Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again (Review)

by Jorge Molina

Almost ten years ago to the date, Mamma Mia! opened in theaters. The jukebox musical based on the theater phenomenon that at the same time was based on the biggest hits of Europop sensation ABBA went on to gross almost 600 million dollars globally, and became the highest grossing live action musical ever. That movie seems to be divisive among fans of the genre because of the fluffy, silly and often nonsensical joy that poured out of the screens (you can read about the emotional connection I personally have with the movie here). 

Ten years and a Cher later, Donna and her Dynamos make a return to the island of Kalokairi with a sequel that doubles down on everything that made adamant fans of the first one fell in love with it, and made the skeptics roll their eyes...

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Links: Scarjo Shifting, Brie Wrapping, Joss Returning, Cheetah Leaping

• Out Scarlett Johansson leaves the upcoming trans drama Rub & Tug post-backlash
• THR In unrelated news Scarlett is finally getting her Black Widow solo movie. Australian Cate Shortland (Lore) will direct, beating out finalists Amma Asante and Maggie Betts.
• MovieMaker the 25 coolest film festivals in the world (the giant A list fests are not listed in favor of quirkier ones that use their location in interesting ways.)
• Gizmodo only one Blockbuster video store is still open in the United States!

More after the jump including Die Hard, Danai Gurira, Tab Hunter, Joss Whedon, If Beale Street Could Talk, West Side Story revival, and more...

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Box Office: Ant-Man Grows, Mr Rogers Moves In, and LaKeith Stanfield Phones In

by Nathaniel R

I've been reading mixed things on the success level of Marvel's latest superhero flick The Search for Michelle Pfeiffer in the Quantum Realm. Some say it's opening weekend of $76 million is a big step up from Ant-Man's debut, others think that that's all too low for a Marvel film at this juncture in their history. It does work as a nice after-dinner mint for the heavy meals of Black Panther/Infinity War (though I could've done without the bitter aftertaste of its post credits sequence.) At any rate this is the last Marvel Studios film for awhile. We now have a eight-to-nine month break from Marvel heroes unless of course Black Panther becomes a big Oscar conservation. The next Marvel Studios film is Captain Marvel (March 8th, 2019) which will be followed by the as yet untitled Infinity War Part Two (May 3rd, 2019). 

Weekend Box Office Estimates (July 6-8)
W I D E 800+ screens	L I M I T E D excluding prev. wide
Ant-Man and the Wasp	Sorry to Bother You
1.🔺 ANT MAN AND THE WASP $76 *NEW*	1. 🔺 WHITNEY $1.2 on 452 screens *NEW*
2. INCREDIBLES 2 $29 (cum. $504.3)	2. SANJU $1.2 on 359 screens (cum. $5.9)
3. JURASSIC WORLD FALLEN KINGDOM $28.5 (cum. $333.3)  REVIEW	3. 🔺SORRY TO BOTHER YOU $717k on 16 screens *NEW*
4. THE FIRST PURGE  $17.1 *NEW*	4. 🔺 THREE IDENTICAL STRANGERS $717k on 51 screens (cum. $1) REVIEW
5. SICARIO: DAY OF THE SOLDADO $7.3 (cum. $35.31) REVIEW	5. 🔺 LEAVE NO TRACE $425k on 37 screens (cum. $800k) TRAILER DISCUSSION

In other box office news, the LaKeith Stanfield starring comedy Sorry to Bother You opened to very full houses (albeit only 16 of them) which bodes well for significant expansion and the popular Mr Rogers doc Won't You Be My Neighbor? went wide...

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Lukewarm off the Presses: Little Waspy Wonder Women

by Nathaniel R

Look at this lucky so and so getting a selfie with La Pfeiff!

Running so late! Three topics worth blogging about that slipped us by this past week. Michelle & pfans, Wonder Woman 1984 images, and Greta Gerwig's next project. That's a lot. Ready. Let's go...

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Review: "Sicario: Day of the Soldado"

by Chris Feil

That crowdsourced “fan” remake of The Last Jedi that made the rounds in the past week? The one rooted in thinly veiled misogyny, white supremacy, and general ill-advised sentiment to tool with material that’s perfectly fine on its own? Put yourself in front of Sicario: Day of the Soldado, the new prequel to Denis Villeneuve’s layered 2015 film musing on the pervasive institutional evils of the War on Drugs, and you might be convinced that those fans got their hands on this narrative as well.

The warning signs make themselves known immediately, this time focusing on the more enigmatic men in the thick of the corruption: Josh Brolin’s task force leader Matt Graver and Benicio Del Toro’s patiently vengeful hitman Alejandro. Kicking the film off with a demonstratively labored Islamophobic sequence, the audience is served a video game brand of warfare as Graver and Alejandro initiate a kidnapping plot across the Mexican-American border. The kidnappee is Isabel Reyes (played by Isabela Moner, the film’s brightest spot), the daughter of a major cartel leader that may be linked to Alejandro’s past. As expected, the men's hubris is turned in on itself...

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