Diversions

Summer films mostly flop

Photo Credit: Empiremovies.com

Meryl Streep and Anne Hathaway, two of this summer’s stand-outs.

Emily Hoferer
Diversions Editor

For the past few years, the summer season has been one of the busiest and most lucrative seasons for the cinemas. But as summer winds down and the numbers are starting to be handed in, one thing is for sure: This summer was definitely hyped up, but did not live up to all the buzz.

Why is that? What was so poor about this summer in comparison to the last one? What the heck happened?

The biggest blockbuster last year, for the summer and the entire year, was the final and conclusive movie in George Lucas’s digitized franchise of Star Wars, “Revenge of the Sith.” People who slapped down their seven dollars finally found out how Anakin became one of the most famous villains of all time. They left with an ending. But audiences who went to see the biggest blockbuster this summer “Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest” paid their ten dollars to see Johnny Depp rehash old jokes and were left with a cliffhanger bigger than Jerry Bruckheimer’s bank account. Any movie studio will tell you that word of mouth will keep some people away.

As far as the laughs go, last summer was a big one for Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson. Their little R-rated comedy, “Wedding Crashers,” became a huge success, not only for the studio, but as far as popularity contests go, it picked up the biggest prize, an MTV Movie Award for Best Movie. The “40-Year-Old Virgin” also raked in the laughs and the dollars, and made a star out of Steve Carrell. But this year, Steve opted for the independent movie route (not that there’s anything wrong with that) in “Little Miss Sunshine,” which has not won over the general audience, but has the critics singing its praises. Vaughn and Wilson appeared in separate movies, Vaughn in “The Break-Up” which was mediocre, and Wilson in “You, Me and Dupree.” The movie was awful, but at least Wilson and his co-star Kate Hudson made good tabloid fodder.

Photo Credit: countingdown.com

Brandon Routh as Clark Kent, thinking of how to get his sequel made.

The action and adventure genre had its fair share of contenders, but it’s hard to determine a real winner. “Superman Returns” was highly anticipated and made a lot of money at the box office, but did it do as well as the studio had hoped? They spent more money filming and marketing it than they made at the box office. Right now, plans for the sequel have been postponed. It’s not looking good for the Man of Steel. Even Brangelina’s flick “Mr. and Mrs. Smith” had a better opening weekend last summer than Superman. That’s just plain wrong.

The kids got ripped off this summer, too. Pixar, the studio famous for making great family movies, succeeded with their funny and heart-warming saga about Lightning McQueen in “Cars” but the critics thought it wasn’t nearly as good as other Pixar golden films such as “Finding Nemo.” Other animated, or semi-animated feats such as “Over the Hedge” and “Garfield” got little to no attention during their opening weekends.

Experts say that the combination of high prices and crap movies are what made this summer not nearly as awesome as others. At most AMCs, it is about ten dollars for an adult to see a movie and another ten dollars for a bag of popcorn and some soda. Not to mention the ten dollars the audience spent driving the movie theater. People are simply fed up with having to pay outrageous prices. They could drive to Blockbuster and rent a movie for five dollars and pop the popcorn in their own microwave. They save about twenty dollars.

As far as crap movies go, this summer has had its fair share of the stinkers. “RV” and other bombs kept movie-goers away.

Summer was not all bad, however it did have its fair share of surprise hits, such as “The Devil Wears Prada” and “Clerks 2.” It’s just the plain and simple fact that this summer was not one to remember.

But, all is not lost for one of the most lucrative industries in America. The fall and holiday seasons are looking promising, as Oscar-worthy dramas and a fresh new face in the role of 007 will grace the silver screens. Next summer is already highly anticipated for those who absolutely adore British wizards and web-slinging super heroes. Let’s hope they do not let us down.

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Conan kills at Emmys

Emily Hoferer
Diversions Editor

It was the biggest night in Hollywood. Well, the biggest night besides the Oscars, Grammys, Golden Globes, People’s Choice and the MTV Movie or Music Video Awards. It was television’s very own snooze-fest, the Emmys. This usually dull but lavish ceremony has undergone a lot of scrunity in recent years. But this year, it was a slight improvement.

One of TV’s funniest people, and heir to the Tonight Show throne, Conan O’Brien, was the master of ceremonies. He opened with a skit that poked fun at popular shows such as “Lost,” “South Park” and “Dateline.” He even did his own song and dance routine about NBC’s tanking ratings and of course threw in his own self-deprecating humor.

Conan’s funniest skit was done thanks to TV icon Bob Newhart. Bob was put inside a glass case, with enough oxygen to last him three hours. “If you go one minute over three hours,” Conan warned, “Bob Newhart dies.” They cut to a frantic-looking Newhart throughout the program.

The night wasn’t all about Conan, though. The big winner of the night was Fox’s popular drama “24,” picking up Outstanding Drama and Outstanding Actor in a Drama for Keifer Sutherland. The woman with the most complicated name in Hollywood, Mariska Hargitay, was deemed Oustanding Actress in a Drama for her work on “Law and Order: Special Victims Unit.” Steve Carrell’s “The Office” was deemed the top dog in the comedy category with Tony Shaloub and Julia Louis-Dreyfus picking up Outstanding Lead Actor and Actress in the Comedy categories.

Even though the ratings for the Emmy broadcast did not stack up to last year’s, it was the most watched show that week.

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Summer films mostly flop

Conan kills at Emmys

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