Blu-Ray Pick of the Week: "Baby It's You" (1983)

For this week's blu-ray choice, I'm recommending a movie you've probably never heard of, as is the case with so many of director John Sayles' movies. His long, varied filmography is filled with gems that are far too underknown and underrated, and this coming of age film about a teenager's first romance is one of them. Starring Rosanna Arquette (the greater of all the Arquettes, in my opinion) as college freshman in the 1960's who falls for a guy she knows is bad news, but can't help herself from wanting to be with him and "fix" him, as many young girls tend to do. It's a sensitive, realistic, touching look at a time in this girl's life that she had to learn from in order to move on and grow stronger, and it really should be seen by more people.

Original 1983 Trailer:

New Poster for Tarantino's 'Hateful Eight'

The Hateful Eight crew showed up at Comic Con the other day to reveal this new poster and announce that the legendary Ennio Morricone would be composing the score for the film- his first Western score in over 40 years. That's exciting news to me, and I'm sure the movie will be in line with most of Tarantino's filmography. All his movies give his fans what they want, and this one will be no different. It's coming out at Christmas.

The Joker and Harley Quinn Come Out to Play in 'Suicide Squad' Trailer

The first look at Suicide Squad from Comic Con was finally released online today. I think this actually looks like it has more potential than Batman v Superman, although like all the DC movies, it's suffering from that same, somber, self-serious quality. But I'm thinking the fact that the protagonists are amoral, reckless villains in this one will give it a different energy. Jared Leto's Joker sure looks different from Heath Ledger's for example, and that's a good thing. Might be interesting. Suicide Squad's coming out next August.

Liam Hemsworth Romances Kate Winslet in 'The Dressmaker'

This looks kinds cute, actually. Kate Winslet is a grumpy dressmaker who finds love in her homeland of Australia, allowing Liam Hemsworth to use his natural accent for once. Although it seems to be standard that the Hemsworth boys are always cast as man candy to be ogled in whatever they're in- I guess it can't be helped, right? This movie comes out in October.

BOX OFFICE 7/10-7/12: 'Minions' Dominates the Competition

The Despicable Me baddies ruled the charts this weekend, setting a record the second best animated opening of all time, with $115 million. They didn't beat out Shrek the Third's $121 million, but they did pass Toy Story 3's $110 million back in 2009. With non-superhero movies now beginning to cross $100 million in their opening weekends on a semi-regular basis (or at least a handful of times a year), I'm wondering whether this magic number of $100 million doesn't really mean anything anymore. It doesn't account for inflation after all, and it hardly speaks to a cultural event movie the way it used to. Is $100 million in a weekend just the new norm for a hit movie? The other new releases were nothing to speak of- the Ryan Reynolds thriller Self/Less didn't crack the top ten with only $5 million (I seriously don't know how he keeps getting to star in anything), while The Gallows came in fifth with $10 million.

The rest of the chart was filled in by Jurassic World, which topped Inside Out once more with $18 million, and will become only the fourth movie ever to earn $600 million in the U.S. (after Avatar, Titanic and The Avengers), while Inside Out was right behind it with $17 million. Terminator Genisys dropped from its disappointing opening to fourth with just $13 million, so it's counting on international money to save it and justify yet another sequel for that series.

Top 5:

1. Minions- $115 million
   
2. Jurassic World- $18.1 million
   
3. Inside Out- $17.1 million
4. Terminator Genisys- $13.7 million
5. The Gallows- $10 million

Nothing much else to write home about this week- the documentary Amy continues to do well in limited release, pulling in $1.7 million from over 300 screens and becoming the highest grossing doc of the year (possible Oscar contender, perhaps?), but not a lot of action from the other indies this summer. Next week it's Marvel's Ant-Man against Judd Apatow and Amy Schumer's Trainwreck, which I'm especially curious about, because of all the recent media hype surrounding Schumer. For all the attention from critics, she's still an unknown to virtually all of the country, which no one in the press seems to realize. Can that movie open well based solely on reviews? We'll find out. See you guys next week!

Special Comic Con Trailer for 'Man From U.N.C.L.E.' Released

At this point, with a third over 5-minute trailer for this movie, I'm not sure what else there is to show for the film. But the studio is obviously pushing it hard, and with early screenings generating some actual positive buzz, it may be that they know they have something here after all. I have to say, I don't think it looks bad, but Guy Ritchie is such a question mark, so you have to be skeptical.

'Batman v Superman' Trailer Launches at Comic Con

Yikes. There's...quite a lot going on here isn't there? Not least of which is Jesse Eisenberg's complete tonal mismatch of a Lex Luthor caricature in a ridiculous wig, yet another glance at what happened to Batman's parents (because lord knows we haven't seen enough of that), more Superman as Jesus imagery, and of course, the Man of Steel-esque video game-y fight scene between Batman, Superman and apparently at least a little bit of Wonder Woman in there too. Wouldn't be a Zack Snyder joint without that, right? Who wants to bet it lasts the last hour of the movie, just like Superman versus Zod did in the last one? Another favorite Snyder contribution to Superman lore is turning both his Earth parents into assholes- real great advice there, Ma Kent.

This looks like the overstuffed, pretentious, utterly unpleasant mess that I expected it to be, based on what MoS was, but with one bright spot- I am going to be laughing heartily at every line Lex Luthor utters, so at least there will be some entertainment value in here, even if it's unintentional.

J.J. Abrams Debuts 'Star Wars' Sizzle Reel at Comic-Con

The era of fanfic continues! Although I personally get a kick out of the fact that the very first words in this behind the scenes video play like a big fuck you to George Lucas's CGI-ridden prequels. Look, I love Star Wars and I'm going to see this in the theater at Christmastime like everybody else, but watching the reverence with which these actors talk about the old movies as they make their own version of a new one can't help but feel like a bunch of nerds playing dress up with a hundred million dollar budget for a home video. No wonder this was shown at ComicCon of all places. Will it be better than the prequels? Of course. Is it still essentially writing your own chapter of someone else's original idea from a long time ago? Yes. Yes it is. And I want something brand new again.

Omar Sharif 1932-2015

Legendary actor Omar Sharif passed away today at the age of 83, after suffering a heart attack. The Egyptian actor became a heartthrob in the 1960's after appearing in Lawrence of Arabia (one of the most memorable movie entrances of all time), Doctor Zhivago and Funny Girl. He acted in movies throughout the 60's and 70's, but his most iconic roles were the three mentioned above, the ones he'll always be immortalized for. He was nominated for an Academy Award for Lawrence of Arabia, and his more recent film appearances included Hidalgo, The 13th Warrior and the upcoming Rock the Kasbah with Bill Murray.

Omar Sharif's intro from 1962's Lawrence of Arabia:

The New Ghostbusters Suit Up

This is so cool- I find myself getting more excited for this with every new thing I see from it. And it's not so much that they're the new ghostbusters necessarily (nothing will ever replace the original for me), but that this is such a great group of actresses on screen together, and with Paul Feig behind it, I'm sure it's going to be great.

Katniss Prepares for Battle in New 'Mockingjay' Teaser

Lionsgate released a new teaser today at Comic Con, one that reminds me of a Janet Jackson video, with the everlasting martyr Katniss in red against an army of white clothed soldiers. Whatever. This series should have ended by now and there never should have been two movies made out of a 200 page book.

Drew Barrymore and Toni Collette Are Best Friends in 'Miss You Already'

Tearjerker alert. For some reason this movie kind of reminds me of Beaches- not sure if that's a good thing or not. But it's nice to see Drew Barrymore again in something that could (potentially) be decent. Actually, the sad thing about this movie is that it's coming out in the UK in September, but it's one of those that has not secured a U.S. release date, likely because it's a low budget female friendship comedy. This is a movie that would have easily been in theaters a decade or so ago, but now these kinds of movies get sidelined from even a theatrical release. It's a sad state of affairs, people.