Editorial

The Bottom Line: January 26, 2018: This Maze Is Runnin’ Off The Tracks

Maze Runner The Death Cure The Bottom Line

The Bottom Line: January 26, 2018

The third and final Maze Runner movie arrives about a year too late. Find out how it will do in this week’s edition of The Bottom Line!

Box Office Top Five

Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle takes first place with $19.6 million. 12 Strong opened in second place with $15.8 million, while Den of Thieves took third with $15.2 million. Steven Spielberg’s The Post is in fourth with $11.8 million, and fifth went to The Greatest Showman with $10.7 million.

A Closer Look at Some of this Week’s Films.

Maze Runner: The Death Cure (PG-13) 114 mins.

Well, the big release this week is Maze Runner: The Death Cure. This is the third and final film in the Maze Runner series, based on a series of young adult books – they were movies designed to cash in on the same wave of YA movies like The Hunger Games and Divergent, and if it feels like the time has pretty much passed for this series, that’s because it probably has. This was actually supposed to come out a year ago originally, but lead actor Dylan O’Brian got injured on set during a stunt sequence and they had to shut down filming after those injuries proved to be worse than they initially thought. So now, finally, Maze Runner: The Death Cure is out and for anybody who’s been desperate to see how this series wraps up, I’m seems like it may be satisfying. For everyone else, it’s just another bloated YA sequel in a time where we’ve pretty much moved on from those.

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As for its box office, there isn’t a ton of competition right now, so unless Jumanji manages to keep its momentum going, Maze Runner should open at number one.

Hostiles (R) 135 mins.

Also out this weekend is Hostiles, a new western starring Christian Bale as an army captain in 1892 who agrees to escort a dying Indian war chief back to his family. The film is directed by Scott Cooper, who made films like Crazy Heart, Out of the Furnace, and Black Mass. I’m pretty lukewarm on him as a filmmaker, but the trailer does make it look pretty cool, and I love a good western. It’s getting decent reviews with a 71% on Rotten Tomatoes, and boasts a strong supporting cast that includes Rosamund Pike, Wes Studi, Jesse Plemons, Adam Beach, and Ben Foster.

There isn’t a ton of buzz surrounding this one though, so I’m guessing it opens at number three this weekend.

A Futile and Stupid Gesture (Netflix)

But the movie I’m most excited about this weekend isn’t actually being released to theaters, it’s a Netflix original. One of my favorite comedy directors, David Wain, who made movies like Wet Hot American Summer and Role Models, has directed a new biopic about Doug Kenney, the co-founder of National Lampoon, and it’s called A Futile and Stupid Gesture. This looks to be both an actual biopic of the guy but also a parody of biopics – Will Forte plays Doug Kenney but then Martin Mull narrates the movie as Modern Doug, even though the real Doug Kenney died in 1980. And this movie boasts an incredible cast of funny people playing other funny people – modern comedians playing people like Bill Murray, Harold Ramis, Dan Aykroyd, Gilda Radner, and in my favorite bit of casting, Joel McHale plays his Community co-star, Chevy Chase. For anybody with any interest in comedy history, this feels like a must-watch.

The Bottom Line

Maze Runner: The Death Cure will take the number one spot, followed by Jumanji in number two. Hostiles will take third place, and the Oscar nominations are going to keep The Post in number four. 12 Strong will round out the top five.

Movies To Look Forward To:

Winchester (February 2nd)

Leave your thoughts on The Bottom Line, Maze Runner: The Death Cure, Hostiles, A Futile and Stupid Gesture below in the comments section. Readers seeking more The Bottom Line can visit our The Bottom Line Page. Want up-to-the-minute notification? Want up-to-the-minute notifications? FilmBook staff members publish articles by Email, Twitter, Tumblr, Google+, and Facebook. 


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Michael Smith

Mike Smith is an avid filmgoer from New York who loves to hear his own voice - luckily his work as a podcaster on FilmBook allows him to do just that. Mike graduated from The College of Saint Rose in Albany with a degree in communications, and is ready to dole out critical analysis of all your pop culture fixations. Mike is the host of FilmBookCast and can frequently be seen at his local movie theater, patiently explaining to his friends that Superman Returns is a misunderstood masterpiece.
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