November 8th, 2016
It’s not a particularly deep week for new releases. A lot of releases on this week’s list were good, but not good enough to be a contender for Pick of the Week, like Daredevil: The Complete First Season on Blu-ray. I reviewed Finding Dory this weekend, but I have already named it Pick of the Week. So the only real contender was Bubba Ho-Tep: Collector’s Edition.
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July 29th, 2016
It’s a week of “good, but not great” movies as there are a number of films earning Tomatometer Scores in the 70s. Generally speaking, films usually need 80% positive reviews or better to survive in limited release. There are a couple of films with amazing reviews, Gleason and Miss Sharon Jones, but both are documentaries, so they don’t have a lot of box office potential. The film I’m most interested in is Into the Forest, which is playing on Video on Demand.
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May 2nd, 2016
This week the biggest releases are busted Oscar-bait, Joy; a post-apocalyptic young adult adaptation, The 5th Wave; and the latest from Nicholas Sparks, The Choice. Joy is worth at least a rental. The other two are not. There are no major releases that are contenders for Pick of the Week, so that title will go to a smaller release, East Side Sushi on DVD. It has earned unanimously positive reviews, but no buzz.
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December 4th, 2015
It's a very busy weekend with way too many limited releases. Because of this, we had to be a little more selective with what films made the cut to appear in our column. Chi-raq is opening the widest and should earn the most over the weekend. However, there are more than half-a-dozen films on this week's list earning overwhelmingly positive reviews. Some of these might pick up some major Awards Season nominations.
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September 30th, 2014
September is over and while it got off to a bad start, a really, really, truly terrible start, it actually ended on a bit of a strong note. Granted, no film has yet to reach $100 million, but The Maze Runner and The Equalizer both could get there in the end. As for October, we might go another month without a $100 million hit. There are a couple of films that have the potential to reach the century mark, Gone Girl and Fury. Hopefully they will get there, but given the recent box office woes, it is probably best to keep expectations low. Last October, there were two films that earned more than $100 million. Bad Grandpa just made it passed that mark. On the other hand, Gravity was a monster hit earning nearly $275 million. It you compare its run to this year's batch of films, it only ranks behind Guardians of the Galaxy. ... There's no way any film opening this month is going to match that. ... There no way the top two films will match that. ... The top three films might not match that. ... 2014 is going to get crushed in the year-over-year comparison and by the end of the month, it will be safe to say its chances of ever catching up to 2013 will be over. It is going to be a depressing month.
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June 22nd, 2014
Enemy is the latest film from Denis Villeneuve and Jake Gyllenhaal. It was actually made before Prisoners was, but that was a lot more mainstream movie and it earned a theatrical release first. There are many words that can be used to describe Enemy, but mainstream isn't one of them. Is it worth checking out for fans of the unusual? And is the Blu-ray worth picking up?
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