7 Summer Movies I can’t wait to see

Wolverine has come and gone, Star Trek is a mere 2 days away, and it looks like John Connor and Optimus Prime are poised to duke it out over who will own the summer blockbuster season of 2009. Of course, I’m excited about all of the above (Wolverine notwithstanding), but it’s important to note that this year’s summer movie season looks to bear some interesting fruit. A quick stumble through Quicktime’s Trailers site lead me to conclude that these are the top 7 movies I feel like I really shouldn’t miss this year.

ALIEN TRESPASS
OPENED: April 3
Eric McCormack, Jenni Baird, Robert Patrick; Dir: R.W. Goodwin

Set in 1950s rural ‘Merica, Alien Trespass looks more like a film grad’s first project than it does a feature-length Hollywood flick. Epitomizing the old catchphrase “it takes a lot of money to make things look this cheap”, director R. W. Goodwin (of X-Files lineage) spares no expense when it comes to aliens in rubber suits, silver-lycra-wearing robots, and cardboard spaceships. It looks like the experiment that 1996’s “Mars Attacks!” wanted to be, until it wound up taking itself a little too seriously.

DRAG ME TO HELL
OPENING: May 29
Alison Lohman, Lorna Raver; Dir: Sam Raimi

Perhaps it’s an effort to forget the abysmal Spider-Man 3, or maybe it’s simply because he misses the genre, but for whatever reason, Sam Raimi is back making horror movies again. And about freakin’ time. This one’s about a cute little loan officer (Lohman) who screws over an old woman (Raver) in the hopes of getting promoted at work. Wouldn’t you know it, the old woman is actually a witch, and she gets her revenge by placing the curse of the Lamia on Raver. Carnage ensues. Rumour has it that Bruce Campbell will make a guest appearance as a housewares employee at S-Mart. (In the interests of full disclosure, I just started that rumour just now. Call it wishful thinking.)

GIGANTIC
OPENING: Select theatres April 3, UK June 19
Paul Dano, Zooey Deschanel, John Goodman; Dir: Matt Aselton

First came “Lost in Translation”, then “Broken Flowers”, then “Punch Drunk Love”, and of course, “Garden State”. It seems the character of the awkward loner with no inner monologue has legs, and Gigantic appears to be ready to run. Starring Zooey Deschanel as the woman I’m going to run away with Harriet Lolly, the lost and misguided love interest to Paul Dano’s lonely and unsuccessful Brian Weathersby, Gigantic looks to be this summer’s Nick and Norah, or in other words, a movie that doesn’t try to do anything more than it’s intended to do, which is, just tell a great story.

PUBLIC ENEMIES
OPENING: July 1
Johnny Depp, Christian Bale, Marion Cotillard; DIR: Michael Mann

John Dillinger was just so cool. Arguably the US’s first celebrity criminal, Dillinger made a career out of robbing banks, escaping prison, and getting laid; basically every schoolboy’s dream. Starring Johnny Depp as the man and Christian “I’ll tear down your lights” Bale as the man sent to catch him, Public Enemies feels like a rock & roll version of the Untouchables. With Michael Mann at the helm, how can you go wrong?

DISTRICT 9
OPENING: August 14
William Allen Young, Robert Hobbs; DIR: Neil Blomkamp

This is probably the movie I’m most excited to see. In a not-too-distant future (or alternate present), refugees in South Africa are cordoned off and forced to live in shantytown slums. The twist is, the slumdogs ain’t from ’round these parts; they’re Aliens, and they’re universally hated. The trailer indicates the movie will deal with racism, xenophobia and genocide in a whole new way. What of the crew? Well it’s being directed by Neil Blomkamp, who’s greatest achievement up until now has been this now-famous ad for Citroën. But he’s not going it alone; also on board is Peter Jackson, and he’s bringing his WETA Workshop with him. If the names Blomkamp and Jackson together are ringing a bell, it’s because they’re the team who was originally going to do the screen adaptation of the XBOX megahit HALO, but when the funding didn’t come through, District 9 became their new project. August 14 can’t come fast enough for me.

INGLORIOUS BASTERDS
OPENING: August 21
Brad Pitt, Eli Roth, Diane Kruger; DIR: Quentin Tarantino

I’m kinda of “meh” when it comes to Quentin Tarantino. In my humble opinion, he has 3 great films for which he deserves all the accolades in the world; Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction, and Kill Bill 1&2. In that order. The rest, I can pretty much take or leave. He’s been involved with some incredible projects; From Dusk Till Dawn springs to mind; but generally Tarantino is more a director I wish I could love than he is one I actually do. This is why I was overjoyed when I saw the trailer for Inglorious Basterds. Brad Pitt as a grizzled old Colonel sporting a Colombian-Necktie-worthy scar around his neck and ordering his batallion to deliver him 100 Nazi scalps? Add to that what is probably the coolest title for a war pic pretty much ever? Yes, please. Tarantino may not be the greatest filmmaker of all time, but he does do one thing very well: he sets the tone. After he’s done that, the rest of the pieces just sort of fall into place. This kind of thing is right up his alley.

THE BOAT THAT ROCKED
OPENING: August 28
Philip Seymour Hoffman, Nick Frost, Kenneth Branagh; DIR: Richard Curtis

It’s amazing the power of a bad title. As soon as I saw the logo for this movie, spelling out, in Cancer Bats typeface, “The Boat That Rocked”, I almost skipped right by it. Had I done so, I would have missed out on a promising comedy with a killer cast and an even deadlier soundtrack. Loosely based on Radio Caroline, a popular pirate radio ship in the 1960s, The Boat That Rocked is the story of Radio Rock, a ship off the coast of the UK broadcasting a pirate radio signal with one mission: bring Rock & Roll to the masses. The movie has that “based on a true story” feeling but is in fact a total fabrication, but has nonetheless educated me on the pirate radio phenomenon of the mid 1960s; something about which, until this movie came along, I knew nothing.

So there you have it; my top 7 picks for this Summer’s movie watching entertainment. Add to that the 3 surefire blockbusters I mentioned at the top, and it’s generally shaping up to be one of the better Summer movie seasons in recent memory.

.