It’s August 20 which makes it an excellent time to talk about summer films, because in a few weeks the Telluride Film Festival will open and it’s all fall prestige pics from there. Well, except for the horror stuff in October — there’s a Ouija Board movie, and something called The ABCs of Death.
Here’s what we know: Transformers 4 is the box office winner. This is good news for Michael Bay, who also had a hit with the reboot of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. I didn’t see either of these films, because the last time I went to a Transformers movie I left to get some popcorn and when I came back I went into the wrong theater, which was also playing Transformers, and that show had started earlier but it didn’t matter because there wasn’t any story line to follow anyway.
I didn’t see TMNT because I’m too old.
For pure summer movie fun, you can’t beat Guardians of the Galaxy, which is coming in at #4 on the top box office list. Even if you’re the type that scoffs at summer popcorn flicks, you cant resist this one. It’s got a great scruffy charm. Also Bradley Cooper as a cranky raccoon whose best friend is a tree named Groot. Just go see it.
On the Indy front, the box office champ is Chef, which is a really fun, lighthearted movie about a chef who loses his job and decides to set up a food truck with his young son as his Social Media director. Sweet, and chock full of food porn. Make sure you have your dinner plans worked out.
We got Sin City coming up this weekend and then we are heading straight into Oscar talk. So the popcorn time is now…and we are all Groot.