These Promising New Movies Are Coming Out in July 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 July of 2009. This month certainly has a few promising movies opening, including the crime drama about John Dillinger, Public Enemies.

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.

July 1st

Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs (3-D)

Directed by Carlos Saldanha

Written by Michael Berg, Peter Ackerman, and Yoni Brenner

Manny as played by Ray Romano, Diego as played by Dennis Leary and Sid as played by John Leguizamo are back for a third journey through the ice age. Manny's girlfriend, Ellie (Queen Latifah) is back. Scrat (Chris Wedge) is back, but this time, he's got a girlfriend of his own, Scratte. I guess our favorite 'herd' of ice age creatures find themselves underground in an unusual lost world. In this place, the group discovers dinosaurs and a dinosaur-hunting weasel, named Buck (Simon Pegg). Can this movie live up to the original Ice Age? Are we going to laugh at all of Scrat's Wily-Coyote-kind of comedy a third time? Like most of the other sequels so far this year, has this series run its course. We won't know anything until July 1st.

Public Enemies

Directed by Michael Mann

Written by Ronan Bennett and Michael Mann

With a few exceptions, I'm a fan of director, Michael Mann's work. He wrote and directed what is arguably the greatest cops and robbers drama of the 1990s, Heat. He brilliantly furthered the career and skill of Russell Crowe in The Insider. Then, more recently, Michael Mann transformed Tom Cruise into a convincing, gray-haired hit man in Collateral. The question now is whether or not he still has the ability to tell an engaging story, and make his stars look good on film. Johnny Depp is playing John Dillinger. Given Depp's range as an actor, this is a great casting choice if you ask me. The Dark Knight himself, Christian Bale is playing the man trying to hunt Dillinger down, Melvin Purvis. The story basically revolves around Dillinger and his gang of bank-robbers as they evade the Feds, and try to live as much as they can before their inevitable doom. I personally can't wait to see what this great director does with this great ensemble of actors.

More of the principle cast

Stephen Dorff plays Homer Van Meter

Billy Crudup plays J. Edgar Hoover

Marion Cotillard plays Billie Frechette

Stephen Graham plays Baby Face Nelson

July 10th

Bruno

Directed by Larry Charles

Written by Sacha Baron Cohen and Anthony Hines

From the same twisted mind behind Borat comes this documentary-like comedy about a flamboyant Austrian fashionista called, Bruno (Sacha Baron Cohen) who takes his show to the US. This basically sounds like the same premise for Borat. However, it appears as though this openly homosexual character is slightly more experienced in the ways of the world. But, Bruno doesn't seem to have any modesty. I for one laughed my butt off when I saw Borat. I'm hoping Bruno will be just as funny.

More of the principle cast

Gustaf Hammarsten plays Lutz

Clifford Banagale plays Diesel

Chibundu Orukwowu plays O.J.

Josh Meyers plays Kookus

I Love You, Beth Cooper

Directed by Chris Columbus

Written by Larry Doyle

A nerdy valedictorian, Denis Cooverman (Paul Rust) declares that he loves a certain Beth Cooper (Hayden Panettiere) in his graduation speech. After this embarrassing moment, Cooper goes to his house and takes him out for one wild night on the town. The question is what kind of wild fun and games will this beautiful young woman get this geeky young man into? And, by the end of the night, will she agree to love him in return? I Love You, Beth Cooper looks like a cute teen comedy.Directed by the same man who gave us Home Alone, we shall see how good this movie can be on July 10th. Maybe Mr. Columbus will prove that he should've stayed to direct all of the Harry Potter sequels.

More of the principle cast

Jack Carpenter plays Rich Munsch

Lauren London plays Cammy Alcott

Lauren Storm plays Treece Kilmer

Shawn Roberts plays Kevin

July 15th

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

Directed by David Yates

Written by Steve Kloves

A year older, a year wiser, this will be Harry's 6th year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. In the the sixth film in this highly successful series, Harry Potter as played once again by Daniel Radcliff will discover a few more things about his enemy, Lord Voldemort as played by Ralph Fiennes. His beloved friend, Professor Albus Dumbledore (Michael Gambon) will take Harry to a remote island to learn how to fight like a wizard. Since the dark lord, Voldemort is back, it's probably best that Harry learns all that he can in order to fight the evil sorcerer. Of course, Harry's friends, Ron Weasley (Rupert Grint) and Hermione Granger (Emma Watson) is back.

More of the principle cast

Dave Legeno plays Fenrir Greyback

Jim Broadbent plays Professor Horace Slughorn

Helena Bonham Carter plays Bellatrix Lestrange

Alan Rickman plays Professor Severus Snape

July 17th

500 Days of Summer

Directed by Marc Webb

Written by Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber

In this unusual romantic comedy, Joseph Gordon-Levitt plays Tom and Zooey Deschanel plays Summer. They are a certainly an offbeat pair. Tom believes he loves Summer, but she doesn't believe in love. How can these two kids work things out? We shall see on July 17th. I am interested in seeing whether or not this romantic comedy will actually end happily.

More of the principle cast

Geoffrey Arend plays McKenzie

Chloe Moretz plays Rachel

Matthew Gray Gubler plays Paul

Clark Gregg plays Vance

July 24th

G-Force

Directed by Hoyt Yeatman

Written by Cormac Wibberley and Marianne Wibberley

Basically, super-intelligent gerbils set out to save the world from Davy Jones himself.

Orphan

The Ugly Truth

July 31st

Funny People

Aliens in the Attic