D.C. MOVIE GUYS

THE ANT BULLY

Perhaps the most interesting trend at the movies this summer has been the wave of animated films to hit the local multiplexes. The huge, and continuing, success of the Pixar/Disney partnership (represented this season by the charming “Cars”) has clearly inspired other studios to get in on the act. So far, the results have been mixed, While “Monster House,” utilizing the capture motion system that animates many video games, is a great deal of fun, it may be a bit too intense for really small kids.

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MIAMI VICE

In 1984, then-television producer Michael Mann helped to change the way television looked and sounded. His police drama, “Miami Vice,” featured two undercover detectives working out of that wildly wealthy and popular city who dressed and looked like expensive bad guys. The show utilized popular music and culture in ways no prime time police series, or prime time series in general-ever had. In addition to launching the career of actors Don Johnson and Phillip Michael Thomas, the show propelled Mann into a major career as a filmmaker whose hits include :Heat,” “The Insider,” and “Ali.”

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LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE

Chekov’s comment about the nature of happy families has, in the years since it was made, likely launched a thousand and one tales of disfunction among brothers and sisters, fathers and mothers. Obviously, the author never met the Hoover family, portrayed in “Little Miss Sunshine.” These are five people who live in the same house, but each seems to live alone.

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Lady in the Water
Directed by M. Night Shyamalan
Emerging into theatres nationwide beginning 7/21/2006

It is the too rare, but most-treasured movie experience to be as completely surprised to same degree that I was by M. Night Shyamalan’s The Sixth Sense. And I do not just mean the brilliant surprise ending. The entire film was terrific with a near perfect script and direction far beyond the one movie of his released previously, Wide Awake. In one of the few cases where box office matched quality, the movie was a huge hit and made Shyamalan the golden boy at Walt Disney. The follow-up, Unbreakable, was undeniably solid if maybe a bit too conscious of trying to duplicate too much of The Sixth Sense. Unfortunately, the declination followed with the filmmaker delivering decreasing results with Signs and The Village.

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The “Screen On the Green” series of free, outdoor showings of movies on the National Mall, returns Monday, July 17 with the science fiction classic “The Day The Earth Stood Still.” . The screenings rake place every Monday night ands start at sunset on a huge screen. Among this year’s presentations will be “The Band Wagon” and “Rocky.” For more information, visit their web site at
http://cityguide.aol.com/washington/screenonthegreen/main.adp.

Also, on Thursday, July 20 at 7 PM, the Corcoran Gallery of Art will offer an advance screening of a new film prior to its theatrical release in August. “Half Nelson” is the story of the relationship between an idealistic young school teacher, struggling with substance abuse issues and a fatherless student. Mark Ulmer, the former head of Lion’s Gate studios and producer of the Oscar-winning “Monster’s Ball,” makes his directorial debut with this film and will speak after the screening. For registration and other information, call the Corcoran at 202-639-1770 or visit their web site at http://www.corcoran.org.