Summer picks

Since we’re a week away from the official start of summer movie season I’ve thrown together a quick top ten list of the movies I’m most looking forward to. I did the same thing last year, and looking back at that now I’m pretty sure I was a lot more excited about last year’s offerings.

The truth is most of this summer’s "biggest" movies leave me shrugging my shoulders. I’ll probably end up seeing expected blockbusters like Superman Returns, The Da Vinci Code, Pirates of the Caribbean 2, Poseidon and The Break-Up but if any of them got stuck in movie limbo and were never released I wouldn’t really care. This year’s slate is also heavy on lackluster looking animated fare (from DreamWorks, Fox, Warner Bros. and even one for film snobs: Richard Linklater’s trippy A Scanner Darkly) and high-concept mainstream comedies (Jack Black as a Mexican wrestler, Owen Wilson as an annoying houseguest, Adam Sandler finding a magical remote control and the aforementioned Vaughaniston extravaganza). Maybe one, or some, of these will surprise me, but I’m not counting on it.

Even two major movies from prestige directors—Robert Altman’s A Prairie Home Companion and Michael Mann’s Miami Vice—aren’t sparking my interest (Altman’s because of mixed early reviews and Mann’s for all sorts of reasons, including the fact he’s one of my least favorite Important directors).

I have, at least, already seen one great movie due for release this summer: a documentary about a crossword puzzle tournament (just screams "grab the popcorn!" doesn’t it?). Wordplay (June 16) is a fun crowd-pleaser in the vein of spelling bee doc Spellbound and should be an arthouse sleeper.

Looking over last year’s list some of my selections turned out to be disappointing (Charlie and the Chocolate Factory), bad (Bad News Bears) or excruciating (Wedding Crashers) but there were some surprises (The 40 Year-Old Virgin and Land of the Dead were far better than expected and my favorite summer release, Junebug, was impossible to predict). One movie (Romance & Cigarettes) was never even released and I still haven’t gotten around to another (The Brothers Grimm) which was released, but to terrible reviews.

In other words, who knows how any of these will turn out, but on paper [Pickler sez "huh?"] I’m looking forward to:

10. Cars (June 9)
Ok, frankly I’m not really excited about this one either but of all the animated summer offerings it’s the one I’m most likely to see. And considering I had a similar lack of pre-release enthusiasm for Toy Story and Finding Nemo I’ve learned you write off Pixar at your own peril.

9. Snakes on a Plane (August 18)
I’m not expecting greatness from this, I’m expecting, well, snakes on a plane. Although the Internet hysteria over the movie’s concept has already made it dangerously overhyped it still seems like the perfect late summer movie, and, sadly, one of the season’s most "original" concepts.

8. Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby (July 14)
I would dismiss this as quickly as the rest of the big dumb-looking summer comedies but this dumb-looking NASCAR spoof reunites Anchorman’s director Adam McKay and leading man Will Ferrell. And even though Anchorman is an incredibly dumb movie it’s also a ridiculously funny one. It also helps that McKay and Ferrell have enlisted a cast that includes John C. Reilly, Sacha Baron Cohen, Gary Cole, David Koechner, Amy Adams, Leslie Bibb, Greg Germann and Jane Lynch.

7. Idlewild (August 25)
The Outkast guys have made a musical. There’s no shortage of potential pitfalls here but it’s interesting for the curiosity factor alone. It helps that there’s a solid supporting cast and it comes from HBO Films. At the very least we’re guaranteed the summer’s best soundtrack.

6. Lady in the Water (July 21)
The pretentious tagline "A Bedtime Story" and the rapidly declining quality of M. Night Shyamalan’s movies don’t do much to inspire confidence but casting Paul Giamatti and Bryce Dallas Howard in the lead roles (and Jeffrey Wright in key support) makes it instantly intriguing. Plus this is likely to be either Shyamalan’s redemption or his downfall, place your bets now.

5. World Trade Center (August 9)
United 93 is already a critical smash and another 9/11 movie a few months later might be just too much. But this is a different kind of story, Oliver Stone is a master filmmaker (or used to be at least) and Nicolas Cage, Michael Pena, Maria Bello and Maggie Gyllenhaal make for a great core cast.

4. Little Miss Sunshine (July 28)/Half Nelson (August 11)
Two movies that built their buzz at Sundance. Sunshine became a big deal when it sold for the most money—partly because its cast includes Greg Kinnear, Toni Collette and, most importantly, Steve Carell—while Nelson caused a smaller stir but puts Ryan Gosling back in cinemas, where he belongs (and throws in promising actor Anthony Mackie as a bonus). It’s a good bet these will best most summer offerings, quality-wise.

3. X-Men: The Last Stand (May 26)
After two movies X-Men is the best comicbook franchise going and even though hacky Brett Ratner is at the helm this time I’m still excited to see what goes down in the third installment.

2. The Science of Sleep (August 18)
This might’ve topped the list if it wasn’t for a few troubling observations in some early reviews. There’s a fine line between quirky-enjoyable and quirky- appalling and director Michel Gondry has been on both sides before (the right side with Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and the wrong side with Human Nature). Now he’s made a movie without screenwriter Charlie Kaufman but with Gael Garcia Bernal, one of the best international leading men in the business. This is sure to be one of summer’s biggest small movies and I hope it’s one of the best.

1. Mission: Impossible III (May 5)
Yeah I know, Tom Cruise is crazy and I’m not supposed to be excited about this but as far as pure summer popcorn movies go this is the big one for me. I really like both previous Mission films (you’re forgiven if you don’t) and I’m excited to see what JJ Abrams does with his first movie (and whether it can match some of his excellent television work on Lost and Alias). There’s also the best cast ever assembled for a Mission outing. It opens next Friday so we’ll find out fast. Then it’s four long months till fall…