In Theaters Tomorrow…

There are three films releasing this week (July 20^th) that are worth mentioning. The musical HAIRSPRAY is a remake/ rewrite of John Waters’ 1988 film of the same name. Adam Sandler and Kevin James get all gay on us with the help of one of SPK’s favorite hottie - one Ms. Jessica Biel. The final film, SUNSHINE, come out in limited release but about 7 months ago you couldn’t go to movie without seeing the trailer.

Apparently the new HAIRSPRAY is based off of the Broadway show that is based off of the original, so it has some new material to go along with the new cast. Waters fans should not be too worried about the new stuff because he signed on to produce the thing. I never thought that Waters’ work would be remade… I’m not a huge fan of his but I just feel that nobody makes a film quite like him outside of possibly a young Pedro Almodovar. The film is of course set in Baltimore, set in the 60’s and revolves around a young, bigger girl who dreams of landing a spot on one of those old dance shows. Eventually the issue of race and segregation gets involved (there are two shows; one white, the other black). This ain’t exactly my cup of tea, but the film has a stellar cast including John Travolta, Christopher Walken, Queen Latifah, Michelle Pfeiffer and former Nickelodeon star and current girl next-door type hottie Amanda Bynes.

I NOW PRONOUNCE YOU CHUCK AND LARRY is more my style of film, big fan of comedies and there have been few occasions where Adam Sandler has done me wrong but this may be the one. I mostly blame CBS for my thinking that Kevin James is not funny. Chuck (Sandler) is a bachelor and Larry (James) is a widower, they are both firemen. Larry finds out that his pension will not go to his children unless he is married… his best friend Chuck owes him for saving his life in a fire and is forced to go through with the marriage. Someone checks into the whole thing Biel is their lawyer, she takes off her clothes, Sandler’s friends do a cameo and we’re done. Rent it.

SUNSHINE is set 50 years in the future when our sun is dying and a crew of astronauts is sent out to re-ignite it (suspend reality people). Michelle Yeoh (CROUCHING TIGER HIDDEN DRAGON) is the only actress of note in the film; the guy who played Pablo Escobar in BLOW is also in the film. I wanted to mention this film because the film is directed by Danny Boyle (TRAINSPOTTING, 28 DAYS LATER, THE BEACH). I dig Boyle, he’s got range and he makes a beautiful film. Those looking for a film involving aliens will be disappointed- this film deals with the psychological effects of seeing the same 8 people for over a year and knowing that you are humanity’s last hope. Some stuff blows up, too.

B.O. should look like this #1 HP and the OOTP #2 TRANSFORMERS #3 CHUCK AND LARRY #4 HAIRSPRAY #5 RATATOUILLE