It has been an abysmal summer when you think about it. I’m not talking about the tragedy in the Gulf of Mexico (Thanks BP!), the heat or about the wars and rumors of wars that we find ourselves in these days; no. I’m talking about the mediocrity of what has been released to the multiplexes from sea to shining see during the summer of 2010.
Abysmal.
For my dollar there have been two films that have actually made me want to get off the back of my front and head to the theater; “Iron Man 2” and “Toy Story 3”. Both of these films are worth the price of admission and, I have a sneaky sensation that both of them will worm their way into my Blu-ray collection. “Iron Man 2” was a fun time at the movies and “Toy Story 3” is about the best film I’ve seen all year. I have not been able to truly be excited about any of the other summer cinema fare – “The Last Airbender” will be a rental for me, “Twilight – Eclipse” will be a free rental… perhaps even a wait for cable. No, probably a wait for cable. It’s been abysmal with little to look forward to in the field of storytelling through cinema.
With little to look forward to what’s a geek to do? Look for the sleepers that’s what! That being said, “Cyrus” and “Inception” look to be films that may actually be worth the time and drive to the theater.
Here is the plot synopsis for “Cyrus” from my favorite second brain, Wikipedia, “John is seven years divorced from his wife and is having trouble adjusting to his new life. After meeting Molly at a party, he thinks that maybe he has found the perfect person again. There's just one problem: Cyrus, Molly's grown son. John must find a way to make his romance with Molly work despite intentional and unintentional interference by Cyrus.” John C. Reilly is John, Marisa Tomei is Molly and Jonah Hill is Cyrus. That happens to be an amazing cast. Spin is really good. I just might have to sneak out to see this one.
Then there is “Inception”. Once more as described through my favorite second brain, “Inception was first developed by Christopher Nolan, based on the notion of "exploring the idea of people sharing a dream space - entering a dream space and sharing a dream. That gives you the ability to access somebody’s unconscious mind. What would that be used and abused for?” Furthermore, he thought "being able to extract information from somebody’s brain would be the obvious use of that because obviously any other system where it’s computers or physical media, whatever – things that exist outside the mind – they can all be stolen ... up until this point, or up until this movie I should say, the idea that you could actually steal something from somebody’s head was impossible. So that, to me, seemed a fascinating abuse or misuse of that kind of technology.”
Sign me up. That’s just a great concept for a story. Christopher Nolan, by my humble opinion, is one of the premiere storytellers that we have making movies these days. “Memento”, “The Prestige”, “Batman Begins” and a little film called, “The Dark Knight” cemented his ability. This concept is aching to be mined too. The last time that I recall a good dream movie was a film in the eighties called, “Dreamscape”. It would be cheesy by today’s standards by I dug it (I’ll have to put it in my Blockbuster cue).
But I digress. Let’s get back to the last hopes of the summer of 2010 and what may be worth a look-see on the horizon. I’m pulling for “Cyrus” and “Inception” for the remainder of the summer. Thanksgiving will bring “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part I” and Christmas will bring, “TRON Legacy”.
Now I’m getting my GEEK up again!
See you at the multiplex.
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