At what point did the Summer Movie Season begin in Spring and end by Memorial Day?

The studios blitzkrieg the multiplex with so much product in May that I half expect to waltz out of this weekend’s showing of Terminator Salvation to find leaves falling from the trees and a Thanksgiving dinner spread across the table. Once upon a time, we had movies as sole salvation to the long hot summer – with each coming weekend offering some brief respite from the humidity and the transporting promise that we were headed to some brave new world – for a couple of hours, at least. Summer movies began on Memorial Day and shuttered on Labor Day and it was during that magical spell that we may not have spied high art but we did scarf enough confectionary entertainment to leave us happy and full.

Somewhere along the line, the sands shifted and now the majority of the big summer blockbusters see their DVD release by Father’s Day. It’s a shame but at the same time, with my limited free time, I don’t get out to the theater as often as I once did. Most films are spied in the comforts of my own home so I guess anything that hastens their release On Demand is good for me. That said, there is still something magical about the communal theatergoing experience and I definitely find a select few flicks a year that must be seen on the big screen.

And that rambling preamble is all prologue for my annual rundown of The Top 10 Movies I’ve Just Got to See on the Big Screen in 2009. Of course, I’m cheating a bit. I know full well that I won’t see all of these at the theater. In fact, I bet I don’t see half. But, these are the ones that when pressed, would be selected for big screen entertainment.

And now, without further adieu, here’s my Ten Spot.

10.   Star Trek

This list isn’t really in any specific order until you get to #1. Like I said, I would take any one of these as big screen fodder. That said, I threw Star Trek at #10 because I’ve already seen it. I had originally intended to publish this list a few weeks back but had one nagging problem. I hadn’t written it yet. Well, I finally carved a slice of time and now that I sit here, I can report, without fail, that the film warranted inclusion on the list.

In fact, it was probably the best possible Star Trek film one could expect. I’ll call it this year’s Iron Man. I’d consider both Iron Man (the comic) and Star Trek (the entity) as niche elements of mainstream pop culture. Iron Man never reaped the same household name stature of Spidey or Supes and Star Trek was too geeky for the mainstream audiences that embraced Star Wars. And yet, both properties had legions of fervent fanboys that kept them swimming in green for decades.

Now, both properties, nurtured by Paramount Pictures, have received a spit polish and emerged as vital, vibrant entertainments for the new millennium. And honestly, Star Trek never looked this good. The first genius move Paramount made was to hand the keys to J.J. Abrams – a devout Star Wars fan who admits he always turned his nose at Star Trek.

For years, the Star Trek stalwarts would nickel and dime the production of each successive installment and try to do too much on the cheap – handing the directorial reign to every two-bit cast member who ever donned a red jersey instead of seeking out real directorial vision. Giving Number One the numero uno job is the equivalent of Terry Francona calling upon David Ortiz to hit in the three hole. That just shouldn’t be done.

By bringing Abrams aboard, they tapped into his wellspring of creativity. Therefore we get to see Trek reimagined and reshaped to something palatable to all viewers. Abrams was smart and drafted his Lost cohort Damon Lindelof, a Trekker, who could keep his boss honest. And Abrams obliges, presenting a light, fleet Star Trek that is hugely entertaining, boast big belly laughs, looks like a million bucks (or at the very least – an Apple Store) and sets the staging in an alternate universe, immune from the slings and arrows of any big fat geek meddling. He can’t be ruining continuity when it hasn’t even been drawn yet.

It’s a perfect kick-off to the Summer Movie Season.

9.   Terminator Salvation

The 4th Terminator flick hits number nine for the same reason as Trek – or at least, a very similar reason. I’ve already got plans afoot to catch Terminator this Monday, Memorial Day, as prelude to the annual movie & BBQ that my boys Justin and Sean engage in. Each year we pick a flick to merit the occasion of movies and seared meat. Last year it was The Dark Knight and the year before, The Simpsons Movie. This year, it’s Terminator. “Come with me if you want to eat.”

I recently saw an interview with director McG (seriously – the name was dumb when Fred Durst was newly rocking the crimson ball cap – now it’s just embarrassing) – anyway, I saw an interview that really ratcheted my interest in this flick. Let’s be honest – any Terminator vehicle without James Cameron at the helm just feels a little off. There is a palpable feeling to a James Cameron flick. If you took The Abyss, Aliens, and the two original Terminator flicks and tossed them in a line up, you could tell hands down that the same guy hand crafted them. The same goes for Spielberg flicks. That’s what differentiates an auteur from a director.

While I enjoyed Terminator 3 for what it was – just a big, dumb summer action flick that boasted a ballsy ending – it never felt canon. And yet, Terminator fanboys might shout out that Salvation doesn’t look canon. In place of studio lot future war cityscapes, we have desolate stretches of desert on loan from Mad Max.

And I think that is exactly what is right with this flick. Two things – There is no future but what we make. And in this flick, McG has engineered a more realistic future. In addition, he’s set the flick about halfway from Terminator 2 to Hell. We’re not entering the movie at the exact moment that Kyle Reese sprung from, we’re somewhere on the road there so it’s no wonder the world looks slightly used.

And it’s The Road (Cormac McCarthy’s bleak nightmare of a novel) that informed McG’s approach. He cites that novel and Terminator 3 as his inspiration. T3 forced his hand to do better. He felt that the series had swung too far towards parody – with all of the forced “Talk to the hand” quips and he decided he needed to pull the pendulum back. Reading The Road, he realized that’s exactly where he needed to take it. Somewhere bleak and apocalyptic.

If The Dark Knight proved anything, it’s that audiences are ready for dystopia. I can’t wait for this one.

8.   Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen

Here’s the deal with Transformers – and really, any Michael Bay flick. They are dumb, fun guilty pleasures that beg to be seen on the biggest screen possible. Bay is the master of the summer blockbuster and while I don’t think Bay has it in him to produce an Oscar reel, he knows how to reel me in summer after summer. The guy knows how to blow things up good.

And judging by the trailer for this flick, he’s aiming for the world this time, with the Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em robots journeying below the sea, through forests and atop pyramids to get their gun on.

I thought the first film was a fun summer movie with my only concern being the really amateurish humor on display. There was a strange disparity – with big, bombastic action scenes intercut by these seemingly advanced intelligences pulling big time boners. Take for instance, the sequence where Optimus Prime and his posse linger outside Sam’s house. As Sam works overtime to prevent his Dad from seeing his newfound 50 foot friends, Prime and pals bumble about outside, hiding behind trees, etc. All of this is done as comic relief but here’s the problem with the whole scene. THEY”RE TRANSFORMERS!!! So transform into a car and sit idle for a few minutes.

That goes double for John Turturro.

Anyway, I’m here for the spectacle and this one has me primed and jazzed. (Yup, I went there.) “My bad.”

7.   The Lovely Bones

I’ve never read the book but I know it is beloved. I probably won’t read it either so spare me your impassioned pleas to pick up the parchment and educate myself. Ain’t happenin’.

Anyway, what has me interested in this is Peter Jackson’s involvement. Jackson appears in two spots on this list for good reason – he’s one of the most exciting, big filmmakers we’ve got going. Again with the auteur theory.

It’s no secret that I loved The Lord of the Rings trilogy of movies. Again, no intention of reading those either. The annual release of a Rings flick became a holiday rite for Andi and I. When we reached the end, we were saddened that it was all over. A few years later, I marveled at Jackson’s take on King Kong. In three hours, he gave me three movies for the price of one and I loved every minute of it. The guy certainly gives you your money’s worth.

Now, the thing with Jackson is that although he cut his teeth on gruesome horror (see Brain Dead – or if squeamish, don’t), Jackson made steps towards serious filmmaking with Heavenly Creatures, where he told a real world story of murder in the Kiwi climate and interspersed fantastical elements to depict the mental breakdown of two young girls locked in an unhealthy obsession.

With his adaptation of Alice Sebold’s The Lovely Bones, Jackson is back in that wheelhouse, telling the tragic tale of a young girl, murdered, who gets to look down on her loved ones from heaven. Jackson seems the perfect pick for this material and the fact that he has his main writing partners on this tale propels this to the top of my wish list. This is due this holiday season.

6.   Drag Me To Hell

Some people are fans of particular actors, I tend to follow directors. After all, a good actor sometimes just goes where they’re told but a good director usually has full choice in what story he chooses to tell. If I were to run away to Hollywood, a director’s life would be the life for me.

I discovered Sam Raimi sometime in my mid-teens. As my contemporaries were squirreling away smut in their bedrooms, I was hiding dog-eared copies of Fangoria under my mattress. My Mom may not have blinked an eye at exposed flesh, but Fango’s multi-page pictorials of shredded meat was a whole different story. Now, I didn’t get off on the gristle but I was a horror hound and I just wanted to read up on every new detail surrounding the latest chiller thrillers coming my way. It probably harkens back to my selection of Creature Double Feature over Little League way back in my formative years. I just always cottoned to the critters.

Indie sensation Raimi was featured extensively in Fango back in those days. The wunderkind director of Evil Dead could do no wrong and his inventive, stylish eye employed to shoot the guts with gusto propelled him to the head of the class. A Raimi flick was a real treat and although he always worked on a shoe string, drafting his buddies and bros to staff his motley armies of darkness, he always found ways to keep things visually inventive. Raimi applied a blue print style that many have sought to emulate but few have mastered. Robert Rodriguez has certainly cribbed a great deal – and in Hong Kong, Raimi found a kindred spirit in JohnWoo – the action auteur that Raimi introduced to the States by presenting Hard Target.

That said, Raimi finally hit the big time and worked to stretch his wings. Working on a bigger budget, he reigned in his wilder impulses and while he matured as a filmmaker – churning out some fantastic big screen entertainments (the first two Spiderman flicks) as well as serious drama (A Simple Plan) – it felt like Raimi had finally buried his skeletons.

The word on Drag Me To Hell is that this is Raimi back to form. The film played the SXSW film festival earlier this year, and just scored the coveted midnight slot at Cannes – and reports from both venues are that the movie is a great deal of fun, wildly inventive and absolutely 100% old school Raimi with some new school tricks and a generous budget to hold it all together. They’ve also said that Raimi’s direction takes the form as elder statesman – a boogeyman returning to show all these newbie shlockmeisters churning out Saw after Saw how it’s really done.

 I hope this is a huge hit for Raimi. For starters, that may seal the deal on a Raimi led Army of Darkness/Evil Dead follow-up. And, it could potentially lead to a renaissance for creative horror meaning maybe, just maybe, Warner Brothers will allow Trick r’ Treat to see the light of day.

5.   Inglorious Basterds

I don’t pretend to catch every single one of Tarentino’s obscure film references and I know his flicks are chock-a-block stews of film arcana, but I don’t care. The bastard, errr basterd, knows how to write dialogue that soothes the ears and drops the mercury on the cool factor and he fashions dynamic entertainments. There isn’t a film of his that I haven’t really enjoyed and I even found his self-indulgent lark, Death Proof, to be the best reason to watch Grindhouse.

So a new Tarentino flick is appointment viewing.

Having tackled the pulp fictions evident in the crime world (Reservoir Dogs), blaxploitation (Jackie Brown) and chop socky flicks (Kill Bill) – Tarentino trains his lens on the stalwart staple of action cinema – the World War II Men on a Mission milieu. Only this ain’t no Saving Private Ryan and Tarentino could care less about the factual retelling of a sobering slice of our history. Tarentino kicks his flick off with the title card – “Once Upon a Time in Nazi-Occupied France” and from there his grim fairy tale is launched.

I can’t wait for this one to close out the summer.

4.   Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince

Like Star Trek, this film got jettisoned from its original 2008 berth and moved into 2009 as an unfortunate by-product of the 2007 Writer’s Strike. When the studios realized they either didn’t have enough tent pole pics to prop up Summer 2009 or they merely had Wolverine, they decided to take a loss on 2008 in order to assure a relatively healthy bottom line in ’09.

I’m a huge fan of this film series (all right – I might read these books). I’m hugely impressed by how well the entire production has been pulled together with even the smallest roles populated by the same recurring actors. This is real world universe making on a grand scale and it’s an amazing accomplishment. Each of the films seem to get better than the last (I imagine the books are the same) and the good news is that the Pott-Heads all seem to have enjoyed how it all turned out meaning we’re in for a treat when these final flicks play out.

Like the Lord of the Rings films, these were an annual rite. I kinda’ miss having them as holiday movies. They really were the perfect film to digest a Thanksgiving dinner over. Oh well – I’ll just have to fire up the BBQ and sear some Hippogryff before heading out to see this one.

3.   District 9

Here’s that Halo movie you’ve all been waiting for.

Oh wait – Universal, in a classic boneheaded move – decided to pull funding on sure-fire blockbuster Halo citing fear of an escalating budget and an unproven property. The same unproven property that churns more money than the combined weekend box office, each time a new installment is launched. All this despite the fact that Universal had Peter Jackson, an avid gamer, his Oscar winning special effects shop at Weta and a stellar script by Alex Garland (Sunshine).

This left Jackson’s hand picked director, Neill Blomkamp, empty handed. Check out his work on YouTube – specifically Alive in J-Berg, which provides the opening strains for what looks like a masterful new work of real-time sci-fi.

Jackson believes in this guy and let him take that short film and expand it significantly with his effects shop handling the wizardry. If you haven’t heard of this film, seek out the trailer. The movie takes a documentarian view on a real world alien visitation only this is no hand-held Cloverfield clone. If anything, it looks thematically similar to that old sci-fi chestnut, Alien Nation – or for you Halo vets, it looks strikingly like New Mombosa.

I’ll say this – I’ve seen the trailer a number of times and it is striking in how deftly Blomkanp meshes his CGI marvels with the real world. There is a real gritty vibe to the flick and too often, CGI in films can pull a viewer right out of the fantasy. For something like what he has attempted here, that could be devastating to the film but it appears Blomkanp has managed the seemingly impossible – giving us a photo-realistic view of a real world close encounter.

Support this flick and show Universal that there is real demand for Halo.

2.   Up

This almost made #1 for the shear fact that I have two children frothing at the mouth for the flick ever since they saw that 30-second teaser before the Wall-E DVD. All it took was Ed Asner mouthing “Good Afternoon” while soaring to the heavens in his beautiful balloons and they were in hysterics about the “silly old man”. (Can’t wait ’til I claim that title some day).

Anyway, any movie that sends them screaming with laughter is top on my chart. And – it’s PIXAR – they haven’t stepped wrong once. Think about that. With Wall-E (my favorite movie of 2008), they hit 9 for 9. That is an impressive batting record. How much is it going to suck to be the director who finally releases a stinker? I’m not sure that will ever happen. Can wizards lose their mojo?

Up had its premier at the Cannes Film Festival and the praise has been unanimous. It’s been called their funniest film to date and also, their most touching. The great thing about PIXAR flicks are they often save the best stuff for the film itself. I think I’ve been under whelmed by every single trailer they’ve ever released and yet when I see the finished product, I fall head over heels in love. They are the masters at keeping surprises and I’m assuming this is the same.

I know they’ve risen so far that logistically there’s nowhere else to go but down but somehow these guys keep moving on UP.

1.   Avatar

I know next to nothing about this film. Nobody does. In this day and age, for a major sci-fi experience helmed by James Cameron, his first narrative film since Titanic, to go under the radar with nary a tweet is extraordinary. My hopes are high for this one and Cameron has done a masterful job of hyping us up with zero hype. You probably don’t even know this is coming, this year, but I do and I can’t wait. I’m hoping to be as blind-sided with surprise and wonder as I was walking into The Empire Strikes Back in the Internet Free 80’s. Remember those days. When you walked into a movie completely oblivious and staggered out with your world changed. Glorious times to be a kid.

It seems these experiences are neither few nor far between. They’re extinct. I’m not so sure it’s entirely the Internet’s fault either. Sure the machines have gone self-aware, at our urging, but they can’t be blamed for the wholesale destruction of innocence. I think it’s as simple as “They don’t make them like they used to”.

Yes, there are good movies made these days and I’ve seen my fair share of top-caliber dramas in the last few weeks. While movie-making is a global art form, it’s Hollywood that once held the blue print on blockbuster building – and back in the brave new world of the 80’s – auteurs like Spielberg and Cameron engineered enchantments that stood the test of time. They created event pics that served two purposes – they raked in the cash allowing studios to fund smaller, prestige pics and they entertained fiercely.

Most summer blockbusters nowadays are vaporware. They’re fun while you’re saddled to your seat but not worth revisiting down the line. Can’t say the same for Raiders of the Lost Ark. The Empire Strikes Back. Terminator 2. Aliens. They are all big, brawling entertainments built to entertain but with enough magic under the hood to keep them running a lifetime. I can’t say we’ve had anything on par in the last 10 years.

So I’m counting on Cameron to deliver a miracle this Christmas.