Most Anticipated Movies - 2013

10. Fast & Furious 6

Release Date: May 24
Starring: Testosterone, Fast Cars
Synopsis: Vin Diesel and The Rock return to chase each other around a city (England?) and punch each other in the face. Some generic villain will probably unite them together in the third act. Gina Carano tags along, and Michelle Rodriguez or her twin sister is magically back from the dead.
Thoughts: Unfortunately Paul Walker will be there to annoy me with his bland delivery and "bro" this and "bro" that dialogue. Still, I think Fast Five was the best in the series and I'm looking forward to the sixth installment.

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9. Oblivion

Release Date: April 19

Starring: Tom Cruise, Morgan Freeman

Synopsis: Tom Cruise plays another character named Jack. He fixes things and flies an iShip around on a post-alien invasion Earth while reminiscing about the good ol' days. While out spelunking, Morgan Freeman appears and convinces him that something that is widely thought to be right, is in fact wrong!

Thoughts: Granted I haven't seen Magnolia or Top Gun, I always enjoy Tom Cruise's movies.

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8. Oz: The Great and Powerful

Release Date: March 8

Starring: James Franco, Mila Kunis

Synopsis: Some guy diverts his hot-air balloon into the path of a tornado and ends up in the land of Oz. He meets some witches and there are some flying monkeys or something.

Thoughts: I really have no idea what this movie is about, but I have always loved The Wizard of Oz. Has anyone else seen Return to Oz? I recently watched it again and rekindled my childhood love of Tik Tok. They don't make robots with mustaches anymore. I doubt he will make an appearance in this film, which is a real shame.

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7. The World's End

Release Date: October 25

Starring: Simon Pegg, Nick Frost

Synopsis: Something about getting drunk and dealing with the end of the world.

Thoughts: This is the third of the "Three Flavours Cornetto Trilogy." I'm not sold on the story as much as I'm sold on the team behind it. The trio of Edgar Wright (director), Simon Pegg, and Nick Frost have worked together previously on Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz. Based on the quality of those two films, this could be a film about two people reading the phone book in an abandoned warehouse and I would go see it.

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6. The Wolverine

Release Date: July 26

Starring: Hugh Jackman

Synopsis: Wolverine goes to Japan and does something with his claws.

Thoughts: The Wolverine is based on a series written by Frank Miller in which both Darren Arnofsky and Guillermo del Toro expressed early interest. It is a favorite Wolverine story of not only comic book nerds fans, but Hugh Jackman as well. I'm sure I will enjoy it as long as the special effects department doesn't repeat the hack job they did of his claws in X-Men Origins: Wolverine.

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5. World War Z

Release Date: June 21

Starring: Brad Pitt, zombies. Lots of zombies.

Synopsis: Brad Pitt looks for a cure to a worldwide zombie outbreak as governments collapse.

Thoughts: This was a pretty good book, but I suspect they won't use the individual flashback accounts as written by Max Brooks. Some of the zombie mob scenes from the preview look a bit too video-gamey. Seven weeks of reshoots and a rewritten third act don't bode well for this movie either. Why do I want to see this? Oh yes, Brad Pitt and zombies.

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4. Star Trek: Into Darkness

Release Date: May 17

Starring: Nerds in ugly shirts  
Synopsis: Villains attack Starfleet (shock) and a bunch of youngsters continue their command of the flagship Enterprise. Kind of like a Red Dawn of the Star Trek Universe, or the Nerdiverse as I call it.

Thoughts: I'm mostly looking forward to this movie so I can complain about it as much as I complained about the 2009 Star Trek. I actually really like Karl Urban, Simon Pegg, and John Cho though. All my friends seem excited about this, so it will be fun to tell them how much I hate it.

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3. Thor: The Dark World

Release Date: November 8

Starring: Chris Hemsworth, Natalie Portman, Tom Hiddleston
Synopsis: Thor throws his hammer and acts all Thor-y and Loki probably acts all Loki-y.

Thoughts: I enjoyed the first Thor enough to place the sequel at number three this year. I'm really interested to see where they go with the Nine Realms and how it will fit into the larger Marvel Universe. I'm particularly excited to see expanded roles for Heimdall (Idris Elba) and the Warriors Three. Even though Kenneth Branagh is not directing this time around, I think Alan Taylor's experience on Game of Thrones will translate well here.

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2. Man of Steel

Release Date: June 14

Starring: Doesn't matter

Synopsis: Reboot of Superman, for the three people who don't know the origin story of Superman.

Thoughts: Directed by Zack Snyder (Dawn of the Dead, 300), produced by Christopher Nolan (The Dark Knight, Inception), scripted by David S. Goyer (Dark City, The Dark Knight), and scored by Hans Zimmer (Pirates of the Caribbean, Inception) it is almost inconceivable that this movie will not be great. Story wise, if Superman does more than lift heavy objects, it will exceed my expectations.

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1. Iron Man 3

Release Date: May 3

Starring: Robert Downey Jr., Ben Kingsley

Synopsis: Tony Stark is all, "I am Iron Man." So The Mandarin blows up his house.

Thoughts: If you didn't know this was going to be number one, you haven't been my friend long enough. As far as comic book movies go, the third in the series always seems to be the worst. (See Spider-Man 3, X-Men 3, The Dark Knight Rises, Superman 3. Actually, don't see any of them because they are all terrible.) But the previews to Iron Man 3 thus far have been fantastic and it looks like he will be fighting something other than Iron-Man knock-offs.

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In order of release date, here are the other 2013 releases that I am looking forward to:

• The Last Stand, January 18
• This Is the End, June 14
• Monsters University, June 21
• Despicable Me 2, July 3
• Pacific Rim, July 12
• R.I.P.D., July 19
• Sin City: A Dame to Kill For, October 4
• The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, November 22
• Anchorman 2, December 20

  Just for fun, I created a histogram of these movie release dates to project where all my money will be going in the coming months. I was going to use Tableau but creating a histogram with only 19 data points took me all of three minutes in Excel.

  What movies are you looking forward to seeing this year?

Tableau - Box Office Stats

...my continuing adventures to learn stuff...

  Box office reports contain a plethora of interesting¹ data: weekend gross, lifetime gross, theater count, percentage drops, and so much more. During lunch I downloaded some quick box office figures and connected it to Tableau² to see what I could visualize. The first exercise was to compare the level of difficulty of creating a simple overlay chart to show total box office grosses vs total tickets sold. Figure 1 shows the results in Tableau and Figure 2 shows the results in Excel.

Figure 1: Box Office Gross vs. Ticket Sales by Year, viewed in Tableau. (click to enlarge)

Figure 2: Box Office Gross vs. Ticket Sales by Year, viewed in Excel. (click to enlarge)

  At first glance the two graphs appear nearly identical. However, there are some subtle differences which make me prefer the Tableau version.

1. The actual Tableau dashboard has a much cleaner hover-box to view specific data points.
2. The Tableau dashboard has a nice zoom feature to highlight and  magnify specific areas of interest.
3. The y-axis on the Tableau chart is labeled by default and the default graph colors are blue and orange, not blue and red! (Color wheel, people!)
4. The Excel version shows the entire date instead of just the year. This can be fixed by adding a 'Year' column (=YEAR(ColumnA)) but it is still an extra step I would rather not perform.

  Since I had all the data loaded, I tried one more view. Instead of an overlay chart with two measurements I wanted to compare three separate measurements: average price of a movie ticket, the total number of tickets sold, and total box office gross. Just for kicks I included a label with the highest grossing movie that year.³ After pivoting the data around and adjusting the axis, here is what I came up with.

Click to enlarge.

  There are a few conclusions which can be drawn from this visualization. The most obvious observation is that a steady rise in box office ticket prices does not necessarily result in higher box office grosses. Also very visible is that movie attendance peaked in 2002 followed by a somewhat roller coaster decline. Further analysis on the spreadsheet view shows that 2012 had the highest box office gross on record but was only the 12th highest year as far as the number of ticket sold. (I suspect IMAX and 3D surcharges are padding the numbers.) The most shocking factoid is that in 1994, The Flintstones earned $340 million worldwide. Wha?!?

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1. Interesting to me

2. I am neither an employee nor investor in Tableau. I'm doing this to learn a new product.

3. No "Lord of the Rings was the top grossing movie of 2002!" comments. It was released in late 2002 and carried over to 2003. I'm not doing all the math.

Favorite Movies - 2012

  I was inspired by my good friend Allen to compose a list of my ten favorite movies that I saw released in 2012. (Don't expect Moonrise Kingdom anywhere on this list.)

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10. Prometheus
Released : June 8
Rotten Tomatoes : 72%
Expectations : Met
Saw With : Tess

Even with all the facepalm worthy moments (scientists taking their helmets off, opening the external door for the zombie guy, making friends with the snake/penis/vagina creature, etc.), Michael Fassbender was really great as the android David and he kept my attention the entire movie. The visuals were great and the caesarean section of the alien made even me squeamish, which is hard to do.

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9. Dredd
Released : September 21
Rotten Tomatoes : 80%
Expectations : Exceeded
Saw With: Allen

This was a fun, dark, action movie that was very reminiscent of the 80s action movies from my youth. (i.e. Commando, Cobra) There wasn't really any plot  to follow except for good guys killing bad guys which is exactly what my brain needs sometimes. Karl Urban kept his mask on for the entire movie, kind of like Toby Maguire in Spider-Man, but the exact opposite. It's unfortunate that the darker reboot didn't attract more attention.

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8. Lincoln
Released : November 9
Rotten Tomatoes : 88%
Expectations : Met
Saw With: Jen

This is my default 'good' movie and a rare occasion where I enjoy a film with Oscar buzz surrounding it. Daniel Day Lewis was fantastic, just as he was in Gangs of New York and There Will Be Blood. I will be surprised if he doesn't win several best actor awards for his performance. I was expecting more story about his life, and maybe more build-up to his assassination (spoiler alert!) but I understand what Spielberg was going for with the 13th amendment story line.

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7. Rock of Ages
Released : June 15
Rotten Tomatoes : 56%
Expectations : Met
Saw With: Kaylene

This is the first Russel Brand performance I've seen where I didn't want to punch him in his annoying face. I really loved Tom Cruise as the rocker Stacee Jaxx. Most of all, I loved the music selection. Between the two musicals I saw this year, the other being Les Mis, I thought this was superior. (Yeah, I said it.) I should also take this opportunity to rant a little about Les Mis. It was a great stage production (see the 25th Anniversary version) and it was a great movie (see the Liam Neeson version, 1998) but the amalgam movie/musical just didn't click with me.

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6. The Hunger Games
Released : March 23
Rotten Tomatoes : 85%
Expectations : Exceeded
Saw With: Kaylene

On the rare occasion that I read a book before the movie is released, I'm skeptical that the story will translate well to film, but Gary Ross (director) did it very well. I thought the casting was just fine, particularly Lenny Kravitz as Cinna, Stanley Tucci as Caesar, and Elizabeth Banks as Effie, even though they all had small roles. There seemed to be just enough violence to carry the story without being gory. This was also the only movie I saw this year on a true Imax screen.

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5. Jack Reacher
Released : December 21
Rotten Tomatoes : 74%
Expectations : Met
Saw With: Allen

I haven't read any of the Jim Grant novels that this was based on, and I primarily saw this because Django Unchained was sold out, but Tom Cruise always delivers.  I can't quite remember what this movie was about, but I remember Tom Cruise asking people questions, being chased in cars, and punching people in the face. That's all I really ask of any movie.

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4. The Campaign
Released : August 10
Rotten Tomatoes : 53%
Expectations : Exceeded
Saw With: Raven

The silliest, but most quotable movie of the bunch.

Wolf Blitzer:  Bizarre news coming out of of the 14th district congressional race in North Carolina. Now, get this: Cam Brady, four-time congressman, punched a baby!

...Is anyone asking how my hand feels after punching that iron like jaw of that baby? -Cam Brady

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3. 21 Jump Street
Released : March 16
Rotten Tomatoes : 86%
Expectations : Exceeded
Saw With: Jenna

I liked Ice Cube's rants as Captain Dickson. I liked the cameos from the tv show. I liked the silly shoot-outs and car chases. I loved Channing Tatum on drugs in front of the classroom. "One particle of unobtainium has a nuclear reaction with the flux capacitor - carry the '2' - changing its atomic isotoner into a radioactive spider. F- you, Science!" This movie had me cracking up from start to finish.

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2. Wreck-It Ralph
Released : November 2
Rotten Tomatoes : 90%
Expectations : Far Exceeded
Saw With: Mir

I had no idea what Wreck-It Ralph was about, and saw it because Mir had already seen Skyfall. What a treat this turned out to be! The video game world was beautifully rendered and Sarah Silverman as the racer in Sugar Land was really sweet. The use of cross-generation video game characters in the same setting in the opening scene was worth the admission price alone. Everything about Wreck-It Ralph was creative. There is also a brilliant twist ending involving a villain that I won't ruin for you here.

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1. The Avengers
Released : May 4
Rotten Tomatoes : 96%
Expectations : Far Exceeded
Saw With: Kristin, Holland

"Puny God."

Favorite Music - 2012

  It's that time of the year again when I analyze my iTunes listening habits of the past year. You probably won't find it nearly as interesting as I do. Unfortunately my iTunes doesn't seem to be syncing properly with my iPhone anymore, so the play counts seem to have stopped updating a few months ago. However, I think the numbers are still an accurate reflection of the past year. Here are the results.

Top Play Counts of 2012

Rank	Song/Artist	Play Count
10	Blow Me (One Last Kiss) - Pink	37
9	Sorry For Party Rocking - LMFAO	40
8	True Love - Pink	42
7	What Doesn't Kill You (Stronger) - Kelly Clarkson	42
6	Dark Side - Kelly Clarkson	43
5	Wide Awake - Katy Perry	44
4	Alone - Kelly Clarkson	48
3	Just Give Me A Reason - Pink	51
2	Heavy In Your Arms (Live) - Kelly Clarkson	51
1	Heavy In Your Arms - Florence and the Machine	60

 

Top Played Albums of 2012

(This counts how many times songs were played from specific albums.)

Rank	Album/Artist	Play Count
10	Consolers of the Lonely - The Raconteurs	110
9	Fearless - Taylor Swift	112
8	Recovery - Eminem	112
7	Teenage Dream - Katy Perry	117
6	Live - Kelly Clarkson	120
5	My December - Kelly Clarkson	132
4	Life In Cartoon Motion - Mika	145
3	All I Ever Wanted - Kelly Clarkson	214
2	The Truth About Love - Pink	385
1	Stronger - Kelly Clarkson	458

 

Top Play Counts of 2012

Rank	Artist	Play Count
10	Mika	206
9	Taylor Swift	213
8	The Raconteurs	230
7	Linkin Park	232
6	Britney Spears	235
5	Katy Perry	278
4	Eminem	324
3	Pink	530
2	The Beatles	593
1	Kelly Clarkson	1221

  Well that's all. 2012 was a year dominated by Kelly Clarkson, again.

Time to reset the play counts.