Aaah, summer. The time of big action movies and brainless comedy. As usual, summer is starting early at the multiplexes this year; it’s only may and we’ve already had \u201cMission: Impossible III\u201d and \u201cPoseidon.\u201d. Here’s a look at the movies your humble reviewer is particularly interested in amid the many being released.<\/p>\n
\n\u201cThe Da Vinci Code\u201d is based on the bestselling novel of the same name, and stars Tom Hanks and Audrey Tatou. Although I have an irrational dislike of Tom Hanks, this may be worth a look, if only to see what all the fuss is about. Page-turner pulp thrillers often make decent films and with Ron Howard at the helm this has potential. Opens May 19.
\n\u201cX-Men: The Last Stand\u201d is the third film in the franchise, and it looks like everyone is back. There are also a bunch of new characters \u2013 Kelsey Grammer as Beast and Vinnie Jones as Juggernaut, to name two. A \u201ccure\u201d for mutation is found, offering mutants the opportunity to get rid of their mutations. Magneto (Sir Ian McKellan) and Professor X (Patrick Stewart) and their respective followers have widely differing opinions about what this means for the future, and pretty soon we’ve got more mutant-on-mutant battling. This looks like it’s going to be a great time, assuming that director Brett Ratner (\u201cRush Hour,\u201d \u201cRush Hour 2,\u201d and \u201cAfter the Sunset\u201d) can fill Bryan Singer’s shoes. Opens May 26.
\nJack Black has starred in great movies (\u201cSchool of Rock\u201d) and ones I wasn’t brave enough to see because they looked awful (\u201cShallow Hal\u201d). Now he’s come out with one that could go either way: \u201cNacho Libre,\u201d the tale of a Mexican priest (Black) who moonlights as a lucha libre wrestler to make money for an orphanage. The clips in the trailers alternate between groan-inducing and pretty snappy, so this one might be worth a shot. It opens June 16.
\n\u201cThe Devil Wears Prada\u201d is an utterly hilarious book. The story of a young woman attempting to survive a year working for a horrific high-powered fashion magazine editor, it had me in stitches. Now they’re making it into a movie, with Meryl Streep as the editor and Anne Hathaway as the young woman. Director David Frankel has directed episodes of \u201cSex and the City\u201d and \u201cEntourage,\u201d which should provide a decent preparation for the biting comedy of the book, and Streep is perfect for the part. Opens June 30.
\nThen there’s \u201cSuperman Returns,\u201d which brings the hero back to Earth after a long, mysterious absence. He has to contend with having apparently lost the affections of Lois Lane (Kate Bosworth) and with the continued villainy of Lex Luthor (Kevin Spacey). Casting virtual unknown Brandon Routh as the Man of Steel was a good move that bodes well; this isn’t likely to be a star vehicle, so with some luck the script will be solid. Bryan Singer of \u201cX-Men\u201d and \u201cX-Men 2\u201d was a wise choice; he did a great job with those films and hopefully has done a great job here as well. Opens June 30 as well.
\nAnybody who enjoyed \u201cPirates of the Caribbean\u201d can probably tell you that the first of two sequels, \u201cPirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest\u201d is coming. The same team is back aboard, from director Gore Verbinsky to the main cast. This time Captain Jack (Johnny Depp) must find a way to keep the monstrous Davy Jones from claiming his soul; his friends Will (Orlando Bloom) and Elizabeth (Keira Knightley) wind up along for the ride. The previews are short on plot but what they do show looks like a lot of fun. Opens July 7.
\nNo summer preview would be complete without mentioning the film \u201cSnakes on a Plane.\u201d It’s already become an internet fan phenomenon, largely due to the unashamed cheesiness of the title and story. Samuel L. Jackson, who stars in it, has insisted that the production company keep the title (they were going to change it to \u201cPacific Air Flight 121\u201d or something equally tepid) because it was a big part of why he signed on. Apparently Jackson was a fan of big, mindless action\/thrillers like this when he was a kid. The story revolves around (surprise!) a bunch of venomous snakes being turned loose on a plane. The excuse for this is that an assassin couldn’t think of a better way to kill a witness in protective custody. This promises to be good, cheesy fun in the vein of \u201cCon Air\u201d and \u201cNational Treasure.\u201d Opens August 18.
\nThis should be a fun summer. See you at the movies!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Aaah, summer. The time of big action movies and brainless comedy. As usual, summer is starting early at the multiplexes this year; it’s only may and we’ve already had \u201cMission: Impossible III\u201d and \u201cPoseidon.\u201d. Here’s a look at the movies your humble reviewer is particularly interested in amid the many being released.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-235","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-movie-reviews"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2oSX4-3N","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ealasaid.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ealasaid.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ealasaid.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ealasaid.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ealasaid.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=235"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.ealasaid.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1724,"href":"https:\/\/www.ealasaid.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235\/revisions\/1724"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ealasaid.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=235"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ealasaid.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=235"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ealasaid.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=235"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}