Seven Psychopaths is a perfect movie.
To me, a perfect movie is one where the cast, dialogue and plot are so much better than I could imagine, there is nothing that could be changed to improve it. It couldn’t get any better.
The Blues Brothers is a perfect movie. The plot is understandable, but it’s impossible to predict what happens next. Every word of the dialogue is important, but no words are wasted. The cast has popular actors, plus Cab Calloway, Aretha Franklin and James Brown.
There is something wrong with Disney that will be difficult to fix. The Acolyte was in trouble before it even aired. Snow White opens next year, and will fail.
Borderlands is a women-led, quirky, post-apocalyptic action movie, but it fails to be entertaining. Tank Girl is a more entertaining women-led, quirky, post-apocalyptic movie.
Tank Girl is a fun, bizarre movie, based on a comic book, that isn’t for everyone. I enjoyed it, but it’s only got a 5.4 on IMDB. Borderlands, based on a video game, doesn’t seem to be for anyone, and has a rating of 4.3.
I’m not smart enough to point out all of the differences, but suspect that casting is an issue. Borderlands stars 55 year-old Cate Blanchett and 66 year-old Jamie Lee Curtis. The two grandma-bosses are expensive and don’t bring anything to the movie. Tank Girl has 32 year-old Lori Petty and 27 year-old Naomi Watts. Those two may not have the acting chops, but these movies don’t require it. They do bring energy and fun.
Both movies lost money in the theaters, but nobody will remember Borderlands. After thirty years, Tank Girl is still considered a cult classic with passionate fans.
The Fall Guy is a movie that should have been better than it was. Ryan Gosling plays a stuntman who had a relationship with a character, played by Emily Blunt, who wants to move up into directing. He gets hurt on set, and drops off the map. A couple of years later, when Blunt’s character is directing a movie, he is brought back ostensibly to work on the movie, but actually to be framed for a murder.
With the Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes in theaters, it seemed like a good time to watch the series of movies in close succession.
Rise of the Planet of the Apes, showing on Hulu, is the first movie in this series and has a theme entirely different from the original Planet of the Apes. They aren’t comparable. Which is good, because it’s difficult to beat the gravitas of Charlton Heston. He had some great lines and really sells them. The 1968 series has a racial tension theme, and while the first movie is enjoyable, the rest of the movies in that series are a weak.
Box Office Mojo provides up-to-date ticket sales for movies that are in theatrical release. Looking back 20 years, there is a trend that hasn’t been commented on elsewhere. Based on the trend, movie theaters will close and more movies will be sequels.
The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare is a movie made for streaming, but it opened in theaters 6 weeks ago and only pulled $21 million domestically. It has a good cast, used poorly.
When was the last time a Godzilla movie was a good movie? Not good for a monster movie, but a good movie? Godzilla Minus One is a good movie and is available on Netflix. It won an Academy Award for Best Visual Effects, has a 7.9 on IMDB and 98%/98% on Rotten Tomatoes.
Godzilla Minus One cost $15 million to make and pulled $56 million at the domestic box office. For comparison, Godzilla x Kong has an IMDB rating of 6.2, cost $150 million to make and pulled $196 million in domestic ticket sales. Godzilla x Kong turned a profit, but is a forgettable movie.
NYT: Will the Force be with The Acolyte
NYT: Will the Force be with The Acolyte
In two days, a Star Wars spin-off TV show, The Acolyte, will premier on Disney+. The eight episode season will cost $180 million. It’s hard to believe anyone thinks this show will be successful.
This is how Leslye Headland, the show creator, pitched her idea for the show to Kathleen Kennedy, the president of Lucas Films.
Headland described her concept in the meeting as “‘Frozen’ meets ‘Kill Bill.’” Kennedy bought it on the spot.
That’s why the Star Wars IP is trashed. Kennedy couldn’t resist a sister drama crossed with a woman’s revenge fantasy.
Stenberg, the show’s star, said “Leslye really is driven by emotion and heart and relationships. So even though our show is within the ‘Star Wars’ universe and set in outer space, in a galaxy far, far away, it’s really a family drama.”
Star Wars fans don’t want that, and everyone else knows that Star Wars is a deteriorating IP, so aren’t going to get on board now.
There was a way that the Star Wars universe could have thrived if the people in charge were competent and didn’t despise the original fan base. Instead, they tried a bait-and-switch.
Make the three pre-quels and sequels for the original fans. Tell those masculine stories by staying true to the original trilogy. Knock out a few TV shows in the same manner, like Mandalorian .
With a well-developed universe, be honest about a TV series that is going to be less action-oriented. Say you are making a family drama, love story or children’s adventure in that universe. The original movie, Star Wars: A New Hope was described as a Western in space. There are plenty of family-oriented Westerns like The Big Valley or Bonanza. Make sure that original fans know that you don’t hate them and aren’t going to destroy legacy characters. Emphasize quality, not diversity.
Disney spent a quarter billion dollars to build, Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser hotel, and it only remained open for a year and a half. This girl spent $6000 to be immersed in the experience. Fortunately, she’s cute and made an engaging 4-hour video about her Star Wars adventure that’s been viewed by 7 million people. She should recoup her expenses.
Disney is a big company, with a net profit of 1.7 billion dollars last year. They can’t keep making big mistakes like this. How did they screw this up so bad?
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