*Previews of these movies and all the ones I haven't had a chance to see yet can be found here.
July 1st
Opening Weekend: $28.7 million
Rotten Tomatoes: 27%
Review: Perhaps it was because I watched The Terminator and Terminator 2 right before heading to the cinema, but I seem to have enjoyed Terminator Genisys (which, yes, is a terrible name) a lot more than other critics. Does Genisys manage to recreate the same sense of novelty as that first movie? Of course not. But it does take the story and mythology introduced in the 1984 film and reinterpret what some of those ideas might mean and move the franchise forward in new and interesting ways, essentially ignoring (though not necessarily disregarding) the events of Terminator 3 and Terminator Salvation.
What bogs down Genisys more than anything isn't the age of star Arnold Schwarzenegger (Total Recall) - in fact, his appearance makes a lot of sense in the context of the movie - but rather how deeply Genisys dives into the mythos of the series. Jam-packed with narrative content from start to finish, this film from director
Genisys didn't make a whole lot of money its opening weekend, but while I recommend you give it a watch, a lower box-office might be a boon to the franchise. I say that in the hopes that Genisys will be profitable enough to greenlight a sequel, but a sequel given a lower-budget that, by nature of a smaller-scale, gets to slow down and flesh out what the advances in plot means for its characters. That's what Genisys misses, but it's still worth a watch, especially if you're a fan of the Terminator series.
The Final Word: 3/4 - Buy a matinee ticket.
July 10th
Opening Weekend: $115.2 million
Rotten Tomatoes: 54%
Review: The year 2010 saw the release of two animated films about super-villains, Megamind and Despicable Me. While both movies were inventive and fun, the latter caught on with audiences like wildfire, due in-part to the adorable henchmen called Minions. A sequel in 2013 made the initial mistake of leaning too hard on the Minions for laughs at the expense of plot and character , but money - merchandising money in particular - talks, and the overwhelming popularity of the Minions demanded the studio finance a spin-off film dedicated to the yellow underlings. This is, of course, a common move in the industry; it was only last year when the Madagascar franchise gave us a Penguins origin story. Yet, where the Penguins was an engaging, if silly, look at how the Penguins came to be, which was met with only moderate monetary success, Minions is the opposite: a puerile summer blockbuster, which totally falls short of its promise.
I did not hate the film, that would be obviously hyperbolic, but it is no exaggeration to say that I spent the majority of the movie caught between boredom and bewilderment. An opening 15 minutes depicting the Minions finding and losing (usually by fault of their own) various bosses was interesting enough, and, if more developed, could likely have made a solid film in-and-of itself. But after Minions Stuart, Kevin, and Bob leave their kin to find their next overlord, the movie slows to a drag as they explore a 1960s New York City and subsequently travel to Orlando
They're cute, sure, but when it is more than the Minions' babbling and bumbling that lacks purpose, when the entire plot of the film is uneven and scattershot, only a single word can come to mind when watching this movie: pointless. If, like Penguins, Minions was at least somewhat funny in its absurdity, then perhaps its flaws could be more overlooked. But it's not even remotely funny. And again, this critique is coming from someone who really loves Despicable Me, but despite that affinity, has zero use for an unfunny and quite simply stupid Minions movie that clearly shares more with the Minion Madness straight-to-DVD collection than it's wonderfully-despicable source.
The Final Word: 0/4 - Avoid at all costs.
Opening Weekend: $5.4 million
Rotten Tomatoes: 21%
Review: Despite obvious parallels to the classic 1966 film Seconds, I found myself thinking more about 2011's Limitless as I watched the newest movie from director Tarsem Singh (Immortals), who is so often maligned by critics for having a better visual eye than storytelling mind. Although other reviewers don't seem to feel similarly, I found Self/less to be a mature step forward for Singh, demonstrating constraint with self-indulgent fantasies for the benefit of stronger narrative. That being said, Self/less, like Limitless, still suffers from an inability of the filmmakers to refrain from forcing action sequences when drawn-out suspense is more fitting for such philosophical premises. It's not that the action was nonsensical, as it fit within the structure of the story, but rather the critique is of the structure itself, which lays the foundation for an architecture of mind-bending mystery, but upon that cornerstone instead builds a more typical edifice of predictable shoot-em-up sequences. Self/less is interesting enough, but could have been much more.
The Final Word: 2/4 - Wait to rent it.
July 17th
Opening Weekend: $57.2 million
Rotten Tomatoes: 79%
Review:
The Final Word: 3/4 - Buy a matinee ticket.
Opening Weekend: n/a; limited release
Rotten Tomatoes: 87%
Review:
The Final Word: 2/4 - Wait to rent it.
Opening Weekend: $30.1 million
Rotten Tomatoes: 85%
Review:
The Final Word: 3.5/4 - Go buy a ticket.
July 24th
Opening Weekend: $16.7 million
Rotten Tomatoes: 58%
Review:
The Final Word: 3/4 - Buy a matinee ticket.
July 29th
Opening Weekend: tbd
Rotten Tomatoes: 28%
Review:
The Final Word: 3.5/4 - Go buy a ticket.
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