Movie News: Lackluster Transformers, the Babadook, and More Jesus!

September 23, 2024
ALEXANDER

Movie News: Lackluster Transformers, the Babadook, and More Jesus!

I'm your Gay News Guy – this is the news, casual, sassy, unfiltered, and a little hungover. Ok here’s this week's movie news as I see it!

Here’s what happened at the box office this weekend. Beetlejuice Beetlejuice has tripled its budget with sales and remained at number 1. Transformers One had a disappointing debut, falling way short of its projections. It features a bunch of A-lister voices, but the movie did not do well. In our opinion, the franchise is so overdone and needs a rest. The failure of this project could mean a pullback from intended spinoffs and reboots in the works. Horror film Speak No Evil continues strong at number 3.

A new trailer for Gladiator II has dropped and it spills all the tea. While we only got a few clues in the previous teasers, this really sets the story. We find out that Lucius Verus, played by Paul Mescal, is indeed Maximus’ (Russell Crowe in the original) son. Well, we kind of figured that but this raises the stakes on the arena action. He is defending his family’s honor and a cruel emperor’s rule. We just hope it’s not a direct rehash of what we’ve already seen. Ridley Scott is already talking about a Gladiator III.

In other trailer drops, another trailer for the Red One movie has come out. While at first, we rolled our eyes at the silly premise - Dwayne Johnson and Chris Evans are trying to save Santa – but it actually looks pretty tongue-in-cheek and funny. Bringing spy tech and modern sensibilities to Santa Clause is funny. Also, we are hoping for a love scene between Dwayne and Chris. That would be our Christmas gift.

While we had high hopes for Apartment 7A (the prequel movie to Rosemary’s Baby), initial reviews are not good. They say it is boring and basically an exact story as the original. Reviews also say star Julia Garner is miscast and doesn’t fare well, especially as compared to Mia Farrow. The only rave kudos are for Dianne Wiest as neighbor Minnie Castevet. Sigh. We had such high hopes.

The highly anticipated horror movie 28 Years Later was shot entirely on an iPhone 15. The original two films were also shot on what is considered less-than-quality cameras and may add to the gritty realness of the environment. Cillian Murphy is returning to the franchise, and this sequel is meant to propel an even further three-part trilogy from the zombie-laden world.

Do we need any more toy movies? Yes, yes, we know that Barbie was a success. Margot Robbie is working on a Monopoly movie and now news has hit that there’s a Matchbox car movie on the way, with John Cena starring. Can any of these films recapture the popularity and mass reach of Barbie?

The small film The Babadook became a phenomenon. Not only did the movie join the ranks of top horror films by critics, the character inexplicably became a gay icon. The movie is being rereleased for its 10^th anniversary and so, naturally, talks of a sequel are being circulated. Before you get your gay horror nerd hearts jumping, the original director, who holds the rights, says she is not interested in a follow-up story. Boooooo!

The Passion of the Christ 2 is scouting locations, meaning the film is moving forward. The movie has been in development since 2016 and although the idea of a Jesus sequel sounds hilarious, the team thinks it may be bigger than the original. It will focus on the early days of Christian evangelism. The film does have a couple of thorns in its side with controversial Mel Gibson at the helm and Jesus star Jim Caviezel getting some backlash for ultraconservative views. The religious climate was very different when the original came out in 2004, it was fairly united and impressionable. With our current social and political climate, it is seen that religion has become a weapon. It will be interesting to see how this movie fares.

Everyone is excited about Guillermo del Toro's Frankenstein adaptation, we know this mastermind makes the grotesque somehow beautiful. Who better to reboot the classic monster into a new movie? The first set of images were released showing one of the film’s stars, Oscar Isaac, in action.

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Fun fact: David Schwimmer was originally set to star in the Men in Black movies. He turned down the Will Smith role to direct. Do you think he made a mistake?