Summer Lacklusters!!!

I don't know if it's just me, but this summer has been a very big letdown in terms of movies. Every year, there's at least one or two movies that I get really pumped for in the summer season, but this year is the first year in a long time that nothing has really piqued my interest. I mean, there were/are movies that I wanted to see but nothing to go completely geek over. The ones that did come out never fulfilled the geek expectations (Terminator, Transformers, Wolverine... I'm looking in your direction).

I blame the studios for pumping out so many family oriented movies this summer. They've infested the cinemas with PG-schmuck. Oddly enough, I think much of the blame has to go to Paul Blart: Mall Cop. When Blart first came out back in January, I don't think anyone anticipated how successful the movie would turn out to be. On a modest budget of $26 m, the movie went to gross $180 m worldwide (about $140 m domestically) which is quite a high grossing movie for that time of the year. This surprised many analysts, who came to the conclusion that people want to see light-hearted/family friendly movies during these bad economic times.

Now look at the number of family-friendly movies released this summer: Night at the Museum 2, Up, Land of the Lost, Imagine That, My Sister's Keeper, Ice Age 2, G-Force (I may be forgetting some). And you can even add in the chick flick-ish movies like Ghosts of Girlfriends Past, The Proposal. Totally nothing to go geek over. There were a few diamonds in the rough though, notably Star Trek and Drag Me to Hell.

August is usually seen as the cooldown month, where the high profile releases slow down, and studios tack on lesser hyped films. But actually, I'm looking more forward to August than any other months this summer. Next month we'll get to see G.I. Joe (the last huge release for the summer), District 9, Final Destination 4, Halloween 2 (remake), and most important QT's The Inglorious Basterds.

Anyhow, in conclusion I'm disappointed at this summer. I don't remember going to the theaters so few times in a summer. But on the brightside, at least there's a few titles to look forward to in the next month. Later geeks.

(Edit: add to that list of family friendly movies, Aliens in the Attic, which opens this weekend. Another reason to stay away.)

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