Fantastic Four, Shaun the Sheep Movie, Ricki and the Flash and The Gift open in theaters this weekend. Dark Places gets a theater showing at MX Movies in downtown St. Louis.

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Recapping Last Weekend

Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation exceeded expectations in its debut weekend with $55.5 million to top the weekend box office. Vacation finished second with $14.7 million in its debut while Ant-Man earned $12.8 million to round out the top three. Minions was just behind in fourth place with $12.4 million in its fourth weekend of release. Pixels rounded out the top five with $10.5 million in its second weekend of release.

Minions has now made close to $288 million domestically and $860 million worldwide in under 4 full weeks of release.

Fantastic Four

Miles Teller and his possibly humongous ego lead the cast of this Fantastic Four reboot. Kate Mara, Michael B. Jordan and Jamie Bell round out the group. While Teller’s interview with Esquire linked above, which Teller is not happy about,  was cringe-worthy at times, an Atlanta radio show host really made things awkward in an interview with Mara, Bell and Jordan. Seriously, watch the video and cringe.

Fantastic Four is expected to easily win the weekend box office with a debut of $40 million or more, according the The Hollywood Reporter. Previous incarnations of the franchise opened with $56 and $58 million, respectively.

 

Shaun the Sheep Movie

A review of Shaun the Sheep Movie on A.V. Club points out its simplicity in comparison to other big-budget animated films of late. Shaun the Sheep is the main character of a popular show overseas on CBBC. The character’s Facebook page has 5.6 million likes. The show isn’t big here in the U.S., but the Boston Globe says the movie is “a sheer delight” and may change that. The New York Post says that Shaun and his flock  “will delight kids and adults alike“.

Ricki and the Flash

Meryl Streep stars as the long-absent rocker mother who returns to the children she walked away from, including real-life daughter, Mamie Gummer. Diablo Cody, whose previous work includes Juno, Jennifer’s Body, United States of Tara and Young Adult, wrote the script.

In what might as well amount to a glowing recommendation, Deadspin says “Ricki and the Flash could’ve been worse”. The Seattle Times says that “Meryl Streep is wickedly good” in the film.

The Gift

Stephen Holden of The New York Times describes The Gift “as a Hitchcockian exercise in deception that expresses a dour view of the capitalist rat race” Susan King of the Los Angeles Times praises actor-turned-director Joel Edgerton. Brett Arnold also praises the first-time director’s work.

The trailer you see below doesn’t give you the full view of what the movie is really about. You’ll have to go see it yourself.

 

Dark Places

Dark Places isn’t like the rest of the movies on this list. The film based on the Gillian Flynn book of the same name, was released in early June according to IMDb, but has made $0 in domestic theaters according to Box Office Mojo. The film is currently available on DirecTV, but finally gets a very limited theater release this weekend. The film is only playing at one theater in the St. Louis area, downtown’s MX Movies.

Charlize Theron stars as a woman who was just seven years old when her mother and two sisters were killed. Her teenage brother was convicted of the crime based largely on her testimony. 25 years pass until she is lured back to the scene of the crime to take another look at what really happened that night. Nicholas Hoult, Chloe Grace Moretz, Christina Hendricks and Corey Stoll. Flynn, a former EW writer, recently spoke with the magazine about how important Theron’s Libby character is to her.

Reviews of Dark Places on Rotten Tomatoes are mixed. People either loved the film or hated it. Some reviews seem to compare the movie too closely with the book, which you should never do. I advise heading downtown to see the film for yourself at MX Movies. It seems like a great movie to immerse yourself in in a dark theater.

Catch It Before It’s Gone

Keller 8 Cinema in South County welcomes Ted 2 this weekend. Personally I enjoyed the raunchiness of the film and had some good laughs. If you liked the original, you’ll like the sequel.

Make It A Redbox Night

Redbox welcomes The Divergent Series: Insurgent this week to a magical red box near you. Veronica Roth‘s young adult novels have won the Northwestern grad multiple awards and translate into entertaining movies on the big screen. Shailene Woodley and Miles Teller are among those that reprise their roles in this sequel.  Insurgent opened to $52 million back in March on its way to earning $295 million worldwide at the box office.

Movie News

Sony Announces More Bad Boys Movies And Jumanji Remake

Because studios apparently don’t have faith in trying anything new, Jumanji will be the next classic to get remade. Sony announced the remake when they announced their film lineup for 2016 and 2017. Also on deck are Bad Boys 3 and Bad Boys 4. There’s no word on if Will Smith and Martin Lawrence will reprise their roles. The original Bad Boys hit theaters in 1995 while Bad Boys II happened back in 2003.

Nothing more is known about the Jumaji remake other than that it will bow in theaters on Christmas Day 2016. This is the first news about the remake since Zach Helms was hired to write a script for it in later 2012/early 2013. I don’t care if it could benefit from some better CGI, leave the classic starring Robin Williams, Bonnie Hunt and Kirsten Dunst alone. Go make something off The Black List instead.

Chris Farley As Shrek

The late Chris Farley was originally cast to voice the character of Shrek in Shrek. Footage of Farley voicing the character recently surfaced online and we can all thank Reddit. Mike Myers was recast as the voice of the lovable green guy after the lovable Farley died of a drug overdose in 1997. The video features the voices of Farley and Eddie Murphy over an early storyboard from the film.

 

The Martian Teaser Features Interviews With Ares 3 Crew

The Martian, starring Matt Damon, Jessica Chastain and Kristen Wiig, opens  October 2, 2015.

 

Laurence Fishburn In Talks To Join Passengers Cast

Chris Pratt and Jennifer Lawrence are already signed on to star in the romantic sci-fi drama film Passengers.  Now Laurence Fishburne is reportedly in talks to join the cast. Morton Tyldum (Imitation Game) will direct the film with a somewhat ridiculous premise. Imitation Game was excellent and the script made the 2007 Black List so, we’ll hope this movie is good.

It was previously reported that Pratt will earn $12 million for the film while Lawrence is getting a huge payday with $20 million against 30 percent of the profit after the film breaks even.

Colin Farrell Joins Fantastic Beasts Cast

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them is a Harry Potter spin-off being produced by Warner Bros. Colin Farrell has signed on to join the cast that already features Eddie Redmayne, Katherine Waterston, Ezra Miller and Alison Sudol. J.K Rowling wrote the script and David Yates will direct.

Kevin Bacon Calls For More Male Nudity

 

The Last Witch Hunter Trailer

The Last Witch Hunter stars Vin Diesel, Elijah Woode, Rose Leslie and Michael Caine. It opens in theaters on October 23, 2015.

Here’s the first trailer for The Last Witch Hunter.

 

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