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

[caulfield12]

Looks like F8 made a whopping $167 million in China.

 

That's going to swamp the US numbers, and almost guarantee a Chinese presence/setting/product placement in the next couple of films.

 

 

 

Initial weekend projections for Fate, taking Easter into account on Sunday, hover between $100-104 million — slightly below pre-weekend tracking and most (including our own) industry forecasts but still a very robust haul that leaves it in a position to challenge The Jungle Book ($103.26 million) as the second biggest April opener of all-time once actuals are tallied on Monday. Universal itself projects $103.8 million, in line with its pre-weekend expectation.

 

On the international front, Fate scored $112.1 million outside North America, giving Universal its highest international Friday gross of all-time. The film’s overseas total stands at $194.8 million through two days. The studio’s international weekend estimate is $430.4 million, which would top Jurassic World‘s $316.7 million as the biggest international weekend in history.

 

If those projections hold, Fate would ultimately top Star Wars: The Force Awakens‘ $529 million to become the biggest global opening of all-time with an estimated $534.2 million through Sunday. However, the asterisk there is that Fate bowed to an all-time Chinese box office record $65.6 million opening day yesterday. Force Awakens didn’t open in China until one month after its domestic release. Either way, this is resoundingly big news for the studio and the Furious franchise.

 

Boxoffice.com

Edited April 16, 2017 by caulfield12

[Boopa1219]

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.

 

Keanu was the Key and Peele movie about the cat, I really enjoyed it.

 

Ridley Scott said that one of the reasons why he went with an all white cast for Exodus: Gods and Kings was that he wanted people to see his movie. There's this narrative that no one wants to see minority fronted films. Not only is that one of the stupidest things that I've ever heard anybody say, it's not true. Look at the Fast and Furious, easily the most diverse franchise out there. Everyone in Dom's team is a person of color and the movies continue to break records.

 

I really enjoyed F8/Fast 8/Furious 8/F8TE of the Furious. The Rock made the movie for me, plus his stuff with Statham was amazing. The feud between Vin Diesel and The Rock led to themnot being in any shots together, Diesel even cut out some of the Rock's scenes. These movies are the Harrison Ford, John Woo, Nicolas Cage action movies of the 90's. Which is why they need to cast Nicolas Cage, go to outer space and go ridiculously over the top.

 

Anyway... the current movie stars are Ben Affleck, Will Smith, Robert Downey Jr, Denzel Washington, Scarlett Johansson, Jennifer Lawrence, the Rock, Matt Damon, Leo, Vin Diesel, Charlize Theron, Sandra Bullock ?, Chris Pratt, Melissa McCarthy and Hugh Jackman. Very white, very male. I think that we will be soon be able to add John Boyega, Daisy Ridley, Margot Robbie (she might be up there already), Alicia Vikander, Ryan Gosling now that he's starting to do big movies, Tom Hardy might be one already, Emma Stone seems ready to make the jump, Michael B Jordan, Jason Momoa, and even Bobby Millie Brown.

 

 

 

[caulfield12]

Keanu was the Key and Peele movie about the cat, I really enjoyed it.

 

Ridley Scott said that one of the reasons why he went with an all white cast for Exodus: Gods and Kings was that he wanted people to see his movie. There's this narrative that no one wants to see minority fronted films. Not only is that one of the stupidest things that I've ever heard anybody say, it's not true. Look at the Fast and Furious, easily the most diverse franchise out there. Everyone in Dom's team is a person of color and the movies continue to break records.

 

I really enjoyed F8/Fast 8/Furious 8/F8TE of the Furious. The Rock made the movie for me, plus his stuff with Statham was amazing. The feud between Vin Diesel and The Rock led to themnot being in any shots together, Diesel even cut out some of the Rock's scenes. These movies are the Harrison Ford, John Woo, Nicolas Cage action movies of the 90's. Which is why they need to cast Nicolas Cage, go to outer space and go ridiculously over the top.

 

Anyway... the current movie stars are Ben Affleck, Will Smith, Robert Downey Jr, Denzel Washington, Scarlett Johansson, Jennifer Lawrence, the Rock, Matt Damon, Leo, Vin Diesel, Charlize Theron, Sandra Bullock ?, Chris Pratt, Melissa McCarthy and Hugh Jackman. Very white, very male. I think that we will be soon be able to add John Boyega, Daisy Ridley, Margot Robbie (she might be up there already), Alicia Vikander, Ryan Gosling now that he's starting to do big movies, Tom Hardy might be one already, Emma Stone seems ready to make the jump, Michael B Jordan, Jason Momoa, and even Bobby Millie Brown.

 

Make that Chinese F8 number $192 million, almost doubling the US numbers.

 

 

Tom Cruise (Edge of Tommorow, MI, Oblivion, Jack Reacher, The Mummy), Brad Pitt and Depp still have their fans, although it will be interesting to see how personal scandals affect the latter two.

 

George Clooney belongs on the list as well, IMO. Jake Gyllenhaal. Tom Hanks. Jim Carrey's career has cratered. Same with Russell Crowe, although the buddy detective flick with Gosling was surprisingly good.

 

I would pick Zoe Saldana over a few of those names (with more Avatars in the pipeline)...Joel Edgerton has a shot as well, very versatile.

Edited April 16, 2017 by caulfield12

[Boopa1219]

Make that Chinese F8 number $192 million, almost doubling the US numbers.

 

 

Tom Cruise (Edge of Tommorow, MI, Oblivion, Jack Reacher, The Mummy), Brad Pitt and Depp still have their fans, although it will be interesting to see how personal scandals affect the latter two.

 

George Clooney belongs on the list as well, IMO. Jake Gyllenhaal. Tom Hanks. Jim Carrey's career has cratered. Same with Russell Crowe, although the buddy detective flick with Gosling was surprisingly good.

 

I would pick Zoe Saldana over a few of those names (with more Avatars in the pipeline)...Joel Edgerton has a shot as well, very versatile.

 

Tom Cruise is who I forgot. My dog jumped on my laptop again. I think he's the safest movie star, I don't think he's made a bad movie

[Brian]

Action scenes in Fast8 are so ridiculous but fun. I hate the melodrama in the series but keep watching.

[juddling]

Just finished The Founder with Michael Keaton. I remember reading a while ago about how big of a dick Ray Kroc could be but damn did he really screw the McDonald brothers more than once. Still.....Keaton was money as usual

[caulfield12]

Yeah, The Founder's an excellent business/marketing class case study...everyone's vaguely familiar with the story, but to see how it all played out is fascinating, not to mention Kroc stealing a wife as well.

 

It was much better than Joy, with Jennifer Lawrence, and that movie received Academy Award notice at one point.

Edited April 25, 2017 by caulfield12

[Boopa1219]

Unless a miracle happens in the next week, it looks like we will have another Writer's Strike.

 

http://variety.com/2017/film/news/writers-...ion-1202393874/

 

Curious to see how this will affect some of the big films in development, especially the DC, Marvel and Star Wars film. My friend who works in Paramount said that a lot of scripts have been turned in 'half baked'

[knightni]

Unless a miracle happens in the next week, it looks like we will have another Writer's Strike.

 

http://variety.com/2017/film/news/writers-...ion-1202393874/

 

Curious to see how this will affect some of the big films in development, especially the DC, Marvel and Star Wars film. My friend who works in Paramount said that a lot of scripts have been turned in 'half baked'

It helped to kill off Heroes.

[Boopa1219]

http://variety.com/2017/film/news/david-fi...tor-1202399978/

 

David Fincher is directing the World War Z sequel

[Johansupi]

http://variety.com/2017/film/news/david-fi...tor-1202399978/

 

David Fincher is directing the World War Z sequel

 

Thats great news! The chance of new WWZ not being crap increased greatly

[Bob Sacamano]

Thats great news! The chance of new WWZ not being crap increased greatly

 

You can say that again. What an awful movie.

[Brian]

I forgot I saw World War Z until right now. Why waste time on a sequel? EVen if it is Finch. He should be doing something original.

[Boopa1219]

Me and the lady drove 3hrs down to Normal, we saw the 4K restoration of Heat, it's the 20th anniversary. There was a pretty cool Q/A with Michael Mann beforehand. Never seen it on the big screen before tonight and it was great. The theater also had the volume way up, which made the experience that much better.

 

We saw Alien downtown for Alien Day last week and got a sneak peak of the new one. I was really disappointed with Prometheus and thought the new one looked terrible from the trailers but 10-12 minutes we saw was fantastic, hopefully it's not the only good scenes of the movie.

[Iwritecode]

Been waiting for this for a long, long time.

 

[caulfield12]

GOTG2 was a bit disappointing.

 

Kind of slow paced in the middle, too much melodrama about family relationships...some of the cultural references felt corny or forced compared to the first one.

 

It was 86 at rottentomatoes, so it's not going to be a dud, but I would never want to watch this one multiple times like the first film.

[caulfield12]

Dangal, about the first woman in India to ever get a gold medal in international wrestling competition, is an excellent film. Disney even co-produced.

 

Aamir Khan, one of the the most versatile actors in the world today, stars as her coach/mentor/father. He must have gained 40-50 pounds for this one. As with all Indian productions, it runs almost 2:30, but it's worth watching.

 

It even debuted in China this weekend (came out around Christmas), which is highly unusual for Bollywood films to ever make it in this market.

[GoSox05]

Blade Runner 2049 has a new trailer out. Looks fantastic.

[Boopa1219]

King Arthur was meh, felt more like a Robin Hood movie. Apparently cost close to $200M.

[Boopa1219]

GOTG2 was a bit disappointing.

 

Kind of slow paced in the middle, too much melodrama about family relationships...some of the cultural references felt corny or forced compared to the first one.

 

It was 86 at rottentomatoes, so it's not going to be a dud, but I would never want to watch this one multiple times like the first film.

 

It really takes a lot for me to hate any movie but GOTG 2 did the trick. It felt like a series of sketches and bits. There were a lot of jokes and while that isn't a bad thing but a lot of them fell flat for me. And there were so many jokes that they got annoying after the first half hour of the movie. Before you could comprehend a joke, a new one would be introduced immediately. And some of the gags went overboard like when Rocket was bouncing the Ravengers.

 

I like Kurt Russell and his character seemed interesting but he was only used to deliver exposition. And when it was revealed that he was the villain it felt so unearned not just because his character was so one note but because his villainy was never hinted at and built towards. I know there was a scene of Mantis trying to warn Drax and the scene where Nebula and Gamora find the cavern with the skeletons but nothing came from Ego himself. In The Dark Knight, although everyone knows that Harvey Dent will eventually become Two-Face but it felt earned because the movie set up his character and showed how conflicted he is and showed how he's willing to blur the line between lawful and unlawful to get things done. When Ego reveals himself as the bad guy, it was like it came out of nowhere, like he decided on a whim..."I'm bad now". And the scene where they play catch? That was one of the stupidest things that I've ever seen. I cringed the whole time. The music itself was great but it felt a little unnatural compared to the first film, like they were forcing it. The action stuff was good, along with the cinematography, colors and costumes. Overall the film felt plotless. The second act was terrible as it did drag and there was little tension and conflict throughout the whole movie.

 

I'm glad that people like it and really enjoyed themselves but I thought it was bad, which is a shame because I love the first one and James Gunn's other movies

[Bob Sacamano]

It really takes a lot for me to hate any movie but GOTG 2 did the trick. It felt like a series of sketches and bits. There were a lot of jokes and while that isn't a bad thing but a lot of them fell flat for me. And there were so many jokes that they got annoying after the first half hour of the movie. Before you could comprehend a joke, a new one would be introduced immediately. And some of the gags went overboard like when Rocket was bouncing the Ravengers.

 

I like Kurt Russell and his character seemed interesting but he was only used to deliver exposition. And when it was revealed that he was the villain it felt so unearned not just because his character was so one note but because his villainy was never hinted at and built towards. I know there was a scene of Mantis trying to warn Drax and the scene where Nebula and Gamora find the cavern with the skeletons but nothing came from Ego himself. In The Dark Knight, although everyone knows that Harvey Dent will eventually become Two-Face but it felt earned because the movie set up his character and showed how conflicted he is and showed how he's willing to blur the line between lawful and unlawful to get things done. When Ego reveals himself as the bad guy, it was like it came out of nowhere, like he decided on a whim..."I'm bad now". And the scene where they play catch? That was one of the stupidest things that I've ever seen. I cringed the whole time. The music itself was great but it felt a little unnatural compared to the first film, like they were forcing it. The action stuff was good, along with the cinematography, colors and costumes. Overall the film felt plotless. The second act was terrible as it did drag and there was little tension and conflict throughout the whole movie.

 

I'm glad that people like it and really enjoyed themselves but I thought it was bad, which is a shame because I love the first one and James Gunn's other movies

 

I do kind of agree. The Ego stuff was uninteresting. The best parts were with the ravagers. And to your point in the bolded, it comes off that way because he believed what he was doing was right. He didn't really come off as an antagonist until it was revealed what he wanted to do and Peter disagreed with him.

[caulfield12]

http://www.cbooo.cn/

 

Yeah, that whole scene felt like "been there, done that" for anyone who has ever watched the movie FIELD OF DREAMS. Except that was a lot more emotional for nearly every kid who has ever played catch with their father (particularly if he has passed away already). I think another reason the whole EGO flip flop was so jarring is because Russell played a (relatively) good guy in FAST 8, and that movie was still fresh in everyone's minds.

 

As far as King Arthur goes, it does seem trying to make him into a Robin Hood/Occupy Wall Street type just doesn't work. I really like Charlie Hunnam, he was great in Sons of Anarchy and The Lost City of Z looks good as well. Pacific Rim was enjoyable, despite its flaws...but whether he becomes the next Gosling remains to be seen. ONE thing that's not debatable is the career downward arc for Guy Ritchie. He's nearing M. Night Shymalan territory, especially considering the huge budget he just blew through.

 

 

Finally, a shocker here in China. Aamir Khan's Hindi female wrestling epic DANGAL is closing in on Guardians of the Galaxy 2. It's $83 million to $66.25 million, with Dangal closing the gap every day since the opening 12 days ago.

Edited May 16, 2017 by caulfield12

[caulfield12]

https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/alien_covenant

 

New Alien Covenant film holding pretty strong in mid 70's at RT.com. Seems to be more satisfying than Prometheus to critics.

[Boopa1219]

http://www.latimes.com/business/hollywood/...0515-story.html

 

Pirates 5 has been hacked and is being held hostage by internet pirates. Disney is not going to meet their demands

[caulfield12]

Haha.

Maybe it's Amber Heard or her lawyer?

 

Part of the WannaCry virus hacking group?

 

It would be a shocker if that movie was actually any good in the first place. Oh, the irony of pirates stealing from pirates literally and figuratively (depending on your perspective regarding Disney and Johnny Depp going to the well one final time too often).

Edited May 19, 2017 by caulfield12