2008: The Long Hot Summer AKA Dartflix Edition #34

Well, it's finally back! The last time I did a fully fleshed out Dartflix post was back on March 25th. Due to the WGA strike, IMDb was seriously backed up in updating their information as far as upcoming releases went. Since I relied on them mainly for movie information and they couldn't provide it I had to seek all on my own from a mish mashed group of internet and print sources. Since it took so much goddamn work just to do the research I had to scale back my actual post and go Dartflix Lite instead. Those days are now over, thank God (it did take 2 whole months to do, though)!

Last year, I wrote a Dartflix post about how I expected that blockbuster season to be huge even though I was only really looking forward to the indie movie boom that a great summer box office take would provide. Lo and behold, last year's take was a record amount thanks in part to the huge dollar amount brought in by last summer's crop of blockbusters. This summer has some potential hits that could be pretty good or they could be huge bombs at the box office as well as quality wise.

I hope some of these big budget films will surprise me by being well written and well acted as well as aesthetically pleasing (i.e. Iron Man) and not just mindless CGI rendered, soulless eyesores (i.e. Speed Racer). I'm really looking forward to the remaining film festival favorites that have yet to be released theatrically or on DVD such as "The Wackness", "Pineapple Express" and "Mongol" (all shown above). I hope that "The Happening" won't piss me off at the end like (insert M. Night Shyamalan disappointment here) did. I'm beginning to wonder if he even wrote "Unbreakable" in the first place. Exercise extreme caution at the box office this summer, people.

Congratulations to Barack Obama to securing the nomination from the Democratic Party last night as well...although Senator Rodham Clinton still doesn't seem to be convinced that it happened. Anyways, on to the movie stuff:



Films I recommend in theaters (6.1.08-6.15.08) or to add to your queue early or for rental from either Netflix or Redbox:

Mongol
The Promotion
The Happening
The Hulk
The Boondocks-The Complete Second Season
Rescue Me-The Complete Fourth Season
The Dead Zone: The Final Season
Flawless
National Treasure 2: Book Of Secrets
Cassandra's Dream
Diary Of The Dead
Finishing The Game
Cleaner
War, Inc.
Redbelt
The Air I Breathe
Natural Born Killers (Blu-Ray)
Cloverfield (Blu-Ray)
Face/Off (Blu-Ray)
Babel (Blu-Ray)
Four Brothers (Blu-Ray)
The Warriors: Director's Cut Special Edition
Indiana Jones And The Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull
The Chronicles Of Narnia: Prince Caspian
Student Bodies
Vince Vaughn's Wild West Comedy Show
Dirty Harry (Deluxe Edition)
The Enforcer (Deluxe Edition)
Magnum Force (Deluxe Dition)
Sudden Impact (Deluxe Edition)
The Dead Pool (Deluxe Edition)
Hamburger Hill (20th Anniversary Edition)
Mama's Boy
Savage Grace
A Dirty Carnival
The Andromeda Strain (miniseries)
Cross Bronx
Directed By Roger Corman
Darfur Now
What Would Jesus Buy?
Iron Man
The Machine Girl
The Forbidden Kingdom
I'm Not There
The 4400-The Complete Fourth Season
The Great Debaters
Untraceable
Frontier(s)
Botched
The Take
Noriko's Dinner Table
Rambo
The Chair
The Tiger Blade
Control (The Miriam Collection)
Grace Is Gone
Boarding Gate
Bomb It
Chaos Theory
Inglorious Bastards (1978)
Heroes Of The East
Come Drink With Me
88 Minutes
Street Kings
Stop-Loss
The Grand
Doomsday
Funny Games
Paranoid Park
Snow Angels
The Bank Job
How To Rob A Bank
City Of Men
In Bruges
Shoot Down
Chicago 10
Charlie Bartlett
Be Kind Rewind
Jumper
Weeds-Season Three
Where In The World Is Osama Bin Laden?
The Onion Movie
The Killing Of John Lennon
The Tracey Fragments
John Adams (HBO miniseries)
Invisible Target
The Signal
Right At Your Door
Civic Duty
Dragon Tiger Gate
Fade
Player 5150

Dart's Rental Recommendations (I personally cosign all of these joints):

The Air I Breathe
The Boondocks-The Complete Second Season
The Signal
Botched
Trade
Funny Games
Cleaner
Right At Your Door
Civic Duty
He Was A Quiet Man
Severance


Rent/Watch these movies at your own risk:

The Strangers: If some folks with masks on show up as I'm about to smash and I have a shotgun versus their knives then that would equal one short movie titled "The Dead Strangers"...I'm just sayin'.
Meet The Spartans: Pardon my back.
The Eye: "The Eye" gets "The Finger".
The Other Boleyn Girl: Only watch this with the TV on mute...or just watch "The Tudors" instead.
Witless Protection: Protect your neck and DVD player...and your brain.


Coming (relatively) Soon To A Theater (or computer) Near You:

One.