10 Movies We Want to See This Summer (and 5 That Make Us Nervous)e
by Brian Tallerico

... THE FIVE THAT MAKE US NERVOUS

There are five movies this season that almost made the top ten, but each has some aspect that makes us nervous enough to keep them off the top list. Don’t get us wrong, they're big, important movies but to us they could go either way. We'll call them the "shaky five." One could actually be the best movie of the summer season, but one could just as easily be the worst. If all of them suck, the season will be looked at as a mess. If even a couple of them work, we could be looking back on this summer vacation more fondly than we did the disappointment of 2007. So, they must be mentioned in any feature about what we expect of summer 2008, even if none of them really get us excited enough to truly make the cut. Heck, the "shaky five" could be the barometer for the entire season. So, in chronological order...

1. Speed Racer (May 9th)

We really WANT to love The Wachowski Brothers' first non-Matrix film since Bound. We were fans of the show, fans of the brothers, fans of the cast, and fans of any movie that looks like it's willing to take a risk. But that's just it, Speed Racer is a RISK. It's clearly a film that looks like a visual marvel but could also be nothing more than that. Moviegoers railed against the perceived bloat of Spider-Man 3 and At World's End last year. If Speed Racer is all effects and nothing more, the bloggers and talkbackers will eat it alive. Sandwiched between equally impressive visual wonders like Iron Man and Prince Caspian, Speed needs a plot that's strong enough to set it apart. One thing we think that we know for sure about Speed Racer is that it's either going to rule or be a total disaster - there's no in-between with this one. It's Howard the Duck or Sin City and, if it's the former, it could put a damper on all of May. We hope not since we loved the original cartoon.

2. The Happening (June 13th)

No name provokes more debate among movie fans as the name “M. Night Shyamalan.” Admit it - the preview for The Happening is pretty good and the concept has potential. After making three good-to-great films, Night stumbled with The Village and then fell head-first into the deep end with Lady in the Water. His name might bring more baggage to a film than anyone else’s this summer. The problem is - it will have to be great to get some of his burned fans back in the theater and, even if it is, they might just wait for DVD.

3. The Incredible Hulk (June 13th)

Opening on the same day as The Happening and providing us with similar movie butterflies (but for very different reasons) is The Incredible Hulk. The Tony Stark cameo is wickedly awesome and makes us even more excited for this one, but the preview and the poster are questionable and lamer than we imagined. The rumor about the recent behind-the-scenes drama doesn't exactly calm our nerves either. We love Edward Norton and the big green guy was always a favorite in both comic book and Bill Bixby form, but we can't shake the feeling that this might fall more on the Fantastic Four and Ghost Rider side of the comic fence than the Batman Begins and X-Men side. But we REALLY hope we're wrong and that Hulk will make a big smash.

4. The X-Files: I Want to Believe (July 25th)

Don't bad titles just automatically give you the movie heebie-jeebies? Everyone remembers the first time they heard The Phantom Menace? We should have known. Anyway, The X-Files 2 (which is what we're still calling it for now) feels at least eight years too late. To make matters worse, there aren't any plot details to get excited about. It feels like Chris Carter and the gang are banking on our love for the show in its prime to get us hyped. After what happened to the last few seasons of the show, Chris Carter OWES us something to really get us excited about. Don't believe us about the secrecy? Check out the link above to the "official site", where all you'll find are three production stills. Carter and his team are responsible for enough greatness that we still want to believe, but don't you think they owe us a few more reasons to take the plunge? Throw us an alien bone, Chris.

5. Tropic Thunder (August 15th)

There may be a few movies that trickle in after it like Nicolas Cage's Bangkok Dangerous and Vin Diesel's Babylon A.D., but Tropic Thunder is really the end of the summer season. The premise is funny enough, but why are we concerned that the warm months are going to go out with a half-amused "eh" instead of the belly-laughter we'll really want by the end of the sunshine? The movie is still worth getting excited about because Robert Downey Jr. is in it, and he's always great (he even steals the preview), but it’s equally worth being nervous about because Ben Stiller is in it and lately he's always bad. If Downey didn't look so great in that preview, this would probably make our "10 Summer Movies We're Dreading" list. We'll have to wait and see, the end of the summer is still a long way off.