With the opening salvo of Summer! Films! behind us, the studios unload more of the same – another comic book movie, some of asinine comedies, high-profile scariness, and the only film from the first six months of 2006 that might, God willing, end up anywhere near anyone’s Top 10 list come December.
2.6.2006
The big deal is clearly the film where Jen met Vince, The Break-Up. Yes, I know that’s ironic, and no, it doesn’t charm me. Although Aniston’s most recent work finally proved to me that she has value as a person, nothing about this project looks in any way appealing.
Small films (i.e. the ones that don’t open off the coasts for another week) include: Peaceful Warrior, which ups the ante on the usual “dreadful inspirational sports movie” by throwing in some cod-Eastern philosphy (and is directed by Victor Salva, convicted pedophile, and worse still, auteur behind Powder); and Typhoon, which was a hit in South Korea and according to the IMDb concerns a North Korean pirate who creates a deadly typhoon using nuclear waste, and how anyone could find that concept uninteresting is quite beyond me.
6.6.2006
So, it’s kind of obvious that remake of The Omen was greenlit only because some studio exec noticed that this release date was available. Making this, arguably, the least-necessary film of the year. But as I mentioned before, the original was a movie with a great premise and horrible execution. So fingers crossed for this one to be an improvement.
9.6.2006
There are only two summer releases that I’m actually excited about, and wouldn’t you know, they open the same day. On the one hand, Pixar’s Cars: sure, the trailers (especially the teaser) have been kind of sucky, but right now the studio is 4 for 4 on films that had (I thought) awful trailers and turned out to be mini-masterpieces. So I’m keeping the faith.
On the other hand, the Altman/Keillor collaboration, A Prairie Home Companion, which has just about my favorite trailer of any summer release. That it will be interesting is pretty much a foregone conclusion, thanks to the director; whether it rises to the level of his best work, or whether it can make an good actress out of Lindsay Lohan is best discussed after it opens.
And one tiny film: The King with Gael García Bernal and William Hurt, a cute & creepy trailer, and terrible buzz out of Cannes 2005.
16.6.2006
Guilty pleasure time: I will be seeing Nacho Libre not out of a sense of bloggerly duty, but because I think the idea of Jack Black as a luchador is funny. This means that I am a terrible philistine, I know. But the trailer amuses me. I’m sorry.
Two unappealling actors of unreliable skill get to do a Chicago-based romantic fantasy (The Lake House), and the trailer is playing in front of fucking everything at my local theater, so curiosity might just be enough to get me to the theater (which worked out well with The Constant Gardener). There’s a new Fast and the Furious, and mostly that just makes me sad that this franchise has enough fan support to make it to three chapters; worst of all is that the makers lacked the fortitude to name it 3 Fast 3 Furious. In other markets, the awesome-looking documentary Wordplay, about the NYT crossword editor, opens.
And for a reason that I cannot fathom, there is a new Garfield movie.
23.6.2006
Not guilty, unpleasurable time: there’s a new Adam Sandler movie! It has a high concept! Hurrah for life! Also, Waist Deep, the story of an ex-con who must return to The Life in order to save his kidnapped son. Without having seen it, I believe that it has been given the wrong title. And a politcal docudrama: The Road to Guantanamo (co-directed by Michael Winterbottom, of all damn people) about four British Muslims who were detained for two years on no evidence. The original poster was recalled, as it was apparently too disturbing; mind you, it was positively Disneyesque next to the news photos out of Gitmo.
28.6.2006
At long last, the most-advertised film of the summer (arguably): Bryan Singer’s Superman Returns. Now that the third X-Men film has turned out to be a washout, I’m more anxious than ever to see if Singer can work his magic here. The problem is, for me at least, that while the X-Men are inherently interesting, Superman is inherently dull. Basically, this film is going to live and die on its theme of “God returns to find He is no longer needed,” and it chills me to the bone that a comic book movie has that kind of pressure riding on it.
30.6.2006
Damn but does this scream “counter-programming!”: The Devil Wears Prada. I have to admit, that after seeing the trailer (which feels like it contains the entire first act, uncompressed), I think this might be good, soapy, “Meryl Streep Hamming It Up” fun.