For every summer flick like Elysium, a sci-fi creation starring Matt Damon and Jodie Foster from Neill Blomkamp, the man behind District 9, we also get Smurf 2, four Disney animated offerings, and a bunch of “this worked once before, let’s see if it will work again now” offerings. Think The Internship, which reunites Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughan in a “this sounds horribly predictable” comedy romp that’s trying to rekindle the magic of Wedding Crashers.
The problem is that Wedding Crashers came out in 2005 and nothing either of these two have done independently has been very good. We’re not sure how teaming them again eight years after the fact is going to rectify that situation.
While there are certainly some movies coming out this summer that will be successful and draw copious amounts of people into the comfortable seating at their local sticky-floored film house, there is a distinct lack of the kind of cool and original ideas that really makes going to the movies worth the $47.95 it costs.
As much as the quality original works are usually saved for Oscar Season, would it be too much to ask to get an Inception or a Little Miss Sunshine? How about an American Beauty, The Usual Suspects, or The Fighter?
Hell, at this point, there are probably lots of people who would settle for a Jerry Maguire or Almost Famous rather than dig in their pockets to see Fast and Furious 6: Even Faster and Far More Furious. We don’t just need explosions, and formulaic comedies with a healthy dose of dick-and-fart jokes, and some boobs mixed in on the side.
Network television kept feeding us repetitive, recycled drivel and we all went flocking to premium cable.
Take the hint, Hollywood: if you’re going to roll out a ton of the old standbys, give us some quality, original works in the summertime too.
