A Quick Review on 2008 Summer Movies

As the TV season has come to a close, what with all your favorites shows airing their finales already, and networks announcing the upcoming fall lineup, you know it's definitely summer.

For some, the summer started as early as mid-March. But even now, the kids are on holiday, the ladies' shorts are just getting shorter, and yeah- summer movies are still pretty much in full swing.

Let's take a quick review at Summer Movies 2008: what we've had so far, and what's headed our way these next several weeks.

May 2008

Definitely the biggest movie this month was Marvel Entertainment's Iron Man. The Jon Favreau-directed live action adaptation of one of the biggest names in the Marvel Universe has paid off very nicely for everyone involved in the project. Indeed, Iron Man has the distinction of having the 10th biggest opening weekend of all time, and has (as of this writing) already made almost half a billion dollars in worldwide box-office receipts.

Due to the generally lukewarm response to the first Narnia film, The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian didn't open as well as the first (about US$10 million short of The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe's opening weekend of US$65.6 million), but is doing rather well. In fact, reviews from both the public and critics have been generally favorable, with the sales to prove it. With worldwide box-office receipts at US$113 million (as of this writing), and still climbing, Disney does have a reason to be happy.

The buzz is, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull just might be another big summer cash cow. In its opening weekend, the latest movie in the Indiana Jones series of flicks had already made US$151 million, making it the second biggest Memorial Day weekend movie (right after Pirates of the Carribean: At World's End). As of this writing, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull had already made over US$311 million worldwide.

Coming up this week is the highly anticipated Sex and the City movie. Heck, you can probably already call it the chick flick of the year. Let's see how it turns out this week.

Also out this month were the romance comedy Made of Honor, starring Patrick Dempsey and Michelle Monaghan, the British comedy Son of Rambow, Frontier(s) - the After Dark HorrorFest movie that had to be shown separately because of its NC-17 rating, and the surprisingly disappointing Speed Racer.

June 2008

Coming out this month: Adam Sandler's latest comedy You Don't Mess With The Zohan and the DreamWorks animated feature Kung Fu Panda starring Jack Black both open on June 6. June 13 sees the re-imagining of the Marvel Universe's The Incredible Hulk, as well as M.Night Shyamalan's latest thriller- The Happening.

Then we also have Steve Carell and Anne Hathaway teaming up for Get Smart and the latest Mike Myers project The Guru, coming out on June 20. Finally we have the Pixar/Walt Disney animated feature Wall-E, and the action-packed Wanted starring Morgan Freeman, James McAvoy and Angelina Jolie coming out on the 27th.

Also interesting: the limited release foreign film Mongol by Sergei Bodrov. It's about a young Genghis Khan and his epic rise to power. Check out the trailer here.

July 2008

This month, we have the off-beat superhero movie Hancock starring Will Smith opening on the 4th of July, and then we have the Guillermo del Toro-directed Hellboy II: The Golden Army opening the week after that.

On July 18, we have Mamma Mia! (the Abba-themed movie starring Meryl Streep) and the Andy Samberg-created Space Chimps. But most importantly, out comes the highly anticipated sequel to Batman Begins, Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight- which I personally hope turns out to be one of the best Batman movies ever.

Check out the trailers here, if you haven't yet, and read about the accompanying animated anthology direct-to-DVD project, Batman: Gotham Knight here.

Wrapping up an impressive summer movie lineup we're going to see Will Ferrell and John C. O'Reilly team up again in Step Brothers, and something for fans of Mulder and Scully- The X-Files: I Want To Believe. Personally, I haven't seen much of the X-Files, but now I have a month to scrounge around for old X-Files episodes and catch the first movie before this one comes out.

We'll come back in a few weeks to see how all these movies have done. I'd say it's a great lineup. And 2008's definitely a great year for summer movies.

Theatrical posters from Wikipedia.

Cheers, everyone!

Not Excited to Catch Prince Caspian

I've read The Chronicles of Narnia when I was 11 or 12, I think, and J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit and The Lord of The Rings trilogy soon after that. I enjoyed those books immensely- they gave me that appreciation for other medieval fantasy books, and Dungeons and Dragons and all that crap. Great geeky stuff I was soaking up on in high school and early college.

I gotta admit, I've been disappointed with Walden Media's 2005 big-screen adaptation of C.S. Lewis' The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe. Terribly disappointed. Pretty much for watering down everything to get that G-rating. The battles were neither epic nor gritty enough. And for the most part, I didn't care much for our four main characters- The Pevensies- when I totally loved them reading the book as a kid.

I get it that they cast relative unknowns for our main characters. Sure, Skandar Keynes (Edmund) and Georgie Henley (Lucy) were alright, but I found the performances of William Moseley (who played Peter) and Anna Popplewell (who played Susan) totally uninspired and completely forgettable.

So here they are again this summer with the second installment of The Chronicle of Narnia series: Prince Caspian. Again, great story. I've just re-read it several months back, and if you haven't had a chance to grab your own copy, perhaps it's about time you get your own.

Plot: It's been a year since the Pevensies came back from their first adventure. But they find themselves sucked back in to Narnia, and discover to their dismay that 1) over 1,000 years have passed since their last visit, and 2) Narnia is in ruins- the old ways have all been forgotten, and the Telmarines threaten everything that remains of the old, glorious kingdom the children left behind.

Prince Caspian is the last remaining descendant of the Narnian line, but is held in check by his ruthless despot of an uncle, Miraz. Only with the help of the Pevensies can he even hope to restore Narnia to its former glory.

You can check out this trailer we found on YouTube, posted by Luisfalvez:

Trailer looks alright, but given how the previous Chronicles of Narnia movie failed to engage me, I'm just lukewarm about the whole Prince Caspian affair. I'm sure it couldn't be as bad as Speed Racer (can it?), and I still hope this one turns out to be much better than its predecessor, but I ain't holdin' my breath.

Cheers, everyone.

Wanna Watch: Kung Fu Panda

Prepare for awesomeness! Jack Black is back, and this time he's kicking animated ass- in Dreamworks' Kung Fu Panda.

We just caught the trailer a couple weeks back when we saw Iron Man. Yeah, we've been seeing the theatrical poster around, and being the Jack Black/Tenacious D fan that I am, I've heard about this project for a while. But after seeing the Kung Fu Panda trailer- my girlfriend and I decided that this was one movie we should not miss at all.

It's got Jack Black in it. What more do you need? Alright, here are a couple of trailers we found on YouTube. One was posted by Irmik44, and the other by Pinkdeathrose- both very funny. Check it:

Here's the plot as we know it: A great Shifu (Dustin Hoffman's character) has trained the five greatest warriors the world has ever known- the Furious Five.

Each one a martial arts master of a distinct style of kung-fu. We have the charming but deadly Master Viper (voiced by Lucy Liu), the level-headed Master Crane (voiced by David Cross of "Arrested Development"), the easygoing Master Monkey (voiced by Jacky Chan), the bold and strong Master Tiger (Angelina Jolie, in her second movie for the summer) and the quick yet hot-tempered Master Mantis (played by Seth Rogen, of Knocked Up and Superbad).

An evil warlord- Tai Lung (played by Ian McShane, from "Deadwood" and The Seeker: The Dark Is Rising), a vengeful snow leopard who has escaped from his imprisonment. An old prophecy has revealed the Chosen One: Po (voiced by Jack Black), a lazy apprentice noodle-maker who's a huge fan of kung-fu, but has absolutely nothing to offer in terms of actual hand-to-hand combat.

Can Shifu and the Furious Five whip up Po into top fighting form in time to save ancient China from Tai Lung? I'm sure they can, but HOW they get there is a story definitely worth watching. That's the reason you'd want to hustle to cinemas on 06 June this year when it opens.

Dreamworks' Kung Fu Panda is distributed by Paramount Pictures. It is directed by Mark Osborne (who's done a lot of work with Spongebob Squarepants and Weird Al) and John Stevenson (who's done storyboard work on Shrek 2 and Madagascar).

Pictures from AllMoviePhoto.com- they got great stuff: pics, stills and even wallpapers for your desktop. Also check out the official Kung Fu Panda website here for more fun stuff.

Cheers, everyone!

Marvel Announces Lineup Til 2011

With the huge success of Iron Man, Marvel Entertainment has officially announced four other Marvel films after 2009, and had even gone so far as to spill a little bit on each one.

As you all know, we have two other Marvel films coming out this year: The Incredible Hulk in a few months and another Punisher movie much later this year- Punisher: War Zone, which has no connection with the last Punisher flick that came out in 2004.

And then in the summer of 2009, we shall have X-Men Origins: Wolverine, and then nothing after that until now.

Here are the other Marvel Entertainment projects in the works after the summer of 2009:

Iron Man 2. Set for release on 30 April 2010. The first Iron Man made an impressive US$200 million on its opening weekend worldwide. Marvel naturally OK'd its sequel, as soon as the official sales figures came in.

We already know that we'll be seeing more of Gen. Nick Fury and Rhodey (probably as War Machine this time) in the sequel, and that Tony Stark/Iron Man is rumored to be making a cameo in the upcoming Hulk movie. I just wonder how it's all going to play out and tie in with everything else.

The Mighty Thor. Set for release on 04 June 2010. FirstShowing.net actually has an article on Brad Pitt being in the running for the Norse God of Thunder. Nothing official yet, just some online buzz, really.

According to Wikipedia, screenwriter Mark Protosevich (of I am Legend and Poseidon) has been hired to write a script for the live-action Thor film and stated that "It's going to be like a superhero origin story, but not one about a human gaining super powers, but of a god realizing his true potential."

Marvel got Matthew Vaughn (of Stardust, Snatch, and Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels) to direct the project. Currently, he's trying to whittle down the budget to a more manageable amount.

We do know this though: Marvel Studio's David Maisel said that Thor will actually be introduced in Iron Man 2, just before his own movie. Again, it's a great tip guaranteed to fire up the message boards on how it's all going to work out.

The First Avenger: Captain America. Set for release on 06 May 2011. We've seen some really horrendous Captain America movies in the past, so we hope this one turns out to be so much better.

However, there are rumors going around that Matthew McConaughey is being considered for the title role. Oh say it ain't so!

Regardless, here's what we know so far: the Captain America movie will lead directly into The Avengers. According to FirstShowing.net, whoever is cast as Steve Rogers/ Captain America will actually be making two movies at once - since the character will be introduced in the first movie and head straight into The Avengers.

Also, according to Wikipedia, in The Incredible Hulk (coming out in a couple of months), General Ross mentions a World War II program that created a super soldier formula to Emil Blonsky, who leaps at this chance to defeat the Hulk. Viewers see this as a nod to Captain America.

Has anyone confirmed this? Rumor has it that Captain America's shield can be seen in this last Iron Man movie during the scene in which Jarvis is attempting to remove Tony's suit. No idea what the adamantium shield is doing in Stark's workshop, but there's another reason to watch Iron Man all over again.

Finally, The Avengers. Set for release on July 2011, just a couple of months after the Captain America movie. We've been talking about how Marvel would like to tie in all these superheroes for a big-ass movie, given their current direction. With all the right pieces in place, they finally have it. Word is, Jon Favreau, who directed Iron Man, wants in on the project.

Now here's more from FirstShowing.net:

Regarding more Hulk movies, Maisel's response was "we definitely plan on continuing." But we all know that depends on how well Edward Norton's reimagining does this June. In addition, Maisel gave this last update, "I can't give any other updates other than to say it's in development and everybody's excited about Spider-Man 4."

So as far as we can tell, we might actually have more Marvel movies coming up, depending on the success of The Incredible Hulk. So mark your calendars, true believers, and troop to the cinemas to support the next few Marvel movies. If the execution on Iron Man was any indication on how Marvel makes their flicks now, then we can all expect more than our money's worth when they hit the box offices.

Pictures from Wikipedia. Care for a trip? Check out the opening themes from the old 60's Marvel Superhero cartoons here on my other blog, "Too Much TV: Renzie on TV".

Cheers, everyone!

Speed Racer: Crash and Burn

Speed Racer may very well be this summer's biggest box-office disappointment.

According to Nikki Finke of Deadline Hollywood Daily late last Friday, the Wachowski Brothers' project had only made a dismal US$6.1 million on its opening day, with film experts predicting an overall weekend take of US$20-25 million as kids bump the movie attendance up in matinee screenings.

Speed Racer debuted at #3 at the box office, with the Ashton Kutcher/Cameron Diaz romantic comedy What Happens in Vegas opening at #2, and Marvel Entertainment's Iron Man holding strong at #1 on its second week.

What Happens In Vegas opened last Friday with US$6.8 million, and is expected to make about US$20 million for the entire weekend. Iron Man has made US$15 million on Friday night alone, bringing the total movie earnings to almost US$180 million in the US alone.

Figures tracked from overseas also show disappointing figures; for all the hype, Speed Racer only debuted at #6 in the United Kingdom, and #9 in Germany. The film was expected to do better overseas, but there are no official figures from Warner Brothers just yet.

Reports say that Speed Racer had cost about US$180 million to make, and another estimated US$100 million to market. Meanwhile, What Happens in Vegas only cost some US$30 million to make.

Speed Racer stars Emile Hirsch (of Lords of Dogtown and The Girl Next Door), Matthew Fox (Jack Shepard of "Lost") and Cristina Ricci (of Monster, and more recently, Black Snake Moan), and is directed by brothers Andy and Larry Wachowski, same guys who gave us V for Vendetta and the Matrix trilogy.

The Latest Dark Knight Trailer

Just thought you'd like to check out the new Dark Knight trailer here, which came out just this week, and shared by Xxjalaldevilxx on YouTube. Enjoy.

I've also put the other two trailers here, this one was played right before the I Am Legend screenings. Shared by wmdeez on YouTube.

And here's the very first teaser that came out, shared by aprupp, also on YouTube.

Looking forward to catching The Dark Knight on the big screen this summer. The sequel to Christopher Nolan's Batman Begins (2005) comes out in late July, this one based on the storyline of Batman: The Long Halloween- which you should grab a copy of, if you haven't yet.

Cheers, everyone!