Weekly Box Office and Film Discussion Thread

[mr3urious]

Jurassic World and Inside Out continue to stay on top, with Terminator Genisys barely clinging on to #3. Meanwhile, Magic Mike XXL only managed to reach 4th place, and turned in a much lower opening than its predecessor.

http://www.boxofficemojo.com/weekend/chart/?yr=2015&wknd=27&p=.htm

 

[Muppet Master]

Nice for Jurassic World holding the number one spot for a whole month, though pretty sad for Ted 2 plummeting 67% in its second weekend, it has barely made $58 million so far, it probably will not even reach $100 million, so Ted 3 might be put on hold for right now.

 

[Luke kun]

My computer died so I had to get new one and it took a week and a half to get a new one so...

I loved both films. Jurassic World seemed to be a little tongue in cheek, seemingly playing with certain disaster movie cliches, and somehow it even felt like it was a commentary on itself. The whole bit about how having to make bigger dinosaurs because just having dinosaurs is not enough anymore. Overall, to say it's as good as the original is a stretch, but it was enjoyable overall. Chris Pratt was great in it, but so were the kids.

But Inside Out, agreed that it's the best thing Pixar has done in years. And I really liked Monsters University (seems that film gets undeserved scorn for some reason). Inside Out wasn't what I expected, though. And that worked to the film's advantage. It was great to see that Dave and Frank had a cameo (even though that was spoiled by ToughPigs for me... and I preceded to spoil it here by posting a separate thread). Also had Mona Marshall in it, also known as the voice actress of animated series Mokey, so there's 3 in the movie associated with the Muppets, technically.

On that note, I've noticed that for some strange reason, Ant-Man isn't getting much marketing lately. I forgot when it was supposed to come out until I looked it up, actually. Every time a movie's being advertised on television, it's that awful looking "The Gallows" thing. It looks like a collection of bad jump scares, and of course they market the thing with (and I've complained about this too many times now) whiny female vocals on a dissonant depressed cover of Smells like Teen Spirit. Can't even market this with originality.

Mona Marshall also played Doraemon. Who pupated Mokey originally>

 

[Drtooth]

Nice for Jurassic World holding the number one spot for a whole month, though pretty sad for Ted 2 plummeting 67% in its second weekend, it has barely made $58 million so far, it probably will not even reach $100 million, so Ted 3 might be put on hold for right now.

I didn't even get a chance to see it yet. And considering Minions opens this week and Ant-Man the next, I might just barely get to it if anything. So that's my excuse. Too many of these movies coming out at once is the problem, I think.

Then again, comedy movies don't need sequels. And when they get them, they're a mixed bag. I like the hook of Ted 2, and it looks like they genuinely have another character arc for him, but there was something incredibly special about the first one that couldn't be replicated. Plus, if you think really hard about it, Seth did kinda use this plot before. Personally, I'm more worried about Seth's film career than Ted. Family Guy has hit a very stale note and even Seth wants to bail (American Dad got...weird and Stan became an idiot somehow). Million Ways to die got a bad reaction somehow. It wasn't the greatest film of all time, sure. Seth's going to be tied down to a cartoon series that got too mainstream for its own good.

Jurassic World and Inside Out continue to stay on top, with Terminator Genisys barely clinging on to #3. Meanwhile, Magic Mike XXL only managed to reach 4th place, and turned in a much lower opening than its predecessor.

Really shocking about Terminator. I guess that Salvation movie completely ruined the franchise's street cred. Then again, everything I hear is "it's only good for AHHNOLD." REALLY shocked about Magic Mike. Now, whatever I can say about it essentially being a cheesecake film for women, at least I have a billion times more respect for it than Fifty Shades. From what I hear, at least the first Magic Mike had a little depth to it, about the dark realities of being a stripper. This one supposedly is just fanservice. But without that guy that's not a very good actor that women love for some reason. Maybe his character's lack of being there was why women shied away.

I give Pixar real credit and a huge hand for this film. The last few movies didn't make that much (Cars 2 was mostly merchandising money, it made much less than its first installment despite being more 5 year old friendly). Three weeks on top. That's going to give Minions some serious competition. Not that I'm really worried about it. It would be such a shame if the enormous merchandising and marketing push was all for naught. Those little yellow guys are on everything. And to being worried as heck for Ant-Man should go without saying.

 

[jvcarroll]

I didn't even get a chance to see it yet. And considering Minions opens this week and Ant-Man the next, I might just barely get to it if anything. So that's my excuse. Too many of these movies coming out at once is the problem, I think.

Then again, comedy movies don't need sequels. And when they get them, they're a mixed bag. I like the hook of Ted 2, and it looks like they genuinely have another character arc for him, but there was something incredibly special about the first one that couldn't be replicated. Plus, if you think really hard about it, Seth did kinda use this plot before. Personally, I'm more worried about Seth's film career than Ted. Family Guy has hit a very stale note and even Seth wants to bail (American Dad got...weird and Stan became an idiot somehow). Million Ways to die got a bad reaction somehow. It wasn't the greatest film of all time, sure. Seth's going to be tied down to a cartoon series that got too mainstream for its own good.



Really shocking about Terminator. I guess that Salvation movie completely ruined the franchise's street cred. Then again, everything I hear is "it's only good for AHHNOLD." REALLY shocked about Magic Mike. Now, whatever I can say about it essentially being a cheesecake film for women, at least I have a billion times more respect for it than Fifty Shades. From what I hear, at least the first Magic Mike had a little depth to it, about the dark realities of being a stripper. This one supposedly is just fanservice. But without that guy that's not a very good actor that women love for some reason. Maybe his character's lack of being there was why women shied away.

I give Pixar real credit and a huge hand for this film. The last few movies didn't make that much (Cars 2 was mostly merchandising money, it made much less than its first installment despite being more 5 year old friendly). Three weeks on top. That's going to give Minions some serious competition. Not that I'm really worried about it. It would be such a shame if the enormous merchandising and marketing push was all for naught. Those little yellow guys are on everything. And to being worried as heck for Ant-Man should go without saying.

I enjoyed A Million Ways to Die in the West, but I kind of have a feeling of what went wrong. He turned what would have been a solid comedy into a vehicle for himself to become a leading man. That undermined the anything goes/nothing's precious nature of his comedy and turned the whole project into a Seth McFarlane selfie.

He broke one of the most important comedic rules - he took himself too seriously.

 

[Drtooth]

Considering other vanity projects from other actors, it was far from the worst case of that. I'll agree that putting himself as a main actor not as a voice actor was kinda a mistake, but the rest of the movie makes up for that. Maybe he should have had someone act in his stead, but overall I don't get this whole "GAWWW!!! It wuz the worstest thing ever cuz some hipster told me so!" vibe. It's Razzie nomination was pure bull and hipster nose turning. It could have indeed been a better film, but that could be said about any movie. And you gotta love the casting of Liam Neeson based on a Family Guy cutscene making fun of how bad his American accent in period pieces was. Just overall a decent film. Not quite as good as Ted, but certainly not the worst western we've seen in years.

That said, I came back from Ted 2, and I found it quite enjoyable. Just slightly under the first movie, but by no means did I dislike it. I loved all the weird Boston jokes (being from there), even the one about Filene's Basement (which has long since gone under). While most comedy sequels just do the same jokes on a bigger level, I like that they did manage to find a different angle here. The first film was an obvious deconstruction of kid's films from the 80's. This continued the trend with a more reality seeping bend. It's hard to try and capture the exact feel of the first movie with a different plot and message, so I appreciated what they did here. I'd say the jokes were a little more Family Guy Cut scene-y than last time. It's still a trillion times funnier than the show's been the last couple of seasons. That's for sure. I mean, I liked the Simpsons crossover, but the one where they try to make Quagmire a sympathetic character after he committed statutory? Why isn't getting on Seth's case for that?

The weird surprise however was...

Spoiler

Hasbro essentially let the writers make them an antagonistic force as a reference to a throwaway joke in the first film. They product placemented the heck out of their time and last year's Transformers product line was slapped all over the film. Had some Age of Extinction stuff in there, but I doubt that was an intentional nod to Mark's appearance in that film.

Also the whole bit at NYCC shouldn't have been that surprising to me. I remember hearing about the film's casting call asking specifically for cosplayers. LOTS of them supposedly tried to kiss up to Seth by cosplaying Family Guy characters...which were not in the movie. And the ones that were in the movie had to be rights cleared. Even the Dragon Ball ones.

So I'd say that if you liked the first one, you'd enjoy the second.

 

[jvcarroll]

Considering other vanity projects from other actors, it was far from the worst case of that. I'll agree that putting himself as a main actor not as a voice actor was kinda a mistake, but the rest of the movie makes up for that. Maybe he should have had someone act in his stead, but overall I don't get this whole "GAWWW!!! It wuz the worstest thing ever cuz some hipster told me so!" vibe. It's Razzie nomination was pure bull and hipster nose turning. It could have indeed been a better film, but that could be said about any movie. And you gotta love the casting of Liam Neeson based on a Family Guy cutscene making fun of how bad his American accent in period pieces was. Just overall a decent film. Not quite as good as Ted, but certainly not the worst western we've seen in years.

That said, I came back from Ted 2, and I found it quite enjoyable. Just slightly under the first movie, but by no means did I dislike it. I loved all the weird Boston jokes (being from there), even the one about Filene's Basement (which has long since gone under). While most comedy sequels just do the same jokes on a bigger level, I like that they did manage to find a different angle here. The first film was an obvious deconstruction of kid's films from the 80's. This continued the trend with a more reality seeping bend. It's hard to try and capture the exact feel of the first movie with a different plot and message, so I appreciated what they did here. I'd say the jokes were a little more Family Guy Cut scene-y than last time. It's still a trillion times funnier than the show's been the last couple of seasons. That's for sure. I mean, I liked the Simpsons crossover, but the one where they try to make Quagmire a sympathetic character after he committed statutory? Why isn't getting on Seth's case for that?

The weird surprise however was...

Spoiler

Hasbro essentially let the writers make them an antagonistic force as a reference to a throwaway joke in the first film. They product placemented the heck out of their time and last year's Transformers product line was slapped all over the film. Had some Age of Extinction stuff in there, but I doubt that was an intentional nod to Mark's appearance in that film.

Also the whole bit at NYCC shouldn't have been that surprising to me. I remember hearing about the film's casting call asking specifically for cosplayers. LOTS of them supposedly tried to kiss up to Seth by cosplaying Family Guy characters...which were not in the movie. And the ones that were in the movie had to be rights cleared. Even the Dragon Ball ones.

So I'd say that if you liked the first one, you'd enjoy the second.

The thing that makes it different is that he's the guy who's supposed to be above that sort of vanity. It kind of tarnished his shtick. But I did enjoy it. And I liked Ted 2 as well. In fact, I should post my recent reviews. BRB.

 

[jvcarroll]

My Summer Movie Outings So Far:

Avengers: Age of Ultron- Two great movies that are truncated and crammed into one. Emotional rhythms and character motivations are sacrificed for spectacle and the need to cross things off the Marvel serial checklist. Part one should have ended with the creation of the Vision and part two could have easily been released this Christmas. Even so, the Whedonness keeps poking through to make everything okay.
4/5 stars

Ex Machina-Thought-provoking, creepy and engaging, Ex Machina manages to produce optimal output from its minimal budget and talented cast.
4/5 stars

I Am Big Bird: The Caroll Spinney Story- A portrait of a talented performer and a remarkable man emerges from this simple and sweet framework. My only grouchy gripe is that it goes by too fast.
4.5/5 stars

Tomorrowland- It is a fact that Brad Bird is incapable of creating a bad film. Period.Every brief glimpse of Tomorrowland is amazing and I wish more of the film could have taken place there. The meandering story, however, has little to do with the film's ambitious and inspiring conclusion. What I hoped would be a once in a lifetime film turns out to be something I'll probably want to experience only once in my lifetime. Bring on Incredibles 2 already!
3/5 stars

Poltergeist(2015) - A pedestrian yet serviceable interpretation of a horror classic that will soon be forgotten.
2.5/5 stars

Spy- Paul Feig's film has the bones of a Bond film and the humor of the best woman in comedy today. McCarthy and Byrne work so wonderfully together. Who knew Jason Statham is as funny as he is sexy? Miranda Hart is also a hidden gem. This film deserves every bit of praise it's getting.
4/5 stars

Jurassic World-Consider this the first and only legitimate sequel to Jurassic Park.
3.5/5 stars

Pitch Perfect 2- It's not particularly my taste, but I see why it's popular. It's a fun and breezy popcorn movie directed by the wonderful Elizabeth Banks.
2.75.5 stars

Inside Out- I really appreciate its strong message about the importance of embracing textured emotions.The animation is beautiful and the voice artistry, particularly that of Kaling and Black, is pitch perfect. My only disappointment is how little activity they depict inside Riley's mind. Joy travels through most of this inner-world yet only legitimately engages with one character. I can't help but notice the lost opportunity. It's still a fun ride and I'm very glad that Pixar is back. They have been missed. Bring on the Good Dinosaur. Rawr!
3.5/5 stars

Magic Mike XXL-
Stripped of substance and a little more fun than last time. I actually think the franchise could squeeze one more film before retirement.
3/5 stars

Ted2-
Consider this an all-new chapter rather than the watered-down sequel most people expected. It's not quite as good as the first outing, but it's just as ambitious.
3.25/5 stars

Terminator Genisys- Forget the last two films. Genisys is the solid third installment fans have been waiting for. It would be doing much better if only they hadn't shown the whole movie in the trailers.
3.25/5 stars

 

[Drtooth]

I have to admit, I'm getting less and less excited about Good Dinosaur. Not to the point where I have no enthusiasm for it, but these troubled productions can go either way. They replaced everything down to the voice cast. That's a gamble that may just not pay off. There's no one in the new cast I care much for, and we lost the likes of Judy Greer, John Lithgow, and Bill Hader. I get the feeling it will be unfairly judged as "another Dinosaur movie" after the horrible Walking with Dinosaurs film, Age of Extinction, and Jurassic World (which, given it's box office take, will probably still be there come November). Doesn't matter if it's the superior of the three (it's at least far superior than 2 of them). Not to mention it's really lousy release date. Thanksgiving Weekend, with a certain film about a certain universally beloved comic strip as competition a couple weeks before. Thanksgiving weekend has proven increasingly weak the past few years. Hopefully Pixar's brand will help the film overcome these obstacles.

Still, considering that Inside Out was Pixar's return to form after a toyetic kiddy film, a completely botched take on princesses, and a sequel everyone hates for some reason, there is a LOT riding on this before the next 2 sequel films.

 

[jvcarroll]

I have to admit, I'm getting less and less excited about Good Dinosaur. Not to the point where I have no enthusiasm for it, but these troubled productions can go either way. They replaced everything down to the voice cast. That's a gamble that may just not pay off. There's no one in the new cast I care much for, and we lost the likes of Judy Greer, John Lithgow, and Bill Hader. I get the feeling it will be unfairly judged as "another Dinosaur movie" after the horrible Walking with Dinosaurs film, Age of Extinction, and Jurassic World (which, given it's box office take, will probably still be there come November). Doesn't matter if it's the superior of the three (it's at least far superior than 2 of them). Not to mention it's really lousy release date. Thanksgiving Weekend, with a certain film about a certain universally beloved comic strip as competition a couple weeks before. Thanksgiving weekend has proven increasingly weak the past few years. Hopefully Pixar's brand will help the film overcome these obstacles.

Still, considering that Inside Out was Pixar's return to form after a toyetic kiddy film, a completely botched take on princesses, and a sequel everyone hates for some reason, there is a LOT riding on this before the next 2 sequel films.

Kids love dinosaurs. I have a feeling that even if Pixar's Good Dinosaur is critically panned (like Cars 2) it will be box office and merchandising success. That said, we really don't know what to think yet. On one hand you have Ratatouille. That film was totally reworked and it's arguably one of Pixar's best. On the other hand you have Brave which I felt that (even with its wonderful themes) was a mess of a film. However, both films fared well at the box office and received Oscars. That award will likely go to Inside Out, but you get my point.

Plus, Thanksgiving is a prime spot. I disagree that it's weak, but aside from the Hunger Games films, the offerings of the past few years have been hit-or-miss. A Pixar film will be greeted with enthusiasm. I'm not sure about the appeal the Peanuts film will have. I like where they're going with it. I'm just not sure how it will translate with today's audiences. I really hope it's good and I hope it does well.