Summer Movie Preview: May (Part 1)

Time for another look at the upcoming summer movies from a man who never goes to the movies anymore. My rating system is so simple, even a blogger can do it: red light means no way I'll see it, yellow light means I might see it under the right circumstances (wave of good reviews, matinee opportunity, or maybe see it on DVD), green light means, yeah, I'd see it if I didn't have a young daughter and therefore never went out.

(Don't get me wrong. I'm not blaming my daughter; if anything, the biggest of her many contributions to my life is inadvertently preventing me from spending money on so many crappy flicks the past few summers.)

This week we start with May:

Iron Man 2 (last weekend): This one doesn't sound like a winner, but Robert Downey makes a cool Tony Stark, even if I'm not sure the filmmakers know exactly what to do with Iron Man. There are other bright spots in the cast, though. Don Cheadle for Terence Howard is an upgrade akin to trading in a Mitsubishi for a Cadillac (I'm not a car guy, so I hope that makes sense). ScarJo as Black Widow reminds me of my days working at a movie theater. A few of us were discussing the upcoming epic "Turbulence," and my buddy said, "The ONLY reason I'd see that would be to see Lauren Holly in one of those flight attendant outfits," (he may have said "stewardess;" we were less enlightened in the nineties) and that's kind of what I'm thinking with Black Widow and "Iron Man 2." But I'm also excited that Garry Shandling is in this movie--as anyone, let alone a freaking U.S. Senator--albeit for a completely different reason. Yeah, I don't have a lot of intelligent thought on this movie, but it came out last week and everyone's probably made up their mind by now, anyway.

So what does this all add up to? It adds up to a yellow light--something I'm not gonna rush to see this summer, but something I'll rent early on DVD.

Robin Hood (May 14): This movie purports to tell the untold story of Robin Hood, and to that, I say, if it hasn't been told by now, maybe it's not worth telling. I saw Russell Crowe on Craig Ferguson's show the other night, and Big Russ talked up how different THIS version is. He rattled off a list of standard Hood scenes and tropes, none of which, he insisted, are in his new movie.

So what IS in there? Well, to be honest, I still don't know. I like the idea of Robin Hood, so I'll see this eventually, but it strikes me as an inessential picture right now. Yellow light.

Letters to Julia (May 14): Can Amanda Seyfried carry a movie? I guess we're about to find out as she headlines this romance. It's pretty much her and a bunch of guys with Italian-sounding names, which I suppose is kind of a relief given that the story is set in Italy.

Seyfried has an interesting look, certainly not one you're gonna see in everything else in the multiplexes this summer. This ain't my kind of movie, but I kind of hope it does well for her. As for me, it's a firm red light until/unless my wife asks me to rent it from Netflix someday.

Just Wright (May 14): A basketball movie starring Common and Queen Latifah? Why not give us a hip-hop movie starring LeBron James and Carmelo Anthony? Wait, forget I said that. There's a very real chance that is already in the works. Red light. And the Celtics in 7.

Look for Part 2 of May tomorrow!