It seems like we had a real dry spell over the last month at the movies. I’d look at the listings and there just wasn’t anything I was willing to shell out ten bucks to see. Once award seasons are over, we are in that twilight zone of crappy movies, with one or two worth seeing, for a month or so before the so-called Summer Blockbusters hit.
Summer is supposedly here and I can tell because there is a superhero movie dominating three screens at the movieplex. You can see normally or on the IMAX screen or 3D. You can see it once every hour. Isn’t that super? I actually like the Avengers, but I’ll wait for the crowds to thin before going to see them in action.
What am I looking forward to? Well, not Arnold Schwarzenegger and zombies. Not Sofia Vergara and Reese Witherspoon as criminal and cop trying to capture the magic of The Heat with Sandra Bullock and Melissa McCarthy. And probably not Jurassic World with more runaway dinosaurs.
Tom Hardy is going to take on Mad Max, which looks exactly like the original from trailers. There’s a lot of dry dirt, fast vehicles, and violence. Hmmm. Maybe. Tom Cruise is apparently not too old to still be an action hero in the latest Mission Impossible. That’s one I might see with my sons.
No offense, but I have no desire to see a documentary about the man behind Big Bird. Neither will I even consider a Steven Seagal film. Don’t mention Magic Mike XXL. Where are the blockbusters? The escapes to the nice air conditioned theaters? The movies that grab you and entertain you and transport you from your own hot, sticky, summer existence?
Okay, I’ll admit that I’m tempted by the Poltergeist remake. It was a classic in 1982. I might have to see it for nostalgia’s sake.
I think I’m going to be seeing most of my summer movies at the indie theater where I saw Birdman. I am finding that I enjoy more films there than at the mainstream theaters anyway. I expect that’s where I can see The Stanford Prison Experiment, which I studied in a Social Psychology course. It should be an incredible movie and was a double winner at Sundance.
I’ve scanned the lists of summer movies and nothing screams, “See me!!!” I don’t know if I’ve gotten pickier about my movies or if there are just a lot of mediocre movies out there. There are sequels and remakes and big stars. The problem is that I can stay home and watch some pretty good movies on Netflix. And it costs less. And I don’t have to shell out $30 for popcorn and soda.
You know, maybe I’ll just forget the summer movies and take a look at book releases. There’s always something there that satisfies. Portable, free from the library, and a lot of choices. Yep. That is definitely my strategy. You’re on your own. If I don’t see you at The Avengers, I’m probably reading To Kill a Mockingbird again before the sequel comes out.
