These Promising New Releases Are Coming Out in August of 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 serious 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 August 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. One thing I'll tell you before I move ahead with this list is that I wish I could be paid to see these movies at their premiere and give my readers detailed reviews of each. But as it is, I am stuck making guesses and conjectures, not certain how well the movie will turn out.

August 1st

The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor

Directed by Rob Cohen
Written by Alfred Gough, and Miles Millar

Reprising their roles in this third installment of the widely popular trilogy is Brendan Fraser as Rick O'Connell, and John Hannah as Jonathan Carnahan. Unfortunately we've lost several key players in Rachel Weisz as Evelyn O'Connell and Oded Fehr as Ardeth Bay. But the replacement of Evelyn in Maria Bello (History of Violence) isn't as bad as some might make it out to be. Rick and Evelyn's full grown son, Alex is played by Luke Ford. Then you've got Jet Li as the Dragon Emperor himself, Emperor Han and Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon's own Michelle Yeoh as Zi Juan.

In the wake of World War II, the O'Connells are now retired from the adventurous and death-defying life of old. Rick doesn't care for their new straight and narrow, stuffed-shirt, and uneventful lifestyle. Evelyn has written books about their previous adventures and she's now trying to find the motivation and subject matter for a third book. This becomes a perfect catalyst for the film to pick up speed, Rick to get the adventure he's been looking for and Evelyn to find the substance for a new book.

Alex O'Connell is trying to dig up the past in China. Many, many years ago, a tyrannical overlord, Emperor Han seized control of most of the country, burying his enemies under the Great Wall of China. Now, Alex wants to discover the Emperor's tomb. When he does, Alex finds himself in a great deal of danger. Not only are there booby traps, there's a ninja-like ancient witch, Chinese military and a few double-crossing friends in the way. Then his worst fear of all comes along; his parents, Rick and Evelyn.

More of the principle cast

Anthony Wong Chau-Sang as General Yang
Russell Wong as Ming Guo
Liam Cunningham as Mad Dog Maguire
David Calder as Roger Wilson

Read my full review for more details.

August 8th

The Pineapple Express

Directed by David Gordon Green; written by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg; starring Seth Rogen, James Franco, Danny R. McBride, Kevin Corrigan, and Gary Cole.

August 15th

Tropic Thunder

Directed by Ben Stiller
Written by Ben Stiller and Jusin Theroux

A group of actors, including Ben Stiller as Tugg Speedman, Robert Downey Jr. as Kirk Lazarus and Jack Black as Jeff Portnoy are taken to the heart of the jungle to film a movie. They end up discovering that this is more than just another film production. It's real life, real death and some real laughs in this dark comedy by Stiller.

Read my full review for more details.

Mirrors

Directed by Alexandre Aja
Written by Alexandre Aja and Gregory Levasseur

Once a police detective, now a security guard, Ben Carson (Kiefer Sutherland) begins to see some weird things happening in the old building in which he works. He soon discovers that the building or more specifically, the mirrors inside the building are haunted. Then Carson ends up having to do whatever it takes to keep his astranged family safe.

Read my full review for more details.

Star Wars: The Clone Wars

Directed by Dave Filoni
Written by Henry Gilroy, Steven Melching and Scott Murphy

Just when you may have thought Star Wars was done and over with it, creator George Lucas finds a way to squeeze one more penny out of this juggernaut of a series. This time, he doesn't have too much to do with the movie. He may have come up with the story and created the universe, but Lucas put everything in the hands of some unusual people.

From what I understand, this is based after Episode II: The Attack of the Clones and before Revenge of the Sith. Anakin Skywalker (Matt Lanter) is still a Jedi Knight and Obi-Wan Kenobi (James Arnold Taylor) is still his best friend. This time, it's not live-action, it's a CGI cartoon. And after seeing some of the cartoonish characters like Yoda in previews, it's not an innovative way to watch Star Wars, it's just cheap.

Another thing that might hurt this installlment in this series - if it actually is one - is the lack of original actors as the voices of principle characters. Anakin is no longer played by Hayden Christiansen and Obi-Wan is no longer Ewan McGregor. Of course, the true Obi-Wan Kenobe will always be Alec Guinness in my book. However, when they change actors this much, it's like watching or playing musical chairs.

All in all, I'm not too interested in seeing the Star Wars universe turn into a full-out CGI cartoon world. It takes away the last ounces of humanity in a series that has already lost a lot of it. I remember how real the characters of Han Solo, Princess Leia and Luke Skywalker when I first saw them on TV. The idea of those same people, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher and Mark Hamill being replaced by CGI cartoons is almost like blasphemy.

More of the principle cast

Ashley Eckstein plays the voice of Ahsoka Tano
Ian Abercrombie plays the voice of Chancellor Palpatine or Darth Sidious
Catherine Taber plays the voice of Padme Amidala
Anthony Edwards returns as the voice of C-3PO

August 22nd

Death Race

Directed by Paul W.S. Anderson
Written by Paul W.S. Anderson

From the guy who brought the video games, Resident Evil and AVP to the screen comes Death Race. Starring Jason Statham, trying desperately desperately to bounce back from some of the more trashy films like In The Name of The King: A Dungeon Siege Tale, playing ex-con, Jensen Ames. This story has Bourne Supremacy's Joan Allen as Hennessey putting inmates together for a race to the death. Instead of Arnold Schwartzenegger running his butt off on a game show, we get Statham driving around, shooting and crashing into other prisoners in order to be freed. But let's not forget, The Running Man was not one of Arnold's best films.

We're not talking about an action film by James Cameron. But this could be a rip-roaring shoot-'em up of an action movie, the likes of which we haven't seen since the late '80s. It's not going to be smart like Road Warrior, but it may have all the same characteristic that made the Mad Max story so compelling. You might pitch this type of film as 'Rambo gets behind the wheel of a badass car with machine guns'. Then again, Joan Allen hasn't been accepting that bad of roles in recent years.

For some odd reason, I don't know if it's the cool marketing campaign or what, but I'm interested in seeing if this movie is as badass and fun as the previews make it out to be. But then again, I just remind myself, it's Paul W.S. Anderson - not James Cameron.

More of the principle cast

Ian McShane plays Coach
Tyrese Gibson plays Machine Gun Joe
Natalie Martinez plays Case
Max Ryan plays Pachenko

The House Bunny

Directed by Fred Wolf; written by Karen McCullah Lutz and Kirsten Smith; starring Anna Faris, Colin Hanks, Emma Stone, Kat Dennings, Julia Lea Wolov, Beverly D'Angelo, and Christopher McDonald.

One thing I will say: I have laughed a lot at Anna Faris's roles since the Scary Movie series.

August 29th

Babylon A.D.

Directed by Mathieu Kassovitz
Written by Eric Besnard

Toorop (Vin Diesel) is a veteran turned mercenary who takes on the risky job of escorting a woman from Russia to China. There are some things he finds out about her along the way that gives him even more motivation to keep her safe. He is "a killer" afterall. Will he do the job? From what I understand, this job puts Toorop through hell. Will he get the girl to China? I don't know, we'll find out come August 29th.

I'm curious to see if this is the serious sci-fi film the teasers make it out to be. The girl previously mentioned is played by Melanie Thierry. She seems to be able to live through walls of fire without getting a scratch on her. It could be religious in some ways and scientific in others. That's the last thing I'm going to spill on the plot. And it's kind of cool to see Vin Diesel back on the big screen in a role that we might be able to take seriously for once. All I'm saying is that I'm interested in seeing Babylon A.D.

More of the principle cast

Michelle Yeoh as Sister Rebeka
Gerard Depardieu as Gorsky
Charlotte Rampling as High Priestess
Mark Strong as Finn

College

Directed by Deb Hagan; written by Dan Callahan and Adam Ellison; starring Drake Bell, Andrew Caldwell, Andree Moss, Kevin Covais, Carolyn Moss, Wendy Talley and Ryan Pinkston.

Disaster Movie

Directed and written by Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer; starring Matt Lanter, Vanessa Minnillo, G. Thang, Nicole Parker, Crista Flanagan, Kimberly Kardashian, and Carmen Electra.

One thing I will say: Similar spoofs like Epic Movie, Date Movie and Superhero Movie were not the funniest movies in the world.