BadAtGender

I just watched Iceman, which had Danny Glover in an early supporting role. Pretty smart take on the science without undermining the drama.

Hmm... Maleficent will probably hit $200m on Saturday or Sunday, right? Looks like TASM2 will just barely beat it there, getting to the mark on Friday. That was not a close race I would have expected at the beginning of the Summer.

Braveheart is pretty good. Gets a bit long and probably could have done with a bit of trimming, but it's a solid epic, even if it's accuracy is really questionable. Gibson's a talented filmmaker (better as a director than actor, IMO). Pity about his racist tendencies.

Dracula was pretty good. Now I'm watching Braveheart.

Yeah. It's really cool to see the construction. It's more that I don't ever feel particularly keen on these sorts of stories and such. I'm watching it more from curiosity.

I think it'll be one of those films I'm going to appreciate more than like.

Coppola's.

I'm watching Dracula. Kinda weird.

Yes, you can roll with unexpected changes to your cast more easily, by recasting, if needed.

Lost does epitomize some great things about television, with long character arcs and interesting interactions. And it did have an effort to create a consistent mythos that was something of a breath of fresh air. But it also became apparent that they didn't really have a good clear plan. Much the same thing happened with BSG, come to think of it. So the ending doesn't feel like a good payoff for the buildup. That's not a damning criticism, though. It's difficult to pull off something with an overarcing plot, in any medium. The difficulties of working with a large number of people compounds the problem. So the various attempts to do this on TV are pretty great, even with the problems. Babylon 5 wasn't perfect, either. Avatar: The Last Airbender is probably the best success in this regard, but it only lasted three seasons, had shorter episodes, and still had some fluff here and there.

1 Chef $1,708,590 -22% 961 -141 $1,778 $16,805,780 7 Open Road

Sarcasm really is lost on you, isn't it?

Small potatoes. Juggernaught '09 adjusts to twenty kajillion. And it doubles every day.

After. MVA was Spring '09. HTTYD was Spring '10.

Besides your conspiracy theories, which I don't buy, I'm not sure why it has to be a competition. It's possible to love Frozen and the Dragon films at the same time.

I don't rank them as a single group, but in any case: Interval Era (1999-2007) 1. Lilo & Stitch2. The Emperor’s New Groove3. Meet the Robinsons 4. Atlantis: The Lost Empire5 . Treasure Planet6. Brother Bear7. Dinosaur8. Fantasia 20009. Home on the Range10. Chicken Little Of those, only L&S and ENG are ones I'd consider brilliant. Reformation (2008-Present) 1. Frozen 2. Bolt3. Wreck-it Ralph4. Tangled5. Winnie the Pooh6. The Princess and the Frog The quality range between Bolt and Tangled is still quite close, and depending on how I'm feeling I may adjust those three. Tangled is probably the one with the most polish, but it also doesn't reach very far. WiR has some brilliantly funny bits, but it also has a second act that, while enjoyable, doesn't quite mesh with the rest of the film. Bolt does two things brilliantly. It's a bit of a celebration of Americana, and does so in a much better way than, say, Cars. It's also a wonderful critique on Hollywood and celebrity culture, especially about how it affects young actors and actresses. And it's coming from Disney. While Frozen is awesome because it's like the ultimate culmination of 70 years of Princess films, Bolt is awesome because it's Disney critiquing itself. I'm still sad that Chris Sanders' American Dog didn't get made, but I'm happy about what we got instead. (Both from him and from Disney.)

it's fantastic. When I saw it the first time it shocked me because it came after several years of disappointing Disney films. It's only gotten better each time I see it. It's the second best Lasseter-era WDAS film, after Frozen.

Bolt.

It's the funniest. It's one of the best comedies ever, live action or animated. And to rank the Pixar films that Shrek is better than: .

No. The Emperor's New Groove is the funniest animated movie of the 2000s.

That club is looking really strong, even with Frozen slowing down over the past few weeks.

Huh. I completely forgot to answer SOTM 7

It's got potential. Cruise is still pretty popular there. Oblivion and Jack Reacher both did around 12m, which is solid if not spectacular. The Last Samurai was huge, of course, and MI 3 and 4 both did really strong business. Knight and Day was quite strong, too. It might end up in that 10-15 range, but it could go a fair bit higher. I think 30m is probably the ceiling, though.

Huh. Neat. Pakistan's first animated feature film: http://www.theguardian.com/film/2014/jun/19/sharmeen-obaid-chinoy-three-braves-pakistan-animation