JustWatching

Caught this over the weekend, and liked it. In fact I’d say that “likability” is easily the film’s biggest strength. Everyone involved is clearly having fun, and they are all talented actors giving great performances. It’s just too bad that they don’t have better material to work with. GB:FE is hopeless muddled, caught between trying to be a family drama, a comedy and a nostalgia vehicle and succeeding at being none of the above. None of these elements are bad in their own right, but they never coalesce and don’t have enough juice on their own to be satisfying. The nostalgia stuff feels a lot like studio notes or a fear on the part of the filmmakers that long time fans will abandon the franchise if they aren’t there. I don’t think that’s the case, at least it’s not for me, who thought Afterlife was a nice handoff to a new gen. A lot of the comedy, from Oswalt’s cameo to all of Kumali Ali felt shoehorned in, like they realized, oh crap, we have a family drama going, quick make it funny, which of course doesn’t work. If they go any further with this, and I hope they do, I’m fine with moving to a more family-based dramedy style, which I think could work well with the new cast. But they really need to make a decision and stick with it, whatever they do, and quit trying to be all things to all audiences. 7/10.

At my local Emagine, GBFE has all the PLFs. None for Dune.

Eyeballing my two local joints, the all-standard screen Cinemark has sold 37 tickets for today’s GBFE previews so far. For this theater that’s actually a decent number. Sales at the Emagine up the road are much brisker. About 170 tix sold so far, roughly 120 of which are PLF.

I’m not a big awards guy but it was very satisfying to wake up this morning to the news of Oscar wins for Heron and Minus One. A tip of the hat to the Academy. For once they got it right.

Theaters.

Well, looks like I’m that guy this time. It pains me to say it, but my first thought as the credits began to roll was, that’s three hours of my life I’ll never get back. It’s just inert. I didn’t feel a thing watching it, or care about anyone. It’s not bad. It looks pretty, the script is serviceable — and some of the changes, like Alia, are probably for the best — the acting is, well, let’s just say Chalmet and Zendaya put an entire career’s worth of longing glances into one movie and I did not buy for one second that they were in love. Stilgar rocks, tho. He and Gurney felt like the only actual people in the whole thing. The first one got me excited to see this. This made me not care if there’s a third.

Yeah it’s just nuts. The Emagine near me has 4 PLF shows and 11 standard screenings scheduled for today. As of 8:30 a.m., 3 of the 4 PLFs are already 80-90% full. The fourth, the 9:45 p.m. show ( so you don’t get out until nearly 1 a.m.) has sold 42 tickets. Of the 11 standard shows, just one has sold more than that, by one ticket. The rest are mostly in the 0-20 range.

Deadline goes to 11. https://deadline.com/2024/03/box-office-dune-part-two-1235842667/

In case anyone needs a refresher before part 2:

So over the course of the last 4 days, ThFSS sales at my local no-PLFs, no recliners, no food, no alcohol, no nothing, Cinemark have gone from 30 to 61 to 90 as of right now. This is actually pretty impressive since, given the total lack of amenities, it’s not normally a heavy presales location. They’ve also doubled the number of shows over the past two days to 47, so walkups shouldn’t have a problem finding a time. Things definitely looking up.

Yup, just like Stewie, AT&T wants its money, man. Zaz is on the hook to deliver or else.

Yep, saw it a couple weeks ago. A very unconventional film, so much so that I don’t know exactly how I’d classify it. But it’s certainly worthy of a watch, and the Oscar nom, imo. It’s disturbing in ways I’m still working through as well.

Sales at my local no-PLFs cinemark have jumped from 30 for FSS (including previews) two days ago to 61 as of this a.m., so that’s a positive sign. Sales at the Emagine still heavily weighted to PLF shows. Standard show gaining a bit but PLFs even more.

Yeah, Midwest here as well, same pattern mostly. The local cinemark, which has no PLFs, is dead. 30 tix sold for the entire weekend, including previews. Up the road at Emagine, the standard showings have fared no better. The EMX screens are selling, but there’s only one on Thursday and one Friday that are anywhere near selling out. Looks super fan driven at this point.