A Disney cartoon and a massive superhero movies being
released in March marks some strange times for the movies.
A cop and a fugitive must team together to tackle a
conspiracy that has made them both targets. Now this sounds like the plot to
any number of action films and that’s what excites me most about Zootopia a non-Pixar film from Disney
about life in a city populated by walking, talking animals. The cop is a bunny
and the fugitive is a fox. Not sure what the conspiracy is because each time I
read a plot synopsis it just says there is in fact a conspiracy. I figure it’s
based around polluting. That’s a very PG conspiracy. The only trailer I’ve seen
features the two leads trying to get information from the DMV but all of the
DMV employees are literal sloths and the scene hilariously drags on. Funny for
kids until they grow up and realize how awful a trip to the DMV really is.
With a poster featuring Big Ben on fire and a tattered Union
Jack plus a tagline that reads ‘prepare for bloody hell’ you can see that London Has Fallen does not have subtlety
high on its list of priorities. The sequel to the crazy violent Olympus Has Fallen brings back our
heroic Secret Service agent Mike Banning, played again my Gerard Butler, who is
accompanying the POTUS, played again my Aaron Eckhart, to the Prime Ministers
funeral. While there Banning uncovers a plot to assassinate all world leaders
attending so he takes the battle to the streets of London. The original was
released before White House Down, the
other Die Hard in the White House film but that one did not fare so well, even
though it had Channing Tatum, Fallen
was greenlit for a sequel where Down
will not get a sequel even though I feel it is the more entertaining one. I’ll
still have to see this one and, please fact check me, but I believe this to be
the first sequel to a Die Hard wannabe to be released since Speed 2: Cruise Control. So that’s
something.
The first movie my wife and I saw before we started dating
was Cloverfield so I’ve got some
sentiment towards it. It’s a small scale monster movie where a creature
destroys New York and we the viewer follow T.J. Miller as he runs around with a
camera with his friends and they try to stay alive. It doesn’t answer a lot of
questions about the creature or its origins and it ends rather abruptly, but
it’s pretty fun. Most thought it was a one and done horror adventure until a
few weeks ago when a trailer appeared online. It featured a group of people in
what appeared to be a bunker, the details were vague but there was a sense of
danger and then the title reveal: 10
Cloverfield Lane and people were like whaaaaaaat?! Is this a sequel to Cloverfield? Well since this film was
made in secret details are delightfully scarce and producer J.J. Abrams has
only stated that it is a ‘blood relative’ and I have no idea what that could
mean, but I have my theories.
I’ll wind up seeing any action comedy, the only question is
whether I see it in theaters or not. I can make assumptions and I’ve been wrong
before but a lousy trailer can really prevent me from spending money in a
theater (besides tickets I’ll always end up getting popcorn and soda, I just
can’t help it) and the trailer for The
Brothers Grimsby is pretty lousy. Starring Sacha Baron Cohen and Mark
Strong as the titular brothers, Strong is a secret agent and Cohen is his hard
partying football hooligan brother. Circumstances arise and the two must team
together, it being a Cohen starring film there will undoubtedly be some gross
out gags, here’s hoping the action helps balance out the lunacy.
I usually shy away from topical dramas at the theaters but Eye in the Sky is Alan Rickman’s last live
action performance (he will voice the Caterpillar in Alice Through the Looking Glass) and features Helen Mirren in
charge of military drone missions. The film focuses on her given a kill order
on a terrorist target right as a child enters the blast zone. Yeah stuff like
that is not for me, probably because I don’t really enjoy watching versions of
sad reality put on screen but it is Rickman’s final performance so I will most
likely end up seeing this eventually.
On the lighter side of wartime films we have Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, I could tell you
what that means but it’s inappropriate, which is about real life reporter Kim
Barker and her time on the ground as a journalist in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
I can’t tell if this focuses on one big story or several small ones but I know
that Margot Robbie and Martin Freeman are fellow reporters and Billy Bob
Thornton plays a general. The book it’s based on is called The Taliban Shuffle: Strange Days in Afghanistan and Pakistan and
apparently the real life Kim Barker always tried to maintain a sense of humor
even while reporting on heavy topics.
The Divergent Series is another in a long line of young adult
action series and Allegiant is the
third. In a post Hunger Games world
this seems to be the leading YA series out there. I saw the first one, it’s a
serviceable action/sci-fi movie that, like most YA films features some young up
and comers like Shailene Woodley and Miles Teller along with better known folks
like Jeff Daniels and Naomi Watts. This third one has our heroes dealing with
the Bureau of Genetic Welfare which sounds like a generic company out of any
sci-fi action film, we’re a long way from Weyland/Yutani.
Jeff Nichols is quietly taking
over the indie drama genre with actor Michael Shannon, the two have made 4
movies together (working on 5) and they all look good so I am jumping on this
bandwagon so I can catch up with the previously released movies. Midnight Special is the fourth and
features Shannon as a father on the run with his son after it is discovered
that his son has strange and dangerous powers. People seem to take an interest
in these powers and that’s never a good thing, especially if these powers are
harnessed by a small child unaware of consequences. It sounds like I’m
describing Looper and that’s not a
bad thing. Smaller budget sci-fi thrillers made by directors with an
appreciation for the genre usually yields good results.
I’m not sure why a film about
exposing Lance Armstrong’s doping is called The
Program, but it is. This is a sports story that I’m aware of so I guess it
was a big deal, I’m usually unaware of matters involving sports. After
journalist David Walsh (played by the usually hilarious Chris O’Dowd who
probably has to turn it down here) suspects Armstrong (played by the usually
intense Ben Foster who probably has to turn it up here) of using banned
substances he begins a search for the truth that eventually lead to it being
discovered that he had used performance enhancers to win the Tour de France
several times. I don’t think that’s a spoiler, the tagline on the poster is
‘Champion Hero Legend Cheat.’
Tom Hiddelston
has had an interesting career. He had some small roles, then appeared as Loki
in Thor then stole the show as Loki
in The Avengers which was no small
feat. All the while rather than taking pay check jobs he’s been working with
directors like Woody Allen, Jim Jarmusch and Guilmero Del Toro. He also has a
few interesting films coming out this year, the first of which looks to be his
first starring role where he will play country music legend Hank Williams in I Saw the Light. Will he be able to pull
off the role? No idea, I just appreciate that he’s trying.
The word Dawn has been used in A LOT of movies titles: Red Dawn, From Dusk til Dawn,
Dawn of the Dead, and Rescue Dawn. Then there’s several
sequels with Dawn in the title: Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs, The Twilight Series: Breaking Dawn, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the
Dawn Treader, and Dawn of the Planet
of the Apes. In some cases it means the beginning of something, in some
cases it literally means the morning and in the case of Dawn Treader, well, I have no idea. In the case of Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, the
follow up to Man of Steel, it means
that this is the beginning of The Justice
League. Much like with Captain
America: The First Avenger this is a standalone film that precedes a big
team up movie bringing many characters from the comics together. One major
difference is Marvel had several films leading up to their big team up while DC
had Man of Steel and now this. This
and the fact that it’s being released in March as opposed to Summer shows a
lack of patience on their part but they are way behind Marvel as far as their
filmographies so the time for solo adventures will have to come later. A promo
poster for Dawn has the title and the
two heroes, who are beloved by children everywhere, grimacing at each other
with ‘#WhoWillWin’ at the bottom. It’s bizarre marketing because another
trailer already showed when a bigger threat reveals itself and the two have to
stop fighting and team up, which takes all significance out of the v in the title.
The State, Wet Hot American
Summer, The Baxter, Stella, They Came Together, and now Hello,
My Name Is Doris are all TV shows or movies (both in the case of Summer!) that Michael Showalter has been
involved in as an actor and/or writer and/or director. Each of these is a spoof
of something like a sketch show, or a summer movie or a romantic comedy but the
movies are always self-aware, hilarious and poke fun at the genre while also
using the genre to tell an entertaining story. This is why I am excited for Hello, My Name Is Doris starring Sally
Field as a 60ish year old pursuing her younger co-worker Max Greenfield.
Normally I would probably ignore something like this but it’s written and
directed by Showalter so it has my attention.
Every time I check the March
releases it seems they’re adding more and more but this is what I got so far,
what are you interested in seeing?
