jima / September 8, 2004 10:36 AM

The Swedish film Songs from the Second Floor, which coincidentally enough plays at the Film Center this Friday night (and also on Monday night). Roger Ebert said it best: "You have never seen a film like this before. You may not enjoy it but you will not forget it."

Andrew / September 8, 2004 11:04 AM

I enjoyed Collateral, Spiderman, Garden State and, uh... I can't remember the beginning of summer anymore. I'm sure there was something else...

anne / September 8, 2004 11:24 AM

I just saw Hero and it was amazing! I think it's worth the $9.50 to see it in the theaters.

Carly / September 8, 2004 12:12 PM

I would also recommend Hero.

Also, Garden State and Harold and Kumar Go To White Castle if you want to laugh hard.

steve_sleeve / September 8, 2004 12:14 PM

Napoleon Dynamite.

"Don't be jealous that I've been chatting with babes online all day. Plus, we both know I'm training to become a cage fighter."

Gordon / September 8, 2004 12:31 PM

Hero is amazing. Harold and Kumar is hilarious. Spider-Man 2 was fun.

Michael / September 8, 2004 1:05 PM

Although not a new theatrical release, the 1985 film After Hours, a dark comedy directed by Martin Scorcese, was finally released on dvd a few weeks ago. Funny shit...I highly reccommend it.

Shylo / September 8, 2004 1:18 PM

Napoleon Dynamite, as well.

I see you're drinking 1% milk. Is that because you think you're fat? Because you're not.

Emily / September 8, 2004 1:51 PM

Definately Hero. I wish they hadn't waited so long to release it here, but I'm glad they released it with subtitles instead of dubbed.

SR / September 8, 2004 1:54 PM

"Hero" was great!

If you can still see "Control Room" about al-Jazeera or "the Corporation" or "Bukowski" in Chicago you'll be better off for it.

Naz / September 8, 2004 2:50 PM

Films that left an impression:

Good:
Collateral (Michael Mann can do almost no wrong)
Garden State (excellent, a movie with stellar art direction, a simple premise and just was)
The Village (yes, yes I liked it, Bryce Dallas Howard is my current actress crush)
Spiderman 2
Kill Bill 2
Harry Potter
Hero

Bad:
Alien Vs. Predator (I mean there's bad, but there's also campy, this was just bad. And I was surprised, because how could you f@#k up Alien Vs. Predator for even the target audience? Well apparently, you get Paul WS Anderson at the helm... not to be confused with the stellar PT Anderson)
Van Helson (apparently you can also f@#k up a seemingly decent premise by well, having a shitty plot).

Decent for rental/mindless entertainment:
Dodgeball (though I am getting tired of the Wilson bros./Stiller/Vaughn/Ferrell combo)
Hellboy
The Chronicles of Riddick (I was surprised, it was actually decent)
I, Robot (better than expected, Will Smith was only Will Smith in a few moments, personally, the robot, Sunny had more chops)
The Terminal (it had its moments)
The Day After Tomorrow (oh come on, I cried when Bilbo Baggi...umm Iam Holm and co. accepted that they were going to die)

Movies that should never have been made (and I didn't even see them):
Garfield
King Arthur (Clive Owen as KA? He's too thuggish, the only way to save this film was to substitute the cast with the cast from Lord of the Rings)
Scooby-Doo 2 (whuh? They made a sequel?)

The sole martyr of the summer:
The Passion of the Christ

leah / September 8, 2004 3:48 PM

Before Sunset. Catharsis!

amyc / September 8, 2004 4:01 PM

Fahrenheit 9/11, The Corporation and Control Room -- it was a big lefty art-house film kind of summer for me.

kelly / September 8, 2004 4:05 PM

Best:
Donnie Darko: The Director's Cut
Before Sunset
Ju-On
SpiderMan 2
Saddest Music in the World
Homework
The Music Box's great matinee series of Jim Jarmusch films
Festen (yeah, it came out in '95, but I just saw it this summer)

Worst: Napolean Dynamite

Eh: Garden State
Even more Eh: Manson Family

Note: the original Hero (i.e. prior to American release re-editing) is available from China on DVD. Odd Obsession probably has it.

I'm going to see The Brown Bunny tonight, and I'm not sure what category that will end up in...

Gordon / September 8, 2004 4:19 PM

Indeed, the original version of Hero (about ten minutes longer) is available from Odd Obsession. But film purists should know that the lost minutes are not a complete travesty and the thrill of seeing any version of this film on the big screen more than balances things out.

(And for another thing, unless people see movies like this in the theatre, movies like this won't continue to be released to theatres; support the arts, people!)

Steve / September 8, 2004 4:31 PM

-- Napoleon Dynamite ("Flippin' idiot!")
-- Garden State (no matter what Ruthless Reviews had to say about it)

I really need to see more movies....

kelly / September 8, 2004 4:36 PM

good point, Gordon. Glad to hear they didn't do much damage to the original

Hey everyone! Go see Hero - it's awesome.

Minnie / September 8, 2004 5:05 PM

Movies I saw and the reactions I had to them:

Napoleon Dynamite--laughed out loud, alot.
Fahrenheit 9/11--just exactly what I thought it would be.
Supersize Me--overhyped.
Anchorman--somewhat funny. Better than:
Dodgeball--redeemable only because I saw it at the Logan Square theater for $3; cheaper than renting it.
Open Water--more creepy than scary; everyone in the theater was dead silent at the end.
Riding Giants--surf documentary with amazing footage. Great antidote to Open Water.

National J. / September 8, 2004 10:17 PM

I'll write about it everywhere 'til I get an answer...

Best movie this summer as well as all time was called "Skid Kid." It was about a boy who, when he poured cola into his sneakers, was able to "skid" (thru stop-motion photography - picture benny hill music montage) all over the place up and down hills on his butt.

It was a shorter film and may have been put out through Disney in the seventies (???). Anyone with info PLEASE write me.

Kris / September 9, 2004 1:52 AM

Hmm. Define summer. I saw "Mean Girls" twice because I loved it so. Fantastic. It was released in April, I think, but I saw it again in May because it was so good.

"Spider-Man 2" outpaced the original, which I loved as well. The title sequence alone, which brilliantly spelled out the story of the first film, even to my friends who hadn't seen it, deserves an award.

"Garden State" was beautiful. It's the movie I would make if I made movies.

Joe / September 9, 2004 10:31 AM

Coffee and Cigarettes, best movie of the summer, no doubt. Nothing could possibly be better then RZA, GZA, and Bill Murray all together.

aerial / September 9, 2004 10:50 AM

Garden State was wonderful.
Napoleon Dynamite cracked me up.
Coffee and Cigarettes mostly because of Bill Murray.

Andrew / September 9, 2004 11:20 AM

I'm working on a theory called the Bill Murray Quotient. The more Bill Murray in the movie, the better the movie is.

(This, of course, only counts if he himself is seen on-screen -- Garfield, therefore is excluded because he only lends his voice. Either that or I have to scrap the whole thing.)

steve_sleeve / September 9, 2004 12:27 PM

Other enjoyables: Harry Potter 3 and Kill Bill Vol. 2.

I feel like I really blew it by not going to see Coffee and Cigarettes when it was at the Music Box.

Did anyone else think "Anchorman" wasn't really funny? I mean sure, there were a few moments, but overall it was pretty weak.

jennifer / September 9, 2004 1:08 PM

i can't believe the only movie i saw all summer was "the day after tomorrow".

sad.

Mike / September 9, 2004 1:45 PM

Steve- The only part about anchor man that I thought was downright hilarious was the 50s style rumble between competing newscrews. It just came out of nowhere and had nothing to do with the rest of the movie. Also, they threw in the Spanish News Channel Cobras or whatever they were called. Other than that and a few one liners, you're right, it wasn't what I expected out of Will Ferrel (usually pretty funny).

msa / September 10, 2004 9:49 AM

I saw garden state three times, and harold and kumar twice. Both were REALLY hilarious. I would recommend them both.

chris / September 13, 2004 1:15 AM

I saw "The Saddest Music in the World" http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0366996 this summer at the Music Box Theater. It was very funny.