Summer 2008 Film Preview

Read about the films Time Out is most looking forward to seeing over the coming months

Hancock
RELEASED July 2
The pitch: Will Smith stars in this action comedy as a bufooning, Superman-like action hero who, due to a series of high-profile blunders, has fallen out of favour with the public. But, as the post ‘Analyze This’ cinamatic climate dictates, Jason Bateman’s wisecracking PR guy is on hand to save the day.
Why we’re excited: Like a kindly old grandfather, you just can’t help but want to smother Will Smith in your greasy screen love, even though he seems to be desperate to carve out a niche as a futuristic action hero with films like ‘I Am Legend’ and ‘I, Robot’. We’re also very keen to see why it’s called ‘Hancock’ – it must be either a reference to the eighteenth-century Governor of Massachusetts and his famous signature on the United States Declaration of Independence, or the curmudgeonly British comedy legend.

What possibly go wrong? Well, as we saw with last year’s lamentable ‘Evan Almighty’, Comedy and huge effects budgets don’t mix. And with this being a Will Smith movie, it's bound to have a soppy ending.

Kung Fu Panda

RELEASED July 4
The Pitch: When lazy, kung fu obsessed panda Po is chosen to fulfil an ancient prophecy, he calls upon legendary martial arts experts The Furious Five to train him in the ways of the ancient Shaolin, with predictably slapstick results.

Why we’re excited: Despite rude commercial health, the talking animal cartoon genre has come in for something of a critical battering of late, thanks to underwhelming efforts like ‘Over the Hedge’ and ‘Madagascar’. Amazingly, advance word on ‘Kung Fu Panda’ has been almost uniformly superb, with particular attention paid to Jack Black and Dustin Hoffman’s voice work, the lush animated scenery and some apparently very witty dialogue. One for the kiddies, no doubt, but we’re certainly intrigued.

What could possibly go wrong? Three words: A. Shark. Tale.

The Mist
RELEASED July 4

The pitch: In this adaptation of Stephen King’s gripping novella, a mismatched group of New England small-towners are trapped inside the local supermarket when a supernatural fog rolls into town.

Why we’re excited: Director Frank Darabont ('The Shawshank Redemption', 'The Green Mile') isn’t doing anything new with this committed return to the old-school shocks of the classic creepy-crawly B-picture. But those expecting the knockabout thrills of, say, ‘Tremors’ might be taken aback: this is very much post 9/11 filmmaking, exploring America’s religious and cultural divide in unsubtle but startlingly bleak terms. And love it or loathe it, the ending is simply one of the most astounding in recent memory.

What could possibly go wrong? The film was far too unrelenting for American audiences, leading to an eight-month release delay over here. It seems unlikely British summer cinemagoers will find much to love in this stark, wintry vision.

My Winnipeg
RELEASED July 4

The pitch: If you only see one thunderously inventive portrait of malaise and cultural terrorism in small-town Canada this year…

Why we’re excited: Well, it’s directed by Guy Maddin for starters, a towering figure in the crazy world of cult cinema who has offered up such delights over the past twenty years as 1992’s ‘Careful’, 2002’s ‘Dracula: Pages from a Virgin's Diary’ and 2006’s ‘Brand Upon The Brain!’. Totally unique, casually witty and quietly moving, the film is a resplendent bricolage of archive footage, photography, dance and drama, propelled by Maddin’s own lunatic ramblings about his upbringing, his relationship with his family and bizarre, unfathomable bond to his hometown.

What could possibly go wrong? The film debuted at last year’s Toronto film festival to rapturous applause, we’ve seen it and we can tell you now, unless they re-cut the film in the interim, nothing but nothing can go wrong.

Mamma Mia!
RELEASED July 11

The pitch: A lavish Hollywood production of the popular musical about a bride trying to find her real father. The songs of ABBA feature heavily.

Why we’re excited: Well, excited is probably a little strong. Intrigued is better. This could be the annual quality Brit crowd-pleaser. The odd-couple pairing of Meryl Streep and Colin Firth could be interesting. Oh, and Pierce Brosnan’s in there as well. And the great Stellan Skarsgård too. And you may not want to admit it, but ABBA wrote some great pop songs in their day.

What could possibly go wrong? This doesn’t really scream ‘male demographic’! But that doesn’t seem to have harmed ‘Sex and the City’.

Wall-e
RELEASED July 18

The pitch: Far into the future, Planet Earth has become a festering refuse pile, an intergalactic landfill. Its only sentient inhabitant is chirpy cleanup robot Wall-e, an isolated soul whose dream of companionship and adventure is about to be fulfilled…

Why we’re excited: Despite disappointing with their repellent dayglo Yankee-doodle nightmare ‘Cars’, Pixar bounced back pretty convincingly with ‘Ratatouille’, and early trailers for' Wall-e' look fine: beautifully designed, eyepoppingly spectacular and engagingly simplistic. And the film is almost entirely dialogue-free, so none of that infuriating ‘I recognise that voice!’ brain-wracking that so often accompanies modern celeb-studded cartoons.

What could possibly go wrong? It’s already been noted how much Wall-e resembles ‘Short Circuit’'s Johnny 5: let’s hope his inventor doesn’t turn out to be a Z-list TV actor in brownface doing Goodness-Gracious-Me impersonations.

The Dark Knight
RELEASED July 25

The pitch: The streets of Gotham will burn again as Christian Bale’s brooding Batman comes face to face with his ultimate nemesis, Heath Ledger’s scarred and psychopathic Joker.

Why we’re excited: The trailers look fabulous, particularly the late Ledger’s giddy, deeply unsettling performance as the ultimate cartoon villain. The design is, of course, spectacular, those dizzying Gotham cityscapes forming a claustrophobic backdrop to Chris Nolan’s explosively choreographed action sequences. The best supporting cast in recent memory – including Michael Caine, Morgan Freeman and Gary Oldman – are joined by the reliable Aaron Eckhart as Harvey ‘Two Face’ Dent and Maggie Gylenhaal replacing the Stepford Katie Holmes as the Bat’s new love interest.

What could possibly go wrong? For all its flash and vigour, ‘Batman Begins’ was a pretty dour affair, and it’d serve Nolan well to remember that this isn’t Dostoevsky, it’s an action movie about a guy dressing up as a giant bat to fight crime. It’s supposed to be fun.

El Baño del Papa
RELEASED August 1

The pitch: A wry document of the Pope’s visit to a small Uruguayan village in the late 1980s, written and directed by Fernando Meirelles’ regular cinematographer, César Charlone and debut boy Enrique Fernández.

Why we’re excited: A popular hit at both the 2007 Cannes and London Film Festivals, Charlone and Fernández’s film is bittersweet tale about a family man trying desperately to subvert this once-in-a-lifetime situation into a way of making a few Pesos. As the visit of the Papal Father nears, César Troncoso’s desperate Beto exploits his meagre means (a push bike and some shady cohorts) to get his family out of their financial rut by building a public lavatory in his back yard. Directors like Merielles and Walter Salles created the sub-genre of Favella chic (with films like ‘Central Station’ and ‘City of God’), and this is a lovely and pleasingly different addition to that impressive cannon.

What could possibly go wrong? Audiences could work out this the film’s title translates as the none-too-elegant, ‘The Pope’s Toilet’. Yet, there could be some people actually impelled by that (there’s all sorts out there!).

Man On Wire
RELEASED August 1

The pitch: Thrilling documentary about French wirewalker Phillipe Petit who walked between the roofs of New York’s World Trade Center towers in 1974.

Why we’re excited: With his book ‘To Reach the Clouds’ released in 2002, we were reminded of Petit’s creative, thoughtful and effusive character, and his input to this film has been instrumental in properly portraying this  singular act. With detailed dramatised inserts used to show how he carried out this death-defying (and totally illegal) stunt, this is documentary pitched as action thriller, a poetic and philosophically caustic vision of what it means to toy with death and an examination ino the nature of entertainment. Plus, it’s directed by Brit James Marsh who made the mordantly funny ‘Wisconsin Death Trip’ (1999).

What could possibly go wrong? Well, some viewers might not buy into the idea this stunt was a form of personal expression and spiritual enlightenment. It’s just some bloke walking on a wire. What’s so spiritual about that?


The X-Files: I Want to Believe
RELEASED August 1

The pitch: Six years after the FBI shut them down, agents Mulder and Scully are back on the case. Eschewing the complex and increasingly daft mythology of the original series and ‘Fight the Future’ movie, this promises to be a standalone story in the tradition of classic TV episodes.

Why we’re excited: For all its many flaws (impenetrable plot convolutions, too many characters, general silliness) the show was rarely less than entertaining, and featured a genuinely likeable central pairing in David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson. And with creator Chris Carter back on board, coupled with a general air of something-to-prove (plus the inevitable and long-awaited Mulder-Scully hookup), lets hope this is more than just an extended TV episode with bells on.

What could possibly go wrong? Quite a bit. The first big question: does anyone care, besides UFO nerds and nostalgia buffs? Even if the film’s good, it may still sink beneath the weight of public indifference. And that’s a mothership-sized ‘if’: its hard to remember the last time anyone involved really knocked one out of the park.

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