Cmasterclay

.................... Also, this is actually getting quite a few very good reviews, but also lots of mediocre ones. It seems alot like the Walk's reception - middling reviews punctuated by a few people that loved it.

I went to every Harry Potter midnight opening for both the books and the movies and consider the franchise a defining piece of media for my whole generation, and even I skipped out on midnights and am holding off till the weekend. There's just no real reason to rush out and see this one. Nothing about the trailers or the reviews is particularly compelling at all. If I wasn't a fan, I'd probably chalk this up as just another skippable fantasy franchise. But I will see it, because I do love me some Wizarding World. Rogue One is coming immediately off a movie that almost a billion dollars here alone. It has prominent characters and features from the original trilogy. Everyone knows the Death Star and Vader, they're as famous as any element of the franchise. It's a story people understand and want to see on the screen. It isn't just "another movie with wizards set well before Harry Potter with no real connection." It's a direct prequel to a New Hope with the main villain of the franchise. It's a much less thin needle to thread than Fantastic Beasts. I have that right around 450.

OUCH

Man, the first two/thirds of this movie are pure freaking magic. Best of the year. The third act......meh. Don't hate the concepts, have problems with the lazy and rushed execution.

Mel sabotaged the projector when he found out that a Jew was in the audience.

Gone Girl had better reviews and was a more "high brow" movie given the Fincher direction and the Oscar buzz. GOTT probably will have worse legs generally and skew younger. Plus, midights are bigger than ever now.

Here's the link. Woop woop http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/ben-afflecks-live-by-night-935085?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+thr%2Fnews+(The+Hollywood+Reporter+-+Top+Stories)

Damn I crushed the preseason questions. Too bad I couldn't keep up this summer could have been my best year ever.

Just need to hear about this and Live By Night making it into this year and it suddenly gets alot more exciting. And if Live By Night DOESN'T get moved into this year from a January release, that means it probably ain't much to get thrilled over.

Huh, I'm actually more compelled by this year's (potential) lineup than last year's, at least at this point. We'll see how it all turns out.

Hell Or High Water is a slightly smaller version of the Gift -a late summer indie hit that stunned everyone by being so good. Otherwise, vom. My favorite studio movies (Popstar, Ghostbusters, Star Trek Beyond) either outright failed or disappointed. Civil War and Central Intelligence were the only major films that I both liked and came close to/exceeded expectations, and even they had relatively blah and predictable runs. But I'm with Spags here, fall and winter look amazing.

Driving 35 minutes after work tonight to go see Southside With You. I'm actually really excited - it looks terrific. Hope it makes some ok cash.

Very sad that everyone in D.C. is hanging out without me while I'm in a tiny town in Ohio with no friends, but this movie was fucking awesome and I loved every second, if that counts for anything.

Like but don't love that PTA for Hell or High Water. That's what I really cared about this weekend.

It makes sense, in a way. Studios now are trying to pump the prime summer months full of safe, cookie cutter "stop the orb" CGI blockbusters that they can "brand". So now the good stuff is getting more backloaded to August and even September. I'm more excited for September than I was for any single summer month.

So from a few people in the (seeming) know that I follow, this is apparently fucking spectacular. And it looks it, too. I love this cast.

Vin Diesel always seemed like this affable, goofy, nice dumb guy. He seemed really fun and charming in a silly way. Shame to hear he's apparently a diva and a dick. Guess I shouldn't be stunned that a guy who named himself "Vin Diesel" is an assshole, huh?

Someone called this "Spotify Squad", and I couldn't agree more. This is a soundtrack in desperate search of a movie to paper around it. Clumsy editing, terribly written characters, muddy action, the worst villain in modern film history, a terrible sense of scope or scale, and confused tone. I'm with Gopher - the character intros were sloppy, but they were fun and stylish. I enjoyed the three different beginnings all well. But everything after that - yeeeeeeeeesh. Characters get zero development, relationships develop for literally no reason, the movie loses track of any tone or plot, and it stumbles its way past the finish like a child playing with action figures. Robbie and Davis do their thing, but in this movie, they only get to do "their thing," and absolutely nothing else. Will Smith was great - the only character with something resembling an arc, and Will Smith still has enough charisma to nearly lift an entire damn movie himself. But this movie is just a fucking mess. A compelling mess, but a mess, like BvS. Two of the most poorly made blockbuster films of modern times. I put them in the same category as Jupiter Ascending. Absolutely inexplicable disasters that you can't take your eyes off of, meaning I'd rather watch them than just a boring Jurassic World type mediocre movie, for what it's worth.

Blair Witch is going to be terrific. I promised myself I wouldn't get too excited for an Antoine Fuqua movie again (Equalizer is his only good movie in 15 years), but there's a conflation of evidence that Magnificent Seven is really, really fun. Can't say I'm into Sully at all, though. Looks like Flight with all the good parts gone, and Flight had barely had enough good parts in the first place.

55 million OW, one mill for every percentage on Obama's record approval ratings! I can't wait. It looks and sounds like an exceptionally well-done, contained romantic comedy, except with the Obamas as a twist. It's a fantastic idea for a movie.

Oh yea, Southside With You comes out this month, too! That'll be awesome. Even Hands of Stone is getting okay reviews. Why couldn't they spread some of this shit out throughout the summer? I'm about to be working full-time 80 hours a week for Hillary, every day. Why couldn't they have thrown me a bone when I had free time.

Last year it gave us The Gift and Straight Outta Compton, plus pretty much the entirety of MI5 minus one day. Three of my four favorite movies of last summer. This year it's stepping up too. Then again, last year gave us Fantastic Four, that racist Owen Wilson movie, and Hitman, and this year is giving us Mechanic 2, Ben-Hur, and Suicide Squad, so it's still August.

Chris Pine definitely has something more than alot of "handsome white dude" star actors do. He needs to do more roles like this. I thought that Hell or High Water movie looked like every generic crime thriller that gets like 55 percent on RT and people forget about in a week (like Triple 9 or something), but I've actually read some reviews for this that say it could be an awards contender if they push it hard enough. Pine and Judd Apatow produced movies saving the summer. God knows it needs it.

Some hope for summer: Apparently that movie Hell or High Water is this summer's version of The Gift- a late summer genre movie that everyone thought looked "meh" but turned out terrific. It's getting exceptional reviews. Plus, Sausage Party, Pete's Dragon, and Kubo are getting excellent word, too. I believe when Gopher says that he heard War Dogs is really good, but Todd Phillips movies are just not for me at all, I can't do that whole bro schtick (even in his better movies like Hangover 1 or Old School). It'd have to get fantastic reviews to convince me that's it tackling that subject in a smart way and not just like Tucker Max with guns. But still, August saving the summer! My birthday month showing out!

This looks like it had the potential to be a sharp comedy that served as a commentary on something important, but instead they turned it into a Todd Phillips bro movie. Love the cast, think it's an interesting concept to make a movie about....loathe the director.