CinemaNerdz

The Preview Reel: Despicable Me 3, Baby Driver, and The House

Scott Davis
The Preview Reel

Welcome to this week’s “Preview Reel” column, where we look at the week’s upcoming wide release movies. North American audiences showed their growing tiredness of the Transformers series when it opened to a measly $69.3 million over five days last weekend. That might seem like a lot, but in comparison to the third installment opened to $162.6 million over five days in 2011, it’s not good news for Paramount. While last week might have tried to hit audiences over the head with constant explosions, this week seems to try to put a smile on audiences faces. The Despicable Me series returns with their third installment, Edgar Wright’s Baby Driver zooms into theaters, and Amy Poehler and Will Ferrell go for R-rated laughs in The House. All light-hearted movies, which is what we need after Transformers: The Last Knight.

 

Despicable Me 3

What we are excited about: The Despicable Me franchise has never been groundbreaking, but it has been consistent when it comes to comedy. The first two and the Minions spinoff featured a kind of Looney Tunes sense of humor and zaniness. That might be exhausting for older viewers, but it does keep the little ones entertained. While Illumination is nowhere near the pedigree of other animated studios like Pixar, Laika, or Disney, the studio does do a good job of providing funny entertainment that is sure to keep the kids entertained (and show them toys for their parents to buy them). They make family movies entertaining, which is certainly not always the case.

What we are worried about: Over saturation. We’ve had two cute, light-hearted installments and a pretty uninspired spinoff in the Despicable Me universe. Do we really need a third one? There’s no wondering why a third one exists, Minions alone made over a billion dollars (not a typo) at the global box office two summers ago. This is a huge moneymaking property for Universal, but the series has never been considered one of the best animated franchises out there. It pales in comparison to series like Toy Story, How to Train Your Dragon, Kung Fu Panda, or even the earlier Shrek films. The first two are entertaining, but they lack any true depth to give them lasting appeal. The first one came out seven years ago but already feels incredibly dated. We’re not sure if any new life could be breathed into this series, but we’ll probably be writing the same thing come three years from now about Minions 2 (again, not a typo).

The Buzz: It’s hard not to know this movie is coming out given all of the tied-in merchandise and commercials on television, but that’s expected with a Despicable Me movie. The reviews for the movie have been mostly good as it sits at 71% on RottenTomatoes and a 55 on MetaCritic. The movie won’t reach the heights of the Minions’ opening weekend of $115 million, but it should still take the top spot with an impressive $90 million.

Final Thoughts: If you have already taken the kids to see Cars 3, Despicable Me 3 looks to be a solid option. If you’re not a kid, maybe just wait until this hits home video before checking it out.

 

Baby Driver

What we are excited about: Edgar Wright, the director of some of the most original genre mash-up comedies like Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz, and Scott Pilgrim vs. The World is the reason to be excited for this movie. He is one of the most daring directors working today and it’s been a while since we have seen a new Wright film. His last theatrical release was the insanely funny The World’s End, and we were supposed to be treated to his vision of Ant-Man but he left that project due to creative differences. We’ve been waiting for his next movie for a while and based off the trailers and early word, it looks like we are in for one heck of a toe-tapping treat.

What we are worried about: There’s not much we are worried about with this film other than the fact that Wright usually succeeds when he is able to almost spoof the genre his film is in. Like Shaun of the Dead is a light parody of the horror genre, Hot Fuzz the action genre, and The World’s End the sci-fi genre. Baby Driver doesn’t really look like a spoof of the car heist movie but more of a straight-forward film. We’re wondering if the comedy will be as strong here. We have confidence that Wright will win out and maybe this will open the door for him to do more of his own original ideas down the road.

The Buzz: Buzz for this movie has been insanely strong over the past month or so as critics have been absolutely loving the movie. Some critics are calling it the best movie of the year and the film currently sits at 98% on RottenTomatoes and 85 on MetaCritic. This is a film that will show strong legs as more people will check this out if they are sick of the latest summer blockbusters. Look for a five-day opening around $20 million.

Final Thoughts: We have been waiting for the next movie from Edgar Wright for years, and based off the trailers and reviews, it seems like Baby Driver will be worth the wait.

 

The House

What we are excited about: Amy Poehler and Will Ferrell are two of the most recognizable comedy faces working today so the idea of them co-starring in a movie is automatically appealing. We think their senses of humor have the potential to match up perfectly and we hope The House is the movie to do just that.

What we are worried about: While we think Ferrell and Poehler are a great match for each other, based off the trailers, we don’t think The House will be that movie. It’s a funny concept, but nothing about this movie looks all that funny. Again, promoting comedies are tricky to do since you do not want to give away the film’s best material, but you also want to make the movie look funny. Hopefully this is the case of the former rather than the latter, but we’ll see.

The Buzz: There is next to no buzz for this movie which is a little concerning. No reviews have been published yet, which is not good news this close to a release date. With younger audiences focused on Despicable Me 3 or Transformers: The Last Knight, and older audiences focused on Baby Driver, we think this movie will likely get lost in the shuffle. Look for an opening around $10 million.

Final Thoughts: This might be an example of a good movie to rent a couple months down the line and not one you need to rush out to see. Especially when there’s product like Baby Driver available.

Scott Davis

Scott Davis is a recent graduate of Oakland University where he earned a degree in journalism. He worked for the student newspaper on campus, The Oakland Post, where he became the paper's managing editor. He also earned a minor in Cinema Studies at OU. Scott enjoys all things film and TV related, especially the blockbuster kind. He might be the biggest Christopher Nolan fan you know.
Exit mobile version