The New Wave: 7/9/10

That's one bad ass poster. Fits the action packed sequel perfectly, which I think finally pulls Predator ahead of Alien in the sci-fi wars. Out of those 4 Alien movies, two are amazing while two are awful. I could make a case for all 3 Predator movies being either good or great. Robert Rodriguez and director Nimrod Antal display their obvious enthusiasm for the franchise. I think Adrien Brody is going to quiet a few of his naysayers who think he's not jacked enough to play a tough guy leading a crew of hardened killers. You can check out my review here.

I have one request before you see Universal's latest animated offering: wipe away comparisons to Toy Story 3 and How to Train Your Dragon. I know its tough. It's been quite a year for animated films thus far, and Despicable Me adds to that impressive list. Steve Carell stars as Gru, a somewhat pathetic supervillain with a scheme to steal the moon. But only if he can get over his self confidence issues, a nerdy arch-nemesis, and the three little girls he just adopted. It's Mr. Mom, if Mr. Mom was a supervillain. You can check out my review here.

Stieg Larsson's Millennium trilogy trudges on, bringing back the mysterious goth computer hacker, Lisbeth Salander. While the books have been a worldwide success, and the movies are even tracking well here in the US, I'm just holding on so I can find out what David Fincher is going to change when his remakes are complete. My review of The Girl Who Played with Fire can be found here.

One of the most anticipated films of the summer for me, Restrepo is a critically acclaimed documentary covering the year spent by two Vanity Fair reporters with an Army platoon in Afghanistan, stationed at one of the most dangerous outposts. Restrepo comes from the operating post the soldiers must defend, named after PFC Juan Restrepo, killed in combat early in their campaign.

Movies about the "war" on terror have been pretty lame for the most part, with a couple of notable exceptions. The documentaries, however, have been so good that they've ushered in a whole new era for quality, penetrating, investigative film. The Oath is a doc following Abu Jandal, Osama Bin Laden's personal bodyguard, and Salim Hamdan, Bin Laden's driver who was deemed an enemy combatant and sent to Guantanamo Bay.