Summer Movies 2012: Part 3
Posted on | May 2, 2012 | 1 Comment
This is the last of the three Summer movie previews. I’m going to talk about the movies that I’m personally looking forward to this summer. I will also predict what rating I’ll give the movies out of 5 and give an overview of other films coming out (that I don’t really want to see). Don’t forget to read Summer Movie Preview Part 1 (Flack’s Box Office Predictions) and Summer Movie Preview Part 2 (Flack’s Critics Predictions). Hope you enjoy “The Epic Conclusion To The Summer Movie Legend”. Clue: Watch the trailers of all the films I talk about and find what movie I just referenced.
Movies I’m Most Anticipating:
The Avengers This 2 hour 22 minute super hero epic movie looks very entertaining. Iron Man, Captain America, and Thor will assemble, along with Black Widow, the Hulk, Nick Fury, and newcomer Hawkeye to battle Loki, Thor’s brother. If Robert Downey Jr. has great chemistry with all the other actors, then this will be hilarious. I think it would have been a good idea to have John Favareau direct it, but Joss Whedon might be a good choice, but I haven’t seen his other movies. I don’t think the story will be excellent, because all of the super heroes together might be a bit too much. But it should be overall entertaining. Reel prediction: 4 stars Release Date: May 4th
Men in Black 3 I have not seen the first 2 MIB films, but I have heard that they are entertaining. Some people say the second one was not as good as the first, so the third might not be either. I think this could follow the path of Indiana Jones, can Josh Brolin be as great as Sean Connery? The trailer looks pretty funny, especially Will Smith’s description of Tommy Lee Jones’ smile. Reel prediction: 3 stars Release Date: May 25th
Brave Pixar’s latest film is a departure from their previous work, but after the mediocre Cars 2 we’re also hoping that it’s a return to form. The latest trailer looks promising but not they’re best. Rude humor and an annoying song are some of the detractors. Meanwhile the brilliant animation, big castle battle, and stunning archery tournament all look amazing. Of course with any trailer there are also some intriguingly mysterious elements. In this case 2 shots in which Merida, the heroine, is caught between two black bears. I don’t think this movie will be as bad as Cars 2, but not as good as the Toy Story trilogy, WALL-E, Finding Nemo, Ratatouille, Monsters Inc., or any of the other Pixar classics. Reel Prediction: 4 stars Release Date: June 22nd
The Amazing Spider-Man I am looking forward to this film a great deal. The actors all seem great, the trailer has loads of exciting action, and the director Marc Webb has been calling this more personal than most superhero movies. The only bad thing in it is the part in the first trailer when he’s flying and it looks too much like a video game. In the second trailer they didn’t put that part in: Could they secretly be hiding a huge mistake? Reel Prediction: 4 1/2 stars Release Date: July 3rd
Paranorman This looks like the must see August movie of the year. Last year August, a usually lackluster month for summer movies, (because they can’t play all summer long) brought us two surprise hits: The Oscar winning The Help and the massive blockbuster prequel Rise of the Planet of the Apes. Can this be the surprise hit of August? I am sure hoping so!!!!! Reel Prediction: 4 stars Release Date: August 17th
Family Films That Look Just Okay:
The Odd Life Of Timothy Green Peter Hedges, the Oscar winning writer/director of Dan In Real Life and What’s Eating Gilbert Grape presents a new Disney movie that (based on the short trailer, there will probably be another one soon) promises to be a sappy, formulaic, yet intriguing and fun, kids movie. Sounds way different than Academy Award winning indie pictures but no matter how this film turns out I am excited to see what it’s like. Go watch the trailer. Flick calls it “The Tree of Life for kids.” I’d call it “a realistic Peter Pan“. Reel Prediction: 3 stars Release Date: August 15
Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted I am not particularly excited to see this film but the trailer looks okay and it’s playing out of competition at Cannes. I haven’t seen any of the others in this series because the annoying theme song and rude humor seemed unappealing. Still, potty joke seeking kids will definitely enjoy this summer movie. Add in a catchy new circus song, it’s festival schedule, and a trailer with great 3-D and no rude humor parents and critics may enjoy the film as well. Reel Prediction: 2 stars Release Date: June 8th
Ice Age 4: Continental Drift I know many people around the world will see this film. The previous installment, Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs made $886 million worldwide (and the highest foreign box office ever for an animated movie:surprising but true). The rest of the series was not terrible but this is not top of my must see summer movie list. However, if you liked the other ones then you’ll probably like this one. Reel Prediction: 2 1/2 stars Release Date: July 13th
Other Movies That I Would Like To See, But Probably Can’t:
The Dark Knight Rises This is the most anticipated movie of the summer and quite possibly of the year. It’s a superhero threequel that continues the story line of The Dark Knight (4 years ago, in 2008) which followed the story of Batman Begins (7 years ago, from 2005). The newest trailer is awesome. After The Dark Knight became the highest grossing superhero movie ever made (a little over $1 billion worldwide) and won 2 Oscars (including Best Supporting Actor for the late Heath Ledger) a sequel became inevitable. Adding Anne Hathaway, Tom Hardy, Joseph Gordon Levvit, and Marion Cotillard has added to fan’s anticipation. Will this new film get good as good reviews as the first ones (85% and 94%, respectively)? Will there be superb special effects and awesome action, as well? Find out this summer when this last in the trilogy movie is released. In the trailer Catwoman says “You don’t owe these people anymore”. Batman responds “Not everything. Not Yet.” Empire Magazine said that Batman’s answer could be applied to Christopher Nolan. Reel Prediction: 4 stars Release Date: July 20th
Moonrise Kingdom A shot in R.I. Wes Anderson film with a star studded cast including Bill Murray, Frances McDormand, Jason Schwartznam, Bruce Willis, Tilda Swinton, Edward Norton, and newcomers Jared Gilman and Kara Hayward: sounds like an Oscar hopeful and quite possibly an opening night Cannes summer smash hit. As for the plot, it’s a romantic comedy with a bit of adventure and drama, as it tells the story of two teenagers in love who run away from their families and then get looked for by their parents, the police, and a pack of cub scouts. Reel Prediction: 4 stars Release Date: May 25th
Dark Shadows Johnny Depp and Tim Burton team up to make an adaption of the TV soap opera series of the same name. Romance, fantastical humor, Burton weirdness, vampire violence, and a cast including previous Burton stars (Depp, Burton’s wife Helena Bonham Carter, Christopher Lee, and Michelle Pfeiffer) and newbies (Jackie Early Haley, Eva Green, and Chloe Grace Mortez). Many people disliked the first trailer but I thought it was very funny. Don’t forget to check out a special featurette on Apple Trailers about the film. It has new clips from the movie and behind the scenes insights from Burton and Depp. Reel Prediction: 4 stars Release Date: May 11th
And now last and least, the summer movies that seem to be all action, no story:
Battleship Transformers on water? Maybe. Robots, things blowing up, big battles, massive explosions, and possible aliens. Sounds a bit far from the board game. Reel Prediction: 2 stars Release Date: May 18th
G.I. Joe Retaliation Bringing in Dwaye Johnson and especially Bruce Willis will boost box office power but keeping Taylor Kitsch in the series was probably a bad move (after Battleship and John Carter but not Savages). The film looks like it has a smudge of fun action to it but not looking like a something that will become an all time classic at all ever. Reel Prediction: 2 1/2 Release Date: June 29th
Piranha 3DD Looks bad except for the title of course.Reel Prediction: 1 star Release Date: June 1st
Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter Lincoln will probably be a lot better. Reel prediction: 2 stars Release Date: June 22nd
Other summer movies being released that I will not do Reel Predictions for (they are not ones that I necessarily want to see a lot) include:
Dramas: Lawless (with an all star cast), The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (with another all star cast), Savages (with a bigger all star cast than the two movies that I just mentioned), and To Rome With Love (with Woody Allen, Alec Baldwin, and more)
Fantasy: Snow White and the Huntsman (with Kirsten Stewart as Snow White)
Musical: Rock of Ages (starring Tom Cruise) and Sparkle (with Whitney Huston)
Action Movies: The Bourne Legacy (a prequel to the previous trilogy of Bourne movies) Preminum Rush (an N.Y.C. bicycle action movie), and The Expendables 2 (with Sylvester Stallone and other famous action heroes)
Comedies: The Campaign (a political comedy with Will Ferrell and Zach Galifianakas), The Dictator (a political spoof starring Sacha Baron Cohen), What To Expect When You’re Expecting (starring Cameron Diaz), That’s My Boy (starring Adam Sandler), Ted (with Mark Wahlberg and a teddy bear), Neighborhood Watch (with Jonah Hill and Ben Stiller and maybe some aliens), and Hope Springs (staring Meryl Streep, Tommy Lee Jones, and Steve Carrell)
Sci- Fi: Total Recall (a remake of the 1992 Arnold Schwarsenegger but now starring Colin Farrell) and Prometheus (a Ridely Scott sci-fi horror movie with a tough Noomi Rapace, a flat Charlize Theron, and a scared Idris Elba)
Documentaries: ReGENERATION (from the 2010 PCFF) and First Position (from TIFF kids)
Thank you for following me on my epic journey of a trilogy of summer movie madness!! Thank you as well to my family for helping me and movie websites for increasing my movie knowledge (IMDB, Rotten Tomatoes, Box Office Mojo, Lights Camera Jackson, EW, and The New York Times). Please don’t forget to COMMENT, COMMENT, COMMENT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Also you should watch the trailers of the films I talked about about (on Apple Trailers) so you might have a little idea of what I have been talking about over the past three articles. During the summer movie season look for articles, reviews, news and maybe some videos and podcasts from Flick and I (in other words not a break from May 31st to August 21st like last summer, hopefully). And last try to go to the movies in the summer and COMMENT and COMMENT some more. You should make your own summer movie schedule of what you want to see for fun!!!!!!!! See you later!!!!!!
Flick and Flack: The Pirates! Band of Misfits
Posted on | April 26, 2012 | Add Comments
While at TIFF Kids, on April 18, 2012 Flick and Flack attended a preview screening of Aardman Animation’s new film, The Pirates! Band of Misfits. After the film, an approximately thirty minute Q&A with Peter Lord (director of Pirates!) followed. We asked him questions, got our picture taken with him (see below), and saw the real claymation puppets of the Pirate Captain played by Hugh Grant, and the dodo.
The next day we both went to the hour long Master Class with Lord. We were honored to be there and we both enjoyed hearing Lord discuss four of Aardman’s films (Chicken Run, Wallace and Gromit: The Curse Of The Were Rabbit, Arthur Christmas, and Pirates!) and a short from 1992 titled Adam (also from Aardman). A cool fact we learned? Steven Spielberg (head of Dreamworks, the studio that produced Chicken Run) approved Chicken Run because Spielberg has chickens, Aardman pitched it as “The Great Escape with chickens”, and The Great Escape is his favorite movie.
Next up for Aardamn is Pirates! 2, some secretive projects, and possibly another Wallace and Gromit movie. Hopefully The Pirates! is a box office hit (it deserves to make more money than Alvin and The Chipmunks). Here are both of our reviews of the film. The Pirates! Band of Misfits opens this Friday, April 27th.
Flack reviews The Pirates! Band of Misfits.
Flick reviews The Pirates! Band of Misfits.
Photos Courtesy of TIFF – Toronto International Film Festival.
John Carter (Flick’s Review)
Posted on | March 23, 2012 | Add Comments
3 stars
John Carter, a civil war veteran is transported to Barsoom (Mars) via magical silver medallion. Carter finds himself trapped in the middle of chaos; the Tharks, a green alien species struggle to stay peaceful, meanwhile the Helium people are on the brink of war with the Zodangan people. All of the species want Carter because after being transported to Barsoom, Carter acquires the power to leap as high as he wants.
I didn’t know what to expect going into John Carter. The trailers are packed to the brim with action, but Andrew Stanton, the director or Finding Nemo and Wall-E, has shown that he’s a master at storytelling. Now that I’ve seen the film, I can tell you that any predictions I had were wrong. The beginning of the film is in simple terms a mess. Many subplots are introduced very quickly but not very coherently. It seems to me as if Stanton and co. were very ecited about the middle of the film, so they didn’t spend much time on the beginning. The dialogue is hard to understand. Whenever anyone on Jarsoom (Earth) says a word they mutter it while they breath heavily and in Taylor Kitsch’s (John Carter) case you might see a muscle or two (more on him later).
Once Carter meets Tars Tarkas, voiced expertly by Willem Dafoe, the film kicks off. Tarkas is a unique character especially when it comes to his relationship with Carter: the two are friends but they both have different ideas about what’s best for everyone. Many ideas are very interesting and a lot of the scenes are exciting. There are also a considerable amount of subplots that include: Carter and Tarkas’ shaky relationship; Carter’s life on Jarsoom; Carter, Dejah Thoris, and Sab Than’s love triangle; Matai Shang and Sab Than’s “let’s go destroy the world” story; Edgar Rice Burroughs figuring out who Carter was and more. The end isn’t as bad as the beginning, but it’s still confusingly uninteresting. Not to say I didn’t get caught up in the world of John Carter (I did for some of the film), it’s just that by the end I felt like saying “again?”. Really? 
Taylor Kitsch. Next up is big ships in the ocean and an Oliver Stone drama, but right now he’s sinking. His muscles are big but his performance could have been much better. Kitsch speaks and acts in a way that leads me to believe he doesn’t want to be in the film. What’s even worse is that Kitsch is surrounded by Defoe, Mark Strong, and Thomas Haden Church who are all giving expert performances. Muscles and Martians and Mars, oh my!
My favorite character is Tars Tarkas because Dafoe’s acting is great, the Virginia scene is funny and the CGI is good. Carter and Tarkas had a great relationship and the CGI was wonderful.
My favorite scene is when Matai Shang captures Carter and then Shang tells him (I won’t spoil it) because Mark Strong was great and the dialogue was well written and spoken.
Andres Stanton’s live action film debut is incomprehensible at the beginning and end, the 3-D is not impressive, and Taylor Kitsch is a bore. However, the middle is fascinating, all of the actors other than Kitsch are strikingly powerful and the original book was one of he first sci-fi books. So I recommend it.
Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax (Flick’s Review)
Posted on | March 21, 2012 | Add Comments
2 stars
Ted lives in a world without nature. Everything is plastic, nothing is organic. But when Ted’s girlfriend says what she really wants is a tree,Ted becomes determined to find one. Ted’s grandmother tells him in order to find a tree, he must go on a journey to find the Onceler. Ted learns the story of the Lorax and decides to change his town.
How the Grinch Stole Christmas, The Cat in the Hat, Horton Hears a Who!, and now Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax have all been made into feature films. The new film is the first 3-D Suess film and with voices by Zac Efron, Taylor Swift, Danny Devito, Ed Helms, and Betty White, The Lorax is surprisingly not enjoyable. The real reason why this film isn’t going to stand the test of time, is simple: the message Suess displays in the original book gets lost in the (mostly) forgettable musical numbers and added characters who aren’t very interesting. Even the character of the Lorax differs from the book; in the film he becomes more of a comic relief. The “that’s a woman” joke is so unSeussian that I wish the Despicable Me crew sent this to Pixar. Imagine a John Lasseter directed Lorax with John Ratzenberger as the Lorax. Okay, maybe give Ratzenberger a smaller part, but it would still be better than this version.
Why didn’t I give this zero stars? There are redeeming qualities but nothing in the film is above good. The only redeeming quality the 3-D adds is that it doesn’t distract from the story because it does so little. It doesn’t even get in your face! I think that’s where the film comes short. I don’t need 3-D in my face, but I do want the message to be evident. The story and message don’t tear out your eyes to aware you to stop cutting down trees, instead fans of the book (like me) are rewarded with unmemorable songs and low quality entertainment. So in the end I wish The Lorax did come in my face; if only the story was right in front of me. As Dr Seuss might have said: the film is so poor and it’s mostly a bore.
My favorite character is the Onceler because I liked seeing the different characteristics he had during his life shown in the film.
My favorite scene is when the Lorax, the bears and the fish put the Onceler in the river while he’s in his bed, because of the Mission Impossible theme rendition, the original music and the textured CG.
The Lorax is rated PG for some mild language and brief rude humor. If only the one swear was cut (I don’t know which humor was rude), then it could have been G.
The Lorax is great for younger kids, but serious Dr. Seuss fans will be disappointed.
2012 Summer Movie Preview (Flick’s Report)
Posted on | March 17, 2012 | 1 Comment
Could this summer be full of Box Office smashes? Look at the lineup of films: The Avengers, The Dark Knight Rises, Men in Black III, Brave, ParaNorman, Battleship, Ice Age 4: Continental Drift and many more films that have the potential to be blockbusters. It’s pretty easy to be overwhelmed by the schedule of films, so here’s an overview.
Here are the three films I am looking forward to the most this summer (in order of what I’m looking forward to the most.)
3. The Avengers Technically this won’t be released in summer but because the rest of the press is including it in their summer movie previews I snuck it in mine too. After watching Iron Man, Captain America: The First Avenger, Thor and Iron Man 2, The Avengers is finally here. Somewhere in between the making of these films it was announced that The Avengers, a film featuring all of the superheros shown in the Marvel films would join forces in an upcoming film. It’ll also be Marvel’s third 3-D film featuring superheros. One more thing: the action looks sickeningly fun.
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2. Finding Nemo Pixar’s first 3-d re-release could prove to be cinemactically stunning in bold 3-D. I think the scenes of Marlin and Dory encountering creatures like Bruce, the angular fish and the jellyfish would look great on the big screen. The fish tank scenes however present a drawback for using 3-D because in those scenes you have to feel as if you are at a normal dentist’s office and adding the third dimension could spoil the fun.
1. Brave Pixar does it best and the trailers of their new medieval CG movie look astonishing. Pixar’s attention to detail is shown in vast proportions and the action is wonderfully choreographed. Even though, Brave’s trailer looks amazing, the finished product could turn out to be a failure because Pixar is taking a risk. Two unknown directors will be at the helm and not to say that a new director spells disaster, but Pixar rests it’s shoulders on John Lasseter, Brad Bird, Andrew Stanton and other members of the “brain trust” so deeply that letting an unknown give it a shot might not turn out so well. My hopes are high.
Here are some other films that you should be aware of before summertime.
Men in Black III You don’t need to travel back in time to know that Men in Black III will be released on May 25th. It’s been ten years since Tommy Lee Jones and Will smith have starred in a MIB film. Is it the right time for them to return? Only the new film will tell. The plot? Agent J must go back in time to the 60s to save Agent K from being killed by an alien. Simple and sci-fiy.
Ice Age: Continental Drift The multiplexes will be drifting away on July 13th when Ice Age: Continental Drift is released. One of the family friendly films of the summer, Manny, Diego and Sid use an iceberg as their ship while their continent drifts away in their fourth adventure. Many franchises that will be releasing their first 3-D film this summer and Ice Age just happens to be one of them. The trailer has some made for 3-D cinematography and there are also quite a bit of new characters so I think Continental Drift might be just okay.
Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted They like to move it move it into theaters on June 8th. The 3-D is used to great effect in the trailer which I have now seen almost five times. The greatest thing about the trailer is that there is no bathroom humor (a.k.a. fart jokes etc.) except for maybe one of the animals being shot in the butt. This is another family friendly release for this summer and it will be competing against Continental Drift in box office gross. Personally, I am looking forward to Continental Drift more.
Titanic 3-D This year marks the 100th anniversary of the real ship’s sinking, making now the perfect time for James Cameron to re-release his 1997 film in 3-D. The film will also be shown in 2-D which is not usual for a 3-D re-release. The big question is: will Titanic have any chance competing against films like The Avengers, The Dark Knight Rises, Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted and Ice Age: Continental Drift? These franchises have built up audiences over the years and now they just might be able to throw Titanic overboard.
The Dark Knight Rises My guess is that not only will this be the highest grossing film of the summer but also that it will gross over $1.1 billion at the box office. Batman fans will watch the final film in Christopher Nolan’s trilogy unfold on screens starting July 20th. This will also be in IMAX adding even more to it’s box office gross. This could also be the highest grossing film of the year. My guess: yes.
The Amazing Spider Man The 3-D looks astonishing especially in the last fifteen seconds or so of the trailer (I’ve seen the trailer in 3-D at the theater). Tobey Maguire is replaced by Andrew Garfield who recently starred in The Social Network. Other new actors include Emma Stone, Martin Sheen, Sally Field, Dennis Leary and of course Stan Lee. A mistake people often make is thinking that this is a Marvel Studios film. Wrong! Marvel has the rights to all of their comic superheros except one: Spidey. The truth is that Sony Pictures Classics has the right to Spidey.
Battleship How can you turn a toy or game into a successful movie? That question has been floating around Hollywood for some time now, films like the Transformers films, the G.I Joe films and now the latest Battleship which will be docking at theaters May 18th. Taylor Kitsch who also recently starred in John Carter, will play a major role in the film as will Liam Neeson. Star power. Explosions. Big ships. Peter Berg will have to make some magic to make this work. The idea of a film based on the game Battleship is not exactly intriguing, however this could just turn out to be the surprise hit of the summer.
ParaNormarn Despite some bathroom humor, this claymation film seems to have a message and also looks different. What I mean by that is that nowadays we expect a certain thing when we see animated films: a film for young kids, funny, ect. but what looks great about ParaNorman is that while it has all of those qualities it adds something new. It adds a mix of slight horror to comedy to action to the story of a lonely kid who must find his place in life. The trailer has me hooked.
Prometheus Ridley Scott’s new epic, Promeheus stars Noomi Rapace, Michael Fassbender and Charlize Theron. The sci-fi/epic/horror/action film blows up in theaters June 8th. While it won’t be the highest grosser of the summer, my guess is that it will be in the top ten. Fans of Scott’s past films will probably see the film and it features an all star cast which could boost up it’s gross.
There you have it. Those are eleven films that you might not see (I might not see) but either have a lot of buzz circulating around them or as with the top three films I am looking forward to the most this summer, I’m really excited about. In the meantime, happy ninety five days till summer and movie mayhem.
Rear Window (Flack’s Review)
Posted on | March 16, 2012 | Add Comments
5 Stars
Rear Window is based on the short story “It Had To Be Murder.” The movie tells the story of L.B. Jefferies, a photographer with a broken leg in a cast. Because he gets stuck in his apartment with nothing to do because he’s in a wheelchair he decides to look at his neighbors. There are dogs, husbands, wives, and others that he peeks out at. But when he thinks he sees a man commit murder, his time-wasting game becomes something much more. He is joined in uncovering the mystery by his girlfriend, his nurse and an old detective friend. Together they must solve the possible crime.
Rear Window is a masterpiece. Alfred Hitchcock creates a fascinating story and develops interesting characters that make the mystery more emotional. You care for the characters and don’t want them to get hurt. Jimmy Stewart does a great job as L.B. Jefferies but I must admit it was weird watching George Bailey in a murder mystery movie. Stewart isn’t quite as good or at least as iconic as he was in It’s a Wonderful Life, but he’s still perfect in this. Grace Kelly plays his girlfriend and Thelma Ritter plays the nurse. Ritter steals every scene she’s in because of her pitch-perfect comic timing. Although some would argue the story is cliche and at times predictable, I would have to disagree. Except for a romantic subplot in a distant window, everything in the story adds to the mystery. The climax of bone tingling action sequences is riveting due not only to the actors but also to Hitchcock.
Another thing that surprised me was that the actors were not only great but also as important to the story as Hitchcock’s direction. It’s also interesting how the whole movie is set largely in one apartment room.
My favorite scene is the part when the suspected murderer walks into L.B.’s room because it’s is super scary and super suspenseful!!!!! And freaky!!!!!
My favorite character is L.B. Jefferies because he is likeable. Also Stewart does a good job making you want him to stay safe and not get hurt (after all he already is)!
Rear Window is better than the two other Alfred Hitchcock movies I’ve seen (the entertainingly enjoyable 1959 North by Northwest and the so-so 1934 The Man Who Knew Too Much.) Rear Window is well acted , suspenseful, exciting, full of mystery, funny, fascinating, perfect, a classic, masterfully edited, and most of all terrifically directed by Alfred Hitchcock!!!!!
Box Office Battle Brews (Flack’s Report)
Posted on | March 14, 2012 | Add Comments
When 2011′s total box office total grosses were announced to be the lowest since 1995, high expectations were already being set for 2012. I was personally surprised about 2011, considering that the last Harry Potter installment, not one but four super hero films, Transformers 3, and two Steven Spielberg films were all released. But with Batman 3, a Spider-Man movie, the Avengers, and another Steven Spielberg movie all being released in 2012, excitement is starting to brew.
So far the box office is 24% higher at this than point last year. But not quite as high as 2009 and 2010 at this point. Coraline and Pink Panther 2 were released in early 2009 and Avatar was released in December 2009 and obviously carried over into early 2010. This year 3 movies have already passed the 100 million dollar mark. In order from least to greatest, they are: the action movie, Safe House ($116 million), the romance, The Vow ($118 million), and the family film, The Lorax ($129 million). Those movies also have the highest opening weekends, with $40 million, $41 million and $70 million. Also twenty movies have passed the 30 million mark. Still there have been a large number of commercial flops, such as, This Means War, The Woman in Black, The Grey, Red Tails, Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance, and so far John Carter.
Now let’s take a look at what other March blockbusters are coming up.
March 16, 2012: The Big Opening: 21 Jump Street. Why it will be big? Starring comedian and Oscar nominee, Jonah Hill. And with a current Rotten Tomatoes score of 85%, it’s likely to become a semi-big commercial, crowd pleaser. Why it will not be big: It’s rated R, which means that younger audiences won’t go. Also others might not be old enough to remember the TV show. My box office predictions: Opening Weekend: $35 million, Domestic Total: $155 million, and International Total: $255 million. Other movies opening that week: Seeking Justice staring Nicolas Cage, Jeff who Lives at Home staring Jason Segel, and the Spanish film Casa de mi Padre starring Will Ferrel.
March 23, 2012: The Big Opening: The Hunger Games. Why: This is the biggest non-summer, non-holiday movie of the year. Comparisons to Twilight could give it a push…. or not. The first Twilight opened to 69 million dollars in it’s opening weekend, but this is likely to do better. It has a massive, massive, massive fan base and could get great reviews. Why not: It’s possible because not everyone is familiar with it, it might not do well. My box office predictions: Opening Weekend: $80 million, Domestic Total: $350 million, and International Total: $400 million. Other movies opening that week: The Raid: The Redemption, and Brake.
March 30, 2012: The Big Openings: Wrath of the Titans, and Mirror Mirror. Why? The first Titans movies was released to a $61 million weekend, suggesting this could very well possibly follow in its footsteps. The first Titans movie was badly reviewed, and got a 28% splat on Rotten Tomatoes. The 2 worst reviewed elements, however, are back: Sam Worthington and 3-D, but the first earned $300 million overseas, making this one a potential blockbuster. Also people now know that they didn’t like the first one so they might not return for a sequel. Meanwhile Mirror Mirror is the more family-friendly of the two Snow White movies, opening in 2012. It also stars Julia Roberts. But it’s not a summer movie, an action movie, or a Kristen Stewart movie, or even a movie with Thor in it, which the other one is all of those. My box office predictions for Wrath of the Titans: Opening Weekend: $40 million, Domestic Total: $200 million, International Total: $300 million. My Mirror Mirror box office predictions: Opening Weekend: $25 million, Domestic Total: $115 million, International Total: $170 million.
One last note, I wanted to point out is that all top 1o movies at the box office right now have a SPLAT on Rotten Tomatoes, which means they are badly reviewed. However I expect that to change for new movies coming out, particularly the first two ones I was just talking about Many people are saying that all this good box office will lead people into the Summer, however I hope that some of the Summer movies get good reviews. In December, I’m expecting The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey to be the big holiday movie and Lincoln (directed by Steven Spielberg and starring Daniel Day Lewis) to be the big Oscar movie and a potential blockbuster. The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey will probably be first or second place along with The Dark Knight Rises for the whole, entire year. The Amazing Spider-Man, Skyfall, and The Avengers will round out the top 5 for the year (not in order). More Summer movies preview for 2012 are coming soon.
Tags: Box Office Predictions
The Lorax (Flack’s Review)
Posted on | March 11, 2012 | 1 Comment
The Lorax (Flack’s Review)
4 Stars
The Lorax is loosely based on the classic Dr. Seuss book by the same name. It is about a young boy named Ted who sets out on a journey to find a tree for Audrey (which is also the name of Dr. Seuss’s wife) who he is in love with. He meets the Oncler who tells him the story of the Lorax and helps on his adventure. Along with his grandmother, his mom, and others, he embarks on a quest to find a non-plastic tree in his all plastic world, guarded by evil businessmen. However, if he doesn’t believe in his mission a lot he just won’t make it, he will not!!!!!
The Lorax is a surprisingly good family film with so-so songs, a great voice cast, and creative animation!!!!! Walking into the theatre I had pretty low expectations. Expecting to give it two stars, I was also wondering how the film would live up to the book. But in the end I was happily surprised. The movie is a musical. When comparing the songs to those of another recent family-friendly movie musical, The Muppets, the Lorax’s songs are just okay. “How Bad Can I Possibly Be” isn’t really that bad and “Let It Grow” is delightfully cheerful. But the show stopping opener has been done better and has been done before. None of them are as great as “Life’s A Happy Song” and the Oscar-winning “Man Or Muppet,” but they are okay.
Compared to the mega-popular blockbuster, Despicable Me (made by both the same studio and directed by the same directors) this is way better. Despite The Lorax‘s massive opening weekend at the box-office, I’m afraid that bathroom jokes and annoying minions will live on longer than the movie form of tree-choppers and furry orange animals. The Lorax does have some joyful jokes and great gags. My favorite? The part in which the Lorax robs the Oncler’s bed and all the tree animals start singing the Mission:Impossible theme song. I also loved the beautiful animation, even though at times it is a bit too candy colored. The 3-D is okay. It doesn’t even come close to Hugo, which I think is the best 3-D ever (I haven’t seen Avatar in the format of 3-D). But, hey it’s still always cool to see things go fly right up in to your face. After watching this I want to go back and rewatch Dr. Seuss’s Horton Hears a Who, from 2008.
My favorite scene is when the Lorax and the tree animals sing the Mission:Impossible theme song because it is hilarious and a neat and funny reference.
My favorite character is the Lorax because of Danny DeVito’s Robin Williams as the Genie in Aladdinish voice acting.
The movie is rated PG by the MPAA for brief mild language. The movie is rated G by Flack because there is nothing that inappropriate about it and so that more younger kids could see it and because I think they would like it.
With a great voice cast including Zac Efron, Taylor Swift, and Ed Helms, as well as the fabulously funny Betty White and Danny DeVito plus a great moralistic message, this a great movie. It’s even better than Cars 2 (the worst Pixar movie ever). And beneath the movie’s so-so songs, candy colored animation and okay 3-D it is a terrific tribute to Dr. Seuss.
84th Annual Academy Awards 2012 Predictions Part 3
Posted on | February 23, 2012 | 2 Comments
Flick and Flack talk about their 2012 Oscar Predictions in Part 3 of a 3 part video series. In this video, Flick and Flack discuss the Best Picture category and give their predictions for this year’s Academy Awards.
Part 3 (28 minutes, 1 second)
Flack’s rankings of the Best Picture nominees from least likely to win to most likely to win.
9. Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close
8. The Tree of Life
7. War Horse
6. Moneyball
5. Midnight in Paris
4. The Descendants
3. The Help
2. Hugo
1. The Artist
Flack’s rankings of the Best Picture nominees from least favorite to most favorite of the ones I’ve seen.
8. Midnight in Paris
7. The Artist
6. The Tree of Life
5. Moneyball
4. Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close
3. Hugo
2. The Help
1. War Horse
Flick’s rankings of the Best Picture nominees from least likely to win to most likely to win.
9. Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close
8. The Tree of Life
7. War Horse
6. Moneyball
5. Midnight in Paris
4. The Help
3. The Descendants
2. Hugo
1. The Artist
Flick’s rankings of the Best Picture nominees from least favorite to most favorite of the ones I’ve seen.
8. Moneyball
7. The Artist
6. Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close
5. Midnight in Paris
4. The Help
3. The Tree of Life
2. War Horse
1. Hugo
84th Annual Academy Awards 2012 Predictions Part 2
Posted on | February 23, 2012 | 1 Comment
Flick and Flack talk about their 2012 Oscar Predictions in Part 2 of a 3 part video series. In this video, Flick and Flack discuss the acting, directing and screenplay categories and give their predictions in all of those categories for this year’s Academy Awards.
Part 2 (37 minutes, 56 seconds)
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