Split Decision: Top Gun: Maverick

No one feels the same way about any film. Thus, Team Experience is pairing up to debate the merits of each of the big awards season movies . Here’s Chris James, Travis Cragg and Cláudio Alves duking it out over Top Gun: Maverick.

CHRIS: I couldn’t think of a better movie to have reignited the box office this summer than Top Gun: Maverick. The sequel arrived 36 years after the first became a blockbuster in 1986. Personally, I never loved the original. Despite fun, pop-culture defining moments, it often felt like a scattershot action movie with nauseating jingoism. My expectations for the sequel were low, but the film blew past them like a fighter jet passing Mach 10.

Central to my enjoyment of Top Gun: Maverick is the renewed focus on character over spectacle...

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Year in Review: Best Music and Soundscapes

by Nathaniel R

Are all cinephiles "visual" people or are some more sonically attuned? I ask this because in order to draw up my own lists of "bests" in the aural categories, I have to really focus to note the soundscapes. In some cases, as with the sinuous alien creepiness of Nope and the haunted bold swings of TAR, the genius is hard to miss even for those of us who are more visually oriented. If any of you have theories as to how Oscar's sound branch didn't include either in even their finalist lists, I'm all ears... no pun intended.

For the most part it's the images I remember which may explain why I am so allergic to end credit songs over a dark screen being hailed the "Best" of any given season in Original Song. Marry the images and sound and it's far more memorable and valuable to the overall film experience...

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Happy Valentines Day whether or not you're feeling it!

Happy Valentines Day, whether or not you're feeling the love! Sometimes it's hard to tell, right? The image above, from House of Flying Daggers (2004) is perfectly non-committal about romance which seems appropriate for this divisive holiday. 

One thing we're always in the mood for is screen kisses, though. Our choices for "Best Kiss" from 2022 aren't ready but in the meantime, do share your favourite recent screen kisses in the comments.  

Drag Race RuCap: “The Daytona Wind 2”

CLÁUDIO ALVES: Between this episode’s sequel to "Daytona Wind" and next week’s LaLaPaRUza 2.0, the show’s producers have decided that the way to make season 15 work is to copy its successful predecessor. Sadly, between the rushed edit and other concerns, this season continues to live in the shadow of the glorious 14. If anything, these repetitions only highlight the fact. That’s not to say “The Daytona Wind 2” is without its merits. All in all, it was a fun 40-minute chapter, though the laser focus on two feuding protagonists relegated most of the contestants to supporting roles.

NICK TAYLOR: Given the more noteworthy failures of pacing this season, The Daytona Winds 2” was pretty well-paced. Turning most of the cast into supporting players is a very real issue here --I'm afraid we’ll find out who gets eliminated next episode based solely on who gets chief narrator duties....

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Weekend Box Office: Magic Mike and James Cameron

By Ben Miller

Super Bowl weekend has never been a hotbed of film dollars, and this weekend was no different.  Magic Mike's Last Dance, the third and final entry in Steven Soderbergh's male stripper series, won the weekend with a sub-$10 million opening.  That doesn't happen very often in the world of big budgets.  In fact, in the 21st century (excluding COVID openings), only Bangkok Dangerous and Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star had a worse opening and still managed to top their weekends.  That being said, the film only opened on 1,500 screens, so the per-screen average was pretty solid.  Second and third both belonged to director James Cameron.  Avatar: The Way of Water continues to work its way up all-time charts, but the re-release of Cameron's 1997 Oscar-winner Titanic added a respectable total for a 25-year-old film.

Weekend Box Office (actuals) Feb 10th-12th 🔺 = new or expanding /  ★ = Recommended /  = Oscar Nominated
WIDE (Over 800 Screens)	LIMITED / PLATFORM
MAGIC MIKE'S LAST DANCE	CONSECRATION
1 🔺 MAGIC MIKE'S LAST DANCE $8.3 *NEW* 1,500 screeens	1 PATHAAN $976k (cum. $15.9) 492 screens
2 ★ AVATAR: THE WAY OF WATER $7.2 (cum. $647.2) 3,065 screens	2  🔺 CONSECRATION $329k *NEW* 762 screens

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