June 24, 2005

New Movie Releases: 6/23/05

This weekend's offerings bring us an update of an old film series, a reimagination of an old television, and a legendary director's return to the genre he created. But, will any of it be enough to unseat Batman Begins from it's perch at the top of the box office list? Or, from another angle, will they finally be the answer to the box office slump, now in it's 17th week? My guess on both counts is no. I do think they will have good showings.

Bewitched. I had my doubts about this early on, but lately I have been thinking that it may actually be pretty good. It has a good cast, featuring Will Ferrell, Nicole Kidman, and Michael Caine, and it doesn't appear to be the typical retread. It looks to bring a twist to the old show, instead of being what the show was, the film is about recreating the show. The jury is out whether or not it will work, but I like the idea.

Land of the Dead. This is my must see release for this weekend. It's hard to go wrong with George Romero and zombies. The fourth film of the trilogy is set to descend upon us and devour the land of the living. I don't know the details, and don't care, it's zombies, it's Romero, that's all I need to know.

Herbie: Fully Loaded. This may or may not be a good movie. The old series lost steam quickly, will the idea serve to sustain a new film? Will it be soaked with effects drowning out a story? Will it be a smartly written and entertaining film for the family? Or will it just be a lame attempt at grabbing the family dollar?

Rize. This is a documentary about an expressive dance that started in LA called krumping. I had not heard of this film prior to seeing the listing, but it could be interesting to see where a newer form of dance has come from. Not sure how much of a widespread desire there will be to see it, but it could be interesting.

My Summer of Love. Not sure how to describe this one, so here is the description from a local theater, www.upstatefilms.org: "Set in Yorkshire, this tale of an unlikely friendship between a snooty cello-playing rich girl with a very active imagination and a freckle-faced teen who lives with her ex-con born-again brother creates a funny, menacing, and enchanted world. For kicks, bored Mona (Natalie Press) beds her married lover and coasts her engineless motor bike down the Yorkshire hills. One day while lying in the grass, she looks up and sees Tasmin (Emily Blunt), a pre-Raphaelite beauty perched high on her horse. Mona and Tasmin bond, retreat into a sensualized alternative reality and swear an oath to one another. The girls’ mutual obsession troubles Mona’s brother Phil (Paddy Considine) who plans to banish evil from their quiet village and who finds it disturbing that neither wants to accept Jesus or help erect a giant cross on a hill overlooking the village. He even begins to suspect that his sister’s new friend may be the devil! A startling rite-of-passage drama with remarkable performances, the film casts a seductive spell that’s both hard to classify and even harder to resist."

Until next week when War strikes!

Also at Blogcritics.org.

0 comments:

Post a Comment