#meryl streep star of hit 2008 comedy musical mamma mia!

[homosexualtransexual]

hate when scientists name their discoveries after themselves. me im naming mine after Meryl Streep, star of the 2008 comedy musical motion picture "Mamma Mia!."

[weekendwarriorblog]

WHAT TO WATCH THIS WEEKEND – Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again, The Equalizer 2, Unfriended: Dark Web and More

Last weekend didn’t prove as interesting as hoped as Hotel Transylvania 3 won the weekend easily and Skyscraper bombed badly, well below even the lowest expectations. That’s actually good news for this weekend where we see three new sequels, but bad news for a summer where we’re so full of sequels that only two of the three will likely stand out, at best.

MAMMA MIA: HERE WE GO AGAIN (Universal)

First up is one of the new sequels I haven’t seen, and if there’s anything good and right in the world, I will NEVER see it, because I saw the original Mamma Mia ten years ago, and my brain still hasn’t fully recovered.

The original movie opened pretty much on this same weekend in 2008, opening with $27.7 million but going on to make $144.1 million in North America and $465 million worldwide, and that was on a mere $52 million budget. Clearly, the success of the adaptation of the hit Broadway musical based on the tunes of ABBA warranted a sequel, and most of the original cast is back, including Meryl Streep, who received her 500thGolden Globe nomination in the convenient musical/comedy category for her performance, though not another Oscar nomination. (As if she needs another one.)

Although the original movie was written by Catherine Johnson, based on the stage musical, and directed by Phillida Lloyd (who went on to direct Streep to an Oscar win playing Margaret Thatcher in The Iron Lady), the sequel is written and directed by Ol Parker… a MAN!!!! (Cue incidental music.) Parker is best known for writing The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, but he previously directed the lesbian rom-com Imagine Me and You, starring Lena Heady (from Game of Thrones) and Matthew Goode.

While ABBA’s music and Streep* might be the movie’s biggest draw, there are other elements to consider, such as the always wonderful Lily James (Baby Driver) playing the younger Streep as well as the inimitable Cher as Streep’s mother (despite being only three years older in real life… okay, then). There are a bunch of hunkie young actors playing the younger versions of Stellan Skarsgard, Pierce Brosnan and Colin Firth’s Streep suitors, plus Amanda Seyfried and Preacher star Dominic Cooper are back as the young lovers, now married and expecting a child. (*Is it just me or is Streep being played down in the movie’s marketing, as if maybe she has a much smaller role?)

Obviously, there’s a lot going on here in terms of appeasing fans of the first movie, and ABBA fans of all ages, but there is a question whether the 10-year gap between movies might make this a sequel that arrives too late for its own good. Certainly, the popularity of ABBA really hasn’t diminished much since the first movie, and there will be plenty of women and gay men rushing out to see this on Thursday and Friday nights.

There aren’t a ton of comparisons other than maybe the Pitch Perfect movies (also released by Universal), the first one opening moderately with $5 million before grossing $65 million total, though it had five years of people seeing it on cable and DVD that the sequel opened with $69 million, more than the previous movie’s total. It grossed $184 million, but then the recent third and final movie ended up with $80 million less domestically. Another comparison might be the sequel Sex and the City 2, which opened two years after the original with $31 million, considerably less than the original’s $57 million opening, and grossed over $50 million less domestically. 50 Shades of Grey had a significant drop from the first to second and second to third movies, although they all still grossed at least $100 million domestically. I feel that Mamma Mia: Her We Go Again will fall more into the Pitch Perfect model, first of all because it’s a musical but also because it’s getting decent reviews so far.

The Mamma Mia sequel should be good for an opening over the $30 million mark, probably closer to $35 million or even more, since there isn’t much in theaters targeted towards women of varying ages. This definitely feels like the type of movie that can bring them out in force, at least opening weekend.

THE EQUALIZER 2 (Sony)

Denzel Washington and director Antoine Fuqua reunite for their fourth outing together after 2001’s Training Day, for which Washington won his first Oscar in a leading role, and then 2014’s The Equalizer (for which this is a sequel… duh) and 2016’s The Magnificent Seven remake.

The Equalizerwas a welcome reunion of the actor and director after having that earlier hit, and despite being a reimagining of an old ‘70s show (which has been hit or miss over the past few years), it opened with $34.1 million and grossed $101.5 million domestically. At a quick glance, that would make it Denzel’s fourth highest grossing movie after Remember the Titans (’00, $115.6 mil.), American Gangster (’07, $130.1 mil.) andSafe House (’12, $126.3 mil.).

There’s no question that Washington is one of the most reliable box office stars making movies, although he’s only doing one movie a  year at this point, similar to Will Smith and other big stars. His 2017 offering Roman J. Israel Esq., an odd “indie” (from Sony Pictures) that bombed, grossing $12 million, about half what Washington’s movies usually open with. That followed Fences, an adaptation of August Wilson’s play directed by Washington, which grossed $57.6 million and earned four Oscar nominations with Viola Davis winning her first well-deserved award.

I honestly haven’t seen as much marketing or commercials for the movie that one might expect, plus Sony are giving it a mid-to-late summer release rather than the prestigious Sept. release of Washington-Fuqua’s last few movies (which also debuted at the Toronto Film Festival). I’m not sure why this might be other than Sony thinking the movie will sell itself, although this is only Washington’s FOURTH movie in 20 years to get a wide summer release. There might be a good reason for that, such as not wanting to compete with bigger summer tentpole fare, but those other three summer releases ended up grossing between $65 and 75 million.

I was supposed to see this sequel earlier in the week but didn’t get the chance – I’ll be using Moviepass to see it sometime soon, I hope – and reviews were held under embargo until Wednesday, maybe for obvious reasons as the reviews aren’t as good as for the first movie.

Because of the above things, I’m thinking The Equalizer 2 might not match the $30 million plus opening of the original Equalizereven with Denzel’s noticeable absence from theaters since last year. If this ends up somewhere in the mid-$20 millions this weekend, it will probably end up grossing $70 to 75 million total, ‘cause it’s gonna get slaughtered by Tom Cruise and Mission: Impossible next week.

UNFRIENDED: DARK WEB (BH Tilt)

The third sequel of the weekend isn’t really a sequel as much as it’s another movie in a series? With everyone using the internet, it was only a matter of time before using the internet would become a regular subject of horror, and Jason Blum’s Blumhouse has capitalized on it greatly after messing around with various cameras in the Paranormal Activity movies.

Unfriended: Dark Web involves a guy who “finds” a laptop that turns out to be the property of a member of a bizarre hacker death cult that gets him and his friends into deep and deadly trouble. And it all takes place on a laptop screen...what innovation!

The original Unfriended opened in April 2014, directed by the unknown Levan Gabriadze with Timur Bekmambetov producing. After a solid $15.8 million opening, it pretty much tanked with consecutive 61% drops to the point where it only grossed $32.5 million domestically. It did about the same overseas, but that’s $64 million for a movie that cost a million dollars to make and so…. PROFIT! Which leads to a SEQUEL (of sorts)!

I say “of sorts” because none of the characters from the first movie are back, similar to the Ouija franchise, which replaced everyone for the prequel Ouija: Origin of Evil two years later. This one is the directorial debut by screenwriter Stephen Susco, who wrote The Grudge remake and its sequel. The most recognizable star in the cast is probably Betty Gabriel, who famously did the “No, no, no” bit in Jordan Peele’s Oscar-winning 2017 thriller Get Out. This movie isn’t nearly as good. The film’s main “star” is probably Colin Woodell, who had a small role in Steven Soderbergh’s Unsane and will be in BLumhouse’s upcoming The Purge television series. 

While I don’t feel like writing a full review, the movie is just okay, and I much prefer the upcoming Searching, also produced by Bekmambetov, which also has all of its action taking place on a computer screen. By comparison, Unfriended: Dark Web is kinda of mean-spirited and gets a little too dark to be enjoyable for my tastes, and that’s coming from someone who is probably going to see Hereditary again this weekend.

Regardless, I think Unfriended: Dark Web should be able to make $7 to 8 million this weekend in a little over 1,500 theaters, roughly half the theaters in which Universal opened the original. Not having the Universal backing for this semi-sequel won’t help matters.

Last week’s movies should quickly drop away to give room for this week’s two bigger releases with a similar showing as last week’s Hotel Transylvania 3 vs. Skyscraper, but in this case Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again should do significantly better than The Equalizer 2 for reasons mentioned above. Hotel Transylvania 3 will probably be affected the least by the new offerings, since none of them are kid or family-friendly.

Here’s what the Top 10 should look like…

1. Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again (Universal) - $38.2 million* N/A

2. The Equalizer 2 (Sony) - $28.2 million* N/A

3. Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation (Sony Pictures Animation) - $24.2 million -45%

4. Ant-Man and the Wasp(Marvel/Disney)  - $15 million -48%

5. Skyscraper (Legendary/Universal) - $11.3 million -55%

6.The Incredibles 2(Disney-Pixar) - $9.8 million -40%

7. Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (Universal) - $8.4 million -48%

8. Unfriended: Dark Web (BH Tilt) - $7.3 million N/A

9. The First Purge (Blumhouse/Universal) - $4.7 million -50%

10. Sorry to Bother You (Annapurna) - $4 million -6%

(*Surprise, surprise! The Equalizer 2 is opening in slightly more theaters than Mamma Mia, but it’s still likely to get slaughtered this weekend as the musical sequel has a lot more anticipating fans.)

If you’ve spent the last few weeks seeing movies at the New York Asian Film Festival then I envy you, since I haven’t gotten a chance to see anything, but Asian film enthusiasts can look forward to JAPAN CUTS, beginning July 19 at the Japan Society in New York City. The 12thannual film series will features some of the recent films from the land of the Rising Sun with lots of special guests. It opens Thursday with Ramen Shop, and you can check out the full line-up on the official site.

LIMITED RELEASES

Easily the most significant specialty releases this weekend is Blindspotting (Lionsgate), written and starring Hamilton star Daveed Diggs and co-written and staring Rafael Casal as best friends and co-workers at a moving company who are frustrated with the way their Oakland neighborhood is changing. When Daveed’s character Collin spots a white police officer shooting a black man, he’s conflicted about reporting it. Although there are serious and personal issues covered in Blindspotting, there’s also humor and a good deal of freestyle rap from the Hamilton star. I really liked the film when I saw it at Sundance back in January, and it’s a terrific feature directorial debut for Carlos López Estrada, although it’s really about Diggs and Casal. Blindspotting will open in 14 theaters in 5 cities – New York, L.A., Chicago, DC and San Francisco – and the movie will expand nationwide next weekend.

I also saw some great docs being released this weekend, and my favorite among them is Rachel Dretzin’s Far from the Tree (Sundance Selects) based on Andrew Solomon’s best-selling book of the same name. It’s a fascinating doc that looks at families where the parents are very different from their children for one reason or another. In Solomon’s case, it was that he was a flamboyantly gay child whose parents tried to “correct” him, but it deals with incredibly interesting looks at parents who have severely autistic children (such as Jason, pictured above, who is obsessed with Elsa from Frozen) and other things that make them unique.  It’s a wonderful film that will open at the IFC Center with a special preview Thursday night, and both Dretzin and Solomon will be doing QnAs throughout the weekend. It’s also a great follow-up if you loved some of the recent docs like Won’t You Be My Neighbor.

Generation Wealth (Amazon Studios) is the new documentary from photographer Lauren Greenfield (The Queen of Versailles), this one examining the current generation’s proclivity for living beyond their means, something I can sadly relate to, although I didn’t think the doc worked as well as Greenfield’s other doc. It’s certainly a far more personal film, pulling together her photography and filmmaking work from the past 25 years, and there are some interesting subjects for sure, but it didn’t come together quite as easily as Queen of Versailles. Either way, Generation Wealth will open in select cities on Friday.

I balked at my chance to see Ian Bonhôte and Peter Ettedgui’s doc McQueen (Bleecker Street), mostly because it wasn’t about Steve McQueen (either the late actor or the living filmmaker), but actually about fashion designer Alexander McQueen. Anyone who knows me will realize that I know absolutely nothing about fashion other than when someone is on a red carpet and says that Alexander McQueen designed their dress/suit (a good thing since actor Steve McQueen is dead).  Apparently, McQueen has had a fairy tale like story of rags-to-riches that might interest some, but sadly, not me.

The last doc of the weekend is Lisa Immordino Vreeland’s Love, Cecil (Zeitgeist Films/Kino Lorber), which opens at the Landmark Nuart in L.A. on Friday after playing at Film Society back in June. (Sorry for that oversight, New York!) The Cecil of the title is Cecil Beaton, the costume designer, painter, photographer and writer who did the production design for Gigi andMy Fair Lady. Narrated by Rupert Everett, the latest film from the director of Diana Vreeland: The Eye Has to Travel and Peggy Guggenheim: Art Addict should be one fans of old movies won’t want to miss.

Japanese auteur Hirokazu Kore-eda, whose previous films Like Father, Like Sonand Our Little Sister were hot festival and awards hits, returns with his 2017 movie The Third Murder (Film Movement), which won 7 Japanese Academy Awards earlier this year including Best Film. In theory, that would make it Japan’s submission for next year’s Oscars? (Kore-eda’s next film Shopliftersjust won the Palm d’Or at Cannes in May.) This one is a crime procedural about a defense attorney that reluctantly takes on the case of a factory worker accused of his killing his employer. This opens at the Quad Cinema in New York City on Friday. (Oh, and the Quad is also continuing with the second part of its Hammer’s House of Horror series, covering the “decadent years.”)

As far as other retrospective stuff, my beloved Metrograph will be screening a restoration of Barbara Loden’s 1970 film Wanda (Janus Films), in which she plays a young mother from Pennsylvania coal country who shacks up with Michael Higgins’ bad-boy “Mr. Dennis.” I haven’t seen this yet, but it sounds like another movie perfectly suited for the times rediscovered by Metrograph and Janus for younger present-day audiences. I’ll be checking it out for sure.

Other releases include Deborah Haywood’s mother-daughter drama Pin Cushion (Cleopatra Entertainment), as well as Damascus Cover (Vertical Entertainment), Daniel Zelik Berk’s Pin Cushion (Cleopatra Entertainment), a spy action-thriller starring Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Olivia Thirlby and the late John Hurt.

As far as Netflix series, this Friday will see the release of Dark Tourist, a new 8-part series from New Zealand’s David Farrier, the director of 2016’s Tickled, which takes a look at the more offbeat side of “tourism.” Should be another fun work of non-fiction from the filmmaker.

[kartiavelino]

‘Mamma Mia’ 2 is deliciously insane

Ten years in the past, “Mamma Mia!” felt like the results of one too many photographs of ouzo. Charming on Broadway, it was bonkers on-screen: a romantic comedy set on a Greek island advised by means of ABBA songs warbled by Remington Steele. How do you prime that? However Swede Jesus, they’ve finished it. “Mamma Mia! Right here We Go Once more” is even crazier — Cher’s in it! What’s extra, the film is considerably improved in each approach: singing, casting, cinematography, writing. This sequel has delivered because the campy summer season escape the sequence have to be, fairly than Meryl Streep’s leaked trip footage. A decade after her quest to seek out her dad, Sophie (Amanda Seyfried) is reopening mother Donna’s (Streep) taverna on our favourite Greek isle populated by bumbling Brits and the candy sounds of Scandi pop. However the hurdles of getting the previous place into form, and the stress of her long-distance relationship with Sky (Dominic Cooper), has Sophie in opposition to a wall, sobbing in music. So as to add some drama, she’s pregnant, too. The determined hotelier seeks solace in her mother’s clownish friends (Christine Baranski and Julie Walters). Chiquitita tells ’em what’s improper, and so they inform her about Donna’s personal journey to the island through the 1970s. Means again when, her rocker mother was canoodling with the dashing Invoice, Sam and Harry. Within the current day, these gents — nonetheless respectively performed by Stellan Skarsgård, Pierce Brosnan and Colin Firth — aren’t precisely intercourse bombs. It’s their youthful selves — Josh Dylan, Jeremy Irvine and Hugh Skinner — who may have you singing “Voulez-Vous,” partly for his or her smoldering seems and hair so completely coiffed it might be animated by Pixar. The trio are additionally tremendous singers, and extra charismatic than the foremost stars they took the reins from. Naturally, all of the antics are set to cleverly shoved-in ABBA music. However how may there be any extra to mine? The primary film exhausted a lot of the hits from “ABBA Gold.” “Right here We Go Once more,” you’d determine, must accept “ABBA Bronze.” However ABBA popped out tracks like IKEA desk lamps. The contemporary tunes, which don’t get the identical form of play at bars immediately that “Dancing Queen” continues to take pleasure in, are a scream. “Kisses of Fireplace,” “Once I Kissed the Trainer,” “Andante, Andante” and “Angel Eyes” are all fabulous. The few retreads, such because the title music and “Dancing Queen,” nonetheless, ought to’ve been reconceived extra creatively. Many viewers members are nonetheless traumatized by Brosnan’s renditions of “SOS” and “When All Is Mentioned And Performed” within the first movie. James Bond’s singing voice was shaky, not stirring. And rightly mocked. However concern not — right here, Brosnan is solely handed a verse or two. If he awakens your post-traumatic stress dysfunction anyway, maintain out for the flick’s two greatest knockouts: Lily James as younger Donna, and Cher as Donna’s mother. In a pleasant change from Seyfried’s 2008 flip because the ingénue, we need to befriend James’ Donna, not mute her. She’s as beautiful as she is dedicated, as humorous as she is emotionally true. A giant expertise. The movie’s spotlight — attempt to not fall off your platform footwear! — has Cher donning a platinum wig, touchdown on the taverna by helicopter, saying her presence as if it’s even required, singing “Fernando,” saying a number of phrases and leaving. It’s so tacky, you’ll want crackers. Share this: https://nypost.com/2018/07/17/mamma-mia-2-is-deliciously-insane/ The post ‘Mamma Mia’ 2 is deliciously insane appeared first on My style by Kartia. https://www.kartiavelino.com/2018/07/mamma-mia-2-is-deliciously-insane.html

[homosexualtransexual]

spotify crashed so now i have to listen to Meryl Streeps cover of the winner takes it all by abba again and if that isn't a blessing in disguise idk what is