GrimFandango

Interesting to see how Valerian's budget works since it's not a Hollywood film, and doesn't have that "Hollywood Accounting" albatross to deal with. I mean if Forest Gump and Star Wars can't make a net profit...

Plus the apes escaped, but then hung around standing next to perfect gun cover only to get mowed down? Whaaat? Good point--I wanted to see how the soldiers would react to her. She's cute as button so I imagined that they would initially take her in, those guys get infected without realizing it, then some would revolt if they were ordered to kill her. I don't know why the writers didn't go that way. Same--I wanted to see Woody suffer after all that! And apparently that virus works really fast, which begs the question why wasn't the girl's father/guardian infected? This film is a great example of how even a really well-reviewed movie won't necessarily have good legs, because even though the fans hit it up in the first weekend, a depressing movie scares away a lot of viewers and even a lot of fans won't see it again no matter how good it is. That's why one can't necessarily judge how good a movie is by its box-office longevity.

First off, I loved the first one--gave it an A-. That "oh." scene was delectable; the world building was fresh and interesting, and I really liked getting the idea of how bad ass JW was just from his reputation. That said, I found Wick2 to be in a word, disappointing. My biggest problem with the film is that in the first film, he does things intelligently, with a plan and expertise; but, in this one, he seems like he's not being intelligent--he's just a killing terminator clone of his previous self. The sequence where he retrieves his mustang (which he really, really cares about) was the first big problem for me, because right off the bat he pretty much destroys the car. He didn't plan at all how he was going to get it, he just went in, grabbed it, and started driving it out. What did he think was going to happen? Then he completely destroys it in the process. Somehow, he's able to drive it home and with a completely smashed windshield--is he supposed to have x-ray vision? Why not at the very least kick it out? Just seemed like a dumb decision by the writers. THEN, John L's character is just there long enough to make some lazy-writing quip, and guess he's going to ship-of-Theseus the car back together....? The other huge plot hole was when John W is forced to kill that dude's sister, and he says "No way, can't be done. Impossible!!!" This is John Wick saying this, so I'm going to take him at his word that this is going to be like Mission Impossible. So what happens? Apparently, the sister's supposedly world-league army of body guards are amazingly incompetent, and John is able to take a completely unguarded secret tunnel straight into her fortress lair, and he "assassinates" her....what? I thought this was supposed to be impossible or something... Anyways, we did see John had the foresight to think he might be pursued on his escape. Which he is. By the dude's men (so I guess they got by his sister's men without any trouble?) Then later on, somewhere along the way through a skyscraper there's a floor made completely out of mirrored corridors. For some reason. Makes for a cool battle, but the whole time I'm thinking "Why is this place there? Who built it? Is this some kind of confusing safe-room for a billionaire? The additional world-building was cool, and getting some more of the "rules"--but then at the end everybody is a secret assassin. Oh wait, did I say everybody? Yes, I mean everybody. The guy making your pizza? An assassin. The guy cutting hair at the barber shop? An assassin. Your landlord? An assassin. Turns out, everybody in that whole city is an assassin. I guess they must either spend their time killing each other, or this is the deadliest tourist destination in the world. I was about to give it a C, but I just remembered the soundtrack. So it gets a C-. There was no variation in that sound track--just a non-stop, eastern-euro-club drone that really got on my nerves.

God yes! Must see in 3D from the 3D trailers I've seen.

Funny, it seemed people were saying super hero fatigue was going to set in and kill the box office--and then the opposite happens.

I'm cautiously guarded about IW, because ANY movie has a hard time juggling up to just five characters (much less main characters), and IW has so many that I seriously have my doubts that a good story can be made there. CBMs already have a really, really hard time just successfully having a really good hero AND really good villain in one movie. What I'm afraid of is that Infinity War will play out like an American Idol finale: "Heeere's IRON MAN and Company" thunderous applause "Now heeere's CAPTAIN AMERICA and Friends" thunderous applause Everybody has a joke or quip, some laughs...more applause "WATCH OUT!! Here comes.............THANOS!!!!" booo booo hiss hisss fight fight "Oh, Thanos is kicking everybody's ass! Is this the end of our super hero team?" pause pause pause "Look! It's Ant-Man and Spiderman!" thunderous applause joke joke quip quip--some forgettable theme music fight fight fight "THANOS IS TOO STRONG!!! Look at that chin flatten our heros down!" pause pause pause mysterious portal appears "DOCTOR STRANGE has appeared!" Thanos grimace, snarky quip, snarky quip. fight fight fight "Our heros might win...might win....NO!! THANOS SUPRISE!! He has TWO CHINS!!!" fight fight fight, more forgettable music "Oh No, it's looking really grim for our heros, even DR STRANGE et al can't beat him" slow motion pan across rubble town, grim grim grim silence "Is this the end?" silence Sound of cassete tape, and press play... CLASSIC 70s ROCK TUNE!! audience breathes in collectively and holds their breath "It's.......THE.....GUARDIANS.......OF THE GALAXY!!!!! thunderous applause- Thanos grimaces MIGHTILY fight fight fight "TEAMWORK EVERYBODY' fight fight fight teamwork teamwork teamwork "AND THANOS GOES DOWN!!!!!!!" standing ovation, massive applause, fireworks, ceiling caves in funny post-credit scene with everybody high-fiving and dancing to more CLASSIC 70s ROCK 2nd post-credit scene "new villain....REVEALED!! Infinity War 2 in 2020!" The internet breaks down: "OMG...BEST...MOVIE...EVAARRR!" first 99% on RT (Not 100% because there'll always be 1% who have to be the opposite for the angry views) 400M OW, 2.1x multiplier

I'm finding this one hard to review--I'm still thinking about it so my thoughts here are a bit random: First off, the SFX are mind-blowingly good. Serkis should get an Oscar at least for his body of work so far. Having been a while since I saw the last apes movie, I was a bit lost on who was who, and I had to work especially to tell the chimp-characters apart. One thing this movie has going against it I think, is that if you have not seen the previous two films, I think a LOT will be lost to you. If I recommend this to somebody, it'll be with the caveat "You have to see the other two first". Unlike some trilogy movies discussed so far, this is one you can't jump into and expect to know everything that's going on. The other is that this movie gets really slow in some places. I found myself checking my watch a few times. I think unlike some people, I actually really liked the long dialogue scene between Ceaser and Harrelson, even if it was a bit exposition heavy. Ceaser seems to be at a really interesting level of intelligence and language ability in this movie, so I was really let down by two things: 1. I wanted to hear more of him either talking to people or apes. 2. He kept coming up with bad plans and he did things contrary to his intelligence; like why didn't he warn his family or others when the soldiers went down the waterfall? The other thing about this movie is that there are so many deus ex machina moments, when it seems the apes could have planned their way out of them. I liked "bad ape" and the humor he brought, although it bordered on being over the top in a couple places. The action was confusing. A lot of times I was lost and didn't know who was who or where I was. I'm giving this a B for now. As for box office performance: I think the trilogy problem is going to keep a lot of new viewers shut out despite good WOM and high-critic ratings--they just might wait until they can see all three movies later on their own time. (plus the previews didn't make this movie stand out from the previous one in any notable way, probably because to the non-fans it does seem like the same movie). The overall depressing tone of the movie plus its pacing and length will probably really reduce the number of times people will watch it again. I feel that only dedicated fans will be interested in seeing it more than once in the theater, otherwise they'll wait until it's released later.

Wonder Woman Colorado $10 ticket, reserved seating with recliners Afternoon show, 80% full Trailers Reserved seating--I arrived exactly as the movie started Audience was fairly into it, a lady next to me was really into it: she was fist-pumping during Wonder Woman's fight scenes. I asked her at the end if she liked the movie, and she said she loved it. Elderly guy next to her said he liked it too. I swear I've seen more elderly audience members at WW showings than any other movie. One concession worker said next weekend would be the last showing for WW, but another worker said no way, it's still real popular...? I hope they don't pull it from my local theater yet, I might want to see it again. Plus it seems to me if it's still getting a pretty full screening on a Sunday afternoon, it's still going to make the theater money, so why would they give that up if they don't have to?

Well, I'm off to throw another $10 at Wonder Woman. Will make it an even dozen.

War For the Planet of the Apes Real3D Colorado Paid $8 for reserved seat; recliners 50% occupied Trailers Missed most because I had reserved seating and arrived late: The Last Jedi Valerian 3D Pretty quiet audience. Some laughter at appropriate times. No reaction at end.

Just got home from Apes, and it's a good movie but I could see a lot of people being fine with seeing it just once. Between that and thinking this movie sure is long, I don't think the legs are going to be great.

Pretty sure they are talking about DOM, not WW.

I'd hardly seen any movies this year up until Wonder Woman--I was cautiously optimistic. I saw the first showing on opening day, and left the theater and bought a Stubs card because I knew I was going to be using it a lot. I saw it again but this time I took my wife (who doesn't like CBMs), and she really liked it. Then I took my brother and his kids. Then I took my neighbors and their kids. Then I took my wife two more times. Plus I watched it again myself a few more times. And I told EVERYONE they have to go see it, and some did. Spiderman I went once by myself. I liked it, but I knew my wife wouldn't. I'll wait until netflix to see it again. WW was something special that only happens every few years. That's the difference. WOM>Tomato Law.

If it's 2e6, then that would be 2.0M I think.

21M for Apes?

I think maybe WB pulling 1500 theaters from The House might have given WW the ability to keep screens?

I'm so glad Indy didn't have a mustache though.

Besson has a thing for young models, I think. IIRC the opera singer from 5th Element was his girlfriend at the time, but during filming he broke up with her and started dating Milla. If you watch the behind-the-scenes stuff of Valerian, he's pretty hands-on with Cara.

So is Warner Brothers dumping The House to keep theaters available for Wondy? Would make sense.

$20 tickets?! Yowza!

A SM:H/Emoji double feature would be like eating a steak-and-slop dinner combo.

Do you ever for fun figure out how you'd allocate the screens versus what's being done at your theater, or are you pretty much in agreement to the way the owner does it? Have you gotten some good insights as to how it's done--I'm curious myself as to how that whole process works.

I imagine it's got to make a theater owner kind of sick to their stomach when they see new releases at 0/78, particular in two theaters, especially if you could be using those screens for movies you have on hand that are more popular. Is WW still showing at your cinema, or is it gone now?

Spideykid is really the only non-animated kids film available, so that will probably help for a couple weeks.

Holy crap that would be infuriating--after sitting through the first two movies and the third one is the one your really wanted to see, and that's the one that gets f'd up?! I bet you were steaming!