Darkness has fallen over your local megaplex. It’s coming from inside your empty wallet.
Gas prices are soaring, theater ticket prices are soaring, and word around the box office is that popcorn embargo is going to take a heavy toll.
So, as you and your even lighter wallet meander your way up to the wall of choices, it comes down to some tight decisions. Another superhero movie? A TV series adaptation? A twenty-year old series resurrection?
In order to get the most bang for your buck, here are five sure-fire hits to light your way in the looming darkness.
The Dark Knight
Heavy clouds following Heath Ledger’s death have taken a toll on Christopher Nolan’s recent addition to his brilliant Batman series but hasn’t made fans’ anticipation any less ferocious. From Ledger’s hauntingly brilliant turn as a macabre Joker, to Nolan’s instinctively morose insight into the shadows of Gotham City, The Dark Knight is the most anticipated film of the summer – maybe even the year.
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skulls
Make fun of Harrison Ford, spit on George Lucas’ reputation, or gripe about alien plot rumors all you want – we all know you’re going to see this movie. Easily the most talked-about series resurrection since Lucas brought back Star Wars, Spielberg may be walking into a death trap by trying to prove that Indy still has some swing to his whip, but for those of us who have never seen this iconic character on the big screen, the journey itself is well worth looking forward to.
Wall-E
Let’s be honest – who doesn’t have a soft spot in their heart for Pixar? From talking toys to lost fish, the studio makes animation ageless in a time where immaturity reigns supreme in most studios. We’ve found ways to love cars, bugs and rats – now they’re going to make us love a trash compacter. Break out the tissue box now.
Speed Racer
With the Wachowski brothers behind the wheel for the first time since the final Matrix installment, Speed Racer does for Saturday morning cartoons what Sin City did for graphic novels. I caught this at the Los Angeles junket last week, and while far from perfect, the cartoon look of it is fun and the race sequences intense.
Tropic Thunder
Robert Downey Jr. may be starting off the summer with a bang next weekend with Iron Man, but it’s his summer closer people will be talking about.
Directed by and starring Ben Stiller, the comedy follows a group of over-the-top method actors starring in a Vietnam War drama who are unknowingly thrown into war themselves. Downey, in what is sure to be the most hilarious performance of the summer, plays the cliched Oscar-winning actor who, after finding out his character was originally written to be black, dyes his skin and decides to play the role as originally written. Hilarity ensues.
