Posted on 06/29/2024 2:55:20 PM PDT by Twotone
What will be the blockbuster movies of Summer 2024? Entertainment Weekly published a list at the beginning of May, which was helpful provided you eliminate mere summer releases (I Saw the TV Glow, Babes, Firebrand, Inside Out 2, The Watchers, Janet Planet, Despicable Me 4, The Instigators, Kinds of Kindness, Fly Me to the Moon, It Ends With Us, The Bikeriders, Blink Twice, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice) and everything being released on streaming (Atlas, Hit Man, Ultraman: Rising, Trigger Warning, The Union, Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F, The Instigators, Jackpot, Appollo 13: Survival).
Which leaves a much smaller group of big budget action films and spectacles (almost totally free of MCU [Marvel Cinematic Universe] content, it must be noted) aiming to entice us into theatres and make the top of Variety's box office charts: Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, Bad Boys 4: Ride or Die, Kevin Costner's two-part western Horizon, MaXXXine, Transformers: High Moon, Twisters, Deadpool & Wolverine, Alien: Romulus and The Crow. A lot of remakes, reboots and sequels, very few original ideas, and every one of them arriving with big production and marketing budgets that need to be made back.
I can only speak for myself, but who cares? Every summer arrives with at least a half dozen hopeful blockbusters grasping for our dollars, like beggars in designer clothes. And I'm old enough to remember before films presented themselves with such audacity; a time when movie studios assumed that we preferred to spend our summers on vacation, at the cottage or the beach, when the weeks before and after Christmas were when you booked big budget productions in every movie palace and neighbourhood theatre that would show them.
It was a long time ago, and it all ended with a movie about a fish.
(Excerpt) Read more at steynonline.com ...
My kid wanted to see Inside Out 2. Since it’s hot outside I took her.
It was ok but nowhere as good as the Mario Brothers movie from last year.
JAWS would never catch on today.
Much of what made Jaws feel so real to so many people was something that they couldnt understand or explain but they knew was very real and different from the fiction of other movies.
Back then nearly all of us spent summer at lakes, ponds, and pools swimming with our family and friends. The majority experienced that on a basis that was regular enough that we intimately knew not just the feel of the water but the sounds and smells that went along with each of those different swimming instances.
One thing that didnt change was the underwater sound of feet pounding the surface from a swimmers kick and that was written into the soundtrack.
We could all hear the person trying to get away as they kicked embedded in the music as the shark closed in. Each time we jumped in the water we could hear Bruce closing in on us from behind.
Todays kids spend summers watching TikToc in the basement and most wouldnt connect that rhythmic pounding with anything let and certainly wouldnt experience that feeling of being unprotected and stalked.
“I dont get it. Its just a dumb movie about a fish and the CGI isnt very good.”
I hope it’s a major blockbuster about Hollywood going broke, and No One goes to see it !
Benchley had little to do with the movie becoming what it was. A book “nobody” ever read.
Spielberg had little to do with the phenomena. Virtually unknown behind the scenes guy, we cared about him no more than the kid that made the sandwiches for the lunch on set.
The acting had little to do with anything although Shaw and that one beach mom in the dark bikini were pretty good. Most of it not particularly good really but they were doing the best they could with that terrible writing trying to hang some flesh on a story skeleton of little more than this person gets eaten then the next.
John Williams was entirely responsible for plopping us in the water and making us know that the cold water was the last thing we would feel before those teeth hit us.
Jaws is still relevant and still a very watchable movie... I’ve seen it several dozens of times and that’s what makes it a classic in my books. I’ve seen hundreds of movies once, and then never ever watched them again.
Then there are any movies by the Cohen brothers, Tarantino, Spielberg, Scorsese, Hitchcock, Kubrick, Wilder or Capra that I will watch over and over and over again.
Most of the movies made today are once and done. Recent exceptions... ‘Inception’ a fascinating movie by Christopher Nolan, who also directed ‘Oppenheimer’ (once is enough) and ‘Dunkirk’ (once is enough). And ‘Zero Dark Thirty’ and the ‘The Hurt Locker’ both rewatchable by Kathryn Bigelow.
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You’re right about the effects of the movie, feeling the sun on your face, the cool evenings chill, tasting the salt of the ocean water and the coppery taste of blood as the poor girl is thrashed about in the warm water.
I was too young to know the taste of beer but I did know of the results of getting drunk.
My aunt gave the novel for a Christmas present and I eagerly opened the book and began reading but not before I thoroughly examined the lovely naked woman on the cover!
I don’t remember much differences from the movie but do remember Ellen Brody giving head to Hooper as the we’re going down(no pun intended) a road in a Volkswagen.
Pretty heddy stuff(no pun again) for a 13 year old virgin!
To this day as I am clicking through the channels and I run across the movie,I will stop and watch,hoping I haven’t missed Quint’s Indianapolis solilique
To this day, after countless viewings it still sends a chill down my spine!
Arrival (science fiction movie of 2016) is amazing after the second view.
With one view there is a lot that is missed.
It was based on the classic Ted Chiang short story “The Story of Your Life”.
I hear what you’re saying and it seems generally plausible but, three years ago I asked my 11 yr old son if he wanted to watch JAWS with me he said no! I asked him why not and he said “Because I want to go in the water and swim when we go to be beach!”
The rewatchable movies? We see them recurring on cable on TNT, TBS, IFC, AMC, FXM, BBC, Sundance, GRIT, Paramount, INSP, the Movies! Channel and othere. Occasionally on network TV.
No need to list them, we see them all the time. The movies chosen by the viewers.
If the movie isn't like this, then I'm not watching it.
“Spielberg had little to do with the phenomena.”
Spielberg had a lot to do with the suspense. Watch his TV movie, Duel.
Well, yes. Much of that was a work around for Bruce constantly going on strike so he definitely deserves credit for that.
What I meant was that today many people might go to a movie just because this director or that had something to do with a movie but his name associated with a project at that time had no real draw for the public. He was really nobody, kind of like that Lucas kid.
“…my 11 yr old son if he wanted to watch JAWS with me he said no! I asked him why not and he said “Because I want to go in the water and swim when we go to be beach!”
I read it. In 1975. Good story. Benchley based it on true occurrences on the Jersey shore. That book is ‘close to shore’.
Saw the movie. Then it was hard to go in the water. In our bay on Long Island. Waterskiing was sort of ruined. Waiting for the boat to come around all alone out there John Williams’ two note score going through your head.
The boys would gallantly say ‘no sharks in these waters’ so far to now they were right, but…
Have tickers for tomorrow nights showing local theater. Such a great flick
movie chitchat that might interest you
“Duel” is a good movie. Did not know Spielberg was involved.
Good grief! Steyn names Hooper as Cooper. Fail.
I’m still waiting for Disney’s Snow White remake. There’s no Prince.
Woke Disney added a “gender-fluid” (their term) leading “man.”
I went to see the movie a few times in the theater. After a while, I could take my eyes off the screen and watch the audience. When the shark was attacking, people were gripping their armrests and swaying back and forth. A primal fear.
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