These Promising New Movies Are Coming Out in June of 2009

2009 has turned into the worst year of my life. The strange thing is that I can still escape into a good film. I'd much rather escape into movies than a bottle of alcohol. When your life is so dramatically altered due to the death of a loved one, it almost seems to alter the way you look at everything around you, everything else you hold dear. As you can plainly see in my other articles, I hold movies and movie-making close to my heart. That love for film hasn't been washed away completely. It's just changed quite a bit.

I am happy to give you, my readers a glimpse into the films coming out in June of 2009. This month certainly has a few promising movies opening, including the newest Transformers sequel, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen.

2009 looks like a year of either great change or great disappointment in the entertainment industry. We've already had some great changes in the political world if you hadn't noticed. And, I'm obviously not talking about the shaky ecomony. This year in film may bring 3D to the screen like we've never seen before.

June 5th

The Hangover

Directed by Todd Phillips

Written by Jon Lucas and Scott Moore

Before their buddy gets married, a group of friends take Stu Price (Ed Helms) to Vegas to live it up for at least one night. Well, I guess the group parties so hard one night, when they wake up the next morning, they can't remember anything. Their hotel room is a catastrophe. They have a chicken waking around, a baby in the closet and one of them has gotten married. Stu's friends include Phil Wenneck (Bradley Cooper), Alan Garner (Zach Galifianakis), and Doug Billings (Justin Bartha). Can the four men correct the mistakes of that one wild and crazy night, and get home before the wedding? We won't know until June 5th. But to me, The Hangover looks more promising than many of the comedies that have been coming out lately.

More of the principle cast

Heather Graham plays Jade

Sasha Barrese plays Tracy Garner

Ken Jeong plays Mr. Chow

Mike Tyson plays himself

Land of the Lost

Directed by Brad Silberling

Written by Chris Henchy and Dennis McNicholas

Roughly based on the old TV series, Will Ferrell plays Dr. Rick Marshall who gets sucked into vortex with his research assistant, Holly (Anna Friel) and a survivalist, Will Stanton (Danny McBride). They end up in a place with dinosaurs and "lizard people" and other fantastic creatures. If you can take Will Ferrell seriously as an explorer and scientist, then you might be able to see greatness in Land of the Lost. To me, the film looks like a fun and funny ride with perhaps a few thrills. Then again, it could be far too silly to sit through. Ferrell better pray this doesn't end up like the last time he did a film based on a TV show; i.e, Betwitched.

More of the principle cast

Bobb'e J. Thompson plays Kid

Jorma Taccone plays Chaka

Sierra McCormick plays Girl

Douglas Tait plays Sleestak

More movies released on June 5th

My Life in Ruins

Directed by Donald Petrie; written by Mike Reiss; starring Nia Vardalos, Richard Dreyfuss, Rachel Dratch, Macarena Benites, Heather Blair and Maria Botto

June 11th

Imagine That

Directed by Karey Kirkpatrick

Written by Ed Solomon and Chris Matheson

Eddie Murphy is back. His career hasn't been completely ruined by the likes of such films as Norbit and Meet Dave. Maybe his part in the Shrek films have helped Eddie get work. I wish he could be producing true classics again like Trading Places or Beverly Hills Cop. But as it is, Eddie Murphy is playing Evan in this cutesy comedy, Imagine That. I guess Evan's daughter has an imaginary world that seems to be coming to life around Evan. If that sounds familiar, Adam Sandler did a similar film last year called, Bedtime Stories. Can Eddie Murphy be as effective as Adam Sandler? He certainly was in the first Nutty Professor film.

More of the principle cast

Bobb'e J. Thompson plays The Kid

Thomas Haden Church plays Whitefeather

James Patrick Stuart plays Mr. Pratt

Vanessa Williams plays Lori Struthers

June 19th

The Proposal

Directed by Anne Fletcher

Written by Pete Chiarelli

Sandra Bullock has basically been the queen of romantic comedies for a while now, since Julia Roberts gave up her reign 10 years ago. She's had several leading men, including Bill Pullman and Hugh Grant. Now, Sandra Bullock's leading man is the rising young star, Ryan Reynolds. Given Reynolds's brilliance with snappy and clever sarcasm, Bullock may be out of her league, so to speak. But then again, they could also make for one funny romantic comedy. Bullock's character, Margaret Tate is a hard-nosed business woman and Reynolds's character, Andrew Paxton is her assistant. She finds out that she is going to be deported back to Canada. She finds a way to stay in the US in her assistant, Andrew. They may be getting married. I can't wait to see how these two charming and funny actors handle this awkward situation.

More of the principle cast

Mary Steenburgen plays Grace Paxton

Craig T. Nelson plays Joe Paxton

Betty White plays Grandma Annie

Denis O'Hare plays Mr. Gilbertson

Year One

Directed by Harold Ramis

Written by Harold Ramis and Gene Stupnitsky

The filmmaker who gave us such comedy classics as National Lampoon's Vacation and Groundhog Day brings us this silly-looking romp about life in the ancient world. Jack Black plays Zed and Michael Cera plays Oh. Together, these two cavemen go on an epic journey, discovering what appear to be Romans and several other things that seem to be odd. The trailers do not make this film look very good, but Harold Ramis may actually be able to get some intelligence out of this story. I hope we're all laughing in the aisles. But, there is the chance that we could all be walking out before the film is over.

More of the principle cast

Oliver Platt plays High Priest

David Cross plays Cain

Christopher Mintz-Plasse plays Isaac

Vinnie Jones plays Sargon

June 24th

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen

Directed by Michael Bay

Written by Roberto Orci

Those transforming robots or should I say, transforming automobiles are back to save the world from the Decepticons. Shia LaBeouf is back as Sam Witwicky and Megan Fox returns as his girlfriend, Mikaela Banes. Sam Witwicky discovers something he shouldn't have, the origin of the alien transformers. This time, Megatron returns to seek revenge against the Autobots. What Sam uncovers may be the biggest mystery and most interesting part of the film. On the other hand, after seeing the giant killer robots in the latest Terminator Salvation, Transformers may feel redundant. We will see how thrilling or not this Transformers sequel is on June 24th.

More of the principle cast

Josh Duhamel plays Captain Lennox

Hugo Weaving plays Megatron

Isabel Lucas plays Alice

John Turturro plays Agent Simmons and the voice of Jetfire

June 26th

My Sister's Keeper

Directed by Nick Cassavetes

Written by Jeremy Leven and Nick Cassavetes

In what looks like a deep and profound drama about a young girl, Andromeda or "Anna" Fitzgerald (Abigail Breslin) who wants medical emancipation from her parents to aide her leukemia-stricken sister, Kate Fitzgerald (Sofia Vassilieva) stay alive. She wants to give her life for her sister and of course, this probably does not go over well with the girls' parents, Sara (Cameron Diaz) and Brian Fitzgerald (Jason Patrick). Since her first big screen appearance in Signs, I've always been impressed by the powerful abilities of the young Abigail Breslin. After she got nominated for her delightful role in Little Miss Sunshine, I expected the talented child actor to go far. This may not be on par with Sunshine, but it may be the most character-driven story you'll see this June.

More of the principle cast

Evan Ellingson plays Jesse Fitzgerald

Alec Baldwin plays Campbell Alexander

Thomas Dekker plays Taylor Ambrose

Joan Cusack plays Judge DeSalvo