Summer is really starting to kick into full movie gear now that we’ve cleared Captain America: Civil War away, and we have a great blend of both original and franchise properties set to arrive in theaters this week. Get ready for Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising, The Nice Guys, and The Angry Birds Movie.
Just remember, I'm not reviewing these movies, but rather predicting where they'll end up on the Tomatometer. Let's take a look at This Rotten Week has to offer.
Rotten Watch Prediction
When we last left Mac, Kelly and Stella Radner in the first Neighbors, they had successfully kept their home’s real estate value intact by getting the Delta Psi Beta boys out of the home next door. But as luck, and Hollywood would have it, there’s a new situation cropping up. This time it’s the ladies who are raising hell in what looks to be nearly a carbon copy of the original Neighbors (73%).
Running back an idea isn’t always the worst thing in the world. If it’s funny and has legs then go for it. The first Neighbors was funny as hell, and from the looks of the trailer Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising could get the job done as well. The sequel brings back director Nicholas Stoller (The Five-Year Engagement-63%, Get Him to the Greek-72%) in addition to being put together by some very talented writers – including Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg. That being said, this new one looks like it is pretty similar to the first, and I suspect it finishes just a bit below the original with the critics.
Rotten Watch Prediction
If Russell Crowe came to my door dressed in suedo-seventies garb, threw me to the floor and unceremoniously broke my arm, I think I’d be hesitant to work with the guy again. And to his credit, Ryan Gosling has much the same reaction in The Nice Guys. But that’s just what happens in what appears to be an action/ dark-comedy centered on some tough guy muscle (Crowe) and and quasi-unwilling private eye (Gosling) as they navigate the 1970s Los Angeles scene looking for a missing girl. It looks massively entertaining and the main players raise the confidence level considerably.
It helps having Shane Black at the helm. The trailers are quick to remind you of his work on Iron Man 3 (79%), but people certainly mustn’t forget Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang (85%), an underrated gem. Both movies are great, and featured many of the same elements we get once again in play in The Nice Guys. It looks like a quick-witted film that most likely plays on the skills of its leads. Gosling and Crowe can handle this kind of thing and critics eat it up.
Rotten Watch Prediction
I’m actually surprised it took this long for an Angry Birds movie to hit the screens. Considering the insane popularity of the game and Hollywood’s propensity to make a kids’ animated movie out of much, much less; that this movie’s been six years in the making (game hit peak initial popularity around 2010) makes me feel like something is going wrong in Los Angeles board rooms.
Angry Birds tells the story that can really be summed up with the tagline "we’ll finally found out why the birds are so angry." Cool. I’m not sure we need to know much else. It’s obvious the "why" behind the film is in its capitalization on the popular franchise. Early reviews are generally positive, and Sony Picture Imageworks (an offshoot of Sony Animation) has a fine enough track record. Honestly, things could be much worse for an app-turned-movie from a quality and writing standpoint. Without the head start on reviews I’d likely have gone much lower with the prediction.
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One close call and one epic disaster of a miss from last week. First off, Money Monster (Predicted: 67% Actual: 55%) just barely finished out of range of my prediction, and had critics just on the plus side of positive, but just under "Fresh." My misgivings about the flick bore out in the reviews, with critics generally liking the slickness of the production and the performances of the key players. The problem is that they had issues with the social commentary. That’s where the reviews felt the movie missed a step or two.
Meanwhile, a big LOL for The Darkness (Predicted: 53% Actual: 0%). It isn’t easy getting a 100% from critics and it is similarly difficult to grab the infamous 0%. As of publication, The Darkness held the latter. Woof. Critics took a dump all over the flick calling it "boring", "a mess", "formulaic" and those were more of the positive traits. It might not finish with a goose egg, but it’ll come close enough. Even with some help it’ll most likely finish as one of the worst-reviewed widely released films of the year. Quite a distinction.
Next time around we’ve got a big one with Alice Through the Looking Glass and X-Men: Apocalypse It’s gonna be a Rotten Week!
