Let's Talk Movies #33: Star Wars: Jabba Rising...Captain America Trumps China...and MORE!

[Wyliefan]

Others have won the Oscar while playing a musical or comedy role.

Gwyneth Patrow - SIL

Julie Andrews- Mary Poppins

Helen Hunt - As good as it gets

Oh, it happens. Just not that often.

 

[PeterG]

2016 WORLDWIDE GROSSES

I was wondering about the hits and flops of the movie world for 2016 and started googling this morning. Couple of things that crossed my mind. Many articles look at how a movie performs in North America as to whether it was a hit or flop. But as we can see from this list, movies like Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them made 71.3% of their box office from outside North America. Ice Age: Collision Course is a bigger example, 84.3% from international revenue. Looking at which movies made more in North America than the rest of the world... We have to go all the way down the chart to #31, which is Sully. It made 52.4% of it's box office from North America. That's the first title on the list which made more in North America than elsewhere. I didn't count movies released in December as their box office results will continue to change over the next few months.

Something else I was interested in was which movies did well or poorly in relation to their budget. Movies that make 200 million on a production budget of 100 million and a marketing budget of 100 million...broken even. Whereas something like Deadpool had a 58 million production budget (so I'm guessing the total cost for it would be in the 120 million range) ended up making 783 million worldwide. But I couldn't find articles about how movies performed based on their total box office versus total costs. I'm sure articles out there exist for this, but I don't have extra time to google right now.

So here's the worldwide top 10 list for biggest worldwide box office:

1 Captain America: Civil War - $1,153.30
2 Finding Dory - $1,027.90
3 Zootopia - $1,023.80
4 Rogue One: A Star Wars Story - $983.30
5 The Jungle Book (2016) - $966.60
6 The Secret Life of Pets - $875.50
7 Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice - $873.30
8 Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them - $801.60
9 Deadpool - $783.10
10 Suicide Squad $745.60

 

[PeterG]

This is the best article I found about the flops of 2016. If anybody sees a better article, please post it.

'Ben Hur' to 'BFG': Hollywood's Biggest Box-Office Bombs of 2016

Other movies on the list include:

Gods of Egypt
The Hunstman: Winter's War
Allied
The Finest Hours
Deepwater Horizon
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Ghostbusters
Alice Through The Looking Glass
The Divergent Series: Allegiant
Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk
Assassin's Creed
Rules Don't Apply

There's also four honourable (dis-honourable?) mentions at the end of the article.

 

[VGThuy]

When was the last time someone won for a straight-up comedy role? A lot of the ones who won for comedy roles have had pretty dramatic scenes (I'm including Helen Hunt, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Jennifer Lawrence in that). Just in the past 30 years or so for Best Actress, I think I could put Frances McDormand in Fargo though that was more dark comedy, Sandra Bullock in The Blind Side, and Cher for Moonstruck. Julia Roberts in Erin Brockovich might fit though it's not "ha ha" funny.

It looks like Best Supporting Actress is where comedic performances are awarded...especially if you were in a Woody Allen film..., I think Penelope Cruz in Vicky, Cristina, Barcelona (her crying fits and mania were played up for laughs); Catherine Zeta-Jones in Chicago, Judi Dench in Shakespeare in Love (more witticisms than anything); Mira Sorvino in Mighty Aphrodite; Dianne Wiest in Bullets Over Broadway; Mercedes Ruehl in the Fisher King; Marissa Tomei in My Cousin Vinny; Whoopi Goldberg in Ghost; Olympia Dukakis in Moonstruck; Dianne Wiest in Hannah and her Sisters; Anjelica Huston in Prizzi's Honor; Jessica Lange in Tootsie (more for performance in Frances which was not beating Streep in Sophie's Choice, IMO); Maureen Steenburgen in Melvin & Howard...I'm cutting it off in 1980 as there were a lot more than I realized.

 

[MacMadame]

How was she acting-wise? Sally Bowles can be a really nuanced and meaty role with real depth if it's played right. Did she give a mature interpretation? I heard once Natasha Richardson settled into the role, she was the perfect Sally Bowles and brought new elements people didn't know existed. Of course, that was 20 years ago.

I described it at the time as a tour de force. Unlike Liza Minelli in the movie, she was angry and strong while still being vulnerable. I never thought of the character that way before so it was a revelation and an inspired choice.

And her singing absolutely wasn't breathy!

 

[watchthis!!]

Backcountry is a great escape movie which has Missy Peregrym (most famous for the TV shows Rookie Blue and Reaper) as half of a couple who are taking a weekend trip into the wilderness to get away from their city lives for a while. This movie is based on a true story and is definitely a "man vs. nature" tale. It's all about how people deal with life in a setting different to their own (although Peregrym's boyfriend in this movie did grow up having outdoor experience). I found this movie to be the kind of movie where I couldn't stop watching to take a break to do something else, I had to see what happened next. The movie co-stars Eric Balfour and Nicholas Campbell (although Campbell has quite a small role). The outdoors scenery is beautiful...but don't let that fool you! If you like adventure movies, I think you'll like this one. Very well paced and a wonderful looking film (well, most of it...you might want to look away from the screen a couple of times!).

Here's the trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=46uwmzTf5nA

I still think it was a very dumb casting move.

It was a movie based on an urban legend, more preposterous than most urban legends. To capture the absurdity of it all, absurd casting was the way to go. It sounds like a real hoot, hope it becomes available to the public at some point. Would be a lot of fun to watch with a group of friends, amusing whether it's good OR bad.

 

[VGThuy]

Well, what's the urban legend that they are spoofing?

 

[MacMadame]

I'm not sure I'd call that an urban legend in the sense we normally think of that term. (Bloody Mary!) But they were spoofing this story that Liz Taylor, Michael Jackson and Marlon Brando all once took a road trip together.

And the actors cast as Liz and Marlon did bear some physical resemblance to the real-life person they were portraying. But Michael was played by a white guy with absolutely no resemblance to him.

Now if they'd had men play the women and a woman cast as Michael or they weren't using real names, or they picked actors that bore no physical resemblance to anyone for all 3 roles, you could call it an artistic choice. But given that only "the black guy" didn't get someone who resembled him, it comes off to me as Hollywood whitewashing.

I'm not foaming at the mouth offended (since I doubt I would have seen it no matter who was cast and I tend to give artists lots of leeway) but it is very WTF? to me and it offended members of the Jackson family -- who reacted to a promo and not just the idea so if there was some sort of artistic vision at work, it must have failed.

 

[PeterG]

I mentioned having two (unintentional) double-bill viewings recently, Robert Redford is the second one (after Janet McTeer). First up was The Chase and then Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (which I hadn't seen since I was a kid).

The Chase (1966) was fine. It seemed like one of the last movie to come out of the old Hollywood studio system, although it has modern touches (for that time, anyway). Although some of the attempts to be more modern had a pandering feel to them. Like a bunch of 70 year old white men were trying to reach a young movie audience at a time when big social change was happening. And being fairly out of touch in how to do this. The plot of the movie is fairly slim, just a few days in the life of a town who are dealing with the escape of a prisoner from their town and how the classism of the townspeople is spinning on it's head in regards to the return of this prisoner and all that it brings up. Robert Redford plays the prisoner and Marlon Brando is the sheriff of the town Redford is returning to. Jane Fonda is a possible love interest for Redford and Angie Dickinson plays Brando's wife. Others in the cast include E. G. Marshall, Miriam Hopkins and Robert Duvall. I'd say getting to see all these major stars together in one story was the highlight for me. And it did seem to be a bit of a changing of the guard with Redford and Fonda the next generation showing up behind the likes of Marlon Brando (although he had a couple of good movies left in him after this one!) I recommend this one only if you share my interest in seeing so much talent on your screen all at the same time.

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969) felt similar to The Chase for me in that the highlight of the movie was seeing the star power of the cast (which includes a beautiful Katharine Ross, which is quite a compliment as Redford and Paul Newman are in their prime beauty years here themselves). I thought the story for this was slim as well, although I see at imdb.com that William Goldman won the Oscar for best screenplay (original story). I thought it was just a number of chase scenes loosely strung together. And if this movie didn't have the mega-wattage of it's three stars, I can't imagine it having anywhere near the success that it did with other actors. Also starring in this movie is Strother Martin and in a small role, Cloris Leachman.

 

[Buzz]

2016 WORLDWIDE GROSSES

I was wondering about the hits and flops of the movie world for 2016 and started googling this morning. Couple of things that crossed my mind. Many articles look at how a movie performs in North America as to whether it was a hit or flop. But as we can see from this list, movies like Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them made 71.3% of their box office from outside North America. Ice Age: Collision Course is a bigger example, 84.3% from international revenue. Looking at which movies made more in North America than the rest of the world... We have to go all the way down the chart to #31, which is Sully. It made 52.4% of it's box office from North America. That's the first title on the list which made more in North America than elsewhere. I didn't count movies released in December as their box office results will continue to change over the next few months.

Something else I was interested in was which movies did well or poorly in relation to their budget. Movies that make 200 million on a production budget of 100 million and a marketing budget of 100 million...broken even. Whereas something like Deadpool had a 58 million production budget (so I'm guessing the total cost for it would be in the 120 million range) ended up making 783 million worldwide. But I couldn't find articles about how movies performed based on their total box office versus total costs. I'm sure articles out there exist for this, but I don't have extra time to google right now.

So here's the worldwide top 10 list for biggest worldwide box office:

1 Captain America: Civil War - $1,153.30
2 Finding Dory - $1,027.90
3 Zootopia - $1,023.80
4 Rogue One: A Star Wars Story - $983.30
5 The Jungle Book (2016) - $966.60
6 The Secret Life of Pets - $875.50
7 Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice - $873.30
8 Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them - $801.60
9 Deadpool - $783.10
10 Suicide Squad $745.60

And the top five all belong to Walt Disney! LOL

 

[Allskate]

Stone's acting in La La Land was terrific -- I can't think of any actress who could have done a better job with the party scene where she taunts Gosling's character, for instance. That role could have been written for her (though I know it wasn't.) But her singing was disappointingly breathy. They say the composer worked with her on her singing, so I don't know why he couldn't teach her breath support! It's odd, too, because she finally managed to find some power in "Audition." (Unless her voice was technically helped out. I don't think it was, but I can't always tell.)

I think her voice is thin in general. Maybe they did manipulate things in the studio to give her a little more power in certain parts. But, even with the studio help, the singing wasn't great. I think Emma is a very talented actress. I just didn't see greatness in this performance. And it's not because it's a musical.

I thought Emma and Ryan were good acting wise and singing wise, but I didn't see greatness. Of the two, Emma has a better chance of winning the Oscar, but who knows Ryan could win too, just because Hollywood loves this movie.

I think that Ryan may have sentiment at this point and that people feel like he has paid his dues, but I also think there clearly were better performances this year and one of those will win. In the best actress category, I don't think there is a clear favorite. That may help Emma since she hasn't won before.

I liked the basic idea about people going to LA in hopes of making it big in Hollywood, but apart from that this was just a boy meets girl story. This is a well made movie, but Best Picture at Oscar?

I didn't think it was just boy meets girl or just about people going to L.A. to make it big. I am not a performer and even thought about pursuing a Hollywood career, but I still could identify with some of the themes of the movie, and it brought me back to struggles and decisions I and my friends have had to make. What is "success?" Is it fame, status, and fortune and what others see as being the pinnacle? Is it being good at what you love? Is it simply doing what you love? What sacrifices are you willing to make to be successful? Giving up relationships? Delaying marriage and children? Being broke? Doing jobs that you don't like or you believe compromise your integrity in the hopes that doing that will help get you where you want to go?

 

[Wyliefan]

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969) felt similar to The Chase for me in that the highlight of the movie was seeing the star power of the cast (which includes a beautiful Katharine Ross, which is quite a compliment as Redford and Paul Newman are in their prime beauty years here themselves). I thought the story for this was slim as well, although I see at imdb.com that William Goldman won the Oscar for best screenplay (original story). I thought it was just a number of chase scenes loosely strung together. And if this movie didn't have the mega-wattage of it's three stars, I can't imagine it having anywhere near the success that it did with other actors. Also starring in this movie is Strother Martin and in a small role, Cloris Leachman.

I think the script is loved more for the banter than for the narrative.

 

[PeterG]

Trailers For Movies Released 2017-01-20th
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLuI4-fSHhipSsQ4cKKlcSUbPP21VfHxig

MUCH better selections this week than the previous two. In addition to the four movies going on my To See list this week (in bold), there are four more that might end up on the list eventually (more on them at the end of this post). And I love Toni Collette SO much, I almost want to add the new xXx movie to my To See list. Apparently my love is conditional, however!


Jan. 20th - Split (Wide) – Thriller with James McAvoy and Betty Buckley

Jan. 20th - xXx: Return of Xander Cage (Wide) – Action with Vin Diesel, Nina Dobrev, Toni Collette and Samuel L. Jackson

Jan. 20th - Trespass Against Us (Limited) – Crime drama with Michael Fassbender and Brendan Gleeson

Jan. 20th - Detour (Limited) – Thriller with Tye Sheridan and Stephen Moyer [True Blood]

Jan. 20th - They Call Us Monsters (Limited) – Documentary. From imdb.com: “Legislators debate legislation that allows for adult charges for juvenile offenders.”

January 16th - Arise from Darkness (Limited) – Thriller, new cast. From imdb.com: “Based on the early events of psychic Lazaro Ruben Torres, clinically declared dead five times. In the process of trying to reconnect with his daughter Lazaro discovers the man who killed her.”

Jan. 20th - The Resurrection of Gavin Stone (Limited) – Family comedy drama. From imdb.com: “A washed-up former child star, forced to do community service at a local megachurch, pretends to be a Christian to land the part of Jesus in their annual Passion Play, only to discover that the most important role of his life is far from Hollywood.”

Jan. 20th - Axe Murders of Villisca (Limited) – Horror, new cast. From imdb.com: “'Villisca' is a ghost story based on the house where the notorious and still unsolved 1912 ax murders took place. Three outcast teenagers break into the house in search of answers, but discover something far beyond their worst fears.”

Jan. 20th - The Sunshine Makers (Limited) – Documentary. From imdb.com: “The story of Nicholas Sand and Tim Scully, the unlikely duo at the heart of 1960s American drug counter-culture.”

Jan. 20th - Panic (Limited) – U.K. Mystery thriller, new cast. From imdb.com: “A troubled journalist is drawn into London's underworld when his beautiful neighbour is kidnapped.”

Jan. 20th - The Red Turtle (Limited) – Animated fantasy. From imdb.com: “The dialogue-less film follows the major life stages of a castaway on a deserted tropical island populated by turtles, crabs and birds.”

Jan. 20th - Staying Vertical (Limited) – French comedy drama. From imdb.com: “A film maker has to raise a child by himself whilst looking for an inspiration for his new film.”

Jan. 20th - Antarctica: Ice and Sky (Limited) – Nature. From imdb.com: “A documentary about global warming.”

And going into wide release this week:

Dec 16th - The Founder (Limited) – Drama with Michael Keaton, Linda Cardellini, Nick Offerman, Patrick Wilson, B.J. Novak and Laura Dern

Dec. 25th - 20th Century Women (Limited) – Comedy drama with Annette Bening, Elle Fanning, Greta Gerwig and Billy Crudup

Okay, so the four maybe's for me were The Resurrection of Gavin Stone...normally a Christian film would never make much of a blip on my radar, but this one looks rather good. If any of you see it and recommend it, it will go on my list. And it doesn't hurt that the lead is the UBER-hot Brett Dalton, who played Grant Ward/Hiver on the TV show Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

The Red Turtle is an animated movie for adults...which has no dialogue. Normally these kind of movies don't grab my interest either, but one recommendation from any of you and I'll give it a shot!

Staying Vertical had a so-so trailer, but it's made by the name who made Stranger By The Lake, which I either enjoyed or was greatly challenged by. Or was it both?

And lastly, Antarctica: Ice and Sky looks like an interesting movie, but I've seen a ton of climate change documentaries and didn't find this one to stand out enough so as to make me add it to my list. Again, if any of you see it, I'd love to hear your thoughts about it.

 

[Jay42]

Something else I was interested in was which movies did well or poorly in relation to their budget. Movies that make 200 million on a production budget of 100 million and a marketing budget of 100 million...broken even. Whereas something like Deadpool had a 58 million production budget (so I'm guessing the total cost for it would be in the 120 million range) ended up making 783 million worldwide. But I couldn't find articles about how movies performed based on their total box office versus total costs. I'm sure articles out there exist for this, but I don't have extra time to google right now.

I don't think Deadpool's advertising budget was that high. The last big thing they had was the emoji billboard and that went up I think 2 weeks before the movie was released. I read an article around then saying that they were basically relying on one-shot things to go viral because they couldn't afford much.

Trailers For Movies Released 2017-01-20th
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLuI4-fSHhipSsQ4cKKlcSUbPP21VfHxig

MUCH better selections this week than the previous two. In addition to the four movies going on my To See list this week (in bold), there are four more that might end up on the list eventually (more on them at the end of this post). And I love Toni Collette SO much, I almost want to add the new xXx movie to my To See list. Apparently my love is conditional, however!


Jan. 20th - Split (Wide) – Thriller with James McAvoy and Betty Buckley

Jan. 20th - xXx: Return of Xander Cage (Wide) – Action with Vin Diesel, Nina Dobrev, Toni Collette and Samuel L. Jackson

Jan. 20th - Trespass Against Us (Limited) – Crime drama with Michael Fassbender and Brendan Gleeson

Jan. 20th - Detour (Limited) – Thriller with Tye Sheridan and Stephen Moyer [True Blood]

Jan. 20th - They Call Us Monsters (Limited) – Documentary. From imdb.com: “Legislators debate legislation that allows for adult charges for juvenile offenders.”

January 16th - Arise from Darkness (Limited) – Thriller, new cast. From imdb.com: “Based on the early events of psychic Lazaro Ruben Torres, clinically declared dead five times. In the process of trying to reconnect with his daughter Lazaro discovers the man who killed her.”

Jan. 20th - The Resurrection of Gavin Stone (Limited) – Family comedy drama. From imdb.com: “A washed-up former child star, forced to do community service at a local megachurch, pretends to be a Christian to land the part of Jesus in their annual Passion Play, only to discover that the most important role of his life is far from Hollywood.”

Jan. 20th - Axe Murders of Villisca (Limited) – Horror, new cast. From imdb.com: “'Villisca' is a ghost story based on the house where the notorious and still unsolved 1912 ax murders took place. Three outcast teenagers break into the house in search of answers, but discover something far beyond their worst fears.”

Jan. 20th - The Sunshine Makers (Limited) – Documentary. From imdb.com: “The story of Nicholas Sand and Tim Scully, the unlikely duo at the heart of 1960s American drug counter-culture.”

Jan. 20th - Panic (Limited) – U.K. Mystery thriller, new cast. From imdb.com: “A troubled journalist is drawn into London's underworld when his beautiful neighbour is kidnapped.”

Jan. 20th - The Red Turtle (Limited) – Animated fantasy. From imdb.com: “The dialogue-less film follows the major life stages of a castaway on a deserted tropical island populated by turtles, crabs and birds.”

Jan. 20th - Staying Vertical (Limited) – French comedy drama. From imdb.com: “A film maker has to raise a child by himself whilst looking for an inspiration for his new film.”

Jan. 20th - Antarctica: Ice and Sky (Limited) – Nature. From imdb.com: “A documentary about global warming.”

And going into wide release this week:

Dec 16th - The Founder (Limited) – Drama with Michael Keaton, Linda Cardellini, Nick Offerman, Patrick Wilson, B.J. Novak and Laura Dern

Dec. 25th - 20th Century Women (Limited) – Comedy drama with Annette Bening, Elle Fanning, Greta Gerwig and Billy Crudup

Okay, so the four maybe's for me were The Resurrection of Gavin Stone...normally a Christian film would never make much of a blip on my radar, but this one looks rather good. If any of you see it and recommend it, it will go on my list. And it doesn't hurt that the lead is the UBER-hot Brett Dalton, who played Grant Ward/Hiver on the TV show Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

The Red Turtle is an animated movie for adults...which has no dialogue. Normally these kind of movies don't grab my interest either, but one recommendation from any of you and I'll give it a shot!

Staying Vertical had a so-so trailer, but it's made by the name who made Stranger By The Lake, which I either enjoyed or was greatly challenged by. Or was it both?

And lastly, Antarctica: Ice and Sky looks like an interesting movie, but I've seen a ton of climate change documentaries and didn't find this one to stand out enough so as to make me add it to my list. Again, if any of you see it, I'd love to hear your thoughts about it.

I actually want to see xXx, it looks like a mess, but a fun mess. And I mean, Toni Collette is in it.

 

[watchthis!!]

New Danny Trejo documentary titled Inmate #1 in the works
http://www.joblo.com/movie-news/new-danny-trejo-documentary-titled-inmate-1-in-the-works-330

This one sounds very interesting. A quote in the article from producer Adam Scorgie:

Today, Danny Trejo is temperate, benevolent and likely one of the nicest guys you’ll ever meet. But he wasn’t always this way...Growing up in the mean streets of Pacoima, California, he was raised and mentored by his uncle, a drug addict and armed robber. By the age of 12, he had tried heroin. By age 15, he was introduced to his first jail cell. At 23, he was sentenced to San Quentin for selling a $30,000 bag of heroin to an undercover agent.

Cool info about how Trejo will work on student films for free just so these students can have his name attached to their project. This must be why he was over twenty 2016 credits on his imdb.com page!

Well, what's the urban legend that they are spoofing?

I'm not sure I'd call that an urban legend in the sense we normally think of that term. (Bloody Mary!) But they were spoofing this story that Liz Taylor, Michael Jackson and Marlon Brando all once took a road trip together...

I agree that urban legend is maybe not the right phrase to use. I thought the movie was meant to be a spoof, like the Airplane! movies. And whatever they could find that would be something to poke fun at, they would go for it. With Jackson, one of those things would be about how his face changed, not only in shape, but colour. Perhaps the joke of casting a white British guy as Jackson was to make a joke about how white he finally ended up. Not the funniest joke in the world, but what makes people laugh can be dramatically different from person to person.

 

[watchthis!!]

Has anybody seen both the musical and movie version of The Jersey Boys? I watched the movie last night and it was more of a serious drama than I expected. I always thought the musical was just an excuse to get the Four Seasons music back into public consciousness. And that it was just four guys on stage singing for most of the time. But the movie had so little of that! Much more of a serious storyline than I expected. Even tough to watch at times. I was expecting something light and almost silly. That said, I still liked it. The performances were all very strong and Eastwood did a good job with the direction. Glad they did the old movie musical type ending with the credits, I needed a bit of a pick-me-up at that point and it was done perfectly.

 

[Aussie Willy]

I really liked Jersey Boys. I hadn't seen the stage show so had nothing to compare it to.

 

[PeterG]

'Hidden Fences' flub made into trailer for fake movie

So after numerous people got the two big movies featuring African-American actors mixed up at the Golden Globes (Fences and Hidden Figures), the staff at "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert" decided to have a little fun with that. Watch the video in the article about the movie, "Hidden Fences".

 

[Buzz]

There is a movie coming out soon I was planning on seeing called "A Dog's Purpose" but not anymore. There is a disturbing video of a dog handler trying to force a scared German Shepard into a pool. It is a differcult video to watch because the animal is clearly terrified.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=csLiYr5OGbg

 

[Aussie Willy]

Saw 'Lion' aka 'A long way home' for the second time. Liked it even more this time. The story is amazing and the screenplay is really good. This time it struck me that the cinematography and music are very good too. Dev Patel really carries the movie and others are also very good - Nicole Kidman, Rooney Mara and the young actors who play Saroo and Guddu. 9 out of 10.

I saw Lion tonight. What a great movie. Sunny Pawar as the young Saroo was really good (and very cute). I think the whole cast were excellent. Best thing Nicole Kidman has done in a long time. And Dev Patel really nailed the Aussie accent. Nice to see Hobart on the big screen (with the view from Mt Wellington and the Derwent River).

 

[PeterG]

In my little city of 75,000, there seems to be more and more articles about scares and even deaths in regards to drugs laced with fentanyl. So this post...

I saw The Purge: Anarchy last night, much better than I expected. It's more a drama than action or horror, but it has elements of all of these things. There's way more dialogue and character intereaction than there is anything gruesome or horrific. Although the entire premise of the movie is horrific, maybe even a little moreso with some of the things happening around the globe. Frank Grillo is an excellent lead. Looks like he has four releases in production, none related to The Purge or to the Marvel movies he is a part of (as Brock Rumlow / Crossbones). Grillo has a scene towards the end of this movie where he deals with the drunk driver who killed his son that is pretty incredible...just wished the scene could have been longer so we could see more of what he can do, but I guess that wouldn't have fit with what the moment required. He's definitely the soul of this movie and a great movie hero. Now I have to go find The Purge: Election Year!

Trailer for The Purge: Anarchy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XzFCDqKE4yA

...has stuck with me. If I remember correctly, the storyline for this movie is about the government deciding to deal with issues of poverty and a suffering middle class by eliminating the poor. And I'm wondering if "The Purge" is actually happening with drugs being created that go so far beyond giving the user a simple high, but instead, whose sole purpose seems to be to eliminate the consumer. It's scary just for me to type that out. And even if this seems too far-fetched of an idea, the way in which so many cities skirt around the issue(s) of the disenfranchised makes me wonder if that's a "Purge" on a lesser scale. Inaction, red tape, community forums, referendums. All of which can make a problem issue last years, and sometimes decades. All the while people suffer and in the most extreme cases...die.

So what do you think? Is The Purge just a movie or is The Purge already here?

 

[VGThuy]

I saw Lion tonight. What a great movie. Sunny Pawar as the young Saroo was really good (and very cute). I think the whole cast were excellent. Best thing Nicole Kidman has done in a long time. And Dev Patel really nailed the Aussie accent. Nice to see Hobart on the big screen (with the view from Mt Wellington and the Derwent River).

How do Brit actors do with the Aussie accent in general? I find their American accents can be pretty hit or miss and even the good ones some times sound too mannered.

 

[Vash01]

I saw Lion tonight. What a great movie. Sunny Pawar as the young Saroo was really good (and very cute). I think the whole cast were excellent. Best thing Nicole Kidman has done in a long time. And Dev Patel really nailed the Aussie accent. Nice to see Hobart on the big screen (with the view from Mt Wellington and the Derwent River).

After seeing 'Lion' and 'The light between oceans' I am really interested in seeing that part of Australia. I have never been to Australia and I think most tours are likely to show me Sydney, Brisbane, Canberra, which I want to see of course, but the small islands must be really beautiful. May be look for a tour that includes Melbourne or Perth? (going OT here).

 

[Aussie Willy]

How do Brit actors do with the Aussie accent in general? I find their American accents can be pretty hit or miss and even the good ones some times sound too mannered.

There are very few actors (not Australian) who can do a good Aussie accent. Robert Downey Jnr is one who can and Meryl Streep was also pretty good as Lindy Chamberlain. Dev Patel's was spot on. From what I understand it is really difficult accent for anyone else to do.

After seeing 'Lion' and 'The light between oceans' I am really interested in seeing that part of Australia. I have never been to Australia and I think most tours are likely to show me Sydney, Brisbane, Canberra, which I want to see of course, but the small islands must be really beautiful. May be look for a tour that includes Melbourne or Perth? (going OT here).

Australia is pretty easy to get around and Tasmania is one of the best places to visit. Everyone tends to go north to Queenlands but I always tell people to go south instead. I want to move to Hobart as I go there quite a bit for skating judging (they have a very small rink there) as every time I go I always feel at peace. They have a fantastic museum called MONA which has become one of the major tourist attractions, festivals, fascinating history, the best Saturday morning market at Salamanca, good restaurants and just beautiful scenery.

Hey if anyone here came to Melbourne I could be your travel guide (until I can move to Hobart).

 

[watchthis!!]

'La La Land' Scores Awards-Season Release in China
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/la-la-land-scores-awards-season-release-china-963439

The article mentions that China is the second biggest market in the world for movies (I thought it was Bollywood). And that this will be the first Ryan Gosling movie to play in China. One other thing of interest is that Rogue One: A Star Wars Story was just released in China and has made 37 million in just five days.

 

[Aussie Willy]

Saw Jackie tonight. I thought Natalie Portman's performance was quite amazing. She got the Jackie Kennedy mannerisms, inflections and tones just right. The movie did kind of drag and I felt there was a lack of cohesiveness with the story - it kept switching from one point in time to the other without any real rationale. I do think the staging and costumes were excellent. Also the music was very interesting.

 

[Seerek]

I put a lot more weight to acting. If it was the theatre, I would expect top notch singing.

I agree with you on this, but it is quite a challenge to only put one's "movie critic hat" on watching this film if you're also a regular watcher of live entertainment, whether it be dance or musical theatre. It's also not out of the realm of possibility that Emma Stone was instructed to sound breathy or less refined to match with Ryan Gosling's voice in the duets.

This does lead to the discussion on how a potential stage version of the show would be different from the movie version - likely much more beefed up choreography in the dance and more fully-formed songs overall throughout (more singing by supporting characters too).

I expected it to win the Best musical at GG but now I think it's the front runner for the BP Oscar. Everyone seems to like the pleasant story when compared with the sad or difficult stories in other movies. I think it will be like Chicago winning over The Pianist, or Shakespeare in love winning over Saving private Ryan.

I compare it somewhat with Slumdog Millionaire winning in 2009 on the outset of the credit crisis. The cultural/political climate of the present time could give La La Land an extra push towards BP.

 

[watchthis!!]

Worried About The Boy is a 2010 tv-movie from the U.K. about Boy George's beginnings. I quite liked it, Douglas Booth plays Boy George and this is Booth's first leading role. He's good as he always is, but probably too pretty. At one point during the movie, he says something about being so fat. And I'm not sure Booth even has any body fat! The movie is selective in what it covers, but in spite of that, there's quite a substantial amount of story in this. I was drawn into every moment of the story even while wondering about certain other things that were happening at the time but didn't get included in this story. Booth is the only person in this who I recognized, but the whole cast is great. I think Boy George's life is interesting enough for there to be a whole mini-series rather than just this 90 minute movie.

The trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a-w42XLJ7Rg

And currently youtube has the entire movie up for viewing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aVwUbZOnG9Q

 

[VGThuy]

Speaking of Boy George, I always dreamed about adapting the musical Taboo into a film. It has one of my favorite Broadway scores of all time.

 

[Aussie Willy]

Worried About The Boy is a 2010 tv-movie from the U.K. about Boy George's beginnings. I quite liked it, Douglas Booth plays Boy George and this is Booth's first leading role. He's good as he always is, but probably too pretty. At one point during the movie, he says something about being so fat. And I'm not sure Booth even has any body fat! The movie is selective in what it covers, but in spite of that, there's quite a substantial amount of story in this. I was drawn into every moment of the story even while wondering about certain other things that were happening at the time but didn't get included in this story. Booth is the only person in this who I recognized, but the whole cast is great. I think Boy George's life is interesting enough for there to be a whole mini-series rather than just this 90 minute movie.

The trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a-w42XLJ7Rg

And currently youtube has the entire movie up for viewing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aVwUbZOnG9Q

Thanks for the link. I might have to watch that.

ETA - well I did watch it. Good recommendation. Checked the credits and saw that Richard Madden who was Rob Stark in GOT was in it. And I recognised Mark Gattis who played Malcolm McLaren. It is always interesting seeing movies about that period of time and the English music scene such as 24 Hour Party People (about Tony Wilson and the Manchester music scene) and Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll (story of Ian Drury which stars Andy Serkis). There are characters that you know about from real life. In this one Steve Strange was someone I definitely knew of. Thanks for the suggestion.