Theater or Renter: July 2010

Theater or Renter: July includes seven SF movies The Twilight Saga: Eclipse, The Last Airbender, Despicable Me, Predators, The Sorcerer's Apprentice, Inception, and Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore.  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?

The Twilight Saga: Eclipse

Release Date: June 30

Listed as:  romantic-vampire

Studio:  Summit Entertainment

Director: David Slade

Produced by:  Wyck Godfrey, Karen Rosenfelt

Written by:  Melissa Rosenberg

Stars:  Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson, Taylor Lautner, Bryce Dallas Howard, Billy Burke, Xavier Samuel, Dakota Fanning

The Plot / Story: As Seattle is ravaged by a string of mysterious killings and a malicious vampire continues her quest for revenge, Bella once again finds herself surrounded by danger. In the midst of it all, she is forced to choose between her love for Edward and her friendship with Jacob — knowing that her decision has the potential to ignite the ageless struggle between vampire and werewolf. With her graduation quickly approaching, Bella has one more decision to make: life or death.  (Wikipedia) (The Official Site)

Not Interested:  The books bored me as did the first movie.  Why Twilight is Popular Video

The Last Airbender:

Release Date:  JULY 1

Listed as:  action-adventure, fantasy, film

Studio:  Paramount Pictures

Director:  M. Night Shyamalan

Produced by:  M. Night Shyamalan, Frank Marshall, Kathleen Kennedy, Sam Mercer, scott Aversano

Written by:  M. Night Shyamalan,

Stars:  Noah Ringer, Nicola Peltz, Dev Patel, Jackson Rathbone, Shaun Toub, Aasif Mandvi, Cliff Curtis

The Plot / Story: Based on the first season of the show The Book of Water Avatar The Last Airbender.  Air, Water, Earth, Fire. Four nations tied by destiny when the Fire Nation launches a brutal war against the others. A century has passed with no hope in sight to change the path of destruction. Caught between combat and courage, Aang discovers he is the lone Avatar with the power to manipulate all four elements. Aang teams with Katara a waterbender, and her brother, Sokka, to restore balance to their war-torn world.  (Wikipedia) (The Official Site)

Theater:  I love the series that this movie is based on.  The movie trailers looks great.  Other then the race bending possible issues I'm really looking forward to watching this movie.

Despicable Me:

Release Date:  JULY 9

Listed as:  Animated, fantasy

Studio:  Universal Studios

Director:  Pierre Coffin, Chris Renaud  Co-Director: Sergio Pablos

Produced by:  John Cohen, Janet Healy, Chris Meledandri

Written by:  Ken Daurio, Cinco Paul

Stars:  Steve Carell, Jason Segel, Russell Brand, Will Arnett, Kristen Wiig, Danny McBride, Miranda Cosgrove, Jack McBrayer, Mindy Kaling, Ken Jeong,
Jemaine Clement, Julie Andrews, Dana Gaier, Elsie Fisher, Dave Foley, Philip Bolden

The Plot / Story: In a happy suburban neighborhood surrounded by white picket fences with flowering rose bushes sits a black house with a dead lawn. Unbeknownst to the neighbors, hidden beneath this home is a vast secret hideout. The protagonist, Gru, is the #2 villain who wants to accomplish an unthinkable task with the help of his large army of minions and various gadgets. He attempts this while trying to outsmart his arch-rival, #1 super villain, Vector. He thinks he's found the perfect scheme when he decides to do the impossible: steal the moon itself. However, he meets three super small orphan girls who want him to become their dad. The world's greatest villain has just met his greatest challenge.  (Wikipedia) (The Official Site)

Renter:  At first I was excited about this Despicable Me but the trailers got old fast.  There are also several yellow flags with this project that make me cautious about watching this film.  Steve Carell is funny I really like him in the office but I have not cared for his other projects, universal studios animation project which tend to be ok and the incessant need to use 3d as a gimmick to force me into watching it in the theater and I can wait.

Predators:

Release Date:  JULY 9

Listed as:  science fiction, action, horror

Studio:  20th Century Fox

Director:  Nimród Antal

Produced by:  Robert Rodriguez, John Davis, Elizabeth Avellan

Written by:  Michael Finch, Alex Litvak

Stars:  Adrien Brody, Laurence Fishburne, Topher Grace, Alice Braga, Danny Trejo, Walton Goggins, Oleg Taktarov, Mahershalalhashbaz Ali,

The Plot / Story: Royce, a mercenary who reluctantly leads a group of elite warriors who come to realize they’ve been brought together on an alien planet… as prey. With the exception of a disgraced physician, they are all cold-blooded killers mercenaries, Yakuza, convicts, death squad members human “predators” that are now being systemically hunted and eliminated by a new breed of alien Predators.  (Wikipedia) (official site)

Theater:  I'm an old school fan of the Predator movies not so much of a fan of all the recent attempts at reboots.  That said this one looks descent they kept the jungle feel.

The Sorcerer's Apprentice:

Release Date:  July 16

Listed as:  Sorcery, Fantasy, Adventure , Comedy film

Studio:  Walt Disney Pictures

Director:  Jon Turteltaub

Produced by:  Jerry Bruckheimer

Written by:  Screenplay: Doug Miro, Carlo Bernard, Matt Lopez  Screen story: Matt Lopez, Lawrence Konner, Mark Rosenthal  Poem: Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Stars:  Nicolas Cage, Jay Baruchel, Alfred Molina

The Plot / Story: A live-action re-imagining of the Mickey Mouse Sorcerer’s Apprentice segment in Disney’s Fantasia.  An average college student is reluctantly recruited to work for a sorcerer, who gives him a crash course in magic to prepare him for a battle against the forces of darkness in modern Manhattan.  (Wikipedia) (The Official Site)

Not Interested:  This project spits on the memory of Walt Disney.  He loved Fantasia, cherished it as his greatest achievement of merging music and visuals.  To turn part of it into a simple movie with cheep tricks and borrowed plot line from other contemporary movies is a horrible thing and I want no part of it.

Inception:

Release Date:  JULY 16th

Listed as:  sci-fi, action, thriller

Studio:  Warner Bros. Pictures

Director:  Christopher Nolan

Produced by:  Christopher Nolan, Emma Thomas

Written by:  Christopher Nolan

Stars:  Leonardo DiCaprio, Ken Watanabe, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Marion Cotillard, Ellen Page, Tom Hardy, Cillian Murphy, Dileep Rao, Tom Berenger, Michael Caine

The Plot / Story: Dom Cobb  is a skilled thief in the art of "extraction," stealing secrets from deep within the unconscious mind during the dream state, when the mind is at its most vulnerable. Cobb's rare ability has made him valuable in corporate espionage. In one last job, he must cause an "inception" – instead of stealing an idea, he must plant one. Christopher Nolan, the director of the movie, was quoted as saying "We don't do magic. Everything in Inception has a basis in reality, except for the technology".  (Wikipedia) (The Official Site)

Not Interested:  Premise is weak, the trailer boring and worst yet Christopher Nolan is all over this project.  He is a big red flag in any project.

Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore:

Release Date:  JULY 30

Listed as: Family, Fantasy

Studio:  Warner Bros. Pictures

Director:  Brad Peyton

Produced by:  Polly Cohen, Andrew Lazar, Greg Michael, Brent O'Connor

Written by:   Ron J. Friedman, Steve Bencich, John Requa, Glenn Ficarra

Stars:  Chris O’Donnell, Jack McBrayer, Fred Armisen, Paul Rodriguez, Christina Applegate, Michael Clarke Duncan, Neil Patrick Harris, Sean Hayes, James Marsden, Bette Midler, Nick Nolte, Joe Pantoliano, Katt Williams

The Plot / Story: Kitty Galore, a hairless Sphynx cat, grows tired of dogs and her own cat friends. So, she decides to take over the world. Diggs, a police dog, and his mentor, Butch, are selected by the Dogs HQ spy force to stop her. The cats join forces with with the dogs and get additional support from the birds to block Galore's scheme. Galore, meanwhile, has the help of the mice and hires the devious cat and antagonist from the first film, Mr. Tinkles.  (Wikipedia) (The Official Site)

Theater / Renter:  this is probably a renter for me but as previously confessed in My Dirty Secret Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore I'm a sucker for this movie.  The first in the series was really entertaining and funny.  Based on the trailers and promotional materials it looks like the second one has not lost that flavor.

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