Weekly Box Office and Film Discussion Thread

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Drtooth

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Drtooth

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Well, big budget action flick vs comedy that probably plays the same on the big screen or streaming with no major difference. Still, seems from word of mouth the problem was the Griswolds and everyone else in the movie were the only bright spots. Even the worst reviews seem to have praised Charlie Day.

Makes you wonder why they bother, since comedy sequels, unless done very carefully, manage to just rehash the original, bigger louder, and with slightly different jokes. Vacation seems to want to be both a sequel and a reboot at the same time, and that's tricky. It's going to live in the shadow of it's original films, yet the way National Lampoon turned into crappy DTV movies that were essentially Jack&^^ ripoffs, it's still an unfortunate step up. Too bad this thing didn't have a better script.

But HAW HAW to Paper Tows disappearing as fast as it arrived. While it doesn't match "The Gallows" in sheer inescapable obnoxiousness as far as advertising is concerned, I for one am glad the film, like the Gallows, shut the heck up when it bombed.
 
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I'm actually glad that Fantastic Four is getting poor reception and is projected to be a huge box office flop. Heck, it's getting worse reception than Pixels, which should say something. Remember how I keep saying how it's a shame that they wasted video game characters? Even what they did to Q*Bert isn't as bad as what they did to The Thing, from what I read. Apparently, to make the project "gritty" and "dramatic"...

they took The Thing's signature catchphrase, something made out of delightful cheese like the rest of the series, and turned it into an ironic echo of the line Ben Grimm's brother used to say when he beat him up.

Okay. I hate saying this and all, but ...

(ulp)

Even Hanna Barbera didn't frag up the Thing as bad making him a teen that could turn back and forth into a happy version of the character. And yes, I have a bias. The Thing is one of my favorite Marvel characters. More than Spidey, more than Hulk (and those are 2 of my other favorites). I have to admit, I did like the Denny's Thing Burger commercial, though. Doubt he's half as good in the film. Not that I wanted to see this, but I was willing to give it a chance if there was nothing else. What's frustrating is this film only exists because Fox didn't want to give up the rights to a film series they didn't make much money on and didn't really want in the first place. Even Marvel clearly wanted this thing to die. There's not a Thing nor Human Torch figure to be found, even in comic book form, not even in the Hero Mashers line (and they had Ghost Rider and decidedly kid not friendly Deadpool in the line up). At worst, this should convince Fox to split the rights like Sony and Spider-Man, but I really hope they just sell them outright and at least give the 4 cameo appearances in future films.

That said, I'm totally off to see Shaun the Sheep ASAP. I'm disappointed it didn't get a 3-D release, though. Stop puppet animation needs to be seen in 3-D.
 
charlietheowl

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Drtooth said:
I'm actually glad that Fantastic Four is getting poor reception and is projected to be a huge box office flop. Heck, it's getting worse reception than Pixels, which should say something. Remember how I keep saying how it's a shame that they wasted video game characters? Even what they did to Q*Bert isn't as bad as what they did to The Thing, from what I read. Apparently, to make the project "gritty" and "dramatic"...
Click to expand...
And the director tweeted that the original cut was a lot better but the studio wouldn't put it out, which was quickly deleted. Someone's not getting another big studio picture any time soon.
 
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charlietheowl said:
And the director tweeted that the original cut was a lot better but the studio wouldn't put it out, which was quickly deleted. Someone's not getting another big studio picture any time soon.
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I don't care how much better he says the original cut was. This film was a mistake from the get go, and Star Wars fans should be elated that he's no longer doing a project for them. Seriously, you could have a comedy movie about Jar Jar and the Ewoks living in a college dorm constantly playing pranks on the Co-Deans, those two outlandish Chinese stereotypes from the prequels, and it would probably get better reception than a Trank directed Star Wars film.

I look at what happened with The Amazing Spider-Man and I feel a little bad that it lost its potential because Sony got greedy and ruined ASM2. I also feel the script for that movie's sequel was done in retaliation of the complaints the first one was too teen drama-y (Spidey's a teen, his stories are teen drama a lot of the time, I saw no problem). In other words, the second one became cartoony (the Herr Doktor, Jamie Fox as Baxter Stockman Electro, and Paul Giamati's really cartoony Rhino) and cluttered due to making a cinematic universe based on one comic book. As dopey as that movie was, I enjoyed it. I saw where people had problems with it, and it's a shame it wasn't nearly as good as the first one (which I actually liked over the first Sam Raimi film). But all and all, it was a sacrificial lamb of a movie. Sony rebooted Spidey simply because no matter how bad the third one was, it made a crapload of money, and it was easier to start over than to pay what everyone involved in the original trilogy (which I still say was an act. They knew the studio would ruin a fourth movie like the did the third).

But with the F4, the movies were never liked (I never really saw them, so I don't know why...and I coulda bought Rise of the Silver Surfer for a buck at Dollar Tree but didn't), they didn't really make that much money. Fox's desire to keep the franchise makes no sense. Hopefully they'll drop it. I really hope Marvel doesn't throw the baby out with the bath water on the characters, though. They deserve crossovers on the Disney XD shows at least.
 
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Yeah. But Guardians was good. and had a real talent behind it in every aspect. Fantastic Four was an embarrassing scene of Fox greedily clutching onto a franchise it didn't want in the first place and still outright refusing to give it up to Disney or even share it with them even though the movie was a critical, commercial, and franchise failure. It's clear that the only reason Fox wants the Fantastic Four is out of spite. Sony was able to make a deal with Disney over Spider-Man even though the Oh so horrible Amazing Spider-Man 2 actually made back its budget before it was released in the US. Meanwhile, FF has cost Fox a fortune, but because they're acting like the world's biggest and greediest babies (something usually reserved for their Business News branch), we'll never see a good FF movie. Just the promise of a cameo somewhere down the line.

Seriously. *&^% this movie. The fans always knew this would be a piece of crap and it turned out to be even bigger and crappier than they expected.
 
Luke kun

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Drtooth said:
Yeah. But Guardians was good. and had a real talent behind it in every aspect. Fantastic Four was an embarrassing scene of Fox greedily clutching onto a franchise it didn't want in the first place and still outright refusing to give it up to Disney or even share it with them even though the movie was a critical, commercial, and franchise failure. It's clear that the only reason Fox wants the Fantastic Four is out of spite. Sony was able to make a deal with Disney over Spider-Man even though the Oh so horrible Amazing Spider-Man 2 actually made back its budget before it was released in the US. Meanwhile, FF has cost Fox a fortune, but because they're acting like the world's biggest and greediest babies (something usually reserved for their Business News branch), we'll never see a good FF movie. Just the promise of a cameo somewhere down the line.

Seriously. *&^% this movie. The fans always knew this would be a piece of crap and it turned out to be even bigger and crappier than they expected.
Click to expand...
Pixar made the best FF movie and didn't even use the FF characters.
 
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