Weekly Rant #2

The Last Stand bombs... Broken City bombs! Well that didn't take long. 2013 has begun and we have our first box office duds. It's unfortunate for The Last Stand because reviews were not terrible, but the movie trailer was. Johnny Knoxville is NOT who you want in a movie anymore.. and I guess neither is Arnold. Oh well, at least it will be on Blu-ray in a couple of weeks. :)

JJ Abrahams, Paramount, and Bad Robot have bought the rights to Cycle of Lies: Lance Armstrong Biopic. I don't think he even had finished his interview with Oprah yet and the deal was done. Here is the problem I have with that. The man still isn't done lying!!!! Did they buy the rights knowing they could have a possible sequel?? Who in their right minds will want to watch this garbage? This is a lifetime movie, or CBS movie of the week... not Hollywood!! Ugggh!! Maybe we can get John Mayer to play him in the movie.. he's a big slime ball too. 

Brain DePalma, and Al Pacino are set to do a Biopic on Joe Paterno. The working title for this film is called Happy Valley.
SMH!! If any are relatively new to the social networking world we live in, SMH stands for Shaking My Head. The forums out there were running wild with jokes, and theories on who might play Jerry Sandusky, the man who sexually abused 10 children (that we know of) and is sentenced to life in prison. 
Is this Hollywood's lack of creativity screaming out again? Are studio execs saying... screw it, let's have a week of choosing to make films about low down, no good, sleeze-bag filths??!!
Pacino and DePalma are notorious for their Scarface film. 
Ok, c'mon.. it's ok, let it out... you know you wanna say it... all together now, "Say Hello To My Little Friend". I'm wondering if Sandusky's character will have that line in the movie? 

Well, overall it was a quiet week for my rants. I'm still pissed about Ben Affleck not being nominated for Best Director. I am also pissed off that Leonardo DiCaprio wasn't nominated for Django Unchained. The Academy members are idiots, always have been. Who votes for The Best Years of Our Lives over It's a Wonderful Life???? SMH! Do you know where It's a Wonderful Life is ranked on AFI top 100 films of all time? It's 20!! Do you know where The Best Years of Our Lives is? It's not on the list!! Enough Said. However, I am going to finally break my vow. I am going to watch the damn film this week for the first time. Tune in next week and you can hear me rant more about this. 

-Jason Traylor

-Editor SS77

DJango Unchained Review

Grade: A

Shoot em up Fun

First I have to say, I watched this movie and had a smile on my face from beginning to end. The movie is just fun! Creative and ingenious from one of the most daring and unconventional directors... maybe ever. The soundtrack is fun, the cinematography is brilliant. I have to say this is my favorite Tarantino film since Pulp Fiction. I loved Inglorious Bastards, but this is better. The performances in this film are A+++. 

I can't say who is better. Leonardo DiCaprio was born to play a Respectable Southern man. He is just flat out brilliant!!! I can't believe he didn't get an Academy Award Nomination for Supporting Actor. Christopher Waltz is so ridiculously funny with every line he delivers it should be illegal. I am happy he scored another nomination for Supporting Actor. Samuel Jackson's performance is way overlooked because of everything else going on in the film. 

Jamie Foxx plays the slave turned bounty hunter (Django), thanks to Christopher Waltz's character who frees him from bondage. 

After the first act of bounty hunting, the film turns to them both going after Django's wife who is a slave at DiCaprio's plantation. Foxx and Waltz devise a scheme to fool DiCaprio so that they can legally buy her freedom. All I can say is things go south so to speak, and all hell breaks loose. 

Best Picture Nominee and most deservingly so. The script is fresh, raw, and off the radar. I wanted the movie to continue when it was finally over. The dialogue is very intense at times, and it keeps you reeled into the screen. Tarantino just creates these vivid characters through his scripts. He is an actors dream come true. I highly recommend this film to anyone and everyone... as long as you can deal with over the top blood gushing gunshots and violence. 

This is the caviar of Popcorn films. 

-Jason Traylor

-Editor@SS77

Zero Dark Thirty Review

Grade: A

Intense Reality

My thoughts on Zero Dark Thirty are first and foremost, this is an intense film. Intense about the reality of what our CIA operatives went through after 9/11 to catch The Most Wanted man UBA as they refer to him in the film. I actually like what Mike Epps calls him better.. ol Lodi Dodi. :)

The movie follows a CIA operative (Jessica Chastain), as she journeys through the middle east trying to dig up evidence that might lead her to the whereabouts of UBA. Fighting not only Al Qaeda members who are sworn to secrecy, but her own governments politics. Kathryn Bigelow (Hurt Locker) does a fantastic job of pacing this movie from the beginning. I for one am glad the scenes of torture were depicted. If you are going to tell a story, do it right. 

It's a harrowing example of the continuing sacrifice Americans have made in fighting  terrorism. Nominated for Best Picture which rightly so I believe it should be. Jessica Chastain winner of Golden Globe for Best Actress and Academy Award Nominee has a great shot at winning. I have seen this film twice and must say it's powerful. It almost leaves you with an empty feeling at the end. This is no popcorn film about catching Bin Laden, No Michael Bay helicopter shots, this is gritty and daring.  Hopefully seeing this film will give a bit of closure to the decade we had, the decade that was unjustly took from so many due to an evil plot, and evil man. 

We need more honest films like this in Hollywood. Films that choose to take bold chances no matter who it might offend, and to preserve it's integrity. 

Red 2 Trailer

August 2nd Release Date for Red 2

Summit Entertainment released the first trailer for Red 2. 

I am really excited about this. The first was a lot of fun. I think adding Catherine Zeta Jones and Anthony Hopkins is great. 

Check out the trailer here: 

Thanks to ComingSoon.com 

Jack the Giant Slayer Trailer #2

Warner Bros. released the 2nd Trailer for Jack the Giant Slayer today. 

The film is approaching it's release date on March 1st.

Starring Nicholas Hoult (Warm Bodies, About a Boy), Ewan McGregro, Stanley Tucci, Bill Nighy, Ian McShane. 

The forums have been writing this film off since day one. The second trailer may actually help this film out. 

I think it looks fun. It has potential to be a box office bomb though I must admit. 

The Ghost and Mrs. Muir

The Ghost and Mrs. Muir

The first thing that I found enchanting about this film is it's score. I have seen this film several times and never realized the Bernard Herrmann was behind this masterpiece of music. Herrmann was the music behind many Hitchcock films. In an interview Herrmann said that Mrs. Muir was his finest score. I disagree only a little, I feel his Vertigo score was mesmerizing. 

1947 The Ghost and Mrs. Muir hit the silver screen. Nominated for it's sole Best Cinematography Academy Award. Rex Harrison (My Fair Lady, Doctor Dolittle, Cleopatra) and Gene Tierney (Laura, Leave Her To Heaven, Heaven Can Wait) share a haunted love story set by the sea. A newly widowed (Tierney) decides to find a home by the sea. On a budget, she decides to move into a home that is haunted by it's prior owner, a dead sea captain (Harrison). 

Captain Gregg tries to play tricks on Lucy to get her to move out, after all a sea captain needs solitude. Lucy unshaken by the forceful gestures of the Captain, she comes to pursue a bargain with him. 

Lucy decides to write the memoirs of the Captain. 

In London Lucy visits a publisher that takes more interest in her than the Captain cares to entertain. 

The playful banter and chemistry is fun between the two. 

A ghostly love story of two people who seemingly met at the wrong time. Gene Tierney is exquisite, and Rex Harrison was deserving of a nomination for Best Actor. One of my favorite things is to watch Harrison's slow subtle way of falling in love with Lucy. The monologue he delivers at the end is spectacular. 

In 1990 20th Century Fox was close to remaking the film with Sean Connery and Michelle Pfeiffer. Poor box-office results of The Russia House led to it's demise. 

Some fun trivia is that this is one of the few films that doesn't intro with the famous trumpets and 20th Century Fox image. Instead we are introduced to our film through Bernard Herrmann's magical score. 

The Ghost and Mrs. Muir is an old timeless romance film. 

I highly recommend if you haven't seen it, you need to. 

-Jason Traylor

-Editor@SS77

2013 Possible Box Office Bombs

Last year we saw some huge disasters on the screen. 

Let's recap

John Carter was the first of these bombs. 

A production budget of 250 million.

73,078,100 Domestic (Ouch)

209,700,000 Foreign 

Just barely making back what it cost to make. 

I honestly didn't think the film was that bad... it was marketed really bad. 

Battleship is next on the sinking money ship. 

A production budget of 209 million. 

65,422,625 Domestic (sunk)

237,602,860 Foreign

Foreign ticket sales saved Universal, but overall this ship never had a chance. Once again... I actually enjoyed Battleship... wrong release date, and lack of star power killed it. 

Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter sucked the life out of a lot of critics, and Fox. 

A Production Budget 69 million. 

Domestic 37,519,139 (wow)

Foreign 78,952,441

Yeah they made back the budget, but that's not the point behind studios making movies... they want a lucrative profit. Some liked this film... I was not one of them. 

DREDD and that's exactly what people did.. dreaded this film. 

A Production Budget of 50 million.

Domestic 13,414,714 

Foreign 19,344,901

The loud scream you've been hearing is Lionsgate. The film really wasn't a bad movie, it's just you are not going to put people in seats with Karl Urban & Olivia Thirlby. 

Cloud Atlas failed to make it's budget back, much like the 

Wachowski's Speed Racer. Now this is one of the few that really bombs, and yet it was an attempt to think outside the box for once. I admire the attempt, and I enjoyed the outcome. It's sad to see a movie that aspires to be something great, and yet no one went and saw it. That's not to say there are not flaws in the film.
A Production Budget of 100 million. 
Domestic 27,036,298
Foreign 44,085,649
I think after this launches on Dvd and Blu-ray Warner Bros. will make back it's production cost for the film. There could be a long cult following for this film as well. I have been in the forums abroad and have read a lot of positive reviews. 

NOW, on with the 2013 Possible Box Office Bombs

#1 The Lone Ranger

This movie was supposed to have cut it's production budget and failed!! 250+ million with Armie Hammer your lead star. Armie who?? Exactly!! I don't like the guy to be honest, and that's why maybe I'm biased and have this listed. Armie Hammer has been in films such as The Social Network, J. Edgar, and Mirror, Mirror. Snooze fest. He is boring, and has the acting range of Rodney Dangerfield. Ok, maybe I am being to harsh. The movie also stars Johnny Depp as Tonto. Disney and Jerry Bruckheimer are hoping that lighting strikes twice and Tonto is as popular as Jack Sparrow. 

In the last 20 years Westerns have not faired well with box office returns, unless your name is Eastwood or Tarantino. 

Gore Verbinski, who brought the first Pirates of the Caribbean 

to the screen is trying to break that trend. I don't see this film doing well domestically. It will make money in the foreign market because of Depp, but Disney is hoping to double it's investment.... I don't see it happening.  
Wild, Wild, West and Jonah Hex were along the same lines. 

#2 Turbo

I don't care how many stars you have voicing the film, it's uninteresting, and unoriginal. Oh, it's also releasing on July 19th, 2 weeks after Despicable Me 2, and a month after Monsters University. That's all I have to say about this wanna be pixar Cars film. 

#3 Grown ups 2 

Shoot me now please!!! Adam Sandler movies are becoming increasingly more unappealing with every new film. Yes, the first Grown ups made money, so do politicians. Every critic said it was the worst movie they had ever seen. A sequel?? The best thing  Kevin James could do is to leave Happy Madison and Adam Sandler, they are killing him. I enjoyed Paul Blart mind you, but Sandler rehashes the same crap in every movie. We get it already... WE KNOW YOU ARE JEWISH AND PROUD!!!! I think it's quite bold to release this film on July 12th amidst 15 to 20 other much more creative summer films. The last grown ups cracked 100 million foreign. Domestically this thing will not make back it's production budget. 

#4 After Earth 

I have been on the fence about this film. I like Will Smith, I like Jaden Smith, I like M. Night Shamalama ding dong. I really do. The trailer to this film.... yeeeaaahhh not impressed. It looks like CGI threw up everywhere. Will's character looks like his isn't even in the film. It looks like a bootleg Avatar ripoff in my opinion. Will it make money? Yes. I still think this could bomb... I know.. when was the last time a Will Smith movie bombed? Something just seems very unappealing to me about this film, and it has competition from a lot of other more interesting Sci-fi films. We will see. 

#5 The Wolverine

Another one that could go either way, I'm choosing to go with my gut. X-men Origins: Wolverine was boring and pretty stupid. I mean... it even had Deadpool, and Gambit and still managed to disappoint. Jackman was the best thing about it. This new sequel has been in development hell, and the film is based in Japan. 

I am really hoping this doesn't bomb. As a journalist though I am skeptical, as I should be. 

Understand that a film can make money and still be a
 Box Office Bomb.

 Other Notable Possible Bombs:
Riddick, Enders game, GI Joe Retaliation, The Last Stand, The Croods, Epic, and The Great Gatsby.