David Theiss

Here we are, this blog has lated a year and it’s time for my second annual summer movie preview.  This is a list of some of the biggest releases of the summer, some quick thoughts, and a gauge for how pumped I am for each release.  If things go like they did last year, I’ll probably see about three of these movies.  I honestly do want to see each and every one of them though.  Hopefully, I’ll get to at least half of them.

May 7th

IRON MAN 2

I think the original Iron Man was really overrated.  That may make it sound as though I didn’t like it, but I did – a lot.  It’s just that people made it out to be one of the greatest comic book movies ever created.  It’s not The Dark Knight.  It’s not even Batman Begins.  That being said, Mickey Rourke alone gets me in the theater.  There’s been nothing in any of the trailers that really has gotten me very pumped for it, but I’m hoping that this one can build off of some of the cool ideas of the first installment.

ANTICIPATION FACTOR: 8/10

May 14th

ROBIN HOOD

As probably many know, Gladiator is one of my favorite movies of all time.  I love Russell Crowe and believe him to be one of the greatest actors of his generation.  Director Ridley Scott, also having done Gladaitor, is already is a cinematic legend.  And even though Robin Hood looks like a half baked version of Gladiator, even though it’s PG-13, even though the story doesn’t look all that interesting – the moment I saw Crowe all bloodied up, bow and arrow in hand, I was pumped.  I hope they can recreate some of the magic that they did 10 years (!!!) ago.

ANTICIPATION FACTOR: 8/10

May 21st

MACGRUBER

I love the little sketches before and after commercials on SNL.  I think they’re hilarious.  I think Will Forte is one of the funniest guys going these days.  Heck, I thought he was funny when he was doing Abe Lincoln in Clone High on MTV.  And even though Saturday Night Live movies rarely pan out, I want to see it only to see what irreverent off-the-wall humor they come up with. Not a huge release, but I’m interested, and that’s more than I can say for 90% of what comes out most of the time.  Well worth a Sunday matinée.

ANTICIPATION FACTOR: 6.5/10

June 11th

THE A-TEAM

I don’t know anything about the show except Mr. T was in it and they had a van.  So, I’m not too familiar with the source material.  With that being said, everything in the trailer except the last 20 seconds looked pretty cool.  I’m not bursting at the seams to see it, but it’s the big beginning of June tentpole release, so there may be some redeeming qualities about it.  Right?

ANTICIPATION FACTOR: 6/10

June 25th

KNIGHT AND DAY

This movie looks ridiculous.  Tom Cruise is about as unlikable and actor as there is anymore.  I’ve never liked Cameron Diaz.  But James Mangold has director some admirable films.  There’s just something about this movies that feels like it should have been made three years ago.  It’ll have good action though.  You can take that to the bank.

ANTICIPATION FACTOR: 6.5/10

July 2nd

THE LAST AIRBENDER

I feel as if a trend is emerging.  I’m not familiar with Avatar: The Last Airbender, nor do I want to be.  I think the teaser trailer looked a little stupid, and I’m pretty sure the movie is based on a American anime cartoon on Nickelodeon.  I’ve heard raves about how good it is and how it’s not a cartoon for kids, but having never had the pleasure of watching it, I can only go by what I see.  I will say that I do love a good fantasy epic, and this one looks to be as grand as they come.  Adding to my general distaste would be the fact that it’s an M. Night Shyamalan movie.  It’s a big release, but I only have marginal interest.  Sorry.

ANTICIPATION FACTOR: 7/10

July 16

INCEPTION

Now here’s a movie I can get excited about.  Watch the trailer and you’ll understand.  I really don’t know what it’s about, nor am I supposed to.  I think the least amount of information I have about this movie, the better it will be.  Christopher Nolan is a really interesting director and I can’t wait to delve into this one.  Mark you calendars, this one will be good.

ANTICIPATION FACTOR: 9/10

July 23rd

SALT

I’m about exactly as pumped for this as I am for Knight and Day.  This too feels like it should have been made in 2007.  I don’t know, it just feels dated.  Who is Salt?  The factor to which I care about the answer to that question is directly related to how much of my ticket someone else pays for.

ANTICIPATION FACTOR: 6.5/10

August 13th

THE EXPENDABLES

Now, this movie feels like it should have been made in the 80′s – and that’s a good thing.  I really liked the newest Rocky movie and I liked (although to a much lesser extent) the newest Rambo offering.  So for me, Sly Stallone has been doing alright lately in my book.  Add every other 80′s action star into the mix and create a plot out of thin air that allows these guys to go rampaging through a third world country and I say you’ve got about a $25 – $30 million opening weekend.  Mindless gore and destruction is good when all you claim to be is mindless gore and destruction.  I’ll be there for sure.

ANTICIPATION FACTOR: 8.5/10

ADDENDUM: As I did last year, the following is a list of movies that are coming out that I either a) didn’t feel like writing about but are still big releases, b) am not interested in at all, or c) have no knowledge of but feel that if I don’t mention them, I’ll look stupid when they make $350 million.  On that note, also playing this summer: Shrek Forever After (May 21st), Sex and the City 2 (May 27th), The Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time (May 28th), Survival of the Dead (May 28th), Killers (June 4th), The Karate Kid (June 11th), Jonah Hex (June 18th), Toy Story 3 (June 18th), The Twilight Saga: Eclipse (June 30th), Predators (July 9th), The Adjustments Bureau (July 30th), Scott Pilgrim vs. The World (August 13th).

Super Mario Galaxy probably should have been on the list of my top 10 video games of all-time.  Even though it got left off the list, the fact is that I love Super Mario Galaxy to death and much, much more than Super Mario 64, which many people consider to be the most groundbreaking video game of all time, if not the greatest ever.

So, it should be no surprise that I’m pumped beyond belief for Super Mario Galaxy 2  - release date just announced to be May 23rd.  The only problem is that Nintendo is pretty infamous for delaying games over and over again, claiming that they are supremely dedicated to delivering the highest quality product they possibly can.  The only problem is that people (like me) get impatient when a game announced to be released in January doesn’t see the light of day until August or worse.  We’ll see how this one goes.

With that being said, Nintendo is looking at a pretty active middle of the year.  Not only do they have a new Mario game coming out, but they also have Metroid: Other M on deck with a release date in June.  And to boot, top men at Nintendo have also said that they expect a new Zelda to be released in 2010, as well.  Hopefully all of these will be released on their set days.  Until then, just know that I’m super pumped for each and every one of those titles.

Here’s the brand new trailer for Super Mario Galaxy 2.

This story would have been cool had I written this in 2008.

But unfortunately, the people who run Research in Motion do one thing well (that is make an epic full-keyboard messaging phone) and really are ignorant to the rest of the world.  And as all other phone manufacturers started to encroach into RIM’s wheelhouse – things like security and Enterprise support, also a solid e-mail experience – they failed to expand and adapt to the changing environment.  And as a result, BlackBerry is on the verge of irrelevance to basically all consumers except those who a) are already committed to the platform, or b) require heavy mobile messaging devices.

But the folks up in Waterloo are trying to change that.  They attempted to make a multi-media intensive device (the Storm series) and failed rather spectacularly and their newest entry into the Bold line is a pretty impressive device.  The knock against these devices, as phones move more and more in the direction of mobile PC’s, is that the native BlackBerry browser is basically garbage.  And it is.  There’s really no excuse for how bad the BlackBerry Internet experience is.  I know from painful, painful experience.

That leads to the big reveal today at the Mobile Web Congress.  In hopes of improving their own browser, RIM bought Torch Mobile in August 2009, a company that developed a browser built on the WebKit devlopment technology.  Which only means, their new browser will be made with the same technology that all the better mobile browsers (iPhone, Android, webOS) are made with.  The the below videos is the first anybody as ever seen of it.

While the verdict is still out, I can do nothing but shrug my shoulders at this latest development.  BlackBerry has kind of lost me.  I own one now and really don’t plan on re-upping with a new device with or without this new addition.  I didn’t have a bad experience, I’ve just moved on.  I’ve been seduced by the sweet Siren calls of Android.  But maybe this changed minds for some people.

All you need is love.

There are only a few times of year I look forward to and cherish more than the summer movie season.  While the promise of upcoming blockbusters is almost always more exciting than actually seeing them, there is no doubt that as far as film goes, there is no more exciting time for moviegoers.  The following is a quick round-up of what to expect this summer.  Keep your eyes peeled for these and get out to the local theaters – it’s still one of the cheapest forms of group entertainment out there.

May 1st

X-MEN ORIGINS: WOLVERINE

Now, many of you may have already seen this as it was leaked onto the Internet a couple of weeks ago.  Nevertheless, Wolverine officially kicks of the season.  Directed by critically acclaimed director Gavin Hood (“Tsotsi”, “Rendition”), it should be interesting to see how he pivots to an all-out action movie.  Hugh Jackman aside, the movie has a pretty strange cast in my opinion, and marks the first time we see a live action Gambit.  From the pictures and trailer I wouldn’t get too excited over that.  Even though this is the first big summer movie, I’ll probably skip it.

ANTICIPATION FACTOR: 5/10

May 8th

STAR TREK

For my money, this is where the summer begins.  JJ Abrahms (Felicity, Lost, Mission: Impossible III, Fringe) reboots the classic 1960′s sci-fi television show of the same name.  Abrams has assembled a young and sexy cast in an attempt to attract women and non-Trekkies/Trekkers.  As far as I’m concerned, I’m super pumped just to see a new fresh Star Trek movie.  While I love The Next Generation cast, I think they played themselves out somewhere around the 15 minute mark of “Star Trek: Insurrection.”  To see James Tiberius Kirk and Mr. Spock again through new eyes has been long overdue.  Let’s hope Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto are up to the challenge – they’ve got big shoes to fill.

ANTICIPATION FACTOR: 8.5/10

NOTE: I’m skipping “Angels and Demons.”  I read “The Da Vinci Code” and I saw the movie.  I marginally enjoyed both.  And to be honest I love secret societies.  But this is an obvious cash grab and a marketing tie-in the Dan Brown’s next novel “The Lost Symbol.”  And with this paragraph, they’ve gotten exactly what they want: talking about the movie and the new book.  I’m a Patsy.

May 22nd

TERMINATOR SALVATION

A few years ago we had “Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines,” an enjoyable if almost entirely empty visit back into the Terminator landscape.  It didn’t do injustice to the IP, but it didn’t really expand upon the lore or add anything very substinative.  That was under the direction of the very capable Jonathan Mostow – “Terminator Salvation” is helmed by the infamous McG.  ”Charlie’s Angel’s: Full Throttle” McG.  Christian Bale steps into the role of John Connor and hopefully fares better than Nick Stahl (not that he was horrible).  I’m not sure of the story or if they’re treating T3 as canon, but once I saw the trailer with the music I was there – and I suspect that they could put anything on the screen play that pounding music and I’ll put up $10 and sit in the seat.

ANTICIPATION FACTOR: 7.5/10

June 24th

TRANSFORMERS: REVENGE OF THE FALLEN

Cars, trucks, and planes turn into gargantuan alien robots and then fight each other.  Also, Megan Fox.  That is all.

ANTICIPATION FACTOR: 9.5/10

July 1st

PUBLIC ENEMIES

I don’t know too much about this one, but put Michael Mann (“Heat,” “The Insider,” “Ali”) with Johnny Depp (who I’m not a huge fan of, but still admire) and throw in the 50′s gangster aesthetic, and that’s all you need.  Just like a good Western, I’m always down with a good gangster movie, and Michael Mann is a master craftsman.  Here’s hoping we get the Michael Mann from “Heat” and not the one from “Miami Vice.”

ANTICIPATION FACTOR: 7.5/10

July 10

BRUNO

I loved Borat.  Loved.  There’s a red-band trailer floating around out there for this movie that is absolutely hysterical.  I am really looking forward to seeing Sacha Baron Cohen in the Sherlock Holmes re-imagining we’ve all heard about.  This man is a comic genius – I expect nothing less from this movie.

ANTICIPATION FACTOR: 8.5/10

August 7th

GI Joe: The Rise of Cobra

Super Bowl commercial looked cool.  It’s directed by Stephen Sommers I think.  It will be horrible.  But right now, I want to see it.

ANTICIPATION FACTOR: 7/10

AUGUST 21

INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS

After the enormous success of “Pulp Fiction” followed by many great movies, but moderate successes, Quentin Tarrantino makes an obvious push back into the mainstream with “Inglourious Basterds.”  Brad Pitt lands in the lead Nazi-slaughtering American soldier role and looks to playing it with the same brazen gusto that comes standard in QT pictures.  Side note: the over under on body count in this one stands right now at 200 – place your bets.

ANTICIPATION FACTOR: 8/10

Of course there are many, many more movies worthy of being written about here, but I’m just lazy.  These are the highlights.  Also, I’ll try to review as many of these as I can, so be on the lookout for my write-ups in the near future.

UPDATE: As I said, there are plenty of other movies this summer worth mentioning – so the least I could do was mention them: “The Brothers Blooom” (May 15th), “Night at the Museum: Battle at the Smithsonian” (May 22nd), “Up” (May 29th), “Land of the Lost” (June 5th), “The Taking of Pelham 123″ (June 12th), “Year One” (June 19th), “Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince” (July 15th), “Funny People” (July 31st), “Taking Woodstock” (August 14th).