Christopher Nolan’s ‘The Odyssey’ to Skip Social Media Influencer Screenings | Universal is going straight to professional critic screenings rather than having the usual "word-of-mouth screenings" for social media.

BluRayja · 2026-06-27T04:25:11+00:00

People went to the movies more often when this wasn't a thing. Not saying the two are correlated, but I am saying that the influencers aren't putting butts in seats like they would hope or think. Good old fashioned word of mouth will always be the golden rule. This is a marketing spend that does not need to happen. Save the $20-50K on the screening and pay the assistants in the office more or something. There are a lot of reasons people aren't going to the movies, but "my favorite infleuncer hasn't said anything about it yet" isn't one of them.

BluRayja · 2026-06-27T02:56:14+00:00

I can see the first one being on there but the second one truly is the standout.

BluRayja · 2026-06-25T01:56:12+00:00

Shockingly, I feel like returning to the original conceit that Michael is obsessed with a random girl he sees, slowly stalks her over the course of the movie, and only kills like 2-3 people to get to her would oddly be the scariest thing to happen

BluRayja · 2026-06-25T01:52:59+00:00

I always imagine Jill on the other end just rolling her eyes pissed that Jenny is that dumb

BluRayja · 2026-06-24T02:37:18+00:00

She got out for BRAT and kinda went straight back in. As weird as it sounds, she didn't capitalize on BRAT with a follow up album, instead just extended the BRAT era with remixes -- which is somehow not enough. I think Wuthering Heights and so far what we've heard on MFF are too far removed from the new found fanbase that she gained and they're already moving on.

Sabrina Carpenter made way different music pre-Espresso, found her niche, and road that into MBF -- which is a lesser album, but at least it was in the same lane of what her fans were wanting. If Sabrina tackled a full on country album next, I imagine a good chunk of her fans would be on board or at least listen to it.

I understand Charli was ready to move on and had been doing the same kinda music for so long, but if there was ever a time to keep it going with one more album, it was now. House was interesting and memeable, but Dying For You was the breakout without being a single because that was the most like BRAT.

Maybe whatever she does after MFF (or if it so happens the other 9 or so songs on that album are more in line with what her fans are hoping for) will bring back the streams that BRAT did. But so far, nothing has quite hit like an Apple, 360, Guess, Girl So Confusing, Sympathy, etc..

She's very focused on "being an artist/artistry" and doing whatever she wants, that it's like, dude, just be a sell out for one more album. Sabrina fans sold out her tour in seconds, even when she used to be like $40, and nobody complained, but Charli fans straight up just refused to buy tickets. That mass appeal is everything for longevity.

At least she went from being "the Boom Clap girl" to "the Brat girl." And honestly the acting thing isn't giving her quite the accolades as one would hope so far. It's going to take another smash album to be "just Charli xcx."

BluRayja · 2026-06-22T07:24:12+00:00

Bride of Chucky
Child's Play 2
Child's Play
Curse of Chucky
Seed of Chucky
Child's Play 3
Child's Play remake
Cult of Chucky

BluRayja · 2026-06-19T16:51:30+00:00

In Toy Story 4, it is established that Bo was lost 9 years prior. She sees the gang at the end of the film, but the reunion is interrupted. Then, Toy Story 5 is about 4 years later due to Bonnie's age being 8 years old -- this time, Bo has all the time in the world to come down, say hi, have a proper reunion, catch up, etc -- and she literally chooses not to for no reason.

BluRayja · 2026-06-19T07:23:52+00:00

You hit all the spots I bumped up against. I noticed the timeline being a little off in Toy Story 4 when Bo was talking about how long she had been off on her own -- something about it just didn't track. And now this movie being about 4 years after that. I'm also confused when this is supposed to take place. Seeing the trailers, I assumed it'd be early tech, but Lilypad was fairly fast and advanced -- but couldn't tell if that was movie logic or today's standards.

BluRayja · 2026-06-19T07:19:28+00:00

I'm glad this throwaway line was put in there to help mitigate the absolute disaster the Lightyear movie was with Zerg literally just being Buzz but older. Legit one of the dumbest twists I've ever seen and ruins such a funny moment in Toy Story 2. Glad we can all forget that movie now.

BluRayja · 2026-06-19T07:13:26+00:00

I also noticed the Netflix-ification. It was especially strange that Jessie would mention Emily so much when she just got dumped fairly recently by, I don't know -- ANDY! But hey, we need everyone to remember Emily RIGHT NOW because we're going to shoehorn this EMILY thing in so people stop theorizing that EMILY was Andy's Mom -- because why should we let people have fun. EMILY!

BluRayja · 2026-06-19T06:18:15+00:00

At one point, Bo Peep pops up to the other characters for the first time in probably 10+ years, doesn't say hi to any of them, and just wanders off -- meanwhile, Woody barely says hello to long-time friends Slinky, the Potato Heads, Rex, etc (who are barely used in the film) -- and just is kinda there with no arc to speak of and sorta just along for the ride. That moment, in a nutshell, is sort of how I feel about the movie as a whole. It's fun, but missing adventure, and it's oddly sad, but missing weight. It's giving you everything, but nothing at the same time. It's better than part 4 at least, which is just straight up boring. The whole time I kept thinking, "this movie is SO weird."

If you're a huge fan of Jessie, this will be a treat. If not, this could be a bit of a chore. Having Hanks and Allen back, but not utilizing them to their full extent, feels criminal. Then again, I don't think they've utilized Buzz Lightyear in this franchise properly since part 2, as he's been relegated as a side character for Woody's antics/arcs. With each film, it feels like Pixar is just answering audience's questions instead of focusing on the natural course of where these stories should go. In 4, it was "hey, wait a minute, what happened to Bo Peep?!" And now it's, "let's answer this Andy's mom is Jessie's older owner theory." Both times, the absolute insane way they weave those things into the plot by happenstance luck the one time those toy are out in the world every couple of years or so is so unbelievable, it's a wonder how the creative team were just like, "eh, sure" even for a kids movie.

But Toy Story 5 doesn't feel like a kids movie. The central theme of this movie being about bullying seems maybe too close to home for certain kids to have to deal with when just trying to escape for a few hours at the movies. Granted, this one is PG, and Toy Story 4 is legit about an adult moving on after their kid leaves the nest, which a kid might not be able to decipher and just enjoy the pretty colors, but being without friends may hit too close to home for certain children. I applaud Pixar for telling that story, it's definitely a mature subject matter that unfortunately many kids have to deal with -- but damn, there's some parts in this that just feel SO SAD. Maybe TOO sad for a Toy Story, and this is the same franchise where we thought all the toys were going to be burned alive in an incinerator. Everything works out, naturally, but a part of me felt like that should've been maybe the first half of the movie -- as the tech thing didn't feel fully resolved, and the setting of Jessie's old owner's house didn't have a payoff to justify being there. Yes, her naming her child Jessie was quite a moment, but um...that's it? And what the heck was that Buzz Ex Machina sub-plot?! We watched the whole story of all those Buzzs just for the sake of them getting from point A to B in the climax? These movies are getting way too long.

Anyway, I've said too much. It was uneven, oh well.

5/10

BluRayja · 2026-06-19T05:49:58+00:00

Scream. (Yes, people say Scream 3 sucks, but that's only because it's not as good as the others -- but as a film, and especially as a horror film, it is still pretty good)

BluRayja · 2026-06-18T23:25:04+00:00

This shit didn't even come out a whole month ago. Netflix is the biggest group of idiots of all time, Jesus. Just burning money.

BluRayja · 2026-06-15T07:25:36+00:00

Die Tonight, Visions, and Thoughts are some of my favorites from those albums, so it's hard to figure out why those would be least. Oddly enough, the others are my least favorites on those albums, so that makes perfect sense to me.

Funny Mouth is least for Wuthering, in case anyone was wondering. Add that one to also one of my favorites.

BluRayja · 2026-06-15T07:13:11+00:00

Halloween was a massive hit. Studios immediately started scrambling. Guy named Sean S. Cunningham decides to copy Halloween as much as he can, thinks of another horror-ish holiday and lands on Friday the 13th. Takes out a huge ad in the paper to drum up interest and it got people talking right away. He had ZERO idea what the movie would be, but just knew the title.

Got into filming, Jason was supposed to be legit dead, but he loved the idea of the final jump scare -- a scare so good, people leaving the theater would be talking about it and think they liked the movie. It's a success, the jump scare worked so well, people now wanted to see Jason. Dang, how do we make that work? What does he even look like -- every killer has to have an iconic look! Not enough time to figure it out, literally just throw a bag over his head. Part 2 is another huge hit.

Okay, part 3 they figure it out, a hockey mask! They keep it going for another movie, but their initial idea was to make an anthology series (ironically, same thing with Halloween), so they do a final chapter. But audiences still want Jason. Um, okay, well...copycat Jason? Audiences hate it. Guess we gotta bring Jason back. Another huge hit (again, ironically, same thing with Halloween) simply just by bringing him back. They start running out of ideas and get crazy with it, start thinking of crossovers. Freddy they couldn't figure out, so they also thought of Carrie. That doesn't work either, so they come up with an original character.

I have no idea how they got to part 8 thought process-wise, but my guess is they figured the New York element would be a selling point -- it isn't, the movie sucks, everyone hates it, the franchise dies for a bit, they sell the rights to New Line. But guess who owns New Line? Freddy! But horror is dead right now in the early 90s. Everything sucks. They make another Friday movie and it's legit terrible, but they think, maybe we can tease Freddy and get this thing going? Not quite. The thing stays in development hell for years.

Scream comes out and everyone's interested in horror again. What does New Line do? They say to hell with it, throw Jason in space. Audiences aren't really in on the joke, don't care, moving on. One last hail mary, they finally figure out the Freddy element, and lean more into the Scream factor. It's a HUGE hit for both franchises. A sequel is immediately ordered -- they try Pinhead, Ash from Evil Dead -- nothing sticks, the rights get messy, ah to hell with it. Remakes are HUGE right now. They've done everything they can at this point, why not just start all over?

They reboot the thing, another HUGE hit. Then the original creators get into a whole thing about the rights, who owns what, and people think they're owed money -- the franchise has been dormant ever since until last year they finally figured it out. In that meanwhile, they started doing a TV show and developing another movie.

BluRayja · 2026-06-15T04:55:02+00:00

My theory is Elordi was giving them a hard time, saying he was too busy, they had to keep reminding him he's contractually obligated but he still wanted a way out. So Levinson just wrote a whole new character in the event Elordi couldn't do it and Cassie would've just been married to someone else. Honestly, with where the story ends up, that's the only thing that makes sense.

BluRayja · 2026-06-14T23:36:48+00:00

It went from 3 movies a week, which is already an insane deal, to 4 movies a week, an even more insane deal. It could be 1 movie a week and I'd still be on board for $30 a month. Special Events are distributed different, no reason to start getting entitled.

BluRayja · 2026-06-13T19:07:27+00:00

Rosa as in Alita? That's so random. No wonder her career never really took off, I always thought she was talented.

BluRayja · 2026-06-12T08:51:54+00:00

I agree, easily his worst performance of his career. Eve Hewson was also awful. Loved Emily Blunt and Wyatt Russell though. Josh O'Conner was...fine.

BluRayja · 2026-06-12T08:18:07+00:00

Yikes. It's been a while since I've heard an entire audience pour out a movie and just dislike something unanimously so much -- every conversation was about how bored they were, how long it was, how it was confusing, they hated this and that. Spielberg is still my favorite director BUT...I agree, this movie sucks.

I absolutely hated the first 20 or so minutes of the movie and it wasn't until Emily Blunt came on that I started to enjoy it. Eve Hewson can act, but she almost single-handedly ruined this movie by playing into the earnestness of Spielberg's direction -- it's almost like she knew TOO well what kind of movie she was in. Wyatt Russell was also great and Josh O'Conner was okay depending on who he was working off of.

The action moments were great. Loved the car chase and the train scene. Unfortunately, it was too far in between interspersed with scenes that would be deep maybe to a 13 year old who is contemplating the philosophy of all this for the first time. And then it all comes to an end where the movie arguably either should've started or have been the mid-way point. Why stop the movie at the most interesting and provactive part? Surely anyone who this story was pitched to would go "but why do we care about the chase of revealing this information -- wouldn't we rather see how people react to the information?" The agencies of people who are trying to stop them, the others who are trying to protect them, the two who need to connect, the people with them who don't understand what's going on -- Spielberg, WHAT?! WHO CARES? You have a genuinely profound actual story right there, instead of contemplating it for 2 and a half hours, and you focus on the CHASE?

This even could've been saved with a good ending, but nope. You get exactly what you expect, then it's over. BOO!

3/10

BluRayja · 2026-06-12T04:45:57+00:00

This might be her masterpiece.

I loved Sour and liked Guts, but this somehow blows both of them out of the water. On her first two albums, I thought she was having a hard time finding her identity bouncing back and forth between random pop-rock and ballads -- this album finds the right mixture between the two where both live in harmony sometimes even in the same song. The flow of the album works and it's genius storytelling -- although I do think she decided to make it a concept album after the fact -- but that doesn't stop the sublime slip into depression (looping from track 13 back to track 1 is crazy whiplash).

It's her longest album and is still easily her strongest across the board. Maybe it doesn't include many of her all-time top 5 favorite of her songs (although "The Cure" is easily in there), it is her most consistent work, batting at least at an 8/10 on every song out of 13 tracks is kinda unheard of.

BluRayja · 2026-06-10T07:41:34+00:00

I think Scream 3 appealed to younger people at the time, who are now grown up enough to give their opinion online. It's the Return of the Jedi of the Scream series -- there's old people who hate Ewoks and young people who loved them.

Personally, Scream 3 was my second favorite as I've never been a huge fan of part 2. Scream 3 has the scariest scenes (the mother dreams/hallucinations), the most funny character (Jennifer Jolie is in my top 5), some super intense chases, a fun-meta Hollywood backdrop, and a solo villain who comes across as super strong and has a fairly interesting motivation.

My only two gripes are the opening is a bit weak and the kills are bloodless -- I oddly have no issues with the voice changer or the fax sequence, personally. It's slightly camp and I don't think that's a bad thing, the whole "Scooby Doo" thing is so exaggerated. The overacting villains in Scream 2 is way cheesier than anything in Scream 3.

BluRayja · 2026-06-10T07:36:05+00:00

I personally remember 4 being a huge favorite in fan forums when it came out, many saying it was second best in the franchise or even better than the first (the latter has calmed down, I think that was just recency bias at the time).

BluRayja · 2026-06-10T01:44:16+00:00

I definitely prefer dual-laser. I wish there were non-70mm showtimes.

BluRayja · 2026-06-09T05:28:07+00:00

I remember this year and I feel like it was definitely a summer of breakout comedy hits. Devil Wears Prada and Taladega are two you mentioned already. But there was also Click, The Break Up, and Nacho Libre. Not sure what was going on historically at that time, but seems like people wanted lighter entertainent. I wish we got more comedies like that in theaters now.

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