SUMMER MOVIE PREVIEW (Part 1): MAY

After getting off to a slow movie going start for this year...no movies seen during the first three months, but I have since seen three over the span of 2 weeks: Olympus Has Fallen, G.I. Joe 2 and Evil Dead. And seeing those three films I got bombarded with loads of previews for upcoming films this summer. I thought I would do a series of posts on the films I am most looking forward to. There are tons of them coming and I will start with May which yields four potential blockbusters. These four films are following in the footsteps of their predecessors which all made over $200 million in America alone. Let's get started shall we:

IRON MAN 3 (May 3) - Shellhead returns for his third solo outing following last summer's mega-hit The Avengers. Robert Downey, Jr. once again plays Iron Man. And faces off against two villains this time in the form of The Mandarin (Ben Kingsley) and Aldrich Killian (Guy Pearce). Returning to aid our armored avenger is Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow), Jim Rhodes (Don Cheadle) and Happy Hogan (Jon Favreau). This is reported to be Downey's last go as the super-hero..well last solo gig. He will probably return for The Avengers 2. Here's hoping this wants makes up for the last Iron Man film, which was ok, but kind of under-whelming. In the hands of director Shane Black, I think it should be. 
Monty Meter: 9 out of 10 (where it ranks on my can't wait to see list)

THE GREAT GATSBY (May 10) - I'm a big Leonardo DiCaprio fan in almost everything the man does. Despite the fact he dies in nearly all of his films. But once again I am excited about this glitzy adaption of Gatsby by Baz Luhrmann and co-starring some great actors. Such as Carey Mulligan, Tobey Maguire, Isla Fisher, and Adelaide Clemens.
Monty Meter: 6 out of 10

STAR TREK-INTO DARKNESS (May 17) - To boldy go one more time is the intrepid crew of the starship Enterprise, once again guided by JJ Abrams. His first Trek movie back in 2009 blew the doors off everyone's expectations and this sequel looks just as good. If not even better.  
Monty Meter: 8 out of 10

FAST AND FURIOUS 6 (May 24) - Vin Diesel, Paul Walker, Dwayne Johnson return for another in your face adrenaline filled action caper that looks to outdo Fast Five in every way by going with even bigger and crazier stunts. I love these films and this looks just as good as the last film. Should be another crowd-pleaser.
Monty Meter: 9 out of 10

THE HANGOVER PART 3 (May 24) - Here we go with the Wolf Pack returning for another go round..this time going back to Vegas. I hope this one makes up for Part 2 as that one was kind of weak. Opens the same day as Fast and Furious so that weekend should be huge. Hell the whole month of May should be huge and record setting.
Monty Meter: 7 out of 10

I'll be back shortly with a preview of June's releases.

Fun Summer Movies: BACK TO THE FUTURE (1985)

Taking a page from my good friend Kori, I will be writing about past great summer movies that were just fun and entertaining. Nothing too much to think about just a movie where you could sit back in the theater and relax and have a really good time. That magic has been diluted a little bit thanks to overuse of CGI and non-interesting characters. But Hollywood still manages a few good ones every now and then. Summer blockbuster season officially began with 1975's Jaws and never looked back after that. I will post at least one film a week, maybe two if I have enough time. It will be random, no particular order. Whatever movie that I will be thinking of at that time will be the one I post about. I will concentrate on the period of the 80's up until now. Many of these films are the ones as a teenager that I saw over and over at the theaters. And what better film to start off with than 1985's Back To The Future.

I was 15 when this film came out and I thought this was one of the coolest movies ever. And it still is to this day. Everyone knows the story by now: typical small town teen-ager Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox in his best role) who loves rocking the guitar and spending time with his girlfriend Jennifer. Marty doesn't care too much for his home life as he thinks his parents (Crispin Glover, Lea Thompson) are total squares. And he has an abrasive sister to deal with also. Marty's best friend is the eccentric scientist Doc Brown (a hilarious performance by Christopher Lloyd) who is constantly working on some type of science experiment. Well his latest project is time travel. And the good doc has created a time machine out of a DeLorean sports car. He asks Marty to help him out with some test runs at the town mall's parking lot late one night. And much to their surprise it actually works. Of course the Libyans show up looking to kill Doc, since he stole their plutonimum to power his time machine with. After a brief skirmish Marty is forced to jump into the DeLorean and head back to 1955.

That's when the fun really begins as Marty finds Doc during that time period and convinces him that he is from the future. So Doc works on a way to send Marty back home and Marty has to deal with his parents, since he kind of inadvertenly caused them not to meet. And if they don't hook up, then Marty will never be born. And Marty's dad life long nemesis Biff becomes a problem for him. Back to the Future is a great movie and it's the perfect summer film. It has a clever storyline, a terrific cast, lots of humor and cool visual effects that still hold up today. A great musical scene which features Marty rocking out with Johnny Be Good. It's good family fun that everyone can enjoy. And let's not forget the awesome song The Power Of Love by Huey Lewis and the News. Huey actually has a small cameo in the film as well. Produced by Steven Spielberg and directed by ace Robert Zemeckis, who also helmed Who Framed Roger Rabbit? and Romancing the Stone.

Back to the Future was a huge hit during the summer of 1985 as it would gross $200 million in North America alone. Not bad for a film that only cost about $20 million to make. It would be followed by two more sequels that while entertaining, were not as good as the original. In fact Part 2 might cause you some head aches trying to figure out all the time travel gibberish. Regardless, the original is the true classic and it set Michael J. Fox on the path to movie stardom. As he became a mainstay during the late 80's and early 90's with other hit films such as Teen Wolf (1985), The Secret Of  My Success (1987), and Doc Hollywood (1991).

Trivia Notes:

Michael J Fox is the only modern actor in Hollywood to have the top 2 movies on the same weekend at the same time: Back to the Future and Teen Wolf. 1985 was a very good year for Mike.

Apparently Ronald Reagan was amused by Doc Brown's disbelief that an actor like him could become president, so much so that he had the projectionist stop and replay the scene. He also seemed to enjoy it so much that he even made a direct reference of the film in his 1986 State of the Union address: "As they said in the film Back to the Future (1985), 'Where we're going, we don't need roads.'"

Ranked #10 on the American Film Institute's list of the 10 greatest films in the genre "Sci-Fi" in June 2008.
Michael J. Fox had always been the first choice for Marty, but he was unavailable due to scheduling conflicts with his work on "Family Ties" (1982). Eric Stoltz was cast as Marty but he disagreed with the rest of the cast and crew about the tone of the film. After a few weeks of filming, Fox was asked to replace Stoltz. Fox worked out a schedule to fulfill his commitment to both projects. Every day during production, he drove straight to the movie set after taping of the show was finished every day and averaged about one or two hours of sleep. The bulk of the production was filmed from 6pm to 6am, with the daylight scenes filmed on weekends.

A persistent myth is that Michael J. Fox had to learn to skateboard for the film. In fact, he was a reasonably skilled skateboarder, having ridden throughout high school. However, Per Welinder acted as a skateboarding double for the complex scenes, and Tony Hawk (who had originally been cast as a double when Eric Stoltz was playing Marty, but was too tall to double for Fox) helped choreograph and coordinate the skateboarding action.

Memorable quotes:

Marty McFly: Wait a minute, Doc. Ah... Are you telling me that you built a time machine... out of a DeLorean?
Dr. Emmett Brown: The way I see it, if you're gonna build a time machine into a car, why not do it with some style?

Dr. Emmett Brown: If my calculations are correct, when this baby hits eighty-eight miles per hour... you're gonna see some serious shit.


Lou: You gonna order something, kid?
Marty McFly: Ah, yeah... Give me - Give me a Tab.
Lou: Tab? I can't give you a tab unless you order something.
Marty McFly: All right, give me a Pepsi Free.
Lou: You want a Pepsi, PAL, you're gonna pay for it.

Dr. Emmett Brown: Then tell me, "Future Boy", who's President in the United States in 1985?

Marty McFly: Ronald Reagan.
Dr. Emmett Brown: Ronald Reagan? The actor?
Dr. Emmett Brown: Then who's VICE-President? Jerry Lewis?
Dr. Emmett Brown: I suppose Jane Wyman is the First Lady!
Marty McFly: [following Doc] Whoa! Wait! Doc!
Dr. Emmett Brown: And Jack Benny is Secretary of the Treasury.
Marty McFly: [outside the lab door] Doc, you gotta listen to me.
Dr. Emmett Brown: [opens the door to the lab] I've had enough practical jokes for one evening. Good night, Future Boy!
Marty McFly: No, wait! Doc. Doc. The-the-the bruise - the bruise on your head. I know how that happened! You told me the whole story. You were standing on your toilet, and you were hanging a clock, and you fell, and you hit your head on the sink. And that's when you came up with the idea for the Flux Capacitor...
Marty McFly: Which... is what makes time travel possible.

A Fun Summer at the movies...

I had seen several articles and a lot of people saying that this is the worst summer ever for movies. So I had to respond with a blog of my own. Now, for years the summer movie season had begun usually on Memorial Day weekend, dating back to the late 70's. Well in recent years, the start date has moved up to the first week of May. Which is fine by me. Well this summer movie season is only 6 weeks old and I have seen three films: Iron Man 2 (twice), Shrek Forever After, and the recently released The A-Team (twice this weekend already). And I enjoyed all three films because they mainly delivered on the sole premise of a summertime movie: FUN. I don't know what more do people want. Summer is the time to release popcorn thrill rides that fulfills it's job of entertaining audiences. Now Iron Man 2 was not as good as the first one but it still was a good movie. I gave it a B+ and did see it twice. Shrek Forever After is a worthy addition to the franchise and I gave it a B. And now comes The A-Team, which I thoroughly enjoyed. So far it's the best movie I've seen this year. And don't misunderstand me, it's not the best movie made, but it's definitely a crowd pleasing summer type action filled movie. Now other recent films that have came out and done poorly like Prince of Persia, Robin Hood and Sex and the City 2 I have not seen, so I can't speak on them. But I think it's premature to say that this is the worst summer for movies when we're not even halfway through the season yet. Not when we still got these films on deck: Toy Story 3, Knight and Day starring Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz, Inception with Leonardo DiCaprio; Salt with Angelina Jolie; the all star action fest The Expendables with Stallone, Jet Li, Bruce Willis, Mickey Rourke, Jason Statham; Predators; and of course the third chapter in that teen vampire saga Twilight: Eclipse. I know some of the movies this year might be underwhelming but you get those every year. It just seems there is so much cynicism and dread out there, that I think people might have forgotten how to enjoy movies. And let's be real, movies will never be as good as they were say 70 years ago. But many people today would argue those films are boring or too stagey or whatever. I would of course disagree, but I guess what I'm trying to say that these movies coming out today are still entertaining enough in their own way. I try to find the good in every film I see, even the so called turkeys but if Hollywood releases about 400 films a year, of course not everyone of them is gonna be good. The award worthy films with the top acting talent and engaging stories will bow at the end of the year to give movie goers something to think about. But for right now, it's summer, it's all about fun and action and comedy and excitement. And guess what we may get one film this summer that will please everyone. A little film from the director of Dark Knight called Inception with Leo DiCaprio. Okay, I've said my peace. I'm happy now. I just had to say something about all the negativity I was seeing in magazines and on message boards about the state of movies. Like I said I've seen three films and enjoyed them all. So it's been a perfect summer for me so far.