The Irony in "Transformers: The Last Knight"

By Spencer Coile 

Since 2007, we have all come to expect the same qualities from Michael Bay's Transformers franchise: lengthy action sequences, stilted performances, and nonsensical storylines. With his latest entry into the world of Optimus Prime, Bumblebee, and co. with Transformers: The Last Knight, it seems as though Bay has thrown all logic out the window (alongside characterization). Heralding back to Medieval Ages and tracing the origin of the transformers to the days of Merlin, Bay dips his artistic vision in the realm of magic, surrounding his audiences with a silly and convoluted story of redemption and surrealism. 

The movie is not particularly good...

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Box Office: Beatriz at Dinner with Giant F***ing Robots

By Nathaniel R

The opening weekend for Transformers: The Last Knight was such a huge drop from the series past bows that they might want to use the last film's title The Age of Extinction rather than dumping more billions into keeping this franchise alive. Unless of course its overseas take continues to be ginormous. 

Weekend Box Office (June 23rd-25th)
W I D E	L I M I T E D
1. 🔺 TRANSFORMERS (5) $45.3 (cum. $69) NEW	1. 🔺 BEATRIZ AT DINNER $1.8 (cum. $3) 491 screens
2. CARS 3 $25.1 (cum. $99.8)	2.  PARIS CAN WAIT $612k (cum. $4.1)
3.  WONDER WOMAN $25.1 (cum. $318.3) Review | Top Ten |  Special	3. 🔺 THE BIG SICK $435k NEW 5 theaters
4. 🔺 47 METERS DOWN $7.4 (cum. $24.2)	4. 🔺 THE BEGUILED $240k NEW 4 theaters Sofia's Filmography | Cannes Bow
5. ALL EYEZ ON ME $5.8 (cum. $38.6)	5.  MY COUSIN RACHEL $200k (cum. $2.4) 163 screens On the 1952 version
6. THE MUMMY  $5.8 (cum. $68.5)	6. 🔺 THE EXCEPTION $138k (cum. $250) 48 screens  REVIEW
7. PIRATES (5) $5.2 (cum. $160)	7.🔺  MAUDIE $83k (cum. $???) 28 screens  REVIEW
8. ROUGH NIGHT $4.7 (cum. $16.6) Reviewish	8. 🔺  THE BAD BATCH $91k NEW 30 screens REVIEW
9. CAPTAIN UNDERPANTS $4.2 (cum. $65.7)	9. CHURCHILL $70k (cum. $1.1) 55 screens
10. GUARDIANS VOL. 2 $3 (cum. $380.2)  REVIEW	10. THE WEDDING PLAN $31k (cum. $1.3) 34 screens
🔺 = new or added screens numbers from box office mojo

In other box office news: Wonder Woman continues to show great legs... and before anyone calls us out for sexism, please know that that's common box office vernacular for insignificant percentage drops from week to week meaning the audience is really into you. This often happens with sleeper hits indicating that word of mouth is keeping them buzzing but it's much much rarer with films that open as big as Wonder Woman did. In fact, it's holding so well that it will beat the domestic grosses of DC stablemates Suicide Squad and Batman v Superman any day now which means only The Dark Knight films will have performed better for Warner Bros's DC family. 

In limited release Beatriz at Dinner starring Salma Hayek added 400+ screens to its tiny number and is performing quite well. Paris Can Wait, meanwhile has quietly made over $4 million now  -- impressive. The Big Sick, the new romantic comedy starring and written by Kumail Nanjiani, had the best weekend, though. Its reviews are spectacular and it now has the highest per screen average for any opener this year, taking in nearly half a million on just 5 screens. In a very crowded weekend for platforming films, the audience also showed some interest in The Beguiled but not much at all in The Bad Batch.

What did you see this weekend? 

Daniel Day-Links

• Vanity Fair the interrupted erupted into crazed outrage early today over fake news regarding Gal Gadot's Wonder Woman payday. Katey clears up the confusion

• Time has a gorgeously written profile of Sofia Coppola by Stephanie Zacharek as The Beguiled heads to theaters.

• Meanwhile, though, not everyone is happy with the film. Our own Murtada thinks the film lacks tension and should've switched its setting away from the Civil War. Slate details the whitewashing of the source novel that happened in both the 1971 movie and to an even larger degree in the current film. I think a couple of the Slate article complaints are overdoing it particularly when it comes to the dialogue addressing the absence of slaves -- that feels absolutely authentic as to how that particular character (Nicole Kidman's stone-faced self-serving Miss Martha) would dismiss the topic but there are enough valid ones that now I'd love to see a third version that is actually more faithful to the book because it sounds, at least in this article, like its more fascinating than either movie version. I guess we should read it.

• THR Young Han Solo loses/fires (?) its hot directors Phil Lord & Christopher Miller under the typical "creative visions" disagreements. The worrying part is that they're already several months into production. Deadline follows up with the bad news that they want Ron Howard to finish the film

• GQ Joel Schumacher looks back on the reviled camp of Batman & Robin. Has no regret about the Bat Nipples.

• Village Voice Transformers: The Last Knight wrecks Bilge Ebiri. Perfect. This review is perfect. 

 • And you have probably heard that Daniel Day-Lewis is retiring...
The Wrap reminds us that he's announced his retirement before but Variety goes with the sensational misleading "Shocker!" headline even though Daniel Day-Lewis hardly ever works by his own choice and thus it was only a matter of time before he did this. Letters of Note shares a cool story about how hard he fought for his breakout role in My Beautiful Laundrette. I personally think it's fine that he's retiring. He's clearly not a "hungry" actor anymore and actors are better when they really want it (just as people in all professions are). Also Lucy Prebble, Clarisse Loughrey, and Teo Bugbee had amusing notes to comfort us on this topic on twitter.

Naturally this means that Phantom Thread, his next Paul Thomas Anderson picture opening in December, would theoretically be his last. Cynics will tell you -- and have already told you online surely -- that this means he's a lock for the Oscar yet again. But let's not get carried away. People will have to at least really like the movie and Oscar voters will have to really want him to tie Katharine Hepburn's record for that to happen. Will they? We'll see.

Visual Effects & Makeup, the April Foolish Oscar Predix

In looking over the options for this year's visual effects and makeup and hair contenders, one thing is certain: we'll be drowning in sequels come Oscar time. Or at least come 'bake-offs' time when the these two branches whittle down the competition with screenings of clip reels of the work in question.

Some umbrella questions to consider...

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Box Office: Trans4mers Yell and Crash Their Way to the Top

Amir here with the weekend’s box office report and a painful personal story. Win win.

The national anthem of China is playing loudly at the Bay residence, the Chinese flag is at full mast, everyone’s pockets are full of Yuans. Trans4mers has become the best selling foreign film in China, raking in an astonishing $90m, making one of the richest men in Hollywood just that much richer. Add that to the film’s massive American gross – the best of 2014, so far – and we have collectively encouraged Michael Bay to continue jerking off on screen. We have to put a stop to this people! Has anyone ever been so amply rewarded for so much disservice to this medium?

WEEKEND BOX OFFICE
01 TRANSFORMERS: AGE OF EXTINCTION $100 NEW looking back at the 1986 movie
02 22 JUMP STREET $15.4 (cum. $139.8) Podcast
03 HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON 2 $13.1 (cum. 121.8) best movie dragons ever
04 THINK LIKE A MAN TOO $10.4 (cum.$48.1) 
05 MALEFICENT $8.2 (cum. $201.8) Podcast
06 JERSEY BOYS $7.6 (cum. $27.3) Review
07 EDGE OF TOMORROW $5.2 (cum. $84.1) Capsule
08 FAULT IN OUR... $4.8 (cum. $109.5) Review
09 X-MEN: DOFP $3.3 (cum. $223.3) Review
10 CHEF $1.6 (cum. $19.4) 

[Personal story] My last encounter with the Transformers series was The Revenge of the Fallen, the only theatre experience that has ever left me feeling real, physical pain. So much so that I decided it was time to switch from glasses to contact lenses after witnessing that nauseating visual and aural monstrosity on screen. I vowed never to give Michael Bay another chance but later broke this vow for Pain & Gain, a film I mistakenly assumed would be a suitable bonding moment for me and my dad. Near the end of the film, my dad smacked his glass of water on the table and yelled: “Enough! Enough is enough! What is this nonsense young people watch these days? This isn’t cinema.” and stormed out of the room. And this coming from an ardent Jason Statham fan! Anyway, traumatic experience for everyone involved. [/Personal story]

On the limited end of things, the biggest name was Snowpiercer. With an outstanding per screen average, the Weinstein Radius property made it to the top 20 despite playing on only 8 screens. Opinions on the film range anywhere from “masterpiece!” to accusations of messy incoherence. If you’ve been lucky enough to have seen it already, do let us know where you stand in the comments. What else did you watch this weekend?