Be careful what you hope for in summer movies. Last year, I cringed before seeing “Batman Begins,” and couldn’t wait to see “War of the Worlds.”
Turned out the “Batman” retread was fresh and thrilling, while the Spielberg-Cruise collaboration felt overblown, aimless and unconvincing.
So what thrills the advance scout team may prove unreliable. Still, we forge onward, nearly certain that Jack Black will make us laugh, dying for the first sneak preview of “Talladega Nights,” begging movies like “The Reaping” to give us a good scare.
Let’s start with Hilary Swank. Horror-thrillers with a biblical touch tend to freak me out, in a good way. In “The Reaping” (August), Oscar-winning Swank plays a former missionary disillusioned by a family loss. She becomes an investigator who exposes “miraculous” frauds, until she comes up against evil that brooks no fancy-pants scientific arguments. Take that, you secular humanists! Swank’s intensity could bring luster to an overworked genre.
Michel Gondry inspires optimism for anything he’s involved in, from a three-minute music video to major feature films. He helmed one of the best movies of 2004, making “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind” both meaty and ethereal at the same time. He also coaxed forth one of Jim Carrey’s best performances, and captured the alluring essence of Kate Winslet.
Now he writes and directs “The Science of Sleep” (August), apparently continuing some of the same themes of consciousness and memory in Charlie Kaufman’s “Eternal” script. Gael Garcia Bernal and Charlotte Gainsbourg play a budding young couple whose energetic dream lives spill over into their real-life relationship, for better and worse. Gondry has a deft touch mixing the whimsical with deeper human emotions.
And finally, save me a seat at the frat party for Jack Black as “Nacho Libre” (June). Black has a riveting physical presence in the same style as John Belushi, and this goofy script was shot by Jared Hess of “Napoleon Dynamite.”
In this age of touchy cross- border politics, can we overlook the fact that the trailers teeter perilously close to the edge of stereotypes?
Yes, we can. Because it’s comedy, and because it’s too early to give up on one of summer’s big moments.
Staff writer Michael Booth can be reached at mbooth@denverpost.com; find our “Screen Team” blog at denverpostbloghouse.com.
