On DVD & Blu-Ray: August 9, 2016

Initial Reaction: Video Review - SUICIDE SQUAD

The biggest story of the weekend was always going to be Suicide Squad no matter how bad or good the reviews were and no matter how much money it did or didn't make it. Turns out, the movie did indeed make a ton of money despite a second wave of negative reviews for the second DC comics extended universe film this year. By comparison, Suicide Squad is making the critic reactions to Batman V  Superman look tame. Whereas that film divided critics and fans alike due more to the tone and story the film decided to take on many have been reacting to Suicide Squad for its altogether incoherent tone and story. As these things go much of these complaints seem to be coming from the fact Warner Bros. reacted to the BvS reviews by having multiple editors make multiple cuts of Suicide Squad in an attempt to make the film funnier, more light-hearted, and clearly to add a ton of music as the soundtrack for this thing is off the charts (thanks, Guardians of the Galaxy). It will be when Warner Bros. learns that it's not the second or third property to do something people initially liked that will garner it all the attention and praise, but when they do something original and striking that it will be their turn to receive the praise and fandom of the movie-going faithful. Instead, be it trying to ape Chris Nolan's dark and gritty tone or trying ape the "fun", but more importantly *established* tone of Marvel there is no reason for sudiences to respond excitedly to something they've seen before. Personally, I enjoyed much of what Suicide Squad had to offer-especially in its relentless first hour, but as I get further away from the film and the more stories I hear about how audiences came to see the version we did the more I tend to dislike what WB is doing and simply hope they allow these established directors they've hired to create a singular vision. Otherwise, why hire them? Only time will tell if Patty Jenkins, James Wan, Rick Famuyiwa, and Ben Affleck suffer the same circumstances as David Ayer, but for now I'll hold out hope that, like with BvS, we get an extended cut of Suicide Squad in the way Ayer envisioned the film when he shot it when it hits home video later this year. All of that said, Suicide Squad still topped the previous August opening weekend record by more than $40 million with an estimated $135.1 million. That was enough to give the film the largest August opening weekend, the largest August opening day with $65.2 million, which in turn included the largest August Thursday preview total of $20.5 million. Combined with a $132 million international opening from 57 territories, the film's global haul stands at $267.1 million after the first weekend on a $175 million budget. Be sure to follow us on Instagram and Twitter as we now have those accounts set up and, as always, subscribe to our YouTube channel as we have a new review (or reviews) up each week!

SUICIDE SQUAD Review

Don't believe everything you hear. That would be the first thing I would tell people if they were to ask what I thought about the latest entry in the DC Comics extended universe as funded by Warner Brothers. Don't believe everything you hear in that Suicide Squad isn't nearly as terrible as those early reviews have made it out to be, but don't believe everything you saw in those trailers that made you think this might be a new super hero masterpiece either. Suicide Squad has its flaws. Plenty of them in fact-the biggest perpetrator being the convoluted  story that ultimately does so many circles around itself that it becomes a pointless exercise in power for Amanda Waller (as played by the wonderful Viola Davis). Suicide Squad also has its fair share of highlights as well-most of them concerning the effort the cast is putting into making this group of misfits feel like a family when the script gives them little to work with. This is all very disappointing mind you as writer/director David Ayer (who wrote Training Day and who wrote and directed the likes of End of Watch and Fury) clearly has a knack for these types of characters and putting such characters in high-stakes situations that bring out qualities and traits viewers will find endearing and affecting despite potentially being revolting. The issue here is that Ayer seemingly felt the need to include so many characters that he let his storytelling techniques get away from him and instead decided to give us an introductory hour where we are presented with each of the ten (count 'em ten) main characters as well as how they all ended up together and walking into the plot device that is both meant to unite them and that could have also been completely avoided if the idea to bring them together was rejected in the first place. There is interesting ideas aplenty here and the film very well could have explored the difference between bad and evil and how many bad things one has to do or ends up doing before they cross that line. Instead, Ayer uses this opportunity to bring together his comic book version of the Dirty Dozen and expose them at face value, for what they are, and how they work together. Just so we're all on the same page-that would have been fine. I don't have an issue, especially at this stage of the game, with a DC film not leaning too hard on the philosophical stuff and instead focusing more on simply having fun, but even in doing this Ayer's story does itself no favors by making everything interconnected to the point the film renders itself irrelevant when all he really needed to do was give these usual foes a formidable one of their own.

Teaser Trailer for Christopher Nolan's DUNKIRK

If you weren't aware, director Christopher Nolan is making a World War II film that comes out next summer and Warner Bros. is letting those who haven't been up to date and anxious about what the auteur might do next know by dropping an announcement trailer of sorts before their big-budget action hero epic, Suicide Squad, this weekend. I can remember the first trailer for Inception debuting and being blown away not by the visuals or concept the movie seemed to possesses, but rather by the fact we were already getting another Chris Nolan film only two years after having delivered the greatest comic book movie known to man. With his latest, the studio seems to be following more the pattern they did with the Interstellar campaign as we only get a few brief glimpses of footage here intercut with text informing audiences this is indeed a new Nolan film and if you're really out of the loop, what Nolan has made prior. All of that said, there isn't much to say about the teaser other than the fact the footage itself looks visually stunning (Nolan re-teamed with Interstellar cinematographer Hoyt van Hoytema), but there is no mention of actors and no insight into the story. All we know is that the film will focus on the evacuation of Dunkirk, known as Operation Dynamo, during the British military operation that saved 330,000 lives as Allied soldiers were surrounded by German forces. Nolan wrote the screenplay himself without usual collaborator, brother Jonathan, but the picture will reunite the director with longtime Nolan composer Hans Zimmer. Nolan also decided to shoot the whole of his tenth feature on IMAX using a combination of IMAX 65mm and 65mm large format film. Dunkirk stars Tom Hardy, Kenneth Branagh, Mark Rylance, Cillian Murphy, Aneurin Barnard, James D’Arcy, Jack Lowden, Barry Keoghan, Tom Glynn-Carney, Harry Styles, and opens on July 21, 2017.

On DVD & Blu-Ray: August 2, 2016