As everyone knows, summer is the time for the giant blockbuster
action-and-special-effects movies... and this summer doesn't look any
different.
        Well, it does, sort of... in this lineup, there aren't many
gigantic F/X extraveganzas... not that you need F/X to make a decent movie.
Will any of these be the next ~Independence Day~?  We can only wait...
[Newsweek, May 11, 1998]
  ~Godzilla~ -- Matthew Broderick, Jean Reno, Hank Azaria; directed by
Roland Emmerich.  Now that we've had our dinosaur movies, it's time for
the really *big* lizard... Godzilla.  The giant, atomically-mutated
lizard -- which has spawned scores of movies, comics, toys, and even a
Top 40 heavy metal song (Blue Oyster Cult's "Godzilla", on their
"Spectres" album) -- invades New York... will the Big Apple even notice?
        Rumor has it that Toho - the Japanese gent responsible for all
of the previous Godzilla flicks - has just signed on to the project.
        Scheduled release date is May 20th.
  ~Saving Private Ryan~ -- Tom Hanks, Edward Burns, Matt Damon; directed
by Steven Speilberg.  Mrs. Ryan has lost three of her sons in World War
II... and the last remaining son is behind enemy lines.  So Capt. Miller
(Hanks) and his squad have been ordered on a different kind of rescue
mission...
        According to the Newsweek article, this is a movie that combines
the two sides of Speilberg: his big epic "flash" movies (~Jurassic Park~)
with his insightful moodiness (~Schindler's List~).  Who knows?  
Hanks is usually good - I wish I had watched ~Apollo 13~ instead of
"Merlin" - and Speilberg can be an excellent director.
  ~Smoke Signals~ -- Adam Beach, Evan Adams, Irene Bedard; directed by
Chris Eyre.  Completely written, directed, and produced by American
Indians (a term for those of you who prefer reality to PC), this Sundance
winner will have as much in common with the flashy, gaudy, large cash
productions as, well, a smoky fire.  Two childhood pals take a trip into
Phoenix to pick up their father's ashes.
        I wouldn't call this your standard flashy, big-budget summer
epic... but if it's done right, it should be worth seeing... again and
again.  It definitely won't be the standard Hollywood "How, red man?" crap.
  ~Snake Eyes~ -- Nicolas Cage, Gary Sinise; directed by Brian DePalma.
Back to the psych thrillers for dePalma, apparently... Cage plays an
Atlantic City cop at a prizefight where a Defense Dpet. official has
been targeted for assassination, with Sinise as his aide.
  ~The X-Files~ -- David Duchovney, Gillian Anderson; directed by Rob
Bowman.  One of the movies that everybody is apparently waiting for,
this will supposedly wrap up quite a few loose ends from the series
and pave the way for a whole string of X-Files features.  Duchovney
jokes "I hope to take it on the road and make it a stage show.  Maybe
there will be an Ice Capades 'X-Files'.  And that wouldn't be selling
out either."
        I expect this one to do big business (though I'm never going to
go see it... yuck) - we'll just have to wait for all the complaints
(or compliments) from the die hard "X-Files" fans...
  ~Mulan~ -- voices of Ming-Na Wen, B.D. Wong, Eddie Murphy; directed by
Barry Cook and Tony Bancroft.  This summer's animated entry, about a
Chinese legend in which a little girl disguises herself as a boy in order
to take her father's place in the great army (and, of course, falls for the
big hero... no surprise).
        I expect this legend to be "PC'd" for the 90's.  Eddie Murphy as
the voice of the dragon -- is he consciously trying to change his image?
  ~Armageddon~ -- Bruce Willis, Billy Bob Thornton, Liv Tyler, Ben
Affleck; directed by Michael Bay.  The could've called this "The Rock II",
all things considered... Bay and producer Jerry Bruckheimer also
collaborated on ~The Rock~, and the center of this movie is... a giant
rock.  Actually, an asteroid which is plunging towards Earth -- Willis
stars as the head of an oil-drilling team who are going to nuke the
asteroid into tiny pieces.  Expect Tyler to keep her clothes on in this
one.
        Late note:  well, maybe... there was a blurb on E.T., where Willis
finds Tyler in bed with Affleck... the bit they showed wasn't exactly
sparkling in dialogue and plot.  But reviews I've seen say that this is
*the* asteroid flick to see.  
  ~The Avengers~ -- Ralph Fiennes, Uma Thurman, Sean Connery; directed by
Jeremiah Chechik.  The cult classic Brit TV show, updated for the 90's
with Thurman as the high-kicking Emma Peel, Fiennes as Steed, and Connery
as the evil madman.  Advance rumor apparently has the fuse lit, with
this movie as the giant bomb of the summer.  Expect a bit of screaming
from fans of the show... I wonder if Al Bundy will be in the audience?
  ~Small Soldiers~ -- Kirsten Dunst, voice of Tommy Lee Jones; directed by
Joe Dante.  One giant toy commercial...  peace loving toys square off
against war toys in a small Ohio town.  Says Dunst "Plenty of toys were
hurt in the making of this movie.  We burned them, chopped off their heads,
ran over them with lawn mowers.  I got to bash the hell out of them.
It was cool."
        Hasbro is, of course, one of the big names promoting the film...
according to the article, the movie is one giant commercial tie-in - which
doesn't mean it can't be good, but...
                         David "Nightwolf" Masters
                             dmasters@jlc.net
      MasterWorks Web Design @  http://www.jlc.net/~dmasters/index.html
... "May the Prime Builder grease us with his own earwax!" -- Illegal Aliens
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