Theater or Renter: May 2010

Theater or Renter: May 2010 includes five SF movies Iron Man 2, Robin Hood, Shrek Forever After, Prince of Persia, Survival of the Dead.  Will we watch? Will we rent? or do we even care?

Rules of the Game: Watch the trailers. Rate the Trailer. Then share with us your comments: does the movie, it’s trailer and buzz make you want to watch it in the theater, rent it, or not interested at all, and why?

Iron Man 2:

Release Date: May 7th

Listed as:  Action, Superhero Film

Studio:  Marvel Studios

Director:  Jon Favreau

Produced by:  Kevin Feige, Avi Arad, Susan Downey

Written by:  Justin Theroux

Stars:  Robert Downey Jr., Don Cheadle, Mickey Rourke, Gwyneth Paltrow, Scarlett Johansson, Sam Rockwell, Samuel L. Jackson

The Plot / Story: Sequel to Iron Man it's six months latter.  The world is aware that billionaire inventor Tony Stark is the armored Super Hero Iron Man.  Under pressure from the government, the press and the public to share his technology with the military, Tony is unwilling to divulge the secrets behind the Iron Man armor because he fears the information will slip into the wrong hands.  With Pepper Potts and James "Rhodey" Rohdes at his side, Tony forges new alliances and confronts powerful new forces, Whiplash and Justin Hammer.(Wikipedia) (The Official Site)

• Theater:  I will have to watch this in the theater because the first Iron Man

  

  was so good.  I have great concerns about this movie based on the Terrence Howard scandal and advertising.  I'm very unhappy with switching Rohdey from Terrence Howard to Don Cheadle.  This looks like a repeat of the first movie but with two Iron mans in it and multiple iron mongers as villains.  They even went to the point of making a rival weapons merchant who wants to do Tony Stark in through the business world, hrmmm sounds familiar.  Here is hoping that I am wrong.

Robin Hood:

Release Date: May 14th

Listed as:  Action, Drama, Fantasy

Studio:  Universal Pictures

Director:  Ridley Scott

Produced by: Brian Grazer, Ridley Scott, Russell Crowe

Written by:  Screenplay: Brian Helgeland   Story: Brian Helgeland, Ethan Reiff, Cyrus Voris

Stars:  Russell Crowe, Cate Blanchett, Matthew Macfadyen, Mark Strong, Oscar Isaac, Kevin Durand, Mark Addy, William Hurt, Danny Huston, Max von Sydow

The Plot / Story: It is late 12th century England and Sir Robin Longstride, Earl of Huntington, has returned to his northern English village after fighting in the Third Crusade. Upon arrival, the nobleman and his servant discover the oppression caused by the new Sheriff of Nottingham. Sir Robin uses his intelligence  and military skills to free his home village from tyranny and corruption in England, by taking back what is rightfully his, and by taking back what rightfully is theirs, to restore justice and happiness to England. Robin must also win the affection of the recently widowed Lady Marian while leading his Merry Men of Sherwood Forest to victory and fairness. (Wikipedia) (The Official Site)

• Renter:  This looks like they are just trying desperately to capitalize off of gladiator and I'm not a big fan Russell Crow or his movies.  On the plus side: Cate Blanchett, William Hurt and a movie with sword play in it.  This is probably a renter though if I have time or the early reviews turn out to be good I may switch to Theater.

Shrek Forever After:

Release Date:  May 21

Listed as: Fantasy, Comedy

Studio: DreamWorks Animation

Director:  Mike Mitchell

Produced by:  Gina Shay, Teresa Cheng, Andrew Adamson, Aron Warner, John H. Williams

Written by:  Josh Klausner, Darren Lemke, Ryan Harris

Stars:  Mike Myers, Eddie Murphy, Cameron Diaz, Antonio Banderas, Walt Dohrn, Julie Andrews, Justin Timberlake

The Plot / Story: After all of his adventures, Shrek has become a domesticated family ogre. Instead of scaring villagers away as he used to, Shrek agrees to autograph pitchforks. Longing for the days when he felt like a "real ogre", Shrek is tricked into signing a pact with the smooth-talking deal maker, Rumpelstiltskin.  After signing the contract, Shrek discovers he has been tricked, and the day Rumpelstiltskin took out of Shrek's life was the day that he was born-meaning that he never existed.  Now, stuck in a twisted alternate version of Far Far Away where he has to gather the gang and fix everything. (Wikipedia) (The Official Site)

• Theater:  I have loved all of the Shrek movies and expect to really enjoy this as well.

Prince of Persia:

Release Date: May 21

Listed as:  action, adventure, fantasy

Studio:  Walt Disney Pictures

Director:  Mike Newell

Produced by:  Jerry Bruckheimer

Written by:  Jordan Mechner, Boaz Yakin

Stars:  Jake Gyllenhaal, Gemma Arterton, Ben Kingsley, Alfred Molina

The Plot / Story: Based on the game Prince Of Persia.  Dastan is a street urchin in 6th century Persia. Adopted by the king as his heir after showing valor in battle in hopes of keeping the king’s two sons from fighting over the throne.  Dastan teams up with Princess Tamina  to rescue the Sands of Time, a gift from the gods that controls time, from the hands of the villainous nobleman, Nizam.(Wikipedia) (The Official Site)

• Theater: Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time only caught a passing interest from me.  Movies based on games tend to be a hit and miss venture.  Add to that Disney's involvement and this project had caution written all over it, that is until I watched the trailer above.  I’m now excited about Prince of Persia.  The effects looks good.  I like the use of a broader variety of weaponry especially the more exotic ones.  The trailer does a nice job of setting up the back and forth between Dastan and Princess Tamina, even if a bit cliche.

Survival of the Dead:

Release Date:  May 21

Listed as:  Zombie movie

Studio: Independent Production

Director:  George A. Romero

Produced by:  Paula Devonshire

Written by:  George A. Romero

Stars:  Alan van Sprang, Kenneth Welsh, Kathleen Munroe, Athena Karkanis

The Plot / Story: It's a desperate, nightmarish world where the dead walk the earth, relentlessly attacking the living. Plum Island is a beautiful refuge whose isolation allows two powerful families to maintain a semblance of order in the wake of the zombie apocalypse. Over time the two clans become sharply divided: The O'Flynns believe that the undead must be destroyed without exception, while the Muldoons insist that afflicted loved ones be kept "alive" until a cure is found. Added unto this situation wander a small group of National Guard soldiers who, after robbing the protagonists of the previous film, have decided to strike out on their own in an effort to survive.  Survival of the Dead follows the thieving National Guardsmen characters who briefly appeared in Diary of the Dead.  (Wikipedia) (The Official Site)

• Renter:  working against this movie is that it's a zombie flick which has been done to undead and like the creatures they feature just won't go away and give me a rest.  That said it's a George A. Romero movie, this is a huge plus.  Romero created the zombie genera and the best zombie movies.  This may be enough to move this movie to theater status and at least makes it a renter.

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