Huh? For A Minute There, I Was Confused.

This is the blurb from a Google Alert on BOTFA I just saw in my email. Can you tell what I was thinking and why I was confused for a minute?

The Unforgivable Sin – Bland Armitage

I don’t know much about this website, but in this particular article, the author critiques “tear-jerkers” in 2014 films. And, she mentions our Richard Armitage twice. The Examiner

“Into the Storm” was just a poorly made movie. There were moments where characters died, but they have been such thin characters and it was so blatantly obvious that they were going to do something stupid and die, that their deaths were neither shocking nor sad. It is a troupe in a lot of disaster movies that is taken to the irritating extreme in “Into the Storm.” There are the final moments in the movie where the survivors are giving interviews about how grateful they are to be alive. It is saccharinely schmaltz at its finest. Sweet moments should have the effect of Esther Price, not flavorless generic chocolate. The ‘creative team’ behind “Into the Storm” also committed the unforgivable sin of making Richard Armitage bland. Shame on them!

And ( only Thorin mentioned, here and not Richard Armitage)

Thorin’s death in “The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies” as Bilbo’s tears were both much more effective in the film than they were in the book. Once he sees that Bilbo genuinely wants to help the company of dwarves reclaim their home (something Peter Jackson heavily implied Thorin was not used to), he truly begins to value Bilbo as a friend and as a member of the company. It’s not just the hug at the end of “An Unexpected Journey” that shows Thorin’s affection and appreciation of Bilbo. In “The Desolation of Smaug,” when Thorin refuses to accept Thranduil’s help and Balin states that it was their best hope of getting out of the prison; Thorin shows faith that Bilbo will come to the rescue. When the dwarves show hesitation to get into the barrels as part of Bilbo’s escape plan, there is a wonderful character moment where he looks to Thorin for help and Thorin commands the company to do what Bilbo says. There is a wonderful deleted scene in Lake Town where Bilbo vouches for the honor of the dwarves, the look on Thorin’s face conveys the depth of his appreciation. In the book, when Thorin sent Bilbo into Smaug’s hoard, he did not specifically ask him to find the Arkenstone. In the film, Bilbo’s motives for withholding the stone are purely out of concern for Thorin’s well-being. There is also of course, the beautiful moment when Bilbo shows Thorin the acorn he planned to plant in his garden. It appears that Thorin almost breaks free of the dragon sickness. These moments really allow the audience to cry along with Bilbo when Thorin dies. In the book, Bilbo cried simply because he had a good heart. In the film, he cried because he’d lost a friend.

Critic’s Choice Award Nominees – Two Noms. Not Quite a Shut-Out for BOTFA. ITS Goes Unnoticed

here

Best Hair and Make-Up

Best Special Effects

So, this is my 1500th post – Into the Storm Receives Two “Cli Fi” Awards

Seriously, I thought about posting a picture of Richard Armitage and nothing more, or at least a post about having published 1500 posts. But no, this came up. 

You can learn about the Cli Fi awards here

Here’s what Into the Storm won:

The popular summer movie “Into the Storm” received two below-the-line type Hollywood awards, one for “best movie that most mirrors current climate science,” and another for “best PR campaign for a cli fi movie by a Hollywood studio.”

[ETA] thanks to RA Central, I can also report that ITS won a third award:

Movie that spoke most forcefully to the public

You can see the official list of all films and awards here

Here’s hoping that Warner Brothers will submit Into the Storm for Special Effects Oscar consideration.

Into the Storm I Tunes Extras – Not Much Richard Armitage BTS?

I’m not feeling this:

Not that there’s much more we could hear from Richard Armitage or see BTS, what with the generosity of the promotion – but even so, the I Tunes description is super disappointing.  It doesn’t seem like there’s much new. Guess I Tunes and WB don’t want to be Armitaged.

Crew, there’s still time to make some changes.

Into the Storm Box Office: Doing Great in China, Korea and Mexico

Here

Notable: Disaster thriller Storm improved on last weekend with $14.2M across a comparable 46 markets, but on nearly double the screens with 9,100. The playdate increase was thanks to China where the film is estimated to have picked up about half of its weekend haul. Warner Bros is reporting rough flash projections of $7.6M for the Middle Kingdom three-day. The studio says it expects to be No. 1 when the dust settles, but Fox also has Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes at $7.6M and I’m hearing that Expendables 3 — whose overall overseas weekend estimate is $11.5M per Rentrak — could also eke out a No. 1 or 2 on an estimate of about $8M. We’ll know more when the actuals are tallied tomorrow.

In its 3rd frame in Korea, Into The Storm dropped 12% for a $1.9M hold on 428 screens and a local cume of $14.5M. The box office in Korea has been top-heavy with homegrown titles but has become the top-grossing ex-U.S. market for Storm. Mexico’s 2nd outing earned $1.8M from 1,040 screens for a cume of $6.5M and Australia has Storm at No. 2 for the 2nd frame with an additional $967K from 336 screens and a to-date total of $3.4M. The estimated international cume is $87.6M.

Into the Storm Box Office – $116,526M Worldwide

source