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I was 13 years old in the summer of 1997. I don't know if it's my favorite movie summer, but I do know that it was seminal -- at least in the sense that it was the first summer when I made a concerted effort to keep up with Hollywood's weekly output and see as much of it as I could. Already, I was jotting down my thoughts on everything I saw, fancying myself a budding film critic. The following year, I would start my own website on the now-defunct Geocities, and the rest would be history.

But, 1997. I didn't see everything (so I won't try to cover everything), and there's a lot I haven't caught up with. Still, looking back, I can see the beginnings of my current tastes and predilections. And amazingly, I can still remember the circumstances under which I saw some of these movies. Here are some of my memories.

May 23

The Lost World: Jurassic Park: I remember the talk about whether The Lost World would join the exclusive $200 million club, which just seems so darn quaint now. (It did, by the way.) I also remember the hype about it being the largest opening ever (3,281 screens). I saw the actual movie while visiting family friends in Tennessee. I loved it. Arguably, it began my love affair with Steven Spielberg (I had not, at the time, seen Raiders of the Lost Ark, though I believe I had seen E.T.)

Apparently the ShoWest Sony presentation just ended out in Las Vegas with the announcement that the studio would be returning to the very successful Men in Black franchise for a third installment to hit theaters in 2011. According to reports at Collider and JoBlo, there were no further announcements as far as cast and release date, however Sony probably wouldn't launch another Men in Black film without at least Will Smith's participation. Will Tommy Lee Jones reprise his role, too, or will Smith get himself a new partner in crime? Will it go 3D? IMAX? Sadly, these questions were not answered. Aside from Men in Black 3, Sony also confirmed that they're working on Spider-Man 4 and Ghostbusters 3, which is news we've already known for quite some time now.

The Men in Black stuff is brand new, though, and if they do hold it for summer 2011, they'll be going up against some mega competition from Avengers, Harry Potter and Spider-Man. Unfortunately, Sony did not talk more about the next Spider-Man sequel, either revealing its cast or villains or production schedule. All we have regarding Spidey right now is its May 6, 2011 release date.

Are you excited for a new Men in Black movie? Did you dig the first two? Which project are you looking forward to the most: Ghostbusters 3, Men in Black 3, Spider-Man 4 or Where Have All The Original Ideas Gone?

I recall reading about real-life experiments with invisibility a couple years back, and I could have sworn I blogged about them here on Cinematical. But I must have decided to keep Harry Potter fans from getting their hopes up, despite the fact that the original article I read had specifically mentioned Potter's invisibility cloak. Plus, I must have been hesitant to attempt to explain the science behind it.

Well, now that more news has come out about the development of materials that may be able to render people and other three-dimensional objects invisible, I figure it's time to get excited. Now we can definitely wander around Hogwarts after dark without being spotted by Argus Filch. Or, for the grown up kids, you can potentially sneak into the girls' locker room. Just beware that these real-life cloaks probably don't work so well in such foggy conditions.

Since this week finds fireworks in the sky and a new Will Smith action flick in theaters (Hancock), we thought it might be fun to take a look back at Smith's previous action films and try to decide which one we like the best. We're not including all of Smith's films here, because, well, it's kinda unfair to compare, say, The Pursuit of Happyness or Ali to Men in Black or I, Robot. Perhaps next time we'll take a look at Smith's watered down, dramatic efforts, but for now we'll stick to the rock-em-sock-em fan favorites.

And since I always give my opinion before asking for yours, I'm going to say that out of all of Smith's action-adventure films, Bad Boys is my favorite. Yes, I've gone with the Michael Bay film -- kill me now! Actually, now that Smith is a huge, mega star, we don't see him in buddy films anymore -- and watching him opposite Martin Lawrence in Bad Boys (as well as Tommy Lee Jones in Men in Black) was an absolute blast. The sequel(s) ... well, how about we not go there. What say you, Will Smith fans -- which of his action films is your favorite?

If you're a true movie geek, you probably refuse to dress up at Halloween in anything but a movie-related costume. I guess I'm not a true movie geek, because two years ago I went as Family Guy's Quagmire, who as of yet is not in any movies. Last year, though, I was Harpo Marx. I haven't decided what to be this year yet, but it isn't definite that I'll be something with cinematic reference.

Of course, if I was a real, hardcore movie geek, I wouldn't just settle for the basic, predictable movie-themed outfit. I'd go for the gold, and be an uber-geek. How? I would doubly dress up as a movie character who is dressed up as somebody or something else. To do so, I would pick one of my favorite non-Halloween costumes and disguises depicted on film (it isn't as fun dressing as a character who is dressed up for Halloween). However, most of these would be difficult to achieve -- or at least too obscure to wear to a common party, where the crowd isn't as film familiar as you. If you attempt any of these, good luck! And please, please send me a photo.

1. Harpo Marx and Chico Marx as Groucho Marx in Duck Soup (1933, Leo McCarey)

See, now if I had really wanted to be geeky (or pretentious), I would have not just dressed as Harpo last Halloween; I would have dressed as Harpo dressed as Groucho. In one of the most famous sequences in any Marx Brothers film, Pinky (Harpo) and Chicolini (Chico) each disguises himself as Rufus T. Firefly (Groucho) in order to steal some war plans. The real gem of the sequence, of course, is the "mirror scene" (watch it if you've never seen it before, please), where Pinky pretends to be the reflection of Rufus until Chicolini appears and ruins everything. Although historically it was only Harpo and Chico who were often mistaken for each other, or for twins, all three brothers look so alike here, that when they're all together, it is almost difficult to tell who is who. If you want to pull this double-costume off, it won't be hard -- Grouch faces are easy to do, and then you just need a sleeping cap and gown -- but I doubt you'll get much tolerance when you constantly correct everyone who thinks you're simply Groucho.

I used to be into in the prophesies of Nostradamus, but for some reason I lost interest in the 16th century seer after watching that boring biopic where he's played by Tchéky Karyo. Anyway, I thought most of the prophesy appeal died out with the event-less turn of the millennium. Seven years later, after the devastation of 9/11, Katrina, the tsunami and other disasters, maybe it is time to check back on Nostradamus' quatrains to see if there's any other upcoming tragedies we might be able to avert.

This idea of making sure Nostradamus's' predictions don't come true is already on the way to comic book racks and movie theaters. Boom Studios' comic The Foundation is about a secret organization, originally set up by Nostradamus himself, which deciphers and investigates the quatrains in order to change the future. That would certainly explain why so many of Nostradamus' prophesies seem to be false. Seeing as how The Foundation sounds like a perfect mix of Quantum Leap, Men in Black and (as Boom's website mentions) The X-Files and 24, it makes sense that Hollywood would be interested before the first issue even hits stores. Paramount has locked the rights to the comic and they've got Boom founders Andrew Cosby and Ross Richie producing.

Cosby and Richie had previously sold the movie rights to two of Boom's other titles, both to Universal. Talent is like the television series Lost except that it deals with only one sole plane crash survivor who seems to suddenly possess the talents of the 148 passengers who perished. Tag is described by Boom as, "spine-snapping horror in the tradition of the movie The Ring!" Boom has only been around for about two years now, but if Cosby and Richie keep developing comics they can compare to TV shows and movies, then I predict the company will have a long life and a lasting relationship with Hollywood.

He may not be that great a director, but Barry Sonnenfeld is good enough for comedic sci-fi/fantasy fare like the Men in Black and Addams Family movies. When he doesn't have cool production design or special effects to fall back on, he tends to deliver worthless titles like Big Trouble and RV. Of course, he has exceptions: Wild Wild West was an awful effects-driven pic and Get Shorty was a great film without any fantastic elements. Still, we must be thankful that his next project deals with the supernatural. Based on the myth of Pandora's Box, the movie is simply titled The Box, and is about a directionless college graduate who is tricked into opening the infamous container, unleashing the evil out unto the world.

The script is being written by Evan Spiliotopoulos, who penned Pooh's Heffalump Movie (as well as its direct-to-video Halloween-set sequel) and has worked on scripts for other animated pics, including The Jungle Book 2, Tarzan II and Lion King 1½. For the future he's also written an animated version of The Nutty Professor, which features the voice of Jerry Lewis rather than Eddie Murphy, and the animated sci-fi film Terra. Although The Box will be a live-action "summer event film", it is likely to have a lot of the same family-friendliness as his 'toon work (though he also wrote the erotic thriller, Bare Witness). Let's just hope it is isn't as childish as The Garbage Pail Kids Movie, which is also a modern version of the Pandora myth, or as silly as Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life, which deals with the box as a threatening archaeological find. It is surprising that there hasn't been a great update of the myth, actually. The Box won't be it; but it should at least be as entertaining as any Sonnenfeld effort. The director is still currently linked to the Zach Braff-co-scripted Andrew Harry's Meadow as his next project, but The Box could be his first priority, as 20th Century Fox is fast-tracking its production.

We have always had a love affair with gadgets, whether a Dick Tracy decoder ring or a watch that can shoot out a grappling hook. If it's cool and useful, chances are everyone wants one. Who didn't want to be the first kid on the block with an iPod, the coolest new cell phone or a Segway? Okay, scratch that last one, but you catch our drift. Who hasn't seen a gadget in the movies at one time or another and thought, "Wow, I want one of those!"

While we still don't have robots that clean the house and the flying cars that the 1950s promised us by this time, our lives have become pretty overtaken by gadgets. You're reading this right now on a computer (or even a cell phone), which used to be a room-sized device. You probably have an iPod or some other type of music player that holds hundreds of songs, and you might be zapping your next meal in a microwave. If you travelled back in time to the 50s (or even the 1970s), with all that stuff, you'd be a human sci-fi movie.

These are some movie gadgets that would make life a bit easier, or at least a lot more enjoyable. James Bond could have monopolized this list, because gadgets really are his "thing," but we tried to spead the love around. It was tough to keep things that were magical off the list, like Harry Potter's invisibility cloak (honestly, who wouldn't want anything from the Harry Potter universe?) or the lamp from Aladdin, but we tried to keep them fairly practical as well.

Check out our ideas after the jump.

Director David Dobkin (too much alliteration there) made waves with his summer sleeper hit Wedding Crashers, and is riding the Vince Vaughn train right into his next flick, the film previously known as Fred Claus. However, once he's done with that project (and maybe one or two others) he'll be getting in on the comic book-to-movie action with the help of writer Phil Hay, who is penning the script to the big screen adaptation of R.I.P.D. In an interview with Cinematic Happenings, Hay described the project as a "spectral police force" film along the lines of Ghostbusters and Men In Black. He went on to further categorize the film as "action comedy, very heavy on the comedy." No word yet on an expected release date.

After being pleasantly surprised by Wedding Crashers, I've got to agree with Hay when he says that Dobkin is a great choice for director because he knows his way around comedy. I've never read R.I.P.D., but the premise certainly sounds amusing - I may have to go hunt down a few episodes for a trial run. Any readers out there familiar enough with the title to tell me why I should (or shouldn't) dig in?