First off I'd like to apologize for my inability to follow through on my last few posts for the analysis of film in 2011. My Oscar Scramble failed miserably and I still have yet to see a lot of movies that I want to before I make my final decisions on my top 10.
As you know if you read this drivel that I provide, that I've been very vocal in my disdain for a majority of what last year had to offer movie-wise. This year has had quite the contrary effect on me, however. All I can talk about is "this" or "that" movie that I'm excited about. Between blockbusters, comedies and indie flicks, 2012 is guaranteed to deliver on all levels. I haven't seen a line up nearly this stellar in my whole life really.
After I saw the trailer to Total Recall (the remake to one of the most sacred Scwarzenegger films) this afternoon, I felt obligated to drop a little bit of movie wisdom on you. I've researched and evaluated all areas of film extensively and put a lot of effort into this so try to focus so you can spend your money wisely this year at your local cineplex.
This post narrows down most of what I've read and researched about this upcoming year in movies into five condensed categories. Those categories are as follows.
1.) Movies I will see the second I can
2.) Movies I will still probably end up seeing the opening weekend.
3.) Movies I will probably see, but don't really care about.
4.) Movies I'd like to see if I get the opportunity.
5.) Movies I wouldn't touch with a ten foot pole.
Now since April, and we've already had 3 full months of releases then I will add an unofficial list of all movies that have already come out.
The year started out with a bang having some very enjoyable January and February releases. This is something that is generally unheard of. Usually the beginning of the year is when the companies release all their duds so that all the people who give a shit about the film industry can catch up on all the Award season shit from the year before.
I had really high hopes for The Grey when I saw the first trailers for the film and became anxious when I learned it was a January release. It turned out to be a lot more than I had originally anticipated. An exceptionally engaging film with incredible performances from Liam Neeson and the supporting roles. At first glance it appears to be a big time action flick, but it's so much more than that. Deep and tangled with the complexities of human emotions and spirituality. I highly recommend seeing this film once it's out on DVD or on the television.
Soderbergh's Haywire, starring badass femme fatale newcomer Gina Carano (and half of Hollywood) didn't fail to deliver in the action department either. Packing punches as severe as Jason Bourne, Gina Carano may not be the best actress, but she can kick it with the best action-wise.Chronicle was another big surprise to hit the big screen this early 2012. A movie I originally thought to look overdone and cheesy really captured my imagination with the performances from the cast of young unknowns. Another flick to check out when you get the opportunity.David Wain's Wanderlust wasn't nearly as successful at hitting my funny bone as Role Models or Wet Hot American Summer but it has some of the best Paul Rudd moments that can be found. I laughed so hard during the 1/3 of the movie that I can't even remember the other 2/3's of the movie. Jennifer Aniston went back to her reign as the unfunny actress who attempts comedy. I wish she would be more ballsy and do more roles like hers Horrible Bosses. Instead she treads the line of being naked/almost naked and she manages to continue to be barely likable in nearly every movie she's in. Apparently if you saw the test screenings then you got to see her ta-tas. If you see the normal movie, then you are not so lucky. Still, this movie is worth it for those few comically brilliant scenes.21 Jump Street and The Hunger Games are the only other two movies I've been able to catch thus far this year. 21 Jump Street was a well-aware comedy with great performances, and plenty of laughs. I developed a new appreciation for Channing Tatum who actually has the ability to be funny, and respect Jonah Hill more and more with ever movie he does. Brie Larson is super cute too so that doesn't hurt my enjoyment of the movie. Yes, I just said "super cute". Yes, I'm really lame.
The tiny crush I have on Brie is nowhere near as severe as the one I have for Hunger Games' Jennifer Lawrence. Ever since I saw her in Winter's Bone a few years back I have been mesmerized. Unfortunately that was really all this massive blockbuster had going for it, the cast. The thing about The Hunger Games is that it's basically Twilight, but guys are allowed to like it because there is blood and stuff. Katniss may be a stronger character than Bella, but she's still going through teenage girl things, like being loved by two dudes at the same time (not Sacha Grey style). Guys get distracted by the fact that there's death and other stupid shit like flames coming out of clothing. Seriously who saw that/read that and thought "wow, that's badass". People disgust me.
I don't think the story itself is bad, or the casting. In fact I think the movie was cast superbly. I just fucking hate the way it was directed. I'm sorry but if you plan to use camera men with cerebral palsy, make sure Matt Damon is in the movie, because I will lose interest otherwise. What it comes down to is that this movie definitely didn't deserve 150+ million in it's opening weekend and when Prometheus doesn't make as much I'll be even more disappointed with our society.
Other various movies that are in theaters that I would really like to see include Jeff Who Lives At Home, The Raid: Redemption, Safe House and The Lorax. Jeff Who Lives At Home stars Jason Segel, who has become one of my favorite comedic actors since I blasted through the first six seasons of How I Met Your Mother in less than a month, and Ed Helms whom I also love. It's directed by the Duplass brothers, who made Cyrus and seems like a really good-natured indie comedy. The Raid is a kick-ass oriental martial arts action flick about a swat team that has to fight their way out of a 30 story building fending off bloodthirsty mobsters. A movie that has already garnered such a rave response that there is an American re-make in the works. Safe House looks like every Denzel Washington action movie that ever comes out, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. Jeff Van Gundy raved about it saying "he shoots at everything" in reference to Denzel and I tend to enjoy stupid movies like that from time to time. The Lorax is a movie I was really excited about at first, but after reading reviews I just haven't brought myself to want to pay the 12-15 bucks it costs to pay for a movie out here. That's even with how much I love Danny Devito.
That pretty much brings us up to current times. So onto-
Movies I will see the second I canThis list ranges from top to bottom as most excited for, to least excited for. Keep in mind even if it is on the bottom of the list that I am excited for it because I will be seeing it the second it comes out.
Prometheus, Ridley Scott, June 8th
I never thought it could be possible to be more excited for a movie than I was for Inception or that I would be more excited for something other than the Dark Knight Rises. Since the newest trailer for this has been released I've watched it probably 200 times. At two minutes and thirty seconds, that means I've wasted 500 minutes... which equates to over 8 and a quarter hours.
God, I need some work....
But, that's how good this movie looks. It's been a very long time since Ridley Scott has returned to his science fiction roots, and what better way to do it then with an unofficial prequel to Alien?
Teeming Ridley with an extremely talented cast with big names like Charlize Theron, Noomi Rapace, Idris Elba, and the man who is everywhere all of a sudden Michael Fassbender, Prometheus is surely to be one of the biggest films of the year.
The mpaa has yet to slap the movie with a rating and that may be because Fox is jump roping back and forth between R and PG 13. Ridley Scott has said that he was to edit a PG 13 version and an R version to submit to Fox before they make their final judgement. In all honesty I feel that a movie with a following like Prometheus stands to make as good, if not a better profit at the box office with an R rating. This movie is not The Hunger Games, it's a sci-fi/horror epic that won't really be a horror movie if it's PG 13. I want to see aliens popping out of stomachs and shit but we'll see how the vaginas at Fox decide to play it out.
Either way, a day after they released the trailer and I had watched it 50 some odd times, I looked at the comments and had myself quite a laugh.
"Ridley Scott just fucked Avatar in the ass" was the top rated comment and just thinking about those words makes me happy.
The Dark Knight Rises, Christopher Nolan, July 20th
Need I say more?
I will anyway. The return of Nolan, Bale & co. for the final installment of their saga of Batman. Add new players Tom Hardy, Anne Hathaway, Marion Cotilliard, JGL and you literally have me salivating over it.
There are a few things that worry me marginally in anticipation for this movie. How can they effectively raise the stakes higher than in they did in The Dark Knight, how do they move on without Heath Ledger, and are we going to actually be able to understand a word that Bane says in the movie?
I went to see Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol in Imax largely because I wanted to see the prologue from The Dark Knight Rises. In this prologue there is a scene involving planes and a bunch of dialogue so muffled, that I had no fucking idea what Bane was saying. Hopefully in all the screenings people complained enough so that Nolan will change this problem, because it will not be fun to try and guess what Tom Hardy is saying while shit is blowing up around him. Hopefully he realizes that he understands what he's saying really well because he wrote the words, and that we as an audience didn't write the words, and have no fucking idea what he's saying.
Those are my main concerns and I feel that they will be addressed and it will be as great as expected. Nolan has yet to let me down, and even if I can't understand Bane, the movie will look beautiful anyway.
Django Unchained, Quentin Tarantino, December 25th
If the world doesn't end on December 21st, then Quentin Tarantino will be bringing his fans a mighty sweet treat for xmas. When first hearing about Inglorious Basterds I was extremely excited because it was a movie about getting back at Nazi's for the horrible crimes they committed on humanity. Who couldn't really take some pleasure in re-imagining the past thinking that the Nazi's got a little bit of their own medicine? Still when thinking about it, it sounds like a movie filled with senseless violence, and little thought.
Instead he gave us an extremely intellectual film filled with extremely interesting characters and intense stories. Tarantino is one of the only writers who knows how to dress lengthy 5-10 minute scenes, cooking them to a boiling intensity using only dialogue and performance. At times this film is so intense that I could barely find my breath.
Tarantino is not afraid to change history or tackle controversial topics in his movies. He takes them head on, and always creates something unique and special. That is why Django Unchained should have everyone who loves movies excited. About a slave turned bounty hunter who teams up with a German bounty Hunter to free his wife from a menacing evil plantation owner. Again taking on a brutal topic, Tarantino will hold nothing back in this extremely well cast movie. Jamie Fox plays Django, Christoph Waltz is the German bounty hunter, and Leonardo DiCaprio loosens his skirt a little to play the terrible plantation owner. Christoph Waltz shined in Inglorious, and it's great to see Leo take a chance as the bad guy for once.
Don Johnson, Sam Jackson, JGL, Sacha Baron Cohen and Kurt Russel are also listed as supporting members. With a cast as poignant as this, and a mind as creative as Tarantino's, this is one movie that will take me away from my family on Christmas Day. Sorry family, you can join if you want to find me, I will probably be at Lisbon Landing, because that's the only not shitty theater in southeastern CT.
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, Peter Jackson, December 14th.
I don't need to take much time to explain why this looks fantastic. For a long while it looked like this project wasn't going to get made because of MGM's financial woes. After being delayed too long they lost Guillermo del Toro as the director and hope was fading on this project being made any time soon. After MGM found it's feet Peter Jackson decided to return to the realm of Tolkien and it actually worked out for the better.
While 3D isn't something that I appreciate all that much, if done right it can effectively make your jaw drop. Peter Jackson's eye for direction is the perfect fit once again and I have no doubt that my jaw will be ajar for quite a bit of this film.
The Hobbit is also a shorter story than any of the Lord of the Rings films, and they chose to adapt it into two films. Even though this allows for a much larger profit margin, it also allows them to follow the story more directly and not leave anything out. Tolkien fans will be pleased and it should be one of the best of the year.
Skyfall, Sam Mendes, November 9th.
Speaking of projects that could've easily been killed by MGM, the newest Bond, Skyfall. After attaching the extremely talented director Sam Mendes (American Beauty, Road to Perdition) they dragged their feet as they toiled with bankruptcy. This was at the exact same time as they were in pre-production of The Hobbit but luckily Sam Mendes stayed on to direct. Arguably he's best director of recent memory to get their hands on a Bond script but it's not even him that I'm most excited about. It's Javier Bardem.
I think Daniel Craig has given the most honest portrayal of Bond since Sean Connery and he has the potential to possibly uproot Sean Connery as the best Bond ever if he makes a few more classics like Casino Royale. What better way to try and make that happen then by casting Javier Bardem as your bad guy. His performance in No Country For Old Men as Anton Chigurh is one of the most chilling performances of all time. Between his piercing eyes and baby rapist haircut, he forever ingrained himself as one of the best bad guys of all time. Sure he probably wont be toting around a silenced shotgun, or shooting a metal probe into his enemies brains, but I'm sure he'll prove to be the best Bond villain since Sean Bean.
Moonrise Kingdom, Wes Anderson, May 25th.
Wes Anderson movies have always held a special place in my heart. Between the style, dry wit, and the ability to accentuate the weird, his movie strike a chord with my inner child and I always have a crooked smirk when I watch his movies. "A pair of lovers flee their New England town, which causes a local search party to fan out and find them" is the logline for the film as provided on imdb. If you watch the trailer, those lovers are like 9 years old so this will definitely prove to be another wacky and quirky love story.
The supporting cast includes Ed Norton, Frances McDormand, Bruce Willis, Tilda Swinton, Harvey Keitel, and Wes Anderson regulars, Bill Murray and Jason Schwartzman. It's Anderson's first live action film since 2007's The Darjeeling Limited so Anderson fans have waited a very long time for this one and I think it stands to be one of the more enjoyable indie movies of the year.
Get The Gringo, Adrian Grunberg, May 1st.
If there's one thing I love in life it's Mel Gibson. His personal life may be a whirlwind of insanity but the movies he's in tend to make me smile. In this one he crosses the border into Mexico after a heist and gets picked up by the Federali's. He excapes from jail and becomes good friends with a child who helps him run cons. I'm not really sure what the hell else goes on but there are explosions, guns, and Mel Gibson's face. This looks like the first really badass role he's had since Payback which is a classic if you ask me.
When Edge of Darkness came out in 2010, it was supposed to be his comeback. After spotty reviews and a poor showing at the box office it didn't do what they had hoped it would. Then, in the summer of that year very elegant phone conversations that displayed the love between he and his longtime girlfriend surfaced on the internet and tarnished his reputation indubitably. People make mistakes, and even though he called Oksana "a little girl with a fucking dysfunctional cunt," I still support him fully.
The Bourne Legacy, Tony Gilroy, August 3rd.
I'll set this straight from the get go, Jeremy Renner is not Jason Bourne in this movie. He is not reprising the role, and the movie is not a reboot of the franchise. This is merely a story that branches off of where Jason Bourne left off in taking down the Government agency Blackbriar, and Treadstone, that he was a part of. "There was never just one" is the tagline that is on the poster so it's clear that it's not a reboot. Jeremy Renner plays a fellow agent who is equally as kickass but has no direct affiliation with Bourne.
It could be argued that the Bourne movies are the best action trilogy of all time and why mess with something like that by putting in a new central protagonist to take on the government? Well if you ask me, they are doing things the right way. Tony Gilroy the writer and director, he also wrote the first three Bourne movies so if anyone is going to adapt the franchise and move the story in another direction in may as well be him. The extremely talented Jeremy Renner is now finally being used for his potential and is a great person to freshen up the trilogy and take it somewhere different. Matt Damon has said that he hopes to work with Renner in the future on a Bourne movie but we'll see how his relationship with Gilroy settles after Damon criticized him for the script of Bourne Ultimatum which he said was "unreadable." Hopefully they'll set aside their differences and we'll see some more car chases and bone crunching action from them in the future, but until then, at least we have Legacy.
Cosmopolis, David Cronenberg, tbd 2012.
The 30 second teaser trailer to Cronenberg's film Cosmopolis fills us with the promise of sex, guns, murder and dinosaurs. It would appear that Cronenberg is back to his roots in this film that is guaranteed to be off the wall insane. The only Cronenberg movie I haven't absolutely hated in the last 20 years was Eastern Promises which had the best naked knife fight I had ever seen in a movie... The man is no stranger to strangeness and it would appear that he is going back to his horror movie roots.
Sure Robert Pattinson is in it and that generally rules out the possibility that I will like it, but did you see what I wrote up above? Sex, guns, murder, and dinosaurs. That's more than enough to get me excited for a movie. "Riding across Manhattan in a stretch limo in order to get a haircut, a 28-year-old billionaire asset manager's day devolves into a odyssey with a cast of characters that start to tear his world apart" is the log line as provided by imdb. Where the dinosaurs fit in, I don't know, but I'm hooked after seeing that trailer and reading that logline. I warn you that this man's movies are not for the faint of heart but if you're into sex, guns, murder and Jurassic Park then you should have a good time.
The Expendables 2, Sly Stallone, August 17th.
Welp, the core cast of action legends is back again, adding Chuck Norris and Jean Claud God Damn in the sequel to re-live some 80's action glory. If I need to explain to you why this interests me, then you aren't a person I should associate with.
Scwarzenegger and Willis look to have larger roles than they did in the first, and while it may be a big meat headed action movie filled with has-been action stars, it's about paying tribute to a great era of action cinema that was about muscles and bad one liners, not 3D bullshit and transforming cars, or Michael Bay.
Taken 2, Olivier Megaton, October 5th.
I at first thought the director's last name was "Megatron." I was sad when I realized it was "Megaton" even though that is still really cool. Other than that I don't have much to explain in terms of why I'm excited. It's starring Liam Neeson and sometimes I'm a 10 year old child.
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There are a lot of other movies that I may end up seeing at a midnight screening because I live two blocks from a movie theater and it's become a pretty normal thing for me to do, but those are the ones that I will most definitely see as soon as I have the opportunity and for a lot of them, I will buy tickets weeks in advance and bring spare pairs of pants in case I get overly excited about how good the movies are.
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