5. Dinner for Schmucks (July 23) – This remake of the French feature The Dinner Game, finds Paul Rudd as Tim, an up-and-coming executive who participates in his boss’s cruel monthly ritual called “dinner for idiots.” The idea is to bring the biggest moron you can find and Tim thinks Barry (Steve Carell), a clueless employee for the IRS, will impress his boy so much that it will help him climb the corporate ladder quickly. Big laughs are to be had here as well as a bit of heartwarming redemption.
6. The Other Guys (Aug. 6) – Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg star as detectives Gamble and Hoitz, cops regulated to desk duty who live in the shadow of two hotshot colleagues (Samuel L. Jackson and Dwayne Johnson) whose outlandish actions put them in the spotlight. Needless to say, when Gamble and Hoitz try to solve a case of their own and grab a bit of the glory that’s been eluding them, chaos reigns. As directed by Adam McKay (Anchorman), this promises to be not only a ribald laugh riot but also a sharp skewering of the cop film genre.
7. Eat Pray Love (Aug. 13) – Julia Roberts stars in this adaptation of the best-selling memoir by Elizabeth Gilbert that finds her reconnecting to the world after a painful divorce. While traveling, she rediscovers her passion for living, and falling in love with Felipe (Javier Bardem) doesn’t hurt either. This is the sort of adult fare that emerges from the trash heap of summer films to offer up a bit of mature drama that audiences are starved for by mid-August.
8. The Expendables (Aug. 13) – Sylvester Stallone writes, directs and stars in this throwback to ’80s action flicks about a gang of mercenaries who are hired to overthrow a South American dictator. The cast is an action fan’s dream. In addition to Stallone, Jason Statham, Jet Li, Dolph Lundgren, Steve Austin and Mickey Rourke are all on board while Bruce Willis and Arnold Schwarzenegger lend their weight in key cameos. Yeah, it’s probably a big dumb movie that exists only to blow stuff up real good, but it looks like great fun too.
9. The Switch (Aug. 20) – Jennifer Aniston and Jason Bateman star as best friends who are reunited after seven years, one bearing a child, the other a secret. Seems as though years ago when she was artificially inseminating herself with donor sperm, he switched the sample with one of his own. The success of this dramady will depend on the skill of its stars, both of whom are experts at handling deft material of this sort.
10. The Last Exorcism (Aug. 27) – What would the summer season be without an effective horror film? This tale from director Eli Roth (Hostel), who serves as producer here, concerns a troubled priest who allows his final exorcism to be filmed by a documentary filmmaker. The realism lent to the material by this approach could give the movie a visceral quality that should have audiences leaping out of their seats. If this is half as effective as last year’s Paranormal Activity, Roth could have a major hit on his hands.
Contact Chuck Koplinski a [email protected].
