April 8, 2009
This Year in Cinema, According to Cory
This year looks pretty cool for cinema — minus the Jonas Brothers movie. I don't count the first two months of the year since January and February seem to be where all the studios dump their crap movies. I think that Paul Blart: Mall Cop being the No. 1 movie in America a few weeks ago is proof of that.
So, here's a rundown of some films that I'm looking forward to in the coming year:
X-Men Origins: WolverineMay 1
Director: Gavin Hood (Rendition, Tsotsi)
Starring: Hugh Jackman, Liev Schreiber, Ryan Reynolds
Trailers have looked less than amazing for this X-Men spin-off movie, but I'm still excited to see Hugh Jackman reprise his role as Wolverine. This film explores everyone's favorite mutant's back story and hopefully features plenty of hacking and slashing along the way.
Star TrekMay 8
Director: J.J. Abrams (Lost, Mission Impossible III)
Starring: Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Eric Bana
J.J. Abrams' reboot of the Star Trek franchise features a younger Kirk, Spock and the gang of the Enterprise. I've always been more of a Star Wars guy, but I'm excited about this film nonetheless. I mean, the creator of Lost is in charge here. If we're lucky, we'll see a giant smoke monster that attacks the Enterprise, and we'll all walk out of the theater confused.
Terminator: SalvationMay 21
Director: McG (Charlie's Angels)
Starring: Christian Bale, Sam Worthington
I'm not sure how amazing a Terminator film can be in the hands of the guy who made those horrible Charlie's Angels films, but I'm holding out hope. Luckily the trailers look pretty cool and it's got Christian Bale fighting killer robots. It's hard to screw that formula up.
Drag Me To HellMay 29
Director: Sam Raimi (Spiderman, The Evil Dead)
Starring: Alison Lohman, Justin Long
Sam Raimi's first horror movie since the Evil Dead series is about a woman afflicted with a demonic curse. I'd watch this even if it starred Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes.
UpMay 29
Directors: Pete Docter, Bob Peterson (Monsters Inc.)
Starring: Ed Asner, Christopher Plummer
Every year I walk into a Pixar film expecting mediocrity and instead walk out amazed. I expect nothing less from their newest film, Up, about an old man who ties thousands of balloons to his house and flies to South America. It'll be hard for Pixar to top Wall-E, but I'm optimistic that Up will be great.
Transformers: Revenge of the FallenJune 24
Director: Michael Bay (Armageddon, The Rock)
Starring: Shia LaBeouf, Megan Fox
I hate Michael Bay. I hate his films. I hate his directing style. I hate his face. I also hated the first Transformers movie. Any film that has a gag where a giant robot urinates on John Turturro is officially going to make my blood boil. So why do I want to see this film? Because it's got giant robots fighting each other, and my geekiness will not allow me not to see it. DAMN YOU, MICHAEL BAY!
Public EnemiesJuly 1
Director: Michael Mann (Heat, Collateral)
Starring: Johnny Depp, Christian Bale
Johnny Depp stars as John Dillinger and Christian Bale as the FBI agent on his tail in this Depression Era gangster flick. Michael Mann rarely disappoints and Depp is always great, so this is definitely one to check out.
BrunoJuly 10
Starring: Sacha Baron Cohen
Sacha Baron Cohen is solely responsible for all the terrible Borat impersonations that your friends try to do. Prepare yourself for more bad imitations when Bruno, the gay Austrian supermodel version of Borat, hits theaters in July.
Inglourious BasterdsAugust 21
Director: Quentin Tarantino (Pulp Fiction, Kill Bill)
Starring: Brad Pitt, Diane Kruger
Quentin Tarantino's long-awaited World War II epic about a group of Jewish soldiers sent into Nazi-occupied France to hunt, kill and scalp German soldiers. 'Nuff said.
A Serious ManOctober 2
Directors: Joel and Ethan Coen (The Big Lebowski, Fargo)
Starring: Michael Stuhlbarg, Fred Melamed
There were a few years there where the Coen brothers kind of lost it with underwhelming films like Intolerable Cruelty and The Ladykillers. They seem to be making a comeback lately, though, with the excellent No Country For Old Men and the underrated Burn After Reading. So I have great enthusiasm for A Serious Man, a dark comedy about a physics professor with a freeloading brother, an unmanageable kid and a wife who leaves him for a more respected colleague. The plot is thick on this one.
Where the Wild Things AreOctober 16
Director: Spike Jonez (Being John Malkovich, Adaptation)
Starring: Catherine Keener, Mark Ruffalo
A live action/CGI film adaptation of Maurice Sendak's classic children's book. Spike Jonez has been working on this film for several years and it's rumored to have problems. Apparently the studio thought it was too dark for younger viewers and had Jonez do massive reshoots. Forgive me, but my recollection of the book that I loved as a kid is this: It's DARK AND CREEPY. I'm looking forward to this one. Hopefully the studio won't screw it up.
AvatarDecember 18
Director: James Cameron (Aliens, Terminator)
Starring: Sam Worthington, Sigourney Weaver
It's been more than 10 years since Cameron has directed a Hollywood film. Luckily Avatar is not a sequel to Titanic. It tells the story of a wounded ex-Marine who is sent to settle an exotic planet and joins forces with the planet's inhabitants in a battle for survival. It's filmed in a new state-of-the-art form of 3D, so prepare yourself for eye cavities.
Shutter IslandTBA
Director: Martin Scorsese
Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Mark Ruffalo
Martin Scorsese could film two and a half hours of Ed Begley Jr. drinking bourbon in his boxers and doing a crossword puzzle and I'd watch it. Thankfully, Shutter Island is about two US Marshalls who investigate the escape of a murderer from a mental institution. That sounds good enough to me.
The RoadTBA
Director: John Hillcoat (The Proposition)
Starring: Viggo Mortensen, Robert Duvall
Based on a Cormac McCarthy (No Country For Old Men) novel and set in a post-apocalyptic America. Viggo Mortensen plays a father trying to find a peaceful place to settle with his son. Dark probably isn't strong enough a word for this film from John Hillcoat who directed the equally grim-but-awesome The Proposition. I'm a sucker for post-apocalyptic flicks. I mean, I even liked The Postman.
ThirstTBA
Director: Park Chan-wook (Oldboy, Lady Vengeance)
Starring: Song Kang-ho
Park Chan-wook's Vengeance Trilogy, consisting of Sympathy For Mr. Vengeance, Oldboy and Lady Vengeance, is one of my favorite film trilogies of all time. So, I can't contain my excitement for his new film about a priest who participates in a medical experiment that turns him into a vampire. Sounds like fun for the whole family.
That about wraps it up. There's lots of blockbuster material there, plus a few films that I can have the pleasure of seeing at Maiden Alley Cinema, which is always the best place in the area to see movies. 2009 sounds like a fun year for film. Hopefully, I won't be disappointed.
