Summer of adventure and fun

High-budget blockbusters range from historic epics to dramatic features to fantasy sci-fi actioners

It's blockbuster season again, and this year contains some promises but then again, one never knows what to expect. While that "other" major movie season (Christmas Holidays) is reserved for the more serious, higher-brow studio fare, Summer usually is meant for those craving big effects, loud noise and as much action as possible.
The blockbuster season gets a jump-start this year with the release of Wolfgang Petersen's Troy starring Hollywood hunk Brad Pitt. An adaptation of Homer's epic The Iliad, Troy follows the story of the great siege of the titular ancient Greek city. When Paris (Orlando Bloom), the prince of Troy, steals the beautiful wife Helen (Helen Krueger) of King Menelaus (Brendan Gleeson), he makes quite a dangerous enemy, Menelaus' brother Agamemnon. As king of the Myceneans, Agamemnon (Brian Cox), with the support of Achilles (Pitt) unites all the tribes of Greece to recapture his brother's wife and his family's honour.
In Shrek 2, our favourite ogre and Donkey team up again to show off DreamWorks animation prowess. Shrek ended with a fairy tale ending: Shrek (Mike Myers) kissed Princess Fiona (Cameron Diaz) and she turned into an ogre. The couple return from their honeymoon to find an invitation from Princess Fiona's parents, the King and Queen of Kingdom Far Far Away. So, they set out, along with Donkey (Eddie Murphy), and have a host of adventures.
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, the third film based on the insanely popular literary series by J.K. Rowling about the titular teenage wizard coming of age, hits this summer and is expected to join its two predecessors as one of the highest grossing films of all times. Infamous criminal Sirius Black (Gary Oldman) has escaped from the wizard jail Azkaban, and Harry (Daniel Radcliffe), during his third year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, fears that Black may be coming after him. But things aren't as they seem, and Harry and his two friends Ron (Rupert Grint) and Hermione (Emma Watson) investigate why exactly Black is coming after Harry. Acclaimed, Oscar-nominated Mexican filmmaker Alfonso Cuaron (Y Tu Mama Tambien) takes over directing reins from Chris Columbus this time.
This summer, Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks re-team for Oscar-bait flick number three (Saving Private Ryan, Catch Me if You Can) in The Terminal. Hanks plays an immigrant from Eastern Europe who is fleeing his homeland due to a terrible war. He catches a flight and lands at his New York City airport immediately at the time when the government of his country of nationality collapses. The problem here lies in the fact that his passport is now useless. Hanks is thus denied entry into the United States, and he takes up residence in the local airport terminal. Catherine Zeta-Jones stars as an airline flight attendant whom Hanks falls in love with.
America's favourite web-slinger returns this summer in Spider-Man 2. Your friendly neighbourhood Spider-Man (Tobey Maguire) will face off with none other than Doctor Octopus (Alfred Molina). Various sub-plots will arise from Harry Osbourne's (James Franco) hatred for Spider-Man, and thus his friend Peter Parker. Mary Jane (Kirsten Dunst) and Parker will also confront their feelings for each other once again.
Acclaimed director Michael Mann returns with Tom Cruise for what is to be one of the biggest, if not the biggest, movie of the summer, Collateral. The film takes place in Los Angeles over the course of one single night. Cruise plays a killer-for-hire who takes a cab driver hostage (Jamie Foxx) and forces the driver to take him around to the homes of his targets. In the same night, Cruise is being traced by two detectives played by Mark Ruffalo and Peter Berg.
Enough money to rebuild all of Afghanistan into a giant theme park was spent to bring a live-action Garfield to the big screen. A blend of CGI graphics and an animatronic cat were used to create a result that speaks for itself: an unnatural, misshapen feline monster capable of making children weep openly and question the existence of a loving God. Bill Murray voices the famous cat, in exchange for the release of his family from Jim Davis' dungeon.
Dr. Gabriel Van Helsing is brought to life by Stephen Sommers in Van Helsing, starring Hugh Jackman as the feared, yet strangely popular, 19th-century healer. Sommers focuses his tale on Van Helsing's lesser-known hobby, vampire killing where the Count keeps himself wrapped in filthy bandages and stumbles slowly after his prey with his arms outstretched.
Vin Diesel is back in the sequel to Pitch Black, The Chronicles of Riddick directed by Tim Twohy. Riddick has spent the last five years on the move among the forgotten worlds on the outskirts of the galaxy, eluding mercenaries bent on collecting the price on his head. Now, the fugitive finds himself on planet Helion, home to a progressive multicultural society that has been invaded by the Lord Marshal, a despot who targets humans for subjugation with his army of warriors known as Necromongers.
Franz Oz directs Nicole Kidman in this mostly comedic version of The Stepford Wives. Soon after moving to an upper-class suburb with her husband (Matthew Broderick), a woman (Kidman) begins to suspect something strange about her new female neighbours. Also stars Bette Midler and Christopher Walken.
Oscar will most likely come calling for Pieter Jan Brugge's The Clearing about Wayne and Eileen Hayes (Robert Redford, Helen Mirren) who appear to be living the American dream, but all illusions are shattered when Wayne is kidnapped in broad daylight from the Hayes' peaceful Pittsburgh estate. Under the microscope of a probing FBI investigation and her own painstaking introspection, Wayne's wife Eileen also becomes a victim. Suddenly the man who, at one point in his life, prided himself on being a cunning negotiator finds his fate resting in the hands of a kidnapper (Willem Dafoe) who has nothing to lose and everything to gain.
For those of us craving an adventurous period film, comes Antoine Fuqua's King Arthur starring Clive Owen in the title role, and Keira Knightley as his Guinevere. Although the legend of King Arthur has not been historically established as fact, this film will attempt to place King Arthur within his possible historic context, smack between the fall of the Roman Empire and the long road through the Dark Ages.
What's a summer season with a Will Smith blockbuster? Directed by Alex Proyas, I, Robot is set in the year 2035, where robots are an everyday household item, and everyone trusts them, except one, slightly paranoid detective (Smith) investigating what he alone believes is a crime perpetrated by a robot. The case leads him to discover a far more frightening threat to the human race.
Also back is Matt Damon in the sequel to The Bourne Identity, The Bourne Supremacy. Directed by Paul Greengrass, The Bourne Supremacy re-enters the shadowy world of expert assassin Bourne (Damon), who continues to find himself plagued by splintered nightmares from his former life. The stakes are now even higher for the agent as he coolly maneuvres through the dangerous waters of international espionage - replete with CIA plots, turncoat agents and ever-shifting covert alliances - all the while hoping to find the truth behind his haunted memories and answers to his own fragmented past. Back is Franka Potente and Julia Stiles.
Highly anticipated is Pitof's Catwoman, starring stunner Halle Berry in the title role and Benjamin Bratt her love interest. Yum. Shy, sensitive artist Patience Philips (Halle Berry) works as a graphic designer for a mammoth cosmetics company on the verge of releasing a revolutionary anti-aging product. When Patience inadvertently happens upon a dark secret her employer is hiding, she finds herself in the middle of a corporate conspiracy. In a twist of fate, she is transformed into a woman with the strength, speed, agility and ultra-keen senses of a cat. With her newfound prowess and feline intuition, Patience becomes Catwoman, a sleek and stealthy creature balancing on the thin line between good and bad.
And finally, lovers of M. Night Shyamalan's thrillers will be happy hear that his new film, The Village, is also coming out this season. Heather (Agnes Bruckner) is dropped off by her parents at a remote all-girls boarding school deep in the woods. Watched over by sinister headmistress Ms. Traverse (Patricia Clarkson) and her staff, Heather is bullied by her classmates and wants to go home. But when students disappear and she begins to have horrifying visions, she realizes things aren't what they seem. Also stars Joaquin Phoenix and Adrien Brody.

Publication Date: 2004-05-02
Story Location: http://tandemnews.com/viewstory.php?storyid=3923