July 25, 2005

Is there any hope in the week of Stealth?

You can fly, but you can't hide. (You can also Jeckyll, but not Hyde.)

Dustin Hoffman said, in a repeat of his 60 Minutes segment run Sunday, that he could now see the end. You can be 20 and look to be 40 and you can be 40 and say you'll be 80, but when you are 67, there is no multiplying your age.

Has there ever been a more ironical movie title combo in the same weekend than Must Love Dogs and Stealth? Let's hope Sky High is Barefoot Executive-style fun. The Dukes of Hazzard, Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo, Four Brothers, Skeleton Key, The 40 Year Old Virgin, Red Eye, Valiant and The Cave. A dozen studio films to close out the summer.

On the flip side, people who keep asking, "Isn't there any thing really good to see?" will get The Aristocrats, 2046, Junebug, Broken Flowers, Sequestro Express, Grizzly Man, The Perfect Crime, Romance & Cigarettes, The Brothers Grimm and the best film of the first two-thirds of the year, The Constant Gardner as an answer… all in the next five weeks with a bunch of other interesting indies also in theaters.

So whether you want studio programmers, some of which are quite solid, or some really fine art films, this is a really great month to be going to the movies.

Six weeks from now, much of Hollywood's chattering class will descend on Toronto for the annual 10 days orgy of new product, much of which will be released before the end of the year, some of which will sit until near this time next year, and some of which will never see a theater that's not on the festival circuit. Ah, romance..

These are the dog days. The news that is worth covering is all bad. Everyone is either exhausted by getting to the last part of the summer or are focused in the exciting fall (season) to come.

A pause and reflection will soon come. These days, I'm taking solace in the blog, mostly because those who participate bring their energy to the table. I guess that makes me a vampire. Oops.

But for now, all I can say is, "Woof."

E-ME.