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Hops and Box Office Flops: TOP SECRET! – We Know a Little German
Top Secret! was the team of Jim Abrahams, David Zucker, and Jerry Zucker’s follow up to their incredibly successful Airplane! It, like its predecessor, is an indescribably goofy movie—full of off the wall gags, jokes, and non-sequiturs. If you have seen Airplane!, you will understand what kind of humor it is. These guys were the kings of this style of comedy, and Top Secret! certainly lives up to that pedigree. It also introduced moviegoers to Val Kilmer. This was his big screen debut, and it’s clear why he went on to become a household name. Where this movie suffers is a lack of clear narrative focus and a truly defined world. It is set in immediate…
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Hops and Box Office Flops: IF LOOKS COULD KILL – Grieco: Far from Home
If Looks Could Kill is a piece of vintage 90s cinema. It takes a young star—presumably on the rise—and tasks them with elevating a sub-par film. It’s a challenge many budding leading men have been burdened with. Richard Grieco—most famously Dennis Booker from the 21 Jump Street TV show and its spin-off Booker—is not quite up to the task. His big screen woes mirror that of his small screen ones. Like Booker, audiences did not flock to If Looks Could Kill. His suave appearance and brash attitude were not accompanied by the requisite charm. Grossing just $7.8 million on a budget as high as $12 million, it served as evidence that Grieco may not be the next big…
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Hops and Box Office Flops: THE LONG KISS GOODNIGHT – This Movie is Pain
The Long Kiss Goodnight is obnoxious, loud, and dumb. In other words, most action movies of the 80s and 90s. It’s also hopelessly convoluted and botches its central premise—that of an amnesic suburban housewife who has forgotten that she used to be an assassin. Starring Geena Davis—in her second collaboration with former husband Renny Harlin—as Samantha Caine (the innocent)/Charly Baltimore (the no-so-innocent), The Long Kiss Goodnight just isn’t equal to the sum of its parts. The supporting cast is great—boasting Samuel L. Jackson, Brian Cox, Craig Bierko, and David Morse, amongst others—and it was written by Shane Black, the literal master of this conceit (i.e. the mismatched action duo). Even with those elements, it…
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THE FANBOY: “DC United Under One Vision? WandaVision Lays Exciting Groundwork for Marvel, Maguire and Leto Return, and More From Zack Snyder’s Justice League!”
This week’s episode of The Fanboy Podcast begins with an examination of quotes from HBO Max’s Chief Content Officer Casey Bloys on the interconnectivity of the DC universe, going forward. He paints a picture of an Arrowverse, Snyderverse, Titansverse, and Films universe that all work together in a logical way, and MFR reacts. Things then shift into thoughts on Marvel’s WandaVision, where things have finally kicked into a gear where MFR had to delve in and see what all the hype was about. What he found was the promising start of the next chapter in the Marvel saga. He also touches on the rumor that Tobey Maguire has officially signed on…
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Hops and Box Office Flops: WAYNE’S WORLD 2 – We’re Putting on a Podcast … Oh Yes
Wayne’s World 2 came hot off the heels of its smash hit predecessor. The first—which remains the most successful Saturday Night Live-inspired film—grossed over $180 million worldwide. Suffice to say, Wayne’s World 2 could not replicate that success. Earning just $48 million on double the budget ($40 million), its returns were a disappointment. Some would say they, “licked the cat’s butt.” The dismal gross would also suggest that Wayne’s World 2 is demonstrably worse than the first. That’s simply not true. Is it derivative? Sure. But it’s also consistently funny, generating enough new gags to keep the most cynical of us entertained—even if just moderately. Anyway, if you’ve got a fine eye for details, perhaps some of the…
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THE FANBOY: “Cavill’s Superman in SHAZAM! 2? Of Course The Snyder Cut is Rated R! DC Films Are Filmmaker-Driven At Last, THOR, GUARDIANS, More!”
This week’s show, as always, covers a smattering of geeky film topics. Host Mario-Francisco Robles starts things off by poking fun at an absurd rumor about DC’s BLACK ADAM, before diving into That Hashtag Show’s scoop that Henry Cavill’s Superman is set for SHAZAM! Fury of The Gods. Steven Spielberg is featured next, for his comments about audiences returning to movie theater, and how they mirror MFR’s feelings on the matter. Up next, The Fanboy host delves into how to split up DC’s multiverse across several mediums. From there, there’s chatter about The Suicide Squad (NEW SYNOPSIS!), Thor: Love and Thunder (STARTED FILMING), and Guardians of The Galaxy Vol. 3…
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Hops and Box Office Flops: STUART SAVES HIS FAMILY – In Need of an Intervention
Stuart Saves His Family is a textbook example of how not all sketches are meant to be made into films. If it’s not the worst Saturday Night Live adaptation, it’s certainly close. Based on Daily Affirmation with Stuart Smalley, as well as an in-character novel by Al Franken (the movie’s star), the film never seems to understand what made Smalley work in the first place. Worse, it’s not at all funny. It wraps him in a realistic world, full of realistic and often depressing family problems. Couple that with a plot that meanders between his home life and his struggling work life and none of it equates to comedy gold. So, though Stuart Smalley may…
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“Talking The RELEASE THE SNYDER CUT Book w/ Sean O’Connell, KONG Roars, JUSTICE LEAGUE Gets A Release Date, SUPERMAN & LOIS, More!”
On this week’s episode of The Fanboy Podcast host Mario-Francisco Robles sits down to chat with Cinema Blend’s Sean O’Connell, who’s just written Release the Snyder Cut: The Crazy True Story Behind the Fight That Saved Zack Snyder’s Justice League. But before that, he touches on several major geek topics, like: That Godzilla vs Kong trailer Zack Snyder’s Justice League: A release date, new synopsis, a cray cray runtime, and Snyder discusses his emotional departure from the project The Falcon and The Winter..and the search for Captain America? WW84: Jenkins discusses what she wanted to tackle and accomplish with the Wonder Woman sequel Superman & Lois is looking great, and why He wraps things…
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Hops and Box Office Flops: ‘MACGRUBER – Pound Some…’
MacGruber, which is a riff on the old jack-of-all trades television character MacGyver, is one of the more perplexing Saturday Night Live adaptations. I don’t say that in a bad way. It’s more because it takes a truncated skit (generally 30 seconds) and turns it into an unabashed, hard R, gross out gag, lowbrow yuck fest. That conceit can be a lot when stretched over 90 minutes. If that sounds terrible, and some may certainly find it to be, we don’t blame you; but it’s actually a lot of fun. And, honestly, if you have seen the skit, its decision to pull no punches makes a lot of sense. At his core, MacGruber—the character—is…
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Hops and Box Office Flops: ‘BLUES BROTHERS 2000 – We’re on a Mission from Pod’
Blues Brothers 2000 should have never happened. Period. It’s an uninspired rehash of one of the great 80s comedies. There is nothing new here; thus, there was no reason for revisiting the titular brothers. Oh, and lest we forget that one of them—John Belushi—tragically passed away in 1982. Without his oversized and all-consuming personality, there is an undeniable void that’s never filled. The magic is gone. And no matter how many fake brothers you insert into the mix, it’s not going to matter—particularly when the actors are stripped of most of their charm and charisma. John Goodman has never been less magnetic than he is here as “Mighty” Mack McTeer. Did…