Boffo! Tinseltown's Bombs and Blockbusters (2006)

Director:

Bill Couturié

Writers:

Peter Bart (book)
Peter Bart (screenplay)

Genre:

Documentary

Plot:

Hollywoods biggest talents explore what is the recipe for blockbuster, flops, and how absolute happenstance and controlled luck can make movie magic. |

Plot Keywords:

Blockbuster | Hollywood | Star Wars | Film History | Tinseltown

Awards:

Nominated for Primetime Emmy.

Cast

Peter Bogdanovich	...	Himself
Pierce Brosnan	...	Himself
David Brown	...	Himself
Charles Chaplin	...	(archive footage)
George Clooney	...	Himself
Francis Ford Coppola	...	Himself (archive footage)
Bill Couturié	...	Himself (voice)
Danny DeVito	...	Himself
Richard Dreyfuss	...	Himself
Robert Evans	...	Himself
Jodie Foster	...	Herself
Morgan Freeman	...	Himself
Brian Grazer	...	Himself
Peter Guber	...	HImself
Daryl Hannah	...	Madison / Ayla (archive footage)
Oliver Hardy	...	(archive footage)
Willard Huyck	...	Himself
Gloria Katz	...	Herself
Buster Keaton	...	(archive footage)
Sherry Lansing	...	Herself
Stan Laurel	...	(archive footage)
Simone Mareuil	...	(archive footage)
Penny Marshall	...	Herself
Steve McQueen	...	(archive footage)
Sydney Pollack	...	Himself
Robert Redford	...	Johnny Hooker / Roy Hobbs / Denys George Finch Hatton (archive footage)
Leo Rossi	...	Cliff 'Scorpion' Albrect (archive footage)
Tom Rothman	...	Himself
John Singleton	...	Himself
Steven Spielberg	...	Himself (archive footage)
David Strathairn	...	Edward R. Murrow (archive footage)
Charlize Theron	...	Herself
Rudolph Valentino	...	(archive footage)
Nia Vardalos	...	Herself
Richard D. Zanuck	...	Himself

Runtime:

USA:75 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Filming Locations:

Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

HBO Films

Quotes:

Morgan Freeman: [about "Bonfire of the Vanities"] When an airliner crashes, they say that it's usually caused by a series of mishaps.

Movie Connections:

Features The Great Train Robbery (1903)

Completely uninspired waste of time

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.