LonePirate

I saw Indy today and exhausting is a good summation of the action scenes. Almost every one of them went on for too long and seemed to exist solely to fill time rather than entertain. Not only that, but the film contained the most implausible team up as there is no way a group of Nazis would ever work with X. Granted, the film did hit a massive home run with that one nostalgia scene. Still it wasn't enough to raise the film beyond mediocre. Overall I liked the film less than I like The Flash.

The B&W scenes were little more than expository filler. You could easily jettison them and construct an interesting movie centered around the Asteroid City events.

Yes. Cut all of the B&W scenes/story and focus/expand on the core Asteroid City events and you have a movie which Abrams is more than capable of directing given his history with Lost, Star Trek, Super 8 and TROS.

Caught an afternoon showing of Asteroid City and I was bored by it. It's not an awful movie, just a boring one. Anderson is hit or miss for me and this one was a miss. I think the plot of a good movie is nestled inside this one - perhaps one that JJ Abrams of all people could bring to life - but this film is obscured by Anderson's ego and usual shenanigans. Some of my fellow audience members found the film to be quite funny so it will register with some people.

The marketing may lead someone to believe that above but the movie follows an entirely different course. JLaw’s character (Maddie) does not sexually prey on him (Percy). She is forward, yes, but she is not some sort of sexually aggressive villain a la Sharon Stone in Basic Instinct. In fact, she is the butt of almost all of the jokes in the film and she actually tries to do the right thing a few times. There are some sweet moments in addition to some hilarious ones. Any moral objections to the film based on the marketing are completely overblown. If the film is not a huge hit theatrically, I could see it becoming a minor breakout once it streams because the film is ultimately very wholesome.

Watched an early matinee showing of No Hard Feelings. It's a fun and consistently funny film. It's definitely a solid summer comedy film worth watching. I wouldn't call it a comedy classic but there were more than enough entertaining moments to earn back the admission price and then some. The numerous jokes riffing on Lawrence's character's age almost always landed. There were maybe 25 people at my showing and pretty much everyone was over 30 years old which was a bit surprising as the marketing seemed to chase after the younger date crowd. I think the movie's legs could be decent (maybe not great but decent) as a final domestic total north of $50M should easily be achievable.

Watched The Flash earlier today and it serves as a perfectly fine mindless summer action flick. Keaton was easily the best part although Miller's performance was mostly solid. I don't have any gripes about the story or effects like others do. Sure, it's nowhere as great as Gunn hyped it up to be; but it is a solid B+ superhero flick. My only major complaint with the film is the bizarre personality change Miller's primary character undergoes. Without risking spoilers, just compare Miller's Allen in the first 20 minutes and the final few minutes before the credits against Miller's Allen during the central bulk of the movie. He was one type to start off then he inexplicably changed personality types for the bulk of the movie before seemingly reverting back to his original personality type at the end. Not sure if it was the acting, writing or directing here but it was very weird. Still, it's not the worst thing I have seen so far this summer and it's certainly not deserving of the hate being thrown at it.

Watched an 11am showing of Book Club 2. There were about 15 people total in attendance and I was easily the youngest person there even though I am a fossil by BOT standards. While not as funny as the first one, it's still a charming film that doubles as a tourism ad for Italy. The film's target audience will certainly enjoy it if they venture to the theaters to see it. Mother's Day business should be solid and probably higher than Friday's gross.

Aren't there usually contracts between studios and theater chains regarding films shown in IMAX and Dolby theaters? I'm guessing Lionsgate jumped early on this late April weekend before Disney became serious about nailing down a release date for an anniversary cash grab, er re-release of ROTJ. Given how full its showings are this weekend, I'm wondering if ROTJ could have contended for the #2 spot if it had more theaters. It certainly seems to be headed for the PTA crown this weekend.

Was there a screening of The Flash or just the drop of the new trailer?

I saw a noon showing of Air today. A total of four people were in attendance. The film was excellent. Terrific performances from Damon and Davis while the rest of the cast was great as well. The writing was top notch and Affleck delivers another fine film. If he ever retires from acting, he should definitely direct more films as he has turned out some fine directorial work. Apart from the cast salaries, the film dumped a lot of money on music licensing as there are a lot of 80s songs in the film, although some of the songs were released after the film's timeframe of 1984. Still, it's always great to hear some Tangerine Dream on the big screen. My biggest complaint with the film is it didn't focus much on the actual release of the Air Jordan shoes. I was just kid back then; but the shoes were massively popular and exceptionally difficult to find as they were sold out in many stores despite their hefty price tag at the time. The deal revolutionized sports and superstar marketing and even that's understating it. If Amazon's slate for the rest of the year is weak, I definitely think they will push this film for Oscar consideration and I wouldn't mind at all. It's worth watching if you don't mind a dialogue heavy film without any special effects or violence or an unknown plot.

Nonsense. Ask parents walking into the theater which studio made TSMBM. You’ll receive more incorrect Disney responses than you will Illumination answers. There may be some brand recognition but it’s a fairly small amount.

This is a massive exaggeration. Illumination has had the good fortune to have a couple of highly recognizable properties serve as subjects of their recent films. Without them, the company would have no noteworthy content as of late. Any other animation studio would have had the same success with those properties. However, Lightyear would not have been any more successful under the Illumination banner and probably would have performed even worse. As a brand or business, Illumination is barely more recognizable than a generic Silicon Valley start-up. They may receive a budget increase or attract some more scripts in the months to come; but they are nowhere close to being as widely known and trusted as Pixar or WDAS.

Caught an 11am AMC Dolby showing of JW4 and it's exactly what you would expect if you have seen any of the previous films. There is a buffet of hyperstylized violence to the extreme with some top notch cinematography and fight choreography, especially during the scene in the building being renovated. I don't think it's a spoiler to say that people are killed during the movie but to my surprise, Sawayama delivered my favorite kill in the film. In fact, all of the supporting characters and performances are top notch, though, as Reeves' Wick is the least interesting person on screen most of the time. I'm always glad to see R rated movies perform well so it's good to see JW4 easily surpassing $70M for the weekend. Hopefully it can leg it out past AM3 which it should be able to do. The one drawback to the film was sitting through the gorefest in the trailers that cannot be shown in front of other movies. I'm not a fan but to each their own.

I am glad to see another R rated comedy headed to the big screen. Lawrence's protagonist did not seem very likeable which might impact the overall reception; but the film does look funny. If the film is solid, I could see this hitting $80M, maybe more, as the trailer reactions from female movie goers on Twitter look to be solid.

I'm starting to wonder if C3's second weekend will exceed AM3's second weekend. It would need to drop in the 40%-45% range for that happen which seems very unlikely. Similarly, there's a chance C3 dom exceeds AM3 dom as it will need a multiplier of just under 4. Not an easy task but not an impossible one if WOM holds up.

Look at CB possibly obtaining a sub-50% drop this weekend. It will need some help on Saturday and Sunday to reach that; but the worst case seems to be a 55% drop. Should finish its run north of $50M and maybe even $60M if those legs aren't too shaky going forward. Pretty good run overall for the film.

Disney found roughly $130K to keep AM3 from dropping a clean 70%. PLFs are the only things keeping the film alive right now.

I was fully expecting CB to drop noticeably on Saturday and I think I said so upthread. I'm pleasantly surprised it seems to be holding well and could very well clear $20M for the weekend. The movie has some problems but it does some things extremely well, namely the ambulance scene shown in the trailer as well as the performances from Jesse Tyler Ferguson and Margo Martindale, both of whom truly understood the campy absurdity of their roles and the movie. It's fun, mindless trash cinema we don't see much of anymore, M3gan notwithstanding.

If CB outgrosses AM3 on Friday, it will be the first time a non-summer film opened above $100M and then fell to #2 on its second Friday. It's happened a few times during the summer where it's far more common for huge films to open on consecutive weekends. It's never happened during the Labor Day to late April timeframe, though.

I'm guessing CB will be too front loaded to hit $20M for the weekend; but $16M-$18M certainly seems possible.

While no cinema classic, Cocaine Bear is a wildly entertaining movie. I caught a 2:00pm showing today and the crowd was larger than I expected as my showing was about 35% full. The bear carnage is great and frankly, the film needed more of it. Definitely a fun movie to see with a large crowd as you're rooting for the bear the entire time. Also, it's already setting records for me as there were FOUR red band trailers playing before it. I have never seen more than one red band trailer before a single movie. Maybe Hollywood is serious again about attracting adult audiences.

I am not pleased with the slow rollout of the Cocaine Bear reviews. It's after 1 PM on the east coast and RT only has 8 reviews from critics and none from its Top Critics. At least all 8 of the reviews so far are fresh so this might be a fun little crowd pleaser that can squeeze in a lot of showings with its brief runtime.

Does this fail to reach $200M domestically? If it does crack $200M, it will do what no 2022 film did - finish between $200M - $300M. I guess that's something to aim for, I suppose.

Good news! Quantumania's RT score has inched up from 47% to 48% and is no longer as bad as The Eternals, at least for now. Box office glory surely awaits it this weekend.