The Summer of 2013 officially kicks off at midnight on Thursday, May 2nd with the release of
Iron Man 3 in American theaters. As I'm sure you know by now, Summer Movie Previews/Discussion/Preds have become something of a tradition with the Elite; here are the links if you'd like to take a look back:
The Summer of 2007 -
http://elite.speedrunwiki.com/forum/index.php?topic=1418* An incredible May lineup of Spider-Man 3, Shrek 3, and Pirates 3 kicked off what became the #1 Summer of all-time at the box office (though it wouldn't have gotten there without strong returns from Ratatouille, Harry Potter 5, The Bourne Ultimatum, The Simpson Movie, plus the surprising successes of Transformers, Knocked Up, and Superbad).
The Summer of 2008 -
http://elite.speedrunwiki.com/forum/index.php?topic=13628* While not a record breaking season, '08 DID feature one of the most incredible runs in box office history by The Dark Knight, along with some very respectable showings by Iron Man, Indy 4, Hancock, Get Smart, and Wall*E.
The Summer of 2009 -
http://elite.speedrunwiki.com/forum/index.php?topic=14599.0* Transformers 2, Harry Potter 6, and Up delivered the goods, and we were blindsided by the success of Star Trek and The Hangover, but weaker than expected returns from pretty much the whole rest of the slate resulted in a somewhat disappointing season at the box office.
The Summer of 2010 -
http://elite.speedrunwiki.com/forum/index.php?topic=15297* Toy Story 3, Inception, Twilight 2, and Iron Man 2 got the job done, and Karate Kid/Despicable Me turned into surprise hits, but nearly everything else embarrassed itself (Shrek 4, Prince of Persia, The A-Team). The result was consecutive disappointing Summer seasons.
The Summer of 2011 -
http://elite.speedrunwiki.com/forum/index.php?topic=15779* Harry Potter 8 was huge, Bridesmaids and Rise of the Planet of the Apes were unexpectedly major hits, and most of the other big releases performed reasonably well (Thor, Captain America, Transformers 3, Hangover 2), making 2011 one of the biggest Summers ever. The only especially notable bombs were The Green Lantern and Conan the Barbarian.
The Summer of 2012 -
http://elite.speedrunwiki.com/forum/index.php?topic=17011* Dark Knight Rises, Amazing Spiderman, and Brave put up blockbuster numbers as we had expected, and there were some pleasant surprises like Ted and Magic Mike coming out of nowhere to make a ton of money. Battleship was the only real bomb... but the story of the season was obviously The Avengers destroying the opening weekend record and racking up the 3rd largest box office total in history. In the end my prediction was correct- it was the highest grossing Summer season we've seen and helped make 2012 overall the biggest year for movies in history! (With a notable assist from an incredible holiday season where Hunger Games/Skyfall/Hobbit/Twilight and the Oscar films all did amazingly well.)
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This will be our Summer-long topic to talk about the new movies we see, and also we're going to use the time leading up to midnight on Thursday, May 9th to
predict the Top Five movies of the season just as we have the last six years! (Plus I'm going to post the results of last year's competition later in the decade.) But first off, let's get rolling on that
2013 Summer Movie PreviewNOTE: for these writeups, anything after a $ is in millions of dollars and is the USA-only total gross for that film unless I say otherwise.May 3rd (Week #1)
Iron Man 3Read About It:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1300854/Watch The Trailer:
What The Heck Is It?One year after "the incident" in New York City the US is again threatened, this time by a domestic terrorist known only as the Mandarin. Tony Stark is pushed to his limits in trying to bring him down.
Why Will It Be Big?Oh, it'll be big alright- the only question is if this will be the movie of the year or only the movie of the month (which would still be a pretty big deal given how stacked May is). The answer will be whether audiences treat this as the sequel to The Avengers ($623) or the sequel to Iron Man 2 (a
mere $312). Call me crazy but I'm betting they'll lean a little more toward the former!
Why Should I See It?Say what you will about Marvel doing too much to "milk their franchises" or oversaturate the market with superhero movies or whatnot- I'll say this for them, they certainly know how to put together a trailer! From working at the theater I've probably seen the two minute above about 250 times and I still get a kick out of it every time. The way the explosions are synced to the musical cues, my gosh. And then of course,
you'll neeeeever... seeeee meeeee... cooooming. Got really high hopes for the Mandarin; how can you not love these line readings? IM2 and Captain America and Thor were just okay, but after Avengers I'm ALL IN on everything that ties into this universe, and if the early reviews are any indication (currently over 80% at rottentomatoes), IM3 won't disappoint!
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May 10th (Week #2)
The Great GatsbyRead About It:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1343092/Watch The Trailer:
What The Heck Is It?17 years later Baz Luhrman is back to give the
Romeo + Juliet treatment to another literary classic- this time it's F. Scott Fitzgerald's 1925 "Great American Novel" about a certain bachelor named Gatsby.
Why Will It Be Big?Baz has never had a breakout hit... Moulin Rouge was supposed to signal "the return of the great American musical" back in 2001. Although that didn't happen immediately (finished with just $57), it gained a respectable audience on video and paved the way for Chicago, which DID become a smash success ($171) the following year. There's certainly a huge potential audience for this film, as Gatsby holds the distinction of being one of very few novels that every American high schooler is forced to read which most of them actually
like. Will this trailer be enough to win them over?
Why Should I See It?Personally I loved this novel back in HS, and after the perfect casting of Leonardo DiCaprio they had my curiosity. After the two minutes above, they
have my attention. Not sure how anyone could resist No Church in the Wild followed by
yooooooo and meeeeeee. Maybe everyone else is going to disregard this movie for "looking like it's just a two hour music video," but if all 120 minutes are as gorgeous as this trailer, I'll be there!
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May 17th (Week #3)
Star Trek Into DarknessRead About It:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1408101/Watch The Trailer:
What The Heck Is It?Two years after "the incident" with the time-traveling Romulan ship the Federation is again threatened, this time by a domestic terrorist known only as John Harrison. James T. Kirk and his crew are pushed to their limits in trying to bring him down.
Why Will It Be Big?Star Trek has of course always had its core fanbase, but after the 10th film in the franchise bombed with only $43 back in 2002, no one expected J.J. Abrams' 2009 franchise reboot to amount to much. Boy are our faces red! The new Trek was not only a huge success at the box office (grossing over $257), its remained one of the most beloved Summer blockbusters in recent memory- in fact it's still maintaining a spot on imdb's Top 250 four years later, something hardly any non-Batman Summer movies are able to accomplish.
Why Should I See It?After Trek '09 it's certainly easy to see why George Lucas felt comfortable turning over the keys to the Star Wars franchise to Abrams. And if this trailer's any indication, fans of both SF and SW are in good hands going forward- have to say that in terms of being "actually a legitimately great movie," of all the movies in this post there's none that I'm more confident in than Into Darkness! (Also,
Zoe Saldana.)
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May 24th (Week #4)
Fast & Furious 6Read About It:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1905041/Watch The Trailer:
What The Heck Is It?Two years after "the incident" in Brazil the streets are again threatened, this time by a domestic terrorist organization known only as something-or-other. The Rock reassembles the greatest team of drivers in the world and Vin Diesel's crew is pushed to its limits trying to bring them down.
Why Will It Be Big?It really shouldn't be! Sure the 2001 original was an unexpected hit ($145), but after tailing off a bit with the sequel ($127) and then falling off a cliff with 2006's Tokyo Drift ($62), anything further in the series should really have gone direct to video. But this team did the impossible, reigniting the fanbase in 2009 by bringing back Diesel and Paul Walker and somehow turning that into a $155 windfall. After that they knew they just needed to add The Rock to the mix in 2011 and BOOM, $210 million blockbuster! Now they're so confident in this franchise that they finished this movie and then immediately filmed Fast and Furious 7 afterward, because
why not. (Extremely helpful of them- I'll be able to copy and paste this entire section 12 months from now.)
Why Should I See It?As someone who thought the '01 original was just okay and was never interested enough to check out the next four, I've got to say, I may not like this franchise but I sure as heck respect it. They know exactly what their audience expects out of a Fast and Furious movie and every time out they deliver in spades. I mean, have you
seen that trailer? Completely ridiculous, but a perfect example of the dumb Summer fun everyone wants to turn out for on a rainy weekend. And honestly, who can resist The Rock? I may just end up marathoning this series some night after all...
ALSO THIS WEEK
The Hangover Part IIIhttp://www.imdb.com/title/tt1951261/http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KLAkxSjs8ZYOh noooooooooooo! Okay so H1 was the shocking smash hit of Summer 2009 that no one saw coming (including me, as I shamefully didn't even mention it in the Summer writeups), and yes, H2 demolished the recordbooks with the biggest opening weekend ever for a comedy, finishing with a very healthy $254 total to the first movie's $277. But is it possible for lightning to strike thrice when
literally everyone and their mother hated the last movie? I'm sure H3 will be a major improvement over the last installment; I'm just not sure if anyone's going to be willing to pay money to find out.
ALSO THIS WEEK
Epichttp://www.imdb.com/title/tt0848537/http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NPnSC4stKC4This actually looks like a pretty charming animated adventure, kind of a mashup of Ferngully and Miyazaki and 90's Disney. But
good heavens at the stunt casting! Most productions would have stopped at Aziz Ansari and Chris O'Dowd as the obligatory wise-cracking comic relief slugs, but noooooo, got to bring in Steven Tyler as the wise old prophet and Pitbull as the sarcastic talking frog with an attitude and the Queen of the Forest could of course only be Beyonce. On the plus side I really, really loved their use of "What If This Storm Ends" by Snow Patrol in the original trailer:
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May 31st (Week #5)
After EarthRead About It:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1815862/Watch The Trailer:
What The Heck Is It?One year after... wait, an original movie? OMG! It's 1000 years after some kind of mysterious disaster forced humanity to abandon Earth when all of a sudden Will Smith's spaceship crash-lands and the only one who can save him is his (real life) son.
Why Will It Be Big?Will Smith is the world's most bankable movie star- no one else could have brought back Men in Black after a 10 year hiatus and earned an impressive $180 for MIB3 like he did last Summer. Heck, we're talking about a guy who pushed Hancock to $228 without the benefit of that movie being any good whatsoever! Post-apocalyptic settings with great visuals are hot right now, as Tom Cruise is currently proving, and this is basically a mashup of those Oblivion/Wall*E movies and Avatar ($750 domestically and an astonishing $2.8 billion worldwide), so yeah, the sky's the limit!
Why Should I See It?On the one hand the visuals are stunning, nothing beats post-apocalyptic science fiction, and I've love this to be the next Avatar. On the other hand the movie is based on a story Will Smith wrote himself before having it polished into a final screenplay by
M. Night Shyamalan. Who is naturally also directing. Ehhhhhh, I'll keep my hopes up, but think I'll wait for the reviews before heading out to this one! Also, I've got to deduct a 5 point penalty to the trailer for missing an opportunity to have the son walk away from the crash site, ask "Where are we Dad?" and have Will Smith say "
Welcome to Earf" before punching a sabre tooth tiger unconscious.
ALSO THIS WEEK
Now You See Mehttp://www.imdb.com/title/tt1670345/http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KzJNYYkkhzcMichael Caine in another movie about magicians with ulterior motives? And you throw in Morgan Freeman and Mark Ruffalo and Woody Harrelson ON TOP OF that!? Normally I wouldn't be able to sign up fast enough, but I don't know, guess I wasn't entirely sold by this trailer. I'm a sucker for daring heists so I'm sure I'll watch this eventually, but with such a busy slate of Summer movies I'm not sure I'll check it out in the theater.
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June 7th (Week #6)
The InternshipRead About It:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2234155/Watch The Trailer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=712JPHER0uYWhat The Heck Is It?Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson are old school salesmen who are forced to fit in with 20something college kids,
with hilarious results. You know, kind of like that one movie, Old School? Except this time they're trying to beat out a bunch of genius 24 year olds for a job at Google.
Why Will It Be Big?If only it were 2007! These two were on top of the world after smashing every comedy record in the books during Wedding Crashers astonishing $209 million run. Unfortunately their stars have cooled since then, and in fact Vaughn is coming in off two straight bombs in the last couple years ($48 for The Dilemma and just $35 from last Summer's The Watch). I doubt Internship sinks to those levels, but at this point I wouldn't call it a surefire hit either.
Why Should I See It?Did you see what team sport all the interns are competing at on the Google campus? Quidditch! It's SO HOT right now!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XoY-be0k8tAOtherwise ehhh, this trailer's got a couple good lines but I'm not sure it's going to all come together. I might just end up watching Zoolander again instead.
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June 14th (Week #7)
Man of SteelRead About It:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0770828/Watch The Trailer:
What The Heck Is It?Remember Superman Returns from back in 2006? Not really? Well
good because it's been erased from history! This is a full on Dark Knight-style gritty reboot of the franchise, produced by Christopher Nolan and based on a story he wrote himself. It's a classic coming of age story where Clark Kent discovers he's adopted then goes off the map as an Alaskan deep sea fisherman or something for a few years before having to decide if he wants to become an adult by returning to society and punching bad dudes in the face really, really hard.
Why Will It Be Big?Man of Steel is the biggest wildcard of the Summer! Despite being considered a bit disappointing, Superman Returns still made over $200 million, but rebooting a franchise so quickly is certainly a risk. Unlike surefire bets like Iron Man and Star Trek, there's a very real chance this could end up as one of the most expensive flops of the year... but in my opinion there's an equal chance of it being the next Dark Knight ($533 million).
Why Should I See It?After what he did for the Caped Crusader, don't you have a give Nolan a chance with the Man of Steel? Personally I'm calling this one of the best trailers of the season, I'm calling this liiiiiiterally perfect casting (Kevin Costner and Diane Lane as Ma and Pa Kent, Laurence Fishburne as Perry White, Russell Crowe as Jor-El, Amy Adams as Lois Lane)... but all of that doesn't really matter because they already had me at "Superman with a beard"!
ALSO THIS WEEK
This is the Endhttp://www.imdb.com/title/tt1245492/http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MNs0vQgCWY0#t=59This is... the most absurd trailer I've ever seen! And I love it to death. Are you sick of Judd Apatow and his gang of dudebros (Seth Rogen, Jonah Hill, Jason Segel, James Franco, etc etc) popping up in every single comedy since The 40 Year Old Virgin back in 2005? Well good, because it's the Mayan Apocalypse of December 2012 and they're all playing themselves and now you get to watch them experience horrible grisly deaths one by one for 90 straight minutes. I can't decide if my favorite moment of the trailer is Danny McBride's unabashed glee at Michael Cera's demise or his thoughts on James Franco's nightly habits, I just know that I have to see this on opening day.
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June 21st (Week #8)
Monsters UniversityRead About It:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1453405/Watch The Trailer:
What The Heck Is It?Before they were Monsters Incorporated, they had to have graduated from Monsters University.
Obviously- you think you can pop out of closets and frighten children with only a high school diploma? Get real! This prequel looks like equal parts Monsters Inc and Hogwarts and every wacky '80s college movie throw together. Or in other words, INCREDIBLE.
Why Will It Be Big?Don't joke around, buddy, I'm sure you're aware that Inc was a monster hit ($256 million, and those were 2001 dollars so, gosh!). It's true that Pixar hit a bit of a road bump a couple years back when Cars 2 broke their unprecedented winning streak, but they got back on track with a strong showing from Brave last Summer ($237). Monsters U probably doesn't have the fanbase to set a new Pixar record (that's Toy Story 3's $415), but it just might get close.
Why Should I See It?Because you
have a soul.
ALSO THIS WEEK
World War Zhttp://www.imdb.com/title/tt0816711/Holy smokes! By all rights this SHOULD be my most anticipated film of the Summer- I'm a Brad Pitt fan and zombie nut who bought and read this novel last year specifically because I heard this movie was coming out. Plus the action sequences look amazing and the internet at large is losing its mind over this trailer (21 million views for just this vid!). Now, I'm certainly still excited and I'll check it out opening day, but I do have a few concerns
- the book (which is fantastic BTW, I'd recommend it to anyone) is unfilmable as a 2 hour movie. each chapter is a different survivor's story and they all take place on a different part of the planet and there's over 20 of them... so there was never going to be a way to present that kind of scope in only 120 minutes, but it's an especially dumb decision to center the action entirely around one person, as the movie seems to be doing with Pitt. WWZ should have been a large budget Game of Thrones-style cable series, two seasons with 10/12 episodes a season and every EP covers a different chapter. ah well, maybe someone will still try that if this movie does well enough
- as of last year rumors had it that WWZ was one of the most troubled productions ever, that they'd been waaaaay too ambitious and spent their entire budget and only had 40 minutes of usable footage to show for it. I'm sure the action sequences will be breathtaking, but I'm a bit worried over what they'll do with all the rest of the screen time...
- why are these zombies so
fast? why are they seemingly displaying intelligence, like when they all dogpile to one area so they can scale that wall? author Max Brooks is the guy who wrote the book on zombies as a legitimate IRL potential threat (seriously, he's the guy who wrote an entire 300 page Zombie Survival Guide); dude must be furious at having his zombies all Hollywooded up!
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June 28th (Week #9)
The HeatRead About It:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2404463/Watch The Trailer:
What The Heck Is It?The first R rated all-female Buddy Cop comedy! Melissa McCarthy is the "loose cannon" local Boston cop with the streetsmarts who has finally met her match in an uptight "by the books" FBI agent in Sandra Bullock. Opposites attract and these two are forced to partner up to take down a dangerous drug lord,
with hilarious results.
Why Will It Be Big?McCarthy is on fiiiiiire. Bridesmaid going all Hangover on us a couple Summer back ($169) put her on the map, she stars in Mike and Molly, one of the most popular comedies on TV (despite being unwatchable), and only two months ago she turned Identity Thief into the most unexpected hit of 2013 so far ($133 million and counting). And of course Bullock is no slouch herself- she had a slow patch following Speed and Miss Congeniality but put herself back on the map big time recently with The Proposal ($164) and especially The Blind Side ($256). With their powers combined, I'd have to say this has a great shot at taking down Hangover 3 for Comedy of the Year.
Why Should I See It?Because it's
about time the buddy cop genre finally got two likable female leads. And seriously, did you see that trailer? Sandra Bullock dropping f-bombs will be worth the price of admission by itself!
ALSO THIS WEEK
White House Downhttp://www.imdb.com/title/tt2334879/http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4AXbiCdmXgwArmageddon and Deep Impact, Mirror Mirror and Snow White and the Huntsman, and now the latest in the proud tradition of Hollywood making the same movie twice and releasing them back to back! Terrorists attack the White House trapping the president and his family inside, and there's only one "inside man" who can save the day... but no it's not Gerald Butler, that was last month's Olympus Has Fallen. This time it's all up to Channing Tatum instead, and let call the movie uhhhhhh
White House Down. Still though, hard to make fun of them toooooo much because Olympus has actually done great business ($94 million so far and will easily crack 100). Now they just need to count on audiences paying to see the same thing twice!
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July 5th (Week #10)
The Lone RangerRead About It:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1210819/Watch The Trailer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Zv9fgSrP-0What The Heck Is It?Armie Hammer is magically raised from the dead to battle a gang of gunrunners in the Wild Wild West, with the help of his wise-cracking Native American sidekick Tonto.
Why Will It Be Big?This is a big budget production that was filmed by pretty much the entire crew behind Pirates of the Caribbean and its clear they intend on making this their next billion dollar series. And frankly you'd be wise not to doubt them, considering Pirates did between $300 and $425 for all of the original trilogy... then 4 years later they dropped Orlando Bloom and Keira Knightley and threw another Pirates together for no reason and
still made $240 million! And it seems like audiences will still turn out in droves to see Johnny Depp, as he pushed last Summer's Dark Shadows to a respectable $80 million total in spite of how it looked pretty dang bad.
Why Should I See It?Kudos to Depp for turning over the glamorous Ranger role to Hammer (you remember him as the twins from the Social Network) in favor of playing the wacky sidekick in 10 pounds of makeup, Tonto. I'm sure he'll bring some life to the party, and the focus on railways as the future of the nation is pretty cool. But yikes does this trailer ever scream "meh"! This is definitely a case of wait-and-see-how-the-early-reviews-go in my book.
ALSO THIS WEEK
Despicable Me 2http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1690953/http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HwXbtZXjbVEUniversal is hoping that every family in America has already seen Monsters U twice before the Fourth of July... and that might not be a bad bet! I didn't have much faith in DM1 when it arrived three Summers ago, "too weird a concept to appeal to families" I said to myself, but boy was I wrong- it went on to be a huge hit, grossing a very Pixar-like $250 million plus during its long run in theaters. Even more surprisingly, it was actually pretty good! This time around I'll give the movie a chance, but ughhhhhhhh do I ever hate those little yellow minion things that take up 90% of every commercial because 6 year olds think they're the funniest thing ever.
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July 12th (Week #11)
Pacific RimRead About It:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1663662/Watch The Trailer:
What The Heck Is It?When a bunch of Godzilla monster thingies start rising from the ocean and destroying our major cities, its time for humanity to turn to our last hope... skyscrapper-sized man-shaped fighting robots that can flippin'
punch their heads off.
Why Will It Be Big?Transformers 2 made $400 million and it was teeeeeerrible. Pacific Rim is like Transformers meets Independence Day ($306) and is going to be AWESOME, so it's sure to make $800 million!
Why Should I See It?So let me get this straight... the guy who made Pan's Labyrinth was handed $200 million to basically make Neon Genesis Evangelion meets Godzilla, starring Stringer Bell and GlaDOS? HAVE I DIED AND GONE TO HEAVEN!? Seriously though, what a ridiculous trailer in the most entertaining way imaginable. Hello, most anticipated movie of the Summer!
ALSO THIS WEEK
Grown Ups 2http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2191701/You don't want to see it, trust me
No, just
no.
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July 19th (Week #12)
Red 2Read About It:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1821694/Watch The Trailer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HcVkavITnAIWhat The Heck Is It?Two years after "the incident" in wherever that was the US is again threatened, this time by a domestic terrorist known only as... I don't know, but I guess he has a nuclear weapon? The world's five oldest superspies are pushed to their limits in trying to bring him down.
Why Will It Be Big?Red did surprisingly well back in 2010, grossing over $90 million and getting this sequel greenlit. Unfortunately Bruce Willis' record has been a little spotty lately... A Good Day to Die Hard ($67) did less than half as well as Live Free and Die Hard, Expendables 2 ($85) made 20 million less than the original, and he didn't seem to do much for GI Joe Retaliation (at $117 right now but surely 115 million of those dollars are because of The Rock). And like Expendables 2 or Oceans 12, getting an all-star cast together once is fun but people aren't quite as excited to see them again a second time. I'm sure Red 2 will do decently, but can't see it becoming a breakout hit.
Why Should I See It?Bruce and John Malkovich and Helen Mirren are back, and this time they're bringing Anthony Hopkins and Catherine Zeta-Jones along for the ride! Sounds promising enough, the trailer looks decent, and I
did always hear that Red was pretty good... I'll give the original a watch next month before deciding if I'll watch to catch this one as well.
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July 26th (Week #13)
The WolverineRead About It:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1430132/Watch The Trailer:
What The Heck Is It?Five years after "the incident" in San Francisco aka X-Men the Last Stand, Logan makes a trip to Japan to visit an old soldier whose live he saved during, uhhh, World War II I guess? I just hope it isn't a trap and he won't have to kill 100 ninjas as he fights he way back to America!
Why Will It Be Big?"Wolverine? Again? For the fifth time?" I hear you, but X-Men 2 and 3 did over $200 million and, despite being considered a bit of a disappointment and
more than a bit of a crappy movie, Wolverine's 2009 prequel actually did pretty well for itself ($180 million). And look what happened why they finally tried an X-Men without Logan two Summers ago- BOOM, only $146 million for First Class. We'll see if having their most popular mutant back in action returns this series to the top of the superhero heap.
Why Should I See It?Wow, how lucky is Fox that Hugh Jackman hasn't aged a day since back in 2000! It's almost a little toooooo convenient now that I think of it... In any case I agree with the general sentiment that Origins was kind of sucky, and unfortunately based on the trailer this one pretty much looks like more of the same. I'm sure there will be enough cool action scenes to mostly make up for it though (using his claws to crawl around on the outside of a train going 200 mph looks especially promising). That being said, I really loved First Class and highly recommend it to everyone, a real shame that it only drew half the audience of the other X-Men movies. Plus it features Hugh Jackman in the funniest scene in superhero movie history- worth watching for that alone!
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August 2nd (Week #14)
300: Rise of an EmpireRead About It:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1253863/Watch The Trailer: none available yet
What The Heck Is It?One year BEFORE the infamous Battle of Thermopylae, the Spartans were first challenged by Xerxes, the "God King" of Persia. Uhhh apparently we'll also see some different battles that took place during and after the events of 300, so I guess it's more of a companion piece than a straight prequel.
Why Will It Be Big?Despite being made rather cheaply, 300 was a massive blockbuster back in 2007, grossing over $210 million dollars. Between 300 and Sin City the 90%-filmed-in-front-of-green-screen graphic novel genre was supposed to be the next big thing, leading to major billion dollar film franchises all over the place. Instead its been over seven years and they still haven't been able to get a sequel off the ground floor for either of them! I'm not sure on the entire backstory but I know there've been multiple attempts to get these movies made and they've had nothing but problems... and seems like they still are, if the lack of a trailer for a movie that's coming out so soon is any indication. Still, American audiences ate that ol' fashioned ultraviolence right up in '07 so I wouldn't count this movie out provided it can deliver more of the same.
Why Should I See It?Personally I'm more excited for A Dame to Kill For, the Sin City sequel they're hoping to release in October, but I'll be willing to reassess once they get this trailer onto youtube later this month.
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August 9th (Week #15)
ElysiumRead About It:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1535108/Watch The Trailer:
What The Heck Is It?The crew behind District 9 present Matt Damon as RoboCop meets Halo meets Blade Runner, the only supersoldier capable of bringing down the corrupt upper class and saving Earth. ...no idea how he plans on doing it though!
Why Will It Be Big?Damon was on such a hot streak a while back, with Ocean's Thirteen ($117) and The Departed ($132) and peaking with The Bourne Ultimatum ($227). Problem is, that movie came out seven years ago (I know, it's hard to believe!), and he's cooled off since then by sitting out of the last Bourne and doing not-so-hot with The Adjustment Bureau ($62) and We Bought a Zoo ($76) before bombing hard with last year's Promised Land ($8 million). On the other hand District 9 came out of nowhere to score over $115 million, and that was without the benefit of any recognizable stars like Damon or Jodie Foster. Smart work following the D9 strategy by placing this in the middle of August where it won't be overwhelmed by May and July's more expensive blockbusters; with good reviews I could easily see this becoming another breakout sci-fi hit.
Why Should I See It?I've already expressed my love for dystopian after-Earth science fiction and District 9 was fantastic, so of course I'll be attending Elysium's opening night showing! Even so, I've got to say that this trailer struck me as a little bit underwhelming. Like, what's so magical about these poles Matt glued to his back that will suddenly make him invincible to whatever so he can take down these corrupt 1%ers who are... keeping the Earth poor or whatever? Oh well, can't explain everything in two minutes, I'll just watch the movie and find out.
ALSO THIS WEEK
Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1854564/http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5KoOtiuSjuIIf you ever wondered how desperate movie studios are to find the next Twilight slash Hunger Games, look no further than Percy Jackson 2! The original was a straight up flop back in 2010, failing to reach $90 million despite costing over 100 mil to film (or more accurately CGI all to heck). The solution? Throw another 100 million at the problem and this time try to rip off Harry Potter more. As in, WAY WAY MORE. Give that trailer a click and you'll see just how blatant its gotten, you just have to laugh!
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August 16th (Week #16)
Kick-Ass 2Read About It:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1650554/Watch The Trailer:
What The Heck Is It?Two years later, the heroics of Kick-Ass and Hit Girl have inspired other regular citizens to don masks and join them in fighting crime. The non-superheros form their own little "Avengers" team, but will they be able to survive the revenge of self-described supervillian Red Mist?
Why Will It Be Big?It... won't, I'm afraid! Despite positive reviews and a ton of support online (it made it onto the IMDB 250 for a while and still sports an impressive 7.8 rating there), the 2010 original was just "too weird" to become a breakout hit, finishing with just $48 million. Frankly getting a sequel greenlit after a performance like that is nearly unheard of; the movie must have had huge success after the fact with DVD sales and streaming, in which case KA2 earning more than the first is a possibility. But, won't be too much more.
Why Should I See It?Because Kick-Ass was amaaaaaazing! Also it looks like KA himself has been replaced as the main star by 15 year old Hit Girl, which is pretty promising considering how she stole every scene in the last film. And
what's this, Jim Carrey is joining the cast as "Colonel Stars and Stripes?" Don't know what to think about that, but regardless I'll be there opening night!
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August 23rd (Week #17)
The World's EndRead About It:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1213663/Watch The Trailer: none available yet
What The Heck Is It?The British version of
This Is the End and the conclusion of Simon Pegg and Nick Frost's hilarious spoof trilogy (following 2004's zombie survival send up Shaun of the Dead and 2007's buddy cop drama Hot Fuzz).
Why Will It Be Big?Oh, it most certainly won't be. Shaun got only a minor release stateside ($13 million) before becoming a cult classic on DVD, which helped create more of a marketing push for Hot Fuzz... but that still only managed $24 million. Since then Pegg has become a more familiar face to American audiences by landing the role of Scotty on Star Trek, but even so this looks like its destined for big things on DVD and streaming and not so much the box office.
Why Should I See It?Little is known about the project aside from the brief plot summary above, and they're still working on the trailer... but even so I'm going to go right ahead and guarantee this will be one of the funniest movies of the year.
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August 30th (Week #18)
GetawayRead About It:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2167202/Watch The Trailer: none available yet
What The Heck Is It?Uhhh, Ethan Hawke's wife is kidnapped and he's told she'll be killed if he doesn't drive this getaway car around town, and he better not mess up because the kidnapper is watching him on cameras positioned all around the vehicle. Or something? So basically Collateral meets Speed meets Drive meets some kind of terrible, terrible movie.
Why Will It Be Big?Jeez, August is always slow outside of the occasional out of left field comedy hit, but things
really die off hard this year. This might be the slowest Summer month at the theaters in a decade unless the new 300 does remarkably well for itself... In any case yeah, Getaway will make zero dollars.
Why Should I See It?Elysium and Kick-Ass and World's End will probably be great despite not doing much business, but I can't see any reason to recommend Getaway at this point. But who knows, maybe the trailer will blow us away! (It won't.)
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Okay that covers everything, now it's your chance to have your say by making a guess at what will finish as the
Top Five Movies of the Summer- see my post below for an example. As for my traditional overall prediction, ehhhh. I'll say that 2013 is going to have the Biggest May Ever, and June will be really huge as well, but a weaker than usual July and August will stop it from matching 2012's record-setting season. I doubt 2013 can match last year's enormous November and December either, so overall it'll come up a little short of setting a new mark for biggest year.
Happy moviegoing!
~Ng
