Summer Movie Preview-June

June. Kids are getting out of school, and by the end of the month, we'll be sitting by the pool and reading People with a small Dunkin' Donuts iced coffee. Movie studios aren't holding back this month at all. After the biggest first month of summer, May, studios are frantically preparing their new movies for the us. And I think that we'll love them!

June 5^th, the biggest release of the week would have to be the Will Ferrell comedy Land of the Lost. It's based off of a 70's show that no one can remember, and directed by Brad Silberling, who did A Series of Unfortunate Events. In the second remake of a TV show in the past year, a doctor (Ferrell) is sucked into a time vortex with his assistant (Anna Friel) and a survival expert (Danny McBride). It's written by Dennis McNicholas (who wrote Saturday Night Live from 1995-2004) and Chris Henchy, who played a small part with Will Ferrell in the 2008 sleeper hit Step Brothers. Hopefully it won't be as disappointing as Get Smart was.

Also being released that same Friday, The Hangover, starring Ed Helms of The Office and Bradley Cooper, is finally out after months of waiting. Er-that might have just been me that was waiting.

The Hangover is about 3 groomsmen who lose, well, the groom. Now they've got to retrace their steps in order to find him. And for some reason there's a baby and a tiger? Probably the only perk it has is that it's directed by Todd Phillips, who directed the cult classic Old School. Written by Jon Lucas and Scott Moore, who must be very happy since their latest movie, Ghost of Girlfriends Past got great reviews and did relatively well at the box office. I've yet to see the new Matthew McConaughey rom-com, but still, I've been pretty excited for The Hangover since I saw the trailer when it was released March 5^th.

The last major popcorn flick in release that weekend is My Life in Ruins starring Nia Vardalos from My Big Fat Greek Wedding. About the same plot as everything else she's done: a travel guide meets a hunk in Greece. The director fits the bill, Donald Petrie, since he's been doing the same kind of movie since 1994. Petrie's directed Just My Luck, Welcome to Mooseport, Miss Congeniality and How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days. Looks okay, not my thing, but I can see how it can be other peoples'.

In limited release, another movie I've been dying to see, Away We Go starring John Krasinski from The Office and Maya Rudolph, who recently left Saturday Night Live last year. It's directed by Sam Mendes, who's had hits like Jarhead and Revolutionary Road. The plot is fun, a couple (Krasinski and Rudolph) search the nation to find the perfect place for them to settle down and start a family. The story can go a lot of ways, and I'm glad that Focus Features didn't give us a lot of plot. Get ready for a sleeper hit, everyone!

June 11^th, the official week most schools start to let out, there are 2 big films in theaters: The Taking of Pelham 123 and Imagine That. I'll start with Pelham 123.

Tony Scott, an executive producer of the CBS drama Num3rs, directed this story of hijacking a New York subway train and holding the passengers hostage for ransom. Pelham 123 stars John Travolta and Denzel Washington. When I saw the banner hanging on my local movie theater ceiling next to the Up poster, I was like "What does that even mean?" It was like reliving the first time I saw the Pineapple Express cutout. Confused as hell!

Scott also directed Washington in Déjá-Vu in 2005 and was a producer of Denzel's classic Man on Fire. And did I mention Tom Cruise is in it too? Good…Because he's not. James Gandolfini is!

Another major release…no, that's not appropriate, I meant another movie opening this weekend. This is a family blog. Speaking of families, Eddie Murphy (ugh) stars in another comedy about how this guy's daughter tells him stories and the next day they come true. Wait a minute…I've seen this before! That Adam Sandler movie last Christmas, Bedtime Stories, was it? Nickelodeon really can't compete with Disney, but I've always respected them for trying. But completely ripping off one of their movies? Really? And do not pull the race card just because the main characters are black!

Although director Karey Kirkpatrick wrote Over the Hedge, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and Chicken Run. So maybe I shouldn't be so quick to count it out.

In a limited release…wait…let me just cut…that…out, too…there's Moon, about an astronaut who takes a spaceship to the moon and sends bits and pieces of a natural resource he found that can help our planet's power problems. The writer/director Duncan Jones is the son of legend David Bowie. That is über freaking cool! It looks fantastic, and I would just love to see it in theaters, however it is limited and my theater gets crap like Ice Age and Pink Panther 2. Imagine That.

The other flick dropping that I was talking about earlier in this post is Dead Snow. No, it's not about a group of young people who are attacked by a zombie version of Brittany Snow. They get attacked by Nazi zombies (uh-oh!) That may sound stupid, I laughed at it when I saw the plot, too. But Dead Snow is an IFC release, and whatever they whip out, it is always undeniably marvelous. Writer/director Tommy Wirkola's horror was one of the selections at Sundance and a hit with crowds as well. But Jewish readers out there? I'm sure you'll be hugely offended by this. Unless you're cool like that.

June 19^th, the third week of June, two movies that I've been waiting for are released. But neither of them are wide releases. The wide releases of that week are Jack Black's new one and Ryan Reynolds' (Deadpool!) The Proposal.

Year One, starring Jack Black and Superbad prodigy Michael Cera, follows two cavemen (I guess?) after they are kicked out of a tribe and are forced to wander around the primitive world. I'm going to see it for one reason: Paul Rudd has a cameo. And Paul Rudd cameos are always hilarious (remember that one from Forgetting Sarah Marshall? Classic!) The writer/director, Harold Ramis, is most known for his Ghostbusters series. Just a fun tidbit here-there's a confirmed numero tres in the works!

The Proposal stars one of my all-time most-disappointed-in stars, Mr. Ryan Reynolds. Dude, remember Van Wilder and Waiting…? Now you're doing an X-Men spin-off and apparently come June 19^th, a Disney flick with Sandra Bullock. The Proposal is about a publishing executive (Bullock) who forces her assistant (Reynolds) into marrying her to escape deportation back to Canada. It's directed by Anne Fletcher, who also directed another teen hit Step Up. I really don't know what else to say about this. Will it be a cash cow for Disney? Yeah, guaranteed. Will it suck? Yeah, guaranteed.

There's a movie that has a familiar star, writer and director. But you probably haven't heard of Whatever Works, have you? The main guy is Seinfeld genius Larry David and it's written/directed by Woody Allen. However good it probably will be, it is a limited release.

The rumored plot is that an old man (David) falls in love with a southern girl (Evan Rachel Wood). The buzz about having no trailer, poster or confirmed plot is upsetting to some fans. But remember The Simpsons Movie's secret story? That was classic. Will Whatever Works be another Oscar win/nod for Allen? It comes out June 19^th, check it out.

June 26^th is a day some fans have been eagerly awaiting for for months. The movie theater will be packed with both men and women on that day, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen and My Sister's Keeper both come out. So what does that mean for Hollywood? Big, big money!

Transformers was huge in 2007. Worldwide, it grossed over $708 million. Michael Bay decided to make a sequel, pretty much about the same thing. Except I'm guessing more robot fights. Hell yes!

The leads are once again played by Shia LaBeouf and the lovely Ms. Megan Fox, which is probably the majority of the reason that guys everywhere will check this out. What's really a cool fact about this flick is that it's written by Mission: Impossible III and new Star Trek geniuses (not to mention they also wrote the first Transformers) Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman along with Ehren Kruger who's hits were The Ring movies and The Brothers Grimm. To me, being a fan of quality films, this is good news and makes me want to see it even more than I did before! As you all know, I recently said that Star Trek was the greatest movie I've seen so far this year. Not a huge Michael Bay fan though. Still, Transformers 2 will undoubtedly be one of the biggest movies of the year.

For chicks out there, you don't want Transformers action. How's about a movie about a girl, Anna, who has underwent tests, screenings, etc. to somehow treat her sister's leukemia. But as she gets older, she starts to wonder who she is in the world and finds out she's not her "sister's keeper". Anna wants the rights to her own body, so she sues her parents for custody. The question now is what will become of her cancer-ridden sibling and how the court summons will affect her family's relationship…Look, I'm tearing up just writing this…I really want to read the novel by Jodi Picoult before I see the movie, but I'm too engrossed in Rock On by Dan Kennedy right now.

An awesome thing about the flick is that there's no romance to keep the story going, but the love of a family. The director is Nick Cassavetes (The Notebook) and it stars Cameron Diaz, Abigail Breslin (who is great judging by the trailer), Thomas Dekker (who will be in next year's remake of Nightmare on Elm Street) and Alec Baldwin. Sure to be making summer a bit sadder, but also the second movie to make even me cry. Come on, Marley and Me had an emotional ending!

In limited release, Chéri starring cougar-like Michelle Pfeiffer is out. The plot reminds me a lot of The Reader: the son of a courtesan finds himself lost in a fantasy world after being forced to end his relationship with an older woman who taught him the ways of love, all set in 1920s Paris. Although the trailer (check it out) has a more upbeat tone than The Reader.

However the stars are only half the story-The Queen Oscar nod Stephen Frears directs and Christopher Hampton, who won an Oscar in 1989 and was nominated in 2008 for Atonement, writes the screenplay of Colette's 1950 classic. Now this looks like a pretty sweet movie!

Well, that's pretty much everything going on movie-wise for June. Check back here again next week for the preview for July! And be sure to check back frequently for movie reviews, movie news, box office results, interviews, blah-blah, blah-blah, blah-blah and so much more!