(We mean “movies.” What? Too much alliteration? – Jeff S.)

By Jay Runham

We interrupt your regularly scheduled Beever-filled Movie preview for this comedy and comic book-fueled sequel fest.

Sequels, comic book adaptations and comedies: the lifeblood of this summer Blockbuster season. With original movies like Super 8 and Beginners behind us, we look towards July with some hope that a low budget comedy or the end of a major franchise will bring us some summer joy. But like Shia LaBeouf says “No… No no no. No, no no!”.

Mutt’s Scooter

Why not start with the good old Mutt Williams? Transformers barely slips into July and will probably make a crap metric tonne of money, but you and Gregg have already been touched by those Robots in Disguise. Opening on the same weekend, Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts‘ new romantic comedy Larry Crowne scoots it’s way onto the big screen. So, if you’re not a fan of explosions, the army, robots, Shia LaBeouf, Victoria’s Secret Model #3, or America, maybe Larry Crowne is for you. I think the chicks might dig it (Or at least my Mom seems to be looking forward to it). If you have a Beilieber or Twi-hard in you house, Monte Carlo is for them. Them and Mutt Williams.

Don’t (Potting) Soil Yourself

You ever seen a Potter and a Pooh battle it out? The weekend of July 15th you will. Disney is putting it’s classically animated, voiced and original Winnie the Pooh story up against the final chapter of the Harry Potter franchise. Personally I’ve been excited to see the conclusion to Harry’s tale. I give props to Disney for trying to do Winnie right, but it seems like this one was meant for a special collectors edition DVD. Potter is probably going to vanquish Pooh at the box office… Poor Pooh.

Wait… That’s Funny?

The rest of the month is chalked full of Comedies. We start with Horrible Bosses and Zookeeper on the 8th, one of which looks hilarious and the other of which looks like it could be fake. Then we move onto No Strings Attached Friends with Benefits, the Justin Timberlake and Mila Kunis romantic comedy, that I’ll personally probably pass on. Steve Carell and Ryan Gosling indie flavored rom-com Crazy, Stupid, Love. looks great and whose only major “comedy” competition is live action reincarnation of The Smurfs. Please everyone, I’m begging you, don’t let The Smurfs make a bunch of money. The people who keep making live action films about my childhood cartoons need to be stopped! For the love of original fim, go see Crazy, Stupid, Love. on the weekend of the 29th. Or maybe you’ll see…

American Cowboys

Cowboys & Aliens? The film with the Edmonton connection (local writer Andrew Foley helped write the comic on which the film is based off of) seems to be gathering a lot steam with Iron Man and Iron Man 2 director Jon Favreau. The only other really big comic book movie coming out this month is Captain America: The First Avenger. Chris Evans manages to shed his fiery Human Torch skin. Like Ryan Reynolds in past month’s Green Lantern, I think Evans is the wrong man for the job and the audience numbers will show it. I predict doom for this film. The comic book winner for July is going to be Cowboys & Aliens, you can bet your horse (or UFO) on it.

Enjoy your month and be sure to tune in next month as we return to our regularly scheduled movie preview. Same Beever Time. Same Beever channel.

Jay Runham knows a thing or two about movies too. Check his blog for more, umm, movies.