Summer Preview - Part II

A few months ago I posted a list of the top 10 films I was looking forward to in spring and early summer (May). The following is a list of the top ten films from June August (roughly the end of the summer movie season) that are worth paying attention to. However, before I get down to the top 10, I need to rewind just a little bit to give credit to a film that never got edited into the Spring/Summer post:

Special Mention: The Fall

While this could turn out to be a case of style over substance, this caught my eye with what has to be the trailer of the year. Shot in 18 countries and boasting stunning production values and an interesting story (David Fincher's executive producer credit is also a plus), this immediately jumped to the top of my most anticipated list. Whether it's brilliant, mediocre, or even flat out terrible, this fantasy-meets-reality fable is one film that has to be seen on the big screen.
Excitement Level: VERY HIGH

And now onto the TOP 10 Films You Should Care About This Summer (June-Late August)

10. Pineapple Express - Yet another film from the Judd Apatow team (though this time he's not heavily involved), and written by Apatow protege Seth Rogen (Knocked Up), this is one stoner comedy that looks worthwhile. When Dave (Rogen) accidentally witness a murder by a corrupt cop, he flees to his weed dealer Saul in order to find out if a rare form of weed he was carrying (named Pineapple Express) can be traced back to him. Raunchy, politically incorrect laughs are bound to follow. After Walk Hard restored my faith in Judd Apatow and his cohorts, I'm actually excited to see where this wacky journey will go.

Excitement Level: Decent

9. Mamma Mia! - Most people will see Mamma Mia because A) they love ABBA or B) they love the Broadway show. I have a completely different reason: I love Meryl Streep and I'd rather pay $10 to see a big budget movie than $150 to see a Broadway show, where the quality can fluctuate from night to night. While it looks enjoyable, I still have some doubts seeing as the stage show isn't as well liked as "Hairspray", "Phantom", or "Chicago". However, the trailer looks like some sort of bizarre hybrid of My Big Fat Greek Wedding and Hairspray, so this could be the sleeper hit of the summer. The only thing going against it (box office wise) is that it opens the same weekend as The Dark Knight........BAD idea....
Excitement Level: Decent

8. Wanted - If you read my previous preview post, you'll remember that this film was featured on there. Oops. As it turns out, the film isn't coming out in May, but rather late June. Oh well. Not much more to add. It just looks like ridiculous summer fun (that and it'll be interesting to see James McAvoy in action hero mode).Excitement Level: Decent


7. The Happening - perhaps this will be the year that M. Night Shyamalan finally gets his groove back. After misfires (The Village) and complete disasters (Lady in the Water) over the past few years, M. Night could possibly redeem himself with this thriller. The film centers on a teacher (Mark Wahlberg, refreshingly going against type) and his estranged wife, who get caught up in a strange crisis spreading all over the planet: something is causing people to simply stop moving, before they suddenly drop dead/commit suicide. Aside from the well put together trailer, the film also peaked my interest in that there's real potential considering the subject matter. The film plays off the all too possible threat of biological weapons and airborne diseases and so on. If it's handled right, this could be the horror/thriller of the summer season.Excitement Level: Good


6. Hamlet 2 - though the title screams "sequel-itis", the film is surprisingly original for a comedy. A failed actor turned theater teacher (Steve Coogan) decides to save his career by writing a sequel to, you guessed it, Hamlet. When asked by his wife (Catherine Keener) how there can be a sequel when "pretty much everyone died at the end of the first one", Coogan responds with his warped idea: a time machine operated by Jesus. Throw in crazy song and dance numbers, and a cameo by Amy Poehler, and this looks like an original winner.Excitement Level: Good


5. Get Smart - sometimes you can just tell from a film's trailer whether it will be good or bad; a hit or a miss. Let's hope that's the case with Get Smart, because Steve Carell is in need of a hit after the massive critical and commercial flop that was Evan Almighty. So far, it seems like a good comedy, with Carell's dead pan idiocy fully intact. Luckily, unlike some comedies where only the main character gets to be funny, the film seems to have been kind enough to Anne Hathaway, The Rock, and Alan Arkin, and given them their own unique forms of humor.Excitement Level: Good


4. Tropic Thunder - Yup, another summer comedy; Hollywood must really be in a laughing mood this year. And hopefully we'll be able to laugh along with them in what looks like a potential comedy smash hit. When a director (Steve Coogan again) filming an Apocalypse Now-style Vietnam epic gets fed up with his prima donna cast, he drops them off in the middle of the jungle to fend for themselves. However, the three principle actors think they're just part of an elaborate exercise to help themselves get more into character. While the film features comedy vets Ben Stiller as the brash leading man (he also directs), Jack Black as the comedian-turned-serious-actor, the film packs another hilarious surprise: Robert Downey Jr. as the award winning prestige actor. If you don't recognize the Downey in the trailer at first, it's because his character (within the movie) decides that his character (in Coogan's fiction movie) would benefit from him undergoing special makeup so that he can be, well.....black.Excitement Level: High


3. Hellboy II: The Golden Army - isn't it always refreshing when a sequel comes along that looks BETTER than its predecessor? That's exactly the case with this follow up to 2004's Hellboy. With a more epic story, gorgeous (and unique) production values and wicked cool creatures, this looks like a great bit of less conventional action fare. The fact that Guillermo Del Toro (Pan's Labyrinth) returned to direct is also a major plus.Excitement Level: High


2. Wall-E - I'll admit, I wasn't too excited when I first heard about Pixar's latest. However after seeing the trailers, there's something about it that has me dying to see it. The story revolves around Wall-E, a robot who is in charge of cleaning up earth 700 years in the future (humans have abandoned the planet for the time being). However, one day a peculiar spacecraft lands and whisks the curious little robot (think of him as an adorably naive R2-D2) off on a glorious adventure through space. Though there isn't much speaking in the film (Wall-E communicates in little bleeps), I have a feeling that this could be one of the most refreshing screenplays of the year.Excitement Level: Very High


1. The Dark Knight - really, was this any surprise given the amount I've time on this blog I've dedicated to pimping out the movie? Early word of mouth has been good (especially for Ledger's performance) and as a whole it just looks so much better than Batman Begins (which was great). The darkness and grittiness seem to have been amplified by a factor of 10, and for a superhero as dark as Batman, that can only be a good thing. Expect great things (there are rumors that Ledger might be good enough to snag a postmortem Oscar nomination...wouldn't that be something?).Excitement Level: VERY VERY HIGH

No wine(house) for James Bond.....damn....

according to an article published today, Amy Winehouse has officially dropped out of recording a theme song for the upcoming 007: Quantum of Solace, because she is "not ready to go back to work". Really a shame, considering the article linked at the bottom of the posts states that she had started some work on it. Oh well....there's always Bond 23....if Amy is still alive by then....

ARTICLE

Amazing new stills from "Australia"

^This one is easily my favorite

First review of "Iron Man"!!!

Source: Scifimoviepage.com

Rating: 3/5

Superhero origin stories are usually a drag. After all, do we really want to see how Peter Parker is bitten by a radioactive spider or how the Fantastic Four gets bombarded with gamma rays whilst adrift in space?

Not really. Audiences just want to get to the good stuff straight away — Fantastic Four’s The Thing clobbering Dr. Doom — without any dull exposition.

Too much exposition and too little action pay-off threaten to derail Iron Man, but the origin story is so intrinsic to the character and the plot that there is no way getting around it. After all, then Iron Man would just be some guy in a robot suit. Instead he is Tony Stark, billionaire playboy owner of Stark Industries, one of the U.S.’s biggest military weapons producers. Stark (Robert Downey, Jr. in an energetic performance) is kidnapped by some terrorists after demonstrating some of Stark Industry’s latest military technology to top brass in Afghanistan.

Ah, how the sands of global politics have shifted. In the Reagan years Afghan militia were the heroes in movies such as Rambo III. Here they are the villains. (In the original 1960s Stan Lee comic books Stark was captured by the Vietcong.) The Afghan villains here are however depoliticised. They seem to have no radical Islamic political agenda and are merely generic bad guys. All they want is power for the sake of it. What they are going to do once they get power is a bit of a mystery. Thus there is no America being the “Great Satan” speeches by the head villain. Just a lot of vague grousing about becoming the next Genghis Khan stuff — nothing to overtly alienate potential Muslim audiences.

The Mujadin, er sorry, Afghan bad guys force the captive Stark into building a new high-tech missile system for them. How they realistically expected him to build a piece of leading-edge technology for them in a cave using a blast furnace is a bit of mystery. One can see that it is all written by the same screenplay writers who expect audiences to buy what happens next: instead of building the missile for them, Stark builds an super-powered iron bodysuit right under their noses. The bodysuit is bulletproof, can fly and boasts a flamethrower too. Pretty impressive for what seems to be a few days’ work!

"What makes Iron Man work is an electrifying performance by Robert Downey, Jr . . ."

Stark uses the suit to escape and eventually winds up back in the States where he announces in a informal press conference that Stark Industries will be quitting the lucrative weapons manufacture business; something which he decided upon after realizing that the Afghan baddies have been supplied with Stark weapons all along, probably by someone within the company itself. That “someone” turns out to be his second-in-command, Obadiah Stane (played by a bald Jeff Bridges). It seems that Bridges’ cigar-chomping power-suited baldy is (surprise! surprise!) the villain all along and has actually ordered a hit on Stark so that he can take control of the company. Stane also discovers what Tony Stark has been up to since he came back from captivity in Afghanistan, namely secretly building a more advanced prototype of the metal suit he used to escape. Naturally Stane builds an even bigger metal robot (named Iron Monger, but never called that in the movie) with which Iron Man faces off during the film’s climax.

There is a noticeable dip in the action once Stark returns to the States and starts building his second robot suit, especially since we have already sat through some scenes of him having built the first suit. However Downey Jr.’s charismatic performance, some unexpected humor and exceptional special effects pull the movie through these scenes so that we can get to the mano-a-mano super-powered robots battle towards the end. These scenes are well-done, but pales somewhat to the fight scenes in last year’s Transformers.

But CGI robot fight scenes aren’t what Iron Man is about. What makes the movie work (and it does work despite its mistakes) is an electrifying performance by Robert Downey, Jr., clever and witty dialogue plus some neat special effects and some nice humorous touches. Ideally one should hate the cocky and obnoxious Stark, especially during the movie’s early scenes in which one is confronted by his envy-inducing playboy lifestyle. We are supposed to hate sleazy weapons manufacturers, right? Yet Downey, Jr. actually makes us like Stark. This is Downey’s movie and he carries it through with aplomb. The supporting cast (also including Terrence Howard and Gwyneth Paltrow as loyal sidekicks) do okay, but actually have very little to do. This is Downey’s show, and the other actors seem to realise this and never try to steal the movie from him.

The first real blockbuster of 2008, Iron Man is fluff. But it is hugely entertaining fluff. Less of a butt-numbing experience than Spider-man 3, but more substantial than Fantastic Four – Rise of the Silver Surfer, Iron Man clocks in at 126 minutes. Despite that small dip in the action, the running time is just about right. Audiences looking for grand escapist fare at cinemas this summer won’t mind having spent their price of admission on it. Be sure to get some popcorn too . . .

Some notes:

• The film’s politics are astoundingly naïve in the way it ignores the realities of the global weapons business. For a more realistic view, check out Lord of War starring Nicolas Cage. In a way it is a mistake getting Iron Man involved in “everyday” stuff such as fixing global wrongs. Does this mean that he is going to solve all of our wars for us? Should he have been called Globocop instead? Iron Man should ideally be battling supervillains and evil masterminds.
• In a way Iron Man is the ultimate wish-fulfilment role model for picked-upon adolescents. After all, who wouldn’t want to be a super-rich billionaire, have chicks all over them and use their money to become a real-life superhero and kick peoples’ asses?
• Famously in the comics Stark fought a battle with alcoholism. In this movie he chugs down a lot of booze in his “pre-hero” phase, but seems to sober up as soon as he becomes Iron Man.
• The movie ends somewhat abruptly and will probably have audiences wanting more . . .

Trailer for "Blindness"

Looks like one of those "disease infects humanity" thrillers......only with a brain...

Director: Fernando Mereilles

Starring: Julianne Moore, Mark Ruffalo, Gael Garcia Bernal, Sandra Oh (bleh)

Sorry....I made a mistake....

THIS is the new trailer for Hellboy 2: The Golden Army. The video a few posts down is the same trailer that was released in January......

Judi Dench and Nicole Kidman may join adaptation of 09 musical "Nine"

NEW YORK -- Nicole Kidman and Judi Dench might soon be dressing up to the "Nine."

The Oscar-winning pair are in talks to join Javier Bardem, Penelope Cruz, Marion Cotillard and Sophia Loren in Rob Marshall's adaptation of the Tony-winning Broadway musical.

The 1982 show, itself an adaptation of Federico Fellini's autobiographical opus "8 1/2," revolves around a film director (Bardem) juggling the demands of several women in his life.

The Weinstein Co. project was slated to begin principal photography in March but was postponed when the late writer-director Anthony Minghella didn't have enough time to rework Michael Tolkin's screenplay before the WGA strike. Extra work was needed to coordinate the choreography and Maury Yeston's music and lyrics with a new draft. The film is now tentatively scheduled for a September start.

Kidman is due to give birth in the summer, giving her several months of maternity leave before the film's proposed start date. Her filming also might be scheduled in the latter part of the shoot.


Plenty of people are familiar with Kidman's singing and dancing chops from "Moulin Rouge," but far fewer are aware of Dench's extensive musical theater experience. She played Sally Bowles in the original London production of "Cabaret" in 1968, and won the 1995 Olivier Award for best actress in a musical in a revival of Stephen Sondheim's "A Little Night Music."

Kidman is repped by CAA. Dench is repped by Julian Belfrage & Associates and manager Gene Parseghian.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Javier Bardem, Sophia Loren, Penelope Cruz, Marion Cotillard, Nicole Kidman, AND Judi Dench, all in the same movie? If those last two ladies sign on, this will be one of the most talented casts ever assembled for a musical.

Final US Poster for "The Fall"

Simply stunning. Critics could call this the worst movie of the year, but I'm seeing it no matter what. This looks like the type of film that needs to be seen on the BIG screen...
The Fall hits theaters in limited release on May 9th (hopefully that includes Houston)

click on the picture to see a larger version.

First pictures of Keira Knightley from "The Edge of Love" (2008) --Article below..

Keira Knightley snuck into a recording studio to lay down the tracks she sings in a new movie and the result is an album featuring the young Oscar-nominated star.

Keira stars with Sienna Miller (almost unrecognisable), Matthew Rhys and Cillian Murphy in John Maybury's film The Edge Of Love.

It's about two women in Dylan Thomas's life - his childhood friend Vera Phillips and his wife Caitlin MacNamara - and their Bohemian romping during World War II.

Keira Knightley sings in her new movie, The Edge Of Love

The movie, which was written by Keira's mum Sharman Macdonald, opens with Keira, who plays Vera, singing Blue Tahitian Moon to people sheltering in an Underground station during the Blitz.

When I visited the set last year, Keira admitted to me she wasn't sure she could carry a tune. "I can't really sing," she said. "I had to have a few lessons, but once I started doing it, a sound emerged that wasn't too disagreeable!"

Well, she's always downplaying her talent - I suspect because of those who, for some reason I can't fathom, sneer at her. She should start believing in herself and get used to the fact that she's emerging as a damn good actress. And her singing, which has a mournful edge to it, is far from "disagreeable".

The album, which is being released later this year on Universal's Classics and Jazz label, also has Keira singing two other numbers featured in the movie: Irving Berlin's Maybe It's Because I Love You Too Much and Drifting And Dreaming.

The soundtrack also has Suggs from Madness crooning Hang Out The Stars In Indiana and numbers written by Maybury and Angelo Badalamenti, sung by Siouxsie Sioux, Beth Rowley and Patrick Wolf.

I saw a completed version of The Edge Of Love and, as I revealed in previous columns, Keira and Sienna (who portrays Caitlin) give sublime performances that delve deeper when Maybury moves the story from London to windswept Wales.

There, the two women essentially co-habit with the poet. Indeed, all four leads are brilliant when the story darkens in Wales.

I'm sure it's going to be a contender at Cannes and other film festivals this year.

Both movie and album will probably come out in the summer.

The 10 Movies I'm looking forward to: Spring/ Early Summer

rather than make a lengthy post dedicated to films that won't come out until the end of the year (and therefore make time appear to slow down even further), I'd much rather make a lengthy post dedicated to movies being released within a relatively short time frame (let's say from March to mid or late May). These next two months are about to get a lot longer....

***The only requirement to be on this list is a simple one: it has to be one that has yet to be released as of today (which rules out "Vantage Point", "The Other Boleyn Girl", and "Be Kind Rewind").

10. 10,000 BC: Roland Emmerich is no Scorcese (or even Michael Bay for that matter) but he sure knows how to make cool looking objects crash, smash, and go 'boom'. While the trailer suggests that this will be nothing more than a cheesy popcorn flick with great production values, it looks like a moderately enjoyable cheesy popcorn flick with great production values. And kudos for that that amazing historical inaccuracy (because that's never seen in Hollywood films at all). Also, some points off for giving your main hero dread locks; Jack Sparrow's the only big budget Hollywood character who can pull the look off......sorry. World's first Gay Pride Parade(not that there's anything wrong with that...)

I only have two questions: 1) what is with the saber toothed tiger? that thing shows up like, FIVE times during the trailer. Is it an important character or something? Or is it simply the dread locked dude's daemon *cough*goldencompassreference*cough*? 2) I really want to know how dinosaurs, mammoths, big ass temples, forests, wintry mountains, epic walking across a desert, some hot girl who gets captured, ships with magenta colored sails, and the aforementioned tiger can all be crammed into one coherent movie.........(though I think we all know the answer to that question)

Level of Excitement: Decent (it won't be "300", that's for sure)

9. Wanted: As much as I'm sick of Angelina Jolie (and I fear that she could screw up Clint Eastwood's upcoming film "The Changeling"), the idea of her playing up her hotness factor while wielding a shot gun and flirting with James McAvoy is strangely appealing to me. But then again, as a hormonally unstable teenage, I guess it makes sense....anyone married and/or over 35....you've got some explaining to do....

Level of Excitement: Decent (if it weren't for the cast I wouldn't even bother)

8. My Blueberry Nights: I'm forced to put this one low on the list because...well...I haven't heard anything about it in ages. It was supposed to be released in late 2007, but it had trouble picking up an American distributor (though with all of 2007's glorious entries, it's somewhat understandable). The film will enjoy a limited (and very much delayed) release sometime in March or early April. The story centers on a young woman (Norah Jones...yes that Norah Jones) who travels across America trying to find herself....or something like that. Along the way she meets various eccentrics who bear striking resemblances to Jude Law, Rachel Weisz, and Natalie Portman.....
Level of Excitement: Moderate

7. Leatherheads: another movie that I probably wouldn't bother with if I didn't like (most) of the cast (George "awards whore" Clooney, John Krasinski (Jim from The Office), and Renee Zellweger, who could really use a career-reviver about now). Clooney also directs (and maybe writes) this sports comedy about a struggling 1920s football team that starts to move in the right direction after acquiring a decorated WWI soldier with some unique skills (Krasinski). The best part of it all?: Watching John Krasinski punch George Clooney in the face in the trailer.

Special Note to Mr. Clooney: Start preparing your acceptance speech now, as I have no doubts this film will figure prominently into Awards Season 2008......*cough*awardswhore*cough*

Level of Excitement: Moderate

6. Paranoid Park: There's really only one reason - it's directed by versatile director Gus Van Sant (Good Will Hunting, the masterpiece that is To Die For, Dancer in the Dark, etc...) who can be uneven, but when he's on target, he's brilliant. The story is about (I think I have this right) about a punk skateboarder who commits a crime/witnesses a crime/witnesses and commits a crime/witnesses a crime and starts to get involved in but then remembers that his mom was making his favorite food for dinner that night so he left but still saw the rest of the crime/gets mixed up with the wrong crowd, and runs away from home while having to lie about the crime. And somehow a place called Paranoid Park figures into it all......kind of.....

Level of Excitement: Moderate (if only the trailer had been just a tad bit more revealing....*sigh*)

5. Iron Man: I know Iron is another comic book superhero finally getting the big screen treatment. That's it. So for me this will be a journey of discovery (and of course, objects exploding). Robert Downey Jr. seems like a quirky and intriguing choice for a superhero, and the film seems to have a pretty decent sense of humor (Spiderman 3, start taking notes) based on the trailer. It's also nice to see Gwyneth Paltrow in a movie that will probably make more than $10 million for the first time since........Shakespeare in Love.....

Level of Excitement: Good

4. The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian: It just looks sooooooooooooooooooooo much better than the plodding Lion/Witch/Wardrobe from 2005. From better special effects, a more grown up look (and story), and the possible return of Oscar Winner Tilda Swinton(TM) (boy does that feel good), as the White Witch (was that her behind that weird veil of water????), it just looks like it won't be the slow (but pretty) drag that the first installment was. Oh, and the little girl who played Lucy is back, which is great because she was the only kid actor worth anything in the first one..

Level of Excitement: Good

3. Smart People: Ellen Page takes on the role of a smarty-pants teenager stuck in some weird family situations. Sound a little too much like Juno? Don't worry (at least not now, though I've heard that her character....well...I'll just shut up now), Page's "Vanessa" is nearly the polar opposite of Juno save for the quick wit: flippy hairdo, highstrung-all-A-student, and member of her high school's Young Republicans Club. She's actually not the main character this time. That would be Dennis Quaid's uptight college professor who gets into some sort of accident, rendering him unable to drive for several months. Right on cue, quirky, hilarious chaos ensues as a former student (Sarah Jessica Parker) and a goofy brother (Thomas Haden Church) get thrown into the mix.

Level of Excitement: High

2. Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day: When Frances McDormand isn't filming a Coen Brothers movie, she either goes into hibernation along with Daniel Day-Lewis, Jodie Foster, and Julie Christie, or she makes delightful little movies like this one. McDormand plays an English governess who has trouble keeping work (says one frustrated client: "I can't believe I hired someone with your....your........hair!"). So when the employment office refuses to help her anymore, she gets desperate and steals an assignment, which leads her to the home of a wealthy aspiring actress (played by Amy Adams. The movie automatically becomes 1000x more awesome right now). Joining the cast are Ciaran Hinds, Lee Pace (Pushing Daisies), and ....well someone else I'm sure. Along the way, Miss Pettigrew gets to enjoy high society life, experiencing fancy parties, fashion shows, massages, and a complete makeover which prompts her to gasp: "Is this me?" (to which Adams responds with the trailer's best line: "As nature intended!"). Bonus points just for making the whole thing look so darn adorable.

Level of Excitement: Very High

1. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of Crystal Skull: Two words: Cate. Blanchett. Like fellow Aussie/Oscar Winner Nicole Kidman, the woman can do just about anything, even play a villain in a big budget movie. That, and Harrison Ford's deadpan line delivery remains completely intact. I'm not too crazy about Shia Labeouf joining the cast (if it hadn't been for Disturbia and Transformers in a single year, it never would've happened), but the rest looks like classic Indy fun.

Actually, make that three words: Cate. Blanchett. ALIENS. (yeah, you heard me).

Level of Excitement: So High I'm about to explode.....*blam* whoops...too late...

FAKE poster for "Australia"

whoever photo shopped this together did a great job. I thought it was real when I saw it.

"Australia" (2008) finally finishes filming.

now let's see how long director Baz Lurhmann (Moulin Rouge!) can drag out post production......
oh, and here's two pictures..