Dodgy Blockbuster Season?

Raekwon

Is this the worst summer cinema that we have had in a long time?

I was just checking the release schedule and there is nothing but potentially rubbish sequels coming out over the summer. Movies like Ocean's Thirteen, Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, Are We Done Yet?, Shrek The Third, Hostel 2, Die Hard 4.0, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, The Bourne Ultimatum & Rush Hour 3 will be released on the back of the less that stellar Spider Man 3 & Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End. It's like a sequel avalanche!!!! :eek:

The Simpson's Movie could be decent enough, but I still have my doubts. Grind House was originally being released tomorrow (June 1st) but we all know what happened there :rolleyes:

So to sum up, the only blockbuster that I am looking forward to watching this summer will be Transformers. What a crap selection! :mad:

Anyway, roll on Day Watch, Stardust & American Gangster later this year

Dont be at yourself

Yeah, doesn't look that promising, really. Still, most of my favourites from last year weren't blockbusters, so I'm not too worried!

Karl Hungus

If you're looking to the Summer Blockbuster season for good films, then I think you're just setting yourself up for dissapointment.

That said, I'm looking forward to The Bourne Ultimatum.

johnny_ultimate

Karl Hungus wrote:

If you're looking to the Summer Blockbuster season for good films, then I think you're just setting yourself up for dissapointment.

That said, I'm looking forward to The Bourne Ultimatum.

Mr Hungus' words ring true.
Also, I am oddly looking foward to Oceans Thirteen. If it is indeed a return to form after Twelve, it could be great fun.
And I hope - perhaps unreasonably - that the Springfield five will have what it takes.

Duggy747

Overhype Season is what it should be called. So much was expected out of Spidey 3 & Pirates 3 but the general gist has been "Meh!" Nobody's too impressed with Shrek 3 either. Die Hard 4.0 (Stupid name!) is PG-13 so I can't see it getting too much of a warm welcome (Willis has a geeky comic relief buddy in the form of Justin Long? Hmmm!) Fantastic Four is a sequel nobody really asked for and the whole Silver Surfer thing is what is keeping people interested.
Transformers, however, will shatter records even if it is shìt but honestly after seeing the trailer I was blown away by the quality special effects even if I do HATE Michael Bay! Harry Potter will be an obvious big buck rake-in and then The Simpsons will blow the box office records to pieces but I expect that to be "Meh!" quality amongst critics and most fans. Bourne Ultimatum you can probably expect will be good and as it's the only big budget gritty-ish movie of the summer, it'll be a nice break from SFX bonanza. After that it's mild box office pull-ins for everything else in the summer.

Overall, I think this summer has come to be the biggest yet, big-ass budget movies everywhere!

qwertplaywert

it aint bad, transformers may be sensational, ff 2 is looking like it may surprise and be decent, and new bourn movie is excellant news
iffy on die hard 4 though as it got a pg 13 rating in us
as for spidey and pirates-spidey was crap apart from james franco[saem as number 2 then ] but i found pirates 3 brillant,if not a bit too long, much better than the second]

MisterAnarchy

The problem with most of this years blockbusters is that they are primarily kids films and dont really cater for an older age group.
Bourne 3 and Die Hard 4 look the best .

DubDani

Yeah, def. too many sequels. They seem to be running out of ideas. But I read that Oceans 13 is one to look out for.

Read some reviews last night that stated that it was way better then Oceans 12, and probably even better then Oceans 11.

Basq

'Knocked Up' and 'The Bourne Ultimatum' are the only two films i'm looking forward to this Summer.

How can people have such a hard-on for Transformers? Are ye all wearing rose tinted glasses? It looks woeful..!

Vokes

Robots, basquille. Big-ass fighting ones at that. Get with the program, dude

Looking foward to the Bourne film. Last one with Matt Damon, apparently

Basq

I love Transformers as much as the next guy and wear my Optimus Prime T-shirt regularly... but dear God.. i can admit it looks cack!

MisterAnarchy

SofaKing wrote:

Looking foward to the Bourne film. Last one with Matt Damon, apparently

Hopefully the high quality of the series can be maintained and it can be regarded as the best trilogy of the last decade.

professor kaos

Yeah, so far sequels have been horrendous, but I have faith in BOURNE ULTIMATUM .You know what your getting into with DIE HARD 4.0. I think TRANSFORMERS and SIMPSONS will stand out because they seem fresh amid all the sequels, plus they both have in-built audiences.
Pity GRINDHOUSE did crap in the States, as it's f'n great fun, it would have been opening here tomorrow otherwise!:mad:
I am looking forward to AVP2: SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST , although i'll proberly regret it, its meant to be at least R rating in the States, but we've heard that before:rolleyes:

roll on next summer.............THE DARK KNIGHT.:D

Black Swan

Spiderman 3, Pirates 3, Die Hard 4, Harry Potter 4 or 5... whatever happened to originality?

Karl Hungus

Blue_Lagoon wrote:

whatever happened to originality?

Originality never comes out in the summer.

Just look at last year, films like Pan's Labyrinth, Children Of Men, The Prestige, The Departed, Casino Royale and Crank all came out in the Autumn-Winter period...

Ok, so a few of those aren't exactly original, but I think it illustrates that good films usually don't start coming out untill after the summer blockbuster feeding frenzy is over. Infact, just go onto imdb.com and look up any good film in the last 10 years, and chances are it's been released in the Autumn-Winter period. Fight Club for example, was released in November. LA Confidential, released in October... And so forth.

It's very rare anything decent is released during the summer. Batman Begins for example.

MikeHoncho

basquille wrote:

'Knocked Up' and 'The Bourne Ultimatum' are the only two films i'm looking forward to this Summer.

How can people have such a hard-on for Transformers? Are ye all wearing rose tinted glasses? It looks woeful..!

I couldnt agree with you more. You are a man of excuisate taste young Basquille.

Raekwon

Karl Hungus wrote:

Originality never comes out in the summer.

Just look at last year, films like Pan's Labyrinth, Children Of Men, The Prestige, The Departed, Casino Royale and Crank all came out in the Autumn-Winter period...

Okay that is a good point and I agree with you. But every summer there is at least a handful of movies that are must sees, this summer just seems to be an exception to that rule.

Here is a few highly anticipated movies that were released in the last few summers:

2004: Van Helsing, Troy, Spider-Man 2, I, Robot, Collateral, The Bourne Supremacy, Anchorman: The Legend Of Ron Burgundy.

2005: Sin City, Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith, War of the Worlds, Batman Begins, Mr & Mrs Smith.

2006: The De Vinci Code, X-Men 3, Mission Impossible 3, Superman Returns, Nacho Libre, Little Miss Sunshine.

And as for the October to December period when all the better movies come out, this year American Gangster, Stardust and possibly Day Watch are the only decent looking movies (as far as I can see) that are scheduled for release around that time. Pretty poor really.

humanji

basquille wrote:

How can people have such a hard-on for Transformers? Are ye all wearing rose tinted glasses? It looks woeful..!

Because it brings out childhood memories in people, and takes us back to a time when toys could be both sharp and contain small pieces that you could choke on. Regardless of whether the film is good or bad, it's the memories that will linger *wipes tear from eye*

TerrorFirmer

Raekwon wrote:

Is this the worst summer cinema that we have had in a long time?

I was just checking the release schedule and there is nothing but potentially rubbish sequels coming out over the summer. Movies like Ocean's Thirteen, Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, Are We Done Yet?, Shrek The Third, Hostel 2, Die Hard 4.0, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, The Bourne Ultimatum & Rush Hour 3 will be released on the back of the less that stellar Spider Man 3 & Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End. It's like a sequel avalanche!!!! :eek:

The Simpson's Movie could be decent enough, but I still have my doubts. Grind House was originally being released tomorrow (June 1st) but we all know what happened there :rolleyes:

So to sum up, the only blockbuster that I am looking forward to watching this summer will be Transformers. What a crap selection! :mad:

Anyway, roll on Day Watch, Stardust & American Gangster later this year

Just because you don't like it, doesn't mean no-one else does. I for one am looking forward to Shrek, Hostel, Die Hard, Rush Hour and I've already seen SM3 and Pirates 3 - liked both of them to be honest. Personally, I'm a fan despite some disappointments and I love sequels to good movies in general. And you can be sure there's countless others like me...The fact that these sequels are being made says something about the demand for both specific sequels and these sort of movies in general.

Karl Hungus

Raekwon wrote:

Okay that is a good point and I agree with you. But every summer there is at least a handful of movies that are must sees, this summer just seems to be an exception to that rule.

Here is a few highly anticipated movies that were released in the last few summers:

2004: Van Helsing, Troy, Spider-Man 2, I, Robot, Collateral, The Bourne Supremacy, Anchorman: The Legend Of Ron Burgundy.

2005: Sin City, Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith, War of the Worlds, Batman Begins, Mr & Mrs Smith.

2006: The De Vinci Code, X-Men 3, Mission Impossible 3, Superman Returns, Nacho Libre, Little Miss Sunshine.

And as for the October to December period when all the better movies come out, this year American Gangster, Stardust and possibly Day Watch are the only decent looking movies (as far as I can see) that are scheduled for release around that time. Pretty poor really.

To be fair, out of all those summer films, Collateral, Bourne Supremacy, Anchorman, Sin City, Batman Begins and Little Miss Sunshine have been the only ones worth bother about... The rest have been mediocre to plain ****.

We'll have to wait and see if there's any more decent things coming out later on in the year. I would imagine there'll be some more things coming out than just the films you've mentioned.

I'm looking forward to The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, which looks to be quite good, aswell as 30 Days Of Night, and more on the action front, there's Shoot 'Em Up, which seems to be a page right out of John Woo's Hard Boiled, and it's got Clive Own and Paul Giamatti.

Karl Hungus

There's also Eastern Promise, Death Sentence, War, and Balls Of Fury. Oh, and Rob Zombie's Halloween!

gandalf

Yep pretty crap looking bunch of films, the only one I want to see is The Bourne Ultimatum, I enjoyed the other two films immensely.

Saw a trailer for Stardust last week when I went to Magicians which peaked my interest due to the great cast. Its on release in the US in August so I assume it will be hitting here after that.

johnny_ultimate

Stardust could be good alright. But it is the kind of film that if handled badly could be a huge failure. But Im a big Claire Danes fan, so will pop in for a viewing.
As for Transformers, hopes fade every time I see the trailer boasting that is a Michael Bay film. The concept was made for cartoons, not live action - the Flinstones anyone?

Raekwon

Okay Mr. Hungus point taken. But you have to admit that 2007 has not been an overly amazing year for movies so far with that trend looking to continue.

I'm a David Cronenberg fan so I'll looking forward to Eastern Promises and of course how could I have forgotten about Halloween! That should be great! (Rob Zombies is shaping up to be a pretty decent director). But Death Sentence sounds awful, even though Kevin Bacon is great at doing 'nut-jobs'.

gandalf wrote:

Saw a trailer for Stardust last week when I went to Magicians which peaked my interest due to the great cast. Its on release in the US in August so I assume it will be hitting here after that.

Yeah the cast of Stardust is top notch and it is being directed by Matthew Vaughan who did the brilliant Layer Cake so it has all the right ingredients to be very good. It should be out here in October-November.

Vokes

Karl Hungus wrote:

There's also Eastern Promise, Death Sentence, War, and Balls Of Fury. Oh, and Rob Zombie's Halloween!

Jet Li vs Jason Statham again finally!

Excellent :cool:

Karl Hungus

Raekwon wrote:

I'm a David Cronenberg fan so I'll looking forward to Eastern Promises and of course how could I have forgotten about Halloween! That should be great! (Rob Zombies is shaping up to be a pretty decent director). But Death Sentence sounds awful, even though Kevin Bacon is great at doing 'nut-jobs'.

Kevin Bacon is probably the main reason for seeing it, he was outstanding in The Woodsman, but I think it could be a good film indeed. Supposedly it's going to be a more faithfull adaptation of the book Death Wish was based on.

Besides, someone on imdb.com had entered the tagline as "Revenge is a dish best served with bacon" and I nearly busted my gut. It's been on my radar ever since.

SofaKing wrote:

Jet Li vs Jason Statham again finally!

Excellent :cool:

Hopefully it'll be better than The One though. Still, after last year's excellent Crank, I'm watching out for Jason Statham. And I have a soft spot for The Transporter films. I wonder if they'll make a 3rd?

Vokes

Just watched that American Gangster trailer: http://movies.yahoo.com/feature/americangangster.html

Ridley Scott, Crowe and Washington involved. Could be a good one.

MooseJam

DubDani wrote:

But I read that Oceans 13 is one to look out for.

Read some reviews last night that stated that it was way better then Oceans 12, and probably even better then Oceans 11.

Didn't they steal like 50 million or some crazy amount of money in the original, why are they still stealing stuff the greedy bästards

faceman

yeah blockbusters have really gone down hill since alot of studios merged on productions thus resultin in too many cooks (i.e. creative decisions)

this year im looking forward to transformers (out with you basquille! ), bourne and simpsons (im probably the only one optimistic about the simpsons!). however as already said the autumn/winter season has some great potential this year. standing out are Friedkin's "Bug", "1408" "eastern promises" (Cronenberg flick with mortenson and watts), "the brave one" (neil jordan), "american gangster", "the invisible"

unfortunately we also have the following muck to look forward to: The eye (another poxy remake), "the mist", (doesnt sound anything like the fog, i swear...), "saw 4", "PS I love you", "AVP2"

Galvasean

basquille wrote:

I love Transformers as much as the next guy and wear my Optimus Prime T-shirt regularly... but dear God.. i can admit it looks cack!

You're in the minority there. Most people reckon the new Transformers look a lot better than the 80s ones (which I'm still a huge fan of, but I think its time we all moved on and accepted the new ones).

mike65

I suspect to see some serious box-office carnage (the second-week turnover drops have been huge already) this summer but sadly it won't stop 'em! The other thing to look for is the sheer number of screens being invaded - the biggest flicks are opening on 3500+ in North America alone, if the distributors hold that number for one week too long they can be hit hard as per-screen revenue takes a dive.

Mike.

robnubis

Its funny how people think Pirates 3 was so bad, when it really wasnt.

Quite a decent film in fact, twas definately better than P2 and was in fact very similar to P1.

I think people forget P1 completely and have put it up on this pedestal that iwas the greatest film ever and that the sequels has SO much to love up to, this isnt really true, P1 was good...it wasnt that good. I'd say i enjoyed P3 more than P1 tbh.

BlitzKrieg

The last 2 years in the way of blockbusters have been pretty poor.


I laugh that last year I complained that with the exception of pirates 2, that all the blockbusters last year tried too hard to put some sort of meaning/message/plot behind their big budget adventures (Pirates 2 was enjoyable because it was the only one that didnt) Honestly that should not be done with blockbusters.

And now this year its the complete opposite where there seems to be a complete lack of any form of plot in any of the films and they are all equally atrocious.


IS it worrying that I foundly look back at the *worse* year in hollywood (2005) and think...damn some of those films were actually pretty damn good. I do remember enjoying more films then.

faceman

robnubis wrote:

Its funny how people think Pirates 3 was so bad, when it really wasnt.

Quite a decent film in fact, twas definately better than P2 and was in fact very similar to P1.

I think people forget P1 completely and have put it up on this pedestal that iwas the greatest film ever and that the sequels has SO much to love up to, this isnt really true, P1 was good...it wasnt that good. I'd say i enjoyed P3 more than P1 tbh.

i found it boring bare the very start and the action scene at the end (altho it was ott)

the middle bit dragged like a wet snot

qwertplaywert

whens knocked up out over here?

plastic membrane

Karl Hungus wrote:

Besides, someone on imdb.com had entered the tagline as "Revenge is a dish best served with bacon" and I nearly busted my gut. It's been on my radar ever since.

Christ, thats genius...

ixoy

Raekwon wrote:

Okay that is a good point and I agree with you. But every summer there is at least a handful of movies that are must sees, this summer just seems to be an exception to that rule.

Here is a few highly anticipated movies that were released in the last few summers:

2004: Van Helsing, Troy, Spider-Man 2, I, Robot, Collateral, The Bourne Supremacy, Anchorman: The Legend Of Ron Burgundy.

See, I don't see how you can complain about 2007's releases when two of those movies are sequels who also have sequels in 2007. I also would never have thought "Van Helsing" was highly anticipated, any more so than any of this year's "non sequel" releases (e.g. "Transformers").

2006: The De Vinci Code, X-Men 3, Mission Impossible 3, Superman Returns, Nacho Libre, Little Miss Sunshine.

A lot of adaptations there and three-quels, which is not much different to this year. No worse, no better. And, for the most part, "Little Miss Sunshine" was very much not highly anticipated, but instead a "discovery" movie that people heard about after its release here.

I don't think this movie's summer output is any more or less inspired than normal and find that people always think the current year is worse than the rose-tinted memories of the one before. Let's leave it to the Autumn/Winter to get a real feel for quality this year.

Galvasean

2001 was a very poor summer too. Jurassic Park 3, Planet of the Apes remake and Doctor Dolittle 2 were the big hitters. *shudder*

faceman

Galvasean wrote:

2001 was a very poor summer too. Jurassic Park 3, Planet of the Apes remake and Doctor Dolittle 2 were the big hitters. *shudder*

and we have another jurassic park to look forward to in the years to come..

qwertplaywert

although 3 may rock if boreanaz is indeed in it

qwertplaywert

although 3 may rock if boreanaz is indeed in it

jor el

qwertplaywert wrote:

although 3 may rock if boreanaz is indeed in it

What 3 is that then?

Looking forward to Bourne Ultimatum aswell as War, Transformers and a few others.

Most of the big names seem rather crap to me. Fantastic 4 was a rubbish film in every sense so I can't believe there's a sequel. Harry Potter was never my cup of tea, Die Hard 4 and Rush Hour 3 I wouldn't bank on being any great shakes and Are we Done yet? Ice Cube, stop prolonging the agony and just quit.

Raekwon

ixoy wrote:

See, I don't see how you can complain about 2007's releases when two of those movies are sequels who also have sequels in 2007. I also would never have thought "Van Helsing" was highly anticipated, any more so than any of this year's "non sequel" releases (e.g. "Transformers").

I don't see your argument TBH.

Back in the summer of 2004 Spider Man 2 & The Bourne Supremacy were both highly anticipated movies that turned out to be pretty decent and lived upto the hype. The latest Spider Man instalment was god awful and it looks like they are trying to squeeze every last drop out of the Bourne franchise until they kill it. Plus in the case of Van Helsing it was about as highly anticipated as Transformers is this summer so I'm not sure where you are going with that point, especially when I said that Transformers is one of the only movies that I am looking forward to this summer.

ixoy wrote:

A lot of adaptations there and three-quels, which is not much different to this year. No worse, no better. And, for the most part, "Little Miss Sunshine" was very much not highly anticipated, but instead a "discovery" movie that people heard about after its release here.

Yeah but only two three-quals last year compared to a whooping seven three-quels and two quadrup-quels this year :eek: No better, no worse? I could pretty much rest my case there. Also you have to remember that there was other big movies released last summer that I didn't mention: ie; Miami Vice, The Scanner Darkly etc. Unfortunately nothing like that this year. And for the record, Little Miss Sunshine opened in the US to rave review a month before it was scheduled to be released over here, so many people were actually waiting in anticipation to see it.

hitlersson666

Duggy747 wrote:

Overhype Season Die Hard 4.0 (Stupid name!) is PG-13 so I can't see it getting too much of a warm welcome

Ya its pg-13 but over here on ifco.ie its 15a and user comments are
Passages of moderate/strong action violence mostly implausible. Some scenes of realistic beatings and shootings. Hign end of 15A and not suitable for pre-teens.

Galvasean

Every male child above the age of 8 should be made watch all the Rocky (except 5) and Die Hard movies. Builds character.

Galvasean

Galvasean wrote:

Every male child above the age of 8 should be made watch all the Rocky (except 5) and Die Hard movies. Builds character.

I agree with you immensly, and you can add Predator, Demolition Man, Commando, Cobra, and Terminator 1 and 2 to that list.

BlitzKrieg

aftr seeing shrek 3 today I can agree that is a very very dodgy blockbuster season.

Little Miss Sunshine opened in the US to rave review a month before it was scheduled to be released over here, so many people were actually waiting in anticipation to see it.

didnt it scoop up a few festival awards aswell before hand?

Basq

Yep, Shrek 3 was atrocious alright!

ixoy

Yes, 'Little Miss Sunshine' had great reviews before it got here and for people who take an interest in films (i.e. us) then that meant we all anticipated it. However, most average cinema goers (certainly those I know) went on word-of-mouth to get them there. It's the best formula often for this type of movie, the sort that advertising dollars can't get.

Hearing 'Shrek 3' is poor is no surprise - it looks it. I know I'll still probably see it (thanks to the Unlimited card) but I've no enthusiasm whatsoever. As a blockbuster season, yes it's lame but I think it's lame almost every year. 'The Bourne Ultimatum' seems to be the only one we all agree on that might be good - Mr. Greengrass better deliver the goods...

Galvasean

Hate to be a spoil sport but I never liked either Bourne movie so I'm not excited about number 3 (in fact I should just avoid anything with number 3 at the end of the title)

Are we being too hard on the blockbuster? Arent they meant to be silly/fun?*
*Although the combined 15 minutes of fun i had between Spidey3 and Pirates3 didnt warrant the near €20 I spent going to see them or the 5-6 hours I spent in the cinema.

constitutionus

in defense of the bourn films it is based on a trilogy of books so its not like theyre just pumping out crap to get the cinema going public in. i quite liked both of them so i'll definetly go see the third. weird thing is though they dont "feel" like blockbusters though they most certainly are. in regards to shrek while i liked the first one i wasnt that pushed on the second and the third just left me cold from the trailers. i know you should go to a film before you badmouth it but i have no desire for it whatsoever

as to the OP i dont think this year is anyworse than last year. its been dodgy for a long time now. certainly the big "event" movies have been a bit damp so far with only transformers attaining the "must see" status for me so far and ive been worried about that one since the start. still despite micheal bay it looks like its going to be good