Excuse the Intermission
Alex and Max take you on a journey through film with this discussion podcast about movies.
Excuse the Intermission
August's Box Office Triumphs: From Blockbusters to Indie Hits and Coraline's Comeback
What if August became the new blockbuster season? Join us as we uncover the unexpected triumphs of August 2024's film releases. Despite its reputation as a "dumping ground," this month has proven to be a powerhouse of box office hits and award-worthy performances. We'll dive into the data, dissecting how the Pacific Northwest's favorable weather and audience enthusiasm have driven theater attendance to surprising heights, making August a contender for the best box office month since 2017.
We'll also shine a spotlight on some standout films that have captivated audiences and critics alike. Hear about "Sing Sing," the compelling drama featuring Coleman Domingo and real-life incarcerated men, and how its raw performances are generating Oscar buzz. Plus, get the inside scoop on the success of other films like "It Ends With Us," the highly anticipated "Deadpool and Wolverine," and Blumhouse's chilling horror "Afraid." Don't miss our reviews of the Dennis Quaid Ronald Reagan biopic and the quirky "Beetlejuice," each bringing something unique to the cinematic landscape.
Lastly, we celebrate the timeless appeal of "Coraline" as it marks its 15th anniversary with a triumphant re-release. Laika Studio's clever marketing has reignited interest in this beloved stop-motion masterpiece, drawing in both nostalgia-driven fans and a new generation of viewers. We’ll also touch on the evolving landscape of animation versus live-action films, setting the stage for future episodes where we’ll explore Johnny Depp’s eclectic career and other tantalizing topics. Join us for a deep dive into the resurgence of movie-going culture and the exciting future ahead for theatrical releases.
how's it? I'm alex mccauley and I'm max fosberg and this is excuse the intermission a discussion show surrounding some hot august releases. The end of august typically signals the end of blockbuster season and a dry spell for the box office. So ahead on today's episode. Max and I will analyze the performance and quality of the 2024 end of summer releases. That conversation up next after a quick break. This episode is presented in partnership with the Gig Harbor Film Festival. The Gig Harbor Film Festival will take place this September 26th through the 29th in beautiful Gig Harbor, washington.
Speaker 2:Hosted at the Galaxy Uptown Theater, this year's festival will feature 85 wildly rich films from across an array of genres. This year's festival will showcase five world premieres, one US premiere and 48 Washington State premieres, while also bringing films from 13 different countries to Gig Harbor. The festival opens with the world premiere of the Dogfather, the legacy of Don James, which chronicles a time in history that changed Washington.
Speaker 1:Husky football forever. This year's attendees will enjoy exclusive premiere screenings, q&a sessions following the film blocks and, for VIP pass holders, an immersive all-access experience including epic parties and events throughout the four days. Digital programs are available now via the festival's website and for more information on scheduling, vip passes and general admission tickets, please head over to wwwgigharborfilmcom. You can also follow the festival on instagram at gig harbor film. All right, we're back, and max, it's about the end of the dog day of summer. They're behind us. How are you doing today, as we begin to transition into what we will call autumn?
Speaker 2:uh, yeah, everything's going well. Uh, got to, got to go to the theater this weekend, uh, and do a little double feature action, which was is always exciting. I feel like the weather's what it's like supposed to be hot, but it seems to just keep being a little cloudy, a little drizzly. Um, it's perfect movie, movie watching season right now, and, uh, we've got some interesting releases, to say the least the pacific northwest is always it's always good for this right like summer.
Speaker 1:Spring will tease us with summer and then at the end of summer we will get teased with fall and inevitably we'll still have like one more week of 80 degree weather in september, and I think that's what you're alluding to.
Speaker 1:So should be a nice Labor Day weekend for us all around these parts, but it has definitely been Stay inside like put on sweatpants even and light some candles and watch movie weather, which has kind of been fun. It's made for a good time to sort of go and circle back on a lot of these August releases. August releases so at the end of last month we were talking about how July was the first billion dollar box office month since July of 2023. And then, kind of spinning it forward, we, I think, rationally predicted that August would have a drop off, which of course it did, however, maybe not to the degree that we anticipated. We were kind of both looking at domestic box office numbers for the month of August before we went live and there is a lot to celebrate. So kind of what do you attribute the financial success of a lot of these films to?
Speaker 2:I mean the positivity in me is like we're back. Movie theaters are back. People are back in the theaters. People want to see movies.
Speaker 1:People maybe even want to see movies like twice during their theatrical run right Sometimes Feels like it.
Speaker 2:I, you know, I think Alien had a really good run or is having a good run. I've had multiple people reach out to me and talk to me about that film or, just like in passing, asking you know if I had seen it yet, because that's one on their list to go see, to make sure to see in a theater. We've got some great anniversary releases, which I'm sure you're going to touch on later in the show, that have been resurgent for some older films. But also, I think August has always kind of been like a dumping ground, but I feel like at least this August the two films that I saw this weekend are in my top five of the year. I don't know if August is so much a graveyard anymore. So I think some of changing that thinking is contributing to some of these box office numbers.
Speaker 1:I love that because the earlier and earlier that we can quote, unquote, move up award season, it'll kind of start to, I think, think get rid of some of the like negative connotations around a dump you wary type of month like, because when you look at february and march more recently, those months seem to have had in the past couple of years maybe one or two different films come out that ends up competing or at least staying sort of in the public's mind throughout the entire year, like it was. That was the case with something like I think coda hit streaming very early in the spring of the year that it was released and then of course, everything everywhere all at once was the spring release. And so if we can start to move up quote, unquote, oscar season at the end of summer, which I think we've already been doing right Like it used to be, christmas releases, like Thanksgiving to Christmas was your awards time to focus on what was coming out in the theaters. Now it's kind of more October and early November, but maybe that starts to become end of August and throughout September, because I know the films you're going to talk about later and you're not the only one that is maybe kind of projecting, some awards, conversation around the two of those movies. So that is that is really exciting.
Speaker 1:And then also, just like personally, I think that it's really good to see, or it was really good to see, throughout this month of August, films and studios trusting in their movies to have and now no pun intended here, but to have long legs to to play for six to eight to 10 weeks in a theater. In some cases, like with Inside Out 2 and Despicable Me 4, those films have continued to only be available in theaters, and you can see, you can look up the financial success of those movies. And so not only with something like Deadpool and Wolverine, which is still within the first six or seven weeks of that's of that film's release, but with these movies that have been out all summer, it's it is like a return to form for regular summer blockbusters that typically would play for three or four months out of the year in theaters. And so I think that's been really exciting.
Speaker 2:And I mean I had to make the long legs joke just because the little horror movie that could, with the best marketing ever, actually cracked $100 million the day internationally we will put that disclaimer out there but cracked $100 million the day before it finally ended up on digital platforms to rent at home, so that was really exciting as well for that film, I think well, yeah, and I also feel like I, you know, maybe at like, the peak of movies and theaters and even the oscars was, you know, the the mid-90s, and the release schedule was very like like the big summer blockbusters were the movies at the award show at the end of the year, right, like they were getting released in these July, august months, and for some reason we went away from that, maybe because movies got smaller or you know, I don't even know why, to move that release window.
Speaker 2:But if we're heading back towards, hey, we have an award film and we're going to, we're going to put it out in the summer because we believe that the, the box office will be there and that's just going to get more eyes on your film and then that's going to build more momentum going into something like the oscars or the globes or whatever you know.
Speaker 1:Uh, award, uh, show you, you covet and we really got to have our cake and eat it too last year as far as blockbusters that could also contend at the academy awards, when you think about barbie and oppenheimer. But you're certainly right. Going back to the Apollo 13s of the world and I you know the summer blockbusters of the nineties, you're right, they used to definitely kind of play in both leagues. Is it Apollo 13 or Apollo 11? Apollo?
Speaker 2:13. Yes, I believe that was the one. There's a lot of Apollos out there.
Speaker 1:Apollo Creed, gonna get cooked in the DMs for not knowing my American history. A wide variety too, though. This month, this past month I mean, we've already talked about. We've talked a little bit about the success of it Ends With Us and book clubs being able to translate the popularity of material that you know they're reading around the calendar year into the inbox office and financial success at the movies comic book and superhero, ip with deadpool and wolverine, um, but then just also too, like a lot of adult dramas.
Speaker 1:Basically everything we're going to talk about on today's um episode, aside from one film which we're almost like obligated to discuss, um based on recent events here at excuse, the intermission, we're all kind of just like adult dramas and so if that's another thing where, like august isn't getting kind of throwaway movies, they're just getting more, like August can be a time. August, and maybe a little bit of September, can be a time where you just like release the either PG 13, heavy thematic issues or like an R rated film that its goal is not to make a hundred million dollars maybe, but it's to be a quality film that's going to get good word of mouth, that can maybe contend for some awards later in the year.
Speaker 2:That's also really encouraging yeah, yeah, I, I agree with you. It's exciting, it's really good. More movies, more, more bigger releases, longer releases.
Speaker 1:Give it yes long, long shelf lives in theaters, please, um. So I mean, if you want to pull up we were talking about it off air, but we kind of have the box office numbers from August. Max and I are doing this virtually today. This is a good opportunity to kind of pull up a second screen here and look at things. But I mean, when you look at this month in totality, this is the most recent box office weekend. I think maybe this is including the Monday numbers because of course we're we are recording on a Monday, um, however, with with already $800,000 grossed domestically this month, we stand a chance of this being the best August box office.
Speaker 1:If I think let's see what the total is I know I sent it earlier in the chat box office. If I think let's see what the total is I know I sent it earlier in the chat I think all we really need is another 56 million dollars from the box office this weekend for this year to become the best august box office since 2017. Now, maybe that doesn't happen. Deadpool and Wolverine maybe grabs another 20, alien, romulus another 15. It ends with us and some of these other films still do okay business and then it's kind of up to the film Afraid, the latest Blumhouse movie to have a big opening this weekend, but I could see from you know where we stand right now, kind of midweek, and then into next weekend, not counting september 1st, but um, the thursday and friday and saturday of the upcoming weekend we could hit 56 million more dollars and this would be the best august. In what is that? Since 2017?
Speaker 2:so like seven, seven years, seven years, yeah yeah pretty exciting stuff uh, yeah, I, I think that's super accessible as well. I mean, I, you know, I I do think it ends with us. I think, um, I I think, afraid, you know again, it's another blumhouse, it's a horror movie, those are always evergreen. That's going to be, at least, I would say, 10 million, maybe to open.
Speaker 1:Well, and you, look at everything else that's coming this weekend and it's really not a lot. We get like the dennis quaid ronald reagan biopic.
Speaker 1:We get a couple other just like weird niche films that are going to play well to the demographic that they're targeted at, but afraid has an opportunity to be the number one movie at the box office and even beat out something like deadpool and wolverine or alien romulus, that they continue to have a good weekend. So I I mean, if I'm a betting man, I think we do it like I think this becomes a 860, maybe even like 865 total for the entire month of august, which it's that's really exciting, it's it's really good to see um, and especially too, because come september there's going to be I mean, it's just going to be another kind of like adrenaline shot in the arm with things like Beetlejuice, beetlejuice and more things that you would expect to have a long lifespan at the box office and to do well, kind of carry us into the fall season. Right, yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's exciting, I really, you know, I know last year I feel like it was very doom and gloom and and you know who knows if, if theaters were going to be around in two years or whatever. But the numbers show that I think people are still interested and that's. That's a really good thing.
Speaker 1:I agree, all right. So who wants to go first? We each have two films and then kind of a shared discussion at the end, or you actually have three. I think you're going to toss in another one that I'm really excited to hear you talk about. I always like when I know you're going to talk about a movie that you personally didn't quite care for. So do you want to go first, or do you want me to?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'll go up first. The first film I want to talk about is Sing Sing, which is just a straight up like character drama starring Coleman Domingo. It's it's set in a prison. A lot of it's centered around RTA, which is like a theater arts program that is in maximum, maximum security prisons and follows our main character, divine G, as he, you know, believes he is wrongly accused of murder and is in prison as an innocent man. But he is kind of the leader of this theater troupe and just kind of a very personal, straightforward but extremely emotional character piece. And Coleman Domingo is in full force here as Divine G and definitely, I think, will be nominated. It might even be a front runner to win Best Actor this year. He's kind of been sniffing around that award, I feel like, for the past couple of years. I know last year he was nominated for Rustin.
Speaker 2:But I think what the huge revelation from this film is is some of these other characters that you're watching on screen are actually incarcerated men from these prisons that are in these theater programs and either they have been incarcerated or they are incarcerated. And divine eye plays, played by curtis macklin I, I believe, is his name is unbelievable. Like Coleman Domingo is great, but Curtis Macklin comes in and his the way he's able to channel you know the reality because he lived this life. He the way he grounds it, but then also is like electrically charming and also extremely scary. You have no idea what he's going to do every time he's on screen. Um, he blew me away and I really hope that, like this isn't just a one-off where we we see curtis macklin this one time, I I hope he starts getting jobs left and right, because he is a really, really special performer and, quite frankly, that's just an amazing story, the fact that he was in a maximum security prison of the theater and arts and is now like I mean, he's, he's going toe to toe with Coleman Domingo, who might be, you know, winning the best actor at the Oscars. Curtis Macklin, I think, should definitely be nominated for supporting actor and and I I'm I'm guessing this film will definitely be up for best picture.
Speaker 2:I haven't cried that much in a theater in a long time, like honest crying, you know, not like laughing, crying not nostalgic bait, crying Like. That movie is an emotional tornado and it's engaging, you know you're locked in from the beginning. Not so much. You know there's no action or anything. It's not a prison escape movie or anything. You're literally just walking every day with these guys and the way it's filmed it's almost like a documentary style a lot of handheld, and it really pulls you in to these guys guys lives and I was. I was blown away by it, absolutely blown away well, I love hearing that.
Speaker 1:Uh, a resounding recommendation um it sounds like, and as one of the I mean as one of the founding members, a card carrying member, for sure of the coleman domingo fan club, this is. This is awesome to hear and to see that he's kind of having his moment and I'm sure we'll be campaigning for best actor and just a lovely man who I'm excited to see on the campaign trail for the next three or four months leading into Oscar season.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think a couple of months ago we brought this movie up. I I think it might have been on your like, most anticipated for the rest of the year and I, or somehow it came up and I think I I assumed it was going to be like a musical, uh, because it was called sing sing, but sing sing is the name of the prison, sing sings the name of the prison, and I am extremely the name of the prison and I am extremely arrogant and I think I made some disparaging comments about it.
Speaker 2:On that episode, I just want to apologize to Mr Domingo and everyone involved in the production.
Speaker 1:Everyone at Sing Sing Maximum Security Prison Everyone at Sing Sing, shout out to all our COs out there doing the work.
Speaker 2:It was an astounding movie and everyone should try and go out and see it. I know it's, I'm pretty sure it's. I don't think it's in wide release and you know there were rumblings of this movie, I think last year before the Oscars, because it hit a couple of festivals, because it hit a couple festivals. But just a really, really good, straight-up adult drama with, you know, no tricks or anything, just great acting on display and so impressive. I mean literally. I think there's. It's like Paul Racey who is he was the therapist from Sound of Metal. He's kind of playing a similar role in this Coleman Domingo and then I think almost everyone else are like real life people who play themselves.
Speaker 1:Fantastic.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And really good. Yeah, that's really cool. So you, you kind of went the independent route with your picks. This week.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I went more. I wouldn't call them big studio, but wider release films, and so the first one that I'm going to talk about is blink twice. Blink twice is the directorial debut from zoe kravitz. Zoe who, at any given time maybe one of the 10 coolest people on planet earth decides to write, produce and then direct this film, starring her partner, channing Tatum. As this billionaire who this? I mean.
Speaker 1:This movie feels very kind of ripped from the headlines when you think about everything that has come to light in the wake of people like Jeffrey Epstein being outed and just kind of billionaire secret society type. Cultures cancel culture, especially because the film starts with this knowledge a little bit of an expo dump. One character is going through their phone and seeing that this character slater king is his name he's had to apologize for some behavior and some inappropriate comments, and so what he's done is remove himself a little bit from the forefront of his company in the limelight and retreats to this island, while our, our main character is a caterer. Um works for a catering company that is doing the event, his annual fundraiser, and so she devises this plan to kind of like slip a slip a dress into her work bag and halfway through the event, attempt to attend it and meet slater king and get close to him. And Slater King takes the, the channing tandem he he takes to this character, and it all happens very fast. It feels a little choppy, but there's nothing in this film is done on accident. So I and I put this in my letterbox review, like if the movie feels like the pacing is a little bit off, just, you're in good hands, trust the film because there's an intentionality behind all of it.
Speaker 1:And so, in a whirlwind of an of a first act, all of a sudden you were on this island with this billionaire and his group of very eccentric, bizarre friends played by a great cast Simon Rex, christian Slater, haley, joel, osment like the goofiest people that you would never expect to see in a film together. And yet somehow the ensemble really comes together. Well, this movie is somehow a really good amalgamation of the best parts of don't worry darling, of like a knives out movie and then also get out, and so and I and I hope name dropping those films doesn't give away any spoilers, because this movie does take some dark turns and caught me by surprise, really, with how thematically heavy it got, and so the recommendation for this film certainly comes with some trigger warnings. The third act is pretty brutal and really becomes this like on-site revenge story, with a pretty wild reveal right at the climax of the film. But a surprise hit from 2024.
Speaker 1:For me, so far, um, just extremely well done. The movie has a huge message behind it and I'm just like you know some people are. It's kind of like I don't need zoe kravitz to tell me not to trust billionaires, like I don't want to call her a nepo baby or anything. I think she's extremely talented in her own right, but just it. It's always more interesting to me when a story like this is told from somebody who has spent their entire life in the hollywood system and in the industry quote unquote. And so just a a bold story to tell.
Speaker 1:With your first film, you can really tell that there's style. She has a really good eye for filmmaking and editing and pacing and how to keep the audience off guard, and so the trailers for this film really make it look like a fun sort of slick, maybe Knives Out Glass Onion type movie, where there's really not too many serious stakes. However, I'm here to tell you that the stakes are very real in this movie. There are some laughs but there's also some real tear in like a and just like. It's pretty fucked up at times, like I apologize for the language, but it caught me off guard. I really enjoyed it. It's in my top 20 for the year so far, and so Blink twice didn't do great at the box office this week. I think it only made like seven million here domestically. But I expected to continue to get pretty good word of mouth, like the reviews are nice for it right now in letterbox.
Speaker 2:So I I really recommend blink twice here I'm really glad to hear that it's not, like, you know, knives out, because that that really is how they kind of marketed it um, and I'm sure that's not, you know, zoe kravitz's choice or intention, um. So I'm glad that there's a little bit, a little bit more bite, uh, to that movie, and I, uh, I can't wait to check it out yeah, it's really fun and that might not be the right word for it it's really engaging.
Speaker 2:Fun is not the right word uh, my next film is, uh, another little independent film called dd. Uh, this is directed by sean wayne. This is directed by Sean Wayne, who is only 29 years old. So that, really, first off, that just throws me For a trip. But it's, it's very much in the Mold of you know, something like Kings of Summer or Stand by Me, or you know, boys During the Summer Hanging Out, coming of Age A little bit Spielberg in there. Lady Bird came to my mind as well as I was watching this. It's a period piece set in 2008 and 2007. And the kid is, I believe, believe, 14, going into high school, so a little younger than Alex and I's ages. But the way it's set and the technology it uses and the things it decides to show you to like, put you in that time period really, really effective. Um, there's a lot of AIM. You know AOL Instant Messenger used in the film.
Speaker 1:I was going to say, yeah, you're going to really need to spell that out.
Speaker 2:I know right.
Speaker 1:Might need to even explain what America Online is. Yeah, right.
Speaker 2:Which is a messaging system on our computers. That's how we used to do text really before text on our phones. Anyways, it's done really effectively. The look of it is perfect. The sounds really hit you in a nostalgic way. There's a lot of MySpace. A lot of you know it's the beginning of Facebook, so a lot of that is used.
Speaker 2:This kid, chris, or Dee Dee, is, you know, a young Asian kid just trying to figure out his way, you know, through puberty and adolescence and he loves like filming skate videos. He's very obsessed with the spike jones and that those kind of films. Um, and yeah, it's just, it just kind of follows him through summer as he navigates, girls and friends being dicks to him and me hanging out with older skaters and his, his mom you know he lives with a single mom and his grandmother and his dad works, you know, over in Taiwan. So obviously a very personal film to Sean and I think he's come out and said like this is very autobiographical, it's set in somewhere in California, I think Fremont, california, but yeah, just a great summer movie, like again kind of a throwback to those coming of age, you know, first features from an indie filmmaker. Again, lady Bird really reminded me a lot of Lady Bird, and the period piece of it is really well done.
Speaker 2:The kid acting is really good. The main character, who plays Chris Isaac Wayne, is somewhat of a revelation as well. I think he's going to be around for a while, cause, you know, kid actors are really hard to find good kid actors, and this kid does it, does it great. A lot of funny stuff throughout the film, but also like again tugging at the heartstrings. Very, very good film. Go out and support this film because it's another high recommendation. It's both of these films sing, sing and dd. You know, I think they're sitting at four and five right now. Uh, on on my year endless.
Speaker 1:So uh, go check it out and it should be noted, you did, you did a double feature of these films down at the Grand Cinema.
Speaker 2:I did.
Speaker 1:That's where you can check them out.
Speaker 2:Right, I did Sing Sing first and then Dee Dee.
Speaker 1:And.
Speaker 2:I think that's the way you want to go. Yeah, for sure.
Speaker 1:There's kind of no way that you can go into the next film that I'm going to talk about and have it make sense. I had to do it, yeah that, that good.
Speaker 1:We've been kind of obsessed with the crow here, recently hosted garbage night down at Edison square watch the original crow. All of that, I guess, was in anticipation for the 2024 remake and I'm here to tell you that they got more. I don't know if they got more right than they got wrong, but the movie has merit. I want to start with that. The movie has merit um, mostly in the first act and how they give the shelly character. So the movie's all about eric and shelly right.
Speaker 1:If you've seen the original, you know that the film starts with the death of these two young lovers and then our guy, erica draven, comes back as the crow to avenge the wrongful death of he and his fiance.
Speaker 1:Well, in this film, what we start with is, of course, some childhood trauma, because what else are you going to do in 2024 um with with the eric character and you see a little bit of what his home life was like. And then that leads into him as an adult and that's when we get to see the first shot of Bill Skarsgård portraying this character and he is in some sort of state-ran, not prison system, but rehabilitation program. However, everyone's wearing these like pink jumpsuits and they have cells but you can kind of visit with each other and you have free reign and you get to go to these little classes and stuff. So an interesting setup for them to to take it that way. Then you meet the shelly character prior to them, even knowing each other. Shelly finds herself in trouble. Shelly played by the recording artist FKA Twigs, who I really like had no idea that she was in this film or that she was playing Shelly.
Speaker 1:When I think about things that I would change from the original Crow movie, it would be having the Shelly character have more of an on-screen presence, obviously she's the driving, other than like just a memory, you know yeah yeah, and maybe portrayed by a bigger actress and I'm not here to say that fka twigs is well known in the mainstream media or pop culture at all, but a successful recording artist, someone who I've seen in concert granted it was at a festival, but still cool just to see her on screen, kind of in this role. And so she has found herself in trouble with the crime. Lord figure um, different title, it's not what's our main guy? Top shooter, top shotter um from the original one.
Speaker 1:Top shot, I think, is his name. Well, in this retelling of the film, that is the Danny Houston character and they take this afterlife, immortality, never being able to die idea, just kind of like they take it so far out into left field that I like and that I I'm going. I'm not going to look it up, I'm just going to assume that that's maybe more um loyal to the comics, to the original source must be, because if not I don't know why they would do this. But basically danny houston, who's like the crime lord figure for this, this dark, unknown or unnamed town, um has like a deal with houston, always, always you need a bad guy called danny
Speaker 1:well, the funniest thing is he's basically doing what like bill skarsgård is doing as the villain in john wick for where, like you know how, in john wick for scars guard is just like hanging out in museums and living this very cultural, cultured life. Well, that's, that's danny houston in this film, where he's like auditioning young piano artists to like play for him and he's attending galas and. But of course he's evil and he's, he's almost like the devil. He's made a deal just to spoil it here. He's made a deal with the devil where he will send the devil like pure souls, um folks who would normally be going to heaven, so that he can then stay on earth and have like this immortality. Very interesting, very strange. The way in which he like collects these souls, though. Really cool. He basically just like sucks the life out of you through your ear and then you in turn um kind of undead, you're on a live yourself in some very interesting, um and graphic way. So that was a strange part of it and something I said to you earlier, where I was like I really hope that in this version they don't take um like it's hard to call it the, the fantasy aspect, but just kind of the entire the death realm yeah, and and turn it into this whole
Speaker 1:big deal. So the extrapolation of that character was cool. You know, he's not just this like coked out drug lord who's having a relationship with his sister. Um, like he's not. There's nothing like that, and so I I like that we've taken that aspect out of it. But also it's just weird shit like that that makes the 94 version one so campy and so goofy.
Speaker 1:This is a much more earnest attempt to tell this story and make it something like the Punisher or the Dark Knight and not really have a lot of laughs. Kind of built into the script. There's no gang members. There's like nobody under danny houston. That's like 10, 10 or fun boy or t-bird or anything like that. You get this like woman. Who's this tilda swinton knockoff with the short hair and the big, like cockatoo, blonde, um swoop and and she's kind of like the she's in charge of all his henchmen and everything like that. Who who ended up having to track down FKA twigs because she is somebody who used to play piano and be at these, you know, kind of eyes wide shut type parties where sacrifices would happen and all kinds of odd stuff. And there was a video recorded of Danny Houston doing this to somebody, and a friend of hers has a copy of it. So she basically checks herself into the same. She gets herself arrested by the police with a bunch of drugs on her and so she ends up going to the same rehab place where Bill Skarsgård already is. That's where they meet, and so I like all of that.
Speaker 1:I think it's a little um, it was a little just like it was easy, it was low-hanging fruit to kind of make them addicts and have them meet and bond over their trauma. I thought that that wasn't really all that inspired of a choice and don't really like that, because the moral fiber that we know of eric and shelly from the original is that like they take care of this girl in their neighborhood who doesn't really have a strong mother figure and they're, like they're good people he's in a band and you know she's got her life together. Seemingly she's trying to fight gentrification in her neighborhood. They don't really make these two characters all that, all that likable, I guess, outside of just their love for each other, and so that was a little weird. But I still like getting to see their origin story and kind of how they come to meet.
Speaker 1:You know it's no spoiler to say that, if I mean, if you've seen the original one, you know Shelly ends up dying, eric ends up being able to come back. So once bill is the crow and he's kind of invincible and he's kicking ass. All that stuff is fun. The action is good with effects. Nowadays they really rough him up and like send him through the ringer as far as things that he should not be able to come back from. Like he just straight up has compound fractures, bones sticking out of him that he just kind of pops back in and so like that's pretty gnarly and and pretty fun. Um, but multiple trips to this like shadow realm, land of the undead, and instead of having a police officer that is like on his side and helping him throughout this, he kind of has like a dark angel figure in this shadow realm who is just like giving the expo dump and telling him how he should navigate and all kinds of different things.
Speaker 1:Um, so in some ways it's campy, but it's not really campy, it's just like uninspired and not that great. And then in other ways, because they're trying to take it so serious and like danny houston, you just gotta chill. But also like he's going for it, like he is hamming it up and the scene where skarsgård finally, like it takes him a while, even after he's become the crow, he's not, he doesn't have the face paint on for a long time, he doesn't have the black duster on. So once you finally kind of get those moments of iconography and like the soundtrack isn't, as you know, like okay, it's easy to say it's not as good as the first one, like you don't have rage against the machine and you don't have nine inch nails and you don't have all these big artists on it, but like the music's still pretty good. There's times where you can kind of like start to rub your hands together and get excited for the action that's going to come, but it just it missed the mark as far as having any sort of like individual style. That would also be like akin to what we got in the first one. That would really give it like some ingenuity to where you were.
Speaker 1:Like this is a really good, just like retelling or reimagination of the story with all the tools and tricks available in 2024. So like it has merit. It's interesting to see what they were going to do, but it's also I mean it's doing really bad at the box office. I think it made. I think it made less than like borderlands. It's opening weekend, which, if you look up what borderlands has done so far at the box office, not a movie you want to be compared to. I think it was under like 6 million opening weekend, played on a ton of screens, so not great, but also like it's an awesomely bad movie that people might come around on 20 years from now, you know. So we'll see.
Speaker 2:So it may have its own garbage. I think so.
Speaker 1:I don't. This is. This is very rare for me. If you follow me on letterbox, I very rarely rate something at three, just because that's like a weird. That's a weird place, I think, for a film to be in, because I'm very analytical about giving out these ratings and so like to me that's a D and so, but it's like this movie's a D plus and I gave it a heart Because I'm like it's a 68 or a 69 out of 100. It's technically failing but it's also technically passing. It's just it was interesting. Nonetheless, a fun watch.
Speaker 2:Okay, right on my next film is.
Speaker 1:One last thought on it. On it too, it's just very interesting that, like we almost need to do um, you know, we need to have like a bill skarsgård intervention, because I don't know what kind of actor he's trying to be, because this is proof that he can't open a movie by himself, right, and it's weird to think about why the studio thought he could. Like, can you really trust a movie's financial success on the fact that, like, I mean, I, I figure they're basically doing it because, like, this is pennywise. You know pennywise can open these movies. It was a huge success. The Stephen King, it was a huge success, but John Wick 4 wasn't a success because of him. I'm trying to think of some of the recent projects of his, but he hasn't been the one that really gets a movie to number one at the box office yet, and this was a failed attempt at that I.
Speaker 2:I think it's just going to continue, though, because in december he's going to be on screen as nasferatu and I bet you he's going to blow people away you gotta stop.
Speaker 1:I had no idea. I had no idea. He's not my bad uh yeah yeah okay and I.
Speaker 2:You know, if he blows people away in that role, then they're just going to continue, then he's back, I guess, but also that's.
Speaker 1:I don't think that's him opening that movie. That's, it's. That's robert edgar's opening that movie also scar scar.
Speaker 2:He seems to just like be really attracted to these oddball projects I mean there was another movie he did. I want to say back in like june, called like boy verse or beats the world or something like that.
Speaker 1:Boy, yeah world yeah, and it's kind of like a kick-ass version of um, like a first-person shooter game or something right and again, like he's the lead in it.
Speaker 2:He's all over the poster and it came out and did absolutely nothing. Uh, so yeah, I don't know really interesting actor, because then maybe just someone who's really probably destined to be villains and or character like character acting um, but maybe wants, you know, wants more than that, and so maybe we'll continue to get crow like projects from him, these, these are the top eight, his most, his top eight most popular films on letterboxd.
Speaker 1:The first one is the first it remake, I think rightfully so. The next is barbarian. I don't really roll supporting role right. I don't really think of barbarian as being a bill scars garden movie. Deadpool 2 is this is the third.
Speaker 2:It goes then much more of a cameo and then it goes.
Speaker 1:Eternals john wick for it, chapter 2 the devil all the time. Atomic blonde. Now I would honestly make the argument that he's probably best in the devil all the time, yeah, out of all eight of those movies.
Speaker 2:And yet and like the most center of that. You know, out of those movies, that's the one that, like you could say like oh yeah, he's a lead right because, again, I think tim curry probably felt this too.
Speaker 1:Like people love tim curry's pennywise, people also love bill skarsgård's pennywise. But right there, that should tell you that, like pennywise is the draw to those films. It's not so much about the actor who portrays them. Now, yes, they have the incredibly challenging job of bringing this iconic character to life and I'm not trying to disparage their work at all in any of those movies. But as far as like Bill Skarsgård the actor, no trick, no makeup, no, nothing like that I think it's the devil all the time. And me, you and maybe I don't know let's look like a couple thousand other people on Letterboxd watched that movie during the pandemic. Great movie, awesome movie. So the Crow's interesting, bill Skarsgård very interesting career so far.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know, I think something I really realized while we were watching it at Edison Square last Thursday is less is more. I don't know why. Again, you know you're talking about this death realm and some dark angel and we're in a prison, that Crow movie from 1994, the murder happens in the first sequence.
Speaker 1:It's literally already happened.
Speaker 2:It's already. Yeah, right, yeah, you're dropped into the investigation or the finding of these two people who are dead. You know, all of a sudden, eric Draven is popping out of the ground. We're not really told why, other than like love, and and then we're good enough.
Speaker 1:That's more than good enough.
Speaker 2:We go, we check out, we walk through an alleyway, we cry a little bit, we check it, we put makeup on and we're kicking ass and then and then it's a whole like hour of just ass kicking of revenge filled action yeah, and this is just don't bleed. No, we don't.
Speaker 2:All these other complications not once ever, when I've ever watched the crow, have I been like, oh, I wonder how he came back. No man, he came back, he just came back. That's the world you were in in that. Yes, yeah, so yeah, that's. That's really interesting. Um, my last movie I'll I'll make this really quick it's called greedy people. Uh, it is a straight to streamer film that for some reason, I rented on Amazon because that's the only way it was available. It's not even on a service. It's directed by someone named Posty Ponikrol Ponik role. I don't know Posty. This is his first feature film as a director and it is a straight up Fargo ripoff, like straight up. And it's interesting because it's got a lot of really great character actors in it Tim Blake, nelson, joseph Gordon-Levitt, simon Rex shows up in this movie, so it's who's the comedian? That's the Irishman. Jim Gaffigan plays this character called the Irishman.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so kind of, at first you're kind of in like it's set in a small town, these two cops are going to check on a call that they got at some mansion. The woman there's a funny interaction with the woman because they scare her. She's got headphones on or whatever. And these police you know the police, everyone's a funny interaction with the woman because they scare her. She's got headphones on or whatever. And these police you know the police, everyone's a doofus. So like she attacks the policemen and they get into a wrestling fight and then, you know, she accidentally kills herself. And so now the policemen are freaked out and then, amongst all the commotion of of them wrestling, they find a large basket just full of like a million dollars or something like that. So they decide that they're going to make it look like there was a break-in and a murder. They're going to take the money and, you know, wait till everything blows over, and then they will be rich. They're gonna split the money, uh, half and half, and so that that all happens.
Speaker 2:And then it like it like goes back in time and gives you a uh perspective from a different character. So say, tim blake, nelson, the, the husband of this woman who has killed herself. Well, ironically, he hired a hitman To come kill her that day. That's what the money was for. When the hitman gets there, she is already dead and the cops have already Taken off with the money.
Speaker 2:So then he becomes a big cat and mouse and then, like Simon Rex, plays this masseuse masseuse who I guess is upstairs during the murder, uh, and, like you know, freaks out and escapes or whatever. But then he is like going after the money. It's this weird cat and mouse like, almost like there's flavors of like a lot of coen brothers stuff. Like I said, remind me a lot of fargo, um, in a, but in like a bad way, uh, and smoking aces also, because there's like multiple hit men now that get involved, um, but then in the last like 20 minutes, these two cops, which, which is, uh, joseph Gordon Levitt and the other actor is, uh, uh, hamish, uh Patel, and they Joseph Gordon-Levitt, just like goes off the deep end and becomes this crazy angry, like bad guy. And you know he's kind of on the edge, like in the beginning. You know he seems like a rule breaker. He's having an affair with someone in town. He's you know he's constantly trying to get free donuts and free coffee. He's constantly trying to get free donuts and free coffee Same. But then it tries to turn into some sort of action movie or gritty thriller where he's chasing the wife of his partner's, the other cop's wife. He's chasing her and he's hell-bent, he's going to just kill everybody. I don't know, it just takes an odd shift change and I don't know.
Speaker 2:In the beginning I'm a little bit in, but as soon as the hijinks all start and it tries to be, this knives out, this Fargo, this cat and mouse game with all these different perspectives, which is also kind of like Pulp Fiction-y as well, right, like we're jumping around in time or seeing other people's, other people's days, or whatever. Just didn't really work. I kind of understand now why it's not on any sort of streaming service. It didn't come to any theaters. Um, just really, really interesting that this movie got made. Uh, it's kind of a kind of a big nothing burger. So, uh, which is too bad, cause I feel like Joseph Gordon Levitt hasn't been around for a long time, and which is too bad, because I feel like Joseph Gordon-Levitt hasn't been around for a long time and I don't know, I guess he'll continue not to be around the power of a good pitch.
Speaker 1:I guess Right, because in theory it sounds good on paper.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it got me, yeah, it got me. You know, I read the synopsis I was like, yeah, I'm in, I'm me, yeah, it got me.
Speaker 2:You know, I read the synopsis I was like, yeah, I'm in, I'm down for a money murder caper. But uh, yeah, it's not as funny as it thinks it is, it's, and it's not as good as action. You know, not good action as as it thinks it's it it is. Um, simon rex is horribly used, like I mean, he's kind of doing the simon rex thing but like just way dumped down so um yeah, unfortunately. Uh, I probably can skip that one um, all right.
Speaker 1:So I we would be remissed, I would be extremely remiss, if I let us close out an August box office episode without talking about what's happening with Coraline right now and the 15th anniversary re-release of this, this Henry Selick modern classic. Really, this past weekend it was number seven at the US domestic box office and the weekend prior to that it was number five at the US domestic box office. Since its re-release, the film has made $30 million worldwide and the projections because it's still playing across different theaters this has ran, this is ran through a fathom events re-screening, a repertory screening, if you will and it's still going to open in larger international markets, most specifically in France, where they've held off the re-release of it because of everything happening with the Olympics. And so right now, tracking has the film north of $40 million once it ends this run, which will end up becoming 32% of the film's initial gross from when it was released back in I think it was 2007. And so just remarkable what's happening with Coraline at the box office right now.
Speaker 1:I have some things written down here. 2009, excuse me, was when the film was first released. I pulled up some notes here and did a little research on how this has happened. I want to get your take on this as well, Max. What do you attribute this to? Because we see this a lot with films. They have a Studio Ghibli maybe has a festival run or something like that, and if you look down the long list of the box office, you're like, oh well, yeah, that's pretty cool. You know Howl's Moving Castle made $400,000 or something this past weekend, or some Hitchcock movies reopened I know the Conversation just was re-released in 4k and I saw that way down at like number 17 or something, because it almost made a million dollars or whatever. But we're talking about a serious box office performance from this film right now. So what do you attribute that to?
Speaker 2:well, I think, I think it's just really really great timing if this movie came out in 2009, you know, and it, so it captured.
Speaker 2:So those kids say you're between the ages of, you know, six or seven, maybe seven and 11, or seven and 12 when that movie comes out. Those kids now are, you would hope, you know, functioning adults, and so it might be the first time that something from their generation, something like a what would be maybe like a toy story or finding Nemo for us, is back in theaters and that gets them excited to go see it. And Coraline is such a. It's such a certain like taste and vibe and the magic of stop motion animation, when in a world that really we don't get big releases of stop motion animation anymore you know, I know mad God came out a couple of years ago and was revered DDT's Pinocchio but that's straight to.
Speaker 1:Netflix.
Speaker 2:Yeah, those weren't in theaters. So I think it's just really really good timing. And you said it was the it's the 15th anniversary, correct?
Speaker 1:15th anniversary yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So you know, it'd be really interesting to test this out, like with something that came out like like with something that came out like next year, with something that came out in 2010, and like maybe 15 years is like the perfect time to to do that re-release, because you're going to get, because, again, say, if you're 11, uh, when you know Coraline comes out, maybe you have like a five-year-old right now you know, or or I mean, I would say even later Coraline a lot like how a film like, maybe, the Nightmare Before Christmas.
Speaker 1:A lot of people watch that movie as like a 15, 16, even 17 year old. I mean, I saw Coraline comes out in 2009 when we were 19 years old.
Speaker 1:I remember seeing it in the theater and and it's continued to be one of my most favorite animated films of all time, and so I would say I mean we're kind of the outlier, as two guys in their early to mid 30s that they don't already have children. I think that a lot of people are taking their families to see this movie for the first time, or to pass it along, I should say to pass it along to the next generation yeah, and like coralline doesn't it, because it's not disney.
Speaker 2:Is it disney film?
Speaker 1:no look is it?
Speaker 2:yeah, so like it doesn't live anywhere, virtually really right, like it doesn't have like a permanent home, like all the pixar movies do on right, right, us, right. So I think that also kind of makes it more of an event of like, oh my gosh, you know, I was, yeah, I was 16, I was 17 when this movie came out, and now I can take my seven-year-old to go see it, or six-year-old or whatever. Um, yeah, I, I, I think it's pretty remarkable and and, again, exciting. I again, I would, I would love to see you know what, uh, what a 2010 released movie would do next year. And I wonder, I wonder if theater owners or if distributors are kind of like, I wonder if they're noticing this and thinking like, okay, maybe more anniversary showings are something that could be as successful.
Speaker 1:It's certainly capturing the attention of not only the studio heads but also theater owners.
Speaker 1:This is something you can't ignore, really.
Speaker 1:Um, and and so something that I looked up was really like, how did this come to be? And and folks are writing about how there was so much intentionality and this was really like a five year plan to do a big 15 year re-release for this film, because, um, like ha I believe that's how you pronounce the studio name they have not released a film since 2019 and so, uh, there's been this real conservative effort to to make the public aware of coralline's place kind of in it's hard to call it like a cult film, but just kind of what it's beginning to mean to to fans of stop motion animation, to to kind of that you know the end of the two thousands decade right there for for a lot of kids who are now adults. And so there's been things. I mean, we have the museum of pop culture up in Seattle and they've had a standing Coraline exhibit for like over a year now, I believe, where you can go and you can also see things from like I think it's the whole it's the whole studio.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I believe it's pronounced like a.
Speaker 1:Laika Laika Studio yeah, because you can go and see things from Kubo and you can go and see things from all the other films that they've released, and so you've had that. They've talked about making a real effort to show more and more behind-the-scenes things from Coraline on their social media platforms and how their social media kind of footprint has grown by over 10 million followers a year since they've really decided to push this initiative forward. Do the art installations the film takes place in in Oregon and so I guess around Portland leading up to the re-release there was a bunch of like cat statues art installations around downtown kind of promoting the re-release. There was a bunch of like cat statues art installations around downtown kind of promoting the re-release of this. And then, just as somebody who had to track down a really cool physical release because I saw it on a reddit page, there's been a 4k remastered steelbook.
Speaker 1:There's been other like um blu-ray releases with nice slip covers that like if you're, if you're a little bit plugged in, you've, you've kind of seen this coming, and so then it all crescendos here with this re-release and obviously the the success they hoped for it, but I don't think and it doesn't sound like just from reading different articles, no one anticipated it being this great and so just so funny to think that, like when there's, I don't know, a 30 year anniversary of Coraline, you're almost going to have to study what happened here at the 15 year anniversary and praise that just as much as when the film first came out and it was a hundred million dollar movie back then.
Speaker 1:But you just, you never see this and so couldn't get out of here without just kind of bringing up Coraline because it's amazing, it's just really fun, like I, we're going to see so many different. Like I know, working in an elementary school, there will be so many Coraline costumes at Halloween this year because so many new kids are like getting exposed to it. So you just, you kind of love to see it, you know.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's super exciting. It so cool.
Speaker 1:I, I and I don't know why you know more movies should try this, this strategy because instead of doing you know, because we talked about kind of that 15 year window being the ripe time for studios to try maybe a legacy sequel or to go back and reboot something, or maybe you just try this Like it costs you no money outside of just a little bit of marketing and whatever you have to pay the theaters, you know fathom events to run your deal or whatever. But in reading what the studio heads have said, they're like we've basically spent. There's been intentionality behind the social media, growth and everything like that, and of course that costs a little bit of money. But as far as regularly marketing a film and putting a film through production, everything like that, they're like we've spent no money on this in the grand scheme of things.
Speaker 2:It's really interesting too. It must all just be marketing, because Alien, I believe, had its 45th anniversary this year and it had a new movie in the franchise coming out, so they did 45th anniversary screenings. I went to one and I was like one of six people in the theater. You know, and like you would think in a year when a new alien movie comes out, like you should be pushing that re-release just as hard. Um, because again that's just more money and and that's going to create more excitement to go see that re-release just as hard, because again that's just more money and and that's going to create more excitement to go see Romulus.
Speaker 1:Exactly, exactly, all right. So that's just, yeah, just a really interesting way to end it. I have one film I want to just give a mention to. Just I haven't seen it yet, but I cannot wait until I can watch. Strange darling. It's of amazing things talk to our friend heath triller about it today. Um, it's just not playing anywhere down here in the south sound right now. But as soon as a theater gets it I've got to see it because the buzz sounds incredible really yeah, yeah, that's all.
Speaker 2:It's a lot of buzz too.
Speaker 1:Can't wait um anything else really that are you haven't seen it ends with us yet? I know you've been hankering.
Speaker 2:I'm working my way through the book.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:Okay, yeah, I haven't been able to see that Kind of a quiet Labor Day weekend release this weekend.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's real quiet.
Speaker 2:It's really just afraid, right, ai, yeah, that's, that's the big one which is is going to be schlocky, I'm sure, pretty fun, but uh, yeah, I think, also on that note, we're going to be taking next week off for right, for the the holiday, um, and we're we're brushing up on our, on our tim burton, because we got a. We got a big tim burton episode coming here in two weeks.
Speaker 1:That's absolutely right. So just yeah, to reiterate, that'll do it for the august episode first off. But then, yeah, we will not. You will not find us on your feed. Maybe we release the crow watch along commentary um, it's just kind of like a little a little bonus fun thing, or we'll pop it over on our patreon. Become a subscriber. You can get access to that um for a low, low cost. But yeah, we're gonna take, we're gonna take next monday off for labor day, so that means no thursday release of a new episode next week. But yeah, how do you feel about you know, then having two weeks to really dive into Burton's filmography as we prep for Beetlejuice, beetlejuice?
Speaker 2:While going through this filmography I can't remember watching a director that had more promise and then just gets completely diverted. All that progress and talent gets diverted by technology, averted by technology, like I really think the advancements in technology really sends Burton on a weird and not great route Once we once we hit that's such a good teaser, that's such an interesting thought.
Speaker 1:And now I'm going to be thinking about that as I cycle through his films, because there's some, because and you know, just like off the top of my head, I got to agree with you because the times where he keeps things out of the VFX room later into the two thousands are when he's still really successful, like something. Something like Sweeney Todd amazing movie really. And and then yet, for every single one of those, there's some failed animated feature or or some hybrid film that's half live action, half animation. That just doesn't work.
Speaker 2:Yeah, the man, the man is a genius, but I think, just, unfortunately, I just think he became a little too obsessed with being able to do anything with technology.
Speaker 1:We're going to have a lot of Johnny Depp conversations too, two weeks from now. I guess we should say A lot of Johnny Depp All right, so until next time, please follow Excuse the intermission on instagram and the two of us on letterboxd to track what we are watching between shows, and we'll talk to you next time on eti, where movies still matter.
