AD
Home Blog Page 1697

Box Office: ‘Predator’ Hunts Down $24M, ‘A Simple Favor’ Impresses With $16M

By
John Nolan
-

1. Predator (review)- $24M
Predator managed to hunt down $24M to win its opening weekend, with Shane Black’s revival of long-running franchise earning $54.7M overall worldwide. That’s not great, especially for a movie budgeted at $88M. The domestic start is less than than either Alien vs. Predator movie, and those are hardly looked upon as favorites among fans of the series. Perhaps more disappointing is that it fails to surpass the opening haul of 2010’s Predators, the last “official” movie in the canon. I don’t know what this means for the future of Predator, but maybe Fox (or Disney? I think the franchise moves to them next year?) will realize, like Blade Runner and other sci-fi properties, only the most die-hard fans are going to turn out for these movies. It’s time to set the budget accordingly.
2.  The Nun– $18.2M/$85M
The Nun suffered a heavy 66% drop in its second weekend, but that’s mainly because last week was so huge. Overall The Conjuring Universe horror has $228M worldwide.
3. A Simple Favor (review)- $16M
I was really curious to see how Paul Feig’s stylish dark comedy/mystery A Simple Favor would do, and it did rather well. The Anna Kendrick/Blake Lively combo brought in $16M which is great for a $20M film with a lot of buzz behind it.  They really did a great job marketing this one, playing off the contrasts between Kendrick’s quirky Pitch Perfect persona and the glamorous Lively, who has been a consistently big opener in every film she’s been the face of. I think we can put to rest any question about her as a bonafide movie star and box office draw at this point. This is also a successful bounceback for Feig after his disappointing Ghostbusters remake a couple of years ago.
4. White Boy Rick (review)- $8.8M
And it’s another disappointing result for Matthew McConaughey, as crime drama White Boy Rick opened to just $8.8M. The McConaissance is over, folks. I was never quite sure who this movie was for. Set in the 1980s, it tells the true story of a white kid who became caught up in the drug epidemic, but as a user but as a prominent dealer and eventually a government informant. McConaughey plays his father, but it was clear the movie wasn’t really about him, no matter how hard they tried to make it appear so. Along with Free State of Jones, Gold, and The Dark Tower this is multiple high-profile duds for McConaughey.
5. Crazy Rich Asians– $8.7M/$149.5M
6. Peppermint– $6M/$24.2M
7. The Meg– $3.8M/$137M
8. Searching– $3.2M/$19.6M
9. Unbroken: Path to Redemption– $2.35M
10. Mission: Impossible-Fallout- $2.31M/$216.1M

‘Venom’ Director Teases Possibility Of An Unrated Cut

By
John Nolan
-



“That’s the plan. It is not the plan, that’s the movie. Our movie wants to honor the comics as close as we can tonally. In the comics, he bites people’s heads off and eats brains. It would be weird to make a movie with Venom if he wasn’t doing that. “

That was Venom director Ruben Fleischer back in July when asked specifically if the film would be R-rated, which would be fitting in tone with the character. Well, sadly, we ain’t getting an R-rated Venom movie. It’s been saddled with the teen-friendly PG-13 label, which we already knew was likely to happen because Sony wants to stay in Marvel’s good graces. But that is definitely disappointing to fans of the brain-eating symbiote Tom Hardy will be playing, and clearly Fleischer knows it because now he’s trying to dangle the possibility of an unrated cut.

Speaking with Fandango, Fleischer talks about the direction he wanted to go with Venom, and he almost sounds apologetic in that the final result isn’t at all what he initially wanted or promised…

“When I set out to make the movie, I wanted to distinguish the film tonally, and I wanted to make a darker, grittier, kind of edgier comic book movie that also has a strong horror element, which is inherent to the character and the comic. Those were the aspects: darker, edgier, grittier,” Fleischer said.

Dark ‘n gritty is simply too generic a label at this point. It means nothing. The DCEU was dark ‘n gritty and that didn’t work. Venom should have those attributes but be something more. I always hated the anti-hero label for a character like Venom because he’s mostly about feeding his urges, whatever they may be. Sometimes that means eating a guy’s brains, which is hardly the act of a superhero…

“I don’t know how heroic that is, but that’s definitely true to the nature of the character and what he’s doing in this film.”


Okay, so how is a character that eats brains in a PG-13 movie? Yeah, Fleischer could hide it offscreen but and that’s probably what he’ll do. But what about fans who want all of that stuff kept in? The director isn’t denying the possibility of an uncut version of the film, although at this point I’m not likely to believe anything Fleischer has to say because clearly he is not the guy with creative control…

“I wouldn’t rule anything out. We’ll have to see where it lands, I guess, but I wouldn’t rule anything out,” Fleischer says.

Venom hits theaters on October 5th and I hope they keep that awful Eminem song out of the final cut.

‘Bond 25’ Won’t Feature Danny Boyle And John Hodge’s Script

By
John Nolan
-

Well, this shouldn’t come as any surprise. Ever since Danny Boyle exited the James Bond franchise weeks ago, it’s become apparent that a clean break was going to be needed, even if keeping the story he fashioned with writer John Hodge would have helped speed up production. But it’s not happening, and producers have decided it’s best to stick with what they know works rather than move forward on a Danny Boyle story without the director’s involvement.

Franchise writers Neal Purvis and Robert Wade are being brought back into action to pen the Bond 25 script. The duo have written multiple 007 scripts in the past, and were brought on for Bond 25 before Boyle and Hodge came aboard. The assumption was they had already completed the screenplay but DailyMail says that’s not the case. Only an initital treatment was finished and approved, and now a full script must be written, and written quickly I imagine.

We don’t really know any details on either story idea, though. Actor Saïd Taghmaoui revealed that a decision hasn’t even been made on the villain’s ethnicity, which is kinda funny that such a thing needs to be discussed. DailyMail adds that “there’s a keenness for women to be more front-and-centre” in this next movie, so maybe we’ll get something similar to Halle Berry’s role as Jinx in Die Another Day? That would be cool.

So this is a positive step, and hopefully the next will be finding a director that Daniel Craig can get along with.

Pop! Obsession: Hunt Down These Awesome ‘The Predator’ Funko Figures!

By
John Nolan
-

The baddest hunter in the galaxy returns to theaters today with The Predator, the long-awaited sequel from Shane Black! The film introduces more than just your garden variety predator, but a super predator, fugitive, and even a predator hound.  Funko’s line of Predator action figures has all of these and more, available right now from our friends at Entertainment Earth!

Do some hunting of your own to collect these killer figures: the fugitive Predator which includes a masked Chase variant. There’s also the hybrid Assassin Predator, and his loyal Predator Hound which comes in a alternate Chase variant, as well.  Hit up Amazon for a heat vision version of the Predator Hound (I’m guessing Fox thinks the Hound will be a breakout character?), while FYE has a gun metal take on the Fugitive Predator which is super cool.  The Funko Shop also has Jacob Tremblay’s character, Rory, decked out in the Predator mask that launches the film’s central plot.

If you’re as Pop! Vinyl obsessed as me, the best places to go are our friends at Entertainment Earth. Our friends have the deepest inventory of Pops, including exclusives, at the best prices anywhere on the Internet. When you click on any of our below links and make a purchase we get a small commission that helps us keep the lights on, at no cost to you at all. Every little bit helps, and we thank all of you continue to support us and our sponsors. Thanks!

The Predator Assassin Predator Pop! Vinyl Figure #619

The Predator Predator Pop! Vinyl Figure #620

The Predator Predator Hound Pop! Vinyl Figure #621

Review: ‘MDMA’ Takes A Look At The Perils Of Drug Culture But Leaves A lot To Be Desired

By
John Nolan
-

MDMA is a movie inspired by true events about a young woman’s descent into the ecstasy game that feels more like a propaganda-filled, cautionary tale that doesn’t exactly know what it’s trying to put forth.

So where do I even begin?

One thing that I will applaud this movie for is its representation; an Asian woman lead that shatters the model minority stereotype. Yes, I understand that this movie is based on true events that happened in the director, Angie Wang’s, life, so of course the lead would be an Asian woman; but I still found the story, because of its lead character, to be a refreshing one as well as one of the reasons as to why I was looking forward to watching this movie. However, pretty much everything outside of the movie’s distinguishing factor was… rough to say the least.

For one, the movie doesn’t seem to know what it wants to be: it’s a drug dealer rising in the ranks story, a White Asian savior story, and your run of the mill college drama. Now, I’m not saying that a movie that attempts to tackle all of those things can’t work because it can. I think that anything can work if you have the right people working on it, I unfortunately don’t think that that was the case with this movie. The story jumps around entirely too much without providing any real explanations for the things that transpire or anything more than surface level “well this usually happens in these kinds of movies, so let’s put it in here as well” kind of scenes making the whole experience a rather confusing one. Because of that it actually made me question how much of the story are true events vs what was added into the movie to make it more “movie-like”.

I also found the writing to feel as though it was written by someone who is clearly no longer in the age bracket that they are attempting to portray. Yes, the movie is based on the 80s, so the lingo was different, but the dialogue at times was so incredibly cringe-worthy that I even questioned if the writer actually lived these experiences or is just taking things from their imagination (Angie Wang was also the writer of this movie). Because of the cringe-inducing writing, it made the acting at times also come off a bit stale and clunky; the pacing and editing could also have something to do with that as well.

Both the pacing and overall editing was a bit too fast and choppy for me. For a good part of the beginning of the movie I kept thinking about how if the movie was slower that it would feel more raw and less cheesy. There were also moments at the end of certain scenes where I could tell the filmmakers didn’t necessarily know where or how to end it and move on to another.

The entire movie never appropriately builds up what it’s attempting to sell to the viewer. We’re meant to believe that Angie is this “mystery X Goddess”, but we never truly to get watch her rise or even get to the root of her motivation. Because of the mediocre writing and story structure, cringey dialogue, and choppy editing this promising movie left a lot to be desired.

Rating: 1.5 out of 5

Netflix And Jennifer Garner Say “Yes” To Family Comedy ‘Yes Day’

By
John Nolan
-

Given the dismal reviews and middling box office, audiences said “No” to Jennifer Garner’s revenge thriller, Peppermint. But she’s hoping they will give a hearty “Yes” to her latest film, Yes Day, which has just been acquired by Netflix.

Garner will star in the family comedy Yes Day, to be directed by Miguel Arteta. The two worked together previously on Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day.  The script by Justin Malen is  based on the bestselling children’s book by Amy Krouse Rosenthal and illustrator Tom Lichtenheld, about a day in which parents only give positive answers and affirmation to their kids.

In case you’re wondering, Yes Day is a very real thing, and celebrated annually by Garner with her own kids. To get an idea of the physical toll being all nice and shit to your kids can be, all you need to do is take a look at Garner’s Instagram post following a previous Yes Day experience…

Review: ‘Final Score’, Dave Bautista Proves He’d Have Been A Great 1980s Action Star

By
John Nolan
-

Dave Bautista would have quite comfortable in the action movie golden age of the 1980s. Don’t think so? There’s proof positive in Scott Mann’s Mctiernan-esque Final Score, a total popcorn flick of the Bruce Willis or Van Damme variety that is pretty damned awesome despite all appearances to the contrary. The reason is largely because of Bautista, who can emote like crazy for such a big, intimidating dude. While he looks like a mack truck he’s got loads of personality to spare, and every bit of it is put to good use to keep this from being just another lame Die Hard knockoff.

I’ve been impressed by Bautista as a credible action star before, most recently in the underrated Bushwick where he played a brooding bruiser in the midst of a full-on invasion. However, he also showed considerable dramatic chops in Blade Runner 2049, and of course we know he’s damn funny in his role as Drax in Guardians of the Galaxy. If he manages to insult his way out of that franchise as he appears to be trying to do, Bautista will be just fine. He can survive perfectly well elevating genre flicks like Final Score beyond what we’re expecting.

Is the film totally cornball most of the time? Absolutely, and it starts right from the beginning with a news reel montage depicting some non-descript Russian conflict involving a dead revolutionary and his brother Arkady (Ray Stevenson), who takes up the mantle of leader. None of it really matters. All we need to know is that Stevenson will don a horribly thick and incomprehensible Russian accent throughout, and basically so will any character from the motherland. Bautista plays sullen, grieving soldier Michael Knox, who travels across the pond to visit his dead brother’s family. On the same night that he’s taking his stubborn niece Danni (Lara Peake) to a West Ham United football match, Arkady and his crew rig the stadium with explosive and threaten to blow it up.

Good thing Knox is a total American badass who doesn’t really give a crap about soccer. While everyone else in the crowd, including the security (!!!) are too distracted by the match, Knox sets out to pummel a bunch of russkies into borscht. The stakes are elevated by, what else, Danni’s capture and Knox’s need to find her. Hey, there won’t be any yellow cards for breaking the genre rules. Final Score is exactly the movie you expect it to be, and really, exactly what we want it to be. The violence is intense, with Bautista having one killer fight in a kitchen that involves boiling hot grease, and one Russian goon with shoulders so big he looks like a Rob Liefeld drawing come to life. Stevenson spends most of the movie barking garbled orders over a walkie-talkie, while Knox gets help and comic relief from Faisal (Amit Shah) a hilariously timid Pakistani security guard roped into the conflict.

I mention Faisal’s ethnicity only because it represents one of the film’s strokes of genius. Met with racial slurs simply for doing his job, Faisal puts his life on the line to save those very same bigoted people. It would have been easy to cast the Middle Eastern guy as the movie’s villain, for years Hollywood did that before Russians became chic again, or to have Faisal be an angry sidekick. But he isn’t, and works as a nice foil for the laconic Knox who does most of his talking with his fists. They make for quite a pair, and I like that they truly feel under threat at every moment. Knox may be tough but he’s hardly invincible; he’s battered black and blue by the end of this thing, and Faisal is always on the business end of somebody’s gun.

If you’re wondering about Pierce Brosnan, top billed right alongside Bautista…well, he’s in the movie, too. Buried under a big ol’ Santa beard that just looks absurd on him, Brosnan’s actual role is an enigma for far too long. He literally has nothing to do for the entire movie and has one major act to take in the very last minutes, so he might’ve had the lightest shoot of his career. Maybe he just wanted to say he was in a movie with both Drax and the Punisher?

Formulaic? Absolutely. Of course there’s a bomb set to go off right at the end of the match, so I guess we can say Arkady is nice enough to let everyone see who wins before blowing them up? Maybe he’s not such a bad guy.

I haven’t been tracking the marketing campaign for Final Score, but my hope is that Bautista didn’t spend the whole time getting asked about his beef with Disney. If so it would be a disservice to a rock solid flick that has a lot more life in it than Die Hard has had in years.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5


Final ‘Hunter Killer’ Trailer: Gerard Butler Tries To Prevent WWIII From His Submarine

By
John Nolan
-

It’s tough to get excited over the submarine thriller, Hunter Killer. In general it’s tough to get excited about any movie with Gerard Butler in it, but there’s also the disappointment of what this film might have been. Philip Noyce and Antoine Fuqua were attached to direct it at different points, but ultimately the job landed with relative unknown Donovan Marsh, and the new trailer makes it look pretty bland and generic.

Based on the George Wallace and Don Keith novel Firing Point, the film stars Butler as U.S. submarine Captain Joe Glass, who uncovers a Russian coup that threatens to disrupt the world order. Together with an elite group of Navy Seals he sets out on a mission to rescue the kidnapped Russian president and prevent WWIII. The film co-stars Linda Cardellini, Common, Gary Oldman, Toby Stephens, and the late Michael Nyqvist.

Hunter Killer hits theaters on October 26th. 

Harriet Tubman Film In The Works Starring Cynthia Erivo And Directed By Kasi Lemmons

By
John Nolan
-

With only a few rare exceptions, Hollywood has largely ignored stories of prominent black people especially those who fought back during the slavery era. That’s why Nate Parker had to basically go outside the system to tell the story of Nat Turner in Birth of a Nation, because there simply was no studio demand to see such a film. I like to think part of that film’s legacy will be to open the doors to other such stories being told. A couple of years ago we first learned of a biopic on abolitionist Harriet Tubman, but word on it has been quiet and I assumed, wrongfully as it turns out, that it had quietly been shelved.

Focus Features has announced the start of production on Harriet, which will star Cynthia Erivo (Widows) as Tubman. Behind the camera will be Kasi Lemmons, the accomplished director behind Talk to Me, Eve’s Bayou, Black Nativity, and The Caveman’s Valentine. She takes over from Seith Mann, who was attached to direct when the project was originally announced. The script by Gregory Allen Howard and Lemmons remains, however. 
Joining Erivo will be Leslie Odom Jr. (Hamilton), Joe Alwyn (Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk), Jennifer Nettles, and Clarke Peters (The Wire). 
Tubman is famous for her courageous exploits as part of the Underground Railroad, helping to lead more than a dozen missions to rescue approximately 70 slaves. Having escaped slavery herself in 1849, Tubman also worked tirelessly for women’s suffrage and was a spy for the Union during the Civil War. 

Jon Hamm Would Love To Play Batman…If Warner Bros. Ever Asks

By
John Nolan
-

If you’re a well-known actor and some journo hasn’t already asked if you’d want to play Batman, then it’s seriously time to question where your career went wrong. With still no update on Ben Affleck’s status for The Batman, but with all indications that he’s out, it seems every interview with a big Hollywood actor has to have at least one question asking if they’d be up for it. I mean, who the fuck is going to say ‘No’ to play the Dark Knight?

The latest to get this ridiculous out-of-the-blue questioning is Jon Hamm, who gave exactly the response you’d expect him to give when asked by…whoever this guy is. 
“I have had rumors about that since probably season one of ‘Mad Men,’” he said. “I have never had a conversation with anybody about it, literally. And I’ve sat in the room with all these guys. I have never been offered anything. I think the internet wants what it wants. But, I mean, a lot of people have to sign off on that, obviously not just the internet. And if they wanted to tap me on the shoulder and ask me to do it, why not?”

I’ll give the Internets credit this time. I haven’t seen too many “Jon Hamm Is Eyeing Batman Role!” headlines in the wake of this statement. For the most part they’ve been rational, reasoned and accurate in that he’s only interested in the role, not up for it in any way. Good for you, geek journos, you’re growing up.
I would love to see Jon Hamm play Bruce Wayne, but only if he can be the boozing, womanizing Don Draper version. I’d totally be up for that. And then you cast Christina Hendricks as Poison Ivy, Elisabeth Moss as Catwoman, Jon Slattery as Commissioner Gordon, and…shit, I really just need to rewatch Mad Men, don’t I?
Well, if it’s going to happen, Josh Gad, who is rumored to be playing the Penguin in Matt Reeves’ Batman flick, is ready for Hamm’s arrival…
1...1,6961,6971,698...1,946Page 1,697 of 1,946
Want To Advertise With Punch Drunk Critics?
Contact us: info@punchdrunkcritics.com
Facebook Instagram Mail Twitter Youtube
© Copyright 2020 PDC Entertainment