In Theaters: October 31st, 2014

There are THREE wide releases this weekend.

Before I Go To Sleep

This is a psychological thriller about a woman with a memory problem.  She retains memories until waking up the next morning.  Then she remembers nothing.  The trailer seems to be trying to sell it with some horror elements, but I think that's just because it's coming out on Halloween.  Either that or the film unwisely degenerates into random horror nonsense - not entirely unlikely for inexperienced director Rowan Joffe.

As a side note, it seems like it's been forever since Nicole Kidman had a starring role.

Before I Go To Sleep is rated R for some brutal violence and language.

Nightcrawler

Oscar bait.

Jake Gyllenhaal plays a man desperate for work who finds his way into crime journalism.  But he sort of blurs the line between reporting the crimes and being involved in the crimes.  It looks kinda weird to me.  But I almost don't care at all, because this writer/director also wrote Freejack.  If you haven't seen Freejack you should.

Nightcrawler is rated R for violence including graphic images, and for language.

Saw 10th Anniversary

All the posters are gross, so nevermind.

It's a dumb horror movie.  Ten years later - still dumb.

Saw is rated R for strong grisly violence and language.

      Big Shot Critic

Editorial: The Fast and the Furious

The Fast & Furious franchise is really a great work of art.  You just don't know it yet.  I really do love these movies!

It started in an era before the franchise was king.  Trilogies were definitely a thing back in 2001, when The Fast and the Furious was released.  But usually you stopped after three.  The only franchises that went beyond that had been around for a really long time, like James Bond, Star Wars, and Star Trek.  Those franchises only had nineteen, four, and nine movies respectively in 2001 (now they have twenty-three, six, and twelve respectively - plus one more on the way for each).  The sick thing is I didn't even have to look any of that up.  Okay!  I'll stop showing off.

I'm not sure when it became okay to just keep making movies.  There were franchises that tried, but ultimately got rebooted (X-Men and Spider-Man).  Maybe Indiana Jones was the first new one to do it.  Maybe Pirates (that fourth one was in development FOREVER).  In any case Fast & Furious was the first franchise to truly break the three film barrier in ten years.  But I feel like Star Wars doesn't even count, and this is my blog, so I'm gonna say thirty-three years instead (since Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home).  And the best part about this franchise doing it?  It was never meant to be a franchise.

Remember when Iron Man came out?  Superhero movies were in a major slouch and nobody expected it to be anything special.  Remember when Taken came out?  Word of mouth made that movie.  How about the first Pirates of the Caribbean?  Nobody knew that was going to be any good.  These are called sleeper hits.  The Fast and the Furious was a sleeper hit.  And it made Vin Diesel and Paul Walker famous.

You might say a sequel is inevitable when a movie does well, but people know that sequels to sleeper hits sometimes don't have the magic of the original (just ask Pirates or Taken).  So Vin Diesel didn't take part in 2 Fast 2 Furious in 2003, but Tyrese Gibson and Ludacris joined in, and it wasn't half bad.  It didn't do as well as the first, but producer Neal Moritz was ready for round three!

Destiny intervened.  Justin Lin was hired.  He would go on to direct the third, fourth, fifth, and sixth installments, turning down the seventh because of a schedule he believed was too . . . FAST AND FURIOUS I had to say it!  I apologize.  But really, he turned down Fast & Furious 7 because he didn't think he could do his best work in such a tight schedule.  Ironically, the film will be coming out almost a full year after the originally planned release date (for very tragic reasons).

So anyway they came out with The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift in 2006 AND it's one of my personal favorites.  They couldn't afford to bring on Paul Walker or Vin Diesel for major roles, but Vin Diesel does have a cameo.  Supposedly he wasn't payed for it, but instead took ownership of the rights to his Riddick character from Universal.  That would make sense.  He had enough clout to pull something like that, and it is a well-documented fact that he loves the character of Riddick.

Anyway, thus far in the franchise the events of one movie hadn't really affected the stories of any other, so 2009's Fast & Furious was a new direction.  It also featured the brilliant tagline:

"New Model.  Original Parts."

It was the first sequel to bring back all four main characters from the first movie.  Get it?  New Model?  Original Parts?  Fast & Furious was pretty good, and it was the first to very clearly set up for a sequel.  Without any spoilers I will say I was surprised the first time I saw this one.

Fast & Furious wasn't a runaway success by any means, but they made enough to keep going.  The franchise was - as some terribly punny critics pointed out - "running out of gas" at this point.

I was genuinely surprised when I found out they were making a fifth one.  Fast Five came out in 2011.  And, I kid you not, it rocked everyone's socks off.  It was the first in the franchise to receive a "fresh" rating from Rotten Tomatoes.  Do you have any idea how rare that is?  For the fifth movie in a franchise to be the critical favorite?  I'll tell you how rare, it's NEVER HAPPENED before or since.  It was kind of a huge surprise to everyone.  It was like a sleeper mega hit.

Marvel's The Avengers claims to be the first movie to bring characters in from their own individual movies and have them team up in the same movie.  In a lot of ways that's true, but Fast Five came out a year before and featured almost every major character from all four previous movies.  It's a great movie.  Seriously.  It's great.

After Fast Five people couldn't wait for the next one.  And even though it didn't get quite as high a rating on Rotten Tomatoes as Fast Five did, Fast & Furious 6 did not disappoint when it hit theaters last year in 2013.  I maintain that it was the most fun you could have had at the movies in 2013.

So why do I love these movies?  What's so special about them?  When they started, franchises were not such a big deal but now franchises are king.  Every Studio wants franchises.  Why do you think DreamWorks released Need for Speed earlier this year?  They wanted their own Fast & Furious type franchise!

The hilarious thing is that all prospective franchises are master-planned from the beginning nowadays, like the MCU (Marvel Cinematic Universe - the first successful, master-planned franchise).  The Fast & Furious franchise is ANYTHING BUT master-planned!  It's so easy to tell they had no idea what they were doing early on and it's hilarious to me!  If you only knew how jealously all these studios guard their franchises.  And Universal practically has one by accident, it's great.  Just take a look at the titles of these movies.  In order:

The Fast and the Furious

2 Fast 2 Furious

The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift

Fast & Furious

Fast Five

Fast & Furious 6

Does that sound like a master plan to you??  I love it!  And that's not even mentioning the fact that, chronologically, Tokyo Drift comes last - for a very simple reason that I cannot explain without spoilers.

What's more, in an era when so many movies take themselves so seriously (I'm talking to you, Man of Steel), it's so refreshing to have one franchise that is kind of running around like a chicken with its head cut off.  How can you not love that?  We need a franchise like this that will stand up and say, "I don't care what the critics think, I want real people to enjoy this!"  We need movies that can counterbalance the seriousness of Nolan and the Nolanettes (I'm talking to you, Man of Steel).  We need fun movies.  We need Fast & Furious movies.  They lead that charge in a big way.

* * *

For those of you who don't know, Fast & Furious 7 is to be released on April 10th, 2015.  They say Paul Walker's character does not die, he retires.

Interesting side note: I ordered the six-disc blu-ray set of all of them while I was in the middle of this post.  Less than $50 on Amazon!

      Big Shot Critic

In Theaters: October 24th, 2014

There are THREE wide releases this weekend.

23 Blast

A high school football player goes blind and the coach wants him to play anyway.  Based on a true story.  It's one of those inspirational dramas.  It is the directorial debut of Dr. Connors.  I mean, Dylan Baker, the guy who plays Dr. Connors in Spider-Man 2.  Not a lot to say about this one.

23 Blast is rated PG-13 for some teen drinking.

John Wick

I kinda sorta had no idea this was going to be a wide release.  It just looks smaller than that.  And it hasn't really been in the news.  But never fear.  I just watched the trailer so now I am qualified to pass judgment!

John Wick is a retired assassin.  He comes out of retirement for revenge when a group of thugs (ready for this?) kill his dog and steal his car.  Yep.  They didn't murder his family, they didn't steal his fortune, they killed his dog and stole his car.  And beat him up, to be fair I should mention that too.

It was written by Derek Kolstad, which means nothing to me, but this is his picture on IMDb.  I think it's worth pointing out.

an action writer if ever I saw one

I poke fun, but he's a dad who has fun with his kid!  How can you not want to support that?

However, this film was directed by two stuntmen who have never directed anything before.  Yikes.  And (surprise!) one of them was Keanu Reeves' stunt double in The Matrix.

John Wick is rated R for strong and bloody violence throughout, language and brief drug use.

Ouija

I will never know how or why something spelled, "ouija" is pronounced, "weejee," but it is.

I don't do ouija boards.  And I don't do movies about ouija boards.  No gracias.

Anyway it's just another horror movie.  And I don't do those much either.  Some kids find a ouija board and try to use it to talk to a dead friend of theirs.  And then stuff gets all haunted.  You know.

Ouija is rated PG-13 for disturbing violent content, frightening horror images, and thematic material.

      Big Shot Critic

In Theaters: October 17th, 2014

There are THREE wide releases this weekend.

The Best of Me

As of November 1st of last year, this movie was to star PAUL WALKER, not James Marsden.  That month was the tragic death of Paul Walker, and James Marsden was cast instead later on.

The Best of Me is about high school sweethearts that reunite after ten years or more and rekindle their relationship.

Worth noting is that it's from the director of One Fine Day and the writer of The Lucky One, based on yet another novel from Nicholas Sparks.

The Best of me is rated PG-13 for sexuality, violence, some drug content and brief strong language.

The Book of Life

Worst animated feature since Rango?  Possibly.  I don't hesitate to tell you that I think this movie looks awful.

The Book of Life is about two suitors trying to woo a young woman.  They seem to live in some strange fantasy version of Latin America somewhere.

I'm telling you the animation looks really cheap.  I mean, at least The Nut Job had a good premise and a clever title!

Tell me what you think in the comments.

The Book of Life is rated PG for mild action, rude humor, some thematic elements and brief scary images.

Did I mention all the jokes in the trailers are the really random un-funny kind that will make no one laugh who is above the age of five?  This movie looks really bad.

Fury

How's this for a change of flavor?  From writer/director David Ayer (Training Day, End of Watch) comes the story of a tank crew in Germany nearing the end of World War II.  This is not a family film.

Somehow Shia Labeouf managed to get cast in this movie.  I don't know how but he was weird on set as always.  Just google news search "Shia Labeouf Fury" to see what I'm talking about.

Fury is rated R for strong sequences of war violence, some grisly images, and language throughout.

      Big Shot Critic

In Theaters: October 10th, 2014

There are FOUR wide releases this weekend PLUS ONE limited release I will mention.

Addicted

You may have noticed that this poster is in Spanish.  This is because the poster released here in the states is inappropriate.

It's a movie about an affair.  Normally I would dismiss this as stupid, but this movie takes the (true) angle that affairs DESTROY marriages, families, and careers.  For some reason I appreciate that in a movie today.

The main character is a woman who works with artists.  She begins an affair with one of them and her life begins to fall apart.  The question is will she give up her addiction in time to heal the life she let go?

Addicted is rated R for strong sexual content, nudity, language and brief drug use.

I don't recommend seeing this movie, but I'm glad they are showing infidelity for what it is.

Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

I don't understand the point of this movie but I will try my best to explain what I know.

Alexander is seen at the bottom left of the poster.  He is a middle child in a normal family.  He has bad days all the time.  The rest of his family has a bad day and I guess he somehow helps them through it while they get a glimpse into his life.

Why not?

Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day is rated PG for rude humor including some reckless behavior and language.

Dracula Untold

I'm already sold on this one.  It looks awesome.  I like the name.  I like Luke Evans.  It looks sweet.

Word on the street is that between this and the wolfman and mummy reboots Universal might be putting together a franchise of sorts.  They own the rights to pretty much every classic monster movie.  So this could be like the first Iron Man.  The first in a MAJOR franchise and no one really knows it when it comes out.  Now that I think about it the PG-13 rating for a movie about Dracula is consistent with this theory.  It looks like it could have easily been R.  But if you want a big franchise it's gotta be PG-13.

MONSTERS ASSEMBLE!

Dracula Untold is rated PG-13 for intense sequences of warfare, vampire attacks, disturbing images, and some sensuality

NOTE: This is the first time I've noticed the MPAA using an oxford comma.  Fascinating.

The Judge

This might be this year's first major offering of "oscar bait."

Robert Downey Jr. is a big time criminal defense lawyer.  His mother dies so he returns to his hometown and his estranged father, who is played by Robert Duvall.  It turns out his father is accused of murder (not sure if he's accused of killing his wife or not).  So Robert Downey Jr. steps in to defend his father.  Oh, and his father is the title character.  His father is a judge in the small hometown.

We have been hearing about this one for a long time now.  Interestingly, director David Dobkin is known for raunchy comedy movies; mostly R-rated raunchy comedies.  He directed Wedding Crashers.  That is so strange to me.

The Judge is rated R for language including some sexual references.

Meet the Mormons (limited release)

I'm Mormon.  But I'm not in this documentary.

This movie was commissioned by the leadership of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.  It was originally intended to only be viewed in certain theaters located in Visitor's Centers of Mormon Temples and other such places, but it is now going into a limited release for one week or more, depending on performance.

Also, all profits from the box office go to charity.  And I can assure you that when the Mormon church says all profits go to charity they mean ALL profits go to charity.  None of this Ice Bucket Challenge crap.

To find showtimes near you go to www.meetthemormons.com

Meet the Mormons is rated R for bloody violence throughout and strong language including-

I'm kidding, I'm kidding!

Meet the Mormons is rated PG for some thematic elements.

      Big Shot Critic

In Theaters: October 3rd, 2014

There are THREE wide releases this weekend.

Annabelle

Okay I made it most of the way through that trailer.  What does that count for?

It's a possessed doll.  Bad things happen because of the doll.  I'm not sure what more can be said.  And I guess it's a prequel to The Conjuring.  Cool?  Moving on.

Annabelle is rated R for intense sequences of disturbing violence and terror.

Gone Girl

I've been hearing about this movie for two years or so now and in all that time I knew two things: Ben Affleck stars and it's based on a book.  Evidently the reason I've heard so much about it is because David Fincher directed it.  He's kind of a big deal.

Rosamund Pike and Ben Affleck are husband and wife.  The wife disappears and before long the media and investigators start to wonder if the husband had anything to do with it.

Gone Girls is rated R for a scene of bloody violence, some strong sexual content/nudity, and language.

Left Behind

Well it's been a long time coming.  We've all heard of the books.  Left Behind is finally a movie.  Again.

The Rapture happens and the movie follows those who are left behind.  Pretty straightforward.  But hey!  Nicolas Cage, am I right??

Left Behind is rated PG-13 for some thematic elements, violence/peril and brief drug content.

      Big Shot Critic