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Box Office Weekend: Star Wars Blasts Box Office Records
With all the hype surrounding it and (the critical praise lavished upon it), is it any wonder Star Wars: The Force Awakens would do anything but succeed? Well, it did, and then some, with the best opening weekend in history with an estimated $238 million. No debut had a chance against it, even with the other big debuts trying to appeal to different audiences. Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Road Chip...[Read More]
Movie Review: Star Wars: The Force Awakens
Star Wars: The Force Awakens needed to do two things. First of all, it needed to erase the sour memory of the prequels, at least in the minds of ardent Star Wars fans. Secondly, it needed to prove it could stand with the original trilogy as a fitting sequel to Return of the Jedi (1983). Amazingly, it does both. From the opening crawl, which packs more excitement into it than any of the crawls from...[Read More]
Five Christmas Movies That Should Be Part of Your Holiday Tradition
To some, the Christmas season is all about family, celebration, fun, presents, and the birth of Christ. Those are all important things, to be sure, but to me it just isn’t a proper Christmas unless I get to a specific batch of Christmas movies. Call it obsessive if you will, but tradition feels a bit more polite. My “traditional” Christmas flick picks are a tad on the eclectic side, ranging ...[Read More]
Trailer Trashin’: The Great Pre-Star Wars Trailer Roundup!
Hello, dear readers. Sorry it’s been so long, but between work, holiday stuff, and other projects, I’ve been crazy busy during the last month and change. But Trailer Trashin’ is finally back, and what a time to return! The wait is over, Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens has arrived. And to celebrate the occasion, I’m going to give you my quick thoughts on the recent trailers for three of ne...[Read More]
Box Office Weekend: Hunger Games Tops Box Office for Fourth Week
With the box office slowing this weekend (quite possibly in part due to the release of Star Wars: The Force Awakens next weekend), not much was able to make a splash…an ironic statement, maybe, as The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2 held off the Ron Howard epic In the Heart of the Sea for a fourth week stay in first. The account of the true story behind Moby Dick could barely mount an estimated ...[Read More]
The 2015 Detroit Film Critics Society Awards Nominations
The Detroit Film Critics Society is pleased to announce the Best of 2015 nominees in ten categories. The winners will be announced on December 14, 2015. The society was founded in Spring 2007 and consists of a group of seventeen film critics who write or broadcast in the Detroit area as well as other major cities within a 150-mile radius of the city including Ann Arbor, Grand Rapids, Kalamazoo, La...[Read More]
Box Office Weekend: Mockingjay a Three-Time Winner
The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2 has certainly dropped in value, an estimated $18.6 million was all it had to show for this weekend, but it was enough to hold off all comers for a third week in a row. At $227.1 million in total gross, it is still likely a box office smash, but still the least-performing entry in the series. Compare that to Krampus, the horror/comedy about a cynical family ter...[Read More]
Box Office Weekend: Mockingjay Still Ahead, But Contenders Loom
The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2 had what would be an excellent weekend for any other film – an estimated weekend take of $51.6 million – but with an unreported budget and nearly $198.3 million in the can domestically, one wonders if Lionsgate had hoped the movie would do better, especially as it has made much less than the previous films in the series. Unfortunately, rough beginnings appear ...[Read More]
Evolution of a Champ: The Rocky Film Saga
On March 24th, 1975, struggling actor Sylvester Stallone spent his last few dollars to see boxing champ Muhammad Ali fight Chuck Wepner. Thought to be an easy win, Ali surprisingly met his match: a career brawler who was having the fight of his life. Fifteen rounds and an Ali knockdown later, Wepner lost. But the scrappy no name fighter inspired Stallone, who emerged from a twenty-hour writing bin...[Read More]
Movie Review: Creed
One of the great strengths of the Rocky franchise is its sense of a true continuing narrative, rather than a momentum-devoid series of rehashes orchestrated purely for financial gain. From the original Rocky through Rocky III, and again with 2006’s Rocky Balboa, the series’ characters actually change in interesting, logical, and significant ways from film to film. We’ll neglect the more perfunctor...[Read More]
Box Office Weekend: $100 Million for Hunger Games…But Is It Starving?
While many movies would kill for an estimated $101 million opening weekend at the box office, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2 might have been wishing for a little more…after a dip in the franchise with the last movie, this latest entry opened at nearly $20 million less. While unlikely to be considered a flop (it is getting decent enough reviews, and the worldwide gross for the franchis...[Read More]
Box Office Weekend: Place…First Place Again for Spectre
At $245 million in costs, it had quite the hurdle to overcome. But thanks to the worldwide popularity of James Bond, Spectre has become a box office success. With an estimated $35.4 million in domestic weekend gross, it has brought in $543.8 million worldwide with many more weeks left to go. In the meantime, while The Peanuts Movie is staying in a strong second place with an estimated $24.2 millio...[Read More]