Top 20 Must See films of the Summer! 2/2

Ahhhhh lazy days ahead. Picnics, BBQ’s and fun days at the beach (see pic above). Summer is also the time when Hollywood campaigns for folks to make there way to air-conditioned multiplexes. I champion such activity but I also say don’t forget the other films – the arty sort. Using our regular voting system – I asked the cream of crop folks at ioncinema to name me their most anticipated picks to beat the heat….you’ll find a bit of everything in the choices of Marcello Paolillo, Justin Ambrosino, Samuel Hilton, Jameson Kowalczyk and me.

Yesterday (11-20) we saw a fair number of studio picks – today we see les of them. Scroll down to see what we feel are the 10 best reasons to go to the theatres this summer.

Release date: August TBA NY and/or L.A. release
Distributor: Palm Pictures
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The Gist: The tagline for Fabrice Du Welz’s fantasy horror film reads: Some people would kill for company.

Fact:The film won three prizes at the never heard of Gerardmer Fantastic Film Festival.

See it: After seeing this horror flick – you might want to reschedule your European vacation until 2015.

Release date: July 7th NY and/or L.A. release
Distributor: Miramax Films
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The Gist: Paul Crowder and John Dower’s film chronicles the heady rise and fall of the New York Cosmos, a scratch team that became a sporting motif for the city in the decadent 1970s and featured such all-time greats as Pele and Franz Beckenbauer. Matt Dillon narrates.

Fact: World cup soccer fever commences in a couple of weeks, this looks like a nice appetizer.

See it: For those who think of nightmarish DeNiro-character in Taxi Driver as an emblem of the NYC 70’s, now we have the happy go lucky face spirit and acrobatics of the great Pele to kick away all negative thoughts.

Release date: July 9th Wide Release
Distributor: Picturehouse Films
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The Gist: Based on Garrison Keillor’s A Prairie Home Companion recordings, this is based on the fictionalized premise that Keillor’s multi-award-winning show, which is carried on 500 radio stations across the States, is being shut down after 30 years.

Fact: Paul Thomas Anderson had to come in and help assist Altman in getting the film done.

See it: Robert Altman plus mega cast evokes thoughts of overlapping dialogue and quirky characters. Yum yum.

Release date: August 16th Wide Release
Distributor: New Line Cinema
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The Gist: See title of film for details.

Fact: Internet-buzz got producers to re-shoot some scenes and add more.

See it: Think of the fun slithering things in Raiders of the Lost Ark except for the mile high club.

Release date: May 26th NY and/or L.A. release
Distributor: Palm Pictures
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The Gist: Set on the northeast coast of Brazil, this drama produced by Walter Salles and Mauricio Andrade Ramos tells the tale of a boxer (Ramos), a stripper (Braga) and a petty criminal (Moura) who go on a road trip to El Salvador.

Fact: The film won the Le Prix de la Jeunesse at Cannes and the best film prize at the Rio Film Festival.

See it: Since Brazil’s City of God, we have taken notice to the current wave of Latin American cinema.

Release date: May 5th NY and/or L.A. release
Distributor: First Look Studios
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The Gist: Set against the harsh and unforgiving landscape of the 1880s Australian outback, The Proposition is a visually stunning tale of loyalty, revenge and the quest for justice in a lawless land. Charlie Burns (Guy Pearce) is a renegade. Along with his two brothers, Arthur (Danny Huston) and Mikey (Richard Wilson), he is wanted for murder. When Captain Stanley (Ray Winstone) captures Charlie and Mikey, he offers Charlie a proposition in an attempt to end the brutality that surrounds them — the only way to save Mikey from the noose is for Charlie to track down and kill Arthur, his psychotic older brother. An impossible moral dilemma leads to a murderous climax.

Fact: Film is a fan favorite in Australia.

See it: Who didn’t like Sergio Leone Spaghetti Westerns? Glad to see some payback on the comeback.

Release date: July 7th Wide Release
Distributor: Warner Independent Pictures
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The Gist: Based on the Philip K. Dick’s novel, this was originally published in 1977, “A Scanner Darkly” is set in suburban Orange County, California in a future where America has lost the war on drugs. When one reluctant undercover cop is ordered to start spying on his friends, he is launched on a paranoid journey into the absurd, where identities and loyalties are impossible to decode. It is a cautionary tale of drug use.

Fact: The technology, first employed in Richard Linklater’s 2001 film “Waking Life,” has evolved to produce even more emotional impact and detail.

See it: Bring some aspirin just in case – the look of the film is both awesome and taxing in one sitting.

The Gist: Traveling to Pakistan for a wedding shortly after 9/11, the three young British men — Ruhel Ahmed, Asif Iqbal, and Shafiq Rasul — eventually made their way to Afghanistan to try to aid bombing victims there. But, through an unfortunate sequence of events, they were mistaken as members of the Taliban, rounded up, and then tortured and held for more than two years, despite a lack of proof of their.

Fact: Winterbottom used the part drama, part documentary formula for his 2003 film In This World,

See it: Winner of the silver bear in Berlin for Best Director – Michael Winterbottom’s and Whitecross’ documentary will be riveting form of truth serum for unknowing U.S audiences who have no clue what that little place in Cuba is used for.

Release date: August 4th Wide Release
Distributor: Warner Independent Pictures
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The Gist: Based on the Gondry’s script, this is about a man who learns how to manipulate his dreams and subsequently ends up being trapped in them.

Fact: The film is trilingual.

See it: I caught this film not once, but twice at this year’s Sundance. Gondry is a wizard and art-houses audiences will be delighted much in the same way I was at the notion of owning the Playdough barbershop kit at the tender age of 7.

Release date: August 4th (Moved to Fall)Wide Release
Distributor: DreamWorks Pictures (Paramount)
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The Gist: Based on the novel by James Bradley, this looks at the battle, which took place in winter 1945. In one month, 22,000 Japanese and 6,800 Americans died, and the battle produced one of World War II’s most enduring images: a photograph of six soldiers raising an American flag on the flank of Mount Suribachi, the island’s commanding high point.

Fact: Once Eastwood plunged into production of FooF he found that there was a flip side to the story – Red Sun, Black Sand will tell the same war from the Japanese point of view.

See it: Eastwood’s last two film titled Mystic River and Million Dollar Baby were Oscar gold – no doubt this film will garner appreciation from critics around.