Summer Movies »
So How Did You Like Summer 2010, Movie-Wise?
Filed under: Summer Movies
I'm going to keep this short and quick: the general consensus (aka my twitter feed) seems to indicate that the summer of 2010 was "like, one of the worst ever," as decided by a group of people with the average age of 27. I actually agreed with that sentiment until just now, which is when I popped open the summer schedule and started reminiscing. Speaking only about "studio" flicks, since this is the summertime we're talking about, we start with...
May
Iron Man 2
Robin Hood
MacGruber
Shrek Forever After
Sex and the City 2
Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time
Iron Man 2
Robin Hood
MacGruber
Shrek Forever After
Sex and the City 2
Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time
-- I actually dug Iron Man 2 quite a bit, but this is an admittedly thin batch. Anyone out there want to champion one of these flicks?
June
Get Him to the Greek
Killers
Marmaduke
Splice
The A-Team
The Karate Kid
Jonah Hex
Toy Story 3
Knight and Day
Grown Ups
Eclipse
Get Him to the Greek
Killers
Marmaduke
Splice
The A-Team
The Karate Kid
Jonah Hex
Toy Story 3
Knight and Day
Grown Ups
Eclipse
Wow. There's a few there I haven't seen, but even fans of Greek or The A-Team are hardly to call them big-time summer season barn-burners. Splice is a pretty damn cool piece of sci-fi / horror, but I don't get why you release that flick in the summertime. (pause for dramatic effect) Toy Story 3 is a thing of beauty.
Summer Scenes We Love: Enter the Dragon
Filed under: Action, Warner Brothers, Summer Movies, Scenes We Love
In a too-brief career, martial artist/actor Bruce Lee appeared in only four complete films before his untimely death in 1973 at the age of 32, The Big Boss (released in the U.S. as Fists of Fury), Fist of Fury (released in the U.S. as The Chinese Connection), Way of the Dragon (released here as Return of the Dragon), and Enter the Dragon, his first (and last) English-language film. A fifth film, Game of Death, begun before Enter the Dragon, but left unfinished at the time of Lee's death, was released in 1978 with doubles and stand-ins. A Golden Harvest and Warner Bros. co-production (the first of its kind), Enter the Dragon promised to make the charismatic Lee a star not just internationally (he was already that), but an American one as well. Lee died less than a week before Enter the Dragon's Hong Kong premiere.At the behest of Warner Bros., Lee agreed to share co-lead status with an American actor, John Saxon (Roper), and to widen the demographics to urban audiences with an African-American martial arts star, Jim Kelly (Williams). Three leads meant less time on-screen for Lee, but that did little to blunt Lee's impact whenever Enter the Dragon returned to his character and storyline. When we first meet Lee (he's called Lee in the film too), he's in practice mode, beating a pudgy opponent (Sammo Hung) in an easy match-up. After Lee engages in a Kung-Fu-style exchange of Eastern-influenced platitudes with an orange-robed, elder Shaolin monk, he meets an official from a Europol-like organization, Mr. Braithwaite (Geoffrey Weeks).
5 Reasons To Not Avoid Movie Theaters This August
Filed under: New in Theaters, Summer Movies
August is obviously the worst. As if the rampant humidity and the complete lack of hockey weren't enough to convince you, there's also... (please hold as I Google "Worst things to have ever happened in August...") the perennially tragic anniversary of August 8th, the day on which Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman were divorced in 2001. But August's most damning flaw is obviously its horrific dearth of worthy new films to see. Multiplexes become ghost towns -- Jennifer Aniston films play to tumbleweeds as we huddle around our computers, basking in the warm glow of trailers for the Oscar bait and festival sensations that await us in the fall.
But there is hope in the darkness. There are bastions of potential quality out there in the dreck, films imploring you to grab a 293-gallon Coke and venture forth to the cinema. Here are 5 movies to get excited about before The American comes out and shit gets real.
5.) Step Up 3D (8/6)
I haven't seen either of this hallowed trilogy's first two films, but methinks If I clench real hard I might be able to keep up with the latest installment. My dismissive snark notwithstanding, I must admit that this film is something of an event for me, as it's the first film this year I'll be seeing because it's in 3-D, rather than in spite of that fact. If the uncomfortably awesome trailer is any indication, director / choreographer Jon Chu has made tremendously visceral use of the technology, fiddling with depth of field to bring dance battles more evocative of the Shaw Brothers than Strictly Ballroom into the third dimension. A fair price to pay for 90 minutes of Flo Rida.
Double Features of Summer: 'Operation Condor' and 'The Mark of Zorro'
Filed under: Summer Movies
After the summer of 1981, all summer adventures were measured against Indiana Jones. For whatever reason, the particular attributes of the character -- the way he winced in pain when pummeled, the way he never seemed to get a break -- were very appealing in a human way, and his adventures were endlessly thrilling. Sadly, as the 1980s wound down, we got our last Indiana Jones movie for 19 years, leaving the 1990s barren. Of course, there were lots of terrific summer movies, ranging from Unforgiven to Speed, Mission: Impossible to The Fugitive. But I was always looking for that particular Indiana Jones charge.
I think I found it, twice. (And just in case you're thinking about The Mummy, just forget it.) The first time was during a festival of Hong Kong movies held sometime in 1993. I had recently discovered the phenomenon and was eagerly devouring everything I could find. I haunted this particular theater that week, and brought my brother along to a Jackie Chan double feature. The first was Project A II (1987) and the second was called Armour of God II: Operation Condor (1991). It didn't matter that both movies were sequels and that we hadn't seen the originals. I loved them both, but Armour of God II had that special Indiana Jones feel.
Double Features of Summer: 'Who Framed Roger Rabbit' and 'The Ladies Man'
Filed under: Comedy, Summer Movies
In the summer of 1988, I paid to see Who Framed Roger Rabbit five times in the theater, which is still my personal record. I loved it unconditionally, and I still do. It struck me as a great comedy, a brilliant satire, a social commentary, a solid detective film, a breakthrough technical achievement, and also a potential classic. The character of Roger Rabbit (voiced by Charles Fleischer) already seemed worthy of company like Bugs Bunny and Donald Duck; he made the transition to just three animated shorts, but in a simpler time, he could have been the star of dozens more.
I loved Roger. I liked his attitude. I liked his philosophy. I thought he was funny. But I guess I wasn't too surprised when I discovered that there were people out there who despised him. They thought he was too frantic, too squeaky, altogether annoying. Which brings me to our summer double feature. If Who Framed Roger Rabbit is our first feature, then Jerry Lewis' The Ladies Man, which opened June 28, 1961, has to be the second. Like Roger Rabbit, the living cartoon character Jerry Lewis is considered a genius in some quarters, and obnoxious in other quarters. You can bring on the "French" jokes now, but let me just explain that the French love Jerry Lewis not only because he's funny, but because he's a genuine film artist, committed to the art of the director.
Summer Scenes We Love: National Lampoon's Vacation
Filed under: Summer Movies
The year National Lampoon's Vacation came out, my family took a very similar vacation, to some of the same places (Grand Canyon included). I saw the movie later, after we returned home, and it really struck me. Of course, we did not strap my dead auntie to the top of the family truckster, but there were other, subtler commonalities. I have many fond memories of that trip, but I would never want to take the same ride again. But all the disasters aside, the thing that I love best about Chevy Chase's vacation is the general hopefulness of it, the notion that things could get better at any time. Clark W. Griswold is almost always cheerful, no matter what's going wrong, and he's always open to the idea of fantasy as the sexy dreamgirl (Christie Brinkley) keeps turning up in his rear view mirror.
As for a scene I love, so many come to mind. I still laugh at the absolute wretchedness of cousin Eddie's house and kids, and the way he hands a half-drunk beer to Clark while opening a new one for himself. I still love the backwoods mechanics -- one carrying the grungiest sheriff's badge in cinema history -- and John Candy's straight-laced park security guard. I love the legendary Eddie Bracken (veteran of many Preston Sturges films) as Roy Walley. I love Rusty (Anthony Michael Hall) and Audrey (Dana Barron) sharing a pair of headphones -- and the Ramones -- to block out their parents' singing. I even love Lindsay Buckingham's cheerful, silly song "Holiday Road" that still enlivens my own summer road trips.
But this scene, in which Clark and Rusty have a man-to-man talk and share a beer, is something special. Let's not forget that John Hughes wrote it and Harold Ramis directed it, and they must have had a terrific summer as well.
Double Features of Summer: Innerspace & Bug
Filed under: Summer Movies
Warning: this double feature may make you itch. With summer movies getting bigger and bigger every year, I thought it would be a good idea to focus on a pair of movies with microscopic themes. We should start with Joe Dante's Innerspace (1987), whose release was somehow botched over the July Fourth weekend. Perhaps it was bad advertising or something, but the movie just never did the business that it should have. I remember that in my small town, it never even turned up in a regular run during the summer. The first time I had a chance to see it was at a midnight show sometime after the school year started in the fall.
I have seen it many times since, and I'm always impressed at how smooth it is, and how well it sustains its mood, humor, character development, chases and everything else throughout its entire length. Of course, Dennis Quaid stars as Tuck Pendleton, a pilot who volunteers to be miniaturized and injected into a lab rabbit. Instead he is accidentally injected into Jack Putter (Martin Short), a supermarket clerk. (Gotta love those character names!) It's the ultimate mismatched pair to the rescue as they must enlist the aid of Tuck's angry girlfriend Lydia (Meg Ryan), defeat the villain known as the Cowboy (Robert Picardo) and get Tuck back to his normal size before he runs out of air.
Summer Scenes We Love: Return of the Living Dead
Filed under: Fandom, Summer Movies
It's hard to choose just one scene in The Return of the Living Dead to single out as a favorite as the whole movie is comprised of funny bits of smart-ass gallows humor. If writer/director Dan O'Bannon hadn't scripted Alien before this, I'd like to think he'd be most famous for Return of the Living Dead, though co-scripting Dark Star would also be acceptable. Return of the Living Dead is so cynical, so hip and so mean-spirited to its characters. It refuses them a safe way out of their dilemma at every turn, scoffing at the very idea of applying logic or a set of rules in dispatching a flesh-eating corpse, something that should not logically exist.
If I had to choose, I guess the scene that best epitomizes the movie's sense of humor is the one where bumbling warehouse employees Fred and Frank (Thom Matthew and James Karen) and their boss Burt (Clu Gulager) first realize that there's no good way to kill these things. At least, not one they know of. Return of the Living Dead takes place in a universe where Night of the Living Dead exists but is rumored to be based on real events. As Frank tells Freddy, the filmmaker of Night of the Living Dead, who is never mentioned by name in the film, had to falsify certain facts. One of those facts, as we'll soon learn, is how to kill a zombie.
Summer Scenes We Love: Real Genius
Filed under: Comedy, Sony, Summer Movies, Scenes We Love
Nineteen eighty-five was a great year film wise. In addition to Back to the Future (and, ahem, Teen Wolf, both starring Michael J. Fox), moviegoers in 1985 could pick from any number of soon-to-be classics, near-classics, or soon-to-be cable fodder at movie theaters, including Rambo: First Blood Part II, Rocky IV, Jewel of the Nile, Out of Africa (a multiple Academy Award winner), Pee-Wee's Big Adventure, The Goonies, Year of the Dragon, Young Sherlock Holmes, and for the horror-oriented, George A. Romero's Day of the Dead, and Return of the Living Dead, a horror-parody of Romero's contributions to the undead sub-genre. For me, Martha Coolidge's Real Genius, a Reagan-era, geek comedy-satire loaded with quotable lines, memorable scenes, a synth-pop score by a who's who of 80s' one-hit wonders, and Val Kilmer, giving one of his all-time best performances, deserves to be at or near the top of any 80s-related list. Real Genius focuses on Mitch Taylor (Gabriel Jarret), a 15-year old science prodigy. A professor (and dean), a Carl Sagan-inspired professor, Jerry Hathaway (William Atherton), recruits Mitch to attend the Pacific Institute of Science and Technology. Hathaway is eager to exploit Mitch's laser-related research for a defense-funded laser project. If completed, the project would allow the U.S. to kill a human target from outer space, but Hathaway doesn't mention the project's intended use to Mitch. Hathaway and his college team, however, are at least 18 months away from success. His CIA superiors and the military want a successful test of the laser in four months. That explains Mitch's unusual mid-year acceptance to Pacific Tech.
The Pros and Cons of 'Breaking Dawn's Bloody Birth
Filed under: Drama, Romance, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Fandom, Remakes and Sequels, Summer Movies
Warning: This post contains Twilight spoilers a-plenty, so if you aren't familiar with the tale of Edward and Bella you might want to bookmark this one for later.
When the announcement came that Summit would be dividing Breaking Dawn into two films, the final chapter in the saga of Edward and Bella still had one big question hanging over it: "How are they going to handle the birth of Ed and Bella's daughter, Renesmee?" Well, over the last week we've been getting a few answers from Twilight screenwriter Melissa Rosenberg, and Dawn's director Bill Condon, and while it looks like they aren't looking to cut out any of the "blood, sex, and feathers", the violent birth of Edward and Bella's daughter could happen off-screen entirely.
Of course, I'm a logical gal, and I can see their point, but that doesn't mean I'm not a little disappointed. Even as a non-fan of the franchise, the one thing I was looking forward to was getting to see how they handled this particularly 'wacky' moment in the story. But even if I were to keep my twisted sense of humor out of it, I can't help but feel that maybe it's about time this franchise got a little more grown up, and nothing says grown-up like viscera. But like I said, I'm all about logic, and in honor of my obsessive need to prioritize, I put together some pros and cons to watching Bella's special delivery on the big screen in all its gooey glory.
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