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The snow’s (mostly) gone, the temp’s above zero and it’s time to come out of hibernation. Here are your best bets for movies.
Moviegoers are already geeking out over the return of Indiana Jones and Batman. After the celluloid wasteland of the last three months – Jumper, 10,000 BC, Vantage Point – who can blame ’em? But the next six weeks promise to be a fine opening act for the summer blockbuster season.
April 18
Jason Segel (Freaks And Geeks, How I Met Your Mother) wrote and stars in the rom-com Forgetting Sarah Marshall, about a schlub who runs into his ex (Kristen Bell) and her new rock star boyfriend while on vacation. Pack the Pepto-Bismol for 88 Minutes, in which Al Pacino chews scenery as a forensic psychiatrist chasing a serial killer and The Forbidden Kingdom promises kung fu fans the long-awaited teaming of Jackie Chan and Jet Li.
April 25
John Cusack is a Martin Blankish killer with a crisis of conscience in the satire War, Inc., and stoners Harold & Kumar Escape From Guantanamo Bay with Neil Patrick Harris.
May 2
Robert Downey Jr. seems ideally cast as boozing billionaire womanizer Tony Stark – aka Iron Man – in the comic book adaptation of the armoured superhero. And Dr. McDreamy Patrick Dempsey falls for someone else’s bride in the My Best Friend’s Wedding-sounding Made Of Honor, with Michelle Monaghan and Kevin McKidd.
May 8
Matrix makers the Wachowskis shift gears with the Japanimation-inspired Speed Racer. Tough-guy filmmaker David Mamet gets his jiu-jitsu on with the martial-arts-themed Redbelt, and Sylvester Stallone inspired the sweet coming-of-age story Son Of Rambow.
May 18
The final weekend before Dr. Jones cracks a whip on the competition offers up the second Chronicles Of Narnia adventure, Prince Caspian, and the psycho-killer-on-a-subway thriller The Midnight Meat Train, based on the Clive Barker short story.
On the film fest front, there’s Hot Docs (hotdocs.ca) April 17-27, the Toronto Jewish Film Festival (tjff.com) May 3-11, and the Inside Out Gay and Lesbian Film Festival (insideout.on.ca) May 15-25.
