The Amazing Spider-Man
[youtube=http://youtu.be/atCfTRMyjGU]
Tagline: The Untold Story
Should there be a set of rules when it comes to how much time is necessary between an action franchise’s last installment and its inevitable reboot? This week, the The Amazing Spider-Man comes out just 10 years after Sam Raimi turned the legendary web slinger into a money making franchise machine thanks to Tobey Maguire (well, he did the business in movies one and two, the less said about the third installment the better).
Swap Raimi for Marc Webb and Maguire for Andrew Garfield and you’ve got yourselves a $220 million tentpole for summer 2012. But perhaps it’s better to re-frame the question — for the teenagers the film is aimed at, 10 years is an incredibly long time. So never mind the 10 years, is The Amazing Spider-Man worth the 10 bucks (or more) to go see it?
The film finds us back in origin territory, with Peter Parker (Garfield), abandoned by his parents as a boy, being raised by his Uncle Ben (Martin Sheen, getting a host of raves for his performance) and Aunt May (Sally Field). But when Peter finds a briefcase that belonged to his dad, it sets him off on a journey to try and figure out what really happened to his parents, a quest that takes him to the laboratory doorstep of Dr. Curt Connors (Rhys Ifans), who just happens to be his father’s former partner.
It looks like the conveniently named Webb has delivered the goods. There’s barely a bad review of the latest film to be had; the Wall Street Journal‘s sniping over the very nature of the project (“This hugely elaborate production is supposed to be the reboot of a foundering franchise, but rebooting a computer wipes the silicon slate clean”) is about as nasty as it gets. Instead, the New York Times gets a kick out of our leads (a couple in real life): “Mr. Garfield and Ms. Stone are by far the movie’s greatest assets and when they’re together on screen, they add warmth and a believable closeness to the industrial mix.” Over on the West coast, the Los Angeles Times takes exactly the same view: “Garfield and Stone are good enough to ensure that you won’t miss their predecessors.” And TIME’s Mary Pols seems more than happy to get swept along. “How would it be to go from geeky teen who can’t get a date to someone who can move like Mikhail Baryshnikov at warp speed?” she asks. “Thrilling, and that’s what it looks like. None of this is new to us, but Garfield and Webb make it feel convincingly fresh and exciting.”
MORE: Seven Secrets of The Amazing Spider-Man
Savages
[youtube=http://youtu.be/KC2zbOwbeEs]
Tagline: This Summer, love gets savage.
It’s all too easy to forget in this era of CGI and 3-D that filmmakers such as Oliver Stone are still plying their trade. Granted, 2010’s long-awaited Wall Street follow up fizzled, and the likes of W. and World Trade Center weren’t troubling Oscar either. But it appears as if he’s hit the jackpot with Savages.
Best friends Ben (Aaron Johnson) and Chon (Taylor Kitsch) share a passion for producing some of the most potent marijuana ever seen but are also equally enchanted by Ophelia (Blake Lively). All is going swimmingly until the Mexican Baja Cartel (Salma Hayek, Benicio Del Toro) rocks up and makes them an offer they can’t refuse. Can Ben and Chon, with the help of John Travolta’s slippery DEA agent, fend off the incoming threat?
Whatever the eventual answer, the critics had a fine time finding out in this adaptation of Don Winslow’s best-selling book. “Savages offers nothing more nor less than a rude blast of cinematic energy, invigorating in its foulness and refreshing in its lack of self-importance,” trumpets Variety (also noting that “the disreputable Oliver Stone of old makes a largely welcome reappearance”). “Stone summons up many of the visual and aural tropes of his creatively assaultive works of 15 or so years ago, to mostly strong effect,” concludes The Hollywood Reporter. And the Associated Press’s summation is equally positive: “Savages is an enjoyably gratuitous romp, but with something to say.”
MORE: Check out Savages in TIME’s Summer Arts Preview
The Magic of Belle-Isle
[youtube=http://youtu.be/1NxatcG0C6k]
Tagline: A Re-Coming Of Age Story.
It seems apt that in the week after the sad passing of the great Nora Ephron, the director of her celebrated When Harry Met Sally, Rob Reiner, releases a new movie. And he teams up once again with Morgan Freeman (they made the risible Bucket List in 2007). This time, Freeman plays Monte Wildhorn, a famous novelist whose battle with the bottle has quenched his thirst for writing. But by renting a lakeside cabin for the summer in Belle Isle, and becoming friends with the next door neighbors – which happens to include not unattractive single mom Virginia Madsen – will Monte regain his mojo?
“Shaggily sentimental and a few spells short of enchantment,” writes Variety. “This gooey reteaming of Rob Reiner and Morgan Freeman is crammed tight with baldly manipulative elements, its tearjerker quota busting at the seams,” slams Slant. But Boxoffice magazine takes a different view entirely, claiming that “Reiner has crafted the perfect summer film in The Magic Of Belle Isle,” which “you won’t soon forget.” The problem for Reiner — and one suspects, for Oliver Stone — is that with Spider-Man taking up most of the available screens, will you even get a chance to see this at the movies?
MORE: Tom Hanks on Nora Ephron
NewsFeed’s Flicks Pick: Savages seems to merit the dreaded phrase “a return to form,” but The Amazing Spider-Man is surely the ideal opening blockbuster act to fill the short gap before Batman’s return next week.