Ten Most Anticipated Summer Movies

[oscar jubis]

I expect the Poseidon remake and new installments of Mission Impossible and Pirates of the Caribbean to provide the requisite thrills. But none of those made it into my list of summer films whose release I most eagerly await. I've already seen Larry Clark's funny, sweet and not-creepy Wassup Rockers but I had to include it: a perfect summer movie and a welcome antidote to the current, poisonous anti-immigrant rethoric. In order of projected release date.

WATER
The last installment in Deepa Mehta's Elemental Trilogy (after Fire and Earth). In 1938 colonial India, an 8 year-old girl rebels against tradition when she is married off, her husband dies and she is sent to a home for widows, where she is expected to remain for life.

A PRAIRIE HOME COMPANION
Robert Altman rounds up another superlative cast.

THE PROPOSITION
A revisionist Western set in the 1880s Aussie Outback. Scripted by Nick Cave!?!

TWELVE AND HOLDING
The second film by director Michael Cuesta (L.I.E.) "deserves the theatrical exposure given such other intelligent recent Amerindie studies of childhood as Mysterious Skin" (Variety).

WASSUP ROCKERS
Larry Clark's ode to a bunch of Latino teens who love to rock and skate starts like a documentary then switches to broad satire before concluding on a wistful note.

A SCANNER DARKLY
Richard Linklater takes the striking style of animation he created for Waking Life to the next level with this adaptation of Philip K. Dick's futuristic novel.

MIAMI VICE
It's Michael Mann and my beloved city. Best popcorn flick of the season?

WORLD TRADE CENTER
Hero-worshipping served by Oliver Stone!?!

QUINCEANERA
Grand Jury Prize and Audience Award at Sundance. The preparations for a girl's 15th birthday celebration are derailed by her pregnancy. This year's Raising Victor Vargas?

THE SCIENCE OF SLEEP
Dreams begin to overtake reality for a shy man with an overactive imagination. Last time around, director Michel Gondry made a masterpiece called Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.

[HorseradishTree]

Originally posted by oscar jubis
I expect the Poseidon remake and new installments of Mission Impossible and Pirates of the Caribbean to provide the requisite thrills. But none of those made it into my list of summer films whose release I most eagerly await. I've already seen Larry Clark's funny, sweet and not-creepy Wassup Rockers but I had to include it: a perfect summer movie and a welcome antidote to the current, poisonous anti-immigrant rethoric. In order of projected release date.



A SCANNER DARKLY
Richard Linklater takes the striking style of animation he created for Waking Life to the next level with this adaptation of Philip K. Dick's futuristic novel.

I was talking to someone today about this and we were both wondering if the rotoscope effect would hold up in a film that isn't as bound to the animation as Waking Life was. The best example for a great failure in the same respect is Ralph Bakshi's use of the medium in Lord of the Rings.


MIAMI VICE
It's Michael Mann and my beloved city. Best popcorn flick of the season?

After loving Collateral and rewatching Heat, I am truly anticipating this. Mann is definitely one of my favorites these days. On that note, has anyone seen his Thief, starring James Caan? I was curious to see the concensus on something that certainly sounds intriguing.


WORLD TRADE CENTER
Hero-worshipping served by Oliver Stone!?!

I'm not going to pass any judgement on this one until I see it. It's really going to be hit-or-miss.

[oscar jubis]

A Scanner Darkly
I don't know what you mean by saying it "isn't as bound to the animation as Waking Life was". I know the trailer looks great and I know that Ralph Bakshi is no Richard Linklater.

Miami Vice
The shooting caused now legendary traffic hassles. Hope it was for a good cause. Mann has never made a bad film. My favorites are The Insider, Heat and Manhunter, in that order. Thief is a good genre flick. I'd say check it out.

World Trade Center
Absolutely, NEVER pass judgement on any film including this one until you see it. By all reports, film is devoid of the controversy Stone seems to relish. WTC is an old-fashioned story of heroism made by a director with a very dynamic visual style. I'm not typically into hero-worship, but those firefighters who went inside the burning, crumbling towers to save lives deserve the hero tag.

[Johann]

I saw Kurt Russell on The Tonight Show last night.
He got pneumonia while working on Wolfgang Peterson's new film.

He said that Peterson wanted to remake Poseidon the way it should have been done the first time: in a way that shows what would probably really happen in the event of some freakish thing like a big cruise ship turning turtle in the ocean.

People who don't know each other would be thrown together in frantic attempts to save lives, people would drown at random, shit would be mass. chaos.

He also said that at one point during shooting a bunch of actors were sitting around on a break and started asking each other if they were ever asked if they could swim.
None were.

It sounded real enough of an experience and of an attempt at a great movie that I will make a point of going to see this.




Miami Vice could be a surprise hit movie.
Michael Mann is a FILMMAKER, I like Colin Farrell & Jamie Foxx a lot, but does this t.v. series deserve a big screen treatment of this calibre?
I mean, why didn't QT direct Starsky & Hutch?
Or Guy Ritchie direct Dukes of Hazard?
Weird.



World Trade Center will not be boring.

[HorseradishTree]

If I'm not mistaken, Mann played a huge part in the creation of the original television series. It seems that this is being done by the right person.

As for what I meant concerning Linklater's stuff, the rotoscoping for Waking Life was a masterful choice because it really felt like a dream. In terms of this new film, I want to know if Linklater is doing it because it assists in the visual telling of the story, or because it looks cool. Now, I really can't tell either way until I've seen it; I've never read the Philip K. Dick story, and I could be entirely wrong.

[Chris Knipp]

All the shit that fits we print....you seem to have left out so many potential guilty pleasures! Here's my alternative list. I admit I got bogged down in July.

"Mission: Impossible III." The action, the wow-factor stunts, special effects and the introduction of Oscar winner Philip Seymour Hoffman as the supreme bad guy should help boost this spy series starring Tom Cruise. Or not.

"Just My Luck." A lucky Manhattan socialite (Lindsay Lohan) is horrified to find that she has swapped her luck for the bad luck of a down-and-out man (Chris Pine) she kissed. Can you wait to see how it comes out?

"The Da Vinci Code." Tom Hanks and Audrey Tatou star in a murder investigation that unearths a secret about clues hidden in Leonardo Da Vinci's paintings that could change the course of the world. Or just make a lot of money for the stars and filmmakers.

"Little Man." Shawn Wayans plays a man so anxious to be a father that he mistakes a short-statured, baby-faced criminal (Marlon Wayans) for his newly adopted son. Cute, eh?

"The Omen." Shattering events reveal that a young boy named Damien (Seamus Davey-Fitzpatrick) is destined to become the Anti-Christ. Julia Stiles, Liev Schreiber, Mia Farrow star. Note the opening date: three sixes. Ooooooo! I'm scared.

"The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift." Sean Boswell (Lucas Black) is sent to live with his estranged father in Japan, where he enters the sexy underground world of drift racing, as custom rides navigate the world's most dangerous courses. If it hasn't got Paul Walker in it I'm not going.

"Nacho Libre." Jack Black stars as a cook at a Mexican orphanage who wrestles by night to raise money for the orphans. If you hadn't guessed, this is a comedy, from the creators of "Napoleon Dynamite" and the writer of "The School of Rock." A winning combo.

"The Devil Wears Prada." Meryl Streep plays a tough fashion magazine editor and Anne Hathaway co-stars as her small-town assistant trying to survive the big city and her boss. Based on the best-selling novel of the same name. I just like that title.

"Accepted." After being rejected by eight colleges and worried about what his parents will say, a high school senior and his equally rejected friends set up their own university, calling it South Harmon Institute of Technology (you supply the acronym). Justin Long, Jonah Hill and Maria Thayer star. That's what I call shit!

"How to Eat Fried Worms." An 11-year-old boy agrees to eat 10 worms to meet a bully's challenge. Based on the popular Thomas Rockwell book. I just like that title.

[HorseradishTree]

Originally posted by Chris Knipp
"How to Eat Fried Worms." An 11-year-old boy agrees to eat 10 worms to meet a bully's challenge. Based on the popular Thomas Rockwell book. I just like that title.

Wow, I remember reading that book in, like, third grade. They're really digging deep for kid's book adaptations these days.

[oscar jubis]

Re: Miami Vice
Michael Mann was the executive producer. When it comes to TV series that means he provides the artistic vision and hires and supervises the directors of each episode in order to maintain a certain style. Two decades ago, Miami Vice was a groundbreaking crime drama in many respects. Something significantly better than Starsky and Hutch, Johann. Don't get me wrong, it was still TV and it has dated some, it's only natural, but it was special. Miamians had/have a love/hate reaction to it. Young cities can change a lot in 20 years. I wonder whether the movie will reflect that, or mine the same territory as the series. I'm also curious about Gong Li playing a Cuban of Chinese descent. Mann's films always look good, the scripts make them or break them.

[Chris Knipp]

I'm surprised you say Mann's films always look good, Thief is drab and grungy. but his latest one Collateral looked great for sure. Ali also has beautiful images. The Insider doesn't look particularly great and it isn't about looks. I think he's up and down on looks, and on other things, but I'm for him.

[Johann]

Mann was exec prod. on Vice?
Thanks for the info- I was in the dark on that one.

I'm certain they're gonna slick it up.
They're gonna use Miami's locales to great effect.
I'd also rather see these two guys than another Lethal Weapon.




Little Man was a movie I did security for on one day, last Oct.
They were shooting in Birk's jewellers on Granville street, and Birk's was a sister site I trained on while working at Louis Vuitton as a guard. I was asked by the boss if I could pull a long shift at Birk's.
The scene they were shooting involved Tracy Morgan (of SNL) coming into the jewellers with the "Little Man" in a hockey-type bag, while he has a white staff lady offer him "bling".

I know, it doesn't sound funny and it didn't seem funny while watching it. I saw the "doll" of Marlon Wayans and it creeped me out... But I did get to see Keenan direct.
(Plus I was paid VERY well for that shift..)
And I will also say that the catering truck was INSANE.
In addition to gourmet food, the food services tent had the best deli sandwich making stuff on earth. If you ever work on a Wayans bros. movie the food will be off the hook.
I'm not joking- if you wanna work on movie sets, move to Vancouver. They're shooting TV shows & commercials and movies on practically every street corner.




Nacho Libre is another one I can't wait to see.
I saw the poster at a cineplex and I was laughing without knowing anything about it. Jack Black as a Mexican wrestler....YESSS.

I know exactly what The DaVinci Code will be like.
I read the book, I know how Ron Howard movies feel.
Dan Brown said it will be like "seeing the novel".
Well, I already know what it's about (and I loved that book)
so I might wait to see it on DVD. It'll be a good movie.

Ron Howard always wanted to be a director- he worked for Roger Corman and made films before his Happy Days acting gig.
He was really taught how to make films by George Lucas.
Read the great *essential for film buffs* book
THE CINEMA OF GEORGE LUCAS to get the whole story on Willow & Ron's "education" from Mr. THX.

Mission: Impossible III looks like a video game.
The only reason to see this is the sfx & Hoffman.

We've seen Cruise in these kinds of stunts before. Ho Hum.

[oscar jubis]

Originally posted by Chris Knipp
I'm surprised you say Mann's films always look good, Thief is drab and grungy.

It's been a quarter century so I didn't trust my memories. I don't remember Thief being "drab and grungy" at all. NY Times Camby wrote: "The neonlit, nighttime Chicago is pretty enough to be framed and hung on a wall". That sounds about right. Mann's signature IS attractive visuals which doesn't always mean super-slick.

[Chris Knipp]

I'm not convinced that Mann has a characteristic visual style (this seems to be an oft-repeated cliché) but it may be true that his movies are often in one way or another visually striking--which is different. I still stand by what I say on Thief. Sure, Miami Vice was famous for its bright tropical look and the casually hip style of the two cop partners. There's no doubt about that. And Collateral is a singularly beautiful image of urban landscape with rich nuanced color in the dark interiors--something Thief lacks. I still don't agree with you on Thief--which, let's note, was Mann's first feature. Moreover you took Canby's statement out of a context that shows he didn't like the visual style of Thief:
The movie is loaded with so-called production values. This neonlit, nighttime Chicago is pretty enough to be framed and hung on a wall, where, of course, good movies don't belong. Mr. Mann favors close-ups so tight you often don't know if you're seeing a blow-torch or the interior of Mount St. Helens. This isn't a particuarly perceptive description, though--Canby was not what you could call a great film critic, and his own visual sense was not very acute, as this comment shows. In the shots in Thief, the color range was often limited and the look grainy. It wasn't "pretty" though it might be considered a distinctive "look". A Wikipedia entry on Mann says "Mann's visual style often times places an emphasis on soft blues and harsh, sterile whites." Now that is getting more specific, but which movies is the writer talking about? Certainly not Collateral where earth tones predominate. The colors of Thief do fit this description pretty well: they tend very much to blues and to a limitation of the color range. Go back and look at Thief, and then tell me it's "pretty enough to be framed" or that it's visuals are "stunning." They are harsh, contrasty (but the color often murky), gritty, ugly, and urban. They underline the intense focus of the film on the titular character and Caan's obsessive, doggedly intense performance. It's Chicago. They leave you with a memory of bright, harshly lit, or dark and murky with blues--an utterly different look from the gorgeous L.A. shots in Collateral, rich in browns and golds and reds.

P.s. It has not been a quarter century since I watched Thief. I saw it when it was new, in a theater, but I re-watched it on video more recently.

[oscar jubis]

Chris, I think it would be silly for me to retort based on quarter-century old memories of a theatrical screening. I have not seen the video, which would refresh my memory although the format can merely approximate the way a film is supposed to look.

By saying Mann's films "look good", I didn't mean just "gorgeous", like the LA shots of Collateral you mention. I meant it in the broader sense of visuals being distinctive or artistically rendered. Your post is helpful though and I thank you.

Another film I'm anticipating with great interest opens today in NYC and L.A.:
ART SCHOOL CONFIDENTIAL
It's the new film directed by Terry Zwigoff, who was responsible for personal faves Crumb and Ghost World. The film has gotten some bad reviews but J. Hoberman, who knows better than most, liked it very much.

[Chris Knipp]

Of course this is just something for us to keep in mind; the whole topic of a director's visual style and how distinctive it is and how consistent it is is something to think about and discuss. And we'll see if it seems relevant in connection with Michael Mann or anybody else in times to come.

I will have to see what Hoberman says, I have seen only a couple bad reviews, both local and today's in the NYTimes. This was a movie I wanted to see at the SFIFF, but it didn't work out schedule-wise, and it didn't seem critical since it will be in theaters here before long--I saw a trailer for it in Berkeley weeks and weeks ago. I understand Malkovich's character attempts a seduction of Minghella's, and that he does that well. For artists and people currently in or contemplating being in art school this is certainly one not to be missed, but whether it lives up to our expectations as satire or exposé remains to be seen.