Weekly Box Office and Film Discussion Thread

[D'Snowth]

and almost everyone except Will Smith is reprising their roles because he's apparently too good for it (yet not too good to team up with Shyamalan). Go figure.

Actually, I once heard Roland Emmerich talk about the movie and said that he got a lot of flack from the studio for having Will Smith in the lead because they apparently didn't like that the hero of the movie was a black man. And you know how "racist" Hollywood is right now.

 

[Drtooth]

So, how 'bout that Independence Day sequel? Roland Emmerich has been planning on it for a long time, and almost everyone except Will Smith is reprising their roles because he's apparently too good for it (yet not too good to team up with Shyamalan). Go figure.

Will's...complicated. I'm looking forward to seeing him in Suicide Squad, but I love him best as Agent J. That's kinda why I was a little disappointed about hearing they were going to reboot that franchise when they can easily just keep J and K there and pass it on to other letters of the alphabet. Can't say I'm huge into Independence Day, but these odd sequels of decade(s) old movies have been wildly hit or miss. Sure, Jurassic World packed them in and Star Wars is Star Wars, but those seem to be exceptions.

Actually, I once heard Roland Emmerich talk about the movie and said that he got a lot of flack from the studio for having Will Smith in the lead because they apparently didn't like that the hero of the movie was a black man. And you know how "racist" Hollywood is right now.

Not so much Hollywood. With all the non-troversy about racelifting comic book characters, it's obvious these filmmakers do this because (and this is what I'll get into later) you just know that there's a problem with making films based on non-Caucasian super heroes and making them appealing to the public. I'm very intrigued by them making a Black Panther film, but I think it would do DC a world of good to make a Static Shock film (I'd go see it). And frankly, a black Human Torch wasn't the reason Fan4stic sucked. Plus, the aforementioned agent J? White guy in the comics.

Now, the problem isn't so much the film makers and Hollywood so much as the audience. That's why it took forever to get another sitcom starring an Asian family (let alone two). I remember Cedric the Entertainer's show got canned
because the audience isn't white enough. Not to mention the fact that it took forever to get Wonder Woman on the screen. That's chalked up partly due to a series of terrible female hero starring films (Ultra Violet and Aeon Flux which doesn't even work in live action), and also the idiotic labyrinth of copyright red tape in Wonder Woman's license (she can't appear as anything less than a main character for one). There has to be an audience for these things, and that's where it becomes a painful Catch 22. They always want the entire audience, not just a specialized racial group that can sympathize with the characters. Except when they don't, except when they do, but only if.

As for the Oscars, that's on the judging rules. They're screwed up. They go for "experience" (read: old people who are old) rather than relevance, and among other reasons, that's why anime films always get screwed over among other reasons.

 

[D'Snowth]

I remember Cedric the Entertainer's show got canned
because the audience isn't white enough.

Isn;t that kind of like how everybody complains Tyler Perry's movies and shows are "racist" because of their nearly all-black casts? And yet, it's politically incorrect for non-ethnic shows to not include at least one ethnic character (or even a gay character for that matter) as part of the main cast.

 

[Drtooth]

I'm more offended that the Tyler Perry movies basically have Larry the Cable Guy as representation for white people. I don't think he's good representation of people anyway. He's a decent tow truck, though.

I could get into a big thing about race in television shows, but in the end, it's like my rant about girl's cartoons. They awkwardly shove the unlikable Venus Di Milo into that live action TMNT series to get a positive female role model in there, and a lot of girl's shows don't have a positive female role model in the entire cast. Certainly not the Bratz when they had their terrible series.

That said, I think that because the majority of films are about white guys with one or two ethnicity characters thrown in, we can forgive Tyler Perry for basically flipping the script. However, I feel sorry for Tyler because the only films the studios let him make are Madea films. I'm glad they got him to play Baxter Stockman in TMNT: Out of the Shadows. He really needs to put that dumb character to rest, but only if the studios would let him.

In other news, Michael Bay swears this is the last time he's going to do a Transformers movie (I've heard that before) on the fifth installment. While I'd admit the real reason why everyone turned on these movies because of the second film's huge script problems, he's the weakest link in these films. While I certainly wouldn't say Age of Extinction was a great or even really good movie, but it showed signs of promise. I really think the time to pass the baton was after that one, maybe even making an entirely CGI animated film that takes place off world (they hinted very strong at the end about the Quintessons, or at least the Cybertronians' creators). But if he's still involved, you know it's going to be a half hour too long with only 30 minutes worth of decent footage.

However, they're planning a Bumblebee spinoff film, maybe even a prequel to why he has no voice in this movie series. That might be good.

 

[Pig'sSaysAdios]

In other news, Michael Bay swears this is the last time he's going to do a Transformers movie (I've heard that before) on the fifth installment.

Yes his "last'' Transformers film is slated to debut in 2017. That being said,we are still getting more Transformers films in 2018 and 2019.

 

[Drtooth]

As a Transformers fan, I really hope they can move the next series of films beyond what we've seen in the Bay era. They totally can make a good TF movie if they got the right script and the right director. I'd love to see something that outdoes the 80's animated film. Hopefully he doesn't backpedal and do the 6th and future ones like he promised after 3 and then 4.

That said, the fourth movie laid some interesting groundwork and I hope they build on that. Galvatron threatened to come back some day and fight Optimus and or the other Autobots. The Dinobots can certainly learn how to speak. There are a lot of characters they didn't put in movie form yet, as well as the new ones from the last film not really being fleshed out. I'd love to see John Goodman come back as Hound since he basically stole part of the show (Stanley Tucci stole the rest). These can be good, they just haven't been what they should have been.

Plus, I'd love to see some Headmasters in this film series. Hopefully they'd still keep their "The head of the robot becomes the pilot of the vehicle" schtick. I'd love to see them come back in toy form besides the one impossible to find tail end release of Brainstorm. Of course, Crosshairs was an entirely different thing and they turned him into a generic Autobot, so...

 

[mr3urious]

Boy, did Deadpool make it big this Venereal Disease weekend, making more than $135 mil. in its opening and likely made a great alternative to all those formulaic rom coms normally released this month. KFP3 was no slouch, either, holding steady in 2nd place and earning almost $20 mil. more. However, rom com (and only rom com) How to Be Single and (possibly) long-awaited sequel to a cult classic, Zoolander 2, didn't fare so well in comparison.

http://www.boxofficemojo.com/weekend/chart/?yr=2016&wknd=07&p=.htm

 

[Drtooth]

And here I was worried Zoolander would be severe competition. That's huge considering the last R rated comic book super hero film, Watchmen, did so-so. Just proves how big the Merc with a Mouth really is, especially since it pretty much made more in its opening weekend than the first film he was in. You know, the one where the producers insisted they put ol' Pool in but backpedaled and shut him up and sewn his mouth shut?

Really, I was surprised if it got a respectable Ant-Man sized opening because only the internet really cares about how Deadpool is. Great to see his brand exceeded that and opened so huge. Prematurely writing a sequel sounds like it's going to pay off bigtime. And while Ryan Reynolds unfortunately got tethered to some bad or audience alienating projects (even he hated Green Lantern), this seems like both a passion project and a career resurrection for him.

On the negative side, since it's an R rathed movie franchise, I don't think ol' Pool will be welcome back in Ultimate Spider-Man or have any kid friendly toys (that kids weren't really going to buy, but adults were) for the foreseeable future. His Hero Masher must be worth some serious coin now.

 

[mr3urious]

The Merc With a Mouth dominates for the 2nd week in a row and KFP3 still holds its own in 2nd place, while newcomers Risen, Race, and The Witch simply failed to gain traction.

I have heard a lot of good stuff about the indie horror The Witch, and it seems like one of those old-school types of horror films that rely on atmosphere rather than gore and jump scares to be scary. Meanwhile Race just feels like yet another tired "true story" sports movie, and Risen seems to be a nothing-special biblical epic.

http://www.boxofficemojo.com/weekend/chart/?yr=2016&wknd=08&p=.htm

 

[Drtooth]

What makes this all the more hilarious is that, while Fox kept throwing money at Fanfourstic Four, they gave Deadpool a low budget and even slashed it by 7 Mil. And in the end, it worked for Deadpool, sort of how the cheapness of the original TMNT movie gave the film atmosphere. Considering the uphill battle to get this film made, even before the Wolverine movie they put him in and quickly took him out of, the movie Fox didn't want to make was far better for them than one they made to keep the rights of a franchise they clearly didn't want.

The movie is freaking amazing by the way. The best Non-Disney released Marvel movie, I'd say. One of the best Marvel films overall. Got a chance to see it this weekend and it's just fantastic. And bloody as heck. Very violent. There was no way they could make a PG-13 cut of this thing. Too much of it is not for kids. I especially loved how they handled Colossus and lampshaded that only him and Negasonic Teenage Warhead were the only X-men he bumped into in the film. "It's almost as if the studio only had enough money for two actors."

And of course, lampshade hanging all about. Stabs at Green Lantern, the movie, crapping all over his appearance in Wolverine... just overall, this film shouldn't have worked, but it worked beautifully. The character was obviously stronger than some botched cameo.

I'm glad that they greenlit a sequel while the movie was in production. Mainly because:

Spoiler

The stinger sequence after the credits is hilariously biting at the rest of the Marvel universe. Deadpool comes out in his PJ's and says that they don't have anything to show, adding if the audience thinks Samuel Jackson will pop up with an eyepatch and leather suit, and then says something about the next film is going to feature Cable, and that they're considering some muscular actor with a flattop like Dolph Lungren, Schwarzenegger, or Kira Knightly. Then he just keeps telling the audience to leave.