I know the title says April 29th, but May started Wednesday, and with it the Summer Movie Season. This summer has a little of everything. There are sequels (Inside Out 2, Bad Boys for Life, Twisters), prequels (Furiosa, Quiet Place: Day One), and Oscar threats (Sing Sing, Bikeriders). June brings us Chapter 1 of Horizon, aka Costner’s big gamble, and July is where the hope of the MCU’s survival lives in Deadpool & Wolverine. Something to keep an eye on is the box office returns. The Spring didn’t have a lot of big money getters, and it could be that people are just waiting until it gets warmer and there are bigger movies out to start really spending money. That could be true, or the previous season was a harbinger of what is to come for studios at the Box Office.
If you look on Letterboxd, you will see this is another case where I’m in the minority. This one just didn’t work for me most of the time. Zendaya, Faist, and O’Conner are all great here, and they are the only characters really. The story was just trying to do too much at times. We go back-and-forth in time to tell the story between our trio, and while it works most of the time, it kind of gets too much once we get towards the end of the film. Also, the film is over 2 hours, and the story could have been told in 90 minutes. There is just so much slow motion in this and it stretches out the film. I get what film was trying to say with how it ended, but I think if it ended right before the last 2 minute scene, it might have been better. In the end, this is maybe the best tennis film I have seen. The list isn’t long though.
This was a fun way to start the Summer season. This was just a two hour love letter to stunt men and women in films that go unappreciated by many. There were just so many stunts that were really filmed and not cgi, which is a lot different than the movies recently released this weekend on this weekend. I loved Guardians 3 last year, but how much of that was on a green screen and cgi action scenes. Much like the Wick series, it’s just better to sometimes to see real people do some impressive things. The movie itself follows Gosling’s stunt man trying to find Taylor-Johnson’s leading man, who is missing. He is looking for him so his love interest’s (Blunt) first movie she has directed can be finished. I have seen this trailer so many times, and I was afraid this would be another case like Arthur the King, where nearly every plot point is in the trailer. Thankfully, here there are a few very big plot points kept hidden until you see the film. Also, if meta jokes about other movies annoy you, you might have a bad time. So many times they just bring up other movies in conversation. There was one other discussion that was a little on the nose. There is a sequence where Gosling is trying to get information from a drug dealer. The dealer then says Gosling is a great stunt man and asks if he ever won an Oscar for his work. Gosling just quietly says no. I see what you did there, Leitch. Come on, Academy. Make the Best Stunt Work award. Cowards.
Usually, if I’m on the other side of the opinion on a movie, it’s like with Challengers, and I go lower. There are other times where a movie just works for me, and I go higher. This is one of those times. I’m under no illusion here. This movie is stupid, but you know another movie is stupid? Anchorman. Now, I’m not saying Unfrosted is as good as Anchorman. There are quite a few comparisons between the two though. This movie is based on a joke Seinfeld made about Pop-Tarts years ago. With him, he has dozens of other comedians in small and large parts telling a version of the creation of Pop-Tarts. It does have some parts that just don’t belong, like a subplot where Chef Boy Ardee and the creator of X-Ray specs unwittingly create a sentient ravioli. Like I said, this movie is stupid, but it was my kind of stupid. Of the three I reviewed this week, this will probably be the one I revisit more. Finally, I know this is a movie blog, but there was a scene in this that caused me to think one thing very clearly: I miss Mad Men so much.
Each of these weeks for now will be easy to guess the winner until we reach June where multiple big releases happen the same week. The Apes for sure win the weekend. The question is if it can get past $60 million in the opening weekend. Only Dune: Part 2 and Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire have achieved that so far.
- Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes
- The Fall Guy
- Tarot
- Challengers
- Civil War
Next week, is a light one with The new Planet of the Apes entry finally coming out. With Fall Guy and Apes finally released, that ends me seeing those two trailers before every movie. Now it only leaves Quiet Place: Day One as the other trailer that has to be shown before every showing. I also have two streaming films planned next week.
Mitten Film Nerd 
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