11:57AM, Oct 23, 2008
Summer’s here and we’ve already had a fair selection of the holiday blockbusters rolling into the multiplexes. Indy and The Hulk are back, Prince Caspian’s waging war in Narnia and Iron Man has had the box office in his steely grip. We look back at what’s already out there…and what’s coming up. The heat is on.
Summer is the season when Hollywood traditionally lets fly with the blockbusters that cost more than the GDP of a small country.
It’s equally a time of long awaited sequels (Indiana Jones) and the opening salvo in what Tinseltown hopes will be lucrative franchises (Iron Man). And there’s also something for the laydeez (Sex and The City).
Things kicked off in splendid style in May with Iron Man. The inspired casting of Robert Downey Jr, a script crackling with one-liners and Jon Favreau’s witty direction made this a superhero yarn to savour. Gwyneth Paltrow wasn’t bad either.
The studio must have been pretty pleased too. Iron Man cost a respectable $140m to make…but has taken $556m at box offices across the world.
BOX-OFFICE BOMBS
Next up was Doomsday, Scottish director Neil Marshall’s disappointing follow-up to the marrow-freezing horror-thriller The Descent. Rhona Mitra’s heroine never convinced and the whole shebang reeked of too much money and too few ideas. It still took a respectable four million pounds outside America.
The same week The Wachowski Brother’s pedal-to-the-metal Speed Racer skidded into town. If you like sitting on the inside of a pinball machine with a colossal hangover, this was for you. Visually impressive, though…even if the box office sputtered and then stalled.
Next up was the one everyone had been waiting for. Could a 60-odd year-old Harrison Ford still crack the whip as Indiana Jones? The answer was, well, yes…up to a point.
Sensible opting for the self-deprecating route, Indy did pensioners the world over proud battling ice vixen Cate Blanchett in the hunt for a skull made of crystal. Or the crystal skull.
It’s just a shame that some cracking setpieces – an army jeep race alongside a yawning Peruvian chasm, the university campus motorcycle chase – were topped off by a limp UFO finale. And Shia LaBoeuf is never less than punchable.
GIRL POWER
Not one wizened old trouper but four tottered onto the big screen in Sex and the City. Shoes, Sarah Jessica Parker, more shoes, and Kim Cattrall in high heels. And other shoes all got top billing in this celebration of fashion, fornication and failing relationships.
It was the interactive cinematic event of the year with female fans of the series swooning and cheering as their heroines did exactly what was expected of them in an assured big screen debut.
Flaming June brought us the summer staple – the Hollywood slasher. Prom Night was an anaemic remake of the 1980 original which chose to ditch the interesting, gory bits and come up with a thriller with all the tension of a pair of old Y-fronts.
Next up was director Louis Leterrier’s workmanlike adaptation of The Incredible Hulk. Ed Norton was just fine as the short-splitting, less-than-jolly-green giant even if the plot never veered off a well-worn path.
M Night Shyamalan was back with his creepy ecological thriller The Happening. It was an uncomfortable hybrid of lame comedy and nailbiting suspense and a disappointing waste of a half decent premise.
UNDER-PERFORMERS
If the anklebiters were biting your ankles then help was at hand with the release of Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian, a sort of Lord of the Rings lite.
Darker than its predecessor, it still suffered from some wooden acting and Tilda Swinton hamming if for all she was worth. Still, there was enough to appeal to younger audiences.
So, there’s been quantity even if quality is in short supply. Hopefully, that will change with Pixar’s sublime WALL.E beamed down to earth while Christian Bale returns as Batman in The Dark Night.
