Last year, it didn’t take long for summer to become the season of box-office agony. Weekend after weekend, studios sang the blues, and the media chorus chimed in.
That was then, this is, well … let’s just say as long as there’s a summer season, hope will naively risk the catwalk between joy and bitterness.
What follows is an opinionated guide. These are the movies we think will deliver best on the powerful chemistry of pleasure, popcorn, and, yes, golden ducats. (Oh, and keep in mind that studios do sometimes change the release dates.)
“Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest”: Our eyes are on the Sparrow – Captain Jack Sparrow, that is. Not since, well, Keith Richards has there been a mascaraed persona as inventive as Johnny Depp’s buccaneer. The challenge facing the original “Pirates” was to make a joy ride out of an amusement park treat. Director Gore Verbinski and producer Jerry Bruckheimer handily swabbed the decks with doubters. And Depp got nominated for the Academy’s most treasured trinket. Orlando Bloom, Keira Knightley and Geoffrey Rush return to chart New World waters. And Bill Nighy (“Love Actually”) climbs aboard as Davy Jones. (Release date, July 7) – Kennedy
“The Da Vinci Code”: People! It’s fiction! Because we mention “The Da Vinci Code” here does not mean we believe Jesus got married, or for that matter, that the Buddha secretly led an ultraviolent Ninja vigilante squad.
Take “The Da Vinci Code” for what it is: a promising thriller from a skilled director, with a lot of made-up conspiracy hooey that gives it psychological heft.
Ron Howard directs Tom Hanks, and there’s another reason for paying attention: Hanks hasn’t
really tried this kind of paranoid-action before. Plus there’s the haircut, the modified mullet that made a movie. Hanks looks like John Travolta in “Swordfish,” but “Da Vinci” should be much better than that stinkbomb. (May 19) – Booth
“Cars”: Rookie race car Lightning McQueen (voice of Owen Wilson) is too big for his Bridgestones. So Pixar genius John Lasseter and Co. have him take some emotional licks on Route 66 in this G-rated ride. Filling Lightning up with high-octane lessons: a Hudson Hornet (Paul Newman), a dusty tow truck (Larry the Cable Guy, sputtering with Walter Brennan charm) and a sleek blue Porsche (Bonnie Hunt). (June 9) – Kennedy
“Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby”: Once Will Ferrell was riding the high-banked curves of “Old School” and “Anchorman,” it took just one high-concept phrase to land his next blockbuster: “Will Ferrell as a NASCAR driver.” The pitch sold itself, and writer-director Adam McKay has re-teamed with Ferrell for “Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby,” a long overdue sendup-and-celebration of stock car racing.
With Ferrell and McKay, tone is key to comedy. They proved in “Anchorman” that they could take a hard-to-love species like overpaid, undereducated TV newsreaders and make them lovable and laughable. Now that NASCAR has reached a level in American entertainment approaching pro football, the nation is ready to see what Ricky Bobby can do behind the wheel of a logo-covered muscle car. The trailer is a Dixie-fried hoot, destined to popularize such phrases as “Please be 18!” (Aug. 4) – Booth
“Snakes on a Plane”: You could call it “Snakes on a Plane,” or just refer to it as the movie that launched an entire Internet sub-industry. Fans love the title so much they barely seem to care whether the August release will be any good – they just want to imagine vipers underfoot on a trans- Pacific flight, and Samuel L. Jackson swearing in economy class.
The premise has Jackson as an FBI agent escorting a witness from Hawaii to Los Angeles. And we think there are snakes involved. Some of the internet parodies may turn out better than the movie, but everyone you know under the age of 25 will go see it.
“I didn’t even read the script,” Jackson told “Ellen.” “I just read, ‘Snakes on a Plane,’ and I said, ‘I’m there!”‘ (Aug. 18) – Booth
“Miami Vice”: If anyone else were, ahem, Mann-ing this big-screen version of the oh-so- ’80s TV show about two undercover detectives working the drug-infused, pastel-hued world of Miami-Dade County, we’d be running scared on the streets of South Beach for fear of rolled suit sleeves and Versace T-shirts. No matter that Jamie Foxx and Colin Farrell are stepping into the Gucci loafers of Sonny Crockett (Don Johnson) and Ricardo Tubbs (Philip Michael Thomas), we’d still flee. But Michael Mann (“Collateral” “Heat” “The Insider”) has a gift for intelligent atmospherics. More, he has an obsession with the complicated dance that takes place between good guys and bad. What better place to set that tango of wills than in the world of undercover intrigue? (July 28) – Kennedy
“The Break-Up”: What’s the saying about the best revenge?
In the case of this romantic comedy starring Vince Vaughn and Jennifer Aniston, the karmic payback might be beating out the $186.3 million “Mr. & Mrs. Smith” made domestically last year. In a story created by Vaughn, Aniston and the “frat pack” all-star play a Chicago couple who split up after two years. Only they can’t bring themselves to quit their condo. Director Peyton Reed has a penchant for the fast-talking comedy (“Down By Law” “Bring It On”). Few deliver lines with Vaughn’s run-and-gun improv cadence. Under favorable conditions, Aniston’s a fine partner in laughs. Just one question: How weird is it that her character undergoes a wax treatment named after deceased godfather Telly Savalas? (June 2) – Kennedy
“Superman Returns”: Perhaps every generation can ask this, but here goes: Don’t we need a Superman more than ever?
Thankfully, he returns, in the appropriately if pedestrianly titled “Superman Returns.” Hoping to cash in the way “Batman Begins” did last summer, Warner Bros. flies out the franchise for a go with newcomer Brandon Routh as a Christopher Reeve lookalike.
“Batman Begins” succeeded on a good script and edgy direction from Chris Nolan, and here Warner tapped Bryan Singer for the same purpose. Singer made the “X-Men” a huge franchise after the quirky thriller “Usual Suspects.” Think how much he can improve upon the all-strings-attached effects of the early “Superman” attempts.
Feeling superhero fatigue? Yahoo Movies may explain why: “Since the last time Supes flew on the big screen – 1987’s “Superman IV: The Quest for Peace” – there have been six Batman movies, three X-Men, two Spider-Mans, three Blades, and four Superman-related TV shows.” (June 30) – Booth
“Nacho Libre”: Jack Black proved in “School of Rock” that he was more than willing to peel off his shirt and dive into the crowd for effect. “Nacho Libre” allows him to do it for a whole movie, as a priest at a Mexican orphanage who dreams of joining the wrestling circuit. “The orphans, they need me,” Black emotes, in his horrible fake-Hispanic accent.
It might be offensive to see so many white people playing with ethnicity south of the border, but we have high hopes for this low comedy. Mike White returns from “School of Rock” as a screenwriter, and director Jared Hess adds his “Napoleon Dynamite” skills to the group. May we mention the divine possibilities of Penelope Cruz in a nun’s habit? (June 16)
“Wordplay”: Al Gore’s movie about global warming, “An Inconvenient Truth” (June 9), is the summer’s urgent documentary. But if it were a contest between “good for you” and “good fun,” Patrick Creadon’s pleaser about New York Times’ crossword puzzle editor Will Shortz and the 28th gathering of the American Crossword Tournament, which he founded, would reign? rein? rain? (we should have used a pencil). Consider “Wordplay” the latest entry in the subgenre of nerd narratives told with sports inspirational verve. Along the way to the showdown in Stamford, Conn., the filmmaker interviews enthusiasts from the Indigo Girls to Bob Dole to Yankee pitcher Mike Mussina. Bill Clinton obsesses over the grid. But it’s smarty pants Jon Stewart who steals the show. “I am a New York Times puzzle man. I will solve USA Today’s. But I don’t feel good about myself.” (June 23) – Kennedy
