Have You Scene? – September 2008

Hello movie fans! I hope the summer was a very enjoyable one for you all. I know that the summer movie season has since wrapped up and everyone is headed back to school, so I thought I would recap the highs and lows.

Ironman started off the summer with a bang and kept on rolling. It was the first movie released by the newly created Marvel Studios. It was also the first movie of the year to reach $300 million, which is the new benchmark by which the Hollywood types measure a success. Ironman also was the first movie of the season that had Robert Downey Jr. in it, which nowadays is a good thing.

The Incredible Hulk followed up a week and a half later putting up decent numbers but was no where near as good as it’s Marvel predecessor.

Although Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull made gobs and gobs of money, it was a bit of a disappointment cinematically.

One movie in June, (which will win the best animated feature Oscar at the next academy awards – mark my words) came out in the last weekend of June and sparked my interest. Wall*E was by far the deepest, most thoughtful movie of the summer season, and it was geared for kids. Pixar hit it out of the park, and there is little to no dialog for the first half of the movie.

I saw a DVD in the store the other day of nothing but Pixar shorts. I would have bought it, but it didn’t include the most recent one that was with Wall*E. It features a magician and his rabbit and had me rolling in theatre with laughter.

The Fourth of July weekend saw the return of Will Smith in an action movie called Hancock. Playing a very flawed superhero, Smith tries with all of his superpowers to bring this one home but just can’t get there. It starts out great with a good premise, but the second half is plagued with pacing issues as well as a story shift. It’s like watching two halves of different movies.

Then the summer season froze in time when The Dark Knight opened.

If you see nothing else this year, see this movie. Heath Ledger’s performance is haunting as the agent of chaos that is the Joker. The worst part of the movie is that Ledger can’t be in anymore if/when they make them. Knight broke all kinds of box office records on its opening weekend and continues to break them. Largest opening weekend gross, fastest to $200m (5 days), $300m (10 days), and $400m (18 days). I don’t think it will reach Titanic’s $600m +, but it will definitely put it close. I was lucky enough to go watch it in IMAX (which is how it should be seen) and am still blown away by it.

What followed isn’t really worth putting in print and really shouldn’t. There was a deluge of R rated comedies and only one worth the time to go watch. Tropic Thunder is a movie about the excess and ridiculous nature of Hollywood. Ben Stiller stars and directs this action comedy about a group of pampered actors who are trying to make this generation’s Apocalypse Now or Platoon.

Filming doesn’t go so well so the studio is considering shutting it down, so the director decides to put them in the jungle and shoot the whole thing Guerilla style. The actors think its fake but the whole thing is real! This movie also stars Jack Black, and Robert Downey Jr. as the black platoon sergeant. Tom Cruise also has a small role as the studio boss and is absolutely laugh out loud until you start crying funny. If you are over 18, don’t mind the vulgar language and the blood, then you will thoroughly enjoy this movie.

I hope this will guide you with your netflix waitlist this fall when all these movies come to your local movie store. Hollywood likes to “dump” its movies that it has sitting on its shelf twice a year and we’re in it now.
But soon the next big winter season will start as November is right around the corner. We have The Quantum of Solace (Bond 22), Twilight, Australia, and The Road to look forward too.

If you want to watch a movie that sums up the high school experience all the while based off a Shakespeare play and starring Heath Ledger, then watch 10 Things I Hate About You. Until then, enjoy the show and remember to study first and play later.