The Roundup with Jeff Stockton (Season 25 Round 4)

 

Round 4 gave us a new Marvel Universe production, a reboot of a horror icon, and another David Fincher flop. Here's The Roundup....

3. Julia Roberts
I had some pretty big problems with the script of Malik, but the one big positive the film had going for it is the performance of Julia Roberts. She gave her best lead performance in years (and her first lead performance in a LRF project).

2. Box Office
The box office was pretty solid this round, with only Malik failing to deliver profits. Next round might not go as well though with a couple of riskier projects to come before The Sandman: Season of Mists.

1. The Hammer of Thor
I honestly wasn't sure what to expect from The Hammer of Thor. Roy Horne has written a lot of good films, but his blockbuster attempts haven't always landed. Then you have Channing Tatum as Thor. While I still don't think he was the perfect choice (though I don't know who I would cast instead), the script plays well to Tatum's physical strengths.

3. Malik
Malik mostly worked, and it had a lot of potential, but it got in its own way far too many times to recommend. All of the flashbacks of Malik in high school to try to flesh out his character actually do the opposite, making him far less interesting. Those scenes also rob the film of all forward momentum each time they pop up. There was also an obvious lack of legal logic in the script from Alex Conn that a bit more research could have helped with. Ultimately Malik wastes a good Julia Roberts performance on a script that doesn't seem fully fleshed out.

2. Krueger
I really couldn't get into Krueger at all. The soundtrack, full of songs about dreams, seemed odd and pointless given the lack of the supernatural in this film. The first half of the film was fairly entertaining, but the story quickly began falling apart around the midway point. I suspect writer Joshua Collins had some difficulty getting Krueger to the conclusion we know has to come and it showed.

1. Awards Races
I'm not sure there have been any serious GRA contenders at this point, almost halfway through Season 25. Maybe someone like Ryan Gosling can steal a nomination if the Best Actor crowd is weak in the second half of the season, or maybe Madelaine Petsch or Julia Roberts in Best Actress, but outside of that I am guessing that most major nominees will be from the second half of the season.