GrimFandango
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Posts posted by GrimFandango
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1 hour ago, baumer said:
I really didn't like it all that much. This is a depressing film and not one I enjoyed sitting through. I hated seeing Caesar getting whipped like a slave. I hated seeing the apes dominated and being deprived of food and water. The first 90 minutes of the film is pretty much the apes getting their asses handed to them. And then, after they get their freedom, what cheery way do they end it? They kill the one character everyone loves. The only thing worse would have been if they killed Maurice as well.
Plus the apes escaped, but then hung around standing next to perfect gun cover only to get mowed down? Whaaat?
1 hour ago, baumer said:I think the writers got too cute or too stupid or too brave or something. I wanted a war and what I got was the subjugation and torture of the characters that I have grown attached too. And like some of the reviewers mentioned, having Nova walk in undetected was pretty ridiculous. They are on high alert waiting for the army to come in. But somehow a little girl can get past their defences and get into the compound? I didn't like that.
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.
1 hour ago, baumer said:Also, you do everything you can to make Woody Harrelson one of the meanest SOB's I've ever seen on screen, and them how do you kill him? By him committing suicide. Fuck that. This is a man who killed his own son, killed Caesar's family, kills and tortures apes, whips them, deprives them of food and water and shelter and he kills himself off screen. By this time, you need closure with him and Caesar should have torn him to shreds.
Not a great conclusion at all.
6/10
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.
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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.
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2 minutes ago, Viceversa said:
is this supposed to be seen in 3d? still unsure which to see
God yes! Must see in 3D from the 3D trailers I've seen.
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5 minutes ago, DMan7 said:
I think the market is pretty welcoming of comic book movies and each comic book movie gets a share of the box office pie whether it be DC or Marvel. Not one movie is going to run away with the majority of the box office, WW and GoTGv2 making roughly around similar box office domestically, Logan with 226M and Spiderman making around 300M, all of them are literally from different comic book companies and movie studios and not any one of them running away with all the box office, nice share across the board. I think people should be happy at this point how receptive audiences still are for comic book movies given how diluted the market is with these comic book movies still being able to do good business and co-exist in the marketplace as well with a decent share of $$$ for each.
Funny, it seemed people were saying super hero fatigue was going to set in and kill the box office--and then the opposite happens.
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49 minutes ago, Blaze Heatnix said:
Civil War's multiplier was pathetic. Movie was great, but insanely frontloaded.
That actually puts a cloud on Infinity War's performance. Don't be surprised if that movie plays like Harry Potter and the Death Hallows Part 2, dropping more than 70% during the second weekend. Opening will be insanely inflated, which means it'll be even more frontloaded.
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
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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.
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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?
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Well, I'm off to throw another $10 at Wonder Woman. Will make it an even dozen.
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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.
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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.
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3 minutes ago, JohnnyGossamer said:
Worldwide? Wondy won't sniff the Top 5.
Last Jedi
Beauty and the Beast
F8
Despicable Me 3
Spidey Homecoming
Guardians Vol. 2
Justice League
Ragnarok may gross more worldwide as well.
Pretty sure they are talking about DOM, not WW.
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9 hours ago, AndyChrono said:
It's possible that too many fanboys jumped the gun on SMH word of mouth because there are 50 shades of "liking" a movie. There's a difference between liking a movie, loving a movie, really loving a movie, and loving it enough to buy tickets for your friends/family so that you can see it again along with them. That RT audience score of "91% liked it!" includes that entire spectrum, and we don't know the breakdown among the groups so to speak. It's very possible that the vast majority of those folks liked it or loved it, maybe even REALLY loved it... but not enough to buy tickets for their friends and family if it came down to it. Talk is cheap after all, and tickets these days are expensive!
Just as personal anecdote, I saw SMH and merely liked it. I recommended to friends and family to watch it if they have time/money or if they are big fans of Spidey/MCU. On the other hand, after I saw WW I bought 4 tickets for my whole family to watch it in Dolby ATMOS the very next day (and I went back solo a couple more times as well).
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.
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4 minutes ago, WrathOfHan said:
2.6M for BD
If it's 2e6, then that would be 2.0M I think.
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2 minutes ago, Rth Homecoming said:
21M for Apes?
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12 minutes ago, Captain Craig said:
Related to the thread I'm amazed that going into week #6 WW didn't lose more screens. I expected at least 5-700 screens down, not just under 400. Especially after I saw that large 4000+ screen count for Apes.
I think maybe WB pulling 1500 theaters from The House might have given WW the ability to keep screens?
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1 hour ago, baumer said:
Tom Selleck had the look and the build that they were looking for but he doesn't have nearly that innocence and dry sense of delivery that Harrison Ford does. But this is all hearsay as we are so accustomed to Harrison Ford in that role that it's pretty much impossible to picture anyone else doing it.
I'm so glad Indy didn't have a mustache though.
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39 minutes ago, filmlover said:
I think Besson picked them himself.
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.
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3 minutes ago, a2knet said:
WONDR not taking a big hit in theater count
Movie Distributor Theaters Previous
TheatersChange Spider-Man: Homecoming Sony Pictures 4,348 4,348 0 Despicable Me 3 Universal 4,155 4,535 -380 War for the Planet of the Apes 20th Century Fox 4,022 new Baby Driver Sony Pictures 3,043 3,226 -183 Wonder Woman Warner Bros. 2,744 3,091 -347 The Big Sick Lionsgate 2,597 326 +2,271 Transformers: The Last Knight Paramount Pictures 2,323 3,241 -918 Wish Upon Broad Green Pictures 2,250 new Cars 3 Walt Disney 2,049 2,702 -653 The House Warner Bros. 1,633 3,134 -1,501 47 Meters Down Entertainment Studios Motion Pictures 1,032 1,740 -708 The Beguiled Focus Features 725 941 -216 Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales Walt Disney 448 1,039 -591 Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2 Walt Disney 399 660 -261 The Mummy Universal 397 1,045 -648 Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie 20th Century Fox 277 407 -130 Beatriz at Dinner Roadside Attractions 204 413 -209 All Eyez on Me Lionsgate 195 599 -404 5 movies loosing 500+ theaters.
So is Warner Brothers dumping The House to keep theaters available for Wondy? Would make sense.
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10 minutes ago, Rumpot said:
Apes Update from earlier at local Northern VA theater in mall, current # taken seats
$14.59 tickets
10:10pm - 1 ticket-->8 (630p)-->68 (10p)
$18.59 RealD
10:30pm - 14 tickets-->16 (630p)-->30 (10p)
$20.59 premium
11pm - 47 tickets-->54 (630p)-->79 (10p)
I'll try to check the bottom two 5 min before showtime, but definitely seems like a strong walking in effect
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G891A using Tapatalk
$20 tickets?! Yowza!
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11 minutes ago, YourMother said:
The one massive benefit Spider-Man has is double features back to back with Emoji Movie and Dark Tower.
A SM:H/Emoji double feature would be like eating a steak-and-slop dinner combo.
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24 minutes ago, WrathOfHan said:
It's still in an average sized auditorium. During the week it sells decent for matinees. Baby Driver performs weaker during weekdays, so it's getting the second smallest auditorium starting tomorrow. This is how it looks:
Biggest: Apes
2nd Biggest: SMH
Average: Big Sick, Wish Upon, Apes, SMH, DM3, WW
4th Smallest: Apes
3rd Smallest: Cars/Transformers
2nd Smallest: BD
Smallest: SMH
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.
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33 minutes ago, WrathOfHan said:
7:00 Apes: 71/124
7:00 Big Sick: 4/78
7:00 Wish Upon: 4/78
8:45 Apes 3D: 31/78
9:30 Wish Upon: 0/78
10:15 Apes: 16/124
10:20 Big Sick: 0/78
This is decent for Apes and pretty bad for the other two.
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?
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3 minutes ago, XO21 said:
People like to point how Spidey is "kiddie" so hopefully it'll hold decently vs Apes which doesn't scream family friendly
Spideykid is really the only non-animated kids film available, so that will probably help for a couple weeks.
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11 hours ago, That One Guy said:
Planet of the Apes "Triple" Feature
July 12, 4:00 PM, less than 5% full
Regal Hunt Valley Stadium 12, Hunt Valley, MD
Trailers:
None before any show. Before the third one, they showed like 15 seconds of the Kidnap trailer before they cut to the movie.
No reactions for the first two movies. 25 minutes into the third one and the screen freezes and the movie stops playing, so I got a refund and left.
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!
Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets | July 21, 2017 | FLOP OF THE YEAR
in Box Office Discussion
Posted
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...