Movies! Movies! Movies! There is no end to entertainment. All youneed to do is cut through the lights, the camera and the action.So simply tune in...MOVIES 03

of the biggest box-officeflops of 2019 so far10

Here’s a list of movies that didn’t work its magic at the box office.The reason could be many like the actors not living upto expecta-tions or the budget being abysmally low...

The Kid Who Would Be King RELEASE DATE : January 25 | OPENING WEEKEND : $7,173,887TOTAL GLOBAL GROSS : $32,097,473 PRODUCTION BUDGET : $60 million ROTTEN TOMATOES CRITIC SCORE: 90%WHAT CRITICS SAID: The director is offering akind of movie they just don’t make anymore -expansive live-action adventure talesunabashedly aimed at young people. The film isnot for adults at all — Emily Yoshida, Vulture

REPLICASRELEASE DATE: January 11 OPENING WEEKEND: $2,375,325TOTAL GLOBAL GROSS: $4,046,429PRODUCTION BUDGET: $30 million ROTTEN TOMATOES CRITIC SCORE: 10%WHAT CRITICS SAID: The filmmakersmanage to avoid every potentially interest-ing choice for far dumber, and far moreinexplicable, conclusion. Result? It doesn’twork. —— KKaattiiee WWaallsshh,, LLooss AAnnggeelleess TTiimmeess

SERENITY RELEASE DATE: January 25OPENING WEEKEND: $4,415,403TOTAL GLOBAL GROSS: $8,547,045 PRODUCTION BUDGET: $25 million ROTTEN TOMATOES CRITIC SCORE: 19%WHAT CRITICS SAID: What an infuriatingmess the makers of ‘Serenity’ haveunloaded on an unsuspecting public. Thefilm has already earned a place among theyear’s worst movies — RRoosseettttee DDeemmeelloo,,NNeeww YYoorrkk TTiimmeess

The Beach Bum RELEASE DATE : March 29 OPENING WEEKEND : $1,763,070TOTAL GLOBAL GROSS : $4,440,954 PRODUCTION BUDGET : $5 million ROTTEN TOMATOES CRITIC SCORE: 54%WHAT CRITICS SAID: The film would be more entertain-ing if it weren’t the same scene over and over, withescalation in lieu of evolution. That’s Korine’s strategy,for better or worse —— DDaavviidd EEddeellsstteeiinn,, VVuullttuurree

MISS BALA RELEASE DATE: February 1 OPENING WEEKEND: $6,864,744TOTAL GLOBAL GROSS: $15,310,211PRODUCTION BUDGET: $15 million ROTTEN TOMATOES CRITIC SCORE: 22%WHAT CRITICS SAID: Gloria (the actor) isbasically in the wrong place at the wrongtime, something that might be said foreveryone involved with this movie, audi-ence included —— AAOO SSccootttt,, NNeeww YYoorrkk TTiimmeess

CAPTIVE STATE RELEASE DATE: March 1 OPENING WEEKEND: $3,131,525 TOTAL GLOBAL GROSS: $8,557,327PRODUCTION BUDGET: $25 millionROTTEN TOMATOES CRITIC SCORE: 45%WHAT CRITICS SAID: The central plotdevelopment is galvanising in theory butmostly just confusing in the film —— MMiicchhaaeellNNoorrddiinnee,, IInnddiieewwiirree

Poms RELEASE DATE : May 10OPENING WEEKEND : $5,110,000TOTAL GLOBAL GROSS (SO FAR) : $5,110,000 PRODUCTION BUDGET : N/A ROTTEN TOMATOES CRITIC SCORE: 30%WHAT CRITICS SAID: The creators of this film might consider the challenges of growing old andconfronting death without making it childish for bothcharacters and the audience - Ella Taylor, NPR

Tolkien RELEASE DATE : May 10 OPENING WEEKEND : $2,153,000TOTAL GLOBAL GROSS (SO FAR) : $2,884,008 PRODUCTION BUDGET : N/A ROTTEN TOMATOES CRITIC SCORE: 50%WHAT CRITICS SAID: If you’re going to tell the story ofone of the most imaginative writing minds of the 20thcentury, why not infuse it with more imagination? Thefilm fails there —— RRiicchhaarrdd RRooeeppeerr,, CChhiiccaaggoo SSuunn-TTiimmeess

HELLBOY RELEASE DATE: April 12 OPENING WEEKEND: $12,045,147TOTAL GLOBAL GROSS: $41,099,007 PRODUCTION BUDGET: $50 million ROTTEN TOMATOES CRITIC SCORE: 15%WHAT CRITICS SAID: An R-rated slogthat’s heavy on bad attitude and creativedismemberments, and completely missingthe humane core of Mignola’s original story—— DDaavviidd SSiimmss,, TThhee AAttllaannttiicc

UGLYDOLLSRELEASE DATE: May 3OPENING WEEKEND: $8,603,407TOTAL GLOBAL GROSS (SO FAR): $15,892,796 PRODUCTION BUDGET: $45 million ROTTEN TOMATOES CRITIC SCORE: 30%WHAT CRITICS SAID: ‘UglyDolls’ is less amovie than an infomercial for the plushHasbro toys —— NNeellll MMiinnooww,, RRooggeerrEEbbeerrtt..ccoomm

SPIDER-MAN: FAR FROM

HOME: JULY 2 Peter Parker goes on a

European vacation andhelps Nick Fury with some

issues – one of which is theappearance of Mysterio

(Jake Gyllenhaal).

MEN IN BLACK:INTERNATIONAL — JUNE 14 Seven years after ‘Men in Black 3,’ thefranchise has been given a facelift and isback in the world. This time TessaThompson and Chris Hemsworth are theagents tasked with saving Earth.

LATE NIGHT(AMAZON) —JUNE 7 With its $13 millionbuy for the movie at Sun-dance this year, Amazon got itself acomedy that it hopes will be as suc-cessful as a previous Sundance come-dy buy of theirs, ‘The Big Sick’. Thistime, Mindy Kaling is front and centre,as she wrote the screenplay and starsas one of the rare female voices on alate-night talk show.

THE SECRET LIFE OF PETS 2 — JUNE 7 After the successful 2016 original, the gang (except forLouis CK, who has been replaced by Patton Oswalt as thevoice of Max), returns to set off on more adventures.

DARK PHOENIX — JUNE 7 Longtime keeper of the ‘X-Men’ franchise, produc-er/screenwriter SimonKinberg will take the di-rector reins for the latestchapter. This one focus-es on Jean Grey’s (SophieTurner) growing powers.

GODZILLA: KING OFTHE MONSTERS —MAY 31 Godzilla versus Moth-ra, Rodan, and KingGhidorah while Mil-lie Bobby Brown,Vera Farmiga,Bradley Whitford,Kyle Chandler and Sal-ly Hawkins run around fortheir lives? Should be a good time.

By Deepti Singla, ex-RyanInternational School

By Sharanya Patnaik, class XI,Mother’s International School Two of our movie buffs tell you what

to watch these coming months...

SUPERHEROES TAKEA BACK SEAT

ALADDIN — MAY 24 Everyone in Hollywood is wondering how this

movie will perfoform this summer. It’s a live-actionremake of one of the most beloved Disney animated

movies of all time, but can a blue Will Smith really work?

AD ASTRA — MAY 24 James Gray follows up his epic‘The Lost City of Z’ with a sto-ry set in the outer reaches of theuniverse. Brad Pitt plays an as-tronaut who sets out to find hismissing father and discovers alot more. And don’t be shockedif this release date changes.Now that Fox is owned by Dis-ney, they probably don’t wantthis to go up against ‘Aladdin.’

BOOKSMART— MAY 24 Olivia Wilde’s latest direct-

ing effort looks at two high-school friends who arekilling it with the grades butnot so much on the socialscene. They decide to changeall of that for one night. Kait-lyn Dever and Beanie Feld-stein are getting a lot of at-tention for their perform-ances as two girls who justwant to have fun.

TOY STORY 4 — JUNE 21 The beloved Pixar franchisereturns nine years after partthree. There’s new drama forthe toys to deal with, plus anew friend, Forky (voiced by‘Veep’ star Tony Hale).

YESTERDAYJUNE 28 What if yous t u m b l e dinto a reali-ty where TheBeatles neverexisted, but youare a musician whoknows all their songs by heart?That’s what Jack Malik(Himesh Patel) is going throughas he becomes hugely famoussinging the hits from The Bea-tles, but everyone (even EdSheeran) thinks it’s songs hewrote. This is the latest moviefrom ‘Trainspotting’ and ‘SteveJobs’ director Danny Boyle.

MUST SEE

■ RUNNING WILD WITH BEAR GRYLLS, DISCOVERYCHANNEL, 3.00 PM: Mel B proves she’ll do what-ever it takes to survive. She joins Bear by the icyIrish Sea on some of the biggest sea cliffs in Eu-rope.

■ GANGLAND KILLERS, ANIMAL PLANET, 5.00 PM: Inthe Okavango Delta in Botswana, a mongoosegang works as a team to protect their new litterof pups from the danger of determined preda-tors.

■ THE KNOW IT ALL GUIDE TO..., HISTORY TV18, 7.00PM: The host focuses on unique and interestingfacts about ice cream that include elastic desserts,affogato, baking mishaps and brain freeze.

■ HOW TO?, DISCOVERY SCIENCE, 8.00 PM: The hostexplains the reason why the human brain lovesthe colourful displays that light up the skies andhow much America spends on July 4th fireworks.

■ WILD BATTLEZONE, NAT GEO WILD, 9.00 PM: Learnabout various animals living in the savannahsand their violent encounters with other animalsfor survival.

1540: Afghan chief Sher Khan defeatedMongul Emperor Humayun at Kanauj.

1694: Johann Michael Bach, German compos-er, passed away at 46.

1792: The New York Stock Exchange wasfounded by 24 brokers.

1877: The first telephone switchboard burglaralarm was installed by Edwin T. Holmes.

1948: The Soviet Union recognised the newstate of Israel.

1993: Intel's new Pentium processor wasunveiled.

2001: The US Postal Service issued a stampbased on Charles M Schulz's "Peanuts" comicstrip.

2005: Following the World Summit on theInformation Society in Tunis, the WorldInformation Society Day was proclaimed by aUnited Nations General Assembly resolution.

2007: Trains crossed the border dividingNorth and South Korea for the first time since1953.

2009: Video game Minecraft was firstreleased to the public while in development.

THIS DAY THAT YEARTELEVISION

■ HARRY POTTER AND THE HALF-BLOOD PRINCE,SONY PIX SD, 2.59 PM: Dumbledore and Har-ry Potter learn more about Voldemort's pastand his rise to power. Meanwhile, Harrystumbles upon an old potions textbook be-longing to a person calling himself the Half-Blood Prince.

■ TOY STORY 3, MOVIES NOW, 4.30 PM: Andy's toysget mistakenly delivered to a day care centre.Woody convinces the other toys that they weren'tdumped and leads them on an expedition backhome.

■ ICE AGE: COLLISION COURSE, STAR MOVIES, 6.59PM: Manny, Sid, Diego and the rest of the gangjoin forces with Buck to prevent asteroids fromstriking Earth after Scrat accidentally sets offa chain of events in space.

■ SPY KIDS 2: THE ISLAND OF LOST DREAMS, HBO,9.00 PM: Super spies, Juni and Carmen Cortez,are tasked with retrieving a device known asthe Transmooker, which has the ability to dis-rupt every known electronic device.

MOVIES ON TV

MUST DOMAY17, 2019

In a world where Pokémon live in thewild, Tim Goodman (Justice Smith),struggles to find his purpose. When his

estranged, detective father goes missingunder mysterious circum-stances, he ventures intoRyme City in search ofhim. But the city isn’tany sprawling metropo-lis; it’s the only placewhere humans and Pokémonhave learned to peacefully co-exist. That’swhen he encounters Pikachu.

The adorable set of live-action char-acters from the anime Pokémon universetook the gaming world by storm in themid-90s. The massive success of thegames lead to expansions into TV series,comic books and animated films, so it

shouldn’t come to anyone’s surprise thatit’s the latest attempt by a film studio toconvert the franchise into a movie uni-verse. It’s a pretty bold move by WarnerBros. to introduce us to such a ridiculouspremise, but the risk pays off. Chalk it

down mostly to the endearing title char-acter Pikachu, played by the actor at hisirreverent best — Ryan Reynolds. He infus-es the tiny, yellow, rodent-like creaturewith a distinct personality that instantlydraws you into the film. The best scenes

involve Pikachu bringing in Reynolds’trademark impromptu humour and wittydialogue with both his Pokémon counter-parts and humans.

This helps keep the film’s charmingenergy afloat, mainly because most ofthe human roles are quite bland. It’s nofault of the cast; Justice Smith is prettygood as Tim Goodman, but we don’t feelas much for his quest even though it isintegral to the plot. — TNN

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