tonytr87

Pretty funny that they're still using Soggy Bottom for materials.

Yeah him and Jonah are best buds. Can't imagine what fun they had together making Wolf.

There's this thing called the pandemic which is causing studios to mostly abandon platform releases. They're pointless right now. Also, if you've been paying attention to the Oscars at all, you'd know that January releases (save for 2020) are anathema to actually winning awards.

Leo eventually put on muscle for The Departed and Blood Diamond.

Now we all wait for him to put on some muscle.

All I know is WB needs a win. Out of boredom I recently calculated how the major studios are doing so far this year, and WB is dead last among them, and only one of two (the other being Lionsgate) in the red in terms of 2021 theatrical product. Disney and Universal are on top by a pretty wide margin.

It'll be interesting. Definitely has a shot of doing better than anticipated, but who knows at this point.

Wait, who is blaming him? I'm out of the loop on recent updates I guess.

Yeah, Feige doesn't give a fuck about that noise. The executives above him might though.

Poster looks fan-made. Searchlight needs to up their poster game. Still can't wait for this.

I only wish they would get more creative with how they visually represent magic in these movies. The glowing energy blob/noodle shit when it comes to Strange, Wanda/Agatha and Shang Chi is cheap-looking and cartoonish. Here's hoping Raimi does something with it.

I can recognize camp. This isn't that until about halfway through. Sorry.

I wasn't big on this. Yeah, the last 30 minutes are entertaining, but the twist isn't altogether too surprising, and the majority of the movie is a hodgepodge of ideas and imagery from a dozen other horror movies. Wan wanted this to be a haunted house flick, a Ring-style mystery, and a creature feature all in one, and the disparate parts just do not cohere. I admire his hutzpah with that ending, but the movie is too humorless to excuse the rest of it as intentional camp, as some are trying to do. Wan's style in the first 90 minutes isn't dissimilar from the uber serious tone he brings to the Conjuring movies. If he was going for camp, he failed. Edit: I should also mention a quarter of the movie is a dull Saw-style police procedural. So there's another disparate part.

Yeah, I didn't even realize that. They made a big mistake not holding onto Marvel.

Longer running time equals many things you can't get in 90 mins or even two hours - more character development, ATMOSPHERE, stronger emotional stakes (more time with the characters), and more intricate set pieces.

Dude, the serialization is why this iteration is the best. We had decades of one-off movies with no relation to each other. This is what people want. Also, Spectre is severely underrated.

Black Widow performed reasonably well, but to the extent that it can be considered a disappointment...I think we have to factor in the timing of it. The entire world saw her die in Endgame, and now Marvel wants to move backwards in time for a side story that has little relevance to the current timeline as it stands? It was always going to be a hurdle to get folks interested enough to go to theaters in droves. There's also an argument to be made that she's not solo film material, although I disagree with that.

The thing about streaming services like HBO Max and Paramount Plus is...they're not making any profit. These services are meant to replace a different dwindling revenue stream: broadcast/cable television. They won't replace both revenue from television AND movies. I recommend following David Poland on Twitter. Industry insider/journalist who says they're just throwing darts at a wall blindfolded because they're drunk on streaming, believing they can all be like Netflix. Being like Netflix only works if you have 200 mil subs. We rag on Disney for PA, but that at least is a bonafide revenue stream. Getting subscribers to HBO does very little for WB except move money around that they were already making.

Can someone explain to me why these studios are throwing away money? Unless there's some growing belief that the way things are now is going to continue for years and years. If anything, this past weekend proved that the recovery is happening. It's incremental, but it's happening.

Yeah, Arrival certainly counts as a hit. A scifi movie devoid of action making 100 mil is a miracle. I'd actually consider Passengers a success given the lack of IP and its legs, but I understand the 'budget' of it all makes people want to trash how it performed. Ad Astra was poorly marketed and First Man isn't even scifi, it's a biopic. Blade Runner is the only predecessor here that portends possibly bad numbers for Dune. That being said, HBO MAX all but guarantees it anyway. The only silver lining is that maybe the day-and-date release will lower the threshold for success as the studio defines it, and thus they may be more likely to greenlight a sequel.

It was cheesy as hell. You could see the CG work on his face. It was creepy and appalling. Did I tear up? Yes, but that had barely anything to do with the movie. That being said, looks like the bad early reviews for Malignant weren't the consensus after all.

James Wan is a bit overrated. His Fast movie kinda botched the Paul Walker ending, and Aquaman was far too chintzy for my taste. Surprised to see this may be a bad movie though since he's typically consistent in the horror genre.

That's fair. But there are numerous other examples.

Maybe Biden's new mandates will help us in the U.S.

And it's unlikely to help their numbers much anyway. Boss Baby did because kids beg their parents and whatnot, but horror fans signing up for Peacock? I don't see it.