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Reel-ly hot
(by Lester N. Pope - May 07, 2008)
Ah, summer … it’s just around the corner. And summer is the best time of year for outdoor living. But it’s a great time of year to be inside, too, watching the new blockbuster flicks that Hollywood bombards us with during the warm months.
This year, as has become the custom, the studios have reached into the past for inspiration, offering us such favorites as Indiana Jones, Mulder and Scully, Carrie Bradshaw, a collection of familiar superheroes and a very fast race car from TV’s yesteryear.
Kicking things off this year was the movie debut of Marvel Comics’ Iron Man, which stars Robert Downey Jr. as the titular superhero and opened last week alongside the chick flick Made of Honor, starring Patrick Dempsey and Michelle Monaghan. Other films that opened last week include Son of Rambow, Fugitive Pieces and Redbelt.
This weekend will offer the big screen version of Speed Racer, with Emile Hirsch and Christina Ricci; What Happens in Vegas, starring Cameron Diaz and Ashton Kutcher; and Noise with Tim Robbins; as well as The Fall, The Babysitters and The Tracey Fragments. On May 16, look for another chapter of C.S. Lewis’ The Chronicles of Narnia (this one is titled Prince Caspian) and How the Garcia Girls Spent Their Summer, about three generations of Mexican-American women.
May 22 will bring what most prognosticators are expecting to be the biggest film of the season, when everyone’s favorite cinematic archeologist returns in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, with Harrison Ford reprising one of the two roles that made him famous three decades ago. Indy fans will be happy to see Ford reunited with Karen Allen (who starred alongside him in the first Indiana Jones movie, Raiders of the Lost Ark). This time he’s joined by a younger sidekick, played by Shia LaBeouf. Wrapping up the month, Sex and the City: The Movie opens May 30, with Sarah Jessica Parker, Kim Cattrall, Kristin Davis, Cynthia Nixon and Chris Noth up to their old tricks.
June starts with the kids’ animated flick Kung Fu Panda on June 6; the comedy You Don’t Mess with the Zohan, starring Adam Sandler, Rob Schneider and Emmanuelle Chriqui; and Miss Conception, starring Heather Graham. June 13 brings a new version of another Marvel superhero, The Incredible Hulk, starring Edward Norton and Liv Tyler, and The Happening, a new film by M. Night Shyamalan (who gave us 1999’s The Sixth Sense). The Happening stars Mark Wahlberg and Zooey Deschanel. Steve Carell recreates TV’s wackiest secret agent in the movie version of Get Smart, opening June 20, which also serves as opening night for The Love Guru, starring Mike Myers and Jessica Alba. On the last weekend of the month, on June 27, Angelina Jolie teams up with James McAvoy in the assassin-centered action film Wanted, and Pixar offers up Wall-E, a computer-generated story about robots.
To get a jump on the Independence Day holiday, the studios have decided to release the Will Smith vehicle Hancock, the tale of a flawed superhero, on
July 2. The Sundance Film Festival winner The Wackness, starring Ben Kingsley, follows closely behind, with an opening date set for July 3. On July 11, Brendan Fraser stars in a new version of Jules Verne’s Journey to the Center of the Earth; Eddie Murphy arrives in Meet Dave; and Ron Perlman is back in Hellboy II: The Golden Army. On July 18, Batman returns in The Dark Knight, with Christian Bale again taking on the title role and the late Heath Ledger giving us his version of the Joker. Also opening that weekend are Mamma Mia, starring Meryl Streep and Pierce Brosnan, and another animated flick, Space Chimps, which tells the story of three hairy astronauts. The movie month concludes on July 25 with David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson reprising their small-screen roles in The X-Files: I Want to Believe, and Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly in Step Brothers.On Aug. 1, Brendan Fraser, in his second film of the summer, is back fighting his old nemesis in The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor, while Christina Applegate and Rainn Wilson appear in The Rocker. On Aug. 8, James Franco and Rosie Perez will ride the Pineapple Express and America Ferrera and Blake Lively will join The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2. And just as things start settling down, what’s this? A new Star Wars film? Yes, but Aug. 15’s animated The Clone Wars is mostly a setup for an upcoming Cartoon Network TV series. Also opening that weekend is Tropic Thunder, starring Ben Stiller and Jack Black. Harrison Ford has a second summer film, Crossing Over, opening Aug. 22 alongside Uma Thurman in The Accidental Husband; Emma Stone in The House Bunny, and Nicolas Cage in Bangkok Dangerous. Wrapping up the summer season Aug. 29 is the opening of Vick Cristina Barcelona, starring Penelope Cruz; Babylon A.D. with Vin Diesel; and Traitor, starring Don Cheadle.
So what are you waiting for? The summer movie season has already begun!
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