Welcome to summer! And just in time for it, we're finally caught up! One trend going back at least a quarter century is that the mid-June/Father's Day/First Weekend of Actual Summer slot usually sees the release of a major animated movie. This past weekend was supposed to be the opening weekend of Soul, for example. So, while we continue to debate if heading back to the mulitplexes, even with masks, is going to be a wise thing to do next month, enjoy these reminders of the Before Times and various nominees and winners of Best Animated Feature Oscars (and films that would have been nominated for Best Animated Feature Oscars had the category existed before 2001).
One Year Ago--June 21, 2019:
New Wide Releases:
Toy Story 4--1/$120.9 million/$434 million/5/97%/84--Pixar's most beloved franchise seemed to come to a natural end with 2010's Toy Story 3, but inspiration struck, leading to another (possible) final installment, one that focused much more on Woody (Tom Hanks), whose fading status in the bedroom of Bonnie, the little girl who gets Andy's toys at the end of the prior film, leads him to go to great lengths to get back Bonnie's schoolmade spork/Popsicle stick combo (Tony Hale) who would rather be garbage, which in turn leads him to a reunification with former girlfriend Bo Peep (Annie Potts). While the story had room for several new characters, including Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele as a pair of combative, attached plushies and Keanu Reeves as Canada's greatest stuntman toy, it does give short shift to most of the series regulars, including Buzz Lightyear (Tim Allen). This may be why critics were a bit cooler toward this installment than the previous three (though reviews were still overwhelmingly positive), and box office might have been a bit softer than anticipated (though it still made tons of money). The film won Animated Feature, and was also nominated for the Randy Newman-penned Song "I Can't Let You Throw Yourself Away", giving the franchise a perfect record in getting Song nominations.
Director: Josh Cooley
Child's Play--2/$14.1 million/$29.2 million/82/63%/48--The weekend's other entry from a long-running franchise involving sentient dolls, this remake of the 1988 original (which somehow got six sequels) actually attracted surprisingly decent reviews, and had a not-bad opening, though like most horror movies, the box office collapsed after that first weekend. Unlike the original, which involved a serial killer transferring his soul into a doll, this one has a vengeful employee deliberately remove all the safety protocols from this version's high-tech doll, which of course makes him evil (and the company didn't even offer anyone a free frogurt). This one had a better cast than you'd expect for a project like this, including Aubry Plaza as the mom who unknowingly buys the evil doll for her son, Brian Tyree Henry as a detective, and the voice of Mark Hamell as Chucky.
Director: Lars Klevberg
Anna--9/$3.6 million/$7.7 million/127/36%/40--After the success of Lucy, its not too surprising to see that director Luc Besson might try his luck again with another one-word movie title consisting of a four-letter, two syllable female name. Alas, Anna was no Lucy. It was even a Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets. The film starred Russian model Sasha Luss as Anna, a Russian model whose secretly a KGB assassin, whose secretly secretly a CIA double agent. Besson recruited a solid supporting cast, including Luke Evans as Luss's recruiter, Cillian Murphy as her CIA handler, and Helen Mirren as her KGB handler. Critics mostly complained it was awfully reminiscent of Besson's prior works, and amid tough summer competition, Anna crashed and burned.
Director: Luc Besson
Five Years Ago--June 19, 2015:
#1 Movie:
Jurassic World--$106.6 million
New Wide Releases:
Inside Out--2/$90.4 million/$356.5 million/4/98%/94--Pixar had what, for them, was an extended slump in the early teens (of course, Brave, Monsters University, and yes, even Cars 2 were still better than most of the other films playing against them in theaters). They broke out of that slump in a big way with Inside Out, a heart-tugging comedy about the personifications of a pre-teen girl's emotions, and how they, particularly Joy (Amy Poehler) and Sadness (Phyllis Smith) have to grow and change and mature along with her. The other emotions were played by Lewis Black, Bill Hader, and Mindy Kaling, with Kyle MacLachlan and Diane Lane as the girl's parents. The critical hosannas led it to an Original Screenplay nomination, and it would win Animated Feature at the Oscars.
Director: Pete Docter and Ronnie Del Carmen
Dope--5/$6.1 million/$17.5 million/107/89%/72--Like the previous week's Me and Earl and the Dying Girl, this is another comedy/drama out of Sundance about a high school senior coming of age. Shameik Moore played a self-described geek living in a high-crime area in the Los Angeles suburbs, whose dreams of going to Harvard might be derailed after he ends up with a bag of drugs after a party, with several interested people demanding he dispose of them in various ways. The film did decent business for an indie with no box office names in the cast, though it wasn't a breakout hit.
Director: Rick Famuyiwa
New Limited Releases:
Infinitely Polar Bear--$1.4 Million/198/81%/64--Mark Ruffalo took a break from hulking out to star in this indie comedy/drama about a man with bipolar disorder who is tasked with raising his preteen daughters while his wife (Zoe Saldana) leaves town to get her MBA. Even with good reviews and the leads, it didn't break out of the art-house purgatory.
Director: Maya Forbes
Ten Years Ago--June 18, 2010:
New Wide Releases:
Toy Story 3--1/$110.3 million/$415 million/1/98%/92--Pixar finished off what was likely their strongest run with this second sequel to their original smash, which seemed to bring the franchise to a definitive end--at least until Toy Story 4 nine years later. Appropriately for an entry coming over ten years after the previous one, child toy owner Andy is now 18 and headed to college, and no longer needs his childhood playmates, even if he is more concerned with their fates than most kids his age would be. A mix-up sends them to a day care center, which at first seems like a happy landing, until they realize it is run by an autocratic teddy bear (Ned Beatty) with a grudge against them. Tom Hanks as Woody and Tim Allen as Buzz return, as do most of the other beloved characters. The film would receive 5 nominations, including Best Picture and Adapted Screenplay, and would win Animated Feature and Original Song for Randy Newman's "We Belong Together", which, despite its win, isn't nearly as memorable as previous Toy Story nominees "You've Got a Friend in Me" and "When She Loved Me".
Director: Lee Unkrich
Jonah Hex--7/$5.4 million/$10.6 million/131/12%/33--On the other end of the quality spectrum from Toy Story 3 sat this steampunk western, based on the DC Comic, which for some reason seemed to combine the beloved short-lived cult TV series Pushing Daisies with the much-reviled Will Smith vehicle Wild Wild West. Josh Brolin played Hex, a scarred former Confederate soldier who has the power to briefly raise the dead, who gets recruited by President Grant (Aidan Quinn) to stop his former commanding officer (John Malkovich) from blowing up Washington DC with some sort of superweapon. The film, which also starred Megan Fox as Hex's prostitute girlfriend and Michael Fassbender as Malkovich's top lackey, went through extensive reshoots, ultimately completely changing the film's plot and climax. It also went out at only 81 minutes, making it the very rare live-action film that's shorter than the animated movie it opened against (Toy Story 3 runs 103 minutes).
Director: Jimmy Hayward
New Limited Releases:
Cyrus--$7.5 million/138/80%/74--The first relatively mainstream film from mumblecore pioneers the Duplass Brothers, this uncomfortable comedy stars John C. Reilly as a divorced man who begins dating Marisa Tomei. She lives with her 21-year-old son (Jonah Hill), who is not at all interested in his mom having a new boyfriend. Catherine Keener played Reilly's ex-wife. The film got some decent reviews, but despite the cast's star power wasn't able to break out of the art-house ghetto.
Director: Jay Duplass and Mark Duplass
I Am Love--$5 million/150/82%/79--Tilda Swinton stars in this Italian-language family drama, playing the matriarch of a wealthy Milan clan who begins an affair with the friend and business partner of her son. The film would receive a nomination for Costume Design
Director: Luca Guadagnino
Fifteen Years Ago--June 24, 2005:
#1 Movie:
Batman Begins--$27.6 million
New Wide Releases:
Bewitched--2/$20.1 million/$63.3 million/40/25%/34--Nora Ephron deserves some credit for at least trying to do something that wasn't just a straight remake of the TV series. However, she deserves no credit for the confusing mishmash she came up with instead. Nicole Kidman played a witch who decides she wants to try her luck out in the real world, where she meets actor Will Ferrell, who convinces her to audition for the remake of Bewitched he's producing as a vehicle for himself. She lands the part, and she and Ferrell fall for each other, even though, just like Darren in the old show, he's horrified when he learns she's an actual witch. This makes the movie sound much less confusing than it actually is. Michael Caine played Kidman's father, Shirley MacLaine played the actress playing Endora, and Jason Schwartzman, Kristin Chenowith, Stephen Colbert and Steve Carrell (the only feature film the Daily Show/Dana Carvey Show/Ambiguously Gay Duo duo have appeared in together, though of course they don't share any scenes) play supporting roles.
Director: Nora Ephron
Herbie: Fully Loaded--4/$12.7 million/$66 million/37/41%/47--Lindsey Lohan, who for a while was Disney's go-to actress for remakes/reboots (The Parent Trap, Freaky Friday) starred in this attempt to jump-start the old Love Bug series (whose last theatrical film had opened 25 years earlier). Lohan played the newest owner of the sentient Volkswagen Beetle who is conveniently an aspiring NASCAR driver from a down-on-its-luck racing family. Of course, 50 years of new racing technology doesn't stand a chance against Herbie. Michael Keaton played her father, and Matt Dillon played a rival racer who was determined to sabotage the Beetle. The film was a minor hit, but didn't lead to a revival of the franchise.
Director: Angela Robinson
Land of the Dead--5/$10.2 million/$20.7 million/112/74%/71--The fourth installment--and the first in twenty years--of George Romano's zombie series was the first to star well-known actors. Taking place several years after the events of 1985's Day of the Dead, surviving humans have built fortified outposts to protect themselves from the zombie hoard. One such outpost is ruled by the despotic Dennis Hopper, who lives in luxury while the other human survivors live in squalor. Simon Baker is the commander of a armored vehicle capable of driving through the zombies in order to find supplies, and John Leguizamo played another worker who wants revenge against Hopper. Meanwhile, the zombies are beginning to exhibit intelligence. This one opened to better-than-expected reviews, but performed like most horror films, opening strongly before fading fast.
Director: George A. Romero
New Limited Releases:
Rize--$3.3 million/178/84%/74--This documentary chronicled the invention and rise of two variations of breakdancing, Clowning and Krumping, in Los Angeles. Featuring plenty of impressive dance footage, it also offers interviews with the dancers and the inventors of the styles, ultimately culminating at a large dance-off. While not a huge success, it paved the way for the successful dance flicks that would come in the next few years.
Director: David LaChapelle
March of the Penguins--$77.4 million/27/94%/79--It's probably safe to say that no one expected this French documentary, with English narration by Morgan Freeman, about penguin parenthood to become one of the surprise smashes of the summer of 2005, but here we are. Antarctic Emperor penguins have their breeding ground at a certain spot that, during the summer, is close to the open water, but during the winter, is dozens of miles away, requiring the birds to travel across the ice. The doc proved enchanting, and ended its run as the second-highest-grossing documentary in history, behind only Michael Moore'e Fahrenheit 9/11 from the previous year. 15 years later, it remains the second highest-grossing documentary in history. It would win the Oscar for Documentary Feature.
Director: Luc Jacquet
Twenty Years Ago--June 23, 2000:
New Wide Releases:
Me, Myself, & Irene--1/$24.2 million/$90.6 million/24/47%/49--Jim Carrey reunited with his Dumb & Dumber directors, the Farrelly Brothers, for much lesser effect in this variation on Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Carrey played a mild-mannered state trooper who developed a split personality as a much more aggressive variation who emerges whenever Carrey fells threatened. Accompanying a prisoner (Renee Zellweger) who is being extradited, they are attacked by corrupt cops (Chris Cooper and Richard Jenkins) working for her mobster ex-boyfriend, and have to go on the run from the FBI. Robert Forster played Carrey's commanding officer, and Anthony Anderson played one of Carrey's sons, despite being only 9 years younger than Carrey in real life. While it did OK business, it fell well below what Carrey's films at the time usually made and was seen as somewhat of a disappointment.
Director: Bobby Farrelly and Peter Farrelly
Chicken Run--2/$17.5 million/$106.8 million/20/97%/88--British stop-motion animation studio Aardman transitioned from shorts (for which it had won three Oscars) to its first full-length feature, and for a moment, looked like it might be a legitimate challenger to Pixar. The chickens of a British egg farm that more resembles a POW camp are always trying to escape, but are continuously thwarted. When the farm's owner decides there's more profit in selling chicken pot pies than eggs, the chickens must finally figure out to how to get away, and quickly, with the help of a new arrival, an American circus rooster (Mel Gibson), who might just be the rare chicken that can fly. While it was outgrossed by animated competition Dinosaur, Chicken Run got much better reviews and has been much more fondly remembered in the decades since.
Director: Peter Lord and Nick Park
Twenty-Five Years Ago--June 23, 1995:
#1 Movie:
Pocahontas--$29.5 million
Thirty Years Ago--June 22, 1990:
#1 Movie:
Dick Tracy--$15.6 million
New Wide Releases:
RoboCop 2--2/$14.2 million/$45.7 million/31%/42--10 years after taking over for George Lucas to direct The Empire Strikes Back, Irvin Kershner took over the RoboCop franchise from Paul Verhoven, who was too busy directing Total Recall to make this follow-up. Alas, RoboCop 2 was not quite the success Empire was. Peter Weller and Nancy Allen both return as the cyborg officer and his partner, who are dealing with a surge in crime thanks to an attempt from the evil corporation from the first movie attempting to formally take over Detroit. Weller's programming gets deliberately messed up just as a violent drug dealer with a highly addictive new concoction starts wrecking havoc. This one traded in much of the satire of the first film for violence and young kids dropping f-bombs. This would be Kershner's final film.
Director: Irvin Kershner
Betsy's Wedding--6/$4.7 million/$19.7 million/65/50%/NA--Alan Alda both starred in and directed this loose remake of Father of the Bride (a year and a half before a proper remake of Father of the Bride) about a dad who wants to give his little princess (Molly Ringwald) the best wedding money can buy--even if he doesn't actually have the money to buy it. Alda (who has yet to direct another feature) attracted a strong cast, including Madeline Kahn as his wife, Ringwald's fellow Saturday detention veteran Ally Sheedy as her sister, Catherine O'Hara as Kahn's sister, Joe Pesci (who would co-star with O'Hara in a slightly bigger hit at Thanksgiving) as O'Hara's husband, Dylan Walsh as the groom, a young Samuel L. Jackson (in his first of two films he'd appear with Pesci that year) in a minor role, and Anthony LaPaglia, in one of his first major roles, as a loan shark who helps Alda pay for the wedding, but finds himself falling for Sheedy, who happens to be a cop. Critics were mixed, which probably explains why the film underperformed.
Director: Alan Alda
Thirty-Five Years Ago--June 21, 1985:
New Wide Releases:
Cocoon--1/$7.9 million/$76.1 million/6/79%/65--One of the summer's more unexpected smashes was this well-regarded sci-fi comedy/drama about three retirement home residents (Don Ameche, Hume Cronyn, and Wilfred Brimley, by far the youngest of the film's senior cast members, which might explain why he's the only one of them still alive), discover the pool at the seemingly empty estate next door has become rejuvenating, allowing them to have the energy and drive they had decades earlier. The lifeforce was placed there by aliens (Brian Dennehy and Tahnee Welch) who have come to Earth to retrieve the titular cocoons, which contain several of their kind who have spent millennia sleeping on the floor of the ocean. Steve Guttenberg played the charter boat owner that Dennehy hired, and among the retirement home's residents are Jessica Tandy, Gwen Verdon, and Maureen Stapleton. Barret Oliver, who played Brimley and Stapleton's grandson, appeared in his second sci-fi movie in as many weeks, as he also played the title character in D.A.R.Y.L. Cocoon would be nominated for, and win, two Oscars, for its Visual Effects, and Ameche for Supporting Actor.
Director: Ron Howard
Lifeforce--4/$4.2 million/$11.6 million/71/60%/50--The weekend's other sci-fi film was also about aliens arriving on Earth, but unlike the friendly Cocoon aliens who came to give life, these aliens are space vampires and are here to take it, and a team of scientists has to stop them before they decimate the population of London. Director Tobe Hooper's follow-up to Poltergeist received mixed reviews, but still had a decent opening. Like many films of this genre, however, it would have no staying power. Patrick Stewart, as one of the scientists who becomes a victim of the aliens, is by far the most recognizable member of the cast.
Director: Tobe Hooper
Return to Oz--7/$2.8 million/$11.1 million/74/52%/42--As stated previously, Disney did not have a good 1985, with its only box office success being a Thanksgiving re-release of One Hundred and One Dalmatians. Their biggest live-action flop of the year was this unofficial follow-up to 1939's The Wizard of Oz (which, it should be noted, Disney didn't and still doesn't own the rights to), based on two of L. Frank Baum's sequels to his original novel. 10-year-old Fairuza Balk, in her feature film debut, took over the role of Dorothy, who finds herself back in an Oz that has been destroyed by the evil Gnome King, and with her original friends out of action, has to rely on her new friends to restore Oz to its former glory. Like the musical, Return had several actors play duel roles in both the "real" world and in Oz, including Nicol Williamson as both the Gnome King and a doctor who wants to give Dorothy electroshock therapy. The film was (and still is) regarded as being way too dark for kids, which might explain its anemic box office performance, though today it has a thriving cult. It would get an Oscar nomination for Visual Effects, which it would lose to Cocoon.
Director: Walter Murch
Forty Years Ago--June 20, 1980:
New Wide Releases:
The Blues Brothers--$57.2 million/10/84%/60--Mutual blues enthusiasts John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd developed The Blues Brothers out of this fascination with the musical form, with the characters first appearing on Saturday Night Live, then in concerts (one of which produced a hit album) and finally in this movie, which re-teamed Belushi with his Animal House director John Landis. Belushi, recently released from prison, and Aykroyd vow to save the orphanage they grew up in from being foreclosed on because of delinquent taxes, and decide to do so by putting the old band back together. Along the way, they run afoul of Illinois Nazis, rednecks, and seemingly every law enforcement agency in the Upper Midwest. Featuring cameos (and performances) from musicians James Brown, Aretha Franklin, Ray Charles, Cab Calloway, and Chaka Khan, as well as Carrie Fisher, John Candy, and Steven Spielberg (who had directed Aykroyd and Belushi in the previous year's 1941), the comedy, which between the musical performances featured numerous car chases, including the infamous one through a mall, proved to be one of the summer's biggest comedies.
Director: John Landis
Brubaker--$37.1 million/19/75%/54--Proof that moviegoing was very different 40 years ago, this rather downbeat prison drama ended up being one of the bigger hits of the summer. Of courser, it did help that it starred Robert Redford. He played the new warden at an Arkansas prison camp whose radically liberal ideas about prisoner rehabilitation and ending corruption put him at odds with the state prison board. This one had a solid supporting cast, including Yaphet Kotto as a prisoner, M. Emmitt Walsh as a corrupt prison contractor, Morgan Freeman as another prisoner, Wilfred Brimley as a trustee, and Jane Alexander as an ally of Redford. The film, loosely based on a true story, would be nominated for Original Screenplay
Director: Stuart Rosenberg
Can't Stop the Music--NA/NA/7%/NA--Producer Alan Carr, who shepherded Grease to blockbuster status two years prior, decided a highly fictionalized biopic of the costumed disco group The Village People would be the perfect vehicle for his next smash hit. It wasn't. In addition to the group members playing themselves, the film starred Steve Guttenberg, in one of his first major roles, as an aspiring songwriter whose best friend (Valerie Perrine) just happened to be a supermodel with connections to the music industry. The then-Bruce Jenner, in her only major movie role, played a lawyer who falls for Perrine. This featured numerous production numbers to Village People songs, including one, to "Y.M.C.A." set among exercising men at a Y.M.C.A., that reaches levels of homoeroticism that the volleyball scene in Top Gun could only dream of.
Director: Nancy Walker
Fame--$21.2 million/32/84%/58--Can't Stop the Music might have fared better (but probably wouldn't have) if it hadn't opened against this other musical drama, one considerably more grounded in realism, and one that got considerably better reviews and box office. The film covers the four years that 8 aspiring performers spend at New York's renowned High School of Performing Arts, as they undergo highs and lows as they pursue success in their chosen fields. None of the 8 leads would become superstars, though Irene Cara would win an Oscar three years later for the title song from Flashdance and Paul McCrane would spend years as part of the cast of ER. Several cast members, including Debbie Allen, who played a teacher, would go on to have long runs on the TV adaption. The film would be nominated for six Oscars, including Original Screenplay (against Brubaker), Sound and Film Editing. It would win for its Score and title Song, which beat out another song from the film, "Out Here on My Own".
Director: Alan Parker
Rough Cut--$16.7 million/41/NA/58--One of Burt Reynold's less-remembered vehicles, he tried to channel Cary Grant in this heist comedy as a suave jewel thief out to steal a fortune in uncut diamonds. He finds himself falling for new team member Leslie-Anne Down, unaware that she is being forced to secretly work for Scotland Yard inspector David Niven. This one is more remembered for the behind-the-scenes turmoil, during which original director Don Siegel was fired, re-hired, and fired again.
Director: Don Siegel (uncredited: Peter R. Hunt and Robert Ellis Miller)
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