Summer Preview

Summer Movie Preview -

X-Men Origins: Wolverine - so today opens up the "summer" movie season with the latest in the X-men movie series, with a kind of prequel/spin-off concept. There are a couple of things that concern me about this movie...it looks interesting to say the least, however I think it's natural connection with the other films are going to give it too many strings for a good action flick. I'm going to wait.

Up - Oh Pixar, you rarely go wrong. I have no reason to think that this movie might not be everything the Pixar name has meant over the past decade. The plot is ridiculous, of course, but even when this is the case...Pixar makes it work, which is why I'll be seeing this.

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen - sequels...the bane of Hollywood. They just can't say no to a money grab. The first Transformers was a great summer movie, by definition, that had a lot of the same qualities that makes Independence Day so great. Is the sequel promising? Could be. They never made a sequel to Independence Day, which just adds to the movie's appeal...I'm not saying it's going to be terrible, but I think it may be a disappointment since it won't seem as impressive the second time around.

Public Enemies - Johnny Depp? Sign me up. Johnny Depp in a period piece? Oh man, I'm glad I'm already signed up. Johnny Depp in a period piece as an anti-hero? Holy crap, I'm having flashbacks to the first Pirates of the Caribbean. This is a great story with a great actor in a great part. The disappointment potential for this movie is huge, but Depp rarely fails to live up to expectations.

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince - Harry Potter was scheduled to come out around Christmas, but they decided to take advantage of a weak summer crop and own the season. This movie will, undoubtedly, be the biggest movie of the summer. This is the sixth of what will be eight movies and things are just getting interesting. This storyline, unlike Order of the Phoenix, is where we drop the building motion of the plot and things get serious. The story has been getting progressively darker and while there will be more tragedies in the last two films, there will be more glories too. This will be the darkest film because it's all losing for our heroes in this one.

(500) Days of Summer - romantic comedy? What's so exciting about that? Zooey Deschanel? I'm listening. Joseph Gordon-Levitt? Really? This one has the potential to be Juno or Nick and Nora's Infinite Playlist...and people like me love that crap.

Funny People - I don't much care for most of Adam Sandler's movie career. With the exception of Punch Drunk Love and 50 First Dates, I'll generally take a pass, but this one intrigues me. He plays a comedian, which is believable. He decides, upon learning of his own impending mortality, to take on a young comedian (Seth Rogan) as an apprentice. Obviously, life lessons abound. So it's serious, but it's funny. This one intrigues me in that it will be different. Worth learning more at the very least.

The Post Grad Survival Guide - I've included this for one reason...Alexis Bledel. For those keeping score at home, she played second fiddle to the great Lauren Graham on Gilmore Girls. Then she was overshadowed by Amber Tamblyn in the first Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. Finally, the script of the second Sisterhood sucked the life out of all the characters, and the actors with them. So this is her stepping out party in many respects, I'm curious to see if this former model can make the transition to leading lady. She'll need more charisma then she has shown in the past and won't be able to rely just on her (very) pretty face...damn brutally gorgeous blue eyes.

Taking Woodstock - Demitri Martin is really popping up a lot of places, isn't he? He's Comedy Central's second attempt at replacing Dave Chappelle (and much better than Carlos Mencia). That being said, given his unique approach to stand-up it'll be interesting to see how that adapts to an acting role. Dane Cook has had mixed results in acting as he's drifted away from his stand-up delivery. This is a good story and bound to be a feel good film with great music regardless of Martin's acting chops.

Inglourious Basterds - Quentin Tarantino is all you need to know about this unnecessary, ridiculous violence fest. Should be good times had be all.

Extract - Finally we have the latest from Mike Judge. This looks to be a great leap back into what made us love Mike Judge (Office Space, not King of the Hill). Idiocracy was a great change of pace in terms of Judge's work and the concept for greatness was there, but it turned out to be like communism in that respect. With Ben Affleck, Mila Kunis (who is gaining popularity, and deservedly so) and Jason Bateman (another under appreciated Hollywood talent)...there's no reason not to expect the best from this film.

This summer doesn't have all the glitz last year brought to the table, but it has more sure hits I'd say. So there you go.