The Five Best and Two Worst Movies of the Summer of 2004

Best of the Summer

1. Spiderman 2
Peter Parker (TOBY MAGGUIRE) is a photographer and pizza delivery boy who leads a double-life protecting his fellow citizens of New York. This time a very agile octopus bad guy (ALFRED MOLINA) is the main villain. KIRSTEN DUNST is the love interest. Parker is still working out his guilt for the death of his uncle and is supportive of his aunt. His friend is looking for revenge on Spiderman for his father's death. And with self-doubt, Parker's spidey powers are waning. The first Spiderman surprised me with its energy and good story. This one doesn't disappoint.

2. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

We learned in the first Harry Potter story that Harry's parents were killed by order of Voldermort. The accused killer was Sirius Black (GARY OLDMAN) and as this story unfolds, he has escaped from Azkaban prison. The assumption is that Sirius Black will now try to find and finish the work of killing Harry. As the third year of school begins at Hogwarts, Demonters protect the school and begin to control the surrounding community. Don't get in their way, Wayne. There is good and bad to a homeland defense policy for Hogwarts. New teachers, new games and new beings are introduced, some as a way to keep Harry from being pre-occupied with the grave situation.

3. The Manchurian Candidate

In the 1962 version of this movie with FRANK SINATRA and ANGELA LANSBURY, communists pose as anti-communists to help create a frenzy that will support the reduction of civil liberties in order to deceive the public and take over America. In the 2004 JONATHAN DEMME version, corporate greed and technology aid in the plot to take over the country. Perhaps because of Enron, Halliburton and my own cynicism, the story works plausibly —scaring me to think about how we might be manipulated and used as an innocent public. WASHINGTON is brilliant as always, another Oscar nod is likely. His ability to capture the essence of humanity drives us to care in a movie that might have been absurd. KIMBERLY ELISE has a bright future. This is a very engaging thriller that is well timed with the elections ahead.

4. The Bourne Supremacy

Jason Bourne (MATT DAMON) is a hybrid person, his genetic code manipulated by the CIA to be a super-killer, espionage agent. In the first movie, The Bourne Identity, Bourne survives a near drowning and total amnesia, slowly discovering his true identity. As Supremacy opens, Bourne is still fighting flashbacks from his past while he chills by the beach in India with his girlfriend. Stalked by current agents who fear his knowledge of a special project make him VERY dangerous and by other agents who think he has killed good guys, Bourne is outed and starts on a world-wide chase to discover why he has been set-up and to set the record straight with a young woman whose parents he killed as his former self—kind a Bourne-Again Killing Machine.

5. Fahrenheit 9/11

The impact September 11 and the current occupation of Afghanistan and Iraq have on all of us are part of the explanation for the amazing success of this documentary movie. I think this is a very important movie to see, regardless of your political persuasion because it reminds us that the "truth" we are told is not necessarily the "whole truth." The behavior of our elected leaders and their teams is fascinating. Those who truly support the President will see this as propaganda. In watching this movie as Super Movie Fan, I was struck at how important it is to remember that most of what we see as news and information is propaganda of sorts—including the commercials. We are seeing a distorted view of the world, no matter who is creating it, "objective" news sources, the White House or MICHAEL MOORE.

Worst of the Summer


A tie between Van Helsing and Catwoman. FOGEDDABOUT THEM BOTH

Video Pick of the Week: The Passion of the Christ. This is a violent, intense and disturbing movie, Wayne. Nevertheless, it is extremely well done. Shocking in its stark portrayal of one of mankind's most influential people, many will not be able to stomach the gruesomeness of the movie. Very religious people may feel that they have been treated visually to things they have only understood in their minds to this point. Beatings, bludgeonings, whippings, agonizing screaming and bloody oozing make this very intense. Some may hit the pause part-way through, but others will be riveted to the importance of attempting to experience the pain Jesus felt. This movie is sort of Easter part one, the Crucifixion. So often in current times, our focus is on part two, the Resurrection, where the pain has been justified in Christ's rising. This movie hints of that at the end but this is mostly a manifestation of the notion that Jesus died for our sins. I will never ever be able to think that the Easter Bunny is any appropriate follow-up to the pain and suffering and passion of Jesus. Many of our listeners may not be aware that the word passion, according to American Heritage dictionary, originally meant, sufferings of Jesus in the period following the Last Supper and including the Crucifixion, as related in the New Testament. This movie works, Wayne, but it is very difficult and troubling. But so is our world.

Next week, we'll review Hero, the Chinese movie that is in the spirit of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. The story is set 2,200 years ago in ancient China at the time of the building of the Great Wall.