Year of the Snipe

American Sniper continues its reign of terror and political divisiveness at the box office... well, the political divisiveness may have died down a little, but dayamn!  200 million?  The young whippersnapper that directed that will be able to write his own ticket!... oh, right.  Meanwhile, everything else is down.  Down, down and terribly down.  Blackhat is already gone, with no signs of returning.  Still, they're going to run ads that say "It's the #1 movie about a computer virus gone wrong" and maybe a couple that say "Anyone remember Heat?  ANYONE??" and "You ungrateful bastards!  When did you get so picky about Chris Hemsworth?"  Anything that's not Thor related and they stay away in droves!  What snobs.  What a bunch of film snobs.
The only other debuts this week are the Wes Anderson-ish Mortdecai and Strange Magic... oh, what a strange magic, got a strange magic.  Something like that.  The ads tell me that it's from the mind of George Lucas.  The IMDb page tells me that he's through giving second chances to Gloria Katz and Willard Huyck.  They must've wanted too much money or something.
Oh, how could I?  I totally forgot about The Boy Next Door.  If it did indeed cost only $4 million, then who knows?  Maybe it'll make a profit.  Boy, I must be out of touch with morality, because I don't remember the last time a self-respecting leading lady actively sought out a Mary K. Letourneau-type role... okay, there was To Die For, but that was a satire... right?  Anyway, this is also a bit of a comedown for uber-director, and frequent collaborator with Vin Diesel, Rob Cohen.  Nothing's going to slow this guy down.  Not sagging box office receipts, not age, not his ashamed alma mater... nothing.