Chris Vognar

Halfway through the summer movie season, our film writers discuss the highs, the lows and what's left to come down the popcorn pipeline:

STEPHEN BECKER: July 4 makes for a logical dividing line in the summer movie season and a good opportunity to discuss the hits and the misses. First, the hits. I realize my man card may be rejected in saying this, but I really enjoyed the Sex and the City movie. Like the best episodes in the series, it picked a theme (this time forgiveness) and managed to weave it through multiple plot points. And it proved that a beloved television show actually can make a successful leap to the big screen. (Are you listening David Chase?) Hollywood wondered if a movie with all-female leads could draw a big audience, and the answer has been a resounding yes, to the tune of $140 million plus. There's already talk of a sequel, which might be tough considering the movie wrapped everything up nicely. But with that kind of money to be made, it'll be tough to resist.

TOM MAURSTAD: At the other end of the TV-show-as-summer-movie spectrum, Speed Racer sank like a stone. It was almost universally panned by critics. I say almost, because I thought it was a great movie and gave it a solid A. It really is an extraordinary movie that, after three so-so movies, re-establishes the Wachowski brothers as the visionaries everybody was declaring them to be after The Matrix . I've been thinking about what happened and why it failed so utterly. Obviously, the poor advance word from critics didn't help. I also thought the trailers did a terrible job; they had me dreading the movie and being unexpectedly blown away. But I also think the movie's failure reflects the increasingly instantaneous obsolescence of everything. I would have thought that the Wachowski brothers were a guaranteed buzz-builder and that Speed Racer the cartoon was a guaranteed touchstone. But plainly neither one meant anything to today's generation of young-adult viewers. The Matrix was a loooong time ago, and Speed Racer is hopelessly lame in a world filled with cool anime. I think it's a lesson Mike Myers is in the process of learning right now.

CHRIS VOGNAR: The movie that really blew my mind was Wall-E , and I went in with sky-high expectations, never a fair mind-set for a movie that wants to make an impression. I found myself thinking, "I need to see this again," about a third of the way through. It somehow manages to be next-level and old-fashioned at the same time. I think it's time to assess Pixar's place in movie history: nine swings, nine hits. Nice batting average. Nothing else has had a similar effect on me this summer, though I definitely dug Iron Man, especially as the ideal vehicle for Robert Downey Jr.'s reinvention. And I was surprised at how little I disliked The Incredible Hulk. Nothing extraordinary, but a solid comic-book adaptation, and way more satisfying than Ang Lee's artsy take.

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SB: On the whole, Hollywood's been hitting on all cylinders, with Speed Racer and The Love Guru the only films with high expectations that have completely struck out with audiences. One film I was disappointed in was Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull . It's made more than $290 million domestically, which should come as a surprise to no one. But it seems as if most people I've talked to about it saw it out of some sort of self-imposed obligation, and I haven't heard from many of them who actually liked it. In a way, it had the same mission as Sex and the City: remind the audience why they liked these characters so much. SATC connected, but Indy just left me feeling cold.

TM: I have to agree. The closest I can come to a disappointment was that I (finally) saw Iron Man and came away feeling ... not much of anything. It wasn't bad, just not nearly as smart, cool or spectacular as the endless media hype had me expecting. But I think that's more a reaction to the hype than to the movie. If I had seen it without all the over-amped buildup, I probably would have liked it just fine. For an out-and-out disappointment I have to go back to the howlingly awful 10,000 B.C., and that came out way back in March.

CV: I like the idea of self-imposed obligation; I think it governs the habits of many moviegoers (and, as Tom implies, it would be disingenuous to act as if we in the media play no part in the process by hyping everything to death). I wasn't expecting much from Indy, so I liked it OK. On the other hand, The Happening filled me with a sense of irrational anger, as though I had been sucker-punched by a pretentious thug. My reaction was visceral, which in a way, is better than being left cold. Sadly, that cold feeling, or the lack of any real response that Tom mentions, defines much of the summer movie season for me. The studios have realized they don't necessarily need to put out good movies to make money. Branding, and the manufacturing of expectation, will often suffice.

SB: The good news is that there's still half a summer left. And it looks to me as if there is plenty to look forward to. In fact, in the last few years, some of the best summer movies (The Bourne Ultimatum , Talladega Nights, The 40-Year-Old Virgin) have come out in the traditional August dumping ground. This August, two films have grabbed my attention, and they both come out on the 15th. Woody Allen's Vicky Christina Barcelona won raves at Cannes in May for its story of a love triangle featuring Javier Bardem, Penélope Cruz and Mia Farrow, er, Scarlett Johansson. Also, Tropic Thunder, the Ben Stiller-directed story of actors shooting a war movie who stumble into a real war, is generating plenty of buzz. Robert Downey Jr. takes the biggest gamble by playing his part in blackface. We'll see if it was worth the risk.

TM: For me, this is the summer of The Dark Knight. This is a movie I am eager to see, excited at the prospect of finally seeing a Batman movie in the postmodern-noir tradition that Frank Miller created back in the early '80s with his gothic-novel series. Now, in the wake of Heath Ledger's death, I'm not sure words like "eager" and "excited" are appropriate, and, frankly, I'm not sure what I'm going to feel when I see his garish, ghoulish Joker. (I flipped into the middle of The Patriot the other night, and watching him play Mel Gibson's son was even more unsettling and weirder than it was the first time I saw the movie.) But I have hopes that the movie and his performance will both be something special. On a lighter note, I'm looking forward to Step Brothers on July 25, reuniting the Talladega Nights team of Will Ferrell, John C. Reilly and director Adam McKay. Maybe, just maybe, it will actually be funny.

CV: I too am salivating over the new Batman. I have expectations (there goes that word again) that it will be even better than Batman Begins, and what little I've seen of Ledger's Joker persona gives me chills. (Fandango is reporting that screenings are already selling out, and it doesn't open until July 18.) On the comedy side, I'm excited about The Pineapple Express, the potheads-on-the-run movie co-written by Seth Rogen and directed by Richardson's David Gordon Green. It looks dark and a little twisted, and it might be Mr. Green's big breakthrough. Plus, the sight of Freaks and Geeks alums Mr. Rogen and James Franco together again makes me happy.