It's already Friday afternoon but I'm going to crank this out. It has been long-gestating in my mind. These previews of the major films that are going to be released in the month of June.
The Film Fratboys Will Be Endlessly Quoting in the Fall:
The Hangover
Like Tropic Thunder last year, Superbad from two years ago, and Wedding Crashers from four years ago, The Hangover will be an extremely funny movie enjoyed by all people between the ages of 16 and 30. But it will suffer from overexposure as college freshmen across the United States will begin a continuous stream of dialogue recitation and scene recollections from the film until Christmas.
(Sample Exchange)
Fratboy #1: "Dude, did you see The Hangover?"
Fratboy #2: "Yeah, remember the part when Mike Tyson punches the guy in the face while listening to Elton John?"
Fratboy #1: "Yeah! That was awesome! Kegstand woohoo!"
The Hangover is from director Todd Phillips of Old School fame, which is now regarded as a our generation's Animal House. Since then, Phillips made the pretty-good Starsky and Hutch and the crap School for Scoundrels, but now he has a chance to reclaim former glory with another all-out, R-rated raunchfest with underrated comedic talent. Old School uncorked Vince Vaughn's comedic gifts (see his IMDB credits before it) and raised Will Ferrell from Saturday Night Live has-been to the decade's iconic funnyman.
Similarly, The Hangover stars several familiar comedic veterans that have been sidelined as supporting players for most of their careers. Bradley Cooper had great parts in Yes Man and Wedding Crashers, but he was not the lead role. Ed Helms is known from his brilliance on "The Office" and "The Daily Show" but he's always second-fiddle at best. The third lead is Zach Galifianakis, an obese, bearded mountain-man famous for his Comedy Central stand-up and Kanye West music videos. The man is hilarious but has never been given a proper chance on the big screen.
Overall, The Hangover is sure to be a wonderful movie that will rightfully steer the careers of the three leads. The studio has so much faith in the movie's success that a sequel is already in the works. See it just so you know what everyone's going to be referencing in the fall.
Prediction: $83 million gross
The Film Where Will Ferrell Runs Around and Shouts
Land of the Lost
We've all seen it before and the trailer promises more. Just like Talladega Nights and Anchorman, Will Ferrell is a loveable goof who happens to be very good at his job. And somehow, he'll end up running and shouting inane things, with or without clothes on. This time he's Dr. Rick Marshall who is transplanted into an alternate dimension/universe/something. The film is taken from the 1974 TV series of the same name that I had never heard of before.
Hopefully, with the addition of the lovely Anna Friel from "Pushing Daises" and last year's breakthrough star Danny McBride, there will be enough fresh faces to make the film worthwhile. Sadly, I predict that this will be the first big flop of the summer. From the trailer, it seems to be to slapstick for adults and too rude for children. And I'll give you $5 for every person you know that watched the original TV series and feels nostalgic for it.
Prediction: A paltry $60 million (for such a big-budget movie)
The End of the Road for Jack Black and Michael Cera
Year One
Hollywood must think that audiences are really stupid. They have actors repeat a certain character or slight variation of a character, churning out movies until they are no longer profitable.
Subject #1: Michael Cera
On the big screen, Cera was the go-to guy for innocent, awkward teenagers since his role in Superbad. But take away that and his bit part in Juno and what's left? Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist, where he plays the exact same character. And it was a flop, because audiences are already sick of his limited range. Now think about we legions of "Arrested Development" devotees who grew with the exact same characterizations with George Michael Bluth for three years?
The trailer for Year One doesn't promise anything different for Cera. The same stammering around women, the same sensitivity, and the same mild outbursts of anger. I love you Mike, but you're time is ending. Find some other character to play or you'll be finished. Although I do have hope for you in Scott Pilgrim vs. the World
Subject #2: Jack Black
As Barry, John Cusack's obnoxious-yet-delightful record store employee, Black's incredible energy and knack for comedy came out of the blue in High Fidelity. This blend of high-energy incompetence successfully continued for Jack Black in Saving Silverman and Orange County, until he finally nabbed a proper lead role in School of Rock(Shallow Hal doesn't count). This was the pinnacle of Jack Black's career as a good-natured oaf; subsequent attempts, such as Nacho Libre, have tanked.
Again, from the trailer for Year One it looks like Jack Black will royally screw up but will have to muster the courage to save the day. Black will survive, due to his non-acting talents (he's in a famous band!) and strong performances in ensemble pictures, when he's not the lead, such as Tropic Thunder and King Kong(he was good!).
I'm not going to go in detail about the plot, as I'm sure you've seen a preview by now. The director is Harold Ramis (glasses guy in Ghostbusters) but he hasn't made a good film since Groundhog Day(1993). The success obviously hinges on whether or not viewers will be willing to see Cera and Black do their same tired routines, but the film has other positive factors. There's the interesting, unconventional plot that may jab at Christianity and receive some controversy. Also there's the strength of the unnaturally awesome costars: David Cross(Tobias!), Paul Rudd, Hank Azaria, Olivia Wilde(Thirteen on "House"), and Vinnie Jones(Bullet Tooth Tony). This could go either way.
Prediction: $54 million, because I think audiences are done with them.
Friday, June 5, 2009
June Movie Preview Part 1
Friday, May 1, 2009
Kavi is Done With School and Mad as Hell
Freshman year is over yippee so look for this blog to be more consistent over then next few months.
Let's start with my anger over the last poll.
What is you most anticipated May release?
Wolverine: 36%
Ghosts of Girlfriends Past: 0%
Star Trek: 0%
Angels and Demons: 45%
Terminator Salvation: 18%
Night at the Museum 2: 0%
Dance Flick: 0%
Up: 0%
Drag Me to Hell: 0%
I am incredulous that, even with arguably one of the strongest months for summer movies in Hollywood history, the top vote-getter was ANGELS & DEMONS.
Wolverine has dancing sensation Hugh Jackman as the loveable-yet-gruff mutant with crazy hair and berserker rage.
Star Trek features a young James Tiberius Kirk, who commands a starship and kicks Borg butt.
Christian Bale stars as an older John Connor, who must lead a motley band of resistance fighters against Skynet and giant freaking robots.
And yet, readers of this blog chose Tom Hanks and his bad hair as he takes on Catholic priests. I am saddened.
And how did Up get no votes? It's a Pixar movie so you know it's going to be amazing. I'll be back soon with a review of Wolverine and previews for the next few months.
Thursday, April 2, 2009
Summer Preview: Wolverine!
The summer movie season is nearly here. Billions of dollars are going to be spent during this economic recession on movies that predominantly fall into one of three categories:
1) Big Budget Superhero Movie
2) Big Budget Kid's Movie
3) Giant Robots Destroying Each Other
(500) Days of Summer doesn't count. This week, I will bring a preview of most of the movies releasing in May. I'll do June, July, and August when the time comes.
Summer kicks off with a Marvel comic-book movie, like it did last year to outstanding results (remember how great Iron Man was?). On May 1st, X-Men Origins: Wolverine releases, a spin-off of the formerly great X-Men trilogy that was ruined by the departure of Bryan Singer and the addition of Brett Ratner. Singer, director of X-Men and X2, was seduced by the Man of Steel and made the bore-fest Superman Returns. Marvel turned to the man who brought us Rush Hour 1 , 2, AND 3 and gave us a crap-fest known as X-Men 3: The Last Stand. I love how we could have been treated to a potentially epic X3, but instead we got two forgettable clunkers. I hate you, Bryan Singer.
Back to Wolverine. It was a wise move to give Wolverine his own spinoff, since he was easily the best character in all three X-Men movies. Hugh Jackman gave great performances as the gruff and sarcastic-yet lovable mutant. His body may have been indestructible, but his heart wasn't.
...I can't believe I just wrote that.
From the trailer, Wolverine looks entertaining, nothing more. It has the conventional operatic music to create a sense of greatness. But who are we kidding, this is not The Dark Knight. The scene when Wolverine walks away, back turned, from a helicopter is also eye-rolling. The exact same shot was in Iron Man, when he turns away from blowing up a tank. Pay close attention to the final line, "I'm going to cut your head off." There's an awkward break between 'your' and 'head'. I'm pretty sure he's going to throw in an f-bomb in the final cut. Yippee.
But boy, is it exciting to see Gambit (who I'll cover in detail below) and Deadpool. Additionally, Wolverine's history looks fascinating (was that World War 2? I knew he was old, but not that old).
Liev Schreiber is a talented dramatic actor who looks like he's going to have a lot of fun playing a violently psychotic mutant as Sabertooth. He could be this year's Joker. Even though we already saw Sabertooth in the first X-Men movie, he's the quintessential Wolverine villain and appears to play a BIG role in his past. Not sure what I think about him hopping on all fours, though.
As a former comic-book nerd, it's exciting to see obscure heroes and villains show up in the trailer. We are shown clips of:
The Blob AKA Frederick J. Dukes
Gambit AKA Remy LeBeau
Gambit has been a fan favorite for a long time, with his slow Louisiana drawl and crazy-cool mutant powers
Deadpool AKA Wade Wilson
There's also a chick but I'm really tired and done with typing. Her name is Silver Fox, but I never read any of her comics so I know nothing about her. Danny Huston, playing the general AKA William Stryker was in Children of Men, so you know he'll be excellent. Director Gavin Hood is new to Hollywood, but he won an foreign-film Oscar for the South African drama Tsotsi. Who knows if that will translate to an expensive, high-throttle adventure? It certainly worked for Christopher Nolan, who started off in indie films like Memento.
Early Wednesday, it was announced that an unfinished, high-quality copy of Wolverine is floating around the torrents. I'm not going to watch it, since I'm a big fan of the theater experience. Plus, I promised my little cousins I would watch the movie with them.
Hugh Jackman owned at the Oscars, so I'm sure he'll ride the wave of success to a fun, successful movie. It helps that we've seen Jackman play Wolverine many times in the past. Audiences are already comfortable with the character and his snarky, rage-filled behavior. I'm just hoping that Wolverine will have an actual story, rather than a series of clashes with other mutants strung together. Although, if the action anything like the scene below, I'll live without a plot.
BOX OFFICE PREDICTION: $220 million dollars. Huge opening weekend, but dark themes and the fact that Star Trek opens the next week will kill its returns.
Thursday, March 19, 2009
Summer Preview - 500 Days of Summer
There are a lot of insanely sweet movies releasing in the next few months, and I'll be covering a lot of them in detail in the next few weeks. We have Michael Mann's Public Enemies with Johnny Depp and Christian Bale, Terminator Salvation again with Bale, J.J. Abrams' Star Trek, a solo Wolverine movie, the new Pixar flick Up, Tarantino's WWII epic Inglorious Basterds, Judd Apatow's Funny People, Transformers 2, and loads more.
But out of all of these big-budget, star-studded movies, the one I'm looking forward to the most is called (500) Days of Summer.
I was pretty much sold after the Smiths reference in the elevator. For anyone under 30, The Smiths are a great British band that has influenced most UK bands since the late 80's, including Radiohead. Anyone who knows me is familiar with my obsession with The Smiths. Check out "Girlfriend in a Coma" and "The Headmaster Ritual" for starters. To be honest, I'm probably pumped for this movie since I've always dreamed of a pretty girl walking into an elevator and telling me that I have great taste in music because I like The Smiths.
Aside from that, (500) Days of Summer looks like a delightfully quirky indie film. The trailer displays a movie that should be funnier than Little Miss Sunshine and less awkward than Juno (I mean seriously, the dialogue with Rainn Wilson was cringe-worthy). It features at least two laugh-out-loud moments, what looks to be a song and dance number, and a Pirates 3-esque acid trip. Throw in a super-fine Zooey Deschanel with a droll, sensitive Joesph Gordon-Levitt and you've got yourselves a winner.
Zooey Deschanel is mainstream enough by now, after appearances in Yes Man and The Happening, but it's nice to see her return to her indie-film roots.
Gordon-Levitt ("3rd Rock from the Sun"), has done some good work since the show ended, but he could have his break-out role with this movie. Audiences will be treated to a fresh face behind the camera in Marc Webb, who's done nothing to date except a few music videos. Sure, screenplay scribes Scott Neustadter & Michael H. Weber wrote The Pink Panther 2 (dear god), but I'm willing to assume that they only took that job to pay the bills and finance this movie.
(500) Days of Summer made a big splash at Sundance earlier this year and is primed to be the sleeper hit of this summer. I'm only concerned that the hipster references will keep away large audiences. For all its nonsensical jargon and inclusion of Dario Argento films, Juno was pretty mainstream and accessible. Do kids these days know who Sid Vicious was?
A film's quality is often reflected by its trailer music. This trailer features gems such as Beck's "Black Tambourine", a Regina Spektor song, whose name I can't remember, and Hall and Oates' "You Make My Dreams Come True." If anyone knows the song at the very end of the trailer, let me know. It's wonderful to see a selection of music stretching across decades and genres. In summation: thumpin' soundtrack ==> genius movie. Thus, (500) Days of Summer is going to be a classic.
