2009 Summer Movie Report #1

The blog is back and the best way to kick things off is with a quick report on the summer movie season. Today is June 6th and last night I saw the hilarious comedy, "The Hangover." To qualify for this list the movie had to be released on May 1st or after. These rankings are fluid and will change as the summer goes along. My brother and I attempt to see as many movies during the summer as possible and so far have seen 5 of the big summer movies. I have yet to see "Up" "Night at The Museum 2" "Angels and Demons" and "Land of the Lost." Also I don't plan on seeing "Dance Flick" and "Ghost of Girlfriends Past," not to mention "My Life in Ruins," which you would have to pretty much threaten me with my life to see.

So far the 5 films I have seen this summer are "Wolverine," "Star Trek," "Terminator Salvation," "Drag Me To Hell," and "The Hangover." Here is my top 5 thus far.

1. "Star Trek" JJ Abrams franchise reboot of "Star Trek" is undoubtedly the hit of the summer to this point. The film was marketed very well for months and while experts predicted big things, Abrams film has exceeded expectations in a big way. The film not only has been critically acclaimed with a 95% fresh rating on rotten tomatoes, which is very rare for a summer popcorn flick, but has made over 200 million thus far. The special thing about this film is not only should it appeal to long time fans of the franchise, but judging by it's success it's pretty obvious it has brought in a large new audience that have not typically been followers.

I am one of those new fans. Being a fan of Abrams work on "Lost" and "Alias" he has some success in the film world with MI3 and Cloverfield but the new "Star Trek" makes him arguably the hottest young director/producer in Hollywood. There is not much to nit pick about this film, it's got great action, flawless special effects, humor and drama. It's not on the level of last summers "The Dark Knight" but it is probably right there along side "Iron Man," as far summer blockbusters go.

The most impressive thing about this film in my opinion is the universe in which it takes place. Abrams and his SE team have done a tremendous job re-creating the Star Trek world with seamless visuals not only in the action scenes but in pretty much every shot throughout the movie. As stated before this film is definitely a franchise reboot as it gives us back stories on Capt. Kirk and Spock and introduces us to all the main players. It is not aimed strictly at die hard fans and that is why it has such a broad appeal and has been so successful. As good as it was, I really think Abrams could do big things with future sequels. I really enjoyed this film and look forward to future installments from the new "Star Trek" series.

2. "The Hangover." While there are other comedies that look to have great potential this summer such as "Bruno" and "Funny People" it will be very tough to out laugh the hilarious movie "The Hangover." Director Todd Phillips hit it big with "Old School" but since then has struggled to live up to the bar he set with the classic comedy. "Starsky and Hutch" was decent and "School for Scoundrels" was watchable with a few decent laughs. However Phillips comes back in a big way with this film without the help of any big name actors. Bradley Cooper is a potential leading man in waiting, and shares star time along with the hilariously underrated Zach Galifianakis and Ed Helms.

This film is undoubtedly the funniest movie of the year so far. The laughs come one after another and from all cast members. Galafianakis is definitely the star of the show and it's nice to see a guy who has been around for awhile get the chance to show everyone just how funny he is. And this is a great vehicle for him to become a late blooming comedy star. It's very hard to believe that a comedian with this much talent has such a pathetic filmography. http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0302108/
Hopefully this film will make sure we see much more of him on the big screen... in quality comedies.

Mike Tyson's cameo is even better and longer than you'd think based on the trailer and it's nice to see the lovely Heather Graham in a movie that didn't go straight to video. This is definitely going to be one of those comedies people see multiple times and quote for years to come, and should also be an even bigger hit on DVD. GO SEE "THE HANGOVER" ASAP!!!

3. "Drag Me To Hell" Sam Raimi returns to his "horror" film roots with the terrific "Drag." Only "Up," and "Star Trek" have higher freshness ratings so far on rottentomatoes.com as Drag has a 93% rating, an amazing accomplishment for a film of this kind. I am not a big horror fan film and have never even seen any of the "Evil Dead" movies. Raimi is no stranger to summer success, directing all 3 blockbuster "Spiderman" films. However I am sure it throws the uneducated movie goers for a loop when they see the trailer for this film saying "from the director of Spiderman."

Some may find this film corny or cheesy but much of that is intentional. This film is funny and frightening. It's not meant to scare you to death but you will jump and you will be grossed out and laugh out loud from time to time. I really enjoyed this movie and only wish I had seen it at a later showing in a crowded theater. My only complaint would have been to see more screen time for Justin Long. Allison Lohman was very good in the starring role but it would have been nice if Long had a bigger role. This is definitely a b-movie, but I mean that as a total compliment. We just don't get many quality "b-movies" in Hollywood anymore. Sure we get a lot of crap, but the classic b-movie style film is a lost art and Raimi is a master of the genre.

4. "Terminator Salvation." Christian Bale + Terminator= bad ass? Well, more like decent. Bale is really the co star of this film and while Sam Worthington is excellent in the leading role, the film never really takes off completely. It's solid, it looks great, has a great cast, minus the rapper Common who needs to stick to rapping. The script probably needed some work by better writers to really make it live up to potential. I enjoyed the movie, but just did not love it and felt like it moved along and had a solid story but the dialogue was mediocre at best. The virtual Arnold was stupid and distracting. Basically it's a decent movie but I just had higher hopes.

5. "X-Men Origins- Wolverine" I did not realize how bad this movie was til about 10 minutes after I saw it. Sure there are some decent actions scenes but this movie just doesn't even make any sense. I didn't think it sucked while watching it, but it certainly left me wanting more as it went along. It's supposed to be a back story on Wolverine, but you get a meaningless montage of about 5 minutes that is supposed to give you that and then it's on to the silly story. I could go on for awhile but I've written long enough. This movie is worth seeing if you have time to kill and are interested but all in all it pretty much sucks and I don't plan to ever see it again, haha.