It should come as no surprise that Peter Jackson and Neil Blomkamp's District 9 is at the top of my list. I love a good sci-fi romp, and despite the obvious political parallels, this looks like it's meant to be nothing more than a fun action flick. I could be wrong, but I'll find that out in the next couple hours. I just don't want to let myself get wrapped up analyzing whether or not Blomkamp gets every single apartheid reference dead on, because if that happens that means I'm not enjoying myself.
Park Chan-Wook is quickly climbing up my list of favorite directors. The Korean auteur, who brought us the amazing Vengeance Trilogy
(Mr. Vengeance, Oldboy, Lady Vegeance) just a few years ago now turns his attention towards B-movie horror with Thirst. Thirst is the story of a doctor who accidentally turns himself into a vampire thanks to his own failed experiment. The trailers are bloody, gorey, and laughably over-the-top. It looks absolutely amazing. Right now you can only find Thirst at Landmark E Street Cinema in the Nation's Capital, and I intend to be there tomorrow to check it out.
Has this been the summer of the romantic comedy? It sure as hell feels like it. I'd venture to say the rom-coms this summer season have far and away outperformed the big budget heavyweights, and have in some way rekindled my appreciation for the genre. Ofcourse this also means I have higher expectations, ones which I'm not sure a film like Adam can meet. Adam is a film about a man with Asperger's Syndrome(a form of autism) who meets and falls in love with the woman of his dreams, played by Rose Byrne who also happens to be a woman in my dreams on occasion. The realities of his condition obviously put something of a strain on their relationship and on the people they surround themselves with. Looks interesting.
Believe it or not I hadn't even heard of this movie until today. That's not totally true, there was a Spread release party earlier this week that I got an invite for, but I had no clue what the hell a "Spread" was, so I tossed it. Now that I've seen clips of this shoddy looking Alfie rip-off starring Ashton Kutcher and Anne Heche, I'm intrigued to see just how bad this is gonna be.
I'm a sucker for a good romance, but it's got to be different. I can't sign myself up for another round of Sleepless in Seattle or You've Got Mail. Movies like that do nothing for me. A couple years ago I was surprised by how much I enjoyed Keanu Reeves' and Sandra Bullock's The Lake House, because it added a sci-fi twist to a fairly standard genre. I'm expecting more of the same here with The Time Traveler's Wife. Only this time it's got two actors I actually don't mind paying to see. I'll be joining the DC/Metro Movie Fans Meetup for this one next weekend, so feel free to tag along.
What else could you possibly have time for?
Wondering why The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard isn't higher on my list? A couple of reasons. The first is that I already saw it. The second can be found right here.
There's a part of me that feels bad that I probably won't be going to see Hayao Miyazaki's latest animated "classic". The man is justifiably a legend to most people. I'm just not one of those folks. His movies have never done much for me despite my repeated attempts, and Ponyo frankly looks like a movie I'd be crawling out of my skin to get away from if made by anybody else on the planet. So no thanks. Maybe if a friend asks me I'll go.
Paper Heart and 500 Days of Summer actually expand to more theatres this week. I hope everyone will still take the time to check out two of the most unique films of the summer.
Tomorrow I'll be attending the DC/Metro Movie Fans Meetup to catch Julie and Julia, the film about Julia Child's rise to culinary prominence and how her life supposedly juxtaposes with the life of some ordinary chick. I'm not all that excited, but hopefully Streep and Adams can bring me around.
