With the summer movie season of 2009 drawing to a close, it’s time to look back at the ten films that made us laugh, cry, howl and above all entertain us. Now bear in mind while films like The Hurt Locker and Moon saw release over this summer, they won’t be included here as this focuses more on the blockbusters than it does some films that had play at festivals. Enough babble, onto the films.

10. GHOSTS OF GIRLFRIENDS PAST

Some are going to have films like Land of the Lost, The Proposal, or dare I utter Year One on their top ten lists, but I’m going to opt to put this one on there. Oh yes, it’s a shock this shows up here but the film was actually a decent little romantic comedy. It’s more a comment on how this summer has been, but let’s not discredit a movie that actually took the time to develop the leading characters and moved rather briskly. Matthew McConaughey is more than tolerable as Michael Douglas steals every scene he’s in. May 1st started blockbusters off on the wrong foot with Wolverine, but romantic comedies started off well with this fairly underrated movie.

Current Grade – 7/10

9. HARRY POTTER AND THE HALF-BLOOD PRINCE

Potter die-hards snatched this film up and drank every last drop of it, others (like yours truly) felt it did just enough to be considered good, but lacked an explosive action scene present in most blockbusters. Word on the street is the book has a climatic battle that could have been present here helped the picture. Instead this remains a decent Harry Potter picture that shows the growth and talent of the leads and might be considered one giant build up for the final two films. If it is, it’s a well done ad for Deathly Hallows and did get me interested to see where this is going to end up.

Current Grade – 7/10

8. G.I. JOE: THE RISE OF COBRA

First, this by no means has anything in it resembling a good, even decent film. However, the film spoke to the child inside me and for that I enjoyed the hell out of it. Besides when you’re a kid playing with your action figures you don’t care about your Boba Fett or Batman action figure on a deep quest to find themselves. No, you want them to take out everyone in the room and engage in an all-out war, plot be damned. While the effects are spotty in some spots, it doesn’t matter in the end as Stephen Sommers gets the tone of G.I. Joe right and gave us the blockbuster Terminator Salvation, X-Men Origins: Wolverine, and Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen promised but failed to deliver.

Current Grade – 7/10

7. DRAG ME TO HELL

Look for this in something I’ll concoct at the end of the year called “Films I Was Wrong On.” It’s still not one of the films of the year, the movie is a nice mish-mash of new and old Raimi while the director just has a blast making a nice throwback film. Like another film on this list, it gets a little too self-indulgent for it’s own good and Raimi’s slapstick style doesn’t always work, but who doesn’t love an anvil taking out a demon. The performances were a little better than expected as well, the best of whom comes from Dileep Rao. Oh yeah, and I’ll still stand by it being one of the best horror films of the decade, credibility be damned.

Current Grade – 7/10

6. THE HANGOVER

You have to applaud this film for being the one to debunk Warner Brothers’ “no more tentpole R” films as this went on to become one of the highest grossers of the year. As far as the funny goes, this film brought it in spades with a decent plot and some great comedic performances. In fact, most of the random things these characters end up in are plausible considering this is supposed to be the craziest Vegas hangover ever. Ed Helms was terrific both on the piano and as “Dr. Douchebag” as Zach Galifiankis made up for his turn in What Happens in Vegas. It loses it’s way toward the end, but it still comes out as one of the funniest films of the year.

Current Grade – 7.5/10

5. STAR TREK

Most have called this ‘the film to beat this summer.’ While the film has some really big plot problems, overall J.J. Abrams brings it all together to craft one of the most entertaining and best films not just of the summer, but the year. This one also furthers the destruction of the “even-good odd-bad” theory that Nemesis helped to take care of. I may be the only one, but I still feel Chris Pine gave a better Kirk than Shatner (flame me below) but Karl Urban so sneakingly steals the film away from everyone, he should be arrested for it. It was action-packed, featured wonderful characters and while fun, wasn’t completely dumb. Oh, and it’s fourth best of the entire Trek series.

Current Grade – 8/10

4. DISTRICT 9

Boy, science fiction sure is having a wonderful year with Moon, Star Trek, Watchmen, and now this. It doesn’t insult it’s audience’s intelligence, the action is coherent and shot well, and the performances are just as powerful and moving as anything you’ll find this year (Sharlto Copely deserves at least a nomination.) One of the most original pieces of the year, District 9 remembered what it was that made summer such a gold mine for films in the first place. It’s tough to talk about anything in the film as the less you know going in the better but just know this: District 9 is the summer blockbuster we deserve and hopefully it’s a success so studios take notice that we want our movies to have some form of intellect behind them. Leave now, go see it.

Current Grade – 9/10

3. PUBLIC ENEMIES

I love Michael Mann, and will worship pretty much any film he makes (hey, I’ll at least admit it.) Public Enemies is another great one of his, and is the equivalent of Picasso painting a masterpiece or Mozart conducting another classic. That won’t work for some as Mann follows the beat of his own drum but at least here it ended up being one of the best flicks of the summer. It’s the 1930′s through the eyes of Michael Mann, and seldom has it ever been this stylish or cool. Public Enemies also has the best shootout this year with the cabin shootout and one of the most beautiful scenes that Mann’s ever filmed with Dillinger’s last moments. It’s poetry, pure poetry.

Current Grade – 9/10

2. UP

Pixar just outdoes themselves every year, even though WALL*E made a case that the trend had ended. Well, it doesn’t as Up edged the robots out to take the crown. Ten minutes in, Up gives one of the best directed scenes ever in ANY film and doesn’t let go from there. There’s likely not going to be a more deserving animated film to break the barrier and be nominated for Best Picture. It still overwhelms me how terrific this film is, from how subtle it is with telling it’s characters to making Ellie a character without her being there and not making Russell an annoying little kid. All that, and we’ve yet to talk about the story is pure bliss. In short, it’s Pixar’s finest hour to date.

Current Grade – 9.5/10

1. INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS

If I were a history teacher, I’d be teaching this film in history classes as fact. Tarantino has crafted a movie that’s his best since Jackie Brown, and no that’s not an overstatement. The journey might have been a long one for the Basterds to get to the screen but it was well worth it. Brad Pitt is at his finest and way, way better than he appeared in last year’s The Curious Case of Benjamin Button namely because he as a personality in this one. The big winner of this is Christoph Waltz who should go on to bigger things thanks to his performance as Col. Hans Landa. For Tarantino, he does self-indulge like he did in Death Proof, but doesn’t go overboard and uses the dialogue to build tension during scenes. Also unlike that film, there’s no fat to be cut as everything moves the film along briskly. The results are magic, and as the writer/director himself puts it, a “masterpiece.”

Current Grade – 9.5/10

So there you have it, these are the films that took summer 2009 by storm. Sure things started off bumpy with Wolverine and there were pot-holes along the way in Terminator Salvation, Year One, and Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen but this summer didn’t limp to the finish line. In fact it went out with a big bang and turned in some fun and two seriously great pictures. In fact, that may as well define the summer as one that showed promise, faltered, then delivered big time in the clutch. Here’s to a great end of the year with The Lovely Bones and Black Dynamite still to come.

A smart ass cars salesman nor a cute five year old fish girl could stop District 9 from obtaining the top spot this weekend. The Peter Jackson boosted low budget science fiction story managed to wrangle in about 37 million. Directed by Neil Blomkamp and starring Shartlo Copley, Jason Cope and Robert Hobbs, it showed that at least the heavy marketing (and two Comic-Con’s worth of it) is starting to pay off.

Rachel McAdams and Eric Bana’s love story, The Time Traveler’s Wife, seemed to bring in the appropriate age group demographic when it took in 19.2 million over this past weekend. Following the tale of Henry and Claire’s relationship that is constantly tested by Henry’s uncontrollable ability to time travel, the Robert Schwentke film looks like it will be able to take in the money it needs to in order to make a little bit of profit.

Continuing on is the Jeremy Piven powered The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard which was able to bring in around 5.3 million. In all honesty, this reporter here is happy that this comedy of sorts was not able to make much, and most likely won’t be able to after what seems to be the peak of it’s money making. Then we swim around to everyone’s favorite fish, Ponyo. Written and directed by the ridiculously talented and creative Haoyo Miyazaki, this tale brought in 3.5 million, which is not bad at all considering that it’s first and foremost a foreign film and that it was not shopped around to the general public for too long. Here’s hoping that word of mouth brings in more audiences to check out the latest from the imaginative filmmaker.

Last but not least, well it literally did make the least out of all of these films, is Summit Entertainment’s Bandslam. The only people who for the most part knew about this film is Disney fans who flocked to see the likes of Vanessa ‘I swear I have clothes on now’ Hudgens or to watch the mini trailer of Twilight Saga: New Moon. From it’s 2.2 million intake, it looks like it attracted some fangirls but not enough to crack it into the top ten.

Jumping into the films that have been out for a little while, it looks like GI Joe: The Rise of Cobra is trying to scrounge together as much as it can for its 175 million dollar budget before the summer movie season dies off. Though it made 22 million, what can be the poisonous word of mouth is starting to seep in. Along with that and the upcoming release of the widely hyped Quentin Tarantino movie Inglorious Basterds, this all American hero will have to rely on overseas in order to get back the remainder of their budget. Enough chit chat, let’s look at the list below:

Weekend Box Office (August 14-16)

1. District 9  ($37 Million)
2. G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra  ($22.5 Million)
3. The Time Traveler’s Wife  ($19.2 Million)
4. Julie & Julia  ($12.4 Million)
5. G-Force  ($6.9 Million)
6. The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard  ($5.3 Million)
7. Harry Potter & the Half Blood Prince  ($5.1 Million)
8. The Ugly Truth  ($4.5 Million)
9. Ponyo On The Cliff By The Sea  ($3.5 Million)
10. 500 Days of Summer  ($3 Million)

For most people who are fellow students this will be the last summer weekend of sorts to rush into the movie theater and enjoy the freedom of summer. It’ll be time to kick things off with films such as Quentin Tarantino’s Inglorious Basterds, Post Grad, Robert Rodriguez’ Shorts, and World’s Greatest Dad.

YO JOE!

G.I. Joe, which started as a doll line in 1964, soon exploded into a full-fledged franchise that exists to this day, spawning a comic book line, a cartoon series, a reimagined cartoon series, video games, and even a couple of animated movies. After Michael Bay’s successful 2007 adaptation of Transformers, Paramount saw fit to adapt G.I. Joe for the big screen, recruiting director Stephen Sommers, who made the only two good Mummy movies, and the entertaining, if slightly self-indulgent Van Helsing.

G.I. Joe takes place in the “Not Too Distant Future”, where a man named McCullen, owner of a corporation called M.A.R.S, has developed a nanotechnological weapon that can eat through tanks, and even entire cities. During a delivery of the weapon, to a group led by “Duke” and “Ripcord”, a mysterious and violent force attacks, killing nearly all of their men. Before the remainder can be taken out, they are rescued by another equally mysterious and violent force which appears and drives the bad guys away. Their rescuers reveal themselves as G.I. Joe, a secret organization founded to track down bad guys and destroy them. Duke and Ripcord want in, and receive advanced training. Soon, they are ready to take down the mysterious force, to keep them from doing God-knows-what. However, there is a past between Duke and the evil femme fatale known as The Baroness. What is it? You’ll just have to find out for yourself.

So, after all the controversy with the supposed firing of Stephen Sommers (which wasn’t true), the most obvious question remains. Is G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra any good?

No. It’s not.

Actually, it’s pretty awesome.

The film is a fast-paced, action-packed, extremely dumb, but extremely fun motion picture, which does more things right than wrong.

The acting is surprisingly good, considering the material. Channing Tatum, who plays Duke, is a likable presence, and makes for a good action hero. Marlon Wayans (Ripcord) does a good job too. I was afraid he would be the Jar Jar Binks of the film, but he manages to not be annoying. Sienna Miller was a surprise as The Baroness. Although neglected to assume the Russian accent of the character, I gave her a pass since she was good in the role; it helps that she was easy on the eyes. Rachel Nicholes as Scarlett is kind of a mixed bag, I don’t remember the character too well from the cartoon (it’s been a looooong while), but she did a fine job. The rest of the cast also did well, including Ray Park as the bad-ass Snake Eyes. I do have some problems with Cobra Commander, but Joseph Gordon-Levitt did well enough with what he was given.

The action sequence, though it starts out rather small, explodes into epic-ness around the halfway point. The assault on Paris was a rip-roaring sequence, filled with more wanton destruction than your average action movie. It’s also hilarious. Why? Well, the obvious comparison I can make with this scene is the opening of Team America: World Police. Nowhere have I seen a more blatant disregard for human life than in this movie. Our heroes are diving through flying cars, trains, buildings, possibly people, all while everything in the city is exploding. Is this a flaw? Hell, no! If one would look up the phrase “Cartoon Come To Life” in the dictionary, G.I. Joe will certainly be listed as one of the definitions. The final battle (which goes on forever), does lower the collateral damage count by 100%, but it doesn’t match the macho bravura of the Paris scene. Oh, and if you didn’t love the accelerator suits in the trailer, you’ll love them here.

The film is not without its problems, though. There are many backstories within G.I. Joe; however, none had a satisfying conclusion. The histories of Duke/The Baroness, and Snake Eyes/Storm Shadow were the most compelling, yet neither ended on a note that I felt was satisfying. I’m sure a sequel will fix all that, but I wish they had gone ballsier with the former storyline and ended it a bit more tragically. The latter storyline just needed to be more epic in its conclusion. I also felt the story of Cobra Commander was shortchanged. For a film subtitled “Rise of Cobra” they sure didn’t focus much on the main villain of the franchise. It was just, “BOOM! EVIL!” – and that’s it. I also didn’t quite buy the Scarlett/Ripcord love story. I would’ve preferred for them to go with canon, and paired Scarlett and Snake Eyes.

Also, I’m just not that big of a fan of super-obvious sequel-bait endings. This one had the most blatant. Transformers felt self-contained, with hints of a possible sequel coming from the sheer size of the franchise, but this one might as well have had a giant neon sign saying “GIVE ME A SEQUEL!” I sure hope the film’s a hit in this regard.

This leads into a question I’m sure almost none of you will ask, but I’ll answer anyway: is G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra better than Transformers: Revenge of The Fallen? If you see both, chances are 99.9% of you will say G.I. Joe. However, I’m going to have to be of the .1% that disagrees. Let me explain. I’m a much bigger fan of Transformers than G.I. Joe. I grew up with the “Transformers” series, and even watched the 1986 film millions of times and never got sick of it. I felt both of Bay’s films were successful in their transitions from cartoon to silver screen. I found them highly entertaining, and mind-blowingly epic. Yes, both Rise Of Cobra and Revenge of The Fallen had their problems; however, Rise of Cobra’s are much bigger than Revenge of The Fallen’s.

So, despite a few problems, G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra is a hugely entertaining franchise starter that has no other direction to go but up. I recommend it for fans and moviegoers looking for a good time.

Have Fun!

Rating: ★★★★☆ 

Well, however you feel about kid sensations taking the leap, the other Hasbro toy line/TV show has jumped from plastic case to big screen with G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra, and it did catch some attention as one of the last big movies of the summer season. Reeling in around 56 million so far, the overly pumped action movie from Stephen Sommers brought in a lot of people, though of course with its 175-million-dollar budget the studio will probably worry their pants off until they can reach it. With somewhat more positive buzz than practically everyone (including this writer) expected, let’s see how this sucker measures up when it goes up against District 9 this coming Friday.

The food-filled Julie & Julia also was released this week. Starring the talents of Meryl Streep and Amy Adams, the women, or anyone else who was a fan of the late Julia Child, basically had a film to flock to if they didn’t have the appetite for the aforementioned testosterone-filled action film (and knowing the characters is half the battle!). Bringing in 20 million to date, this Nora Ephron film is already doing well for itself, proving to be a neat little hit.

Along with Julie & Julia is the underachieving film The Perfect Getaway which not only left a bad taste in a majority of critics mouths, but did not catch the attention of the majority of general audiences. Scraping in a little over five million, this little ‘vacation’ will be quickly forgotten when the last slew of summer films sweeps its way in.

Last but not least is the quirky independent documentary-toned film Paper Heart starring Charlyne Yi and directed by Nicholas Jasenovec. Still quite under the radar, so to speak, with a little over two hundred thousand, the film will be distributed to more cities across the nation on Friday. Time to check out the top ten of the box office for this past weekend:

Weekend Box Office (August 7-9)

1. G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra  ($56.2 Million)
2. Julie & Julia  ($20.1 Million)
3. G-Force  ($9.8 Million)
4. Harry Potter & the Half Blood Prince  ($8.8 Million)
5. Funny People  ($7.8 Million)
6. The Ugly Truth  ($7 Million)
7. A Perfect Getaway  ($5.7 Million)
8. Aliens In The Attic  ($4 Million)
9. Orphan  ($3.73 Million)
10. 500 Days of Summer ($3.72 Million)

Make way for what seems to be the second to last leg of the summer movie season with District 9, Bandslam, Ponyo, The Time Traveler’s Wife, The Goods, Spread and It Might Get Loud.

G.I. Joe, where have you been all summer? Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen and X-Men Origins: Wolverine failed to deliver the kind of mindless, entertaining fun that summer so often brings while everything else outside of Star Trek has been more concerned with being artistic than enjoyable. It’s strange, scribing those sentences and the ones that will be written considering all the bashing and hate I’ve spewed toward Stephen Sommers ever since he poisoned humanity with Van Helsing. He picked the right year to finally make a decent film; Sommers not only beat, but destroyed Michael Bay at his own game. Yes, as much of a shock as this will be to some of you, G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra is not the worst film ever made. In fact, it’s the G.I. Joe movie one imagines when playing with action figures as a boy.

Sommers not only beat, but destroyed Michael Bay

Back to Sommers though, who (for starters) I owe an apology to. The material is well-suited for him – cheesy, patriotic and bombastic. True, a serious G.I. Joe film would be intriguing. Sommers is able to capture the spirit and tone of the cartoons and comic books. We’re never promised an award-winning plot or artiste acting. Not the product Sommers wants to deliver to us. He provides us with exactly what we wanted out of all those comics and ‘toons which is good guys and bad guys knocking the hell out of each other. And boy do we get plenty of that, as G.I. Joe assaults with one exciting action scene after another, giving just enough time for everyone to catch his breath before ramping things back up again. The much hyped Paris scene doesn’t disappoint and maintains a perfect thrill ride of an action sequence. Missiles whiz by, men jump over and through trains and mayhem ensues. Best of all, the entire thing is coherent and displays some engaging action shots that tell the adrenaline to pump.

Yet with these exciting, thrilling sequences, Sommers is kind enough to let each of the characters have a moment to shine. No one character takes the spotlight from the others as each contributes to taking down the villains in some way, shape or form. For instance in the last battle, one can easily follow who’s fighting who and who’s doing what. Snake Eyes has an epic showdown with Storm Shadow, Duke chases down Cobra Commander and Destro, Ripcord has to save D.C. and Moscow, while Heavy Duty destroys Cobra subs left and right. Sommers allows the characters to all be unique so we know who’s on screen, and it’s not carbon copies of Duke or General Hawk. It’s not a case of getting to know a main character, but knowing who is who and how different purposes mesh. Quite honestly, this is a pretty good example of how to handle a film that deals with a team working together.

Taking a deeper look at the team, most of the actors fit like a glove and, like in Paramount’s other great summer film, they help to elevate the movie. The biggest surprise comes in the form of Marlon Wayans’ Ripcord who actually has some form of a screen presence. Known for his comedy stylings, Wayans keeps it in check here and delivers a solid leading performance. The movie, for many fans, will rest on how Snake Eyes and Storm Shadow are portrayed. Fear not, both are handled exceptionally well, especially Ray Park’s turn as the mute ninja. Unfortunately he’s only in a handful of scenes but by the same token, he gets the best stuff to do. Essentially, Park is in Darth Maul-mode but that doesn’t make Snake Eyes any less of a performance. While the film doesn’t delve into her romance with the aforementioned ninja, Rachel Nichols just feels right as Scarlett. She’s tough when she needs to be, sassy when she needs to be, and sexy at all times. Rounding them out is Dennis Quaid, who hams it up to just the right degree as General Hawk.

On the Cobra side of things, Joseph Gordon-Levitt is Cobra Commander. He was a worry going into the picture, but he comes out as the best of all the Cobra operatives by far. He’s menacing and recreates the voice long-time fans are accustomed to without having it sound too over-the-top. Christopher Eccelston holds his own as Destro, although he’s really a downgrade compared to what Gordon-Levitt is doing. Eccelston is still enjoyable, but hardly menacing or conniving. His main squeeze (The Baroness) will surely take away the breath of any male left by Rachel Nichols. Sienna Miller’s fine here, even when she’s not being sexy (which she excels at in this picture). Lee Byung-hun compliments the great work by Ray Park as Snake Eyes’ rival Storm Shadow, never playing the character with angst but a competent coldness. Arnold Vosloo is pure gold as Zartan.

With all of these fine performances on hand, the one who messes up the worst is Channing Tatum. He was originally against doing the film and maybe it should have stayed that way. He’s the John Cena of this group, always showing one emotion and only two or three tones of voice. He’s a tough sell as Duke largely due to Tatum’s complete lack of screen presence. If that’s not enough, he doesn’t have any of the aura of command that the role of Duke needs. The film doesn’t necessarily need it, as it does focus on the team, but it lacks the presence of the other strong protagonists. Duke is just there, admiring all the cool stuff and going along with the flow like his audience. The difference, though, is that he needs to be engaging. We don’t.

Having finally seen the movie, it’s a letdown that Paramount handled things like they did. Understandably it was a troubled production as the trailers didn’t excite anyone and the accelerator suits were huge turn-offs. They had the film they wanted with Revenge of the Fallen and it’s entirely possible The Rise of Cobra will perform better with critics and audiences. It should, as it has some top-notch effects (surprising for Sommers, who usually goes cheap), and some of the most engaging action of the summer.

That’s what G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra is at the core. Pure dumb fun, this is the G.I. Joe film fans want and should come away happy with. It doesn’t mask what it is, and that works in the movie’s favor. After Terminator Salvation, X-Men Origins: Wolverine, and Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen it’s time for a movie to come and keep to the basics of stupid fun. The boy (or girl) in all of us will want to proclaim it the greatest movie that ever happened and it’s good to know these type of films still exist. Welcome back, Dumb Fun Action Film. This summer’s needed and missed you.

Rating: ★★★★☆ 

That’s right, everyone’s favorite eighties all-American hero is jumping out into the big screen in G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra. The Stephen Sommers (Van Helsing) directed action adventure piece stars Channing Tatum (Fighting), Sienna Miller (Stardust) among others. An elite military unit comprised of special operatives known as G.I. Joe, operating out of The Pit, takes on an evil organization led by a notorious arms dealer. Running it’s way into theaters nationwide on August 7th, here’s the trailer below.