June wasn’t bad. Most summer movies aren’t the rock ’em, sock ’em blockbusters that they used to be, but there’s still definite fun to be had, and in between keeping up this blog and making that ill-fated strawberry tart, it felt as if I was always running off to the theater.
And wow, it’s been a long time since I’ve seen so many features in one month. I got a couple of them for free, but most were lined up a month or two ago, so June was pretty planned out. Not that I’m complaining, though, because June’s movies were impressively varied this year. Rom-coms. Creature features. Horror. Even a western.
It was a little overwhelming, to be honest. There were some, like How To Train Your Dragon, that I couldn’t sum up much of an opinion of (Incidentally, the remake is fun, but I like the original best. Gerard Butler as Hiccup’s dad kinda gave me 300 flashbacks). Others, like Dangerous Animals and The Phoenician Scheme, I had too much of an opinion of and that wasn’t necessarily a good thing.
I know this all sounds boring, but we’ve had a quiet summer so far. Gas prices are insane in California, plus my son is taking art history for summer school so we’re not doing very much. Here’s hoping for a day trip to the beach or something before I start working again.
Anywhoo, here are my five for June. It was hard to rank these because I graded most of them around the same, so except for the last two, these are in no particular order. As usual, click on the images for the reviews…
Materialists
Matchmaker Lucy is good at planning out other people’s lives, or at least she hopes she is, and she knows she wants to marry rich. Things get complicated at the wedding of two of her clients when she meets the intriguing (and very rich) Henry and runs into her ex, John.
Who remembers the last time they saw a rom-com? They seem to be pretty rare in Hollywood’s A-list lineups nowadays, or maybe relegated to the arthouse scene, so Materialists makes this list just for novelty alone. Dakota Johnson and Chris Evans have good chemistry and their characters obviously have a history.
The problem is that romance holds these characters at arm’s length more often than not, and some of the comedy lands with a thud. On the bright side, there’s a lot of sound deconstruction of relationships in the modern world, but sooner or later, as the saying goes, something’s gotta give.
The Life of Chuck
This was Cinemark’s Secret Movie for June, and while I’m not a fan of Mark Hamill, who plays a grandpa, or Stephen King, who produced the film and wrote the source material, I was pleasantly surprised. Tom Hiddleston plays a wonderfully sensitive part, and the dance sequence he does with Karen Gillan is magical.
What also makes this movie unique is that the story moves backwards, starting with what seems to be the setup for the end of the world, with posters of some guy named Chuck everywhere. While life seems to be disintigrating, everyone wonders who Chuck is.
Well, the movie tells us, but I’m not sure I agree with how it handles certain issues, or the needless political posturing in the first third, and I don’t want to say too much because I don’t want to spoil anything. Overall, it’s a very enjoyable movie and one that bears thinking about.
Deep Cover
When an improv teacher, Kat, gets sucked into a sting operation along with two of her students, Marlon and Hugh, the three of them have to talk fast just to stay alive and not blow their cover. It gets weird. It gets pretty hard-core. It gets pretty awkward when Kat runs into her college roommates.
Orlando Bloom is the standout here. Seriously. He rocks every scene he’s in, even when he’s not doing anything, and I’m not saying that because I had a mad crush on the guy once upon a time. His character gets a lot thrown at him, and there are a few vigorous nods at Bloom’s early career.
I just wish the movie was funnier. While it does have quite a few laughs and is entertaining all the way through, it seems afraid to explore the possible absurdity of the story, which is a shame because the bad guys in this movie aren’t the sharpest tools in the shed. Still, it’s all fairly respectable.
28 Years Later
I don’t know about anyone else, but I tend to go on a case-by-case basis with zombies, mostly because gore and dismemberment are guaranteed. 28 Days Later, though, flies in the face of stereotypical zombie movies because it looks and sounds like found footage, with Cillian Murphy’s character as our conduit in a new world. It might be gory, but it’s also fascinating.
Years skips over the second movie, Weeks, and gets back to basics, except that the found footage look of the film is gone. We don’t miss it all that much, though, because there’s a compelling story and great performances, especially from Alfie Williams, who plays Spike. There’s a ton of icky stuff, of course, some of it unnecessary, but overall the movie is well-done.
It also gets points for its exceedingly random ending that had people talking as soon as the movie released. Oh muh word. No, I’m not going to ruin it.
Karate Kid: Legends
June started off on a high with a return to the Karate Kid franchise, and while this movie hits a few false notes, it feels like a nice bookend to the series. Jackie Chan and Ralph Macchio pay loving tribute to the late, great Pat Morita by teaching the very talented Ben Wang how to blend kung fu with Miyagi-do karate, and we see some familiar faces along the way.
I was very pleasantly surprised to see Joshua Jackson playing pizzeria owner Victor, a former boxing champion who needs to settle a score. Jackson’s delivery is always note-perfect and it’s hilarious to see the younger set refer to the former Pacey Witter as old even though he isn’t. We Gen-Xers are hardly at death’s door, thank you. 🙂
Yes, the movie has some story issues and some elements get a wee bit hokey, but I had such a good time that I didn’t care.
What are some of the movies you saw this month? Leave a comment below! Another post is coming out on Monday, so thanks for reading, all, and I hope to see you then…
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