I must have been sleeping on this movie, which did play outside if competition at Cannes in May, but came out this weekend to some pretty stellar reviews. In fact, it's now the best reviewed film of the year. Described as in intense modern day western with some amazing performances from Chris Pine, Ben Foster and Jeff Bridges, it seems like it came out of nowhere to be a can't miss. I always thought Chris Pine had some potential outside of Captain Kirk, so I'm happy for that. I think he's the one with the most serious acting potential of all the major "Chrises"- Evans, Hemsworth, Pratt and Pine. Do you agree?
Taraji P. Henson, Octavia Spencer and Janelle Monae Help NASA in 'Hidden Figures'
For those who remember 1980's The Right Stuff, featured in that movie were the three female African-American mathematicians whose calculations helped astronaut John Glenn become the first American to orbit the earth. Now their story finally takes center stage in this film coming out at Christmas, which is based on the non-fiction book by Margot Lee Shetterly. The actresses look great together, and it does give off a bit of a vibe similar to 2011's The Help, but I find this true life story a lot more interesting, so I'm looking forward to this. I hope it's decent, although director Theodore Melfi's debut film St. Vincent was only okay. Fingers crossed.
BOX OFFICE 8/12-8/14: 'Suicide Squad' Drops as 'Sausage Party' Opens Big
Well, Suicide Squad ended up following the typical pattern for anticipated DC movies that are reviled by critics, open huge and then fall off a cliff in the second week. Squad fell about 67%, a very steep drop to come in with $43 million, not great at all, but its total is $222 million so far and over $300 million globally, so even though the consensus is that these movies suck, they still make enough money to justify continuing production. The question is how long can this sustain itself without improving the quality of the films? Hopefully audiences will wise to this eventually, but with real excitement already for next year's Wonder Woman, it probably won't be anytime soon.
As for the new releases, the Seth Rogen produced Sausage Party, the raunchy R-rated animated film for adults, kinda gave Suicide Squad a run for its money, coming in way above expectations with $33 million for the weekend. The movie got pretty good reviews as well, but just a "B" Cinemascope (I wonder if naive parents wound up taking their kids to this thing, only to come out of it horrified). That may mean that the legs on this comedy won't hold up well, but then again, there's not a lot of competition for the rest of the summer either. A movie actually intended for the family audience, the remake of Pete's Dragon, came in with a soft $21 million, but with a budget of only $65 million, there's a chance it will recoup its costs in time, since reviews were very positive for it as well. Jason Bourne and Bad Moms filled out the top five, the latter especially having turned into a great success for STX entertainment, as it's holding onto its female audience extremely well, and with just a $20 million budget, will wind up at or near $100 million domestic.
Top 5:
- Suicide Squad- $43.8 million
- Sausage Party- $33.6 million
- Pete's Dragon- $21.5 million
- Jason Bourne- $13.6 million
- Bad Moms- $11.5 million
In smaller release, the annual late summer Meryl Streep vehicle Florence Foster Jenkins, took its positive reviews to a meager $6 million opening from around 1500 locations, while the superbly reviewed western Hell or High Water, starring Chris Pine, seemingly came out of nowhere to make $18k from 32 theaters- people are going to have to seek that one out, as it's now the best reviewed movie of the year, despite little attention paid to it when it showed outside of competition at the Cannes film festival. Next week it's Laika Studios' stop-motion animated release Kubo and the Two Strings, against the Ben-Hur remake and Jonah HIll's black comedy War Dogs. See you all then!
REVIEW: "Star Trek Beyond" (2016) Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto. Dir. Justin Lin
After a summer of mostly dreadful blockbusters, it’s something of a relief to catch up with the Star Trek gang, who as a group are just as fun to hang with as ever, which is far more than you can say for anything in the latest superhero product launched by Marvel Studios or WB’s DC division. JJ Abrams and co. have a much more cohesive handle on the feel of this franchise, and the writers, filmmakers and actors involved have an obvious passion and love for these characters that manages to exceed any weak plot machinations to be had. Who really cares about the latest villain the Enterprise crew has to take on when we’re really just here to see them bonding with each other as pals, right?
That’s something that writers Simon Pegg and Doug Jung inherently understand about this series, and they’ve fashioned a script that feels akin to an episode of the old show, and works as a tribute to Gene Roddenberry’s groundbreaking project that celebrates its 50th anniversary this year. This time around, Fast and Furious director Justin Lin takes over the filmmaking reigns from Abrams, and does an admirable job in stewarding seamless action scenes with amusing character moments, as the crew gets separated after a raid on the Enterprise, leaving the group split off into pairs, the best of which are Spock (Zachary Quinto) and Bones (Karl Urban), whose bickering leads to some of the most delightful moments in the film. Pegg, who plays engineer Scotty, manages to give himself a slightly bigger role this time around as well, as he ends up stranded on a new planet with Jaylah (Sofia Boutella), a face-tattooed alien with a feisty attitude and spot-on martial arts skills. She’s a great addition to the crew and I hope she sticks around for the next one, unlike the jettisoned Alice Eve from 2013’s Into Darkness, who’s nowhere to be seen in this entry, which takes place roughly five years after the last one ended.
As the end of the five-year mission draw near, Kirk (Chris Pine) is getting restless after so many years in space, and the same goes for Spock, whose romance with Zoe Saldana’s Uhura is on the rocks as he contemplates going to New Vulcan to help repopulate his race (obviously a relationship deal breaker). But trouble strikes when a new villain Krall (played by Idris Elba under about five pounds of makeup) makes it his mission to attack the Enterprise and kidnap most of the crew, for reasons having something to do with his survival being based on absorbing the life forms of others. To be honest, Krall’s motivations are vague at best, and even when the secret of his true identity is revealed, it doesn’t exactly clarify things for the final battle between him and Kirk. The central conflict involves his taking the Enterprise crew hostage, including Uhura and Sulu, while splitting up the others, who have to find their way back to each other and figure out how to rescue their friends. The weakness of the central villain aside however (and yes, both Benedict Cumberbatch’s Khan and even Eric Bana’s silly Nero were more compelling adversaries), the pleasure of this film comes purely from the camaraderie and chemistry among the cast, which makes up for a lot in these movies, since the basis for all of them is the crew as a family of sorts. That’s a theme carried along extremely well by this young cast which was passed the torch from a generation of actors who’d been playing these roles for decades. It makes it even more heartbreaking that this was the last appearance of the late Anton Yelchin as Chekhov, who the film is dedicated to along with Leonard Nimoy, who passed away last year. Producer JJ Abrams has already said the role of Chekhov will not be recast, and that’s all for the better in keeping with the image of these characters as portrayed by these particular actors and no others.
There’s a life and personality in Paramount’s rebooted Star Trek series that is not found anywhere in the Disney franchise machine- the increasingly homogenized and studio assembled Marvel films, the as of yet too slavishly beholden to nostalgia Star Wars movies, and the schlock and lazy storytelling from the unmemorable live-action remakes of the animated catalogue. Here there’s a respect for the past that blends nicely with a clear commitment to standing apart as its own universe, and the sense (at least on the creative side) that there’s maybe a little more than pure dollar signs in mind when producing these films. And that’s something to be thankful for in a continually depressing year of big studio drivel.
* * *
'The Knick' Star Andre Holland in Trailer for 'Moonlight'
This indie would have my attention simply for Holland being in it, since I loved him on Steven Soderbergh's The Knick, but the movie looks interesting as well. It's very rare to see stories in film about people of color struggling with their sexuality, which is why it's even more important that these movies get made. Director Barry Jenkins tackles the subject head on here, with a film based on the play In Moonlight Black Boys Look Blue. The lead is played by Trevante Rhodes, but it also stars familiar faces Janelle Monae, Naomie Harris and House of Cards' Mahershala Ali in supporting parts. It's premiering at the Toronto Film Festival in September.
First Teaser for Brad Pitt and Marion Cotillard in WWII Thriller 'Allied'
So this looks like an Oscar movie if ever I've seen one. And kind of an old-fashioned one too, with espionage, romance, wartime setting...all that good stuff. This is being directed by Robert Zemeckis, who may even be trying to play up the throwback part of it- is this more of an homage to another kind of film than an original one? The best of these can work as their own story as well, on top of the winks. We'll see if this one can pull it off. Allied is coming out right in that Oscar sweet spot too, Thanksgiving weekend.
New 'Rogue One' Trailer Plays During the Olympics
So I won't lie- this trailer does look to me like a massive improvement over the first one. But of course, one thing to keep in mind with this movie are the extensive re-shoots ordered by the studio over the summer, supposedly in an attempt to match the more lighthearted tone of JJ Abrams' The Force Awakens. We all know how that turned out for Suicide Squad. But there doesn't seem to be a whole lot of evidence of that in this look at it, as the movie still seems more serious and intense than that film was. I'm hopeful for it, simply because this at least involves some new characters and may not be entirely based around the nostalgia fan-fic feel of Force Awakens. Of course, studio meddling could always ruin that element of it.
Billy Bob Thornton Returns for 'Bad Santa 2'
The recent trend in sequels to movies from the last decade has been a pretty unsuccessful one, so I suppose there's no reason to think this will break the mold. But I gotta admit, I laughed at this trailer. Of course, the original Bad Santa, while not everyone's cup of tea, cracked me up to no end and still does, so I like seeing nasty ol' Willie return for more depravities here. But this is also a completely different director and team of writers, so who knows if it'll amount to anything. That first one might have been black comedy lightning in a bottle.
First Look at Amy Adams in Alien Invasion Movie 'Arrival'
This could be interesting. Seems like every fall there's a new space movie in tow, and this time it's Amy Adams as a translator for a group of invaders from another planet. Jeremy Renner co-stars and the director is Denis Villenueve, who made Prisoners and Sicario. The full trailer arrives in a few days, but this early look is promising.
10 Movies For August
For the month of August, our theme is Going Global, and our films for recommendation this month include foreign-language films from different countries around the globe. This is one of my favorite categories of the year, because it feels like traveling to a different culture with each pick. Some of my favorite movies in our list this month include La Dolce Vita, Amelie, The Barbarian Invasions, Run Lola Run and Ju Dou, among others. Go ahead and go to the Movies for Every Month page to read more about the theme, and head to the August movie page to see the full list of films, complete with their original trailers. Enjoy the last cinematic summer vacation of the season and happy movie watching!
BOX OFFICE 8/05-8/07: 'Suicide Squad' Makes a Killing at the Box Office
Despite getting completely and utterly trashed by critics, WB's Suicide Squad wiped out the record for an August opening, pulling in 135 million over three days. However, there was a pretty steep drop-off from Friday to Saturday alone, and after receiving a mere "B+" Cinemascore, this one looks to be in for a fate similar to March's Batman v Superman, as audiences come out of this film more inclined to agree with the critics' disdain. Still, it made bank overseas this weekend as well, and already has 267 million in the can globally. It's enough to depress you, as the DC universe can't manage to produce a semi-decent film, yet continues to rake in the cash due to audiences' excitement over the idea of these superheroes. The female audience in particular turned out for this one, probably due to the idea of Margot Robbie's Harley Quinn being front and center. That bodes well for Wonder Woman, but given this track record, I wouldn't be getting my hopes up if I was a fan of any of these characters. Believe it when you see it.
Last week's winner Jason Bourne took a big fall, but continues to do well overseas, having earned 195 million so far. STX's Bad Moms is also holding well, serving a female audience that is mostly underserved all year round, which explains how the Mila Kunis comedy could end up with close to 100 million by the end of its run. The Secret Life of Pets and Star Trek Beyond rounded out the top five, with 11 and 10 million, respectively.
Top 5:
- Suicide Squad- 135 million
- Jason Bourne- 22.7 million
- Bad Moms- 14.2 million
- The Secret Life of Pets- 11.6 million
- Star Trek Beyond- 10.2 million
Kevin Spacey's Nine Lives, also critically panned, took in around 6 million over its debut weekend, while Ghostbusters has 116 million total, but not much overseas at all, and looks set to lose money, putting the future of the franchise in doubt. Next week it's Disney's Pete's Dragon against Meryl Streep's Florence Foster Jenkins, so who knows how Suicide Squad will hold up against those films targeting different audiences.
Early Teaser for Christopher Nolan's 'Dunkirk'
This movie isn't coming out until next summer, but this early tease is quite intriguing. You wouldn't think a guy like Christopher Nolan would make a straightforward war movie, so I wonder what the hook is for this one. Or who knows, maybe he did want to go straight with it this time (chasing the Oscar that still eludes him and all). We just have to wait and see.
