Summer Movie Releases - 6/12/09

The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3

Some hijackers take over a New York subway train and hold hostages for ransom. The original 1974 version had Walter Matthau and Robert Shaw facing off. They’ve been replaced by Denzel Washington and John Travolta. I’m glad it has the guts to be R-rated. Directed by Tony Scott, whose last remake (Man on Fire) was pretty good. Fingers crossed.


Moon

Sam Rockwell lives in isolation on the dark side of the moon mining Helium-3, which is helping solve Earth’s energy problems. As he nears the end of his 3-year stint, some crazy stuff starts going down. It looks really intriguing to me - potentially a profound, visually inspired journey toward self-discovery –like Soderbergh’s Solaris.


Imagine That

Eddie Murphy's struggles at work become easy to solve when he decides to travel into his daughter’s imagination. No doubt the parents will be idiots and the children will be wise beyond their years. Eddie hasn’t made a good movie in awhile, and this gives me a sugary-sweet headache just thinking about it.


Tetro

Francis Ford Coppola directs his original screenplay about brothers bonding in Argentina. His last effort (Youth Without Youth) was easy on the eyes but convoluted. Here, he goes black and white and has stated he’ll keep his camera still. He’s going for strong compositions and long takes and has stated the fast cuts and non-stop camera moves in modern films drive him nuts. Interesting.