brain out loud

Suicide Squad shattered records, opening to a $135 million domestic box office take. The highest opening August weekend since Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy in 2014. Unfortunately, Warner Brothers and DC finds itself in a situation similar to Batman v Super Dawn of Justice. Ticket sales for Suicide Squad have dropped dramatically. It is normal for most movies, even summer blockbusters, to drop between 50% to 65%, so it is fair for me to say the drop was "dramatic" since Suicide Squad's first Friday to second Friday business plummeted 79.4%.

After months and months of promotion and hype Suicide Squad, the next installment of the DC Extended Universe, will open nationwide this Friday, August 5. The question is whether or not the film starring a motley crew of bad guys doing good deeds will pull the DCEU from the downward spiral initiated by Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. I doubt it. The review embargo was finally lifted less than a week before the release date, which is never a good sign; and unfortunately for Warned Brothers and DC, they are mostly negative. As of this writing Suicide Squad is at a dismal 35% on rottentomatoes.com, only marginally better than the 27% obtained by Batman v Superman. A common theme of the reviews is that Suicide Squad is too grim and dark, and is as unpleasant to watch as Batman v Superman. This does not surprise me as I've brained out loud before that DC forces all their movies into the Christopher Nolan Batman Trilogy mold. However, some critics were surprised, suggesting ...

Several days ago I logged onto Netflix, not sure what to watch. As I scrolled through the seemingly endless menus, the image for Stranger Things caught my eye. The gorgeous image(above), designed like a movie poster, is a hand painted collage of the main cast. It provides a glimpse of the mysterious tone, the character's relationships, and their emotional states. It is purposely very reminiscent of the works of art from the brilliantly talented Drew Struzman, in order to evoke a sense of nostalgia. If you don't know the name you should still know Drew Struzman's work. He has hand drawn and airbrushed movie poster masterpieces just as classic and memorable as the films themselves. A favorite of Stephen Spielberg, George Lucas, and others, Struzman is often called upon to produce posters for an entire franchise of films. He has worked on the Star Wars saga (including the prequels), Indiana Jones, Blade Runner, Back to the Future, Harry Potter, Big Trouble in Little Chi...