MY CALL: Middle-of-the-road, but still entertaining territory. There’s some macabre nudity, necrophilia, an undead baby, mystical carnies and voodoo dolls. I’d call it passable lower budget 80s fare due for its diversity of effects.
MORE HORROR ANTHOLOGIES: Dead of Night (1945), Black Sabbath (1963), Tales from the Crypt (1972), The Vault of Horror (1973), The Uncanny (1977), Screams of a Winter Night (1979), Creepshow (1982), Twilight Zone: The Movie (1983), Stephen King’s Cat’s Eye (1985), Deadtime Stories (1986), Creepshow 2 (1987), After Midnight (1989), Tales from the Crypt Season 1 (1989), Tales from the Darkside: The Movie (1990), Two Evil Eyes (1990), Grimm Prairie Tales (1990), The Willies (1990), Necronomicon: Book of the Dead (1993), Hellraiser: Bloodline (1996), Campfire Tales (1997), Dark Tales of Japan (2004), 3 Extremes (2004), Creepshow 3 (2006), Trick ‘r Treat (2007), Chillerama (2011), Little Deaths (2011), V/H/S (2012), The Theater Bizarre (2012), The ABCs of Death (2013), V/H/S 2 (2013), All Hallows’ Eve (2013), The Profane Exhibit (2013), The ABCs of Death 2 (2014), V/H/S Viral (2014), Southbound (2015), Tales of Halloween (2015), A Christmas Horror Story (2015), The ABCs of Death 2.5 (2016), Holidays (2016), Terrified (2017; aka Aterrados, a pseudo-anthology), Oats Studios, Vol. 1 (2017), Ghost Stories (2017), XX (2017), The Field Guide to Evil (2018), Shudder’s series Creepshow (2019) and Xenophobia (2019).
After the murderess Katherine White (Martine Beswick; Trancers II, Critters 4) is put to death, a journalist (Susan Tyrrell; Wizards, Digital Man) investigating her origins interviews Katherine’s uncle Julian White (Vincent Price; Theater of Blood, Scream and Scream Again). In this wraparound story, Julian explains that this small town in Tennessee has quite the history of murderers, and he educates the journalist on four such stories—each occurring further back in time.
In the first story we meet the awkward Stanley (Clu Gulager; Piranha 3D, The Willies, NOES 2: Freddy’s Revenge, The Initiation, Feast I-III, The Hidden), who is completely enamored with his lovely boss and has a curious co-dependence with his sister. When he finally gets his boss out on a date, things take a violent turn resulting in her death. But even in death, Stanley remains infatuated—and the consequences for his actions endure full-term.
We wind back the block for the second story as a 1950s man (Terry Kiser; Friday the 13th part VII, Weekend at Bernie’s) on the run stumbles across a voodoo practitioner and demands to learn his secrets. But in doing so, he finds a fate worse than death.
The third story takes us back yet further in time to a traveling carnival of the 1930s, when a local woman falls for a glass-eating carnival performer. The problem is the very jealous and voodoo-doll-savvy carnival owner (Rosalind Cash; Death Spa, Tales from the Hood, The Omega Man) doesn’t approve of this romance. The death scene is gloriously bloody with some of the best special effects of the movie.
The fourth story goes all the way back to the Civil War when some kids capture soldiers, mutilate them, and execute them in the name of their macabre magistrate (made from dead parents). This might have been the most satisfyingly gruesome of the segments.
Director Jeff Burr (Leatherface: TCM III, Puppet Master 4-5, Pumpkinhead II) landed in middle-of-the-road but still entertaining territory. There’s some macabre nudity (aka zombie boobs), necrophilia, the zombie baby is pretty awesome (even if awesomely dumb), mystical carnies, and playing with voodoo dolls. So yeah, for its low budget, the movie relies on its zaniness a bit… but that worked for me.
Was this awesome? No, far from it. I’d call it passable 80s fare due to its diversity of effects shenanigans even if the execution was of low production value. But more than anything, what I appreciated in this anthology was that its stories all had a theme reinforced by the wraparound: the long and curiously murderous history of a small town.
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You can download the pod on Apple Podcasts, Tune In, Podbean, or Spreaker (or wherever you listen to podcasts…..we’re almost everywhere).
If you get a chance please make sure to review, rate and share. You are awesome!
The MFF podcast is back, and this week David Cross (of the Award Wieners Movie Review Podcast) joins us to discuss the excellent 2018 film Mandy. It’s one of my favorite movies of recent memory, and I love every choice that director Panos Cosmatos made. The revenge film is a blast to the senses that overloads your eyes with red hues, blood explosions and dreamlike cinematography that creates a trippy experience. In this episode, we discuss chainsaw fights, low budget filmmaking, and the excellence of Nic Cage. Enjoy!
If you are a fan of the podcast make sure to send in some random listener questions so we can do our best to not answer them correctly. We thank you for listening and hope you enjoy the episode!
You can download the pod on Apple Podcasts, Tune In, Podbean,or Spreaker.
If you get a chance please make sure to review, rate and share. You are awesome!
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MFF Data: A Totally Unnecessary Look at How Much Damage King Orm’s Tidal Waves Caused in Aquaman
Quick note: This obsessive data analysis about a throwaway scene in Aquaman that is quickly forgotten, is not meant as a knock on Aquaman. I love that a scene involving trillions of dollars of property damage and billions of pounds of trash being dumped back on the world’s shores is like the 45th craziest thing in the movie.
Aquaman is an insane film that features Dolph Lundgren riding a seahorse, casual destruction of wine shops, anti-climatic final fights, and a gigantic creature killing the absolute ever-living sh*t out of unsuspecting crab monsters. It’s a bombastic spectacle that made enough money to sink a boat ($1.1 billion) and has a respectable 65% Tomatometer score.
It’s almost been two years since I watched Aquaman for the first time, and I still can’t shake how I felt during a three-minute scene in which the villainous King Orm (Patrick Wilson) sends land-dwellers a warning shot by unleashing massive waves that send billions of pounds of trash, hundreds (or thousands) of the earth’s warships, and countless thousands of boats back onto the shores. It’s a doozy of a warning shot (and a great trailer moment) that undoubtedly killed thousands, destroyed hundreds of miles of natural habits (how many turtle eggs were destroyed?), and did far more damage than anything that happens in Man of Steel (fun podcast episode about the final fight here), or The Avengers. Also, I’m pretty sure it made Dwayne Johnson jealous that San Andreas only caused around $10 trillion in damage.
Why has it been on my mind for so long? I think it’s because nobody on the planet seemed to care or remember the insane moment of destruction. Which makes sense, considering that like 10 minutes after the killer waves we see a gigantic octopus playing gigantic drums.
Take a look at the clip below, and you’ll understand just how much decimation is caused by Orm’s wave.
In the film, the news reports say that the ENTIRE Atlantic coast is hit by gigantic waves. Here’s a map for reference.
Here’s a collage of the aftermath of the wave. Since these waves happened in North America, South America and Europe, I’m assuming no area of the coast was safe from the waves and floods.
I’ll never be able to correctly guess the amount of damage (I wish I could), however, it’s safe to assume the waves caused trillions of dollars of damage. The following data backs up my assumption and proves that a scene that nobody remembers was incredibly deadly (and somehow totally forgettable) .
- I’m assuming all the waves are similar to what hit Aquaman and his dad.
- I don’t think the waves are sophisticated enough to pick and choose which boats got wrecked. That would be bonkers……or, it would be really on brand for Aquaman.
- I found a visualization of all the ships (tankers, cruises, shipping boats, fishing boats) in the ocean right now. I think many of the ships became collateral damage which would add a lot to the destruction total considering cruise ships can cost $555 million.
- According to several very handy articles, I learned the world has roughly 4,500 very expensive warships that include aircraft carriers (which are home to very expensive airplanes and weaponry), submarines, corvettes, destroyers, cruisers, amphibious craft and tankers. I don’t think all of them were destroyed, however, I’ll bet a healthy amount of them were wrecked.
- In the clip I included above, I counted (at least) 51 warships that were pushed onto the land (I have no clue how many sunk). At the very least, the damage to the 51 ships, and nothing else, is around $150 billion (the submarines and aircraft carriers would take up $23 billion of that). Also, what happened to the all the planes that are typically on an aircraft carrier? They must be in the water somewhere, which means dozens of planes that cost at least $15 million (with weapons costs not included) are on the bottom of the ocean.
- Towing or transporting massive ships can cost up to $8 million dollars. So, just imagine moving the 51 ships (that we see) and all the others that are damaged or sunk.
- The waves that hit land must’ve destroyed thousands of docked boats, and flooded thousands of homes and businesses. Through some fun research I’ve learned that waterfront properties cost 46% more than inland properties. So, the expensive condos, homes, businesses, parks, roads, and anything in the vicinity of the waves and battleships suffered massive damage.
- Some of the most expensive homes in the world are located on the Atlantic ocean. If any of them are hit, the total goes way up.
- The massive tsunamis that hit Japan in 2011 caused close to $309 billion in damage (earthquake destruction is included), and Hurricane Katrina had an economic impact of $250 billion. If coastal cities were hit all along the Atlantic, just imagine the damage.
- It’s very possible that New York City, Sao Paulo, Lagos, Buenos Aires, Boston, Miami and dozens of other major cities. Also, imagine if Orm blasted the Gulf of Mexico cites. That’s easily trillions of dollars in damage.
- The amount of “dirty water” left after a tsunami or tidal wave can cause massive health issues. The floodwater carries oil and contaminated water to wells and other areas and leads to infections, cholera and health issues. The clean up around the world would cost billions.
- Orm should be annoyed at the billions of pounds of trash dumped into the ocean. However, his waves killed a whole lot of ocean life. Dude is a jerk.
- What if the waves, or an errant warship ran into a coastal power plant? Here’s a map.
- If the massive waves hit an oil tanker or a drilling station, the clean up would cost billions.
- There are many Atlantic Ocean seaports in the United States and Africa. The destruction would be Huge. Ports can cost up to $7 billion dollars.
Conclusion – I’m hoping that all of this research showcases just how much damage was done after the insanely damaging warning shot. All of it is totally unnecessary, however, I learned a lot while researching this data, so I’ll take it as a win. In the end, Aquaman is an insane movie that can inflict trillions of dollars in property damage, and then quickly forget about it, that makes me happy.
If you like this random data, make sure to check out my other data posts! Also, check out the Movies, Films and Flix podcast, we just started a new series called Final Fights, it’s about epic final fights in movies. Listen wherever you listen to podcasts.
- Jet Ski Action Scenes Are the Worst
- How long did it take for The Joker to build the cash pyramid in The Dark Knight?
- Analyzing the Unsuccessful Trap in Predators
- Avengers Disassembled: A Look at the alone time characters have in their MCU films
- How Far Did the Shark Travel in Jaws: The Revenge?
- How Many Calories Did Shaggy and Scooby Ingest When They Are The Cotton Candy Glob?
- The Dolph Lundgren Front Kick Spectacular
- How Far Did the Creature From It Follows Travel?
- How Many Bullets Missed John Matrix in Commando?
- How Long Did it Take Batman to Setup the Bat Fire on the Bridge in The Dark Knight Rises?
- Kevin Bacon’s College Degrees
- How Fast Does the Great White Swim in Shark Night?
- Zara the Assistant and Jurassic World Had a Bad Day
- A Look at Elektra’s sandbag trainer in Daredevil
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- Breaking Down The Mariner vs. Sea Beast Battle in Waterworld
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- How Far Did Matthew McConaughey Jump in Reign of Fire?
- How Fast can Leatherface Run?
- Deep Blue Sea and Stellan Skarsgard
- How Far Did Michael Myers Drive in Halloween H20: 20 Years Later
- How Did the Geologist Get Lost in Prometheus?
- People Love a Bearded Kurt Russell
- A Closer Look at Movies That Feature the Words Great, Good, Best, Perfect and Fantastic
- An In-Depth Look At Movies That Feature Pencils Used as Weapons
- Cinematic Foghat Data
- Explosions and Movie Posters
- The Fast & Furious & Corona
- Nicolas Sparks Movie Posters Are Weird
- How Do You Make the Perfect Kevin Smith Movie?
- Predicting the RT score of Baywatch
- The Cinematic Dumb Data Podcast
- What is the best horror movie franchise?
- How Fast Can the Fisherman Clean a Trunk in I Know What You Did Last Summer?
- It’s Expensive to Feature Characters Being Eaten Alive and Surviving Without a Scratch
- How Long Does it Take Your Favorite Horror Movie Characters to Travel From NYC to San Francisco?
- What was the Guy’s Blood Pressure in Dawn of the Dead?
- Why Were There So Many Lemons in National Treasure?
- How Far Does The Rock Jump in the Skyscraper Poster?
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MY CALL: This was a fun, well-executed horror movie with solidly disturbing imagery. This is also a convoluted film that may confuse viewers with its time-hopping recipe of 10% prequel, 0% of the advertised reboot, 45% paralleling The Grudge (2004), 40% paralleling The Grudge 2 (2006), and 5% acknowledging The Grudge 3 (2009) timeline. So I’d recommend you watch parts 1 and 2 first. MORE MOVIES LIKE The Grudge: Well, The Grudge (2004), The Grudge 2 (2006), Ju-on: The Grudge (2002) and Ju-on: The Grudge 2 (2003) would be the best place to start; followed by The Ring (2002) and Ringu (1998), then Ju-on (2000) and Ju-on 2 (2000). I’d skip The Grudge 3 (2009), but I’d highly recommend Lights Out (2016).
I hope you wanted more ghost-croaking and well-placed jump scares, because that’s what you’re getting! And while better in scares, effects and execution than the original Ju-on: The Grudge (2002), Ju-on: The Grudge 2 (2003), and maybe even passing The Grudge (2004) to reach The Grudge 2 (2006) jumpy-fun quality, this sidequel lacks the clarity in storytelling of its 2004/2006 predecessors. Or does it? At first it may seem to have radically disjunct, piecemeal, timeframe-hopping confusion when actually, like many of the later Saw sequels (parts IV-VI), this “sequel” is best viewed right after freshly seeing The Grudge (2004) and The Grudge 2 (2006).
Why? Well, this franchise installment makes basically no effort at all to explain the “rules” of the ghost, the origin of the ghost, why this ghost has “a grudge,” what’s up with the little boy ghost, or why on Earth we’re seeing scenes that take place in two timelines (2004 and 2005) prior to the present (2006). Wait… or was the present 2009? So… how many timelines? See? This gets confusing if your Grudge game isn’t strong.
When we see a caretaker leaving Tokyo to return home to Pennsylvania, she mentions Yoko (the caretaker prior to Sarah Michelle Gellar from the 2004 movie). Then we jump to 2006 as Detectives Goodman (Demián Bichir; The Nun, Alien: Covenant, Machete Kills) and Muldoon (Andrea Riseborough; Oblivion, Mandy, Black Mirror S4: Crocodile) come across the scene of the long dead and shockingly decayed body of Lorna Moody (Jacki Weaver; Bird Box, Haunt)—whose 2005 timeline is later explored—and questions the deeply disturbed Faith (Lin Shaye; Critters, Insidious 1-4, A Nightmare on Elm Street, Chillerama). Then we back up again to 2004 and we meet expecting couple Peter (John Cho; Searching, The Exorcist series, Sleepy Hollow series) and Nina Spencer (Betty Gilpin; The Hunt, Stuber, American Gods, GLOW). And what the heck happened to Detective Wilson (William Sadler; Tales from the Crypt S1, Tales from the Crypt: Demon Knight, VFW, Ava’s Possessions) in his great and very creepy cameo? The actors all did great and the atmosphere was consistently unnervingly creepy. But all these disparate stories are just confounding.
What’s going on here is that this sequel takes place before and during the events of The Grudge (2004) and The Grudge 2 (2006)… and apparently The Grudge 3 (2009) as well. Yup… This was first advertised as a franchise reboot, but that it most certainly is not. Writer and director Nicolas Pesce (Piercing, The Eyes of My Mother) succeeds in making very engaging and very creepy scenes that pack a mean punch. But the connections to the other two films, while obvious, are also somewhat tenuous. I’d like more direct mentions of some key events or characters to coax me along as to “this is why this is important.” It certainly would have eased my confusion in the first 30-40 minutes of this movie—when I thought I was watching a reboot! But you know what, it’s still pretty entertaining. And again, had I just seen the previous films (right before this), the storytelling would have worked much better.
Disturbing and grotesque imagery of self-mutilation and twisted cadavers infested with writhing maggots serve up some eerie surprises. In fact, horrifying dead bodies (like in The Ring, but different) is quite a strong suit in this film. That, and the franchise-typical jump-scare fare.
You don’t necessarily need to have seen the Japanese originals (2002, 2003) or even American remakes (2004, 2006) to enjoy this, but it certainly helps to know what’s going on. However, if they are recently familiar to you, then this sequel/sidequel seems to thrive on the foundation built by its forefathers regarding “the rules” of Kayako and the origins of the ghost. And like its predecessors, I’d say this was jumpy but largely empty fun. The film is well-made in many respects, but nothing here is going to resonate for long.
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The Movies, Films and Flix Podcast #264: Rush, Racing Films and the Excellence of Daniel Brühl
You can download the pod on Apple Podcasts, Tune In, Podbean, or Spreaker (or wherever you listen to podcasts…..we’re almost everywhere).
If you get a chance please make sure to review, rate and share. You are awesome!
The MFF podcast is back, and this week John Leavengood and I are starting an epic series about racing movies. We’re starting with the excellent 2013 film Rush, and then we’re tackling Driven, Days of Thunder, Ford v Ferrari, Speed Racer and Death Race (2008). In this episode, we discuss shooting a racing film on a budget, the excellence of Daniel Brühl, and the joys of driving fast through Italian countrysides. Enjoy!
If you are a fan of the podcast make sure to send in some random listener questions so we can do our best to not answer them correctly. We thank you for listening and hope you enjoy the episode!
You can download the pod on Apple Podcasts, Tune In, Podbean,or Spreaker.
If you get a chance please make sure to review, rate and share. You are awesome!
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MY CALL: A very well-made addition to the revenge subgenre. It’s nice to see a rape-revenge movie that focuses less on the rape (for its on-screen shock value) and more on the revenge. Tolerably far-fetched, enjoyably feisty, and still managing to pack some intensely gory punches. MORE MOVIES LIKE Revenge: Well, I’d simply not compare this to the likes of The Last House on the Left (1972, 2009) or I Spit on Your Grave (1978, 2010).
Cheating on his wife with his young mistress, Richard (Kevin Janssens; The Room) sweeps Jen (Matilda Anna Ingrid Lutz; Rings) away to his luxurious desert vacation home for a weekend tryst. Such behavior can certainly come with its share of consequences. But for Jen, those consequences are not as expected when a pair of Richard’s hunting buddies unexpectedly drop in for the weekend as well. They seem nice… at first. But we watch as their congeniality quickly transmutes into lustful aggression and a general apathy regarding her sexual battery. Yeah, this doesn’t play out well for Jen.
Soon everyone feels scared and threatened (for very different reasons) and all three men have turned against Jen, who desperately runs for her life barefoot through the rocky desert where she is pushed off a cliff her death. But, oh… she survived that!?!?!?!
At this point a strong suspension of disbelief is important for one’s enjoyment of the film. From here on, most things that transpire feel like the product of a graphic novel and little is credible. But if you can just let that go, there’s definitely great fun to be had…
Brutally mangled, impaled, struggling to even wheeze for breath and oozing blood, Jen fights to survive via ludicrous actions against ridiculous odds. And then she begins to hunt her offenders as they also hunt her. The violence is surprisingly abrupt, a bit brutal and unapologetic. The exploding head gag is a gory mess of awesome. Things just get more bloody and extreme as the film approaches its end, with the splatter-festiness amplifying to MAX in the final scenes. Moreover, we observe more male nudity than female for change (and little to never does it feel exploitative).
Sure this film wanders into incredulous bonkers town in some (in my opinion, at least) forgivable ways, but it is actually quite engaging and occasionally even fun watching Jen exact her vengeance on these horrible men who have wronged her.
I read some comparisons to some mean rape-revenge films like The Last House on the Left (1972, 2009) to which I say NO. These are not similar or comparable films. One takes you on the vicious on-screen journey of mean-spirited rape and victimization, and the other doesn’t show it happen. Yes, it’s a horrible concept. But one of these films is clearly much easier to watch than the other… and gorgeous to watch. As if emulating Michael Bay, the colors are bright and the film boasts some great cinematography of xeric-scapes and caverns. Tackling her first feature film, writer and director Coralie Fargeat succeeds with style.
This film spins the revenge subgenre on its head by steering clear of sensationalizing sexual assault and tilting the execution of its revenge into staggered moments of Evil Dead (2013) intensity. At one point a completely naked person is murderously chasing someone down a blood-doused hallway with the ill-dexterity of sprinting across a sudsy Slip’n’Slide. It’s intense, but you’ll probably squeak out a laugh at the mania transpiring before your eyes.
This is a fresh and more tolerable flavor of revenge movie, but not at the expense of thrilling intensity. Strongly recommended.
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40 Movies You Can Currently Stream for Free!
Since many people are currently working from home or social-distancing, I hunted through Crackle, Tubi, Vudu and IMDb to find some fun movies you can watch for free! Hopefully some of these options save you some money!
Hopefully, you find some fun gems in here!
Crackle
- Adaptation
- Animal Kingdom
- Attack the Block
- Dr. Strangelove: Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb
- El Mariachi
- Gattaca
- The Last Dragon
- Hot Rod
- Layer Cake
- Melancholia
Tubi
- Night of the Comet
- Day of the Dead
- Fist of Fury
- Donnie Darko
- Airplane!
- Evolution
- Train to Busan
- Dogtooth
- Haywire
- Hours (Paul Walker is really good in it)
Vudu
- Gone in Sixty Seconds
- Dead Presidents
- Judgement Night
- Bloodsport
- Maggie
- Dark City
- Thelma and Louise
- Battle Royale
- Sing Street
- Bubba Ho-Tep
IMDb (in the US)
- Speed Racer
- Real Genius
- Ghost World
- The Never Ending Story
- Chef
- Blade Runner 2049
- True Romance
- Starship troopers
- Miami Connection
- Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist
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The Movies, Films and Flix Podcast #263: Bloodshot, Flour Fights and the Greatness of Wilfred Wiggans
You can download the pod on Apple Podcasts, Tune In, Podbean, or Spreaker (or wherever you listen to podcasts…..we’re almost everywhere).
If you get a chance please make sure to review, rate and share. You are awesome!
The MFF podcast is back and this week we’re talking about the 2020 comic book adaptation Bloodshot. Directed by Dave Wilson, and starring Vin Diesel, this $45 million budgeted film is a lot of fun and is much better than the 30% Tomatometer score. In this episode, we discuss ill-fitting helmets, flour fights and the greatness of Lamorne Morris. We love this scrappy film, and we hope you do to!
If you are a fan of the podcast make sure to send in some random listener questions so we can do our best to not answer them correctly. We thank you for listening and hope you enjoy the episode!
You can download the pod on Apple Podcasts, Tune In, Podbean,or Spreaker.
If you get a chance please make sure to review, rate and share. You are awesome!
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The Movies, Films and Flix Podcast #262: Ready or Not, Deals With the Devil, and Unique Screams
You can download the pod on Apple Podcasts, Tune In, Podbean, or Spreaker (or wherever you listen to podcasts…..we’re almost everywhere).
If you get a chance please make sure to review, rate and share. You are awesome!
The MFF podcast is back, and this week we’re talking about the excellent horror comedy Ready or Not. We ran a poll on our Facebook page, and Ready or Not defeated all challengers to become our “Movie of the Month.” We were very happy about this because it’s one of favorite 2019 horror movies, and is loaded with excellent performances by Samara Weaving, Adam Brody, Melanie Scrofano, Kristian Bruune and Henry Czerny (and more). In this episode, we discuss unique screams, terrible deals with the devil, and body explosions.
If you are a fan of the podcast make sure to send in some random listener questions so we can do our best to not answer them correctly. We thank you for listening and hope you enjoy the episode!
You can download the pod on Apple Podcasts, Tune In, Podbean,or Spreaker.
If you get a chance please make sure to review, rate and share. You are awesome!
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Avengers Disassembled: A Look at Which Marvel Cinematic Universe Characters Have the Most Alone Screen Time
After watching the excellent first trailer for Scarlett Johansson’s standalone Black Widow film, I started thinking about how much solo screen time each Marvel character has had in their Marvel Cinematic Universe film(s). I know it’s a shared universe that’s loaded with dozens of characters, however, I wanted to know which main MCU characters (original Avengers, Guardians of the Galaxy, Captain Marvel, Black Panther, Ant-Man, Spider-Man, Doctor Strange) have the most quiet (or loud) moments to themselves. I dove into the viewings and started pulling the numbers, and what I found isn’t totally surprising, however, I think it’s neat and will give you something to look at while you’re stuck at home…….alone
A hero on IMDb named ninewheelso has already given us a break down of all the character screen time in the MCU (Reuters fine tuned the data), however, the data doesn’t include the moments when characters are allowed to exist on their own.
What do I mean by “exist on their own?” I looked for moments that focused solely on the characters. Take a look at the clips below for reference. I didn’t include one or two second takes, or conversations between characters that only have one person in the frame. For example, the fun conversation between Loki and Black Widow wasn’t included in The Avengers solo time, despite the fact that when they’re talking, they’re the only person in the frame.
Here are some examples for you.
- Scott Lang deals with house arrest in Ant-Man and the Wasp
- Tony discovers a new element and shows off his biceps in Iron Man 2
- Captain Marvel falls into a Blockbuster Video in Captain Marvel.
- Spider-Man is stuck in a warehouse in Spider-Man: Homecoming.
- Thor has a weird ride in Thor: Ragnarok.
- Captain America puts a hurting on punching bags in The Avengers.
- Doctor Strange shaves in Doctor Strange.
The first chart focuses on the minutes of alone time the main characters have in the 23 MCU films.
- Iron Man 1-3 – Tony Stark/Iron Man
- The Incredible Hulk – Bruce Banner/Hulk
- Thor 1-3 – Thor
- Captain America 1-3 – Steve Rogers/Captain America
- Spider-Man 1-2 – Peter Parker/Spider-Man
- Avengers 1-2 – Cap, Iron Man, Hulk, Black Widow, Hawkeye, Thor
- Doctor Strange – Dr. Stephen Strange
- Black Panther – T’Challa/Black Panther
- Ant-Man – Scott Lang/Ant-Man
- Ant-Man and the Wasp – Scott Lang/Ant-Man, Hope Pym/Wasp
- Captain Marvel – Carol Danvers/Captain Marvel
- GotG 1-2 – Starlord, Gamora, Groot, Rocket, Drax, Nebula
- Avengers 3-4 (OG Avengers, GotG, Ant-Man, Dr. Strange, Black Panther, Doctor Strange, Spider-Man, Ant-Man, Captain Marvel, Wanda, Vision)
The next chart focuses on non-ensemble films (No Avengers or GotG).
This is how I calculated each main character’s “alone” time. I watched the movies again, counted their solo screen time, then divided it by how much actual screen time they had (Thank you IMDb). Here’s an example:
Captain America has only 90 seconds of alone time during his 38 minutes of Captain America: Civil War screen time. So, that means he’s only alone for 3.95% of his screen time in Civil War.
Here’s another example. Tony Stark/Iron Man has 16 minutes and 25 seconds of alone time during his 77 minutes of Iron Man screen time. So, he’s alone on screen for 21.31% of his screen time in Iron Man
Quick note: I only included Ant-Man’s alone time for Ant-Man and the Wasp.
The next chart looks at the percentage of screen time of the major players in the MCU. Here are the characters and the movies they appeared in (that I counted).
- Captain America – (Captain America 1-3, Avengers 1-4)
- Iron Man – (Iron Man 1-3, Avengers 1-4, Captain America: Civil War, Spider-Man: Homecoming)
- Thor – (Thor 1-3, Avengers 1-4)
- Black Widow – (Iron Man 2, Avengers 1-4, Captain America 2-3)
- Hawkeye – (Thor, Avengers 1, 2, 4, Captain America: Civil War)
- Hulk – (The Incredible Hulk, Avengers 1-4, Thor: Ragnarok)
- Ant-Man – (Ant-Man 1 & 2, Captain America: Civil War, Avengers: Endgame)
- Spider-Man – (Captain America: Civil War, Spider-Man 1 & 2, Avengers 3 & 4)
- Captain Marvel – (Captain Marvel, Avengers: Endgame)
- Black Panther – (Captain America: Civil War, Black Panther, Avengers 3 & 4)
- Wanda – (Avengers 3 & 4, Captain America: Civil War)
- Doctor Strange – (Dr. Strange, Thor: Ragnarok, Avengers 3 & 4)
- Groot – (GotG 1 & 2, Avengers 3-4)
- Gamora – (GotG 1 & 2, Avengers 3-4)
- Starlord – (GotG 1 & 2, Avengers 3-4)
- Drax – (GotG 1 & 2, Avengers 3-4)
- Rocket – (GotG 1 & 2, Avengers 3-4)
- Nebula – (GotG 1 & 2, Avengers 3-4)
I really hope there is an eventual Luis spin-off so I can include them in these charts.
How I came up with the percentages – Captain America has had 204 minutes of screen time in Captain America 1-3 and Avengers 1-4. In those 204 minutes he has 15.45 minutes of alone time. So, 15.45 divided by 204 = 6.28% of solo time. Basically, he’s alone for only 6.28% of his total screen time.
This chart showcases the overall minutes alone for each major MCU character.
One last chart! I thought it would be fun to see their percentage of alone screen time when compared to the movies running time (without credits). So, alone screen time divided by the movies running time (without credits).
Next life changing question – Does the amount of alone screen time have an effect on Box Office or Tomatometer scores?
Tomatometer Averages
- Minutes and Tomatometer average
- 0-5 minutes – 83.7%
- 5-10 minutes – 84.6%
- 10+ minutes – 85.8% – More alone screen time equals a slightly higher average. Iron Man, Spider-Man: Homecoming and Avengers: Endgame can be thanked for this.
- Percentage of Time and Tomatometer average
- 0% – 10% – 86%
- 10% – 20% – 79.6%
- 20%+ – 87%
Domestic Box Office
- Alone Minutes and Domestic Box Office
- 0-5 minutes – $411 million
- 5 – 10 minutes – $362 million
- 10+ minutes – $421 million
- Percentage of Alone Time and Domestic Box Office
- 0% – 10% – $349 million
- 10% – 20% – $321 million
- 20%+ – $357 million
Lesson Learned – MCU movies, on average, make more money and have higher Tomatometer averages when the characters have more alone screen time.
Conclusion:
MCU Character with the Most alone screen time – Tony Stark/Iron Man (53.8 minutes) – It makes sense considering he’s been in the most films and doesn’t have a group of a-holes to hang out with.
MCU Movie with the most alone time – Spider-Man: Homecoming (20.5 minutes and 26.97% of all Peter Parker/Spider-Man’s screen time) – Tom Holland is a super likable actor, and the movie gave him plenty of opportunities to be alone. Check out the scenes here, here and here.
MCU Character with the highest percentage of alone time – Doctor Strange (16.90%) – He’s only appeared in four films, however, his percentage of alone time trumps all. It makes sense, Benedict Cumberbatch is an excellent actor, and Doctor Strange is about him finding his way after an accident. His personal journey from jerky surgeon to Sorcerer Supreme provides lots of time to be alone.
If you like this random data, make sure to check out my other data posts! Also, check out the Movies, Films and Flix podcast, we just started a new series called Final Fights, it’s about epic final fights in movies. Listen wherever you listen to podcasts.
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