Summer of Film Love--June

So, for better and for worse, we've seen the first group of summer releases invade our town and take all of our candy. June sees our first full month of bloated Hollywood behemoths overshadowing all the great small stuff we love, so I'll give a run-down of everything that'll be playing over the next month.

June 4th:

Bangkok Dangerous--The Pang Brothers remake their Thai film for an American audience, with Nicolas Cage in the lead as a guy who...I don't know. I'm sure there's a trailer somewhere, but I guarantee your brain and your eyes might be angry at you afterwards.

June 6th

Mother of Tears--Famed Italian horror director Dario Argento concludes the trilogy that started with Suspiria and Inferno. This time his daughter Asia stars as an art student who unleashes the power of an evil witch and must stop it. My prediction is something along the lines of Escape from Witch Mountain but way gorier.

Reprise--The debut film of Norwegian director Joachim Trier follows two friends who both aspire to become cult novelists. When finds success and subsequently falls apart, the other must deal with his wayward life. This one plays Hillcrest, and here's a trailer.


Jellyfish--This one's playing for a week at the Ken, and sometime last year the filmmakers were kind enough to send us a trailer. Possibly one of the only Israeli productions you'll in theaters this year, the film garnered some great praise when it made the festival circuit last year. Have a looksee here.

Kung Fu Panda--Dreamworks newest CG animation with Jack Black as the title character. Will it be as bad as the Shrek movies?

The Promotion--I didn't even know this movie existed until today. It has John C. Reilly and Sean William Scott as two rival supermarket employees. It looks like shit.

You Don't Mess With the Zohan--The new Adam Sandler comedy about a middle eastern special ops guy who comes to the US to become a hairdresser. It could be dumb, but the great ex-SNL writer Robert Smigel wrote the original version of the script, so maybe it'll be funny?

June 13th

One of the first big weekends, with three major releases competing for your dollar.

The Happening--M. Night Shyamalan's newest, with Marky Mark and Zooey Deschanel. I've read some early word and it's supposed to be laughably bad. We'll see.

The Incredible Hulk--The revamping of the character after most people were disappointed with Ang Lee's version a few years ago (which I liked). Stuff will get blowed up real good, at least.

The Dark Knight--One of the summer films I've been most looking forward to, this sequel to Batman Begins (which we have in the store) sees Bruce Wayne taking Heath Ledger's Joker and Aaron Eckhart's Two-Face, plus they kicked out Katie Holmes because she sucked and replaced her with Maggie Gyllenhaal, who does not suck. This one is again directed by Christopher Nolan, of Following/Memento/The Prestige, and written by his brother, who penned Memento and the Prestige. The movie's gonna rule the summer for a while.

June 20th

Two big comedies duke it out this weekend.

Get Smart--The modern take on the show stars the great Steve Carrell and Anne Hathaway. I've actually read a few things that said it's pretty good.

The Love Guru--Will Mike Myers quit making bad comedies? Answer: no.

June 27th

Wanted--Russian director Timur Bekmambetov makes his first English-language film after the sucess of Night Watch and Day Watch. The American trailers for the James McAvoy/Angelina Jolie comic adaptation sell the movie short; check out this Russian version for a better idea of the dumb fun that might be had with this thing.


So that's June. I'm probably gonna see the Dark Knight three times because I'm a total nerd.

--co