We have finally reached “Glicked” weekend. Last Summer, we all survived through the “Barbenheimer” storm and lived to tell about it. Those two films (Barbie and Oppenheimer if you are just coming out of a coma) ended up grossing $966.1 million dollars domestically, and $2.4 billion worldwide. Justr staggering figures. Since then, and because Hollywood always needs a sequel, they have been trying to replicate it. Every attempt has fallen apart leading up to this weekend, even though the funniest to me was “Saw Patrol” last October. Originally, Wicked was going to be released during the Thanksgiving weekend, but the Moana 2 monster is already there and most likely taking no prisoners. So, Wicked moved up a week to go against Gladiatior II, and a new cultural phenomenon was born. Will “Glicked” make as much as the 2023 madness? Highly doubtful. Moana 2 will be the reason for that though. It still is kind of neat to have two big movies on the same weekend that are a nice juxtaposition if you watched them in a double feature. I unfortunately didn’t do that as I saw both in advance screening this week. That is fine, since I couldn’t to the “Barbenheimer” double feature either last year. On to the reviews!
Is this the “nicest” Steve McQueen film we have gotten? I use “nicest” in the loosest of terms, but when the other options are Hunger, Shame, and 12 Years a Slave, this is the most accessible one in my opinion. This tells the story of the people of London during the Blitz of World War II. Our story focuses on Saoirse Ronan’s Rita, and her son George. After she sends George away to keep him safe, we watch George jump off the train and try to make it back home. This was a really good story, and it was a story where you never felt like things were really safe, but when the Blitz really happened, nobody was safe, so that was kind of the point of the story. 
This was one of the standouts from Sundance way back in January, so I was really looking forward to it. It didn’t let me down. This is simply a story of two cousins backpacking through Poland visiting their homeland after their grandmother passes away. What you are for is Kerian Culkin and Jesse Eisenberg, and the relationship between the two as details are slowly revealed to us. Culkin is the standout here, as he is the current front-runner for Best Supporting Actor to some. His Benji is a kind of broken person after his grandmother’s passing, and you can really see someone just trying to hold it all together. It really hit me in a way that kind of ruined my night, but that isn’t a bad thing. The last shot of the film really has stuck with me over the last week. We don’t linger on any one point, and the 90 minutes are used very well by Eisenberg, who wrote and directed the film (his second time doing so). This will certainly be the top of my rankings next month.
When this sequel was announced, I was beyond susceptible. The original from 2000 was really great, but it didn’t really seem like it needed a sequel. After watching this I still don’t think it should’ve been a sequel to it because there isn’t that much in this that goes towards the original. Yes, Lucius is the son of Maximus but even with that they don’t do that much with it. Much of the plot is based ont he battle for control of Rome. Washington and Quinn are in a completely different film than Pascal and Mescal, and it really worked. Sometimes the craziness made the seriousness play better. The battle scenes are all good, but some are certainly better than others, mainly the ones without CGI animals. Do I think people. (like my brother) who love the original will love this? Not really, but it’s still a solid sequel. Mescal was good as an understated main character, a lot different than how Crowe came across in the original. Of everyone in the cast, it’s Denzel who shines the most. He is chewing all the scenery and commands your attention when he is on screen. He achieves that more than anyone else, and that could be a problem to the story for some. It was fine for me.
I had high expectations for this for a couple years now, and boy howdy, did this live up to them. As the film adaptation of an iconic Broadway musical, this had big shoes to fill, and in my opinion, it did just that. As this is the first of two parts to tell this story, Part One covers the first act of the musical. In this half, we see the growing relationship between Ephelba and Glinda as they go from enemies, to friends, right before their paths diverge for good. Erivo and Grande are perfect in this as our two leads. No notes. That isn’t to say the rest of the cast aren’t great as well. As a musical, and a beloved one at that, the musical numbers had to bring it. It’s easy to make Popular and Defying Gravity work, but there isn’t a bad one in this. I particularly am a fan of What is This Feeling, and that was a fun number here. As a like to nitpick, this wasn’t a perfect film. I did think it was a little hard to hear some of the lines of No One Mourns the Wicked as the sound kind of made things difficult. Things cleared up as the song went on, and it wasn’t much of a problem the rest of the way. Also, knowing how things turn out in Part Two, some choices they made for a couple characters were puzzling. I kind of had the same feeling leaving the theater like I had leaving Avengers: Infinity War: it’s unfair we have to wait a year for the second half.
There are hard weeks to guess what is going to be king of the mountain at the box office, and there are easy weeks. This is the latter. Moana 2 will surely get around $130 million over the 5 day weekend, if not more. That will make it the first film since Beetlejuice Beetlejuice to crack $100 million on opening.
- Moana 2
- Wicked
- Gladiator 2
- Venom: The Last Dance
- Red One
It’s Thanksgiving week, so I will be up at my parent’s house in the country for the better part of the week. The good thing is that Moana 2 will be playing up there too, so my schedule stays intact. Week 3 of 4 Mystery Mondays is tomorrow as well.
Mitten Film Nerd 
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