2006 Summer Blockbusters

James Joyner @ Gone Hollywood | Thursday, April 27, 2006

This summer at the movies should be quite a change from 2005’s lackluster showing, according to an extensive AP preview.

This year’s summer lead-ins: “Mission: Impossible III,” pitting Tom Cruise against supervillain Philip Seymour Hoffman; “Poseidon,” a remake of “The Poseidon Adventure” directed by Hollywood’s king of the sea, Wolfgang Petersen (”The Perfect Storm,” “Das Boot”); the animated “Over the Hedge,” an animals-against-humans comedy from the makers of “Shrek”; and “The Da Vinci Code,” reuniting Tom Hanks with director Ron Howard.

In addition to the usual sequels and remakes, there are all sorts of genre films to suit every taste. Most of them are sequels and remakes, too.

Tom Cruise’s first two “Mission: Impossible” capers were heavy on action and style. “Mission: Impossible III” director J.J. Abrams, creator of TV’s “Lost” and “Alias,” said he aimed to balance action with character interplay in the spirit of the television show on which the movies are based. “The thing I loved about the show is watching these incredibly accomplished operatives seamlessly working together to pull off a very specific goal,” Abrams said. “I honestly felt that as entertained as I was by the first two ‘Mission’ films, they didn’t embrace that aspect, which to me was the fundamental thing of the series.”

Wolfgang Petersen is back on the water with “Poseidon,” starring Kurt Russell, Richard Dreyfuss and Josh Lucas in a remake of the 1970s disaster flick about a luxury liner overturned by a tidal wave. “It was a chance to do a film reflecting our phobias today, our fear of terrorism or disaster, like 9/11 or whatever nature can do to us,” Petersen said. “A natural disaster like this is sort of a metaphor for the impossible and most disastrous thing you can imagine, and what would we do when it hits?”

Also returning to the water: Johnny Depp, Orlando Bloom, Keira Knightley and director Gore Verbinski with “Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest,” the follow-up to their 2003 blockbuster. “Dead Man’s Chest” has Depp’s woozy pirate Jack Sparrow trying to weasel out of an old debt — his soul, which he owes to the sea devil Davy Jones.

Jamie Foxx and Colin Farrell star in “Miami Vice,” written and directed by Michael Mann, creator of the 1980s cop show and Foxx’s director on “Collateral” and “Ali.” Farrell and Foxx take on the roles originated by Don Johnson and Philip Michael Thomas, playing undercover cops who infiltrate a South Florida drug ring. The TV show was known for glitzy fashion and hip music, but Mann’s new take is a grittier glimpse of cops on the street, Foxx said.

I didn’t care for “Pirates” so will likely skip the sequel. And I’m certainly not nostalgic for “Miami Vice,” which I thought was lame in the 1980s. And that’s lame.

Brandon Routh is the new Man of Steel in “Superman Returns.” Fighters for truth, justice and the rights of Mutant-Americans are back, led by “X-Men: The Last Stand,” the third installment in the franchise about the gang of super freaks, and “Superman Returns,” with the Man of Steel suiting up for his first big-screen adventure in almost 20 years.

Bryan Singer, who made the first two “X-Men” movies, directed “Superman Returns,” which introduces Brandon Routh as Krypton’s favorite flyboy. Co-starring Kevin Spacey as villain Lex Luthor and Kate Bosworth as Lois Lane, the movie has Superman back on Earth after a prolonged absence. Though not a sequel to the Christopher Reeve “Superman” flicks, the film borrows from the look and mythology created in that series. Routh said he fashioned his performance to match, injecting his own personality into the character while trying to stay true to Reeve’s Superman. “Chris did such an amazing job. You can change things, but if you do it could be horrible,” Routh said. “When somebody does something so great, there’s certain things you can tweak, but to change it just to change it sometimes is dangerous.”

The “X-Men” sequel, directed by Brett Ratner (the “Rush Hour” movies), reunites all key cast members, including Hugh Jackman, Halle Berry, Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellen, Rebecca Romijn and Famke Janssen. Driving the action this time is the discovery of a “cure” for mutancy. Jackman said the movie will wrap up the “X-Men” trilogy, though another film is in the works centered on his Wolverine character — the bushy-haired mystery man with metal claws and rapid healing powers. “He’s that reluctant hero, and he’s a fairly classic version of it,” Jackman said. “He reminds me of characters I always liked, Mad Max, Dirty Harry, Han Solo, where there’s more going on than what they’re letting on.”

Summer also offers superhero comedies. Ivan Reitman’s “My Super Ex-Girlfriend” stars Uma Thurman as the ultimate woman scorned, a superhero who uses her powers to exact revenge on the boyfriend (Luke Wilson) who dumped her.

“Zoom” stars Tim Allen and Courteney Cox in an “Incredibles”-like tale of a former hero gone soft. “Tim plays a retired superhero, and I play a kind of comic-book-obsessed, nerdy scientist. We’re trying to find people to train kids to become the next round of superheroes,” Cox said of her first big-screen leading role since she and her “Friends” gang called it quits.

The “X-Men” movies have been excellent, so I’ll certainly see the next installment. Frankly, the television versions of the Superman mythos, both “Lois and Clark” and the current “Smallville,” have been better than the Christopher Reeves movie version. As to the others, I’ll likely wait for the DVD.

early five years after September 11 comes the first major wave of big-screen films dealing with the terrorist attacks.

“United 93″ mostly features a cast of unknowns in a gut-wrenching docudrama about the passengers who fought back and lost their lives during one of the September 11 hijackings.

Oliver Stone’s “World Trade Center” stars Nicolas Cage in the story of two policemen trapped in the rubble of the collapsed towers.

On a smaller scale, “The Great New Wonderful” features Maggie Gyllenhaal, Tony Shalhoub and Olympia Dukakis in a sketch of five New Yorkers a year after the September 11 attacks.

I just have no interest in exploiting 9/11 for entertainment purposes quite yet. Granted, we had WWII and Vietnam movies while those wars were still ongoing but this just seems different somehow. Wars are massive societal undertakings whereas terrorists attacks are personalized.

There are also plenty of comedies, cartoons, and family flicks. I’ll likely see some of those but never find it necessary to see them on the big screen, which I reserve for big budget, special effects movies.

2006 Summer Blockbusters

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