Wednesday, July 2, 2014

July Movies to See to Skip

The big news for July is that a film finally made over 100 million in one weekend, and that was the atrocious Transformers: Age of Extinction.  The film is just plain bad, but people like explosions.

While Transformers will be the highest grossing film of the month, the star of the month is 22 Jump Street, which was hilarious, the film has mad 145 million and counting.  Jump Street is further proof that a quality R rated film can make money.  The Fault in Our Stars could also be seen as a big success, the film opened to 48 million domestic and has made 111 million.

In the middle ground are How to Train Your Dragon and Edge of Tomorrow.  Animated films are usually guaranteed box office gold, but this sequel, may barely crack 150 million, which is not good.  Tomorrow is in the middle, because its strong word of mouth may push it over 100 million, while not great is solid considering its opening weekend.

Jersey Boys is another nail in the coffin for the jukebox musical, think Rock of Ages.  Proving that big Broadway hits do not make hits on the big screen.  The other big loser in June is the movie theatres themselves, ticket sales are down 16 percent from last years record high.  Time to think about new strategies?  Maybe.

I am little late on this analysis of July, but man does this month look bad.

July 2nd

Tammy

Reviews are in, and this film is a mess.  No surprise, its time for Melissa McCarthy to start playing a different character.  Even her last turn in Saturday Night Live while funny was all the same.  McCarthy needs to change things up or people are going to start growing tired of her schtick 

Deliver Us From Evil 

No interest, the film looks like a run of the mill exorcist stuff.  I am not a scary movie person, so you may not want to take my word on this, but this looks pretty bad.

Earth to Echo

Echo looks pretty harmless middle of the road fun.  Might be a nice family friendly movie for the fourth of July, but nothing earth shatteringly great.


July 11th 

Dawn of Planet of the Apes

There are two movies I am looking forward to this month, and this is one of them.  The first film in the re-imagining of the origin story of this film series was fantastic.  Andy Serkis is a genius and is great in the role of Caesar.  Apes is already getting rave reviews, and critics are saying its better than the original, sold! 

Boyhood

Boyhood is another must-see, just watch the trailer.  Richard Linklater is one of my favorite directors, and people take his talent for granted too often.  Linklater is one of the few directors who knows the human spirit better than anyone.  Boyhood is defined as a moving 12 year old epic by many critics, and this could be the true indie hit of the year.


July 18th

Sex Tape

That "No one understands the cloud" joke in the trailer, is reason enough to skip this film.  While tape is rated R, which makes sense, and will make the humor make more sense with the subject matter, there is no way this will save this which pairs the Bad Teacher team together again.  

The Purge: Anarchy

The first film was one of the worst films I saw last year, and I can't imagine a sequel doing much more other than taking up wasted space.

Planes: Fire and Rescue

The first film was bad, and made no money, why is there a sequel?



July 25th 

Hercules 

Brett Ratner is directing....that's all I will be saying.  You draw your own conclusions.

Lucy 

Can Scar Jo carry her own action film?  This film will be the test for Marvel on whether they will be doing a Black Widow film.  Although I think this should be a factor, I also think that Lucy is a different kind of film, and while it does not look bad, it is not at the top of my list.


Must See in July: Boyhood, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, Lucy
Must Skip in July: The rest of the movies....



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