"Tad Hamilton": Yep...as bad as you could possibly imagine
 

First of all, let it be said up front that I was asked to go see this for free. My friend had four passes and I had nothing else to do so I thought, what the hell? And truth be told, I didn't think the previews looked that bad to go see something that didn't cost me a cent. Boy was I wrong. This movie was absolutely AWFUL! It's also quite possibly the worst screenplay in years. The theater was pretty full. But laugh free. After 30 minutes of pure torture, I couldn't endure another second of pain and I left. I highly doubt the movie turned itself around or redeemed itself the last hour. I felt compelled to post this. You have been warned if you are even considering it.

No surprise. Don't studios usually release their weakest films ( aka biggest stinkers) during January.

You're right, they absolutely do! "Darkness Falls" anyone? But they usually just dump them off. This turkey actually had a sneak preview. That's pretty gutsy. Word of mouth is not going to be good. Trust me.

I saw the sneak as well, but stayed for the whole movie :P It's certainly not as bad as the first poster made it seem....but it's not a winner either. The plot is pretty standard and the pacing is just a TAD slow, but the generic material is elevated by the talented cast. Topher Grace is pretty damn funny in the movie and well, Kate Bosworth is so hot it's insane.

Not the best romantic comedy ever, but not a total bomb, and definately not Darkness Falls bad.

MATT

3/5

That was my opinion MATT. And check out rottentomatoes.com on or about the day the movie comes out. It'll be lucky if it gets 25% on the tomatometer. I bet it won't rate higher.

Isn't march the typical dumping ground?

either way, For a while when it was in production and I red the title, I kept on thinking "who would want to watch a movie about some one winning a date with an Ice Skater?" then I realized it wasn't "scott hamilton"

:lol: Well, I think that would have been more entertaining. You know, Scott charading he is straight.

What's odd to me about the movie is that it seems to be channelling a 50s/60s era film with the dreamboat stuff, the name 'Tad Hamilton', etc., but it's obviously set in the present day (what with the Internet). I'm just going by the trailer, though, haven't seen the movie.

I saw the trailer but the whole thing seemed like a dumb idea. Kate Bosworth? I mean come on. Thats like "Samla Hayek won a date with Brad Pitt?!?!? Lol OMG Maybe two beautiful people will fall in love?"

I cant take serious someone who didnt even stay for the whole movie.

So don't. I'm sure you've never started a movie that was so bad, you didn't want to invest another second. But by all means, please go see this film and come back here and post your
honest review/opinion.

I walked out of "the stupids".. can you not take my recommendation that it is a bad film? If not, well good luck to you in sitting through it. sometimes folks walk out for a good reason.

Maybe because it was free, Ill give you that. But if I pay for a movie, im sitting through the whole thing, sorry but thats my opinion. Thing is, could this movie really stray that far from the trailer? It seems like you knew what movie you were getting into, if it was suprise screening and you were expecting something else I think it'd make more sense that you left, you think that the movie could not have redeemed itself after the first half hour but how do you know? Ive seen some movies that get generally better as they go along. One question, did your friends leave with you or did you leave solo?

Movies like this don't get better after 30 minutes. I've also walked out of a movie after 30 minutes or an hour when I've paid. The most recent one was "The Hulk". Free, paid for....makes no difference. If I'm not enjoying it, I'm leaving. Sure, it's money down the drain. But that's the risk you take. And yes, my friends left too. I only leaned over to them and said "I can't take this anymore, I'll meet you later". And they followed me.

Thats cool, me and my friend once went to see Fight Club and he was hating it but i loved it and he said he'd wait for me in the lobby and went home, and he was my ride! I ended up calling him and he grabbed me up but it did piss me off and I stopped hanging with him for awile I was so angry at him. What makes me laugh, compared to the utter crap he watches sometimes I couldnt for the life of me find what he hated so much in Fight Club. As for staying all the way through, for me, if i diss a movie I like to do it from its beginning to it's end.

There are no "dumping grounds" anymore... That is a thing of the past. Almost every weekend, with the exception of Labor Day weekend, has the potential to make some money. It just depends on the films released.

It used to be first week of December as well, but LAST SAMURAI changed that.

Um, re-read our posts scott. Dumping grounds as in when studios release movies they have little or no expectations. I just pulled the following from themovieboy.com:

It is common knowledge that the month of January is a dumping ground for motion pictures that studios have little faith in; they are usually not serious or good enough to be end-of-the-year releases, and not big enough in scale to battle it out in the summer.

Basically every month except May, June, July, August, November, and December are dumping grounds for studios. The most anticipated films and the biggest films always come out during the summer or during the Thanksgiving/Christmas season.

Sometimes films do amazing in an off month like February (Daredevil and Hannibal come to mind), but it's a rare occurance.

That's not the case these days. Sorry.

Studios are starting to see the benefits of ALL weekends... Look at UNDERWORLD's opening, or KILL BILL, BRINGING DOWN THE HOUSE, SCARY MOVIE 3, ANGER MANAGEMENT, HOW TO LOSE A GUY IN TEN DAYS, or even JUST MARRIED from a year ago...

All films were very profitable in times considered slow periods just a handful of years ago.

I get it. But this way of thought is slowly going away. Dreamworks has a lot of hope in TAD HAMILTON, hence the sneak preview. "Dumping ground" is the wrong word for it.

But no, you won't see "EPISODE III, Opening September 14th" any time soon.

Going away? Surely you can't mean just because Dreamworks is sneaking this movie, and has high hopes, that January is no longer the dumping month for dogs. It's been that way for a while. Right up until last year.

From what I have seen, the biggest dumping ground time for movies is mid-August to mid-September and the whole month of January. Movies that come out in the seasonal tranistion months of October or March typically yield one major release getting the sales while others are swept under the carpet.

Maybe its just me, but from the trailer and TV promos, the movie looks like a great date movie.

While Just Married did make a profit as the film only cost around $10 million to make, I wouldn't say it's been breaking that many records.

And all the other movies you listed (with the exception of Anger Managment, Bringing Down The House, and How To Lose a Guy In 10 Days) opened big and then dropped big time every weekend after that. Scary Movie 3 dropped by like 60% the 2nd weekend? Kill Bill's BO take isn't even something to write home about (and I loved the film).

Most films which don't come out in a summer/winter months are usually to make a decent gross, but nothing "huge." Until a film is released in an "off season" month and becomes a huge hit (gigantic opening weekend and has some staying power), the "big league" films will keep getting released in the summer and winter. A film has huge potential to do well, but it has to be one both favored by both critics and moviegoers alike.

January isn't so much a "dumping ground" month anymore as it is "Oscar-type get wide release" month. In the past few years, things like Crouching Tiger, Traffic, Chicago, A Beautiful Mind, Black Hawk Down, etc. have put up big box office numbers in January after enjoying successful limited engagements in December (to qualify for Oscars). Yes, there are plenty of things like Snow Dogs and Kangaroo Jack released in the month as well, but studios release crap in the summer and Holiday months as well.

This year may be different, as it seems most of the big Oscar possibilities that also have box office potential have already gone wide. Big Fish is going wide this weekend, but otherwise... I just don't see huge mainstream possibilities for Monster, House of Sand & Fog, Shattered Glass, The Cooler, etc.