Blogcritics The critical lens on today's culture & entertainment
Held at Caesar’s Palace, CinemaCon is the official convention of The National Association of Theatre Owners. The movie studios conduct presentations to get their exhibition partners excited about the products they will soon have to offer them.
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Preceded by guys and girls in red bathing suits, Dwayne Johnson and most of the cast appeared for Baywatch. They were pushing a ticket-sales contest, which seemed a desperate move, but might have been welcomed by the theater workers. There was a new preview that included extended scenes of what’s already been shown. They are going to earn that R-rating.
Was surprised to hear someone on stage rave about Ghost in the Shell being original considering it’s a live-action remake. Speaking of original, three sequels were mentioned. From An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power was a clip of conservative Texas mayor who helped his town go green. October sees a Cloverfield sequel, and Daddy’s Home with John Lithgow and Mel Gibson as the father to Will Farrell and Mark Wahlberg.
Darren Aronofsky has a thriller of some kind called Mother! with an all star cast starring Jennifer Lawrence set for October. Based on a novel, Alex Garland’s Annihilation stars Natalie Portman in another intense sci-fi thriller from the director. George Clooney and Matt Damon are on hand to banter before presenting a scene from Suburbicon, a wacky crime thriller with the Coen brothers involved with the script.
Mission: Impossible 6 is all set for July 27, 2018 and Johnny Knoxville will be back with Action Point on March 23, 2018.
Nickelodeon has some animation offering. Amusement Park will start as a movie then goes into TV series, so it’s a little weird to hear them knock TV to suck up to the theater owners when they are launch a pilot in theaters. On the horizon are Sherlock Gnomes on January 12, 2018, another Spongebob Squarepants in 2019 and The Loud Family in 2020
Damon and director Alexander Payne presented the first 10 minutes of Downsizing, a film that sees over population dealt with by shrinking people to five inches. Out December 22, the film looks very clever from the sequence shown.
Transformers: The Last Knight started with a reel about 3D, and then Michael Bay and the cast came out. I have not seen one of these, so I am not the person to talk about them, but the footage they showed seemed weak. Some decent action and boring expositions scenes.
WALT DISNEY STUDIOS
This was the most lackluster presentation. Maybe they figured reminding folks they made $7 billion at the worldwide box office last year was all they needed to do. They just ran through their upcoming slate without stars or footage. Disneynature will have Born in China. Marvel has Guardians of the Galaxy 2 and Thor: Ragnarok, which includes the Hulk. Next year offers Black Panther, Avengers: Infinity War, Antman and Wasp, and Captain Marvel in 2019. On the animation front, there’s Cars 3, Coco, and Wreck-It Ralph 2: Ralph Breaks the Internet. Under the Star Wars banner is The Last Jedi and next year the Han Solo movie.
The audience was then shown Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales. I am not allowed to review it until the release date, but I will say it reminded me of the first one.
