*Note: This entry was completed after the re-assessment of Wyatt Earp, thus it is a little outdated
Sometimes there’s such a thing as being over-confident, as I was felt so sure that I would see “Ballerina” theatrically this coming June. However, Len Wiseman (the director of that movie) decided that the action scenes needed to be on par with all of the action scenes from the “John Wick” franchise, thus the Ana de Armas-led movie has been pushed back to June 6, 2025. So, in a move to fill its assessment spot way before the New Year’s Day 2025 deadline, the movie “Past Lives” has been chosen, as it falls under the new/fairly new category. However, since it was highlighted in “blue” via the blog entry “Catching The Rest Of The 22-Hundred, The Color-Coded Version”, it’s expected to be a “fall” movie, so that one of the six non-Nadine Velazquez movies that are up for assessment can get the opportunity to compete March Madness style.
Speaking of those six non-Nadine Velazquez movies, one of them (Knock Knock) was chosen because the Ana de Armas void has to get filled somehow in 2024, so what better than one that has her forming a smoke show tandem with Lorenza Izzo. Plus, just like her “Knives Out” cast mate, the late Christopher Plummer, a movie of hers needs to compete March Madness style again.
A movie that came out a decade before “Knock Knock” and with a similar premise is also in this current batch of assessments/re-assessments, as the movie “Hard Candy” has been pardoned from the Movie-Ocrity/Dishonorable Mention page, on the basis of the former of the two movies being pursued aggressively for The Flickuum Project. Plus, since both movies are so conjoined together now, The Project can’t have the 2015 movie without the 2005 movie and vice versa.
Relying on “Drive-Away Dolls”, “Imaginary”, “Challengers” and/or “Deadpool & Wolverine” won’t be necessary now, as both “Wyatt Earp” and “And Soon The Darkness” possibly being permanently banned from Flickuum consideration opens the door for the two movies that I mentioned in the previous paragraph. Furthermore, the failure upon assessment expectation for “Past Lives” also opens up the door for either of those two movies , Taylor Schilling’s debut via “Dark Matter”, the two unnamed movies that just became a last-minute additions to this movie marathon, or “The Imaginarium Of Doctor Parnassus”, the latter of which I blogged about yesterday. Looks like the pressure is now just on that Erinn Hayes movie, although it’s almost impossible to bring myself to view her in the same light after A] Seeing her in the trailer for the movie “Final Stab” and B] Realizing that I chose to assess “Sharon 1.2.3.” because of her and not because of Nadine Velazquez. Alright, I’ll at least keep the Peter Sellers movie “The Party” on stand-by.
Alright, so both “Wyatt Earp” and “And Soon The Darkness” were overall guaranteed Flickuum movies even before the Land Of Infusion page officially launched, thus I had to find two movies to fill their vacated Project spots on such quick notice. And sure enough, I did via upgrading “Woman Walks Ahead” to Tier 5 without conducting a spot-fill tournament, followed by conducting a spot-fill tournament, which resulted in “Richard Jewell” winning it. Plus, the latter of the four movies was upgraded to Tier 5 as well.
The trend of deadline beating could serve both “Gladiator 2” and “Sonic The Hedgehog 3” well, as they will be Paramount releases. Yes, Paramount doesn’t have their movies show up on Amazon as hard copy (DVD and/or Blu-ray Disc) items available for pre-order as quickly as Universal, Sony and Warner Bros. do. But the fact that another Paramount release (Bob Marley: One Love) is already available for digital pre-order bodes well for those two movies, especially now that one of them could very well be the front-runner for that 2,201st overall guaranteed Flickuum spot. However, the other one could face that final arduous Flickuum selection process unless A] Another anticipated 2024 movie gets the “Ballerina” delay treatment, B] “Your Monster” doesn’t get a wider 2024 release that ensures it beating the New Year’s Day 2025 deadline or C] Juror #2 doesn’t get released until 2025 at the earliest.
Speaking of Warner Bros., both “Beetlejuice 2” and “Joker: Folie A Deux” won’t be subbed out in favor of any combination of “Night Swim”, “The Hunger Games: The Ballad Of Songbirds & Snakes” and/or “Napoleon”, as the former two will be released by the aforementioned Warner Bros. And given how quickly that two other Warner Bros. movies in “Wonka” and “Aquaman And The Lost Kingdom” got hard copy pre-order listings via Amazon, it’s a safe bet that the two upcoming sequels will beat the New Year’s Day 2025 deadline as well, assuming they pass their assessments.
Three paragraphs ago, I mentioned “The Party” as at least one movie that will be on stand-by, should one anticipated 2024 movie fail its assessment. And of course, the operative words here are “at least”, as the 1968 movie also has a stand-by mate in “The Soloist”, plus another one in “The Campaign”, due to the 2012 movie recently having its overall guaranteed Flickuum status revoked. However, the revocation might not even amount to anything, thus the reliance on three anticipated 2024 movies failing their assessments. Stay tuned.
One week after awarding fully guaranteed Flickuum spots to both Melissa Barrera-Jenna Ortega “Scream” movies, I decided to revoke that same status from “The Wrestler” for a reason that you’ll discover via my eventual review of it. Anyways, yet another spot-fill tournament was conducted, with “An Evening With Beverly Luff Lin” winning it and winning it nearly nine hours before this entry was completely updated.
Continuing with “The Wrestler”, another Tier 7 movie (An Evening With Beverly Luff Lin) has been upgraded to a fully guaranteed Tier (3 in this case), thus coming yet another movie that gets the opportunity to be assessed/re-assessed before the next 77 (possibly 78) overall Flickuum spots become official. And of course, with all of that being said, the unnamed movie that just became a last-minute addition to this marathon comes into play here. And as to what that movie is, well it’s the Patsy Cline biopic “Sweet Dreams”, which has been chosen, due to A) Jessica Lange needing to be a part of Flickuum lore and B) It riding the wave of music biopic momentum via the instant success of “Bob Marley: One Love”.
Speaking of biopics, I’ve decided to give “The Last King Of Scotland” a.k.a. the other last-minute addition a second re-assessment, due to one of my family members constantly hailing it between the time that I re-assessed it and now. Granted, it’s an Idi Amin biopic, but Forest Whitaker’s portrayal of him is so good that it’s almost impossible to forever put that movie both out of sight and out of mind. Furthermore, since it’s been afforded the same status as “Knock Knock”, “Hard Candy”, “The Imaginarium Of Doctor Parnassus”, “Dark Matter” and “Sweet Dreams”, the 2009 movie “Astro Boy” has also had its fully guaranteed Flickuum spot revoked, due to its ending needing to be examined for a fourth time. However, it could join “The Party”, “The Soloist” and “The Campaign” as movies each needing an upcoming 2024 movie to fail its assessment, should its ending be deemed satisfactory.
Continuing with “Astro Boy”, it was a fully guaranteed Flickuum movie as well, thus another spot-fill tournament was conducted. And it was conducted rather quickly since the movies that got spots 2,078 through 2,100 will be announced tomorrow. And sure enough, that final spot-fill tournament came and went, with “Class Act” winning and winning it nearly two before this entry was completed updated.
Much, earlier in this entry, I mentioned Taylor Schilling’s career debut “Dark Matter” being one of the four non-Nadine Velazquez movies that will be assessed without the roadblock of an anticipated 2024 movie in its way, thus one of the reasons why “The Campaign” was cleared out of Tier 4. Yes, Taylor Schilling is the way more refreshing of the two Taylors (Swift) and it’s been more than a year since I’ve seen anything of hers, period. However, that drought needs to come to an end, especially since a Taylor Schilling movie needs to compete again March Madness style. Plus, if it wasn’t for “The Lucky One” being pardoned from the Movie-Ocrity/Dishonorable Mention page, then “The Bounce Back” wouldn’t be where it is today.
And finally, “The Campaign” was an overall guaranteed Flickuum movie well before both “Saved By The Bell” movies came onto The Project radar, thus that revoked spot needing to be filled on such quick notice. Of course, I couldn’t think of an immediate movie to put as the twelfth-seed in Conference 15, so yet another spot-fill tournament was conducted before the one that “An Evening Beverly Luff Lin” just won. And sure enough, that spot-fill tournament wrapped up, with “The Charnel House” winning it and winning it nearly seven hours before the Aubrey Plaza-led movie won its tournament. Maybe eight is enough when it comes to these Flickasbord entries, and nine is definitely enough when it comes to the filling of revoked Flickuum spots, as “Sideways” replaced “The Blind Side” a little over six months ago.
Alright, as I said at the conclusion of “Flickasbord, Volume 7”, tune in tomorrow to find out which 23 movies were the ones that indeed got overall guaranteed Flickuum spots 2,078 through 2,100.