Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer + summer movies.

No, other than Tom Roston's longish backgrounder in the Los Angeles Times, for which he talks with director Tim Story, there isn't much out there on Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer worth pointing to yet - but the other summer movie stuff is stacking up, and it's time for an entry to dump it all into.

To start with a promising one, though, Time's Richard Corliss has seen Ratatouille, loves it and tells the story behind it. And Variety's Ben Fritz confirms rumors regarding Pixar's long-term schedule: Ratatouille this summer and Wall*E next; Up, "about a 70-year-old man who teams with a wilderness ranger to fight beasts and villains," directed by Pete Docter (Monsters Inc), in 2009; and Toy Story 3 in the summer of 2010.

Updated through 6/17.

"He has been stripping naked on the London stage every night for three months as the sexually troubled boy in Equus. Still, Daniel Radcliffe is touchingly coy when I ask him about Harry Potter's first screen kiss." Mike Goodridge for the Scotsman.

Also via Movie City News, "They're back!" warns Kevin Maher in the London Times. "They're toting guns, they're kicking ass, and they're old enough to draw a pension! Yes, the superannuated action hero is upon us, with the return of Bruce Willis, Harrison Ford and Sylvester Stallone in the action franchises that time forgot."

Updates, 6/13: Ratatouille gets more than the look and the story right, reports Kim Severson in the New York Times: "Although the story line has its charms, the precisely rendered detail of a professional kitchen will appeal to the food-obsessed. The Pixar crew took cooking classes, ate at notable restaurants in Paris and worked alongside [chef Thomas] Keller at the French Laundry in Yountville, Calif."

"The first 10 years of the 21st century may go down as the worst in Hollywood history, a candyfloss desert (not dessert) of blockbusters, comic book movies, three-quels, and torture porn," writes Gregg Rickman in a preview for the SF Weekly. "Yet while summer is the traditional playground for the industry's reliable big earners, and them alone, this season's lineup does offer other reasons besides the air conditioning to visit film theaters over the next couple of months." Also: "Of all the expected summer blockbusters, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix is the most likely to be good, and also the most likely to fizzle like one of Ron Weasley's magic tricks."

Sean Burns in the Philadelphia Weekly on Ocean's Thirteen: "It's fairly charming, extremely well put-together, and by this time next week I doubt I'll remember even having seen it."

Updates, 6/14: Vue Weekly critics pick the season's best alternatives to the blockbusters.

Armond White catches up with Ocean's Thirteen in the New York Press.

Erik Davis tells the story of the projectionist who sent an early review of Fantastic Four: Rise, etc, etc to AICN and lost his job: "I'm not trying to crap all over AICN; I'm aware that their writers, like Moriarty (who I've met and can vouch that the guy is one heckuva cool dude), are very knowledgeable and powerful. But they post thousands of these types of reviews each year. And what happens? Some dope making minimum wage in Memphis has to go on unemployment because the powerhouse he's been feeding no longer have any use for him?" Comments ensue.

Meanwhile, Brendon Connelly saw the movie on Tuesday: "Ultimately, this was an exercise in lowest common-denominator dreck, speckled with the odd attempt to convince the audience that they were watching something slightly more worthwhile than they actually were (only slightly - they don't even set this fake bar very high)."

Justin Chang in Variety: "At a time when tortured superheroes like Spider-Man, Superman and Batman would benefit from some serious psychotherapy, it's almost refreshing to see a comicbook caper as blithe, weightless and cheerfully dumb as Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer. Faithfully mining one of the Marvel franchise's more intriguing mythologies, the sequel proves every bit as disposable as its predecessor, with even less character definition and several tons more poundage in the f/x department."

Updates, 6/15: Manohla Dargis in the New York Times on Silver Surfer: "[T]his crashing bore" is "amalgam of recycled ideas, dead air, dumb quips, casual sexism and pseudoscientific mumbo jumbo."

"Yet it must be said that it's something of a relief to confront a comic-book movie that is neither hip nor wised up," writes Kenneth Turan in the Los Angeles Times. "Earnest, gee-whiz and foursquare, this simple and intentionally inoffensive sequel gets points for being easy to take and scrupulously avoiding obvious sources of irritation."

"If you have children, if you feel the need to switch off, Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer is terrific," writes the Telegraph's Sukhdev Sandhu. "By almost every other criterion, it is a tragically bad film." So Will Lawrence lifts Telegraph readers' hopes with a quick glance ahead at Ratatouille.

The Independent's Anthony Quinn: " Here are some suggestions for future sequels: The Fair-to-Middling Five, The Satisfactory Six, The Serviceable Seven. Not the most scintillating prospects, I agree, but at least they won't raise expectations they can't meet."

Salon's Stephanie Zacharek finds it "more ambitious than its predecessor. It's also more cluttered and less fleet: The light, pleasingly casual quality of the first picture has evolved into something forced and metallic."

"[A]t least it doesn't overstay its welcome," notes Derek Malcolm in the Evening Standard.

"Adult moviegoers may be craving a serious drama after overdosing on a steady diet of mindless sequels that has driven this year's box-office sales," writes Claudia Eller in the LAT. "But whether they'll rush out to see a sobering, ripped-from-the-headlines story set in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks remains an open question for the distributor of next Friday's release A Mighty Heart."

"Heading into Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, my expectations were pretty low," admits Erik Davis at Cinematical. ""The original was slow, dull and gimmicky, with too much set-up and not enough punch. That said, I'm about to make a very bold statement - not only is this film far superior to its predecessor, but it's also one of the best sequels this summer has to offer."

Jim Tudor, writing at Twitch, agrees: "[T]his movie is actually pretty doggone good."

Updates, 6/16: Slate's Dana Stevens finds Silver Surfer "miscast, underwritten, muddily shot, and slackly paced, but there's something captivating about its unabashed shittiness."

This is turning into a common theme. Here's Nick Schager in Slant: "In this summer of pretentious, excessively elaborate, overlong blockbuster spectacles, there's something refreshingly modest about Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, a deliberately trivial affair that strains not for classical pop mythology but, instead, for frivolous FX-laden adventure."

Two new reviews from Variety: "Ratatouille is delicious," cheers Justin Chang. "In this satisfying, souffle-light tale of a plucky French rodent with a passion for cooking, the master chefs at Pixar have blended all the right ingredients - abundant verbal and visual wit, genius slapstick timing, a soupcon of Gallic sophistication - to produce a warm and irresistible concoction that's sure to appeal to everyone's inner Julia Child.... After the less than universally admired Cars Pixar's eighth feature sees the Disney-owned toon studio in very fine form, and confirms [Brad] Bird's reputation as one of the medium's most engaging storytellers. Compared to his woefully underseen The Iron Giant and Oscar-winning The Incredibles, Ratatouille may be smaller in scope, but in telling the story of a very smart rat striving to enter the very human world of French haute cuisine, it shares with its predecessors an affinity for gifted outsiders seeking personal fulfillment."

"The problems with Evan Almighty mostly boil down to questions of scale," writes Brian Lowry. "The movie warns of an imminent flood, yet delivers only sprinkles of laughter or anything approaching magic. It's mildly diverting for kids and families in a way that would be perfectly fine as an ABC Family cable project (perhaps before The 700 Club), but sails into the summer anchored to all the baggage and expectations a comedy with an enormous budget invites. Universal has courted church groups and will need them to line up, two by two and then some, to fully recoup on their epic investment."

Online viewing tip. A teaser for Wall*E.

Update, 6/17: "Superhero fans have got it made these days," writes Scott Weinberg at Cinematical. "You want dark and gloomy, you head for the newest Batman movie. You crave earnest and wholesome, you pick one of the three Spider-Man flicks. Whatever mood you happen to be in, there's now a superhero movie (or series) to pick through: Hulk, Daredevil, Hellboy, Superman, Ghost Rider, you name it. Just about all the classic superheroes are now available in cinematic form, some good and some bad, some 'dark and gloomy' and others all 'touchy feely'... but where's the 'family friendly' superhero movie? The one that doesn't deal with tortured psyches, metaphysical angst or some form of anguished misery? Well heck, here's one: It's called Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, and while it's often a pretty goofy little movie, it's also a perfect flick for young dads and their 9-year-old sons."

Posted by dwhudson at June 12, 2007 6:17 AM