**2017 Films Thread** (Beware of spoilers)

[Chicago White Sox]

I didn't hear about anything in Detroit but...

 

Emma Watson said this after Beyonce dropped the video for Flawless: 'As I was watching [the videos] I felt very conflicted, I felt her message felt very conflicted in the sense that on the one hand she is putting herself in a category of a feminist, but then the camera, it felt very male, such a male voyeuristic experience of her... Beyoncé using her sexuality as empowerment isn't feminism!'

 

She basically said Beyonce's feminism is for male consumption and now Emma Watson is doing half naked photo shoots. She also said feminism isn't a stick that should be used to beat other women, just after using feminism to beat down a woman of color.

 

She's a huge hypocrite and feminism to her is only done correctly when it's done by white women. I put her alongside Lena Dunham and Taylor Swift, which is somewhere in the trash. After she said that, I haven't been able to watch her in anything as I've been having a hard time separating the art from the artist.

I've got to be honest, but who the f*** cares? This planet is doomed if people are going to get this worked up over this nonsense.

[Brian]

I've got to be honest, but who the f*** cares? This planet is doomed if people are going to get this worked up over this nonsense.

 

Definitely seems like a dumb thing to get so upset about. I don't care for Dunham all but Swift donates so much money to charity and causes.

 

I don't really follow Emma Watson so no clue what she does and I'm not turning this thread into a filibuster when I don't have time to see much these days.

[RockRaines]

Who cares, shes hot.

[hogan873]

The trailer for IT is out. Looks pretty terrifying.

 

 

 

[Bob Sacamano]

The trailer for IT is out. Looks pretty terrifying.

 

 

Wow. Thanks for sharing.

[Iwritecode]

I'm looking forward to the IT movie but I'm still waiting for the official Dark Tower trailer.

 

All we've gotten so far is an unfinished leaked one, people talking about the one they saw at CinemaCon and a poster.

Edited March 29, 2017 by Iwritecode

[Boopa1219]

I'm looking forward to the IT movie but I'm still waiting for the official Dark Tower trailer.

 

All we've gotten so far is an unfinished leaked one, people talking about the one they saw at CinemaCon and a poster.

 

Usually what is shown at CinemaCon is never released online initially if ever. And according to Deluxe, Sony hasn't made the trailer available to anyone yet. My guess is with F8

[Brian]

I'll pass on "It".

 

No nightmares needed here.

[Boopa1219]

Ghost in the Shell is really, really good. Some of the best CGI I've ever seen and the cinematography is out of this world. Reminded me of Wes Anderson with all the symmetry going on. Hopefully it catches on for a sequel, everyone should go see it

[caulfield12]

Ghost in the Shell will be lucky to make $20 million this weekend.

 

Only huge numbers in China (maybe) and Japan (very unlikely) get a sequel greenlit.

[Brian]

It sucks that it seems ScarJo may not be a box office draw on her own. She's likable and talented and seems like she could be a great female action star.

42% on RT for Ghost in the Shell. She deserves better.

[maggsmaggs]

I'll pass on "It".

 

No nightmares needed here.

The original scared the s*** out of me as a kid. I will pass on this one as well.

[bigruss]

The trailer for GITS looked awful, and with Josh proclaiming it as great then I know I can pass

[Chicago White Sox]

It sucks that it seems ScarJo may not be a box office draw on her own. She's likable and talented and seems like she could be a great female action star.

42% on RT for Ghost in the Shell. She deserves better.

 

 

The trailer for GITS looked awful, and with Josh proclaiming it as great then I know I can pass

For a film guy, it really is amazing how many terrible movies Josh calls great.

[Panerista]

IT was an amazing book. Looking forward to this take

[caulfield12]

Ghost in the Shell was just not a very coherent movie...despite ScarJo's best efforts. Those hoping for Lucy II, you're going to have to wait.

 

Only fans of the manga will enjoy it, assuming they can get beyond the whitewashing. Or if you enjoy futuristic movies like The Fifth Element, but even that movie was more groundbreaking.

Edited April 3, 2017 by caulfield12

[Iwritecode]

IT was an amazing book. Looking forward to this take

 

I need to stop watching the "reaction" videos to the IT trailer on Youtube. I just get annoyed because it's always someone that has clearly never read the book and only vaguely remembers the original TV mini-series.

Edited April 3, 2017 by Iwritecode

[Boopa1219]

Im not trying to speak for the masses, as I can only speak for myself.

 

I really enjoyed it, although I thought the movie really dragged during the origin stuff and that was its biggest flaw. They should've went with The Major being an absolute and avoid diving headfirst into the origin. And the costumes and props were f***ing amazing. Glad to see it be very faithful to the source material. f***, the movie got my mother (a black woman in her 50s) to check out the original anime film.

 

The rollout to the movie reminded me of BvS, in that there was a lot of bad press surrounding the movie before it even hit theaters and people already started to form opinions on the finished product before they even seen it.

 

I was pleased to see that it's during well overseas. There's a lot riding on this movie, not just the future of anime adaptions but the future of female fronted blockbusters. I would say there are only about 15 'movie stars' on the planet and ScarJo is not just one of them but she's one of the biggest as all her films do really well financially. If the one dependable female star has a movie that falters, a $100M+ movie at that, it's bad for actresses everywhere and movies in general as studios are going to get a very timid about greenlighting female led films. I guess we're going to have to wait a while for Furiousa for example.

 

That's my take but as always you should see it for yourself and form your own opinion.

[Boopa1219]

Ghost in the Shell was just not a very coherent movie...despite ScarJo's best efforts. Those hoping for Lucy II, you're going to have to wait.

 

Only fans of the manga will enjoy it, assuming they can get beyond the whitewashing. Or if you enjoy futuristic movies like The Fifth Element, but even that movie was more groundbreaking.

 

It's hard for Ghost in the Shell to be groundbreaking because a lot of stuff has taken direct cues from it. Looking at you Matrix, which doesn't need a reboot.

[ChiliIrishHammock24]

Saw Life. It was decent.

[Boopa1219]

The Last Jedi panel will be tomorrow morning at 10 on StarWars.com and Youtube. EW is teasing something happening at midnight tonight, the trailer in all likelihood drops tomorrow

[Bob Sacamano]

The Last Jedi panel will be tomorrow morning at 10 on StarWars.com and Youtube. EW is teasing something happening at midnight tonight, the trailer in all likelihood drops tomorrow

 

You think so? If not tomorrow, I totally see it being dropped on May 4th aka "May the 4th be with you day" haha

[caulfield12]

Im not trying to speak for the masses, as I can only speak for myself.

 

I really enjoyed it, although I thought the movie really dragged during the origin stuff and that was its biggest flaw. They should've went with The Major being an absolute and avoid diving headfirst into the origin. And the costumes and props were f***ing amazing. Glad to see it be very faithful to the source material. f***, the movie got my mother (a black woman in her 50s) to check out the original anime film.

 

The rollout to the movie reminded me of BvS, in that there was a lot of bad press surrounding the movie before it even hit theaters and people already started to form opinions on the finished product before they even seen it.

 

I was pleased to see that it's during well overseas. There's a lot riding on this movie, not just the future of anime adaptions but the future of female fronted blockbusters. I would say there are only about 15 'movie stars' on the planet and ScarJo is not just one of them but she's one of the biggest as all her films do really well financially. If the one dependable female star has a movie that falters, a $100M+ movie at that, it's bad for actresses everywhere and movies in general as studios are going to get a very timid about greenlighting female led films. I guess we're going to have to wait a while for Furiousa for example.

 

That's my take but as always you should see it for yourself and form your own opinion.

 

 

I think this would be more worrisome if the source material was meant to launch an American blockbuster trilogy of films. It's more of a "niche" film like Pacific Rim, despite the $100+ million budget.

 

Anytime you take a Japanese cultural product and try to adapt it even slightly to make it more palatable to the Western masses, you run a risk. You never know how audiences will react. And, besides Scar Jo, there weren't any recognizable actors in the film, other than Michael Pitt and Juliet Binoche.

 

On the female empowerment side, you have Melissa McCarthy, Kate McKinnon, Charlize Theron, you've got Emily Blunt getting opportunities to be an action star, Kate Blanchette getting rave reviews for playing the villain in the new THOR film, it's (Ghost in the Shell) just going to be a blip in the overall scheme of things. Wouldn't read TOO much into it. Emma Stone has become a huge star as a result of La La Land. Jennifer Lawrence continues to loom as perhaps the biggest name, but it's not like when you had Julia Roberts on top of the world, then Meg Ryan, Reese Witherspoon, etc. There's a lot more diversity of talent, IMO.

[Boopa1219]

I think this would be more worrisome if the source material was meant to launch an American blockbuster trilogy of films. It's more of a "niche" film like Pacific Rim, despite the $100+ million budget.

 

Anytime you take a Japanese cultural product and try to adapt it even slightly to make it more palatable to the Western masses, you run a risk. You never know how audiences will react. And, besides Scar Jo, there weren't any recognizable actors in the film, other than Michael Pitt and Juliet Binoche.

 

On the female empowerment side, you have Melissa McCarthy, Kate McKinnon, Charlize Theron, you've got Emily Blunt getting opportunities to be an action star, Kate Blanchette getting rave reviews for playing the villain in the new THOR film, it's (Ghost in the Shell) just going to be a blip in the overall scheme of things. Wouldn't read TOO much into it. Emma Stone has become a huge star as a result of La La Land. Jennifer Lawrence continues to loom as perhaps the biggest name, but it's not like when you had Julia Roberts on top of the world, then Meg Ryan, Reese Witherspoon, etc. There's a lot more diversity of talent, IMO.

 

I wrote a response to this but my dog jumped on my lap top and deleted it. So if I ramble, it's just me being depressed

 

Ghost in the Shell is a Paramount movie and if you check out the trades you'll see that they've been dropping a lot of films off their slate as they lost $445M last year. I have a friend who works in the offices there and he told me about a lot of reshuffling is going on as they've been pretty desperate for franchises. Look at how Monster Trucks came into existence for example. So they probably envisioned or hoped Ghost in the Shell would be a potential franchise for them, it still could

 

I do think anime is the hardest type of property to adapt because it is so specific to a culture and to a group of people. I love Akira to death but I doubt that it'll ever be brought to the big screen as there are so many landmines that you would have to navigate through when you adapt it for the screen.

 

McCarthy and McKinnon were in Ghostbusters, that had a $150M budget and almost caused Sony Pictures to fold. I doubt that they'll be quick to spend that kind of money on a female fronted blockbuster for a very long time.

 

You'd think with Hollywood putting out mostly big films that we'd have more movie stars, people who can open, greenlight and bankroll a movie on their name and involvement alone, but as I said there's only 15 of them and that may be too generous of a number. I think the death of the mid sized film and the lack of original content has something to do with it as studios were willing to take more chances and be a little adventurous because the stakes weren't as high.

 

I would agree with you that the overall pool of talent is very diverse but there isn't a lot of opportunity out there. Because the stakes have gotten higher, opportunity has shrunk. Plus there's been a massive shift in the industry over the past 6 years as brands and IP have overtook talent as the most valuable commodity. Disney realized that they had a massive problem connecting with boys, so they go out and make Tangled and John Carter of Mars. And when those movies failed they were faced with their own mortality kinda and went out and bought Marvel and Lucasfilm. WB used to be the big game in town because of their talent pool and while it is still better than Disney's, they lack the IP to really compete. The game is about to start but if we want a bigger and more diverse pool of movie stars we have to go out of our way and support movies like Ghost in the Shell, Get Out, Keanu, Lion because we have no choice to make our own stars at this point.

[caulfield12]

I wrote a response to this but my dog jumped on my lap top and deleted it. So if I ramble, it's just me being depressed

 

Ghost in the Shell is a Paramount movie and if you check out the trades you'll see that they've been dropping a lot of films off their slate as they lost $445M last year. I have a friend who works in the offices there and he told me about a lot of reshuffling is going on as they've been pretty desperate for franchises. Look at how Monster Trucks came into existence for example. So they probably envisioned or hoped Ghost in the Shell would be a potential franchise for them, it still could

 

I do think anime is the hardest type of property to adapt because it is so specific to a culture and to a group of people. I love Akira to death but I doubt that it'll ever be brought to the big screen as there are so many landmines that you would have to navigate through when you adapt it for the screen.

 

McCarthy and McKinnon were in Ghostbusters, that had a $150M budget and almost caused Sony Pictures to fold. I doubt that they'll be quick to spend that kind of money on a female fronted blockbuster for a very long time.

 

You'd think with Hollywood putting out mostly big films that we'd have more movie stars, people who can open, greenlight and bankroll a movie on their name and involvement alone, but as I said there's only 15 of them and that may be too generous of a number. I think the death of the mid sized film and the lack of original content has something to do with it as studios were willing to take more chances and be a little adventurous because the stakes weren't as high.

 

I would agree with you that the overall pool of talent is very diverse but there isn't a lot of opportunity out there. Because the stakes have gotten higher, opportunity has shrunk. Plus there's been a massive shift in the industry over the past 6 years as brands and IP have overtook talent as the most valuable commodity. Disney realized that they had a massive problem connecting with boys, so they go out and make Tangled and John Carter of Mars. And when those movies failed they were faced with their own mortality kinda and went out and bought Marvel and Lucasfilm. WB used to be the big game in town because of their talent pool and while it is still better than Disney's, they lack the IP to really compete. The game is about to start but if we want a bigger and more diverse pool of movie stars we have to go out of our way and support movies like Ghost in the Shell, Get Out, Keanu, Lion because we have no choice to make our own stars at this point.

 

 

Keanu? I'm assuming that's not a John Wick reference.

 

http://www.boxofficemojo.com/news/?id=4283&p=.htm

Looks like Fast 8 will break all-time domestic and worldwide records this weekend. Kind of at the heart of the problem you're referring to there. I saw it Fri here in China....it makes Michael Bay look like Werner Herzog but keeps chugging along without Paul Walker or any sense of storytelling logic. I can't say it wasn't entertaining at least.

 

Lion was just way too slow the first half, but the payoff was worth it. Hidden Figures, for my money, was the best of the year.

 

Btw, don't forget how well Meryl Streep has held on for so long in her career. Helen Mirren. Two points for older women.

 

 

 

Amy Adams

Emma Stone

Scar Jo

Emma Watson?

Melissa McCarthy

Tina Fey?

Sandra Bullock

Charlize Theron

Kristen Stewart?

Jennifer Lawrence

Jennifer Aniston

Anne Hathaway

Angelina Jolie

Cameron Diaz?

Gal Gadot if Wonder Woman succeeds

Kristen Wiig

 

Not exactly a diverse list. Gbutha Raw and Nathalie Emmanuel are getting a lot of supporting roles. Viola Davis. The actress from 12 Years a Slave with the short hair. I could name a ton of Asian actresses but few are well known in the US.

Edited April 15, 2017 by caulfield12