Summer School - Part I

MovieBob

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Summer School - Part I

Summer wasn?t a particularly enjoyable crop, but at least it was an interesting one where even the failures had something to teach us. For example?

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castlewise

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Jul 18, 2010
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I must be one of the 4 people in the world that like the Riddick movies. Even the second one, although I was frustrated that they seemed to have built this whole mythos and never explained any of it.
 
Jan 12, 2012
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castlewise said:
I must be one of the 4 people in the world that like the Riddick movies. Even the second one, although I was frustrated that they seemed to have built this whole mythos and never explained any of it.
(In before people start shouting at you to read the Dune books) I liked the Riddick movies too. Vin Diesel is kinda ludicrous, but they're not bad by most definitions.
 

Ickabod

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You're not alone in thinking that this summer you got tired of the rides. The problem to me, is the movies and the sameness of them all. Too many of the movies just look like they were written by an accountant where you know the entire movie before even walking in the theater.

Another question, would Iron Man 3 have made as much money if it released in mid July as opposed to the first week of May? Sure I liked the movie, but would it have done as well had audiences already gotten their fill of explosions for the summer. Granted it had the best twist of the summer, and had a solid plot, so that does help.

And finally, blockbuster popcorn movies are supposed to be fun. Marvel and Disney seem to have figured this out, but everyone else is just too serious for their own good. Man of Steel, Star Trek, (something else), etc... They were all too self important for themselves. I think that's what Marvel/Disney have figured out, they're just movies, while you can touch on real world issues, don't make them the issue. In Iron Man 3 the issue was terrorism but the movie was about Tony Stark/Iron Man.

I don't know, you're the critic, I'm just trying to add to the conversation on how I felt this summer.
 

Mr Fixit

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Thunderous Cacophony said:
castlewise said:
I must be one of the 4 people in the world that like the Riddick movies. Even the second one, although I was frustrated that they seemed to have built this whole mythos and never explained any of it.
(In before people start shouting at you to read the Dune books) I liked the Riddick movies too. Vin Diesel is kinda ludicrous, but they're not bad by most definitions.
Well I guess that makes me number 3 then, because I liked them too & i'm really looking forward to the next one.
 

Elijah Newton

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MovieBob said:
That's not good news for when his blockbuster clout really does dry up and serious projects are wary of casting him for fear of residual Tonto jokes tainting their prospects.
May I be the first to coin the term 'Tonto taint' for this phenomena? There are entredres which I think do justice to the stinker. In the future when it looks like Depp has been cast to wear a funny hat and draw attention from an otherwise phlegmatic endeavor we can caution that his Tonto taint is showing, so look away. Look away!

Captcha was 'silver lining'... ok, perhaps the horse was very good but I can't imagine it made Lone Ranger worth watching.


Thunderous Cacophony said:
castlewise said:
I must be one of the 4 people in the world that like the Riddick movies. Even the second one, although I was frustrated that they seemed to have built this whole mythos and never explained any of it.
(In before people start shouting at you to read the Dune books) I liked the Riddick movies too. Vin Diesel is kinda ludicrous, but they're not bad by most definitions.
Sure, I'm with you guys. The first did a lot with a small budget. The second was was... well, not weird, just not the movie I expected, though given my low expectations this was totally a value added feature. Also, I'm faintly mystified / impressed that Dame Dench was in it.
 

Vivi22

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But whereas the expensive Down had a disappointingly average debut at the boxoffice, the low-budget Olympus opened earlier in the year and did tidy business for itself. Lesson learned: Get there first.
Although Olympus (according to wikipedia anyway) had the bigger box office, it was only by $30 million. If it had had the same box office Down had it still would have been a financial success because it had less than half the budget. I wouldn't say that the lesson is so much get their first as it is, don't have a budget that you aren't sure you'll be able to make back.

That or don't have shitty trailers. Because I'll be honest, Of the trailers that were aired on TV for the two, I would have pegged White House Down as looking substantially less interesting and even completely stupid. But that may be because I have trouble taking Channing Tatum seriously as an action star.
 

vid87

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Minor additional topic - Ryan Reynolds should pretty much never be the lead actor: any time he's prominently featured as the main character in a mainstream movie, said film dies a horrible death (RIPD was one of the big duds this year and Turbo didn't do much better). It seems when he's the sidekick or not the focus of audience interest (Croods, Origins Wolverine, The Proposal, Safe House) or in a lower budget film he does a bit better. Thing is I don't feel he's a bad actor - he just has really bad timing and taste in projects.

Predicted topic - Horror is doing really, really well. Obviously they have for a while, but I'm wondering if there's a more interesting trend being expressed through the successes of Purge and Conjuring.
 

Rawberry101

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Jan 14, 2012
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Bob did you say Iron Man 3 was the best in its trilogy?

Bob wat r u

"The best of its own trilogy by far"
-Bob 'Moviebob' Chipman

Bob

Stahp :'(
 

Pyrian

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It walks a deft tightrope between utilizing archetypal characters while effortlessly breaking Hollywood rules about the function of women and people of color in "big" movies.
Using archetypes I see, breaking rules, I don't see. The major characters under discussion? Tough black police chief who dresses down the protagonists a lot and the asian martial artist sidekick? These are ancient stereotypes.
 

Sanunes

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I have actually been feeling the same way you did about this summer for a few years now, everything seems to be the same as everything else and to me that is because every movie is like every other movie. It reminds me of how I felt about Oblivion, I was able to guess almost every single plot twist in the movie based on the trailer alone.

As far as Riddick goes, I wasn't demanding it but now that its coming to theaters I will probably go see it for it reminds me more of Pitch Black then Chronicles. That and I tend to be more interested in a movie that tries to be different then a clone of everything else out there which seems to make up a good chunk of the available movies.
 

Bestival

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castlewise said:
I must be one of the 4 people in the world that like the Riddick movies. Even the second one, although I was frustrated that they seemed to have built this whole mythos and never explained any of it.
Everyone I've talked to about is as completely fucking stocked about the new Riddick movie as I am. Seems only reviewers don't like it!
Also, Chronicles Of Riddick was always meant to be a trilogy. It was sold as a trilogy, and if Diesel had to get all blackmaily to get them to continue it, that just shows that Hollywood, once again, wasn't keeping its word. That's excluding Pitch Black btw, which was just a character introduction type of tale.

It's still probably going to bomb though, it's been too long since the first movie. It will also be rated R, apparently The Underverse is kind of a naughty place.

Anyway, between that stab at the only movie besides The Hobbit that I'm interested in this year, and saying Iron Man 3 was the best in the trilogy, I don't think this guy has any clue what he's talking about. Glad I never read any of his other stuff.
 

Lionsfan

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Pyrian said:
It walks a deft tightrope between utilizing archetypal characters while effortlessly breaking Hollywood rules about the function of women and people of color in "big" movies.
Using archetypes I see, breaking rules, I don't see. The major characters under discussion? Tough black police chief who dresses down the protagonists a lot and the asian martial artist sidekick? These are ancient stereotypes.
Let's not forget the film spent the first half deciding if Asian Girl and White Guy were gonna hook up or not.

Pacific Rim was an ok film, not great, and certainly not ground breaking
 

Sovereignty

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Kumagawa Misogi said:
It's a shame Pacific Rim still lost money even as a success in China as I would like a prequel (or what Pacific Rim should have been about in the first place THE START OF THE WAR!)

The problem with China is that in most countries 50% of ticket sales go to the syudio but for chinese ticket sales only 25% go to the studio so unless China starts co-funding the films being a success there doesn't help as much as it could for films that don't do well in the US.

I'm not sure where you get your numbers, but Pacific Rim DID make money. It almost doubled it'd budget iirc.


And that was more so thanks to the great showing over seas
 

bificommander

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I'm surprised Pacific Rim did so well in China, considering their Jaeger gets so pathetically trounced while fighting two-on-one in their first on-screen battle.
 

Keyes

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Na, I'm the Riddick lovers. I've loved the Riddick movies since I was a little kid. Once I found out a third was being made I couldn't stop smiling. Plenty of folks I've talked to have said that they can't wait for it to hit theaters either. So why the major downplay on Riddick, I don't know, guess reviewers just don't like 'em.