A Very Curious Comic Book Movie: Our Review of "Fantastic Four" (2015)

Directed By: Josh Trank (Chronicle) 

Starring: Miles Teller, Kate Mara, Michael B. Jordan, Jamie Bell, Tony Kebbell, Reg E. Cathey

Rating: PG-13 for sci-fi action and violence, and language

Run Time: 1 hour, 40 minutes

Synopsis: A group of young scientists invent a trans-dimensional teleportation device and gain superpowers following a catastrophic trip to another dimension's planet. These scientists and their civilian friend who was roped into the trip must then band together to save the planet from one of their own group.

REVIEW

Andrew: Hello dear readers! Sarah and I have been on an extended blogging hiatus due to a fairly busy summer with some weird work schedules for the both of us, but we were drawn out of said hiatus thanks to a film that we were morbidly curious to check out: Fox's new Fantastic Four reboot.

It's directed by Josh Trank, who made a name for himself with 2012's Chronicle - a superhero film that we reviewed positively back in the first year we did this blog - and stars Miles Teller (Whiplash), Kate Mara (House of Cards), Michael B. Jordan (Chronicle) and Jamie Bell (AMC's Turn) as Reed Richards/Mr. Fantastic, Sue Storm/The Invisible Woman, Johnny Storm/The Human Torch, and Ben Grimm/The Thing, respectively.  Oh, and Tony Kebbell, who played Koba the chimp in last year's Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, plays Victor von Doom/Dr. Doom this time around.

So Sarah, let's get to it. This reboot has been critically panned and it's already a box-office flop, having earned only $26 million in its first weekend. Just for comparison, the 2005 and 2007 Fantastic Four films that starred Jessica Alba and a pre-Captain America Chris Evans earned $52 million and $58 million in their respective opening weekends.

Fox needs to contractually make a new Fantastic Four movie every few years or so in order to keep the film rights, lest those rights revert back to Marvel...

Sarah: Really?

A: Yeah. That's one of the primary reasons this new film even got made, as Fox waited until virtually the last minute to put it into production to hold onto their rights, and there's an unreleased, incredibly low-budget Fantastic Four movie from the 90's that was made for the same reason.

Not Quite The Blackout We Were Expecting: Our Review of "21 & Over" (2013)

Directed By: Jon Lucas & Scott Moore (writers of The Hangover trilogy) 

Starring: Miles Teller, Skylar Astin, Justin Chong, Sarah Wright

Rating: R for crude and sexual content, pervasive language, some graphic nudity, drugs and drinking

Run Time: 1 hour, 33 minutes

Synopsis: Miller (Teller) and Casey (Astin), best friends from high school, visit their other friend Jeff (Chong) to celebrate his 21st birthday. But when Jeff blacks out after drinking too much, Miller and Casey can't remember where he lives and wind up spending of the night trying to get him home before his big med school interview in the morning...and learning more about the current state of their friendships than they knew.

REVIEW

Andrew: Hello readers! Sarah and I both had the day off from work yesterday so we decided to catch a matinee showing of a film we A.) haven't had the time to see until now, and B.) didn't catch our attention with the trailers too much but had been hearing good things about. That movie was 21 & Over, starring Miles Teller (Rabbit Hole) and Skylar Astin (Pitch Perfect) as a pair of friends named Miller and Casey who visit their friend Jeff Chang (Twilight's Justin Chong) at college to celebrate his 21st birthday. Even though JeffChang - always referred to as JeffChang, one word, even in the credits - has an important med school interview the next morning, Miller and Casey proceed to get him blitzed and the trio fall into some Hangover-esque shenanigans.

As mentioned earlier, Sarah, this wasn't one that we were dying to see, but now that we've seen 21 & Over, what did you think of it?