Jake Gittes

Ashamed to admit it but I'm still mentally preparing for that one myself. Speaking of Soviet WWII movies that don't fuck around, I highly recommend Trial on the Road if you can track it down. And of course Ivan's Childhood if you haven't seen that yet.

I think it's not just Tarkovsky's best but the best Russian film I've ever seen, although... as much as I don't like the whole idea of "mysterious Russian soul" or whatever, I think being from here helps a bit. His science-fiction and historical films strike me as more universal.

Finally another movie I've seen. Thief is the shit.

I was worried there for a while. But all is right with the world now.

There's probably a Kal joke to be made here but I'm too lazy/sleepy to think of one

John Milius, Warren Oates, Ben Johnson, AND Harry Dean Stanton? That's not quite The Wild Bunch but still enough rugged masculinity for a dozen films

Chimes at Midnight on blu-ray is my most anticipated movie of the year. I already watched it last year and loved it... but I still don't believe I've truly *seen* it.

I just know I'm gonna go 8/8 on this. Goddamn you. And is the deadline this Thursday? Not sure why but ok.

So The Nice Guys' PTA basically stayed flat. It's a shame it started to lose so many theaters right away - could have legged it to at least $40m otherwise.

All right, this is the plan. We get in there and get wrecked, then we'll eat a pork pie, then we'll drop a couple of Surmontil-50's each. That means we'll miss out Monday but come up smiling Tuesday morning.

A certain movie about trucks would fit the bill perfectly

John Woo was on a fucking roll in the late '80s and early '90s. A Better Tomorrow, The Killer, Bullet in the Head, Hard Boiled - all great. Bullet in the Head especially is woefully underseen - in both scope and intensity it's basically his The Deer Hunter. Hell of a film. To Live and Die in LA might be my favorite Friedkin.

Saw Fury Road 6 times in the theater. And frankly if it went on to have something like one showing in IMAX every month, I'd be there again every time.

Really, really glad I didn't have any of this week's openers in my summer game top 15.

Just saw The Long Goodbye a week ago. The scene with the coke bottle is one of the most shocking bursts of violence I've ever seen in a film. And Brackett, Altman and Gould deserve huge credit for somehow making the line "I even lost my cat" simultaneously badass and tragic. After Hours is a delight, the "Surrender Dorothy" scene especially. As far as Scorsese goes I think The King of Comedy, Last Temptation and Bringing Out the Dead wouldn't be out of place here either.

Solid if unspectacular. I wasn't really invested in the big mystery and its solution, which made the exposition-filled monologues and "Aha!" moments fall flat, and I think all the freedom afforded to Black here (in contrast with Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, which had to be made quickly and relatively cheaply) led to the film being a bit all over the place - he throws a LOT of character and plot beats, jokes and non sequiturs at the wall here, and not all of them stick. But Crowe, Gosling and Rice are all wonderful, there are a lot of good laughs, and I liked the gradual takedown of the "Kids these days" sentiment that Healy expresses in his first scene - from the boy covering the nude woman in the opening scene and Amelia and her friends actually doing something about what they uncovered to Holly revealing herself to be the most stable, smart and moral character in the movie, it's very nicely done. Damn shame we are pretty much guaranteed to never see these characters again.

) Will Warcraft open to less than $35M? Yes 2) Will Warcraft open to less than $27M? 2000 No 3) Will Warcraft open to less than $19M? No 4) Will The Conjuring open to less than $40M? No 5) Will The Conjuring open to less than $32M? No 6) Will The Conjuring open to less than $24M? No 7) The Conjuring open to more than double Warcraft? No 8) Will NYSM2 open to more than $22M? Yes 9) Will NYSM2 Open to more than Warcraft? 3000 No 10) Will the top 3 positions all be new entries? Yes 11) Will Xmen stay above Me Before You? No 12) Will Neighbours remain in the top 10? 2000 No 13) Will Jungle Book cross $350M ON Saturday (not before, but on)? No 14) Will Popstar have a weekend below $2M? No 15) Will Civil War have a better Friday increase than Angry Birds? 3000 No 16) Will Kung Fu Panda 3 finish above Deadpool? Yes 17) Will Zootopis have a low weekend drop than every film that finishes above it (excluding any films that increase)? No 18) Will The Huntsman have a Sunday drop above 31%? Yes 19) Will Me Before you have a higher PTA within $1,000 of TMNT? 3000 Yes 20) Will The Lobster drop less than 10% this weekend? No 21) Will BvS stay above the Man who Knew Infinity? Yes 22) Will Alice Stay above Angry Birds? 2000 No 23) Will any of the 3 big new openers decrease on Saturday? Yes 24) We me before You drop less than 25% on Sunday? No 25) Will more than 31% of all words written in the upcoming weekend thread be the word: 'China'? Yes Bonuses 18/25 - 2000 19/25 - 4000 20/25 - 6000 21/25 - 9000 22/25 - 12000 23/25 - 15000 24/25 - 20000 25/25 - 25000 Part 2 ~ The closest predictor for each question scores 5000 UOS 1. What will be the combined weekend gross of the three main new openers? 99.999m 2. What will be the difference in dollars between NYSM2 and Warcraft's Saturday Gross? 2.222m 3. What will Popstar's percentage drop be? -49.999% Part 3 ~ predict which film finishes in the places given. (2000 per film) 1. The Conjuring 2 3. Warcraft 5. Me Before You 10. The Jungle Book 13. Love and Friendship 15. The Lobster

Sounds exactly like what Refn would want to do. Can't wait to see the F cinemascore

Because, as we all know, the best way to make evil even more scary and interesting is to explain it

I think Guardians can do at least 350/900 unless it just completely sucks even on the marketing stage, which is unlikely. And if it can 1) be really good and 2) not look overly tied to the larger MCU I think it can pull a DMC/TF2 and climb over 400 domestically. From there 1b WW will be easy.

Yeah, I said this a while back in another topic but that kind of reputation is more of a curse than a blessing for any movie. It's not entirely possible at this point but you gotta try watching it without the "Best Movie Ever" thing in mind. And I'd assume it would play better when you're older, since it's largely about a longing for the idealized past and that kind of thing doesn't really hit you until you've gained some perspective on life. Though I guess Welles himself is an exception since he made it when he was all of 25. Still seems crazy to me.

I knew nothing about The Wailing until a week ago but it's become one of my most anticipated of the year at this point. The constant Memories of Murder comparisons aren't making it any easier.

Yeah, Father's Day seems likely. Should be at about 392 before Friday, 396 after next weekend.