Thursday, August 13, 2009

New Movie Releases for the Weekend of 8.14.09

1) District 9

- this is probably one of the more anticipated films to come out this summer, a shaky-cam sci-fi picture about aliens who crash land on Earth and just want to go home and the governments who keep them down, living in slums. A reporter goes in to learn the truth and well, I’m sure a lot of shit will be going down. Wow this movie is going to be big. Not having seen it I can’t say if it’ll be any good or not, but this looks like it’s going to be epic, both visually and plot-wise. This may be the greatest week of the year for moviegoers, because of this and another movie…







2) The Time Travelers Wife

- … and this is the second movie. As much as I’m foaming at the mouth in anticipation for District 9, people may remember that when we did our most anticipated movies of 2009 list back in January, Penny chose this movie as her most anticipated and honestly, I can’t blame her. For anyone who has read the award winning book by Audrey Niffengger, about a man who jumps through time without any warning and the woman who falls in love with him, will know just how great a premise and heartfelt this story really is. Frankly the book is one of Penny’s and mines favorite books, and well, this film could be the ultimate weepy chick flick and I may just eat up every minute of it. District 9 and this, wow, my mind is blown. But we aren’t done yet…






3) Ponyo on the Cliff

- … seriously how many great movies can be released during one week and why couldn’t they be spread out to when like Final Destination 3D is the only movie coming out? Ponyo is the latest Hayao Miyazaki Studio Ghibli film about a 5-year old boy who befriends a goldfish princess who longs to be human. How great does that sound? Doubly great is that it’s adapted from the Hans Christian Anderson, Little Mermaid story. I’ve been waiting a full year to see this and well, the trailer for this proves my yearning was not wasted. This may be another modern-day masterpiece from Ghibli, perhaps along the lines of their latest efforts like Spirited Away, although I did like Howls Moving Castle too.







4) Bandslam

- this one’s about an outcast who befriends the popular girl and they form a rock band to enter into the schools upcoming Battle of the Bands competition and somehow the outcast gets Vanessa Hudgens. So here we are with another high-school setting musical, and as much as I’m getting tired of these movies, hey, they’re better role models than those awful Bratz movies for kids, so yeah maybe we need more Bandslams.









5) The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard

- this comedy starring Jeremy “sushi gave me magnesium poising” Piven is about a used car salesman who gets called in by the owner of a failing auto dealership to turn their annual Fourth of July sale into a big profit event. This comedy seems to be flying under the radar even though I’ve seen the commercial for this like 50 times already. Penny and I have already seen this film and we’ll talk a little about it on the next podcast, but for an early taste- if you liked Talladega Nights and Step Brothers, you’ll like this film.








6) Paper Heart

- this film starring Charlyne Yi and Michael Cera mixes fantasy, fiction and documentary to tell a story about what love means for different people as Yi searches for her own meaning of love. This film looks odd but very indie and very cute. I really wish I had more to say about this, but this film just seems to be there and probably won’t make much at the box office although the reviews I’ve read from when it premiered at Sundance have all been positive if not overwhelmingly so.








7) It Might Get Loud

- this documentary is about the electric guitar told from the point of view of three significant rock legends: Jimmy Page, The Edge and Jack White. I’ve seen the trailer for this and frankly it looks amazing. But what has me most excited is that it’s directed by Davis Guggenheim, the man who brought to the world, An Inconvenient Truth and ushered in a new age for documentary filmmaking.

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