Well we have now come to it, the final month of the summer movie wrap up. August is mostly known as the month the studios decide to dump their leftovers. In August you don't normally see the anticipated blockbusters like you do in May, June, and July. However this time, I found August to be the most interesting month.
I began the month strangely enough with a rather lightweight raunchy comedy. "The Goods" came and went with very little fanfare, which is a shame because even though it didn't hold a candle to entertaining romps like "I Love you Man", and "The Hangover", it had its own goofy charm.
Jeremy Piven stars as a cutthroat salesmen who with his team of cutthroat misfits take up shop at a used car lot and try to sell every car there on the July 4th weekend. Pretty much every comic actor who has made a name for him or herself shows up in either a substantial or cameo role during the film. The laughs are aplenty, but there is never much cleverness to them, but if you would pay to see Will Farrell jumping out of an airplane in an Abe Lincoln suit, and holding on to a sex toy, then this film is for you.
I admit it's a stupid premise, but I was looking for a laugh that night and I got it.
Now here's something unusual in the summer: a special effects extravaganza with an intriguing story, and is not a sequel. That's just what we found when "District 9" rolled into town.
The film takes a clever satirical premise by having actual aliens from outer space take the role of refugees who take up residence in district 9 a camp of sorts situated in Johannesburg South Africa. The start of the film takes on the mockumentary feel, and the aliens themselves are suppose to parallel actual South African refugees. Soon one of the immigration employees who's duty is to give the Aliens a moving notice is struck with a virus that makes him turn into one.
The rest of the film has him becoming an unlikely hero, as he tries to find a cure for himself as well as help the refugees return to their home planet. The film opens well and keeps you interested, but then gets lazy in the end by becoming a clone of "Iron Man", still this was one of the most intelligent blockbusters I saw all summer.
Now we have come to "Inglorious Basterds" Quentin Tarantino's latest about a a squad of WWII American Jews who are given the mission to hunt down and kill Nazis. Their special brand of killing is scalping. Brad Pitt plays their commander, Christoph Waltz is the villainous Nazi nicknamed "The Jew Hunter", and many intersecting stories are going on, and finally connect in the big finale.
This is the only film I saw this summer where I knew I had to watch it a second time in order to have a full opinion of the film. That's the type of filmmaker Tarantino is, his best films are so rich with detail, it's hard to catch everything once. The first time I saw the film, I thought it was somewhat messy, with some brilliant individual scenes within it. However seeing it a second time, I was enjoying myself a whole lot more. Tarantino is one of America's best directors working today, he knows how to construct a movie, and how to assemble a big payoff. As a cinephile, this was the most anticipated movie to see this summer, and is one of the best films of the year.
As the month was winding down, not much came to my neck of the woods that interested me. I debated seeing Rob Zombie's "Halloween 2" since I was actually a fan of his first one, but I decided I wasn't really in the horror mood. No I can honestly say my final film of the summer was somewhat of a light effort. I decided to take in Ang Lee's "Taking Woodstock", about the real life trials and tribulations of the people involved who made the legendary concert into reality.
Innovative comic Demitri Martin stars as the young man who had the fortune of having a permit to put the concert on and thus saved Woodstock. The film is rather an unassuming comedy with many heartfelt performances. I got into the spirit of things by re-watching the "Woodstock" documentary before seeing the film, and I was able to appreciate the slight touches Lee adds as an homage to the legendary film. I had a good time at the film, but I felt the real conflict in the film regarding Martin's character and his mother played by Imelda Staunton is done with a whimper and not a scream. Others might be disappointed to find that any music from Woodstock is only heard from afar, but being how this is a behind the scenes look, I can forgo that.
Yes, all in all, the summer wasn't all that bad. Even though not all films were memorable, I can't say I saw one that was extremely bad. After all this, I can finally put the summer movie season of 2009 to sleep.
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