So, I'm guessing this is Britain's version of a Nicholas Sparks adaptation? Sure looks like it, with all the requisite tearjerker elements included. I'm iffy on Emilia Clarke's acting skills, but she looks alright here, and I figured she was going to try to break out from Game of Thrones eventually. The cheese factor looks dialed up to eleven though, doesn't it?
Surprise Second Teaser for 'The LEGO Batman Movie' Pops Up
Looks like the marketing campaign for this one is already in full force, with a surprise second teaser being released in the same week. The jokes and the references to the live action movies are already reflective of the hyper self aware humor in the social media/meme era we live in- I'm sure people are going to go nuts for this the same as they did for the last one and Deadpool and other movies of a similar ilk lately.
Patty Duke 1946-2016
Oscar winner Patty Duke has died at the age of 69, passing away from a ruptured intestine. The actress won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress at age 16 for her performance as Helen Keller in 1962's The Miracle Worker, a role she originated on Broadway, before going on to become the star of The Patty Duke Show, which ran from 1963 to 1966. She continued to act in films and television, earned 10 Emmy nominations and three Emmy awards, and served as president of the Screen Actors Guild from 1985 to 1988. She was also a longtime advocate for mental health, after being diagnosed with bipolar disorder in 1982. She is survived by her sons Sean and MacKenzie Astin, both actors in their own right, her other son Kevin Pearce, and her three granddaughers.
More Harley Quinn and the Joker in International 'Suicide Squad' Trailer
Rumor has it WB execs are currently in the editing room with this movie as we speak, frantically trying to get it to match the tone of the more recent trailers, which are apparently popular because of Bohemian Rhapsody, in my opinion. Early footage indicated it was more of the same, dour, depressing DC universe crap and not the Guardians of the Galaxy rip-off the new trailers implied, so it looks like we may be in for another cobbled together mess, potentially. Can't wait.
Alice Goes on a Wild Ride in New 'Alice Through the Looking Glass' Trailer
Based on the teasers for this movie, I couldn't tell if this really looked better than the first one, which was awful, or if it was just that Jefferson Airplane classic fooling everyone into thinking what you're watching is actually cool. From this new trailer I'm tending to think it might be the latter. Looks like kind of a mess.
REVIEW: "Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice" (2016) Ben Affleck, Henry Cavill. Dir. Zack Snyder
Zack Snyder's Man of Steel was one of my most despised moviegoing experiences ever, mostly for what it did to the character of Superman, my favorite superhero. It always hurts to see characters you love treated abominably by a person who clearly hates them. In that instance, Man of Steel was a bad movie tarnished further by being an even worse Superman movie, which made it more miserable to sit through, for me personally.
But having gone through all that once, I went into Batman v Superman, directed by the same asinine, superhero hating filmmaker, knowing that his take on Superman and this time Batman as well, would be awful and backward and fundamentally opposed to the worldview that these characters are supposed represent. So I was prepared for the dour, depressing, grim and thoroughly unpleasant sit I knew it would be. I wasn't surprised by the fact that it was all of those things and worse. No, this time what really offended me was the sheer incompetence of the filmmaking on every possible level- from the atrocious and incomprehensible screenplay to the slapshot editing and dull, mindless, CGI shlock that were the fight scenes. To call it an incoherent mess is being kind.
When you start off with the premise that Batman and Superman have to fight each other, you might want to come up with some kind of a reason for that to logically occur. The movie doesn't even try, and the ridiculous fight scene doesn't happen until about 90 minutes in, so if you're waiting for that there's a lot of pretentious nonsense you're going to have to endure first. In this world Batman and Superman are both miserable assholes who hate all people and themselves, hate being heroes, and hate each other on principle. Boy does that sound like the characters we've known for 75 years or what? Who hasn't been waiting for a version of those two that really wants to make you hate them both, right? Anyway, forget all that- that puts us in a bizarro universe from the start, one that I'm not convinced anyone, fans or general audiences have ever really wanted to see. This Batman murders people remorselessly and mercilessly- people who “deserve” it I suppose, since they're the worst criminals ever, like human traffickers and pedophiles, but again, is this really appropriate for a Batman movie? Superman on the other hand, rescues people in slow motion and looks miserable doing it, taking on the burden of their worship with a constant frowning, constipated expression on his face that really strips all the joy out of your soul while watching him.
So into that premise, a series of disconnected and illogical scenes drag on for 90 minutes, throwing endless amounts of characters on the screen, some interacting aimlessly with each other, with people spouting random bouts of pseudo philosophical dialogue at no one in particular, and Jesse Eisenberg's Lex Luthor chewing all the scenery as he contorts himself into a barrage of physical and verbal tics, one of the very worst performances in comic book movie history slapped on top of a character that makes no sense in either motivation or development. But he's actually not the only one. I'm very serious here- nothing in this movie makes any sense. There is no connective storytelling tissue from scene to scene, no motivation ascribed to any character to do or say anything they ever say, and no sense to be had from the awful, and I mean awful dialogue the actors are forced to recite (poor, seasoned vet Holly Hunter suffers the worst from this as she looks embarrassed to be sharing the screen with Eisenberg and confused herself as to why she's saying the things she's saying).
In the middle of this mess comes a ludacris fight scene with Batman and Superman, which despite an hour and a half of set-up, still has no reason to happen, and the resolution it randomly comes to before Batman stabs Superman in the heart with a kryptonite spear is so mindboggling and laughable that it's quite shocking it made it past however many rewrites this script suffered from. Oh, and throughout this collage of pasted together nonsense we have a multitude of dream sequences tossed at us in the form of Batman's recurring nightmares, which are essentially meant to provide the audience with a series of teasers for upcoming movies by throwing in Justice League characters who serve no purpose in this film either- and that includes Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot, unimpressive and emotionless in her debut), who wanders into and out of the frame with virtually no explanation to justify her presence at all. It's apparently so she can pop up in the last big fight, where she joins Batman and Superman in ultimate poser mode (hilariously set to out of nowhere rock/disco music) as the three of them take on Doomsday, an ugly and uncreative looking grey, CGI troll monster for a boring and senseless battle that reaches no satisfying conclusion- unless you count the end of the movie finally arriving as one in and of itself (you might).
This is such an empty and soulless bore of a movie that it's hard not to feel drained by it as it steals nearly three hours of your life without giving anything back to you. There's not a single character who brings any color or energy to this film or whose actions make any sense as far as a story is concerned. Removing Zack Snyder from anything further to do with the DC universe would be the least punishable action that an overprileged, untalented hack like him deserves. I won't look forward to any DCU movie until WB does this, but if it makes the billion dollars in box office money that it was created to do (and that's really all this was created to do), I suppose there's no reason to expect it to happen. It's a sad day for people who love these characters, and an equally sad day for people who just want to be entertained by a decent movie. Batman v Superman was garbage, and I don't care how much money it makes- it deserves to go down in flames along with Zack Snyder's career.
*
Seth Rogen's 'Sausage Party' Gets a Red-Band Trailer
There aren't a lot of animated movies that get made for an adult audience, so I guess this is kinda cool, in theory. Who knows if it's actually enough material for a feature length film though- looks more to me like this might have been better content for a short. What do you think?
New Trailer for 'The Conjuring 2' Recalls 'The Exorcist'
Okay, so my guess is that horror movie fans, who seem to want the same thing over and over again, are going to respond to this one a lot more positively than they did to The Witch. I thought the original Conjuring was collection of rip-off scenes from past horror movies- everything from The Birds to The Amityville Horror, so I guess it's now The Exorcist's turn to be paid "tribute" to. But from the jump scare moments in this trailer, I'm sure it's going to give people their money's worth.
BOX OFFICE 3/25-3/27: 'Batman v Superman' Clobbers the Competition
As expected, dismal reviews couldn't counteract three years of hype and anticipation, as audiences flocked to see BvS this Easter weekend, giving it a record-breaking 166 million debut. That's the biggest opening for a March release ever, passing the record set by the first Hunger Games, and WB's second biggest opening ever, falling short of the debut of the last Harry Potter film. There are a couple of interesting tidbits in there though. First of all, the movie got a "B" Cinemascore, which is not good, and quite rare for a comic book or action movie, and second, it had the biggest ever drop from Friday to Sunday for an opening weekend. So that means word of mouth kinda sucks, and this could be in for a very steep drop next week, similar to Man of Steel's three years ago. Not that it matter too much, since the movie did gangbusters overseas and opened with a global gross of 424 million, already halfway to the 800 million it needs just to break even. If the movie does suffer a massive dropoff next weekend, it looks like overseas audiences will come to the rescue. Unfortunately for the rest of us, who'd prefer hack director Zack Snyder jettisoned from this universe as soon as possible.
The holdovers were filled out by Zootopia, which earned another 23 million and has now grossed 240 million domestically and is very close to 700 million globally, My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2, which actually did better than expected with 18 million, and Allegiant and Miracles From Heaven, which tied with about 9.5 million each. That's pretty bad for Allegiant, which totally collapsed in week two, but good for Miracles, which held strong over the holiday.
Top 5:
- Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice- 166.1 million
- Zootopia- 23.1 million
- My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2- 18.1 million
- The Divergent Series: Allegiant- 9.5 million
- Miracles From Heaven- 9.5 million
A possible bright spot for the run of BvS is the fact that it has little to no competition for a while. The next big movie on the horizon is Disney's The Jungle Book, which isn't until April 15th, so that gives it some breathing room. Next week it's Melissa McCarthy's The Boss and the action movie Hardcore Henry, which probably won't cut into its potential audience too much. Still, I'm curious to see how it fares when toxic word of mouth kicks in. See you then.
First Teaser for 'The LEGO Batman Movie'
For anyone who wanted to see a better Batman movie than the one in theaters this weekend, this could be it. Given the insane popularity of The Lego Movie, I'm sure people will be pumped to go see this one when it comes out in February of next year. Will Arnett is returning as the perfect growling voice for the caped crusader.
Kate Beckinsale Stars Austen Adaptation 'Love and Friendship'
I'm always here for anything based on Jane Austen's works, and surprisingly, this one was adapted by Whit Stillman of all people. Set to come out in May, this movie did get great reviews at Sundance, so I may have to look out for it.
Russell Crowe and Ryan Gosling Turn on the Charm in New Trailer for 'The Nice Guys'
I thought the first trailer for this made it look like a rip-off of director Shane Black's own Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, but I have to admit the buddy chemistry between Crowe and Gosling is top-notch. It does look funny and will probably be pretty good, even if it is the same movie set in the 1970's.
