How to Train Your Dragon 3 is #1

For the weekend of February 22-24, 2019, How to Train Your Dragon 3 was the big winner and s a solid close-out for the trilogy. It benefited from The LEGO Movie 2 underperforming, and Alita: Battle Angel not capturing enough imaginations to prevent a big second-week drop-off.

Fighting with My Family expanded, and while business wasn't too bad for a small indie film, it IS an indie film that heavily featured Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson as himself in the marketing.

Dragon should rule next week too, as its only competition will be a Madea movie (which will get about $20 million), and a generic stalker thriller starring Chloe Grace Moretz. Then in two weeks? Captain Marvel.

Opens March 1
A MADEA FAMILY FUNERAL with Tyler Perry, Courtney Burrell and Patrice Lovely.
GRETA with Chloe Grace Moretz, Isabelle Huppert and Maika Monroe.

Jumanji still #1, 12 Strong #2

For the weekend of January 19-21, 2018, Jumanji fought off all newcomers to be #1 again. (I'm surprised they haven't announced a sequel yet, but then Dwayne Johnson has a TV series and his next five movies lined up.) It's now grossed over $760 million worldwide.

Of the 2018 titles, 12 Strong followed the January tradition of War on Terror movies being released, though it's been diminishing returns since the days of American Sniper and Lone Survivor. 12 Hours did better than Patriots Day and about as well as 13 Hours.

Oscar hopefuls Phantom Thread and Call Me By Your Name expanded, but they couldn't find an audience. Maybe if they'd waited a week after nominations have been announced...

It's pretty impressive how The Greatest Showman is still in the top five. It looked like it might lose money after its low opening but it's been a real crowd-pleaser.

The Last Jedi has now grossed about $1.3 billion worldwide.

Coco has grossed $200 million domestically for a worldwide total of $655 million.

Opens January 26
MAZE RUNNER: DEATH CURE with Dylan O'Brien and Thomas Brodie-Sangster.

Jumanji bests Insidious 4 at box office

For the weekend of January 5-7, 2018, Jumanji: WTTJ finally managed to dethrone The Last Jedi. It's the first non-Fast & Furious movie starring Dwayne Johnson to pass the $200 million domestic mark.

The one new wide release was Insidious: The Last Key. It's a financial hit, to the point where I have to imagine the studio's trying to figure what they can spin off from it like the Conjuring universe.

I'm a little bummed The Disaster Artist isn't doing better. Most of the Globes winners were from movies that are already on their way out. Darkest Hour might have expanded at the right time.

Opens January 12
PADDINGTON 2 with Hugh Grant, Hugh Bonneville and Sally Hawkins.
PROUD MARY with Taraji P. Henson, Neal McDonough and Danny Glover.
THE COMMUTER with Liam Neeson, Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson.
(exp) THE POST with Meryl Streep, Tom Hanks and Sarah Paulson.

Last Jedi #1, Jumanji #2 at box office

For the weekend of December 22-24, 2017, Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi had a massive dropoff (as movies that open that big tend to do) and still held on to the #1 spot. Sony has to be tickled with the performance of Jumanji: WTTJ. The weekend after Christmas, movies tend to hold on pretty well, so it's realistic for it to be looking to pass $150 million domestic and $400 million worldwide. Dwayne Johnson needed a return to box office glory after Baywatch flopped.

Pitch Perfect 3 did well despite bad reviews. Looks like it's ending the franchise at the right time.

The Greatest Showman may be able to boast about its Golden Globe nominations, but that's a disappointing opening. Nowhere near as disappointing for Downsizing, a high-concept comedy that's been met with lukewarm reception. Father Figures is a flat-out bomb.

Of the expanding titles, Darkest Hour managed the better per-screen average than The Shape of Water. In limited release The Post did outstanding while Hostiles fizzled.

I'm a little bummed The Disaster Artist isn't doing better.

Opens December 25
ALL THE MONEY IN THE WORLD with Michelle Williams and Mark Wahlberg.

The Fate of the Furious - Movie Review

Starring Vin Diesel, Dwayne Johnson, Charlize Theron, Jason Statham, Michelle Rodriguez, Kurt Russell, Tyrese Gibson, Chris "Ludacris" Bridges, Scott Eastwood, Nathalie Emmanuel, Kristofer Hivju, Elsa Pataky, Luke Evans and Helen Mirren.
Written by Chris Morgan.
Directed by F. Gary Gray.

★★

These movies are now so loud, so huge, so spectacular, so stunt-reliant, the plot matters less and less each time. Maybe the plot never mattered. They're dangerously close to venturing into Tranformers territory. Would it surprise anyone if this franchise wound up going to space?

This centers around Dom (Vin Diesel) who's been a criminal since the first movie, but he keeps getting pardoned for weird reasons, or just on the lam with no official desire to bring him in. The latest giant international incident that's worthy of a Mission Impossible movie has the world's most dangerous cyberterrorist Cipher (Charlize Theron) blackmailing Dom into helping steal the God's Eye device (the high-tech thingy from the last movie that allows the user to see what's going on at any location on Earth), and once she has that, she's going to use to steal nuclear codes.

It's a late reveal what leverage Cipher has on Dom, but you know, not only do people die over the course of events, but he's giving her the power to start World War III. What possible leverage would make Dom do that?

Mr. Nobody (Kurt Russell) enlists Hobbs (Dwayne Johnson) and Dom's crew to stop Cipher, and he even gets Deckard Shaw (Jason Statham), the main villain from the last movie, to help them out. Now this franchise likes to say it's about family. Han was part of the family for a few movies, and in Furious 7, Deckard killed Han. Killed him. And no one brings it up. Han's name is never said. By the end of the movie, Deckerd is embraced as a full member of the crew.

He killed Han!

I'll give you Dom not once but twice driving a car that's engulfed in flames and not getting a single burn, or Dom outdriving a heat-seeking missile, but you can't just have everyone forget that Deckard killed one of their members.

I suppose in the next movie, Cipher will return and help the crew fight a different villain. And Han will come back from the dead because *shrug emoji*.

Central Intelligence - Movie Review

Starring Dwayne Johnson, Kevin Hart, Amy Ryan, Danielle Nicolet, Aaron Paul, Jason Bateman, Ryan Hansen and Thomas Ketschmann.
Written by Ike Barinholtz, David Stassen & Rawson Marshall Thurber.
Directed by Rawson Marshall Thurber.

★★½

This movie is a little schizophrenic. On one hand, the chemistry between the two leads is enjoyable, and the characters are full of potential. On the other hand, it's really dumb. Dumb funny wins the day.

Kevin Hart plays Calvin Joyner, the most popular kid from high school who, on the eve of his 20-year high school reunion, is feeling like a flop. He's an accountant at a large firm, and he keeps missing out on promotions. He receives a Facebook friend request from "Bob Stone" and accepts, and suddenly Bob shows up. He's actually Robby Weirdich (Dwayne Johnson), a bullied kid Calvin was nice to once, but now he looks like The Rock.

Calvin slowly finds out that Bob is a CIA agent, but he also might be a rogue agent, as Bob's old boss (Amy Ryan) is trying to catch him or kill him.

There isn't much thought put in the central mystery, as the emphasis is on pairing Johnson and Hart together and just seeing what happens. There's a ton of potential in their pairing, and I wish this had been a smarter movie. It's from the writer/director of Dodgeball (which I liked), so it's more on that level, but Thurber has no idea how to stage the fights and action scenes, so the movie is best when it's not dealing with any of that.

Overall I was entertained. I'd see the sequel if they made one. I just hope they don't squander their potential.

Snitch - DVD Review

Starring Dwayne Johnson, Susan Sarandon, Barry Pepper, Jon Bernthal, Michael K. Williams, Melina Kanakaredes, Nadine Velasquez and Benjamin Bratt.  Directed by Ric Roman Waugh.

★★½

Good acting by Johnson, maybe his best yet. I know the joke is that's not saying much, but this movie has more on its mind than mindless action. It's primarily a critique against mandatory minimum sentencing laws in the screwed-up drug war. When a teenage son gets arrested after his "friend" mails him some drugs, his father (Johnson) makes a deal with the DA (Susan Sarandon), that she'll reduce his sentence if the father helps bring down some bigger fish. The stakes get raised and the climax winds up straining credulity, but overall it was a decent rental.

Random Movie Stuff - 10/17/13

- Director Brad Peyton will reunite with his Journey 2 The Mysterious Island star Dwayne Johnson for San Andreas 3D, an action thriller about a giant earthquake from the San Andreas fault.

- Keanu Reeves will star in John Wick, about a retired hitman who is forced back into action by a sadistic young thug (Game of Thrones' Alfie Allen). Bridget Moynahan, Willem Dafoe, Michael Nyqvist, Adrianne Palicki and Dean Winters co-star.

- Chris Pine (Star Trek) has signed on as the first of three new Horrible Bosses for the sequel, scheduled to open November 26, 2014.  Jason Bateman, Charlie Day, Jason Sudeikis and Jamie Foxx will all return.

- Ty Simpkins, the kid from Insidious, has joined the cast of Jurassic Park 4, titled Jurassic World. It stars Bryce Dallas Howard (The Help) and Jake Johnson (New Girl). It's directed by Colin Trevorrow (who also worked with Johnson on Safety Not Guaranteed) and it's set to open June 12, 2015.

- Bill Murray, Edward Norton, Tilda Swinton and Jason Schwartzman are reuniting with their Moonrise Kingdom director Wes Anderson in The Grand Budapest Hotel. It opens March 7. It co-stars Owen Wilson, Ralph Fiennes, Jude Law, Jeff Goldblum, Willem Dafoe, Saoirse Ronan, Adrien Brody and Tom Wilkinson.

- The Maze Runner has been pushed back to September 19, 2014. Based on the book by James Dashner, it's set in a post-apocalyptic world where young Thomas (MTV Teen Wolf's Dylan O'Brien) finds himself with his memory erased in a community of boys trapped in a large maze. It co-stars Will Poulter (We're the Millers), Thomas Brodie-Sangster (Game of Thrones), Kaya Scodelario (Clash of the Titans) and Patricia Clarkson (Shutter Island, The Green Mile).

Pain & Gain - DVD Review

Starring Mark Wahlberg, Dwayne Johnson, Anthony Mackie, Ed Harris, Tony Shalhoub, Rob Corddry, Ken Jeong and Michael Rispoli.
Directed by Michael Bay.

★★½

This is Bay in Bad Boys mode. It's a high-octane crime caper featuring some muscle-heads trying to live the American dream. By stealing the accumulated wealth from someone else.

It's based on a true story but it takes a looooot of liberties with actual events (for example, Dwayne Johnson's character is a fictitous combination of three people from the real story). A faithful telling of the facts wouldn't have been as fun.

Wahlberg is the idiot who's perfecting his body at his gym but wondering why he isn't more successful. After all, he's worth it. After attending a bogus self-help seminar, he's inspired to grab life by the throat and take what he wants. What he wants is the fortune of his wealthiest client (Tony Shalhoub), a jerk who owns several properties around Florida. He gets a couple friends (Johnson, Anthony Mackie) to help him kidnap the client, then they force him to sign over all his money.

It's fast-paced, frenetic, and it's where Bay's style excels. I don't why he chose to make the kidnappers more comical/likeable and why he made the victims jerks, but it would have taken a Scorsese-like hand to guide the waters through a more faithful account.  As is, it was fun, as fun as a movie can be where someone ends up on death row.

G.I. Joe: Retaliation - DVD Review

Starring Dwayne Johnson, Channing Tatum, Bruce Willis, Byung Hoo-Lee, Jonathan Pryce, Ray Park, Ray Stevenson, Adrianne Palecki, Elodie Yung, D.J. Cotrona, Walton Goggins, Luke Bracey and Arnold Vosloo.
Directed by Jon M. Chu.

★½

The first movie was not good.  You had director Stephen Sommers' Mummy-sequel sensibilities, Marlon Wayans, those CGI suits the Joes wore, phoned-in performances from the likes of Dennis Quaid and Rachel Nichols, and a movie that felt like the entire purpose was to set up Part 2.

Chu takes over directing duties, and he kills off most of the Joes, thereby nullifying a lot of the events from Part 1.  Gone are Hawk, Baroness, Scarlet, Ripcord, Heavy Duty, etc.  Destro's left in his Minority-Report-type prison, while Joseph Gordon-Levitt has left Cobra Commander duties to an actor named Luke Bracey.  GI Joe 2 had a smaller budget, and I see where some significant cuts were made.

Master-of-disguise Zartan (Arnold Vosloo) has assumed the disguise of the President (Jonathan Pryce), which means this time around, Pryce gets to be the villain.  (I don't think Vosloo himself worked more than a day on this film.)  Storm Shadow (Byung Hoo-Lee), whom I swore died in the first one, is back, but his allegiances aren't as obvious.

New Joes include Roadblock (Dwayne Johnson), Lady Jaye (the bland Adrianne Palecki) and Flint, played by D.J. Cotrona, who makes Palecki look like an Academy Award winning actress. Maybe his part was underwritten, or maybe they cut a lot of his stuff out after they saw what a dead weight he was, but he was sore-thumb bad for me.

For those who grew up on the 1980's cartoon and toy line, I can't say it's any better than the first one. But if you liked the first one, you'll probably like the second one. I didn't care for the first one, and I was hoping the significant changes might result in a better movie.  Didn't happen.

Bright spot of the movie: Walton Goggins (Justified) as the supermax prison warden who loves his job.

Since GI Joe 3 is happening, and Chu will again direct, I hope they kill Flint quickly and bring back Destro. I can't imagine Christopher Eccleston couldn't use the money.

Journey 2 The Mysterious Island - Movie Review

Starring Dwayne Johnson, Michael Caine, Josh Hutcherson, Vanessa Hudgens, Luis Guzman and Kristin Davis.
Directed by Brad Peyton.

★★½

You know those simulation rides at theme parks, the ones that put it on the big screen, and maybe it's in 3D, and it moves your seat around like you're actually flying or racing? That's what the Journey movies are like. 90 minutes of rides, with awkward human crap in between.

Josh Hutcherson is back as a Vernian, a big Jules Verne fan, but instead of going with uncle Brendan Fraser, he goes with stepdad Dwayne Johnson to visit the Island, where his grandfather supposedly disappeared. They fly to Palau and charter a helicopter ride to the coordinates, flown by a nerdy pilot (Luis Guzman, in kid-movie-acting mode) and his "spunky" daughter (Vanessa Hudgens).

They have to fly through a hurricane to get to the Island and so they crash. But it isn't long before they find the grandfather (Michael Caine), and they figure the only way to get off the Island is to find Captain Nemo's submarine, parked on the other side.

The plot's irrelevant, and more often than not, the characters behaved in ways that I don't think anyone would in real life if this was truly happening to them. The point is to get them from one adrenaline-pumping situation to the next, whether it's running from a giant lizard or flying on the backs of giant bees, and those sequences are fun to watch.

This is more for kids than adults and my kids enjoyed it. For the adults, you have the invaluable Michael Caine, who elevates anything he's in. It's fine. But if you have a $3 theater near you that has 3-D screens, you might want to wait until then to take the family.

Movie Trailers - 11/19/11

Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson and Woody Harrelson in THE HUNGER GAMES
- I've read the book and it looks like a faithful adaptation.

Dwayne Johnson, Josh Hutcherson and Michael Caine in JOURNEY 2 THE MYSTERIOUS ISLAND

- This semi-sequel to Journey of the Center of the Earth swaps out Brendan Fraser for The Rock, and it looks like a similar CG 3-D visual dessert buffet.


Julia Roberts, Lily Collins and Nathan Lane in MIRROR MIRROR

- While Snow White and the Huntsman is going for a more serious Lord of the Rings type feel, this is going the comedic route more in the vein of Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland or even the live-action 101 Dalmatians. 


...and the Pixar gang returns with BRAVE

- Reminded me a lot of How to Train Your Dragon, but it's nice that Pixar's finally made a movie with a female protagonist.

Faster - Movie Review

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Starring Dwayne Johnson, Billy Bob Thornton, Oliver Jackson-Cohen, Carla Gugino, Maggie Grace, Moon Goodblood, Tom Berenger, Mike Epps, Jennifer Carpenter, Xander Berkeley and Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje.
Directed by George Tillman Jr.

This is a straightforward revenge flick which felt closer to the 1970's style than recent Robert Rodrgiuez efforts. Dwayne Johnson is "Driver," a bulked-up tattooed man who's just finished serving ten years in prison. He is a man on a mission. He marches to his old car, which inexplicably starts on the first try. (I guess someone's been taking care of it.) He drives to a location. He marches into the building. He looks around the cubicle farm. He sees the guy he wants. He shoots him in the head.

This movie isn't kidding around. Soon after we meet Billy Bob Thornton as "Cop," investigating the case. Then for fun, a British Jake Gyllenhaal-type Oliver Jackson-Cohen shows up as "Killer." He's a hitman hired to kill Driver before he eliminates everyone on his revenge list.

Johnson, more bulked up than he's been in in years, is an unstoppable force here, and director Tillman (Notorious) gives the whole thing a gritty feel. The twist ending gives itself away halfway through the movie, and of the three main characters I never really cared for Killer, and yet I still enjoyed the journey, hoping somehow the Driver find redemption before the runaway train hits the end of the road.