Hey there, welcome back to Stale Popcorn. After a lengthy vacation, preceded by a lengthy vacation, I’m here with some content! So first off, it’s good to be here. I haven’t written for the site in a good bit, so this is fun! Now, an update on where the show stands. Right now, it’s still in a bit of a hibernation state. Not sure if we’ll ever really get back into it. It’s more like, “If we feel like it, we’ll do it, and if we don’t, we won’t.” And today I dropped an episode, so go check that out wherever you listen to podcasts. We’re everywhere! But rest assured that the bills are still being paid and the lights still work; they’re just a little bit dimmer than before. I hope that doesn’t sound too sad.
So anyway, I’m Josh–let’s talk about some movie stuff. Here are all the things I’ve watched within the past month or so: Minions. Thor, Nope, Lightyear, World War Z, and DC League of Super Pets. There’s not much rhyme or reason to it except I really, really like going to the theater, and occasionally I’ll check out something at home that I’ve been wanting to watch. Out of the ones I saw in theaters, Nope was probably my favorite of the bunch, but I was surprised by how much I enjoyed DC Super Pets. World War Z was a lot better than I thought it would be. I’m not into gross zombie movies, but I can handle a decently told story about a zombie outbreak, and this was a good watch. Apparently, it had the ending changed after testers responded harshly to the original end, and the one I saw fit the story well. Glad I watched it.
What’s coming up soon that I really want to watch? Unfortunately, in the theater, it might be a bit before I get to see something. It looks pretty dead until we get to Halloween Ends, followed by Black Adam. There are a few streaming movies I’ll want to see. Disney’s Pinocchio will be released on streaming in September, as well as Hocus Pocus 2. But looking over the landscape of it, it might be a good time to check out some stuff that I’ve wanted to get to but haven’t had the chance to. Recently, I watched Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring with my kids and I was surprised at how much I enjoyed it this time around. I had never really given them a fair shake–I watched them all a few years back and thought they were okay–well-made but I didn’t really connect with them. Watching it this past weekend, with the subtitles on I have to add, I definitely felt the story a lot more and it actually has me wanting to check out the books sometime. I tried to read The Hobbit a few years back but got to around page 20 and fell out of favor with it, so not sure how it would go trying to read Lord of the Rings. As far as why I liked the movie more this time, I think a lot of it has to do with age and mood. As I get older, I’m appreciating films more than I didn’t connect with earlier in life, and really, I was just in the mood for that genre when we watched it.
Looking down the road, we’re a month or so away from fall, which brings on the spooky stuff, so going back to Halloween Ends–I’ll probably watch it and I already know how it’s going to play out. Even though I enjoyed Halloween 2018, I thought Halloween Kills was awful in just about every way, so I have zero hype for Ends. But as is typically the case with this franchise, the lore of it all drags me back in and I can’t help but get excited, even just a little bit, about a new Halloween movie. I hope they learned their lessons from the second movie, but typically, these filmmakers are a stubborn group and are pretty set in their ways, so it wouldn’t surprise me if this one just tanks on the story, but you know it’s going to do great at the box office.
Hocus Pocus 2 will try to bring back the charm of the first one, which, in my opinion, isn’t a very good movie, but is a fun movie to watch, obviously during the fall and around Halloween. It’s definitely got the 90’s straight-to-video feel to it, even though it released in theaters–coming out in July of all months. Why would they do that? And I’m a little surprised that the sequel isn’t getting a theatrical release. I think it would have done really well, but as it is, it’s straight-to-streaming on September 30th.
And lastly today, my favorite movie of the year, Top Gun Maverick, will be coming out for digital purchase on August 23, but won’t come out on physical media until November. I can’t wait to watch this movie again, and I bet it will stand up really well for years to come. It’s a superior film to the original, and what makes its success so incredible to me is that it had to go through so many delays because of the pandemic and still captivated crowds and dominated the box office, as it’s made over $1 billion for Paramount. It’s the highest grossing film of Tom Cruise’s career, which is really cool considering how long he’s been at the acting game. There’s no word on when it’ll release on Paramount Plus. If Tom Cruise has a say, and I’m sure he does, it will be a while before it shows up on the streaming service.
That’s all for now! If you haven’t done so yet, check out our podcast wherever you listen to your content, and make sure to connect with us on all of our social media! Take care!