Movie Preview: May 2014

May is the flagship month of the summer season, the biggest time of year for Hollywood movies. 

May 2nd
THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN 2  (ACTION/SCI-FI)
Directed by Marc Webb; Starring Andrew Garfield, Emma Stone, Jamie Foxx, Dane DeHaan, Sally Field, Paul Giamatti
Rated PG-13 for sequences of sci-fi action/violence.
As far as mega-budget summer blockbusters go, this one is very much a wild card.  The fifth installment in Sony Pictures' Spider-Man franchise, and the second part of their first reboot, THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN 2 (not to be confused with SPIDER-MAN 2) finds Peter Parker (Andrew Garfield) balancing his dual lives as Spider-Man and a high school student as he discovers that the ominous OsCorp is behind a whole new set of super-powered criminals, headed up by Electro (Jamie Foxx), with definite intentions toward Spider-Man himself.  The film has three known super-villians so far (Electro, the Rhino and the Green Goblin), although director Marc Webb maintains that only Electro plays a major part in the film (probably misleading), and the last time Spidey went up against more than one in SPIDER-MAN 3, the results were overcrowded and unfavorable.  The screenplay is also written by Alex Kurtzman and Robert Orci who, outside of STAR TREK (2009), have a pretty abysmal screen record with multiple Michael Bay films and crappy sequels.  Furthermore, some of the advertising looks like little else than a (partially) live-action cartoon.  Those are the strikes against it, but on the more optimistic side, more recent advertising has highlighted awesome action and sharp humor, plus, hopefully Webb has more clout this time around to get his way, considering how Sony came in at the last minute with disastrous edits on the last film.  I really want this to be good, but it's high-risk.
Update: Early reviews so far have been primarily positive!

Spider-Man (Andrew Garfield) vs. Electro (Jamie Foxx) in THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN 2, opening May 2.

May 9th
CHEF  (COMEDY)
Directed by Jon Favreau; Starring Jon Favreau, Robert Downey Jr., Sofia Vergara, Dustin Hoffman, Emjay Anthony, Gary Shandling, Oliver Platt
Rated R for language, including some suggestive references.
In this independent comedy, writer-actor-director Jon Favreau stars as a four-star chef whose prestigious Los Angeles restaurant goes under, so he opens a food truck along with son and ex-wife in hopes of reclaiming his creative spark.  From the director of great movies like ELF and IRON MAN, as well as the more recent and disappointing COWBOYS & ALIENS, this could be considered something of a meta career move.  Either way, both as food porn and feel-good entertainment, this looks promising- one of the most exciting-looking independent films of the summer.

May 9th
LEGENDS OF OZ: DOROTHY'S RETURN  (ANIMATED/CHILDREN'S)
Directed by Will Finn & Dan St. Pierre; Featuring the Voices of Lea Michele, Martin Short, James Belushi, Dan Aykroyd, Kelsey Grammer, Megan Hilty, Hugh Dancy, Oliver Platt, Bernadette Peters, Patrick Stewart
Rated PG for some scary images and mild peril.
Although it premiered in France a whole year ago, this low-profile animated film has wisely waited until May 2014 to be released in a landscape absent of any family films newer than a month prior.  It's the kind the film that families go to on a whim, just because it's the only one that won't make little kids soil their pants.  Unfortunately it won't be as deliriously, hilariously dark as the 1985 Disney cult classic.  This is cheaply rendered, little kid friendly entertainment where the cinema serves a babysitter, and the only escape for adults is picking out the various celebrity names in the voice cast.

May 9th
MOMS' NIGHT OUT  (FAMILY/COMEDY)
Directed by Andrew Erwin & Jon Erwin; Starring Sarah Drew, Trace Adkins, Sean Astin, Patricia Heaton
Rated PG for mild thematic elements and some action.
A Christian independent feature from the Bible Belt region, this film nonetheless is hiding all of that behind its advertising, which highlights an extensive collection of family-friendly misadventures as a group of friends, married mothers all, attempt to have a rare night out on the town while the husbands watch the kids.  As the official website's synopsis queries: "What could go wrong?"  Ha.  Well, I bet their intentions are good.

May 9th
NEIGHBORS  (COMEDY)
Directed by Nicholas Stoller; Starring Seth Rogen, Zach Efron, Rose Byrne, Dave Franco, Christopher Mintz-Plasse
Rated R for pervasive language, strong crude and sexual content, graphic nudity, and drug use throughout.
The summer season is typically the season of big-budget special effects action gluttony, but since the success of Judd Apatow and THE HANGOVER (NEIGHBORS comes from alumni of the former camp), the summer has had an injection of hard-R frat comedies.  From the director of FORGETTING SARAH MARSHALL and starring Seth Rogen and Zac Efron as a couple of neighbors who wage a war of exaggerated and often crude pranks on one another, NEIGHBORS looks like one of the funniest comedies of this summer.  Rogen stars as a new dad who moves with his family into a seemingly peaceful suburban neighborhood, until a raucous fraternity helmed by Efron moves in next door.

Zac Efron and Dave Franco having a Robert De Niro party (because shut up) in NEIGHBORS, opening May 9.

May 16th
GODZILLA  (SCI-FI/ACTION-THRILLER)
Directed by Gareth Edwards; Starring Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Elizabeth Olsen, Bryan Cranston, Juliette Binoche, Ken Watanabe, David Strathairn, Sally Hawkins, CJ Adams
Rated PG-13 for intense sequences of destruction, mayhem and creature violence.
Hollywood is taking another crack at the most iconic kaiju of cinema, following the much-maligned last attempt by Roland Emmerich in 1998.  This time around, as per usual in our post-9/11 world, the tone is darker, grittier and ominous.  This appears to have more of the chilling "thriller" to it, than the destructive science fiction action.  Plot details have been kept pretty thin by Warner Bros. and Legendary Pictures, with the advertising focused primarily on the devastation, the threat of mankind's belligerence toward nature and haunting but obscure shots of the titular beast; it has been suggested in Legendary's press releases though that Godzilla will ultimately factor into the humans' salvation against more malevolent monsters.  Director Gareth Edwards is best known previously for the independent sci-fi thriller MONSTERS, which bears some similar themes, but a low-profile director suggests that Legendary and Warner are exercising some stronger studio privilege.  The cast they've lined up is great though, as is the crew of Oscar-nominated production members, and the previews are great.

May 16th
MILLION DOLLAR ARM  (SPORTS DRAMA)
Directed by Craig Gillespie; Starring Jon Hamm, Lake Bell, Aasif Mandvi, Suraj Sharma, Bill Paxton, Alan Arkin
Rated PG for mild language and some suggestive content.
It's been a while since Disney has turned out one of their signature family-friendly, star-driven, inspirational, fact-based sports drama (the last was SECRETARIAT in 2010).  Directed by Craig Gillespie, who directed the less family-friendly but warm and low-key 2007 dramedy LARS AND THE REAL GIRL, MILLION DOLLAR ARM tells the story of Pittsburgh Pirates' pitchers Rinku Singh (played by LIFE OF PI star Suraj Sharma) and Dinesh Patel who were recruited for the MLB by sports agent J.B. Bernstein (Mad Men star, Jon Hamm) after appearing on the Indian reality television show Million Dollar Arm.  Think of it like a cross between SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE and THE ROOKIE.

May 23rd
BLENDED  (ROMANTIC COMEDY)
Directed by Frank Coraci; Starring Adam Sandler, Drew Barrymore, Wendi McLendon-Covey, Terry Crews, Bella Thorne, Joel McHale
Rated PG-13 for crude and sexual content, and language.
Adam Sandler, the king of lazy and lame "comedy", reunites with his THE WEDDING SINGER/50 FIRST DATES leading lady, Drew Barrymore, for another film directed by his frequent collaborator Frank Coraci, whose helped Sandler's Happy Madison Productions churn out travesties like HERE COMES THE BOOM and THE ZOOKEEPER.  Sandler and Barrymore star as a couple of single parents who find themselves stuck at the same African family resort after previously meeting on a disastrous blind date.  Those who enjoy the self-abuse sensations of Sandler's contemptible schtick will be pleasantly unsurprised while the rest of us lament their ill-spent dollars sure to bring about yet another Happy Madison atrocity.

May 23rd
X-MEN: DAYS OF FUTURE PAST  (ACTION/SCI-FI)
Directed by Bryan Singer; Starring Hugh Jackman, James McAvoy, Patrick Stewart, Michael Fassbender, Ian McKellen, Jennifer Lawrence, Ellen Page, Peter Dinklage, Halle Berry, Nicholas Hoult, Evan Peters, Lucas Till, Shawn Ashmore
Rated PG-13 for sequences of intense sci-fi violence and action, some suggestive material, nudity and language.
With the unqualified success of MARVEL'S THE AVENGERS in 2012, every film studio wants to have a comprehensive superhero film universe, which is why 20th Century Fox is breaking the bank to help their mostly moderately successful X-Men franchise make the leap into the billion dollar club.  Bringing back Bryan Singer, the man who started the series with X-MEN and X2: X-MEN UNITED over a decade ago, and reuniting those earlier films' illustrious cast of veterans along with the young and sexy cast of the excellent prequel X-MEN: FIRST CLASS, the X-Men send their headliner, Wolverine (Hugh Jackman), back in time to the 1970s to team up with young Charles Xavier (James McAvoy), young Magneto (Michael Fassbender) and Mystique (Academy Award-winning superstar Jennifer Lawrence), along with a colossal cast of household names, to prevent an alternate timeline where drones known as "Sentinels" systematically eliminate all mutants and eventually mankind.  RottenTomatoes.com's user polls have deemed this the most-anticipated movie of the summer, and I don't think they'd be far off for me personally.  It looks incredible, and I'm very excited.

Hugh Jackman returning as his signature character, Logan/The Wolverine, in X-MEN: DAYS OF FUTURE PAST, opening May 23.

May 30th
MALEFICENT  (FANTASY/ACTION-ADVENTURE)
Directed by Robert Stromberg; Starring Angelina Jolie, Elle Fanning, Sharlto Copely, Brentan Thwaites, Miranda Richardson, Juno Temple, Imelda Staunton, Lesley Manville
Rated PG for sequences of fantasy action and violence, including frightening images.
For in-house live-action tent-pole productions (not counting subsidiary Marvel Studios), Disney has an unfortunate habit of churning out hugely expensive, style-driven fantasy epics that have enormous potential but regularly ring hollow, i.e. ALICE IN WONDERLAND, JOHN CARTER, TRON: LEGACY and THE GREAT AND POWERFUL OZ, none of them especially bad, but they fall apart after the initial viewing.  MALEFICENT was fast-tracked for production soon after 2010's ALICE IN WONDERLAND became a surprise mega-hit, but the original director Tim Burton abandoned the project (not necessarily a bad thing considering his more recent work) and ALICE's production designer, Robert Stromberg was put in his place, which guarantees the strong visuals but enhances the possibility of a hollow final product.  SAVING MR. BANKS director, John Lee Hancock, was brought in to assist on re-shoots of the more story-centered scenes.  Despite the evident visual panache and suggestion of production troubles, the budget reports are considerably restrained for a Disney tent-pole, which certainly makes things interesting, and ALICE and THE LION KING screenwriter Linda Woolverton seems to have combined The Mists of Avalon with the story of Sleeping Beauty to make Maleficent sympathetic.  Angelina Jolie, who's been attached to the project invariably from the start, is obviously invested as well, so however it turns out, it seems worth a watch at least.

Angelina Jolie as the title character in MALEFICENT, opening May 30.

May 30th
A MILLION WAYS TO DIE IN THE WEST  (COMEDY/WESTERN)
Directed by Seth MacFarlane; Starring Seth MacFarlane, Charlize Theron, Liam Neeson, Amanda Seyfried, Giovanni Ribisi, Neil Patrick Harris, Sarah Silverman
Rated R for crude and sexual content, language throughout, some violence and drug material.
Family Guy-creator Seth MacFarlane's 2012 film TED was a huge success, so with even more financing, he's back to blend his brand of frenetic and hopelessly raunchy comedy with a western genre and an all-star cast, led by none other than himself in his live-action acting debut (he played the CGI character Ted in TED).  Set in 1882 Arizona territory, he plays a sheepish sheep farmer who loses his girlfriend (Amanda Seyfried) after backing out of a duel.  He then meets a gunslinging woman (Charlize Theron) who helps him discover his confidence, which he'll need when his new girlfriend's husband, a notorious outlaw (Liam Neeson), shows up for payback.  As in TED, MacFarlane seems to display a messy lack of discipline and an abundance of subplots, but also lots of riotously depraved R-rated humor and maybe even some cool western action.

Charlize Theron and Seth MacFarlane (holding the duck) in A MILLION WAYS TO DIE IN THE WEST, opening May 30.

SUMMER 2014!- Your Guide to All Major Films Opening in Theaters From May Thru August

The biggest time of the year for the movies is coming up fast.  The summer movie season as we know it, the time of year when crowds line up outside cinemas to see the newest big budget action spectacles that Hollywood has to offer (typically adapted from a pre-existing source material with a built-in audience), started back in the 1970s during the "New Hollywood" movement when a new generation of filmmakers born into a world of talkie films were taking up the baton and injecting new life into the world of popular filmmaking.  Although not quite so clearly cut, Steven Spielberg's JAWS is typically cited as the "first summer blockbuster",  opening in June 1975 and becoming the first film to gross over $100 million in its initial theatrical run.  Two years later, George Lucas' STAR WARS reinvented the still brand-new concept when it opened over Memorial Day Weekend in 1977, and Memorial Day Weekend stood as the official start of the summer movie season (as well as being the cultural beginning of summer in general) for years, kicking off highly lucrative films and their sequels.  Sometime around the turn of the millennium, the summer season openers crept into the first weekend of May, where it's stayed for over a decade now.
As usual, this summer will offer an assortment of $100 million+ comic book adaptations, sequels, raunchy R-rated comedies, reboots, many of them a mix of those descriptions.  Although Summer 2014 is a little more eclectic than usual, with more reboots and off-shoots than high-profile franchise installments, it's also lower-key, akin to last summer, albeit hopefully with better results.  May is definitely the most crowded month, with two of the season's six major sequels (THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN 2 and X-MEN: DAYS OF FUTURE PAST), two major potential franchise starters/spin-offs (GODZILLA and MALEFICENT) and two hard R-rated comedies (NEIGHBORS and A MILLION WAYS TO DIE IN THE WEST).  June has a similar but slightly lower-profile mix and, as usual, it gets a little spotty in July before running out of steam in mid-to-late August.

MOVIES MOST LIKELY TO OWN THE BOX OFFICE (BY ORDER OF RELEASE DATE):

• GODZILLA  (May 16th)
• X-MEN: DAYS OF FUTURE PAST  (May 23rd)
• MALEFICENT  (May 30th)
• HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON 2  (June 13th)
• TRANSFORMERS: AGE OF EXTINCTION  (June 27th)

MOST EXCITING UPCOMING SUMMER MOVIES (BY ORDER OF RELEASE DATE):

• GODZILLA  (May 16th)
• X-MEN: DAYS OF FUTURE PAST  (May 23rd)
• 22 JUMP STREET  (June 13th)
• DAWN OF THE PLANET OF THE APES  (July 11th) 

THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN 2
Release Date: May 2
Genre: Superhero, Science Fiction, Fantasy, Action
Rating: PG-13 for sequences of sci-fi action/violence.
Starring: Andrew Garfield, Emma Stone, Jamie Foxx, Dane DeHaan 
The much-awaited "Summer Movie Season" used to start with Memorial Day Weekend, the way JAWS did it, but ever since the early 2000s, it consistently been kicked off on the first weekend of May.  As per the past eight years, that weekend is claimed by a Marvel brand (this is the first in five years though that isn't made independently by the Disney-owned Marvel Studios) this year, the film being a sequel to a reboot.  In 2012, when THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN was on its way a mere five years after SPIDER-MAN 3 and was starting everything over again, people scoffed, but the movie wasn't that bad.  It seemed plagued by an overactive editing knife that smacked of studio interference and left some gaping plot holes, but it added some interesting new ideas and Emma Stone.  I'm a bit more worried about this one though.  Screenwriting team Alex Kurtzman and Robert Orci have a poor record (I do maintain that STAR TREK INTO DARKNESS wasn't "bad", but the script was), and there's heavy suggestion of an overstuffed plot, but if director Marc Webb has more clout this time around, then that could very well save it, and if not, the previews have highlighted some really cool action.
Update:  Currently, most reviews are on the favorable end, some of them calling it better than the first THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN, while also noting a crowded plot and iffy dialogue.  On the whole, things are looking good for THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN 2, which has already opened in theaters overseas.

Spider-Man (Andrew Garfield) dodges a blast of electricity from Electro (Jamie Foxx), just one of the villains Spidey will face in THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN 2, opening May 2nd.

NEIGHBORS
Release Date: May 9
Genre: Comedy
Rating: R for pervasive language, strong crude and sexual content, graphic nudity, and drug use throughout.
Starring: Seth Rogen, Zac Efron, Rose Byrne, Dave Franco
Of the comedies due out this summer (typically of the season, the majority of comedies are hard-R raunch-fests looking for a THE HANGOVER-sized success), alongside the action-comedy sequel 22 JUMP STREET, I'm most looking forward to NEIGHBORS.  From Nicholas Stoller, the director of FORGETTING SARAH MARSHALL, and written by a pair of fellow Apatow Productions alumni,it involves a young couple (Seth Rogen and Rose Byrne) with a newborn who move into what seems to be a peaceful suburban neighborhood until a fraternity moves in next door.  Led by a raucous young man (Zac Efron), the frat and the family clash in the ultimate war of neighbors.  The previews display some great gross-out gags and Efron showing a much wackier side than usual, and the early reviews are highly positive.  It is potentially one of the big surprise hits of the summer.

GODZILLA
Release Date: May 16
Genre: Science Fiction, Thriller, Action
Rating: PG-13 for intense sequences of destruction, mayhem and creature violence.
Starring: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Bryan Cranston, Elizabeth Olsen, Juliette Binoche, Ken Watanabe
Having waited 16 years in order to get the bad taste of Roland Emmerich's 1998 disappointment out of our mouths, Hollywood is once again attempting to bring back the most iconic movie monster ever back to the big screen in the age of blockbusters.  With the express approval of Godzilla's Japanese parent company Toho, Warner Brothers and Legendary Pictures gave the $160 million tentpole film to independent British director Gareth Edwards, whose previous film and feature debut was the ultra-low budget MONSTERS, and what we've seen so far suggests impressive results.  Godzilla is bigger, more destructive and faithful to the design of the 1954 film's "man in a rubber suit", but with CGI's enhanced mobility and detail.  We don't know much about the plot yet, but it is known that Godzilla will not be the only monster wreaking havoc in this film.

A glimpse of the titular beast through a paratrooper's goggles in GODZILLA, opening May 16th.

X-MEN: DAYS OF FUTURE PAST
Release Date: May 23
Genre: Superhero, Science Fiction, Action, Adventure
Rating: Not Yet Rated (PG-13 rating expected)
Starring: Hugh Jackman, James McAvoy, Jennifer Lawrence, Patrick Stewart, Michael Fassbender 
According to RottenTomatoes.com's user polls, the seventh installment in the X-Men film franchise, and the third made by the original film's director, Bryan Singer, is the most anticipated film of Summer 2014.  In a plot that unites X-MEN: FIRST CLASS's youthful cast of characters with the earlier films' cast, the X-Men send Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) back in time to the 1970s to unite mutants like Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence), young Magneto (Michael Fassbender) and young Charles Xavier (James McAvoy) in preventing an alternate future where "Sentinels" were designed to exterminate the mutants and eventually eliminated most of humanity.  A casualty of the AVENGERS effect, 20th Century Fox is clearly attempting to turns their big superhero franchise into a coherent and epic universe a la Marvel Studios' "Marvel Cinematic Universe", and although to date, the franchise has been moderately successful as far as big-budget superhero franchises go, Fox is breaking the bank on this one with a rumored $225 million budget (at $210 million, 2006's X-MEN: THE LAST STAND was previously by far the most expensive installment).  This seems to be one of the few AVENGERS-influenced franchises that looks like it will work though, and the cast is stellar.

A Sentinel patrols the streets in X-MEN: DAYS OF FUTURE PAST, opening May 23rd.

MALEFICENT
Release Date: May 30
Genre: Fantasy, Adventure, Action
Rating: PG for sequences of fantasy action and violence, including frightening images.
Starring: Angelina Jolie, Elle Fanning, Sharlto Copley, Brenton Thwaites
Disney's big summer tentpole this year has been in gestation for a while, first announced in 2009 as a Brad Bird (THE INCREDIBLES) project, then fast-tracked for Tim Burton after the success of his 2010 ALICE IN WONDERLAND before it was tossed around for a little while as Linda Woolverton (THE LION KING, ALICE IN WONDERLAND) worked on the script.  Now directed by first-time director Robert Stromberg, production designer on ALICE IN WONDERLAND and AVATAR, it revolves around the iconic villain from SLEEPING BEAUTY in a Mists of Avalon-esque twist on the tale where Maleficent (Angelina Jolie) defends the natural world from the arrogant King Stefan (Sharlto Copley).  I'm excited for this, but also apprehensive due to Disney's recent track record of flashy but hollow live action tentpole films, not helped by the fact that the director is a production designer, guaranteeing a grand visual style, but high risk of a style-over-substance shortcoming.  The previews are really cool so far though, and Jolie's titular performance is promising nonetheless.

Angelina Jolie stars as "the Mistress of All Evil", the titular character in MALEFICENT, opening May 30th.

A MILLION WAYS TO DIE IN THE WEST
Release Date: May 30
Genre: Comedy, Western, Adventure
Rating: R for crude and sexual content, language throughout, some violence and drug material.
Starring: Seth MacFarlane, Charlize Theron, Liam Neeson, Amanda Seyfried, Giovanni Ribisi
TED was a huge hit, so before TED 2 rolls along next year, Family Guy-creator Seth MacFarlane gets to make an even bigger, super R-rated comedy, starring himself in his live-action acting debut.  MacFarlane stars as a sheepish sheep farmer in the Old West who loses his girlfriend after chickening out of a duel.  He gets the chance to reclaim his reputation however when he starts to pick up a few tips from a sexy cowgirl (Charlize Theron) and her outlaw husband (Liam Neeson) believes he's being cuckolded.  Like TED, it looks very funny and undisciplined; hits and misses, but probably mostly hits.

EDGE OF TOMORROW
Release Date: June 6
Genre: Science Fiction, Action
Rating: PG-13 for intense sequences of sci-fi action and violence, language and brief suggestive material.
Starring: Tom Cruise, Emily Blunt, Bill Paxton, Brendan Gleeson, Jeremy Piven
It sounded more interesting back when it was called "ALL YOU NEED IS KILL", the title of its Japanese source material, but I guess it's all the same anyway.  A sci-fi/action, GROUNDHOG DAY-style story, EDGE OF TOMORROW stars Tom Cruise with Emily Blunt as elite soldiers caught in a time loop of brutal combat with a race of alien invaders.  Each day they fight, and each day they are killed, but with each resurrection, they have increased knowledge on how to counter their alien attackers and come increasingly close to achieving their objective.


THE FAULT IN OUR STARS
Release Date: June 6
Genre: Romance, Drama
Rating: PG-13 for thematic elements, some sexuality and brief strong language.
Starring: Shailene Woodley, Ansel Elgort, Laura Dern, Willem Dafoe, Nat Wolff
John Green's highly-acclaimed young adult romance comes to the big screen starring the hottest young star of the moment, Shailene Woodley, as Hazel, a young woman with terminal cancer who strikes up a romance with a charming young man (Ansel Elgort) who she meets in her Cancer Kid Support Group.  I don't know much about the book other than just about every woman I know adores it and quote the writer like nobody's business on social network pages, but with Woodley in the starring role and a script by the team behind THE SPECTACULAR NOW (also starring Woodley), I'm on board for this.  This will be the big date movie of the summer.

A couple of cancerous kids in love: Shailene Woodley as Hazel Grace Lancaster with her new beau, Augustus Waters, as played by Ansel Elgort, in THE FAULT IN OUR STARS, opening June 6th.

 
22 JUMP STREET
Release Date: June 13
Genre: Comedy, Action, Crime
Rating:Not Yet Rated (R rating expected)
Starring: Channing Tatum, Jonah Hill, Ice Cube, Nick Offerman
The previews looks hilarious, despite the fact that the story seems like a retread, and like the first film, 21 JUMP STREET, the whole affair sounds like a bad idea.  More importantly though is directing team Phil Lord and Chris Miller returning, right off the heels of their huge commercial and critical success on THE LEGO MOVIE.  Those guys have proven multiple times that they can take a bad idea and turn it into a comic masterpiece, so I'm willing just to trust in their considerable talents.

Officers Schmidt (Jonah Hill) and Jenko (Channing Tatum) survey the party scene in 22 JUMP STREET, opening June 13th.

HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON 2
Release Date: June 13
Genre: Adventure, Family, Animated, Fantasy, Action
Rating: PG for adventure action and some mild rude humor.
Starring: Jay Baruchel (voice role), America Ferrara (voice role), Cate Blanchett (voice role)
I was in the minority opinion about the original HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON; I thought it was "good" instead of "great".  Nonetheless, I am excited for the follow-up, which looks like it's upping the action ante, blurring the lines between the standard action-fantasy summer blockbuster and the animated family blockbuster.  Regardless, it's bound to be the biggest family film of the season, which DreamWorks Animation sorely needs after disappointments like TURBO and RISE OF THE GUARDIANS.

Teenage viking Hiccup encounters a mysterious dragon rider while exploring new territories in DreamWorks Animation's HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON 2, opening June 13th.

JERSEY BOYS
Release Date: June 20
Genre: Musical, Drama, Biopic
Rating: R for language throughout.
Starring: John Lloyd Young, Erich Bergen, Freya Tingley, Christopher Walken, Vincent Piazza
Based on the Tony Award-winning Broadway jukebox musical of the same name, JERSEY BOYS tells the story of the iconic singing group The Four Seasons, aka Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons, from their humble origins in the ganglands of New Jersey, and how their success and rise to fame eventually led to the group's dissolution.  Directed by Clint Eastwood (a musical...directed by Clint Eastwood), the film maintains the stage production's unique "four seasons" structure where each part is narrated from the perspective of one of the characters, and the songs are all from the falsetto repertoire of The Four Seasons themselves.  So we have a downbeat, R-rated mobster musical drama without big stars and directed by Clint Eastwood, released in June.  I want to see it, but I'm super intrigued at how the film will go over overall.

THINK LIKE A MAN TOO
Release Date: June 20 
Genre: Romantic-Comedy
Rating: PG-13 for crude sexual content including references, partial nudity, language and drug material.
Starring: Michael Ealy, Regina Hall, Kevin Hart, Gabrielle Union, Meagan Good
THINK LIKE A MAN was a surprise success in 2012, so the sequel where all the couples go to Vegas and find themselves in a series of compromising situations was inevitable, and now there's the plus of Kevin Hart being the hot comedian of the moment.


TRANSFORMERS: AGE OF EXTINCTION
Release Date: June 27
Genre: Science Fiction, Action, Adventure
Rating: Not Yet Rated (PG-13 rating expected)
Starring: Mark Wahlberg, Nicola Peltz, Stanley Tucci, Peter Cullen (voice)
Most Transformers fans (Michael Bay fans, for that matter) seem unable to explain the films' appeal beyond words like "awesome" and "cool", so I'm not sure what to tell those already sold on the series.  I'm sure this fourth film will satisfy those of you fine, because I think it basically boils down to seeing intricate metallic CGI creations reassembling themselves between humanoid robots and vehicles than beating the hell out of each other (honestly, it's the only thing that makes these movies watchable for me).  The previous cast has been traded out for new ones, now led by Mark Wahlberg as (what else?) a blue-collar struggling inventor with a daughter (Nicola Peltz, undoubtedly shot like a teenage wet dream, courtesy of Bay's signature style), who discover a Transformer in their barn.  This movie also has "Dinobots", which I guess are like Transformers that transform into metal dinosaurs instead of cars, so there's that.

A Transformer riding a Dinobot, because shutup.  TRANSFORMERS: AGE OF EXTINCTION opens June 27th.

TAMMY
Release Date: July 2
Genre: Comedy
Rating: R for language including sexual references.
Starring: Melissa McCarthy, Susan Sarandon, Dan Aykroyd, Toni Collette, Allison Janney
Big and brash comedienne Melissa McCarthy teamed up with her BRIDESMAIDS co-star/husband Ben Falcone (who played her love interest in the aforementioned film) to write this road trip comedy about Tammy, a woman having a very bad day.  After wrecking her car, losing her crappy fast food job and discovering her husband philandering, she's hit rock bottom, so she heads over to Grandma Pearl's (Susan Sarandon), and the two hit the road for Niagara Falls.  While hoping to unwind on the road however, Tammy discovers that Grandma Pearl is an incorrigible alcoholic and a troublemaker, resulting in a series of misadventures along the way.  I think it sounds funny as hell.


DAWN OF THE PLANET OF THE APES
Release Date: July 11
Genre: Science Fiction, Thriller, Action, Adventure
Rating: Not Yet Rated (PG-13 rating expected)
Starring: Andy Serkis, Gary Oldman, Jason Clarke, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Judy Greer
Rupert Wyatt injected new life into the Planet of the Apes film series with his reboot/remake RISE OF THE PLANET IF THE APES in 2011, and while there's been a change in director, it could hardly have been a better switch, with the series now being helmed by CLOVERFIELD and LET ME IN director Matt Reeves, who's already been renewed for a follow-up, suggesting a very promising current production.  Following the events of RISE, the human population has been decimated by disease and the survivors are on the brink of war with the hyper-intelligent ape population led by Caesar (Andy Serkis).  Hear that?  Apes versus humans in epic combat in a dystopian future; it couldn't be more perfect. 

Caesar (center) leads a spear-wielding ape army on horseback in DAWN OF THE PLANET OF THE APES, opening July 11th.

AND SO IT GOES
Release Date: July 11
Genre: Romantic-Comedy, Drama
Rating: PG-13 for some sexual references and drug references.
Starring: Michael Douglas, Diane Keaton, Yaya Alafia
A standard Rob Reiner-directed romantic dramedy about familial tensions and feel good revelations, Michael Douglas stars as a self-center realtor who bonds with his neighbor (Diane Keaton) after his estranged son drops off a granddaughter he never knew about.


JUPITER ASCENDING
Release Date: July 18
Genre: Science Fiction, Adventure, Action
Rating: Not Yet Rated (PG-13 rating expected)
Starring: Mila Kunis, Channing Tatum, Sean Bean, Douglas Booth, Eddie Redmayne
This movie sounds interesting, to say the least.  It's an original story written and directed by Andy and Lana Wachowski about a lowly janitor named Jupiter Jones (Jupiter Jones the Janitor), played by Mila Kunis, who is born with the perfect genetic makeup to make her the next ruler of the entire universe, so the King of the Universe (Eddie Redmayne) sends Caine Wise (Channing Tatum), a genetically-engineered soldier, to eliminate her.  Caine, who just happens to be half-albino with a combination of human and wolf DNA, turns on the King and takes on the role of Jupiter's bodyguard in a coming revolution.  Um, I'm not sure what to think about this, but it sounds either unreasonably awesome or unreasonably stupid (the Wachowskis' SPEED RACER faced a similar risk and fell into the latter camp), but I have to see so that I can know.

Channing Tatum as Caine Wise, a half-werewolf/half-albino super soldier utilizes his rocket boots while the destined Queen of the Universe, Jupiter Jones (Mila Kunis) holds on for dear life in JUPITER ASCENDING, opening July 18th.

THE PURGE: ANARCHY
Release Date: July 18
Genre: Thriller, Suspense, Horror
Rating: Not Yet Rated (R rating expected)
Starring: Frank Grillo, Zach Gilford, Kiele Sanchez, Michael K. Williams, Carmen Ejogo
Because last summer's ultra low budget dystopian horror film THE PURGE made back its budget almost 30 times over, and it's not exactly the most expensive concept, we're already getting a sequel.  This time around, we get to see the outside world as a family's car breaks down just as the annual crime purge begins.  Despite the obvious attempt to address the complaints about the original's restrictive plotline, what should be an epic horror of a world under siege isn't reported to cost any more than the previous film.


PLANES: FIRE & RESCUE
Release Date: July 18
Genre: Animated, Children's, Adventure, Comedy
Rating: Not Yet Rated (PG rating expected)
Featuring the Voices of: Dane Cook, Julie Bowen, Ed Harris, Regina King, Jerry Stiller
Despite initially made for a straight-to-DVD release (the lowest rung of family entertainment), last year's PLANES did pretty well at the box office, as well as in the toy stores, so they've made another one.  Timed far enough away from other family fare, it might not even do too badly, but the only saving grace for the parents dragged into it by snot-nosed kids is if this firefighting planes story follows the tropes and kills off the veteran in a blaze of glory.  That would be nice.


HERCULES
Release Date: July 25
Genre: Action, Adventure, Fantasy
Rating: Not Yet Rated (PG-13 rating expected)
Starring: Dwayne Johnson, John Hurt, Ian McShane, Rufus Sewell, Irina Shayk, Ingrid Bolsø Berdal
Bland journeyman director Brett Ratner (X-MEN: THE LAST STAND, the Rush Hour series) takes on the legendary Greek hero Hercules, played by Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson.  Following the mythical "12 Trials of Hercules" from Greek myth, Hercules is recruited by the King of Thrace to take down a tyrannical warlord.  The initial studio press release described the movie as being ground in reality, without fantastical elements, but the teaser trailer has since displayed an array of CGI monsters that are anything but grounded in reality, so their intentions are a little hazy.  There will be lots of frenetic swords-and-sandals action though, that much is certain.

Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, sporting a rare full beard, as the legendary Hercules in HERCULES, opening July 25th.

SEX TAPE
Release Date: July 25
Genre: Comedy
Rating: Not Yet Rated (R rating expected)
Starring: Cameron Diaz, Jason Segel, Rob Corddry, Rob Lowe, Ellie Kemper, Jack Black
After ten years of marriage, a couple tries to spice up their marriage by making a private sex tape together, but they get more than they bargained for when the tape has gone missing the morning after.  With a script by Kate Angelo (THE BACK-UP PLAN) and direction by Jake Kasdan (BAD TEACHER), this is pretty well set up to be hit-and-miss, but unless this is a period comedy set in the 1990s with lots of 90s jokes, I'm not sure how a VHS tape on the loose will go over today.  No, wait, this isn't actually about a "sex tape".  It's a digital file in "the Cloud" that mistakenly is synced up to a bunch of Apple products that they gave out as Christmas presents.  What sham is this?  I want a comedy about a VHS.


GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY
Release Date: August 1
Genre: Science Fiction, Action, Adventure, Fantasy, Comedy
Rating: Not Yet Rated (PG-13 rating expected)
Starring: Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Dave Bautista, Bradley Cooper (voice), Vin Diesel (voice)
Marvel Studios has made gambles before, such as THOR, which introduced a science fiction/fantasy Flash Gordon element to the "Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU)", and IRON MAN 3, which turned everyone's favorite Iron Man nemesis into a punchline, but now they're adding talking space raccoons and walking/talking tree-men.  It's a bold step that could open the flood-gates to whole new possibilities for the MCU, or it could turn out to be an infamous misstep for the studio.  With filmmaker James Gunn behind it, I suspect it will be more divisive than Marvel's previous efforts, but generally accepted.  Parks and Recreation star Chris Pratt as team leader Peter Quill, aka Star-Lord, is a bit of ingenious casting, and the one released trailer so far is interesting to say the least.  It's the kind of movie you've got to see just to know, you know?

"What a bunch of a-holes."  THE GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY opens August 1st.

TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES
Release Date: August 8
Genre: Fantasy, Action, Comedy
Rating: Not Yet Rated (PG-13 rating expected)
Starring: Megan Fox, William Fichtner, Alan Ritchson, Noel Fisher, Jeremy Howard, Pete Ploszek
We all want a great new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles reboot (I mean, their turtles who are ninjas, for goodness sake!), but this just isn't it.  Let's look at the roster: produced by Michael Bay of the Transformers franchise, directed by Jonathan Liebesman (director of WRATH OF THE TITANS, BATTLE LOS ANGELES and THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE: THE BEGINNING) and starring Megan Fox as the film's "human element".  It's tragic really, because it should be awesome, but everything seems to suggest a contrary result.

A CGI turtle or something in TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES, opening August 8th.

THE HUNDRED-FOOT JOURNEY
Release Date: August 8
Genre: Drama, Adventure
Rating: Not Yet Rated (PG-13 or R rating expected)
Starring: Helen Mirren, Manish Dayal, Om Puri, Juhi Chawla, Charlotte Le Bon, Amit Shah
Acclaimed Swedish director Lasse Hallstrom directs this low-key drama produced by Oprah Winfrey and Steven Spielberg based on the novel by Richard C. Morais about an Indian family who open a restaurant in France across the street from a highly prestigious rival restaurant.


THE EXPENDABLES 3
Release Date: August 15
Genre: Action, Adventure, Thriller
Rating: Not Yet Rated (R rating expected)
Starring: Sylvester Stallone, Jason Statham, Jet Li, Dolph Lundgren, Randy Couture, Terry Crews
Sly Stallone's ensemble he-men 1980s action throwback series continues with the mercenary squad going up against the team's embittered co-founder (played by Mel Gibson) who has sworn vengeance on Stallone's own Barney Ross.  The cast is even bigger this time, including the additions of Harrison Ford, Wesley Snipes and Antonio Banderas.  It is what it is.


THE GIVER
Release Date: August 15
Genre: Drama, Science Fiction, Fantasy, Adventure
Rating: Not Yet Rated (PG-13 rating expected)
Starring: Brenton Thwaites, Jeff Bridges, Meryl Streep, Odeya Rush, Katie Holmes, Taylor Swift
Lois Lowry's Newberry Award-winning 1993 novel finally reaches the conclusion of its decades-long journey to the screen this summer.  Brenton Thwaites, also appearing in MALEFICENT this summer, stars as Jonas, a teen living in a dystopian utopia where people have sacrificed their humanity in exchange for social stability.


FRANK MILLER'S SIN CITY: A DAME TO KILL FOR
Release Date: August 22
Genre: Thriller, Crime, Action, Fantasy, Mystery
Rating: Not Yet Rated (R rating expected)
Starring: Jessica Alba, Josh Brolin, Eva Green, Joseph Goron-Levitt, Mickey Rourke
Graphic novelist Frank Miller and filmmaker Robert Rodriguez reunite to co-direct this sequel that follows a series of interwoven encounters between brutal anti-heroes and abhorrently depraved villains.  Like the original, expect ridiculously stylish comic book visuals and excessively gruesome violence and luridness.

THE LAST TEMPTATION OF CHRIST: The Controversy, the Meaning and Why It's My Favorite Easter Movie

THE LAST TEMPTATION OF CHRIST  (DRAMA, 1988)
Directed by Martin Scorsese
Starring: Willem Dafoe, Harvey Keitel, Barbara Hershey, Harry Dean Stanton, Andre Gregory, Roberts Blossom, Juliette Caton, David Bowie
Rated R for unspecified reasons (contains some strong violence, nudity and sexuality).

In 1988, one filmmaker's powerful and personal testimony of faith infuriated thousands of right-wing zealots resulting in countless serious and large-scale attempts at censorship, and when that didn't work, acts of violent intimidation and vandalism.  
THE LAST TEMPTATION OF CHRIST is one of the most controversial films of all time.  Theaters showing the film when it was released in 1988 were quite literally attacked, the most notable case involving the Saint Michel theater in Paris, France, which Christian fundamentalists bombed with Molotov cocktails, injuring 13 people, including four who were severely burned, and heavily damaging the theater, which did not reopen for three years.  In Ithaca, New York, a man drove a school bus through the front of a theater into its lobby.  In Salt Lake City, a theater planning to show the film was ransacked in the middle of the night, the screen slashed and the copy of the film stolen.  Still other theaters were similarly vandalized, subjected to tear gas and stink bombs, and theater patrons were assaulted by protesters.  The president of a Roman Catholic "human rights" group declared "We will not hesitate to go to prison if necessary," emphasizing the extreme measures to which Christian fundamentalists were willing to go to prevent the film's distribution.  An interdenominational Christian organization, Campus Crusade for Christ (aka "Cru"), attempted to reimburse Universal Pictures for the production costs and buy the film's negative and existing copies in order to have them destroyed.  Mass protests outside of MCA headquarters (Universal's parent company at the time) amounted to as many as 600 protestors at a time, including a particularly notable display as one protester dressed as MCA Chair Lew Wasserman acted out a nailing of Jesus to a cross.  Many of the protests quickly turned anti-Semitic, emphasizing the actually minimal roles of MCA executives Wasserman, Sidney Sheinberg and Gary Goldstein in producing the film, reigniting old sentiments of the film industry being a leftist, anti-Christian business dominated by Jews, which has mostly evolved since into the "liberal Hollywood" myth. 
The protests and terror tactics worked, with many theaters, including large theater chains, refusing to book the film for fear of violent reprisals, and when it was released on VHS and Laserdisc in 1989, many video rental store refused to carry it, including Blockbuster Video, which, as you may remember, was the dominant rental service at the time. 
Ever since the mid-1980s, whether in direct relation to THE LAST TEMPTATION's production or completely unrelated, there's been an extremely persistent myth about an "upcoming" film that would depict Jesus and his disciples as homosexuals, prompting swaths of protest letters and and petitions to be sent to various government and/or studio executives to have the film destroyed or banned, despite the absolute and utter non-existence of such a production.  And yet, even today, with the assistance of the internet, the rumor has continued to appear in chain e-mails, blogs and various websites encouraging the fury of Christian activists.  There was some light speculation that LAST TEMPTATION was mistakenly believed to be that film, but in practically every case, it was simply that one scene was described out of context by and to people who had not and would never see the film.  It's doubtless that for many, the context of the scene would have little effect on the people who protested the film so vehemently, but even still, it's unfortunate.
THE LAST TEMPTATION OF CHRIST happens to be the best film about Jesus Christ that I have ever seen.  It's a far more honest and accessible portrait of the carpenter from Galilee than the typical celluloid sermons lacking in ambition or human interest.  THE PASSION OF THE CHRIST is too violent and sadistically medieval while playing like a gory  exercise in technical storytelling.  KING OF KINGS gives the story a fresh perspective, but is distracted and like most pre-New Hollywood Bible epics, is overwrought and occasionally unintentionally humorous.  JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR is surprisingly dull and drags on, and THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO SAINT MATTHEW, while a fascinating case study as a very straightforward, literal adaptation of scripture to film and of an atheist's faithful interpretation of the story, is too distant and practically interesting to the extent of distraction.  THE LAST TEMPTATION is actually a character study of Jesus, and an ambitious attempt to grapple with the nature of the Christian figurehead and the Christian understanding of God.  It is director Martin Scorsese putting his own intimate spiritual experience onscreen, and it is arguably the most personal story of religious faith ever put to film.

Protesters picket the opening of THE LAST TEMPTATION OF CHRIST at Ziegfeld Theatre in Manahattan.  See more photos at http://wideanglecloseup.com/lasttemptation01.html

THE PATH OF THE TEMPTATION AND THE WRATH OF FUNDAMENTALISTS
The film opens with this crucial disclaimer: "This film is not based upon the Gospels but on this fictional exploration of the eternal spiritual conflict."  A foreword from the book of the same title upon it was based, written by Greek intellectual Nikos Kazantzakis, reads: "The dual substance of Christ - the yearning, so human, so superhuman, of man to attain God... has always been a deep inscrutable mystery to me. My principle anguish and source of all my joys and sorrows from my youth onward has been the incessant, merciless battle between the spirit and the flesh... And my soul is the arena where these two armies have clashed and met."  That is exactly what this movie is about.
Jesus of Nazareth, played by Willem Dafoe, is tormented by visions from God, indicating a divine plan for him that he is reluctant to enact, in conflict to his human desires.  Filled with self-loathing, as a carpenter in Roman-occupied Judea, Jesus builds crosses with which the Roman soldiers crucify Jewish revolutionaries and would-be Messiahs.  His childhood sweetheart, Mary Magdalene (Barbara Hershey) became a prostitute after Jesus abruptly ended their courtship due to his heavenly torments, and eventually he's reached a point where, while uncertain, he decides he must settle with God, once and for all, whether he is the Messiah, and what God's plan is for him.  He leaves to live with a monastic community where he hopes to communicate with God directly, and there he accepts his mission.  Judas Iscariot (Harvey Keitel), a Jewish revolutionary, arrives to assassinate Jesus for collaborating with the Romans, but is instead intrigued by him, suspecting that he may be the true Messiah.  Hoping for Jesus to lead an earthly revolt against the Romans, Judas accompanies him on his preaching as the first of his apostles, but warns him that if ever he should "stray from the path", Judas will not hesitate to kill him.  Jesus saves Magdalene from the mob attempting to stone her, preaches the Sermon on the Mount and acquires the eleven other apostles and many disciples, but remains unsure of which path the Messiah is to take, Jesus seeks out the holy man John the Baptist (Andre Gregory), while sending Magdalene to help spread his teachings across Judea.  After John baptizes him, he suggests that Jesus fast in the desert, where he is tempted by the Devil, represented by his carnal desires, and receives a vision from God.  But the message from God keeps changing, with the path of whether love or war never constant.
There were a lot of things that incurred the anger of Christian fundamentalists in THE LAST TEMPTATION, such as showing Jesus in a personal spiritual conflict, presenting Judas as his closest confidant and suggesting that Judas staged the betrayal at Jesus' request, but there was one scene in particular that really infuriated them beyond the pale.  It's an easy scene to point out and announce out of context to the masses, the vast majority of which would never see the film nor give it much further thought beyond their indignation at such blasphemy.  It's a scene at the heart of the film's entire point, in which Jesus consummates a marriage to Mary Magdalene.  Protestors outside the theaters and MCA offices held picket signs reading "Jesus Never Fornicated Off Camera or On", "The Gospel According to Satan", "Is Nothing Sacred?", "Please Don't Support Blasphemy", "God is Not Mocked", "Jesus is God's Saintified [sic] Son".  The short sex scene occurs late in the film, well into the third act, after Jesus is visited by a childlike being (Juliette Caton) who identifies herself as his guardian angel, who takes him off the cross and informs him that he is not the Messiah.  God is pleased with Jesus, and the ordeal is explained as an "Abraham and Isaac"-type test of faith; now, God just wants him to be happy.  Accompanied by the angel, Jesus is wed to Mary Magdalene, and in a (relatively) discreet sex scene, they consummate the marriage.  Not long after though, Magdalene dies, and the angel consoles him, urging him wed both Mary and Martha, Lazarus' sisters, and with them, Jesus lives a long and peaceful life, fathering many children.  Old and dying in his bed, Jesus is visited by four of his apostles, who inform him of the city of Jerusalem being destroyed as the result of rebellion in the First Jewish-Roman War.  Judas steps up to the foot of Jesus' bed and angrily reprimands him; "What's good for man is not good for God!" he yells, and the angel, who has stood by Jesus ever since she first appeared at the cross, is revealed, in fact, to be Satan, whose true form Jesus remembers meeting in the desert.  Jesus begs to God to "let me be your son," and he is returned to where he was, dying on the cross.
He cries out, "It is accomplished!" and collapses on the cross, as the screen flickers to white, the result of faulty film that the filmmakers liked and decided to keep.

Martin Scorcese on the set of THE LAST TEMPTATION OF CHRIST, alongside Willem Dafoe as Jesus of Nazareth.

A FILMMAKER'S PASSION
THE LAST TEMPTATION OF CHRIST is not a film about the life of Christ or about his teachings even, but it is about our understanding of him, an allegory.  It's not an atheistic or even agnostic film; it's very Catholic.  Catholic imagery pervades the film, with elements of corporal mortification, stigmata and a scene of the "Sacred Heart" (a popular Catholic notion of Christ's literal physical heart as a representation of divine love; depicted in a scene where Jesus literally draws out his heart, Mola Ram-style).  Scorsese was raised in a devoutly Catholic family and community, and in his youth, he initially aspired to become a priest and attended a seminary before he made the ultimate decision to pursue a career in film.  Nonetheless, the presence of Catholic themes has pervaded and underwritten his films throughout his entire career.  The film's writer and a frequent collaborator with Scorsese was Paul Schrader, who was raised in a strict Calvinist family, and graduated from the Protestant Calvin College with a minor in theology.  As is typically the case with such controversial films, most of the people talking about it haven't even seen it.  It's unlikely that the film itself actually damaged anyone's faith, considering that just about anyone offended by it was offended via hearsay.  If they had seen the film, perhaps they would have realized what a faith-affirming and spiritually edifying it is.  I certainly feel like I get more of the Christian spirit from watching it than I do from sitting through a church meeting (no offense meant to those of you who do get edification from church meetings; good on ya).  Conservative pundits speculated that the film expressed bitterness towards Catholicism on Scorsese's part, ironically, as the film is an unveiled testimony of Scorsese's faith.
As a work of film, it is very interesting for film aficionados to see how a master filmmaker creates a biblical "epic" on a miniscule $7 million budget.  Universal Pictures certainly knew THE LAST TEMPTATION wasn't a commercial picture, but it was approved with the smallest possible budget in order to curry favor with a much desirable talent who had been dabbling in more commercial filmmaking and they wanted to direct their larger budgeted CAPE FEAR remake.  So Universal let him make it for the absolute minimum (less, really), and Scorsese shot the film on location in Morocco in 58 days (still a moderate length, but very short compared to similar period films).  They rarely had everything they needed, and were constantly required to improvise scenes, but unlike THE PASSION OF THE CHRIST, no one was struck by lightning during the shoot (take that Christian conservatives!).  To film crowd scenes, such as the Sermon on the Mount, the scenes are very tight, with few people scene overall, but always clustered together to fill the frame.  Every cent is spent to fill the frames, never sparing.  Nowadays, the film's detractors consistently agree that the "moral" content of the film is hardly the point, but that the "shoddy" and "inept" production ruins the film on its own.  This is patently ridiculous; the film is obviously not of the grand spectacle of BEN-HUR or THE TEN COMMANDMENTS, but that is never obstructive to it and you'd have to be cinematically illiterate through and through to honestly believe such a claim.  I suppose it makes them feel better about it though.

Judas Iscariot (portrayed by Harvey Keitel) breaks down in tears after Jesus of Nazareth (Willem Dafoe) begs him to enact the betrayal that will bring about Jesus's crucifixion.

 

RECONSIDERING THE PART OF JUDAS
It's not a perfect film, and while Keitel's performance as Judas was unfairly derided at the time of its release (some even accused it of being an anti-Semitic portrayal, largely because hair and makeup is inspired by medieval artistic interpretations of Judas with red curly hair), he is a strange casting choice.  At first, seeing Keitel thrown into the mix of a Bible story is even a bit alarming, but it doesn't take long to accept his presence.  In fact, one of the most beautiful things about this film is in its relationship between Jesus and Judas.  Judas, hardly made notice of in the Bible prior to the Last Supper just before he betrays Jesus, has long been one of the most fascinating characters in the Christ story.  He's often depicted as a militant Jewish revolutionary, a man caught between ties to secular Jewish would-be Messiahs aiming to wage physical war with their oppressors, and his ties and apostleship to the peaceful Jesus.  Even when I was little, I can't remember having particularly negative feelings about Judas.  He's been made the ultimate villain in the Christian faith, save for Satan himself, a grotesque Jewish stereotype who laments the use of valuable oils to wash Jesus's feet when it could be sold, and betraying the Savior in exchange for a handful of silver; the greedy Jew.  Even his name won't let you forget what he is: a "Jew-das".  Many scriptural translations even include that his "bowels gushed out" as he died, as if weren't enough to say that he died the ignominious death of a suicidal hanging.  But what he did is so necessary!  It's all part of the necessary plan, isn't it?  So perhaps it's a sin that is necessary, but I can't imagine how that sin by itself, if it is so integral to the ultimate plane, can totally damn the man.  In trying to make a point of it to religious authorities, the response is usually something along the lines that if it hadn't been Judas, someone else would have filled the role instead, so it was Judas' own sin.  But then, why would the eternal plan of a benevolent God necessitate the damnation of even one soul?  In this story of great redemption and sacrifice, what's the point if a man who is acting as a pivot point cannot be saved as well?  But in THE LAST TEMPTATION, Judas's role becomes much more poignant, where he is also making a tremendous sacrifice in carrying out the betrayal, willfully taking on the role of the most loathed man in history.

Cover from the 1st edition of the novel The Last Temptation of Christ as published in 1960.

THE LEGACY OF THE LAST TEMPTATION 
Recently, another auteur-driven passion project adapted from religious source material, Darren Aronofsky's NOAH, made its way into theaters, albeit with significantly greater resources at its disposal and in spite of controversy-baiting pundits like Fox News' ilk, has come to greater success than THE LAST TEMPTATION ever had any reason to hope for.  While NOAH is certainly not on the level of THE PASSION in terms of financial success, it proves that a challenging and innovative approach to religious material did not die with THE LAST TEMPTATION.  It prompts one to wonder how THE LAST TEMPTATION might have managed in today's landscape.  While the controversy surrounding NOAH never approached the furor surrounding Scorsese's film, various right-wing and fundamentalist groups condemned the film for issues as trivial as the film's use of the title "The Creator" in lieu of "God" and for environmental preservationist themes, and some took it the extremes of accusing the film of outright "Luciferism".  But on a $125 million budget, NOAH has still become a financial success for Paramount, from a director previously best known for a psychological thriller about a ballerina who has lesbian fantasies and performs self-mutilation.  Maybe THE LAST TEMPTATION would have done better were it made today.  It would undoubtedly be highly controversial, but I could see it being a moderate success.  I don't know if we'll ever see the likes of it again, with most religious cinema today devoted to stodgy and cloying dramas that cater exclusively to the "pre-sold audience", but NOAH give me hope for a new wave of better, smarter and more personal spiritual dramas that reach non-religious audiences on as much a spiritual and intimate level as church does for the church-going crowd.  This is the kind of film that THE LAST TEMPTATION was initially punished for being, but in the long run, a good film will always outlive the rest.  Spirituality ought not to be the mere practice of belief and rituals, and if it ever had remained that way for so long, it wouldn't be so present today.  The mark of a great film is how it encourages people to talk, discuss, argue and struggle to understand, and even if it has to withstand those who'll sooner hurl a Molotov cocktail and destroy the film print than consider discussion, no amount of controversy can't forever mar a film that is truly moving.  That is why I love THE LAST TEMPTATION OF CHRIST. 

Review: CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE WINTER SOLDIER

CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE WINTER SOLDIER  (ACTION/SCI-FI) 
3.5 out of 4 stars
Directed by Anthony Russo & Joe Russo
Starring: Chris Evans, Scarlett Johansson, Sebastian Stan, Anthony Mackie, Robert Redford, Samuel L. Jackson, Emily VanCamp, Frank Grillo, Hayley Atwell, Toby Jones
Rated PG-13 for intense sequences of violence, gunplay and action throughout.
Verdict: A significant improvement over Marvel Studio's last couple outings, CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE WINTER SOLDIER ups the ante in preparation for next year's AVENGERS sequel, but in an admirably self-contained respect that builds on the strengths of its main character and his supporting cast.  Plus, the action set-pieces are marvelous.
YOU MAY ENJOY CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE WINTER SOLDIER IF YOU ENJOYED:
MARVEL'S THE AVENGERS (2012)
CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE FIRST AVENGER (2011)
IRON MAN (2008)
THE BOURNE ULTIMATUM (2007)
THE DARK KNIGHT (2008)

CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE WINTER SOLDIER ranks in the "Marvel Cinematic Universe" a bit below MARVEL'S THE AVENGERS and IRON MAN, but above CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE FIRST AVENGER and IRON MAN 3.  It is easily the best installment in the "Phase Two" (post-AVENGERS) chapter of Marvel Studios' interlinked film franchises.
The advertising has revealed surprisingly little of the plot, so it's tricky to explain the synopsis without entering "spoiler territory", but I'll do my best.  Two years following THE AVENGERS, Steve Rogers (Chris Evans), aka "Captain America" is still struggling to adjust to the world of the 21st Century, while carrying out missions for S.H.I.E.L.D. alongside elite espionage agent/assassin Natasha Romanoff (Scarlett Johansson), aka "Black Widow".  It isn't the technological advances of modern society that trouble him so much as the culture of distrust and "Patriot Act"-style, post-9/11 security measures.  When a legendary Cold War-era assassin known simply as "The Winter Soldier" (Sebastian Stan) emerges from obscurity to eliminate major S.H.I.E.L.D. agents, Rogers and Romanoff are forced off the grid, where they stumble upon revelations that threaten everything that they hold to be true.

Directed by sitcom veterans and brothers Joe and Anthony Russo, known for their work on Arrested Development and Community (one cameo will be particularly exciting to Community fans, while the rest of the audience is likely to be oblivious), deliver an ironically gritty product in comparison to Marvel's typically lighter pictures.  There's still plenty of good laughs to be had, but the themes are darker and more relevant (there are very clear allusions to the issue of drone aircraft operations), and the stakes are higher.  The action scenes are spectacular and the best we've had from a Marvel film since THE AVENGERS, throwing martial arts into Cap's combative talents giving a rapid and hard-hitting, Bourne-esque style to the fight scenes.  There's also a couple of spectacular bullet-riddled car chases/gunfights and the customary bombastically destructive finale, but it never feels as excessive as IRON MAN 3's and THOR: THE DARK WORLD's climactic showdowns.
Marvel has already booked the Russo brothers for the third Captain America installment (due for summer 2016), and it's not hard to see why.  Although everyone should already know by now, a sit through the credits is wholly worth it, even after the mid-credits sting.  Wait until the very end, because there's still more to be had, and it's a thrill to see those words, "Captain America will return in Avengers: Age of Ultron".  One can hardly wait for 2015.