December movies

Lots to be excited about this December! A new Tarantino film, a new Ron Howard film, a new DiCaprio film, a new Will Smith film, a new Amy Poehler/ Tina Fey film and, most importantly, a new Star Wars film!

If I told you that there was a Christmas movie coming out this month starring Adam Scott, Toni Colette and David Koechner you probably would not be surprised. There are so many Christmas themed movies out there (the best of which is Die Hard, there is no debate, the conversation about Best Christmas Film ends there) that most actors pop up in at least one (two for Bruce Willis because Die Hard 2 is also a Christmas film but it’s not the 2^nd best, that goes to Jingle All the Way, of course). This Christmas film is unlike others because while it does feature comedic actors and a bickering family it also is about a Christmas demon called Krampus that punishes the family since they have lost the Christmas spirit.  I have very high hopes for this one since it’s from the director of Trick r’ Treat, which is a great Halloween anthology that all should see on Halloween (I won’t get into what the best Halloween film is, that’s an October discussion. Also that Jingle All the Way comment was a joke, it’s Home Alone).

I just looked up how many variations of Macbeth there are on IMDB and there’s 162! Granted some are appearances in TV shows and many are short films, but a few of them are big movies and this latest version looks to be another big version. It stars Michael Fassbender as the murderous wannabe king (how’s that for over simplification?) and, in an interesting DC/Marvel mashup, Marion Cotillard as Lady Macbeth. I should probably have more to say about a Shakespeare movie but I don’t.

Now, that DC/Marvel clash might be a bit of space filling trivia that I felt worth noting, but it doesn’t hold a candle to In the Heart of the Sea because with that we have a mashup of Happy Days/James Bond/Marvel/DC/ and Harry Potter! It’s the real life Moby Dick story directed by Ron Howard and starring Ben Wishaw, Chris Hemsworth, Cillian Murphy and Brendan Gleeson. I really hope people are getting these references. When a giant whale seemingly targets a ship it puts a group of sailors through all the perils one would expect from a big budget seafaring adventure film. This isn’t the story of Moby Dick but it’s the story that inspired Moby Dick. I don’t know if that makes it more or less interesting but that director and that cast are great.

I could go on with my mashup jokes but I feel they’ve run their course, so feel free to make up some of your own with the cast of The Big Short. It features Christian Bale, Steve Carell, Ryan Gosling and Brad Pitt. That is a lot of star power for yet another film about the banking crisis. This may be a story many of us are familiar with or tired of but it is from Adam McKay, the writer/director of Anchorman, Talladega Nights, and The Other Guys. Since The Other Guys is absolutely one of my favorite comedies of all time, I will pretty much give anything this guy is attached to a chance, plus he made that hilarious The Landlord video where his 2 year old daughter plays an angry landlord who screams at Will Ferrell for rent money. None of this has anything to do with the plot of The Big Short, I just really don’t feel like dwelling on the banking crisis. 

Joss Whedon has his Buffy and Firefly and now has Avengers, similarly J.J. Abrams has his Alias and Lost and now has Star Wars. They’ve also each done A LOT more for television and film. It’s pretty wild. Look em’ up, they’ve each been in the business longer than I ever realized. After taking over for the Star Trek reboot I honestly did not believe Abrams would get the job to direct Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens because that is a pretty darn big responsibility. If he fails and this turns out to be another Phantom Menace then J.J. Abrams will forever be known as JarJar Abrams (joke stolen), but I have high hopes and have already purchased my tickets. Truth be told I know very little about the plot except that there’s new characters, old characters and an adorable little soccer ball droid. That’s all I need to know.

Amy Poehler and Tina Fey both got big on SNL and then got even bigger in their respective television shows. I’ve only seen reruns of 30 Rock and it’s pretty funny but I love Parks and Rec. The two have already made a film together and it was the cute romance comedy Baby Mama where Poehler is a scheming surrogate mother to Fey’s workaholic New Yorker - much like 30 Rock. It’s pretty funny, but I have high hopes for Sisters where they play, you guessed it, sisters. When the pair finds out that their parents are selling their childhood home they decide to have a nice send-off and throw a massive party. John Cena’s in this one as well and after his role in Trainwreck, I have a new appreciation for him in a comedic role. 

Tarantino made a name for himself with his talky crime pics like Pulp Fiction, Reservoir Dogs and Jackie Brown and then he made a few films that paid homage to old genre pictures. Kill Bill was his martial arts film, Inglorious Basterds was his war film and Django Unchained was his western. Turns out he enjoyed making a western so much that he decided to make another one. The Hateful Eight features Samuel L. Jackson, Kurt Russel, Michael Madsen, Tim Roth and at least 4 others playing western tropes snowed in at a cabin. Some are lawmen, some are bounty hunters, some are criminals and, it being a Tarantino film, all probably are prepared to kill the other. Putting a group of people in one room was the best thing about his first feature, Reservoir Dogs, so here’s hoping he can recapture that dialogue, tension and excitement. He already has Mr. Orange and Mr. Blonde here. 

David O. Russel has been nominated for 5 Academy Awards.  He also nearly got choked out by George Clooney on the set of Three Kings. I bring this up to say that before his nominations came pouring in, this guy was tough to work with. But it seems since he met Jennifer Lawrence, things have changed for the better because the actor and director are making their third feature together. First was Silver Linings Playbook, then American Hustle and now we have Joy, which is about the woman who created the Miracle Mop. That doesn’t appear to be the plot of the film but that is in fact who the film is about. It seems to focus more on her family story, which is always nice for a Christmas time movie.

Usually if a film has made it to four films in a franchise I will have seen at least one or part of one and the Alvin and the Chipmunks series is no exception. I saw the end of the second one and it has David Cross singing Single Ladies. I can’t recommend the film but maybe look that clip up on line. This fourth film is entitled Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Road Chip and the plot is that Alvin, Simon and Theodore go on a road trip to stop Dave from proposing to his girlfriend. WOW. They used to sing and get yelled at, now they’re ruining marriages. What happened to this country? I know a new Chipmunks movie shouldn’t be the catalyst for me to have such thoughts…but I can’t help it.

I mentioned The Other Guys earlier and I mention it again because A) more people should see it and B) Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg starred in it and have reteamed to make another movie that, unfortunately, isn’t a sequel to The Other Guys because not enough people (myself included) saw it in theaters and my voice doesn’t carry into Hollywood. So this new film is called Daddy’s Home and has Ferrell as the polite, loving stepdad vs. Wahlberg’s bad boy, I’m still cool dad. It’s PG and released around Christmas time so for the parents that don’t want to see chipmunks for the 4^th time, they’ll go see this instead and this will get a sequel and The Other Guys still won’t get a sequel and I’ll cry. 

Remember when Will Smith made fun movies? The last one I saw was Hitch and while I did see Hancock and I Am Legend, those were some pretty heavy handed films for their subject matter (superpowers, zombies). Perhaps Men in Black 3 was fun but even that was 3 years ago. Continuing with his heavy handed topics Smith stars in Concussion, a film that the NFL does not want you to see (and reportedly may have tampered with the finished product, I emphasize reportedly). He stars as a neuropathologist (whew, we are a long way away from the kid who used to shoot some b-ball outside of the school) who discovers a possible connection between playing football and brain trauma. I thought that was an obvious thing- you get hit hard, you get hurt. That’s how the human body works. Apparently it takes a whistle blower to report such things and now we are even further from Will Smith appearing in Bad Boys 3.

I’ve touched on remakes before and how I wish they weren’t as prevalent as they are now-a-days, but to be honest I always wind up seeing them- maybe not in theaters but eventually I will watch them. Point Break is a remake I will probably try to go see in theaters. I got a lotta love for the first one. It’s fun, cool and Keanu Reeves and Garey Busey make for a ridiculous pair of early 90’s cops. This one replaces the California based bank robbing surfers with extreme sports anarchists whose robberies focus more on messing with the economy on a world wide scale rather than just coastal California. They still have surfing, but they also toss in a bunch of other stunts and apparently most of it is as practical as possible so the crazy stunts are actually being done and not green screened. Busey does not return but he does get replaced by Ray Winstone and that guy is awesome.

 By now I’m sure you know about Birdman. It was that huge movie that came out last year that everyone was talking about. It was a pretty cool movie- long takes, lots of cool actors, pretty funny - but the director wanted another challenge so he made The Revenant. The challenge here was to shoot a film in Canada while using only natural light, which means that any scene shot during the day had to be shot while it was light out and no special effects or lighting equipment could be used. There were more challenges but I should get to the actual plot. Leonardo DiCaprio and Tom Hardy are part of a group of men venturing through uncharted America in the 1820’s when DiCaprio gets attacked by a bear and left for dead by Hardy. He then tries to survive the wilderness and anyone who tries to kill him and make it to safety, wherever that is. This is probably going to win some Academy Awards and is not your typical Christmas movie, but people will be talking about this one.

Hope everyone has a nice holiday, let me know what you plan on seeing this month!

November movies

Full disclosure: I’m getting married on the first weekend in November so I’m not going to look very highly on all of the downer films coming out this month. Since many of these are Oscar contenders there is no shortage of tough films ahead.

Christoph Waltz joins the ranks of Christopher Lee, Sean Bean, Johnathan Pryce and many others by playing a Bond villain in Spectre. Anyone familiar with that name might have watched some of the older Bond films in which Spectre was sometimes featured as the organization behind all of the madness that Bond had to sort out. In this one it is hinted that Bond has some sort of connection to Spectre and that the events from the previous 3 Daniel Craig films are all more tightly connected than I once believed. Bond films normally do away with continuity or at the very least there are mere references to past events and they don’t always play a huge role in later films. This new batch of films seems to take a more episodic approach. They’re a lot darker in tone but the action is still pretty wild and a lot of fun. Plus Craig knows that he’s playing James Bond and there are certain things that are to be expected when it comes to playing that character, like being suave and making martinis look good. 

It still confuses me as to why Peanuts is the name of the Charlie Brown comic. I’m sure a simple Google search will answer the question why but I’ll leave it a mystery. Since everything gets a reboot we now have The Peanuts Movie. Peanuts is usually light fare but even in the description they use the term ‘arch-nemesis.’ But anyone familiar with Peanuts knows that Snoopy the dog does have an arch-nemesis in the Red Baron. I can’t imagine that makes up a whole movie but I could happily watch him fly around in his imaginary plane and do battle in the skies while the Charlie Brown and company do whatever it is that they do. I always liked Linus.

Have you ever seen The Wire? It’s like the best show ever. So each season deals with a different aspect of cops, criminals and life in Baltimore. In the last season, which focuses heavily on reporting the news, there is a character who is investigating a possible serial killer and gets in way too deep. Well, the actor playing the reporter also fancies himself a writer-director and made Spotlight, which also deals with a big story that will certainly shake things up.  It is about Boston Globe reporters uncovering child assault cover-ups in the Catholic Church. Heavy material right here and with people like Rachel McAdams, Mark Ruffalo and Michael Keaton on board this is sure to get some attention come awards season.

Along with my recommendation to watch The Wire I also suggest you watch Breaking Bad. You’re probably familiar with it.  It’s the dad from Malcom in the Middle who goes from dying science teacher to meth lord. It’s a brilliant transformation. After that show ended I imagine Bryan Cranston was able to pick and choose his next projects and in Trumbo, he plays Dalton Trumbo, a popular Hollywood screenwriter who didn’t keep his political agenda all that secretive and got blacklisted in the 40’s for being a communist. I feel like the term ‘blacklist’ doesn’t have the same impact today but back then it meant your career was over.  But this guy didn’t stop fighting as he felt his sentencing was unjust and, this is the really cool part, he wrote a couple of Academy Award winning screen plays that other people HAD to take credit for as he was not allowed to work on movies. Helen Mirren, Alan Tudyk and Louis C.K. also appear so that’s awesome.

From the director of several Downton Abbey (a show I cannot recommend as I have not seen it) episodes and the original Fever Pitch (did you know that Fallon­-Barrymore movie was a remake of a British soccer film?) comes a film that probably has the hardest hitting title and plot of any film I’ve read about in a while. What Our Father’s Did: A Nazi Legacy is about three men traveling across Europe, one is a human rights lawyer whose family suffered at the hands of the Nazi party and the other two men are sons of Nazis. 

Not every film made into a true story needs to be a sad one. Remember when the Chilean miners got trapped underground for 69 days? Well, spoiler alert, they all survived and their story is being told in The 33. Antonio Banderas leads the film as one of the miners who, while working in a mine with a history of collapses and accidental deaths, tries to survive along with his co-workers after the mine collapses potentially leaving them for dead. Turns out these 33 men were pretty strong, mentally and physically, and the film focuses on that and the politics leading to their rescue. 

I remember being bummed out when they turned the final Harry Potter book into two movies, until I saw them and they were both pretty great movies. So I was expecting them to turn The Hunger Games: Mockingjay into two movies and the first one was pretty good and, hopefully, set up a solid finale to the series. Katniss is back with her bow and her beaus Peta and Gale (I know the relationship is more complicated than that, I just thought it was clever) as they prepare to take down President Snow. How awesome is it that Sutherland, who was the old guy in Animal House back in 1979, is still going strong? This is also officially Philip Seymour Hoffman’s final on screen role so here’s hoping for a proper sendoff.  

Christmas movies are a dime a dozen. I know that phrase is cliché but so are Christmas movies so my point is proven, somehow. The Night Before, however, is from Johnathan Levine, a director I really like. He’s made The Wackness, 50/50 and Warm Bodies. The themes and cast of each film are so wildly different that it’s hard to believe they’re all from the same director so the fact that he’s made a Christmas movie doesn’t bother me too much. This one stars Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Seth Rogen and Anthony Mackie as friends out for their annual Christmas Eve party. This might be their last outing since they are all growing up so they want to make it count. Again, it sounds generic but I can’t help but appreciate the director and love that cast. 

 

The writers of The Good Dinosaur must have decided that people really wouldn’t buy into a film featuring a boy and his dinosaur without some creative tweaking, so it takes place in a world where the asteroid never took out the dinosaurs. I’m not sure when that decision came into play because apparently this film was loaded with issues and was supposed to come out last year but got pushed back due to creative differences and rewrites and recasting. Pixar rarely delivers subpar films so hopefully all this effort pays off. 

After hitting financial snags with The Expendables and Rambo franchises Sly Stallone had to go back to his classic character: Demolition Man. God I wish. No, it’s Rocky. Creed features Rocky Balboa training the son of the long deceased Apollo Creed who was his frenemy from the first few Rocky films. Creeds son is now a young boxer named Adonis Johnson, played by Michal B. Jordan who is fresh off that Fantastic Four movie no one saw. Jordan has already proven himself to be a great actor in other roles, he was in The Wire after all so for him to pay the son of Carl Weathers is just awesome. 

It’s been a while since we had a real Frankenstein film - and I’m not counting I, Frankenstein - so a month too late for Halloween season we have Victor Frankenstein. Starring James McAvoy as Victor and Danielle Radcliffe as Igor, who is the lead in this film, we see things from Igor’s perspective as Victor creates his monster. This being a Frankenstein story I assumed it would be dark but from the trailers it actually looks like a pretty fun film.

Did I miss any? Is anyone looking forward to anything in particular?

u hitting financial snags with the Expend

October films

I am going to shoehorn most of this month’s releases into two categories: Oscar Bait and Horror. There are a few outliers so I will place them in the Other category because how does one categorize the Jem and the Holograms remake?

Oscar Bait:

The story of the marooned man has been done before, see Castaway, and we’ve already had a film about a man all alone on a space station, see Moon, but because both of those films are pretty great there’s no reason to not continue the trend. From Ridley Scott, the director of some of the most highly regarded films ever - like Gladiator, Blade Runner and Alien - and Drew Goddard- a writer on some of the most popular shows ever like Buffy, Alias and Lost - comes The Martian, the story of a man marooned on a space station on Mars and his fellow astronauts back on earth who intend to rescue him. I could write a whole page on how intrigued I am by this film and this cast but just watch the trailer. It’s a really good trailer. Oscar hopes: Directing, acting and special effects.

In 1974, man managed to pull off quite the dangerous feat by performing a tightrope walk between the towers at The World Trade center. Then in 2008, they made a documentary about it called Man on a Wire. It got a decent amount of attention so the director of Back to the Future decided to get Joseph Gordon-Levitt to play the lead and reenact The Walk. The documentary considers this to be the tale of ‘the artistic crime of the century’ (pretty bold statement considering they still had more than a ¼ century to go, but I know nothing of art so I’ll agree).   But I guess Robert Zemeckis thought the story itself wasn’t interesting enough so he shot it in IMAX 3-D.   When you see those box office receipts and see that this movie made a lot of money, remember that a single ticket probably cost nearly $20. Oscar hopes: Directing and special effects. Levitt does throw on a French accent so maybe acting too.

When I heard the title Freeheld I thought, all right a New Jersey movie! Then I read the plot. This is a tough story people. It’s a true story about an NJ police officer, Julianne Moore, diagnosed with cancer. Now that’s a tough story on its own but it’s not the main focus. The main focus is about her attempt to cut some serious red tape to make sure her domestic partner, Ellen Page,gets her pension benefits when she passes. Oscar hopes: Acting and screenplay, not sure about Directing.  The only thing we have from the director is Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist and I don’t know if anyone saw that.

When someone passes they become a hot topic and I imagine a lot of people would like a film made about them. Well, in the past 3 years Steve Jobs has had 3 movies made about him! There’s iSteve, a comedy where he is portrayed by Justin Long. Then there was Jobs where Ashton Kutcher takes on the role and now since those titles were already taken we have the very uniquely titled Steve Jobs. In the most recent incarnation he is portrayed by Michael Fassebender. Now when you put the words ‘portrayed’ and ‘Fassbender’ together you definitely get people thinking about the Oscars. I didn’t have an interest in the first two but this one is directed by Danny Boyle and written by Aaron Sorkin, who only have one Oscar each are probably overdue for another. Oscar hopes: pretty sure I covered that.

Here’s another equation that gets people thinking about the Oscars: War+ Period Piece + Steven Spielberg + Tom Hanks + Coen Brothers! Coen’s already have 4, Spielberg has 3 and Hanks got 2. Even if Bridge of Spies isn’t that great it will still get nominated for something, maybe set design? Now on to the plot. When a U.S. pilot is shot down and detained in the Soviet Union during the Cold War the C.I.A., for some reason, contacts a lawyer to help broker a deal to rescue the downed soldier. I’m sure there’s reluctance, intrigue, family drama and real-life high stakes. With this many great filmmakers involved it better be good. Oscar hopes: Acting, writing, directing and all the rest.

Now onto Other. I’ll close with Horror because it’s more fun.

I don’t know if Christopher Walken as Hook made people want another Peter Pan movie but something did so we now have Pan. This looks to be the story of how Peter Pan becomes Peter Pan. We also see a young Hook and a young Tiger Lily. Well not like young young - they’re not little kids and they look like they’re like 30. I’m almost 30.If I was destined to become Hook I figure I’d be on my way by now. So the main villain here is Hugh Jackman as Blackbeard who, if I’m not mistaken, is based on a real life pirate and keeps showing up in popular shows and movies like Once Upon a Time, and Pirates of the Caribbean. I guess Disney really likes this character and will use him as much as possible. 

Now I’ve heard of Jem and the Holograms but I know nothing about Jem or her holographic people she hangs out with. Or is her band called the holograms? Well whatever the case may be the film is about a small town singer who becomes an internet star and becomes Justin Beiber but with, like, superpowers or something. I didn’t do much research on this one.

Most people like Bill Murray. That’s my lead up to discuss a new Bill Murray movie. In Rock the Kasbah Murray plays a music manager in Afghanistan. He might put together U.S.O. shows but I’m not sure on that. While there he discovers a girl with a great singing voice and decides to get her on as a contestant on Afghan Star, which seems to be an equivalent of American Idol. Is that still a show? Reason I’m most interested in this is Bruce Willis is in it and I’ll watch pretty much anything with him in it. Last time he and Murray were in a film together was Moonrise Kingdom - which everyone should see.

Tom Hanks is the most popular Hanks. Then there’s apparently a rapper in the family, but I’ve always enjoyed Colin Hanks. He’s not in much but when he shows up in a movie or a T.V. show he has that everyman charm about him. Now he fancies himself a director. The focus of his film is in the title, All Things Must Pass: The Rise and Fall of Tower Records. I myself didn’t have much experience with Tower Records. It was the closest music and movie store to my college and when they were going out of business I spent a lot of money buying up discounted DVDs. This film includes interviews from musicians and focuses on why the company went out of business. Apparently it wasn’t just the rise of the internet, which is what I assumed.

Okay now on to the fun stuff. It’s October so there has to be some horror movies out, otherwise why release anything at all?

My appreciation for action movies is no secret so I can’t help but be excited that Vin Diesel is starring in a film called The Last Witch Hunter. Diesel’s character hails from a time when being a witch hunter was a thing people did - we’re talking centuries ago. So right before he kills a super powerful witch he gets the curse of immortality and has to live forever killing witches. Fast forward to today, he’s still killing witches and it seems that the super powerful one is back to finish him off. It seems he has partners so it’s kind of unfair to call him The Last Witch Hunter. From what I can tell his old partner is Michael Caine and he’s passing the torch on to Elijah Wood in an attempt to class this film up in an indie sort of way.

When I was a kid I used to read Goosebumps books by R.L. Stine. I loved them. I’d read them all of the time and watch the show on weekends. Each episode was based on another book in a kind of kid friendly Twilight Zone sort of way. That’s not a great comparison but, you know, they’re supernatural and serialized. So now all these years later we have Goosebumpsbecause everything gets a reboot. In this story, Jack Black plays R.L. Stine, a reclusive author of children’s horror stories whose creations are locked away. Of course this isn’t for long and the evils from his stories are released and all of those things that scared me as a kid are terrorizing the people on screen in a fun and PG manner.

So since goofy witch hunting stories and updated kid’s movies aren’t for everyone we have more of an adult focused horror with Crimson Peak. This is brought to us by Guillermo Del Toro, who makes some big action movies like Hellboy and Pacific Rim, but seems to shine when he makes dramatic horror films like The Devil’s Backbone and Pan’s Labyrinth. Lucky us because this is another dramatic horror film. It’s a gothic romance horror turn of the century haunted house film. Kind of Avant-garde for the typical horror crowd, but if the trailer delivers upon its promise of an eerie story with attractive yet sad looking people then it should be right up there with Del Toro’s best works.

Happy Halloween!