Do you feel it in the air? The times, they-are-a-changin'. This weekend ushers in a month of pure craziness, and it should be an exciting few weeks.
While business is picking up at work, with the start of the new fall season and a ton of New Media-related news of late (Apple's I-TV, Microsoft's Zune, etc), I'm leaving it all behind come Wednesday when I jet home to CT for a few days of family, food, relaxing, and a hefty dose of hardcore praying, for the holiday of Rosh Hashana. I come back to LA just in time for TOM PETTY next Tuesday, and soon after that it's my 24th birthday. In the meantime, I'm plugging away on my writing, trying to finish up this freakin' driving school, getting excited for the new fall TV premieres, doing a lot of reading, hopefully getting in some basketball, and making time for a few others' b-day celebrations to boot. And then, before you know it it's October, which means one of the most fun times of year in Halloween. This year we actually have a Friday the 13th in October, so something crazy has to happen then, before we attempt to reproduce last year's Page-O-Ween spectacular, and yeah, a trip to the Scary Farm may be in order as well. For many, summer is the time to kick back and have fun ... and I had a good summer, but it was also one where I started a new job (as did many of my friends), and had a lot to think about. So my prediction: Fall 2006 is going to be HUGE!
Okay, so before we plow head-first into the fall, let's look back on the summer that was. Well, at least as it relates to the Summer Movie season.
The Summer of 2006, as a whole, I would have to call underwhelming when it comes to film. While we closed out the Spring with some truly excellent movies, from Thank You For smoking to United 93, this summer saw only a handful of movies that I would categorize as "great." And looking back at LAST summer, we had some positively impactful genre movies like Batman Begins and Star Wars. This summer, the biggest franchise there is, Superman, ultimately proved to be a creative and box office disappointment, and I think that even those who initially praised it have to admit that once the hype died down, it's not a movie that will be looked back on with the same reverence or enthusiasm as Batman Begins, Spiderman, or even the original Richard Donner Superman. Still, I think some of the fan and critical backlash on some of this summer's big movies was misplaced. X-Men 3 was an excellent way to close out the trilogy, and delivered on the superheroics and over the top action that the first two lacked. And of course, Pirates 2 won over MOST of us, but still has some detractors who seemed to be expecting it to be The Last of the Mohicans or something. Oddly, Nacho 2 received a somewhat lukewarm reception, maybe due to burnout with quirky comedies ... but I still found it to be one of the summer's most enjoyable comedies - overall, a better movie than the funny but formulaic Talladega Nights. Kevin Smith really won me over with a return to form in Clerks II - sure, it retread familiar territory, but it was vintage Smith that reminded me why I liked his stuff in the first place. There's a ton of talk about Tom Cruise and MI:3 - but let's forget about Cruise and look at the actual movie ... the fact is that the franchise itself was never that strong to begin with, especially after a very uneven sequel in MI:2. To expect Cruise's starpower to carry an already flailing action series was a bit absurd. Still, MI:3 was a very solid action flick that was a nice way to kick off the summer movie season, despite few people begging for this movie to be made in the first place. Similarly, Crank was a great way to close out the summer - a hilarious balls-to-the-wall action movie that reveled in its absurdity. On the other hand, while I enjoyed Snakes on a Plane, there is only so much praise I can give to a bad movie, even if its self-mocking absurdity is part of the isn't-it-ironic joke. Like I said, Talladega Nights was the best Will Ferell vehicle since Anchorman, though it didn't quite live up to that movie's hilarity. In the quirky and eccentric category, indie fave Terry Zwigoff produced a ver yinteresting but kind of perplexing movie in Art School Confidential, while the ever-prolific Woody Allen had an odd but underrated old-school caper in Scoop. Very few saw Mike Judge's Idiocracy, and even fewer came away knowing exactly what to think of it, but somewhere just below the surface of this studio-shelved rarity was the next Office Space waiting to burst out. Meanwhile, fans of the 80's show were diappointed in Miami Vice, but viewed solely as an action movie dripping with shadowy atmosphere and directorial prowess, I thought it was pretty damn good. Until a few weeks ago, I would have told you that, by far, the best movie of the summer was Pixar's Cars, which to me was perhaps my favorite Pixar movie to date, with an amazingly evocative look at nostalgia and progress and the American Dream - not things you expect to find in a Disney animated movie, but then again, Pixar has always defied expectations. However, as soon as I saw Little Miss Sunshine, I knew that I had seen the best movie of the summer - a triumphant, hilarious, thought-provoking movie that is one for the ages. If you have not yet seen it, check it out - it really is an amazing movie. Still, looking at this list, and comparing it to last year's ... well, last year I was able to comprise a Top 10 Summer Movie list made up entirely of A-level movies. As this year's list goes on, we start to get into a slightly lower tier - still good movies, but not quite that same level as last year, where everything from Batman to Hustle and Flow and even down to Sky High (dammit all) was in the A-range for me. Anyways ...
The Top 10 Movies of Summer 2006:
1.) Little Miss Sunshine - Again, an amazing, hilarious movie that had the entire audience cheering.
2.) Cars - Another superlative effort from Pixar, with standard-setting animation and a script that worked on multiple levels.
3.) Pirates of the Carribean: Dead Man's Chest - All you could ask for in a big summer movie - tons of fun, plenty of humor, an interesting mythology, imaginative f/x, and great action.
4.) Clerks II - A return to the View Askewniverse that was as funny as I'd hoped, with more heart than I expected.
5.) Nacho Libre - A worthy follow-up to Napoleon Dynamite from Jared Hess, this one had a ton of memorable scenes and the most inherently funny premise in a while.
6.) X-Men 3: The Last Stand - While fanboys whined about it not being a proper adaptation of the Phoenix Saga, this was a damn good superhero movie that I went into with low expecations and came out of having been thoroughly entertained.
7.) Miami Vice - Another one that seemed to inspire mixed reactions, I thought that Michael Mann's latest was suitably kickass, dripping with style and atmosphere - a directorial clinic.
8.) MI:3 / Crank - Two action movies, two different styles, but both ultimately delivered a nice adrenaline rush. From the polished, JJ Abrams-directed MI:3 to the gritty craziness of Crank, both accomplish what they se out to do with a sense of fun and style.
9.) Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby - While it had its faults, this was a very funny movie with a number of quotable lines, helped by some great supporting performances.
10.) Scoop / Art School Confidential - Two oddball comedies that both flew a bit below the radar. One was a return to the comedic caper film for Woody Allen after a serious turn with Match Point, and one was cartoonist Terry Zwigoff's spiritual follow-up to the cult fave Ghost World. Scoop got laughs while having Woody's trademark neurotic ponderings, and Art School mixed humor with psychology to mock the journey of an artist.
Alright, so there's my summer movie wrap-up. Agree? Disagree? Let me hear it, I dare ya'.
Other Stuff:
- I have yet to sink my teeth into it, but I couldn't wait to purchase the new graphic novel from Brian K. Vaughn (Y: The Last Man, Ex Machina), currently one of my favorite writers. Vaughn's latest, The Pride of Baghdad, promises to be something special. It's a sprawling epic based on the real life story of a group of lions who escaped an Iraqi zoo during the initial Allied bombing campaign at the start of the Iraq war. Yep, the main characters here are LIONS. Beautifully illustrated, this one is getting a lot of press and stellar reviews, so I can't wait to dig in.
- Where the $%&! is Ricky Gervais' EXTRAS on DVD?
- Alright, i'm out - have a good weekend and remember - unlike LonelyGirl15, I always KEEP IT REAL.
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