Two big summer releases in two days and not a single review in yet on Rotten Tomatoes. Not a good sign. Are the studios so embarassed by these that they won’t let the critics see them early? Now You See Me is that Vegas magicians one with Woody Harrelson and Jesse Eisenberg. I swear the release has been postponed several times and I heard Morgan Freeman doesn’t even want to talk about it. After Earth is the Will Smith & Son flick that looks promising until you see they managed to insert the extreme sport dujour (WiSBASE- wingsuit base jumping) into the film. And the elephant in the room that is M. Night Shaymalan directing. Does this guy have 9 lives or what?
After Earth’s commercial had what appeared to be a raging herd of human-hating okapi chasing the protagonists. I don’t think I can take that seriously.
I’m terrible at guessing whether films will do well or flop. But I don’t have high expectations for the quality of Now You See Me. The premise of Robin Hood magicians sounds somewhat cool, and it has great actors, but the director is Louis Leterrier, who directed Transporter 1 and 2, The Incredible Hulk, Clash of the Titans, and Unleashed. I do somewhat love the Transporters, but I wouldn’t call them good movies. Unleashed was pretty meh, and I think that’s what Clash of the Titans and The Incredible Hulk were generally thought of as well, though I haven’t seen them. But I do think all of them were profitable, and I’m guessing Now You See Me will at least be somewhat profitable, even if it’s not a hit.
After Earth hold zero interest to me, but I’m guessing it will also be profitable. It’s starring Will Smith, and pretty much all of his films have either been hits or monster hits. Even Seven Pounds, which was considered a flop made $70 million in the US and $98 million in foreign markets, and had a $55 million budget. It is definitely possible that After Earth could be his first major flop, with it costarring his son and directed by Shaymalan and there seeming to be a huge number of post-apocalyptic movies coming out this year. But if I were to bet on it being a flop or hit, I would lean towards hit.
I did see a review of After Earth which stressed that the film wouldn’t even exist if Will wasn’t trying to buy his little boy a film credit. May be a real stinker.
Now You See Me looks like it could be a good caper film - previews look good to me.
However, After Earth has Jada Smith, that arrogant, little spoiled prick son of co-star daddy, Will Smith - that kid puts the “rat” in “brat”. I blame the parents of course, but it doesn’t mean that kid still can’t annoy the hell out of me. I hope this film bombs big time, so we no longer have to see daddy and mommy foisting their brat spawn upon us in any future projects.
Smith was interviewed recently and he explained that he (and Jada, his wife) have a vision of their family dominating Hollywood (if not all entertainment) for generations to come. IIRC, he said he thought the Barrymores were a good example of what he wanted for his family, but that they didn’t do it well enough or big enough.
I used to like the guy’s art just fine. He had a likable persona and his songs and movies were fun.
Now I just think he’s a conceited asshole and I hate his children without even knowing them. The relentless push to foist his children off on the public as stars turns me off so much that I now want nothing but failure for the whole family.
I was nearing that point already when the (nakedly ambitious) remake of The Karate Kid was hurled at the public; the trailers for this movie moved me far past the point. By the next movie (or whatever) I may be ready to actively campaign for it’s/their failure.
I was slightly interested in After Earth simply because I first saw a preview for it while lounging almost exactly where it was filmed (Costa Rica). Look at TV: see the Arenal Volcano. Look out the window: see the Arenal Volcano. Me: “Neat!” But yeah - it looks like ass.
**Snooooopy **and Snowboarder Bo said it better than I could’ve about After Earth. I have a lot of disdain for such a naked ploy, and I don’t think I’m the only one. The fact that it looks absolutely terrible is just icing on that cake.
I started to resent Smith when he foisted his kid on us in “The Pursuit of Happyness”, even going so far as saying that his kid had to audition for the part just like everyone else. Yeah, sure.
Having said that, “The Karate Kid” wasn’t that bad. It wasn’t as good as the original, of course, but it had an original spin being based in in Japan (or was it China?) . Anyway, my girlfriend and I enjoyed it.
No, it just means the films haven’t been screened for critics yet. Once they’ve been made available the reviews will be written and published. If the reviews are overwhelmingly bad, that’s not a good sign
Isn’t “not screening for critics” a well-known sign that a movie is a stinker (and so much so that the studio knows it is a stinker)? I thought it was a ploy when the studio knows the reviews are going to be bad, but wants as many people to come opening weekend instead of being turned off by the early reviews.
Yep. I should have wrote:
“Two big summer releases in two days and not a single review in yet on Rotten Tomatoes (since they haven’t been screened for critics) . Not a good sign.”
Like leahcim said, it’s extremely rare for movies to open without critical screenings, mostly because the studio knows it’s a shitty movie and the bad publicity is going to hurt it even more.
True. But you never know until people have actually seen the films.
Also the original poster’s title uses the word “flops”. Just because a movie is terrible doesn’t mean it will be a flop. In fact, many terrible movies are big hits.
The majority of ticket buyers will go to see whatever has been promoted the most heavily in the weeks prior to the movies release with no regard for the quality of the movie. Studios know this which is why there is so much crap produced then advertised extensively. The suckers will line up every weekend, cash in hand, because their teevees told them to.
I think After Earth isn’t being screened for critics, and yes, that’s usually a bad sign for the movie (or at least a sign that the studio doesn’t think the review will help the box office gross). I’m not sure about Now You See Me.
I like to think I follow the industry fairly closely, and yet this is the first time that I have heard that After Earth was directed by Shyamalan. In fact, I had to go look it up on IMDB to be sure, which is where I was given the option to look up After Earth… or After Earth 2. Yep, already listed on IMDB (though there’s no info there, so someone at least wants to wait for opening weekend before giving it the green light).
If a movie’s release date is a Friday, isn’t the screening for the critics that Thursday? In other words, isn’t it too early for the screenings for these films?