The weekend of June 16, 2023 has been a pretty big one for movies here in the west. Though the big one is arguably Warner Bros.’ The Flash, it’s sort of sharing the spotlight with four other movies, and each of them with their own different draw.
We’ve already covered The Flash at length, so let’s do a run down on the other flicks. For those who like their movies ridiculous and violent, there’s Netflix’s Extraction 2, the sequel to its 2020 action-thriller which once again stars Chris Hemsworth as Tyler Rake. After surviving the events of the last movie, Rake’s back to saving kids and killing people in brutal ways. Like the first movie, Extraction 2’s gotten pretty good reviews and praise for its action sequences—one of which is reportedly a 20-minute long take. Hemsworth revealed during yesterday’s Tudum event that a third Extraction is in the works, which shows how much faith Netflix has in the franchise.
If you like your movies funny, you’ve got The Blackening—a comedy-horror about a group of black friends who find themselves forced to play a racist board game or die—and Asteroid City, Wes Anderson’s metatextual play-within-a-play about potential first contact with aliens. Asteroid’s full release is next week, but it’s already out in New York and LA; from the sound of things, it may not fully hit with those who see it, including Anderson fans. I caught The Blackening earlier in the week, and had a good time, though it probably could’ve been a little longer.
And for those with families, and who haven’t already seen Across the Spider-Verse at least twice, there’s Elemental. The Pixar romcom about two people made up respectively of fire and water has had marketing that’s all over the place, not entirely unlike reviews for the movie itself. There’s various factors working against this movie, like families being automatically prepared to catch it on streaming rather than in theaters, but some who’ve seen it have found it fairly charming.
Let us know in the comments below which of these movies you saw this weekend, if any.
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