Author: Alana Saltz
Summer 2008 was a big season for movies. First were the highly anticipated releases of The Dark Knight and Sex and the City: the Movie.We were then introduced to WALL-E and the stoners of Pineapple Express. Toward the end of the summer, Woody Allen released his newest film, Vicky Christina Barcelona, and Ben Stiller’s Tropic Thunder made its debut in August.
With all the hype surrounding The Dark Knight, expectations for the film were high. According to CBS News, the movie had the biggest opening-day box office sales in history to date. At $155.34 million, its opening weekend out-grossed all of the previous Batman films several times over, and left Spider-Man 3 in the dust. It was well received by critics and audiences alike and many even called it the best superhero movie of all time. Heath Ledger was the clear star of the film. His long -awaited performance as The Joker was captivating and at times frightening to watch.
Nevertheless, the film’s consistently dark atmosphere and nagging morality lessons often made it tedious to watch. Long monologues interrupted the flow and slogged down the film’s progression. Still, The Dark Knight provided the action and entertainment value expected of a big-budget superhero flick.
While blockbuster movies certainly reigned over this summer’s box office sales, there were several other films that stood out from the usual fare. WALL-E was a surprisingly touching film released by Disney and Pixar. WALL-E is not your typical kid movie robot. He’s rusty and broken-down, yet adorable and endearing just the same. The film is set in the future, where humans have been forced to flee Earth and live on a space-station resort. Left behind are hundreds of tiny robot trash compactors to clean up the uninhabitable mess. The moral message behind the film is clear without being too overt. It shows, instead of tells, what will happen if we don’t start to clean up our act.
The robots aren’t exaggeratedly personified like many animated characters tend to be. They don’t really talk in the movie, which is a welcome relief. WALL-E and EVE, his robot companion, communicate in other, more subtle ways. “What I liked especially was the scene where WALL-E and EVE are floating around in space,” said Ryan Barr (senior). “I thought it was a poignant way to show the recognition of love within oneself and it was achieved mostly through the repetition of names.”
The movie’s G rating didn’t deter teenagers and adults from seeing it. “It was definitely one of my favorite films this summer,” Barr added. WALL-E did well in box office sales overall and was met with positive reviews.
The summer certainly had its share of comedies as well. Pineapple Express, the newest film written by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg (who also co-wrote Superbad) and produced by Judd Apatow (Superbad, The 40-Year-Old Virgin, Forgetting Sarah Marshall) had somewhat of a cult following even before its release. The film received modest box office sales and reviews from fans and critics alike.
Seth Rogen, when interviewed on The Daily Show deemed Pineapple Express to be a new genre of film, the “stoner action movie.” It certainly delivers in both respects, complete with plenty of shooting and explosions as well as over-the-top stoner humor. The film was entertaining, but also disappointing. The gratuitous violence began to become tiresome over the course of the film and it was lacking in actual plot. James Franco made a great drug dealer, though, and his character was both lovable and hilariously confused.
Overall, expectations for this summer’s film releases were high. Some of these expectations were met and some of them weren’t. But one thing is certain: Movie theatres brought in a ridiculous amount of money. In spite of continually rising ticket prices, people still love going to the movies, especially in the summer when there is an abundance of time and a need to escape the heat.
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