Movies
BD Reviews: ‘Battle: Los Angeles’ and ‘Red Riding Hood’
Two quasi genre films arrive in theaters today, one that’s big budget popcorn fun, while the other is a self-indulgent drag. Can you guess which is which?
Here’s what I had to say about Columbia Pictures’ Battle: Los Angeles, their alien war flick from Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning director Jonathan Liebesman: “While the idea of an alien attack in absolutely terrifying, ‘Battle’ comes off more like a summer action movie with a massive scope and insane visual effects… [It] is like a wicked mix between the “Call of Duty” and “Gears of War” video games; it’s absolutely intense, face-paced and relentless.”
Click the title for the full review and don’t forget to write your own review and tell all of BD what YOU thought.
Also now in theaters is Twilight director Catherine Haedwicke’s Red Riding Hood, which BD’s David Harley scathed: “It’s not even that the film is bad because it deviates from the source material; it’s bad because everything from the script to the direction feels manufactured. Aside from Tom Sanders’ production design and Don Macauley’s art direction, which work together to realize a fairy tale universe just the way I imagined it, there’s nothing particularly interesting or artistic about Red Riding Hood.”
Click the title for the full review and don’t forget to write your own review and tell all of BD what YOU thought. We’ll try and push users to read your thoughts via Facebook and Twitter as well.
Movies
‘Abigail’ on Track for a Better Opening Weekend Than Universal’s Previous Two Vampire Attempts
In the wake of Leigh Whannell’s Invisible Man back in 2020, Universal has been struggling to achieve further box office success with their Universal Monsters brand. Even in the early days of the pandemic, Invisible Man scared up $144 million at the worldwide box office, while last year’s Universal Monsters: Dracula movies The Last Voyage of the Demeter and Renfield didn’t even approach that number when you COMBINE their individual box office hauls.
The horror-comedy Renfield came along first in April 2023, ending its run with just $26 million. The period piece Last Voyage of the Demeter ended its own run with a mere $21 million.
But Universal is trying again with their ballerina vampire movie Abigail this weekend, the latest bloodbath directed by the filmmakers known as Radio Silence (Ready or Not, Scream).
Unlike Demeter and Renfield, the early reviews for Abigail are incredibly strong, with our own Meagan Navarro calling the film “savagely inventive in terms of its vampiric gore,” ultimately “offering a thrill ride with sharp, pointy teeth.” Read her full review here.
That early buzz – coupled with some excellent trailers – should drive Abigail to moderate box office success, the film already scaring up $1 million in Thursday previews last night. Variety notes that Abigail is currently on track to enjoy a $12 million – $15 million opening weekend, which would smash Renfield ($8 million) and Demeter’s ($6 million) opening weekends.
Working to Abigail‘s advantage is the film’s reported $28 million production budget, making it a more affordable box office bet for Universal than the two aforementioned movies.
Stay tuned for more box office reporting in the coming days.
In Abigail, “After a group of would-be criminals kidnap the 12-year-old ballerina daughter of a powerful underworld figure, all they have to do to collect a $50 million ransom is watch the girl overnight. In an isolated mansion, the captors start to dwindle, one by one, and they discover, to their mounting horror, that they’re locked inside with no normal little girl.”
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