by Emily Nagle
With people off from school and work for the long Columbus Day & Indigenous Peoples’ Day weekend, this past weekend served as the perfect opening for lots of new films. With 41 releases raking in a total of $66.8 million nationwide, it was the most profitable weekend for movie theaters since over the summer.
Top 5 Highest Grossing Films for October 7 – October 10, 2022
5. Don’t Worry Darling ($4 million)
4. The Woman King ($5.9 million)
3. Amsterdam ($7.2 million)
2. Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile ($13.2 million)
1. Smile ($2`1.1 million)
After debuting last week, horror movie “Smile” continues to dominate ticket sales, earning over $20 million for two consecutive weeks. Coming in at number two is musical comedy “Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile”, based on the children’s book of the same name. Following a family that moves to New York City, only to discover a singing, caviar-loving crocodile (Shawn Mendes) living in their new home, many critics found “Lyle” to be a so-so family film, with nothing particularly unique going for it. Julian Roman of MovieWeb summarizes, “Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile will entrance the youngest tykes. Big-budget CGI animation and Shawn Mendes’ soaring vocals will have them dancing in the aisles. Their parents won’t be as entertained.”
While “Amsterdam” made it to number three out of all 41 releases, its overall box office performance was less than stellar. It opened to $10 million against a budget of $107 million, most likely due to mixed reviews from critics. Despite well-received performances from its star-studded cast including Chris Rock, Anya Taylor-Joy, and Mike Myers, the complicated screenplay and unconventional visual style were met with criticism by viewers.
by Emily Nagle
This afternoon, the long-awaited teaser trailer for “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” made its world premiere at New York Comic Con, as well as on a special Nintendo Direct livestream. It’s only been a few hours, but viewers already have strong feelings about the upcoming film, creating memes and sharing their first impressions of the film on social media, particularly the portrayal of mustachioed plumber Mario.
When the all-star cast list for the Illumination and Nintendo co-production first got announced online, the name that drew the most attention was Chris Pratt (Jurassic World, Guardians of the Galaxy), who will be voicing Mario. Especially when it was revealed that he wouldn’t be using an over-the-top Italian accent like the overall-sporting plumber speaks with in the games. In other words, Mario would just sound like a regular dude.
Of course, with the trailer only being a teaser, Mario got the least screen time compared to other characters. We open to a scene featuring Bowser (Jack Black), Kamek (Kevin Michael Richardson), and an army of Koopas facing off against a team of fuzzy blue penguins. Long-time Nintendo fans enjoyed this reference to Super Mario 64, a classic Mario game that has a level challenging the player to race a penguin down a snowy mountain. And Jack Black is phenomenal as Bowser, sounding super badass and menacing as we watch the Koopa king steal a shiny star.
As for how Mario sounds: it’s hard to say, because the only lines we hear him say are “What is this place?” and “Mushroom Kingdom, here we come!”. Pratt seems to give the character a bit of a New York accent, reminiscent of television depictions of Mario, namely The Super Mario Bros. Super Show!. Pratt was right, though; based on what we’ve seen, Mario’s voice is more or less Chris Pratt’s regular voice. Which, if you think about it, is kind of hilarious.
The rest of the Internet, however, has mixed feelings on Pratt’s performance. Many users criticized Hollywood’s tendency to use big-name celebrities as voice actors, rather than actors who are particularly well-known for their voice work – before portraying Star-Lord in the Marvel films, Chris Pratt was best known for playing Andy in Parks and Recreation. While it marked a turning point in his career, Pratt’s starring voice role as Emmet Brickowski in The Lego Movie in 2014 isn’t the first credit of his that comes to mind.
This gave us only a small preview of what to expect next spring in “The Super Mario Bros. Movie”, so only time will tell how Pratt does with voicing Mario. One can only hope he doesn’t pull what Tom Hanks did in his role as Geppetto in Pinocchio last month, where he half-assed a vaguely Italian accent for the first 20 minutes before giving up completely.
by Emily Nagle
Top 5 Highest Grossing Films for September 30 – October 2, 2022
5. Bros ($4.9 million)
4. Avatar [2022 re-release] ($5 million)
3. The Woman King ($6.8 million)
2. Don’t Worry Darling ($6.8 million)
1. Smile ($22.6 million)
With Halloween just a few weeks away, audiences are beginning to flock to cinemas for “Smile”, the first horror film to be released this month. “Smile” stars Sosie Bacon as Dr. Rose Cotter, a therapist who begins experiencing disturbing events that she is convinced are supernatural. It’s been met with positive reviews from critics, who enjoyed its sound design, production value, and jumpscares.
Also popular in theaters is “Bros”, a gay rom-com following two men with commitment issues who find themselves getting into a relationship with each other. Boasting a predominantly LGBTQ+ cast, this film opened to positive reviews from critics, and Rotten Tomatoes even writes that it’s “a whole bunch of fun to watch.” Despite this, the film’s opening weekend didn’t meet producer Billy Eichner’s expectations – the film was projected to earn $8-10 million in its opening weekend. This is likely due to a multitude of factors, including the abundance of other films that released that day on streaming.
by Emily Nagle
Amidst the streaming wars, Invincible is hitting the airwaves, having just acquired the YTA Broadcast Network.
Launched in 1985 as the Nostalgia Channel, YTA reaches 41 million homes across the United States. Following the acquisition that was completed last month, the channel’s programming will be targeted at “fanboys, nerd culture and gamers.”
“YTA came to us as an opportunity to acquire a traditional over-the-air broadcast TV network,” Invincible CEO Thomas Ashley explained to Broadcasting+Cable. “One of our goals is to increase the distribution and improve the content that’s on the network. We have a large library to pull from.”
With 18 free ad-supported streaming TV channels offering every genre from horror and thrillers to comedies and animation, Invincible has no shortage of content. Most notably, several shows created by renowned producer Thom Beers (Deadliest Catch, Storage Wars), who joined Invincible in 2020 with the company’s purchase of his channel Business Rockstars, will be added. The first Beers show to be added to the network will be “Kings of Kush”, which chronicles infomercial star Anthony Sullivan’s adventures in starting a CBD farm.
Galxy’s unique “Watch & Earn” feature will even be coming to YTA, so viewers will earn money whenever they watch the channel.
by Emily Nagle
Happy almost-October, movie fans! With a new month comes lots of new, exciting shows and movies to stream. And with Halloween around the corner, there’s no shortage of spooky stuff! Here’s a taste of the content being added to the most popular platforms.
Netflix is seeing the return of some of its most popular shows in the next month, including the seventh season of “Nailed It!” (October 5), the third season of “Derry Girls” (October 7), the sixth season of travel show Somebody Feed Phil (October 18), and the sixth season of its animated adult sitcom Big Mouth (October 28). New films include the first three “Rush Hour” films, the first four Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movies, and just in time for spooky month, the first and second live-action film adaptations of “Scooby Doo” (October 1).
Next month, Hulu will be bringing back “The Good Doctor” (October 4) and “Grey’s Anatomy” (October 6) for their sixth and nineteenth seasons respectively. It is also adding a plethora of scary content just in time for Halloween, including Monster House, The Exorcism of Emily Rose, and Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (October 1).
Still craving more scary stuff? Tune into Watch It Scream! or Frightflix on Galxy for some free indie horror films.
by Emily Nagle
British comedy horror web series “Don’t Hug Me I’m Scared” is now a full-length television show. Here’s the crazy part: this short-form YouTube series translates incredibly well to a longer format. The lengthened runtime compared to the web series allows for character development, as well as more time for trippy, stunning visuals that aren’t as cheerful and innocent as they seem.
“Don’t Hug Me I’m Scared” follows Red Guy, Yellow Guy, and Duck. Together, this colorful crew embarks on surreal adventures where they learn abstract concepts, ranging from the true meaning of friendship to what happens when you die. With each lesson comes a new teacher, in addition to lots of songs. The trio’s educational journey is told through mixed media – while the main characters are puppets, the show also utilizes other mediums, including CGI, traditional animation, and claymation. Your eyes certainly won’t get bored looking at this show!
While new musical teachers are introduced in each episode (although the ones from the web series make cameos), the show is excellent at establishing the personalities of the three main characters. Yellow Guy is this puppet who’s childlike and goofy, so the others dismiss him a lot. Duck is the most curious one, asking more questions than his housemates. Finally, there’s the perpetually unenthused Red Guy, who’s quick-witted and always the first to make sarcastic comments. In each episode, one of the characters will often get sucked into their own little side-quest, and we get to see their own unique ways of coping with the situation.
Even though it’s super creepy and existential, “Don’t Hug Me I’m Scared” boasts a unique flavor of humor. The funny moments in this show aren’t based around adult content (there isn’t even any profanity!), but rather around being unsettling. A lot of it is shock-based, but not in the way you’d think. It’s slightly unnerving visual gags such as a vending machine that dispenses an unknown brown liquid, as well as witty, well-written dialogue between the characters.
Currently, “Don’t Hug Me I’m Scared” is only available to watch in the United Kingdom, where it’s on Channel 4. But that’s not stopping “Don’t Hug Me I’m Scared’s” large fanbase – the series has racked up a quarter of a billion views since its debut in 2011 – which is resorting to alternative methods to view the show, such as rushing to sites like soap2day and YouTube to watch it before potential copyright claims take the episodes down. Some are even changing their device’s location through NordVPN so they can watch Channel 4.
If you’re a sucker for quick-witted comedy or searching for horror that’s more subtle, then “Don’t Hug Me I’m Scared” is right up your alley! Each episode is about 22 minutes long, and there’s six of them, making it the ideal binge. And with Halloween only a month away, what better way to kick off the spookiest month? If you haven’t yet seen the viral video that started it all over a decade ago, here it is. The web series is an even shorter binge, with six installments that are all less than 8 minutes long.
Get Some Strange!
