AUGUST FILMS WORTH SEEING

August 6th
Middle Men
This chronicles a period in 1995 when the initial boom of that small thing called the internet happened, and more specifically, its ability to give the world naked pictures and videos of men and women. Middle stars Luke Wilson as Jack Harris, a man who builds the first online billing company that deals exclusively with adult entertainment. Giovanni Ribisi, Gabriel Macht, James Caan, Jacinda Barrett, Kelsey Grammar, Kevin Pollak and Robert Forster round out a pretty impressive cast. Wilson has been somewhat of an enigma lately. He had a more than promising start to his career with director Wes Anderson's trio of Bottle Rocket, Rushmore and The Royal Tenenbaums, then later Old School and The Family Stone. Now, he's been reduced to AT&T commercials and drivel like My Super Ex-Girlfriend and Henry Poole is Here. Here's hoping Middle Men puts him on the road to professional recovery. For all you perverts out there, an orgy scene was cut to avoid the NC-17 rating--a real kiss of death in the industry. So you'll have to wait until it comes out in video for the deleted scenes.





The Other Guys
The newest from Adam McKay. Anchorman is one of, if not the best comedy of the last decade. He and longtime collaborator Will Ferrell have teamed up a number of times (Talladega Nights, Step Brothers [meh], and the website funnyordie.com), the latest is Guys. Highsmith (Samuel L. Jackson) and Danson (Dwayne "formerly known as the Rock" Johnson) are two of New York's finest. Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg play Detectives Allen Gamble and Terry Hoitz, two cops who don't see much action and are living in the shadow of their more famous counterparts. The trailer looks hilarious. I especially like the scene when Wahlberg is questioning the identity of Eva Mendes' character. His reaction is hysterical.



Flipped
The latest from director Rob Reiner. A story about coming-of-age and early love in the 1950's. Trailer looks cute. This one will start in limited release, and then go wider later in the month.



August 13th
The Expendables
If testosterone is your thing, Expendables is your film. A literal who's who of action films from the last twenty years. It stars (deep breath): Sylvester Stallone (also director), Jason Statham, Jet Li, Dolph Lundgren, Mickey Rourke, Randy Couture, Terry Crews, Eric Roberts, Steve Austin, Bruce Willis and Arnold Schwarzenegger. Jean-Claude Van Damme, Steven Seagal and Kurt Russell were all offered, and later turned down roles in the film. A synopsis is pretty unnecessary. If you want to see muscled firepower, and most likely some serious ass-kicking, you will be in line for this one.



Scott Pilgrim vs. the World
Michael Cera stars as Scott,  a likeable, unassuming guy (weird, eh?), who falls in love with the new girl in town, Ramona Flowers (Mary Elizabeth Winstead). Before they can date, he must first defeat her seven evil exes. This was originally a comic book of the same name. It takes huge inspiration from video games, as you will probably tell from the trailer. Chris Evans, Jason Schwartzman, Brandon Routh, Anna Kendrick and Kieran Culkin also star. Pilgrim is directed by Edgar Wright, who created Shaun of the Dead, and Hot Fuzz.



August 27th
Avatar
Yes, that Avatar. Greedy director James Cameron has put it back in theatres with seven minutes of so of new footage. I believe that puts the running time at just over five days. Kidding, but it's long. I saw it three times in theatres, so I don't know what I'm complaining about. It's the highest grossest film in history (partially due to increased ticket prices), and it's sure to garner even more millions. It's a stunning film, and I felt it should have won Best Picture at this year's Academy Awards over The Hurt Locker. Anyway, go see it again; Cameron has kids to feed and divorces to pay for.