Hollywood is hitting us with a strange duo, with the latest chapter in one of the industry's most successful franchises, and the latest from an Oscar-winning director. Get ready for Annabelle Comes Home and Yesterday.
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.
Look, if you have a bunch of possessed toys and objects and decide to just store all of them in your home, then you are kind of just asking for the events that go down in Annabelle Comes Home. It's hard to summon much more than "I told ya so” for these characters in peril, right? This in mind, I'm not expecting much from the film
This is the seventh movie in the Conjuring franchise, and the second this year (following The Curse of La Llorona - 30%) and the third specifically about Annabelle. As a whole, the spin-off series of the Conjuring Universe trend below average, though Annabelle: Creation did ring in at 70%. But I can’t imagine this latest, which looks a lot like more of the same, comes in anywhere close to that. I think we are looking at something in the 30’s just based on the been-there-done-that feel.
Imagine if the entire Beatles catalogue was erased from human history leaving only one dude with access to any of the songs... and can pass them off as his own. That’s what director Danny Boyle (127 Hours - 93%, Slumdog Millionaire - 91%) posits in his new movie, Yesterday.
Just watching the trailer for this film it’s hard to imagine it being anything less than 100%. But then you realize that part of those good vibes are just wrapped up in the timelessness and beauty of the Beatles’ songs that overlay most of the 2.5 minutes. Apparently that translates to the movie as well. Many critics agree the soundtrack saves many of Yesterday's flaws, and that the story is more just a hokey rom-com than a think piece. It’s currently sitting at 69% with 35 reviews posted, but I suspect it drops some over the course of the week.
Though I technically had two winners for predictions last week, I’m considering the overall results a loss. Sure, Toy Story 4 (Predicted: 100% Actual: 97%) fell within range, but you don’t have to be writing this column for ten years to have called this one within ten percent. If anything, I should have gone a bit lower with the prediction to account for a negative review or two along the way. Of course, this is another crazy-high rated Pixar movie, though it’s worth mentioning that that 97% makes it the worst-reviewed of all the Toy Story movies.
Wild Rose (Predicted: 88% Actual: 93%) was the other prediction that came within ten percent, but I had a head start here as well with many of the reviews already in at the time of post. Critics loved it, especially the acting of lead Jessie Buckley, and this ended up being a hit across the board.
I also had two pretty bad misses, though. The first was Child’s Play (Predicted: 30% Actual: 60%), which was a double miss because A) the prediction was off by a full 30 percentage points, and B) I said the first movie came out 20 years ago when it was actually 30 years ago. So this write up was an all-around disaster. Kudos to Lars Klevberg and team for making a movie that was campy and tongue-in-cheek while also getting some scares. Critics seemed to understand the intent and this score has to be considered a huge win.
And finally, Anna (Predicted: 67% Actual: 26%) was another major miss. Critics agreed that, at times, the movie had some fun moments, but more than one used the word “repetitive” to describe the action sequences. This caused a stale feeling for Luc Besson’s film and it trended towards the bottom quarter on the Tomatometer. What a disappointment.
Next time we’ve got Spider-Man: Far From Home and Midsommar It’s gonna be a Rotten Week!
