Summer Movies So Far
Posted June 25th, 2008 by Howard TaylerI’ve been seeing just about a movie per week this summer. Here is how I’m ranking what I’ve seen. Note that I’m including a couple of things I rented recently in order to broaden the scope a bit.
1: Kung-Fu Panda
2: Speed Racer
3: Iron Man
The top three are close. It’s hard to say which one should really be on top, so I’m gauging it by which one I think I absolutely must own first on DVD. Speed Racer was brilliant, and outshone its source material and campy setting. The marketing flopped, and the critics hated it, but it’s a fantastic film — it’s what going to see movies is all about.
4: Get Smart
5: The Incredible Hulk
6: Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
7: Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian
Get Smart and Hulk were both really solid. Narnia wasn’t bad. Indy suffers because my expectations for this film were set higher than any of the others, and because they could have done so much more with it. I’ve seen it twice, and the second time I took my two oldest kids who have both seen Raiders and Last Crusade. My ten-year-old boy summed it up in two great comments. First, when Indy appears picking up his hat in the opening of the film… “I don’t want him to have to be OLD.” After the film I asked him how he liked it… “Indiana Jones didn’t swing on a vine even ONE TIME.” For an Indy move to disappoint a ten-year-old it really has to do something wrong.
8: Futurama: Bender’s Big Score
9: Next
10: Bee Movie
A million: Jumper
For additional comparison, Raiders and Last Crusade would jump to the top of this list, taking the #2 and #1 slots respectively. And just TALKING about Indiana Jones is more interesting than the films I’ve got listed at eight and below.
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June 25th, 2008 at 7:00 am
overall, I don’t disagree with your ratings… but honestly… I liked Jumper (even if the ending had no closure) and I wouldn’t've thought of it as a summer movie…
I also notice that you don’t mention the Happening
June 25th, 2008 at 7:02 am
Howard Taylor: Father, husband, comic, culinarian, critic; truely, a man of many hats!
I never even gave consideration to watching Speed Racer. Maybe I will…
June 25th, 2008 at 7:12 am
Sigh. I *hate* it when folks put spoilers in their comments. Please, did you have to say that about “Jumper,” which is/was my next rental?
So Howard, the second Narnia didn’t make it on the list?
June 25th, 2008 at 7:15 am
Sigh again. Now I feel like I over-reacted, but can’t edit the comment. Sorry jaxxom87.
LOL. I’m such a basket case.
June 25th, 2008 at 8:35 am
I would have liked Jumper a lot more, if it had remained true to the source material. Or at least closer anyway. I really enjoyed the book. Though the sequel wasn’t worth bothering with. The whole hunting terrorists theme in the first one was pretty good too. But I guess Hollywood can’t allow that kind of thing in movies these days. Ala Sum of all Fears. Wimping out with Nazis…
June 25th, 2008 at 9:45 am
Narnia… I KNEW I’d forgotten one.
*sigh*
It was forgettable, I’m afraid. It drops below Crystal Skull. I’ll update the list.
June 25th, 2008 at 9:49 am
Oh, and don’t “give consideration” to seeing Speed Racer. SEE IT.
June 25th, 2008 at 9:54 am
Heck, nothing remains true to the source material. Check out the Bible for a prime example.
Anyway, Howard, you’d like Last Crusade better than Raiders? Wow. But it’s good to know, because that puts the rest of your ranking in perspective. ^_^
I did go to see Crystal Skull. I didn’t mind Indy not swinging from vines, etc. What bothered me were the bits in the movie that reminded me of Mummy II, which stink stank stunk. I mean, did they have a surplus of murderous small dark-skinned people from Mummy II that they just had to use up? Was there a special on “whirlpools of destruction” at ILM? I think we can safely never again have these silly ideas in a movie without losing a thing.
And I’ve ranted about godlike space aliens elsewhere.
Iron Man and Kung Fu Panda are on my list to see, but considering I want to see Ratatouille and Batman Begins and haven’t yet, that might not happen for a while.
June 25th, 2008 at 10:09 am
Bee Movie was fun, approached with the “watch something silly” mindset. Kung Fu Panda was just awesome.
June 25th, 2008 at 10:18 am
Iron Man was very solid. My wife normally can’t stand comic book movies (or the fantasy genre in general), and even she really liked it. Most of these I’ll wait for BluRay - in my mind the experience with a decent home theater system exceeds the experience in a movie theater full of… other… people (other = talkers, criers, cell phoners, seat kickers, etc). We usually just make exceptions for the big special-effects laden blockbuster popcorn flicks.
And speaking of BluRay / DVDs - the new Futurama DVD came out yesterday. Amazon should have it on my doorstep today. People who don’t like Futurama can bite my shiny metal…
@hmoulding - Ratatouille is (IMHO) worth watching, but not Pixar’s best work.
June 25th, 2008 at 11:04 am
Raiders will always be the first Indiana Jones film, but Last Crusade had much better character development, and did a better job of threatening our main characters.
If you can only see one of them, see Raiders, obviously. But if you own them all, I bet Last Crusade is the one you keep coming back to.
Okay, I’ll allow that the opening sequence in Crystal Skull was wonderful. I’ll probably watch THAT over and over and over.
June 25th, 2008 at 12:18 pm
I’m glad you enjoyed Speed Racer. I thought that it wasn’t marketed correctly as well. If you’re a big fan of Speed Racer, you might want to check out our podcast interview of Peter Fernandez, the original voice of the Speed Racer Cartoons.
June 25th, 2008 at 12:43 pm
For Jumper (just rented it myself), they could have tightened it up a bit, but it was deliberately left open. Additional plot was written at the same time as the first screenplay to attempt to fully flesh out the world and to allow for sequels (if the first was successful).
As a side note, this movie is only loosely (very) based upon the book(s). I think pretty much they took the idea of some people being able to “jump” and wrote an entirely new story (ie Paladins are apparently not in the books).
June 25th, 2008 at 1:38 pm
I loved Kung Fu Panda. It was, unusually for a GCI movie, pleasant to look at. The backgrounds looked like Chinese paintings. The story was good, it gave a moral without sermonizing, and it was funny.
June 25th, 2008 at 3:09 pm
Thank God I finally see SOMEONE who enjoyed Speed Racer as much as I did.
It doesn’t surprise me much that that someone is Howard.
/salute
June 25th, 2008 at 5:51 pm
On the bright side, SR will prolly be out on disk soon enough for me and mine to enjoy it without being totally obsolete.
D.
June 25th, 2008 at 8:11 pm
I really liked Next when we saw it; Bender’s Big Score was a lot of fun too. I’ve been thinking about renting Jumper just because the commercials look pretty; I don’t remember the novel much.
June 25th, 2008 at 8:39 pm
When I saw Speed Racer, I had the whole theater to myself for a 7:00 PM showing. I sat right in the middle.
I loved every bit of it. It’s like live action anime. Now let’s hope that if there’s direct to video sequels, they don’t suck.
June 25th, 2008 at 10:55 pm
You do realize that you’re going to have to shift everything on your list down one after you see WAL-E this weekend, right?
;)
June 25th, 2008 at 11:03 pm
I expect WALL-E to bump ALMOST everything down one. Kung-Fu Panda will be hard to displace, as will Speed Racer. The rest are certain to slide.
June 25th, 2008 at 11:33 pm
“Indiana Jones didn’t swing on a vine even ONE TIME.”
Yeah, but he did swing from the lamps and from his whip in the big warehouse scenes.
Now I’ll just have to find a way to see Speed Racer on my own. There’s no way I’m convincing my wife of watching just the trailer.
June 25th, 2008 at 11:47 pm
Jesrad: Yeah, I’m thinking the only way I’m going to get to see Speed Racer is when the wife is out with her friends.
Have to say i found Indiana Jones a huge disappointment. It was still an indy movie, but why did they have to screw it up at the end.
June 26th, 2008 at 1:01 am
When I went to see Narnia with my Wife and grandson, I ran into Howard who was there to see SR for the second time. He gave me a quick “I love this movie” nudge and we went to see it the next day. We all loved it! Unlike Howard, I loved the cartoon as a kid and had a hard time separating the two. Once I did though (About 10 minutes into it), it was great.
Thank you Howard for the push to see it. I had been willing to wait until it was out on video. I am glad I did not wait.
June 26th, 2008 at 2:38 am
Loved Speed Racer,HATED Crystal Skull, really enjoyed Next, Kung-Fu Panda took me back to my youth, Iron Man was AWESOME.
I am waiting to see the Incredible Hulk, Wall-E and Wanted this weekend.
Hancock is another one I am really looking forward to.
June 26th, 2008 at 2:51 am
Howard Tayler
No, no, no, no. Kung-fu Panda is irredeemably bad. The animation is first class, but the storyline is rotten. Think a minute. “There is no secret ingredient.” That means success depends solely on work, study, and practice — which is fine except the one who had worked and studied and practiced more lost. So the secret is that there is no secret and whamo! you zone in to the zen of the universe in some mystical way that transcends disciplined effort. Bad message to send to kiddies.
Have not seen Speed Racer. Ironman I enjoyed despite the obvious product placements and the flagrant violations of the laws of physics. As for Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of Lost Time and Money — Lucas and Spielberg owe me money and time.
Keep up the good work. One day’s Schlock Mercenary is better than the entire Indiana Jones flick.
June 26th, 2008 at 5:52 am
My other half went to see “Speed Racer” without me and had a blast (didn’t push any of my buttons).
I agree with you about Iron Man, solid movie and a good story too, ditto, alas, with Indy, though it did have its moments, just not enough of them.
Haven’t seen Narnia (not our cuppa), nor Kung Fu Panda, but hoping for Get Smart and Hulk.
Have you been to see Forbidden Kingdom yet? We went to see it and within 15 minutes I tell him “we’re getting this on dvd too” he told me he’d decided that 14 minutes ago.
Want to see Wall-E, and may sneak out when he’s busy to see it, he’s not as much into Pixar as I am.
June 26th, 2008 at 6:34 am
“Get Smart” and “Speed Racer” were panned by the critics, but I’ll take your recommendation, Howard, and go to see them. Woe to you if I don’t like them. (ominous hum)
Thanks for the disrecommendation on “Jumper” - you just saved me $6.50 (2 seats at cheap theater).
For a look at how “Crystal Skull” _could_ have run, search the Internet for “leaked crystal skull script” (minus the quote marks, of course).
June 26th, 2008 at 7:04 am
@guerry: sorry, didn’t really think of that as a spoiler… didn’t give away the plot *shrugs* no one’s perfect…
I enjoyed Crystal Skull as much as I could since I’m nearly done with my anthropology degree… >.>… I have trouble with all of the indy movies a bit now that I’m nearly trained to do what he does…
I’d honestly put Hulk above Iron Man. *waits for the rage to die down* Waaaaaaaaaaaaay too many of my gaming friends simply wouldn’t shut up about it to the point where it was patently impossible for me to enjoy it half as much as I would’ve if they hadn’t… and the reveal at the end of the credits… can someone tell me why this caused the geek-out of the century? I don’t see why it’s that big a deal…
June 26th, 2008 at 7:49 am
Saw Iron Man this weekend, loved it, so solid, perfect casting, entertaining from start to finish.
@jaxxom87 probably because an Avengers movie would be the ultimate crossover of Marvel franchises. Also with Marvel taking over the production of their own property starting with Iron Man, well, you can see the level of quality they are going to bring to the field.
If you arent sure what the Avengers are:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avengers_(comics)
And in reference to the end of both the Hulk and Iron Man movies:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avengers_(comics)#Film
June 26th, 2008 at 8:20 am
Antares:
I strongly disagree, but I’m not going to take the time to spell it out in here. I’ve got comics to write.
June 26th, 2008 at 8:55 am
I thought Next was 2/3 of a really good movie. Shame they left out the last 1/3. It ended more abruptly than a Neal Stephenson novel (Neal Stephenson at least gives you 99.8% of a spectacular novel).
June 26th, 2008 at 9:59 am
SPOILER ALERT.
I think adding the “real” final act of Next would have been a mistake. The big reveal was that once our hero hooked up with the heroine, his future-sight was greatly expanded, and he became a superhero with the power of prophecy.
Seeing that superhero in action would have been dull. After what they showed us during the bit on the cargo ship, his wrap-up using his new powers would have been fairly quick and anticlimactic, and we all would have walked out of the theater wishing they’d ended the film back at the cabin.
June 26th, 2008 at 1:04 pm
I was wholeheartedly against seeing Speed Racer. Now I guess I have to check it out.
June 26th, 2008 at 2:30 pm
With Marvel shepherding their own properties, they’ll hopefully be free of such travesties as the Ang Lee Hulk movie, or how other comics, games and books have seen nothing of their substance make it to the big screen aside from their name and some characters names applied to versions who don’t resemble the source much at all.
June 26th, 2008 at 3:06 pm
Well, we’ve “Wolverine - Origins” to look at also. I dunno if that’s Marvel also, but if it is, I bet you we’ll see Capt. in there.
June 26th, 2008 at 10:09 pm
Howard… your THAT guy, with the kid who talks during the movie??!!
June 26th, 2008 at 11:10 pm
I saw the online promo for WALL-E. Gotta see it.
June 27th, 2008 at 1:39 am
Chris: Wolverine, and the rest of the X-Men, are in Fox’s hands. And Spider-man is still in Sony’s. That’s why you didn’t see any Spider-man references (or Dare Devil references, considering he was close to Harlem at the time - though I don’t know what’s going on with those rights atm) when Banner traveled to New York. It would’ve been awesome to see a quick shot of a newspaper saying something about their wallcrawler, but alas - rights issues. :(
It’s too bad Wolverine/X-Men didn’t revert actually, since *minor spoiler* the last place the Hulk is seen in the film is British Columbia */minor spoiler* Which means Canada. Which means Wolverine pre-X-Men. Which would’ve been a great setup, since they fought a lot in the comics. Unfortunately, that can’t happen, unless Fox’s rights revert before “The Avengers” movie is released, which I doubt.
*sigh* Crossovers are such a PAIN in modern cinema..
June 27th, 2008 at 6:12 am
I liked Speed Racer lots too; we went to see it because we wanted to go to a movie and it was playing next, with no expectations. It was great! Iron Man was also really enjoyable, and so was Kung Fu Panda. The message of Panda isn’t quite what the above says, it’s more like that the important things are character and humility, not any of the things he listed — or maybe it’s that if you truly enjoy what you’re doing, whether it’s cooking noodles or kung fu, you’ll succeed beyond the person who is doing it for the money or the power.
I haven’t re-watched the Indiana Jones movies in years, and haven’t seen the new one yet, but everyone’s just mentioning Raiders and Last Crusade. Are we pretending Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom never existed?
June 27th, 2008 at 7:12 am
I’m not so sure I agree with Speed Racer in #2 (heck, I’m not even sure that it belongs on the list), but since you put a movie that has my name in the credits as #1 I can forgive you! :)
However, the fact that you put Bee Movie as #10 makes me think that you have only seen 10 movies (ok, 11 including Jumper), as it really wasn’t all that good. Maybe it is just that I’m not much of a Seinfield fan, but I thought the last 1/3 of the film didn’t need to even be there. The story was over after the trial. And that’s even with my name in the credits.
June 27th, 2008 at 7:44 am
I’ve only seen or rented 11 movies since starting the season with Speed Racer. Thirteen if you count Raiders and Last Crusade. And no, I’m not counting Temple of Doom as worth considering. That film is to the Indy franchise as the Star Wars Christmas Special is to the Star Wars Franchise: We’re better off pretending it never happened. ;-)
June 27th, 2008 at 9:53 am
@Howard re: Next. I’d agree with you if the movie wasn’t so short. According to IMDB it’s 96 minutes, but I remember that when we DRV’d it it was 88 minutes (different edit or whatever). Either way, that’s on the extremely brief end for an action flick. The solution in my mind would have been to spend less time fleshing out the [SPOILER] sequence (which had some fairly stupid bits in it anyway) and then finishing it off in a more traditional manner.
In any case, my Wife and I were jokingly comparing watching it to another popular activity that, when completed in an abrupt, sudden, and premature fashion, is less than satisfactory. Our impression was that rather than kindly asking the audience to use their imaginations to … finish off … the experience, the studio selfishly cheaped out on its audience, gathered up its things, and walked out the door. So to speak.
June 27th, 2008 at 10:22 am
Also just watched the new Futurama DVD. It wasn’t bad or anything, but not their best work either - ~90 minutes of solid yet mild amusement.. To be honest, the best part was afterwards we considered that they out-perverted one of the most perverted genres in the existence of humanity without being explicit or otherwise doing things you can’t show on television. Well played in that regard.
June 27th, 2008 at 2:33 pm
What about “I Am Legend”? I thought it was a pretty good effort in the so often traveled “zombies / creation turning on its creator / unintended consequences” genre.
*spoiler*
The end clunks a bit. Smith’s character finally cures one of the zombies, then he kills her, himself and a whole bunch of zombies. The vial of cured zombie blood he sent off with the woman and her son wouldn’t arrive in useable condition where she went to meet other survivors.
June 27th, 2008 at 8:02 pm
Actually, I fondly enjoy the Star Wars Christmas Special, if for no other reason than the first appearance of Boba Fett. However, it does serve to soften the blow of Episodes 1-3 or Han shooting first in the “Special” Edition. Once you know the depths ol’ George will sink to, nothing else shocks you quite the same.
June 27th, 2008 at 8:11 pm
Thinking about it now, it also helps explain Crystal Skull. What do you expect from the guys who digitally replaced guns with radios in ET and gave us Jar Jar…
June 27th, 2008 at 10:19 pm
I’m one of the lucky(?) people who saw the Star Wars Christmas Special the one and only time it was broadcast.
June 28th, 2008 at 11:08 am
@bizzybody: Go out and rent the 2-disc directors cut of I am Legend. Ending is 100 times better.
June 28th, 2008 at 12:35 pm
Just went and saw Wanted with the wife last night. Ultra-violent (well-deserved R-Rating), bad editing, and drastically under-developed script and characters. That being said, we both really enjoyed it. Great visual style, high energy from start to finish (but not in the overly-frenetic Crank mode). We both gave it a 7.5 out of ten - a very solid rating in our book. Sadly, with a little more script development it could have been an easy 8.5 or 9. Maybe next time. Oh, and Angelina Joile looks better as a size six than she does in this movie as a size two - just my opinion.
June 28th, 2008 at 12:35 pm
@jaxxom87 - that much better? I may check it out…
June 28th, 2008 at 2:13 pm
The new list, now that I’ve seen Wall-E. I’ve dropped video rentals off the list because they were all at the bottom anyway.
1) Wall-E
2) Kung-Fu Panda
3) Speed Racer
4) Iron Man
5) Get Smart
6) Hulk
7) Wanted
8) Indiana Jones
9) Prince Caspian
June 28th, 2008 at 11:24 pm
Yay for Wall-E! (or should it be WALL-E, since it’s an acronym and all.)
Admittedly I haven’t seen Kung-Fu Panda, but I thought Wall-E was one of the best movies I’ve ever seen. (But I don’t see all that many.)