentioned until after the fact), it sounds little different from a Wall Street exec who gives himself a bonus and a pat on the back while making bad investments that ruin the company, and then blaming the lower-level guys for screwing everything up.

You've got it exactly.

Oh, and the "lower-level guys" he's blaming? They're not really that - they're the people Universal and every other studio hire to make movies because they actually can make movies as opposed to deals and self-serving speeches. On the worst day of his career a guy like del Toro (and, BTW, I'm not a fan) has the kind of skills that drive the industry. Guys like Meyer are a dime a dozen.

He'll talk trash like this, but he'd soil himself at the chance to hire Michael Bay tomorrow to direct Slinky: The Uncoiling.
 
Re: Universal exec apologizes, admits Cowboys & Aliens, The Wolfman su

He'll talk trash like this, but he'd soil himself at the chance to hire Michael Bay tomorrow to direct Slinky: The Uncoiling.
Ooh...An expose* on all of Slinky's Deep Dark Secrets :alienblush:

*Sorry, don't know how to put the Accent on expose
 
Re: Universal exec apologizes, admits Cowboys & Aliens, The Wolfman su

As long as successful and memorable movies (and movie franchises) go in recent years, Universal has always ranked at the bottom for me not being able to best the likes of Paramount, Warner Bros., Fox, and Columbia.

I can't even name one movie produced by that studio in the last 15 years that I would want to go back and watch twice.
 
Re: Universal exec apologizes, admits Cowboys & Aliens, The Wolfman su

Babe 2 really is the shittiest movie I have ever seen though.
 
Re: Universal exec apologizes, admits Cowboys & Aliens, The Wolfman su

Scott Pilgrim is "kind of a good movie"? Give the movie some credit! It was more than just "kind of a good movie".
 
Re: Universal exec apologizes, admits Cowboys & Aliens, The Wolfman su

Scott Pilgrim is, in fact, a fantastic movie...for nerds. Unfortunately, I can see why it didn't have mass appeal.
 
Re: Universal exec apologizes, admits Cowboys & Aliens, The Wolfman su

I enjoyed The Wolfman, Cowboys and Aliens and Your Highness.. Not all movies that underperform suck (quite the contrary, sometimes). And not all hits are good cinema.

We all know this.
 
Re: Universal exec apologizes, admits Cowboys & Aliens, The Wolfman su

Let me be the first to point out that, though this kind of thing clearly tickles the fanboise to death, it's classless and cowardly. His remarks and the gleeful reaction to them are the equivalent of little kids hiding under the covers, repeating dirty words to one another and sniggering at their own daring.

That sounds about right. Plus the little dig at "smart" people who somehow couldn't pull off Cowboys and Aliens, so that this guy's formula is Money - Brains = Box Office Success = Quality.

I still don't think Wolfman was that bad. I'd watch it again over anything in the Furious Five franchise.
 
Re: Universal exec apologizes, admits Cowboys & Aliens, The Wolfman su

To each their own, Mr. Universal Exec. I thought Cowboys & Aliens was a lot of fun and loved every bit of it. Conversely, I couldn't give two shits about Fast Five.
 
Re: Universal exec apologizes, admits Cowboys & Aliens, The Wolfman su

Absolutely classless. An Executive should never come out and actually say We put out crap product, and even worse to admit you knew it was crap to begin with (Cowboys and Aliens didn't appeal to me, but, I certainly wouldn't down it as art the way this clown did). And then to run down who made the movie in that way?

Sure, I could understand if he had pointed out the lack of financial success (though truthfully, even that conversation should be in private to those he answers to, and should be accompanied with a plan not to allow it to continue), but to outright say to the public the movies sucked and they knew it from the get-go? Why does this guy have a job still?

Can you imagine a Car company, software, or computer company Exec talking about how their recent product sucked, and they knew it from the beginning, and then add insult to injury by not even bothering to explain how things will be different with the next release? They'd have a pink slip in their next pay envelope.
 
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Re: Universal exec apologizes, admits Cowboys & Aliens, The Wolfman su

Yeah , and then while he's at it he could mention how his company's designers and line workers stink
 
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