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Tons of candy, bright colors and cute animal characters here attempt to lure kids to demand tickets for Tim Hill's Hop
The Easter bunny's heir is not created for the job and instead of inheriting it he flees to Los Angeles, bringing his dreams of becoming a rock 'n roll drummer with him. Here he meets and teams up with a young (but not that young) human under-achiever.
Hop is written by Brian Lynch (Puss in Boots (2011)), Ken Daurio and Cinco Paul (Despicable Me 2 (2013), both) and directed by Tim Hill (Muppets from Space (1999)).
It is a really handsome and wow-filled animation that's upbeat and humorous all the way through. James Marsden (Westworld (2016-22)) seems a little old as the human slacker character, but he has the right energy, just as Gary Cole (Velma (2013, TV-series)) has as his father. Hank Azaria (The Wizard of Lies (2017, TV movie)) gives hilarious voice to a Mexican Easter chick villain (!).
The precipice between kiddie-appropriate fun and grown-up elements, such as a Playboy bunny ranch and the inclusion of David Hasselhoff (Killing Hasselhoff (2017)) as himself, - is a little steep, and Hop doesn't completely succeed. But the pace is snappy, and Hop is pretty funny and handsome, a good bowl of wacky-forgettable entertainment with fairly broad appeal.
= Box office success (returned 2.92 times its cost)
[Hop premiered 27 March (Universal Studios, Hollywood) and runs 95 minutes. Shooting took place in California, including in Los Angeles. The film opened #1 to a 37.5 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it spent another weekend at #1 and then another 2 in the top 5 (#3-#4), grossing 108 mil. $ (58.6 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were Australia with 12.3 mil. $ (6.7 %) and the UK with 12.2 mil. $ (6.6 %). Hill returned with 3 video and TV credits prior to his theatrical return with The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the Run (2020). Marsden returned in Straw Dogs (2011); Russell Brand (Trolls (2016)) in Arthur (2011). Hop is rotten at 24 % with a 4.30/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]
A hobbit atop a giant mountain of gold and an even bigger dragon's eye behind that hobbit make up this poster for Peter Jackson's The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug
The traveling group of Bilbo the Hobbit, Gandalf the Grey and a bunch of dwarfs continue their adventure and reach the dragon Smaug in its desolate mountain.
The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug is written by co-writer/co-producer Fran Walsh (King Kong (2005)), Philippa Boyens (The Lovely Bones (2009)), Guillermo del Toro (Crimson Peak (2015)) and co-writer/co-producer/director, New Zealander master filmmaker Peter Jackson (Bad Taste (1987)). It is the 2nd film in his Hobbit trilogy, adapting The Hobbit (1937) by J.R.R. Tolkien (The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (1954)).
There are no fun scenes in the follow-up to Jackson's so-so The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (2012). It is a long CG fantasy bereft of charm and credibility: Seeing the ugly dwarfs survive anything and everything and defeat even the strongest orc time and again is neither fun nor thrilling.
The film also has quite a few digressions, and because it is the middle part of one story, which had been torn into atoms, the story's general direction is often consequently blurred to me.
The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug ends in a long scene at Smaug's (the talking dragon's) place. - Fascinating? No, not really. And the animation in the film is so bizarre that the beautiful locations used do no longer seem like real places. The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug is a horrid film.
[The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug premiered 2 December (Los Angeles) and runs 161 minutes. Shooting took place from March 2011 - July 2012 in the UK and in New Zealand, including in Wellington, with reshoots in May 2013. The film opened #1 to a 73.6 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it spent another 2 weekends at #1 and then one more in the top 5 (#3), grossing 258.3 mil. $ (26.9 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were Germany with 88 mil. $ (9.2 %) and China with 74.7 mil. $ (7.8 %). It was the 4th highest-grossing film of the year worldwide. The film was nominated for 3 Oscars, winning none: It lost Best Sound Mixing to Gravity, Sound Editing also to Gravity, and Visual Effects to Gravity as well. It was also nominated for 2 BAFTAs and a Grammy, among other honors. It sold home video copies for more than 107 mil. $ additionally in North American alone. Jackson returned with the last in the Hobbit trilogy, The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies (2014), also the next appearance for star Martin Freeman (Fargo (2014-15)). Ian McKellen (The Dresser (2015, TV movie)) returned first in Miss in Her Teens (2014). The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug is certified fresh at 74 % with a 6.80/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]
What do you think of The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug?
Ryan Reynolds in a green CGI-suit in a neon-drenched CGI universe on this poster for Martin Campbell's Green Lantern
Hal is a jet pilot and a daredevil, who is chosen by the ring of dying green guardians to become one of the protectors of the universe and the green lanterns, when the evil Parallax strikes.
Green Lantern is written by Greg Berlanti (Arrow (2012-20)), Michael Green (Sex and the City (1998, TV-series)), Marc Guggenheim (Supergirl (2017-19)) and Michael Goldenberg (Peter Pan (2003)), based on the DC Comics characters started by Martin Nodell in 1940, and directed by Martin Campbell (The Sex Thief (1973)).
The pace - not least in the action scenes - animatedly fierce and often spectacular in this fresh piece of superhero escapism. Its comic book-like lightness and irony makes it comparable to the later, successful Guardians of the Galaxy movies (2014; 2017). The plot is more than simple, cruising around fear versus willpower, and one shouldn't expect everything to make logical sense in Green Lantern.
But Ryan Reynolds (Smokin' Aces (2006)) gives his character his own brand of wry humor and sympathetic charisma, and his romance with Blake Lively (Accepted (2006)), - which continued backstage, - makes for some sexy sparks.
All in all Green Lantern is quite a lot better than its reputation may make you think and fairly good entertainment.
Cost: 200 mil. $ (some uncertainty; could likely be 209 mil. $)
Box office: 219.8 mil. $
= Huge flop (returned 0.95-1.09 times its cost)
[Green Lantern was released 14 June (New Zealand) and runs 114 minutes. Many people were in talks to head the film since the late 1990s. Berlanti has since stated that he was fired as writer and director and had "nothing to do with the finished product." Shooting took place in Louisiana, including New Orleans, and in California, including San Diego, from March - August 2010 and January - March 2011. Reynolds injured his shoulder during filming in July 2010. It has been reported that Warner Bros. raised the film's VFX budget with 9 mil. $ in post production to meet the release deadline, - but curiously this has not made the 200 mil. $ cost tag bounce to 209 mil. $. The film opened #1 to a 53.1 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it spent one more weekend in the top 5 (#3) and grossed 116.6 mil. $ (53 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were Mexico with 12.4 mil. $ (5.6 %) and Brazil with 10.2 mil. $ (4.6 %). An additional 100 mil. $ were reportedly spent on marketing. Roger Ebert gave it a 2.5/5 star review, equal in rating to this one. Sequel plans were scrapped; a reboot has not materialized; but a Green Lantern TV-series is reportedly in development at HBO. Green Lantern is rotten at 26 % with a 4.70/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]
Eye-popping CGI creations collide around Jack Black and his 3 young co-stars running on an open book on this lively poster for Rob Letterman's Goosebumps
Our sweet teenage hero Zach moves with his vice principal widow mother to a quiet Delaware town, where their neighbors are a sweet, same-aged teenage girl and youth horror writer R.L. Stine, whose series of popular novels have a dangerous secret ...
Goosebumps is written by Darren Lemke (Shrek Forever After (2010)), with Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski (Man on the Moon (1999, both)) contributing story elements, based on the Goosebumps novel series by R.L. Stine (Give Yourself Goosebumps (1995-00)). - Stine is the world's best-selling author: More than 400 mil. Goosebumps novels have been sold; at one point in the 1990s, more than 4 mil. Goosebumps novels were sold a month. The film is directed by Rob Letterman (Shark Tale (2004)).
It is an enthusiastic movie that begins with a charming mother-son chemistry (hunky Dylan Minnette (The Open House (2018)) and Amy Ryan (Green Zone (2010))); Jillian Bell (Bridesmaids (2011)) as a fun aunt and Jack Black (Bernie (2011)) enjoyable as Stine, whose entire body of work (or, more precisely, a carefully selected group of ghouls from it) comes to life in one single film. Zach also has a fun 'loser' friend called Champ (Ryan Lee (Song of Back and Neck (2018)).) The filmmakers behind Goosebumps are obviously very comfortable signing over their special effects needs to CGI teams, and the film has good-looking creatures (the werewolf and garden gnomes especially), but the digitally created environment is also clearly artificial, blocking any wow-reaction, which is a real loss.
The editing pace is too short of breath, so the emotional beats of the story never ground themselves. It moves over hedge and ditch, this Jumanji-like experience, which is formulaic and not all that one could have wished for, but certainly entertains.
= Uncertain - big flop or a box office success, depending on the actual cost (returned 1.88 - 2.72 times its cost, depending on the actual cost)
[Goosebumps premiered 3 October (San Diego Film Festival) and runs 103 minutes. Development began in 1998 with Tim Burton slated to direct. Black reportedly received 6-8 mil. $ for his performance; Minnette 150k $. Shooting took place from April - July 2014 in Georgia, including Atlanta. The film opened #1 to a 23.6 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it spent another 3 weeks in the top 5 (#2-#2-#4) and grossed 80 mil. $ (50.6 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were the UK with 13 mil. $ (8.2 %) and Venezuela (!) with 7.9 mil. $ (5 %). Ari Sandel directed the smaller hit sequel Goosebumps: Haunted Halloween (2018), with Black back as Stine. Letterman returned with Pokémon Detective Pikachu (2019). Black returned in The Little Shop of Horrors (2015, video), Kung Fu Panda: Secrets of the Scroll (2016, short) and theatrically with a voice performance in Kung Fu Panda 3 (2016); Minnette in Don't Breathe (2016). Goosebumps is certified fresh at 78 % with a 6.50/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]
+ Most Expensive Flop of the Year + Worst Sequel of the Year
Johnny Deep as the Mad Hatter is most prominent on this packed, dizzying, highly detailed poster for James Bobin's Alice Through the Looking Glass
Alice returns home from the seven seas - and faces intransigent challenges. She walks through a mirror to Wonderland, in which the Mad Hatter has grown increasingly mad, apparently because his family's death many years ago haunts him. - Alice must travel back in time to change this! Alice Through the Looking Glass is the sequel to Tim Burton's good big hit 3D spectacle Alice in Wonderland (2010). It is written by Linda Woolverton (Maleficent (2014)), based on Lewis Carroll's (A Tangled Tale (1885)) characters, and directed by James Bobin (The Muppets (2011)). The film begins well with the self-assured Alice's return to patriarchal ridicule, but somewhere along the way after this, the illusion that the film tries to build falls apart, despite its radiant colors and exuberant effects. Sacha Baron Cohen (The Brothers Grimsby (2016)) entertains a Werner Herzog-inspired accent here as the villain Time and possesses some strange, Transformers-like creatures. Johnny Depp (The Libertine (2004)) looks stranger than in the first film as the Mad Hatter and now has frog-like eyes. He does well for the most part, but there are shots in which he visibly struggles to find the right face, and this is understandable: The sappy story about Alice's having to save the Hatter's family, - of whom we only really get to know his unlovable father, - so that that same father can finally accept the Hatter wholeheartedly - is muck. The story is the main issue here, wobbling and just plain bad. SPOILER As the past sees the future towards the end, everything turns rusty in excremental browns, but why this happens - don't ask, for the film has no answer. Mia Wasikowska (Jane Eyre (2011)), who was a major part of why the first film was quite a thrill, is an adult woman now and much less compelling as Alice. Alice Through the Looking Glass is a major flop for all involved. Ouch.
Cost: 170 mil. $ Box office: 299.4 mil. $ = Big flop [Alice Through the Looking Glass premiered 10 May (London) and runs 113 minutes. Shooting took place in England from August - October 2014. The film opened #2, behind fellow new release X-Men: Apocalypse, to a 26.8 mil. $ first weekend, down 70 % from the first film's 116 mil. $, in North America, where it spent another week in the top 5 (#4) and grossed an abysmally low 77 mil. $ (25.7 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were China with 58.7 mil. $ (19.6 %) and Japan with 26.7 mil. $ (8.9 %). The film was one of the year's costliest flops, resulting in a loss of around 125 mil. $. It was nominated for a Grammy and 3 Razzie awards. Bobin has not been hired for another project since. Alice Through the Looking Glass is rotten at 30 % with a 4.6/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.] What do you think of Alice Through the Looking Glass?
A bloody wave and the potent image of a sword-carrying warrior adorn this poster for Noam Murro's 300: Rise of an Empire
Greece is threatened by the evil Persians led by their God-like king Xerxes, partnered with a Greek-born Fury, so that Spartan leader Themistocles will have to venture out and strike them back. The sequel to Zack Snyder's (Watchmen (2009)) great, visionary 300 (2006) is a colossal step down. It is written by Snyder and Kurt Johnstad (Atomic Blonde (2017)), based on Frank Miller's (What If? (1982)) unpublished graphic novel Xerxes, and directed by Noam Murro (Smart People (2008)). The propulsive style of the original here degenerates into a bastardization of video games and porn, exceptionally vulgar and detached from reality, with a dedication to blood splatter that just exhausts the senses. 300: Rise of an Empire looks like a sequence in an action computer game, which just keeps going, and it results in a tremendously boring experience. - I, for one, would much rather play that game than watch this 3D turkey. Hero Themistocles is played with a permanent look of constipation by Sullivan Stapleton (Kill Me Three Times (2014)), while Eva Green (The Salvation (2014)) brings passion to the role of the female empress, the Fury, who is the single bright spot in this mess. 300: Rise of an Empire is a strange creation, technically speaking, which has very little to do with film.
Cost: 110 mil. $ Box office: 337.5 mil. $ = Box office success [300: Rise of an Empire premiered 4 March (Hollywood) and runs 102 minutes. Filming took place in Los Angeles and in Sofia, Bulgaria from July - October 2012. The film was converted to 3D in post production. It opened #1 to a 45 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it stayed in the top 5 for another two weeks (#2-#5) and grossed 106.5 mil. $ (31.6 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were Russia with 17.4 mil. $ (5.2 %) and Brazil with 17.3 mil. $ (5.1 %). Though successful commercially, the success was much smaller than that of the first film, which was a huge hit. Snyder has indicated that more sequels may be made. 300: Rise of an Empire is rotten at 43 % with a 5/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.] What do you think of 300: Rise of an Empire?
Without giving much away, this poster for Matt Reeves' War for the Planet of the Apes indicates the seriousness that marks the film
War for the Planet of the Apes is the 9th movie in the Apes franchise, following the 5 in the original series (1968-73), Tim Burton's unsuccessful reboot of the original film, Planet of the Apes (2001) and the two previous entries in the new 'trilogy', (which may not be a trilogy because more chapters could manifest depending on the performance of War), Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011) and Dawn of the Planet of the Apes. It is written by Mark Bomback (Live Free or Die Hard (2007)) and New-Yorker master co-writer/director Matt Reeves (Cloverfield (2008)), who also directed the previous film, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes. When ape leader Caesar's wife and oldest son are killed by an evil human colonel and his forces, he leaves his group on a quest for revenge that takes huge tolls and teaches him more about himself and the colonel. It seems just plain unlikely that War is as good as it is. Following the somewhat disappointing Rise of the Planet of the Apes, I missed Dawn and have yet to watch it. War for the Planet of the Apes is the only Apes sequel or reboot to reach the height of the very first film, which broke new grounds for science fiction in terms of scope and technical elements (effects, costumes, makeup and prosthetics) and showed its possibilities with a thought-provoking - and much copied - story of humans, exploration and apes with deeper, underlying, very timely themes of racism, segregation, democracy, science, religion and man-created (nuclear) doom. In War for the Planet of the Apes, we meet a perverted, militarized, fascism-resembling army gathered around a colonel who has sacrificed his own humanity in a quest to save the human species. - The type of wrong decision that makes a leader dangerous. Elements of the story are as universal as they are thematically timeless: War and destruction; fight for survival against the stranger, the other kind or race and its progeny vs. peaceful co-existence and a respect for earth and the universe and the sufferings and losses of others. The powerful narrative is told in a cinematography (by Michael Seresin (Foxes (1980))) with a delicious kind of texture and depth to it, combined with a sound universe and with a great, grand score (by Michael Giacchino (Star Trek Into Darkness (2013))) that seem to have a direct line to the original classic film. War doesn't have a single showy camera tracking or an unnecessary cut; it is fixed, most of the time, on the faces of the apes and humans involved in the scene, and its relaxed pace feels assured in the strength of these faces, lines spoken and the underlying narrative. There is something a bit old-fashioned about this, but in the best way possible: It takes its time to tell its compelling story in its own pace, and again and again scenes astonish and show real depth that would have been lost with any other, faster, flashier, more 'current' approach. Of course a primary part of the spectacle that this huge film also contains lies in these very faces, especially in the faces of the apes, which in War actually seem to have more humanity and relatable emotion to them than the faces of the humans, who are for the most part unwise brutes. It is impossible to overstate the brilliance of the visual effects accomplishments in War for the Planet of the Apes, especially in creating the faces of the ape characters, which are modeled using acting performances from a talented cast. It is inevitably impossible to ascertain for an outsider, just how much of the greatly affecting performance onscreen is thanks to the actor involved and how much to the team of visual effects wizards who crafted the ape, but Andy Serkis (Wild Bill (2011)), who has made it into his personal specialty to give life to later animated characters in this way, (he was Gollum, King Kong and Captain Haddock, among others), is certainly deeply felt in his truly great lead performance as Caesar, a portrayal that is as dramatic as they come, simply, and deserves great recognition. The other ape performances that go over and beyond what I have ever seen before and truly touch audiences include Steve Zahn (A Perfect Getaway (2009)) as Bad Ape, Judy Greer (Californication (2007-12)) as Cornelia and especially Karin Konoval (The Quality of Life (2008), TV movie) as Maurice. War also has a terrific child performance from Amiah Miller (Lights Out (2016)) as Nova and Woody Harrelson (Play It to the Bone (1999)) a magnetic lump of muscle and mean determination as the Colonel, a character with clear linkage to Marlon Brando's Colonel Kurtz character in Apocalypse Now (1979). For those familiar with the original film, War ties neat strings that lead up to the universe that meetsCharlton Heston's astronaut Taylor in the first film, which must be some 20-25 years after the events of this film. War for the Planet of the Apes is a rare science-fiction film that is both compelling, breathtaking, deeply moving and meaningful. Furthermore, you are guaranteed to regret it, if you miss seeing this in a cinema, so make sure that you don't!
Cost: 150 mil. $ Box office: 186.4 mil. $ and counting = Too early to say [War for the Planet of the Apes premiered 11 July (UK and Ireland) and runs 140 minutes. Bomback and Reeves were given a longer period to write the script for War than they had been given for Dawn, and they saw and were inspired by countless classic movies, including all the Apes films, Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back, Ben-Hur, The Ten Commandments, Bridge on the River Kwai, The Great Escape, The Outlaw Josey Wales, Apocalypse Now and others. Shooting took place in British Columbia, Canada, including Vancouver, from October 2015 - March 2016. The film opened #1 to a 56.2 mil. $ first weekend in North America, significantly lower than Dawn's 72.6 mil. $ debut, and took a sharp 62.9 % drop in its second week, dropping to #4. The film has yet to open in several major markets, including Germany, France, Japan and South Korea, but it has not gotten a Chinese release, a major problem for such an expensive film, which is suffering an underwhelming performance in North America. Reeves and Bomback are already booked to write and direct The Batman, starring Ben Affleck, Jeremy Irons, J.K. Simmons and Joe Manganiello, which should shoot in spring 2018. War for the Planet of the Apes is certified fresh at 94 % with an 8.1/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.] What do you think of War for the Planet of the Apes?
