Month: August 2014

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Box Office Prediction

Almost 25 years after they first made their debut on the silver screen – Leonardo, Raphael, Michelangelo, and Donatello are back as the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, hitting theaters Friday. The franchise has been rebooted with Nickelodeon and Michael Bay producing for Paramount Pictures. Former Transformers star Megan Fox headlines the cast as April O’Neil with Will Arnett and William Fichtner costarring and Jackass‘s Johnny Knoxville voicing Leonardo.

It is a legitimate question as to whether the TMNT franchise is strong enough to ensure a healthy debut. As mentioned, it’s been nearly a quarter century since the pizza lovin’ crime fighters hit the multiplex and about 20 years since the last installment of the original trilogy. A 2007 computer animated entry TMNT only managed $54 million domestically. Recently, the Turtles have been featured in a hit Nickelodeon cartoon that’s about to enter its third season and that should help a bit.

Truth be told – the biggest Turtle hurdle may be another team of heroes, the Guardians of the Galaxy. Marvel’s latest flick got off to a fantastic and record setting August opening. Its second weekend should also be huge and many of TMNT’s target audience could be watching Guardians for the first time or going back for seconds.

I believe the Turtles name recognition will be enough to earn a debut in the high 20s, which would be considered a bit of a letdown due to its reported $125 million price tag. With that predicted number, it should fall behind Guardians and have to settle for a second place opening.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles opening weekend prediction: $28.2 million

For my Into the Storm prediction, click here:

https://toddmthatcher.com/2014/08/03/into-the-storm-box-office-prediction/

For my The Hundred-Foot Journey prediction, click here:

https://toddmthatcher.com/2014/08/03/the-hundred-foot-journey-box-office-prediction/

For my Step Up: All In prediction, click here:

https://toddmthatcher.com/2014/08/03/step-up-all-in-box-office-prediction/

World War Z Movie Review

Last summer’s World War Z was met with Waterworld type expectations upon its release. The vast majority of its publicity was negative. Stories of a troubled production, cost overruns, and script problems were abundant. What happened? It turned into a massive worldwide hit with a sequel on the way. It’s also star Brad Pitt’s highest grossing film ever.

For a picture that was looked at as a potential disaster which was apparently plagued with issues during the shooting, you’d never know it while viewing it. Loosely based on Max Brooks’s (son of Mel) bestseller, World War Z excels in taking your typical zombie movie clichés but expanding them on a big-budget, global scale. Pitt is Gerry Lane, a former UN investigator turned stay at home father. When a mysterious pandemic breaks out with people being infected with zombie-like symptoms, Gerry is recruited to go on a mission to find the outbreak’s origin and a potential cure. He does so reluctantly only after being told his family’s safety is not guaranteed if he doesn’t. Gerry’s new life of Dad and chief pancake maker is history.

The movie doesn’t take long at all to get revved up with a giant action spectacle scene set in Philadelphia. Gerry’s journey takes him to South Korea, Jerusalem, and Wales within a short period of time – probably around the number of continents that Brad Pitt and family visit in one week’s time. Along the way, he finds a female Israeli guard to help him and comes across a corrupt CIA agent (creepily portrayed by David Morse) who has his own ideas on how to stop the virus.

The first two-thirds of World War Z are shot on an epic scale with big action scenes directed quite well by Marc Forster. This is a bit of a surprise considering his handling of action in the Bond pic Quantum of Solace was mediocre. The final acts opt for more claustrophobic locations and this is a wise decision by the filmmakers. If the pic had kept moving along at its large scale, it might’ve become routine. Instead the audience is treated to a truly suspenseful airplane scene and the finale at the Welsh WHO research facility where Gerry’s surprisingly plausible explanation for how to stop the virus is tested. Rather than explosions and widespread mayhem with hundreds of zombie extras chasing our hero down, it is one zombie and his chattering teeth that memorably keep us on the edge of our seats.

Of course, there are clichés we expect to see in zombie flicks and most are present here. It even features the latest zombie cliché craze where the zombies are FAST, like in 28 Days Later and the Dawn of the Dead remake. It makes for better action scenes and World War Z has plenty of them. Then there’s Gerry’s daughter who has asthma – because in films like this, there must be an asthmatic child. That said, signs of a difficult production don’t make it to the screen. World War Z is a tremendous amount of fun and ranks high on the scale of Z features.

***1/2 (out of four)