FilmFincher

JUNE Movies Current Releases The Black Phone - 8/10 - If Misery and It had a baby. Well crafted, suitably tense. Excellent performances from the child actors and has a surprising amount of character development. Happening - 8/10 - If Never Rarely Sometimes Always turned up the stakes to 100. It sets out to deliver some of most anxiety inducing scenes of the year, to the point you’ll retreat back into the depths of your seat. RRR - 8/10 - What a joyful experience, great action with the ultimate bromance at the centre of it. Men - 8/10 - Creepy throughout, captivating Jesse Buckley performance. Garland occasionally indulges a little too much in his eccentricities. Has a grotesquely body horror focused final act that tickled me. Hustle - 7/10 - Simple, straightforward sports movie that absolutely hits all the right spots. Sometimes that’s all you need. Chip ’n Dale: Rescue Rangers - 7/10 - Surprising spiritual successor to Who Framed Roger Rabbit. Lot’s of meta gags and inside jokes that had me rolling. Jurassic World Dominion - 5/10 - Doubles down on the stupid. Exposition is really lazy. Call backs feel like an SNL sketch. However I did get to watch Raptors in a chase through the streets of Malta which is just as fun as it sounds. Spiderhead - 5/10 - The kind of film you’ll just forget you watched. Tonally unsure of itself. Hemsworth was fun. Interceptor - 2/10 - Straight to DVD quality film. Attempts to have semi-decent fight scenes but that’s the only redeeming aspect. Older Releases Moulin Rouge! - 9/10 - Sweeping, romantic, and bubbling with energy. The chemistry between Kidman and McGregor is top tier and the love song sequence is inspired filmmaking. Beverly Hills Cop II - 7/10 - Not as funny as the first but still has a lot going for it, felt a little tamer. Story was paper thin. Australia - 6/10 - While Baz does pull of some truly stunning set pieces, the romance was underwritten and the plot loses momentum after the cattle drive. The kid was a standout. The Italian Job (2003) - 6/10 - Pretty decent heist movie if you take it as a standalone. Blue Thunder - 5/10 - A dreary conspiracy film that has some of the best helicopter action put to film in the final act but that’s not enough to save it. TV Barry S3 - 10/10 - Rollercoaster of a season, best thing on TV right now. We Own This City - 10/10 - This is the closest you’ll ever get to watching new episodes of The Wire, almost acting as an epilogue to the city of Baltimore. Feels more authentic than ever. Jon Bernthal gives an all time iconic TV performance. The Boys S3 - 8/10 - Continues to deliver on the gore, absurdity and laughs. More Jensen Ackles is never a bad thing. Westworld S4 - 8/10 - It’s back baby! Solid start to the season, nothing mind-blowing but appropriate sense of mystery and intrigue. Lets hope it holds. Ms. Marvel - 8/10 - Has the most assertive direction of any of the Marvel shows, and is also the most relatable. Prehistoric Planet - 8/10 - Really great work overall, especially the visuals. I found the episodes to be somewhat repetitive. Obi-Wan Kenobi - 5/10 - Would have preferred this as a movie. It feels so small, empty and un-cinematic. Gradually lost me along the way.

What's the IMAX spread in North America looking like this weekend? Did Top Gun manage to wrangle some more showtimes?

Figure I'll bump this to see if anyone else is watching. Despite a shaky season 3, Westworld is still one of my favourite shows on TV. This new season is off to a good start. Right amount of intrigue, still looks stunning and Djawadi continues too knock it out of the park. Fingers crossed it holds.

I literally just watched it yesterday as well. Other blockbuster franchises should take note on how to have this much fun. Best bromance in years as well.

January Scream Parallel Mothers Nightmare Alley Belfast Licorice Pizza February Jackass Forever Death on the Nile Uncharted Belle Dog March The Godfather - 50th Anniversary The Batman - IMAX The Batman - IMAX X Ambulance The Lost City April The Worst Person in the World The Northman The Northman The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent May Everything Everywhere All At Once - IMAX Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness - IMAX Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness Top Gun: Maverick - IMAX June Men Happening Top Gun: Maverick - IMAX Jurassic World: Dominion The Black Phone Top Gun: Maverick - IMAX Total: 30

Definitely the weak point of the season was that subplot, had some funny moments but the shootout was the only great thing to come out of it.

The HFR sounds like a bad idea and hopefully the master is better than his 4K version of T2 which is DNR'd and sharpened to hell.

I'm gonna forget there was even an Obi Wan show in like a year. It's perfectly watchable but that's really all the show achieves.

My local IMAX in the UK is doing a 4-way split between Lightyear/Top Gun/Jurassic World/Elvis, in that order. Guess it's time for round 3!

Just got out of The Black Phone. It's a really entertaining watch, it's exciting, it keeps you guessing, there's some big laughs scattered throughout. Stephen King meets 10 Cloverfield Lane. It's definitely the most audience friendly horror since Scream, I can see them having a fun time with this one.

I've never read a Joe Hill novel or short story but he's clearly inherited a lot from his father because this movie lives and breathes Stephen King. It's got that magic something where it could just be about a boy getting kidnapped and that would probably be enough, but then you add more layers on top of that which just makes the world seem so expansive. It's a super clever premise at it's a core, and the script does a good job living up to that and juggling it's set ups and pay offs. You genuinely care about the characters. All the actors do a wonderful job. Especially the kid actors who have to handle a lot of exposition and will occasionally talk more like adults but they did a bang up job for the most part. It's leans closer to thriller than Sinister, there's certainly tense moments but nothing that mind blowing, definitely creepy. But I think it's a much stronger film overall. Derrickson's direction is well oiled and sure of itself, he's completely at home in the genre and I'd prefer more of these than him doing big budget smashy-crashy fare. Did I have a few quibbles along the way? Sure, but above all else this film is just a really entertaining watch, it's exciting, it keeps you guessing, there's some big laughs scattered throughout. It's definitely the most audience friendly horror since Scream, I can see them having a fun time with this one.

Yeah, I also thought this was the best yet. There's still some ropey production stuff but I really enjoyed this episode. Really nice balance of classic Star Wars action and scenarios with proper character interactions and insights.

Love your breakdowns! @Tokugennumataka

I would love if they did that. The only thing I'd be worried about is if they used that as an excuse to completely negate 15/70 screenings. I hope not.

I will say huge difference in audience for Jurassic World than Top Gun. You'd have thought you walked into a school playground stepping into the theatre. Lots of families, lots of kids. I'm sure there's some audience overlap but I don't think they'll be eating into each other much outside of the IMAX/PLF thing.

This movie doubles down on the stupid of the previous entry. Sometimes that’s good, sometimes it’s bad. Exposition is really lazy and dull. The character moments that do manage to squeeze their way in follow suit. There’s contrivances and coincidences left and right. I know that’s not why we come to Jurassic World by it spends way too much time on this stuff. I was surprisingly okay with the main driving force for the characters of both narratives. Chemistry between some of the cast was quite stilted and there’s a strange focus on random side characters who we barely know. That being said I got to watch Raptors in a chase through the streets of Malta like they’re Jason Bourne, which is just as fun as it sounds. It’s the kind of ridiculous Fast & Furious style action that these movies have fun with. Bryce Dallas Howard continues to be unbelievably attractive in this entire series and has the best Dinosaur related scenes in the latter half of the film. One of which is actually pretty tense; a rarity for the 'World' films. Film was losing me towards the end, it was all the usual perfunctory blockbuster stuff. I was unfortunately let down by the final battle which isn’t even as good as the one in the first Jurassic World. Awful coverage, lack of buildup and ultimately meaningless to the entire narrative.

This movie doubles down on the stupid of the previous entry and none of it feels knowing. Sometimes that’s a good thing, sometimes it’s bad. Exposition is really lazy and dull, and there’s a lot of it. The character moments that do manage to squeeze their way in follow suit. There’s contrivances and coincidences left and right. I know that’s not why we come to Jurassic World by it spends way too much time on this stuff. I was surprisingly okay with the main driving force of both narratives, they were suitably ridiculous. Chemistry between some of the cast was quite stilted and there’s a strange focus on random side characters who we barely know. That being said I got to watch Raptors in a chase through the streets of Malta like they’re Jason Bourne which is just as fun as it sounds. It’s the kind of ridiculous Fast & Furious style action that these movies have fun with. Bryce Dallas Howard continues to be unbelievably attractive in this entire series and has the best Dinosaur related scenes in the latter half of the film. One of which is actually pretty tense which is a rarity for the 'World' films. There's a lot of computer related stuff towards the end where the film was just losing me, it was all the usual perfunctory blockbuster stuff. I was unfortunately let down by the final battle which isn’t even as good as the one in the first Jurassic World. Awful coverage, lack of buildup and ultimately meaningless to the entire narrative.

It just means you have to go see Top Gun 2 again to restore balance!

I remember something similar happening with Unbreakable. Shamylan was frustrated they marketed it as Sixth Sense 2.0, which left audiences at the time feeling tepid when it turned out to be a pseudo superhero film.

Gonna avoid these last two trailers, already sold. I'm assuming they're not rolling out the red carpet for a 70MM IMAX release which is a shame because it's so rare to get something containing genuine IMAX footage, it's basically one a year. Will definitely check out on a Laser IMAX screen though which is the next best thing.

Visually looks a bit better than the usual superhero fare. Nice contrasty look going on. The rest looks fine I guess, nothing really wowed me.

Just saw the film again last night. Was maybe a 2/3 full IMAX showing, usually dead quiet on a weekday where I am (unless it's an opening). The older audience is definitely back out for this. Also when was the last time a 3rd act for a film was this good? It just 100% delivers on everything you could possibly want.

Man that sucks, I'm one of the few looking forward to another Abrams project.

Your grandkids will ask "Where were you during Top Gun's second weekend?" And you'll say "I was there kiddo, deep in the trenches on Box Office Theory"