Posted on 12/23/2017 9:01:54 AM PST by EdnaMode
As always, the Christmas season is all-but drowning in new movies, a fact amplified even more by the now-standard pre-Christmas monster (Star Wars, The Hobbit, etc.) that now kicks the year-end blitz into high gear. There has been a lot of talk about whether merely being one of the biggest movies of all time is good enough for The Last Jedi, but we should note that at least part of the comparative downturn for the eighth Star Wars episode is due to a deluge of kid-friendly competition this time out.
[snip]
Paramount/Viacom Inc.’s Downsizing debuted on Friday in wide release, trying its best to be the adult movie of choice amid a crowd of kid-friendly crowdpleasers. But that’s a tough place to be when A) a lot of adults are seeing the kid stuff, B) the reviews aren’t exactly off-the-charts and C) there is a lot of high quality adult-skewing fare in some level of wide release. As such, with mixed reviews, brutal competition and most of the publicity concerning Matt Damon’s foot-in-mouth commentary about Hollywood’s legacy of sexual harassment, the Alexander Payne comedy earned just $2 million on Friday.
At a glance, that sets the movie up for a miserable $5 million Fri-Sun/$7m Fri-Mon debut weekend. Barring a possible Oscar nomination for Hong Chau, there is little reason to expect this $68m-budgeted fantasy, which for the record I liked just fine, to stay in theaters beyond the MLK holiday. This is another critical blow to both Paramount and Matt Damon and a poor end to another miserable year for the Viacom-owned studio. For their sake, I really hope that Mission: Impossible 6 is at least as good as Rogue Nation or Ghost Protocol…
(Excerpt) Read more at forbes.com ...
I heard some negative word of mouth about Star Wars. I’ll probably see it eventually. The bad parts I heard, is that they are simply recycling the plots from the original Star Wars trilogy in this latest trilogy.
worldwide box office star wars $2,068,223,624
My BF saw Matt Damon’s “Downsizing” and he said it came across as preachy and lecturing on using less resources, overpopulation, et cetera.
Sorry this is the current 1 after 9 days $635,282,356
I spoke to people who have seen it. It is 100% social justice warrior propaganda. males stupid or evil etc.
The director has no clue about the background of the movie, (joseph Campbell and the hero’s journey) and instead is just glopping scene types together and expecting special effects and brand awareness to carry the day rather than actual character development.
Reading mark hammel’s descriptions it seems to be a chick flick wanabe.
IOW meh
The only good Star Wars movie was the first one.
It sucked balls a lot. The whole purpose of the movie was to sell figurines by introducing new characters. This season's ewok is just the most adorable fox creature they called a "crystal critter". With a bonus of this stupid little penguin thingy with big ol anime eyes.
They had this large woman that served no purpose dressed in a gold darth vader armor suit. Turns out it was the big lesbian from Game of Thrones, but you would never know it cause they never showed her face and she died so that's done.
I fell asleep halfway through, it sucked so hard. Luke Skysucker and Princess Laya are about the worst actors I've ever seen.
Eight-seven rotten tomatoes.
As far as Pitch Perfect 3?
The original was an rollicking good movie, the second one sucked worse than Star Wars. I can't believe anybody put up the money to make a third one after that disaster. I won't even watch 3 if it comes on HBO.
Bah, humbug.
P.S. Matt Damon is a Gaylord who I'd love to kick the ass of. I wouldn't pay to see his movie if I won the lottery and naked chicks filled the theater and gave me backrubs.
This ^^
The people you talked to lied. Or they just have bad obsessions. There no SJW, there are good males and bad males. The director has a fine understanding of the background of the movie, it is the middle of the hero’s journey, the crisis when all seems lost. And there’s plenty of character development. Mark didn’t like that Luke feels like a failure and gives up. But even he says it works for the story.
It’s a good SW movie. Gets back to how things were before Darth wound up Luke’s father, break away from Clan Skywalker and actually makes the story about people not related to Darth. Which really is the thing making all the fanboys whine, they’ve grown used to the Star Wars saga being a family soap and they wanted it to remain the tight spiral. Plus of course they just like to complain. I like how everybody whines that we know nothing about Snoke, because we knew so much about Palpatine when Darth threw him down the pit. Old, crabby, powerful in the force, wants to rule the galaxy, that’s all we need to know.
I liked “Hardware Wars” though....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ymFxkFfIhU
“You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll kiss three bucks goodbye.”
So, the vast majority of audience reviews on Rotten Tomatos are liars? I am going to wait to see this movie when I don't have to pay for it so I can laugh and how horribly bad this movie is.
As it stands, 50% of audience reviewers are intelligent movie goers and prefer proper plots, character development and story lines that respect the canon and lore of the franchise. Then, there are 50% of viewers who simply like bright shiny objects and 'splosions. Apparently, you fall in the latter category.
They are people who know the source material and understand Campbell. (also the interview where Lucas who was himself primarily interested in pushing toys).
see also: star wars comparison to hidden fortress
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4g8r0LhpMzk
Hamell coments:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i0biqMZrxJ0
IOW keep your cash, watch it when it eventually comes to free TV
Eh, The Empire Strikes Back was excellent, so that's the first two at least.
The rest...meh, overrated.
Empire Strikes back was ok. But after that, you’re right.
[trying to avoid any major Star Wars plot spoilers here, but there are a few small details from the movie ...]
It’s Star Wars and its mostly fun. I have no problem with some strong woman characters getting in on the action. I like most of the new characters, and really thought the interaction between Kylo and Rey was interesting. Some fresh blood and fresh ideas were needed. My favorite line of the movie is: “Page turners, they were not...”
My three complaints:
* Luke Skywalker is more emo than the twerpy Kylo Ren (who turned to the dark side because his parents didn’t pay enough attention). Luke running to his room and hiding i a little much. But it runs in the Skywalker family, so maybe it fits the story.
* They didn’t really give Princess Leia a good finality to her character’s arc, despite a couple of golden opportunities to do so.
* Not sure there are any coherent rules about time, speed or distance. Throughout most of the movie, one big ship is chasing another big ship, but characters seem free to come and go on side excursions to and from both ships to visit planets all over the galaxy.
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