Kubryk's 2006 Summer Movie Preview

Archive

The summer movie season is generally one in which most of the high-grossing films of the year come out. Hollywood makes their money in the summer and gives awards in the winter, but a lot of times some of the best films come out in the summer. Interesting enough the 2006 summer season feels like the least anticipated season in a while, as there isn’t an excessive amount of films to clamor for this year it seems.


1. Mission: Impossible III
Release Date: May 5th, 2006

It seems whenever you mention Tom Cruise, visions of him jumping over Oprah’s couch or spouting off about Scientology come rushing out. Despite all of his personal craziness, he’s still one of the biggest stars on the planet and the premiere action hero of the last decade. And he returns to the franchise that made him an action hero this summer as Ethan Hunt, international man of mystery.

This time Hunt has to deal with Owen Davian (Philip Seymour Hoffman), an arms dealer of ill repute. Not much else is known about the film, as there’s been a tight lid on the plot, but the cast is loaded with Laurence Fishburne, Keri Russell and Simon Pegg, joining a returning Ving Rhames for one of the summer’s best casts. Cruise also has a solid history of making good to great action movies, as he doesn’t go for the sort of script that Vin Diesel would. Mission: Impossible is his action franchise in the way Stallone had Rambo and Arnold had the Terminator, so he’s not going to mess it up when it’s clearly the franchise that will keep him on top for the next decade.

M:I III will most likely not hit the quality of Minority Report or Collateral, but this is Cruise’s star vehicle so you’re guaranteed some interesting and exciting action sequences at a minimum. It’s also the first big release of the summer season, so this will be the best indicator of how the summer should progress as a huge opening for Cruise could do wonders for sagging box office receipts.


2. Click
Release Date: June 23rd, 2006

Now what would any summer be without an Adam Sandler movie? One of the biggest draws in Hollywood, Sandler has attempted to bring his audience along as he tries for more mature and evolved roles in higher quality films. In the last two years Sandler has gone with Spanglish and a remake of The Longest Yard, two decidedly higher level films for a guy known for bottom of the barrel jokes. Now, reunited with the director of two of his bigger hits (The Wedding Singer and The Waterboy), Sandler takes another stab at higher comedy with Click

Click features Sandler as Michael Newman, an architect who seemingly doesn’t have time for his family due to his busy career. Trying to find the time, he gets a universal remote at “Bed Bath and Beyond” that allows him to control his life. Problems arise when he discovers the remote is over-riding his decisions.

This is an interesting movie if only to see if Sandler can continue to make movies that are more mature than Billy Madison for an audience that is 10 years removed form that film and the others he became famous with.


3. Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest
Release Date: July 7th, 2006

Jerry Bruckheimer rarely has a misfire in the films he decides to produce, box office wise. Even the bad ones tend to make a lot of money due to his theorem of big explosions, big action sequences and little plot. Throw in a major star or two looking to have a hit movie and you’ve got 95% of what Bruckheimer does for a living. So when Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl came out, it had all the makings of the usual popcorn fare. It had a couple big stars looking for a hit (Johnny Depp, Keira Knightley and Orlando Bloom) and a large budget to go with the inspiration of a Disney ride. What came out was one of the highest grossing films of 2003 and an Oscar nomination for Depp as Captain Jack Sparrow.

Depp, as well as Bloom and Knightley, return to the fold as the Black Pearl‘s success and open ending have launched two sequels filmed back to back ala Back to the Future and The Matrix. This time around Sparrow has to find himself out owing a debt to the legendary Davy Jones, who presides over all that is evil in the sea. Throw in the pending nuptials of Will Turner (Bloom) and Miss Swan (Knightley) to make it even a more complicated story and this has been positioned to a much higher degree than the predecessor did.

This is the most interesting of the releases in July, as it’ll be interesting to see if Gore Verbinski can continue the story while maintaining the first film’s energy and fun.


4. Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby
Release Date: August 4th, 2006

Will Ferrell had a bit of a slump both creatively and commercially in 2005 as Bewitched and Kicking & Screaming both struggled to clear $60 and $50 million at the box office in the U.S respectively. What was even more shocking was that his friends and occasional co-workers Vince Vaughn and Steve Carell scored major hits with Wedding Crashers and The Forty Year Old Virgin respectively, over-shadowing the man considered among the funniest men in Hollywood. Now Ferrell gets a shot at redeeming himself with Talladega Nights.

Ferrell is the title character, a rebel NASCAR racer looking to maintain his supremacy when famed French racer Jean Girard (Sacha Baron Cohen, TV’s “Ali G”) comes over to challenge his supremacy.

Any time producers can pitch a movie idea as: “Will Ferrell as a NASCAR driver” then it has some potential. Toss in a couple of good supporting cast members, and Ferrell has had one good performance this year in Winter Passing so this potentially be another smash hit.


5. Miami Vice
Release Date: July 28th, 2006

It seems any successful television series at least 10 years old either has or will have a movie based off it, and if there was any that seemed to translate a bit easier to the screen it would be Miami Vice.

Miami Vice has Colin Farrell and Jamie Foxx as Miami Police officers Crockett & Tubbs. The detectives are undercover, looking to bring down drugs lords bringing their goods into Southern Florida. And if anyone can recreate the sort of style and thrills the television show had, it would be one of the best directors of thrillers in Michael Mann.

Mann, who has Heat and Collateral to his credit, would be the best choice to make an enjoyable film with both the source material as well as the style. He has Foxx, whom he directed to an Academy Award nomination, as well as Farrell in a role that isn’t a big epic one in a period piece. While the track record for films in this situation hasn’t been good, if there’s a shot at one then Miami Vice could be it.