The Perks of Being a Wallflower (2012) - An instant classic

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+ Best Movie of the Year
+ Best Adaptation of the Year
+ Best Pennsylvania Movie of the Year
+ Best Youth Movie of the Year

The young stars posing for Stephen Chbosky's The Perks of Being a Wallflower

Charlie starts in high school without any friends and serious, personal baggage. He finds two friends, Sam and Patrick, and they teach Charlie how to participate actively in life.
Right from the youthfully enhanced lights and darks in the film's aesthetic design, - photographed skillfully by Andrew Dunn (Precious (2009)), - over the eminent choice of music to the editing concept (by editor Mary Jo Markey (Star Trek Into Darkness (2013)), script, - author Stephen Chbosky (The Four Corners of Nowhere (1995)) adapted and directed his own novel, - costumes (charmingly achieved by David C. Robinson (Donnie Brasco (1997))) --- Perks is a glorious, deeply moving experience.

Ezra Miller and Emma Watson are both fantastic in Stephen Cbosky's The Perks of Being a Wallflower

Foremost though, of course, are the performances, and they leave nothing left to be wished for: Emma Watson (This Is the End (2013)) portrays maturation in-progress with extreme delicacy; Logan Lerman (Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters (2013)) is the perfect, emotional anchor of the story as Charlie; and Ezra Miller (We Need to Talk About Kevin (2011)) radiates his character's eccentric life and struggles unforgettably. - The secondary cast members are also all pitch perfect.

Logan Lerman in one of the many poignant, beautiful, evocative scenes in Stephen Chbosky's The Perks of Being a Wallflower

Perks became an instantly beloved new youth drama classic that spurred many comparisons to the highlights of the genre's late champion, John Hughes (Sixteen Candles (1984)), yet the film is totally its own. For youngsters everywhere, it became a beacon of light; for grown-ups, an unexpected and astounding return to frightening and exciting times in their own youths, as the film seems to ask its viewer implicit questions like; Can you remember ever feeling like this:

Emma Watson is infinite, in Stephen Chbosky's The Perks of Being a Wallflower

Beautiful, funny, romantic, hopeless, realistic, sad, The Perks of Being a Wallflower nails it in every aspect possible; a masterful film, the year's best.
- Watch it!

Logan Lerman and Emma Watson around their favorite buddy Ezra Miller in Stephen Chbosky's The Perks of Being a Wallflower

While Chbosky unfortunately hasn't begun any new film project, the three young stars are all involved in interesting projects: Watson will star in Alejandro Amenábar's (The Others (2001)) new memory-loss-thriller, Regression (2015). Lerman has a big part in Brad Pitt's WWII-movie Fury (2015) by David Ayer (Sabotage (2014)). And Miller, the most interesting of the three, who's also the one who has the most great movies and performances under his belt as of yet, counting City Island (2009), Another Happy Day (2011)) and We Need to Talk About Kevin (2011), is still going to star in the many times delayed Madame Bovary (2014) by Sophie Barthes (Cold Souls (2009)) as well as Judd Apatow's upcoming comedy - co-starring Tilda Swinton, his mother in Kevin - Trainwreck (2015). 
Hooray for youth!

Related posts:

2012 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED V]
2012 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED IV]
2012 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]
2012 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2012 in films - according to Film Excess 

Pick a movie with something real on its heart: The Perks of Being a Wallflower

Budget: 13 mil. $
Box office: 33.3 mil. $
= Box office success

What do you love most about The Perks of Being a Wallflower?
Do you have a special story about the movie or the book?

Mud (2012) - Career-defining, electric Americana

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+ Best Mississippi Movie of the Year

Matthew McConaughey in one of his career's best roles in Jeff Nichols' Mud

Two 14-year-old Mississippi River-boys find a boat and then a man on an island. He is in hiding, and they decide to help him.
Fantastically strong and beautiful film, photographed deftly by Adam Stone (Take Shelter (2011)). Wildly exciting and with a killer cast: Matthew McConaughey (Killer Joe (2011) has perhaps the best role of his career, and the two young boys are wonderful: Played by the star-rising Tye Sheridan (Joe (2013)) and Jacob Lofland (Justified (2014)). Secondary parts are played by great actors such as Reese Witherspoon (Walk the Line (2005)), Sam Shepard (Black Hawk Down (2001)), Sarah Paulson (12 Years a Slave (2013)), Michael Shannon (Boardwalk Empire (2010-13)), Ray McKinnon (Deadwood (2004)) and Joe Don Baker (Charley Varrich (1973)). - Very solid, impressive cast!
Search for love is the thematic center of this Huckleberry Finn-inspired coming of age drama-thriller that's full of local color.
The beginning could possibly have been a tad stronger, but writer-director Jeff Nichols (Take Shelter (2011)) still delivers real American gold here.
If you're not from Mississippi, be sure to watch Mud with subtitles, because the slang is very heavy and at times almost incomprehensible.
Nichols, who debuted with Shotgun Stories (2007), is now busy with his next picture, the Adam Driver/Kirsten Dunst-starring sci-fi. drama, Midnight Special. - Can't wait!

Related posts:

2012 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED V]
2012 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED IV]
2012 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]

Watch the trailer for Mud here

Jeff Nichols' Mud is astoundingly beautiful. - Watch it!

Budget: 10 mil. $
Box office: 32.6 mil. $
= Box office success

What do you think of Mud?
Any other great Mississippi River-centered movies?
What do you think of Jeff Nichols' other movies?

My Brother the Devil (2012) - Problematic gangster drama about problems in London's Muslim community

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Hyberbole on the poster for Sally El Hosaini's My Brother the Devil

QUICK REVIEW:

A London brother-tale about an Egyptian home with stupid boys in a block full of stupid kids.
Well-running story with rising tension and a neat look. A big problem is that all the characters are too stupid, and that the second biggest character, the smaller brother makes the decision to SPOILER choose terrorism over accepting the fact that he has a homosexual brother is so horrible. Other detractors are bad CGI-blood at murders, unexplained scenes and some incomprehensible slang-dialog.
Devil shows massive confusion in the Muslim slum. 
It is made with support from Sundance's 'Islamic' fund, which seems a precocious invention, and later won an award at Sundance Film Festival, which makes Sundance look rather suspicious.
It is the feature debut of writer-director Sally El Hosaini, who has also made the shorts, Fifth Bowl (2008) and Henna Night (2009).

The two brothers of Sally El Hosaini's My Brother the Devil

Watch the trailer here

Budget: Unknown
Box office: 1.2 mil. $
= Unknown

What do you think of My Brother the Devil, Sundance having an Islamic fund, and that they give awards to the projects they fund and nurse themselves?

The Shining (1980) - Kubrick's descent into madness is a timeless masterpiece

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Iconic poster for Stanley Kubrick's The Shining

The Shining is, in my opinion, great filmmaker Stanley Kubrick's (Dr. Strangelove: Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964)) best film and one of the 3 best horror films of all time, (the other two being The Exorcist (1973) and The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974)).
It is an adaptation of Stephen King's 1977 novel of the same name.
Jack Torrance moves with his wife Wendy and son Danny into the grand, isolated Overlook Hotel to be its caretaker over the winter when it sits empty. Warnings of tragedies in its past do not keep away the little family, but the hotel has its way of creeping in...
The title refers to Danny's special ability to 'shine'; a psychic power to see things in the future and past and to communicate telepathically with other 'shiners' like the kind hotel cook Mr. Hallorann.
The reasons for The Shining's superiority and definite status as a cinema masterpiece are manifold:
Right from its sweeping, first aerial shot, any right-minded audience will get almost hypnotized by its visual power. Kubrick and photographer John Alcott (Barry Lyndon (1975)) serve one staggering, unforgettable tableau after the next, often in wide angles. The Shining's overwhelming 46 week shoot (expanded from the planned 17 weeks!) is seen in the film's level of attention to every detail. One of the ludicrous criticisms of its time, - The Shining received no Oscar- or Golden Globe-nominations, but was nominated for Worst Director and Worst Actress (Shelley Duvall) at the first Razzie Awards, - is that Kubrick merely does in 46 weeks and many more screen-minutes, what Roger Corman (The Fall of the House of Usher (1960)) could pull off in a fraction of the time. - Which, as much as I love Corman, just isn't true. Kubrick achieves something with stronger resonance, partly due to the extreme care and time he put into his work. - A time that is not affordable for most filmmakers.
The extremely lengthy shoot must also have heightened the performances, which are all spectacular. Perhaps a sense of the cabin fever from the plot also actually manifested itself in the lead player:

Icy Jack Nicholson as Jack Torrance in Stanley Kubrick's The Shining

Jack Nicholson (Chinatown (1974)) gives a portrayal of downfall into madness and masculine despair and anger and violence that is so primordial that it continues (after many watches) to give me goosebumps over most of my body for long stretches of the movie.
Danny Lloyd is Danny, and was picked out of reportedly 5,000 (!) boys, especially because of his speech (close to his on-screen parents), and his remarkable concentration ability. Lloyd, 5 at the time, had no idea he was in a horror movie, and only did one other minor TV movie role after; then became a pig farmer and a biology teacher! You can see him today here.

Shelley Duvall as Wendy Torrance in Stanley Kubrick's The Shining

Shelley Duvall (Annie Hall (1977)) gives a performance which, like Nicholson's, has been much debated and is disliked by many. I have heard her character described as cartoonish, and it isn't completely wrong: Duvall's movements and facial expressions are very particular in a way that might be called cartoonish, but only in the primordial sense that Nicholson also plays, I should add. - Duvall is great. She portrays a weak woman, who is inarguably subjugated to her patriarchal husband. When he loses his mind and descends into tyranny and finally homicidal rage, the wild fear and anxiety is pouring out of Duvall and straight into every audience member. Authority derails. Wendy's weakness, on the other hand, can be debated, for she does SPOILER fight back (more than once), and finally flees and thereby manages to save her son and herself.
Finally, Scatman Crothers (One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975)) is unforgettable as the very likable, good-hearted Dick Hallorann. He performs, as the others, career-defining scenes like the one in bed, where he gets a message from Danny in the hotel that enthralls him in sheer terror:

Scatman Crothers in Stanley Kubrick's The Shining

The details:

The Shining's formidable status also comes from its remarkable location, enormous set pieces, evocative production design and use of colors, - and its meticulous music. There is gore and really horrifying imagery, but I believe it is the music, performances, care and importance with which every scene is presented that makes us sit on pins for the movie's entire playtime.
The Shining is dizzying and truly frightening. Kubrick himself has said of its themes: "There's something inherently wrong with the human personality. There's an evil side to it. One of the things that horror stories can do is to show us the archetypes of the unconscious; we can see the dark side without having to confront it directly" The perplexing use of inter-titles, - frequently establishing times that may seem random in the context of the movie, only works to heighten the dizzying qualities of the film.
Stephen King, - notoriously inept at judging the film versions of his own novels, - have had tremendous problems with Kubrick's film. Originally hating it and criticizing Kubrick's departure from his book seven ways from Sunday, -i.e. by saying that his film isn't as terrifying as the book, because Kubrick "thinks too much and feels too little" and isn't able to believe (hinting at Kubrick's atheism) and therefore isn't able to imagine the horrors that King sees himself as able to imagine. This nonsense even made King instigate his own version of The Shining, which was made as an alright but essentially forgettable mini-series in 1997. King has since left much of his critique and acknowledged Kubrick's film's power.
The Shining is full of mysteries and things that will not be seen on the first watch, and is really a film that can be watched over and over again. The double motifs, the illogical interior of the hotel, the time paradoxes, the ending etc. - Some of it is presented here and some in the recent documentary about the film, Room 237 (2012).
The Shining is a work of art and an incredibly scary film. Mandatory watch!

Related reviews:

Stanley Kubrick: Based on his concept: A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001) -A robot fairytale with both heart and mind
Top 10: The best adaptations reviewed by Film Excess to date
2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) oe, Humanity and Space

Anxiety in a picture: The blank page from Stanley Kubrick's The Shining, staring back at us, at Jack, saying, what do you know, what can you tell, who are you, what are you worth?

Watch the trailer here

Budget: 19 mil. $
Box office: 44.3 mil. $
= Box office hit

What do you think of The Shining and Stephen King's version?
Do you agree with my all time horror top 3?

Men in Black 3 (2012) - Third MiB-chapter entertains the suits and shades off of everyone!

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+ Best Science Fiction Movie of the Year

Josh Brolin, Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones on the poster for Barry Sonnenfeld's Men in Black 3

Boris the Animal, a nasty, Boglodite alien, breaks out of his special moon prison and heads for Earth. The future thus changes, so that agent J will have to travel back in time to 1969 to get the villainous beast annihilated with a younger version of his partner agent K.
Tommy Lee Jones (Hope Springs (2012)) has gotten pretty old, - but is still fun and fully functioning in the MiB sci-fi. action-adventure buddy comedy universe. Still, it seems possible that this is, at least his, last Men in Black film. - And if so, what an end!
This film is wild fun and smartly written, - by Etan Cohen (who is also writing Ghostbusters III (announced)), - with funny new characters; Bill Hader (Forgetting Sarah Marshall (2008)) as Andy Warhol, Emma Thompson (Saving Mr. Banks (2013)) as O, Josh Brolin (Wall Streets: Money Never Sleeps (2010)) convincing and hilarious as young K, - and a persuasively horrible villain (Jermaine Clement (Flight of the Conchords (2007-09))). 

Jermaine Clement as Boris the Animal in Barry Sonnenfeld's Men in Black 3

Also, lots of wild effects and eye-popping aliens designed by series artist Rick Baker (Videodrome (1983)) and a high-flying Danny Elfman (Red Dragon (2002)) score.

Tommy Lee Jones holding one of Rick Baker's amazing aliens in Barry Sonnenfeld's Men in Black 3

Men in Black 3 is a superiorly energized joy from start to finish, a great time travel sci-fi. adventure, equal in quality to the first Men in Black (1997) and far superior to the lackluster first sequel Men in Black 2 (2002).
The director of all three of them, Barry Sonnenfeld (The Adams Family (1991)) has done a couple of TV movies since, and there has been written a script for a fourth MiB-movie, but no real news are out on the subject yet.

Related posts:

2012 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED V]
2012 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED IV]
2012 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]
2012 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]

Watch the exciting trailer here

Budget: 215 mil. $
Box office: 624 mil. $
= Box office success

What do you think of the three Men in Black movies?
If there's gonna be a fourth, do you have any comments or wishes for it?

Film Excess' 1st birthday movie masterpiece: Broadway Danny Rose (1984) or, Keep Your Heart

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The poster for possibly his best movie of all, Woody Allen's Broadway Danny Rose

QUICK REVIEW:

At a social gathering, amusing stories are being told about the common acquaintance, the hopeless talent manager, Broadway Danny Rose, and the best story is the one about how he lost his Italo-nostalgia-talent, but found his girl ...
Danny Rose is a madly funny rom-com with Mia Farrow (The Purple Rose of Cairo (1985)) and writer-director-actor Woody Allen (Annie Hall (1977)) in very different roles than what we see them often play; hysterical roles, yet still with a very real feel to them. They sometimes play the stereotypes here, and certainly the silliness at times, but also with this incredible reality, truth and warmth. They seem at level with their characters, not cynical about them, and Farrow and Allen seem very in love and creatively thriving at the time also off camera, although that is speculation, strictly speaking.
In any case, you cannot take your eyes off of them in Danny Rose, which is brimming with hilarious gags, ideas, lines and a wild journey that, as critic Janet Maslin of The New York Times poignantly wrote at the time, "proceeds so sweetly and so illogically that it seems to have been spun, not constructed."
Broadway Danny Rose achieves being a little cheesy and very real at the same time. It is handsomely shot (by Gordon Willis (Annie Hall (1977)), has great music and is brilliant in every way.
This is one of the best, if not simply the best film by our great master filmmaker Woody Allen, who was also both Oscar-nominated for his original script and for his direction. A touching and wise film.

Related reviews:

Woody Allen: Anything Else (2003) - Perfect contemporary relationship comedy
Celebrity (1998) or, Beautiful Celebrities Talk About Sex 
Annie Hall (1977) or, My Relationship With Alvie Singer 

Nick Apollo Forte and Woody Allen in his Broadway Danny Rose

Watch the trailer here

Budget: 8 mil. $
Box office: 10.6 mil. $
= Unspectacular 

What is your favorite Woody Allen-film and why?

Looper (2012) - Time traveling assassinations have never been hipper or more exciting!

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Cool poster for Rian Johnson's Looper

QUICK REVIEW:

30 years into the future: Assassinations for future clients are carried out by 'loopers', who in the end have to kill their own future selfs and retire. But our hero misses his own future self's execution, who does not want to be executed yet.
Confused? The movie straightens it out, (if you can keep up with it.)
Looper is an original, hard-hitting and sophisticated science fiction action thriller. With a high pace so that the few questions along the way are quickly forgotten again, it blasts itself through to its audience with a mix of visual and intellectual artistry that is a pure joy.

Joseph Gordon-Levitt leads Rian Johnson's Looper, playing a young Bruce Willis, and nails it

Bruce Willis (Die Hard (1988)) is cool as action hero (once again) with a heart, and Joseph Gordon-Levitt (Mysterious Skin (2004)), Emily Blunt (The Devil Wears Prada (2006)), Paul Dano (L.I.E. (2001)) and Jeff Daniels (The Squid and the Whale (2005)) are each of them also very good as hard-skinned individuals.
Especially the plot-line about the little boy is cool and fascinating and very well achieved.
Looper impresses also with its cool photography by Steve Yedlin (Brick (2005)). It was a welcome surprise in 2012, a very consistent time travel movie. - Woof!
It is both written and directed by Rian Johnson, the writer-director behind Brick (2005) and The Brothers Bloom (2008). Surprisingly, considering Looper's massive success, Johnson doesn't have a new project yet. (Ed. note 08/01/14: He now does, and it is no less than Star Wars: Episode VIII and IX!)

Watch the awesome trailer for the very cool movie Looper here

Budget: 30 mil. $
Box office: 176.5 mil. $
= Big hit

What do you think of Looper?
Have you seen some of Rian Johnson's other films, and if so, how are they?
Are they as clever and exciting as Looper?

A Hijacking/Kapringen (2012) - Realistic piracy negotiation drama-thriller, minimalist-Scandinavian style

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Evocative poster for Tobias Lindholm's A Hijacking

QUICK REVIEW:

A Danish cargo freighter is hijacked off the Somalian coast with 7 crew members. The negotiations to buy them free drag out. We especially follow the cook and the shipping company's CEO, who decides to lead the negotiations himself home in Denmark.
Hijacking continues the realistic approach to a tense, uncomfortable situation that writer-director Tobias Lindholm developed in R: Hit First, Hit Hardest (2010) (with co-writer-director Michael Noer (Northwest (2013)), - in that film about getting imprisoned.) 

Pilou Asbæk (right) is the crew cook, whom we follow, as he becomes a victim of modern pirating in Tobias Lindholm's A Hijacking

Hijacking is well-made and well-played by Pilou Asbæk (R), Roland Møller (R), Søren Malling (A Royal Affair (2012)) and Dar Salim (The Devil's Double (2011)).
It is a docu-style dramatic issue thriller shot on location.
A couple of times the air seems to be fizzing out of the narrative, but then the scene is quickly escalated instead. - Well done.
Lindholm, - who also co-wrote the Oscar-nominated pedophilia drama thriller The Hunt (2012), - is writing at the moment, on a documentary entitled The Arms Drop (2014) and a war-drama feature again with Asbæk entitled April 9th (2015).
 

Watch the trailer with English subtitles here

Budget: Est. 2.7 mil. $
Box office: Unknown (US 0.4 mil. $)
= Unknown

What do you think of A Hijacking?
If you have seen the similar, recent, big Hollywood 'version', Captain Philips (2013), can you compare the two?

X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014) - A BAM in every direction for the tired franchise

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The poster for  Bryan Singer's X-Men: Days of Future Past

X-Men 4 (not counting the origins movie X-Men: First Class (2011) or the Wolverine films (2009 and 2013)), is a huge event movie that has strong hold over large audiences the world over, as is evident from its impressive B.O. numbers.
In case you're wondering, my three stars is a very generous assessment of the film in my opinion.
It seems almost impossible to give an outline of Future Past's plot without either being too general or go into too much detail, but trying might be fun, so here goes:
The future is terrible due to anti-mutant 'sentinels' that emulate mutant powers to defeat them (successfully), a technology based on Mystique's mutant powers of shape-shifting after her capture by her nemesis, Dr. Bolivar Trask, a powerful weapons scientist, in the mid-1970s. To prevent sentinel-extinction, the X-Men collaborate to send Wolverine back in time to make Mystique a good girl, who doesn't try to kill Trask - or President Nixon! - and thereby provide the need for the sentinels. But this is a difficult task, getting the younger, apathetic Xavier to wake up and smell the morning coffee, - and get him and Magneto to meet and agree on anything. Their oppositional personalities clash again in Future Past, one a hopeful, the other a skeptic.
Jennifer Lawrence (Silver Linings Playbook (2012)) gets a chance to play empowered angry-woman, who may or may not turn good, in the last second, of course, ( - which do you think it is...?)
The most interesting new character is Peter/Quicksilver (Evan Peters (Adult World (2013)), a young ADD-type guy, who can think and act really, really fast. Peters is energetic and well into the character and brings some fun into an otherwise very self-serious sci-fi action adventure. Other young performers, like Booboo Stewart as 'Warpath' (The Twilight Saga: Eclipse (2010)) is pretty much wasted due to his ridiculous make-up and costume, which is a shame.
Future Past is not generally a movie with any great actors' work in it; the universe isn't geared for that, and the ones singled out here are minor nuggets; the big guys, James McAvoy (The Last Station (2009)) and Michael Fassbender (12 Years a Slave (2013)), so good actors by themselves elsewhere, can't bring much to X-Men.

Fassbender at one point gets in contact with the power-figures in the human world by removing a stadium (!) and putting it on top of the White House, then ripping out the vault that they all hide in, and tearing it open of the lawn. His lacking subtlety seems symptomatic for a movie that stomps around different times and locations without much drive behind it, - what is it all for, one wonders, (if one has fallen out of the universe, as I clearly have.)
X-Men (2000) was really good; X-2 (2003) was even better; X-Men: The Last Stand (2006) by Brett Ratner (Red Dragon (2002)) was humongous and not very good. By X-Men: Days of Future Past, I have lost my enthusiasm for the series, which seems to have now developed into a possibly never-ending franchise. All things have a time, and for me, X-Men had a time, and that time lies clearly in the past.

The details:

Regarding the curious plot of Future Past, a nonsensical title if there ever was one, production people of the movie have said that with a time traveling movie, 'you can do anything'. Meaning that the time travel philosophy of parallel universes etc. makes everything feasible narrative-wise. Which is really only true, as long as you can get your audience to come along with you. With Future Past, I wondered why, - in all the other X-Men movies, - we've never heard of the sentinels, which were created and developed in a 50-year period following the mid-1970's? (Thus probably should have been an issue in all the other movies as well... - Is it all a parallel universe? Does anything have any consequence at all? - Not good questions for any movie.)
All logic and cohesive thought comes to an end sometime in a superhero franchise like X-Men, which likes to somersault around with multiple characters, times, places... This one also continually relies on the audience being familiar with the previous films, which is another weakness in my mind.
In the end, the X-Men are popcorn and multi-plex and merchandise fodder above all else. The Beast character most incarnates this, as he time and again grows from nice man into blue, ravenous wolf-like monster; pure eye-popping spectacle and very little else.
Bryan Singer (The Usual Suspects (1995)), the director behind the two first and this X-Men film is the man who has shaped the franchise as it is more than anyone. As I zone out of the X-Men universe, I get more interested in Singer's personal problems, as he was accused of raping a boy many years ago while promoting Future Past, which he instantly stopped doing, (with good reason.) That case, and possibly more than the one, go on, as Singer, - one of the most successful directors in the world today, - is poised to direct the next X-Men: Apocalypse (2016) (Zzzzzzzz), but will he be able to? Reality sometimes beats fiction, and this is certainly a case of that, for me, anyway.

Evan Peters as Peter/Quicksilver eating a burger for an X-Men: Days of Future Past photo shoot, a movie mainly about selling and eating, (for the people involved, if you catch my drift)

Watch the trailer here

Budget: 200 mil. $
Box office: 739.6 mil. $ and running
= Big hit

What do you think of the X-Men movies and the newest chapter?
Any thoughts on Bryan Singer's private debacle?