Mamma Mia! The Hangover. The Karate Kid. Every summer, one film that looks like a modest studio role-player on paper -- something to do between tentpoles, if you will -- catches a box-office wave that carries it all the way to mega-hit. We know and love these unlikely blockbusters as sleepers -- but can we predict them?
Compiling a list of classic summer movies is simple; in fact, a significant portion of them have "summer" in the title. What's harder is remembering the movies that get summer right and manage to nail the nostalgia, malaise, and wonderment of our favorite season. Here's a list of ten movies that pinpoint summer's hazy identity. Some are perennial summer camp favorites, while others are more surprising (even shocking) inclusions.
For the past eight years, Johnny Depp has cornered the market for multiplex pirates with his scene-stealing role in the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise. But before the actor created Captain Jack Sparrow -- his lovable, Keith Richards-inspired seafarer -- a long line of other silver screen pirates, from classic to campy, pillaged the box office.
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The last thing I look for in a summer blockbuster is a standout performance. By law, thespian prowess takes a backseat when CGI spectacle and slapstick humor enter the fore. But this summer, we're keeping an eye out for ten performances to defy the odds, mark breakout roles for their respective actors, and even validate an entire movie's existence. Hopefully, these ten performances will add critical depth to a season traditionally devoid of actorly gravitas.
Stakes are never higher in Hollywood than they are during the summer, when the industry harvests yet another annual multi-billion-dollar crop of blockbuster entertainment. But while studio execs, producers, directors and numerous other contributors behind the camera sweat out their opening weekends, a cluster of actors this summer find themselves facing uniquely ambitious new stages in their own careers -- and box office is only part of it. Who has the most at risk in the weeks and months ahead, and how should they proceed? Movieline had a look.
In this weekend's Water for Elephants, Reese Witherspoon stars as the bewitching star performer of the Benzini Brothers Circus who is torn between her abusive husband and the gentle embrace of Robert Pattinson's pachyderm whisperer. How did Witherspoon transform herself from a brassy Louisiana teen to a graceful and multi-talented Oscar-winning actress?
Last night, the Beastie Boys debuted their 20-minute short, Fight For Your Right: Revisited for the masses on VH1 (the film screened earlier in the year at Sundance). In it, the Beastie Boys of old (Seth Rogen as Mike D, Elijah Wood as Ad-Rock and Danny McBride as MCA) cracked wise to concerned parents and caused chaos in fine French restaurants. That was all before they scored acid off of a punk-haired Chloe Sevigny and watched as their future selves (played by John C. Reilly, Will Ferrell and Jack Black, respectively) pulled up in a DeLorean with a dance mat tied to the roof. New Beastie Boys dance battled old Beastie Boys and then the real Beastie Boys showed up as police officers to arrest the miscreants. Now let's forget that flimsy plot and get down to the hard lessons taught in this music video.
Last month, Movieline investigated the Adam Sandler Box Office Paradox to determine whether there was any correlation between how poorly Sandler's films are received critically and how well they do at the multiplex. This month, in anticipation of Tyler Perry's Madea's Big Happy Family (opening Friday), Movieline is subjecting Tyler Perry to the same treatment. Do crude stereotypes and blunt force morality lessons always lead to box office gold for the prolific media emperor? Spike Lee, take note.
This is a big box office week for elephants. Not only do the world's largest land mammals finally get the screen time they deserve in Francis Lawrence's Water For Elephants, but they also share the screen with Robert Pattinson and Oscar-winning actors Reese Witherspoon and Christoph Waltz. In celebration of this momentous achievement, let's take a look back at some other significant screen work done by our pachyderm friends.
That was fast. Just one week after appearing at a press conference in New York to officially announce his involvement in Gotti: Three Generations, director Nick Cassavetes has left the project due to scheduling conflicts; he'll tackle the indie film Yellow instead. With John Travolta and Joe Pesci already lined up for the cast (Lindsay Lohan is also rumored to be in talks) and a start date scheduled for the fall, a replacement for Cassavetes at the helm of Gotti is needed, post-haste. Thankfully for all involved, Movieline is here! Ahead, five suggestions for who Fiore Films can hire as Casavettes' replacement.
Logan Lerman is giving up lightning thievery to star in The Only Living Boy in New York, an indie film "in which a young man (Lerman) learns that his overbearing father is having an affair. The son tries to stop it, only to become involved with the woman as well." Kinky! But the most interesting part of this news is the movie's title, which references the classic Simon and Garfunkel tune. Turns out when you put together a list of movies based on song titles, the results are pretty uneven. Where will The Only Living Boy in New York figure in this dubious group?
In this weekend's fourth installment of Wes Craven's Scream franchise, Courteney Cox reprises her role as Gale Weathers, the acerbic Woodsboro author and fame-hungry reporter who has managed to survive the Ghostface Killer three times now. How did Cox transform herself from a spunky teenager in the He-man-sized sci-fi '80s flop Masters of the Universe to one of the most beloved sitcom actresses of all-time?
American Idiot, the Green Day album that birthed a Broadway musical, is nearing a move to the big screen after at least one aborted attempt. Milk scribe Dustin Lance Black is in talks to write the screenplay, and now I'm in talks with myself to realize the potential in adapting albums as films. It's a mystifying and interesting thought; that rumored Candy Land movie is basically Katy Perry's Teenage Dream anyway, right? Here are five more that could make for intriguing cineplex draws.
The best part of the Scream franchise? That beyond being standard horror movies, the films are also pretty fun murder mysteries! The first Scream owes more to Agatha Christie than Tobe Hooper, and that's probably what has kept fans coming back for the future installments. (Either that, or the massive amounts of Karo-infused fake blood and jump scares.) In honor of this, Movieline has assigned odds to the cast of Scream 4 in an attempt to figure out just which individual (or individuals -- SFX: thunderclap) is responsible for the latest round of carnage. Click ahead, but beware: unintentional spoilers may abound!
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