Walleye's Weekly Winners: The Films of 01/06
Posted: January 4th, 2017, 12:51 pm
Happy New Year!
And good riddance to 2016. On a global scale, in terms of the loss of celebrities and other greats in the human race, and lousy news that affects us all, I’m ready for a clean slate. In terms of movies, they can tell me all they want that 2016 was the biggest year ever for movies, but that doesn’t mean they were any good!
I loved quite a few of them of course, Rogue One comes to mind. And the Oscars will fill out their slates with the usual bait (high-quality bait, but bait all the same.) But I don’t know that I’ll look back on 2016 as the best year for movies. Pretty average at best.
So, enough about 2016 – Let’s move onto 2017. Yes, the first week of the game will still be dominated by 2016 holdovers, Rogue One comes to mind, again, but there are new movies to see. Or at least, to think about seeing.
The biggest high-profile flick of the week is Underworld: Blood Wars! This is the 5th movie in the Kate Beckinsale Vampires/Lycans battle and they’ve saved the best for last! Well, no not really. But that got you pretty excited, didn’t it? Or maybe Beckinsale in spandex did that already. The plot of this one is. . . the same as every other one. There will be lots of blood and Vampire on Lycan on Hybrid violence. Kate will give it her all (Not that she’s better than this, but oh is she better than this.) The first weekend of the year usually throws out a stinker and 2017 is no different. This movie won’t cost you much in the game, but it won’t do well either, likely the worst of the series. Save your nickels. Don’t spend them here.
The first of the year usually brings an Indie film trying to cut through the post-Christmas noise as well – and we’ve got one of those too. I, Daniel Blake seems like a much better choice for your slates. Winner of the Palme d’Or at Cannes (not always a surefire sign of a winner) Daniel Blake is a late-aged carpenter who gets injured on the job and must wind his way through the bureaucratic mess that governments have become known for. The movie has an agenda, a decidedly “liberal” one by most accounts. But a movie with a strong agenda can be compelling and challenging regardless of your personal viewpoint and this one seems to be that. The film is British but could have been shot just about anywhere in America or Western Europe, heck probably even beyond. It’ll cost the usual $4 in Ultimate and could well be worth it. Worth seeing too.
Other than that we have two rumored expansions this week. Hidden Figures, after dominating on 25(!) screens for the past 2 weeks goes wide and should make some decent noise on it’s way to a decent box office and a few Oscar nominations. A Monster Calls needs some help, and likely won’t get much – a shame considering it’s one of the most visually interesting movies of the year, and based on a fantastic kids book to boot. You win some, you lose some. Or in the case of my slates last year – you lose a lot of them.
Top 5
Rogue One
Sing
Hidden Figures
Underworld
Passengers
PTA
I, Daniel Blake
20th Century Woman
Patriot’s Day
Silence
Toni Erdmann
See you next week when things get slightly more interesting at the Cineplex, including the movie everybody’s been waiting on: Monster Trucks! 2017 – Don’t be worse than 2016!
And good riddance to 2016. On a global scale, in terms of the loss of celebrities and other greats in the human race, and lousy news that affects us all, I’m ready for a clean slate. In terms of movies, they can tell me all they want that 2016 was the biggest year ever for movies, but that doesn’t mean they were any good!
I loved quite a few of them of course, Rogue One comes to mind. And the Oscars will fill out their slates with the usual bait (high-quality bait, but bait all the same.) But I don’t know that I’ll look back on 2016 as the best year for movies. Pretty average at best.
So, enough about 2016 – Let’s move onto 2017. Yes, the first week of the game will still be dominated by 2016 holdovers, Rogue One comes to mind, again, but there are new movies to see. Or at least, to think about seeing.
The biggest high-profile flick of the week is Underworld: Blood Wars! This is the 5th movie in the Kate Beckinsale Vampires/Lycans battle and they’ve saved the best for last! Well, no not really. But that got you pretty excited, didn’t it? Or maybe Beckinsale in spandex did that already. The plot of this one is. . . the same as every other one. There will be lots of blood and Vampire on Lycan on Hybrid violence. Kate will give it her all (Not that she’s better than this, but oh is she better than this.) The first weekend of the year usually throws out a stinker and 2017 is no different. This movie won’t cost you much in the game, but it won’t do well either, likely the worst of the series. Save your nickels. Don’t spend them here.
The first of the year usually brings an Indie film trying to cut through the post-Christmas noise as well – and we’ve got one of those too. I, Daniel Blake seems like a much better choice for your slates. Winner of the Palme d’Or at Cannes (not always a surefire sign of a winner) Daniel Blake is a late-aged carpenter who gets injured on the job and must wind his way through the bureaucratic mess that governments have become known for. The movie has an agenda, a decidedly “liberal” one by most accounts. But a movie with a strong agenda can be compelling and challenging regardless of your personal viewpoint and this one seems to be that. The film is British but could have been shot just about anywhere in America or Western Europe, heck probably even beyond. It’ll cost the usual $4 in Ultimate and could well be worth it. Worth seeing too.
Other than that we have two rumored expansions this week. Hidden Figures, after dominating on 25(!) screens for the past 2 weeks goes wide and should make some decent noise on it’s way to a decent box office and a few Oscar nominations. A Monster Calls needs some help, and likely won’t get much – a shame considering it’s one of the most visually interesting movies of the year, and based on a fantastic kids book to boot. You win some, you lose some. Or in the case of my slates last year – you lose a lot of them.
Top 5
Rogue One
Sing
Hidden Figures
Underworld
Passengers
PTA
I, Daniel Blake
20th Century Woman
Patriot’s Day
Silence
Toni Erdmann
See you next week when things get slightly more interesting at the Cineplex, including the movie everybody’s been waiting on: Monster Trucks! 2017 – Don’t be worse than 2016!