Film, Box Office, and Stuff

Due to the forthcoming releases of Escape Plan 2: Hades and the Papillon remake, I was checking the domestic box office gross for Lock Up recently.  Personal interest (big Stallone fan!) - even though I know Hades  will probably not get a theatrical release - but it got me interested where Lock Up ranked in terms of all-time prison movies, especially at the time of its release.  So I set out looking for what is the highest-grossing prison movie and, to my surprise, this is not listed anywhere.  So, I've decided to make a list here. TOP 30 PRISON FILMS 1. The Longest Yard  (2005) - $158,119,460 2. The Green Mile - $136,801,374 3. Con Air  - $101,117,573 4. Tyler Perry's Madea Goes to Jail  - $90,508,336 5. Papillon - $53,267,000 6. The Longest Yard  (1974) - $43,008,075 7. Escape from Alcatraz - $43,000,000 8. Dead Man Walking  - $39,363,635 9. Brubaker - $37,121,708 10. Midnight Express  - $35,000,000 11. The Shawshank Redemption  - $28,341,469 12

So it was announced yesterday that Solo: A Star Wars Story will be released day-and-date with the United States on 25th May 2018.  It makes sense to release it on the same date.  As we know, Star Wars as a brand is not in China what it is in the States, so leaving it until later will make no difference (it didn't for The Force Awakens or The Last Jedi ), so the studio is obviously trying to give Chinese moviegoers a different hook to see it, and, due to time zones, that's to see it before any other country in the world.  I don't think this will make any difference, but I can only assume that's why they're doing it. But I wonder if they will actually market the film like a blockbuster this time.  This is a brand that Disney really wants Chinese people to flock to, but with the last two Star Wars movies there was a significant dearth of marketing power.  Back at the end of 2015, you could see Star Wars pretty much everywhere for the upcoming early January 2016

So this is my ninth Nicolas Cage film of the year. If this is not a spoof (it's not a spoof), then the filmmakers might be retarded. This is hilariously bad. I'm talking In The Blood and The Asylum's The Terminators -level of bad. In the future, the post-Trump Utopian United States is now led by a fascist government in which one government agency, The Humanity Bureau, regulates the contribution citizens make to society. Basically, they send people that take more than they contribute to a place called "New Eden". Little do these people know that they are being sent to their death. They kill them Auschwitz-style, then burn them, put them in boxes and pallet them up for some reason. The government keep people in the US and in the cities with fear. Instead of building a wall to keep people out and Americans in the cities, they have concocted lies, such as that radiation is strong along the borders, there are no longer roads that lead north, rivers/lakes have all

I've never really agreed with the notion of mindless fun, but it is certainly present with Rampage .  It is a hollow monster-destruction flick that feels like it was written by the same people as Power Rangers .  The script is pretty generic, Dwayne Johnson is irritatingly more wooden than usual, and the villains are two-dimensional misfires.  On the flip-side, it's saving grace if you will ... there is a bunch of big, CGI monster fights, and I don't care what anyone says, they're fun to observe.  Not exciting or moving in any other way (apart from the short-lived final battle), but it's always at least visually interesting to behold these clashes.  There are also some comedic attempts, only two of which actually work (both are the gorilla's hand gestures).  The film jumps into gear pretty much as soon as it begins, and before you know it, it has ended. Not a lot of time for development. There is nothing outright terrible, but a lot of forgettable characters

This CG-actioner is the best film in the Lara Croft film series.  It has plenty of action and "kineticism" to the plot and sequences, and Alicia Vikander is fantastic.  She goes through hell, but is made for this role. She is naive yet strong, and supremely sexy.  It is basically an origin story, because while she does do lots of typical tomb raider-y stuff, she is also a bit young and stupid. I love the set up for the sequel, and very much hope it gets made.  This could be a great franchise. But as fun as it was, it leaves a lot for sequels to mine, which hurts this first effort.  There are too many night sequences. The shipwreck, the nightfall fight where Lara drowns a guard, and the entire ending inside the tomb were all difficult to follow.  The Hong Kong chase and the waterfall sequence were far-and-away the better set pieces.  Also, while there was a bit of tomb raiding and solving puzzles, there needed to be way more of this, and I feel it was missing a final, heroi

Excellent cops-and robbers-action film. Full to the brim of machismo. Tattoos, muscles, macho standoffs, guns, leather jackets...it's all there. The final hour (the heist and the ensuing chase) is absolutely enthralling and doesn't let up. Great action. The film shares a structure (and even some scenes) with Heat , but it's a totally different beast in its own regard. Actually, it feels very much like it shares a universe with Triple 9 and Sabotage . It is not as sophisticated and neat and cool as Heat . It's more rough around the edges. The dynamic here is turned on its head because for me I'm rooting for McCauley in Heat but Nick in Thieves , which makes it interesting to see [essentially] the same story but from the other side. And Butler is great as the wildcard sheriff cop. No uniform, no rules. It's great. The setup for a sequel is a little glib, and Nick's divorce/not seeing the kids plot thread loses steam about half-way through the film, but I

Downsizing has an interesting what-if gimmick, but it is a bland exploration of the concept, and I grew tired of it and these characters over the course of its whopping 130 minute run-time. Its marketing gives it a different vibe than its pretentious intentions. The beautiful and talented Hong Chau adds some required levity, but the film gets lodged between themes and genres, instead of landing on them as it hops from chapter to chapter, place to place, and so on. It is just quite uneven, and quite a tedious watch outside of a few scenes. It also has the guise of a parable but it's so washy and bloated by morality and uncertainty that I gave up trying to decipher the meaning or if there even was one. This is a disappointing film by Payne, a filmmaker who has such a rich filmography in The Descendants, About Schmidt, Sideways , and last year's most underrated film, Wilson . He should definitely stick to straight up comedy-dramas in the future, and leave the science-fiction in

It is such a shame that the accusations toward Louis C.K. happened on the eve of I Love You, Daddy 's release, because it is a brilliant film and a real achievement. It is extremely topical, not just with regards to C.K's recent tabloid life but with the whole movement regarding feminism, consent, positions of power etc., and it not coincidentally (I hope), in terms of dialogue and framing and locales, is a retro imitation of a Woody Allen comedy under the technical guise of a 50s drama. How gorgeous does that sound? It has all of the typical Allen elements. New York, Paris, relationship dilemmas, inadequacies, and even a direct real-life reference of an auteur filmmaker (played deceitfully predatory by John Malkovich) dating a minor. The film connections and conventions of yesteryear, editing, cinematography score...all brilliant. There is something magical that takes place when a film is shot in black-and-white. The lighting changes, and it instantaneously becomes art. Eac

This was alright. It is basically a film about nothing, though.  Much like Tangerine , Baker goes cinéma vérité again as we basically just drop in to the life of a few trashy characters as they go about their business.  In The Florida Project , we follow a mother and her daughter while they do nothing for a few weeks over summer break.  The mother (in the thinnest sense of the word) is a complete leech, a thief, and a prostitute, trying to accumulate money to pay each week's rent.  This isn't an empowering single mum story.  Basically a girl herself, she has no morals or good judgement, and any money she does get she wastes on fast food.  Bobby (Willem Dafoe), the motel manager, is a great character -- the only one in the film!  The rest are the lowest of the low.  The kids aren't much better either, but I gave them a pass because they're just kids.  But still, Moonee is a little bitch.  But I can't say I was bored watching these people for a 110 minutes. This

A riveting and captivating drama.  Spielberg is showing off his talent with this one.  For such a plain plot (at least on paper), he films the hell out of it, and meanders through it with a careful eye of the turning points and keeps the audience engaged in the story like only a master technician can.  From the very start it is just a joy to watch great actors act.  Meryl Streep and Tom Hanks are both superb.  Actually everyone is on top-form, but the first scene with Hanks and Streep is very enjoyable. A-

The best word to describe this film is mediocre.  It resets all the good work that Marvel have done in the last few years with Thor: Ragnarok, Civil War, Homecoming , and both Guardians of the Galaxy films because of just how average it is.  It was quite uneven and I couldn't get into the film at all until T'Challa is defeated and thrown into the waterfall.  It was very unexciting for an action movie, and the fighting sequences were badly choreographed or badly shot, or both.  Michael B. Jordan is good, but Andy Serkis is a better villain (and he nails the accent).  Chadwick Boseman is just grating.  His voice is annoying, and his character is just boring.  He is essentially invincible as long as he has his suit on, which makes everything he does lose all risk, and therefore lose my interest.  T'Challa's sister was a nice inclusion.  Just a shame they couldn't make any of her jokes actually work. I did like the occasional use of authentic African sounds in the

It's not bad.  Very much a progressive, hipster flick.  Made for those morons that believe there are more than two genders.  But again, it's not a bad film - it is just trying too hard.  It's well paced.  It is also well written.  The dialogue feels grounded, and less "movie-ish", which is actually quite refreshing.  Well, mostly everything.  The "I .. respect you" line is cringe-worthy, forced, socially-pandering, idealistic writing.  Ok, so acting: Ronan is average.  She's playing the oddball.  Not something I feel is a stretch for her.  Anyway, she is outclassed by Metcalfe.  Chalamet, also, to a degree.  He does a good early noughties 'I'm-in-a-band' free-thinking douche.  He was actually the highlight of the film for me.  What the film does do well is to recover enough of the feeling and panic and potential and worry of that leap to higher education, so that makes me happier adding a plus to my grade. C+

Following a back room flower power activist as he is promoted to the main stage of procedural criminal defence courts, Roman J. Israel, Esq. chronicles the last three weeks in the life of the titular character.  Competently performed by Denzel Washington, this legal drama is engaging on some level but unfortunately does not reach the heights that it intends.  If there was an idea that this film wanted to communicate, it got lost among legal jargon, uneven pacing, and plot shifts.  Washington plays Israel with simmering peculiarities, but this should have been heightened to isolate the character as a true eccentric.  Wasted potential right there!  Colin Farrell plays the owner of law firm, Gary Pierce, but he is so miscast.  The role deserves a conventional career high-flyer type who later overturns his capitalist principles to share in some of Israel's progressive ideas.  Instead, Farrell comes across more as some local mafia boss with his short stature, soft voice, and tailore

This was fairly decent. It is nothing revolutionary. Your standard spaceship invasion/who-can-you-trust? thriller, but it is linked to the Cloverfield story which makes it a tad more interesting. Though not as well executed as Life. I was surprised by the cast. Zhang Ziyi, who only speaks Mandarin (and all crew can understand her!), has the best death scene, and Chris O'Dowd has the funniest lines (obviously, he's Irish!), and Simon Pegg is one of the radio voices! I feel the film could have shown much more of the monster earlier in the film. Couldn't J.J. just use deleted scenes from Cloverfield ? All it needed was a few glimpses. Showing it just at the end feels more like title validation than narrative demand. It feels cheap, but I guess it is fun enough. I try not to take this "franchise" too seriously. It is a marvel what they have done by plastering over other previously unrelated films. B-

Immensely enjoyable and hilarious.  James Franco nails Wiseau, not just inhabiting the man's aura and personality, but also his pecs!  Franco also does a solid job behind the camera.  Rogen is great as the guy that says what we were all thinking when we saw The Room .  And the film does a superb job of recreating the infamous 2002 production.  It is just very hard to find fault in a film that plays out to one of the most addictive 90s dance classics, but it is one of those films where you will find it hard to take your eyes off the screen.  Particularly if you've seen The Room , and particularly if you hated it.  The Disaster Artist makes those 99 minutes seem like less of a waste. A-

An emotional and beautifully conveyed character study of a middle-aged man and the neurosis that builds up over the years.  I've long to go, yet Mike White's touching script is never not relatable, and it is brought to life by two terrific performances in Ben Stiller and Austin Abrams.  As father and son, they infuse such a bond that each intimate exchange of dialogue between them registers as it should, charged with feeling.  I do not tear up often, but multiple times the tear ducts reacted. I think Brad's Status is special film that is seemingly flying under-the-radar, and it really should not.  It is an important examination of how men view themselves and of what is important to them, how we judge success, the paranoia of success etc., but it is also just a really heart-warming drama. A

Here are my predictions for the forthcoming Golden Globe Awards, held on 7th January 2018.  My predictions are below, then afterwards I will come back to this post and add the winners, and then calculate how well I did with my predictions.  My predictions, much like their nominations, will be expectant on the Hollywood Foreign Press Association wanting to make a clear statement to Hollywood, so I am favouring films that are liberal, feminist, multi-cultural, anti-Trump etc. Red = Predicted Winner Green = Actual Winner Best Motion Picture, Drama “Call Me By Your Name” “Dunkirk” “The Post” “The Shape of Water” “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri” Best Motion Picture, Comedy or Musical “The Disaster Artist” “Get Out” “The Greatest Showman” “I, Tonya” “Lady Bird” Best Actress in a Motion Picture, Drama Jessica Chastain, “Molly’s Game” Sally Hawkins, “The Shape of Water” Frances McDormand, “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri” ( Winner ) Meryl Streep,

I can declare that this was a record year for me in terms of cinema attendance.  I paid and attended the cinema sixty times in 2017.  Second place is now 2013 with 47 views.  Now, unless I make a concerted effort, 2018 will most likely drop because it is difficult to maintain an average of five cinema visits per month here in China. Here is my cinema viewing history: 1992 - 1 1993 - 5 1994 - 3 1995 - 4 1996 - 3 1997 - 13 1998 - 11 1999 - 9 2000 - 17 2001 - 22 2002 - 13 2003 - 22 2004 - 21 2005 - 28 2003 - 20 2007 - 8 2008 - 5 2009 - 21 2010 - 21 2011 - 13 2012 - 31 2013 - 47 2014 - 43 2015 - 32 2016 - 45 2017 - 60 *NEW RECORD* The films I saw last year were: Arrival La La Land Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (3D) Passengers (3D) Kubo and the Two Strings (3D) 西游伏妖篇 Journey to the West: The Demons Strike Back (3D) Kung Fu Yoga xXx: Return of Xander Cage (3D) La La Land Sing (3D) La La Land Resident Evil: The Final Chapter (3D) Assassin

I was again walking around my local shopping mall, Raffles City, and this time they are promoting Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle , two weeks ahead of its 12th January release date.  Columbia Tristar Marketing clearly sees a big hit to start marketing this so early (and why not? It's doing gangbusters in the US).  It would not surprise me if it out-grosses Spider-Man: Homecoming 's $116m to become Sony's second biggest hit in the market in the last 12 months (I seriously doubt it tops Resident Evil: The Final Chapter 's $160m). Anyway, so this marketing stand is pretty cool.  It has prop plants and other fixtures that I assume are part of the film.  The idea is to go into the booth, and your face can appear on the screen atop the body of one of the characters.  I went it to test it and got Dwayne Johnson.  I took my son in and he got Karen Gillan.  To be honest, this experience was lame.  Kind of clever, but the result was cheap.  I assume visitors can scan one of t

This is the latest Jackie Chan adventure-comedy, and unlike his other 2017 films, The Foreigner and Kung Fu Yoga , it is an entirely Chinese production (that should be your first cause for worry -- remember the failures  CZ12 and Dragon Blade ?).  This time Chan is directed by the inexperienced egotist, Leo Zhang, and it is the weirdest Chan action film yet.  Firstly, it is trash.  It is again silly comedy coupled with Chan's brand of slapstick action, but this time it is infused with a futuristic, science-fiction plot.  It is a shame, because the first action sequence (which is oddly sandwiched between the title of the film and the opening credits) is decent, and it showed promise with its choreography and gore.  I would have been up for more of that.  However, it capitulates into stupidity soon after as it focuses on Nancy (Ouyang Nana), who is Chan's daughter that has regenerative powers, though they've never met (he must keep his distance for a reason which is not c

Yep, good film. Didn't blow me away, but it is by far the best tennis movie ever made. That's interesting, though. Why is it so hard to make a great tennis film? I mean, it is miles better than this year's other tennis flick, Borg vs McEnroe , but that's not saying much. Emma Stone is good. I like her in anything but she irked me a bit as Billie Jean King, as she does not fully transform into her. I just see Emma Stone. I actually think Steve Carell gave a much better performance, even if he was essentially just Austin Powers-lite. But neither give Oscar worthy performances. Good performances, but there are many better this year. So it is an enjoyable film and I loved learning about this "Battle of the Sexes" match and the origin of the WTA, but I also think it was a little shallow. I suppose I should have known that going in. It is, after all, called Battle of the Sexes ! It's hardly subtle. But I would have liked more flesh on the bones. They tried

Awesome, awesome, awesome film. Every scene and every line is a home run. The screenplay is gold. It is hilarious and heartfelt and empowering. Each facet of the film's fabric holds strong. The humour does not spoil the serious, and vice-versa. And everyone is on top form. Frances McDormand is sensational and bad ass. So many scenes of greatness. My favourite has to be the altar boy monologue. Priceless. And Sam Rockwell, well, I do not think I have seen him better. I do not think I have found a character as funny as Dixon but also pitiful and distasteful, but Rockwell manages it. Burwell's score is also just repeat-worthy brilliant. A+

Solid film. The endings are the best parts. a) where it should have ended, and b) where it actually ended. Those are the only times in the film where I felt something. And I did not think the actual ending could top Stuhlbarg's heartwarming father-son monologue, but it so did. The music and Chalamet's face wonderfully translate that teenage feeling of loss and happiness and pity and reminiscence. Powerful ending. I totally bought their lust for one another too. But not so much from Hammer. It was all Timothée Chalamet. The chaser. Tremendous performance. He looks like a young Damien Chazelle and sounds like Shia LaBeouf, but what a great actor! And he is far more invested in every encounter than Hammer. The film starts off just ok. Not bad. Bit relaxed in parts. Interesting in others. But as it goes on. Vignette after vignette. You become invested. The scenery is lovely and the score is good. Just as Winterbottom's The Trip to Italy did, this makes me want to holiday

mother! is fucking nuts. But also just brilliant. I almost had a panic attack. Jesus Christ. Poor girl. Lawrence gives the performance of the year. And Pfeiffer gives the second best performan...just kidding. But she does give a highly effective performance. Aronofsky has finally made his magnum opus. I won't be getting that shot of the baby out of my head any day soon. What Aronofsky does with this film is nothing short of brilliance. I haven't completely figured it all out yet. I know it's symbolic of God and Mother Nature but beyond that my biblical knowledge needs topping up. Anyway, it is completely thrilling stuff. I want to rewatch it but will have to wait a few weeks for my shell shock to lessen and palette to clear. A