A geologist and archaeologist by training, a nerd by inclination - books, films, fossils, comics, rocks, games, folklore, and, generally, the rum and uncanny… Let’s have it!
Elsewhere:
I don’t think he can spell humility.
Thanks Margot. I look forward to paying Mattel some of my hard-earned pennies to watch your vagina-centric harpooning of the commercialisation of medicine.
Although isn’t that just his career?
Best use of Guns N’ Roses in a movie soundtrack ever.
I was scrolling through that going “Highlander 2 better be at the top” then I was thinking “what could be worse?” but I’ll allow that. I do have problems with Airplane 2 being in there though.
It’s daft but I like what I see (possibly because it is daft).
I’m conflicted as I love the original but there’s things that could be improved (a Scottish Spaniard? A French Scotsman?) and Highlander 2 torpedoed the franchise, it only really recovered to some extent with the TV series. So if they have new stories to tell, I’ll give it a go.
I’ll be really surprised and disappointed if it doesn’t get a cinema release.
But either way it’s good news for movie theaters in a summer season that’s finally heating up but still running far behind last year (down 19%) and pre-pandemic norms (down 36% from 2019).
And with Deadpool and Wolverine inbound the momentum should be maintained.
Perhaps it’s no surprise that the summer has got off to a slow start as the writer’s strike pushed the schedules back.
An M. Night Shyamalan Experience!
That said, this doesn’t look so bad and I’ll give it a go.
Perhaps Boxey the Chosen One fighting robots was going to be a future storyline, pre-empting the Prequel Trilogy.
I’m definitely in for this - always up for Donald Glover and that trailer looks fantastic.
A friend gave me a Soylent Green t-shirt for my last birthday so I can be suitably clad for it.
Wacko (1982}
Comedy slasher horror parody. It was one of the few horror films I was allows to record and watch on VHS and it has a special place in my heart but I haven’t watched it recently as I fear it will disappoint but it’s time and I wonder what everyone else would think of it in this post-Scream era.
There were a lot of attempts to cash in on Star Wars, most were far more blatant than BG - I remember watching The Black Hole in the cinema as a kid and being struck by how much it drew “inspiration” from Star Wars (which was OK with me as I was desperate for more). My favourite is still Battle Beyond the Stars.
And Silent Running? I do love that film and can definitely see the DNA of Huey, Dewey, and Louie in R2. However, Lucas drew elements from all over the place, like Flash Gordon and Kurosawa, it’s the way he managed to weave all those threads together that was the impressive feat and the cash-ins just took their inspiration from Star Wars (and a bit of the Magnificent Seven).
I like what they’re doing - the previous films went big with sprawling high stakes adventures, whereas this gets back to the feel of a lot of the comics where Hellboy rocks up somewhere to combat some evil menace. If this approach works (smaller budget quicker turnaround - shooting started in March 2023) they could make a more sustainable franchise building up to something big. The team also looks solid - the director of Crank with Mike Mignola and Christopher Golden co-writing. So I feel pretty optimistic.
He is Ezekiel Sims and the Wikipedia entry might give more background on the original character, although he has been chopped and changed so much he is almost unrecognisable.
The reason the character is so one dimensional is that they radically changed the story (why cast members have been so happy to throw it under the bus, as what we saw wasn’t what they signed up for) and we’d have got more of his motivation. As the character is key to some of the big storylines and lore upgrades, he might have also helped set up future films. Instead they still seem intent on killing the franchise, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, because a Spidey-less Spider-Man fictional universe is a stupid idea, badly implemented.
Excellent analysis that torpedoes a lot of explanations for this slow year.
In 2024, the domestic box office will be in its 22nd year of sustained decline. And due to the pandemic, audiences are behaving as though they’re between 32 to 37 years into this decline. Fewer than two thirds of Americans still go to the movies, and on average, they will purchase just about 3 tickets annually (hence the average American buying about 2). The practically addressable number of tickets is even more modest as a handful of signature releases each year (e.g. an Avengers, Jurassic, Avatar, Despicable Me) will devour 5-10% each. These constraints mean that the box office – audiences – won’t support many films, or many great films. The misses will consistently surprise moviegoers, critics, stars, and reviewers. This is not a new challenge, per se, but it has never before been more brutal (note that while the modern dominance of comicbook movies is often likened to the heydays of Westerns, Westerns thrives at a time where Americans headed to the theater 20-35x a year!). This will have to change budgets, talent incentives, risk proclivities, franchise plans, and more.
This is key, I feel. If people are going only three times a year, they are going to the biggest most hyped films as it is less of a risk.
Still, changes are probably due. An independently operated MoviePass was always a dumb idea, but to renew frequent moviegoers, it’s clear that some form of AYCE subscription or subscription perk will be required. AMC A-List is a good start, but doesn’t Disney+ have an additional tier (perhaps Disney++) that provides free or discounted tickets to Disney films while they are in theaters? For that matter, distributors should sell premium movie tickets that include EST entitlements or discounts (this may not increase attendance, but it should increase total revenue per customers).
I have the Odeon’s pass and it pays for itself if you go twice a month - I go twice a week and 5 times last week.
Some recent changes should probably be unwound, too. While rapid PVOD windows have helped some money-losing films recover their investments, this model probably just trains audiences to skip uncertain releases because they might be available at home in three weeks anyway.
This seems like an important change - if the cinema is the only place to see a film for a while, then they will go back to the cinema.
I’ve enjoyed:
Oooo good shout but I still give the nod to November Rain in T:L&T.