By: Greg Payne
We're a little over a week away from July, which will promise us intriguing titles like Oliver Stone's Savages, franchise continuations like Ice Age: Continental Drift and Step Up Revolution, another entry in the Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg comedy cannon with the alien invasion flick, The Watch, a pretty-much guaranteed blockbuster with The Amazing Spider-Man, and an absolute box office monster game-changer in The Dark Knight Rises.
But June hasn't had her final say yet. It's been a so-so month for the halfway mark of the year, with titles like Snow White and the Huntsman, That's My Boy, Rock of Ages, and, even, to an extent, Prometheus, all being somewhat underwhelming, although Snow White and Prometheus did post strong opening weekend box office numbers, each making it over the $50 million hurdle.
There are four movies set for nationwide release remaining in June that could, collectively, help us remember this month as a positive one for movies: Disney/Pixar's Brave, Seth MacFarlane's motion picture debut, Ted, Alex Kurtzman's first directorial effort, People Like Us, and Steven Soderbergh's male stripper venture, Magic Mike.
Brave (Friday, June 22):
The latest addition to the wonderful collection of Disney/Pixar films is set in Scotland and focuses on the fiery-haired Merida, who's desperate to blaze her own trail. Visually, Brave looks dazzling, as the Pixar crew are always upping the stakes when it comes to animation. Fortunately for us, their storytelling is usually right on par with their artwork. Brave lands in theaters today, and currently sits at a very solid 70 percent on Rotten Tomatoes. While that rating isn't quite at the level of some of Disney/Pixar's masterful efforts like any of the Toy Story films or WALL-E, it seems pretty safe to say Brave will offer us a quality blend of heart and humor, mixed with some rousing action and adventure.
Ted (June 29, 2012)
Ted looks flat-out awesome as Seth MacFarlane's brand of comedy seems to transition over really well to the big screen. I'm a huge Family Guy fan, and you can see traces of it throughout the trailer, but not in a recycled, tired way: The drawn out jokes (more on this in a second), the outrageous scenario (no one seems to notice and/or give a shit that a talking and walking teddy bear is strutting around, hooking up with girls, working in a grocery store, etc. kind of like no one cares that Brian is a talking dog), all the way down to Ted's voice, which seems to be a hybrid combination of Peter and Brian from Family Guy.
The opening of the trailer is perfect, since, if you knew nothing about the film before watching it, you'd assume it's some sort of rom-com featuring Marky Mark and (goddess) Mila Kunis. But then the wrench is throw in the works and all of a sudden a CGI bear is sprinting into the bedroom and hopping into bed with them. Wait, what? And then you're just caught up in the absurdness of it all for the rest of the trailer, which only adds to the joke as a whole.
I mentioned the Family Guy style comedy being apparent, and you can clearly see it when Ted's performing the mock sexual acts for the white trash-name girl at the grocery store, culminating in, "Okay, alright, so that's where we'll draw the line," which is something Peter would definitely say (and probably has already said) on Family Guy.
Then there's the final bit of the trailer, with Wahlberg trying to guess the name of Ted's girl, rattling off a near-endless string of names. I wonder how many takes it took to get all of those in. But it being drawn out the way it is is what makes it so damn funny. It's like in Family Guy when seemingly unfunny situations just keep going and as you expect it all to end and it doesn't it sort of becomes funny. Or it's just funny from the start, like when Stewie does the whole, "Mom, mom, mom, mummy," thing to Lois, or the elongated chicken fights, or Peter falling over on the sidewalk, grabbing his knee and rocking back and forth going, "Sssssss...Ahhhhh."
Family Guy has had plenty of uproarious episodes, and a fair share of "meh" episodes, but let's all collectively hope that Ted resembles the first batch much more than the second.
People Like Us (June 29, 2012)
Not in the mood for a raunchy R-rated comedy from Seth MacFarlane? Then consider People Like Us, a really intriguing drama from Alex Kurtzman, who's taking over the director's chair for the first time. Kurtzman is known best for his writing efforts in the sci-fi/action-adventure genres, helping to pen the scripts for blockbusters like Transformers, Star Trek, and Cowboys and Aliens. So it's a bit of a surprise that his first directorial effort has to do with absolutely none of that, but maybe that's what'll make this one a quiet gem. Kurtzman wrote this one with his usual partner in crime, Robert Orci, along with Jody Lambert. Chris Pine and Elizabeth Banks are half-siblings, with Pine's character clearly placed in a precarious situation: Take the money and pay off his debts, or give it to Banks, who's struggling just to keep her head above water?
I'm a big Chris Pine fan, as I think he always looks so at ease on the screen and really brings a strong charisma and presence to all of his roles. His first effort to pick up Uhura at the bar towards the beginning of Star Trek remains one of my favorite pick-up scenes in recent history, and one of my favorite lines, perhaps ever, comes when the big, bad meathead Starfleet goon reminds him that it's four-on-one, should a fight break out. Kirk (played by Pine)'s response: "So get some more guys and then it'll be an even fight." I love that attitude and Pine nailed the line.
People Like Us looks like it could be a moving family drama, delivering heartfelt moments without coming across as too soapy. It currently sits at 100 percent on Rotten Tomatoes, but only after five reviews. Still, there's nothing wrong with a perfect start. We'll see how well it holds up on the Tomatometer leading up to its release next week.
Magic Mike (June 29, 2012)
Heterosexual men in the coveted 18-35 demographic were the first in line when advanced ticket sales for Magic Mike began a few weeks back. Clearly, every dude wants to see this movie.
Okay, let's be honest. No straight guy wants to see this movie. For a few reasons. First, we're not into seeing other guys take their clothes off. We're just not, and there's absolutely nothing wrong with that. Second, all of the strippers in the movie had weeks in advance to work out endlessly and completely shred their bodies. So, if we take our girlfriends to see this thing, we're setting ourselves up for relationship suicide. I'm willing to bet that most normal, hardworking guys do not have the time or the money to transform their bodies the way these actors did, and seeing this movie with a girl will only open up a whole new avenue of nagging. "Why can't your stomach look more like Channing Tatum's?!" "Because Channing Tatum doesn't exist in the real world!"
But, to be fair, guys, we've had our day in the sun. How many movies have we seen where the women are used as nothing more than sex objects, so that we have something nice to stare at while things go "boom" beside them? Just like the women in our lives deserve help around the house with the cooking, the laundry, and the cleaning, so to do they deserve a movie where they can ogle members of the opposite sex. Just hope and pray that the women in our lives want to do so with other women in their lives. The more girls that flock to this thing together, the better off we'll be. But if we do get sucked into this hurricane of male junk, at least we can take solace in it being a Steven Soderbergh film.
In case you don't know who Soderbergh is, he's directed a boatload of awesome films, including the Ocean's 11 trilogy, Haywire, Contagion, and Traffic, for which he won an Academy Award for Best Director. So, even if you can't get on board with the subject matter, hopefully the film as a whole won't completely suck with such an accomplished director in charge of things.
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