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By Peter T. Chattaway
Summer is here, and that must mean it’s time for
lots of sequels, prequels, spin-offs and remakes at the multiplex. The operating principle seems to be: If you liked
munching popcorn through the last three movies about superpowered
mutants, or the last three movies about killer cyborgs, or the last five
movies about teenaged wizards, then of course you'll want to slurp your
sodas through even more of those kinds of movies! Sometimes an original idea or two do
peek through, though.
Here are a few of the more highly-anticipated would-be
blockbusters coming out this year. As always, the release dates are subject
to change.
Year One (June 19) stars Jack Black and Michael Cera as Zed and Oh, a couple
of prehistoric hunter-gatherer types who somehow end up wandering through
the Book of Genesis. Biblical characters who appear in the film reportedly
include Adam (Harold Ramis), Eve (Rhoda Griffis), Cain (David Cross), Abel
(Paul Rudd), Abraham (Hank Azaria) and Isaac (Christopher Mintz-Plasse).
Oh, and a significant part of the story will take place in Sodom. No word
yet on whether Gomorrah will get a cameo. The film is produced by R-rated
comedy veteran Judd Apatow (Knocked Up).
Terminator: Salvation (May 22) It has been a full
quarter-century since a robot first came back in time to kill the woman who
was destined to give birth to the saviour of mankind. The robot failed, of
course, and now, three movies and 25 years later, the son of that woman is
leading the fight against an army of machines that are determined to wipe
us out. The Terminator franchise, including the TV series The
Sarah Connor Chronicles, has always had
religious overtones, but the makers of the newest film have been
particularly keen to stress the messianic aura surrounding John Connor
(Christian Bale, who actually played Jesus in a 1999 TV-movie).
Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince (July 17) The end is now in
sight, as the sixth movie based on J.K. Rowling's seven-part series of
books finally hits the big screen. Once again, there are stunning
revelations, spectacular special effects, offbeat humour, and some pretty
startling plot twists. If the film stays true to the book, this should, in
fact, be easily the darkest movie in the series to date.
Star Trek (May 8). Part sequel, part prequel and part reboot, the eleventh
film in the Star Trek series takes a step back -- way, way back -- to look
at how Kirk, Spock and all the other characters made famous on the original
1960s TV show came to be shipmates on the starship Enterprise. The cast
includes Zachary Quinto (Heroes) as Spock, John Cho (Harold and
Kumar) as Sulu and Simon Pegg (Shaun of the Dead) as Scotty
– and it also includes Leonard Nimoy as the original, and now
elderly, Spock, here to pass the baton to a new generation of actors.
Directed by J.J. Abrams.Public Enemies (June 26) stars Johnny Depp as
John Dillinger, a bank robber who became something of a folk hero during
the 1930s; it also stars Christian Bale as Melvin Purvis, the federal agent
who pursued Dillinger and thereby helped to establish the fledgling Federal
Bureau of Investigation (FBI) as a major national institution. Co-written
and directed by crime-movie veteran Michael Mann (Miami Vice, Heat).
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Angels & Demons (May 15) In this sequel to The Da Vinci
Code, the Illuminati come back and plot to
destroy the Vatican and all of its cardinals with some stolen anti-matter.
The novel that inspired this film is, if anything, even cheesier than the
book that inspired the previous movie. And since the wacky claims made by Angels & Demons apply only
to the Renaissance, they won’t be nearly as controversial as the
claims made by the previous movie about the origins of Christianity
itself.Transformers: Revenge of the
Fallen (June 26)
More big robots turning into cars and airplanes. More big noisy battle
scenes. More big special effects. This is almost certainly guaranteed to be
the biggest movie based on a Hasbro toy this year. (The summer’s
other Hasbro movie, G.I. Joe: The Rise of
Cobra, opens August 7.)
X-Men Origins: Wolverine (May 1) After three movies based on the teamwork of the X-Men as a
whole, the newest movie puts its titular mutant superhero front and centre
and tells the story of how he got his adamantium claws in the first
place.Land of the Lost (June 5) This remake of
the 1970s TV show stars Will Ferrell as a scientist who, along with a
couple of his colleagues, gets sucked into a space-time vortex and dumped
in a world with dinosaurs, giant insects and a bunch of primates.
Options Spring 2009
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