Another summer has officially come to an end, and another summer blockbuster movie season with it. Please allow us to present our comprehensive summer review, featuring the best and worst of the season. The reviews will be broken into three parts and featured in chronological order of release, and followed up with our choices for the top five movies of the summer. Part two of our reviews continues with a most unfortunate 'happening', and rounds things out with Guillermo Del Toro's ultimate wet dream.
The HappeningGone are the days of 1999’s The Sixth Sense and even 2000’s criminally underrated Unbreakable. Hell, we thought The Village was bad. But with his first R-rated movie director M. Night Shyamalan seems to be trying to figure out just how far he can push it before people say he’s lost it. The Happening is a rambling eco-horror film with a mind-numbingly boring new twist... the plants are trying to kill us! On top of that gimmicky but not irredeemable concept, Shyamalan stacks a cast of forgettable characters headed up by school teacher Elliot Moore (Mark Wahlberg), and sends them on an exceedingly absurd attempt at an edge-of-your-seat thriller. In the end, The Happening succeeds in making wind about as scary as it can be.... not very much at all.
The Incredible HulkThis summer saw the big green guy 's return to the screen in smashing fashion. I'm immensely pleased to report that the newest incarnation of the Hulk franchise has almost completely erased the terrible taste that Ang Lee left in my mouth with his 2003 travesty. Edward Norton portrays a much more authentic Bruce Banner and the inclusion of Tim Roth as the Abomination at least provides some entertainment as a competitive villain. Hulk stories in the past have failed to escape the 'Hulk against the world' mentality, ultimately making him more of a villain than a hero. This film returned Bruce Banner to his roots as the wandering hero and thankfully skipped the unnecessary origin story. The dialogue is campy at times but this is definitely a superhero movie done well.
Love GuruCrass, unfunny, repetitive, obnoxious, gross, thin, fucking terrible. The love guru has been referred to as all of above, as well as a career killer for star Mike Myers, and even has the dubious ability to make you wonder if you'll ever laugh again. Just in case there were those doubting the utter totality of his fall from grace, Mike Myers has now quieted any lingering hope of a comeback. The only redeeming feature is Steven Colbert as Jay Kell, a drug addicted sex fiend of a hockey broadcaster. However, you're best left just watching that bit on youtube, as this film should be avoided at all costs. If you happen to walk into a friend's house and they are watching it, not only should you leave but you should no longer be friends with that person.
Get Smart
A remake of the 1960s Mel Brooks spy parody TV series, Get Smart makes for an enjoyable yet unenthusiastically positive experience. Steve Carell is perfectly cast as agent Maxwell Smart, while the film’s over-reliance on his endearing sense of wit and charm is both a positive and negative overall. His partner and would-be love interest Agent 99 (Ann Hathaway) serves as a fitting foil to Smart’s bumbling yet oddly effective style of espionage, while Dwyane “The Rock” Jonhson’s Agent 23 once again demonstrates an acting talent that greatly exceeds the level for which he has any right. If you’re looking for a charmingly entertaining light-hearted adventure with a couple of laughs along the way, then you can’t go wrong with Get Smart.
Wall-EBeautiful, stunning, heartwarming, WALL-E was all of these and much more. The story of a trash compacting robot doomed to spend eternity cleaning the world's mess doesn't seam all too appealing at first glance, but the charisma and character instilled in the cute little R2-D2-esque trash compactor makes him very endearing. The story alone makes this film a great kid's flick with a good message, but what really steals the show is the sheer visual beauty of the film. The Pixar team truly out did their previous work with Wall-E. There were multiple moments in the film when I caught myself just starring at the screen with my mouth ajar in awe at the scope and beauty of the images with which I found myself transfixed. It becomes an exercise in artistic exhibition. I heard complaints that the message of the story was "leftist propaganda", but I thought the message was well intertwined within the story and I didn't feel like they were trying to push anything upon me. WALL-E is one of the must-see movies of the summer, and not just if you have kids. I did feel a little strange going into a theater full of children, but the sense of complete satisfaction that had enveloped me by the end of the movie made up for any awkwardness.
HancockWill Smith + 4th of July weekend = $$$$. It is as simple as that. I was very excited about Hancock but I always felt like they were trying to hide something in the previews. The idea of a derelict super hero seemed like a fresh and interesting take on the genre and I was excited to see what Peter Berg would do with the film. Well, the first 2/3 of this film are great. Will Smith plays an asshole with a heart of gold to a T. About an hour into the film it seemed like the story had pretty much wrapped up and I was left asking myself "Where are they going to take it from here?" That is when shit gets weird. The last 30-40 minutes of the film appear as if the script pages were meant for a different film but somebody fucked up and stuck them on to Hancock instead. I would love to explain it to you but I simply can't express it into words. It was like watching a train wreck, I wanted to get up and leave but I had to stay and see how bad it got. There was a scene of statutory rape that was removed from the final cut for the sake of a PG-13 rating. That scene could have been looped 20 times over the last 30 minutes of the movie and it would have made for a much better ending. My recommendation is that if you watch the film and simply turn it off after Hancock foils the bank robbery. At least then you'll have a good albeit short film. Trust me, youll save yourself a lot of confusion and disgust.
WantedHeralded as "visually revolutionary", Wanted actually left me a bit wanting. The film follows a young man named Wesley Gibson (James McAvoy) working at a dead-end job with an overbearing boss and all the various accoutrement that come with the quintessential twenty-something shitty life: cheating girlfriend, worthless best friend etc. Gibson soon becomes entangled in an international assassin's association in which his recently slain absentee father was a member. While this film is a fine action movie with very appealing special effects and a decent storyline, labeling it "revolutionary" and comparing it to The Matrix is a bit over the top. If you go in expecting an entertaining hour and a half with plenty of violence you will be pleased. If you are looking for a masterpiece you will be severely disappointed.
Hell Boy 2Unfortunately, Hell Boy 2 got lost in the sea of summer movies. I like the Hellboy series quite a bit but even I was shocked when I found out about HB2's ambitious summer release date. It was really a shame, as HB2 not only had a better story than the first, but Guillermo Del Toro was allowed much freedom this time around to flex his directorial muscles. The stories delves much deeper into the mythic underground and plays heavily on Hellboy's alliances. The movie has its fair share of cheesy moments but remains in the same vein as the previous installment. My biggest complaint was that at times I felt like this was just a showcase of special effects and puppetry. I enjoy Del Torro's use of special effects, the Pan's Labryinth-inspired creature aesthetic employed here is an arguable triumph, but in some instances it just seemed masturbatory.
Check back next Friday for the third and final installment of our Summer in Review, to be followed up by our announcement of the top-five films of Summer 2008.
Related Posts:
Surreelfilm's Summer in Review Part 1
