quote:

Originally posted by Raven:

Empty gestures are big in Hollywood, like every one didn't know what was going on before it became a public embarrassment.

So true, I made a FB comment last week about how many of the Hollywood puppets are now stirring a disgust for Woody Allen. I mentioned that I guess being 25 years late to the party was better than nothing.

I have seen some of the Oscar Buzz films recently and have found none of them bad. Like Hidden Figures I thought Darkest Hour enjoyable but disingenuous to what really happened. 3 Billboards was hard to take literal but is pretty fun as a metaphor or some type of tragedy. You could have all sorts of great arguments er....I mean conversations relating pieces of it to real life. ;-P

I thought Shape of Water would have been an awesome re-imagine of the Abe Sapien origin story from Hellboy. Sadly, Del Toro has denied any and all connection. Still, it was a much better movie than my impression from the previews.

I also really enjoyed the structure and performances of I,Tonya.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: mykdude,

Finally saw IT on DVD. I wasn't in a hurry because I read book and saw the mini-series a couple of times. I was curious to see how much improved it was since it was such a big box office success, better than even expected.

Well I found it to be a decent film and the child actors were all good, but I did not see that much improvement to make a big difference from the prior version. CGI was better of course. Scenes were gorier. I liked Tim Curry's Pennywise better than this one. This Pennywise was all malevolence just at a glance. What child would be tempted? Curry camped it up and somehow that seemed more appropriate, even if over the top.

Also this IT, because it was filmed in order of the 1988 part of the story only, was repetitive in the scenes of bullying and danger and IT attacks. Both the book and the mini-series alternated between the kids and their adult lives. The second half of IT will be a separate movie and I am looking forward to seeing what stars they cast in the adult roles now that IT made so much money.

So maybe when the second part comes out I will think this is a better remake than the TV version. While it was darker, I didn't really find it scary at all. I also didn't feel that it added that much by way of explaining the story any better than before. People who didn't know the story have nothing to compare it to so as I said, it was a decent version, but just not any better for me.

"Jumanji" seems to be the surprise hit of 2017.

It is now the 5th biggest movie at the U.S. box office, released last year, surpassing "Spider-Man Homecoming", and soon it may be bigger than Guardians of the Galaxy 2.

It has currently grossed 858 M worldwide, and may end up being the 4th biggest film of 2017 internationally, behind only Star Wars, Beauty and the Beast, and the latest Fast and the Furious movie (which did much better worldwide than domestically)

This weekend, Jumanji will officially become the 4th highest grossing film of 2017, domestically, passing the 389 M grossed by "Guardians of the Galaxy 2"

Who would have guessed ?

quote:

Originally posted by Tommy C:
This weekend, Jumanji will officially become the 4th highest grossing film of 2017, domestically, passing the 389 M grossed by "Guardians of the Galaxy 2"

Who would have guessed ?

I would not have guessed but it was a fun movie. I took my family and we all enjoyed it. We all told our friends, who told their friends. It was a goofy fun movie and I am glad it did well. Something to note Karen Gillan was in both Guardians 2 and Jumanji so she was in the top 4th and 5th film of 2017. Who would have guessed that either.

quote:

Originally posted by barobehere:

quote:

Originally posted by Tommy C:
This weekend, Jumanji will officially become the 4th highest grossing film of 2017, domestically, passing the 389 M grossed by "Guardians of the Galaxy 2"

Who would have guessed ?

I would not have guessed but it was a fun movie. I took my family and we all enjoyed it. We all told our friends, who told their friends. It was a goofy fun movie and I am glad it did well. Something to note Karen Gillan was in both Guardians 2 and Jumanji so she was in the top 4th and 5th film of 2017. Who would have guessed that either.

I do believe that Dwayne Johnson, I still call him The Rock, was named the highest grossing actor in the year prior to Jumanji, and Kevin Hart has been doing well also. So those two actors alone have a big fan base. What really surprised me was that Baywatch tanked so badly, but it really was an awful movie. Now that was a miss.

Jumanji also benefitted from several weekends with practically no competition in terms of newer, better movies. I didn't see it yet, but I will catch it on DVD.

A good way to finish this thread, and have someone start the 2018 Movie Misses, might be a few comments about the 2017 Academy Awards.

In what should be no surprise to anyone, except maybe the Academy members, last night's viewer ratings fell by 19% from last year's show. Last year's show was the lowest rated telecast before that. The Oscars can't stop losing people.

I did not see all of it because I was channel surfing a lot. I saw the red carpet, the opening monologue, the ending and various bits in between. Here's some of the problems I saw . . .

Jimmy Kimmel is not a good host. He doesn't want to offend anyone. He is not funny. The best he does is get the odd smile. His bits, like going across the street to another movie theatre, take too much time and do not pay off with laughs. He also can't seem to ab lib anything. He is safe and boring.

Everyone knew who was going to win the major awards. They knew it because the same people won the Golden Globes, the Emmys, the SAGs, the BAFTAs, you name it. Why do you need the Oscars if all the other awards already decide it?

The songs were all bad, but the winner was one of the worst.

Everyone needed to comment on Time's Up and Me Too. The red carpet commentators asked people, if they didn't. Actresses who had not been to the Academy Awards for years were there. Stars that went nearly every year stayed well away for fear of being dragged into it.

Ryan Seacrest could do nothing right, even though no one knows if he did anything wrong.

Everyone that presented or received an award had to pay homage to Streep like she was the only actor in the room. Beatty and Dunaway read the right name this time.

And that was it. Everything that is wrong with the movie industry, clapping and slapping each other on the back.

One of the complaints about Jimmy Kimmel's performance was that at the beginning, he called for love and unity, but then spent the whole show poking fun at conservatives and the President. That's what I heard, I did not watch it

quote:

Originally posted by Raven:
Everyone that presented or received an award had to pay homage to Streep like she was the only actor in the room.

Yes, this got tiring very quickly. They also had her sitting in the front row right in the middle, so there was that, too. I have never been a Streep fan, but I find her "fine". There are far better actresses and far more challenging roles out there. She always plays it safe.

I found Kimmel pretty bad. The only things he said that elicited a chuckle were his few Matt Damon references.

The show was fine and Kimmel wasn't bad at it. I've been watching the Oscars for over 30 years at this point and what was lacking this year was two things... 1) a popular movie up for awards like the years that Titanic or Lord of the Rings were nominated and 2) all of the winners in the major categories this year were obvious thus robbing the ceremony of any of the suspense that could happen in a tight race. All of the other award shows know that the Academy Awards are still the big one that people pay attention to so they all try to go first in order to steal some of their thunder. The issue isn't the Oscars itself, it's that there are too many award shows at this time of year and it gets lost in the shuffle. I don't consider any of the other complaints about it (length, industry applauding itself, etc.) particularly valid as nobody is forced to watch the show. If it's fun for you, enjoy it, if not, move along.

Given the rating during the main awards season I think many of them need a shake up. The film awards for certain.

The music awards in both UK and USA aren't much better. I just don't think people care so much anymore?

Don't know any younger people who are interested and older people seem to be 'over it'.

Perhaps trying new formats or giving the public more of a say in who wins instead of secret panels of rich people who are out of touch with the music streaming and film watching public?

I think public votes could renew interest. Plus new worthy (for better or worse) performances, that always gets people watching.

Shorter formats would be better too but probably not worth the cost of setting up the show given cost of security versus advertising revenue.