Every summer is loaded with franchise attempts, franchise follow-ups, explosions, love, animation for the kids, wacky comedies, computer generated marvels and computer generated garbage. This is not the season of the best movies, but summer is often when movies generate the most money. Will it be a banner studio year like 1999, which saw The Matrix, The Sixth Sense, Fight Club, Three Kings, Magnolia and American Beauty?
Or will this summer fizzle fast than you can say Planet of the Apes? The next few weeks will tell. The first major movie of the summer, Spiderman, starts things out on a so-so note. True, Spiderman is better than most of the summer movies in 2001. But it also lacks the bang-zoom, eye popping impact of major event movies of the past. It was good, but it was not surprising, and there was never a moment where you felt that truly anything could happen.
Hopefully, some of these new releases will generate that kind of excitement.
Top ten to see:
<I>Sum of All Fears(May 31)
Summary: The fourth Jack Ryan film is sort of a prequel, with Ben Affleck portraying a younger Ryan that is recruited by CIA head Morgan Freeman when a nuclear bomb is missing in Russia. The situation gets out of hand when a bomb goes off in Chechnya. And both sides get closer to a war that is being provoked by terrorists.
Buzz: Jack Ryan movies range from classic (Hunt for Red October) to just watchable (Patriot Games). Early reviews indicate that Ben Affleck doesn't screw it up and director Phil Alden Robinson (Field of Dreams, Sneakers) does a great job in keeping it fast paced and tense. Let's hope so. The world can always use more good spy movies.
<I>Star Wars II (May 16)
Summary: Young Darth falls in love, we see how the Stormtroopers come about, evil blows stuff up, etc. etc.
Buzz: A few reasons this will be better than Phantom Menace: 1) George Lucas had someone work with him on the script, cutting out the sillier lines. 2) Samuel L. Jackson gets a fight scene. 3) Yoda gets a fight scene. 4) Ewan McGregor is more prominent. 5) Jar Jar Binks is only in the first five minutes. All of these things point towards a better movie. But regardless of its quality, most of us will be in line anyway.
<I>Men in Black II (July 3)
Summary: The boys in black return to save the world, along with all the gadgets, super cars, coffee drinking alien gags you can stand.
Buzz: Director Barry Sonnifeld has made really good movies (Get Short, the first Men in Black) and terrible movies (Wild Wild West). The good news is that the one sequel he made (Adams Family 2) was funnier than the first. The trailer for this looks good, so hopefully he's back on track. Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones certainly seem entertaining, which is good enough for me.
<I>Insomnia (May 24)
Summary:Robin Williams as Serial Killer + Al Pacino as a detective who cannot sleep + Hillary Swank as girl in danger + written by the guy who did Memento + directed by the guy that did Memento...
Buzz: Yes.
<I>Lilo and Stitch (June 21)
Summary:
Lilo is a five-year-old Hawaiian girl who's a little obsessed with taking care of downtrodden animals. She collects cans and bottles to recycle from the beach and buys fish food with the money she makes, and then paddles out in the ocean to feed the fish there. Meanwhile, on a distant planet, the most dangerous of all criminals has escaped and crash-landed on Hawaii. This is Stitch. Hilarity ensues.
Buzz: Disney movies have been spazzing out lately (the last few years has given us everything from Phil Collins singing to Tarzan to David Spade as a Llama), but the trailers for this movie look... good. Really funny, and in the spirit of The Emperor's New Groove, with the colors and animation of The Lion King. Disney needs a hit - let's hope they got it right.
<I>Powerpuff Girls: The Movie (July 3)
Summary: Technically about the Powerpuff girls origin, but more likely a clothesline for some serious animated butt kicking. Mojojojo makes an appearance too. Sweet.
Buzz: Okay, so, this requires that you like the show. If you don't, don't see it. But as a fan of animation and superhero parody, I'll be among the first in line. Probably intoxicated, but I'll be there.
<I>Road to Perdition
Summary: Tom Hanks is a hitman for Al Capone. Tom Hanks' family is killed by rival mobsters. Tom Hanks gets very angry.Buzz: Tom Hanks as an antihero? Tommy Guns? The guy who directed American Beauty? Bet your sweet pattootey I'll be there.
<I>Signs
Summary: From the mind behind Sixth Sense, Mel Gibson finds some freaky stuff in his cornfields. No, not Ray Liotta as Shoeless Joe.Buzz: Sixth Sense was great. Unbreakable -not so great. However, Mel Gibson + Aliens is enough to guarantee a gross of 100 million already. Let's hope it delivers on its creepy trailer.
Top ten to bomb
In addition the usual action duds, this summer looks to have a large selection of really awful kid films.<I>Enough
Summary: J-Lo fights back when her ex-husband keeps stalking her family.Buzz: Her 15 minutes are about up.
<I>Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron (May 24)
Summary: Matt Damon gives the voice to a horse than runs free in the wild plains of America. No, really. Matt Damon is the horse.
Buzz: Did you see the voiceover performance he gave in Titan A.E.? Neither did anyone else. And you won't this time either.
<I>The New Guy (May 10)
Summary: High School Loser (DJ Qualls) goes from zero to hero when he gets lessons in cool from his "father," played by Eddie Griffith. Hilarity Ensues.
Buzz: The New Guy fulfills one of the classic underdog fantasies: Terrible writer somehow gets his bad script approved by mindless executives, and it goes on to become a huge hit movie. Well, maybe that last part won't quite happen. Instead, moviegoers (all five of them) will spend the hour and a half of this movie wishing they were being torn apart by ravenous wolves that shoot fire. Don't see this movie.
<I>Scooby Doo (June 14)
Summary: Warner Brothers has no new ideas, and decides to cash in on every franchise that was once funny. I mean, the old gang takes a trip in the mystery machine and wackiness ensues. Plus, Scooby is rendered by computers, making him look extra rubbery.
Buzz: Pardon my sarcasm, but this movie smells bad. Tons of money spent to bring a dead concept to life. I hear good things about Matthew Lillard's Shaggy, but not much else. The fact that it's the guy that brought us Drew Barrymore's Never Been Kissed doesn't inspire much hope.
<I>Mr. Deeds
Summary: Technically a remake of a Frank Capra movie, Adam Sandler becomes a millionaire and moves to the big city.Buzz: Each progressive Adam Sandler movie gets that much worse. This one isn't looking much better.
<I>The Crocodile Hunter Movie
Summary: Sweet Jesus, make it stop. MAKE THE BAD MAN STOP. MAKE HIM STOP.Buzz: MAKE HIM STOP.
<I>The Country Bears
Summary: A movie about the Country Bears from Disneyland. No further explanation necessary.Buzz: The good: Christopher Walken is in the movie. The bad: It's about the Country Bears.
<I>Master of Disguise
Summary: Dana Carvey sacrifices whatever soul he has left to appear as many different people in a movie that will, I guarantee, make no sense.Buzz: Run for your lives.
Still up in the air
<I>Bad Company
Summary: Anthony Hopkins works for the CIA, and he loses one of his best agents (Chris Rock). So he recruits... Chris Rock, or rather, the twin brother of the agent that he lost and... never mind.Buzz: This is the sort of movie you want to be good. Anthony Hopkins is an amazing actor. Chris Rock is an amazing comedian. I've got nothing against producer Jerry Bruckheimer (The Rock, Armageddon, Pearl Harbor) but it doesn't help that the director is Joel Schumacher, responsible for both Batman and Robin and 8mm. Why do they still give this man a job?
<I>Eight Legged Freaks (July 19)
Summary: A giant spider movie. They actually made a giant spider movie. With David Arquette as a man of the law versus the spiders.
Buzz: This will either be the best or worst movie ever made. Either way, it'll be a hell of a show.
<I>Minority Report (June 21)
Summary: Tom Cruise is a cop in the future working in a division of the police department that arrests killers before they commit the crimes courtesy of some future viewing technology. Cruise's character has the tables turned on him when he is accused of a future crime and must find out what brought it about and stop it before it can happen
Buzz: It's been a long time since Spielberg made a movie that was entertaining. (Yes, Saving Private Ryan was good. But I did not have a good time watching it.) The trailer for this movie looks good, but his last outing with sci-fi (Artificial Intellegence) sort of re-defined train wreck. I'm hoping, but not holding my breath.
<I>Reign of Fire
Summary: Dragons attack England. Matthew McConaughey leads the fight against them. Don't ask for the explanation, you don't want to hear it.Buzz: Apparently, despite all logic and reason, this movie with dragons and England does not feature Sean Connery. We have yet to see whether such a feature can survive without him.
<I>K-19: The Widowmaker (July 19)
Summary: Based on a true story, Harrison Ford leads a Russian submarine crew on the nation's first nuclear ballistic submarine, which suffered a malfunction in its nuclear reactor on its maiden voyage in the North Atlantic in 1961.
Buzz: Harrison Ford hasn't made a movie that he gave a damn about in years. (Think about it: Six Days Seven Nights, The Devil's Own, Random Hearts, What Lies Beneath) On the other hand, in this film he's got a Russian accent, he's a submarine captain and he acts alongside Liam Neeson. Call this a make-or-break film for him: either he'll resurrect his career, or go quietly into obscurity.
<I>XXX
Summary: Vin Diesel blows stuff up. Samuel L. Jackson smokes a cigar.Buzz: While this seems like it can't go wrong, keep in mind, the best movie this director has made was Fast and the Furious. He also made The Skulls. Give it a 30/70 chance.
<I>Austin Powers Three:
Summary: No summary necessary.Buzz: While Austin Powers has given us a crap-load of catchphrases and tiny, useless figurines, this movie will have to try really hard not to be a C-. He's already done midgets and fat people, what targets does Mike Myers have left?
