I’M HOPING FOR THE BEST:
Independence Day: Resurgence
Release Date: June 24th
Cast: Jeff Goldblum, Bill Pullman, Liam Hemsworth, Judd Hirsch, Vivica A. Fox, Brent Spiner
Director: Roland Emmerich (Independence Day)
Aside from Jurassic Park, you could argue Independence Day was the other iconic movie from the nineties. I fear it’s going to be too little, too late for this one. I love Independence Day, and am personally excited to see this long-awaited sequel, but I’m not sure many feel my sentiment. If it gets good word of mouth, it certainly has potential to sky rocket towards the upper echelon of the box office. Out of all the movies on the list, this was the toughest one to get a read on. It has a wide range of where it could fall. At the end of the day, it won’t bomb, but should fall just short of the top ten with a domestic take at around $155 Million.
THE GEM OF THE SUMMER COULD BE:
The Nice Guys
Release Date: May 20th
Cast: Russell Crowe, Ryan Gosling, Kim Basinger
Director: Shane Black (Iron Man 3, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang)
While I detest Iron Man 3 with a burning passion, I’m interested to see what Shane Black can do now that he’s escaped from the confines of the MCU. This Russell Crowe/Ryan Gosling buddy comedy set in the seventies has oodles of potential, and could easily be a great change of pace for the summer. It could definitely be this year’s Spy.
THE SURPRISE HIT OF THE SUMMER COULD BE:
Sausage Party
Release Date: August 12th
Cast: Seth Rogen, Kristen Wiig, Salma Hayek, Edward Norton, Jonah Hill
Directors: Greg Tiernan, Conrad Vernon
I’ve been following this film for a while. The premise is absolutely brilliant. I’ve also been craving an R-Rated animated film for a long time. Here’s the problem – it’s Team Seth Rogen. When I saw this trailer, it reaffirmed all my hopes and fears – moments of brilliance, peppered with mediocrity. I want this to work so badly, believe me. I want to end the summer saying this is one of the best films of the year. I fear I’ll leave the theater saying “it was good, but could have been better.” As far as the box office goes, this is a risky endeavor, but it comes down to this – if the movie gets great reviews and buzz, it’s going to make a crap load of money. If the film is mixed, it will fade into obscurity. Seth Rogen, please don’t blow this. Please don’t set R-Rated animated films back. There’s a lot of responsibility on this man right now.
THE WORST MOVIE OF THE SUMMER WILL BE:
Nine Lives
Release Date: August 5th
Cast: Kevin Spacey, Jennifer Garner, Christopher Walken, Cheryl Hines
Director: Barry Sonnenfeld (Men in Black Trilogy)
I was hesitant to pick this because I can definitely see the film getting pushed back to September or October in the final hour. As of right now, it’s set to release in August. I was ready to pick Central Intelligence, the new action comedy starring Dwayne Johnson and Kevin Hart. That first scene in the trailer with the CGI fat Dwayne Johnson was cringe-worthy. I wanted to make sure I did my due diligence though, and ended up coming across the gem that is Nine Lives. Kevin Spacey plays a stuck up business man, until one day he gets trapped inside the family cat, Mr. Fuzzy Pants.
How dare you accuse me of making this up! It’s hard to put this movie into words, so I’d ask you to please watch the trailer:
How do you comprehend something like this? They got Kevin Spacey and Christopher Walken! Is House of Cards so dark that Kevin Spacey feels he needs to cleanse himself by doing this? Let’s think about this for a minute. At some point, a conversation took place in which Kevin Spacey said, “I’ll agree to do the movie where my spirit gets trapped inside a cat.” That conversation happened. Jennifer Garner also pops up, but picking family-friendly fluff is old hat to her. Jennifer Garner is a talented actress, but her movie choices confuse the hell out of me.
So that’s my pick for Worst Movie of the Summer. I’ll reiterate – Kevin Spacey voices a cat named Mr. Fuzzy Pants.
THE “BATTLESHIP” MEMORIAL FLOP OF THE SUMMER AWARD:
The Legend of Tarzan
Release Date: August 5th
Cast: Alexander Skarsgard, Djimon Hounsou, Samuel L. Jackson, Margot Robbie, Christoph Waltz
Director: David Yates (Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows)
It was a competitive field this year. The remake of Ben-Hur was certainly a leader in the club house. Today’s young film going audience doesn’t care about a remake from a classic movie that came out over fifty years ago. I hope Ben-Hur finally puts an end to the remake era in Hollywood. Point Break. Carrie. Arthur. WE DON’T WANT REMAKES! GO AWAY!  Other candidates included Warcraft and Steven Spielberg’s The BFG, which both look like the most generic, fantasy bore-fests of all time.
At the end of the day though, The Legend of Tarzan was the only choice. It has Pan written all over it – an excruciating, boring, lifeless piece of nothing. Aside from the Disney movie, was Tarzan ever that popular? I wouldn’t be surprised if this movie got delayed by the time you’re reading this. We’ve seen it happen before with films like Jupiter Ascending and Pan, so you never know.
This is one of the hardest write ups I’ve ever had to do. I don’t know what else to say about this movie. It’s not even that the trailer is bad, but it elicits no reaction whatsoever.
I’d rather do my tax return again in lieu of seeing this film.
======================================================================================================
Daniel Cohen is the Film Editor for Pop-Break. Aside from reviews, Daniel does a weekly box office predictions column, and also contributes monthly Top Tens and Op-Ed’s on all things film. Daniel is a graduate of Bates College with a degree in English, and also studied Screenwriting at UCLA. He can also be read on www.movieshenanigans.com. His movie crush is Jessica Rabbit. Follow him on Twitter @dcohenwriter.
[php] wp_link_pages(array(‘before’=>’
‘)); [/php]
=========================================================================================================
