‘Happy Death Day’ is fine

Posted on October 13, 2017 by reelentropy

Reviews are praising Jessica Rothe’s breakout performance, and it’s deserved enough. She’s fine. Image courtesy Universal Pictures.

5/10 For the first Oct. 13 that falls on a Friday in 11 years, Universal and Blumhouse Studios bring us Happy Death Day, a mashup of Groundhog Day and a standard slasher film. It’s expected to take no. 1 at the box office this weekend.

That’s fine.

I can’t really think of anything else still in theaters this weekend that I’d rather see.  

In Happy Death Day, Tree Gelbman (Jessica Rothe) awakens in the dorm room of fellow college student Carter Davis (Israel Broussard) with a nasty hangover. Gelbman drifts through her birthday like any other, blowing off roommates, sleeping with the biochem teacher and trying to fit in with her awful sorority sisters. That night, she’s murdered by a masked figure. She awakens and re-lives the same day, finding herself on the wrong end of a kitchen knife again and again no matter where she goes or what she does. After her initial shock wears off, Gelbman begins working to eliminate suspects and figure out who is killing her.

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The Möbius strip: ‘Blade Runner’ flops, Harvey Weinstein exposed as a sexual predator

Posted on October 10, 2017 by reelentropy

Image courtesy Warner Bros.

Blade Runner 2049 won the weekend box office, but its $32.8 million intake was a fraction of the $50 million domestic the studios were expecting. That said, it should hardly surprise that a film saddled with the combined incompetence of both Warner Bros. and Sony disappointed- Box Office Mojo

The sequel to a 35-year-old science fiction classic, Blade Runner 2049 failed critically to draw in young or female viewers. According to industry analysis, 65 percent of the film’s viewers were male and a staggering 77 percent were over the age of 25. It’s also speculated that the ensuing MLB playoffs and terror from last week’s mass shooting in Las Vegas, where one of the film’s key scenes is set, could have been a factor- Indiewire

It will be incredibly interesting to see how this film plays out over the stretch — the next really high-profile blockbuster, Thor: Ragnarok, isn’t until November, and 2049 has received critical adulation and Oscar talk- The New York Times

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‘Blade Runner 2049’ is perfect

Posted on October 6, 2017 by reelentropy

Images courtesy Warner Bros. Pictures.

10/10 Ana Stelline (Carla Juri) makes the best memory implants in the business.

The classic 1982 film Blade Runner, which is set in 2019, hinges on the implementation of these implants into replicants, synthetic humans designed for military and slave labor. Artificial memories allow replicants to better mimic human behavior, but led to them developing emotions and working toward their own rights. After an uprising in 2022, their production was banned, and the Tyrell Corporation, which made its fortune building replicants, went out of business. Since then, business mogul Niander Wallace (Jared Leto) adapted the synthesis technology for agriculture, which more or less saved the world. In 2036, he bullies lawmakers into allowing the production and sale of replicants once more, some of whom still use memory implants.

In Blade Runner 2049, Stelline tells Officer K (Ryan Gosling) that people think details are what makes a memory powerful, but that’s not how the mind works. What makes a memory powerful is how it makes you feel when you remember it.

How true of film, as well.

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The Möbius Strip: ‘Kingsman’ takes a quiet weekend in photo finish

Posted on October 3, 2017 by reelentropy

Image courtesy 20th Century Fox.

Kingsman: The Golden Circle barely took its second box office crown in a tight race with It and newcomer American Made. The three films were separated top to bottom by less than $200,000, and none made more than $20 million on the eve of next week’s hotly anticipated Blade Runner 2049- Box Office Mojo

American Made has already pulled in $81.7 million internationally after an additional week in release. Examining Tom Cruise’ spectacular track record abroad- Film School Rejects

It has driven the best September box office ever and owns several records, but after adjusting for inflation the movie is still pretty far off of several of those same records- Indiewire

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‘Battle of the Sexes’ an unexpected delight

Posted on September 29, 2017 by reelentropy

It’s so incredibly strange in 2017 to watch a movie about people going into a conversation on opposite sides of women’s rights and coming out of it as friends. Images courtesy Fox Searchlight Pictures.

8/10 Battle of the Sexes is one of those wonderful biopics that concerns much more than the events it depicts.

On the surface, the film chronicles the lives of Billie Jean King (Emma Stone), a tennis star in her prime, and Bobby Riggs (Steve Carell), who had been a two-time world champion in the mid-40s, in the leadup to their 1973 tennis match billed as the Battle of the Sexes. King had been fighting an uphill battle for equal pay for female tennis players, officially splitting off from the Association of Tennis Professionals to form the Women’s Tennis Association over the issue. Upon hearing this, Riggs, famously a businessman and a bit of a ham, challenged King to a tennis match, claiming that even at age 55, he could beat even the top woman player in the world. Drawing a global viewing audience of 90 million, their duel remains one of the most watched tennis matches in history.

Riggs’ chauvinism was widely dismissed as an act to draw attention to the match, and he and King remained friends until his death in 1995. Considered one of the best tennis players of all time, King came out as gay in 1981 and was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2009 for her contributions to tennis, women’s rights and the LGBT community.

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