2005 Summer Recap
July 24, 2005
It’s almost August, the summer is practically over, for all intents and purposes big-movie wise, so I thought with a less-than-stellar crop of new movies at the theater last weekend (save for Terrance Howard in “Hustle & Flow”, a movie I’ve constantly failed to see, despite at least five preview screenings, and a simple drive to Orchard Park) now would be a good time to recap this often maddening summer movie season. Since returning from my vacation a month ago, I’ve been badly neglecting DVD’s, TV, and my long list of summer reading to focus more on what’s been playing at the movies, since summer is usually the time of year when Hollywood puts out its big, fun pictures, before it gets serious in November for the Oscar push, and though I’d like to get into the summer TV season, especially the new seasons of “Entourage” and “Monk”, and give a sampling of what’s been on my book shelf recently (a list ranging widely from Philip K. Dick, Vladimir Nabokov, and Saul Bellow, to H.G. Welles, Akira Kurosawa and Tony Barrow’s new Beatle-centic page turner “Magical Mystery Tours”), but that all must wait for another Saturday, because I’ve got movies on my mind, and when that happens, not much can persuade me to go in any other direction.
To start, much has been made of the long slump the box office was in before the god awful “Fantastic Four” conned suckers into dropping mass amounts of money to see it’s cheesy effects and cheesier acting, but I for one was not surprised, given the product we’ve been presented this summer, a crass mixture of remakes, sequels, and unoriginal ideas. From the remake department, I’ve had many an argument already about “Batman Begins”, which technically isn’t a remake, but, as its defenders will tell you, is a “reimagining” of the famous comic book story, with a darker tone and a slicker Bruce Wayne, but I’m not buying any of it, I still think it was boring, lazy, and though shot with Christopher Nolan’s usual flair for pretty, disturbing images, lacked the imagination and spirit of last year’s “Spider-Man 2”, a movie that was so good, all comic book films since, including “Fantastic Four”, have paled in comparison. Much better in my opinion was Spielberg’s rousing and incredibly scary new adaptation of Welles’ “War of the Worlds”, which I’ve been defending against people who thought the ending was a letdown, though I thought it was an appropriately effective recreation of the way the original Welles text ended, tacky happy ending an all. My argument towards Spielberg, and against Batman, is rooted in the fact that Spielberg knows how to heighten drama with basic scare tactics, and isn’t afraid to steal liberally from his own, slightly better past films, like “Jurassic Park” and “Jaws”, while Nolan’s film was awash in tedious superhero origins and an uninteresting plot involving weak villains trying to poison (yawn) Gotham City’s water supply. I’m sure Batman fans will argue with me for the rest of the year that it was an artistic work of art (I’ll agree that it’s better than “Fantastic Four”, though I don’t think many are saying otherwise), but I stick to my guns, and would point rather to Spielberg’s creepy Tom Cruise alien adventure, than Nolan’s staid Christian Bale retread.
There have been a few films, for one reason or another, usually bad timing and heat burnout, that I’ve liked this summer but didn’t get the opportunity to review. The best was probably “Wedding Crashers”, an often hilarious sex romp starring the likable duo of Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn that never sunk too low in its lowbrow sexual humor, and never went too sappy in its romantic subplots. The mixture was actually perfect; a film that appealed both to teenage boys, and immature men, who thrive on dirty jokes and nudity, and to women who can find much heart in the way Wilson falls for charming Rachael McAdams, changing his lothario ways for a more conventional romantic affair. I’ll be honest, the previews for this film were less than spectacular, so the fact that it was so funny and smart is one of the summer’s happier surprises. The dinner table scene alone, stole directly from Julie Christie and Warren Beatty in “Shampoo”, is reason enough to recommend this funny romp. Other films I’d suggest catching, if you haven’t yet, or are waiting for upcoming DVD releases, would be Doug Liman’s “Mr. & Mrs. Smith”, a film I originally wanted nothing to do with, but was won over by Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie’s sexy chemistry, the Dreamwork’s animated comedy “Madagascar”, and Paul Haggis’ instant masterpiece “Crash”, a movie, if there is any justice, we’ll be hearing much about come Oscar time, what with its brilliant script and plethora of standout performances.
Obviously the summer has been more than just the few films I’ve mentioned above, but enough has already been said about ‘Revenge of the Sith’ to properly drive a steak through the heart of George Lucas’s cash cow, and the less said about flops like “Herbie Fully Loaded”, “The Honeymooners”, and “Betwitched” the better. If Hollywood learns something from this summer’s lackluster movies and poor box office returns, it’s that audiences expect something when they go to the movies, a long 20-minutes of commercials and overly chatty previews, followed by a remake of forgotten TV shows and unwarranted old movies, or poorly conceived sequels, isn’t good enough, at least for smarter audiences who care about how they spend their time and money. I know there will always be people out there who care not for criticism, and would gladly pay eight bucks to see “Fantastic Four” and not have to think about how bad it was, but I challenge those people to go see “Crash”, and honestly try to tell me that the comic book film was more fulfilling. If there is an argument to be made there, than I’ll gladly hear it, but for now, how about we look forward to a fall movie season that welcomes back the likes of Scorsese, Spielberg (again), Sam Mendes, Rob Marshall, Terrece Malick, and Peter Jackson, and put to rest the silly little debates about the worthlessness of remakes, the artistry of Batman, the joys of the Lemur King, the crummy rubber suit of The Thing, and the poor genetic makeup of some terrifically destructive alien invaders. If we can agree on one thing, it’s that the way things have been going, if the fall produces anywhere from five to ten memorable films, even something that sniffs the greatness of “Sideways”, but fails due to impossible comparisons with a modern day classic, than it’ll more than make up for an uneven summer at the movies.
by Adam Suraf