Friday, May 8, 2015

Movies! 5/8/15

Personally I think any studio releasing a movie this week is suicidal.  Avengers 2 is going to steamroll any competition this week at least, if not for the rest of the month.  It depends how good the word-of-mouth is.  I suspect really good.

Though I watched it yesterday and didn't like it all that much.  It's OK but I think the problem right from the get-go is that this is a placeholder movie.  I mean the end of Avengers introduced Thanos so everyone was psyched for the Infinity Gauntlet thing but then they announced Age of Ultron and that the Infinity War would be the third movie.  So really this movie was always just to bridge the gap.  Besides that is just the whole weight of the Marvel cinematic universe, so that really most of the movie feels like it's just setting up stuff (Wakanda, Infinity Stones, etc.) for down the road.  I'd give it a solid B or (2.5/5)

Anyway, perhaps in the spirit of counterprogramming one of the top movies being released is "Hot Pursuit" which is like "Midnight Run" with Reese Witherspoon and Sophia Vergara.  Watching the previews it looks like "The Heat," which I found really boring.  I'm all for gender equality, but does that have to mean women get to star in terrible buddy comedies?  Anyway, I guess women who don't want to watch Avengers 2 might drag their men to that.  Good luck, fellas.

Of other new releases, perhaps the most significant is "Maggie" with Ahh-nold Schwarzenegger.  First he was a bodybuilder popping steroids.  Then one of the two biggest action stars on the planet.  Then he tried comedy, with mediocre results.  Then he became a governor.  And after co-starring with fellow has-been Sly Stallone, now he's taking a run at something more dramatic.  At least that's what I heard.  Of course this isn't exactly "The Piano."  His daughter (the girl from "Little Miss Sunshine" and appropriately, "Zombieland") is turning into a zombie and so mayhem ensues.  It's the kind of movie that I'd probably get from Redbox or digital download, not the kind I'd go to see in theaters.  And of course if Ahh-nold wants to use it to get an Oscar nomination he probably should have released it in December.

Other stuff being released somewhere that I know nothing about:
  • The D-Train: The head of a high school reunion committee travels to Los Angeles to track down the most popular guy from his graduating class and convince him to go to the reunion. 
  • 5 Flights Up: A long-time married couple who've spent their lives together in the same New York apartment become overwhelmed by personal and real estate-related issues when they plan to move away. 
  • Saint Laurent: Yves Saint Laurent's life from 1967 to 1976, during which time the famed fashion designer was at the peak of his career. 
  • I Am Big Bird: A documentary about Caroll Spinney who has been Sesame Street's Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch since 1969. At 78-years-old, he has no intention of stopping. 
  • Noble: Christina Noble overcomes the harsh difficulties of her childhood in Ireland to discover her destiny on the streets of Saigon. A true story. 
  • The Seven Five: Michael Dowd was a Brooklyn cop in the late 1980s who led his crew on a rampage through the streets, robbing dope dealers at gunpoint, and stealing countless kilos of cocaine and hundreds of thousands dollars in cash until his arrest in 1992. 
  • Skin Trade: After his family is killed by a Serbian gangster with international interests, NYC detective Nick goes to S.E. Asia and teams up with a Thai detective to get revenge and destroy the syndicates human trafficking network.

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