John Wick 3: Parabellum - Movie Review

Starring Keanu Reeves, Halle Berry, Ian McShane, Laurence Fishburne, Anjelica Huston, Mark Dacascos, Asia Kate Dillon, Lance Reddick, Said Taghmaoui, Jerome Flynn and Randall Duk Kim.

Written by Derek Kolstad, Shay Hatten, Cris Collins & Marc Abrams.

Directed by Chad Stahelski.

★★★ 

John Wick 3 starts the minute John Wick 2 ends. John is on the run for breaking the rules by killing someone on consecrated grounds, and so he is now “excommunicado,” meaning no more protections or privileges in the assassin world, and there is now a high price on his head. And that’s what we get. We get a week of John fleeing from assassins while trying to figure a way to take the price off of his head.

The mythology of this world was hinted at in the first movie and greatly expanded in the second. The third one is therefore able to rely on what the viewer knows and doesn’t have to explain much. We get a touch more on his backstory and he meets up with “old friends” that we hadn’t heard of before. The action sequences are more non-stop than the first two movies. The wave of assassins after him feels relentless.

Keanu Reeves has the charm of one of the last old-school action heroes. Not the best actor, but he has presence, and everything he does is just indescribably cool. He’s surrounded by award winners to carry the dialogue scenes.

I will say this. They need to figure out how to get Carrie-Anne Moss to appear in John Wick 4.

Aladdin - Movie Review

Starring Will Smith, Mena Massoud, Naomi Scott, Marwan Kenzari, Nasim Pedrad, David Negahban, Billy Magnussen and Numan Acar.

Written by John August & Guy Ritchie.

Directed by Guy Ritchie.

★★★ 

This movie balances nicely between being its own creation while also staying true to the original. The songs are all still here, there are many scenes that could be considered shot-by-shot remakes of the animated original, but it’s more comfortable in fleshing out some scenes and being a more fluid story when dealing with live-action/CGI elements.

First, how was Will Smith’s Genie? He was good. He wisely does not attempt to ape Robin Williams, but he makes the Genie his own. He gets the most laughs, as it should be, and he keeps things bouncing along. I also liked how they gave him a love interest, a new character: Dalia, Jasmine’s handmaiden, played by SNL alum Nasim Pedrad.

Second, how was the rest of the cast? The real standout of the movie was Naomi Scott as Jasmine. She has a great voice, and the character herself has been upgraded and given more to do, including her own new song. Mena Massoud (Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan) is good as Aladdin. Marwan Kenzari is a very different Jafar, but on its own level, I thought it still worked. 

Some of the humor of the original is edged away. The Sultan isn’t as bumbling, and Iago is creepier and doesn’t have any laugh lines.

Guy Ritchie does a good job of fleshing out Acraba, giving Aladdin plenty of buildings to jump from, and the musical numbers like “Friend Like Me” and “Prince Ali” are fun to see with real people dancing in them. They change some lyrics in the opening “Arabian Nights” number to justify people of all ethnicities (besides white people) in one city.

So yeah, I thought it was going to be terrible based on the original trailers, but I was pleasantly surprised. I liked it more than the live-action Beauty & the Beast.

Aladdin opens to $90 million

For the Memorial Day weekend of May 24-26, 2019, Aladdin was the predictable winner but it opened much higher than tracking had suggested. Despite mixed reviews to its marketing, the title, the familiar songs, and the idea of Will Smith as the Genie got people to flock to theaters for it.

Brightburn, the horror twist on the Superman origin story, never could build buzz. Meanwhile, Booksmart had fantastic reviews, but that message never got out to the general public.

Opens Friday
GODZILLA: KING OF THE MONSTERS with Kyle Chandler and Millie Bobby Brown.
ROCKETMAN with Taron Egerton, Jamie Bell, Richard Madden and Bryce Dallas Howard.
MA with Octavia Spencer, Diana Silvers, Juliette Lewis, Luke Evans and Allison Janney.

Summer 2019 Box Office Preview

I actually had this almost completed when I was laid off from my job. So better late than never. These are all domestic predictions.

1. AVENGERS: ENDGAME - $800 million - Yeah, we all knew this would be big, like "gross $1.2 billion worldwide on opening weekend" big. It will become the largest domestic grosser and probably worldwide grosser ever made.

2. TOY STORY 4 - $400 million - Woody and Buzz will recapture that Pixar magic, I have no doubt.

3. THE LION KING - $320 million - The nostalgia factor is just too strong with this, even though it looks like it'll do what Beauty & the Beast did. Combine shot-by-shot recreations with new stuff to make it about 40 minutes longer than the animated original. It's going to be one heck of a summer for Disney.

4. SPIDER-MAN: FAR FROM HOME - $280 million - Tom Holland's gee-whiz enthusiasm for the character hasn't worn off, plus people will be ready to see the repercussion of Endgame in alive-again Peter's world.

5. THE SECRET LIFE OF PETS 2 - $260 million - The awkward replacement of Louis CK with Patton Oswalt (Ratatouille) in the main character's role shouldn't matter too much.

6. DETECTIVE PIKACHU - $235 million - As long as it doesn't suck, it should be a hit. It's positioned to be the first big hit of May.

7. ALADDIN - $180 million - The previews haven't been that encouraging. This could be closer to Dumbo than Lion King numbers.

8. ROCKETMAN - $165 million - This'll be the Bohemian Rhapsody of 2019. A killer discography will overcome any storytelling shortcomings.

9. ONCE UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOOD - $150 million - The Hateful Eight indulged in unpleasantness, but this looks like it'll restore Quentin Tarantino to his Inglourious Basterds-level of box office. The cast is simply too huge to overlook. Leonardo DiCaprio, Brad Pitt, Margot Robbie, Al Pacino, Kurt Russell, Dakota Fanning, Bruce Dern, Timothy Olyphant, etc., etc.

10. GODZILLA: KING OF THE MONSTERS - $145 million - Bonus for having Stranger Things' Millie Bobby Brown in the cast, but the real selling point will be how willing audiences are to watch big-budget updates on characters like Mothra.

11. HOBBS & SHAW - $140 million - Looks like a hoot.

12. DARK PHOENIX - $120 million - The final X-Men movie before they all get rebooted into the MCU, this mostly looks like an apology for how lame X-Men: The Last Stand was.

13. JOHN WICK 3 - $110 million - Who would be foolish enough to try to kill John Wick? He's already killed hundreds of top assassins, so these have got to be the dumber class.

14. MEN IN BLACK INTERNATIONAL - $105 million - Thor and Valkyrie reunite in different roles, but they look like they'll keep the same light chemistry.

15. ANNABELLE COME HOME - $100 million - All it needs to be is as good as Annabelle 2.

16. SHAFT - $95 million - I really like the spin on this franchise, with a decidedly non-violent son of Shaft thrust into the world for comedic effect.

17. THE ANGRY BIRDS MOVIE 2 - $85 million - We don't "need" another one, but the last one made money, so...

18. SCARY STORIES TO TELL IN THE DARK - $70 million - Hard to tell what's going to break out in mid-August, but this seems as good a bet as any.

19. MA - $62 million - Octavia Spencer is the latest Oscar-winner to cash in her chips to play a psycho, and the preview makes it look like it'll be a slow burn to her craziness. A good thing.

20. DORA & THE LOST CITY OF GOLD - $60 million - Can Dora the Explorer find what Allan Quatermain couldn't? This looks decent, in a Spy Kids way.

Dark Horses:

THE KITCHEN - Crime drama about mob wives who continue to run their husbands' businesses while they're in prison. Elisabeth Moss, Melissa McCarthy and Tiffany Haddish star, and while it sounds similar to Widows, this one takes place in the 1970's, with a lot more Scorsese shenanigan potential. It's the directorial debut of Andrea Berloff, who co-wrote Straight Outta Compton.

STUBER - Dave Bautista and Kumail Najiani look like a fun pairing.

YESTERDAY - I love the high concept. After a worldwide blackout, a young musician finds himself the only person on Earth who's ever heard of the Beatles, so he records their songs and becomes an international star.