Summer School - Part I

[Darth_Payn]

Well, this column wasn't as vitriolic and angry as I expected it too. So, good for Bob?

I can't wait for next week, where he will ***** about Nolan. AGAIN! Because of course he will.

Dude, DO NOT give him ideas.

captcha:"find your soul paint" where this weekend?

Dafuq is "soul paint"?

 

[KissingSunlight]

Completely agree with Bob about the completely average Summer Movie season. Only 3 movies were above average this year: The World's End, The Heat, and Now You See Me. I give some credit to Spring Breakers and Pain & Gain for at least attempting to do something interesting. The worst summer movie, having seen The Lone Ranger & The Wrath of Khan remake, is Iron Man 3. It reminded me of the Patton Oswalt bit about talking to George Lucas before he filmed the Star Wars prequels. "Hey! Do you like the first 2 Iron Man movies and The Avengers? Well, we are going to completely throw all that away. Now I'm going to have Tony Starks out of the power suit for about 90% of the movie. It's going to be like a 1970's TV detective show. Where Tony is running around on foot chasing clues about a mystery."

 

[Callate]

Actually, Hansel and Gretel did $55m in the U.S. on a $50m budget, so it didn't even really bomb stateside. It didn't do blockbuster business there-- but did anyone ever think it would?

Wonder if the hypothesized-to-be PG-13 sequel will be able to pull the same trick. Seriously, the grim (and arguably misogynistic) tone may have been all that set it apart from a dozen similar movies that barely raise their heads in the theaters before vanishing into the video market.

(Fail to learn the lesson of Brothers Grimm and Jack the Giant Slayer at your peril, guys.)

I'm actually kind of looking forward to Riddick, too. Sure, at this point it's kind of the movie version of watching the GM's NPC kick ass while the player characters stand around and look befuddled- but it's rarely dull, unimaginative and by the numbers, and god knows there's still plenty of that to go 'round.

 

[Falseprophet]

I also like the Riddick movies. It just tickles me that Vin Diesel uses the money and leverage he gets from his "dudebro" franchise to keep making movies in his "nerd" franchise.

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

In an earlier time or a better film year, I might have agreed. But this summer was so full of disappointments, this well-made film with a simple plot was far better than all the messy SERIOUS BUSINESS blockbusters surrounding it. Comedy's not my favourite genre, and I'm definitely not a horror guy, and yet this summer the best films I saw were This Is The End, The Heat, The World's End, and The Conjuring. Meanwhile, other than Iron Man 3 and Pacific Rim, every other action blockbuster left me really disappointed.

Pacific Rim's production budget was $190 million so it needs a box office gross of $380 million to break even as the studio gets 50% while the theater chain gets the other 50% except for China were the stuido only gets 25%.

It used to be that for domestic box office, the Hollywood studios made 90% of the ticket sales while theatre owners made 10% for the first two weeks of release, then the studio and theatre would split the take 50/50 after that. But for the last decade or so, the studios have been able to negotiate far more advantageous deals for themselves.

International box office only pays the studio 25-50% generally, depending on the country in question.

 

[MatsVS]

I've seen people cry for another Riddick film for years now (and with good reason). Bob is making the old internet faux pas of assuming that me = everyone.

 

[Penguin_Factory]

I have to say, I really don't get the reaction to Iron Man 3. I thought it was bloated, meandering, fairly idiotic and way too full of incoherent set pieces. The thing that baffles me is that I've been lukewarm on all of the Marvel films apart from the first Iron Man and the Avengers and I'm used to my opinion on those films being somewhat out of sync with everyone else, but this time around even people who dislike the Marvel movies more than I do are saying "actually yeah, that one was pretty good!"

I just don't see what other people found so appealing about the movie.

 

[daibakuha]

I have to say, I really don't get the reaction to Iron Man 3. I thought it was bloated, meandering, fairly idiotic and way too full of incoherent set pieces. The thing that baffles me is that I've been lukewarm on all of the Marvel films apart from the first Iron Man and the Avengers and I'm used to my opinion on those films being somewhat out of sync with everyone else, but this time around even people who dislike the Marvel movies more than I do are saying "actually yeah, that one was pretty good!"

I just don't see what other people found so appealing about the movie.

People like it because it's essentially a Shane Black movie with Iron Man skin. Shane Black is an incredibly talented writer and filmmaker.

It also had a good balance of fun and serious, a really interesting twist, and some really solid humor and action. It wasn't overly stupid and it remembered that Iron Man is supposed to a goddamned hero.

 

[Lionsfan]

I also like the Riddick movies. It just tickles me that Vin Diesel uses the money and leverage he gets from his "dudebro" franchise to keep making movies in his "nerd" franchise.

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

In an earlier time or a better film year, I might have agreed. But this summer was so full of disappointments, this well-made film with a simple plot was far better than all the messy SERIOUS BUSINESS blockbusters surrounding it. Comedy's not my favourite genre, and I'm definitely not a horror guy, and yet this summer the best films I saw were This Is The End, The Heat, The World's End, and The Conjuring. Meanwhile, other than Iron Man 3 and Pacific Rim, every other action blockbuster left me really disappointed.

I dunno, just because it was better than other films this year doesn't mean it's this groundbreaking film that's going to revolutionize storytelling, or one that broke all the Hollywood rules

 

[Mr. Q]

I'm gonna break this article down to each example.

I will agree that Johnny Depp has suffered from overexposure and has made a lot of mistakes with his current film career. Johnny needs to take a much needed break from all of this and reevaluate his options. Perhaps go back to simple independent movies or maybe work behind the camera. It's a thought.

Right now, Marvel Studios is the 800 pound gorilla and is riding a damn good wave. As long as they don't make any fatal mistakes (like milking each movie franchise too much) and play their cards right, they will be a major player in Hollywood for the foreseeable future.

Bay should stick to what he knows best-mindless action films not based on popular franchises. He has no passion for his TF movies and it shows. Even his production company does a piss-poor job with well known horror franchises. Plus, the man can't do deep subject material; mostly because he's about as deep as a shot glass. Just let him play in his own sandbox and make Bad Boys III or whatever floats his boat.

I'm kinda glad that America is no longer the "be all, end all" final voice when it comes to a movie's success. It makes movies like Pacific Rim find a wider audience and give directors like Del Toro a better shot at making movies he wants. But that can have a flip side to it since bad movies can find a life outside the US.

This one is relative to the final entry. I am upset that You're Next didn't do well at the box office but it wasn't due to The Purge coming in theaters first. It was partly due to Lionsgate doing a piss poor job marketing You're Next to moviegoers; mainly their trailers just showing off another home invasion horror movie instead of highlighting the qualities (I.E. its dark humor and having a far more capable protagonist) that make it stand out.

 

[Insideout Ink Demon]

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?

Read Full Article

hey Bob, why not do a Big Picture on the whole Riddick thing when the next film is released?
could be interesting to hear how it got green lit for a third, othe than keeping Vin sweet for another Fast Furious

 

[Jandau]

In this thread: people saying how they didn't like movies everyone else seemed to...

As for the article:

The problem isn't that people are suck of Depp, but rather that studios seem to think that sticking him in a movie is the "I WIN!" button of boxoffice success. It isn't. Take Pirates - sure, Depp is one of the major reasons those movies were so fun, but he's not the only one; those were fun movies in their own right, with all of the cast putting out solid performances. Except the 4th one, which sucked, despite Depp, whose performance wasn't enough to carry the movie.

Also, glad to see that Hollywood is realizing that overseas markets can bring in a lot of cash. I just feel kinda bad for the Chinese - they loved Pacific Rim, but their country's Jaeger got curbstomped in its first battle...

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.

Ummm, perhaps I'm missing something here, but what has Riddick got to do with Dune? Granted, I read only the early ones (Children of Dune was the last I did), and I know there's like a few dozen of them beyond that (most of them not by Frank Herbert), so it's likely that I'm missing something obvious...

 

[Thunderous Cacophony]

Ummm, perhaps I'm missing something here, but what has Riddick got to do with Dune? Granted, I read only the early ones (Children of Dune was the last I did), and I know there's like a few dozen of them beyond that (most of them not by Frank Herbert), so it's likely that I'm missing something obvious...

It's actually really obvious; I'm apparently a complete idiot. I thought the two were part of the same franchise/universe, but a quick Googling reveals that Riddick is only "inspired" by Dune. Carry on being well-informed.