comment #1

Rich S. says ...

So, is WALL*E pretty much going to have June to itself?

comment #2

Rich S. says ...

Sorry, didn't know WALL*E was opening so late. Still, it looks like the best of the bunch until Batman comes out.

comment #3

Dublin101 says ...

Is anybody here turned off by The Happening because of Walberg? He lacks the charisma to play conventional, bland leading parts. I find it hard to buy him as a decent concerned father, an everyman. He's always been more convincing when he plays the part of a tough guy, preferably in a supporting role

I enjoyed his work in the Departed and I Love Huckabees. He's at his best when he's playing those edgy thuggish characters. But for me he's just not an engaging lead actor and that is a big part of the reason for my plan to skip The Happening.

comment #4

Mark says ...

Poor Hulk. Couldn't even make the June crap list. My question is what the ceiling is for an Adam Sandler comedy vehicle that is actually funny; since the unfunny ones all tend to bring in $140 million.

comment #5

Michael says ...

I think you're reading too much into this. I'd bet money it's some punk-ass tagger with time on his hands (/redundant). How he is an elite malcontent, I have no idea. I've been to NYC...not everyone there is elite, believe me.

comment #6

Zimmergirl says ...

"But what it tells you, I believe, is that the elite malcontents out there have picked up on the Happening vibe and are quietly massing against Shyamalan. "

Is that really what it tells you? To me it says: guys are obsessed with dicks. Full stop.

comment #7

p.Vice says ...

Are you implying that you're not, Zim? Or perhaps that no female would dare to deface a subway movie poster?

I love how this movie is getting razzed up and down yet nobody's seems to care that, however bad it may be, it won't be as idiotic as Get Smart or Love Guru. Maybe because there was hope for this at one point whereas those were more or less bankrupt upon inception. Sad that the most vicious wrath is always reserved for those who try and fail instead of those who simply try to fail.

comment #8

T. S. Idiot says ...

"I've been to NYC...not everyone there is elite, believe me."

To what, sir, could you possibly be referring?

comment #9

actionman says ...

The Love Guru looks horrendous...I hope it bombs.

Get Smart actually looks like fun...and funny...hopefully it's good.

The latest buzz on Hulk has been pretty good, so here's hoping...

The Happening, despite the bad buzz, is still a film that I am interested in...

Wall-E looks AMAZING.

comment #10

Midwest Doug says ...

Every ad I've seen for Get Smart makes me cringe. Reeks of paycheck cashing, not cleverness or spontaneity.

comment #11

swordandpen says ...

Except for Wall-E, this month's movies look pretty horrible.

comment #12

JckNapier2 says ...

Re - P Vice. "Sad that the most vicious wrath is always reserved for those who try and fail instead of those who simply try to fail."

A lovely and a perfect summation of the current trend of bashing auteurs for going for broke, be it Shyamalan or The Washowskis.

The buzz on Get Smart since its inception was that it was a slapdash and lazy attempt to cash in on a brand name that few if any of the target demographic has ever heard of. The early scripts got terrible reviews and the initial trailers felt forced and desperate.

The film had and still has the whiff of assembly-line film making, probably more so than anything coming out this summer (according to an early script review I recall reading, female lead and romantic interest Agent 99 is the same age as 40-something Steve Carell, but she undergoes plastic surgery so she can look like demographically desirable 20-something Anne Hathaway).

Still, I'm expecting a decent opening weekend as the marketing campaign has been varied and saturation-level. It looks shiny and effortless and Carell, Hathaway, and Dayne 'The Rock' Johnson each have a small and solid fan base. Ironically, the same $38 million opening weekend that doomed Evan Almighty last year would probably seem like a healthy result for this (hopefully) cheaper and less pressured entry.

The Love Guru just looks atrocious and egotistical, and the buzz reflects as much. Myers has no goodwill left after trashing the Austin Powers series and defiling our childhood memories via The Cat And The Hat back in 2003. Heck, Myers hasn't had a solid live-action outing since the wonderful first Austin Powers picture, back in 1997 (to be fair, he was good in the studio-butchered '54').

So yes, of those three, I'll take Shyamalan's noble failure over Peter David's or Mike Myers' lazy success any day of the week.

comment #13

Howlingman says ...

Actually, except for WALL-E, the entire summer's movies look terrible. I plan to catch up on a lot of reading the next few months

comment #14

rgmax99 says ...

I'm actually looking forward to ALL the movies noted -- with the exception of The Love Guru. I have the feeling Get Smart will overcome its early bad buzz, and with the exception of Evan Almighty, Carell usually picks his projects well.
After an initial "wtf were they thinking reaction?" to Hulk, I was halfway interested after seeing the new trailer. Zohan looks fun, and Happening might fail completely, but trailer looks interesting. Of course, WALL-E is a given.

comment #15

actionman says ...

The Dark Knight, Hancock, X-Files, Pineapple Express, Wall-E, and Tropic Thunder are the stand-outs for me for the rest of the season

I'm hoping that Wanted and Get Smart deliver some fun as well.

The Happening, despite the bad buzz, is still looking interesting to me. I was fine with the first Hellboy so maybe the sequel will be cool too.

comment #16

Bocephus says ...

I, for one, thought the defaced poster was hilarious.

comment #17

Roman says ...

f you though this was funy wait for what they'll do with "Hancock".

comment #18

Undercover Brother says ...

Guru, Happening, Smart and Hulk are all going to be at best ** snores. Outright bombs at worst. Guru and Happening I'm looking at you. The kind of trite crap that Hollywood spends a grotesque amount of money on so that they can slowly bend you over your theater seat and bugger you. Wear steel trousers and stay home people. I don't know about you but I haven't missed Mike Myers one bit. I'd say publically flog Night if Happening is a disaster but that seems to have no effect on the man. Hulk looks like action movie tedium and Get Smart looks like a big piece of nothing. I say they all do $75-100 million.

comment #19

Terry McCarty says ...

Undercover Brother wrote:
I'd say publically flog Night if Happening is a disaster but that seems to have no effect on the man.

If Night's going from THE HAPPENING to directing a Paramount/Viacom/Nickelodeon adaptation, it sounds like he's put his finger to the wind and embarking on a director-for-hire-of-others'-material phase.

comment #20

scooterzz says ...

well, for what it's worth, i saw 'get smart' last week and found it to be a pretty painful experience....it seemed to me that the filmmakers forgot that what made the series so enjoyable was largely the personalities involved (including mel brooks and buck henry)..... here, they've assembled some ok actors, a lazy script, a few catch phrases and some gadgets.....by the producers own admission, brooks was too busy with 'young frankenstein' and henry too ill to do much more than sign off on it..........
most people at the screening i was at felt that 'get smart' made 'you don't mess with the zohan' look pretty good (and that's NOT a good thing)......

comment #21

D.Z. says ...

I'd be ok with the Wachowskis' recent effort, if it actually involved being less Matrixey and less homagey and more entertaining. If they were really being auteurs, they'd make original kiddie films like George Miller did with Babe and Happy Feet.

comment #22

DavidF says ...

I barely have an interest in The Happening ... Signs was the last film of Night's I saw in the theatre and it was okay. Like most people here, I think Unbreakable is underrated.

Get Smart would be 100% off my radar if not for my love of Carrell, appreciation of Ms Hathaway and, much to my constant surprise, The Rock. Still, I can't imagine seeing that movie.

Hulk and Love Guru are both mediocre looking films which I still hope will be good enough to see. I like Ed Norton, I think Mike Myers is a damned funny guy who has been doing crap lately, both movies were (very obviously) made in Toronto AND any movie which shows the Toronto Maple Leafs going for the Stanley Cup is sure to do business here where even a fantastic, vicarious experience will do at this point.

I don't see Sandler films, but, like Myers, think he can do better stuff. Apatow's involvement is enough to get me interested in Zohan, even though Rob Schneider is in it. (That dude must be a really nice guy given the way his friends keep giving him work...)

comment #23

D.Z. says ...

I also wanted to add that what's really sad is that the X Files sequel looks more interesting than The Happening, since Carter had more going against him(particularly being out of work for the better part of the decade) than Shyamalan.

comment #24

Peter T Chattaway says ...

FWIW, a friend of mine in Washington DC got an invite last Friday to a press screening on Tuesday the 10th ... and Lou Lumenick wrote at his blog yesterday that he just got an invite to a screening in New York on Tuesday the 10th, as well. But still no word in my neck of the woods.

comment #25

Mcflyboy says ...

I saw a screening of get smart last weekend. The first half is fast paced and pretty funny but the last act has too much poorly staged action and the laughs seem to stop. If you like what Carell does, you'll find enough there for me to recommend it. Hathaway looks better than ever and Rock "The Dwayne" Johnson is wasted. There is a surprise cameo from a comic legend. It's short but its hilarious. HINT: Prenup

Watching the MTV Movie Awards and seeing those shorts Mike Myers did reminded me how funny he can be when he's let loose with a good character. But Love Guru just looks so terrible.

comment #26

Adonis says ...

Somewhere Kal Penn is laughing...

comment #27

Poster Boy says ...

whoa calm down mike. don't get your conservative panties in a bunch. well, i guess if people like you are flipping out then I'm doing a good job. here's some more to jabber about: http://www.flickr.com/photos/26296445@N05/