Remember 1998 and 1999, when the summer movie season was inexplicably hijacked by an alarming number of movies that, um, forced you to think? From Bulworth to Saving Private Ryan, from Summer of Sam to Eyes Wide Shut, an unexpected abundance of risky, adult studio films by first-rate directors interrupted the usual deluge of mass-market tie-ins and bonehead actioners.
Well, that glitch has been fixed. We now return to our regular programming, which includes TV remakes (The Adventures of Rocky & Bullwinkle, starring, yes, Robert De Nero); chew-with-your-mouth-open comedies (Me, Myself & Irene, with Jim Carrey as a schizophrenic); and both Eddie Murphy and Martin Lawrence buried under an avalanche of latex (in The Nutty Professor 2: The Klumps and Big Momma’s House, respectively).
That said, we’re already jazzed about some of the early summer entrants, among them next week’s Mission: Impossible 2, with Tom Cruise doing director John Woo’s trademark slo-mo gun fu; and Shanghai Noon, an action comedy with Jackie Chan and Bottle Rocket’s Owen Wilson in the Old West. And out of the summer’s more than 120 releases, we found 20 more that already have us longing for the lights to go down. Grab a ticket, stumble to your seat in the darkness, and feast your eyes:
Bedazzled (August) Harold Ramis and Larry Gelbart remake Stanley Donen and Peter Cook’s slight-but-funny 1967 comedy, which originally starred Dudley Moore as a suicidal schmoe who gets suckered by Satan into trying out seven different lives, to see which one will win him the heart of the woman he loves. The prospect of the multi-faceted Brendan Fraser in the Dudley Moore role is exciting, as is the idea of Elizabeth Hurley as the Devil. And if nothing else, we can’t wait for this film to make it to DVD, so that we can hear another of Ramis’ hilarious audio commentaries. N.M.
Blood Simple—Director’s Cut (July) Joel and Ethan Coen kicked off a brilliant career with this first-rate 1984 noir thriller built on two sound premises: The sight of blood makes people do dumb things, and killing a man is harder than it sounds. Now, as a sort of teaser for this fall’s O Brother, Where Art Thou?, they’re releasing a new cut that’s said to have a different opening and slight but telling changes. If it’s not much different, that suits us fine: The old version had dandy plot twists, a terrific cast of then-unknowns (including Frances McDormand and Dan Hedaya), and a memorably sick finale—not to mention a great last line. J.R.
But I’m a Cheerleader (July) Sparkling newcomer Natasha Lyonne (Slums of Beverly Hills, American Pie) stars as a model American girl whose Christian parents send her to a rehabilitation camp when they suspect her of having lesbian leanings. Once in the company of homosexuals-in-recovery, an aberrant relationship with Graham (Clea DuVall) becomes a real possibility. RuPaul (in male drag) appears as the director of the reorientation program; first-time feature director Jamie Babbitt is best known as one of the hands on the helm of the risqué MTV series Undressed. There’s an opportunity for zinging black comedy here, even if advance word says that the message is strictly soft soap. D.B.
Cecil B. Demented (August) John Waters’ latest project is being released by Artisan, still riding high on Blair Witch and Buena Vista Social Club. Stephen Dorff plays an independent filmmaker whose desperate search for credibility leads him to kidnap Melanie Griffith, forcing her to be the leading lady in his new film Raving Beauty. Waters’ last film, Pecker, was a sweet surprise—a sentimental concoction with the soft-hearted belief that love and art can coexist with fame. The question is whether Waters’ hero Cecil will be as naive, lovable, and triumphant in his misguided quest. Waters has described the film as his ”epic,“ with ”lots of crowd scenes.“ Its plot bears a superficial resemblance to Frank Oz’s underappreciated Bowfinger; we hope Cecil can generate the same almost palpable aura of goodwill. D.B.
The Cell (August) Just what the world needs, another serial-killer movie—but the intriguing twist on this CGI-filled yarn is that it takes place inside the killer’s head. Jennifer Lopez is not exactly typecast as a brilliant scientist who zaps herself into psycho Vincent D’Onofrio’s mind while he’s in a coma—only to find herself in a chamber of horrors from which there may be no escape. The preview, layered with unsettling digital imagery and jarring cuts, hints at uncharted realms of splattery surrealism—not what you might expect from one-named first-time director Tarsem, best known for R.E.M.’s ”Losing My Religion“ video and Levi’s and Miller commercials. You sure that title isn’t The Sell? J.R.
Chicken Run (June) Nick Park—the creator of the ingenious ”Wallace & Gromit“ series—makes his feature-filmmaking debut with this homage to The Great Escape, with claymation chickens standing in for prisoners of war. Each of Park’s animated shorts has had some element of movie parody (Hitchcock in The Wrong Trousers, the Terminator films in A Close Shave), so it will be interesting to see if he can sustain the joke for over an hour. Given the level of care and inventiveness that he’s put into every frame of his oeuvre so far, we feel another Park triumph in the offing. N.M.
Chuck and Buck (July) Star Maps director Miguel Arteta returns with this oddball story about a grown man who’s being stalked by a guy from his school days—a guy with a mental deficiency and a serious case of unrequited love. Chuck and Buck polarized Sundance audiences, who either thought it was painfully hilarious, or walked out before the closing credits. Even though Arteta’s first feature was problematic, and even though the screenplay to this one was written by Mike White (who wrote Dead Man on Campus), there’s something about this premise that screams ”can’t miss.“ Being confronted anew by the humiliations of childhood—that’s powerful stuff. N.M.
The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (May) In celebration of the late Luis Buñuel’s centenary birthday, new prints are being struck of his best films—including this prankish 1972 classic, one of our favorites. In Buñuel’s surrealist comedy, six upper-crust epicures (including Fernando Rey, Delphine Seyrig, and Jean-Pierre Cassel) attempt to have dinner, only to have their plans thwarted at every opportunity—by bad timing, by funerals, by terrorist attack. Even after almost 30 years, Buñuel’s most shocking gags should still make today’s dork-in-the-pie gross-out humor look downright tame. J.R.
Girlfight (August) Writer-director Karyn Kusama delivered a knockout this year at Sundance with this story about a woman boxer (Michelle Rodriguez) who battles for love and a future inside the ring and out. Newcomer Rodriguez is said to be astonishing—she’d never boxed before—and the presence of executive producer John Sayles bodes well. The film comes on the heels of another Sundance winner from a first-time female director, Love and Basketball—thus giving us two sports movies in one year that make a woman athlete’s dreams and talent equal to her male lover/competitor’s. J.R.
Gone in 60 Seconds (June) The 1974 original—written by, directed by, and starring the late H.B. Halicki, who also did his own stunts (the reason he’s late)—was regarded as the ne plus ultra of car-crash flicks back in the day. (Its main claim to fame was that it managed to wreck 93 cars in 97 minutes—helped no doubt by Halicki’s stake in a junkyard.) The remake looks like a gearhead’s dream, with Nicolas Cage and his crew stealing 100 cars to ransom his brother Giovanni Ribisi’s life. It’s a Jerry Bruckheimer production, which means lots of stuff’ll smash and explode in fireballs—exactly what you’d want from a movie called Gone in 60 Seconds. Speaking of fireballs, Cage’s love interest is Angelina Jolie, last seen making out with Billy Bob Thornton at Sunset Grill; Robert Duvall and Delroy Lindo ride shotgun. J.R.
The Hollow Man (July) If Paul Verhoeven’s sometimes bracing, sometimes nauseating misanthropy turns you on, you might find yourself wishing every sappy, straight-faced blockbuster had his jaundiced view. Verhoeven (Total Recall, Starship Troopers) has us on the edge of our seats before the lights go down, because we never know if he’ll walk the edge of taste or fall headlong over the cliff (i.e., Showgirls). Kevin Bacon stars as a scientist who takes an invisibility serum, goes insane, and becomes a crazy rapist-killer; Elizabeth Shue is target-in-chief. A warning: Verhoeven’s best American satires are penned by Edward Neumeier (Robocop), but the writers here have ”credits“ like End of Days and K-911. You have been warned. D.B.
Impostor (August) This adaptation of a Philip K. Dick story began its life as a half-hour segment in Miramax’s sci-fi anthology The Light Years Trilogy, but the brass was impressed enough to order a feature-length version. Gary Sinise stars as a weaponry engineer who is accused of being an alien in disguise; our favorite chameleon actor Vincent D’Onofrio plays the man determined to prove Sinise isn’t who he thinks he is. Gary Fleder, a flashy TV director who also made Kiss the Girls and Things to Do in Denver When You’re Dead, directs from a script-by-committee—including inexplicably hot screenwriter Ehren Kruger (Reindeer Games) and script doctors Scott Rosenberg and David Twohy. The kitchenful of cooks ordinarily wouldn’t bode well, but an early trailer had an encouragingly cool Wrong Man-meets-Gattaca vibe. D.B.
I Was Made to Love Her (July) The Weitz Brothers follow up American Pie with this remake of Heaven Can Wait (itself a remake of Here Comes Mr. Jordan). Chris Rock plays a black stand-up comic (what a stretch) who dies and comes back in the body of a wealthy white man. A screenplay by quirky comedian Louis C.K. stirs the pot, but mostly it’ll be good to see perpetual supporting actor Rock in a lead, especially one that should give him the chance to improvise and fully display his talents. It’s the sort of part that would’ve been played by Richard Pryor 20 years ago. N.M.
Jesus’ Son (June) Billy Crudup plays ”FH,“ a junkie antihero and petty criminal who touches off disastrous events in the lives of everyone he meets. As he travels from Iowa to Arizona in the 1970s, he encounters a deeply troubled girl (Samantha Morton), a pill-popping orderly (High Fidelity scene-stealer Jack Black), and a damaged ex-addict (Holly Hunter), stumbling toward salvation in the process. Denis Johnson’s short-story collection may be almost too cinematic to make a good movie, but we’ve heard director Alison Maclean (Crush) does justice to its black humor and battered poignance. J.R.
The Legend of Bagger Vance (August) Matt Damon plays a golf novice who gets athletic and spiritual support from Will Smith’s caddy-slash-guru Bagger Vance (a distortion of Bhagavad-Gita). Classy screenwriter Richard LaGravenese and brainy director Robert Redford adapt Steven Pressfield’s novel, with what we imagine will be their typical blend of verbal snap and tasteful poetics. It should also be interesting to see how Damon’s marvelous performance in the demanding role of The Talented Mr. Ripley has affected his game—can he still be effortlessly charming, or will there always be a little of Ripley’s stain on his soul? N.M.
Love’s Labour’s Lost (June) Kenneth Branagh continues his new career as Woody Allen, casting unlikely stars in big ensemble comedies. They’re Shakespeare comedies, of course, but that only makes the selection of Alicia Silverstone as the princess and Matthew Lillard as Longaville all the stranger. And they sing! Branagh reimagines the Bard as Busby Berkeley, interspersing Elizabethan blank verse with 1930’s song-and-dance numbers. Alessandro Nivola (from Face/Off and Mansfield Park) plays Alicia’s dad, the King. Branagh, Natatscha McElhone, Emily Mortimer, and Adrian Lester appear as lovers who’ve forsworn love, and comic relief is provided by Nathan Lane and Timothy Spall, among others. If the mistaken identities and farcical slapstick befuddle you, just remember: There’s no such thing as too much singing and dancing. D.B.
The Perfect Storm (June) Sebastian Junger’s nonfiction bestseller enthralled readers with the thrilling tale of a doomed fishing vessel, the rescue of its crew, and the chilling details of just how remorseless the sea can be. Now Wolfgang Petersen, a director whose reputation has not yet been sullied by overwork, brings the giant waves to the giant screen. Petersen made his American reputation with Das Boot and continues to produce thinking-man’s action pictures like Air Force One and In the Line of Fire. The stars are hot and talented: George Clooney, Mark Wahlberg, John C. Reilly, Karen Allen. And that shot in the trailer of the Andrea Gail in a vertical position, climbing a new-millennium version of the perfect wave, has us seriously spooked. Who cares if we know the ending? D.B.
Shaft (June) Samuel L. Jackson is the black private dick who’s a sex machine with all the chicks—well, okay, he’s the nephew of the black private dick who’s a sex machine with all the chicks. But he’s still a bad mutha, as preppie murderer Christian Bale and drug-dealing nemesis Jeffrey Wright find out. You could argue that director John Singleton’s career path—from making Boyz ’N the Hood to remaking a 30-year-old artifact of the blaxploitation era—is typical of the limited choices still facing African American filmmakers in Hollywood. Still, it’s hard to argue with the previews, which flat-out rock. Other good news: screenwriter Richard Price (Clockers) supplies the trash-talk; the original Shaft, Richard Roundtree, makes a cameo—and best of all, Isaac Hayes reprises the mighty ”Theme from Shaft.“ We can dig it. J.R.
The Wind Will Carry Us (July) In a season studded with dazzlements and distractions, the new film from Iranian director Abbas Kiarostami (Taste of Cherry) sounds like an oasis of quiet and contemplation—which could be just as dazzling. Kiarostami’s latest concerns a group of visitors from Tehran who visit a Kurdish village, apparently hoping to witness an ancient ceremony that occurs only when someone dies. As usual in Kiarostami’s films, a synopsis doesn’t begin to tell the story: Suffice it to say that after you see one of his movies, most worlds created on-screen seem paltry and half-imagined. J.R.
X-Men (July) This big-screen adaptation of the most popular comic book series in history has about a hundred ways it can go wrong—starting with the source material itself, which has been so exploited and diluted over the last 15 or so years that it’s hard now to pinpoint the true appeal of the super-powered outcasts. Director Bryan Singer admits that he’s never been a hardcore fan of the comics, and he’s reeling himself from the thrashing of his last film Apt Pupil, coming on the heels of the overrated The Usual Suspects. But a few images from the trailer—Cyclops blasting a wall with his optic beams, Toad jumping off walls, Wolverine swinging from the Statue of Liberty—get us breathing heavy almost against our will. Fanboys will pick it apart, but we’ll all be at the head of the line on opening day. N.M.
