Thursday, 2 October 2014

Movie News for Oct. 2nd 2014

(This is going to be mostly news so I’m not sure how I might spoil anything, but never the less, Potential Spoilers Ahead....maybe?)

Gone Girl is coming out tomorrow and I’m super excited for it. I’m also excited because I just got hired at a theatre near where I live, so this will give me a chance to be back in the movie business from the other side of it (I’ve also done crew work in Film and TV, but that’s a story for another post.)

Today though, I just wanted to spread some news about upcoming films and other things that I thought were worth sharing. I might do four or five news pieces I’m not sure yet, I’m also not sure how often I’ll do just news, any feedback on it would be much appreciated, and if you think anything you’re about to read, please share this blog with your friends (Shameless promoting I know, but I’m trying to get my view numbers up.) So, with that said, let’s get to it with our first story.

1.      Adam Sandler has signed a four movie exclusivity deal with Netflix

Fresh off of the news that Netflix will be making a Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon sequel (which I touched on here, but will be giving an update for later on) Netflix has also announced a four movie exclusivity deal with Sandler’s Happy Madison production company.

I have mixed feelings about this for a few reasons. I’m not a big Adam Sandler fan, although I did like Happy Gilmore and Billy Madison when I was younger though, but mostly because I watched those movies with friends. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t hate the man, I just wished he made better choices. It’s been four years since he made a film that was considered good (Funny People in 2010 68% on Rotten Tomatoes) and it’s just been downhill since. I have a copy of Punch Drunk Love I still have to watch on my shelf (which fun fact is his highest rated film, Certified Fresh at 79%.) I’ll see what they look like when they come out, but I’m just hoping they won’t sour the idea of Netflix made movies. And speaking of...

2.      Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon Sequel may be boycotted by theatre chains

When first announced, the plan for the film was planned to have it screened in both IMAX theatres and released on Netflix on the same day. However, several theatre chains in North America, Including Cineplex here in Canada, are threatening to boycott the film saying with Regal Cinemas saying quote “While a home video release may be simultaneously performing in certain Imax locations, at Regal we will not participate in an experiment where you can see the same product on screens varying from three stories tall to three-inch wide on a smart phone. We believe the choice for truly enjoying a magnificent movie is clear.” So basically, movie chains don’t want to share with Netflix. Why? Maybe they think it’ll help preserve the true movie experience to see it on the big screen first. Look, we all know Hollywood hates competition, with people being able to torrent movies for free nowadays they basically feel threatened (as they always have been since the birth of television.) Personally, I’m still looking forward to the sequel, and while it would be awesome in my opinion to see it on the big screen, I have watched films for the first time on Netflix and to me it makes virtually no difference on how I watch a film for the first time. Basically I’m saying I’m going to watch it regardless, but I do hope that they can work something out because not everyone might be able to see it in a theatre and I think this would also be a missed opportunity for some cross promotion between the companies. Now there have been a few films that have been released digitally first, then screened in theatres, but they’re mostly mediocre films that get a very limited release anyways, so no one really seems to mind. So when it comes to this, I guess it’ll be a wait and see kind of situation.

3.      Angry Birds Cast and first glimpse have been released

Good news Game of Thrones fans, Peter Dinklage has yet another movie coming out soon. He and a bunch of SNL alumni are going to be voicing the titular Angry Birds of the film based on the wildly successful kid’s game. (It’s a kid’s game I’m not going to budge on this. Even if it didn’t start out as one, it is now because kids are now its biggest audience.) I’m not holding out much hope for this one for two reasons. One: It’s based on a video game, which those have an amazingly bad track record (Help us Assassin’s Creed Movie, you’re our only hope. Well, you or the Warcraft film.) Secondly, it’s bound to be a kid’s film. I know, it won’t just be kids going to see it, but once again, kids are now its biggest audience, it’s going to be a kid’s film. Nowadays Disney and Pixar seem to be the only ones trying to make good kids films, and since they’re not involved, I’m not holding my breath (I’m still trying to recover from TMNT.) Oh, and speaking of video game movies…

4.      The Tetris movie has been announced, as a live action science fiction epic

Yes, you read that right. The man who produced Mortal Kombat (An okay film, if a bit on the cheesy side) is going to be taking a game based on stacking blocks and turning it into a live action science fiction movie. Why? Quote "Brands are the new stars of Hollywood." Yeah, I’m guessing he must’ve heard about the Battleshit Battleship movie (without actually seeing it or the reviews of it afterwards) and thought, "why can’t we do that?" In defense of Battleship (a phrase I thought I’d never say) at least it had ships battling, even if done poorly. Unless you actually have something in the movie relate to stacking blocks to make lines, it’s basically going to be Tetris in name only. In other words, and I’m going to say this as calmly as I can, WHAT IS THE F*CKING POINT OF CALLING IT MOTHERF*CKING TETRIS?! So yeah, when this comes out (god forbid it doesn’t) please, can we for once teach Hollywood a lesson and boycott this? Please?

And finally

5.      Dracula Untold to start off Universal’s monster movie universe

A while back, in an attempt to copy the success of Marvel films, Universal announced that it will be taking all of its monster movie franchises (Dracula, the Wolfman, etc,) and combining them into a one singular universe. Today it revealed that the upcoming Dracula Untold film will be the starting point for this new universe. Today was the day that my enthusiasm for the idea dropped as well. I actually liked this idea a lot, because some of these movies were some of the earliest films ever made and were the beginning of the horror movie genre, but Dracula Untold from everything I’ve seen so far looks damn near awful. As of writing this it’s sitting at 33% on Rotten Tomatoes and its being released next week. It’s the same thing I’m experiencing with Batman VS Superman, so my only hope is that even if Dracula Untold does fail, if they decide to push forward that they’ll take what they learned from it and make the next ones even better. I do admit though, hearing this actually makes me want to see it now, so they got that right at least.

So there we go, five news stories. The future looks a bit shaky, but I’m hoping for some diamonds in the rough. If you’d like to see more of these, let me know, and if you’ve liked what you’ve read, please be sure to share it and check out some of my other posts on the side.

So until next time, I’ll see you folks at the movies.

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