This summer was surely the summer of sequels, three-quels and in some cases quad-quels. I don’t have any particular objection to sequels, especially in the action/adventure category, because you set good heroes on new adventures. As long as the story doesn’t spin its wheels then it can still be fun. Look at the James Bond series. Last year’s CASINO ROYALE is one of the best Bond films ever made.

However, this summer we got a lot of passable to poor sequels. Just peruse this list SPIDER-MAN 3, 28 WEEKS LATER, SHREK THE THIRD, PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: AT WORLD’S END, HOSTEL PART II, OCEAN’S THIRTEEN, FANTASTIC FOUR: RISE OF THE SILVER SURFER, EVAN ALMIGHTY, LIVE FREE OR DIE HARD, HARRY POTTER AND THE ORDER OF THE PHOENIX, THE BOURNE ULTIMATUM, DADDY DAY CAMP and RUSH HOUR 3. One could also add remakes like THE INVASION (INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS) and HALLOWEEN to this déjà vu cinema experience as well. Is this a sign of the lack of new ideas in Hollywood or the lack of nerve to film new ideas in Hollywood?

Whatever the case may be most of these movies received hit or miss reviews at best. LIVE FREE OR DIE HARD, HARRY POTTER AND THE ORDER OF THE PHOENIX and THE BOURNE ULTIMATUM seem to have escaped the most unharmed. POTTER 5 received the best reviews from those who enjoy the maturing of the material and/or have read the books. Otherwise, it was slim pickens this summer. I haven’t seen all the films listed above, and in some cases I never saw the original. (You can’t make me watch DADDY DAY CARE.) So for This Weekend’s Film Festival, I’ve decided to go back and look at what made some of these franchises so good to start off with.

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Youngsters might find this picture amusing, but it’s not for the whole family. The tired premise isn’t given much new to stand on except for some snazzy visual effects. The humor is of the simple slack stick variety, which goes for the lowest common denominator over and over again. It’s a harmless piece of confection, but tastes quite stale.

Larry Daley (Ben Stiller, DODGEBALL) tries hard, but he fails at everything he attempts. His son Nick (Jake Cherry, TV’s DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES) is embarrassed with his father’s unstable life, and his ex Erica (Kim Raver, TV’s 24) doesn’t think Nick should be around him until he gets his life together. In order to keep close to his son, Larry takes the night watchmen job at the Natural History Museum. Cecil (Dick Van Dyke) and his fellow old-timers Gus (Mickey Rooney) and Reginald (Bill Cobbs, AIR BUD) show him the ropes, giving him a list of specific tasks he must perform each night. However, when the museum closes down, Larry is on the run as the exhibits come to life. With the aid of a wax version of Teddy Roosevelt (Robin Williams, PATCH ADAMS), Larry must put everything back in place and make sure nothing escapes.

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THE CONVERSATION is a film that I have seen twice. I wasn’t all that impressed with it the first time I saw it, but considering its reputation I decided to give it a second viewing. For whatever reason sometimes certain films don’t hit you the first time, but then startle you the second time around. This is the same experience I had with DR. STRANGELOVE (now one of my favorite films) and David Gordon Green’s GEORGE WASHINGTON. I believe the pacing of Francis Ford Coppola’s thriller is part of why this happened. I think upon my first viewing, I was beguiled by the slow build and missed the point of the ending. Upon seeing it again, I was beguiled by the unique anti-hero unlike any seen elsewhere on screen and an ending that blew me away with its depth and style.

Harry Caul (Gene Hackman, HOOSIERS) is the preeminent surveillance man in the U.S. He’s a guilt-ridden, paranoid Catholic, who is severely guarded about his personal life. Along with his partner Stan (John Cazale, GODFATHER), he’s working a new case where he has to record the conservation of Ann (Cindy Williams, TV’s LAVERNE & SHIRLEY) and Mark (Frederic Forrest, POINT BLANK), who are meeting in a noisy park during lunch hour. Caul obsesses about one garbled comment by Mark, and when he uncovers it, floods of bad memories rush back to him. He starts to question the motives of his clients the director of a major company (Robert Duvall, APOCALYPSE NOW) and the exec’s assistant Martin Stett (Harrison Ford, STAR WARS). In a dream, we see Caul tell Ann that he isn’t scared of death, only murder.

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One of the great action films of all time, Bruce Willis will forever be remembered for his role as the “monkey in your wrench” cop who single-handedly takes down a group of terrorists. The developing plot plays out naturally with increasing levels of tension. At its core, the film is more than just a good guy versus bad guys tale — it’s about guys who do their jobs well and those who let ego get in the way of doing their jobs well.

John McClane (Willis) is a New York City cop who has come to L.A. for Christmas to visit his estranged wife Holly (Bonnie Bedelia, TV’s THE DIVISION), who left NYC to take a high-powered position at the Nakatomi Corp. As he gets comfortable in her office while the company Christmas party takes place in the other room, John is sent into action when terrorists take over the building. Led by the highly intelligent Hans Gruber (Alan Rickman, GALAXY QUEST), the terrorists are there to steal bonds worth millions. Their scheme has been planned out perfectly, except for the wrinkle of officer John McClane, who calls himself Roy when asked.

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Danny Boyle’s 2002 28 DAYS LATER was a hardcore revamp of the zombie genre, viscerally brought to life in a star making turn by Cillian Murphy. Produced by Boyle, the sequel is under the leadership of new filmmakers. Writer/director Juan Carlos Fresnadillo made his English debut on the film, which was co-written by Rowan Joffe, Jesus Olmo and E.L. Lavigne. It’s a tale of two stories; the first half is filled with dark irony, while the second half is a chase flick copying what George Romero did in THE CRAZIES.

The story begins where the first film begins, but following new characters. Donald and Alice Harris (Robert Carlyle, TRAINSPOTTING & Catherine McCormack, DANGEROUS BEAUTY) are holed up in a cottage in England, hiding from an outbreak that turns humans into crazed flesh-eaters. But when the zombies strike, wrong choices are made. In a montage, the film lays out what has transpired for the past 28 weeks since this event. The population of England has died off. U.S. led NATO forces have taken over the country. Survivors have been rounded up into a single section in London and refugees have started to be reintegrated into the military occupied U.K. Major Scarlet (Rose Byrne, WICKER PARK) is the chief medical officer, who worries that though they haven’t seen an infected person in two months that the disease might come back. Gen. Stone (Idris Elba, AMERICAN GANGSTER) is sure the soldiers can handle another outbreak if it comes. Sgt. Doyle (Jeremy Renner, DAHMER) and helicopter pilot Flynn (Harold Perrineau, ROMEO + JULIET) find their patrols of virtually dead city quite boring. However, when a new outbreak does come, chaos quickly takes over and it seems that the Harris’ children Andy and Tammy (Mackintosh Muggleton, film debut & Imogen Poots, V FOR VENDETTA) might be the key to saving humanity.

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Who is Charles Ferguson, the maker of the best film thus far on the Iraq War? He made millions selling his company Vermeer Technologies, the creator of the first visual website development tool FrontPage, to Microsoft. He served as a senior fellow at the political think tank, the Brookings Institute. He holds degrees from Berkeley and MIT, where he has also taught. He was originally a supporter of the invasion of Iraq. And now he has made a sobering, infuriating and honest chronicling of the Bush administration’s disastrous handling of the war from the lips of those who served in the administration.

Ferguson doesn’t go for theatrics or sentiment with his film. The facts are damning enough. Thirty-five people were interviewed for the film including: General Jay Garner, who ran Iraq reconstruction before L. Paul Bremer replaced him; Ambassador Barbara Bodine, who headed the Baghdad embassy until her differing opinions led to the Bush administration firing her; Richard Armitage, former Deputy Secretary of State; Robert Hutchings, former chairman of the National Intelligence Council; Col. Lawrence Wilkerson, Colin Powell’s former chief of staff; and Col. Paul Hughes, who worked for both the Office for Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance and the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA).

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Classic literature is mined for teen films quite often. How many ROMEO AND JULIETs in high school have we seen? Director Amy Heckerling (FAST TIMES AT RIDGEMONT HIGH) based CLUELESS on Jane Austen’s EMMA and infused it with hip Beverly Hills glamour and slang. As for teen versions of classic lit, this is about as good as it gets.

Cher Horowitz (Alicia Silverstone, LOVE’S LABOUR’S LOST) is the prototypical dumb blonde, it seems. She obsesses about clothes, boys and the here and now. Along with best friend Dionne (Stacey Dash, RENAISSANCE MAN) and Dionne’s boyfriend Murray (Donald Faison, TV’s SCRUBS), they make it their mission to transform New York City transplant Tai (Brittany Murphy, DEAD GIRL) into the next cast member of BEVERLY HILLS 90210. Cher deeply disapproves of Tai’s initial choice of boys — a tokin’ skater named Travis (Breckin Meyer, GARFIELD). She tries to find Tai a more suitable suitor like the hottie Elton (Jeremy Sito, TV’s SIX FEET UNDER). While she is playing matchmaker, Cher sets her eyes on the new boy in school Christian (Justin Walker). All along, Cher’s former stepbrother and law student Josh (Paul Rudd, KNOCKED UP) watches Cher’s manipulations with a wry smile, injecting a sardonic comment from time to time as he helps Cher’s father Mel (Dan Hedaya, THE HURRICANE) work on a big lawsuit.

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As I was looking down the list of films hitting DVD this week, I was struck by how many good titles were being released. I didn’t want to deny extra exposure for any of them, because they’re all so good. So I just decided to dedicate this week’s lineup of This Weekend’s Film Festival to five great new titles on DVD. It’s an eclectic mix to say the least. Three films are new to DVD, one is an older films getting re-released and one of them is actually a short film collection. We have animated masterpieces, a humorous and touching documentary, a fun true-life biopic and a mysterious neo-noir.

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This brilliant spoof of alien abduction stories is the first film from famed soundman Gary Rydstrom. Of course, the sound is perfect, but Rydstrom translates his sound skills to make a hilarious short with perfect timing.

In the story, teen alien Stu must look over a huge board of switches to lift a deeply slumbering farmer from his bed. For each mistake, the looming glutinous supervisor, Mr. B, scribbles down notes on a clip board. Will Stu succeed or will be lose his cool?

Rydstrom’s timing and pacing is impeccable. For all intents and purposes, the film is a single joke, however it’s still funny upon repeated viewings. The slapstick is perfectly combined with character. Stu’s reactions are wonderfully exaggerated. There is a classic squash and stretch cartoon vibe to this short, which is a landmark for CG animation. The character design is also superb. The gelatin-like bodies of the aliens are unique. Stu with his oversized helmet adds to the character’s emotions and personalities. You get a quick sense that he is young and inexperienced just by his look, while you sense the opposite from the stoic Mr. B.

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Animated Short, LIFTED is one of Pixar’s best shorts, ranking right up with LUXO JR. and GERI’S GAME.

Featured as a supplement on the CARS DVD, this short is the worst one based on characters from a Pixar feature and is one of the weaker shorts the studio has done. More so than MIKE’S NEW CAR and JACK-JACK ATTACK, the film feels like a product not a short that needed to be made.

Filled with the characters from CARS, Mater the Tow Truck (Larry the Cable Guy) sneaks around Radiator Springs trying to scare or play tricks on various inhabitants. As a way to get back at him, Sheriff (Michael Wallis) tells Mater the spooky tale of the ghostlight, which haunts the streets of the town in the dark. So as Mater heads home, his tires shake with fear that the ghostly blue light will find him.

The story isn’t all that original. The tale fits the characters, but it seems like a story we’ve seen many times before. The gags aren’t even some of the best from the studio. They’re either obvious or feel like leftovers that didn’t make it into the feature. Nonetheless, though it may be disappointing, it’s still entertaining. The few gags that work are clever. Plus, Mater is a very likable character. Larry the Cable Guy is perfect as the voice. It just goes to show that even when Pixar isn’t firing at all cylinders, they still make films that are better than most of the competition.