The List
This weekend, when past and present X-Men and the tried-and-true comedy duo of Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore storm back onto the big screen, they will join an elite group of films. No, not Best Picture Oscar winners or box office behemoths. Instead they will be two more on a list of Memorial Day weekend releases that, historically, share a few things in common. Let's look at ...
1. Explosions: Whether it's Caribbean pirates firing cannonballs, the Japanese bombing Pearl Harbor or fast, furious cars careening through metropolitan areas, Memorial Day has become a favorite for blow-'em-up-first, ask-questions-later blockbusters with hefty pyrotechnic budgets.
2. Impossibly durable leading men: A-Listers like Harrison Ford, Vin Diesel, Hugh Jackman, Christian Bale, Will Smith, Ben Affleck and Tom Cruise are just a few of the men who have battled aliens, precision sports car drivers, mutants, robots and foreign bad guys with sinister accents to save us all from peril. And they did so without so much as a long-term scratch on their well-groomed faces. Meanwhile, I cut myself opening a candy bar the other day.
3. Funny guys reign: As is the case with 'Blended,' if a film makes its way to the big screen this weekend without a multitude of explosives, it likely does so with an abundance of laughs. Previous Memorial Days have seen Jim Carrey finding God in 'Bruce Almighty,' the Wolfpack setting out for its second and third 'Hangover' adventures and even Sandler going for the prison yard touchdown in 'The Longest Yard.'
4. Earth-changing disasters: Mankind is never far from the edge of extinction when it comes to cinematic holidays, and Memorial Day in no exception. The threats come from everywhere, including Mother Nature ('The Day After Tomorrow'), giant lizards (1998's 'Godzilla') and deadly museum exhibits bent on world domination ('Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian').
5. Cuddly animated characters: 'Madagascar,' 'Kung Fu Panda 2' and last year's 'Epic' all opened over Memorial Day hoping to cash in on a school year that's winding down and parents with antsy kids and nowhere else to go.
- Hunter Ingram
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