5 BETTER ALTERNATIVES TO SUMMER’S BUMMERS
If you’re reading this, you survived one of the worst summer movie seasons on record. With a dearth of original fare to cling to, moviegoers have spent the past four months treading water in a sea of uninspired remakes and sequels. Sure, there were bright
DIDN’T LIKE ‘SUICIDE SQUAD’? TRY ‘KICK-ASS’ (2010).
Perhaps summer’s biggest letdown was DC Comics’ messy supervillain movie, which was far from the audacious shoot-’em-up that its deliciously deranged trailers promised. While the R-rated Deadpool delivered on its dark premise earlier this year, you have to go all the way back to Kick-Ass, which made a star of Chloë Grace Moretz as Hit- Girl, to find another superhero film that so seamlessly blends outrageous action with off-color humor.
DIDN’T LIKE ‘ME BEFORE YOU’? TRY ‘THE SESSIONS’ (2012).
Emilia Clarke and Sam Claflin’s irresistible chemistry turned what could have been a middling romantic weepie into a real charmer. But many disability rights activists took issue with the drama’s climax, in which a millionaire quadriplegic (Claflin) chooses assisted suicide. For a more enlightening portrayal of people with disabilities, look no further than the tender Sessions, the true story of a paralyzed poet (John Hawkes) who opts to lose his virginity by hiring a sex surrogate (Helen Hunt, in an Oscar-nominated turn).
DIDN’T LIKE ‘INDEPENDENCE DAY: RESURGENCE’? TRY ‘EDGE OF TOMORROW’ (2014).
Without original star Will Smith on board, the sequel to Roland Emmerich’s 1996 sci-fi blockbuster didn’t spark fireworks with critics or moviegoers. While you wait for Amy Adams to talk to alien invaders in fall’s
Arrival, you should watch Tom Cruise and Emily Blunt clobber them in the criminally underseen Tomorrow. The post-apocalyptic spin on Groundhog Day has found new life on home video, spurring both Cruise and Blunt to campaign for a sequel.
DIDN’T LIKE ‘GHOSTBUSTERS’? TRY ‘SPY’ (2015).
We wanted to love the new Ghostbusters. Not only did the matchup of Bridesmaids’ Melissa McCarthy and Kristen Wiig with Saturday
Night Live standouts Leslie Jones and Kate McKinnon sound like comedy heaven, but we were so ready to silence the spineless online trolls who continue to attack the film’s stars and director Paul Feig. Sadly, laughs were few and far between in this bloated, overly nostalgic reboot, which could have taken a few pointers from Feig ’s own Spy. That clever Bond satire wasn’t bogged down by busy action set pieces, allowing McCarthy to do the comedic heavy lifting as an ungainly CIA analyst turned field agent.
DIDN’T LIKE ‘THE BFG’? TRY ‘FANTASTIC MR. FOX’ (2009).
Despite mostly positive reviews, Steven Spielberg ’s $140 million return to family fare landed with a resounding thud, becoming one of the season’s biggest bombs with just $53.9 million to date. Those who weren’t keen on BFG —a live-action adaptation of Roald Dahl’s novel about a girl (Ruby Barnhill) whisked away by a dream-catching giant (Mark Rylance) — thought the film lacked real magic and excitement. If you want a Dahl story with some bite, check out Wes Anderson’s Fantastic stop-motion yarn, whose sumptuous visuals and subtle jokes make it a treat for kids as well as adults.