Predicting the Movie Hits and Bombs of 2018

Discussion in 'Visual Arts' started by Vidiot, Dec 17, 2017.

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  1. Vidiot

    Vidiot Now in 4K HDR! Thread Starter

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    Fantastic Beasts 2 opened lower than the first one and reviews have not been great. The first one made $814M worldwide, and I tend to doubt the sequel will get that high.

    I think that's exactly right. These movies are also a lot of trouble to make, because there's so many moving parts. I'm not convinced Rowling knows what she's doing as a screenwriter: the films' structure is weird and convoluted.

    Meanwhile: I've seen the trailers & billboards for Welcome to Marwen, and even though I admire filmmaker Bob Zemeckis' technical skill (and I think Steve Carrell is a very talented actor), this looks weird as hell to me. It would be hard for me to imagine this film being a success:

     
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  2. SandAndGlass

    SandAndGlass Twilight Forum Resident

    I agree, I'm guessing at 600M, maybe... 650M.

    The approval rating was about half of the first one, on Rotten Tomato's.

    There was a lot that I did not care for in the first one that was not repeated in the second one.

    I really don't get, why the second one had such a low approval rating?

    Compared to the first one. I could not see the second being either that much better or much worse.

    I don't really care about the professional reviewer's. But, out of curiosity, I did read a lot of fan reviews, which were mixed.

    The thing is, those who liked it, really did like it and were not disappointed in the least.

    This appears to be one of those movies without middle ground. Most reviews ten to line up on one side or the other.

    With more on the "don't like" side.

    Consider, that the major audience would already be Potter/Rowling fans, in the first place. If I was not familiar with the wizarding world in the first place, I would not have gone to see it.

    I was OK enough with the first one, to go to the second one.

    The major objections seemed to be that it had too much violence. HP movies had a good bit of violence, so did the first. Nothing new here. There were also complaints about the lack of a plot. I did not see it being that much different from the first one in that regard.
     
  3. Oatsdad

    Oatsdad Oat, Biscuits, Abbie & Mitzi: Best Dogs Ever

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    I think Zemeckis is shooting more for critical acclaim than popular success with that one. Dunno the budget...
     
  4. Vidiot

    Vidiot Now in 4K HDR! Thread Starter

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    His previous films The Walk ($40 million) and Flight ($31 million) were relatively modest-budget films that still had a ton of visual effects, so it's clear he's trying to avoid the problem of making $100M+ movies that require a huge gross in order to break even. I thought both films were very well-made but still kind of missed the mark. Zemeckis' motion-capture films left me cold -- I thought they were creepy and weird, too much Uncanny Valley for me. Fake people in movies are just too oft-putting for me.

    I'll say this for the guy: Zemeckis is a unique filmmaker who never seems to make the same film twice. Even when he made three Back to the Future movies, each one was a huge departure from the last. I think he's a brave filmmaker who makes interesting films and is clearly not out to do the "same old thing" with his work.
     
  5. dewey02

    dewey02 Forum Resident

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    I agree on his motion capture movies. Why make an animated movie and have the people in the movie look not quite human but almost, except they look really creepy? I have mixed feelings about the Yellow Submarine remake being cancelled. I shudder to think of how creepy J, P, G, and R would have looked, but that Yellow Submarine itself and all the various seas (Monsters, Time, Holes, and the foothills of the headlands) could have been really cool in 3D.

    [​IMG]
     
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  6. Danby Delight

    Danby Delight Forum Resident

    Location:
    Boston
    About five minutes in, I realized that if you pretend the film stars Pete Davidson playing Rami Malek playing Freddie Mercury, it instantly becomes hugely more entertaining.

    I thought the casting of the other bandmembers was solid.
     
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  7. Michael

    Michael I LOVE WIDE S-T-E-R-E-O!

    Indeed...that's another way to look at it. : )
     
  8. PhilBorder

    PhilBorder Senior Member

    Location:
    Sheboygan, WI
  9. Michael Rose

    Michael Rose Forum Resident

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    Davie,Fl
  10. Deuce66

    Deuce66 Senior Member

    Location:
    Canada
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  11. FVDnz

    FVDnz Forum Resident

    Just got released on Netflix. Reviews seem mixed but overall, the film touches upon the darker nature of Kipling's books compared to Favreau's 2016 remake. Looking forward to seeing it.
     
  12. Oatsdad

    Oatsdad Oat, Biscuits, Abbie & Mitzi: Best Dogs Ever

    Location:
    Alexandria VA
    I gotta admit the trailers won me over for that flick. I viewed it skeptically at first but the most recent promos leave me intrigued!
     
  13. Vidiot

    Vidiot Now in 4K HDR! Thread Starter

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    Oh, jesus, the trailers for Mowgli have got a whole buncha weird "Uncanny Valley" stuff going on...



    I think it's very telling that Warner Bros. bailed on releasing this film to theaters (which reportedly cost more than $60 million) and just sold it to Netflix as a direct-to-video release. It looks creepy and weird to me.
     
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  14. Deesky

    Deesky Forum Resident

    Holy crap! I haven't seen such purely animated animals since...I dunno, a cheesy 15 year old video game? No wonder it 'only' cost $60m.
     
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  15. Vidiot

    Vidiot Now in 4K HDR! Thread Starter

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    Mowgli was weird and cheesy for sure. I sympathize with director/producer Andy Serkis: the movie is a lot closer to Rudyard Kipling's original novel. The problem is: it's strange, boring, and oft-putting. And the effects are all over the map -- some of them beautiful, some of them so-so, some of them like a cheesy video game.
     
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  16. Michael Rose

    Michael Rose Forum Resident

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    Davie,Fl
    This is a the feel good / anti bullying /non comedic version of Dinner For Schmucks

     
  17. Deuce66

    Deuce66 Senior Member

    Location:
    Canada
    Jungle Book? same deal.....
     
  18. PH416156

    PH416156 Alea Iacta Est

    Location:
    Europe
    Bohemian Rhapsody close to $600M worldwide :eek:
     
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  19. budwhite

    budwhite Climb the mountains and get their good tidings.

    Location:
    Götaland, Sverige
    Queen was huge pretty much everywhere except for the states. I'm not surprised.
     
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  20. Oatsdad

    Oatsdad Oat, Biscuits, Abbie & Mitzi: Best Dogs Ever

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    Queen was huge in the States as well - through 1980. It was after that they lost popularity...
     
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  21. budwhite

    budwhite Climb the mountains and get their good tidings.

    Location:
    Götaland, Sverige
    Really? I always heard that they were under the radar. Like The Kinks and Oasis etc. Never did any huge tours etc. How about local and mainstream radio back in the day?
     
  22. benjaminhuf

    benjaminhuf Forum Resident

    Queen was big in the US. When I was in 6th grade at lunch in c. 1977 with 200 other students in the cafeteria, first one table, and then another, and then about 60% of the room started doing the "We will we will rock you" boom-boom. Boom! We did the boom stuff with our elbows on the tables, and then clapping. The cafeteria workers and teachers looked truly alarmed and couldn't figure out what had possessed us. It stopped after about a minute.
     
  23. Vidiot

    Vidiot Now in 4K HDR! Thread Starter

    Location:
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    I was shocked that "Radio Ga-Ga" wasn't a bigger hit here in 1984 -- and was their last new Top 40 U.S. hit, and went to #1 all over the rest of the world. (Except for the #2 reissue of "Bohemian Rhapsody" in 1992.)
     
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  24. Oatsdad

    Oatsdad Oat, Biscuits, Abbie & Mitzi: Best Dogs Ever

    Location:
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    Huge. I was a kid in the 70s and we all knew their hits from 1975-1981 or so.

    BTW, I wouldn't call Kinks and Oasis "under the radar" in the US. The Kinks played big arenas in the early 80s and Oasis sold millions.

    Actually, during the late 70s/early 80s, the Kinks were way more popular in the US than in the UK!
     
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  25. Oatsdad

    Oatsdad Oat, Biscuits, Abbie & Mitzi: Best Dogs Ever

    Location:
    Alexandria VA
    The question of why Queen faltered in the US after 1980 has been torn to shreds. Lots of theories but no real "facts"! :)
     
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