Know what the worst part of picking last for a feature like this is? That’s right, trying to find a film worth talking about as all the ones getting the publicity campaigns have been taken. But that’s not so bad seeing as this summers “Top Contenders” bare little interest to me anyway. However that doesn’t make finding interesting films to talk about simpler either, now I need to actually go do some research in to the smaller films that if your lucky and your local theaters has a screen or two to show them on might just be worth your money to sit down and watch.
The Proposition
Release Date: May 5th 2006
Look, I’m not going to lie, when you want to watch something original these days and you only look at what American studios are releasing you’ll never find anything good to watch. Set up as an Australian western in the late 19th century The Proposition is about Charlie and Mike two of the three Burns brothers who are captured and arrested for the murder of a family. Captain Stanley offers up an alternative for them to gain pardon and go free, and that proposition is if Charlie manages to track down and kill his older brother Arthur the gangs ringleader and notorious outlaw in nine days. Writing about the films plot alone has me wanting to see this thing immediately, with a story like that and a cast lead by Guy Pearce it has too much potential to fail.
An Inconvenient Truth
Release Date: May 24th, 2006
Remember Al Gore? The guy who almost became President back in 2000? Well he’s back to talk about the one issue he’s always stood behind except where it mattered (the Presidential race) and that is the issue of global warning. Every Summer we get some type of documentary to look forward to and since those seem to be in short supply this year, An Inconvenient Truth seems to be the only choice. Here the former Vice President talks about the dramatic rise is temperature over the past couple of decades due to global warming and the outcome that could happen if we continue to not take action. This will more than likely be ripped apart by Fox News but it certainly might be worth checking out if only to stay in a nice air conditioned theater during the hot days this summer caused by global warming.
Lady in the Water
Release Date: July 21th 2006
Another M. Night Shyamalan film, and more people already complaining about it. Shyamalan is a good director who’s premature success has boxed him in to a corner by cinemagoers ravenously trying to find the twist in his film before the opening credits even finish. Lady in the Water is supposedly based off of a bed time story Night wrote himself that he told to his children. I’m not sure exactly how it’s been translated to the screen but from the trailer we know the film is about Cleveland Heep an apartment building superintendent who rescues a mysterious woman from the pool he cleans. Only he soon finds out that she’s in fact a character from a childrens bedtime story and now needs his help to get back home. You can count me in the small group of people who thoroughly enjoy all of M Night’s features (yes, even The Village) and this one appears to be another interesting project from the director worth checking out.
Release Date: August 11th 2006
Two years ago Michel Gondry wow’d audiences with his feature film Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, the film wound up on numerous year end top ten lists and was praised nonstop for his visual style. This year Michel has already had a film premiere which was the Dave Chappelle documentary Block Party, but now he’s back with a film he’s not only directed but written as well. What is it about? Well details are still a bit unknown but he once again takes a look at the world through a dream state. Could this be a sleeper hit of the summer? Probably not but early reviews have been good, but it’s this clip alone that has it on my list of films to see this summer.
Release Date: August 25th 2006
While the fan base for the Broken Lizards crew has diminished ever since their hit film Super Troopers if there’s one film to help get them out of the gutter it’s going to be Beerfest. While this is being set up as a drunken version of Fight Club one can’t help but look at it more as the Dodgeball of competitive drinking. The boys already showed how funny they can be with drunken humor in just about each of their films, so we can only hope they manage to once again find some original humor about the tasty brew and the joyful inebriation it gives to us all. Open bar dudes!
