According to the immutable laws of movie distribution. there can be only one BIG movie opening each week.
Only one major tent pole picture.
Only one title moviegoers are expected to run out to see on its first weekend in theaters.
Looking at the films that will be opening in Kansas City till Labor Day, it’s easy to see this attitude in practice.
With few exceptions, each week this summer will be dominated by one monster movie — a movie expected to so consume the ticket-buying public that nobody wants to go up against it … at least not with a film that might draw from the same audience.
The most obvious example is the opening of the new Indiana Jones movie May 22. It’s expected to so suck up all the attention and dollars that it’s the only studio movie opening that week. In fact, Hollywood expects it to be such a hit that no big-budget blockbuster will be opening the week after, either.
This is not to say that the BIG movie will be the best movie. We’ve been burned too many times to fall for that one.
But love ’em or leave ’em, the films that you’ll be hearing about this summer start on Page 17. (Opening dates are subject to change.) ‘Iron Man’
It’s a superhero movie based on a minor Marvel character most of us know little about. Still, “Iron Man” has developed tremendous buzz thanks largely to the teaming of director Jon Favreau (“Elf”) and star Robert Downey Jr. and the judicious leaking of footage at last summer’s big ComicCon convention.
Downey plays Tony Stark, brilliant inventor, millionaire playboy and international arms dealer without a conscience. Kidnapped by terrorists on a business trip to Afghanistan, Stark must face the human toll of his life’s work and responds by building a flying suit of armor that will transform him into Iron Man.
It has all the bells and whistles of the genre — great f/x, fights, a dastardly villain — but it’s Downey’s transformation from smug egomaniac to protector of the weak that gives the film its emotional oomph.
With Gwyneth Paltrow, Jeff Bridges, Terrence Howard.
ALSO: •“Made of Honor”: In this romantic comedy, womanizer Patrick Dempsey comes to the late conclusion that he’s in love with his best friend (Michelle Monaghan). For her wedding she chooses him as her maid of honor, putting him in a perfect position to sabotage the nuptials. •“The Visitor”: Indie star Thomas McCarthy (“The Station Agent”) directs character actor Richard Jenkins (the dead dad in “Six Feet Under”) as a Connecticut prof who finds two illegal immigrants living in his rarely used New York apartment. Advance reviews have been glowing. ‘Speed Racer’
Swell. Another big effects movie based on a TV show that wasn’t very good to begin with.
But wait: The combination of the Wachowski brothers (“The Matrix”) with “Into the Wild” star Emile Hirsch raises the possibility of action and brains. At least the futuristic racing sequences look fun.
Drawn from a Japanese anime series (originally called “Mahha GoGoGo”) that aired in the U.S. in the late ’60s and ’70s, the yarn features a young hero whose racing car is outfitted with all sorts of fantastic gadgets.
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