Gee, I wish we had some new photos of Michael Fassbender on the promotional tour for The Snowman, but he barely did anything to promote this movie. To be fair, I think the big American premiere was canceled in the wake of the Las Vegas shooting. On the other side, Fassbender has barely any hustle these days when it comes to promoting any of his movies, especially ones which are going to bomb. And The Snowman is definitely going to bomb, isn’t it? It opened today and no one expects it to do much at the box office. Analysts are expecting it to open with between $8-12 million this weekend. It probably won’t even be the biggest bomb: that honor goes to Gerard Butler’s bloated Geostorm, which cost $100 million to make. Whoops.
Still, have you gotten the feeling that Fassbender is no longer a “thing”? He was once a critical darling, turning in a series of acclaimed performances in deep, dramatic films. But his last several films have all been critically panned box office failures. Is it Fassbender? Is it Fassbender choosing bad projects to act in and produce? Or is it someone else’s fault? I don’t know. But I am enjoying how many critics used the word “abominable” in their review headlines. WE GET IT. THE SNOWMAN IS ABOMINABLE.
Rotten Tomatoes has it at 12% with the “All Critics” rating. Vox calls it “a magnificently, transcendently awful movie” and suggests it’s a good contender for the worst film of 2017. Vanity Fair compiled some of the worst reviews here, in “Critics Bulldoze The Snowman” (ha). All in all, this is a bad movie. I still might see it though, is that weird? I love Scandanoir, even when it’s bad Scandanoir.
Photos courtesy of ‘The Snowman’ and Getty.
Oh no! I was really looking forward to this too. Don’t get me wrong, I still intend to see it tomorrow after my massage appointment…I’ll just have to have some cocktails beforehand lol
You and me both
I’m bummed by the reviews but still want to see it for myself!
Don’t punish yourself with this movie.
Learn from my mistake and stay away.
Loved the book, the movie is baaaaad. Script is all over the place, it’s slow, Val Kilmer is a joke in it and generally speaking, a big NO.
I liked it, but it is probably because I did not read the book and was just accepted the movie as it was. In regards to Val Kilmer, I read that he has throat cancer. So poor guy did the best he could. And in the story if you just take that this aged detective was battling cancer while trying to catch a serial killer well then I felt like “Wow, this guy really want to catch the bad guy even though he is battling cancer”.
Anyway that’s my take on that. I was creeped out a few times but I was not as freaked out as I though I was going to be.
He makes terrible choices (or is just really susceptible to a big paycheck).
we were talking about this the other day. He keeps trying to find another franchise after x-men that will work, and it’s not happening eg- Ass Creed, Harry Hole. He needs to make much better choices IMHO. Also the Snowman is an unholy poorly edited mess of a film. And poor Val Kilmer, that’s all I’m going to say on the subject 🙁
yeah, I just read (on Slate, maybe?) about how they dubbed his lines because of his ongoing health issues. why not just re-cast, they asked…and not recasting goes along with the rest of the sh*t-show that this movie is.
but I didn’t even really need to read the review. when I saw the trailer, the bf and I were like (to paraphrase David Spade on SNL) “this movie was good the FIRST time I saw it, when it was called Silence of the Lambs.”
a brilliant serial killer “playing with” and taunting the detectives looking for him…able to always be one step ahead…until he’s not. how many movies with this general premise have been made?…
That’s what this movie is about?
I had no idea from trailer, saw it maybe 3 times and i didn’t catch dialogue (usually working with tv on so sound is low) just saw the freakish snowman.
But but… that’s not the plot of Silence of the Lambs at all?
It’s more the plot of Se7en than Silence of the Lambs, for sure.
When I saw the trailer it reminded me of all those serial killer movies that came out in the 90s. Which reminds me I need to re-watch Copycat.
When even the director tries to distance himself from a film (as this one has done), you know it’s going to be bad. I so wish that Fassbender would make better choices, because he really does have talent…but at this rate he’ll end up with nothing but a more flops on his hands.
Yeah, The Snowman is the only Nesbo book I’ve read and… meh.
Fassbender is a phenomenal indie and character actor but not a blockbuster lead. He’s great in supporting roles and as blockbuster villains (see Magneto) but someone was trying to do a Brad Pitt 1990s thing with him. That path doesn’t exist anymore. He will win an Oscar one day, I have no doubt but his agents need to steer him to his strengths.
Sounds like this mess is not at all his fault though. The director admits their location shoot was too short so they failed to shoot 10-15% of the script. WTF?!?!? And Scorsese was a producer! What kind of amateur hour were they playing at?
Excellent summary of Fassbender’s strengths and weaknesses. I wonder if he, too, will seek a great TV role. Just saw Mark Ruffalo is doing another TV project. He previously did the well received THE NORMAL HEART.
I totally agree with you. He’s a talented actor. Just had some unlucky breaks lately. But I’ll probably see it. I love the books. And at least I’ll get some popcorn and twizzlers out of the deal if it sucks.
agree. he is very talented and his early roles really showcase this, especially hunger. he was phenomenal. he just makes some bad choices in the last few years maybe for money? he’s gonna be fine though. hollywood is very forgiving of men as they age and fail to deliver at box office. they get 2nd and 3rd chances etc. women don’t so i wont feel too bad for him. seems happy enough anyway. probably better for him in the long run.
I don’t think he will recover. He didn’t capitalize on his buzz, and those chances don’t come around again. Something is up, but I have no idea what it is. I can guess, but the real problem is he isn’t just picking mediocre movies. He is picking bombs without the clout and success to make it a fluke.
this.. he decided to take a a year long vacation at the height of his momentum and picked these duds at the end of it. like wtf? and now he seems just all together different, like there is something bad going on in his personal life. a few weeks ago he told a podcast that he’s not getting any scripts anymore. that doesnt even make sense IF it’s true (because he does truly have a monumental amount of talent and everyone on his films has always said he works hard) but the fact that he chose to say it speaks to something being up.
I actually really liked the book so I’m kind of wondering if I might see this anyway?? although I really can’t get over what a dumb name HARRY HOLE is
It’s a scandi name.
It’s pronounced Who-la
I can’t stop cracking up at your comment. Why would anyone name a character that…. 😀
I’ve read plenty of gleefully bad reviews of this today and apparently it’s a joke by the author in the book series – the surname Hole pronounced sort of Ho-la is pretty common in Norway, but the joke is that Americans/Australians think it’s bizarre.
Weird they didn’t change it.
Or just, you know, instructed the actors to pronounce the name in the scandinavian fashion. Hoh-leh. But no, that would be sensible. Just like the the Thor movies and “Ass-guard”. Why?!
I really liked the book too. I’m reading another of Nesbo’s right now.
It’s a terrific book, probably Jo Nesbo’s best. I’m bummed that they couldn’t make a good movie out of it.
The jaguar (or the guepard i don’t remenbe) was terrific too, it showcased a instrument of turture invented by Nesbo himself. (Think ball, mouth, keys and big spikes, no SM sex involved) it’s an Harry Hole too. I had nightmare for quite a long time after this read! Not every Harry Hole is that good but some of them are excellent i’m glad this is adapted, and fassbender really fits harry hole personna. So Kaiser, I love you but I really hope you’re wrong.. snif
I really liked the book so I was looking forward to it. I am free this weekend so I was going to see this or Blade Runner for the second time. Latter is more likely at this point.
Same thing happened with Colin Farrell, more suited to indie or supporting in a strong cast but the powers that be tried to make him a star. Those big leading men stars just don’t exist in Hollywood any more. It is rare to open a movie with a “name” anymore. I was looking forward to this as I loved the book, ah well.
saw the trailer and spit out my drink from laughing. so dumb.
Yeah I thought it had to be a joke or satire but I guess there is a book?
There is, and there’s endless stories about why this is such a disaster, but c’mon. Hand to heart, that trailer for it could be an SNL parody from an episode with Fassbender as a guest.
Exactly! It actually reminded me of an episode of The Office where Dwight and Jim get into a snowball fight and Dwight keeps getting Jim with snowballs when he least expects it. At the end, Jim and Pam leave and the parking lot is full of snowmen and Jim thinks Dwight has to be in one so he starts knocking their heads off and stabbing them and hitting them all while Dwight’s on the roof smiling and watching. Loved that one.
It really looks “so dumb it’s funny” though… might be worth a hate-watch!
It’s like someone fed a story generator some random inputs and this is what came out. The story is ridiculous and I laughed out loud at the stupid trailer. I don’t know what’s going on with Fassbender, but I’ve been over him ever since Macbeth. I’m an X-men fan, so I used to like him, but if you see more movies with him you’ll notice that he always uses the same teeth-grindy facial expression when he’s being “intense”. I can’t unsee it anymore and it’s so prevalent in all his work, it has become too distracting.
I’m just surprised anything this weekend got a worse critical score than Geostorm which kinda looks like it’ll have Sharknado quality. Perhaps it’s just higher expectations not being met?
Michael Fassbender needs a new agent new management and a new publicist. This is now becoming BS for him at this point. I would live to see Michael Fassbender on a television mini series in HBO, Shotime, Starz or whatever cable channel that puts out good content. Michael Fassbender is not a Blockbuster actor, and that’s why I fell in love with him for, besides the fact that he is gorgeous. Now I am disappointed by the movie choices he has made. Michael Fassbender, get new management to steer your career to the right direction.
I had plans to see this Sunday with some friends (who are XMen fans) because after great recommendations here on CB for the Harry Hole books, I’m now obsessed with them. But after the reviews? Yeah, waiting until it comes to Redbox. I’m truly disappointed.
It’s bad but not unwatchable.
I’ve seen worse.
If you like Fassbender then go.
I think the zero promo has more to do with Swinestein and him being part of a PR couple.
Not sure what Weinstein has to do with Snowman. It didn’t get promoed because they knew it wasn’t going to do well, cutting losses and all that.
And PR couple? That just got married after 3 years together? Uh huh.
Weinstein was the establishment, dude. He could make or break things, you didn’t have to work directly with him or in his productions to be working for him. And second, why would you marry someone after barely a few months of cohabitation and no history of long-term commitment, and the timing with the scandal and no statement release considering how his now wife was HW muse. Weird…
I liked it enough.
You know I do think that Weinstein is everywhere bullying and promising people everywhere opportunities. I did think that when there was no promotion for Macbeth something must have happened to piss off Weisnten and to show his power he did not promote it. I think Michael must have done or said something. That’s my guess. Because the production of Macbeth is already big. He had one of the most talked about actors at the time. And no promotion? Something was definitely amiss.
I need a break from this version of Fassbender – the big movie version. He needs to mix it up, do independents, cable, produce things. Or sit out a few years, do other things entirely.
Reviews don’t really influence me. I’ll see mindless crap sometimes because that’s the mood i am in (i saw the last two Transformers movies for crying out loud but i was dragged by my sister who loves them).
Other times i want deep thought provoking art. It just depends.
My problem with the Snowman is i cannot tell just what crap it is.
Sorry if this is spoilerish.
I’ve only seen a few trailers. What is up with that little freakish snowman?
Do I need to be in an Elm Street/Chucky mood?
Or
Is a What Lies Beneath mood good enough and i won’t feel bamboozled?
Nevermind, that was actually a decent movie.
Hmmm, how about The Ring or Grudge? Weird and not great but i did not feel like I was cheated my money.
That snowman is offputting and the CGI looks cheap. Feels like i will hold off on Snowman to reach cable.
It’s “CSI Oslo”, season 15. The characters are way dumber than in Miami, the light is grey instead of orange, and there are freaky snowmen instead of palm trees.
Oh have mercy! LOL!
Maybe I’ll watch it for laughs. Think of it as a comedy and not a serious thriller.
It was not a horror/slasher-type book, more of a thriller/murder mystery. Not sure what got lost in the movie translation. The book was tense and well done. I would in no way classify it as horror and wouldn’t even put it in the same category as Silence of the Lambs.
It’s pretty obvious from the trailers, the snowman is like the killer’s calling card. But maybe it’s just obvious to me…
There was blood but it did not have gore. It was creepy at times but not like I wanted to hug a pillow creepy.
Yep, he needs to go back to indies or just pick better projects. He’s a phenomenal actor, so It’s a bit disappointing that he’s wasting his talent. But he’s still a white dude so I doubt that this is the end of his career.
Those Indies and smaller movies aren’t working for him either. TRESSPASS AGAINST US, LIGHT BETWEEN THE OCEANS, SONG TO SONG…
I don’t think he has much range. He is always playing someone intense or creepy or some combination. That is fine. Work your strengths. He is totally miscast as Harry in The Snowman. For all his faults, Harry is awkward, witty, sympathetic and self-aware of his problems and demons. None of that is on display here.
Song to Song has many fans, for me and many important critics it is a masterpiece. But if one only follows rotten tomatoes, yeah… Light Between Oceans is not an indie.
Well, @fromMoscow, the vast majority of the critics did not like it and his fans could not bothered to so see the movie. I am sure he is happy a few people enjoyed it.
This is just like people going after critics for the Snowman. Delusional. The director crapped on his own movie and the main star can’t be bothered to promote much. When your movie is verging on single digits on RT there has been a full out calamity from script, acting and directing.
Fassbender and Gleeson are fantastic in Tresspass against us. And he’s also very good in The Light Between Oceans.
Fish Tank was very good. He has the chops but he needs to be a great character actor.
Loved Fish Tank.
Similar to Jude law, Fassbender is a really talented actor but can’t seem to connect with the public as a leading man and he picks crap scripts.
I also think he is burnt out and is trying to find something that excites him outside of making movies.
The book was very good. I’ll be seeing the movie, if not for Fassbender to see how it was translated on screen. I’m not swayed by other reviews. One man’s trash………..
I didn’t read the book. I liked it. I was creeped out at times and even gasped. It had enough mystery. It had interesting twists. Maybe if you read the book you have expectations. I had none, so I was not dissappointed. Some critics have said it was confusing but I did not find it confusing at all.
I don’t really see a downward trend. Even in 2011, when he had a glut of good films released, he was also in the terrible Jonah Hex. 12 Years a Slave and The Counselor were released in the same year. He works a lot, so it’s not surprising there are oddballs and flops in the mix with successful movies.
His next movie is another X-Men one, and he might want to go with something safe, but who knows. Maybe he’ll want to make some oddball indie. Either way, he’s never been a true leading man, and as a talented actor I think will get lots of opportunities to continue to do good work.
He’s still a thing, just a low budget thing. If they’re still giving Gerard Butler a $100 million budget, then I’d say Fassbender’s safe.
He’ll just do another Steve McQueen: actors who fail to bring in box office and/or critical winners, always go back to their winning director combos.
Hollywood is – by design – made for the uphype of MOR white male fetches, so he doesn’t have to worry.
He’s a decent actor but I just don’t care.
Loved the harry hole books and I don’t trust reviews. The average movie audience are assholes. Like the new blade runner is fricking phenomenal and it’s a bomb. I love that type of story so I bet I’ll like it
But that being said fassbender needs a new agent
Exactly. And thank you for your comment.
I have no idea how movie reviews are generated like those percentages on rotten tomatoes. To me it seems questionable as people have different tastes. And if you generate an average from the opinions of lots of people with different tastes then the resulting number doesn’t tell anything except some average-ed opinion.
Many artsy movies aren’t mainstream taste either and they didn’t make huge profits. But they covered their costs and are important for movie culture. But nevertheless they get rotten review because…. ? Too artsy?
So in matters of personal taste just believe in your own taste because that is the one most important for you. Trivial but true.
I think it’s also a good idea to find a critic whose taste you trust. Having a review aggregate doesn’t really tell if a film is worth seeing that’s just about numbers not true quality.
Shame if it is that bad. Snowman is a great book, possibly one of the best Nesbo wrote in Harry Hole series. Honestly, I think Fassy was a totally bad choice for Hole part; physically has literary nothing in common. I also think that production should be Scandinavian – a great deal of the atmosphere in the novels was dark, cold, gloomy and totally “Oslo” Nesbo should leave it to Scandinavian filmmakers and not sell it to Hollywood.
This! This! I learned from this forum about Snowman the movie. As an American produced movie. I must say I am a huge Jo Nesboe fan. But huge. The movie adaptation after his Hodejergene book (Headhunters in en.) is still my favorite non- English movie. But that was a coproduction I think – actors spoke in Norwegian bokmaal and Danish. I will see the Snowman in English. But I don’t trust Hollywood adaptations. Have not seen Stig Larsson’s movie in English. I like these book adaptations in the original language.
He will be fine, he will be given a thousand chances. He just should focus on doing indies.
He started it out in critically acclaimed under-the-radar indie projects (like Shame, DAMN that was good). I bet he misses those days, maybe he just never wanted to be a big budget star.
I really liked him in the British indie movie Fish Tank, written and directed by Andrea Arnold.
I just said that upthread. I liked it too.
The Snowman doesn’t even have a big budget. 30M or something.
God his stans are just so annoying. They are everywhere trying to make people believe he is in a PR relationship. It doesn’t make any sense, worst than the Prince Harry stans for sure.
Why are you anywhere his fans are? It’s not like he or they have some huge online presence. So it seems like you’re going to websites where his fans are. Sounds like the problem is you. If you don’t want to read what they have to say, stay away from where they gather. This site, for instance, is very Fassbender friendly with regard to his relationship because so many people are happy that he married that girl. For obvious reasons. Heh.
Showmances are real and done all the time for a lot of different reasons. His fans aren’t crazy for bringing up the possibility because it happens all the time. They aren’t just picking the idea out of nowhere especially when there have been so many people scratching their heads about them.
Not everything someone says that someone else doesn’t like is because the person is a stan or deranged. If anything the Harvey situation should open people’s minds that unsavory things can be true even if their image building has been so tight it seems implausible. Very few things said on gossip sites are impossible or out of the realm of possibility. It just seems that way because the average person doesn’t live the way celebrities do.
Eh Fassbender is a white cis male, he’ll be fine. He’ll get another vehicle.
He is an ok actor nothing special and his looks are deteriorating fast.
I intend to see it, if only because the critics are having WAAAY too much fun with their own cleverness. I sense a feeding frenzy/Lord of the Flies situation. I always find Fassbender worth watching.
It’s a shame, I loved the book and I really wanted to see the movie, esp. since it has Rebecca Ferguson too. Fassbender needs to fire his agent and publicist – I don’t know who manages his career now but his choices this past two years have been terrible. He’s not a leading man type, he should try supporting roles in ambitious movies, like he used to do.
8-10 mio on the opening isn’t bad for a 35 mio movie. Wait. Give hime some time.
The promotion isn’t up to the actor but up to distributors and production companies and so on. So don’t blame the actors for not promoting a movie – it is not their choice.
Thrillers and gritty stuff doesn’t have it easy with critics in general. Wait.
Fassy is talented, still one of my favorite actors. I just don’t watch his silly blockbuster stuff. I agree he needs new mgt or someone helping him to choose better roles.
I thought he was mesmerizing (yep) in Shame, Hunger and Fish Bowl, so I’m going to keep rooting for him. I hope he gets his movie choices under control and wins an Oscar at some point.
I read an interview with the director, Tomas Alfredson, somewhere that said they missed shooting a bunch of scenes. Like, they got back from location and realized they had just forgotten them or something. Not really sure how that happens. He even said the final film made no sense and is chalking it up as a failure. But you know what? I loved ‘Let the Right One In’ and I’m still going to see this.
Micheal Fassbender is a good actor. What is with all the blatant attempts to destroy his career?
Movies across the board are not doing well at the box office, but Indie films (such as this one) make back the money, due to distribution on multiple platforms. If you have a private subscription service, you wait until the film pops up on your service. Everyone knows this too.
I totally agree. He is brilliant.
Makes you wonder whom he annoyed, doesn’t it? Did he decline one of Weinstein’s offers?
Assassin’s creed did do well, actually.
He needs to do some sort of English historical romantic film so the women will think he’s sexy and dashing and all that. Seriously, it doesn’t even have to make tons of money, it just needs to make people think about him kind of like we link Colin Firth as hot Darcy.
He did—in JANE EYRE a few years back. 😉
I read the book & it scared me silly. I have no intention of seeing the movie.
I don’t think anyone is trying to destroy the mans career, he seems to be doing that himself, lol.
Seriously though, I think Celebitchy and people on this board have always over estimates his fame and appeal. He became a big name in large part to his penis but he was never going to be a huge blockbuster star and he tends to fare better in smaller indie films anyway.
His actual big budget films have been few and far between: Prometheus, Alien: Covenant, Assassin’s Creed, and The X-Men series, that’s pretty much it. I wouldn’t classify The Snowman has a big budget film.
Most of his other films have been midsize, mid budget films.
Not that it really matters because his best work has all been circa 2013. Hell outside of X-Men First Class, his best work has always been with Steve McQueen.
I was really looking forward to this movie ! It looks creepy ! And I love creepy .
Now I’m reading the book because of this .
Do any of you remember the series, Hex? He was fantastic! But I agree, he needs help with his job picker.