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It’s only been a couple of weeks since spring started, but I wanted to talk about this year’s summer movie… This year we get Indy; Batman; Iron Man; Rick O’Connell; Carrie and her horny entourage; Agent 86; Speed Racer; and Scully and Mulder.  I’m sure this will be an exciting summer season, but does anyone notice anything wrong?  Of the numerous summer movies this year, a majority of them are sequels, comic-book adaptations, or original TV shows!  I’ll be the first to admit that I’ll be a “sucker” to shell out $10.00 for these summer movies (well, maybe $8.50 for a Saturday matinee), but is there simply no originality in La-la Land anymore?  Originality has gone out the window!  It’s gone AWOL!! 

I’ve seen a handful of these summer movie trailers.  Although the Iron Man trailer practically tells the whole story, it looks fairly cool, what with the armor and special effects!  The Dark Knight and Indiana Jones 4 trailers look great, too!  But being that I veer toward darker things, my vote goes to the guy in black with the ears!  Haven’t seen the X-Files trailer, and I probably won’t go see the movie.  I’ve never seen an episode of the show.  Nor have I seen the first movie… but I wonder if X-Files is passé now…

Now, I’ve gotta mention the Speed Racer trailer.  The movie itself garnered the 9th spot of the most anticipated summer movies according to a survey by Fangdango.com. Sorry to say, I think the trailer is a definite “thumbs down!”  The costumes have got to go!  What’s with Racer X’s costume?  And the helmet that Speed is wearing!?  Argh!?  It was okay for animation, but couldn’t the Wachowski Brothers have designed something better here for the live-action movie?  Emile Hirsch looks like a total geek!!  And let’s not forget to mention… the great Susan Sarandon!  Susan Sarandon of Thelma and Louise fame?  What’s an Academy Award winning actress like her doing in a movie like that… man oh man, the mighty have fallen!  (Let’s hope she did this as a favor to the producers or something…)  

As a kid, I watched the ORIGINAL show religiously, never ever having watched Fred Wolf’s version or the 1997 Japanese version.  For many years, there were rumors that Speed would become a live-action movie with stars like Tom Cruise and Charlie Sheen attached, and I secretly hoped that the movie would never come to fruition.  Yet my worst fears have come true… Yeah, I think Emile Hirsch looks like Speed, but I ain’t got much hope for the movie.  (And have you seen the movie posters?! Yuck!)  The trailer definitely doesn’t do much for the movie’s cause.  Then again, when the first X-Men Movie trailer came out, I wanted to burst out laughing. But when I went to see the actual movie, I was actually blown away with its dramatic storyline and cool effects.  Maybe, Speed will end up like that, and maybe it won’t.  If it doesn’t, it could possibly mark the worst movie directed by the Wachowski Brothers… Ah, well, I guess all directors need to have at least one 1941 on their resume!!  If Spielberg could survive that, then the Brothers will be a-okay…

Either way, looking at the summer movies these days, I can’t agree more with the sentiment echoed by Eric Radomski, the Creative Chief Officer of Throwback Entertainment.  “Let’s leave classics alone, and create new ones!”  Hey, Hollywood, are you listening?!