Weekend Actuals (Page 67): Captain Pirate: Piracy War 72.6M | Jungle Book 17.1M | Money Monster 14.8M | The Darkness 5M | Mother's Day 3.3M

[Wrath]

3 minutes ago, Truckasaurus said:

 

This gif is everything.

 

The funny thing is that at first I was totally on-board with that. But weirdly enough, after thinking a bit, I no longer am.

 

Because you know what the 70s were huge on? Classic disaster movies. Towering Inferno, Airport 77, Poseidon Adventure, etc. Watching the Helicarrier in flames crashing into the ground actually does kinda have that era's sensibilities written all over it.

[BK007]

4 minutes ago, Wrath said:

 

The funny thing is that at first I was totally on-board with that. But weirdly enough, after thinking a bit, I no longer am.

 

Because you know what the 70s were huge on? Classic disaster movies. Towering Inferno, Airport 77, Poseidon Adventure, etc. Watching the Helicarrier in flames crashing into the ground actually does kinda have that era's sensibilities written all over it.

 

lol stop being an apologist. 

 

superhero movies are just superhero movies. 

[Truckasaurus]

12 minutes ago, Wrath said:

 

The funny thing is that at first I was totally on-board with that. But weirdly enough, after thinking a bit, I no longer am.

 

Because you know what the 70s were huge on? Classic disaster movies. Towering Inferno, Airport 77, Poseidon Adventure, etc. Watching the Helicarrier in flames crashing into the ground actually does kinda have that era's sensibilities written all over it.

 

Yeah, but none of those films were political thrillers, though. 

[Daxtreme]

7 minutes ago, BK007 said:

 

lol stop being an apologist. 

 

superhero movies are just superhero movies. 

 

Guardians of the Galaxy might be a superhero movie, but it sure as hell is a Space Opera as well.

[TalismanRing]

1 hour ago, Telemachos said:

If I'm interested in seeing a political thriller, I'll watch a political thriller, not some superhero take that's influenced by political thrillers -- in part because at the end of the day, the superhero movie has its own set of tropes and expectations to fulfill, most of which run counter to other expectations. 

That sounds awfully boring and limiting wanting to just watch a movie because it ticks all it's genre boxes and expectations and doesn't set a foot outside them.

 

That and movies about Superheros are not a genre any more than films about cops are a genre. Unless one thinks The French Connection and Police Academy are the same genre.

[Dementeleus]

12 minutes ago, TalismanRing said:

That sounds awfully boring and limiting wanting to just watch a movie because it ticks all it's genre boxes and expectations and doesn't set a foot outside them.

 

I didn't mean to imply that. Like I said in a follow-up post, every movie is gonna have influences, and if you really like both genres, it's a win. But it's also weird (to me) to claim that TWS being influenced by 70s political thrillers makes it better. It's just an influence. When I watched it -- and I know I'm an outlier here -- I didn't think, wow, how cool that it's influenced by old-school political thrillers. If anything, it just made me think that I was watching a movie riff on something and realize that I'd rather be watching the something. Then again, I don't care much about 95% of superhero movies, so that has something to do with it too.

[Wrath]

43 minutes ago, Truckasaurus said:

 

Yeah, but none of those films were political thrillers, though. 

 

Sure, but they were from the 70s.

[Dementeleus]

1 minute ago, Wrath said:

 

Sure, but they were from the 70s.

 

...which wasn't the argument at all. So now are we saying TWS is like 70s disaster movies? Because it isn't, really.

[TalismanRing]

5 minutes ago, Wrath said:

 

Sure, but they were from the 70s.

 

Sure, but so were Kentucky Fried Movie and Smokey & The Bandit (love this movie). 

[Wrath]

2 hours ago, BKB IS CAPTAIN AMERICA said:

 

Yes and I totally dig this aspect of it to... I dig the Russo's giving it that 70's Political Thriller Vibe..

 

8 minutes ago, Telemachos said:

 

I didn't mean to imply that. Like I said in a follow-up post, every movie is gonna have influences, and if you really like both genres, it's a win. But it's also weird (to me) to claim that TWS being influenced by 70s political thrillers makes it better. It's just an influence. When I watched it -- and I know I'm an outlier here -- I didn't think, wow, how cool that it's influenced by old-school political thrillers. If anything, it just made me think that I was watching a movie riff on something and realize that I'd rather be watching the something. Then again, I don't care much about 95% of superhero movies, so that has something to do with it too.

 

Yeah, but he never actually said that the vibe made it better, just that he liked that aspect.

 

Also, you did remember that it was BKB you were arguing with, right?

[Wrath]

2 minutes ago, TalismanRing said:

 

Sure, but so were Kentucky Fried Movie and Smokey & The Bandit (love this movie). 

 

True, but the downfall of that .gif is that it actually does harken back to '70s movies. Admittedly disaster movies rather than political thrillers, but still.

[Dementeleus]

6 minutes ago, TalismanRing said:

 

Sure, but so were Kentucky Fried Movie and Smokey & The Bandit (love this movie). 

 

Seriously, how long until someone reboots SMOKEY? I'm surprised it hasn't happened yet.

[Dementeleus]

1 minute ago, Wrath said:

 

True, but the downfall of that .gif is that it actually does harken back to '70s movies.

 

It doesn't, though. Those movies were basically about non-political, non-human disasters. Yes, there was also some bureaucratic villain, but the central event driving the story wasn't any human-driven agenda, it was a force of nature: huge fire, earthquake, airplane malfunctioning, that sort of thing. That GIF is basically just a giant fight.

[Wrath]

19 minutes ago, Telemachos said:

 

Seriously, how long until someone reboots SMOKEY? I'm surprised it hasn't happened yet.

Yeah! Not only was it a great movie, it made $127M in 1977! That's insane.

 

The problem, unfortunately, is that what really makes the movie tick is the massive charisma of Burt Reynolds. That's harder to replicate than excellent CGI effects. Also, the movie does a surprisingly good job of telling the stories of the characters. Like many well-written movies, the entire point of the escapade, while internally compelling, is really a side-show to the interplay between well-developed characters you've come to care about.

 

Wouldn't it be great if other genres learned that lesson as well? Like a super hero movie that had some explosions, but was at its heart really about the relationships between the characters, rather than saving the world from the Villain-of-the-Week? That would be great.

Edited May 16, 2016 by Wrath

[rukaio101]

2 minutes ago, TalismanRing said:

That and movies about Superheros are not a genre any more than films about cops are a genre. Unless one thinks The French Connection and Police Academy are the same genre.

I'm inclined to disagree on that point. 'Superhero movies' and 'cop movies' are still both genres. It's just that genres reach a wider range than most people give them credit for, especially when you start combining them with other genres. The French Connection and Police Academy are both cop movies. Police Academy just happens to be a comedy as well. It's a mix of genres. Just like Shaun of the Dead isn't solely a horror or solely a comedy or solely a romantic movie, but all three.

 

And that applies to Winter Soldier too. It can be both a Superhero movie and a Political Thriller. And while Winter Soldier's climax takes significantly more from the superhero side than the political thriller side, it's hard to ignore the latter's influence in the first half of the movie. Ultimately, the major difference between TWS's climax and the typical 'shootout with the antagonists' climax of a political thriller is just a matter of scale and style. 

 

However, Tele's ultimately right when he says that, just because it's also a political thriller doesn't necessary make the movie superior. A bad movie is still a bad movie, no matter how many genres you combine. And in some cases that can actively damage a film. I'm sure we can all think of some movies that seemed uncertain as to what genre they wanted to be and hurt itself for it. Mixing genres is ultimately a tool. It can improve some movies and subtract from others. In TWS's case, I'd say it works. In others, it may not. 

[Wrath]

17 minutes ago, Telemachos said:

 

It doesn't, though. Those movies were basically about non-political, non-human disasters. Yes, there was also some bureaucratic villain, but the central event driving the story wasn't any human-driven agenda, it was a force of nature: huge fire, earthquake, airplane malfunctioning, that sort of thing. That GIF is basically just a giant fight.

 

There's a human bad guy in most of those movies. In Airport 77 the plane crashes (into the ocean and sinks) because its hijacked (incompetently) by art thieves, and the tension between the thieves and the passengers as they all try to survive is a significant plot-point. Towering Inferno happens because the building's electrical engineer massively cuts corners and he causes trouble all movie with his generally terrible character.

Edited May 16, 2016 by Wrath

[Dementeleus]

15 minutes ago, Wrath said:

 

There's a human bad guy in most of those movies. In Airport 77 the plane crashes (into the ocean and sinks) because its hijacked (incompetently) by art thieves, and the tension between the thieves and the passengers as they all try to survive is a significant plot-point. Towering Inferno happens because the building's electrical engineer massively cuts corners and he causes trouble all movie with his generally terrible character.

 

Yes, as I said, that genre usually has a bureaucratic villain. This is very different from anything in TWS, which if anything draws more from typical action/CBM stuff, where various forces (good and bad) battle for supremacy.

[Captain Craig]

So basically the film, with the slight adjustment is at $296m domestic.

Did it do well enough to pass $300m today? Surely it did, yes? 

[Fancyarcher]

4 hours ago, a2knet said:

 

He was talking about Mother' Day doing great last weekend I think

Though then that wasn't a fluke either. We know it did great last week cause it was MD on MD Sunday.

 

I pointed out the holiday in my post.

[LonePirate]

So if my math is close, Civil War is roughly $244M behind TFA's 10 day gross. A Rogue One v. Civil War 10 day match-up might be very interesting to behold.