Summer Movie Preview

Spider-Man, the first of the big summer movies, opens Friday. So what other tickets should you be pre-ordering?

This summer’s top movies are gonna be “Star Wars Episode II” and “Spider-Man”. If you aren’t already planning to see them both, there’s something very wrong with you… But later on, there’s some other interesting movies that haven’t yet been hyped to death.


“Men In Black II” – given that, at the end of the first one, Tommy Lee Jones had his brain wiped, I can only wonder how they’re planning to bring him back. This will be more comedy than SF, obviously, but it’ll still rake in money like, well, like something with a really big rake. And it has aliens, so it counts. (Opens July 3)


“Austin Powers in: Goldmember” – Apparently they’ve worked out the legal issues with the name. (The Bond people were suing because they were worried that people might somehow confuse this movie with “Goldfinger.” I doubt that would happen, but that’s just me.) This movie has less of a SF/fantasy claim than MiB2, but the last one had time travel, so I guess it counts. (July 26)


“Minority Report” – psychic cops? Sounds SF to me. I’ll just wait to see how they market it… if they play the psychic cops thing too heavily, it’ll lose all the mainstream audience that Tom Cruise would normally draw. (June 21)


“Scooby-Doo” – again, maybe not SF, but just plain cool. If the computer-generated Great Dane doesn’t look goofy, this could be a pleasant surprise. (June 14)


Did I miss something? That’s what the “post comments” thingie is there for.

8 replies on “Summer Movie Preview”

  1. More details

    Dave’s questions about the MIB2 setup have been
    released online. Anyone interested in the spoilers
    should mail
    me
    .

    As for the legal issues with Goldmember,
    the settlement was for an undisclosed amount of money,
    as well as a guarantee that the trailer for the
    twentieth Bond film (Die Another Day) runs on
    the movie when it opens.

    M. Night Shyamalan’s Signs is a decent
    contender, depending on what he’s chosen as the reason
    for the crop circles to be there. We’ll find out
    August 2.

    Lilo and Stitch has been getting decent
    advance word. That’s Disney’s summer entry, due June
    21st.

    The feature film adaptation of The Powerpuff
    Girls
    hits theaters on July 3.

    Dragons attack a post-apocalyptic England in Reign
    of Fire
    on July 12. There’s some pretty decent
    talent attached to it, too.

    Eight Legged Freaks, due July 19, sounds like
    Arachnophobia on steroids.

    Why, oh why did Haley Joel Osment agree to make a
    movie based on a Disneyland ride? The Country
    Bears
    is due July 26th.

    Eddie Murphy has a sci-fi comedy called The
    Adventures of Pluto Nash
    due out on August 16.

    • Re: More details

      Dave’s questions about the MIB2 setup have been
      released online.

      As Well As In The Trailer, Which I Saw Before Some Move (I’m Guessing It Was Ice Age, That’s All I rEmember Going To see Recently. Or Maybe It Was Just Playing In The Lobby)

      M. Night Shyamalan’s Signs is a decent
      contender, depending on what he’s chosen as the reason
      for the crop circles to be there. We’ll find out
      August 2.

      Didn’t Anyone Else Catch The Guys Who Made The Crop Circles Coming Out?

      • Re: More details

        M. Night Shyamalan’s Signs is a decent
        contender, depending on what he’s chosen as the reason
        for the crop circles to be there. We’ll find out
        August 2.

        Didn’t Anyone Else Catch The Guys Who Made The Crop Circles Coming Out?

        This sorta blows a hole in the movie, but I saw the latest trailer last night (before “Murder by Numbers” which wasn’t bad) shows a pretty good flick if you can get over the crop circle silliness.

    • Re: More details
      Reign of Fire is starting to get me jazzed more and more. It’s not getting the buzz some of the other movies are getting, but I think it could be the sleeper hit this summer.

      Trailer here.

  2. is it true about spiderman?
    i’ve heard that in the movie, web shooting is a natural ability he develops, and not a gadget he wears. :/

    • Re: is it true about spiderman?

      i’ve heard that in the movie, web shooting is a
      natural ability he develops, and not a gadget he
      wears. :/

      This is true. (It’s the change I alluded to in my
      review of the novelization.) I think it works in the
      book. I’ll let you if I think it works in the movie
      when I write the review Saturday morning.

    • Re: is it true about spiderman?

      i’ve heard that in the movie, web shooting is a
      natural ability he develops, and not a gadget he
      wears. :/

      From the
      first of these reviews
      hosted by AICN: If you
      walk out of Spider-Man still griping about organic
      webs then you should go rent Dolph Lundgren in the
      Punisher and really have something painful to bitch
      about.
      I’ve seen that version of The
      Punisher
      . He is so, so right.

Comments are closed.