The Concession Stand: Recent Episodes
The Concession Stand
The Florida Movie Guy, JW Colwell hosts a weekly show about the movie industry with unique guests, humor, news, reviews and tying classic films to today.
Marty Langford, director of DOOMED, THE UNTOLD STORY OF ROGER CORMAN'S FANTASTIC FOUR joins the show to talk about his new comic book documentary.
Langford, who is a film professor and self comic book nerd, talks about the hardships endured making his labor of nerd love, who from Hollywood talked and who didnt and the mystery surrounding what really happened with one of the biggest cult films based on Marvel's first family.
JW Colwell, host of THE CONCESSION STAND, also reviews some of this fall's blockbusters, this week's new releases at multiplexes and Cine-Bits movie news.
In this week's episode of The Concession Stand, the release of THE BLAIR WITCH makes us revisit the classic 1999 horror film and all the history it made , the passing of legendary comedic actor Gene Wilder has JW looking at the comic's 5 most iconic movie roles and the summer Box Office has the film industry questioning where are all the moviegoers at. We also have our Cinebits Movie News and this week's Box Office Results.
The Florida Movie Guy JW Colwell reviews Suicide Squad, Lights Out and Star Trek: Beyond. He then checks this week's shocking box office debut of Sausage Party and the steep decline of Suicide Squad in its second week of release. He then talks about the incendiary letter making the rounds in Hollywood about Warner Brothers and the recent labor disputes involving the animation studio responsible for Sausage Party. In Cinebits movie news, he covers a whole new batch of reboots and sequels being made in this summer of unwanted sequels and reboots. The show ends with a preview of this week's new releases including Ben Hur, War Dogs, Kubo and the Two Strings and Hell or High Water and movies to digitally download or seek out to get you in the mood for these flicks.
WHEN ALIENS ATTACK
This Summer has been tough at the box office and as we head towards the 4th of July, uncertainty grips Hollywood. The big question is why this year's sequels(aside from FINDING DORY and CAPTAIN AMERICA:CIVIL WAR) and reboots are not connecting with audiences. They have a hope in the darkness with a sequel 20 years in the making.
In the summer of 1996, INDEPENDENCE DAY made Will Smith a star and ruled the box office. It was big, loud and full of special effects. The most special was Smith, who connected with the blockbuster audiences in a casual and charming way. People went to see the world burn but they saw it again and again to listen to Smith talking trash with Jeff Goldblum as the world burned. the movie was a massive hit and ushered a brief era where Smith released a huge movie every July.
Here we are in the summer of 2016, 20 years later and INDEPENDENCE DAY: RESURGENCE is hitting screens hoping for box office glory as a shell of its former self. In present day movies, you can reinvent yourself though. Last year's JURASSIC WORLD proved that 22 years after the original and countless sequels folks will return if you have a star. Chris Pratt rode the dinosaurs to a huge opening and over a billion dollars at the box office. It was Nostaglia Box Office at its finest but ID doesn't have a star in the making like Pratt and No Will Smith!
Marvel has become one of the most important production houses in all of Hollywood. They release one or two blockbusters a year that theaters have come to count on for box office. They have a trademark style, trademark stars playing their characters and trademark flourishes like the after credits teases that set them apart from any films being made today. This week marks the official launch of PHASE 3 with CAPTAIN AMERICA: CIVIL WAR. Here we go over what makes them special, what PHASE 1 and 2 were all about and where we are headed with PHASE 3.
The Marvel Cinematic Universe, starting its third phase, spans 13 movies and counting. Phase 3 plans on being one of the most ambitious in terms of storytelling and in testing the possibility of a saturated market. The Superhero Genre has dominated cinemas since 2008 when Robert Downey Jr. donned the Iron Man armor and Warner Brothers has just recently started a DC Cinematic Universe to mediocre effect with BATMAN VS. SUPERMAN. Have audiences tired of capes, costumes and villains. Marvel transcends because of their unique abilities with storytelling.
The most interesting aspect to Marvel's success is that the movies often transcend genre. Marvel has done a great job of establishing heroes and using them in not only traditional Superhero stories but also genre movies that happen to have a superhero in them. CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE FIRST AVENGER not only provides an origin for our beloved hero but plays as a great World War II adventure movie in the mold of THE DIRTY DOZEN. GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY is not only an introduction to obscure Marvel Heroes but a rousing space action adventure akin to STAR WARS. Its most recent film ANT MAN also used a lesser hero and made his origin story into a rousing action/comedy heist film.
Its not the unmitigated disaster its being made out to be but BATMAN vs. SUPERMAN is not the experience millions of DC comic book fans have dreamed off either. Director Zack Snyder has chosen to tonally go for a bleak DC CINEMATIC UNIVERSE, its too grim to be fun and too bleak and exhausting for thrills.
Hello Concession Stand fans! January is over which means two things: Cupid is on his way and now we start getting bigger movies to be really excited about as the January dreck month is over....drum roll ....please... Here are the movies to get excited about for 2016 and the dates you can catch them at your local theater. As with anything, dates are subject to change but with most studios setting up dates 3 years in advance they probably will not!
THE SUPER 16
The first three movies are equally anticipated and could each be no 1 depending on the nerd you speak to...READ REVIEWS at www.beatsandeats.net
This past week the nominees for the 2016 Academy Awards sent shockwaves through the entertainment industry. Oscar snubs for STRAIGHT OUTTA COMPTON, CONCUSSION, BEASTS OF NO NATION and CREED snowballed into the Motion Picture Academy being called out for its institutional racism
For the second year in a row, the major acting and Best Picture categories were bereft of nominees of color. The controversy elicited calls for a boycott from: Jada Pinkett Smith, Will Smith, Spike Lee and Micheal Moore, for Host Chris Rock to step down and the hashtag #OscarsSoWhite to be on the minds of Hollywood.
Each of the snubs had a specific reason for happening that had more to do with the Oscars being SoOld than being SoWhite.