Weekly Box Office and Film Discussion Thread

[CaseytheMuppet]

Really? Not even to visit Jendell?

Not even to go to Koozbane. NEVER.

 

[Oscarfan]

I saw Cloudy 2 the other day. Meh. The animation on the villain, I thought, was funny (the way he moves is very 2D-like).

Also, my suspension of disbelief only when so far when it came to the foods. Why were pickles portrayed as weird Minion-type things and the leaks be just...leaks, while jellyfish were sandwiches and tacos were crocodiles?

 

[Drtooth]

The leaks in the trailer annoyed me more than anything else. Lemme guess. They tried to make it a running gag, and even then it fell flat?

Seriously... the food creature thing seems like it was done a million times better other places. I'm going to have to say Toriko again. At least he beats the crap out of the food creatures and in a completely in no way unmannly fashion, he glows with delight eating them.

 

[Oscarfan]

The leaks in the trailer annoyed me more than anything else. Lemme guess. They tried to make it a running gag, and even then it fell flat?

It did become a running gag...

 

[Drtooth]

To elaborate on something Jamie said a while back about the Smurf films, I managed to get "The Legend of Smurfy Hollow" and I have to say, why couldn't the films be like that? I liked the second one far more than the first (which was just a random collection of loud gags and poorly personified Smurfs), but they managed to make a Smurfier project in 22 minutes than the combined 3 hours of film. And they even managed to make the lamest new character, Gutsy, likable and engaging. Sony can really make good on these short TV special length projects. Even if they were completely CGI. Strangely and satisfyingly, this special was mostly 2-D with only brief CGI opening and closing bits. Why, it looked like a lost 90's-00's era European animated movie version of the Smurfs.

 

[KremlingWhatnot]

For anyone has hasn't seen it yet here's the Mr. Peabody & Sherman trailer.

my review on it, it actually looks better than I expected it to, I thought it was going all gross-out humor jokes, nope, and SPOILER, there's only one in the trailer.

 

[Drtooth]

my review on it, it actually looks better than I expected it to, I thought it was going all gross-out humor jokes, nope, and SPOILER, there's only one in the trailer.

It's not that I'd mind that sort of humor one way or the other... as long as they didn't have the falling face first into elephant crap like in George of the Jungle. Anything other than that is... well, I'm about to puke just thinking about that sequence in GOTJ, so...

And that was, for better or worse, the better of the Jay Ward films. Any other discussion about this film, I'll have in another thread.

Somehow, I almost want to see Free Birds or Last Vegas just to spite Ender's Game, but then that's less money for Thor, and I'm on pins and needles for that one. Can't wait for Loki to come back, as he's confirmed to not be in Avengers 2.

 

[jvcarroll]

The controversial "Ender's Game" bowed this weekend with an estimated box office take of $28M. It's insane how many entertainment news sources are citing that as a "solid opening" because that's the same figure the much panned "After Earth" took in on its opening weekend. They both were budgeted about the same and both contained beloved moviestars. Ender will probably fall short of breaking even until video sales and that's not likely enough to spawn a sequel.

It's just disturbing to me to see usually critical movie sites rally to promote and defend this particular film. I hear it has wonderful themes of empathy that contradict the author/producer's political activism against LGBT civil rights and his racist rants about Muslims. I doubt the entertainment sources are supporting that. We all know how effects studios and their workers get hosed and this film received a lot of its funding from Digital Domain. It seems this yellow journalism is an attempt to soften the blow for them.

To break it down:

After Earth + Will Smith + bad director + $130M budget + $28M opening = FLOP
Ender's Game + Harrison Ford + bad director + $110M budget + $28M opening = SOLID

Also, foreign sales were much more solid for After Earth. The hypocrisy is kind of worrisome. I know. We should expect this sort of thing. Just pointing it out. I'm just glad that more money won't go into the pocket of this deeply troubled book author.

 

[mr3urious]

Free Birds finished 4th with $16.2 mil. Looks like we shouldn't have to worry about it being a success for now.

 

[jvcarroll]

Free Birds finished 4th with $16.2 mil. Looks like we shouldn't have to worry about it being a success for now.

It's finally happened. Computer animation and cute ads are no longer enough to sell a movie anymore. Maybe they'll all take Pixar's cue and hold-off until they have a solid story to tell. Pulling back the Good Dinosaur in order to rework it is probably one of their best decisions in years.