Say, it’s looking like a fun summer for movies. Check it out:

• I, Robot, starring Wil Smith. I watched the trailer about five times. Rating: Extremely Awesome. Having never read the novel, I’m not sure how close the movie sticks to the story, although I’m guessing not very close. Still, this looks like the kewlest addition to the Smith corpus in a while.
• Troy. This is probably a movie to see with the wife rather than the brother. No particular reason why.
• The Day After Tomorrow. So what if MoveOn.org and Al Gore are frothing at the mouth and using it as a propaganda piece to support their environmental policies? It looks like an awesome disaster flick, okay? Although I think when climatologists speak of “rapid” climate change, though, they mean decades, not days. Even so, they seem to be able to live with the bad science if it means people will think climatology is cool for a few weeks.
• Spider Man 2. Like I even need to mention this. Please.
• The Manchurian Candidate. Yet Another Summer Remake, but it will be reason enough for me to see the original, even if I never catch the new version on the big screen. And cognizance of 40-year-old pop culture makes you look as smart as any high culture does anymore, so this is totally win-win.
• Thunderbirds. What was I saying about pop culture from 40 years ago? How about pop culture from 40 years ago that I can share with my kids? I’ll buy some subset of the original series (which HBO never showed enough of when I was a boy), show my kids what marionettes can really be, then take the boy to see this one. What a wonderful time to be alive.
• Man On Fire. Another fun-looking Denzel Washington remake of a remake (of a remake). Probably a rental, but I wouldn’t complain if I found myself watching it in a theater.
• Around The World In 80 Days. Another period Jackie Chan flick. Probably a rental, but sign me and my wife up. Looks like huge fun.
• Van Helsing. This is already making its splash, and I must confess that it looked like gobs of undead-creature-killing fun. I may still catch it, but I am cautioned by local critic Robert Dennerstein, who wasn’t feeling it. And this is a guy who is not above having fun at the movies.
• Alien vs. Predator. Well, the can’t all look good. Eighteen summers ago, when Sean, Paul, Mike and I regularly walked across the field behind my house, crossed Chambers, and paid $3.50 (just $0.15 more than an hour’s work at minimum wage!) to see movies at the Cooper 5, we would have been all over this. Since I’m not 14 any more, I’ll probably skip it.

P.S. Did I really put this entry in the “Culture” category? It seems that I did. Thus is pop culture included in the definition…

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• Posted by Tim on Wednesday, May 12, 2004 at 7:40:15 am PDT
• Category: Culture
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