What's In Theaters +: Wanna know what I heard??
PINNED: this newsletter started as a way to highlight movies coming to theaters (see: the name). Then, "the bullshit" happened. And I started featuring movies in theaters, VOD or streaming (see: the +). Point is, if there's a movie worth checking out, you'll probably find it here.
I could've just put this in the Extra Credit section and moved on, but I didn't and I'm not. This weekend they (Jim Cameron and Disney) are re-releasing Avatar in theaters again. "Again," because they've brought the movie back a few times before. But this push is getting a fancy new trailer and a whole media campaign. Interviews with Cameron where he (I presume) delightfully recounts stories of telling studio people to fuck off when he was making Avatar "because Titanic."
You could say this feels like it's all a push to make people care about the original again so that when the sequel comes out in December, they care about that one too. And you'd be right. Don't think there's any hiding that. It's interesting because as we've talked about before, 13 years is a long gap between sequels. But in the same interview I linked to above, Cameron doesn't even bother to use the recent, and massive, Top Gun: Maverick success as a rebuttal but instead uses this bit, "My personal experience goes like this: I made a sequel called “Aliens,” seven years after the first movie. It was very well received. I made a sequel called “Terminator 2,” seven years after the first movie. It did an order of magnitude of more, in revenue, than the first film."
"I made a sequel called..." hah, what a cock! And yet, no one can argue, because he's fucking right. He's been right literally every time. Even his only "bomb," The Abyss, wasn't even a bomb, just not the biggest movie ever. The big hook here is of course seeing Avatar "the way it was meant to be seen" - i.e. in 3D and in theaters. Plus, even if they wanted to people couldn't watch it in 3D at home because no one has a 3D TV anymore, in large part because no maker even sells them. That shit became passé faster than fanny packs in the 90's. And yet... fanny packs are back, they're just called waist packs now. So does that mean 3D is back too? No, not likely. Because whereas most fanny packs, regardless of style, satisfy the basic tenet of holding stuff, most 3D content was bad and hurt your eyes - because of the glasses, dark picture and often the content itself. Avatar was really the only movie I remember ever being worth watching in tri-dimensions. So it does have that going for it.
But more importantly, what if it this pre-campaign backfires? What if people are like yeeeeaaaahhhh, that shit ain't cool anymore and it creates a negative press cycle. Or worse, it's "problematic" for some reason or another. I don't remember the movie well enough to say. But there is a decent chance I re-watch it in theaters because I'll want to watch the sequel come Xmas time with context. But I don't really haaaaave to. You could say it's almost more out of diligence than desire? 🤷♂️
What about you? Any interest? I know you probably wont' reply, but I'd love it if you did. 😘
Extra Credit Movies:
Bandit - true life story of a dude who robbed a bunch of banks in Canada. Josh Duhamel plays the dude. Mel Gibson co-stars for bad guy gravitas (and controversy). Reviews say it makes sense it went direct to streaming (a dig, but not as much of one as it may imply). Played in limited theaters and Streaming on Friday.
Railway Children - remake, redo, re-something of a well liked British story. Kids during WW 2 are sent to English countryside and get into hijinks of sorts. The reviews are just fine, which is what the movie itself looks like. Playing in (not sure how many) Theaters this Friday.
DON'T WORRY DARLING
Gossip. A word that when broken down to its latin roots is a combination of "go" which of course means to begin a journey and "ssip" which means to drink from the well of the eternal. Which essentially means that if you want to live forever, you should discuss other people's business. Wait, is that really what it means? No! That was total bullshit! But with the ferocity that people have been writing news articles, tweeting hot takes and posting TikTok takedowns about things that may or may not have happened in the making of and during the lead up to the release of Olivia Wilde's second directing venture Don't Worry Darling, you'd almost hope that's what it means. Because now instead of trying to live forever, people are just being a bunch of turd nuggets. But look, I get it, it's hard not to get pulled into they-said-they-saids, wonder who pissed off whom, debate if that was that spit or not (yes, really) - especially when the "they's" involved are pretty people we watch to entertain us. If you're confused, the gist is there's been a whole lot of discussion around this movie that has nothing to do with the actual movie. A quick explainer from The NY Times, which even as an explainer, is kinda gross. Whatever.
But you know what's maybe even sadder than a bunch of people reveling in schadenfreude? The movie, for all the hope and hoopla, apparently isn't all that good. 😕 And worse, it's not being poorly received for some big artistic reach that ultimately doesn't work, there more seems to be this collective take from reviews of, "...that's it?" And while the setting of a manicured and "idyllic" 1950's where the husbands go off to do "important things" and the wives get to wife-it-up all day with free shopping and dance classes sure seems like interesting fodder for a takedown of the patriarchy, critics say that even with all the well dressed sets and actors, the story is much too heavy handed and predictable.
Florence Pugh is getting lots of love for her acting though, as is Chris Pine as the villainous overseer of the whole endeavor. Harry Styles, the "world's biggest pop star," does enough not to be mocked, but views are still split on whether his acting skills can carry a movie in the future.
Really wish I had more positive things to say here! Alas.
Vibe: pretty and pretty clunky
Out Friday
Watch In Theaters
The Trailer | 2 hrs 3 mins | R | 🍅: 32%
LOU
So you want a Liam Neeson style action movie that doesn't star Liam Neeson, but also looks better than a Liam Neeson action movie? I got you.
You've loved Ms Allison Janney since the first time you saw her spar with President Bartlet as White House press secretary C.J. Cregg in The West Wing? Bro, you're gooooood.
You love it when actors do all their own stunts and would watch all the behind the scenes videos you can get? Right. Friggen. Here.
You've gotten the point and we can move on because you're getting bored of this schtick? ...um *cough* right. You're the boss.
Yeah, it's Allison Janney as a badass with a past who helps desperate, but motivated mom Jurnee Smollett (Lovecraft Country) find her abducted daughter. Shit gets rainy, bad guy noses get broke, daughters get saved?
Pretty sure you know the answer.
Vibe: Liam Neeson action movie sans Liam Neeson
Out Friday
Watch Streaming on Netflix
The Trailer | 1 hr 47 mins | R | 🍅: TBD
A JAZZMAN'S BLUES
Tyler Perry is very well known for portraying his alter ego Madea as well as producing an almost ludicrous amount of television show and movies. So many that it's made him a billionaire. Yup, with a big fat B. And yet, he said at the Toronto International Film Festival he's just now feeling like he can be comfortable making a movie based on a script he wrote 27 years ago. That's a lot of money and that's a long time. The two are linked in part because the money has secured him a position which would be much harder to lose now that he literally owns his own 300-acre studio. So even if he has a stinker, he can rely on all his other successes.
Does this imply A Jazzman's Blues is a stinker? No, it doesn't, but I think Perry's stuff is the definition of what works well for one may not work for another. But regardless of its perceived quality, it most certainly feels like a Tyler Perry production, if on a much bigger scale. Because along with Madea, Perry is known for making content that is focused on DRAMA with a capital everything. While there aren't a ton of reviews, you can glean from them that even if the movie still has plenty of hyped up theatrics, they're slightly more subdued here. That might be in part because of the nature of the story itself. Which is a love story about a young Black couple - Bayou and LeAnne - in the 1940's / 50' deep south who are separated by outside players and where their romance ultimately ends in tragedy. <-- not a spoiler, something learned in the beginning of the movie.
And while I reference The Notebook as part of the "vibe" below, Jazzman's Blues layers in dynamics of race, both between white and Black people, but also within the Black community itself. But if you're looking for more nuanced discussions around those issues, there are likely more focused movies (see: Rebecca Hall's Passing), whereas with Jazzman's Blues you come for the romance and you stay for that same romance.
Vibe: The Notebook, but like more dramatic and tragic?
Out Friday
Watch Streaming on Netflix
The Trailer | 2 hrs 7 mins | PG-13 | 🍅: 63% *limited reviews*
(called out from top, left to right)
Strange World - it is indeed a strange world where this isn't a Pixar movie, but instead a "Disney Animation" production. Wait, what's the difference again....? Regardless, fun looking stuff from your entertainment overlord.
I Wanna Dance With Somebody - when they splash "from the writer of Bohemian Rhapsody" across the screen in the trailer for this Whitney Houston biopic, deeeeef feels like something that's gonna hurt or help your opinion.
Hellraiser- the remake comes just in time to steal your soul, I mean breath, for Halloween (and inspire some costumes).
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