At summer movies’ midpoint we’ve pretty well seen what Hollywood considers to be its ‘tentpole’ offerings…
With one exception.
The tentpole season began with Vin Diesel’s FAST FIVE which led into THOR, PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: ON STRANGER TIDES, THE HANGOVER 2, KUNG-FU PANDA 2, X-MEN: FIRST CLASS, CARS 2 and TRANSFORMERS: DARK SIDE OF THE MOON.
And let’s not forget producer Judd Apatow‘s bone fide summer sleeper- BRIDESMAIDS, written by and starring Kristen Wigg! It overcame its total chick-flick title to build and sustain by great word-of-mouth.
So is your movie summer all but history?
Not by a long shot. I’ve counted 18 new movies yet to open from the major studios by Labor Day.
And that’s not including independent releases. To my way of thinking 10 of them will have a good to excellent chance to hit at the boxoffice. Two of them in blockbuster fashion.
So here they are:
1.-This coming weekend one of the funniest movies you’ll see all summer opens. It’s the ensemble comedy HORRIBLE BOSSES starring Jason Bateman, Jason Sudeikis, Kevin Spacey, Colin Farrell, Charlie Day, Jamie Foxx, Donald Sutherland-–and (a raunchy) Jennifer Aniston like you’ve never seen her before.
2.-Then in 2 weeks the Harry Potter franchise comes to its epic finale ( in 3-D no less) as HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS-Part 2 opens on July 15.
3.-July 22 brings Marvel Comics’ CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE FIRST AVENGER to the screen with Chris Evans and Tommy Lee Jones as the leads.
4.-Two potential hits set to open on July 29. Namely the Sci-Fi Western COWBOYS AND ALIENS starring Daniel Craig and Harrison Ford and…..
5.-…..CRAZY STUPID LOVE with middle-aged Steve Carrell re-entering the dating scene. Ryan Goslind, Julianne Moore, Emma Stone, Marisa Tomei and Kevin Bacon round out the cast.
6.- How about THE SMURFS on August 3 with Neil Patrick Harris and Katy Perry opposite those computer generated little blue devils……
7.-.Two days later on August 5 the Smurfs go head-to-head against Fox’s resurrection of its old apes franchise in RISE OF THE PLANET OF THE APES starring James Franco.
8.- THE HELP based on Kathryn Stockett’s best selling novel about class and race relations in 1960’s Mississippi opens on August 12. .jpg)
Viola Davis, Bryce Dallas Howard, Emma Stone and Jessica Chastain lead the cast……
9..The same opening date (8/12) for the caper thriller 30 MINUTES OR LESS with Jesse Eisenberg from THE SOCIAL NETWORK.
10.- Finally on August 19, Iowa-raised and 1999 winner of ‘Hawaii’s Model Of the Year’ contest Jason Momoa steps into Arnold’s shoes as he resurrects CONAN THE BARBARIAN.
Note to self: On a per capita basis, Kansas City remains one of the country’s top moviegoing markets.
How many cities our size can still boast seven first-run Drive-In screens? Probably none!
THE ZOOKEEPER?
Do you think “The Zookeeper” will be a hit? It’s got Kevin James and he did well with “Paul Blart Mall Cop” Also some big stars doing the animal voices.
give me a break
Zookeeper will probably do good with the rubes. Rest of the country will shun it.