GIRL ON A TRAIN (4 out of 10) Directed by Tate Taylor; Written by Erin Cressida Wilson; Starring Emily Blunt, Luke Evans, Haley Bennett, Justin Theroux and Rebecca Ferguson ; Rated R for violence, sexual content, language and nudity; 112 minutes; In wide release October 7, 2016.

It’s extremely rare to walk into a film completely blind, yet I was able to do that with “The Girl on a Train.” Somehow I was able to miss every trailer and TV spot and had only the recommendations of a few friends who had read the book to go on. It was refreshing to have no preconceived notion of what to expect, and with a “whodunit” type film such as this, that is the best way to approach it. Unfortunately, whether or not someone knows all the secrets going in will make no difference with this dull and dim witted film that wouldn’t even be worth seeing if not for Emily Blunt’s fantastic performance.

Rachel (Emily Blunt) rides the train to and from work and fantasizes about the people she sees in the houses she passes. Her main focus is on Scott and Megan Hipwell (Luke Evans and Haley Bennett, respectively) who she pictures as two people madly in love and deserving of the life she could never have. Coincidentally, they also live next door to her husband Tom (Justin Theroux) and his new wife Anna (Rebecca Ferguson). Rachel has become a severe alcoholic and during one of her blackout fugues sees something happen to Megan but loses the memories in a vodka fueled haze. She awakens with blood on her hands and must figure out a way to recover her lost memories before the police come after her for Megan’s disappearance.

There is one reason and one reason only to see “The Girl on a Train”, and that is for Emily Blunt’s performance. Simply put, Blunt is one of the best actresses working today, and it is fantastic to see her stretch herself to the limit in the complex role of Rachel. Few have the ability to portray such depth of emotion or strength of character with a simple dip of the head or bat of the eye as Blunt does, and she uses it to perfect effect here. As Rachel struggles to redeem herself and bring to light the tragic events of what took place, we want to see her succeed and eventually become a whole and happy person. None of this would have been accomplished without Blunt’s talent behind her.

Now for the bad news – there is pretty much nothing else worthwhile here. Director Tate Taylor has been rather successful with his previous films such as “Get on Up” and “The Help”, but it seems as if he forgot all the lessons he learned while working on those. The pace is methodically plodding with little happening for long stretches of time. While the film tops out at barely two hours, it feels much, much longer. An editor could have easily stepped in and carved out at least 30 minutes’ worth of unnecessary plot that would have streamlined the story and still gotten the entire point across.

I’m also surprised about the decision to make almost every female character completely powerless and under the command of the men in their life. Each bows to the demands of the male leads in an effort to appease their lusts, desires and anger. With the exception of the female cop, none ever stand up to those around them because they are portrayed as too feeble and defenseless solely because they are women. There is no real moment of redemption and one could argue the movie nearly glorifies domestic abuse which is completely abhorrent.

Aside from the acting, there really are no redeeming qualities here. Anyone who has to see this because they read and enjoyed the book will no doubt enjoy Emily Blunt’s performance, and since they already know the twist – which was apparent 1o minutes in – they won’t feel distracted or cheapened by it. As much as this wants to be “Gone Girl” it ends up being little more than fan fiction of the genre.

4 out of 10

Jake Gyllenhaal and his new film “Nightcrawler” put up a good fight over the last weekend(our review here), but “Ouija” held out and won. I waited for the dust to settle on the weekend numbers before putting up this column because they were neck and neck. They were both estimated at $10.9 million, neither actually hitting the mark. 

While those two films battled for the top spot the other three rounding out the top spot were also battling, they all came within about $600k of each other. “Gone Girl” has become David Fincher’s highest-grossing movie domestically. It has hit over $130 million after five weeks. Along with “Gone Girl” Brad Pitt’s latest “Fury” made its way to third place while the animated film “The Book of Life” took the last spot. 

“John Wick” dropped form second to sixth while the new Bill Murray film “St. Vincent” made it’s way up the charts a little. It had a very small expansion and has held over well for a small film. 

Tomorrow “Interstellar” hits and if the word from directors like Brad Bird and Edgar Wright means anything this is going to be big, but it will also be up against “Big Hero 6” starting on the 7th…guess we shall found out next Monday. 

A quick note on budgets and dollar figures:
Films making back their budgets is a good sign, but that is just the money to film. It doesn’t include distribution and marketing. Marketing can cost as much as a film. That big Superbowl spot is spendy. So take that into account when judging a films success. Hitting $100 million isn’t the same as it once was.

All dollar amounts in the top 5 come from estimates based on ticket sales unless noted otherwise. Occasionally this article will be published when actual results come out, which is usually late Monday afternoon. For more about this and other ins and outs of movie tracking click here.

“Ouija” went into the last weekend in October primed to win. A young cast, a horror flick right before Halloween, and minimal competition. The only big competition was the brand new Keanu Reeves revenge flick “John Wick,” which we liked. “Ouija” also did some interesting marketing, relying heavily on social media, and launching a Snapchat campaign, which was untested waters. It worked, and brought in the under 25 market.In fact 75% of the audience was under 25. This is probably the last weekend in which “Ouija” will be noticed however, it has bad reviews and horror films don’t hold well. Wick will most likely hold better but there are blockbusters waiting around the Halloween corner. 

“Fury” and “Gone Girl” continued to fall but the Fincher flick is now north of $120 million. A definite surprise success. There are a few films hitting next weekend, “Nightcrawler” being the most heavily marketed, and critically hailed. After that we get “Interstellar” and “Big Hero 6.”

A quick note on budgets and dollar figures:
Films making back their budgets is a good sign, but that is just the money to film. It doesn’t include distribution and marketing. Marketing can cost as much as a film. That big Superbowl spot is spendy. So take that into account when judging a films success. Hitting $100 million isn’t the same as it once was.

All dollar amounts in the top 5 come from estimates based on ticket sales unless noted otherwise. Occasionally this article will be published when actual results come out, which is usually late Monday afternoon. For more about this and other ins and outs of movie tracking click here.

Brad Pitt and his tank full of awesome tracked their way to the top of the box office for the weekend of October 17-19th, 2014 While “Fury” did well it didn’t do great and wasn’t too far ahead of “Gone Girl” which was entering its third week of release. It could possibly be due to minimal marketing, mixed with the subject matter not being universally appealing. Regardless of the reason it still should end up around $80 million. 

Coming up just behind “Gone Girl” was the new animated flick “The Book of Life” which did about average along with other recent animated films including last months “The Boxtrolls” and other family films like “Alexander.”

Next week sees smaller films like the horror flick “Ouija” and the Keanu revenge flick “John Wick”

A quick note on budgets and dollar figures:
Films making back their budgets is a good sign, but that is just the money to film. It doesn’t include distribution and marketing. Marketing can cost as much as a film. That big Superbowl spot is spendy. So take that into account when judging a films success. Hitting $100 million isn’t the same as it once was.

All dollar amounts in the top 5 come from estimates based on ticket sales unless noted otherwise. Occasionally this article will be published when actual results come out, which is usually late Monday afternoon. For more about this and other ins and outs of movie tracking click here.

The big news in the box office world over the weekend of October 10-12th, 2014 was actually not true. People freaked out when boxofficemojo.com went down and redirected to IMDB.com, both of which are owned by Amazon. Variety and a few others were reporting it was dead. The site was just down for maintenance and all the reactions were over nothing. 

For the weekend there were quite a few new movies and they were extremely varied in their audiences and subject matter. “Dracula Untold” stands alone as a …horror action flick? I don’t even know what to call it, and it very well may be the rebirth of the Universal Monster franchise. “Alexander” is an adaptation of a children’s book that is what you expect when you take a children’s book and turn it into a feature length film. It’s at 65% on rottentomatoes.com and has likable leads. “The Judge” sends Robert Downey Jr. back to the courtroom as a fast talking lawyer with a disappointed judge for a father. 3 very different movies and they all landed within $10 million of each other, but none could unseat “Gone Girl.”

Next week sees Brad Pitt’s “Fury” as well as the animated film “The Book of Life.”

A quick note on budgets and dollar figures:
Films making back their budgets is a good sign, but that is just the money to film. It doesn’t include distribution and marketing. Marketing can cost as much as a film. That big Superbowl spot is spendy. So take that into account when judging a films success. Hitting $100 million isn’t the same as it once was.

All dollar amounts in the top 5 come from estimates based on ticket sales unless noted otherwise. Occasionally this article will be published when actual results come out, which is usually late Monday afternoon. For more about this and other ins and outs of movie tracking click here.

Finally, a light week of movies. Or is that “a lite week of movies”? Anyway, there is at least one winner in the bunch and that makes for a good week at the movies.

This BSR! Weekend Movie Previews is for the weekend of October 3, 2014.  Per usual, before we get started, a quick disclaimer. I write these over my lunch at my day job, all of the film information presented here, including the plot summary, has been pulled from the Opening This Week page of IMDb (http://www.imdb.com/nowplaying/). I have not seen any of these movies at the time of this writing.

 Join us this week as we preview “Gone Girl”, “The Good Lie”, “Annabelle”, and some others.

Gone Girl (2014)

R 149 min   –   Drama | Mystery | Thriller

Director: David Fincher

Stars: Ben Affleck, Rosamund Pike, Neil Patrick Harris, Tyler Perry

Summary: With his wife’s disappearance having become the focus of an intense media circus, a man sees the spotlight turned on him when it’s suspected that he may not be innocent.

Thoughts: I like the filmmaker that David Fincher has matured in to. He has always been a very strong technical director, sometimes mind bogglingly so, but his films always felt, to me, a bit forced thematically. However, since Zodiac, I feel like he has loosened up that part of him and has become more invested in the characters rather than forcing the characters to fit his plot or vision, and I think that is a very good thing.

The Good Lie (2014)

PG-13 110 min   –   Drama

Director: Philippe Falardeau

Stars: Reese Witherspoon, Arnold Oceng, Ger Duany, Emmanuel Jal

Summary: Sudanese refugees given the chance to resettle in America arrive in Kansas, where their encounter with employment agency counselor forever changes all of their lives.

Thoughts: I am not the audience for this movie. Or even movies like this. At all. The trailer does it no favors. White people saving humorous, uneducated brown people, who even though they aren’t very smart teach the white people a little something, too. So condescending. And even if the movie isn’t that, the trailer doubles down on it heavily. Ugh.

Annabelle (2014)

R 98 min   –   Horror

Director: John R. Leonetti

Stars: Ward Horton, Annabelle Wallis, Alfre Woodard, Tony Amendola

Summary: A couple begin to experience terrifying supernatural occurrences involving a vintage doll shortly after their home is invaded by satanic cultists.

Thoughts: Man, if the movie is even half as long as that trailer, I don’t know if any viewers will come out of it unscathed. Our very own awesome Sithbot reviews it here.

Men, Women & Children (2014) – [Limited – Expands on 10/10]

R 119 min   –   Comedy | Drama

Director: Jason Reitman

Stars: Kaitlyn Dever, Rosemarie DeWitt, Ansel Elgort, Jennifer Garner

Summary: A group of high school teenagers and their parents attempt to navigate the many ways the Internet has changed their relationships, their communication, their self-image, and their love lives.

Thoughts: I like Jason Reitman. There, I said it. I didn’t like “Juno”, but I loved “Up In The Air”. I have no idea what this movie is actually about, but I think I really want to see it because the trailer is so vague but really makes you ask a lot of questions. Questions like; “Is that Adam Sandler googling prostitutes?”, “Is that Alias girl?”, and “So many teenagers being mopey, maybe I don’t want to see this”.

Left Behind (2014)

PG-13 110 min   –   Action | Sci-Fi | Thriller

Director: Vic Armstrong

Stars: Nicolas Cage, Lea Thompson, Cassi Thomson, Chad Michael Murray

Summary: A small group of survivors are left behind after millions of people suddenly vanish and the world is plunged into chaos and destruction.

Thoughts: OMG! The first 20 or so seconds of this trailer are awesome!! And then it gets really sing-y and sad. It looks like the whole thing takes place in the space of a plane flight. Do you think Seth Rogen and Jay Baruchel show up at all in it? Actually, wouldn’t it be awesome if Craig Robinson is in it, and then he gets the Hat Trick for being in all three Left Behind-ish movies in the last two years? I hope Craig Robinson is in it.

The Blue Room (2014) – [Limited]

76 min   –   Crime | Thriller

Director: Mathieu Amalric

Stars: Mathieu Amalric, Léa Drucker, Stéphanie Cléau, Laurent Poitrenaux

Summary: A man and a woman, secretly in love, alone in a room. They desire each other, want each other, and even bite each other. In the afterglow, they share a few sweet nothings. At least the man seemed to believe they were nothing. Now under investigation by the police and the courts, what is he accused of?

Thoughts: Seriously guys!! Don’t have sex. Especially with hot, mysterious French women. It may sound awesome, and actually be awesome, but the price is really really high.

The Hero of Color City (2014) – [Limited]

G 77 min   –   Animation

Director: Frank Gladstone

Stars: Owen Wilson, Christina Ricci, Rosie Perez, Wayne Brady

Summary: A diverse band of crayons strive to protect not only their magical multihued homeland but the imagination of children everywhere from a terrifying monster.

Thoughts: Wait, I’m confused here. Doesn’t Magnolia Pictures make, like, real movies? Is this a joke? Tell me they all turn to monsters by the end of the movie and pull the little boy into their CGI hell world. Crayon Monsters. All melted together into one big blobby brownish, greenish mix of blech. My hopes aren’t very high on that, though.

Now, it’s your turn – if you have seen any of these movies, let us know your thoughts in the comments, especially “The Hero of Color City”. No way it can be as bad as it looks, but I am hoping so hard right now, I might burst a blood vessel in my brain.