Independence Day Review

By Paul Anthony

After so many years of writing now and seeing SmashWriting grow to all platforms, the one thing I haven’t done was review a film that I have watched so many times and have yet to give it a review. With Independence Day upon us I figured to do a weekend worth of blogs and of course I had to start with this film, well let’s waste no time and start discussing this movie. The film had a star studded cast which was being led by Jeff Goldblum, Will Smith, Bill Pullman, Randy Quaid, Robert Loggia, Vivica A. Fox, James Rebhorn and Judd Hirsch. A whole lot of big time stars here. People may wonder why I didn’t put Will Smith first but his character was a co lead not the main lead and Will Smith wasn’t a big movie star just yet when this film came out in fact this movie plus Bad Boys which came out a year early started to launch him into superstardom but that is a discussion for another day. The movie was made on a 75 million dollar budget and ended up grossing 817 million dollars worldwide. Making it the highest grossing movie of 1996 and the second highest grossing film of all time at the time. the Movie was nominated for Academy award for best sound and won the academy award for best visual effects. The film was released on July 3rd but had a limited release on July 2nd in which the film takes place from July second to July fourth.

Honestly the plot is simple aliens begin to invade earth randomly, which of course catches the earth as whole off guard, though they had warnings those warnings were just too late and the aliens begin to destroy certain cities once again for unknown reasons at this point. The attack happens on July second and by July third the world does a counter attack which does nothing because the learn that the Aliens have some type of force shields that make any outside attack useless. When the president arrives at Area 51, we do learn that these Aliens at some point arrived on earth in small waves because here they had the old ones that arrived and also justified crazy character Russell Casse played by Randy Quaid. At this point we learn that the aliens can communicate through humans by basically chocking them and leaves the humans mentally linked to them but it is a two way thing because the presidents sees images and learns they are here to suck up the Earth’s resources which would also kill all of Mankind. But they come up with a plan to install a computer virus that will lower the aliens force shields and allow the attacks to happen which in time does work after a few tries and all ends well!

First let me say this about the cast, I thought the cast put on a pretty good performance, at first Randy Quaid’s character was just annoying at first and almost made the film cheesy but ended up serving a good purpose as the film went on. For a budget of only 75 millions the effects were on par, even using practical effects was a good touch. The story was honestly predictable but that was okay because it worked. Even keeping the aliens a low profile was brilliant because too much of them would ruin the shock value of them. In the end, I have to give this film a A plus or 95 percent for a rating and this film will continue to be one of my favorite films!

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Friday Roundabout 1/17/20

By Paul Anthony

Welcome back to another edition of our Roundabout, let’s not waste anytime shall we! Early this morning the rap Legend Eminem dropped another surprise album just like he did back in 2018  when he released Kamikaze now he released Music To Be Murdered By where he continues his attack on the world that said he was washed up and threw some bars at people that attempted to diss him for his previous album insults. This is the rap legend 11th studio album and 2020 also marks his 21st year in the rap game, how crazy is it that he still going strong congrats!

Here is some sad news we learn this week and if you are an wrestling fan then you know the name. This pass week Rocky Johnson passed away. Now many of the younger fans will know him as The Rock’s father but he in his own right was his own person and made a name for himself, he got into a business and broke color barriers and paved the way for his son and many others as well and for the family here at Smash we are sorry for your loss.

Wendy Williams from The Wendy  Williams Show in under fire for making a comment regarding Oscar winning Actor Joaquin Phoenix’s cleft, she basically said he look sexy in a weird way or something in that order, I am not fan of her show nor do I ever watch but I will say this much, these comments don’t make her a bad person or anything like that. I don’t believe she deserves to get any backlash for but social media took it upon themselves to take it an extra step. Now She did have to apologize for it but still she wasn’t mocking him or anything like that, let’s grow up people.

Will Smith has been a busy man in the passed year or so. We got Bad Boys three opening this week which has to be the final film of the series but he did say something that caught my attention. He admitted that during the promotional tours he sometimes has to pretend to like his movies though I don’t believe he admitted which films he didn’t like. Will has a long career in film but he has had plenty of misses. Does this really shock you that some people have to do this? I mean there are just as many of bad films as there good films in one’s career, they can’t like every single film they star in.

Justin hates Tom Cruise but I am pretty sure he likes Jack Reacher, well good news is Reacher will be coming back but not in a film form instead he will be coming to Amazon Prime and this makes me pumped because here is why the show Jack Ryan has been a hit for Amazon so why not bring in another fan favorite character. Jack Ryan has been in a number of films but never could gain steam so let’s see if magic can strike again!

Sony release the trailer for their film Morbius, which stars Jared Leto as the main character. Sony struck gold with Spider-Man films from Disney and Venom was sleeper hit with that being said Sony really wants to build their villains up and let’s see if this film can be any good!

Okay let’s wrap this up with some humor here and there is a man who is deaf is now suing Porn Hub for not having closed captioning on their porn. Of all the things to sue for and to go public with it has to be funny. I have to wonder what closed captioning would look like with porn, I am guessing a lot single words and letters!

Saturday sequel presents Bad Boys 2

By Paul Anthony

Before I get started I know might seem like a week of bashing Will Smith because his recent film Gemini Man is becoming such flop and then this week they decided release the first trailer for Bad Boys 3 so it only made sense. I have watched this film so much since it came out in 2003 and before I did my research on this film I have  to be honest I thought this film made a lot more money then it did, truth be told this film would basically be another flop under Will Smith yet it was able to spawn a third film granted many many years and the film will be the first film not to feature Micheal Bay which should actually help the film.

The film follows Mike and Marcus again this time going up against the biggest Drug Dealer Johnny Tapia who is bringing ecstasy into the city, the only problem is that every time the cops have a case against him, they lose which forces Mike and Marcus to do whatever it takes to find enough evidence against him so they can put him away for good. Things like always don’t go as plan and forces them to go undercover and deal with shootouts and everything else. Will Smith shows off that he can still fight and run and drive and shoot like he did in the first film and Marcus continues to be himself. The best part of the film is of course the laughs that Will and Martin bring when they are together, it is almost like they feed off of each other which is the magic of the film. There are classic scenes like at the Electronics store where it seems like they are talking about their sexual relationship then the best scene where they gang up on Reggie. That scene alone might be the most famous scene. In The end the gang which the film introduces Marcus’s Sister kills Tapia in Cuba and the case is closed.

Now the story was basic, there really wasn’t anything to think about , you know what they were going to do. Actor was average but at times was way overboard but nothing that would have hurt the film. The action was there like in any Micheal bay film it will never be boring, of course the laughs were there as well. Hard to believe this movie failed to make 300 million and yet here we are getting ready for the third and final film. In the end the film seem to get better over the first however in the end the grade will be a B plus or about 85 percent. If you haven’t seen please do it worth a watch!

Will Smith Star power fading??

By Paul Anthony

Some actors and actresses have star power that is off the roof and everything they touch is gold then there are some that you just kind of see the spot light fade from them. Right Now I am trying to figure out where does Will Smith fit in at because the last few years have been a big roller coaster ride for one Will Smith. I Brought this subject up because 2019 seems to be a common year for Will Smith now. First you had Aladdin which was a big box office hit and then a few months later you saw the release of Gemini Man which is just dying at the box office. As of right now the film only made 165 million and the budget is was 138 million as to where Aladdin’s budget was 200 million and brought in over a billion dollars and what is the difference for Will Smith?

Will wasn’t the true lead in Aladdin, yes he played a big role but it wasn’t the main role. Now Gemini Man came out and critics praised the film and this time Will was the main character and yet the moving is flopping bad. Next year will be a big year for Smith because Bad Boys 3 is being released and it is set to be the last film of the series. Should be a mega hit right? Wrong let’s look at Bad Boys 2 which came out in the summer of 2003. Now We all loved that film but once again look at the numbers, the film had 130 million dollar budget and only gross 273 million, the movie made more money then the first film but the first film only had a budget of 19 million and grossed 141 million. I am not saying bad Boys 3 is going to be a flop but it won’t be a big hit as we are expecting. When was his last true hit? Let’s go back to Men in Black 3 way back in 2012 when the film grossed nearly 625 million. Then came After Earth which he co starred with his son. Which pretty much gave us the clue that his star power as a lead was over. The budget was a 130 million and it grossed only 243 million and since then the only time his films make money is when he isn’t the true lead of the film.

Let this blog be a wake up call for studios who want to cast Will Smith as the lead in the film because his price tag just might not be worth a director’s career. Will needs to be used wisely and his days as the lead should be over, he is one of many actors whose star power is fading and should be used correctly and that means he can’t be the lead. Bad Boys 3 could say other wise but the numbers don’t lie and sure netflix and other streaming services could use his talents but let the film Aladdin show how to use a big name actor in a none lead role.

Box office Rundown Vol. 2

By Paul Anthony

This weekend was a big box office weekend both in the terms of Money and Controversy because we saw the release of the film called Joker. Which serves as a some what of a origin story of the famous Batman villain the joker. The film came in at number 1 and had everyone talking about it both in a good way and bad way with security being heighten and people walking out yet more people stay and this film even has some Oscar talk being attached to it.  So here are your numbers for this weekend farther by predictions for this week to come.

1. Joker, 93 million
2. Abominable, 12 million
3. Downton Abby, 8 million
4. Hustlers, 6.3 million
5. It chapter 2, 5.355 million
6. Ad Astra, 4.557 million
7. Judy, 4.445 million
8. Rambo, 3.550 million
9. War, 1.581 million
10. Good Boys, 900k.

 

This coming week is a very interesting because we got some big hits opening this week which include The Adams family, Gemini Man and Jexi. Here are the predictions

1. Gemini Man
2. The Adams Family
3. Abominable
4. Downton Abby
5. Jexi
6. Ad Astra
7. It Chapter 2
8. Hustlers
9. Rambo
10. War.

Aladdin 2019 Review

By Paul Anthony

I have to admit that when Disney first decided to remake their classic anime films, I was big against the idea though I did not see Beauty and the Beast, well at least not yet but I am sure I will in the near future. Now Let’s look at Aladdin. These films I believe have a up hill battle because of the legacy that the previous film had left could this film do it?

We know how the story goes with the film that is why they needed to change a few things with Genie’s story which I believe was a good touch. The story besides that stays on par and the singing was great too. Will Smith was the biggest name of the entire cast but I am proud that Disney is staying from the White washing and cast people that was more fitting for the role. I do have a problem with the low amount of action. don’t get me wrong Mena Massoud play the role of Aladdin well and was very good at his stunts and movements however I would have to seen some fight scenes or a little more towards the end.

As I mention before there was singing, we all know these films contain a lot of singing. The songs were pretty much on par and didn’t seem out of place or rushed. Now if they didn’t sing their parts then they did one hell of a good job lip singing, though we know Will Smith had a music career before he got into acting. The biggest thing people have against Disney was calling these films live action films. Well besides Genie and the animals and the magic carpet there really wasn’t much CGI after that. The effects were good as I would expect them to be because the budget was 183 million which I would assume a lot would go to the effects of the film.

With everything I must say that this film was fun and I caught myself singing the Aladdin theme song which was great and I did love Will Smith as genie must different from Robin Williams genie in the previous film. Because this is the live version and not a cartoon. With the same story almost as well I can’t give it more then 3 stars but a good 3 stars. Think of it as the glass being half full rather then half empty.

Now money wise I believe the numbers are projecting to be around 100 million worldwide, numbers from Friday for the domestic box office was around 30 million which is a great start which any film in the summer needs but for now Disney has another hit on their hands.

 

Bad Boys 3 Finally?

By Paul Anthony

Is it true? yes it is, finally after 17 long years, we are getting a film that we have been dying for and that film is none other then Bad Boys 3. We even got a title for it as well, which is Bad Boys for life. However they took the E out of life and replaced it with the number 3 to make it very clear that this is the third film in this film series. But why did it take so long for the film we wanted so bad to finally be happening?

We all know that theses films don’t have much of a story to them, for an example in the first film the team protects a murder case witness and in the second film the teams returns to solves a bigger case which trying to figure out who is bringing ecstasy in southern Florida. These films rely on the action and comedy that Smith and Lawrence bring to the film.

Having the cast return is such a great deal but what I think is even better is that the fact that Micheal Bay isn’t returning to the directing chair for this film. Bay has directed the first two films in the franchise. The wait for this film to happening came down to money. Having Bay, Smith and Lawrence returning would simply cost too much money for the studio and out the three which one would you want go away? Bay isn’t a good director, he never was, he made his money with producing action scenes but overall film is not his strong point. With that being said in my eyes he is just not worth it. With the money they don’t have to waste they can relocate that money with bringing in more characters to make this film even better then first two.

Now i have to wonder if both the guys can bring the action with their ages playing a role in this film. Crazy as it seems both actors are in their fifties already, which makes you think part three could be it for this franchise. The film is expected to come out in the summer of 2020 so we will have to wait until then to see what we are going to get from this film.