Il y a une semaine, Patrick Holland était un usager de Twitter parmi d’autres. Il comptait une centaine d’abonnés et se servait essentiellement du réseau social pour échanger avec ses coéquipiers et ses proches.

Un texte de Guillaume Lefrançois

C’était avant d’être un acteur secondaire dans la transaction qui a envoyé Michael Cammalleri aux Flames de Calgary contre René Bourque, la semaine dernière.

« Mon compte Twitter a explosé un peu, explique Holland, au bout du fil. J’ai eu environ 2100 nouveaux abonnés. Avant, j’en avais environ 110! À un certain moment, j’ai déposé mon téléphone après avoir raccroché avec le directeur général des Flames, qui m’a annoncé l’échange. Une minute plus tard, quand je l’ai repris, j’avais 20 nouveaux messages! »

Bienvenue dans l’univers hypermédiatisé du Canadien de Montréal, là où les moindres faits et gestes du plus lointain espoir de l’équipe sont épiés. C’est le cas de Holland, un choix de 7e tour des Flames en 2010, qui apprend encore son métier dans la Ligue junior de l’Ouest avec les Americans de Tri-City. Le jeune homme a visiblement compris le pouvoir des médias.

« Mon public s’est beaucoup agrandi. Je peux encore faire des blagues au sujet de mes coéquipiers, mais il n’y a pas 2000 personnes qui vont trouver ça drôle!

« J’ai eu mes 15 minutes de gloire. Je suis de retour à la normale maintenant. »

Pris de court

L’attaquant de 20 ans a visiblement été surpris par la transaction. Quand vous êtes encore dans les rangs juniors et que vous avez participé à un seul match préparatoire chez les professionnels, vous ne vous attendez pas à être dans les discussions de la Ligue nationale.

« C’est difficile à expliquer comme sensation, mais je suis heureux des événements, dit Holland. C’est une situation irréelle. Ça ne me touche pas dans l’immédiat, mais ça me touche quand même. J’étais surpris, ça ne te vient pas à l’esprit que tu peux être échangé dans la LNH, quand tu ne joues même pas à ce niveau. »

La situation ne l’a pas empêché de produire. En quatre matchs depuis la transaction, Holland compte 2 buts et 5 passes. Ses 64 points en 44 matchs lui valent le 9e rang des marqueurs de la Ligue de l’Ouest. Il profite pleinement de sa saison de 20 ans chez les juniors.

« C’est une saison où tout semble bien allé, j’ai beaucoup de temps de jeu, je suis dans le premier trio et la première unité d’avantage numérique. Je suis heureux de ma production. »

Holland en profite au passage pour parfaire ses habiletés en défense, un atout essentiel pour se tailler une place dans la Ligue nationale, particulièrement pour les choix au repêchage plus tardifs.

« Je me suis toujours vu comme un joueur offensif, mais depuis que je suis chez les juniors, je joue mieux en défense. Ça a aidé mon jeu dans les deux sens de la patinoire. »

Ses succès aident actuellement les Americans à trôner au 1er rang du circuit, avec une fiche de 34-10-0 pour 68 points. Si elle poursuit sur sa lancée, la troupe de Jim Hiller pourrait représenter l’Ouest à la Coupe Memorial à Shawinigan.

La montagne de Holland

L’automne prochain, Holland prévoit participer au camp préparatoire du Canadien, à l’issue duquel il souhaite se tailler une place avec les Bulldogs de Hamilton. « C’est l’objectif le plus réaliste que je peux viser », ajoute-t-il.

Il devrait alors renouer avec Brendan Gallagher, une de ses rares connaissances dans l’organisation du Canadien. Une rumeur circulait d’ailleurs sur la toile, selon laquelle Holland aurait blessé Gallagher au cours d’un match entre les Americans et les Giants de Vancouver la semaine dernière.

Holland demeure convaincu que Gallagher s’est plutôt blessé lors d’un contact subséquent avec la rampe. Pour en savoir davantage, vous pouvez consulter sa page Twitter et pourquoi pas, vous abonner à ses mises à jour. Vous pouvez au passage l’aider à dépoussiérer son français en lui envoyant un message dans la langue de Molière…

‘Green Lantern’ Cheat Sheet: Everything You Need To Know Comic book adaptations often weave a circuitous and amusing path toward the big screen.

‘Green Lantern’ Cheat Sheet: Everything You Need To Know

Comic book adaptations often weave a circuitous and amusing path toward the big screen. Remember when Cher was rumored to be up for the role of Catwoman in “The Dark Knight Rises”? But few superhero flicks can compete with the epically bizarre twists and turns that tripped up “Green Lantern” for years.

Jack Black was once tapped to play the ring-bearing protector of the universe. When the rotund comedian’s version collapsed, everyone from Brian Austin Green to Justin Timberlake were rumored to be circling the green-suited superhero. Can you imagine Quentin Tarantino helming a “Green Lantern” flick starring one of these dudes? Well, the “Inglourious Basterds” director turned down the chance to take control of the project. And now, here we are. “Green Lantern” opened in theaters Friday (June 16) with Ryan Reynolds as test pilot-turned-superhero Hal Jordan, Martin Campbell (“Casino Royale”) in the director’s chair, and the film, we’d say, is all the better for it. But how did we arrive at this moment? To answer that question, let’s slip on our power rings and take a trip back into the cinematic past with another MTV News cheat sheet. That’s the only way to discover everything there is to know about “Green Lantern”:

Recharging the Lantern
After years in development hell, the project seemed finally to be moving forward in August 2008, when the DC Comics property moved back into active development with a script by Greg Berlanti, Marc Guggenheim and Michael Green. There was even talk that the movie would begin filming the next spring and that Ryan Gosling would take on the lead role. While Campbell eventually began to eye the film, production didn’t move forward, even though Warner Bros. announced a December 17, 2010, release date.

Would filming begin in September? Would Anton Yelchin (“Star Trek”) become Hal Jordan? What about fellow “Trek” star Chris Pine? Rumors, rumors, everywhere! Unsurprisingly, the release date was moved back to June 17, 2011.

Finally, in July ’09, the ring chose its man: Ryan Reynolds officially landed the role of Hal Jordan.

Greeting the Corps
“I fell in love with the character when I met with Martin Campbell,” Reynolds told us a few months later. “When I sat down with him, I really got what it is that this guy is all about. When you have a guy like Martin Campbell, part of his charm is that he has balls of titanium, and the other part is that he’s slightly crazy, and you have to be to take on something with the scope of ‘Green Lantern.’ “

No joke. The 3-D film journeys from the shores of America to the most distant planets of the universe. There are aliens galore, a villain who thrives on fear and power rings that harness willpower into fantastical manifestations, like giant machine guns and supercharged fists. Jordan finds himself at the center of it all, after he’s chosen to join the Green Lantern Corps, an army of fighters chosen to protect the universe from all evils. The baddies they must confront in the film are Dr. Hector Hammond, a scientist turned lumpy-headed villain, and Parallax, a smoky enemy capable of engulfing planets and who threatens to snuff out all life forms. Into this mess steps Jordan with two quests: stop the bad guys and get the girl — a lovely test pilot named Carol Ferris, played by Blake Lively.

Lively nabbed the part in January 2010, and the rest of the cast soon followed: Mark Strong as the Lantern named Sinestro, Peter Sarsgaard as Hammond and Tim Robbins as his father, Senator Hammond.

We got our first peek at Reynolds in his motion-capture gear in May. It’d be another two months until we peeped the actor in glowing-green character. Not everyone was pleased with what they saw.

“There has to be a little healthy debate about it,” Reynolds told us later. “I mean, that’s important. If it were just slanted one way or the other, I don’t think it would be that satisfying. And truthfully, we’ve only seen a tiny glimpse of the suit, you know, we haven’t seen it in motion. And we haven’t seen the full suit as well.”

Green Lantern’s Light
The first trailer popped up in November, and once again fans were less than impressed. But Reynolds didn’t sweat it. “I’m not worried about it,” he told us in April. “We’ve never been worried about it, because we saw the early concepts and we saw how well they worked. Unfortunately, that was stuff you can’t just release and show to people, because it needs to be perfected and all that stuff. I’m not worried about it at all.”

Public opinion started to change this summer at WonderCon and CinemaCon, as fans got their eyes on fresh “Green Lantern” footage. “The first time I saw it was just breathtaking,” Reynolds told us recently. “I think the first time it hit me that we really did it right was in WonderCon,” he told us recently. “I’d been shooting in Africa at the time, so I flew back just to be there, and I was exhausted, and they put up this 10 or 11 minutes of footage, and you could feel it going like a wave through the audience.”

Breathtaking was exactly our opinion of an eye-popping poster we debuted in April — one that featured a slew of Corps aliens like Tomar-Re, Abin Sur and Kilowog. Another trailer arrived in May: more aliens, more action and more of Reynolds’ sometimes goofy, sometimes badass superhero. It was more than enough to get us pumped about the movie to come.

“For me, what attracted me to it most was the space-epic nature of it,” Reynolds told us at the MTV Movie Awards in early June. “I just loved that you had this film that was an origin story, that’s not really starting in the third act like a lot of them do. I grew up with movies like that. I love movies like that. So just to be part of it was mind-boggling.”

Check out everything we’ve got on “Green Lantern.”

For breaking news and previews of the latest comic book movies — updated around the clock — visit SplashPage.MTV.com.

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‘Tree of Life’ scoops Cannes top prize (AFP) CANNES, France (AFP) – Reclusive US director Terrence Malick clinched the Palme d’Or at the Cannes film festival for “The Tree of Life”, a fantastical family drama uniting Brad Pitt and Sean Penn on screen. Malick did not turn up at the gala awards ceremony Sunday, after which jury president Robert De Niro said the epic had “the size, the importance, the intention, whatever you want to call it, that seemed to fit the prize”. Kirsten Dunst won acting honours for her turn as a depressed bride facing the apocalypse in “Melancholia” by Denmark’s Lars von Trier, who was expelled from the festival for making an awkward joke about his sympathies for Hitler.

‘Tree of Life’ scoops Cannes top prize
(AFP)

CANNES, France (AFP) – Reclusive US director Terrence Malick clinched the Palme d’Or at the Cannes film festival for “The Tree of Life”, a fantastical family drama uniting Brad Pitt and Sean Penn on screen.

Malick did not turn up at the gala awards ceremony Sunday, after which jury president Robert De Niro said the epic had “the size, the importance, the intention, whatever you want to call it, that seemed to fit the prize”.

Kirsten Dunst won acting honours for her turn as a depressed bride facing the apocalypse in “Melancholia” by Denmark’s Lars von Trier, who was expelled from the festival for making an awkward joke about his sympathies for Hitler.

“Well, what a week it’s been,” she quipped, referring to the scandal which marred what critics otherwise hailed as a vintage year at the world’s top cinema showcase. She skipped a post-ceremony press conference.

Fellow Dane Nicolas Winding Refn claimed best director for his high-octane thriller “Drive” starring Canada’s Ryan Gosling as a stunt driver who moonlights as a wheelman for armed robbers in what was probably the most commercially viable of the 20 Cannes contenders.

France’s Jean Dujardin, who charmed critics with his role as a fading 1920s film star in Michel Hazanavicius’s silent black-and-white feature “The Artist”, took the best actor laurel.

Notoriously exacting, the 67-year-old Malick has only made five films in 38 years, including “Days of Heaven” for which he won the Cannes best director prize.

One of the most hotly anticipated tickets in town, “The Tree of Life” divided critics, drawing cheers and equally insistent boos when it was unveiled to Cannes critics.

It was the first US film to win since 2004, when Michael Moore took home the gold for the political documentary “Fahrenheit 9/11″.

The sweeping picture stars Pitt in 1950s Texas as a domineering father of three boys one of whom grows up to be a disaffected adult (Penn) struggling with the legacy of his troubled upbringing and a sudden tragedy in the family.

Drawing on themes of nature and grace, the film features lyrical scenes of the family at home interwoven with computer-generated images of the origins of life, dinosaurs, a meteor striking planet Earth — putting the problems of a few individuals in America into cosmic perspective.

The New York Times said it marked “an affirmation of Mr Malick’s belief in the power of cinematic images to express the sublime” while film industry bible Variety called it “in many ways his simplest yet most challenging work”.

The runner-up Grand Prix was shared by Belgium’s Dardenne brothers for “The Kid With a Bike” about an abandoned boy and the woman bent on saving him, and “Once Upon a Time in Anatolia”, a police drama by Turkey’s Nuri Bilge Ceylan.

The competition featured a record four women film-makers but only French actress-director Maiwenn picked up a gong, the third-place Jury Prize for “Poliss” about a closely knit Child Protection Unit of the Paris police.

Israeli director Joseph Cedar won the best screenplay prize for “Footnote”, which recounts the decades-long rivalry between a father-son pair of Talmudic scholars.

Some of the biggest names in European cinema saw themselves shut out on awards night including Pedro Almodovar, whose thriller about radical cosmetic surgery “The Skin I Live In” audiences applauded.

Finnish director Aki Kaurismaki’s “Le Havre” about illegal immigration in France and Italy’s Paolo Sorrentino’s eccentric road movie “This Must Be the Place” starring Penn also defied expectations by being ignored by the jury.

A-listers sprinkled stardust during the 12-day event, including Penn, Pitt, his partner Angelina Jolie, Johnny Depp and Penelope Cruz, plus Woody Allen who turned up for his festival-opening romantic comedy “Midnight in Paris”.

Cruz starred with Depp in “Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides” in 3-D, shown out of competition.

And attendees of the festival’s sprawling market where film rights are bought and sold reported a bumper year.

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2011 Summer Movie Guide: May and June May 18, 2011 by B. Alan Orange A banished Norse god! Apocalyptic vampires! A vigilant yeg! A cute scene-stealing Capuchin monkey! Mutant teenagers! A bunch of drunk and horny bridesmaids! Big Foot! A Green Ring! Pirates, Zombies, and Mermaids! Karate kicking zoo animals! A couple of forest dwelling trolls! And one smokin’ hot teacher! That’s what awaits us at the Cineplex over the course of May and June, and it promises to be a scorcher! It doesn’t really matter how fast and furious things get on the big screen, the summer movie season doesn’t officially kick off until May 6th. And this year Thor opens things with a lighting bolt blast of Marvel excitement.

2011 Summer Movie Guide: May and June

May 18, 2011 by B. Alan Orange A banished Norse god! Apocalyptic vampires! A vigilant yeg! A cute scene-stealing Capuchin monkey! Mutant teenagers! A bunch of drunk and horny bridesmaids! Big Foot! A Green Ring! Pirates, Zombies, and Mermaids! Karate kicking zoo animals! A couple of forest dwelling trolls! And one smokin’ hot teacher! That’s what awaits us at the Cineplex over the course of May and June, and it promises to be a scorcher! It doesn’t really matter how fast and furious things get on the big screen, the summer movie season doesn’t officially kick off until May 6th. And this year Thor opens things with a lighting bolt blast of Marvel excitement.

A banished Norse god! Apocalyptic vampires! A vigilant yeg! A cute scene-stealing Capuchin monkey! Mutant teenagers! A bunch of drunk and horny bridesmaids! Big Foot! A Green Ring! Pirates, Zombies, and Mermaids! Karate kicking zoo animals! A couple of forest dwelling trolls! And one smokin’ hot teacher! That’s what awaits us at the Cineplex over the course of May and June, and it promises to be a scorcher!

It doesn’t really matter how fast and furious things get on the big screen, the summer movie season doesn’t officially kick off until May 6th. And this year Thor opens things with a lighting bolt blast of Marvel excitement. It doesn’t come to an end until August 31st, when Sam Worthington sends us all back to school with The Debt. Between then and now, we will see some of the biggest movies of the year hit hard. Some will win, some will lose, and some will go on to break box office records.

2011 promises to bring the magic, the excitement, and the laughs along with a few tears and maybe even a new break out star or two. Here’s what you can expect to see in the next two sweaty months, along with a look back at the films that debuted 20 years ago in case you want to relive the summer of 1991 via that new Blu-ray player and HD TV in the comfort of your own living room, as opposed to braving the heat outside.

May 6th: Thor, The Beaver, Something Borrowed, Jumping the Broom

Thor

Thor

The Weekend’s Big Winner:
Thor. Chris Hemsworth stars as a powerful but arrogant Norse Thunder God who is banished from his home on Asgard and forced to walk amongst the humans of earth as punishment. Teaming up with the beautiful, yet frigid Jane Foster (Natalie Portman), Thor must learn what it means to be a true superhero when the villainous Loki invades a 7-Eleven in the New Mexico desert threatening to destroy the planet. Adventure, excitement, and the magic of Gods abound in this precursor to July’s Captain America: The First Avenger and next summer’s The Avengers.

The Weekend’s Best Bet:
Hobo with a Shotgun. Rutger Hauer stars as a vigilant yeg with a dream to mow lawns in director Jason Eisener’s gleeful ode to the world of 80s Troma splatstick. A gory, gleeful account of how one man cleaned up a small town full of baby killers, rapists, and drug pushers, you won’t see a wilder, wetter, more cheer-worthy entry in the summer movie cannon this year. Stacked with instantly quotable dialogue and scenes so shocking, you will run back outside and get in line to see it twice, Hobo with a Shotgun has the potential to be the biggest cult sensation of 2011.

The Rest of the Best:
Going up against the Norse God and the dirty, booze-dunked hobo can’t be an easy task, but Mel Gibson is going to try! His long-delayed Jodie Foster-directed dramatic comedy The Beaver, about a man learning to cope with life through the use of a hand-puppet, is also making its debut during this first weekend in summer cinema. We also get Jessica Alba starring in An Invisible Sign, a drama about a poorly dressed, but adorable woman who has finds her salvation in mathematics (kind of, but not really, like the life story of The Wonder Years’s Danica McKellar). Lovers of Romance won’t want to miss the emotional tug-of-war between two longtime friends (Ginnifer Goodwin and Kate Hudson) who have fallen for the same man in Something Borrowed, an adaptation of the popular Emily Giffin novel. Two completely different families get together for one dysfunctional wedding in Sony’s Jumping the Broom. And finally, Megan Fox gets a direct-to-DVD reprieve as her long shelved fantasy drama Passion Play makes it to select theater screens across the country.

Twenty Years Ago This Weekend:
Michael Keaton decided to follow up his more serious role in Batman with the crime thriller One Good Cop. Robin Givens left Head of the Class to star in the crime comedy A Rage in Harlem. But it was Sylvester Stallone’s goofy mob farce Oscar that took the weekend’s top spot for the second week in a row.

May 13th: Bridesmaids, Priest

Bridesmaids

Bridesmaids

The Weekend’s Big Winner:
Bridesmaids. Kristen Wiig gets her first lead role in this new comedy from the Freaks and Geeks dream team of director Paul Feig and producer Judd Apatow. Wiig stars as an aimless thirty-something lost in love and buried in debt. She finds a glimmer of hope when her best friend (Maya Rudolph) asks her to be her Maid of Honor, which doesn’t sit well with the other Bridesmaids in the wedding party. It’s a bold and refreshing comedy that aims both high and low, earning praise as one of the few classics to be released this summer.

The Weekend’s Best Bet:
Priest. Vampire hunter and religious wanderer Paul Bettany takes the beautiful Cam Gigandet under his wing in an apocalyptic wasteland ruled by bloodsuckers. When Priest’s niece is abducted, he must go on a quest to find and save the young girl. Scott Stewart directs this high-energy action fest, offering a fun, thrilling ride that can’t quite be matched by a couple of hapless babes babbling on about a midlife crisis. It’s counter-programming at its best.

The Rest of the Best:
Antonio Banderas flirts with the very weird world of director Tony Krantz’s The Big Bang, which finds a private dick searching for a stripper in the most unluckiest of places. Will Ferrell flirts with his dramatic side in Everything Must Go, which offers a look at one of the sexiest Coleman coolers ever made. And Naomie Harris is an African teacher who must school an aging wretch discarded by his countrymen in The First Grader. But, if you’re looking for the coolest Indie movie of the weekend, look no further than Hesher, which stars everyone’s favorite man-boy Joseph Gordon-Levitt as a rocker living in a strange family’s garage.

Twenty Years Ago This Weekend:
The sequel F/X2, which starred Bryan Brown and Brian Dennehy as a cop and a toy maker who team up to catch a killer, won the weekend. Switch, which featured a chauvinist cop Perry King killed in the line of duty and later reincarnated as Ellen Barkin, who teams up with her old partner Jimmy Smits to catch a killer, came in a close second. Madonna: Truth or Dare was also released this weekend, but failed to register much attention at the box office.

May 20th: Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, Midnight in Paris

Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides

Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides

The Weekend’s Big Winner:
Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides. It also looks like the weekend’s best bet, as the return of Captain Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp) and his franchise juggernaut have scared away all potential competitors. For his fourth big screen adventure, Jack teams up with Barbossa (Geoffrey Rush) in a race to beat Blackbeard (Ian McShane) to the Fountain of Youth. Along the way, our merry Rum-swiggers will have run-ins with zombies, mermaids, and the beautiful but deadly daughter of Blackbeard, Angelica (Penélope Cruz). Non-stop action and comedy against the beautiful backdrop of the Caribbean ocean make Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides the big screen vacation to take this May.

The Rest of the Best:
May 20th is a lean weekend for releases outside the Mouse House banner. Woody Allen will quietly debut his comedy Midnight in Paris, which stars Owen Wilson as a bored man who comes alive at night in the city of romance away from his wife, unnoticeably into the ether. Tom Arnold will ogle Tia Carrere and Cameron Richardson in the R rated beach romp Hard Breakers. A gaggle of country western singers, including Kris Kristofferson and Dwight Yoakam, team up with Hilary Duff and Reece Thompson for the Nashville-set coming-of-age drama Bloodworth. And Cost of a Soul, which follows two wounded war veterans forced to return to the very slum they joined the Army to escape, rounds out the weekend.

Twenty Years Ago This Weekend:
The now classic Bill Murray comedy What About Bob?, which saw the actor going toe-to-toe with a very neurotic and funny Richard Dreyfuss, won the weekend. This date also bore into existence the action thriller Stone Cold, which featured NFL superstar Brian Bosworth breaking into the world of acting as a cop with a flair for infiltrating dangerous biker gangs. And who can forget Mannequin: On the Move, a sequel to the 1987 hit comedy Mannequin? It landed on the charts at number 8, but found a deserving home on the VHS circuit just a few short months later.

May 27th: The Hangover Part II, Kung Fu Panda 2, The Tree of Life

The Hangover Part II

The Hangover Part II

The Weekend’s Big Winner:
Kung Fu Panda 2. Memorial Day Weekend traditionally ushers in the summer movie going season, and this year’s offerings are a little bit surprising. When you have an R rated release going up against an animated film, you always have to bet on CGI! Add in the fact that kids are out of school, and that comedy sequels never do as well as their predecessors, and it’s a no brainer that DreamWorks Animation’s Kung Fu Panda 2 rules this Holiday. Jack Black returns to voice Po, the eternally hungry, Fist of Justice wielding Panda Bear. This time out, Po and the Furious Five must round up a group of villainous hyenas that threaten to devour the Valley of Peace’s porcine residents. It promises to provide inside jokes for the adults, cute animals for the kids, and enough action to please everyone else.

The Weekend’s Best Bet:
The Hangover Part II. The Wolf Pack is back, and this time they’re tearing up Bangkok in search of Stu’s (Ed Helms) soon-to-be brother-in-law on the eve of his second marriage. How is it possible for the same thing to happen to the same people twice? Well, that formula has always worked for John McClain. And it seems to be working for The Wolf Pack. Despite it being a slightly altered Xerox of the first The Hangover, this new sequel still offers plenty of laughs and an even twistier mystery. It may not be the instant classic that its predecessor was, but The Hangover Part II is still summer excitement at its best.

The Rest of the Best:
Memorial Day Weekend 2011 is slim pickings, which is unusual for the big holiday. The only other movie seeing a release is acclaimed director Terrence Malick’s The Tree of Life. Fanboys have been geeking out about the dinosaurs, and highbrow art house weepers have been clamoring for Terrence’s latest masterpiece for years. But what is this film, really? It traces one family’s life throughout the ages, and it stars the powerhouse duo of Brad Pitt and Sean Penn. Other than that, we don’t have much to go on. It does, though, serve as the perfect antidote to an R rated raunchy comedy and a kid-friendly cartoon about high-kicking animals.

Twenty Years Ago This Weekend:
1991′s Memorial Day Weekend offerings were actually better than what we’re seeing here today. Bruce Willis opened his critically derided flop Hudson Hawk, which lost out at the box office to Ron Howard’s firefighter drama Backdraft. Willis was just coming off the bomb The Bonfire of the Vanities, which had been release a few months prior. This powerful combination of lofty career choices landed the star a timeout from the spotlight for a while. This particular Memorial Day Weekend also marked the debut of Ridley Scott’s now-classic ode to feminism Thelma & Louise, along with Only the Lonely, which found John Candy playing a shy cop who falls in love with a funeral home director, only to find that his mother hates her, and Drop Dead Fred, which saw a grown woman (Phoebe Cates) having to contend with the reemergence of her childhood imaginary friend (FYI – the Russell Brand remake coming soon).

June 3rd: X-Men: First Class, Beginners

X-Men: First Class

X-Men: First Class

The Weekend’s Big Winner:
X-Men: First Class. What would summer be without a handful of Mutants to tide us over until the next big superhero epic hits theater screens? Matthew Vaughn directs this prequel to the X-Men franchise, which finds Professor X (James McAvoy) and Magneto (Michael Fassbender) teaming up to take on the Cold War crisis. Set in the 1960s, X-Men: First Class offers a first-time look at some Mutants audiences may not yet be familiar with, like Azazel (Jason Flemyng), Havok (Lucas Till), and Emma Frost (January Jones). While the film packs a lot of action and heat, it may also have the best-scripted story of any superhero blockbuster seen this summer, offering just enough emotional drama to keep even the most ardent film snob interested.

The Weekend’s Best Bet:
Submarine. Huh? What? Yeah, we know you haven’t really heard about it yet. But this coming-of-age dramedy has been garnering praise left and right for being one of the most original movies of the summer. Reminiscent of John Hughes’ best work, Richard Ayoade (director of British favorites The Mighty Boosh and The IT Crowd) is behind this tale of a fifteen-year-old boy who sets out to simultaneously save his parents marriage while trying to lose his virginity. Sure, its familiar summer stomping grounds, but its never been done in quite this way before.

The Rest of the Best:
By this point, there are already quite a few huge summer spectaculars crowding the Cineplex, vying for our all-important dollar. We are now seeing fewer and fewer releases per week, even on the art house circuit. We do get Ewan McGregor in the romantic comedy Beginners, and Beautiful Boy offers a look at school shooting. But the most exciting thing happening this weekend in independent cinema is Love, Wedding, Marriage. Dirty Steve’s (aka Dermot Mulroney’s) directorial debut centers on a marriage councilor (Mandy Moore) whose own relationship gets turned upside down.

Twenty Years Ago This Weekend:
The only new movie opening this weekend was the comedy Soapdish, which is currently in the process of being remade. While this often hilarious look at the backstage antics of a popular daytime television drama starred such luminaries as Sally Field, Kevin Kline, Whoopi Goldberg, and Robert Downey Jr., that didn’t stop Backdraft from taking the number one spot for a second weekend in a row.

June 10th: Super 8, The Troll Hunter

Super 8

Super 8

The Weekend’s Big Winner:
Super 8. J.J. Abrams mysterious ode to all-things Steven Spielberg has become a little less mysterious in recent weeks, as more photos and a full-length trailer were release. Yet, we still aren’t quite sure what kind of creature lies at the heart of this thrilling tale. Part The Goonies, part E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, and all Close Encounters of the Third Kind, this adventure finds a group of kids living in the late 70s who stumble upon God-knows-what while shooting a home movie. The intrigue of wanting to know more, and J.J. Abrams’s growing reputation as a geek God amongst fanboys, make this one of the must-see movies of the summer.

The Weekend’s Best Bet:
The Troll Hunter. Though shot for a lesser budget than Super 8, André Øvredal has crafted a crowd-pleasing romp about a group of adventures who set out to prove the existence of Trolls in the wilds of Norway. It might just beat J.J. Abrams’ sci-fi thriller in terms of its fun factor. Having gained plenty of critical praise, this swift seat-clutcher is sure to please any monster-loving movie fan, and it will be the perfect compensation if Super 8 happens to be sold out.

The Rest of the Best:
Don’t dismiss Judy Moody and the Not Bummer Summer as just a kids film; it’s a highly entertaining ode to summer vacation that adults will enjoy as well. Plus, in keeping with the theme of this particular weekend at the movies, a search for the elusive Big Foot rests at the heart of Judy Moody’s storyline. Its almost as much fun as The Troll Hunter. For that one serious minded adult out there turning his/her nose up at this triple batch of monstery goodness, The Trip offers a mostly improvised comedy about a restaurant critic (Steve Coogan) and his buddy (Rob Brydon) going on a food tasting road trip across Europe. It’s a little bit highbrow, for sure. Yet at the same time, its also quite funny.

Twenty Years Ago This Weekend:
Billy Crystal’s now classic comedy City Slickers debuted at number one, while Spike Lee found modest success with his follow-up to the iconic Do the Right Thing, Jungle Fever, which looked at the sometimes volatile relationship between an Africa-American man and a white Italian lady. And though it didn’t make much noise at the box office, the Christina Applegate comedy Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead has gone onto become a classic in its own right.

June 17th: Green Lantern, Mr. Popper’s Penguins

Green Lantern

Green Lantern

The Weekend’s Big Winner:
Green Lantern. Director Martin Campbell’s DC Comics adaptation will either be the biggest film of the summer or the biggest bomb. While the massive 3D visual effects are still not in place for this mega-behemoth, its hard to tell which way audiences will go on this one. One things for certain…It will have a massive first weekend opening as fanboys and families alike flock to this sci-fi spectacular. Ryan Reynolds leads a strong supporting cast, and if they finish it on time, Warner Bros. may just unleash the most interesting looking movie of the summer, whether its action and storyline pay off or not. Green Lantern, like Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides before it, also serves as the weekend’s best bet. Seriously. Is anyone clamoring to watch Jim Carrey futz around with penguins?

The Rest of the Best:
Like I said, is anyone clamoring to watch Mr. Popper’s Penguins? Even though you should always bet first on the family film, Green Lantern is quite kid-friendly. And Jim Carrey’s latest comedy feels more like a December release. Its hot weather June debut is inexplicable. It just feels like wintertime. Don’t get me wrong, it seems charming enough, but Hal Jordan has nothing to worry about. For those looking to break away from the summer bombast, Magnolia Pictures is offering one of the best documentaries of the year with Page One: A Year Inside the New York Times. And if you didn’t get enough of Emma Roberts in Scream 4, there’s always the coming-of-age tale The Art of Getting By.

Twenty Years Ago This Weekend:
Way back in 1991, no one could touch Kevin Costner, or Christian Slater for that matter. Or Morgan Freeman. Their combined talents helped open Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves at the top of the box office charts, and no other movie had the guts to go up against it.

June 24th: Cars 2, Bad Teacher, Conan O’Brien Can’t Stop

Cars 2

Cars 2

The Weekend’s Big Winner:
Cars 2. The combined forces of Disney and Pixar make for a summer powerhouse that is impossible to beat. This year, they bring a sequel to their 2006 hit Cars. This time out, Lightening McQueen (Owen Wilson) and Mater (Larry The Cable Guy) help out an international spy (Michael Caine) while simultaneously competing in the World Grand Prix, a race that spans the reaches of the globe. Packed full of action set pieces that rival any live action summer extravaganza, and plenty of humor to keep kids and adults entertained at equal lengths, Cars 2 is one of those rare sequels that is better than the original, and it will mark one of the few true must-see family summer outings, It’s a movie that absolutely everyone can enjoy.

The Weekend’s Best Bet:
Bad Teacher. After a long stretch of lofty projects, Cameron Diaz is back where we love her the most. In a raucous no-hold-barred comedy that offers her that rare chance to truly shine. Starring opposite ex-lover Justin Timberlake, Jason Segel, and Eric Stonestreet, Diaz is Elizabeth, a drunk and high, foul-mouthed high school teacher looking for a sugar daddy. Within these walls of education, Elizabeth must fight of a lecherous gym teacher while trying to make a move on a rich and handsome substitute. Will she get her man? We hope so, as it will be too hot outside to cry if she loses her way. Bad Teacher has a lock on being the funnest movie released in June (we hope, Green Lantern).

The Rest of the Best:
The documentary Conan O’Brien Can’t Stop offers a look at the late night talk show host’s live tour throughout the country the summer after losing The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien. And SeaWorld jumps into the Wildlife documentary field with their summer offering Turtle: The Incredible Journey.

Twenty Years Ago This Weekend:
Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves and City Slickers both proved to have strong staying power, as even Julia Roberts and her weepy terminal drama Dying Young couldn’t fight them off. Genre flick The Rocketeer also faltered, proving that superheroes just couldn’t catch a break twenty years ago.

Join us soon for our Summer Movie Guide 2011 Part II, where we look at the months of July and August.

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