I was reading where they said Hollywood had a bad summer and I agree. I havent seen a single movie come out this summer worth NOT waiting for it to come out on Netflix 6 months later. A really obvious one is the lack of any good summer comedy this year. Also nothing really good to take the kids to see. The last movie I saw “Godzilla” was a major letdown.
So what do you all think of this summer’s movies? Good or bad?
Agree with you. Last year was a great year for movies; at least one a month must-see in the theater, plus at least two more a month to add to the Netflix list.
This year? Almost nothing. A handful of indies for Netflix (one or two I might see in the “alternative” film house if they make it to my town), but that’s it.
Great time to binge on made-for-cable dramatic series! Or to catch up on old films, foreign films, and documentaries via Netflix.
The only movie I have had any interest in is The Grand Budapest Hotel and that never played in my area. So yeah, for me it was not a good summer.
It’s too early to say. Ask again in a month.
For quality, it’s actually been a relatively strong summer movie season. X-Men, Edge of Tomorrow, 22 Jump Street, Dragon 2, Dawn of Apes were all really good on the blockbuster level, and I’ve seen several good-to-excellent indies as well (Chef, Snowpiercer, Boyhood, probably other stuff I’m forgetting). Another several movies were good enough to be watchable if you’re into the genres (Godzilla, Maleficent, Purge 2). The Fault in Our Stars clearly did something for its target audience. Hercules and Lucy are both getting at-least-okay reviews for this weekend, there’s positive early word on Guardians of the Galaxy, and reviews look really good for Calvary. If you want to argue the “Summer Movie Season Starts in April Now” point of view (which seems increasingly valid each passing year), you can include Winter Soldier as well.
Now, the summer box office as a whole has largely underperformed. Maybe you’re not into sequels or anything with sci-fi or comic influences, well that’s a problem with this year’s releases. There was really only the one good true comedy. If you truly have no local access to indie movies, you’re missing some of the best stuff. But in terms of overally quality of movies? At least as good as an “average” summer.
I aged out of the demographic for summer blockbuster movies a few years back, so there are very few pictures I have any interest in seeing released during this season.
Besides, summer is the time to be outside and do things, not sit inside and passively consume entertainment.
Kiros’ post makes me realize that last year was unusual for me, in that there was significant overlap between the categories of “blockbuster” and “what I think of as high-quality and interesting.” Films like Gravity.
Nothing comparable this year, that I’m aware of. Yes, this summer has its blockbusters; and, yes, this summer has some good “indie” films; but this summer, unlike last year’s, it seems that “ne’er the twain shall meet.”
The only film I’ve been to this year was How to Train your Dragon 2, and that was well received by the wee ones. I’m looking forward to Guardians of the Galaxy and Hercules. I wanted to see but missed Captain America 2 and Godzilla.
One thing was that most of the big movies this summer have been continuations: X-Men: Days of Future Past, Transformers: Age of Extinction, The Amazing Spider-Man 2, 22 Jump Street, How to Train Your Dragon 2, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Rio 2, 300: Rise of An Empire. And I’d throw in Godzilla, which is a remake.
Take those out and you’ve got The LEGO Movie, Ride Along, Noah, Mr. Peabody & Sherman, Divergent, Maleficent, Neighbors, and The Fault in our Stars as big hits this summer.
So where are you going to get the sequels of 2015 and 2016 from? Okay, we’ll see sequels to The LEGO Movie and Divergent - that’s a given. We might get a sequel to Neighbors or Ride Along but comedy franchises usually drop off quickly. But overall, this summer was a lot more riding on the success of past years rather than setting up for success in future years.
Moving to Cafe Society from IMHO.
I fell asleep three times watching Godzilla. I still have high hopes for Planet of the Apes, however.
It’s been a slightly anemic summer at the box office.
The small number of mega-blockbusters have overshadowed things. Sure, they made money and all. But below them there is a lot of weakness.
Note how a film like Maleficent managed to hang on to the top 10 for a very long time. Movies don’t normally stay in the top 10 that long in the first half of summer. Similarly, on Favreau’s Chef managed to hang around in the low end of the top ten for quite some time. Again, very uncommon for such a small film that never racked up big numbers.
There have been a few smaller budget surprises. The Fault in Our Stars and Neighbors, for example. But fewer of those than one would expect.
In terms of quality, it’s been fairly surprising. Dawn … and Godzilla both got better reviews than one would expect. Most of the blockbusters got decent CinemaScores. Things like that. But there have been some duds. Transformers, notably.
There just haven’t been many 22 Jump Streets so far. Decently made films made for a reasonable cost with a lot of fan anticipation. The blockbusters get all the attention. But it’s these kind of films that attract regular movie goers.
Here’s a telling figure. The biggest hits of the year are Captain America 2 and The Lego Movie. But if they had been released in 2013, they would have only been #8 and #10 for the year. In 2012, they would have been #8 and #9.
The summer’s not over till Guardians of the Galaxy comes out.
If you count April as “summer” then The Winter Soldier was excellent. After that, X-Men: Days of Future Past was a very good movie and Edge of Tomorrow was a great sci-fi flick. I definitely wouldn’t have waited for video before seeing any of them.
I feel like I’ve already defended this summer a bit, and I like talking about movies, so… I’ll elaborate some more.
If you look at quality (OP question: “good or bad”) - RT, metacritic, CinemaScore, whatever you want to use, I’ll go with RT where I reference it because those are easy for me to pull - you have to realize the “average” summer ain’t so great.
2012 had what, five good movies in the top 20? Maybe six if you’re kind to Prometheus? It was top heavy with Avengers and Dark Knight, of course, but there’s little depth. A really good summer if your summer viewing amounts to two movies, which I imagine is a decent chunk of people. Incidentally, I feel pretty strongly that Magic Mike is the third best movie in the top 20. Moonrise Kingdom as a summer release was a nice little indie bonus.
2013 was a little better for blockbusters, but not much. Really good summer for comedies, something at-least-decent for you no matter your taste. I need to go back and watch This is the End again. A ton of relatively big bombs/disappointments last year. Some really good down-the-list indies.
I’d take the 2014 top five reviewed blockbusters (X-Men, Dragon 2, Dawn of Apes, Edge of Tomorrow, 22 Jump) over the top five from either of the past two years. That’s without looking at Captain America (April release, 89% RT, Box Office Mojo starts summer in May still) or Guardians (still to come). Independent movies already better than 2012, and a good chance to end up better than 2013.
(Note that the Lego Movie was a Feb release this year, and Gravity was October last year, among some of the names people have brought up that aren’t close to Summer even if you stretch it.)
I guess I’d rather have a summer with 85-90% RT movies that make less money than a summer with 55-60% RT movies making tons. Box office doesn’t affect me, the quality of what I have to sit through does. Man of Steel, I’m looking at you.
Incidentally, the last summer that I’d say was demonstrably better for top blockbuster quality was 2009. One of the good Harry Potter movies (HBP), Up, the original Hangover, Star Trek, Inglorious Basterds, District 9. What a set of six movies to anchor your summer on. And to bring it all full circle? They all grossed less than… the second Transformers movie.
I haven’t bothered to see any movies this summer. I think I last saw Wolf of Wall Street and American Hustle. Both were worth seeing. I also liked *The Grand Budapest Hotel *,
I’m not the target demographics for Summer movies I guess, but I can live with that.
Since you’re asking my personal opinion, there were lots and lots of very good movies in 90s and into the early 2000s. There might not have been any good movies at all since then. I subscribed to a couple of cable movie packages in the past year, and I only watched two or three movies, and didn’t even like those. I have literally given up on cinema being a viable form of entertainment.
Just for fun, somebody list their best three pictures of the past ten years. Prove me wrong.
It was just meh. No Bruce Willis/Schwarzenegger blockbusters like when I was young (my main standard of comparison), no new Pixar feature, not even a sequel.
The only films I actually looked forward to were Planet of the Apes and Godzilla.
You’re right, that’s a little strange. This is the first year since 2005 that they haven’t released a summer film. They have two due out next year, though. Inside Out looks really interesting.