Top 5 Films of Winter 2018

[PackMan97]

"The temerity of retelling a Spider-Man tale by pandering to the nonwhite demographic (and those who flatter themselves for condescending to it) reveals how brazen the media have become."

LOL! As a full grown white male...let me say LOLOLOLOL!!!!

Who gives a flip. If there is one thing that Black Panther, Wonder Woman and now Spiderverse have proven is that most people don't give a flip what color skin folks have or what the characters do or don't have between their legs. Just make a good movie and folks will go watch it. Make a bad movie *cough* looking at you DC *cough* and folks won't.

[Mtn.Devil.91.92.01.10.15]

LOL! As a full grown white male...let me say LOLOLOLOL!!!!

Who gives a flip. If there is one thing that Black Panther, Wonder Woman and now Spiderverse have proven is that most people don't give a flip what color skin folks have or what the characters do or don't have between their legs. Just make a good movie and folks will go watch it. Make a bad movie *cough* looking at you DC *cough* and folks won't.

Just to clarify and exonerate CameronBorn, the quote you pulled from his/her post was a quote from an absurd review. May have been unclear if folks missed the original quote.

All that said, I agree heartily with your reply.

[CameronBornAndBred]

Just to clarify and exonerate CameronBorn, the quote you pulled from his/her post was a quote from an absurd review. May have been unclear if folks missed the original quote.

All that said, I agree heartily with your reply.

Yup! I love to write, but there is no way I could come up with that condescending drivel. At least not without a thesaurus, a lack of soul, and a few stiff drinks. And I totally agree with Packman.

[BD80]

Originally Posted by CameronBornAndBred
"The temerity of retelling a Spider-Man tale by pandering to the nonwhite demographic (and those who flatter themselves for condescending to it) reveals how brazen the media have become."

LOL! As a full grown white male...let me say LOLOLOLOL!!!!
...

Just to clarify and exonerate CameronBorn, the quote you pulled from his/her post was a quote from an absurd review. May have been unclear if folks missed the original quote. ...

Yup! I love to write, but there is no way I could come up with that condescending drivel. At least not without a thesaurus, a lack of soul, and a few stiff drinks. And I totally agree with Packman.

Don't sell yourself short Judge. You're a tremendous slouch.

[JasonEvans]

Saw Spiderverse last night with my 9 year old and we both loved it. It felt so fresh and original in every respect. The animation was incredible, the music was awesome and the story was great. I loved the way it made you think of an actual comic book but just transferred to the big screen. Text bubbles and "BANG" or "BOOM" graphics during fight scenes were a great homage to the comic books.

It was funny as well in places, serious in places and it had heart which I think is missing in a lot of the big budget super hero films.

Don't miss this just because it's animated and you think it's a kiddie movie because it's not and you will be missing out.

Almost exactly what Josh and I said in the podcast. The times where the comic book words popped out were hysterical. There is a moment where some scientists start chasing Peter and Miles and Peter throws a bagel at one of the pursuers, as the bagel hits the man in the head a bubble pops up that says "bagel." Not "bang" or "ouch," it says "bagel." I almost fell out of my chair laughing.

Spider-verse made about $35 mil in its opening weekend, a good number but not huge. However, it also scored an A+ Cinemascore and Postrack says it is scoring a stratospheric 80% definite recommend (which means 80% of people walk out and say they will tell their friends to go see it, which is a crazy high number). This film will have real legs. Ordinarily, a $35 mil opening would be an automatic disqualification for our contest. While I think this flick is still a huge, huge longshot, it is not out of the running yet.

-Jason "meanwhile, I'm starting to think that Ralph may not catch Bohemian Rap... no one is going 5-for-5 this year" Evans

[CameronBornAndBred]

Spider-verse made about $35 mil in its opening weekend, a good number but not huge. However, it also scored an A+ Cinemascore and Postrack says it is scoring a stratospheric 80% definite recommend (which means 80% of people walk out and say they will tell their friends to go see it, which is a crazy high number). This film will have real legs.

Here is an interesting comparison.

When compared to the openings for past animated films from producers Phil Lord and Chris Miller — Lord also co-wrote the script for "Spider-Verse" — this seems like a big step down. "The Lego Batman Movie," for example, had an opening of $53 million in February 2017. But this if this opening holds tomorrow, "Spider-Verse" will just edge out the $35.2 million start of 2016 Illumination movie "Sing" for the best animated opening in December box office history

"Sing" ended up legging out all the way to a $270 million domestic run, and Sony is hoping for a similarly strong holiday season run for the $90 million "Spider-Verse."

https://www.msn.com/en-us/movies/new...ing/ar-BBR1Uha

[BD80]

Looks like Robin Hood ($14 mil FIVE day holiday opening weekend) and Nutcracker ($20 mil opening) won't be field entries to "crack" the top 5:

https://www.msn.com/en-us/movies/new...cid=spartanntp

Well, Robin Hood ain't the worst bomb of the season:

https://www.msn.com/en-us/movies/new...cid=spartanntp

Looks like there's a battle at the bottom

[PackMan97]

Well, Robin Hood ain't the worst bomb of the season:

https://www.msn.com/en-us/movies/new...cid=spartanntp

Looks like there's a battle at the bottom

welp...there goes another of my "field" hopefulls

That said, they make this big deal about "predator cities" and cities driving around going to war with each other to...show London gobbling one what could best be described as a gnatt of a village and then going off to fight a wall. A freaking wall.

I'm sorry, be true to the book or whatever, but at the end of the day the fact the cities were on wheels meant absolutely nothing to the plot. Not a darned thing.

[budwom]

I guess "top film" means box office metrics rule, because if we're looking for artistic merit, that's one seriously sad list of contenders.

[El_Diablo]

I guess "top film" means box office metrics rule, because if we're looking for artistic merit, that's one seriously sad list of contenders.

Don't you make this same comment every year or so?

But yes, the rules are in the first post:

We are measuring US domestic boxoffice take

[JasonEvans]

welp...there goes another of my "field" hopefulls

That said, they make this big deal about "predator cities" and cities driving around going to war with each other to...show London gobbling one what could best be described as a gnatt of a village and then going off to fight a wall. A freaking wall.

I'm sorry, be true to the book or whatever, but at the end of the day the fact the cities were on wheels meant absolutely nothing to the plot. Not a darned thing.

I saw a preview and Mortal Engines was sooooo awful. Nothing made any sense. The absolute worst was the ending. I can't imagine anyone is going to see this heaping pile of #!^%!@^ but if you are, be warned now...spoilers ahead!



Ok...

So, the plot eventually gets to the point where there is a barren wasteland on one side of this wall and lush beauty on the other side of it. The folks on the good side of the wall are all peace-loving and sweet and they are led by some dude who might as well have had the words Dali Lama stitched on his pocket. But, they have this wall with tons of weapons and flying ships to defend it. They will go to any means to keep the bad folks in the wasteland from getting in.

London, led by eternal bad guy Hugo Weaving, might as well be the Capitol from the Hunger Games. The residents use their might to live off the labors of others. They stand on balconies and cheer as their city chases down smaller cities and consume all the resources of those smaller places. These are horrible people (though we meet a few of them who are good at heart... awwwww).

So, Hugo builds a laser weapon that is actually strong enough to take down the wall. He fires it a couple times and the wall is turning into a pile of rubble. There were hundreds of homes built onto the back side of the wall so the peace-loving Buddhist folks have clearly lost hundreds, perhaps thousands, of lives in the attack.

Naturally, the girl with the scarf and her boyfriend and some other characters manage to foil Hugo's plot and they render London immobile and kill Hugo in the process. Yay!

So, then all the people of London -- the ones who are just soooo bad and have done nothing to redeem themselves -- start walking to ward the crumbled wall. Theya re hopeless and defenseless. The good guys from the other side raise their weapons... and then the Dali Lama smiles and ushers the Londonites to come through the rubble and live on the good side.

Ummmm... why did they have the fight in the first place? Why did all those people have to die? Why was the wall even built? Why did the wall have to be brought to the ground if the Buddhists were going to welcome the Capitol folks with open arms? It makes no sense at all. It is like the whole point of the entire struggle of the film is undermined in one swift moment and then the film ends.

And don't even get me started on the insanity that caused the Terminator to be a major character in the middle of the story with such a confusing motivation that we see him as a murderous beast in one moment and as a emotional father figure in the next.

This movie felt like the opposite of The Hobbit... they took 3 or 4 movies worth of material and they crammed it all into one. Ugh.

-Jason "that said, the director (a guy who has been Peter Jackson's visual effects guru) isn't totally without skill. The problems are a scripting situation, the film is actually fairly well made from a visual effects standpoint" Evans

[PackMan97]

They stand on balconies and cheer as their city chases down smaller cities and consume all the resources of those smaller places.

Except for the movie, it's a village. A small, horribly outmatched village. It's like going fishing from an aircraft carrier and you catch an anchovy (just one) by putting a net into the water. The movie tries to make it a dramatic chase scene, but the village can't even get it's engines started has no defensive weaponry, isn't fast or maneuverable, gets stuck by the terrain.

I think you could make a great movie about these great "predator cities". Something really good where London comes out on top...and then for a sequel make a better version of this movie...but as a world builder it sucks.

[budwom]

Don't you make this same comment every year or so?

But yes, the rules are in the first post:

Santa Claus comes every year or so, but nobody gives him any crap!

(I guess I become dejected in looking for a good movie at one of the local OctoPlexes, little but the above listed glorified cartoons and blow 'em up monstrosities available, few if any of which will be remembered ten years from now.
Fortunately, this time of year they DO release a number of actually interesting, well acted flicks seeking Oscar's approval)

[PackMan97]

Santa Claus comes every year or so, but nobody gives him any crap!

I assure you the Santa Clause was not a good movie and if I ever saw Tim Allen in person, I would absolutely give him crap for it!

[budwom]

I assure you the Santa Clause was not a good movie and if I ever saw Tim Allen in person, I would absolutely give him crap for it!

True! I do sort of think (at least my) confusion could be lessened by referring to them as Top Five Grossing Films, not Top Five Films...

[JasonEvans]

True! I do sort of think (at least my) confusion could be lessened by referring to them as Top Five Grossing Films, not Top Five Films...

Well, in fairness, you have been around here long enough so you should not be surprised at our semi-annual boxoffice obsession. We have been predicting the top films at the boxoffice in the summer and the winter for more than a decade now. I suppose I could have been more clear in the title of the thread, but the first post makes it quite clear that this is about money, not quality.

Meanwhile, if you want to have a chat about award caliber films, allow me to recommend our "Oscar contenders" thread complete with my wild guess at the percentage chance that various films have of getting a Best Picture nomination.

-Jason "Enjoy!" Evans

[budwom]

sign of the times: the box office thread remains on the top with its pile of schlock while the Oscar Contender thread is buried on page 2, nearly relegated to page 3. I readily take the blame for not keeping track, but seriously,
ten years from now no one will remember the top box office crud (was it Black Panther Six or Aquaman Three?)

[PackMan97]

I readily take the blame for not keeping track, but seriously,
ten years from now no one will remember the top box office crud (was it Black Panther Six or Aquaman Three?)

One year from now no one will remember the top Oscar crud. Seriously.

Think back to 1977. Do folks remember Annie Hall? Julia? The Turning Point? No. They remember Star Wars. They remember Smokey and the Bandit. They remember A Bridge Too Far. They remember Saturday Night Fever.

[JasonEvans]

sign of the times: the box office thread remains on the top with its pile of schlock while the Oscar Contender thread is buried on page 2, nearly relegated to page 3. I readily take the blame for not keeping track, but seriously,
ten years from now no one will remember the top box office crud (was it Black Panther Six or Aquaman Three?)

Look, I love good movies (I see 100+ films a year, goodness knows I appreciate the good versus the crud) but you are acting very Throatybeardy to be so dismissive of anything that makes money as not being memorable or important.

Are you trying to tell me that no one will remember Wonder Woman, It, Dunkirk, or Get Out in a decade (all were very successful at the boxoffice) but people will still be talking about Phantom Thread, Call Me By Your Name, Darkest Hour, Lady Bird, and Roman J Israel Esq. (all nominated for major Academy Awards)? I strongly doubt it.

I get that there is some "crud" that makes a lot of money (Jurassic World II) and that some wonderful works of cinematic art don't get noticed (Eighth Grade). I lament that. But, thanks to stuff like Rotten Tomatoes and social media channels democratizing film criticism, quality and boxoffice are becoming more and more linked. It is increasingly hard to find a shoddy film that makes big bank at the boxoffice (the Transformer films and DC universe no longer automatically pull in $250+ mil at the boxoffice if they suck). Meanwhile, smaller films that might not have been obvious boxoffice hits are doing big bucks thanks to strong reviews and word of mouth (A Quiet Place, Crazy Rich Asians being a couple recent examples).

If you want to just be a "get off my lawn" old man who thinks boxoffice=bad, that is fine and you are entitled to your beliefs, but there is plenty of evidence to suggest otherwise.

-Jason "by the way, the Oscar thread had fallen off the first page because there just hasn't been much going on in the awards world since the GG noms were announced... if you have something to add to that thread to get the conversation going again, please do!" Evans

[CameronBornAndBred]

you are acting very Throatybeardy to be so dismissive...

I'm looking that up in Webster's.