I know that technically,
September isn’t part of the summer, but with the movies there always seems to
be a “Indian” summer, where films that weren’t high budget enough to compete
with the actual blockbusters, but are still going to be fun make brief appearances
in the theaters before the six-week lull until Thanksgiving. I thought a few of these would be worth
mentioning.
SEPTEMBER
Resident Evil: Retribution – Milla Jovovich
I actually tend to hate these
movies, but the action sequences are pretty slick. I’m hoping that, one day, the powers behind
this series will throw in the towel in the same way that (I think) the creators
of Saw have. The first movie in both series I could get
behind, now I’m just tired and ready for every zombie to wake up and find themselves
in one of Jigsaw’s puzzles. This is a
maybe, but I’ll probably end up going out of boredom if nothing else.
Dredd –Karl Urban, Olivia Thirlby
I’m going to come right out and
say that I absolutely hated Judge Dredd back in the day. I didn’t know anything about the comic
series, and I don’t know that I’ve ever seen Stallone where I’m not crazy
critical about his performance. For me,
this one is purely about the action sequences, so they’d better be worth the
price of admission.
Ten Year –Channing Tatum, Rosario Dawson, Justin Long, Kata Mara
I am hoping Tatum takes a break
for a year or so after this summer. I
know it won’t happen, but if things go well this summer, it’ll be the very
first time I’ve ever really thought of him as someone that isn’t a complete
lump on the camera, and releasing four or five movies in the space of as many
months is going to be pushing what could some new-found affection. I’m going to give this the benefit of the
doubt, because I like the whole 10 year reunion theme. It worked for American Reunion, didn’t it?
House at the End of the Street –Jennifer Lawrence, Elisabeth Shue, Max
Thieriot
This has been done before, lots
of times, but I’m beginning to be fond of Jennifer Lawrence, and I’ve liked
Elisabeth Shue since I first saw Adventures
in Babysitting. I don’t have high
hopes for this, but I’m thinking it will be entertaining.
Looper –Bruce Willis, Joseph Gordon-Leavitt, Emily Blunt
It’s not likely I’m going to miss
anything with Joe-Go in it, even though it feels a bit like he’s in ever third
movie this summer, I don’t quite have that “so over him” feeling yet. Looper’s
trailers make me feel like anticipation is the way to handle it, although I’m
not sure why people would think it was a good idea to send the future version
of someone back in time for assassination by their younger self. Is that like how Fry did the “nasty in the
pasty” in Futurama and became his own
grandfather?
Savages – Taylor Kitsch, Salma Hayek, Benicio Del Toro, Blake Lively
I wrote a paper in college about
how the legalization of marijuana might impact crime in the United States; it
went a little something like this. For a
few years, there’d be open war until the DEA/ATF/whatever other law enforcement
body smacked the drug smugglers around, and then the violence and crime
currently involved in the marijuana trade would disappear. It might be a little naïve, but I still think
it’s a possibility. I’m not so sure about
the working threesome depicted in this movie.
Won’t Back Down – Viola Davis, Maggie Gyllenhaal
I do loves me some Viola Davis,
at least as much as I despise Maggie Gyllenhaal. I’m hoping the former counterbalances the
latter, and the story seems interesting enough for me to put some effort into
seeing it.
