SPOILERS!SPOILERS!SPOILERS!
Into the woods was previously a Broadway musical that is now being adapted into a movie starring James Cordon, Emily Blunt, Anna Kendrick, Daniel Huttlestone and company as they all try to achieve their happily ever after but soon learn all wishes don't turn out the way you might want to or expect.
I have never seen the musical before but I did read about it on Wikipedia so I know for the most part what it is about and the premise is exactly the same as the musical. The Baker and his wife want to have a kid and the witch who cursed the Baker's family will remove it if on a blue moon at midnight they give her a cow as white as milk, hair as yellow as corn, a slipper as pure as gold, and a cape as red as blood. Their story ends up intertwining with Cinderella, Jack and the bean stalk, Little red riding hood and Rapunzel and stuff goes down.
I have said previously that I don't think there has ever been a truly great movie musicals due to the either the director have to sacrifice either the movie or the musical to make just one of them work, the length, how differently musicals are styled and performed from movies so on and so on. Into the Woods is no different.
Yet for the first two thirds of the movie I love it, it's funny, charming, everyone can actually sing really good, the music itself is phenomenal and it looks great with the sets, costumes and make up along with most of the special effects. All of the fairy tales blend really well together. It's a really good time and you won't be bored with it at all.
Notice however I say first two thirds and the reason I say that is because when we hit the third act everything goes crazy and the movie takes a dive towards hell faster than anything I've ever seen. This also enforces my thing about how I think you can't mesh a movie and a musical very well and expect to do both good and one of the reasons is the length of a musical compared to a movie.
Most musicals are two act structures either of which can go on for four hours while three acts of a movie last anywhere from thirty to forty minutes. For the first two acts of Into the woods that's not a problem all of the characters motivations and characterizations are simple but well done and the end of the second act feels like the end of a movie, heck once you get to the second act you can leave the movie and get a short, fun little ride you wouldn't mind revisiting in the near future.
The first two acts stretches over the first act of the musical allowing for everyone to get screen time and develop the characters nicely. The second act of the musical is condensed into the very short run time of the third act and the thing is the second act is the most complicated part of the musical. A lot of characters motivations for doing certain things which I will talk about later feel really rushed and out of place, some characters disappear from the movie completely and never return, and some characters die under really lame and in all honesty very confusing circumstances.
The entire movie is very quick paced which can be jarring at first but you get used to it and it does start to slow down after a bit. Yet when the third act comes it brings the quick pace back, turns it up to eleven and the movie falls apart because of it.
The movie's main message is that you may get what you want but it might not be what you want or good for you. Yet it never really explores that until the third act and a lot of it feels really forced when all is said and done.
Ok back to something positive and I need to get off the third act before this gets longer than it probably will be so finally the cast and this also starts my whole SPOILERS thing because I will mention some of the characters fates.
I love James Cordon (he's from Doctor who as Craig Owens) and Emily Blunt in the film. They act very good in the film and both sing really well especially Emily Blunt, they are both very good and likeable characters and have good chemistry together and make a very nice and believable couple. They bicker a lot but they love each other and will do anything for each other. In the film The Baker's wife (she and the baker don't have names) is kissed (although in the musical she has sex with) the prince but I do like they portray her refusing at first and quickly regretting it, what I don't like however is the movie killing her for no reason than to further the Bakers arc with his dad which is completely rushed and given no development until that point and it makes it feel like her death was really unnecessary and she feels really like a victim. This all happens in the third act by the way.
Anna Kendrick sings very nicely in the movie and gives a good performance but I didn't really like Cinderella as I really didn't get to know her too well and there's not much too her expect being nice and kind of indecisive.
Daniel Huttlestone as Jack and Lillia Crawford as little red riding hood did a very good job singing wise and acting wise. They had very good characters and were always fun to watch on screen and unlike a lot of child actors weren't annoying which is very good.
Chris Pine was also surprisingly good in this movie and can actually sing really well to the point where I kept thinking that he should consider doing Broadway since every movie he's in that's not Star Trek tends to flop. Bill Magnussen is also very good singing wise, he's not a bad actor but we never really get any sort of moments with him where he gets to only act so it's hard to decipher whether or not he's a good actor. Pine and Magnussen have probably the best song in the movie "Agony" and I won't give too much away but it's both the most hilarious part of the movie and is really nice to listen too. Mackenzie Mauzy is ok as Rapunzel, the thing with her is that she doesn't really get to sing and not act either. These three characters in the movie are some of the people who end up with the Baker's wife suffering the most because of the third act.
In the musical Rapunzel dies but for the movie they cut it out because it was too dark. You can tell that was originally in the script to keep that key plot point before the Disney heads removed it because her and her Prince charming disappear completely from the movie and never come back. The Rapunzel story doesn't even need to be there because the only thing she adds is to give the witch some redeeming values and some dimension. Chris Pine's character also turns into a complete douchebag at the drop of a hat and it comes out of nowhere with no context or credence at all.
Meryl Streep as always does a good job in both the singing and the acting department. She's given great songs and doesn't dare disappoint. She's got a great character and I love Streep in this type of role where she gets to have a lot of fun. However I don't think she does that good enough of a job to warrant all the awards she's been getting except that she's Meryl Streep. I know it's been a slow year for females in supporting roles but come on there has to be enough to give awards to other than Meryl Streep. She doesn't have that Anne Hathaway "I dreamed a dream" moment really to warrant it. Also she dies in a really confusing way to the point where I and my mom kept trying to understand her death scene but kept failing at it.
Now finally Johnny Depp as The Big bad wolf. In all honest there was no reason for him to be there as he dies fifteen minutes into it. He's not bad in any department but it was kind of jarring seeing him there in a really awkward and silly costume that would have made way more sense and looked better if he had been in motion capture and had been an actual CGI wolf. In fact with how little he's in the movie you could have asked for a less expense Broadway actor like Hadley Fraser or Ramin Karimloo who in all honest would have been better than Johnny Depp who again was not bad but had no purpose to be there.
I give this movie a 6.5/10- This movie was great and I really enjoyed it up until the third act. Still it's a movie I do recommend seeing if you want to have a good time.
HAPPY NEW YEAR!
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Wednesday, December 31, 2014
Sunday, December 21, 2014
The Hobbit Battle of the five armies review
Spoilers! Also sorry this is coming out really late I just went to the movies this Sunday. Christmas parties are kind of prevalent in my life right now
"The Hobbit the battle of the five armies" (three and a half armies or even four if we want to get technical), is "supposedly" (there's still the similarion and some other works I believe) the last movie of both the Hobbit trilogy and "The Lord of the Rings" movies in general. Now truth be told I've only one of the original Lord of the Rings movie- Fellowship which I really liked but I only watched recently which was last week. That's mostly because I was too young to know that the movies even existed let alone was old enough to see a movie in theaters. I also have not read any of the Lord of the rings books either. I have read the original Hobbit book and I have watched all three films.
I loved "aN unexpected Journey" even though a lot of people hated it, I loved it because it was a good adventure movie to me, it was charming, I liked a lot of the characters and Bilbo Baggins a character I loved (he's like my twelfth favorite character which is why I didn't put him on my top ten favorite characters list) was actually the focus of it and was played wonderfully by Martin Freeman (who I also love.) I hate "Desolation of Smaug" because to me it was too convoluted, filled with a lot of characters I didn't like, was boring and was so long with such a slow pace I wanted to kill myself twice by the halfway point. That being said how did I feel about "Battle of the five armies".... it was ok.
I didn't hate like "Desolation of Smaug", I overall did like it and could watch it again but I didn't love it like "An unexpected Journey."
First off lets get to the good. Martin Freeman as Bilbo Baggins is as wonderful as ever, he's interesting to watch and is completely likeable. Martin Freeman has this really low key charm that is comfortable and makes you want him to be your friend which is why I was mad when he got kind of shafted in "Desolation of Smaug" especially considering who was put into the forefront in his place. I'll get to them later but I really didn't like the Dwarves in this movie as opposed to the last two but a stand out among them was Kili who despite a rather "meh" romance was an actual character with a distinct personality and Aidan Turner did a good job with hardly anything to work with.
I also really liked Lee Pace in this movie who I wish had his character of Thraundil expanded in this movie because he seems really interesting and does prove by the end to be a little more than the pompus ass he was originally. A standout was Luke Evans as Bard the Bowman who was really cool, he's very likeable, very relatable and you were rooting for him and his family to be ok in the end and come out with a happy ending. This makes me hope Luke Evans has a good career overall because he really is a good actor and does a lot with roles such as the every man role and adds a lot of weight to it.
A big problem I had in the last movie was the pace, "Desolation of Smaug" dragged in so many places and did a lot of padding. It made the movie which is already pretty long felt even longer and boring and made it not worth rewatching for me. To me there is a certain level of length of a movie I can take before I hit a wall, get bored and want to snap, in fact you can say that for a lot of people in fact, and pace in a movie can help a movie that is three hours long feel pretty short or painfully long.
Thankfully for "Battle of the five armies" despite being two hours and twenty-four movies breezes by very pleasantly and doesn't drag, all thanks to the fact they are a bit more able to work with a faster pace this time around. "Battle of the five armies" on that note is very entertaining and a lot of fun to watch, the action is great and one of the best is a wizard battle between Sauron's forces and Elrond, Saurmon and Galadriel (who strange enough after their battle in the beginning disappear for the rest of the movie and never return or are mention.)
The movie is also wonderfully scored and has an orchestral soundtrack that actually almost compeled me to buy it ITunes.
Now of course no movie is perfect and while I did like this better than "Desolation of Smaug" this one still has some problems. For one thing Tauriel is a waste of a character, while Kili clearly has some character outside of his romance with Tauriel, Tauriel really doesn't and while it's cool to see her kick some ass other than that their isn't much too her. And when you've got a character completely original to the source material it could have been a chance for Jackson and company to get creative. In comparison to "Fellowship" (the only one I can compare with since I have yet to see "Two towers" and "Return of the king") while Arwen was mostly a love interest you could tell she was her own person with something to her and from some stuff I heard gets more interesting in the later movies. The romance between her and Kili isn't bad but it's never fully developed and they don't even get together by the end so it's kind of pointless.
Legolas is also dead space that could have been used to develop other characters. There is some stuff with him and apparent "mommy issues" but it's never fully developed and feels just tacked on with no purpose. The Dwarves which I loved in the last two films have really nothing to do here except either fight or die.
Speaking of the Dwarves my least favorite character in the entire series is Thorin. Richard Armitage is a great actor and overall gives a good performance but my god the character of Thorin Oakenshield is a selfish, pompus douchebag. He almost murders Bilbo, refuses to help the humans whose problems he's caused, he would rather go to war than give back some jewels just to spite someone and is a paranoid prick. I know the intent is that he's a good honorable man who has now been corrupted but even in the last two movies he was a selfish ass.
And the thing is you can have a character who is a selfish ass and still make the likeable for example Boromir in "Fellowship of the ring" was an ass but he had more redeeming qualities that made you give a damn that he died.
However probably the worst part of this movie is the special effects. Almost every backdrop you can tell was done in front of a green screen and that's not saying CGI is at all bad but here it looked terrible. Sorry to bring it back to "Fellowship" but that movie was made in 2001 and looks fantastic compared to this film because mainly it was actually there. When you have actual sets and good CGI or effects that make the world look real it creates an atmosphere that makes the movie more than it is and allow you to get into it better. Here because you can tell everything is a special effect to the point where sometimes the characters were completely CGI it takes you out of the movie and doesn't allow you to connect as well.
A finale problem I have is pacing, while I did include as a good thing about the movie it's also a bit of a bad thing as well because it goes by so fast you never have a chance to breathe and we never really find out what happens to most of the character. Elrond, Sauroman, and Galadriel completely disappear after their five minute battle, Legolas is underdeveloped, we never find out what happens to Tauriel or Bard even though they end up surviving the film and the movie kind of ends abruptly.
Overall I give this movie a 5.5/10~ I liked this movie way better than "Desolation of Smaug" this is a very flawed movie
Also as an after thought I will give my opinion on whether the Hobbit as rather short and simple book into a trilogy. This for me is in the same realm as splitting a movie into two parts, I try not to count it into my finale score as whether or not it was necessary. I actually think that the Hobbit did need to be more than one movie but it did not need to be three. Two movies would have been perfect and it would actually make this series a lot stronger if they split "Desolation of smaug" right down the middle putting the first half with "An expected journey" (end it with them after Laketown and reaching the mountains) and put the second half with "Battle of the five armies" (start it with Bilbo meeting Smaug for the first time) and rename it "There and Back again" which was supposed to be the original title for Battle of the five armies.
Twitter: https://twitter.com/nessaroseboq
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/camille.montano.5209
"The Hobbit the battle of the five armies" (three and a half armies or even four if we want to get technical), is "supposedly" (there's still the similarion and some other works I believe) the last movie of both the Hobbit trilogy and "The Lord of the Rings" movies in general. Now truth be told I've only one of the original Lord of the Rings movie- Fellowship which I really liked but I only watched recently which was last week. That's mostly because I was too young to know that the movies even existed let alone was old enough to see a movie in theaters. I also have not read any of the Lord of the rings books either. I have read the original Hobbit book and I have watched all three films.
I loved "aN unexpected Journey" even though a lot of people hated it, I loved it because it was a good adventure movie to me, it was charming, I liked a lot of the characters and Bilbo Baggins a character I loved (he's like my twelfth favorite character which is why I didn't put him on my top ten favorite characters list) was actually the focus of it and was played wonderfully by Martin Freeman (who I also love.) I hate "Desolation of Smaug" because to me it was too convoluted, filled with a lot of characters I didn't like, was boring and was so long with such a slow pace I wanted to kill myself twice by the halfway point. That being said how did I feel about "Battle of the five armies".... it was ok.
I didn't hate like "Desolation of Smaug", I overall did like it and could watch it again but I didn't love it like "An unexpected Journey."
First off lets get to the good. Martin Freeman as Bilbo Baggins is as wonderful as ever, he's interesting to watch and is completely likeable. Martin Freeman has this really low key charm that is comfortable and makes you want him to be your friend which is why I was mad when he got kind of shafted in "Desolation of Smaug" especially considering who was put into the forefront in his place. I'll get to them later but I really didn't like the Dwarves in this movie as opposed to the last two but a stand out among them was Kili who despite a rather "meh" romance was an actual character with a distinct personality and Aidan Turner did a good job with hardly anything to work with.
I also really liked Lee Pace in this movie who I wish had his character of Thraundil expanded in this movie because he seems really interesting and does prove by the end to be a little more than the pompus ass he was originally. A standout was Luke Evans as Bard the Bowman who was really cool, he's very likeable, very relatable and you were rooting for him and his family to be ok in the end and come out with a happy ending. This makes me hope Luke Evans has a good career overall because he really is a good actor and does a lot with roles such as the every man role and adds a lot of weight to it.
A big problem I had in the last movie was the pace, "Desolation of Smaug" dragged in so many places and did a lot of padding. It made the movie which is already pretty long felt even longer and boring and made it not worth rewatching for me. To me there is a certain level of length of a movie I can take before I hit a wall, get bored and want to snap, in fact you can say that for a lot of people in fact, and pace in a movie can help a movie that is three hours long feel pretty short or painfully long.
Thankfully for "Battle of the five armies" despite being two hours and twenty-four movies breezes by very pleasantly and doesn't drag, all thanks to the fact they are a bit more able to work with a faster pace this time around. "Battle of the five armies" on that note is very entertaining and a lot of fun to watch, the action is great and one of the best is a wizard battle between Sauron's forces and Elrond, Saurmon and Galadriel (who strange enough after their battle in the beginning disappear for the rest of the movie and never return or are mention.)
The movie is also wonderfully scored and has an orchestral soundtrack that actually almost compeled me to buy it ITunes.
Now of course no movie is perfect and while I did like this better than "Desolation of Smaug" this one still has some problems. For one thing Tauriel is a waste of a character, while Kili clearly has some character outside of his romance with Tauriel, Tauriel really doesn't and while it's cool to see her kick some ass other than that their isn't much too her. And when you've got a character completely original to the source material it could have been a chance for Jackson and company to get creative. In comparison to "Fellowship" (the only one I can compare with since I have yet to see "Two towers" and "Return of the king") while Arwen was mostly a love interest you could tell she was her own person with something to her and from some stuff I heard gets more interesting in the later movies. The romance between her and Kili isn't bad but it's never fully developed and they don't even get together by the end so it's kind of pointless.
Legolas is also dead space that could have been used to develop other characters. There is some stuff with him and apparent "mommy issues" but it's never fully developed and feels just tacked on with no purpose. The Dwarves which I loved in the last two films have really nothing to do here except either fight or die.
Speaking of the Dwarves my least favorite character in the entire series is Thorin. Richard Armitage is a great actor and overall gives a good performance but my god the character of Thorin Oakenshield is a selfish, pompus douchebag. He almost murders Bilbo, refuses to help the humans whose problems he's caused, he would rather go to war than give back some jewels just to spite someone and is a paranoid prick. I know the intent is that he's a good honorable man who has now been corrupted but even in the last two movies he was a selfish ass.
And the thing is you can have a character who is a selfish ass and still make the likeable for example Boromir in "Fellowship of the ring" was an ass but he had more redeeming qualities that made you give a damn that he died.
However probably the worst part of this movie is the special effects. Almost every backdrop you can tell was done in front of a green screen and that's not saying CGI is at all bad but here it looked terrible. Sorry to bring it back to "Fellowship" but that movie was made in 2001 and looks fantastic compared to this film because mainly it was actually there. When you have actual sets and good CGI or effects that make the world look real it creates an atmosphere that makes the movie more than it is and allow you to get into it better. Here because you can tell everything is a special effect to the point where sometimes the characters were completely CGI it takes you out of the movie and doesn't allow you to connect as well.
A finale problem I have is pacing, while I did include as a good thing about the movie it's also a bit of a bad thing as well because it goes by so fast you never have a chance to breathe and we never really find out what happens to most of the character. Elrond, Sauroman, and Galadriel completely disappear after their five minute battle, Legolas is underdeveloped, we never find out what happens to Tauriel or Bard even though they end up surviving the film and the movie kind of ends abruptly.
Overall I give this movie a 5.5/10~ I liked this movie way better than "Desolation of Smaug" this is a very flawed movie
Also as an after thought I will give my opinion on whether the Hobbit as rather short and simple book into a trilogy. This for me is in the same realm as splitting a movie into two parts, I try not to count it into my finale score as whether or not it was necessary. I actually think that the Hobbit did need to be more than one movie but it did not need to be three. Two movies would have been perfect and it would actually make this series a lot stronger if they split "Desolation of smaug" right down the middle putting the first half with "An expected journey" (end it with them after Laketown and reaching the mountains) and put the second half with "Battle of the five armies" (start it with Bilbo meeting Smaug for the first time) and rename it "There and Back again" which was supposed to be the original title for Battle of the five armies.
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Thursday, December 18, 2014
Editorial~Double edge sword
Yesterday and today it was found out that North Korea may have been the ones behind the Sony hack thanks to their cyber terrorist unit. Now I'm not going to give a straight up political opinion other than the fact it's kind of scary. The terrorist gave a threat that unless the movie "The Interview" whose plot revolves around the assassination of Kim Jong-Un was cancelled something really bad would happen to the theaters and anyone in the vicinity of the theaters showing it. People got very vocal about it myself included.
I didn't talk about it right away because I had just heard it and got really passionate about it without thinking about it objectively and the thing is I needed to think about this situation objectively as to not be unfair and at the very least logical to both sides and it would have been incoherent sentences of me bitching. This is overall a sucky situation, it's a double edge sword neither choice comes out with the best solution and either way were hurt from both sides. The logical side and the more passionate side.
On one hand yeah I can see why they did it. This is the first time something like this has ever happened with people threatening to do something terrible all because a movie that was kind of controversial was shown. It's only been two years since the Aurora shootings where theaters were blamed heavily for something nobody saw coming and it would have been way worse if something did actually happen and theaters knew about it but let it happen anyone. At the end of the day people's lives are being threatened all over a movie which from what I hear from the eleven critics who've seen it, it's not even that good. Really if you were in that situation what decision would you make, it's a hard choice and they ultimately went with the one they saw as best in a pretty dark situation that not many people experience and I can't fault them for that.
On the other hand it sucks completely because it basically shows terrorist can just make one threat and we will bow down in a moment, it gives credence for other hackers to try and pull stuff like this, it basically dampens creative expression when still a lot of people frown upon it and the effect this will have on Hollywood going forward will be horrible. Don't believe me about that last one, Badass Digest reported the new Steve Carrell movie directed by Gore Verbinski was cancelled because it was set in North Korea, and you know Hollywood would be more afraid to do more politically charged film be it a comedy or serious drama. And don't give me that if it was Obama we would be pissed, yeah some people would be mad but when we have stuff like House of Cards and Zero Dark Thirty which shows American politics in sometimes the worst of light (and the fact Obama has the worst approval rating of any president ever.) It makes me mad a movie that was just trying to do something daring was shut down completely and was punished for it. Not to mention Sony which while my least favorite studio ever I feel bad for because a lot of those emails are private and a lot of people are losing jobs over it and a company that was not doing so hot before is on the verge of shutting down completely.
Either way you look at this, this situation sucks and while I am more on the whole this sucks side of the argument I can't ignore the fact I do understand why they did pull it. This is a grey situation in every sense of the word and it's only just beginning.
That was depressing, see you tomorrow for my Hobbit battle of the five (well three) armies review.
Twitter:https://twitter.com/nessaroseboq
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I didn't talk about it right away because I had just heard it and got really passionate about it without thinking about it objectively and the thing is I needed to think about this situation objectively as to not be unfair and at the very least logical to both sides and it would have been incoherent sentences of me bitching. This is overall a sucky situation, it's a double edge sword neither choice comes out with the best solution and either way were hurt from both sides. The logical side and the more passionate side.
On one hand yeah I can see why they did it. This is the first time something like this has ever happened with people threatening to do something terrible all because a movie that was kind of controversial was shown. It's only been two years since the Aurora shootings where theaters were blamed heavily for something nobody saw coming and it would have been way worse if something did actually happen and theaters knew about it but let it happen anyone. At the end of the day people's lives are being threatened all over a movie which from what I hear from the eleven critics who've seen it, it's not even that good. Really if you were in that situation what decision would you make, it's a hard choice and they ultimately went with the one they saw as best in a pretty dark situation that not many people experience and I can't fault them for that.
On the other hand it sucks completely because it basically shows terrorist can just make one threat and we will bow down in a moment, it gives credence for other hackers to try and pull stuff like this, it basically dampens creative expression when still a lot of people frown upon it and the effect this will have on Hollywood going forward will be horrible. Don't believe me about that last one, Badass Digest reported the new Steve Carrell movie directed by Gore Verbinski was cancelled because it was set in North Korea, and you know Hollywood would be more afraid to do more politically charged film be it a comedy or serious drama. And don't give me that if it was Obama we would be pissed, yeah some people would be mad but when we have stuff like House of Cards and Zero Dark Thirty which shows American politics in sometimes the worst of light (and the fact Obama has the worst approval rating of any president ever.) It makes me mad a movie that was just trying to do something daring was shut down completely and was punished for it. Not to mention Sony which while my least favorite studio ever I feel bad for because a lot of those emails are private and a lot of people are losing jobs over it and a company that was not doing so hot before is on the verge of shutting down completely.
Either way you look at this, this situation sucks and while I am more on the whole this sucks side of the argument I can't ignore the fact I do understand why they did pull it. This is a grey situation in every sense of the word and it's only just beginning.
That was depressing, see you tomorrow for my Hobbit battle of the five (well three) armies review.
Twitter:https://twitter.com/nessaroseboq
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/camille.montano.5209
Wednesday, December 17, 2014
Weekend box office predictions~ Museums, musicals, Middle earth and I am mad
First off tomorrow my editorial will be about the North Korea Sony Hack The Interview incident because I want to collect my thoughts, it's getting late and I am too mad to do that thing right now. The whole thing is B.S by the way.
This week three big movies come out Hobbit the battle of the five armies (or 4.5 armies but whose counting), Night at the museum three, and Annie. I love musicals but I have really no inclination to see Annie, I liked the second Night at the museum movie but I don't have any real inclination to see it but I will see Night at the museum three before I see Annie and for Battle of the five armies I loved the first Hobbit film, hated the second one so for the third one I am mixed on whether to go and see it but out of the three this is the one I am going to see and most likely review.
Anyway on to the predictions.
Hobbit the battle of the five armies
Weekend box office: $70-$100 million
Domestic box office: $200-$350 million
International box office: $500-$700 million
Worldwide: $700-$1,000,050 billion
This one is going to be tricky because since this is the last of both the hobbit and Lord of the rings movies this is supposed to be guaranteed to do big bucks but with the reaction to the last two Hobbit movies and the fact that box office decreased from an Unexpected journey to Desolation of Smaug the tide could go either way but still expect this to do big.
Night at the museum 3
Weekend box office: $32-$42 million
Domestic box office: $90-$140 million
International box office: $170-$250 million
Worldwide box office: $270-$390 million
I get the feeling I am one of the few people who genuinely like the series and from what I am hearing most people aren't very excited to see it but this being the last movie and the last movie Robin Williams will ever appear in (ok that makes me sad now) again this should do decently considering the last two did well enough to warrant sequels.
Annie
Weekend box office: $25-$30 million
Domestic box office: $ 65-$85 million
International box office: $95-$100 million
Worldwide box office: $ 160-$185 million
I love the original 1982 Annie musical, after I first saw it you couldn't get me to stop watching it, I love it. The remake however I and a lot of other people aren't excited to see this one, mainly because it doesn't look good. Heck this isn't even the first time it was remade, it was remade back in 1999 and that one was pretty bad.
Weekend box office
1.)Hobbit Battle of the five armies
2.) Night at the museum 3
3.) Exodus Gods and Kings
4.) Hunger Games catching fire
5.) Annie
6.) Penguins of Madagascar
7.) Top Five
8.) Big Hero Six
9.) Interstellar
10.) Horrible bosses 2
So that's my prediction for the weekend box office and see you tomorrow for my editorial/rant on the whole The-interview-North-Korea-Sony incident.
Twitter: https://twitter.com/nessaroseboq
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This week three big movies come out Hobbit the battle of the five armies (or 4.5 armies but whose counting), Night at the museum three, and Annie. I love musicals but I have really no inclination to see Annie, I liked the second Night at the museum movie but I don't have any real inclination to see it but I will see Night at the museum three before I see Annie and for Battle of the five armies I loved the first Hobbit film, hated the second one so for the third one I am mixed on whether to go and see it but out of the three this is the one I am going to see and most likely review.
Anyway on to the predictions.
Hobbit the battle of the five armies
Weekend box office: $70-$100 million
Domestic box office: $200-$350 million
International box office: $500-$700 million
Worldwide: $700-$1,000,050 billion
This one is going to be tricky because since this is the last of both the hobbit and Lord of the rings movies this is supposed to be guaranteed to do big bucks but with the reaction to the last two Hobbit movies and the fact that box office decreased from an Unexpected journey to Desolation of Smaug the tide could go either way but still expect this to do big.
Night at the museum 3
Weekend box office: $32-$42 million
Domestic box office: $90-$140 million
International box office: $170-$250 million
Worldwide box office: $270-$390 million
I get the feeling I am one of the few people who genuinely like the series and from what I am hearing most people aren't very excited to see it but this being the last movie and the last movie Robin Williams will ever appear in (ok that makes me sad now) again this should do decently considering the last two did well enough to warrant sequels.
Annie
Weekend box office: $25-$30 million
Domestic box office: $ 65-$85 million
International box office: $95-$100 million
Worldwide box office: $ 160-$185 million
I love the original 1982 Annie musical, after I first saw it you couldn't get me to stop watching it, I love it. The remake however I and a lot of other people aren't excited to see this one, mainly because it doesn't look good. Heck this isn't even the first time it was remade, it was remade back in 1999 and that one was pretty bad.
Weekend box office
1.)Hobbit Battle of the five armies
2.) Night at the museum 3
3.) Exodus Gods and Kings
4.) Hunger Games catching fire
5.) Annie
6.) Penguins of Madagascar
7.) Top Five
8.) Big Hero Six
9.) Interstellar
10.) Horrible bosses 2
So that's my prediction for the weekend box office and see you tomorrow for my editorial/rant on the whole The-interview-North-Korea-Sony incident.
Twitter: https://twitter.com/nessaroseboq
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/camille.montano.5209
Monday, December 15, 2014
Weekend box office- Exodus: why bother?
So the big movie that came out this weekend was Exodus (which was bad) and a small movie called Top five came out (which I heard is good but it's an Indie movie so I probably won't see it for six months.) Top Five for an independent movie did pretty good at the box office where as Exodus despite being number one went under what I and everybody expected it to. Here's what happened.
Weekend box office
1.) Exodus: Gods and Kings- $24 million
2.) Hunger Games: Mockingjay- $12 million
3.) Penguins of Madagascar- $ 7 million
4.) Top Five- $6.8 million
5.) Big Hero six- $ 6 million
6.) Interstellar- $ 5 million
7.) Horrible bosses 2- $4 million
8.) Dumb and Dumber to- $2.7 million
9.) Theory of everything- $2.4 million
10.) Wild- $1.5 million
So that's the weekend box office, everything is going well for every movie especially for Theory of everything and Wild but if your Exodus you might want to rethink yourself... a lot.
Twitter: https://twitter.com/nessaroseboq
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/camille.montano.5209
Weekend box office
1.) Exodus: Gods and Kings- $24 million
2.) Hunger Games: Mockingjay- $12 million
3.) Penguins of Madagascar- $ 7 million
4.) Top Five- $6.8 million
5.) Big Hero six- $ 6 million
6.) Interstellar- $ 5 million
7.) Horrible bosses 2- $4 million
8.) Dumb and Dumber to- $2.7 million
9.) Theory of everything- $2.4 million
10.) Wild- $1.5 million
So that's the weekend box office, everything is going well for every movie especially for Theory of everything and Wild but if your Exodus you might want to rethink yourself... a lot.
Twitter: https://twitter.com/nessaroseboq
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/camille.montano.5209
Saturday, December 13, 2014
Exodus: Gods and Kings movie review
Spoilers
Exodus is a Ridley Scott's new film about Moses and the Ten Commandments. First off I have never seen the original Ten Commandments movie, I am pretty young and I am still catching up on a lot of films in movie history, I did see the Prince of Egypt movie... when I was five and can barley remember most of it but I did remember liking it and the parting of the sea scene. I am Catholic and I am a believer in God (I'm not a religious nutcase, I'm pretty laid back) but I only remember the barest of basics of the story of Exodus. So I'm judging this movie on it's own terms. Sadly the movie kind of sucks on it's own.
Exodus: Gods and Kings should really be retitled, Exodus: wastes of time
Lets' start with the god because while I overall thought the movie was bad I didn't completely hate it, I thought Prometheus was boring but I still liked some parts of it (special effects, David and Schmidt.) The special effects were amazing with the visuals the burning bush looked really good, the scope, the clothes, the settings and environment was beautiful the only thing that bothered me was they did use CGI animals which always annoys me to no end because how hard is it to get trained animals for a five second scene but I've complained about that enough so moving on.
The characters of Moses and Ramseses are well written, I feel bad for both men (well Ramsses I know is an evil dictator does have some ok qualities like he does generally care for Moses and he's a loving father), and some interesting stuff is done with Moses. Yet probably the best part of the movie is the Plagues, it was engaging, interesting and had me on the edge of my seat when they were occurring and that was the only time the movie was any of those things for me.
Now let's get to the bad.
One of the major problems in that it feels like it's missing a lot of scenes, a lot of stuff that is either explained or brushed over in this movie feels as if there was a scene with it but it was either cut out of the script or cut out of the movie in editing. An example of this is when Moses is explained to who he is they explain it very thoroughly and in a way they really should not know what explicitly happened and it feels like they are making up for not having filmed those scenes and using them as the beginning. Moses also meets his wife very abruptly, Moses says hello to his real brother but nothing comes about it and it feels like there should have been more with them, that's another example and even just how they get in and out of places like when Moses confronts Ramsesses for the first time since his exile, he and five other people break into and out of the palace without once getting caught by the guards.
Another major problem is the pacing of this movie and the pacing of the movie is very weird. It's about two hours and thirty minutes long and in a way it has too slow and too fast of a pace. The movie is both dragging and makes it feel like it's been going on for forty years but rushes over what should be key moments and doesn't take a break, it doesn't stop long enough for really anything to resonate with you and create an impact.
Except for Christian Bale and Joel Edgerton most of the actors they got have nothing to do and so are wasted. Sigourney Weaver shows up in five or six scenes and has two lines, John Turturro is in it for ten minutes then dies abruptly, Aaron Paul has no reason to be there and hardly says anything, Ben Kinglsey's the same as with most of the cast. Which is why it's so stupid there aren't more Egyptian people since most of the "main cast" hardly does anything.
The movie has very big tone problem as at certain points it doesn't know whether it's a biblical movie or not. There are parts saying "yes God is doing all of these things" and Moses talks to god in this movie but on the other hand there are parts saying "don't believe in God it's about you" and they portray Moses in some aspects as he's not talking to God but has gone crazy and some stuff can be explain. It does ultimately fall under that it is completely Gods work but for a lot of the movie it kind of flip-flops on itself. And speaking of God, God is represented as a child talking to Moses (Mass effect three anyone?) and I know this is clearly Old testament God but this God is down right psychotic and awful and kind of bullies Moses into doing things so it's kind of hard to believe that Moses would follow him and believe in him at the end. Yet at the same time it does present and interesting concept of God being a child throwing a temper tantrum ("GIVE ME MY TOY OR I WILL KILL YOUR CHILDREN") but the film doesn't really go with it or seems to acknowledge that.
Yet probably the biggest sin of this movie is that it's just kind of boring. Throughout the movie the acting is very stiff and lifeless with the exception of Christian Bale who makes anything kind of exposition interesting, no one seems to give any effort and it feels like a lot of them barely want to be there. The dialogue was so flat I started to imagine the Charlie Brown teacher speaking in the place of most of the actors. The action is very standard and the big iconic set pieces such as the burning bush and the parting of the red sea (I'll get to that in a second), while look pretty are meh when they should be "oh my god that is amazing." From what I've heard they don't add anything new to the story and the only thing they do add makes what supposed to be the most Iconic thing in the story of Moses ever boring and pointless.
Of course I am talking about the parting of the red scene. Something that is supposed to be stunning, epic and just amazing, dumb and boring. Instead of a staff it's matching twins swords Moses uses to part the red sea and of course Ramsesses has the other one. They don't even part the sea technically it just kind of evaporates and comes back in form of a flood and rain.
If Noah is what you should do with a biblical story, make it interesting, ambitious and entertaining Exodus is what you don't do make it dull, standard and strip what it made it unique and memorable and make it boring.
I give this movie a 3.5/10~ The plague, special effects, Ramesses and Moses were good but everything else is basically a sin against what it could have been.
Twitter:https://twitter.com/nessaroseboq
Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/camille.montano.5209
Exodus is a Ridley Scott's new film about Moses and the Ten Commandments. First off I have never seen the original Ten Commandments movie, I am pretty young and I am still catching up on a lot of films in movie history, I did see the Prince of Egypt movie... when I was five and can barley remember most of it but I did remember liking it and the parting of the sea scene. I am Catholic and I am a believer in God (I'm not a religious nutcase, I'm pretty laid back) but I only remember the barest of basics of the story of Exodus. So I'm judging this movie on it's own terms. Sadly the movie kind of sucks on it's own.
Exodus: Gods and Kings should really be retitled, Exodus: wastes of time
Lets' start with the god because while I overall thought the movie was bad I didn't completely hate it, I thought Prometheus was boring but I still liked some parts of it (special effects, David and Schmidt.) The special effects were amazing with the visuals the burning bush looked really good, the scope, the clothes, the settings and environment was beautiful the only thing that bothered me was they did use CGI animals which always annoys me to no end because how hard is it to get trained animals for a five second scene but I've complained about that enough so moving on.
The characters of Moses and Ramseses are well written, I feel bad for both men (well Ramsses I know is an evil dictator does have some ok qualities like he does generally care for Moses and he's a loving father), and some interesting stuff is done with Moses. Yet probably the best part of the movie is the Plagues, it was engaging, interesting and had me on the edge of my seat when they were occurring and that was the only time the movie was any of those things for me.
Now let's get to the bad.
One of the major problems in that it feels like it's missing a lot of scenes, a lot of stuff that is either explained or brushed over in this movie feels as if there was a scene with it but it was either cut out of the script or cut out of the movie in editing. An example of this is when Moses is explained to who he is they explain it very thoroughly and in a way they really should not know what explicitly happened and it feels like they are making up for not having filmed those scenes and using them as the beginning. Moses also meets his wife very abruptly, Moses says hello to his real brother but nothing comes about it and it feels like there should have been more with them, that's another example and even just how they get in and out of places like when Moses confronts Ramsesses for the first time since his exile, he and five other people break into and out of the palace without once getting caught by the guards.
Another major problem is the pacing of this movie and the pacing of the movie is very weird. It's about two hours and thirty minutes long and in a way it has too slow and too fast of a pace. The movie is both dragging and makes it feel like it's been going on for forty years but rushes over what should be key moments and doesn't take a break, it doesn't stop long enough for really anything to resonate with you and create an impact.
Except for Christian Bale and Joel Edgerton most of the actors they got have nothing to do and so are wasted. Sigourney Weaver shows up in five or six scenes and has two lines, John Turturro is in it for ten minutes then dies abruptly, Aaron Paul has no reason to be there and hardly says anything, Ben Kinglsey's the same as with most of the cast. Which is why it's so stupid there aren't more Egyptian people since most of the "main cast" hardly does anything.
The movie has very big tone problem as at certain points it doesn't know whether it's a biblical movie or not. There are parts saying "yes God is doing all of these things" and Moses talks to god in this movie but on the other hand there are parts saying "don't believe in God it's about you" and they portray Moses in some aspects as he's not talking to God but has gone crazy and some stuff can be explain. It does ultimately fall under that it is completely Gods work but for a lot of the movie it kind of flip-flops on itself. And speaking of God, God is represented as a child talking to Moses (Mass effect three anyone?) and I know this is clearly Old testament God but this God is down right psychotic and awful and kind of bullies Moses into doing things so it's kind of hard to believe that Moses would follow him and believe in him at the end. Yet at the same time it does present and interesting concept of God being a child throwing a temper tantrum ("GIVE ME MY TOY OR I WILL KILL YOUR CHILDREN") but the film doesn't really go with it or seems to acknowledge that.
Yet probably the biggest sin of this movie is that it's just kind of boring. Throughout the movie the acting is very stiff and lifeless with the exception of Christian Bale who makes anything kind of exposition interesting, no one seems to give any effort and it feels like a lot of them barely want to be there. The dialogue was so flat I started to imagine the Charlie Brown teacher speaking in the place of most of the actors. The action is very standard and the big iconic set pieces such as the burning bush and the parting of the red sea (I'll get to that in a second), while look pretty are meh when they should be "oh my god that is amazing." From what I've heard they don't add anything new to the story and the only thing they do add makes what supposed to be the most Iconic thing in the story of Moses ever boring and pointless.
Of course I am talking about the parting of the red scene. Something that is supposed to be stunning, epic and just amazing, dumb and boring. Instead of a staff it's matching twins swords Moses uses to part the red sea and of course Ramsesses has the other one. They don't even part the sea technically it just kind of evaporates and comes back in form of a flood and rain.
If Noah is what you should do with a biblical story, make it interesting, ambitious and entertaining Exodus is what you don't do make it dull, standard and strip what it made it unique and memorable and make it boring.
I give this movie a 3.5/10~ The plague, special effects, Ramesses and Moses were good but everything else is basically a sin against what it could have been.
Twitter:https://twitter.com/nessaroseboq
Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/camille.montano.5209
Editorial~ Exodus casting discussion
I'm not dead! Yeah I was sick on Wednesday and this week has been testing week at my school so I've been busy but I'm back now and with school ending next week and I'm almost done with holiday shopping I hope to get back on Schedule. This week I saw Exodus and I feel obligated to talk about the controversy surrounding this movie. The white wash casting of ancient Egypt's. The review for this movie I'll post up later because I don't want to mix it in with my actual review even though I am going to say some things that I will likely say in my review later.
I do agree completely in 2014 it seems really stupid that in the roles of ancient Egyptians especially when they are either the whitest people you could cast ever. Especially considering most of the extras are Egyptian or Israelite, when Ramsey's and Moses's wives are both Egyptian, or when the Egyptian make-up and clothes make it more noticeable that they are white and wearing fake tans, and when most of the white actors are barley in the movie for five minutes, do nothing or recognizable as themselves.
I'm not even kidding on the last one some of the big white actors who are in this movie are in it for ten minutes at best and don't do a goddamn thing. So it makes it really weird why they couldn't just Egyptian or people whose ethnicity are close to people of Egyptian descent.
I know in the Charlton Hesston version it consisted of an entirely white casts, but considering the climate back then where unless you were a white heterosexual male life in America kind of sucked for you to one degree or another. In 2014 after things such as the civil rights movement why is it so hard for a film to even just have one person of ethnicity in a main role.
The casting of Christian Bale is ok I can over look he is not Hebrew. Joel Edgerton you can still tell is white even though they do make some form of corporeal effort with him but it looks really bad and stupid when he is in his pharaoh gear. Ben Kingsley you could pass off as any ethnicity (except maybe white) so that didn't bother me so much. What the heck were John Turturro, Sigourney Weaver and Aaron Paul doing in this film, they are the most noticeably white actors in this film, especially Weaver and Turturro who every time came on it was both laughable and cringe worthy.
I know the common excuse is that ethnicity shouldn't matter if the movie is good and should be held up on it's own merits, if Exodus was good the casting wouldn't be that big of a deal but Exodus isn't a good movie, that's what I'll be talking about next time.
Twitter:https://twitter.com/nessaroseboq/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/camille.montano.5209
I do agree completely in 2014 it seems really stupid that in the roles of ancient Egyptians especially when they are either the whitest people you could cast ever. Especially considering most of the extras are Egyptian or Israelite, when Ramsey's and Moses's wives are both Egyptian, or when the Egyptian make-up and clothes make it more noticeable that they are white and wearing fake tans, and when most of the white actors are barley in the movie for five minutes, do nothing or recognizable as themselves.
I'm not even kidding on the last one some of the big white actors who are in this movie are in it for ten minutes at best and don't do a goddamn thing. So it makes it really weird why they couldn't just Egyptian or people whose ethnicity are close to people of Egyptian descent.
I know in the Charlton Hesston version it consisted of an entirely white casts, but considering the climate back then where unless you were a white heterosexual male life in America kind of sucked for you to one degree or another. In 2014 after things such as the civil rights movement why is it so hard for a film to even just have one person of ethnicity in a main role.
The casting of Christian Bale is ok I can over look he is not Hebrew. Joel Edgerton you can still tell is white even though they do make some form of corporeal effort with him but it looks really bad and stupid when he is in his pharaoh gear. Ben Kingsley you could pass off as any ethnicity (except maybe white) so that didn't bother me so much. What the heck were John Turturro, Sigourney Weaver and Aaron Paul doing in this film, they are the most noticeably white actors in this film, especially Weaver and Turturro who every time came on it was both laughable and cringe worthy.
I know the common excuse is that ethnicity shouldn't matter if the movie is good and should be held up on it's own merits, if Exodus was good the casting wouldn't be that big of a deal but Exodus isn't a good movie, that's what I'll be talking about next time.
Twitter:https://twitter.com/nessaroseboq/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/camille.montano.5209
Wednesday, December 3, 2014
Weekend box office prediction: Nothing literally nothing
Like the title suggest there is literally nothing coming out except for a movie called "The Pyramid" which I had no idea existed until last week when I saw a really short promo for it. It's a found footage horror movie which looks like it could be a spin off to As above so below. I'm not even joking if you watch this and the As above so below trailer it would look like almost the same movie just with different actors. Heck I read the premise for The Pyramid and it sounds the same as As above so below with the whole thing being their stuck in a labyrinth this time. Anyway here is my prediction for it.
The Pyramid
Weekend box office: $4-10 million
Domestic box office: $20-$30 million
International box office: $25-40 million
World wide box office: $45-$70 million
Yeah while for any other movies this would be a bomb considering this is a found footage movie which has an audience still and can be made for super cheap this will do relatively OK.
Weekend box office
1.) Hunger Games Mockingjay part 1
2.) Penguins of Madagascar
3.) Big hero six
4.) Interstellar
5.) Horrible bosses
6.) The Pyramid
7.) Dumb and Dumber to
8.) Theory of everything
9.) Gone Girl
10.) Birdman
So that's my prediction for the weekend box office, I am going to try to figure out what to do for a editorial tomorrow and I want to see a movie on Friday or Saturday, hopefully I will find a theater that is actually showing birdman or at the very least Foxcatcher because I really don't want to see The Pyramid because it looks bad and I am sick of found footage movies.
Twitter: https://twitter.com/nessaroseboq
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/camille.montano.5209
The Pyramid
Weekend box office: $4-10 million
Domestic box office: $20-$30 million
International box office: $25-40 million
World wide box office: $45-$70 million
Yeah while for any other movies this would be a bomb considering this is a found footage movie which has an audience still and can be made for super cheap this will do relatively OK.
Weekend box office
1.) Hunger Games Mockingjay part 1
2.) Penguins of Madagascar
3.) Big hero six
4.) Interstellar
5.) Horrible bosses
6.) The Pyramid
7.) Dumb and Dumber to
8.) Theory of everything
9.) Gone Girl
10.) Birdman
So that's my prediction for the weekend box office, I am going to try to figure out what to do for a editorial tomorrow and I want to see a movie on Friday or Saturday, hopefully I will find a theater that is actually showing birdman or at the very least Foxcatcher because I really don't want to see The Pyramid because it looks bad and I am sick of found footage movies.
Twitter: https://twitter.com/nessaroseboq
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/camille.montano.5209
Tuesday, December 2, 2014
Weekend box office~ Katniss stays at # 1
Yeah kind of forgot to do this and skipped it to watch the Star Wars a phantom menace commentary by my favorite podcasters "Comic book cast" (cool guys check them out.) So the weekend box office came out and no much changed except for the addition of Penguins and horrible bosses. So here it is.
Weekend box office
1.) Hunger Games Mockingjay part 1~ $56 million
2.) Penguins of Madagascar- $25 million
3.) Big hero six- $18 million
4.) Interstellar- $ 15.7 million
5.) Horrible bosses- $15.4 million
6.) Dumb and Dumber to- $8 million
7.) Theory of everything- $5 million
8.) Gone Girl- $2 million
9.) Birdman- $1.8 million
10.) St. Vincent- $ 1.7 million
Glad to see Penguins of Madagascar is doing well along with Hunger Games Mockingjay, also really glad to see Birdman doing well both critically and box office wise (Michael Keaton for best actor Oscar!) Sorry Horrible Bosses but nobody really asked for you even though most people liked the first one.
Twitter: https://twitter.com/nessaroseboq
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/camille.montano.5209
Weekend box office
1.) Hunger Games Mockingjay part 1~ $56 million
2.) Penguins of Madagascar- $25 million
3.) Big hero six- $18 million
4.) Interstellar- $ 15.7 million
5.) Horrible bosses- $15.4 million
6.) Dumb and Dumber to- $8 million
7.) Theory of everything- $5 million
8.) Gone Girl- $2 million
9.) Birdman- $1.8 million
10.) St. Vincent- $ 1.7 million
Glad to see Penguins of Madagascar is doing well along with Hunger Games Mockingjay, also really glad to see Birdman doing well both critically and box office wise (Michael Keaton for best actor Oscar!) Sorry Horrible Bosses but nobody really asked for you even though most people liked the first one.
Twitter: https://twitter.com/nessaroseboq
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/camille.montano.5209
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