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Netflix is, as soon as once more, respiration new life right into a largely forgotten film from yesteryear. The film in query is “Do not Say a Phrase.” Do not fret if that title alone raised an eyebrow, as this is not precisely an early 2000s cinematic traditional, all due respect. All the identical, the thriller is discovering a large viewers on the steamer as we head into the Halloween season.
Starring Michael Douglas (“Primary Intuition”) and the late Brittany Murphy (“Uptown Women”), director Gary Fleder’s 2001 thriller “Do not Say a Phrase” is presently trending in Netflix’s prime 10 most-watched film charts. The movie is presently sitting within the quantity 5 spot, simply behind this 12 months’s “I Know What You Did Final Summer time” reboot and simply forward of the animated film “The Twits.”
For many who is probably not acquainted, the movie facilities on criminal Patrick Koster (Sean Bean) and his associate, who seize younger Jessie Conrad (Skye McCole Bartusiak), holding her at ransom from Jessie’s therapist father, Nathan (Michael Douglas). They do not need cash, nevertheless. As a substitute, they need him to coax a traumatized teen named Elisabeth (Brittany Murphy) into revealing a mysterious code quantity that may make them a hidden jewel value a fortune. The twist? She hasn’t spoken in 10 years. Let the video games start.
The movie got here at a novel time as Murphy was reaching the heights of her star energy earlier than her premature passing on the age of 32 in 2009. It was additionally form of close to the tip of a really unbelievable run by Douglas, with the actor ascending to the highest of Hollywood’s A-list within the ’80s with gigantic hits like “Deadly Attraction.” On the time of its launch, the high-concept thrill experience wasn’t a giant success, taking in $100 million on the field workplace in opposition to a $50 million funds. Critics of the day additionally weren’t significantly form to it.
Do not Say a Phrase is the most recent forgotten film to search out new life on Netflix
It was a type of films that simply form of got here and went in its day, did not work out fairly in addition to Fox had hoped, but in addition arrived through the period when DVD gross sales and cable may function a security web to make sure a given film would become profitable. In any occasion, it is clear that the mixture of stars and an attractively intriguing premise has allowed this oft-forgotten early 2000s launch to thrive 24 years later.
What’s attention-grabbing is that this form of factor appears to be occurring consistently on Netflix. 2004’s “After the Sundown” not too long ago discovered nice success on the streamer greater than 20 years after it flopped in theaters. Even now, the highest 10 contains films like 2015’s “Trip” and “The A-Staff.” There are numerous examples, but it surely’s an attention-grabbing phenomenon.
For no matter cause, at the same time as Netflix continues to pour untold billions into unique films, many of those comparatively unremarkable “film for a film’s sake” films wind up dominating the streaming service’s charts. All of the whereas, huge unique blockbusters like “The Electrical State” flop as right here at the moment, gone tomorrow curiosities with no cultural endurance. For as a lot as Netflix has managed to disrupt Hollywood, customers nonetheless appear to search out quite a lot of consolation in acquainted films that have been launched in theaters, even when they weren’t hits of their day.
It might additionally converse volumes about generational nostalgia that individuals of a sure age have for Murphy, who starred in teen classics like “Clueless” in addition to “Woman, Interrupted,” amongst others. Both method, it is simply the most recent instance of Netflix unintentionally shining a light-weight on a chunk of cinema that, prior to now, felt prefer it may as nicely have been misplaced to time.
