May Forecast

By Tim Briody

1. The Matrix Reloaded

It's hard to believe it's been over four years since the original, but it's finally here and it's going to be worth the wait. Especially for the bank account of Warner Bros. When every other summer film is waiting for your opening weekend before seeing what angle to take, you're doing something right. In fact, we're basing the rest of this month's releases off whatever the Matrix's take is.

1.0 Matrix

2. X2: X-Men United

Despite the silly subtitle added at the last minute, the superhero sequel kicks off the summer with a "snikt!" All the first film did was set a record opening for a non-sequel at the time. This one will also do remarkable business opening weekend, but how well it's doing by the time Matrix Reloaded rolls around is another story.

.9 Matrix

3. Finding Nemo

Pixar can do no wrong, and more proof will be released on May 30th. The visuals may be impressive, but if the amount of effort put into the scripts for the computer animated films was just as strong as the ones slapped together for the traditionally animated films, we wouldn't be wondering about the death of American traditional animation.

.83 Matrix

4. Bruce Almighty

God gives a normal guy his powers for a week. Perfect premise. God is Morgan Freeman. Normal guy is Jim Carrey. Perfect casting. Great trailer and ads. Can it still go horribly wrong? Sure. But that won't affect the opening weekend.

.59 Matrix

5. Daddy Day Care

This film looks stupid enough to help Eddie Murphy break his streak of misses. A funny family comedy is what he needs right now, and this one should do the trick. A nice release date, and not a whole lot else that's family-oriented will be worth mentioning, so...

.24 Matrix

6. The Italian Job

At least come up with a new title, since the film doesn't take place in Italy, like the original did. At least the cast oozes cool, but a heist film with weak marketing probably won't find much of an audience beyond the opening weekend.

.20 Matrix

7. Down With Love

The throwback craze, popular among sports jerseys, is now expanding to movies, with this being one of the first examples. Paying homage (or ripping off, depending on your point of view) to the Doris Day comedies of the '50s, Renee Zellweger (fresh from the Oscars and every magazine cover in the last two months) and Ewan MacGregor can certainly handle romantic comedies, but whether audiences will bite is another story.

.16 Matrix

8. The In-Laws

After stinking up the joint with It Runs in the Family, Michael Douglas returns with another film about family, this time without his actual relatives. That may be a good thing as far as the box office goes, but that's really not saying much.

.11 Matrix

9. The Lizzie McGuire Movie

I at least knew who Amanda Bynes was before last month's What a Girl Wants. I was not aware who Lizzie McGuire was until a few weeks ago and who Hilary Duff was until a few minutes ago. I had to look up the name of the actress who played her. It's trying to successfully counter-program against X2, but there's just not enough crossover appeal.

.09 Matrix

10. Wrong Turn

I believe the title is what happened to you if you find yourself actually sitting in a theater watching this.

.04 Matrix

  • Read Marty Doskins' May forecast
  • Read Walid Habboub's May forecast
  • Read John Hamann's May forecast
  • Read Kim Hollis' May forecast

    View other columns by Tim Briody
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