Last week marked N7 Day, which means Mass Effect fans broke out the fan art and BioWare vaguely gestured at the upcoming fifth game. The studio said this year would be a quiet one, as the team just released Dragon Age: The Veilguard earlier in the week. But that doesn’t mean we can’t still discuss the series and…
When Kevin Smith made Clerks, he was on top of the indie comedy scene. With that, he had some clout to get his next movie going without much of a wait. Unfortunately, it was about as well-received as a stink palm, forcing Smith back to the drawing board — or the comic book panels, returning with Chasing Amy in a go-for-broke move.
Chasing Amy still remains one of the bravest films of the 1990s, not only for its content but for how Kevin Smith used it as a way to show he still had a place in the business. As he remembers in the new documentary Chasing Chasing Amy (via People), “Clerks began my career. Mallrats killed it. So you got me needing to do something to stay in this business, or else we were out. That’s a big part of where [the movie] comes from.”
With Chasing Amy, Kevin Smith concluded what is commonly known as his Jersey Trilogy. He, too, redeemed himself and showed he could mix lowbrow humor with genuine maturity. Honestly, in a year that had films like Boogie Nights, L.A. Confidential, Good Will Hunting, Jackie Brown, and so many more, I’m not against Chasing Amy being in the conversation of the best films of 1997.
While Chasing Amy is perfect as a standalone film, Kevin Smith has gone back to the well for the first movies in the Jersey Trilogy, giving Clerks its own trilogy and trying to get a Mallrats sequel out of the food court — something that is as close as ever to happening.
Chasing Amy would end up being a critical favorite and garner a number of awards, winning two Independent Spirit Awards for Kevin Smith’s screenplay and Jason Lee’s turn as Banky. But it wouldn’t be lead Joey Lauren Adams that Smith would praise the most, saying, “And then, of course, Joey. Chasing Amy without Joey would’ve been a soulless husk, like an idea.” Adams would be nominated for the Golden Globe in the Musical or Comedy category, losing out to Helen Hunt for As Good As It Gets.
Where would you rank Chasing Amy in Kevin Smith’s filmography? Do you think he redeemed himself with that movie?
The post Kevin Smith had to make Chasing Amy to save his career appeared first on JoBlo.
The song remains the same this weekend as Venom: The Last Dance follows our predictions from earlier this week and takes the top box office spot for the third weekend in a row. This marks yet another successful three-day outing for a franchise entry despite another drop in domestic dollars. While it will still go down as the lowest-grossing chapter in the series (by a long shot), it’s not the box office disaster some predicted it could be, with its take dwarfing that of Morbius, Madame Web, The Marvels, and Joker: Folie a Deux.
Without a whole lot of genuine competition, Venom: The Last Dance easily took the #1 spot this weekend, taking in $16.2 million and upping its total box office haul to just under $115 million. It’s worth noting that the first two movies in the series had each taken in somewhere around the $141-$142 million range domestically by their second weekend. The 2018 original would earn $213.5 million domestically and $856 million worldwide, while 2021’s Let There Be Carnage had similar domestic earnings but fared far worse worldwide with $501.5 million.
Regarding second place at the box office, both Heretic and The Best Christmas Pageant Ever were after the number two spot. But The Best Christmas Pageant Ever nabbed that spot with $11.1 million. Heretic – led by Hugh Grant and some post-Halloween horror fare – wasn’t far behind at all with an even $11 million. To note, the faith-based Best Christmas Pageant boasts a notable A CinemaScore rating, while Heretic only mustered a C rating, which isn’t that unusual for the genre.
The Wild Robot would take the fourth spot (it was at #2 last weekend), while Smile 2’s $5 million would round out the top five, pushing it past the $60 million mark.
Robert Zemeckis’ Here would continue its extremely fast slide into history with $2.4 million, putting it at the #8 spot after debuting at #5 last weekend with just under $5 million on a budget pegged upwards of 10 times as much (in due part to both starring Tom Hanks and making extensive use of de-aging AI.
Rounding out the top 10 would be Conclave at #6 ($4.1 million). That award-worthy drama only fell 19% this weekend, with a grand total of over $21 million. If word-of-mouth holds, expect it to be around $35 million domestically. Meanwhile, one of the fall’s most acclaimed films, Sean Baker’s Anora, finally cracked the top 10 at #7 with $2.5 million. A24’s We Live in Time hit #9 with 2.2 million, and Terrifier 3 hung in at the #10 spot with $1.5 million.
As mentioned, franchise fare has ruled the box office this fall, with only The Wild Robot breaking up such fare over the past few months, interrupting Beetlejuice Beetlejuice from its eventual $449 million worldwide haul. As far as original fare goes, you’d have to go back all the way to May for a non-franchise movie, when Paramount’s IF took the top spot.
Next week should be fairly slow at the box office, with the only major release that could rank as Red One, which stars Dwayne Johnson, J.K. Simmons, Chris Evans, and Lucy Liu. But this is all just a holdover until the pre-Thanksgiving boom, when we’ll see Wicked and Gladiator II stepping into the arena – or the Land of Oz, depending on your preferred venue – to fight it out for the top spot.
What did you catch at the movies this weekend? Which movies do you expect to reign supreme in the coming weeks?
The post Weekend Box Office: Venom dances to #1 for 3rd straight week appeared first on JoBlo.
Hey, I don’t know if you’ve heard, but a lot happened this past week. Some of it may or may not have been newsworthy. Nevertheless, to get you through, we’ve kept you abreast of all the tips, deals, and reviews your nihilistic heart could desire. This includes articles on the perfectly cathartic Wolfenstein games, the…
Hey, I don’t know if you’ve heard, but a lot happened this past week. Some of it may or may not have been newsworthy. Nevertheless, to get you through, we’ve kept you abreast of all the tips, deals, and reviews your nihilistic heart could desire. This includes articles on the perfectly cathartic Wolfenstein games, the…
Just because Bruce Wayne won’t be appearing in HBO’s The Penguin doesn’t mean Colin Farrell will be waddling away from the movie’s sequel. Only, Farrell is light on any details, not even fully confirming just what The Batman follow-up has planned for Oz Cobb, if anything.
As played by Farrell, Oz Cobb aka The Penguin was a breakout character, something that those behind the scenes had a feeling would be the case, as his spinoff series was in talks before The Batman even hit screens. With the show itself now an insanely popular hit and one of the best-reviewed in years (read our 10/10 review here), it’s almost assured that he’ll be developed even further. As Farrell put it, “I have no idea what the second film is gonna be. I heard Penguin features in it. I haven’t read it. It’d be interesting to see where we pick up from. There’s been so much pipe laid. It’d be interesting to see where it goes from here, you know? But he would be quite different.”
“Quite different” is an understatement, as Cobb has been through a hell of a lot in his namesake series — certainly more than he could be allotted in The Batman. With just one episode left (set to air on November 10th), we can’t wait to see what sort of state the show leaves Cobb in. While Farrell might be playing coy as far as how much he knows about the future of Oz Cobb and The Batman sequel, we love his enthusiasm for and commitment to the character. Unlike Cobb, at the end of the day, this is not all about money.
As for faces in the Batman rogues gallery other than The Penguin making their way to the small screen, James Gunn has debunked rumors that Barry Keoghan’s Joker would be getting his own spinoff series. While that does sound promising, maybe we all need a little break from the Clown Prince of Crime…
How have you felt about The Penguin? Do you see Oz Cobb taking over as the top villain in the Batman franchise? Give us your thoughts and predictions in the comments section.
The post What will The Penguin’s role be in The Batman sequel? appeared first on JoBlo.
Typically, Veterans’ Day weekend sees the release of a new Marvel movie, with Black Panther: Wakanda Forever a hit in 2022, while The Marvels …well…not in 2023. Despite no new Marvel film for the rest of the year, the studio did drop two new trailers this weekend as part of their D23 Brazil event. We got a new trailer for Captain America: Brave New World and a new, extended look at Thunderbolts. Plus – there are more movies on the way, even if the studio is now seemingly embracing a new “less is more” approach. Take the poll below and let us know what new Marvel movie has you the most excited!
The post Poll: What’s Your Most Anticipated Marvel Movie? appeared first on JoBlo.
The new mobile card game Pokémon TCG Pocket has been with us for just over a week, which has given 20 million people time to discover its highs, lows, and utterly bewildering mess of in-game currencies. It’s also, unfortunately, long enough for most people to have left the honeymoon phasein which the game throws…
The new mobile card game Pokémon TCG Pocket has been with us for just over a week, which has given 20 million people time to discover its highs, lows, and utterly bewildering mess of in-game currencies. It’s also, unfortunately, long enough for most people to have left the honeymoon phasein which the game throws…
Plot: Follows an American couple taking their daughter Claire to her grandfather Lawrence’s grand hotel in Italy to tell her they’re breaking up. Claire insists on celebrating Christmas in August to bring the family together, leading to unexpected complications. Claire’s other grandparents arrive to join the festivities, bringing secrets and adding further intricacy.
Review: It is that time of year again as new Christmas movies are hitting screens big and small. Typically, unless it is a big studio production, we don’t cover a lot of holiday movies on this site as they can often feel like nothing more than a Hallmark or Lifetime original project. The new film A Sudden Case of Christmas is somewhere in the middle. Boasting the great Danny DeVito, A Sudden Case of Christmas also features Andie MacDowell and Wilmer Valderrama, as well as Lucy DeVito, the daughter of Danny and Rhea Perlman. A screwball comedy of errors combined with an unexpected holiday theme, A Sudden Case of Christmas is a mix of family-friendly humor with some mature themes that sometimes feel at odds with one another. But, it is still a charming showcase for the elder and younger DeVitos.
A Sudden Case of Christmas is set in the beautiful Dolomite Mountains of Italy, a location not commonly seen in American films. In the film, the mountain range is home to an exclusive hotel resort owned by Lawrence Armanetti (Danny DeVito), a widower struggling to keep the place open with dwindling reservations. Lawrence is also preparing for a summer visit from his granddaughter Claire Randall (Antonella Rose), who is coming with Lawrence’s daughter, Abbie (Lucy DeVito), and son-in-law Jacob (Wilmer Valderrama). Excited to see his family, Lawrence is shocked that Abbie and Jacob have decided to get divorced and wants to break the news to Claire during the visit. When Claire finds out, she comes up with a plan to celebrate one last family Christmas despite it being six months early. The family obliges and invites Jacobs’s parents, Rose (Andie MacDowell) and Mark (Jose Zuniga), and the shenanigans begin.
When I started watching A Sudden Case of Christmas, I was preparing for a Hallmark-esque comedy full of wholesome humor and far too many Yuletide puns. There is a lot going on in this film that makes it difficult to qualify it as one particular film. Yes, it falls into the blander category of made-for-television holiday films, but it also has elements that deviate from that formula. On the one hand, the film focuses on Claire and the local preteens around the hotel, who have a subplot that involves boyfriends and dating that takes about four years to mature the characters. There is also a plot involving an extramarital affair involving one of the main characters, who feels out of place for a family-friendly project. Elements of this story could have worked better if the film had been remade as a randy PG-13 comedy or a kid-centric PG movie, but it instead splits the difference and tries to do both.
While this movie could easily have been written off as just an opportunity for Danny DeVito and his daughter to enjoy a nice Italian vacation while filming for a month, it does benefit from the father and daughter having some fun chemistry. Danny DeVito has been seen on screen for so many years that he easily could have phoned this performance in, but the genuine energy he brings along with Lucy had me smiling throughout the film. Most of the cast do a decent job of not letting this turn into a bland cash grab, especially Adrian Dunbar, who plays jack-of-all-trades Otto as one of the funnier elements of the film. The surprising standout is Antonella Rose, who plays Claire with a skill well beyond her years. Child actors can be either too much or not enough, but Rose has the potential to be a solid performer for years to come, based on what she does in this movie.
Written by director Peter Chelsom alongside Tinker Lindsay, A Sudden Case of Christmas is mired in the holiday stereotypes of every Christmas movie that came before it. The unique Italian setting does give the film a distinctiveness that otherwise would have had it blend into every other film released at this time of year. Chelsom, known for directing Hannah Montana: The Movie, Shall We Dance?, Serendipity, Town & Country, and more, has extensive experience writing and directing romantic comedies. A Sudden Case of Christmas is his first holiday feature, and it does show that while he has the skill behind the camera to adeptly handle the multiple romantic subplots going on, he relies too heavily on tried-and-true Christmas themes that bog down this story in tropes used countless times to better effect.
A Sudden Case of Christmas is not a bad movie, but it is also not a great one. With so many Christmas films, the biggest mistake you can make is falling in with the pack. Thanks to Danny DeVito and Lucy DeVito sharing as much chemistry on screen as they do in real life, A Sudden Case of Christmas benefits from a talented ensemble who have fun with the material. You could do a lot worse than this film and will likely have a happy group of family around the television if you put this on during the get-together this December.
A Sudden Case of Christmas opens in theaters, digital, and on demand on November 8th.
The post A Sudden Case of Christmas Review: Danny DeVito and Lucy DeVito star in a sweet holiday comedy appeared first on JoBlo.