Summer 2010: looking ahead

This summer doesn't look to be all that great. The same can be said of this year really. So far, I have only seen one really good film, the Martin Scorcese mystery / thriller Shutter Island. And there have been plenty of average movies, from Date Night to Hot Tub Time Machine. As far as the summer, there are only two kinds of worthwhile summer movies, action movies and comedies. For action, the movies that look good are Salt, Knight and Day, and Inception. For comedy, there's the August Will Ferrell movie The Other Guys and of course Toy Story 3. That's about it. The summer kicked off to a lousy start in the first few weeks of May with Iron Man 2 and then Robin Hood, two superhero movies (let's be honest, Robin Hood is a superhero, no different than Hawkeye from the Avengers, but since his story has been told over and over again, and he's not in comic books, they call him a legend). Both Iron Man 2 and Robin Hood were okay, but far from great. Skipping over Shrek 4 and Sex and the City 2, examples of them just cranking out more sequels on the conveyer belt, we now have our first real comedy which is the Jonah Hill movie Get him to the Greek from Sarah Marshall's director. Supposedly its vulgar and funny like the Hangover, but I have my doubts. Hill was great as the crazy high-schooler in Superbad, but it looks like he's playing the straight man in this movie,which is the exact opposite of what he should be playing. And Russell Brand is freakin annoying. So I don't know about that one.

There's Toy Story 3 coming out in a few weeks, which I'm sure will be funny, and enjoyable. And then we're with Tom Cruise in Knight and Day, doing the spy thing only in a comedic way. He actually considered starring in the other spy movie, Salt, only figured it was too close to Mission Impossible. Good call. Tom Cruise in a comedy should be fun. Last thing we want to see is him make another dull spy-drama like that Bryan Singer Nazi movie he made about a year ago, Valkyrie.

So we have two spy movies, one in June and one in July. One a comedy, the other a thriller / mystery. They both have good directors behind them too. Knight and Day is by James Mangold the man who brought us Copland and Identity and then turned a little more serious when he made Walk the Line and 3:10 to Yuma. Clearly this guy likes trying different genres. He's even the guy who made Girl Interrupted, Angelina Jolie's breakout oscar-winning performance movie. And now he's going for spy movie-comedy with an all-star cast. I believe Tom Cruise can do comedy. From his black comedy Magnolia (oscar nominated) to his hilariously brilliant role in Tropic Thunder, comedy is actually the best thing he's doing these days, so I am totally on board.

As far as Salt, you couldn't have found a better director. Phillip Noyce is the go-to American-international spy movie director, much like how Ridley Scott is the go to historical epic-battle movie director. Noyce made Patriot Games and Clear and Present Danger. He also made more quiet films like The Quiet American and Catch a Fire. He's the exact opposite of James Mangold who skips around from genre to genre. Noyce is good at what he does and he also found the perfect cast. Angelina Jolie has been looking for a female Bond movie for some time now. When Cruise declined the movie, she had it rewritten for a female lead, and I completely support the idea. Aside from that, you've got Liev Schreiber and Chiwetel Ejiofor, two guys who pick their projects well. Ojiofor is coming off of Redbelt and American Gangster. Schreiber is coming off of Wolverine (fun, dumb) and the Daniel Craig World War 2 movie about the Bielski brothers, Defiance.

And there's the movie that has more potential than any of them... Inception. Chris Nolan is at the top of his game right now. His Dark Knight did so well, and was so mysteriously wound, he's becoming the new M Night Shamalan and just in time, because that guy's only getting worse and worse. But Nolan has been poised to replace him since the beginning of his career. From the Following to Memento to Batman Begins, he seemed to be able to do this genre right every time. In between his two Batman movies, he made the Prestige, as mysterious as the rest of them. And now in between the second and third Batman movie (the third hasn't started being made yet), he's got Inception with buildings being folded up like puzzle pieces in the trailer and the tagline "Your mind is the scene of the crime." It might end up being too sci-fi and out there and lousy, but for now at the very least it looks intriguing. And if you look at this guy's track record, you couldn't ask for a better director to be tackling this kind of movie.

I won't get into the Will Ferrell movie right now, because it's so far off. It won't be here until August, and right now we really aren't being told very much about any of the August movies. There's something with Drew Barrymore and Justin Long and then something else with Luke Wilson. But for now, we have spy movies and action movies and mysteries and even some comedy courtesy of Tom Cruise and a bunch of toys. We have three outstanding directors working in the genres they do best. And then there's Toy Story 3 for the kids and the kids in all of us. I like that they took their time with this trilogy, which began in 1995, unlike Shrek which came out in 2001 and is already up to their fourth movie. I lost interest after the second. But as far as keeping it fresh and looking ahead, there is plenty of potential out there and I can't wait to see which of these four movies can deliver.