June's Most Anticipated Films and DVDs
by Brian Eggert
Theatrical Releases
June continues summer 2008’s run of blockbusters with a gamut of comedies, comic book heroes, and animated adventures. The only dependable hit all month is Pixar’s Wall-E, which looks to be their best since, well, every picture they make is great so it’s a moot point. Laughers starring SNL alumni like Mike Myers in The Love Guru and Adam Sandler in You Don’t Mess with the Zohan will surely earn dough. And Marvel will see if they can strike gold once again this year with The Incredible Hulk. Prepare yourself for mass entertainment amid mild disappointment... Or is it mass disappointment amid mild entertainment?
For the full list of upcoming movies, check out Deep Focus Review’s new-and-improved Calendar.
June 13th:
The Happening
Click here for the theatrical trailer
M. Night Shyamalan’s last couple pictures have stunk like rotten eggs in a fish market. The degree to which The Village and Lady in the Water suck is almost incalculable, beyond even description with colorful metaphor. He’s a director riding on the successes of Signs and The Sixth Sense, earning millions for screenplays that are usually the sole problem with his pictures, which are otherwise visually impressive and adorned with fine actors. And yet, something about The Happening makes me hopeful that Shyamalan will prove why he’s one of the highest paid screenwriters in Hollywood. Perhaps it’s the R-rating, as he’s always aimed for PG-13. Perhaps it’s the interesting plot where nature begins to attack humankind for our high-polluting ways. Or perhaps I’m expecting too much.
The Incredible Hulk
Click here for the theatrical trailer
Though Ang Lee’s Hulk was just made in 2003, The Incredible Hulk is not a sequel nor a complete relaunch according to director Louis Leterrier. Rather, it works wholly separate from, yet in synch with Lee’s film, so that the picture stands alone but doesn’t omit Lee’s entry either. However, we can expect something more intelligent this time around, as star Ed Norton insisted on polishing screenwriter Zak Penn’s (X-Men 2 & 3) script himself. Fighting to tell a more brooding story in the vein of Batman Begins, the film’s trailers already show a literally darker-colored Hulk (versus Lee’s neon green hero). With a cast including Norton, Tim Roth, Liv Tyler, Tim Blake Nelson, and William Hurt (not to mention a reported cameo by Robert Downey Jr. as Iron Man’s Tony Stark), there’s an unexpected credibility there that will only enhance the film. I really hope this one lives up to the higher standard Marvel films.
June 27th:
Wall-E
Click here for the theatrical trailer
Pixar can do no wrong. Here they enter science fiction territory with Wall-E, a film about a robot left on a waste-ridden future version of earth to cleanup. Exact plot details remain sparse, but at some point the little guy falls in love, gets off earth, and interacts with newer, better technologies. Somewhere between minimalism (the robot barely speaks) and over-the-top sci-fi adventure, this movie looks to be one of Pixar’s best. But when are they not doing their best? Looking at the trailers online, I’m taken with how the animation radiates its beauty. Anyone unconvinced that filmic animation is art should take a look at Pixar’s output—these are the most creative, universal films being released today. No doubt this will be one of the better movies of 2008.
DVD Purchase Recommendations
June 24th:
The Furies (1950) The Criterion Collection (Deep Focus Review's DVD of the Month)
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June is dedicated to the greatness of director Anthony Mann’s Westerns here at Deep Focus Review. Expect his archetypal frontier picture Man of the West to earn entry into The Definitives sometime this month. Also look for Mann’s pulpy tale The Furies to arrive from The Criterion Collection. This site’s DVD of the Month, Criterion’s set includes tons of features, a classy package, and even the screen story’s source novel. A hub in Mann’s career, this film marks a transitional connecting of the director’s raw film noir pictures and his model Westerns, where, in a unique interplay of genre, the two combine into one. Barbara Stanwyck (Double Indemnity, Forty Guns) stars alongside Walter Huston and Judith Anderson in this gritty family melodrama of Shakespearian proportions, in a DVD package to die for.
In Bruges (2008)
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Narrowed to a limited theatrical release, chances are you missed In Bruges, the hitman comedy from first-time feature director Martin McDonagh. One of the very best so far in 2008, the film stars Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson as hired guns forced to stay in the Medieval city of Bruges and simply wait. What are they waiting for? They don’t know. Their boredom seeks out trouble, finds an existential dilemma, and ends with some very brutal, poetic answers. And while the centerpiece of two hitmen has been done to death, this film manages a completely original setting and tone, as well as an extreme gravitas added to the most lighthearted scenes. Farrell has never been better or a more likable onscreen presence. Read the review.
Persepolis (2007)
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Nominated for the Best Animated Feature Academy Award, this French-language dramedy centers on a girl’s growth into womanhood amid the Iranian Revolution in the 1970s. Marjane Satrapi ’s graphic novel is brought to vivid cartoon life, as if the comic’s page was suddenly pulsing with death metal, sexual experimentation, and the exploration of self-identity—all under the rein of an oppressive government. Equal parts funny and tragic, Persepolis further defines how graphic novels are about more than superheroes and muscle-bound Spartans, and thus they’re prime material for adaptation to film. On DVD, viewers have the option of the original French dialogue, or a new English-language track recorded by celebrities like Sean Penn, Gena Rowlands, and Iggy Pop. Read the review.
DVD Rental Recommendations
(click for the review)
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