I think there is a pretty simple formula: Big names + excellent reviews = profits.  You could make a movie about a dogboy and if it has 2 A-listers and a B+ review average, back up the money truck.

@avclub-3be42d8a3412057f79af152555e39bd4:disqus 
No please!  I love that this show is set in Fake-Boston.  It allows me to maintain the false hope that I may run into Anna Torv at the Rattlesnake some night (yes I know the only things filmed in Boston were the same 4 or 5 establishing shots from season one).

@avclub-3be42d8a3412057f79af152555e39bd4:disqus 
No please!  I love that this show is set in Fake-Boston.  It allows me to maintain the false hope that I may run into Anna Torv at the Rattlesnake some night (yes I know the only things filmed in Boston were the same 4 or 5 establishing shots from season one).

with Fisher King being sort of stepchild fourth, and maybe jaberrwocky being a bastard prequel.  Got ya.

sure, but so many films have aped one of the core effects of this movie (Mr. Shaky Head) diminishing the original's effectiveness.

How about Fringe, where they routinely go back and forth between Boston and Manhattan as if they're 12 minutes apart.  Agent Dunham arrives at Harvard and is like "shit I just left my good sunglasses at the statue of liberty - be right back"

How about Fringe, where they routinely go back and forth between Boston and Manhattan as if they're 12 minutes apart.  Agent Dunham arrives at Harvard and is like "shit I just left my good sunglasses at the statue of liberty - be right back"

what are you calling big three, besides brazil and time bandits?  If not this?

Great point - many "twist" movies don't work upon multiple repeat viewings.  This thing gets better on the second viewing, then stays there for all subsequent viewings.

Yeah - it's one of those rare air-tight time travel movies (or close to it).  And those have a very special place in my heart.

I am 100% with you on this post.  Clicking Like doesn't do justice to how (I'm doing that thing where I use two fingers to point at my eyes, then yours, then mine, then maybe yours one more time) we are on this.

This is at (or very near) the top of my all time favorites.  I watch it about every two years.  And this is in spite of a Brad Pitt performance that I'm not fully on board with.  
With this and Inglorious Basterds, I think he received credit more due to screenplay and characterization than the actual acting.

This is at (or very near) the top of my all time favorites.  I watch it about every two years.  And this is in spite of a Brad Pitt performance that I'm not fully on board with.  
With this and Inglorious Basterds, I think he received credit more due to screenplay and characterization than the actual acting.

It's one of his short-form books - a tight little potboiler.  perfectly acceptable and a quick read.

It's one of his short-form books - a tight little potboiler.  perfectly acceptable and a quick read.

I thought the sequel was "More Oblique"

I thought the sequel was "More Oblique"

I heard it cost them
a loaf o' bread, a container o' milk, and a stick o' butter

I heard it cost them
a loaf o' bread, a container o' milk, and a stick o' butter

no wonder it tanked, that tag line sounds like a threat to me.  know what I say, "Why don't you buy a bag and go home in a box, Mr. Popcorn!?"