Matt’s Summer Movie Series

Hello there. I know, I know, you’re looking for another entry regarding some lame thing that happened in m life or my opinion of some sporting event. Well, if you came for that, I am sorry to disappoint. Instead, I have decided to start a little movie review series.

It all started when I was looking through my Entertainment Weekly magazine that gave “all the buzz on 115 new films” for the summer. After reading through the movies, I thought to myself, I want to see a lot of these. And for once, I’ll be home in Columbus to watch them with my friends who are movie aficionados. So, I made a list of movies that I want to see each week. Then it dawned on me, why not share my opinion of these movies with the general public? Not like I’m ever afraid to share my opinion. So, here goes. The list of 20 movies I plan on reviewing are:

(Release Date in Parentheses)

(May 4) Spiderman 3 – Tobey Maguire, Kirsten Dunst
(May 11) 28 Weeks Later – Rose Byrne, Robert Carlyle [Sequel to 28 Days Later]
(May 18) Shrek The Third – Voices of Mike Myers, Cameron Diaz, Eddie Murphy
(May 25) Pirates of the Caribbean: At Worlds End – Johnny Depp, Orlando Bloom
(June 1) Knocked Up – Seth Rogen, Katherine Heigl [By creator of The 40-Year Old Virgin]
(June 8) Ocean’s Thirteen – George Clooney, Brad Pitt
(June 15) Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer – Jessica Alba, Michael Chiklis
(June 22) Evan Almighty – Steve Carell, Morgan Freeman
(June 27) Live Free or Die Hard – Bruce Willis, Justin Long
(June 29) Ratatouille – Voices of Brad Garrett, Patton Oswalt
(July 4) Transformers – Josh Duhamel, Shia LeBeouf
(July 4) License To Wed – Robin Williams, Mandy Moore
(July 20) I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry – Adam Sandler, Kevin James
(July 27) The Simpsons Movie – Voices of Dan Castellaneta, Nancy Cartwright [OU Alum]
(August 3) The Bourne Ultimatum – Matt Damon, Julia Stiles
(August 3) Resurrecting The Champ – Josh Hartnett, Samuel L. Jackson
(August 10) Rush Hour 3 – Chris Tucker, Jackie Chan
(August 17) Superbad – Seth Rogen, Bill Hader
(August 24) The Comebacks – Matthew Lawrence, Carl Weathers
(August 24) Good Luck Chuck – Jessica Alba, Dane Cook

I know what you are thinking…there’s no way you are going to see all these movies, especially at $7.50 each (Quick math: $150) Well, trust me, I know. I’m just hoping to hit half of these movies. I want to see most of them on release weekend to give people less time to ruin it for me with their jabber. Not only that, but my rule of not seeing movies before seeing their predecessors may be in jeopardy, especially with all the trilogies this summer. So, for my first review (speaking of trilogies), I begin with…

SPIDERMAN 3
Directed by Sam Raimi
Starring Tobey Maguire, Kirsten Dunst, James Franco, Topher Grace, Thomas Hayden Church, Bryce Dallas Howard


I’ve been waiting a long time to see this movie. I loved the first one, loved the second one even more, and then sweated in anticipation for the third. The critics were giving it a hard time, but hell, they gave Hardball a hard time too and that’s my second favorite movie of all time.
Unfortunately though, the critics got this one right.
The movie is just too damn complex for a comic book superhero action flick. There’s not one, not two, but three bad guys during the movie. Not to mention Howard’s character which acts as a roadblock in the Peter Parker – Mary Jane Watson relationship. No normal movie-goer needs that many things going on in their head. It’s sad but the best metaphor I can come up with to describe the storylines is a web. One strand led to another, then went around aimlessly, connected to another, etc… In other words, it was confusing at times.
The three bad guys were all interesting, but come on, two is already pushing it. Franco’s character frustrated me the entire movie. Either be a good guy or bad guy. I could never read him…which was probably the point, but still, for the sake of my brain about to blow up, I could’ve done without his “accident”. It also probably could’ve saved about 20 minutes of the movie.
Church’s character of the Sandman was cool in terms of special effects but in everything else, he was pretty much worthless throughout the entire movie. His character would die and come back multiple times. He would reappear in the movie in 30-minute spurts. I mean, even people in the movie theater moaned when they saw him come back for the third time. Get the hint Sandman, no one likes you in this movie. Maybe in Spidey 4 but Spidey 3 already had enough bad guys. Props to Church though…he plays a great bad guy with a good heart. The ending proves this…you’ll hafta judge for yourself though.
Grace made this movie fun for me. I bet a lot of people will find him annoying but I thought his Eddie Brock character was great. He was abrasive, sleazy and downright rude. You know, all you wanted in a bad guy…and he wasn’t even a bona fide bad guy until the last hour when he got his “powers”. I wish they would’ve used this storyline more because I thought it showed a lot about Peter Parker and Spiderman. The partnership between Brock and the Sandman was forced and downright awkward for the two minutes it was on screen but hey, by then, any moment with the Sandman was awkward cause we all thought the damn guy was dead.
I will say this…this movie was the most intimate of them all. I don’t like love stories so the first 45 minutes to an hour really dragged for me. It was too much love story stuff for my liking. Seemed like they could’ve moved that part faster. I know the director was trying to build up how Peter had changed but come on, we all saw that. we could’ve sped that up.
The humor never lacked though in this movie. The proposal scene at the French restaurant was the best of the comical scenes. Mad props to the actor playing the waiter. He was frickin hilarious. The entire sequence of events there was just money. It proved to be a good transition for the next part of the movie. Also, Peter’s dancing after getting his “evil” powers was great. Needless to say, Tobey Maguire has never taken dance lessons.
Dunst and Maguire act as expected so no need to criticize them. They’re solid as usual. Franco also does a nice job with his part, that as I said earlier, was more complicated than it needed to be.
Besides the 3 bad guys, the 2 hour, 20 minute length kinda sucked too. The movie could’ve easily been 1 hour, 45 minutes with some editing out of a few characters or unneeded storylines. I don’t like long movies. They tend to drag, as this one did. It’s an action movie, so scenes can be shorter, quicker, crisper, and have more impact than a long dawn-out one.
The fighting scenes were remarkable and the effects were great too. That’s always something you can count on with this franchise. The final fight scene, though a bit long and confusing, was amazing in terms of effects. At times, you forget that what you are watching is fake. Maybe it’s because the people are current and it is set in New York City unlike a fake place such as Gotham City. Whatever it is, it works.
All in all, this movie was enjoyable and I am glad I saw it but I wasn’t overly impressed either like I was with the other two. There was no tease for a fourth installment, though word around the movie biz is that Spidey 4 is all but a sure thing. I don’t mind that news because I want it to get a chance to redeem itself. My advice: go see the movie for yourself and make your own decision. This isn’t the type of movie that is going to get rave reviews across the board because of its many glaring problems but it still has great entertainment value. Spend the 6 to 7 bucks and see it…you’ll be mad if you don’t.

*** out of 4