Summer Movie Season, Is It Overkill This Summer
A friend holds a bi-annual movie pool and for the past 4 pools (every time I’ve thrown my hat into the competition) I have come in DEAD LAST (the Sack-o). I will admit I was going a little overboard trying to analyze movie data, trying to make the selection process more scientific. This is the first competition I ran on my gut (per Patrick’s recommendation), watching all of the trailers and reading a few early reviews. This season is pretty heavy on the big hitters. Almost all of my top 10 picks are big blockbuster movies almost all of them are sequels, like Captain America, X-Men and Star Trek. The competition is based on the top 20 box office movie returns for the whole summer season. From what it looks like, Captain America seems to be the big favorite pick for the number one slot. I instead choose Finding Dora for the number one slot. Come on, Finding Nemo was a huge hit back in 2003, I see the sequel being even bigger this time around.
There are certainly a lot of kids movies coming this summer besides Dory. TheTeenage Mutant Turtles are back along with yet another Ice Age sequel. This is the 4th sequel for the Ice Age franchise. I have yet to show the kids any of the Ice Age movies. I personally thought it was joke of a series but when researching this summer season I was shocked to read that all of the sequels for the original Ice Age movie have grossed an insanely high revenue at the box office. The movies have had a budget of $90M and they all grossed over $800M at the box office. That’s almost a 900% return on their investment. I wanted to place Ice Age: Collision Course on the lower end of my list but instead gave it a middle ranking at #11, with Angry Birds movie right behind in the #13 spot. That’s generous because other kids movies like The Secret Life of Pets and Alice Through the Looking Glass will certainly be in the kids movie top 3 with Dory. Then there is the new Disney film The BFG. I am not completely sure why Disney is notselling this movie right, I am not sure what Disney’s deal is. They did the same thing with Tomorrowland last year. They have Dory & Alice opening this summer, why not move BFG to the Fall. Right now they only have Moana (new Hawaiian princess movie) slated for the Fall, I think The BFG would be a bigger sell.
If you are a horror fan, no need to wait for Halloween for the good scare movies. The long awaited sequel for The Conjuring is finally here. I’ve been dying to see this movie ever since I watched the first one. Another good horror sequel this summer is The Purge: Election Year, which honestly will be purchased upon iTunes release. Another sleeper hit might be Lights Out. During my research for the pool, I found this movie to have an insane amount of chatter online. The numbers were through the roof, over 7M news hits and over 18M tweets in the past month. Then there are the movies that didn’t make my top 20 Like, The Darkness with Kevin Bacon and The Shallows, which if you are afraid of sharks, steer clear of this movie.
It is a blockbuster summer but it’s also a summer of laughs and sequels. I foresee the new Ghostbuster sequel being a huge success. Melissa McCarthy is just one of those rare birds in the industry, been in love with her since her Sookie days on Gilmore Girls. More importantly Seth Rogen and Zac Efron are on fire this summer with their sequel Neighbor’s 2: Sorority Rising. The first film had Clem and I on the floor and suspect this movie will do the same. Efron’s new movie Mike & Dave Need Wedding Dates sadly didn’t make my top 23 list but Seth Rogen’s new animated comedy Sausage Party did. This film is fucking hilarious, you must watch the trailer. A perfect date movie for Clem and I.
My must watch list for in the theater will certainly include the new Captain America, X-Men: Apocalypse, Suicide Squad, and Ghostbusters but I must include the new Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie. The trailer dropped the day before i submitted my pool list and I moved it from the bottom of my list to my to the Lucky Number 12 slot. This movie is going to be pretty epic. Judging from the preview its more genius than the Sex and the City movies. Check out the trailer, it’s pretty hilarious…..Kate Moss is DEAD! Probably not! I foresee an o’d to Shipwreck in this script.
There was one movie that I really, really wanted to add to my list. High-Rise is futuristic with a Sci-Fi movie twist. It’s based on the novel with the same name by J.G. Ballard. I’ve never read his “High-Rise” novel but I have read his novel, “Empire of the Sun”. Based on a world where living in one building can satisfy all your needs but can also pull apart your world. While the cast isn’t super A-List, the overall trailer makes me wonder if this film might become an iconic art film for the ages.
Now for the big flop predictions! Sadly I think Woody Allen is well off his game, Cafe Society would have been a great subject for a Woody film. I think it might fall short but not as bad as Ben-Hur or Pete’s Dragon. Then again movies like Maggie’s Plan (which is clearly Ehtan Hawke’s life) and Being Charlie (really a movie about entitled brats rehab visit) should just never have been made. While I am excited that Kate Beckinsale is going back to her routes with period movies (huge Cold Comfort Farm fan here) but I think Love & Friendship just doesn’t sit right with the era of Jane Austin. Something was completely off in this movie, maybe it’s their hair styles. For some reason, the way the cast is styled seems overly polished but not sure if it’s that. I just can’t pinpoint it. My pick for the worst movie of the Summer 2016 Season, hands down….Nine Lives with Kevin Spacey turning into a cat. Seriously!
In the words of Roger Ebert “I’ll see you at the movies.”