By: Sean Kayden
What do the movies “Transformers: Dark Side of the Moon”, “Green Lantern”, “Cars 2”, “The Hangover 2”, “Bad Teacher”, “Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides”, “Cowboys & Aliens” and “The Smurfs” all have in common? Well besides performing gangbusters at the box office, the aforementioned films were all panned by critics. “Cowboys and Aliens” and “Bad Teacher” currently hold scores of 44% on RottenTomatoes.com, making them the best reviewed of the bunch. Sad, isn’t it? Even ones that received generally favorable reviews such as “Thor”, “Super 8”, and “Horrible Bosses”, in my humble opinion, were flawed and offered very little emotionally. More or less, they were run of the mill and middle of the road affairs. Maybe I’ve become jaded at my age, but I’ve grown immensely tiresome of superhero movies (unless Chris Nolan is at the helm), comic book flicks and just simple dumb action films. Without a doubt, this has to be easily the most disappointing summer movie season in quite awhile. As far as I’m concerned, I’m not sure if any mainstream movie has really stood out. Of the eleven movies I mentioned, eight of them were either a sequel, based on a toy (and a sequel), based on Disney theme park ride (and a sequel), based on a comic book or based on a television show. “Super 8” was original, but borrowed heavily from earlier Spielberg films. I felt that it didn’t achieve the greatness it promised. “Horrible Bosses” and “Bad Teacher” were at the very least original comedies. However, “Horrible Bosses” was funny in parts, but the laughs were inconsistent and the story at times felt too formulaic. Personally, I can’t speak negative about “Bad Teacher” since I haven’t seen it. Nonetheless, it’s from the same guys who wrote the movie “Year One” a few years ago. That alone scared me off. At any rate, without the recent success of R-rated comedies, who knows if these two movies would have even seen the light of the day at all?
It shouldn’t go without mentioning that there have been a few movies this summer successful both critically and financially. I did not see “Kung Fu Panda 2”, but with a score of 82% on RT, it must be all right. Then again, was it just another unnecessary sequel? “Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows Part 2” finished at an unprecedented 96% on RT. Not only was it the best-reviewed movie of the year, but the most successful financially too. The box office figures come at no surprise since this is the most successful film franchise ever. “Bridesmaids”, the female version of the “Hangover”, did way better than expected. It was surprisingly humorous at times despite dragging on just a bit toward the finish line. Now personally, my favorite mainstream summer movie was “X-Men: First Class”. The chemistry between James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender was unequivocally rock solid. Director Matthew Vaughn easily reinvigorated and brought new life to an arguably worn out franchise. After the let downs of “X-Men: Last Stand” and “X-Men Origins: Wolverine”, the X-Men series seems to be yet again looking promising.
On the indie side of the spectrum, the true breakout movie is without doubt “Midnight in Paris”. It’s been deemed Woody Allen’s best film in years while both critics and audiences are fully embracing it. Sadly, I still haven’t seen it, but plan to. Besides “Midnight in Paris”, no other indie movie this summer has had the same magic. “Everything Must Go” (Will Ferrell), “Hesher” (with Joseph Gordon Levitt, Natalie Portman and Rainn Wilson) and “The Beaver” (Mel Gibson’s audacious return on screen) failed to make much of a dent at the box office. Reviews for all three were mixed to positive. However, “The Beaver” was overwhelmingly underrated. I wouldn’t be surprised if it caught some heat when it’s released on DVD/Blu-ray this month. Unfortunately, the little guys (the indies) received no love during a crowded, bloated, and oversaturated summer movie season.
So, what’s there to look forward to until the end of summer? Is there truly anything to anticipate? I remain cautiously optimistic, but I feel that the best days do lie ahead. These days just so happen to fall under the autumn movie season though. Anyway, as for the independent side of things, we’ve got “The Myth of The American Sleepover”, “Another Earth”, “Bellflower”, and the much buzzed about “Attack The Block”. Moving over to the mainstream side, will “The Change-Up” (writers of “The Hangover”) and “30 Minutes Or Less” (director of “Zombieland”) be able to stand out from the other recently successful R-rated comedies? Can “The Rise of the Planet of the Apes” turn out to be a worthy origins story? Will writer/producer/visionary Guillermo del Toro deliver the goods on the remake of “Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark”? We’ll also find out if “Fright Night” was a necessary remake too. Lastly, can “Our Idiot Brother”, another R-rated comedy with a little more drama than the other comedies be able to find love with critics and audiences? I hope the end of summer movie season will refurbish us with some refreshing sounds because the season thus far has been abundantly frustrating.
Published on August 6th, 2011 by Mountain Views News.
http://mtnviewsnews.com/v05/htm/n32/p11.htm
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