Summer Prevoos

By BRIGHT-YOUNG-THING BABY

01 June 2011

Well, as I sit and write, the summer season has already kicked off with some big guns: Thor, Fast Five & Rio are already making a gazillion dollars around the world. And, as I have missed all of them, I shall give you the Googoo Times' first summer pre-voo instead of the usual revoo.

The Hits.
The biggest sure fire hit this summer is Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2. Part 1 may not have been the action fest it was trailered as, but it did mark a huge rise in quality. Drama, acting, script and stakes ticked all the boxes. With high profile characters biting the dust in Part 2 and the expected 'Battle of Hogwarts' providing a knock-out finale, Potter fever is set to peak!

Trading in on its predessessor's lively word of mouth, the Hangover 2 can only be huge, if only by default. Can lightning strike twice by simply moving the same scenario to a different city? Mega bucks aside, I doubt it.

Expect the same default hit with Chris Evans as Captain America. Making the film a semi-period flick certainly gives it edge. But let's face it, it's propaganda in a latext suit. If Americans don't see it, they will burned as un-American. Don't expect the same patriotic fevour in the Middle East or Asia.

Bridesmaids will win the ladies' vote this summer, while Jim Carrey looks like he's having fun in an adaptation of Mr Popper's Penquins, guaranteeing some high profile hi-jinx for the kids.

My last 'hit' of the summer may just be me being optimistic. Having just given us the great Kickass, Matthew Vaughn's X-Men: 1st Class looks ace. But can Vaughn juggle all those characters? A million 'character trailers' worry me. But anything has got to be better than Wolverine.

The Misses.

Cars 2. Made off the back of merchandising (the first film wasn't hugely sucessful at cinemas), I can't get excited about this. A good testing ground for Pixar sequels though.

Same goes for Kung Fu Panda 2. An unexpected hit before, the novelty can only ware off.

With re-shoots and even more trailers than X-Men, studio confidence doesn't seem high in Green Lantern. Ryan Reynolds looks the part, but each trailer tries to give the film a new identity. I'm no longer interested in which one is right.

With no trailers at all, I can only assume Fox are making belated Planet of the Apes sequel, Rise of the Apes, as a tax write-off after Avatar made too much profit.

Why bother?
Each summer brings some expected duds and remakes. I can only classify the following titles under the category of 'why even bother'? Conan, Smurfs and Zookeeper all look s***.

The same applies to the tired Pirates of the Carribean series. On Stanger Tides may have finally disposed of Bloom and Knightley (thank God), but after two poor sequels, I can't see number 4 rousing the same interest as before.

Wild Cards
Hopefully these titles will be the summer's gems, if the risks pay off. Super 8, I shall not ruin for you all. Produced by JJ Abrams and Spielberg and directed by the Cloverfield helmer - JUST WATCH THE TRAILER! If you don't get goose pimples watching it (turn the sound up), there's something wrong with you.

Cowboy's and Aliens should provide some original cross genre entertainment, if people get it. Jon Favereau may have given us Iron Man, but Joss Whedon gave us Buffy - and no one saw his sci-fi western Serenity in 2005. I do hope audiences have changed.

After the lousy first installment and the embarrassing sequel, Transformers 3 looks mind-numbingly bombastic. After apologising so many times for number two (get the gag), Michael Bay seems to have pulled his finger out. It's only a wild card in the sense of can the quality have improved that much?

Art House
Having won big at Cannes and featuring Brad Pitt, Tree of Life marks another picture from Terrence Malich. He makes a film once every five years if we're lucky. So don't miss it!

Meloncholia should at least be interesting, as Lars Von Trier's failures are more absorbing than most directors' successes.

And just because he hasn't had a hit in a while, Woody Allen's latest is getting great reviews. Midnight in Paris is out in July.

Out.