2024 Year in Review: The John Carter Memorial Award

Posted on December 20, 2024 by Doc

This is one of our first recurring awards in the Year in Review. The John Carter Memorial Award, which is to recognize the film that is the “flop” of the year.

A flop is a film that failed to connect at the box office and lost a lot of money for its studio. A film could flop for any number of reasons, and a film can be great and still flop. Looking at the previous award recipients…

John Carter Memorial Award

Previous winners: John Carter, Alice Through the Looking Glass, The Lone Ranger, A Million Ways to Die in the West, Expendables 3, Jem and the Holograms, Pan, Rock the Casbah, King Arthur: Legend of the Sword, Robin Hood (2018), Mortal Engines, Playmobil: The Movie, The Rhythm Section, Reminiscence, Strange World , The Flash

A lot of these films are ones that I did not like, but there are some that were okay, but just either did not bring in the crowds or spent way too much on its budget.

This year, there have been a lot of films that would be considered flops. Particularly, some of the early films of the year were problematic for the studios. Furiosa: A Mad Max Story was well reviewed and beloved by some, but the crowds just did not come to see it. I don’t know if it were the recast of Furiosa with Anya Taylor-Joy or the lack of Mad Max, but Furiosa did not do well. Neither did The Fall Guy, a movie that I really liked and will probably make my end of year list. Fact is that this is a film remaking a TV series from the 1980s that very few people remembered, and, even with the exciting action, The Fall Guy just could not make it a success. It is a fun film though. On the other hand, a film that is not a good film is Borderlands. Borderlands reportedly cost $120 million to make and it had an $8.8 million dollar opening. Ouch. But that was not the worst thing yet. Borderlands dropped 72% in week two. Boom. Joker: Folie a Deux is the next film to talk about, because although Borderlands dropped 72% in its second week, Joker: Folie a Deux dropped a staggering 81%. It is poised to lose between $150-200 million dollars. Finally, and most recently, Kraven the Hunter made a dismal $11 million dollars in its opening weekend and I am curious to see what its second week drop will be. Kraven the Hunter received horrendous reviews, with people even claiming that it was worse than Madame Web (which could be in this category as well).

This year’s “Winner”:

Megalopolis

It made $4 million opening weekend on a budget of $120 million. After four weeks in the theater, it made $7.6 million dollars domestically and a whopping $12.5 million worldwide. All on a budget of $120 million. Reports say that director/producer Francis Ford Coppola put up a lot of his own money for this film. Whoa. I have not seen this film, so I cannot comment on the quality of film (this is probably a June Swoon film next year), but there is no denying that as a box office movie, this one flopped hard.

Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga

Posted on May 25, 2024 by Doc

I was one of the people who thought Mad Max Fury Road was just okay. I did not love it like most of the people who saw it. I feel much the same way about the prequel film, Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, with Anya Taylor-Joy and Chris Hemsworth.

It was fine. I did not love it. It was passable for me.

According to IMDB, “As the world fell, young Furiosa is snatched from the Green Place of Many Mothers and falls into the hands of a great Biker Horde led by the Warlord Dementus. Sweeping through the Wasteland they come across the Citadel presided over by The Immortan Joe. While the two Tyrants war for dominance, Furiosa must survive many trials as she puts together the means to find her way home.”

There are a lot of good things in Furiosa. To start with, the film looks tremendous. The effects, many of which were practical, were epic. The stunts are wonderful and work very well with the story.

Anya Taylor-Joy does a great job taking the role of Furiosa in this prequel. However I do think the standout performance of the film was from Chris Hemsworth, who just eats every scene away every moment he is on screen as Dementus. He is not just playing Chris Hemsworth nor is he just Thor. He is a fabulous villain in Furiosa.

My biggest problem is the story, which is the same basic problem I had with Mad Max. There is not much to the story, though I did like the background of Furiosa’s life. There is a lot of action, but I would appreciate more story beats to chew on.

So I liked Furiosa. I appreciated the work done by director George Miller and the cast, especially the main two, were top notch. You should see this in the theater. If you loved Mad Max Fury Road, you will love Furiosa too.

3.4 stars