Douglas Laman Gets A Tune-Up (Entry #1): Pet Sounds by The Beach Boys

DOUGLAS LAMAN GETS A TUNE-UP

ENTRY #1: Pet Sounds by The Beach Boys

Douglas Laman Gets A Tune-Up is a new weekly series wherein Douglas Laman listens to an album of music he's never fully listened to before (though he may have heard one or two songs from it) and writes up his brief thoughts on it.

Summer 2017 Box Office Predictions (Part Two)

 OK folks, arriving a few days later than I'd hoped is the second part of my Summer 2017 Box Office Predictions. After my first part of these predictions looked at my predictions for the top ten biggest movies of the summer, this part looks at every single one of the rest of this summers wide releases and examines how they'll do at the domestic box office. I've split these various films into three categories; Other Potential Hits, for films I think will fare well financially, Wild Cards, movies I'm unsure of in terms of how they'll fare and Potential Box Office Misfires, movies I feel have a good chance of missing the mark at the domestic box office.

We've got a lot of motion pictures to get through, so let's waste no more time and start things off with....

Raging Bull Refuses To Box Its Character Into Conventional Sports Movie Narratives

My favorite part about Martin Scrosese's work is how much is bubbling underneath the surface of his works. Taxi Driver captures the post-Vietnam angst of an entire generation looking for a hero in an incredibly dangerous and psychotic way while The Wolf Of Wall Street provides an unflinching look at 21st century corruption. Something like Silence could fill multiple essays with its subtext and underlying ideas. For Raging Bull, there's admittedly not quite as much going on beneath the surface (it's very much a typical "Career victory leads to personal destruction" tale) but it's still quite the riveting tale, no doubt about that.

There's Lots to Unpack And Contemplate Over In The Phenomenal Monster Movie Colossal (SPOILERS!!!!!)

This review contains massive spoilers about Colossal. Seriously, do not read this before seeing the movie. Just know it's an amazing motion picture and you should see it pronto. 

K?

OK, let's get on with the review.... 

Monster movies are usually dismissed as dumb cinematic fodder, stuff reserved for gifs and children only. And, yes, it is hard not to chuckle at the fun gifs emerging from goofy monster movies of yore (King Kong feeding Godzilla a tree will always make me laugh), it's worth noting that many of the biggest monster movies have underlying themes to them that lend weight to the seemingly shallow proceedings. The original Godzilla was all about the nuclear age, the first King Kong movie is all about the dangers of man trying to exploit animals while a more modern day example can be found in Cloverfield was an incredibly prophetic movie about how we react to the unbelievable in the modern day world.

You Totally Need To Go To Nathan Rabin's Happy Place (From The Interwebs)

It's been a few days over two years since film critic Nathan Rabin and The Dissolve parted ways and since then Rabin has kept busy with a number of freelance writing jobs, including My World Of Flops over at The A.V. Club and other series of essays he's penned for the likes of Rotten Tomatoes. But now, he's looking to start up his own website, one where folks like me who have always loved his writing can get all the Rabin they want to their heart's content. This is where Nathan Rabin's Happy Place comes in, a new website that's all Rabin, all the time.

How Did The Circle End Up Being This Poorly-Made?

Every director has their misfires in their filmography, with even one of the all-time greats like Steven Spielberg having films like Hook or The Lost World: Jurassic Park in their filmography. But it's always a disappointment when a director I seriously like manages to craft a dud, kinda like when a parent realizes their kid has committed some kind of crime, y'know? You know they're better than this, how could this have happened? In the case of The Circle, it's director James Ponsoldt, the filmmaker behind The End Of The Tour and the particularly excellent 2013 drama The Spectacular Now, that stumbles here when he tackles the world of cyber-security and internet privacy.

We Don't Have To Go Home, We Can Leave The Sleight On

Depending on your age, you may have heard the Pilot tune Magic for the first time as a pop tune on the radio in the 1970's or, if you're in my generation, maybe you got introduced to it by way of 21st century pop culture entities like Wizards Of Waverly Place or Doogal (the latter movie is where I first heard the song). Regardless of where you first heard it, the song has become a prominent fixture of retro radio stations, background music in stores and iPod playlists everywhere. Why? Hey, people love magic, especially the idea of the fantastical existing in our super mundane and depressing world. It's only natural a song imploring you not give up on your belief of magic would resonate with the populace.

The Fate Of The Furious Wins The Box Office For The Last Time While Latin Lover And Baahubali 2 Overperform

For the third weekend in a row, The Fate Of The Furious led the box office, though, compared to last weekend, the newcomers at least had some energy to them. But before we get to the newbies let's quickly look at The Fate Of the Furious, which grossed $19.4 million this weekend to bring its domestic cume up to $192.4 million. That's about a 49% drop from last weekend, slightly better than the 51% drop Furious 7 had in its third weekend. The Fate Of The Furious was really kicking it overseas though, where its current $867.6 million international gross meant it soared past $1 billion. It's likely this one becomes only the sixth film in history to crack $1 billion overseas, an incredible feat for the film.

Grossing $12 million in second place was How To Be A Latin Lover, which scored a fantastic debut at only 1,118 venues for a per-theater average of $10,750. Eugenio Derbez scored a massive hit with his last film Instructions Not Included, so it's no surprise he garnered a major fanbase strong enough to carry further movies he headlined to similarly successful results. Plus, we haven't had a lot of comedies this year nor are there ever a  huge influx of movies starring Hispanic actors, so you're filling a lot of underserved niches there. If this one doesn't fall off a cliff after this weekend, it could hit as high as $35 million when all is said and done.

Waaaaaay overperforming this weekend (I didn't even see many box office analysts predict this one would crack the top ten movies this weekend) was Baahubali 2: The Conclusion, which grossed $10.1 million at only 425 theaters for a $23,764 per-theater average. which is a larger opening weekend per-theater average than all but one wide release so far this year. It's also the third-biggest domestic opening weekend for a foreign language film. Super expensive ticket prices (my local theater was charging $23 bucks for normal tickets for this movie) didn't hurt this one's box office performance but this kind of incredible feat can only be accomplished due to fervent anticipation and strong marketing. The fact that its predecessor apparently led directly into a sequel couldn't hurt either.

Behind both of those lower-profile overachievers was an Emma Watson/Tom Hanks thriller, The Circle, which became the newest misfire for the officially struggling mini-studio STX Films (I guess they're called that now instead of STX Entertainment if the logo I saw before The Circle is any indication). Grossing only $9.3 million this weekend, that's a poor debut that makes it only the fourteenth Tom Hanks title to open in wide release below $10 million. The Circle also scored a D+ CinemaScore from audiences and non-horror movies getting grades below C is almost unheard of. That does not bode well for how this one plays out in the coming weekends.

Rounding out the top five was The Boss Baby with another $9 million, a 29% dip from last weekend that brings this animated comedies domestic total to $148.4 million. Fellow March 2017 family movie Beauty And The Beast made another $6.4 million, a 34% dip that brings its own domestic sum up to a massive $480.1 million. Continuing to also hold well was Going In Style eased only 27% to gross another $3.5 million for a $37.1 million domestic haul. Going down only 32% this weekend was Smurfs: The Lost Village, meaning its now grossed $3.31 million for a $37.3 million domestic total. Easing 28%  to gross another $3.3 million was Gifted, which has now amassed $15.8 million after playing for 24 days.

Rounding out the top ten was Unforgettable, with the Rosario Dawson thriller falling 51% to gross an additional $2.3 million for a 10 day total of only $8.8 million. Right behind it was Born In China, which added $2.2 million this weekend, which was a 53% drop from last weekend, a waaaaay steeper drop than the sub-25% drops of the last two DisneyNature documentaries. With only $8.6 million accumulated in ten days, it's very likely Born In China falls beneath the $15.4 million cume of 2011's African Cats to become the lowest grossing DisneyNature movie. Expanding its theater to 866 locations this frame was The Lost City Of Z, which grossed another $1.7 million (an 18% drop from last weekend) for a $2,001 per-theater average and a 17-day domestic total of $4.8 million.

Debuting this weekend to decent numbers was Sleight, a new film from WWE Films and BH Tilt (an offshoot of Blumhouse Productions that distributes certain titles with lower theater counts and promotional efforts), which debuted to $1.6 million at 565 locations for a per-theater average of $2,991, which is actually a better per-theater average than the star-studded and more heavily pushed The Circle. I'd imagine BH Tild hoped for better, but considering the lower level of promotion this one had, this debut isn't too bad and it actually scored a better per-theater average than any past BH Tilt title. It'll probably vanish quickly in the face of the new Guardians movie next weekend but this is a not bad bow for a movie I personally thoroughly enjoyed.

Plummeting this weekend was The Promise, which grossed only $1.4 million, meaning this historical drama has only grossed $7 million in ten days. Yikes! Speaking of yikes, Phoenix Forgotten went down 58% in its second weekend to gross only $770,000, giving it a current domestic total of $3.1 million. Continuing to expand their theater counts while slightly decreasing in their weekend box office revenue were a pair of early April 2017 arthouse titles, one of them being Colossal, which expanded into 326 locations and grossed $502,130 (a 13% dip from last weekend) for a $1,540 per-theater-average and a current domestic box office haul of $2 million. The other one in that pairing was Their Finest, which grossed $500,000 (a 6% dip from last weekend) for a $1,515 per-theater average and a $1.8 million current domestic total. Finally, Free Fire fell 71% in its second weekend, grossing only $287,818 for a current domestic cume of only $1.7 million.

The Top 12 movies this weekend grossed a total of $82.8 million, which is middle of the road as far as the final weekend of April's go. However, it did mean April 2017 narrowly (and boy do I mean narrowly, I think we managed to accomplish this by only a few thousand dollars) beat out April 2011 to become the biggest April at the domestic box office of all-time.

It's Time For A Charming Romantic-Comedy With Blast From The Past

When the nuclear apocalypse comes (and considering Trump's daily tantrums, that may come sooner rather than later), we shall gather around fires and tell tales of the past, before the world came crashing around all of us. It'll be like that scene in Reign Of Fire where Christian Bale and Gerard Butler retell the Star Wars movies to a new group of youngsters in order to spark their imaginations and keep the power of stories alive. Yarns shall be spun and one such tale that shall be passed onto the post-apocalyptic denizens of the future will be the legend of leading man Brendan Fraser, who, for some reason, got abandoned by Hollywood in the 2010's despite showing some very clear talent as a leading man.

A Hundred Years, Er, Days Of Trump: Everything Awful, Oh God, Somebody Do Something

Today is the one-hundredth day of Donald Trump's presidency.

I never would have thought I'd have to type those words nor would I ever want to type that sentence, but here we are, through the looking glass and all that.

Shoah Is A Devastating Look At Past Atrocities Through Riveting Present-Day Testimonies

Sight & Sound Voyage Entry #28
Placement On Sight & Sound Top 50 Movies List: #29 (tied with Stalker)

I've been pondering how exactly to start this review, since it's difficult to figure out an introduction that would be proper for a review of the 1985 documentary Shoah. Us critics tend to label a lot of movies as "important" to the point of the word losing its original intended meaning, but Shoah truly is a motion picture more than worthy of being dubbed as an important piece of art. Here is an entire movie dedicated to chronicling video interviews with many individuals involved in some way shape or form with the Holocaust, one of the deadliest genocides to ever be committed on this planet that transpired in the early 1940's.

A Dream Crate Dedicated To Iconic Movie Directors (A Post Brought To You By Loot Crate)

Last week, I got a most unique e-mail in my inbox....a request from the company Loot Crate, the organization that sends a box full of various goodies and items to people centered on various themes for a monthly fee. The idea of a major organization contacting me, some little o'l country boy film geek from Texas, was quite the shock to me, and after that shock wore off, I got accustomed to the assignment they wanted me to write up on. Turns out, they were asking various outlets to write up a post on their websites to create a post centered on the concept of what these writers would love to see in a "dream crate", in other words, one of these loot crates that they could fill with whatever what they wanted tying into whatever theme or concept they wanted. Just as a heads up for the curious, you can also write up your own vision for your own dream crate on your own website if you do so choose, you do not need to be contacted by Loot Crate to do this.

Check Out MovieBob's Take On How The Matrix Is Really That Good! (From The Interwebs)

MovieBob is totally one of my favorite movie critics, a guy whose work as a YouTube film critic offers hope to a medium of expression oversaturated with PewdiePie knock-offs and shallow examples of film criticism. This is a guy who goes for analytical observations of movies, proving once again (much like The Dissolve or Roger Ebert's numerous internet essays) that internet-based film criticism can be a good thing, much as CinemaSins would make you understandably think otherwise! And today, MovieBob's released another entry in a series of long-form video essays he's dubbed Really That Good.

Summer 2017 Box Office Predictions (Part One)

April is winding down as is yet another semester of my college experience, so you know what that means....summer is almost here! That means there's plenty of summer movies to look at, so how about we do another entry in my annual Summer Box Office Predictions column? Following the way we did things the last two years, this column is split into two parts, with the first part (which you're reading right now!) concerning my predictions on what will be the ten biggest movies of the summer and the second part (which should be up over the weekend) concerning my predictions for what will be sleeper hits, wild cards (movies that could go either way financiall) and potential box office misfires amonsgt this summer's movies!

Let's get these top ten predictions started with...

1. Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 2
Is there any other likely victor for this summer's box office? For the fifth out of six summers (sans 2015 when Jurassic World became a juggernaut), Marvel Studios should have the biggest live-action movie of the summer. I'd suspect this one will have a notably bigger opening weekend than its predecessor (maybe as high as 50% higher) but no way it holds as well simply because early May films are more frontloaded than early August films because of the massive amount of competition May movies face. Even while being more frontloaded than its predecessor, expect this new Guardians movie to be a hefty box office phenomenon and one that will likely crack $1 billion worldwide as well.

Total Gross: $350 million

2. Despicable Me 3
Gru and his Minions show no sign of slowing down at the box office if 2015's Minions is any indication and this new Despicable Me adventure should continue the franchise's massive box office returns. It's doubtful it surpasses the domestic cume of Despicable Me 2 simply because third movies (with the exception of the occasional Toy Story 3, Return Of The King or Madagascar 3) don't outgross the second entries in major franchises but it should remain on par with Minions domestically and will likely be the biggest movie of the summer on a worldwide box office basis easily.

Total Gross: $340 million

3. Spider-Man: Homecoming
The new Marvel Studios approved version of Spider-Man should show a notable improvement over the two Amazing Spider-Man movies where domestic box office is concerned, though the fact that it's the sixth Spider-Man movie in 15 years means it won't have the novelty factor of recent Marvel movies. Ads have gone for a more generic superhero movie tone compared to other Marvel features as well but the advent of a younger protagonist, a High School setting, Michael Keaton as a baddie and the presence of Tony Stark should keep this one as a notable box office force to be reckoned with.

Total Gross: $325 million

4. Wonder Woman
We're five weeks out from the release of the very first live-action Wonder Woman movie but you wouldn't know it judging by the bizarre lack of marketing right now. That's some cause for major concern, but it shouldn't keep this one from being a sizeable hit, even if it's likely to be the lowest-grossing DC Extended Universe movie yet (a feat mitigated by the fact that it's supposedly cheaper than the three past DCEU features). The ads have made sure to emphasize a lighter tone and plenty of spectacles, two elements that typically add up to major hits. What's interesting too is that this one is opening in the first weekend of June, a place typically (though not always as seen by X-Men: First Class) reserved for titles counter-programming against blockbusters like The Fault In Our Stars, The Purge and Spy, meaning Wonder Woman should end up being one of the biggest movies ever opening in this timeframe.

Total Gross: $260 million

5. War For The Planet Of The Apes
Remember that rule I mentioned about third entries in sagas typically making less than their predecessors? There are exceptions to that rule and I wouldn't be surprised to see the third title in the reboot (or prequel, it's kinda unclear beyond some Easter Eggs in Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes) series of Planet Of The Apes movies go bananas at the domestic box office and chalk up impressive grosses thanks to a marketing campaign that's been firing on all cylinders right now, not to mention the fact that it's coming off of two highly beloved movies. A 15% increase over the domestic cume of Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes sounds about right to me right now and there's totally the potential to go higher.

Total Gross: $240 million

6. Cars 3
Normally, the new PIXAR movie (so long as it isn't The Good Dinosaur) is the talk of the town and something that's a box office heavyweight. This summer though, Cars 3 definitely feels like it's the underdog compared to the newest Despicable Me movie and when taking into account the more mixed reception its predecessors received. Luckily, that first Cars is so beloved that it's doubtful this one capsizes to Good Dinosaur levels of domestic box office, but it's also doubtful Cars 3 avoids plunging beneath the domestic total of Cars 2 even with distinctive marketing elements to its name like that tonally unexpected teaser trailer running before all screenings of Rogue One.

Total Gross: $185 million

7. Transformers: The Last Knight
Look, I don't like the Transformers movies, I hated the fourth one but personal opinion doesn't factor into these columns, ya gotta get analytical on these things and there's just not much data here to suggest the newest Transformers movie is gonna have a massive downturn from the fourth movie. Granted, a dip is almost certainly happening because this movie doesn't have the novelty factor of seeing Mark Wahlberg enter the franchise that the fourth film had, but since there's no other big movies opening over the lucrative 4th of July holiday, not to mention that these movies typically go over well with general moviegoers, this newest Transformers movie should easily be one of the ten biggest movies of the summer and make a killing worldwide.

Total Gross: $180 million

8. Dunkirk
Dunkirk is kind of an outlier in this list, being a big-budget non-sequel war drama, but underestimate Christopher Nolan at your own peril, The guys wrung box office hits out of Batman, dreams and space travel, you'd be crazy to think a large-scale World War II movie doesn't at least have a chance to achieve similar levels of box office success. Early trailers have been smart to emphasize small human beings in a big war, including notable names like recent Academy Award winner Mark Rylance and Mad Max himself, Tom Hardy. There's also a guy named Harry Styles in it, tell me, does he have a big fanbase who would see the movie in droves?

Total Gross: $170 million

9. Pirates Of The Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales
Jack Sparrow is back and though Disney's struggled with marketing this $325 million budgeted movie in the wake of Johnny Depp being outed as a wife beater (which makes marketing stunts like him appearing as Jack Sparrow at Disneyland.....weird, at least to me), but Dead Men Tell No Tales will probably end up doing OK. My box office comparison for this one is X-Men: Apocalypse, another entry in a long-running series that came out over Memorial Day last year. X-Men: Apocalypse did OK business domestically that fell way below its predecessor and something similar is likely in store for this new Pirates adventure.

Total Gross: $165 million

10. The House
We've actually got quite a few R-rated comedies this summer that are promising from a box office perspevive but likely to be the biggest of all of them is the new Will Ferrell/Amy Poehler comedy The House. Both of the lead actors are well-liked, the premise combines relatable situations with a more high-concept element and the trailer got a huge response on my screening of Going In Style. Plus, Ferrell's still got a strong box office track record even after nearly 15 years as a leading man so don't ever count out his newest summer comedy.

Total Gross: $140 million

Histoire(s) du Cinema Is An Academic Exercise That's Frequently Incoherent

Sight & Sound Voyage Entry #27
Placement On Sight & Sound Top 50 Movies List: #48 (tied with The Battle Of Algiers)

Looks like I'm gonna have to adjust my reviewing procedures in order to properly tackle Jean-Luc Godard's Histoire(s) du Cinema. Just five minutes into this extended movie (which is broken up into eight individual segments), it was apparent I couldn't use the same reviewing barometers I used for, say, Going In Style recently. This isn't a conventional narrative film, but that's true of a lot of Godard's work. Histoire(s) du Cinema goes even further and isn't even trying to be like Godard's more abstract and unconventional dramas, it's basically an exercise in exploring the past of cinema in incredibly avant-garde ways that's mostly been made for himself and film academics.

My Thoughts On The New Cars 3 Trailer

Like all summers since 2006 (sans 2014), the hot months of this years bring forth a new PIXAR movie, with this year's newest movie being Cars 3, the newest entry in the animated saga that aggravates adults and sells billions of dollars in merchandise to children. I'm a big fan of the first Cars movie myself despite some major flaws in it (Lightning McQueen may be the worst protagonist in a PIXAR movie, save for Mater in Cars 2) but that second Cars movie really was the pits. Can Cars 3 turn things around for the franchise? I've got no clue but that first teaser trailer brought an ominous atmosphere that was unexpected at least.

We Didn't Start The (Free) Fire, It Was Always Burning Since The Bullets Were Firing

I've never been much of a gun guy in my everyday life (even as a Texan, a Cabella's store is more puzzling than enticing to me) but I never have an issue with gun-oriented movies, especially when they're top quality like the John Wick films or the first and fourth Die Hard movies (the two best ones in that franchise....come at me internet!). Ben Wheatley's Free Fire doesn't reach those heights of quality but still manages to be some solid grisly fun. It's a shoot-em-up that keeps things simple (maybe a little too simple), confined and directly fixated on two things: over-the-top characters and bullets flying everywhere.

Ugetsu Shows The Price We Pay For Too Much Escapism

Sight & Sound Voyage Entry #26
Placement On Sight & Sound Top 50 Movies List: #50 (tied with City Lights and La Jetee)

Over here in America, we've been taking a fancy to remaking American fairy tale movies (which are typically based on folklore from other countries because what don't we steal from other places and claim as our own?) that have a strong nostalgic connection with general audiences with the likes of Beauty And The Beast and Cinderella. Back in 1953, director Kenji Mizoguchi undertook a similar task of reconfiguring well-known stories into a new cinematic incarnation though, in his case, he was handling two 18th century stories penned by Ueda Akinari that would make up the groundwork for the motion picture known as Ugetsu.

The Fate Of The Furious Wins The Box Office Again As Newcomers Like Unforgettable And Free Fire Struggle

Five new movies debuted in wide release this weekend and none of them fared all that well, meaning this was one of the more quiet weekends we’ve had in recent memory at the domestic box office. Sitting atop the box office for the second weekend in a row was The Fate Of The Furious, which took in another $38.6 million this weekend, a 61% drop from last weekend which is larger than the 59% drop of Furious 7. In ten days, it's grossed $163.5 million and is also already at $905 million worldwide, so this one should be cracking $1 billion any day now. So while this one’s gonna easily end up below the domestic cume of Furious and even Fast & Furious 6, the mammoth overseas numbers are keeping this franchise more than profitable.

How Can A Man Go On After Seeing The Horrors Of War? Brothers Examines that Very Question To Fantastic Results

MINOR SPOILERS FOR BROTHERS FOLLOW

Those Amazing Spider-Man movies unleashed a number of terrible things upon our world, but one of the worst was this phenomenon I saw where the arrival of a new Spider-Man immediately meant the previous incarnation of the character must be torn down and defiled lest he distract even a tiny bit from Andrew Garfield's Spider-Stalker interpretation of the character (which wasted an absolutely phenomenal actor in regards to Andrew Garfield). I saw too many social media posts declaring Tobey Maguire to be a "weird" actor who was "whiny" and "stupid" and all that jazz and that just struck me as so weird and as shallow criticisms.