by Emily Nagle
Top 5 Highest Grossing Films for Weekend of April 22-24, 2022
5. The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent ($7.1 million)
4. The Northman ($12.3 million)
3. Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore ($14 million)
2. Sonic the Hedgehog 2 ($15.6 million)
1. The Bad Guys ($23.9 million)
This past weekend saw the release of 3 major films, all of which made it into the top 5 highest grossing titles between Friday and Sunday.
First up: Dreamworks’ “The Bad Guys” premiered this weekend, and climbed to the top of ticket sales across the U.S. Based on Aaron Blabey’s graphic novels, this animated crime comedy revolves around a group of animal criminals (voiced by Sam Rockwell, Marc Maron, Awkwafina, Craig Robinson, and Anthony Ramos) who, after being caught, pretend to be reformed into model citizens. It’s received positive reviews from critics and audience members, who have praised its unique animation style, humor, and voice acting.
“The Northman” came in at number 4, having been overtaken by three family films. Directed by Robert Eggers, the movie stars Alexander Skarsgård as Amleth, a Viking prince on a mission to avenge the death of his father 20 years later. He plans to do this by murdering his uncle (Claes Bang) and rescuing his mother from him (Nicole Kidman). Based on Scandinavian legend, the film is critically acclaimed, with critics praising the cast’s performances, cinematography, and Robert Eggers’ directing.
Action comedy “The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent”, starring a fictionalized version of Nicolas Cage, who gets wrapped up in a wild adventure when he gets caught between a millionaire superfan (Pedro Pascal) and a CIA agent (Tiffany Haddish). The only way out of it is to channel his most well-known characters in order to save his friends, his family, and himself. Critics have praised the film’s humor, as well as Pascal’s and Cage’s chemistry onscreen. While it managed to break into the top 5 highest grossing films during its opening weekend, “The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent” underperformed compared to its projected premiere weekend, which was predicted to be between $5-10 million. According to Deadline, this is most likely due to Nicolas Cage’s low online presence, as well as not many people knowing about the film when it premiered.
by Emily Nagle
Netflix’s Q1 financial results are in, and they aren’t looking too hot. For the first time ever, the streaming king has lost a substantial amount of subscribers in only a few months. 200,000 subscriptions were terminated; that number is only expected to skyrocket in the second quarter.
Why have so many people unsubscribed? The major catalyst is the price increase, as the company has raised their monthly rate to $15.50, whereas before it was $14. While it’s less than two dollars, everything adds up in the end.
This change prompted many users to cancel their subscriptions and share with friends or loved ones to save money. Netflix caught on, announcing that at least 130 million users share passwords, with nearly a quarter of them located in the U.S. and Canada.
In their quarterly shareholder letter, Netflix wrote, “Our relatively high household penetration — when including the large number of households sharing accounts — combined with competition, is creating revenue growth headwinds. Account sharing as a percentage of our paying membership hasn’t changed much over the years, but, coupled with the first factor, means it’s harder to grow membership in many markets — an issue that was obscured by our COVID growth.”
People have shared Netflix accounts for ages, and initially the company saw no issues with it because it allowed more people to view their content. But with increasing competition as seemingly every media company starts their own streaming service, Netflix has hinted that they will begin cracking down on password sharing. The company has tested out possible solutions in Chile, Costa Rica, and Peru, but they were met with overwhelmingly negative feedback from customers.
Marvel’s newest show, “Moon Knight” has 4 episodes out so far, and it’s on track to be one of Marvel’s best mini series. Moon Knight is Marvel’s newest character originated from the comics, Steven Grant is the main character, played by Oscar Isaac.
Steven is a British nerd who is obsessed with all things Ancient Egypt. His main problems are what he thinks to be a sleep disorder and wanting to be a tour guide at the museum he works at even though he is constantly shot down by his boss. However, it is uncovered that his sleeping problem is really dissociative identity disorder. His alter ego is Marc Spector, who works as a mercenary for the Egyptian moon god Khonshu (Karim El Hakim and F. Murray Abraham) who has a very scary bird skull for a head. Khonshu grants Marc the power to summon a suit that gives him healing, speed, and strength powers so he can do the god’s bidding.
Marc and Steven constantly fight to be in control of their shared body and go on adventures together to stop Arthur Harrow (Ethan Hawke), a cultish former avatar of Khonshu. The two make the show fun to watch, their dynamic is very brotherly, and brought me lots of laughs and smiles. Their two personalities are completely different, but they balance each other very well. The writers did a very good job with the lines for both Steven and Marc. Although they are played by the same actor, it never feels like they are the same character in the show. Oscar Isaac deserves an Oscar for his role, his acting is impeccable, he is able to express both characters’ full range of emotions so easily. He truly is amazing and I am very excited to see him in future Marvel projects. The visual effects throughout the whole show are incredible, many scenes are in the desert and seeing Moon Knight suit up was one of the coolest scenes in The MCU.
Marvel tends to make the fourth episode of all their mini series the best one that leaves the audience theorizing a million new possibilities. The fourth episode always has a shocking twist or new piece of exciting information that raises audience engagement exponentially. Moon Knight episode four also contains one of the first truly scary scenes Marvel has done. Marc’s wife Layla (May Calamawy) is chased by an undead priest that makes a horrible clicking sound which keeps the tension very high. This more horror-like scene is setting up Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness which is supposed to be less family friendly than all of Marvel’s shows and movies. I am super excited to see Marvel switching up the formula they have been using forever. I really enjoyed the shorter scary scene, having a show that is family friendly is nice, but this show focuses on a heavier topic so it makes sense to reflect that in the plot.
Marc eventually frees Steven from a sarcophagus where for the first time ever they are in two separate bodies. I’m still gushing over the cuteness from the scene of the two of them hugging, so relieved to be together again. The many different settings confused me a ton and left me anxiously awaiting the rest of the episodes. For some, non-marvel fans, the show might get too confusing, but if you’ve watched many movies and shows by Marvel, you enjoy trying to figure out what’s going to happen next.
Overall, Moon Knight has been very fun to watch and I can’t wait for the last two episodes. The show is full of hints to the original comics and very interesting Egyptian history. It’s full of adventure, laughs, love, and a lot of plot twists. Another incentive to watch is that you don’t need any previous knowledge of the Marvel Universe to enjoy this short series that’s streaming now on Disney+.
by Emily Nagle
Brace yourself: this one is difficult to get through.
Released on Netflix last Friday, “The Bubble” depicts a cast and crew quarantined in a ritzy British hotel while they shoot the latest installment in the popular movie franchise Cliff Beasts. It boasts an ensemble cast with big names including Karen Gillan, Fred Armisen, Pedro Pascal, and Keegan-Michael Key, but that’s about all this movie has going for it. Directed by Judd Apatow (“Bridesmaids“, “This is 40“, “Knocked Up“), this movie is seriously lacking compared to his past credits.
At first, “The Bubble” is a witty commentary of the film industry and how much it was rocked by the pandemic; the character of TikTok sensation Krystal Kris (Iris Apatow) was a nice touch, since social media superstars have been increasingly taking to the big screen over the past few years. And the beginning pokes fun at Hollywood producers as we see the COVID-19 safety officer being told to treat the cast members like animals, which of course he questions because he just wants to bond with them. So it could be satire, but who knows? It’s hard to tell, because it’s not funny at all.
Relying heavily on references to trends from the height of the pandemic, “The Bubble’s” humor falls flat. For example, the cast shoots a cringey scene in Cliff Beasts 6 where Krystal Kris teaches a dinosaur a TikTok dance, and then everyone starts dancing (Yeah…there’s a LOT of TikTok references in this movie). Adam White of Independent called it a “Covid-themed Saturday Night Live sketch stretched to two hours“, and I couldn’t have said it better myself. The only thing that sets it apart is how much adult content there is. Notice how I didn’t call them “jokes” – because there’s just so much of it, and it’s usually unnecessary to the plot. It’s like they were trying to see how much sex, drugs, and profanity they could squeeze in.
Clocking in at 2 hours and 6 minutes long, “The Bubble” is longer than most Netflix comedies. If it was actually enjoyable to watch, the length wouldn’t be a problem. But because of how painfully bad this movie was, I couldn’t even finish it in one sitting – I had to stop watching about 30 minutes in, and then pick it up again the next day, and even then it was a chore to get through. There wasn’t anything in the movie that made me excited, or compelled me to keep watching.
My final thoughts? “The Bubble” is unfunny, and way too long. It’s not even bad in the endearing, “so bad it’s good” way. Which is disappointing, because there’s so much you can poke fun at in a satire about the film industry! But most of the time, this movie isn’t even really about Hollywood; it’s just a bunch of big-name actors participating in trends from 2 years ago, combined with a bunch of failed adult jokes and shock scenes.
by Emily Nagle
Season 2 is finally out for Amazon Prime’s sci-fi drama “Upload“, which tells the story of deceased computer programmer Nathan Brown (Robbie Amell), who gets uploaded to Lakeview, a ritzy digital afterlife in the near future. Shot at the Mohonk Mountain House resort in New Paltz, the place is what dreams are made of, with daily breakfast buffets and pet therapy.
Much of the show focuses on what’s going on between Lakeview and the real world, where Nathan’s angel, or personal assistant, Nora (Andy Allo) quickly bonds with him, while his living girlfriend Ingrid (Allegra Edwards) stays connected by putting on a virtual reality suit (unbeknownst to Nathan, who has been told that Ingrid uploaded to be with him). When the show last left off at the end of season 1, Nathan and Nora were discovering that Nathan’s death may not have been an accident, but a murder. In other words, he didn’t really die in a self-driving car accident.
Nearly 2 years later, the sci-fi comedy has returned. Nora and Nathan are continuing to uncover the details behind Nathan’s death, and realize they are in deeper than they could have ever imagined. Meanwhile, Ingrid reveals the truth to Nathan about how she’s not actually dead, and has been growing a clone body for him to download into. She’s convinced that now they’ll finally be together again, but upon finding out he’s been manipulated, Nathan breaks up with Ingrid, and the first thing he does in his new body is meet up with Nora to stop billionaire David Choak (William B. Davis) from rigging an election.
Something that was prevalent in the first season and continues in the new seasons is that artificial, cheap-looking CGI. There’s a scene where Nora takes on a cat avatar to spy on Nathan and Ingrid through a window, and the creature looks straight out of “The Sims”. It’s unclear if this was done to show nothing in Lakeview is real and it’s just a giant virtual world (even though the animals depicted in pet therapy are real). Most likely it’s because the CGI is on the cheaper side – the car scenes in the real world are very clearly green-screened. The CGI in general is pretty cartoony, but it doesn’t take away from the show, which is more story-driven instead of relying on visuals. The cheap-looking visuals can be interpreted as being part of the whole sci-fi feel of the series. They’re meant to be goofy moments in a surprisingly dark story.
In this season, Nora and Nathan investigate the cause behind the car crash that killed Nathan. He and his friend Luke (Kevin Bigley) take a virtual tour of New York City led by Nora and another angel Aleesha, during which they discover Choak has downloaded into a robot body so he can rig an election. They also find out that Choak was responsible for Nathan’s death by searching through his memories. With Ingrid out of the picture, once Nathan returns to the real world, he’s on a mission to stop Choak and get justice for his death.
This season is slightly shorter than the last one; it consists of 7 episodes, while the first season had 10. With each episode lasting a little under half an hour, it’s the perfect binge-watch for a cozy rainy day. I was initially drawn to this show for its paradise-like depiction of the afterlife, but ended up getting sucked into the deeper story. It goes from being a sci-fi comedy to a crime drama, but it’s not super crime-heavy. That being said, if you’re looking for a lightly silly show that’s rich in story, “Upload” delivers.
Both seasons of “Upload” are available to stream now on Prime Video.
by Emily Nagle
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Top 5 Highest Grossing Films for Weekend of April 1-3, 2022
5. Jujutsu Kaisen 0: The Movie ($1.9 million)
4. Uncharted ($3.6 million)
3. The Batman ($11 million)
2. The Lost City ($14.7 million)
1. Morbius ($39 million)
“Morbius” quickly became this weekend’s top film, overtaking “The Lost City”, which got bumped down to second place. Based on Marvel Comics, the film tells the story of brilliant scientist Dr. Michael Morbius (Jared Leto), who cures himself of a rare blood disease through an illegal experimental treatment. He soon discovers that the treatment has transformed him into a living vampire. Despite being the top film for the weekend, it’s received mostly negative reviews from critics, who have called it “half-baked”, “incoherent”, and “forgettable”. On CinemaScore, it is the second-lowest-rated Marvel film behind “Fantastic Four“.
Get Some Strange!
