Summary
1408 is a movie about a haunted hotel room that manifests its inhabitants' own personal nightmares. Starring Iohn Cusack and Samuel L Jackson, the premise is just too ridiculous for words. Cusack (High Fidelity, Grosse Pointe Blank, Better Off Dead) plays a man writing a book that aims to debunk claims of hauntedness. Cusack goes to New York to check into the supposedly haunted room 1408 at the Dolphin hotel, where Samuel L Jackson (Shaft, Pulp Fiction, Die Hard: With a Vengeance) plays the hotel manager who ominously warns him that no tenant has ever lasted more than an hour in room 1408. Come on! Samuel L Jackson as a terrified hotel manager? No way. To us, he'll always be the one with the wallet that says "Bad Mother Fucker" on it.
In Hairspray, John Travolta's first musical since 1978's Grease, the already chubby Scientologist dons a fat suit, cross dresses and sings his heart out as Edna-the character formerly played by the larger-than-life drag diva, Divine. Actually, this remake is based on the hit 2002 musical, not John Waters' amazing 1988 high camp film. But viewers are bound to compare this remake with Waters' film and not die Broadway .version, and it's difficult to imagine it will stack up well-even if Xenu and his entire Galactic Confederacy (the aliens that brought us to earth 75 million years ago, according to Scientology) were to intervene on Travolta's behalf.As if the summer of sequels weren't already ridiculous enough, here comes one to top them all: Halloween, the ninth installment. Take that [Harry Potter] part five! This Halloween is written and directed by Rob Zombie, who transitioned from metal band White Zombie to making movies by directing House of 1000 Corpses, The Devil's Rejects and, most recently, Wherewolf Women of the SS, a faux-traluer for Grindhouse. During 2006, he also hosted TCM Underground, the cable channel's late-night cult film showcase. With Halloween 9, Zombie takes us back to Michael Myers' formative years, between his first kill and bustiri out of the asylum. It's an "in-between-quel", if you will-and one of the few original ideas of the season.See the full content of this document
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Box Office Returns
Most of us grew up with summer vacations. Though few of us retain these lengthy interludes as we grow older, the season continues to evoke an association with escapism. This does not go unnoticed by the movie which, it turns out, not only plays on perversions, vices and fears, but also on the gentler aspects of its audiences' psychology. And so we get the blockbuster: massively marketed, CG vehicles of escape. The studios try to premiere films on separate weekends, sp...
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