Soundtracking: "Sister Act"

It's the 25th anniversary of Sister Act! Here's Chris Feil with the second installment of Soundtracking, our newest series at The Film Experience, focusing on music in the movies...

Nuns having fun while singing runs! Alma, check your battery, because it’s time to take it to church!

Sister Act is about as much of an easy comfort as 90s movies get, from Whoopi Goldberg’s peak comic powers to that vibrant choral soundtrack. The film is kind of a prototype jukebox musical, recontextualizing 60s girl group soul to a vaguely christian context. “Guy” becomes “God”, traditional hymns transition into contemporary gospel, music and lyrics twisted twenty years before Pitch Perfect and Glee popularized the mash-up.

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Thoughts I Had... "The Mountain Between Us" First Look

Chris here. Summer is heating up, but feast your eyes on the wintery skies of The Mountain Between Us. The film stars Kate Winslet and Idris Elba as two strangers who must band together when their plane crashes in the mountains, forcing them to trek hundreds of miles to safety. The film arrives October 20, which puts it in prime Oscar season should the lead stars and film itself deliver the goods. Here is the first image of the film and some thoughts after the jump...

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HMWYBS: Wonder Woman: The Feminine Mystique (1976)

For this week's edition of Hit Me With Your Best Shot with Warner Bros Wonder Woman (2017) finally hitting movie theaters, we're taking a trip back to the mid 70s when the world's most famous superheroine made her most famous trek into live-action. Lynda Carter first came to fame by winning a national beauty contest in 1972 (the awkwardly titled "Miss World America") and Wonder Woman was her big break after a few low profile gigs. She starred as the Amazon princess for three seasons stretching from the pilot's airing in November 1975 through the finale in September 1979.

We're looking at a two part episode "The Feminine Mystique" for this week's 'choose your favorite image' exercize because they're well remembered episodes and because they co-star 80s movie star Debra Winger who is currently back onscreen in The Lovers. Ready? Board your invisible jet and meet me after the jump...

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Part Two: 70 Best Gowns of the 70th Cannes Festival

Nathaniel R delivering your very last Cannes 2017 post *sniffle* If you missed Part One, that's here featuring Andie Macdowell, Eva Longoria, Michelle Yeoh, Berenice Bejo, Juliette Binoche, Kristin Scott Thomas, Isabelle Huppert, Fan Bingbing, Monica Bellucci, Uma Thurman and more. A few of those ladies show up again in Part Two!

70 BEST GOWNS OF CANNES 70 
(Part One: 36-70 / Part Two: 1-35 is after the jump)

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Mid-Year Report: Blockbuster Bombs - Why Did They Flop?

by Séan McGovern

If 2017 is showing any consistency in audience tastes over the last few years it's that no amount of star power, budget or marketing gimmicks can force audiences to buy tickets, with news that the US Memorial Weekend was the lowest grossing since 1999. I've been told variances of the rule that for every production budget on a bockbuster, you can expect the marketing budget to be half if not equal to that - meaning that managing to break even is still a loss.

The year is noticeable once again for some high profile box office casualties - King Arthur, Ghost in the Shell, Power Rangers, Baywatch, possibly Alien: Covenant and the latest Pirates of the Caribbean, which regardless of its #1 spot at the Box Office has a budget of $230m (!) to recoup and turn into profit.

There is plenty of speculation that the way we watch films is contributing to the losses, but how to explain Star Wars, Guardians of the Galaxy and the Marvel Universe - huge financial successes that tick many of the same boxes as the recent failures? If we like to believe that audiences are more selective or that we truly consider the reviews, then why do the Transformers films keep getting made? (seriously please someone explain)

Full figures (and reader speculation welcome) after the jump...

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