he streets still steam with summer sweat, yet leaves are on death row and readying to be crushed underfoot. The latex heroes of a record breaking blockbuster season still smolder but the tenor at cinemas has started to change. Now, marquee comedies provide much-needed respite from back-to-school apprehension; thinking-people's actioners toe the line between popcorn and smoking jacket flicks; and pre-prestige season dramas have returned. Celluloid decisions are getting difficult, but worry not: Martiniboys.com is here with your Late Summer Movie Preview. Happy sitting.


Hamlet 2
Opening August 22, 2008
In the tradition of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, Hamlet 2 uses Hamlet as a jumping off point. The should-be-huge Steve Coogan (24 Hour Party People, Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story) stars as a failed actor-turned-teacher that must put on a play (an apropos play-within-a-play, no less) in order to save his school’s drama department. He drafts the eponymous sequel, a musical that features the ambivalent Danish Prince, a time machine, Jesus, and a host of musical numbers (i.e. “Rock Me Sexy, Jesus”). Mayhem, 1st Amendment debates, and Elisabeth Shue appearances ensue. Amy Poehler and the divine Catherine Keener also star. –S.T.



Traitor
Opening August 29, 2008
Here's a tangential game: what do Benedict Arnold, Gordon Gekko, and Joe Gargery all have in common? Moving on. Don Cheadle stars…and that is all you really need to know. No? Okay, so Cheadle -- one of the most charismatic actors of his generation -- plays a Bourne-like badass but with a socio-political agenda rather than a case of amnesia. The always fantastic Guy Pearce chases him, as do action and intrigue. In a film called Traitor you can expect twists, both overt and subtle. Oh, and incidentally, the answer is: very little.



Burn After Reading
Opening September 12, 2008
After the painfully mediocre The Ladykillers the Coens had lost a little luster. Then a bobbed killer, a bleak desert landscape, and a Cormac McCarthy tome catapulted them to stratospheric cinematic heights. Here, the follow-up returns them to playful territory. Hopefully more Raising Arizona than Intolerable Cruelty, Burn After Reading stars Brad Pitt and Coen muse, Frances McDormand, as a pair of hapless yet serendipitous laymen that discover sensitive materials and attempt to parlay the find into profit. The supporting cast is naturally stellar, with George Clooney and Tilda Swinton playing lovers - a tension capitalization and conversion from Michael Clayton - John Malkovich wielding a hatchet, and the underrated J.K. Simmons as a middle manager. -S.T.