Here’s what happened today in Oscar History.
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Poll: What Are You Most Anticipating? (Aug. 2017, Limited)
Loading ...Film Preview: Goon: Last of the Enforcers (2017)
Page Revisions:
(July 16, 2017) Original
Release Date:
September 1, 2017
Synopsis:
From IMDb: “A hockey player plagued by injuries is confronted with the possibility of retirement when a tough new player challenges his status as the league’s top enforcer.”
Poster Rating: C / C- / C / C-
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Review: (#1) There’s not a lot going on here, but it’s indicative of the film’s quality. That’s not saying much, though. (#2) For a teaser poster to be effective, it has to have an emotional impact on the viewer. Are there really all that many people who care about or even remember the original Goon? And will those people get excited based on this poster? Not likely. (#3) The plain white background is not good. The bulky, block lettering isn’t good. However, an attempt is being made at being original and using the hockey stick as a visual divider works surprisingly well. (#4) This is a bit simplistic and isn’t particularly engaging even if it does touch on the violence inherent in the system.
Trailer Rating: C- / C / C- / C-
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Review: (#1) A conventional trailer for a sequel hardly anyone wanted in the first place. It has mildly entertaining moments, but nothing of pure genius or intrigue. (#2) Of all the trailers they made, this one has the most biting and well timed humor. They hit the jokes and let them linger sufficiently. The other trailers don’t do that well at all. (#3) Taking a handful of the images from the first and second trailers and mashing them together doesn’t make for a great design. (#4) Once again, a red band trailer is a disappointment. Thankfully, this and trailer #2 didn’t just copy everything from the green band trailers and just stick in some foul language. That’s a bonus, but not enough of one.
Oscar Prospects:
None.
Trailer #1
Weekend Preview: Jul. 28-30, 2017
Below are nine previews for films opening next weekend.
Atomic Blonde (Wide)
The Emoji Movie (Wide)
A Family Man (Limited)
From the Land of the Moon (Limited)
Menashe (Limited)
Mubarakan (Limited)
Person to Person (Limited)
Strange Weather (Limited)
Wolf Warrior 2 (Limited)
Film Preview: Wolf Warrior 2 (2017)
Page Revisions:
(July 23, 2017) Original
Release Date:
July 28, 2017
Synopsis:
From Well GO USA Website: “The Wolf Warrior is back, bigger and badder than ever, in this action-packed sequel to the 2015 blockbuster hit. With his career in tatters, China’s deadliest Special Forces operative has settled into a quiet life on the sea. But when he crosses paths with a sadistic band of mercenaries terrorizing innocent civilians, he must reaffirm his duty as a soldier and save the day once again. Fists (and bullets, tanks, missiles and much more) will fly in this adrenaline-fueled tour de force of bravura action filmmaking, all culminating into a climactic battle between the Wolf Warrior and the mercenary leader (Frank Grillo, Captain America: The Winter Soldier and Captain America: Civil War).”
Poster Rating: C-
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Review: A two-section design that has more going in its lower half than in the upper with neither meshing well together.
Trailer Rating: D+
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Review: Dolph Lundgren and Steven Segal made a lot of these types of movies that went direct to home video and that isn’t a positive thing.
Oscar Prospects:
None.
Trailer #1
Film Preview: Strange Weather (2017)
Page Revisions:
(July 23, 2017) Original
Release Date:
July 28, 2017
Synopsis:
From IMDb: “A poignant, lyrical drama about a mother (Hunter), who, in an effort to deal with the grief over the death of her son, travels the back roads of the deep south to settle a score. A story of grief and forgiveness, of looking inward to find a way to move forward.”
Poster Rating: C-
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Review: Pulling the cotton field element of the trailer and putting it into poster form isn’t a bad option, but the general construction and the faux homestyle feel don’t work.
Trailer Rating: C+
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Review: Apart from Holly Hunter’s performance, little from the trailer is all that exciting. It feels like a commonplace story of grief and retribution that has been done far too many times before.
Oscar Prospects:
None.
Trailer #1
Film Preview: Person to Person (2017)
Page Revisions:
(July 23, 2017) Original
Release Date:
July 28, 2017
Synopsis:
From IMDb: “Follows a variety of New York characters as they navigate personal relationships and unexpected problems over the course of one day.”
Poster Rating: B-
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Review: It’s a different and modestly interesting design for a film poster. Would that the blandness of the white background and accompanying images didn’t ruin the mood.
Trailer Rating: C-
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Review: A haplessly generic series of New York stories that are probably connected very loosely and as presented don’t feel that compelling.
Oscar Prospects:
None.
Trailer #1
Film Preview: Mubarakan (2017)
Page Revisions:
(July 23, 2017) Original
Release Date:
July 28, 2017
Synopsis:
From IMDb: “Karan and Charan are identical twin brothers but their personalities are polar opposite. Karan has grown up in London while Charan in Punjab. Karan is street-smart, calculative and flamboyant while Charan is simple, idealistic and honest in his approach. Karan is in love with Sweety while Charan is in a relationship with Nafisa. Karans family fixes Karans wedding with Binkle, daughter of one of the wealthiest families in London. He convinces his family to fix the match with Charan instead. The respective families are happy with this development except Charan because he wants to marry Nafisa.”
Poster Rating: C+
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Review: The design quickly puts forth the character dynamics, but without doing much else exciting or relevant.
Trailer Rating: B-
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Review: There’s a joy to this trailer that makes up for how challenging the subtitles are to read. The premise is also too loosely put forward to be compelling.
Oscar Prospects:
None.
Trailer #1
Film Preview: Menashe (2017)
Page Revisions:
(July 23, 2017) Original
Release Date:
July 28, 2017
Synopsis:
From IMDb: “Within Brooklyn’s ultra-orthodox Jewish community, a widower battles for custody of his son. A tender drama performed entirely in Yiddish, the film intimately explores the nature of faith and the price of parenthood.”
Poster Rating: C / D
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Review: (#1) Bold colors, but otherwise inconsequential. A simple image with minimized depth. (#2) The bland background doesn’t help define the poster, a generic three-quarter position of no particular visual flair.
Trailer Rating: C+
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Review: Seeing how other cultures live is crucial to a fully balanced view of life; however, the film is presented in a very simplistic and dull manner.
Oscar Prospects:
None.
Trailer #1
Film Preview: A Family Man (2017)
Page Revisions:
(July 23, 2017) Original
Release Date:
July 28, 2017
Synopsis:
From IMDb: “A headhunter whose life revolves around closing deals in a a survival-of-the-fittest boiler room, battles his top rival for control of their job placement company — his dream of owning the company clashing with the needs of his family. ”
Poster Rating: B- / B- / C-
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Review: (#1 & #2) While I love the concept of separated images connected as these are. The layout for both posters is faintly bland in spots. With the second poster being less impressive in certain aspects. Both of them needed to construct better images choices. (#3) A cheap, generic design with little visual panache.
Trailer Rating: B-
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Review: The trailer suggests a formulaic film, albeit one that has a lot of potential for emotional catharsis. It presents the kind of film that you’ve seen countless times, but are okay watching again.
Oscar Prospects:
None.
Trailer #1
This Day in Oscar History: July 23 (2017)
Trailer Watch: Ferdinand (2017) Updated
New Trailer (#2) / New Posters (#2-#4)
Ferdinand, updated
Preview Link: CLICK HERE for all of the new content as well as the original.
This Day in Oscar History: July 22 (2017)
Film Preview: American Made (2017)
Page Revisions:
(July 16, 2017) Original
Release Date:
September 29, 2017
Synopsis:
From IMDb: “A pilot lands work for the CIA and as a drug runner in the south during the 1980s.”
Poster Rating: B-
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Review: The American flag stripes being lines of coke is an interesting choice. The title making up the blue field of the flag is also interesting. The rest of it has some interesting elements, but is overall commonplace.
Trailer Rating: C
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Review: Tom Cruise doing a questionable accent is distracting. The trailer itself is ordinary and unexceptional. This is for die hard Cruise fans who don’t mind a generic feel to their movies.
Oscar Prospects:
None.
Trailer #1
Oscar in Box Office History (Week 29, 2017)
Every week, we’ll take a look back in 5-year intervals at the box office past to explore how Oscar’s nominees were doing at the box office each weekend historically. All data is collected from Box Office Mojo. The first section under each year is the positioning of all Oscar nominees during that weekend at the box office (as well as a section looking at the inflation-adjusted numbers). The third section is an alphabetical list of those films and the categories in which they were nominated. And to start each week off, we’ll be looking at the films releasing over the weekend that have the best chance of getting Oscar nominations and specifying the categories where we think they have the best shots at this stage of the game. If you have any suggestions for more data you’d like to see, please let us know.
This Year: Potential Oscar Nominees Releasing This Weekend
Dunkirk (Wide)
Oscar Potential: Picture, Director, Original Screenplay, Original Score, Film Editing, Cinematography, Production Design, Costume Design, Sound Mixing, Sound Editing, Visual Effects.
Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets (Wide)
Oscar Potential: Original Score, Production Design, Costume Design, Makeup & Hairstyling, Sound Mixing, Sound Editing, Visual Effects.
