Pre Summer Malaise @ the Multiplex
Sunday, April 3, 2016 at 8:30PM With DC's Big Three both overperforming and underperforming (if you know what I mean) in Zach Snyder's ugly hit, and all the box office stories being old (like Zootopia, showing incredible legs in its 5th weekend) or depressing (two terrible biopics on screens with Don Cheadle's Miles Davis and Tom Hiddleston's Hank Williams). We've definitely entered the doldrums before the summer explosion of would be all-sequel giants (like Captain America 3, X-Men 6, Finding Nemo 2, Neighbors 2, Ghostbusters 3.0, etcetera), box office charts are too dull and repetitive.
Zootopia is a smash. Holding as well as Frozen did.
So let's just check in with films whose success or lack thereof we're interested in today...
RANDOM BOX OFFICE CHECK-IN
01 Batman v Superman $52.3 off 68% in its second weekend. Ouch. Review
02 Zootopia $20 astonishing hold, off just 16% in 5th week Reviewish
11 Hello My Name is Doris $2.3 going wide in its 4th week Review
13 I Saw The Light $.7 nearly wide in 2nd week Review
15 Midnight Special $.5 still in very limited release but doing well Positive / Negative
18 The VVitch $.4 in 666 theaters again, Haha, after new trailer
Platform Releases
19 Everybody Wants Some $.3 NEW Review
28 Miles Ahead $.1 NEW Review
33 Embrace of the Serpent $.07 hit $1 million finally! Interview
41 Knight of Cups $.02 losing screens, flopped as badly as To the Wonder did. Reviewish
42 Krisha $.03 adding screens, crossed $100,000! Review
WHAT DID YOU SEE THIS WEEKEND?
Do tell in the comments.
Reader Comments (27)
I saw The Little Mermaid again and it was amazing again.
Happy birthday, Doris Day ! 92 years ! Wow!
I saw The Little Mermaid again and it was amazing again.
Happy birthday, Doris Day ! 92 years old !
I saw Midnight Special and Eye in the Sky, both of which I really enjoyed. Gonna try and make time for Hello My Name is Doris this week.
I watched a fairly uninteresting queer film from the local queer film fest (and did so on a screener in the bath), but otherwise had an empty film-viewing weekend.
What I did do was wait patiently for April Fools Day Oscar predictions that never materialised. I cried.
Meant to see Midnight Special and Zootopia (finally) but didn't feel like going into the city to do it. In fact, the only movies I've seen this week are Creed (first time since I saw it in theaters) and BVS (second viewing). Creed I thought was pretty good the first go round but I liked it even more this time.
As for BVS; I thought it was all over the place the first time I saw it and I couldn't quite pin down my feelings, so I decided to give it another chance and I actually did like it a little more. Now I'm not saying BVS is a great film - the flaws are too huge and abundant for that to be the case - but it's not the disaster people are claiming it to be either. At best, it's a mildly entertaining misfire; and at worst, a tolerable mess.
Watched The Rains Came (1939) Impressive special effects and Myrna Loy is luminous
Also instead of cringing through Batman V Superman watched the Supergirl/Flash crossover. What a joyous hour that was.
I saw "Eye in the Sky" with Helen Mirren and Alan Rickman. It's a good film which poses complex moral questions about drone warfare. I hope more people take a look at this, it deserves more attention. The grief over Rickman's death lingers on...
Completely agree with Lady Edith. Eye in the Sky is terrific. Helen Mirren is always great when she lets out that rough, tough edge. I completely believed her as a Colonel, and the depiction of government is spot on. Generally, the adult movie landscape is barren at the moment, so it was good to see a well done film. The entire cast is great.
"Midnight Special," my biggest theater disappointment since "Sicario" but even worse. I guess I should have heeded my concerns after being utterly unenthused about all the promotional material, but the great reviews and my affection for "Take Shelter" and "Mud" brought me to see it. It's logy, joyless, unimaginative, the last things one should expect from a movie imagining, and anticipating, the existence of a reality beyond our perception. The actors are given nothing to do and react accordingly. Lots of squandered talent.
Eye In The Sky for me as well. And enjoyed it as well. Meant to go see Cemetery of Splendor but I couldn't drag myself through 2 buses and a subway so I'll wait for it to show up on Netflix. I know, sad.
At home I watched:
--The Heartbreak Kid (1972 original, thanks), which was infuriating (the main character, played by Charles Grodin, is an out and out monster), but Jeannie Berlin and Cybil Shepherd are both excellent in it, as is Eddie Albert as Sherpherd's father
--Figures on the Landscape, a 1970 Joseph Losey film that is sort of like if Sam Peckinpah and Sam Beckett teamed up to make an action movie.
At the theater:
--Zootopia, which both over and underwhelmed me somehow. Many strong elements, but so much that felt rote and overly familiar too. I liked it, but I would put it at the lower end of Disney Animation's recent renaissance.
Re-watched Steve Jobs - works even better on repeat watching. How it's didn't receive more recognition is beyond me.
Like Glenn, I too wept at the missing April Fools predictions.
Watched Seven Brides for Seven Brothers in honor of Jane Powell's birthday. I really enjoyed it despite the way the brothers got their brides...still I thought it was a fun little musical. The barn-raising dance was so good, I had to watch it again after I finished the movie.
Also re-watched To Kill a Mockingbird and Roman Holiday this weekend for HMWYBS, which I will be participating in for the first time!
Completely off topic, but since I am not on Facebook anymore, so I can lead you up to this... Almodovar's "Julieta" opens this week in Spain - first review has been quite good - but the Almodovar brothers (Pedro & Agustín, who acts as producer of each one of his films) are two of the names that Wikileaks has released in the "Panama Papers" scandal of people washing money and evading taxes in Panama... the impact on the movie's box-office and reviews is completely unpredictable. Still, the trailer promised a different Almodovar, far from his 80s persona, and that wasn't exactly steamrolling anticipation on "Julieta".
I saw Marguerite. The movie is gorgeous to look at, but overstayed its welcome. The trailer and ads mis-represent the movie. Don't be fooled into think it is a light French trifle.
I also watched Where the Boys Are. I have a massive crush on 1960s George Hamilton.
High Rise. It was bonkers and true to the book I guess (I haven't read the book), it made no sense narrative wise, too many jumps and cuts, but it wasn't boring and the set designs were pretty cool.
Norman Jewison's "The Cincinnati Kid" was wonderfully entertaining...and cards bores me to tears. Steve McQueen is a cool poker player, with Tuesday Weld and Ann-Margret in prime starlet mode. Filmed in New Orleans, McQueen really was the King of Cool, and he's backed up with a great cast like Edward G. Robinson, Joan Blondell, Karl Malden, Rip Torn, and even Cab Calloway! Norman Jewison (In the Heat of the Night and Moonstruck) gives this movie great style and atmosphere. The only minus, was Ann-Margret. She later became a terrific actress, but she's doing her Kitten With a Whip bimbo routine. The movie's set in the '30s, but here's Ann-Margarock with her tidal wave of hair and one-inch false eyelashes, purring and sneering, like Maggie the Kitten.
Had one of *those* days yesterday and watched movies all day. Watched Shopgirl, Romeo + Juliet (1996), The Lazarus Effect (ugh), Starlet and The Kids are All Right. Starlet is SO good, more people should check it out. It's on Netflix instant watch. I think I remember you liking it, Nathaniel.
Nothing interesting in the theaters, maybe the dry season is upon us for the next 5-6 months now, so I stayed home and watched the 6-part tv miniseries version of Scenes from a Marriage. I had only seen the theatrical version (about half as long). I found the DVDs at a reasonable price (3 DVDs with both versions together) My love affair with Liv Ullmann has been rekindled! Even the usually boring Erland Josphson is outstanding, also. But Liv - Someone bring this woman back to the movies!
I'm still waiting for the more interesting limited release movies to arrive, so I caught up on three movies I missed last year - Chi-Raq, Creed and Youth. Chi-Raq was by far the best, an inventive movie that was actually relevant to contemporary America with a fantastic performance from Angela Bassett (I would have given her an Oscar nomination for that scene in her front yard alone).
Youth may have been the worst 2015 release I've seen, so pretentious and ponderous! I am really tired of movies that ask me to pity wealthy old white male artists. I only stuck with it to see Jane Fonda's famous exchange with Henry Keitel. Her performance was fine, but I really did not understand the need to make her look so dowdy with that awful wig, make-up and costuming - why not just let her look like the real Jane? The director didn't "uglify" Keitel or Caine.
Creed was fine. I expected a bit more given all the praise, but I probably shouldn't have - I really do not like the original Rocky or Sylvester Stallone.
Ryan -- yeah, i loved it. Screenplay nomination at the film bitch awards!
Suzanne -- i'm glad people are still catching up with Chi-Raq. i really think it could have been a bigger hit if it was purely theatrical instead of half and half because seeing it in the theater it played really well -- lots and lots of laughter throughout. crowd was clearly into it.
Rami -- i saw High Rise too. Still trying to decide what exactly to make of it. but loved parts of it.
Charlie G -- he so pretty in that movie! ❤️
Keisha -- YAY! GLAD TO HEAR IT. always love when people finally join in.
Glenn & BJT -- i'm working on them! :)
I saw Batman v Superman because I had a gift card and thus wouldn't have to pay for it out of my own money. It certainly wasn't GOOD, but I hesitate to call it outright BAD. Confused and messy and boring, yes, but it's not quite an all-out failure. That said, though, I'm much more interested in it as a piece of product than an actual film - like, why would anyone sink this much money into something this wobbly and alienating, especially when so much future product is based on this product's success? How and in what ways BvS goes wrong is fascinating to me.
All that said, there was a whole group of teens sitting around me that spent half the first twenty minutes or so on their phones and then left. I was very WTF?!?!? But by the time I got to the end, I have to admit, they had the right idea (aside from the freaking phones....).
I saw " My Name is Doris" which is great vehicle for Sally Fields who might get another Oscar nomination from it. He costar - the charming cute, Max Greenfield should make more movies
Saw Midnight Special. Still thinking that one over but I was a tad underwhelmed.
I finally saw The Witch. Top of my 2016 list for now...and likely to stay there. Great film. And such a happy ending!
I finally caught up with last year's Macbeth. Very beautiful but was somehow overwhelmed. Fassbender played him so confidently at the beginning that he didn't have far to go. And Cotillard was fine.