Film Excess - Free Ukraine - Stop Putin - End the war NOW!!: Ben Wheatley

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1/01/2024

2023 in films - according to Film Excess

The Top 6 of the Year

1. Killers of the Flower Moon - Martin Scorsese + Best American Movie of the Year + Best Epic of the Year + Best Oklahoma Movie of the Year + Best Shooting Star Actress of the Year: Lily Gladstone + Best True-Crime Movie of the Year + Most Expensive Flop of the Year: 137.52 mil. $ range + Most Undeserved Flop of the Year + Worst $ Return of the Year: 0.78 times the cost (shared with Underverden II)

2. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 - James Gunn + Best Action-Adventure of the Year + Best Villain of the Year: Chukwudi Iwuji as The High Evolutionary

3. Oppenheimer - Christopher Nolan + Best Biopic of the Year + Best $ Return of the Year: 9.52 times the cost + Best Mega-hit of the Year + Most Profitable Movie of the Year: 280.8 mil. $ range

4. Napoleon - Ridley Scott + Best Romance of the Year + Best War Movie of the Year

5. Asteroid City - Wes Anderson + Best Poster of the Year + Best Sci-fi Comedy of the Year

6. Meg 2: The Trench - Ben Wheatley + Best Shark Movie of the Year

The Bottom 3 of the Year

1. The Nun II - Michael Chaves + Most Undeserved Hit of the Year

2. Underverden II - Fenar Ahmad + Worst $ Return of the Year: 0.78 times the cost (shared with Killers of the Flower Moon)

3. Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One - Christopher McQuarrie

[9 titles in total]

Notes:

With just a few titles reviewed during the year, this is still a strong first annual list in terms of quality, with Martin Scorsese's monumental true-crime epic Killers of the Flower Moon reigning supreme. James Gunn's thrilling, original Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 taking silver, and Christopher Nolan's massively successful nuclear biopic Oppenheimer bronze. The list goes on with Ridley Scott's thumping war biopic Napoleon, Wes Anderson's colorful, idiosyncratic Asteroid City and with Ben Wheatley's monster shark escapism The Meg 2: The Trench rounding off the list. The bottom list sees Michael Chaves' horrendous religious horror The Nun 2 take gold, with Fenar Ahmad's flawed Underverden II taking silver, and Christopher McQuarrie's overboard actioner Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One bronze.

The box office and in consequence cinemas have struggled in 2023 with audiences staying at home streaming first and foremost, and the commercial results are already in this update looking bleaker than the norm. Apple Studios roared into theaters with two huge prestige pictures (Killers of the Flower Moon and Napoleon), both later crowning their streaming service, but which, despite their high quality, failed to hit in cinemas. Another unusual big star in one of the year's big flops: Normal box office juggernaut Tom Cruise (Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One).

Later updates will include many more of the year's output.

Biggest flops of the year:

[The loss is based solely on the cost and box office earnings for the films. Marketing costs and additional revenue (home video, TV rights and other auxiliary profits) are not taken into account]

1. Killers of the Flower Moon - 137.52 mil. $ range

2. Napoleon - 120.56 mil. $ range

3. Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part 1 - 64 mil. $ range

4. Asteroid City - 3.48 mil. $ range

5. Underverden II - 3 mil. $ range

= Combined losses: 328.56 mil. $

Biggest hits of the year:

[The gain is based solely on the cost and box office earnings for the films. Marketing costs and additional revenue (home video, TV rights and other auxiliary profits) are not taken into account]

1. Oppenheimer - 280.8 mil. $ range

2. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 - 88.2 mil. $ range

3. The Nun II - 69.2 mil. $ range

4. The Meg 2: The Trench - 24 mil. $

= Combined profits: 462.2 mil. $

2023 titles currently on the watchlist:

Beau Is Afraid, The Last Voyage of the Demeter, A Storm Foretold, Plane, Superpower, Passages, You Hurt My Feelings, 20 Days in Mariupol, Jesus Revolution, The Holdovers, Barbie, No Hard Feelings, Slava Ukraini, Fool's Paradise, Monster, The Zone of Interest, About Dry Grasses, Wonka, Sound of Freedom, The Boy and the Heron, Saw X, The Promised Land, Ehrengard: The Art of Seduction, All of Us Strangers, Dream Scenario

Previous annual lists:

2022 in films - according to Film Excess

2021 in films - according to Film Excess

2020 in films - according to Film Excess

2019 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]

2019 in films - according to Film Excess
2018 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
2018 in films - according to Film Excess
2017 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
2017 in films - according to Film Excess
2016 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2016 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
2016 in films - according to Film Excess

2009 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED IV]
2009 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]
2009 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2009 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
2009 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess

2008 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]

2008 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2008 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
2008 in films - according to Film Excess
2007 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2007 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
2007 in films - according to Film Excess

2006 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]

2006 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2006 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
2006 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess

2005 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
2005 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess

2004 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
2004 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess

2003 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]

2003 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
2003 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess
2002 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess
2001 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess

2000 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess

1999 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess

1998 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess

1997 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess

1996 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess

1995 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess

1994 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess

1993 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess

1992 in films - according to Film Excess

What do you think of the 2023 lists?
Which 2023 films are your favorites and the bottom of the year in your opinion?
What important 2023 title/s is/are missing on the watch-list?

8/14/2023

Meg 2: The Trench (2023) - More ridiculous fun in Wheatley's game monster adventure

♥♥♥

Reliable star Jason Statham escapes the primordial mega-shark on this eye-popping poster for Ben Wheatley's Meg 2: The Trench

Passionate ocean protector Jonas Taylor ventures deep beneath the surface with his associates, where they find a secret mining operation in the trench. Here megalodons and other primordial monsters live.

Meg 2: The Trench is written by Jon Hoeber, Erich Hoeber and Dean Georgaris (The Meg (2018), all), adapting The Trench (1999) by Steve Alten (Meg: A Novel of Deep Terror (1997)), and directed by great British filmmaker Ben Wheatley (Down Terrace (2009)). It is the sequel to The Meg (2018).

After a smashing dino-age opening that establishes the hilariously ridiculous tone of this action adventure effectively, the film spends a long time in the dark, way underwater trench, and down there it gets a bit long in the tooth, (pun intended, sorry!) It's mostly CGI down there, and sometimes hard to make out what is going on, but things brighten up in more ways than one after this section, which also outlines the film's human villains:

Sienna Guillory (Remember Me (2019)) is fun as the wealthy evil minx behind the costly operations, and Sergio Peris-Mencheta (Rambo: Last Blood (2019)) has got a blessed mug that recalls legendary villain actor Robert Davi: Similarly, Peris-Mencheta delights in the villainry, screaming and fighting to my unspoiled delight. The film also has Jing Wu (The Climbers/Pan deng zhe (2019)) in the big part as a very smiling, risk-taking general manager of the meg-holding facility, and Wu wins over audiences with a highly energetic and likable performance here. The fun continues with returning Cliff Curtis (Training Day (1999)) and Page Kennedy (Same Difference (2019)), game as can be. SPOILER All of them clown around without end as megalodons, a giant octopus and some vicious gator-like dinosaurs attack on Fun Island, a resort vacation spot so shallow and ridiculous that all can recoil in its violent unraveling. Part of the fun of Meg is observing the idiocy of modern man come undone by beastly nature, a savage revenge from the deep. In this film a shot of two obese tourists in a 'biking boat' with obscene drinks getting swallowed up by the monster shark is an especially spectacular highlight.

Jason Statham (Spy (2015)) is back in the no-nonsense lead, a likable guy without much varnish or nooks to him - but he sure is good against a meg! There are more colors and kinetic energy to this sequel, a film that beats the original in ridiculousness and simple-minded, gleeful fun.

The Meg (2018) - Moments of cruel fun enliven Turteltaub's monster shark feast
Ben Wheatley: 2013 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED V]
2013 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED IV]
2013 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]

A Field in England (2013) or, Shit and Thistles

Top 10: Best drama-thrillers reviewed by Film Excess to date
Kill List (2011) - Wheatley's jaw-breaking, great genre-mixer

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 129-139 mil. $ (different reports)

Box office: 256.9 mil. $ and counting

= Too early to say

[Meg 2: The Trench premiered 9 June (Shanghai International Film Festival) and runs 116 minutes. Shooting took place in Los Angeles, California, Hong Kong and in Thailand. The film opened #2, behind Barbie, to a 30 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it has just spent its 2nd weekend at #4. The film is making as much in China at the moment, (it is officially a US/Chinese co-production.) The first film made impressive 530.4 mil. $, a target that the sequel likely won't reach. It has yet to open in South Korea (August 15) and Japan (August 25). The film should cross 350 mil. $ to be considered successful but is likely to get a sequel nonetheless. Wheatley is slated to return with Freak Shift (pre-production). Statham returns in Expend4bles (2023). Meg 2: The Trench is rotten at 28 % with a 4.50/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Meg 2: The Trench?

Film Excess - Free Ukraine - Stop Putin - End the war NOW!!

Eagerly anticipating this month ... (6-25)

1/01/2024

2023 in films - according to Film Excess

8/14/2023

Meg 2: The Trench (2023) - More ridiculous fun in Wheatley's game monster adventure

Eagerly anticipating this month ... (5-25)

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