Week of 7/5/03 News Column
Series I, Issue III
July 5, 2003
Movieereviews Weekly
From Rater #2
Already, the sensation summer sequels are in theaters. In fact, I think that this year is a new record: at least one movie each week is a sequel, remake, or based on a Disney ride. Starting prematurely in May, X2: X-Men United worked its way into theaters, to prepare audiences for the frenzy of sequels. Although that turned out to be lackluster, surprisingly, a family film, Daddy Day Care did surprisingly well. The most anticipated movie of the summer, The Matrix Reloaded, didn't even arrive at its goal, $300 million, which they thought they could reach easily. This showed the way for other movies, and although most movies will do well on their opening weekend, they won't enjoy continued success.
I think the most surprising movie of the summer was Bruce Almighty. I don't think anyone was expecting much out of it, maybe up to $100 million total, but after an amazing opening weekend, it's still going strong and has about $250 million. However, you know what this means: Bruce Almighty 2 in two years! Finding Nemo was like shooting fish in a barrel, while although it's not gathering teenagers, as Monsters, Inc. did, it's still doing very well. It had help because the only other family film, Daddy Day Care, was basically out of theaters.
Beginning the full-fledged crap of worthless sequels is 2 Fast 2 Furious, a horrible addition to the not-so-grand movie season of 2003. At least prequel Dumb and Dumberer: When Harry Met Lloyd didn't do well. However, the real winner of the summer so far was The Hulk, Ang Lee's masterpiece. Although it's going the route of most summer blockbusters, first week good, second week big drop, it's still an amazing film. It's one of the biggest love it/hate it movies.
Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle will soon fade from memory (thank God), but Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines is a memorable addition to the successful Terminator series. Pirates of the Caribbean looks to be the worst movie since The Country Bears. Not only is it based on a friggin' Disney ride (if you know me, you know my hatred of Disney), but it has a big budget, and will attract teen girls because of Orlando Bloom, overnight success. Seabiscuit will probably do well for the people looking for a good drama.
American Wedding, the last in the crude series, will be yet another big hit, and people will see Gigli just because J-Lo is a lesbian in it. S.W.A.T. is another classic TV show to movie, and yet again it looks like crap. It won't even do that well! Freddy vs. Jason looks like a tongue-in-cheek horror film, it may not be that bad.
If you're like me, you'll stay at home and rent good movies for the next two months until it's safe to come out and go to the theaters to see quality films.
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