Summer Movies I Want to See, Pt. 2

Here’s my 2nd annual list of summer movies I want to see. This year, there are 13: half blockbuster and half indie. Yahoo! has a decent Summer Movie Guide with most of the movies below listed; if it’s not on Yahoo!, I’ve provided a relevant link at the end of the entry. Like I did last year, I’ll edit this with ratings as I see each film. If you enjoy original scores, play the YouTube music at the end of this post while you read…

In order of preference

1. The Kids Are All Right (Jul 7. Annette Bening, Julianne Moore. Limited release. Official site.)
2. The Oath (May 7. Sundance political favorite about Yemen from 1996 on, documentary. Limited release. Official screenings.)
3. Robin Hood (May 14. Russell Crowe, Cate Blanchett, William Hurt.) Went in ignoring the reviews, but it truly wasn’t very good: 7 out of 10.
4. Inception (Jul 16. Leonardo DiCaprio. Directed by Christopher Nolan.) = Batman, Memento, and the Matrix. 9 out of 10.
5. The Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time (May 28.  Jake Gyllenhaal, Ben Kingsley.) Better storyline than I expected. 8 out of 10.
6. Stonewall Uprising (Jun 16. First Run Features always distributes great films. Documentary with limited release. Official screenings.)
7. Toy Story 3 (Jun 18)
8. The Expendables (Aug 13. Sylvester Stallone rounds up a truly all star cast: 3 decades of action heroes.) Worth watching for the comedic scenes with Terry Crews and his automatic shotgun. 8 out of 10.
9. Agora (May 28. In Roman Egypt, a slave falls in love with his master, the female astronomer, philosopher and atheist Hypatia, played by Rachel Weisz. IMDb. Official site has samples of soundtrack by Dario Marianelli.) Good story, but it drags. 8 out of 10.
10. Get Low (Jul 30. Bill Murray, Sissy Spacek, and Robert Duvall as 1930s TN hermit. LA & NYC only, so far. Official site.)
11. Mesrine: Instinct of Death (Aug 20. Similar to Che in that it’s two films that should really be seen back to back. 2008 films just now getting a US release. Wikipedia page.) Vincent Cassel did an excellent job. 8 out of 10—pretty typical gangster movie.
12. MacGruber (May 21. Will Forte, Ryan Phillippe, Val Kilmer. Based on SNL skit.)
13. Iron Man 2 (May 7) Mickey Rourke FTW! 8 out of 10.

Runners up

• Ip Man 2 (One of those great Chinese kung fu productions, like The Legend of Bruce Lee, that hasn’t been released in the US yet. YouTube clip; no English version yet.)
• Babies (May 7. Cute documentary.)
• Breathless (May 28. “50th Anniversary Restoration” limited release of Jean-Luc Godard classic. Probably the same as the 2007 Criterion DVD. Official site.)
• Get Him to the Greek (Jun 4. Russell Brand.) Some funny scenes, but generally painfully dull to watch. 6 out of 10.
• Despicable Me (Jul 9. Steve Carell. Computer animated film by Universal Pictures.)
• Salt (Jul 23. Angelina Jolie, Liev Schreiber.) Only two things I didn’t like about this movie: Angie looking like a skeleton and the abrupt ending. 9 out of 10.
• Centurion (Aug 27. A British film that looks like a typical, but good, Gladiator/300/Troy time piece. IMDb.)
• The Adjustment Bureau (Sep 17. Matt Damon, Emily Blunt. IMDb.)

The obligatory adaptations

• The A-Team (Jun 11. Liam Neeson, Bradley Cooper, Jessica Biel.)
• The Karate Kid (Jun 11. Jaden Smith, Will Smith’s son, gets in shape!)
• The Girl Who Played With Fire (Jul 2. The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo is probably my favorite movie this year; a spring US release that may still be playing in your area. I’ve heard this second film in the trilogy isn’t directed as well, though. IMDb.) 7 out of 10. Hornet’s Nest was a much more enjoyable 9 out of 10.
• The Last Airbender (Jul 2. M. Night Shyamalan.)
• Predators (Jul 9. Adrien Brody.)
• Ramona and Beezus (Jul 23. Selena Gomez, John Corbett, Sandra Oh.)

Release dates based on the NYT summer movies list. Also check out Summer Preview: The 25 Must-See Films (indieWIRE) and Box Office Predictions: The Top 20 Films of Summer 2010 (MovieRetriever, includes trailers all on one page).

I was pleasantly surprised to run across Dario Marianelli’s beautiful music while browsing the Agora website. Here’s the title track from the Atonement score: