Wednesday, July 14, 2010

A Let-Down Summer

Remember, those days, where ignorance was bliss, and the anticipation of the future was enough to get you giddy like a young film student. Those days, where the approaching months were full of hope, excitement, and adventure. Those days where you knew, one day, you would look back and smile. Yes, those good ol' days - two months ago, before we knew what crap tank of a summer it would be for movies. Although Iron Man 2 led things off strongly, only now, however, do we realize that it was setting us up unfairly. Let's re-cap:

Robin Hood: Yes, Ridley Scott! Yes, Russel Crowe! Gladiator 2? Not really. The Robin Hood story we know and love doesn't start until this movie ends, and Crowe (who actually looked too old to play the part) mumbles his way through two and a half hours of action-less scenes. They could have featured the real talent, Cate Blanchett, yet she managed to only appear three times. So bad writing, bad pacing, poor choice of actors.

Sex and the City 2: The consensus seems to be that this franchise has just plain over stayed its welcome. Most of the fan base agreed the jokes missed, and the actresses are beggining to look a tad too ol...er, "grown up" for their parts. Also, the humor surrounding the fish-out-of-water scenario in the Middle East, seemed to border on offensive.

Jonah Hex: Apparently, Meghan Fox's comments about Michael Bay being Hitler really kept people from going out to see her in a new summer tent pole, and Josh Brolin doesn't have the fan base he thought to carry a crowd in a comic book movie. The movie bottomed out at 6 million, not even a quarter of its production budget earned back. I called this one from the beggining - a futuristic western...doesn't work. Will Smith's Wild West anyone?

MacGruber: Kristin Wiig and Will Forte have really earned their respects on SNL, and even though I was hesitant they were turning the 30 second MacGruber spots into a feature, I still thought these comedians could pull it off. Oh well, hopefully their fans like them enough to forget they did this, and Val Kilmer's (if he has any left) and Ryan Phillipe's will forgive them.

The Last Airbender: You gotta give Shamylan the credit for trying something different. After The Happening, everyone was like, "Shamylan, do something different!" Well, he did, and this one still sucked. The poor guy just can't get a break. Technically, he's coming off of four flops now, since not everyone liked The Village or Lady in the Water, even though I did. The issue in this film, it seems, came down to a slow plot, emotionless dialouge, and just plain boring-ness, despite all the visuals. Apparently, his next job will be with Willis again, let's hope he's going back to what worked.

So, it's been that kind of a summer so far. If you could, try stepping out of the multi-plexes and hunt down your nearest art cinema to check out The Kids Are Alright and The Girl Who Played With Fire, both excellent movies, not playing "everywhere". It's no wonder, however, that so many adults when to Toy Story 3. All hangs in the balance of Inception, this Friday.