Looking Ahead: Summer Blockbusters 2005 April 28, 2005
Posted by TheCasualCritic in movie talk
Summer is just around the corner (movie summer starts in May) so I took a couple of hours to check what the movie offering looks like. Of course, as we all know, the summer movies are characterized mainly by big explosions, action, thrills and light-hearted fun. Here's a quick look at what lies ahead.
While still in April, tomorrow we have a face-off between The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and xXx: State of the Union. The first is an ambitious take on Douglas Adams's set of novels whose absurd, smart humor generated legions of fans, a famous radio novelization and a BBC TV show in the 70s. The second... is a desperate attempt to capitalize on the relative success of the first xXx movie, with a "sequel" that's is about as related to the first movie as Dallas is to Dynasty, the producers not managing even to re-enlist Vin Diesel as lead character.
May 6th brings Ridley Scott's Kingdom of Heaven which aims to equal the Gladiator's box office success with a story centered around 12th century Christian crusades. Two weeks later its time for the most expected movie of the year: Star Wars concludes the prequel trilogy with Revenge of the Sith. Despite the tagline, the Saga is far from being complete, as George Lucas already hinted at plans for 3D editions, television follow-ups and what not. Regardless of the various complaints with the first two episodes, Episode 3 is bound to be the highest grossing movie of 2005. Only one week later, Dreamworks brings out their newest animation feature: Madagascar. While the trailers are quite amusing, Madagascar will certainly face an uphill battle following the Star Wars premiere.
June starts off with Cinderella Man, the Ron Howard/Russell Crowe boxing story collaboration that hopes to mimic their previous success in A Beautiful Mind both at the box office and particularly at the Oscars. Can they outdo Clint Eastwood and Hillary Swank so soon after their success on a boxing theme? Soon after, Batman Begins makes its debut trying to re-establish the power of the Batman legacy before Steven Spielberg's War of the Worlds comes out, at the end of the month. With Tom Cruise and Dakota Fanning as main heroes, H.G.Wells's novel adaptation doesn't seem to raise above Independence Day level, but I've learned not to underestimate Spielberg's ability to create popular movies. Also in June we'll have Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie as Mr and Ms Smith in what seems to be a classic action movie, Hayao Miyazaki's latest animated production Howl's Moving Castle, and Nicole Kidman/Will Ferrell as the famous couple Samantha and Darrin in Bewitched which is brought to the big screen by Nora Ephron.
July brings the Fantastic Four which to me personally looks quite disappointing in trailers. But when expectations are low, one can only be pleasantly surprised, right? July's other headliners are however two movies with potential Oscar ambitions and also somewhat similar in themes: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory reunites another successful actor/director couple as Johnny Depp re-enters Tim Burton's fantasy world; The Brothers Grimm brings Terry Gilliam back in the director chair after a 7 year hiatus and stars Matt Damon and Heath Ledger.
Finally, August's lineup, as much as it is determined as of now, seems to lack powerful headliners. On the dreaded movie list we have The Dukes of Hazard starring, among others, Jessica Simpson (!); The Pink Panther with Steve Martin as the famous inspector Jacques Clouseau in a prequel to the classic 1964 Peter Sellers movie; and Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo... Among a few other thriller and horror premieres, Disney releases their animation feature Valiant while Miramax releases the 2001 Hong Kong movie Zu Warriors.
All in all, some movies to look forward to, others to avoid, a typical summer offering.
| TrackBack