Summer Movie Review - Who Rocked and Who Sucked

The sun is less hot (wishful thinking), the leaves are falling and the summer is slowly coming to an end. And before you think I'm actually giving you the goods on some romantic comedy featuring Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks, rest assured – I was merely trying to set the scene for turning the heat on the summer's top-selling mega movies. And since it's always fun to see who got the most dough and who ended up sinking like a brick, let's have a look at this summer's box office and see what's been selling and what's been falling. If one thing's for sure, it's that this has been the summer of threequels. And right up there at the top we find...believe it or not...Spiderman 3, who's been spinning webs worth $336 million and despite scathing reviews and some very unhappy critics, opened big ($151 million in the first weekend) and basically took it from there. Close by, we find threequel number two and my personal favorite, Shrek the Third which grossed $321 million, and even though this still comes $100 million short of Shrek 2, it gives it a comfortable advantage over the next three top earners – Transformers ($303), The Simpsons Movie ($155 million) and The Bourne Ultimatum ($ 138). So, all in all, a summer filled with "the awesome third part of..." (fill in the gap with your favorite franchise which just doesn't want to leave the spotlight), the big screen adventures of our favorite yellow American family and a tale about a bunch of cars that turn into robots.

Pirates of the Caribbean 3 – At World's End (another threequel!) scored $307 million, and even though fans were not disappointed, I think that it came a bit too soon after last summer's Dead Man's Chest and failed to build up that excitement we all felt before going to see part two one year ago. And finally, Harry Potter not three, but five – The Order of the Phoenix was a sure money spinner, with $273 million and a change of mood and atmosphere from the fairy-like to thriller-horror that pleased some fans and disappointed others, but at least the story's moving on and we're all looking forward to part six! And now that we have a pretty good idea who the winners are, let's take a look at the bottom of the tab and see exactly which movies disappointed and came in last – and let's admit it, we all love a good failure from time to time. And we're not surprised to find Ocean’s Thirteen ($116 million) on the list, another sequel which doesn't boast much except Clooney and Brad Pitt looking their sexy selves, and the audience seems to have finally had enough of their click of subtle scam artists. By far the summer's biggest brick to sink however was Evan Almighty ($97 million) which cost no less than $175 million to make. You can do the math. And just to prove that kid's movies are fun, especially over the summer, but people (kids included) sometimes do actually get bored, both Surf’s Up ($58 million) and Underdog ($26 million) came in way below expectations. So that's about it for this summer, and I'm sure we'll be hearing some more about these movies as soon as talk about the Oscars starts, though I'm not sure it's going to be all good. We'll see.