Summer, Summer, Summertime

I'm ready to go to the movies.

I'm always get a little excited when this time of the year comes around. I'm somewhat of a movie enthusiast and summertime is when the studios release their big budget, flashy movies. Big budgets don't equal good movies. They often equal fun movies however. Summertime movies are "wow" movies. It's Hollywood showing off what it can do. Like magicians, they conference for months on doing amazing illusions and performing dazzling slights of hand to better make your money and time disappear. Most of the time it happens. Last year they got caught slipping and failed to make anything worth seeing. Fantastic 4? You poor rich bastids. I could tell that movie was gonna suck ass before the previews.

I feel sorry for them having such a tough year last year because honestly I want to get got. Of all the things I waste my money on seeing a good movie bothers me the least. I get more upset spending money on food than a movie (this is just for the summertime though). In the summer it's hot, work is stressful and all I need is to be entertained for a few hours. I can stop being a warrior in the struggle for a couple hours.

I got a few scenes that remind me of the magic movies have. These scenes aren't necessarily from summer movies but they represent the things I go to movies for.

"You move like them." The Matrix.
For all the holes in the overall story I got the point of The Matrix. What I think they really did succeed at was creating a world in which the movie takes place. It was different from anything ever seen or even imagined by most people. When they went to rescue Morpheus they get into a fight on the rooftops with the Agents. Neo turns and empties his guns. The agent does an incredible dodge move so fast you see multiple images of him. Neo is empty. Stuck in the open. One on one. "Trinity help" Then boom. The greatest special effects moment on film. It was slow motion but they were moving and going backwards in a 3D the bullet trails flew by Neo. It came out of nowhere and changed all effects after it. That was truly amazing.

"I'm the police!" Training Day
Alonzo jumps off the screen in Training Day. To this day he's one of the most powerful characters I can remember in any movie. You can complain about how Denzel had to play a bad guy to get an Oscar and all you want but you can't deny how amazing he was in that movie. Better than Malcom X...well, I can have a serious conversation with you about that. You can pick any of he's numerous monologues in Training Day, I say the last rant because it was the culmination of the whole ride. He was a man all about control that lost control, lost everything, and was still clinging to his power. Desperately trying to hold on to himself. "What a mothaf*#$n day."

"Dash, run!" The Incredibles
Computer animation has destroyed traditional animation. The same thing happened when they invented the lighter. After it came out who was really still trying to rub sticks together? A Toy's Story caught everybody's attention and The Incredibles takes it that much further. Animated features give the creators a chance to control everything completely. The characters, pacing, lighting, music. It allows them to make perfect movies. This sequence on the island where they were trying to catch Dash was super hot to me. I was giggling like a little kid when he started running on water. A good animated movie should turn grown folks into kids. (P.S. I still make no apologies for taking that kid's seat. He knows who he is. Life lesson: Get there early, lil' man.)

Gladiator
No scene from Gladiator was any better than the next. It is one of the most well acted complete movies out there. It has action, a little romance, tragedy, triumph. It has everything. One of my favorite movies.

Only time will tell if any movie this year is added to the list of favorites. I'm looking forward to Superman, X Men 3, and The Proposition.

I'll have to come back and post a ghetto classics movie review.