Boffo! Tinseltown's Bombs and Blockbusters

This was an excellent documentary on the ups and downs of the film industry. I was among the first to view this film and it changed my outlook on a lot of things pertaining to film making. I also had the honor of meeting the director. He knows his stuff. I know for sure that film is what I want to do now, because I saw this film. It was honest and in your face. The talent that graced the screen and gave their first hand confessions about the industry also opened my eyes to the film world. Everyone, if you have a chance, check it out! It might be a great experience for those who are interested in film and who want to get the real(or, reel)deal on the industry.

This is one of the worst documentaries I've ever seen. Each new segment presents an obvious idea like "There are no rules for making a blockbuster" or "failure sucks". It then presents a handful of producers saying the same thing or slight variations of the phrase such as "There aren't any rules to making hits" or "There's no formula for making blockbusters" Intercut with the interviews are newspaper and trade magazine headlines that show the same phrase and small clips of different movies.

There is really no substance or insights in this movie. There aren't even any hard facts. It's a shame, too, because there are some really interesting people interviewed on the documentary. Too bad they just asked them the same softball clichéd questions. I would have loved to hear some insider stories, or just anything with some "meat" to it.

To sum it up it's a completely uninspired waste of time.

I really enjoyed this documentary. I don't believe HBO ever meant for it to be a 'how to guide' for anyone wanting to get into the business. Instead, it is just an interesting look at how the movie making industry works. The studios are often formulaic and pump out movies as if they were on an assembly line just to make big bucks, and this documentary gives examples of how all the planning in the world sometimes bombs while other times weird unplanned series of events can result in making a blockbuster. I found it rather enlightening to know that there is still an element of 'luck' involved sometimes in movie-making. It helps those of us who want to 'escape' when going to the movies instead of just being weighed down by the business end of film-making that can suck all the enjoyment out of the experience. I encourage everyone to watch this, but remember to just sit back, relax, and enjoy yourselves! Definitely don't view this too seriously because it is obvious that even though the people being interviewed sometimes talking about serious issues, they are enjoying themselves as well.

Excellent documentary exploring the dichotomy, mystery and miracles of film-making. It's funny, serious, whimsical, self-contradictory, and full of the width and breath of personalities that rule Hollywood...behind or in front of the camera. Filmmakers from Sidney Pollack to George Clooney all take the stage in all their glory and personality to explain to the view the tricks, formulas, secrets, mysteries and miracles of film-making. We see that not as the A-List superstars they are, but as mere cogs in the Hollywood system deftly juggling creativity with the economics and politics of film-making. I highly recommend adding this to your library if you are a filmmaker in any sense of the word.

I found out about this 75 minute HBO doc in an issue of ASC. The article touted a bill of big Hollywood players; studio heads, producers and actors. I was intrigued so had to watch it.

I am very interested in how Hollywood works and read Variety/Screen/Premiere, and also check out IMDb's daily news. You get a sense of the workings of the big studios but rarely do studio heads lay it out on the table, and that is where you hoped Boffo! would be revealing.

Unfortunately it plays as some sort of AFI/Oscar ceremony montage of great Hollywood movies, past and present, with the interviewees giving very OBVIOUS quotes such as "rules are there to be broken" and "success and failure balances on a very fine line." Sure, if you're a fan of film, then surely you wanna hear anything Bogdanovich, Evans, Grazer and Guber have to say. But if you want to hear some revealing comments you better off sticking to the trades.

It seems the director wanted to avoid focusing on the flops. Heaven's Gate is not mentioned ONCE. Disasters like Cutthroat Island, Battlefield Earth, Gigli, The Avengers, The Postman and Town & Country are not mentioned, yet are prime material to devour and assess. You look at these films and the main reason they flopped was because of the egos behind them: Costner, Beatty, Travolta, Cimino, Harlin. Then you have the excess of Hollywood. The extravagance of their budgets and the ridiculous costs of marketing. Somehow these topics are barely talked about. Why not venture into The Cable Guy when Columbia went nuts and gave Carrey a 20 mill pay check and changed the film industry forever?

An interesting point was made that spending more money can sometimes be a safer bet, like with Troy. Sure, it cost one or two hundred million dollars to make, but it made back double because it seemed like a sure fire winner. Compare that with Training Day, Denzel winning the Oscar, costing maybe less than a third of Troy, yet not grossing nearly as much. But these passing comments are not delved into. It's almost as if there was no structure to the filming. Let's get as many big names as we can, ask them some questions, and see what we can get in the edit. It would have been more fruitful cutting the number of people in half and focusing on a few films as opposed to allowing them run riot with pointless anecdotes on the making of Jaws which any self respecting Hollywood fan would already know about! The importance of the script, of course, is mentioned. You know why? Because it's the first thing you learn at film school, because the most important part of a film is the STORY. Sure, there are exceptions. Bad stories have made lots of money, but in general, if you look at the most successful films in the history of film, you will see most of them consist of good storytellers telling good stories.

But it is all the other factors that Boffo! could and should have focused on.

There is a great moment when Morgan Freeman is asked about The Bonfire of the Vanities, and why it flopped (despite having the box office lifetime guarantee hallmark of Tom Hanks) and whether there was any sign during production. The great Freeman is very VERY delicate with his words, pausing for what seems like a whole minute before concluding; "when an airline crashes they say that it is mostly a series of mishaps...same thing." And that my friends is the closest you will get to any sort of directed criticism made in the entire film.

More prescient is the fact that Richard Dreyfuss harks on about the importance of the story and how filmmakers today have all this great technology but do not know how to use it. It just so happens he is conducting the interview, in glorious bloody makeup on the back-lot of Poseidon, 2006's first major summer SFX flop! So all in all a big disappointment, but still containing enjoyable nuggets if only because the likes of Clooney, Dreyfuss, Freeman and DeVito are as charismatic as ever!

On a side note, if anyone wants to see how stars should be lit then look no further. ASC member Stephen Lighthill did a sterling job and made everyone look fantastic.