Summer movie review PDF Print E-mail
Thursday, 22 May 2008

The summer blockbusters are here

By Bob Polunsky
Guest Columnist

 
Indiana Jones, Batman, The Hulk, Hellboy and the Mummy are back on the big screen in a summer filled with more new movies than sequels.

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Kristin Davis, Sarah Jessica Parker, Cynthia Nixon and Kim Cattrall star in ''Sex and the City: The Movie'' debuting May 30. (Photo courtesy of New Line Cinema)
“Sex and the City,” the film version of the celebrated TV series, opens May 30 with its original TV cast intact.  Oh, and Carrie is getting married.   

“Kung Fu Panda,” an animated film about a panda coping with an intimidating snow leopard, kicks off the season for the kids while Adam Sandler corrals teenagers with “You Don’t Mess with the Zohan,” a movie
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Jack Black supplies the voice of Po, the ''Kung Fu Panda.'' (Courtesy photo)
about a commando who decides to be a hairdresser, and adults watch Heather Graham desperately searching for a mate before her biological clock runs out. All three open June 6.

Mark Wahlberg plays a science teacher protecting his family from an ecological disaster in M. Night Shyamalan’s  “The Happening,” on June 13.

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Would you believe Anne Hathaway as Agent 99 and Steve Carell as Maxwell Smart in ''Get Smart''? (Photo courtesy of Warner Bros.)
Steve Carell brings Maxwell Smart to life in “Get Smart,” with Anne Hathaway as Agent 99. Sorry about that, chief.  Mike Myers plays a therapist called in to patch up the disintegrating marriage of a star hockey player in “The Love Guru.” Both films open June 20.

Matthew Broderick plays a drug addict trying to save his niece (Brittany Snow) from the same kind of life in “Finding Amanda.” “Wall-E” is an animated film about the last robot on earth finding hope when a robot named Eve visits Earth and “Wanted” is about an innocent man forced to take his father’s place in a team of assassins. All three open June 27.       

“Hancock” opens July 2 with Will Smith as a sarcastic superhero who gets help from the public relations executive he rescued from danger.

“The Wackness” opens July 3 with Ben Kingsley as a drug-addicted psychiatrist befriended by his teenaged patient.

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Luke Goss plays Prince Nuada and Ron Perlman is Hellboy in ''Hellboy 2: The Golden Army.'' (Photo courtesy of Universal Pictures)
“Hellboy 2: The Golden Army” opens July 11 with Ron Perlman as a cigar-smoking demon called in to cope with threats from the supernatural.

A remake of Jules Verne’s “Journey to the Center of the Earth” opens the same day with Brendan Fraser as a scientist investigating that hole in the planet.

“Meet Dave,” opening July 11, tells the story of a stranger named Dave, a spaceship in disguise! Eddie Murphy is its captain.

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Heath Ledger is said to be spooky as The Joker in ''The Dark Knight.'' (Photo courtesy of Warner Bros.)
“The Dark Knight” stars Christian Bale as Batman, but Heath Ledger is the center of attention. He completed his role as the Joker just before his untimely death. There’s a lot of buzz about this one.

“Diminished Capacity” stars Alan Alda as a man with Alzheimer’s and Matthew Broderick as his caring relative. Matthew gets distracted when his high school sweetheart shows up to complicate his life in humorous ways.

“Mama Mia,” the film version of the Broadway musical, stars Meryl Streep as a mother planning her daughter’s wedding. The bride-to-be intends to find the father she never knew when she invites three men from her mother’s past to the wedding. All three films open July 18 along with “Space Chimps,” an
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Meryl Streep stars in the musical romantic comedy ''Mamma Mia.'' (Courtesy photo)
animated film about chimpanzees investigating a hole in space.

Andrew Garfield stars as a convicted murderer released from prison and forced to fend for himself for the first time in his life in “Boy A” on July 23.

Evelyn Waugh’s controversial novel, “Brideshead Revisited,” gets the big screen treatment starting July 25.  Emma Thompson stars along with Matthew Goode as the soldier stationed at Brideshead Castle during World War II. .

“The Longshots,” a true story about the Pop Warner football tournament, opens the same day.
Also on that day, adults can see “The Stepbrothers” with Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly as two losers forced to live with each other when Ferrell’s mother marries Reilly’s father, and “The X-Files: I Want to Believe,” with David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson exploring intergalactic situations.

 “Choke,” a comedy about a con man re-enacting life in colonial Williamsburg and robbing restaurant patrons at the same time. His mother (Anjelica Huston) comes up with a lulu of a plan to stop him.
“He’s Just Not That Into You,” the film version of a self-help book, has a star-studded cast that includes Scarlett Johannson and Justin Long.

Brendan Fraser resurrects a movie monster in “The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor.” He goes to the Orient to cope with a 2,000-year-old sorceress and her 10,000 undead soldiers. Brendan’s 11-year-old nephew, his wife and his brother-in-law go along for the ride.

Kevin Costner gets attention during the presidential election because the outcome depends on his
“Swing Vote,” a political comedy with a cast of comedians. All four films open Aug. 1.

“Fly Me to the Moon,” houseflies decide to get a free ride on Apollo 11 on Aug. 8, the same day Woody Harrelson tangles with Russian detective Ben Kingsley on “The Trans-Siberian Express” and Seth Rogen witnesses a murder in Judd Apatow’s comedy, “Pineapple Express.”

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Jedi Knight Obi-Wan Kenobi raises his lightsaber against an enemy in ''Star Wars: The Clone Wars,'' the first animated project from George Lucas and Lucasfilm Animation. (Courtesy photo)
Luke Wilson and George Lopez team up for “Henry Poole Is Here.” Luke is a loner who wants to stay that way, but his friends want him to have more fun. It opens Aug. 15 along with “Star Wars: the Clone Wars,” an animated film based on the “Star Wars” series and “Tropic Thunder,” in which a movie star unexpectedly fights real-life bad guys in a jungle. Ben Stiller, Jack Black, Robert Downey Jr., Nick Nolte and Tom Cruise star.

“The Accidental Husband” stars Uma Thurman as a psychologist who advises a woman to break her engagement. Now the woman’s fiancé wants revenge.

Harrison Ford, Sean Penn, Ray Liotta and Ashley Judd are among the stars of “Crossing Over,” a somber tale of immigrants adjusting to life in Los Angeles.

High School drama teacher Steve Coogan wants his students to perform in “Hamlet 2,” a musical sequel to Shakespeare’s “Hamlet.” All three films open Aug. 22.

On Aug. 29, FBI agent Guy Pearce and C.I.A agent Jeff Daniels investigate Don Cheadle to learn why he’s always around when trouble is brewing in “Traitor.”

That’s not all. Another 88 movies are part of this summer line-up to make sure there’s something for everybody.    

 
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