Top Ten Can't Miss Movies of Summer 2007: #6 and #5

6. The Simpsons Movie (July 27th)
Here’s the poster child for movies that you’re excited for but also fearful of. I’m a huge Simpsons fan and nothing would make me happier then seeing a great big screen adventure hit theaters and further solidify The Simpsons as the greatest fictional characters of the last 20 years. Recent history has given us two examples of TV shows successfully making the jump to the big screen with South Park and Serenity/Firefly. I should be filled with hope but prior to last season, The Simpsons had been in a creative funk that led many people to walk away for a good 5 years. I’m not sure if we’re going to get classic Simpsons, bad Simpsons or maybe the Simpsons of the last two years which has had it’s high and low points but I guess this is the faith movie of the summer. Much like SoaP was last year there are some films you have to throw your misgivings out the window and just enjoy, so I’ll be grabbing my diorama and heading to the theater and if you don’t join me…that’ll be a paddling.

5. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (July 13th)
I’ve written many times on the blog about how apprehensive I was about a certain boy wizard. A great deal of my resistance to reading the books stemmed from the god awful first two Potter films. Thankfully my friends Steve and Erin managed to convince me to give the books a try and now I’m a full blown Potter fiend. I eventually caught all the movies and while the first two suck even worse after reading the books, the next two are progressively better especially 2005’s Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. Now we’ve got yet another new director coming into the fold and a few new cast members. I think this series has really found its voice thanks to the darker nature of the books lending themselves to darker films. Let’s face it while the books are for kids, many adults read them and many of those kids are now adults themselves so it makes sense to reflect the sorrow and pain the books personify. While the films will never stand toe to toe with the books, the fact that the main actors signed up to see the film franchise through to the end, and that the producers are constantly bringing in new creative blood, I think these films will carve out a nice place for themselves as standalone entities and this installment is the next building block to that goal.