Top Movies Coming in 2012

Hi, I hope everyone had a good 2011, and a good start to 2012. Starting next week I am going to try to post more frequently here with a preview of a movie on Friday, and then a review of the movie on Tuesday. For this week though I'm going to take a look at the most anticipated movies coming out this year.

John Carter - March 9 - This movie has been an on again, off again production for nearly a lifetime. It's finally coming to the big screen, and is being directed by Andrew Stanton(Wall-E). Hopefully he is as successful as Brad Bird going to live action with Mission Impossible Ghost Protocol. It has a Star Wars, space fantasy feel to it, but I'm not sure Taylor Kitsch is the choice I would have made to carry this franchise. Hope it turns out well. Here's the trailer.

The Hunger Games - March 23 - I liked the books and was really looking forward to it. The first casting announcements were great, with Jennifer Lawrence playing Katniss and Woody Harrelson as Haymitch being fantastic choices. Then it started to go downhill. Lenny Kravitz was cast as a linchpin character. I looked up Gary Ross' film history on IMDB. Big, Pleasantville, and Dave were not the type of movies I was thinking of when I read the book about a dystopian future where the elite, ruling class  make children fight to the death. And then this trailer came out, and almost all hope is lost.

I'm hopeful, but feel this is going to be a big disappointment.


The Avengers - May 4 - Iron Man, Captain America, The Incredible Hulk, and Thor all lead into this comic book movie to end all comic book movies. Should be a huge spectacle, and I cannot wait :)

Men In Black III - May 25 - MIB 2 was an atrocious pile of shit, but the original is one of the best sci-fi comedies ever made. I'm hoping this isn't just a cash grab for the studio and this franchise gets back on track the way Transformers did last year.

Prometheus - June 8 - A prequel to Alien being directed by Ridley Scott. A fantastic cast (Noomi Rapace, Michael Fassbender, Charlize Theron, Patrick Wilson, Guy Pearce) and a cool first trailer will make me consider going to a midnight showing of this.

Brave - June 22 - When Pixar makes a bad movie I'll stop getting excited to see what they do next. (Cars 2 was pretty average, but not terrible.)

The Amazing Spider-Man - July 3 - About as bad a first look as you can get with its first trailer. My friend Tom thought it was a sequel to Superhero Movie, a spoof of the original Spider-Man. Haven't heard much about this since the trailer came out. I like the character of Spiderman and I liked Andrew Garfield in Social Network. We'll see.

The Dark Knight Rises - July 20 - By far the most anticipated movie of 2012. There is no way this can live up to the hype, so I think quite a few people will be disappointed. I'm hopeful it will be better than first, and close to as good as the second. Can't wait to see Tom Hardy as Bane.

The Bourne Legacy - August 3 - A Bourne movie without Matt Damon. Jeremy Renner has pretty much taken over Hollywood. Rumor has it he will be the lead in the next Mission Impossible movie, he's part of the Avengers, and now is taking over the biggest spy series outside of 007. He's a great actor and I'm looking forward to the trailer for this one.

Skyfall - November 9 - The only thing better than a new Bourne movie is a new Bond movie. Yay!

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey - December 14 - This is my most anticipated movie of the year. I love the LOTR movies and enjoyed the first book, but The Hobbit is a far superior story in my opinion. In Fellowship the story focuses on the nine members of the group and their journey across Middle Earth. Now take that concept and replace the boring humans with some lively dwarves. Martin Freeman was brilliantly cast a Bilbo Baggins and having Peter Jackson back directing is for the best.

Well, I hope you enjoyed reading my 2012 preview. I think this will be a great year for movies and I wish that it was this year that I decided to see 100 movies in the theater since it looks much more promising.

May the Force be with you,
CHUD

Top Ten of 2011

Here's my top ten. Hope you enjoy it.

One thing, I haven't seen everything this year, so in a month or two this list could change, but I'm confident that nothing will crack my top five.

10. Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol

Written by Josh Appelbaum, André Nemec

Directed by Brad Bird

Starring Tom Cruise, Jeremy Renner, Simon Pegg, Paula Patton

I really like the Mission Impossible series, with the exception of part 2. Brad Bird makes his live action directorial debut and doesn’t disappoint. The action sequences were original and the increase of screentime for Pegg was a good decision. Breaking into the Kremlin and the skyscraper scene in Dubai were two of the best sequences of the year.

9. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2

Written by Steve Kloves

Directed by David Yates

Starring Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, Rupert Grint

By now I’m sure you know whether or not you’re a Harry Potter fan. I am, so it makes the top ten. David Yates has directed the last four HP movies, and I have to say his high water mark was his first try, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. However, he has done solid work in each film and I’m curious to see what he does next.

8. The Adventures of Tintin

Written by Steven Moffat, Edgar Wright, Joe Cornish (you’ll see his name later J)

Directed by Steve Spielberg

Starring Jamie Bell, Andy Serkis, Daniel Craig

When they announced Indiana Jones 4, this is the type of movie I was expecting. Instead, we got fucking aliens. This is the globe trotting, action adventure that I was hoping for. Tintin is what Indiana Jones should have been. It had great action sequences that could have only been done animated, and the banter between characters was funny and kept me entertained. And the 3D for this movie is the best since Avatar.

7. Bridesmaids

Written by Kristen Wiig, Annie Mumolo

Directed by Paul Feig

Starring Kristen Wiig, Maya Rudolph, Rose Byrne, Melissa McCarthy

I’m not a huge fan of Kristen Wiig on SNL, but I have liked her in the few movies she has been in. This was definitely a breakout movie for her, both as a writer and actress. Paul Feig, who has done some great TV work, does a great job balancing the raunchy humor with the more sentimental parts of the movie. Also, Melissa McCarthy steals every scene she is in.

6. The Descendants

Written by Alexander Payne, Nat Faxon, Jim Rash

Directed by Alexander Payne

Starring George Clooney, Shailene Woodley

By now you should know what to expect from Alexander Payne. A middle-aged man that is having a midlife crisis would be a loose plot description of every movie he’s made. But he does it so well that I don’t really want him to make anything else. George Clooney gives an excellent performance, and Shailene Woodley is most definitely the breakout star of the year.

5. Super 8

Written and Directed by JJ Abrams

Starring Joel Courtney, Riley Griffiths, Elle Fanning, Kyle Chandler

JJ Abrams is one of my favorite directors whether it’s TV (Lost, Alias) or movies (Star Trek, Mission Impossible 3). When the trailer came out in the summer of 2010, this immediately became my must see movie of the year. A love letter to the Goonies-type movies of the 80’s that’s directed by JJ Abrams and produced by Steven Spielberg. What’s not to like? While Super 8 has some flaws and some incredibly corny scenes it was a lot of fun to watch.

4. X-Men: First Class

Written by Ashley Miller, Zack Stentz, Jane Goldman, Matthew Vaughn

Directed by Matthew Vaughn

Starring James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence, Kevin Bacon

A much needed step in the right direction for the X-Men franchise. Now with Bryan Singer back in a role as producer it can forget the abominations that were X-Men 3 and X-Men Origins: Wolverine. I love alternate history movies, and this one doesn’t disappoint. Unlike Inglorious Basterds that rewrote history, X-Men takes a real event (Cuban missile crisis) and throws a big what if in there. Kevin Bacon plays an excellent villain as Sebastian Shaw that is trying to start a nuclear war. But the relationship between Charles Xavier, Magneto and Mystique is the highlight of the movie and my only complaint is that we didn’t get more time with them.

3. The Adjustment Bureau

Written and Directed by George Nolfi

Starring Matt Damon, Emily Blunt

Pretty much anything based on a Philip K Dick story will get me in the theater. However, I usually end up seeing Paycheck. But The Adjustment Bureau was probably the biggest surprise of the year to me. It was marketed as an Inception type of science fiction, but is a much more straightforward love story. Matt Damon and Emily Blunt have fantastic chemistry onscreen, and is what makes the movie a winner. This might be a little high on my list, but why regurgitate the same list over and over that you can read from all the critics?

2. Drive

Written by Hossein Amini

Directed by Nicolas Winding Refn

Starring Ryan Gosling, Carey Mulligan, Albert Brooks

Ryan Gosling gives the best performance of the year as Driver, a movie stunt driver who moonlights as a getaway driver. You’d expect a movie like this to have more chase scenes and car crashes, but there’s only a handful. I liked the relationship between Driver and Irene, but that is only to give him something to care about and adds weight to the decisions he makes later in the movie. What makes this movie so great though, is watching Gosling get his revenge against the mob guys that double crossed him. And what really puts this movie over the top is Albert Brooks as the villain Bernie Rose. Great performances by both Brooks and Gosling.

1. Attack the Block

Written and Directed by Joe Cornish

Starring John Boyega

I recommended this movie to everyone that I talked about movies with. It shows you don’t need Transformers budget to make an awesome sci-fi movie. I liked Super 8, but I would say this is a better Goonies type movie than Super 8. Joe Cornish has worked with Edgar Wright a lot in his professional career, and I see a bit of Shaun of the Dead in Attack the Block. So, hopefully he follows Wright’s career path and brings us more awesome movies.

Honorable Mentions

The Muppets – An excellent Muppet movie, but not quite top ten material.

The Ides of March – Interesting look at the relationship between politics and the media.

50/50 – A buddy flick about a guy who gets cancer. Funny and sweet, but it ends exactly how you think it will end.

30 Minutes or Less – The director and star of Zombieland make another great comedy.

Fright Night – If you do a remake, take a flawed movie from yesteryear and try to fix it. Fright Night is what a vampire movie should be. Not great, but lots of fun to watch.

The Debt – A fantastic cast, but incredibly slow moving. Could be the second half of a double feature with Munich.

Horrible Bosses – Second best comedy of the year. Great supporting performances by Jamie Foxx and Colin Farrell.

Fast Five – Not a good movie by any means, but it has the best fight scene of the year(The Rock vs. Vin Diesel) that is in the realm of They Live(Roddy Piper vs. Keith David.) Also, the most destructive car chase since Bad Boys 2.

The Source Code – Saw this and The Adjustment Bureau around the same time. The performances by Damon and Blunt trump Gyllenhal and Monaghan.

Movie Ratings for Nov-Dec

Hi people,

Sorry that I haven't posted anything for two months. Haven't had much time with work and the holidays, but I was able to make it to my 100 movies seen in the theater goal. So here is the ratings for the last couple months of all the movies I saw.

In Time - **
The Rum Diary - ***
Tower Heist - ** 1/2
Immortals - * 1/2
The Descendants - **** 1/2
Hugo - * 1/2
J. Edgar - **
The Sitter - ** 1/2
Arthur Christmas - *** 1/2
The Muppets - ****
Puss in Boots - ***
Young Adult - **
Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows - ***
Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol - ****
The Adventures of Tintin - ****
The Darkest Hour - **
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy - ***
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo - ***

Again, sorry for not updating the blog. I should have a Top Ten list up soon, so stick around.

May the Force be with you,
CHUD

Movie Reviews: The Big Year, The Thing, The Way, Footloose, Johnny English Reborn, The Three Musketeers, Anonymous

I thought I'd be a little better about doing these reviews with more regularity, but when the best of the bunch might be Johnny English Reborn it doesn't make you want to think about them any more. Anyway, let's get this out of the way.

The Big Year
We talked about this on the PGP Filmcast, and we all agreed that the preview doesn't mention bird watching at all. And that is all this movie is about, nothing else. Apparently bird watchers (should that be capitalized?) can compete in a Big Year, which is attempting to see as many different species of birds possible in a single year. I DON'T CARE!!!! Jack Black, Steve Martin, and Owen Wilson weren't able to bring anything to the paper thin characters, and the story is bland and clichéd. Maybe bird watchers will enjoy it.

* 1/2 out of 5

The Thing
Is it a sequel or a prequel? The setting is a prequel, but everything that happens is so similar to the John Carpenter version that it might as well be a sequel. If it was an original movie I might have been impressed, but it's not. I say just go watch the original. It's not Netflix right now.

** out of 5

The Way
It's about a guy walking down a road. 'Nuff said.

* out of 5

Footloose
It's an updated version of the original. The dancing is better and the people are more attractive. But it will never capture that 80's magic that was the original.

** out of 5

Johnny English Reborn
I never saw the original, so I'm not sure if I missed anything in the sequel. I'm pretty sure I didn't. There's a few funny gags, but it usually resorts to kicking people in the nuts repeatedly for jokes. I like Rowan Atkinson and he is the only saving grace for this movie.

** out of 5

Anonymous
I'm an unashamed Roland Emmerich fan. I didn't have high hopes for Anonymous, but was curious to see an Emmerich movie where the Earth was not in peril. Basically take a JFK conspiracy type story and set it in 16th century England. It has many flaws, but it kept me entertained. Who doesn't like a good conspiracy theory? This one has some gaping holes, but who cares. It's a movie. I read some scathing reviews after I saw it, and couldn't help but think that if this had been directed by anyone else it would have been praised. The costumes, sets, and special effects were just as good as other period films. The critics all pretty much say Roland Emmerich is a hack director that only does trashy end of the world movies. Leave the real drama to the experts. Now I'm not saying this is a great movie. Not even a good movie. The acting is about on par with Independence Day, and all the timeline jumping is a little confusing. But it's not a terrible movie.

** 1/2 out of 5


May the Force be with you,
CHUD