The summer 2014 wrap up.

Inch by inch the days are giving way to the growing nights.  The summer movie season is winding down and only two titles remain on my must list of the summer.  The Sin City sequel and Pierce Brosnan espionage thriller The November Man are the only two titles remaining.

The summer started with the superhero release of The Amazing Spiderman 2, which like the other superhero flicks this summer, I really enjoyed.  I expected to really enjoy those.  With Spiderman I am glad that Tobey Macguire is no longer doing the role.  I enjoyed his spiderman films but not him in the role.  Andrew Garfield is what I want in the role and his films have been good.

This summer saw many blockbusters, the mightiest of them all was Dawn of the Planet of the Apes.  I throughly enjoyed continuing to see the rise of Caesar and almost always enjoy some ape goodness on the cinema marquee.  Lucy, Godzilla, and The Signal rounded out some great science fiction this summer.  I do enjoy my sci-fi flicks.

On the comedy front nothing was better then the Seth Macfarlene film A Million Ways to Die in the West.  He recruited a great ensemble and utilized the talents of his cast.  The film also had some great cameos from pop culture history.  22 Jump Street was a great second place comedy.  The jokes about sequels never got old in this one.

Surprisingly I enjoyed Jersey Boys.  I saw it solely because it was directed by Clint Eastwood, who is my favorite director and occasional actor working in Hollywood today.  The music was good and I loved the mob story that was told.

The indy scene had a strong summer as well with releases like Ida, Boyhood, and A Most Wanted Man.  A Most Wanted Man is Philip Seymour Hoffman’s final film outside of The Hunger Games.  It’s also the first film I saw twice on the big screen in a little over a year and a half.

Unfortunately every coin is two sided and there were some bad flicks.  Thank you Michael Bay.  First was the Bay directed Transformers: Age of Extinction.  It was three hours over long and filled with bad slow motion action sequences.  When I thought it couldn’t get any worse I saw the Bay produced Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.  Thank you Mr Bay for ruining a beloved franchise from my childhood.  In Ninja Turtles the action was bad, dialogue worse, and the CGI was just awful.  There were other films that were subpar that weren’t influenced by Michael Bay.  Into the Storm jumps to mind but I’d rather remember the good this summer.

Now I look forward to the long cool nights of fall when the awards contenders come out to play.

Goodbye Mr. Williams

Growing up I enjoyed movies, not love like I do now but enjoyed the. I would watch them with a shrug and enjoy the occasional behind the scenes story.  Sixteen years ago my view on cinema was turned around dramatically and I was in love.  There was no looking back.  During the summer of 1998 Robin Williams came to town to film Patch Adams.  

During the summer I became emerged in cinema watching the movie come to life.  By the end of that summer my affair with cinema had started and is going strong to this today.  During the year I would experience many firsts in film.  I saw my first Bond flick - Tomorrow Never Dies, learned about the rating system while viewing my first R rated feature - Air Force One, and learned about the academy awards, which Mr Williams had just won for his work on Good Will Hunting.  Of course all this led to the granddaddy cinema event of the year for me, the release of Patch Adams.

In the years since my love for film was nurtured.  I started reading biographies on the greats such as Hitchcock and Kubrick.  Additionally I started watching the classics (Gone With the Wind, Top Gun, The Wizard of Oz and eventually The Godfather to name a few) all while falling deeper and deeper in films.  I ate up as many new releases as I could (Gattaca, Waking Ned Devine both of witch I include as all time favorites).  All this because I got to watch Mr Williams perform his art.

During the summer of ‘98 I had the pleasure of meeting the man who would become a hero of mine.  It was brief but memorable and unforgettable.  It was only a minute as he autographed my Flubber poster.  It’s a moment that I have always treasured, even more so now since his passing.

Years later I would see him perform his stand up live at the DPAC and that night reaffirmed my love with cinema. 

In the days and weeks to come I’ll pull many of his movies off the shelf from his varied career and give them another viewing, many for the umpteenth time.  All in honor of the man who introduced me to my first true love, the movies.  Good Morning Vietnam, Good Will Hunting, Mork & Mindy, The Night Listener, Man of the Year, and of course Patch Adams all come to mind.  

Mr Williams I thank you for introducing me to my first true love of film.  I will treasure your works forever and wait patiently to lovingly view your final films as they grace the screens.  You were then, are now, and will forever be a titan of cinema and one of my heroes for championing my love of cinema.