As the school year starts up again, here are the most notable movies from this summer: the good and the bad.
The Good:
Captain America: The First Avenger: A weak little man (played by Chris Evans) wants nothing more than to serve his country, but his scrawny physique keeps him from enlisting into the army. The U.S. Military has other plans for him, however. They have created a science experiment that instantly makes him bigger, faster, stronger, better, etc. In the wake of World War II, he becomes a powerful force against the enemies. Finally bringing together one of the biggest super-teams, the Avengers, Captain America is a first-rate movie to watch for either the action or the storyline.
Crazy Stupid Love: A simple, 40 Year Old Virgin-like comedy that would more appropriately be called The Wingman, Steve Carell plays a man thrown into the dating world and enlists the help of a lady’s man to help him find someone. The all-star cast (Carell, Ryan Gosling, Emma Stone, Julianne Moore, Marisa Tomei) brings together craziness, stupidity, and love in a perfectly wrapped up little package.
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2: As the battle between Harry and Voldemort reaches its climax, a full out war breaks out at Hogwarts between the students and the Death Eaters. Harry, Ron, and Hemione must find the last of the Horcruxes in order to defeat Voldemort once and for all. The epic end to a decade-long series, Deathly Hallows, finishes off the story-line with a big bang, even if it does leave us wishing for a better ending.
Midnight in Paris: This movie is a romantic comedy with a hint of fantasy. American couple Gil (Owen Wilson) and Inez (Rachel McAdams) take a trip to Paris, where Gil likes to take a nice midnight stroll. As it turns out, these walks transport him to 1920’s France and he gets meets his artistic heroes. A beautiful and charming film, written and directed by Woody Allen, Midnight in Paris is one of this year’s treasures and a good contender for next year’s Oscars. The legendary director and the wonderful actors (Wilson, McAdams, Marion Cotillard, Kathy Bates) work together perfectly to make this truly great movie.
Rise of the Planet of the Apes: When a group of research scientists give an experimental drug for Alzheimer’s to a chimp, they didn’t expect that its intelligence would surpass that of a human’s. After living with his human family for years, Caesar the chimp is forced to live with his own kind, to which he also gives the drug to raise their intelligence. He then leads a rebellion against the San Francisco humans. Though this doesn’t exactly fit it with the original Planet of the Apes storylines, Rise of the Planet is still pretty satisfying. It has a lot of the qualities that zombie movies have, including an unexpected attack from an unlikely demographic, i.e. apes. It’s a simple movie, not terrible, not incredible.
Super 8: A balanced blend of E.T. and The Goonies, Super 8 is a downright Speilberg movie, top to bottom. It takes a leap of faith just to watch, since the trailers told us absolutely nothing. Simply, it’s about a group of kids who are shooting their very own movie with their Super 8mm camera. A suspicious warning from their teacher is the first of many omens that plague their small town. Dogs running away, appliances moving, and people disappearing all lead up to a terrible attack from an extra-terrestrial. A great movie to watch at the moment, but it doesn’t manage to stay in our memories for very long.
Winnie the Pooh: The movie’s storyline follows the old books, starting about how Eeyore lost his tail. A favorite childhood cartoon on the big screen, Winnie the Pooh is great for all ages, and a perfect first movie to watch for kids, because it is still a quality film.
X-men: First Class: A prequel to the story of the group of super-human mutants called the X-Men, it tells us how they all came to be, finally shedding light on how two best friends became enemies. First Class is definitely the best of the X-Men canon, one of the best superhero movies, and an overall great movie to watch no matter what.
The Bad:
Cars 2: The cars, Steve McQueen and Tow Mater, return for the Grand World Prix in Europe…that’s it. One of the few Pixar movies that aren’t nearly as good as John Lasseter’s other animations. We never needed a sequel, yet we still go one. The animation is still is great as always, but the writing is excessive and not original. In other words, let’s just pretend this never happened.
Cowboys and Aliens: In the Old West, a man (Daniel Craig) wakes up in the middle of nowhere with no memory at all and some futuristic device clamped to his arm. He wanders into a town that is soon invaded by aliens where several people are abducted. A ridiculous story-line that, with some build-up from the actors, could have been drastically enhanced. You’d think that a movie with both James Bond with Indiana Jones would be great, a real adventure, right? Think again. A space-cowboys attempt gone sour, it’s a really terrible movie. Sure, the graphics are ok, but otherwise it’s just a simple failure.
Green Lantern: One of the great comic books of old is finally made into a movie. The Green Lantern Corps, protectors of the universe get a new addition when pilot Hal Jordan (Ryan Reynolds) is chosen by the Green Lantern ring. He becomes the defender of his planet Earth against the essence of fear called Paralax. Instead of the interesting story that could have been told, Green Lantern just becomes just one huge fight scene, one that isn’t much better than the Transformers series. The great cast (Reynolds, Blake Lively, and Peter Sarsgaard) is deeply overshadowed by the low quality writing. Hopefully the sequel with be much better.
The Smurfs: A futile attempt to bring an old cartoon to the big screen, The Smurfs is trying to follow in the footsteps of Alvin and the Chipmunks and Enchanted, unsuccessfully. Basically, the Smurfs have left their village and found refuge in New York City (a la Enchanted) and are found by a completely normal man who wants nothing to do with them (a la Alvin and the Chipmunks).
Transformers: Dark of the Moon: The Transformers return yet again with Shia LeBeouf to fight some more Decepticons with more U.S. government conspiracy theories. Dark of the Moon is a boring, confusing, and just silly movie. Throw together some unexciting explosions and bad acting, you’ve got yourself an unwanted sequel.
Monte Carlo: A high school graduate (Selena Gomez) treats herself to a trip to Paris with her best friend (Kate Cassidy) and step-sister (Leighton Meester) and, in a whirlwind of confusion, gets mistaken for a wealthy heiress (also Gomez). Thus they leave their crummy hotel and are whisked away to enjoy a fancy stay in Monte Carlo, all under the prying eye of the heiress’ suspicious aunt (Catherine Tate). A bit of a “princess and pauper” storyline that has been used and reused numerous times over the past century and has nothing appealing about it, including its Disney Channel and Gossip Girl stars.
Mr. Popper’s Penguins: A pretty typical family comedy about a neglecting father who begins changing his life and starts spending more time with his kids. Although the penguins were adorable and Jim Carrey was funny as usual, it would appear that launching his career back into stardom is going to be harder than he thought.
Zookeeper: A well-loved zookeeper (Kevin James) is confronted by his animals, who apparently can all speak, that attempt to teach him how to attract a mate and win back his girlfriend. Almost as bad as Paul Blart: Mall Cop, a really pointless movie that isn’t funny in the slightest and completely steals the story-line from Night at the Museum, Zookeeper completely under utilizes James and turns a fairly funny man into something that makes you stare blankly into space.
