Part of my reluctance to continue writing about movies on this page is because this is the time of season when my interest in movies generally wanes. (Another reason is a recent unwholesome obsession with my PS3’s functions other than Blu-ray player, but that’s enough about that.)
Now, at least in local theaters, the focus is on the summer blockbuster and weekend box office numbers. While this is not always a bad thing, it serves to be more distracting than rewarding. Last summer’s barrage of comic book divertissements—“Iron Man” (liked), “The Incredible Hulk” (meh), “Hellboy II: The Golden Army” (liked a lot some reason, more so in retrospect), “The Dark Knight” (very much liked)—has been replaced by a basket full of Hasbro advertisements.
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Michael Bay, perennially in competition with Uwe Boll for Worst Director, will be bringing to the world the next chapter in the arduous nationalization process of Earth’s (relatively) recent immigrant population: the Autobots. In a few trailer viewings of “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen,” there appears to again be a focus on slo-mo CGI battle scenes and Megan Fox, which would’ve made me pee my pants if I were 10 (okay, I guess Megan Fox is easy to look at, as long as she doesn’t talk). I think I will prefer to play with my Transformer toys currently collecting dust in a box somewhere for two and a half hours than sit through this one in theaters. But I do try (kinda) not to pass judgment without having sampled what potentially hazardous cinematic victuals the world has to offer. After all, I did sit through the first one (not in theaters, mind you), 
but it took me about four beers to get all the way to the end. (Maybe I’ll need to institute an alternative “beer rating” for movies.) I find movies fascinating because, even if the movie is lame, I feel each film serves to at least give a cursory glimpse at a certain demographic and its interests and expectations, even if it does have an unhealthy toy fetish.
Stephen Summers, the genius behind “The Mummy” series and other gems like “Van Helsing,” will be the other helmer for the toy industry with “G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra.” (Why is the format of this title the exact same as the other toy movie?) Now, I also saw a trailer for this one, and I am disappointed to say it is not at all tied in with the 1986 classic “Cobra” (check out that tagline!). I was hoping it would be a zombie movie with Lieutenant Marion ‘Cobra’ Cobretti, originally played with regular aplomb by Sylvester Stallone (who also took a writing credit for that film), coming back from the dead to fight some more neo-fascist mass murderers. Or perhaps the neo-fascist mass murderers Sly killed in the first film are the ones coming back from the dead and Cobra actually didn’t die of a steroid overdose as he did in the extended edition, alternative ending fashioned together in my head. After all, in the original film Sly’s police division was known as “The Zombie Squad,” so my mind of course followed the logical deduction process to arrive at both plausible scenarios for a sequel. Alas. Also, I was sad to see it bared little resemblance to these revamps of the original cartoon, so my disappointment was two-fold.
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This being the “off season,” movies worth pursuing still exist. So far this year, the movies I’ve most enjoyed include: “Adventureland,” a coming of age story of a post-grad in need of summer employment, minus the usual sophomoric tendencies of the genre or the unrealistic fascinations of Judd Apatow; “Coraline,” the 3D stop-motion adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s story of a girl who discovers an ideal alternative world, or almost ideal; “Summer Hours,” Olivier Assayas’s vision of globalization and art on the familial scale; and “Drag Me to Hell,” Sam Raimi’s return to his nonpareil “Evil Dead” roots after an overlong stay in the Hollywood factory (“Spider-Man 3” sure lacked the pizazz of the first two; hopefully this film gives him a jump-start on the interesting front for the announced next “Spider-Man” installment).
A couple of movies slated for wide release in the next few weeks I’m most excited about include “Public Enemies,” directed by Michael Mann who seems to have a godly touch with the crime genre (“Heat,” “Collateral”), and “The Hurt Locker,” about a bomb squad unit in Iraq and the many joys involved. And “Bruno.” Can’t forget Bruno.
While at times it may seem like there is a dearth of quality on the screens, it pays to look a little farther away from home and one may be pleasantly surprised. Hopefully.
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