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What are you excited about?

I am really looking forward to The Last Airbender (AKA Avatar: The Last Airbender... they had to rename it and delay it.

I watched a bit of the cartoon and the story and characters are quite well developed. If the writing/acting is halfway decent it could be a good flick.

The trailer for that looked really, really good.

The main thing I was looking forward to was Iron Man 2 and that was great. I don't know what else there is coming out this summer though.

Nutmeg wrote:

The trailer for that looked really, really good.

The main thing I was looking forward to was Iron Man 2 and that was great. I don't know what else there is coming out this summer though.

I just saw it and you are right, it is awesome! I hope it comes out on DVD soon or is in open caption.

Nutmeg wrote:

The main thing I was looking forward to was Iron Man 2 and that was great.

I haven't seen that yet, hopefully this weekend the wife and I can ditch the little one on someone and go and see it. Its still on at some Cinemas. Last movie I saw at the movies was Star Trek, a little over a year ago I think.

Jonah Hex looks alright. I am not familiar with the backstory at all, but it looks like it will be another mindless antihero flick, kind of like Hellboy. It looks like it has some potential, but I am not keeping my hopes too high

Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World.

Yeah the Cera kid gets on my nerves but eh.....

The Karate kid looks fun. It's too bad it has nothing to do with Karate or Japanese culture at all.

SpotTheCat wrote:

The Karate kid looks fun. It's too bad it has nothing to do with Karate or Japanese culture at all.

My personal favourite moment from the trailers is Jackie Chan telling the kid "I will teach you Kung Fu". I thought the movie was called Karate Kid

I've got to go see Iron Man 2 myself. Still haven't gotten around to doing it. The other one I want to see is Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World. And looking at upcoming movies, I can't believe they've done a 4th Resident Evil...

emorgoch wrote:

And looking at upcoming movies, I can't believe they've done a 4th Resident Evil...

They have? I saw the first three a year or two ago and they were hilarious; I'd love to see a fourth.

Saw The A-Team last night, wasnt expecting much from it but was pleasantly surprised.

Avatar the last air bender should be cool, I liked the animated series a lot.

IM 2 is pretty good. The drop-off from the 1st one is definitely less than the dropoff going from Transformers to Transformers 2.

blitzy wrote:

Saw The A-Team last night, wasnt expecting much from it but was pleasantly surprised.

Not going to butt heads with the Father's Day crowd. May do it next week.

blitzy wrote:

Avatar the last air bender should be cool, I liked the animated series a lot.

But with M. Night Shamalan's name to it my expectation was dampened a little bit. It's almost like he's stepped out of his usual genre; or worse, if he managed to sneak in his usual formulaic "creepy" stuff I would cry bloody murder.

Karate == Kung Fu is just wrong. Looks like it may be an abomination to the late great original Mr. Miyagi.

I don't even know the backstory of Jonah Hex. I am hoping Megan Fox will improve on her acting, at least a little bit.

What's coming in July/August?

It feels like all the summer movies are out really early this year.. Are they not ususally sort of July/August time? Well here they are anyway. They had IM2 and Robin Hood, Prince of Persia in Mary and now it's just sort of flittering out.. :/

Iron Man 2 was okay, but didn't reach my expectations. Just like the first one, it had a very disappointing end battle.

Robin Hood, not bad and it was pretty funny at times, but it wasn't anything I'd rush and see again.

Prince of Persia was a serious waste of money and time. I could write a short story on how derived and cliched every single second of that abomination was. Wow, you can cross the desert and never break a sweat? WTF? Another hot female sidekick who never stops b------g the entire movie? Didn't we get enough of that in 3 Pirates of the Caribbean movies (coincidentally Bruckheimer flicks too)? Frankly I was glad to see it bomb at the box office and I hope they don't break even. Uwe Boll couldn't have done much worse.

"Splice" had a good premise, but was too predictable. And not at all scary, which kind of kills it for a "horror" movie.

I hope "Airbender" is good, but M. Night Shenaniganshananahimalaya has put out some seriously bad stuff the last several years.

This summer has sucked for movies so far. Badly. I haven't seen anything yet that I would buy on DVD. Well, except for "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo," but that's not Hollywood. Yet, anyway.

kvndoom wrote:

I hope "Airbender" is good, but M. Night Shenaniganshananahimalaya has put out some seriously bad stuff the last several years.

He's hit or miss. I hope he hits.

Also: it's all I can do not to call it Avatar.

My summer has been saved by chickflicks. hurrah

emorgoch wrote:

SpotTheCat wrote:

The Karate kid looks fun. It's too bad it has nothing to do with Karate or Japanese culture at all.

My personal favourite moment from the trailers is Jackie Chan telling the kid "I will teach you Kung Fu". I thought the movie was called Karate Kid

The movie was called 'Karate Kid' because it's a remake of the original Karate Kid movie from the 80s, and is marketed as such in the West. In Japan, China and South Korea, it is called 'The Kung-fu Kid'. Over here in South East Asia, the movie posters have 'The Karate Kid' in English and Chinese symbols saying 'Kung-fu Kid' underneath.

Silly naming conventions aside, the movie greatly exceeded my expectations. Chan and Jaden Smith make a great screen duo, and boy, that kid can act. It's also a lot more ethically and emotionally grounded than the first movie (all credit to the late, great Pat Morita for 'making' the first movie). Cinematography and fight choreography were top notch, and while it was a bit long (2.5 hrs, give or take), it was worth every penny.

Like others here, I am looking forward to 'Aangbender' with equal parts hope and trepidation. I don't think Shenanigans can pull off another Sixth Sense, but I'd be content with even something like, say Lady In The Water (which, while unbearably trite and nonsensical, was still watchable). Just as long as it's not another Unbreakable, Signs or The Village.

Voldenuit wrote:

Like others here, I am looking forward to 'Aangbender' with equal parts hope and trepidation. I don't think Shenanigans can pull off another Sixth Sense, but I'd be content with even something like, say Lady In The Water (which, while unbearably trite and nonsensical, was still watchable). Just as long as it's not another Unbreakable, Signs or The Village.

Hmm...I thought Lady in the Water was boring. Signs was appalling because of silly things like the aliens being hurt by water. I really liked Unbreakable. That seems to be a love it or hate it movie. (most people seem to hate it )

I have high hopes for Airbender but I find it unlikely to fulfill them. Can't wait to see the critics' consensus on it.

Hawkwing74 wrote:

I really liked Unbreakable.

Same. Not sure it was as good as Sixth Sense, and I haven't seen his other movies after the reviews they got, but I didn't know anybody hated Unbreakable.

SNM wrote:

but I didn't know anybody hated Unbreakable.

/me raises hand

Hate that film

annabel wrote:

SNM wrote:

but I didn't know anybody hated Unbreakable.

/me raises hand

Hate that film

Second vote.

I thought the premise was silly and ridiculous, and the movie itself was too drawn out by half and a one. For a good super hero meta-commentary with real heart, Defendor was the real eye-opener for me.

Hawkwing74 wrote:

Voldenuit wrote:

Like others here, I am looking forward to 'Aangbender' with equal parts hope and trepidation. I don't think Shenanigans can pull off another Sixth Sense, but I'd be content with even something like, say Lady In The Water (which, while unbearably trite and nonsensical, was still watchable). Just as long as it's not another Unbreakable, Signs or The Village.

Hmm...I thought Lady in the Water was boring. Signs was appalling because of silly things like the aliens being hurt by water. I really liked Unbreakable. That seems to be a love it or hate it movie. (most people seem to hate it )

I have high hopes for Airbender but I find it unlikely to fulfill them. Can't wait to see the critics' consensus on it.

Wow, did some digging, and take at look at these Rotten Tomatoes scores:

Sixth Sense (1999) : 86%
Unbreakable (2000): 66%
Signs (2002): 74%
The Village (2004): 43%
Lady in the Water (2006): 25%
The Happening (2008): 18%

Charting the trend in Excel (projected score for Airbender in red):



So it looks like Aangbender would be a 13%?

Funnily enough, the projected score for 2012 matches up pretty well with my personal rating for 2012. Maybe this was the disaster the Mayans predicted?

What is the trendline equation? It looks asymptotic. Perhaps Shamalayan will never actually reach zero...

ludi wrote:

What is the trendline equation? It looks asymptotic. Perhaps Shamalayan will never actually reach zero...

I used an exponential curvefit. We can always expect at least one paid-off critic (or in Sony's case, a completely artificial one) shilling a good review for even the worst movies, so it may never reach zero.

Funnily enough, when looking at the Lady in the Water wiki page, I came across this:

Pete Vonder Haar of Film Threat commented: "If Shyamalan is going to use his kids as a focus group for future projects, maybe he should start making movies for Nickelodeon already and stop wasting our time"

Guess what? Avatar is a Nickelodeon franchise!

annabel wrote:

My summer has been saved by chickflicks. hurrah

"Date Night" was better than I thought it would be. I got a few good cheap laughs out of it. Girlfriend and her daughters wanted to see it, so I reluctantly tagged along. It was a pleasant surprise. Nothing original, but still pretty fun. And it has made decent money at the box office too.

Voldenuit wrote:

Guess what? Avatar is a Nickelodeon franchise!

Yes, but that's not that Avatar.

Meadows wrote:

Yes, but that's not that Avatar.

If you were referring to Cameron's Avatar, it was one of the more interesting movies of 2009. Not just as great moviemaking but also for the serious fun to be had in analyzing it as counter-religious allegory. I finally put my ancient history lessons to some use, heh.

Meadows wrote:

Voldenuit wrote:

Guess what? Avatar is a Nickelodeon franchise!

Yes, but that's not that Avatar.

I'm not sure if I've missed a joke or your confused but it's this Avatar http://www.nick.com/shows/avatar/ hence Nickelodeon.

kvndoom wrote:

Robin Hood, ...
Prince of Persia ...

I liked both of them.
Did you like National Treasure? What kind of movies do you normally like?
They definitely weren't incredible feats of story-telling, but I enjoyed both.. and in PoP's case, I saw it again coz I liked it so much.

kvndoom wrote:

"Date Night" was better than I thought it would be. I got a few good cheap laughs out of it. Girlfriend and her daughters wanted to see it, so I reluctantly tagged along. It was a pleasant surprise. Nothing original, but still pretty fun. And it has made decent money at the box office too.

Chickflicks aren't meant to be original and I'd be gutted if I went to see one and it didn't fit in a nice wee film plan.

annabel wrote:

kvndoom wrote:

"Date Night" was better than I thought it would be. I got a few good cheap laughs out of it. Girlfriend and her daughters wanted to see it, so I reluctantly tagged along. It was a pleasant surprise. Nothing original, but still pretty fun. And it has made decent money at the box office too.

Chickflicks aren't meant to be original and I'd be gutted if I went to see one and it didn't fit in a nice wee film plan.

Ever seen Amelie? They don't have to all be brainless and cliched.

I think the real issue here is that maybe it's just a sucky year for Hollywood films. Some of the best films I have seen in recent years (maybe ever) have been indie or foreign.

But hey, they can crank out new Twilight films every 3 or 4 weeks it seems like, and those are good for over 200 million a pop in ticket sales. So why bother taking a chance on quality when garbage brings in guaranteed money?