Thoughts on the Summer Movie Schedule 2011 - Part Four

I honestly thought about not dealing with August since nothing really looks that exciting for this month, but why start something if you aren't going to finish it, so here is the concluding post on the summer movie schedule.

For Part One (MAY) click here

For Part Two (JUNE) click here

and For Part Three (JULY) click here

And now onto the most underwhelming month release wise (do you ever notice that people are either overwhelmed or underwhelmed but very rarely just whelmed? why is that do you think?*)...

AUGUST

5th

RISE OF THE APES

A prequel to The Planet of the Apes franchise.  Apparently we learn how they came to power.  It stars James Franco, Andy Serkis (Gollum in The Lord of the Rings) as Caesar the Ape, and Tom Felton (Draco Malfoy in Harry Potter), which is a pretty good cast, but I'm going to need to see a trailer and hear a little more about this film before I can even think about committing to giving it a shot.

THE DARKEST HOUR

I suppose this has some potential; I like Emile Hirsch (Into the Wild), and the premise is somewhat intriguing.  The director worked as an Art Director on Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and Fight Club, but that doesn't guarentee he'll be any good behind the camera himself (although those credits don't hurt any either).  Ultimately, since there is literally nothing else out about this film yet, I can't tell you what I might think.

THE CHANGE-UP

Ryan Reynolds and Jason Bateman star in this twist on the old Freaky Friday type story.  Two friends whose lives have gone in opposite directions after growing up together somehow switch bodies.  Hilarity and life-lessons no doubt ensue.

THE SITTER

Jonah Hill in a movie about babysitting.  What could possibly suck about this film?  Although it does also include Sam Rockwell.  And I do love me some Sam Rockwell.

Seriously.  What's not to love?

12th

30 MINUTES OR LESS

The hilarious Danny McBride (from the outstanding HBO comedy Eastbound and Down) and the red hot Jesse Eisenberg (Zombieland and The Social Network) team up in a comedy about a lazy pizza boy (Eisenberg) who has a bomb that will go off unless he successfully robs a bank strapped to him by a bumbling criminal (McBride).

THE HELP


19th

SPY KIDS 4: ALL THE TIME IN THE WORLD

Umm... yeah.  I guess I like that the subtitle is a Bond reference.  The first of these films was actually an alright little ride, especially for a kid's movie.  But the audience from that film (and the stars of that film) have probably grown out of it.  Really, I'm not sure that this film should have been made.

CONAN THE BARBARIAN 3D

Seriously?  Why?  Recently, Justin (Caveman Go) Tiemeyer and I were discussing what films Arnold Schwarzenegger should do once his time as Governator was over (and if you weren't aware, Justin is an Arnold Schwarzenegger expert), and while we had plenty of tongue-in-cheek suggestions (Kindergarten Cop 2: It is a Tumor, a sequel to Junior and Twins where the characters from each of those movies are actually quadruplets and all four get pregnant, Jingle All the Way 2 where the toy is an Arnold action figure that comes to life and is life-sized and tries to Terminate everything, and many others in the same vein; although, admit it, you would go see any of these movies) we had one idea that would actually probably be an awesome movie: a new Conan the Barbarian, where Conan is king and retired from adventuring, but is forced into action one last time.  Instead, they are rebooting the series in a completely unnecessary way.

FRIGHT NIGHT

David Tennant in Fright Night

 A remake of a cult classic film  about a young boy who discovers his next door neighbor is actually a vampire.  He recruits the help of a magician charlatan, in the original played by Roddy McDowall, but in this version played by the tenth Doctor, David Tennant.  I might see it just for him.




26th

OUR IDIOT BROTHER

It stars Paul Rudd, Elizabeth Banks, Zooey Deschanel, and Rashida Jones (Karen on The Office, Ann Perkins on Parks and Rec), so it might be worth checking out.

FINAL DESTINATION 5

Again.  Seriously?  Why?  Didn't they call the fourth one The Final Destination?  As in "no more"?  Clearly they forgot.  This movie was old and overdone when the first Final Destination came out.


Until Next Time, Summer certainly seems to go out with a whimper.  But, overall, there seem to be a few films that might make this a memorable summer.  What films are on your can't miss list for the summer months?

* congratulations if you recognized this as a quote from the new animated series Young Justice on Cartoon Network