IMDb's message board just WOULD choose this upcoming week to go kaput.
-
Archived from the IMDb Discussion Forums — Psycho
ecarle — 9 years ago(February 09, 2017 06:32 AM)
IMDb's message board just WOULD choose this upcoming week to go kaput.
A week of two sequels of interest to me:
John Wick 2. 50 Shades Darker.
JOHN WICK 2. I'm on record as choosing and not at all reluctantly the original John Wick as my personal favorite of 2014. Oh, something more profound maybe should have beaten it, but we are talking about a movie I can watch over and over that has some sort of quality control attached here, a great look, a great overall setting(a "secret" hotel for assassins and other underworld figures declared a "no war zone;" a secret coin-money system, etc) a great cast(a guy I always root for, Keanu Reeves, backed by quality guys like Willem Dafoe and that guy from Deadwood, and ESPECIALLY that guy who played the muscular and refined Russian crime boss, a well-tailored handsome rational monster) andwall to wall shoot 'em up Kung Fun slaughter but done fun.
John Wick opened in October 2014 at a meager $14 million. Word of mouth took it up to $86 million. Hardly Marvel numbers, but better than most Oscar movies this year! But evidently its on home video and streaming that John Wick took off and kept going and merited this sequel.
They're hoping for a modest increase over 2014's opening $20 million for an opening for John Wick 2. That will power another video success and perhaps John Wick 3, say the producers. So John Wick does prove to have had more staying power as a movie character and a franchise than some thought.
They lost some good actors(killed) in the first John Wick, but Keanu is joined by his old Matrix mentor, Laurence Fishburne, in this one. And it is "internationale." Rome, I think. (Note in passing: Fishburne got his signature role as the Mentor to Neo only after guys like Sean Connery and Jean Reno turned it down. Connery didn't understand the script; Reno picked the '98 Godzilla instead to do. D'oh!)
John Wick 2. I'm in. Maybe IMDb will still be here for me to say something about it.
50 SHADES DARKER. The "male violence" of John Wick 2 goes up against the "female sex" of the newest "50 Shades" movie. I saw the first one. The plot was Lifetime movie but the sex wasfearless(ouch). Tippi Hedren's granddaughter is the female star, she's the daughter of Melanie Griffith and Don Johnson and she is continuing a family tradition of "quiet rebellion" and, in her parents' case, a healthy number of sex-and-nudity roles themselves. (Tippi, Melanie, and Don were all in the 1973 potboiler about a "college for sex" called The Harrad Experiment.)
John Wick and 50 Shades hardly summer blockbuster movies, nor Oscar-bait at all, but "on the edge" as entertainment goes. A little sex, a little violence, a lotta fun.
Manchester on the WHAT? -
swanstep — 9 years ago(February 09, 2017 03:22 PM)
John Wick and 50 Shades hardly summer blockbuster movies, nor Oscar-bait at all, but "on the edge" as entertainment goes. A little sex, a little violence, a lotta fun.
Manchester on the WHAT?
I wasn't as big a fan of John Wick as you ecarle and I found 50 Shades completely unwatchable and didn't finish it, but I do appreciate in both cases Hollywood giving people what they want. Lego Batman (a sequel to the very funny and surprisingly thoughtful Lego Movie) is also out this weekend in the US. Again, that's Hollywood being on its business game - Jack Warner and Louis B. Mayer would be proud - something for almost everyone turned out as if by a production line in a timely fashion. Hollywood makes lots of money, the fans are happy, Oscar-schmoscar. And, yes, all three will make more this weekend than
Manchester
has made in its whole run.
The big nutsy thing down this end of the world is that in Australia and NZ the original John Wick went straight to video/streaming (which caused a bit of an uproar aong local action movie fans at the time) and so far at least there are no plans to give John Wick 2 a theatrical release down under either. Local social media is currently losing its mind over this, not least because local newspaper entertainment sections have had a bunch of articles about the film and the Keanu-ssance. I'd just assumed that JW2 was getting a proper release, but no. which feels insane.
(Tippi, Melanie, and Don were all in the 1973 potboiler about a "college for sex" called The Harrad Experiment.)
I thoroughly enjoyed that movie when I caught up with it a few years ago, and found its commitment to a 'free love' message quite moving. -
ecarle — 9 years ago(February 09, 2017 10:56 PM)
John Wick and 50 Shades hardly summer blockbuster movies, nor Oscar-bait at all, but "on the edge" as entertainment goes. A little sex, a little violence, a lotta fun.
Manchester on the WHAT?
I wasn't as big a fan of John Wick as you ecarle
True. You put up with me on it though. Appreciated as these boards collapse
and I found 50 Shades completely unwatchable and didn't finish it,
I found it watchable, but kinda laughable. The idea that the primacy audience for this film is female iswell..interesting?
but I do appreciate in both cases Hollywood giving people what they want.
Well, sometimes that IS the point of the movie business. I recall being intrigued by the John Wick trailer and that line ("People keep asking me if I'm backyeah, I'm THINKING I'M BACK!) and found the movie to be much better than an anticipated. And it turns out, I wasn't alone. Still: only 86 million domestic? I suppose the ultra-violence and simplicity of the thing was never going to endear it to young audiences or mature audiences. Just us "tweeners" who like mature but somewhat childish violent entertainment.
Lego Batman (a sequel to the very funny and surprisingly thoughtful Lego Movie) is also out this weekend in the US.
Gonna beat the rest. "Kids rule the box office" since Mr. Disney. II've read those good things about the original Lego movie but haven't found the time to rent it. I should. It comes well recommended.
Again, that's Hollywood being on its business game - Jack Warner and Louis B. Mayer would be proud - something for almost everyone turned out as if by a production line in a timely fashion.
Yep. One from column A, B, C.
Hollywood makes lots of money, the fans are happy, Oscar-schmoscar. And, yes, all three will make more this weekend than Manchester has made in its whole run.
And I didn't quite mean that as the insult it sounded like.
Its just how DO movies exist ultimately? In theaters during their release? Only on the printed page via reviews and/or discussion. In our minds?
Vertigo was a minor hit, if at all a hit, on release. Psycho, a blockbuster. But now they are virtually equivalentliving in our minds, on paperon the DVD shelf.
Manchester by the Sea seems to be existing mainly, right now, "on paper." Should its nominees win some awards, it will last longer. And maybe be seen more.
I did see "You Can Count on Me" all those years ago by the same director. I saw more movies LIKE that back then.
The big nutsy thing down this end of the world is that in Australia and NZ the original John Wick went straight to video/streaming (which caused a bit of an uproar aong local action movie fans at the time)
Why? No wide screen? (I saw Wick 1 in IMAX, I might add; I felt I'd get more bang for the buck.)
and so far at least there are no plans to give John Wick 2 a theatrical release down under either. Local social media is currently losing its mind over this, not least because local newspaper entertainment sections have had a bunch of articles about the film and the Keanu-ssance. I'd just assumed that JW2 was getting a proper release, but no. which feels insane.
Hmm"bucking the trend"? Well, if even the studio is only banking on a $20 million opening, I guess the cost of prints in NZ isn't worth it
But John Wick DOES have a following. It grew and grew. Something about Keanu Reeves as such a merciless savage "but all in a good cause." (They killed his damn PUPPY. How can Wick 2 top that?) And yet Wick is often polite and courtly between killings. ("Do you have dry cleaning?" "Sir, no dry cleaning is THAT good." "I thought not.")
(Tippi, Melanie, and Don were all in the 1973 potboiler about a "college for sex" called The Harrad Experiment.)
I thoroughly enjoyed that movie when I caught up with it a few years ago, and found its commitment to a 'free love' message quite moving.
Well, I saw it on release in '73 when I was quite young and I remember that it was quite titillating. Can't say I remember the actual message. Maybe worth another look -
ecarle — 9 years ago(February 12, 2017 08:11 PM)
Before speaking to my own experience of John Wick 2, I will note:
Its producers were hoping for a $20 million opening weekend and they got $30 milliondouble the original's 14 million. With hopes high for "VOR" income (which used to be VHS and used to be DVD income), this will be hit enough for John Wick 3.
But the film also got some rave reviews. 91% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes (versus 10% fresh for 50 Shades Darker.)
I read three of the reviews one on the Roger Ebert website, one by Peter Travers of Rolling Stone, and one at the more staid and squeamish LA Times and they were all pretty much raves. Mainly for the choreographed fights in "full long shots with no intercutting" but also happily for Keanu Reeves as a fully reconstituted action star with movie star charisma and bona fides. Its a win-win for Keanu. He has a new franchise(but not so big as to ruin it), he's rehabilitated as a star. And hey, even these FAKE fights look damn hard on the body of the 50 plus year old Reeves.
It felt good to read these reviews. For some reason, I've always rooted for Keanu possibly after I read that he donated some of his "percentage point" income from The Matrix to the stunt men on the film. At least one of whom, I believe, has directed both John Wicks and now has bona fide stylistic auteur credentials.
I watched John Wick 1 to get ready for this and I was again impressed with the massive style of its look, and the "thematic qualities" of its "Continental Hotel" for hit persons, with some ironclad rules of conduct, mainly: "no business(fighting or killing) allowed at the hotel." Or you get killed yourself.
Also with John Wick 1, dare I say that it rather resembled "Psycho" in being extremely simple and yet complex at the same time. Simple: a punk Russian mob son killed Wick's puppy Wick will kill 84 men and counting to kill that kid, even as the kid's crime boss dad regrets having to pit his men to the death to save the life of punk he's ashamed to have for a son. Complex: the moment when the father decides on his own to GIVE THAT KID up. This decision reverberates through the final act of John Wick and gives the action a sting.
With a spirituality one can take or leave, John Wick 1 has the Russian crime boss note to a captured Wick that neither of these evil men(the boss AND Wick) could expect to get away scot free from God's judgment: Wick lost his wife to cancer; and the Russian crime boss' son was put on course to kill the puppy and bring down his father's empire.
As is unfortunately the case with sequels, "John Wick 2" piles on more of everything, but perhaps the worst pour is: more PLOT. A lot more plot. And in this one, when Wick is unleashed on various henchpeople and hit people in bloody battlethe personal revenge angle(the puppy FROM the dead wife as a last gift) is goneand the carnage is "all business."
In short, the "too simple" plot of John Wick 1 proves to be sorely missed as John Wick 2 spreads out, curlicues, and doubles back on its own myriad plot lines.
But it is hard to complain about a film that this time piles Old World opulence upon the modern-era stylishness of the first film. This film is a feast for the eyes and well in tune with film history in general: one of the big shootout, knife-out, Kung-Fu out fightfests takes place in a hall of mirrorsLady From Shanghai updated for the CGI generation.
The reliance of the franchise on the brilliant "Continental Hotel" concept is advanced in many ways this time out including Wick's stay at the "Continental Hotel" in ROME. Where Franco Nero(still as handsome as ever 50 years after Camelot) is the manager.
(I also like the more detailed return of an "accounts payable" office staffed with beautiful tattooed women and one older one in a 1940's style switchboard room in which they accept orders for open hit contracts and the like, very professionally. Its a reflection of the style within the script as well as on the screen.)
I almost feel like referring any reader to the Roger Ebert site and the Rolling Stone site to get my feel for this movie. But the Ebert reviewer went nuts for John Wick II in a way Icould not. It was just too much this time, and the loss of the puppy angle took all the emotion away.
But there are other pleasures: the gorgeous and historic-feeling interiors. A surfeit of artwork and statuary; a great sequence in which an "open contract" on Wick brings out a veritable army of assassins to try killing him in different locations and different ways, including a Sumo wrestler and a female violinist.
And eventually Keanu reconnects with Larry. Fishburne. From The Matrix. Yes, Neo and Morpheus are back together for the first time!
Though John Wick is coming up fast, The Matrix is Keanu's signature film. John Wick has already BEATEN The Matrix in that its second sequel is GOOD, which didn't happen with The Matrix. On the other hand, the original Matrix was original in ways that John Wick cannot be.
In any event, it is ten tons of