Summer of Blockbuster Sequels
Tina DeAngelis
Issue date: 5/3/06 Section: Arts & Entertainment
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It's that time of year again: summer. Along with the hot and humid days spent by the pool or on the beach comes the summer movie season. Summer is the time Hollywood breaks out the thrills and big bucks in search of a blockbuster, and this summer is no different with several possible blockbusters opening in theaters.
Summer starts early this year on May 5 when Tom Cruise's Mission Impossible III hits theaters. Cruise reprises his role as Secret Agent Ethan Hunt and confronts the toughest villain he has ever faced, Owen Davian, portrayed by Academy Award Winner Philip Seymour Hoffman, an international weapons and information provider who suffers no remorse and has no conscience. Mission Impossible III is co-written and directed by J.J. Abrams, the man who created the hit ABC television show Lost.
One of the most anticipated films of the year, The Da Vinci Code based on the book written by Dan Brown, arrives in theaters May 19, staring Tom Hanks and Paul Bettany. While in Paris on business, Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon (Hanks) receives a late-night phone call: the elderly curator of the Louvre has been murdered and police found a coded message near the body. While working to solve the riddle, Langdon is stunned to discover it leads to a trail of clues hidden within the works of Da Vinci. Langdon joins forces with French cryptologist, Sophie Neveu, and learns the late curator was involved in the Priory of Sion, a secret society. As they race through Paris, London, and beyond they are up against a faceless powerbroker who is anticipating their every move. Unless they solve the complex riddle in time, the Priory's ancient secret and an explosive historical truth will be lost forever.
X-Men: The Last Stand, the climax of the motion picture trilogy opens in theaters on May 26. A "cure" for muntancy threatens to alter the course of history and for the first time the mutants have a choice to retain their uniqueness even though it isolates and alienates them to become human. The opposing viewpoints of mutant leaders Charles Xavier, who preaches tolerance, and Magneto, who believes in the survival of the fittest, are put to the ultimate test which triggers the war to end all wars.
Summer starts early this year on May 5 when Tom Cruise's Mission Impossible III hits theaters. Cruise reprises his role as Secret Agent Ethan Hunt and confronts the toughest villain he has ever faced, Owen Davian, portrayed by Academy Award Winner Philip Seymour Hoffman, an international weapons and information provider who suffers no remorse and has no conscience. Mission Impossible III is co-written and directed by J.J. Abrams, the man who created the hit ABC television show Lost.
One of the most anticipated films of the year, The Da Vinci Code based on the book written by Dan Brown, arrives in theaters May 19, staring Tom Hanks and Paul Bettany. While in Paris on business, Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon (Hanks) receives a late-night phone call: the elderly curator of the Louvre has been murdered and police found a coded message near the body. While working to solve the riddle, Langdon is stunned to discover it leads to a trail of clues hidden within the works of Da Vinci. Langdon joins forces with French cryptologist, Sophie Neveu, and learns the late curator was involved in the Priory of Sion, a secret society. As they race through Paris, London, and beyond they are up against a faceless powerbroker who is anticipating their every move. Unless they solve the complex riddle in time, the Priory's ancient secret and an explosive historical truth will be lost forever.
X-Men: The Last Stand, the climax of the motion picture trilogy opens in theaters on May 26. A "cure" for muntancy threatens to alter the course of history and for the first time the mutants have a choice to retain their uniqueness even though it isolates and alienates them to become human. The opposing viewpoints of mutant leaders Charles Xavier, who preaches tolerance, and Magneto, who believes in the survival of the fittest, are put to the ultimate test which triggers the war to end all wars.