Movie Preview for June, 2008

I love movies. I look forward to seeing almost every movie that comes out. There's always a question of whether or not it's a good movie. As a seriously moviegoer, you've got to keep your mind open. Perhaps the most unlikely film will be your favorite film of the year. You never know. So I have gone ahead, taken a look at some movies coming out in June and I decided to give my readers a glimpse at some of those movies. Once you've read what I've got to say, it'll be up to you whether or not you want to see the films listed below.

June 6th

Kung Fu Panda

Directed by Mark Osborne and John Stevenson
Written by Jonathan Aibel and Glenn Berger

The previews show very little, but what they do show looks very entertaining. Kung Fu Panda doesn't look like something that will leave you rolling in the aisles. The movie looks more along the lines of cute and charming. It is about a lazy, kung fu fanatic of a panda, named Po (Jack Black) who just happens to be the chosen one. He is the one who might be able to defeat the evil Tai Lung (Ian McShane). This evil convict you might say knows the styles of all the other animal warriors; such as, Tigress, Monkey, Viper, Crane and Mantis. When Po comes to learn real kung fu, he appears to be way in over his head. He definitely does not look like Bruce Lee when he first arrives. The previews to this look so cute and charming, I'm very eager to check it out in theaters on June 6th.

More of the principle cast

Dustin Hoffman plays Sifu, the kung fu master
Jackie Chan plays Master Monkey or Monkey
Angelina Jolie plays Master Tigress or South China Tiger
David Cross plays Master Crane or Japanese Crane

Mongol

Directed by Sergei Bodrov
Written by Arif Aliyev and Sergei Bodrov

Nominated for Best Foreign Language Film last year, Mongol tells the tale of Genghis Khan or Temudjin (Tadanobu Asano). The film looks like a giant epic. It follows life of Khan from his childhood as a slave to his latter days of conquest. The man took over half the world, including Russia in 1206. After seeing images and trailers, this could be a foreign language equivalent of Lawrence of Arabia. Then again, Lawrence of Arabia did win Best Picture. But we won't know how good or how bad this movie is until June 6th. I'm certainly looking forward to that date.

More of the principle cast

Aliya plays Oelun
Tegen Ao plays Charkhu
Khulan Chuluun plays Borte
Deng Ba Te Er plays Daritai

You Don't Mess with the Zohan

Directed by Dennis Dugan
Written by Adam Sandler, Robert Smigel, and Judd Apatow

The latest Adam Sandler movie is about an Israeli commando, Zohan (Sandler) who fakes his own death just to come to America and cut hair. He's nasty, having very little patience with screaming and crying children. He seduces clients, giving them "special services" in the back room. He eventually risks losing his newfound life. I'm not a big fan of Adam Sandler movies. I think he has much better ideas than Rob Schneider, but that doesn't take much. By the way, just like every other Sandler comedy, Schneider does have a part in this one. I really wish I knew what it was about Adam Sandler's movies that bother me. Maybe it's the way he disguises disrespect and violence as something fun and comical. But I know there's a few people reading this who are interested in this new Sandler movie. I might see it if there was nothing more interesting to watch.

More of the principle cast

Rob Schneider plays Salim
Mariah Carey plays Herself
Omid Abtahi plays Shihab
Moran Atias plays Nava

The Promotion

Directed by Steve Conrad; starring Seann William Scott, John C. Reilly, Gil Bellows, Nathan Adloff, Abby Allen, and Chris Conrad.

June 13th

The Incredible Hulk

Directed by Louis Leterrier
Written by Zak Penn and Edward Norton or Edward Harrison

Some will call this a reboot. Some will call this a sequel. But I think it is really both a sequel and re-imagining. The Hulk, directed by Ang Lee was despised and attacked for a long time. The studios wanted to see this character fully realized, again. They put several different writers, actors and a new director onto the production. Instead of Bruce Banner or The Hulk being played by Munich's Eric Bana, his character will be portrayed by Edward Norton (Fight Club). Instead of the beautiful and talented Jennifer Connelly, we've got Liv Tyler as Betty Ross. William Hurt is going to be replacing Sam Elliott as Betty's father, Gen. Thaddeus 'Thunderbolt' Ross. Perhaps the movie is written to keep the original "terrible" film from popping into our memories. Given some of the plot and actors in this film, I look forward to seeing The Incredible Hulk, no matter what.

More of the principle cast

Tim Roth plays Emil Blonsky
Ty Burrell plays Dr. Samson
Christina Cabot plays Major Kathleen 'Kat' Sparr
Robert Downey Jr. plays Tony Stark

The Happening

Directed by M. Night Shyamalan
Written by M. Night Shyamalan

First, he gave us The Sixth Sense, a tale of a little boy who can see ghosts. He freaked out everyone with his surprise ending. Then M. Night Shyamalan arguably made a misstep with Unbreakable, starring Bruce Willis again as a security guard at a local stadium who is manipulated into thinking that he's a superhero. Signs came next. Whether or not you're a fan of Mel Gibson, you really can't help but be charmed by this small story of a former, his two children and his ex-minor-league baseball player of a brother who have to confront their own demons before they face their own doom. This time, Shyamalan replaced the ghosts in The Sixth Sense with aliens, hell bent on killing and eating us like cattle. After several so-so movies about some very unusual and ultimately disappointing thing, this fine director looks like he's coming back to the place he seems most comfortable in. The Happening looks like another well-made supernatural thriller, starring Mark Wahlberg as Elliot Moore. From what it looks like in previews, a plague or a curse or something is causing everyone to go mute, go dumb and then die. Weird right? Leave it up to people like M. Night Shyamalan to give us weird stories. It is sure creepy-looking. So, I'll be there to see it on June 13th, just hoping the director doesn't do what he did with The Village.

More of the principle cast

Zooey Deschanel plays Alma Moore
John Leguizamo plays Julian
Ashlyn Sanchez plays Jess
Robert Bizik plays Train Station Passenger

June 20th

Get Smart

Directed by Peter Segal
Written by Tom J. Astle and Matt Ember

To start this preview out, I have to say that the few episodes of Get Smart I watched on TV, reruns that were 20 to 30 years old made me laugh out loud. Don Adams was so funny in the role of Maxwell Smart. He was the American version of Inspector Clauseau. When I first heard they were finally adapting this sitcom for the big screen, I was thrilled. Now, with talented stars like Steve Carell playing Smart, Anne Hathaway playing Agent 99, and Alan Arkin playing The Chief, I have very little doubt that this will be funny as hell. This time around, Maxwell Smart or Agent 86 will be teaming up with Agent 99 to battle KAOS, an evil corporation probably hell bent on destroying or conquering the world. I'll be waiting in the theater to laugh so hard, I'm rolling in the aisles.

More of the principle cast

Dwayne Johnson plays Agent 23
Terence Stamp plays Siegfried
Ken Davitian plays Shtarker
Terry Crews plays Agent 91

The Love Guru

Directed by Marco Schnabel
Written by Mike Myers and Graham Gordy

Austin Powers returns to the big screen - only this time he's no international spy, he's simply a guru. Mike Myers plays Pitka, an American raised by gurus who returns to the States to help couples with their love lives. Pitka's biggest challenge is to reunite a star hockey player with his wife after she leaves him for a rival athlete. Given the fact that Mike Myers had me rolling in the aisles during every Austin Powers film, I'm definitely looking foward to seeing him in The Love Guru. Not only is he probably going to be at his comedic best, but Myers is bringing some old friends along for the ride. I know I saw Mini Me in the previews.

More of the principle cast

Jessica Alba plays Jane Bullard
Meagan Good plays Prudence
Justin Timberlake plays Jacques Grande
Verne Troyer plays Coach Cherkov

June 27th

Wall-E

Directed by Andrew Stanton
Written by Andrew Stanton and Jim Capobianco

From the digital-animation masters who gave us Toy Story, The Incredibles and Finding Nemo, Pixar is now giving us a very promising tale of a lone robot who goes an adventure of a lifetime. This little robot, Wall-E is left behind to clean up the garbage left behind. He's a curious little guy, playing with ladies undergarments and a few toys here and there. But things start to eat up when an alien ship comes down to the planet, and Wall-E is introduced to another robot. He quickly hitches a ride with this ship and flies off into space. You might say Wall-E looks an awful lot like the robot in Short Circuit. You can even say he looks like a mechanical version of E.T. His voice sounds like something out of the recent Star Wars films. But I have high hopes that Pixar will make me overlook those inspirations and just enjoy the thrilling adventures of Wall-E. I'm just a little disappointed that the same filmmakers who brought toys to life and gave us clown fish to care about is stealing other peoples' ideas.

More of the principle cast

Ben Burtt
Paul Eiding
Kim Kopf as the voice of Hoverchair Mother
Jeff Garlin as the voice of Captain

Wanted

Directed by Timur Bekmambetov; written by Michael Brandt and Derek Haas; starring James McAvoy, Morgan Freeman, Angelina Jolie, Terence Stamp, and Thomas Kretschmann.

Personal note: I mentioned in one of my last movie previews that Batman: The Dark Knight might be coming out in June since that was the way I understood it. In fact, the movie will be released sometime in mid-July.