By Noah Redfield
While the youth of America eagerly anticipates the summer movie season with its onslaught of “instant gratification” nonsense, the rest of us who usually want a little more than large breasts and larger explosions for their time and money tend to feel a tad left out of the proceedings. Luckily, this coming summer appears to have an intriguing line-up of pictures that hopefully haven’t ignored the fine art of storytelling in their quest to entertain the zombie-like masses.
The first major release following the academic year is “Terminator: Salvation,” a continuation of the dystopian action saga in which a band of human fighters led by the adult John Connor (Christian Bale) are engaged in an all-out war against the machines who have essentially destroyed everything.
The last “Terminator” film was noticeable for its absence of director James Cameron and a plot. Now with Cameron and even Schwarzeneger gone, it will be interesting to see if Bale and the director appallingly named McG can resurrect the franchise, despite Mr. Bale’s new reputation as the worst person in the world for losing his temper on-set. Based on the trailers, however, a sense of optimism is surely in order.
A week later brings us “Up,” the latest Pixar opus about an old man (voiced by Ed Asner) whose house floats up into the sky after he attaches one balloon too many to his roof. Ever since Pixar took the world by storm in 1995 with “Toy Story,” the company has yet to release a bad film. Even their lesser works such as “Cars” and “A Bug’s Life” still manage to dazzle and impress audiences of all ages. That said, the near-masterpiece “WALL-E” is an extremely tough act to follow, so we’ll see how well “Up” fits into the already astonishing Pixar canon.
Moving into June and the summer roster is beginning to look a little bleak, especially with Tony Scott, Ridley’s brother, destroying the reputation of the 1970’s cult classic “The Taking of Pelham 123.” The only thing worth more excitement than your humble critic’s 21st birthday is “Whatever Works,” the new comedy from Woody Allen starring “Seinfeld” and “Curb Your Enthusiasm” creator Larry David. It is no secret that Mr. David’s insecure persona owes a great debt to Mr. Allen, and even if the film turns out to be a lesser work from the Wood Man, I’ll be satisfied as long as, at the very least, it’s prettay, prettay, pretty good.
July literally kicks off with a bang from the tommy gun of Johnny Depp. In Michael Mann’s “Public Enemies,” Depp plays the infamous outlaw John Dillinger as he is pursued by the FBI and Christian Bale in particular. Ever since “Pirates of the Caribbean,” Depp has more or less given up acting in favor of pantomime scene-chewing reminiscent of that actor in high school whom nobody wanted to admit was lousy. Based on the trailers, however, it’s good to see Depp back in old form. Here’s to hoping he keeps it up.
The following week brings us “Bruno,” the last of Sacha Baron Cohen’s characters from “Da Ali G Show” to make it to the big screen. This time, he will take on the subject of homophobia as his central point of attack, but it remains to be seen whether the satire will be overshadowed by increasingly broad set-pieces as in “Borat.” Fingers crossed.
As the summer comes to a close in August, the releases become a little bit stranger as we inch towards the fall’s prestige pictures. Most notable of these is “Inglorious Basterds,” Quentin Tarantino’s homage to World War II adventure movies like “The Dirty Dozen” in which Brad Pitt leads a band of Jewish-American soldiers into Germany for the purpose of massacring Nazis. Tarantino claims this is the finest script he has written, which hopefully means there will be more focus on story than on the sort of gimmicks that defined the infantile “Kill Bill” and “Death Proof.” Again, fingers crossed.
Another intriguing August release is “Taking Woodstock,” which has been nominated for the Palme D’Or at this year’s Cannes Film Festival alongside “Basterds.” Here, director Ang Lee (“Brokeback Mountain”) tells the story behind the concert that defined the summer of love with the excellent stand-up Dmitri Martin in the lead role. An appropriate conclusion to the season, no?
Thus concludes this preview of the most intriguing releases this summer. Just a reminder that the already-reviewed “In the Loop” is coming out on July 17 and is highly recommended. See you in the fall. Don’t die.