Movie Night #7 Summertime Preview Extraordinaire

Bence with a very special installment of movie night. The summer season officially begins today and right out of the gate it looks like we have a blockbuster franchise on our hands. So today I want to take a look at some films this summer that I'm looking forward to. These are the ten films that I am most excited to see in the coming months. I hope you enjoy my self indulgent list of purely subjective choices. Please feel free to provide your own in the comments section.

10. Magic Trip
Alex Gibney doing a documentary on Ken Kesey and his trek across the United States in a crazy psychedelic school bus? I can't wait. I am so not a modern day hippie, far from it i'm pretty sure most people would consider me "the man", i like to say modern prepster but hey we'll leave fashion to our fashion correspondent. I digress. Go out and read The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test by Tom Wolfe and then tell me you're not excited to see what Mr Gibney does with this documentary. By the way for those of you who don't know Gibney did Taxi to the Darkside which one the Oscar for best documentary a few years back, quite deservedly i add. He also recently made Client 9, and Casino Jack(the documentary not the film with Spacey). So if you don't know who Gibney is or Ken Kesey go out do some research then come back and we can talk about how awesome this can be.

9. The Future

Miranda July's follow up to Me, You, And Everyone We Know tells the story of a couple who adopt a cat and then begin to stop time. Literally stop time. I'm there.

8. Submarine
Richard Ayoade writes and directs his first feature length film about an awkward teen trying to lose his virginity and monitor the love life of his parent. There should be enough in there for you to make your decision whether you want to watch this or not. If not, then netflix the IT crowd.

7. Thor
Kenneth Branagh directing a Thor movie was pretty much all I had to hear to pique my interest. I have to say I always liked Thor but I never followed his adventures like I did with Green Lantern or Spiderman, Thor was always the character I read in Avengers or any of the team ups which were so popular in the nineties. So I'm excited to see this hero front and center, from the trailers it looks like Chris Hemsworth was born to play Thor. The frost giants look awesome and Branagh seems to have nailed a nice balance in tone, I imagine this will catch a lot of people off guard. Oh yeah and it has Natalie Portman, she's a goddess....really.

6. 30 Minutes or Less
Zombieland did the impossible by taking such a tired genre and infusing some new life into it. Fleischer reunites with Jesse Eisenberg in this dark comedy about a pizza delivery boy who gets kidnapped and forced to rob a bank with a bomb strapped to his chest. I just did an article on Richard Kelly, so it should be no surprise that I'm excited to follow the career of yet another new director. I'm hoping he can deliver on the promise of Zombieland, that and I'm praying for Bill Murray to come back.

5. Captain America: The First Avenger
I'm excited for the comic book movies coming out this summer because they all look great. If there is one that I'm hesitant about it's this one. I want this to succeed more than Thor because I love Cap, he's always been one of my favorite superheroes. My favorite turtle is also Leonardo, my favorite X-man is Cyclops, so yah I definitely like the boy scout code of honor. I also have a thing for leaders with this blinding faith to a cause. Joe Johnston doesn't inspire me a whole lot. I love the Rocketeer, wasn't too crazy about the Wolfman or Jurassic Park 3. The last trailer started to give me hope that this is going to be an amazing adventure film, and I firmly believe Chris Evans will own the role(read Movie Night # 1 for my Chris Evans rant), Hugo Weaving as the Red Skull is genius. I think the biggest thing for me when it comes to super hero films is that there is so little room for error. Either knock it out of the park or don't try. Mediocrity in a comic book film only leads to boredom. So here's hoping Marvel pulls off this double header.

4. Tree of Life
Right up front I am not a die hard Malick fan by any means. I love Badlands and think Thin Red Line is a gorgeous poetic war film. When you talk about deliberate pacing, Malick is the closest thing Americans have to Tarkovsky. That being said I am always excited to see what this director has for us. The stuff I've seen so far makes this film look to be a beautifully shot meditation on American life and the loss of innocence. What really has me curious is that he apparently used footage from the hubble telescope and some footage of prehistoric times as well. Believe me I'm just as confused as you. Like I said though Malick loves his films long, maybe he's chronicling the entirety of existence. Honestly, I wouldn't put it past him

3. Super 8
How can you not watch that trailer and see that JJ Abrams is channeling Spielberg better than M Night ever did. This story of small town america meets alien invasion(maybe?), seems to perfectly capture the feel of old school spielberg. If abrams manages to capture a fraction of that humanity and emotion we are in for a sci fi classic to stand alongside Close Encounters. Too high of expectations?

2. X-Men: First Class
Bryan Singer returning to the franchise as a producer, and Matthew Vaughn getting the chance to direct that fell apart with the tragedy that was X3. This is one of my dreams come true and the more i see of it the more i get excited that Vaughn seems to have made an X-men film that i never possibly could have imagined. It seems to tell a story unlike any other superhero movie in that it throws them directly into history. Fassbender and McAvoy are brilliant casting as Magneto and Professor X before they became enemies. I think i mentioned in one of my earlier articles i'm a sucker for enemies that are civil with each other and to have a whole film developing the strife that ultimately rips these two friends apart fills me with anticipation. At first i was a little upset about not having Cyclops but to see Havok in a film is something i never thought i would see. Vaughn is three for three in my opinion let's hope he continues his streak with this film.

1. Green Lantern
My very first Nerdlert was inspired by the footage from wondercon that was released to quicktime. Now they released a new official trailer and if possible i am even more stoked to see this movie. Mark Strong IS Sinestro, to see him spar with Hal during training is so cool. Kilowog punching Hal and hearing Michael Clarke Duncans voice reinforces that Campbell knows exactly what he's doing. I showed this to my son the other day and he went crazy screaming HAL JORDAN!!! the whole time. Campbell has created such an amazing scope with this movie i hope more than anything that he delivers on the whole package.

That about does it. I know no pirates, or cowboys and aliens, or wizards....sorry it's not like I don't want to see those but these 10 are the ones that strike my fancy. Disagree? like i said strike back in the comments section. I will say that I wish I had space for Another Earth which tells the story about the discovery of a parallel Earth.

-Bence-

One last thought -

Rileys Number One Movie to see KUNG FU PANDA 2..the boy runs up the big cardboard panda at the theater and begins to use all his kung fu might. Maybe if i had a list of twenty but I do love the chinese dragon bit in the trailer, and Gary Oldman can do no wrong unless he's back with Hardwicke. I'm pretty sure Jables and Kage can bring the rock...er Po and the Furious Five can bring some bodacity to cinemas this year.