The Dude's Fiction

A24’s latest offering Free Fire had a dreadful opening weekend at the box office, netting less than $1 million domestically, a far cry from the $6-8 million it was projected. Free Fire is set in 1978 Boston, and is an ensemble piece where a shootout erupts during a gun deal gone wrong. It’s billed as an action-comedy, but the laughs are few and far in between, and the action sequences aren’t particularly thrilling. It’s only an hour and a half, but even at that short of a length the movie feels like it drags out longer than it should have; I couldn’t wait for it to end. Director Ben Wheatley had made several promising low-budget films prior to this, including 2011’s Kill List, which was a breathe of fresh air into the horror genre. It was a cerebral thriller that morphed into a psychological horror film full of fresh ideas. With Free Fire, Wheatley unfortunately resorts back to genre-thrills, bringing nothing fresh to the table instead drawing from previous successful films a...

I’ve been an unapologetic supporter of the Fast and Furious franchise, despite the fact that several of the movies are quite bad. They are fun, fast-paced action flicks. Nothing more, nothing less. I thought the seventh installment of the franchise should have been the final one. Furious Seven was a perfect way to end the franchise; a tearful goodbye to Paul Walker, who helped launch the franchise in 2001. That’s not how things work in Hollywood, however, and as much of a cash-cow as Furious Seven, and the franchise as a whole has been, they weren’t, and aren’t, going to stop making them as long as they are netting over $100 million domestically during the opening weekend. I mean, Fate of the Furious had the best worldwide opening weekend EVER, beating out The Force Awakens, thanks  mostly due to the $190 million it made opening weekend in China. I was disappointed they decided to make an eighth film, but became a bit more optimistic when F. Gary Gray was signed on to dir...

Nothing is quick enough to catch Universal’s Fate of the Furious this weekend, which made $100 million domestically during its opening weekend, and beat out The Force Awakens for highest grossing opening weekend worldwide. It made an astonishing $190 million in China last weekend. The Fast and Furious franchise is still roaring, even if the signs of the wheels coming off did show at times during Fate of the Furious. Here’s what to expect from the new openings this weekend: Unforgettable (R) Director: Denise Di Novi Stars: Rosario Dawson, Katherine Heigl, Geoff Stults In a generally tepid weekend, Unforgettable figures to have the most potential for a decent box office showing, though it has no shot of catching Fate of the Furious, which will lead the grosses this weekend by a wide margin once again. Unforgettable boasts a pair of talented leading ladies in Rosario Dawson and Katherine Heigl. Dawson plays Julia, who is engaged to David (played by Geoff Stults), ...

  The Netflix original that everyone is talking about, 13 Reasons Why, shows the brutal reality of life for the American teenager. It is at times tough to watch, but so very important at the same time. The show deals with subjects that are rampant in our society, but subjects that nobody is comfortable talking about. For the uninitiated, 13 Reasons Why is a show about depression, anxiety, suicide, and sexual assault. It follows teenager Clay Jensen (played marvelously by Dylan Minnette) as he looks to unravel the mystery revolving around his friend and crush, Hannah Baker (Katherine Langford), and her reasoning behind ending her own life. Hannah left a series of cassette tapes (13, unsurprisingly) detailing the reasons why she did it. It paints an unsettling picture, partially, if not mainly, because I think most of us see ourselves in the people around Hannah who could’ve done more to prevent her from killing herself. There were a lot of little things (and ...