december

Happy holidays folks! Lots to watch this season. We got exciting movies, emotional movies, historical movies, dramatic movies, funny movies, sad movies and no shortage of John C. Reilly. Seriously, the dude is in 3 movies in theaters this month.

Spider-Man, the friendly neighborhood webslinger originally created by the late Stan Lee, is one of the most iconic superheroes. He was pretty well known before the big boom of comic book movies that started 20 years ago and up until recently, the film rights were owned by Sony, but Marvel reeeeally wanted him and a deal was cut. This is why he appeared in Marvel's Infinity War back in April and this month, we have Sony's Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. Now the Spider-Man in Infinity War was Peter Parker but there are many universes in the comic book world, so there is not just one Spider-Man. In this film we focus on Miles Morales. Like Peter, he is a high schooler with the spider powers and when a villain sends his world into chaos by playing with inter-dimensional technology, he is tossed into the Spider-Verse. While on the adventure to save his world, Morales meets Peter Parker, Spider Gwen, Spider-Man Noir and Spider-Ham (because there's a universe where anthropomorphic animals exist). This animated adventure looks like a lot of fun and a decent palate cleanser to the not so happy cliffhanger of Infinity War.

Clint Eastwood has been consistently directing movies for the past 40 years, but it's been 10 years since he starred in, produced and directed a film and he's back in all capacities with The Mule. Eastwood plays a 90 year old World War II veteran who transports drugs for a drug cartel. Due to his age, he is able to get away with his illegal business dealings for a while but eventually the DEA catches up with him. The trailers and plot description seem pretty vague and the fact that he gets caught seems to be the jumping off point as opposed to the finale. So I imagine there will be some tense moments featuring a 90 year old operating as an informant for the DEA and that will be intense.

The story of Mortal Engines is a lot to take in. The world is now a barren desert wasteland, there is nowhere to live so cities take to the road. Now instead of gigantic cities taking up land, we have gigantic cities on wheels. The latest threat is predator cities and they are so big that they literally harpoon and swallow up other cities. It's all ridiculous but this is from long time Peter Jackson collaborator Christian Rivers, who has been working with Jackson since long before the Lord of the Rings days, so there's some friendship and loyalty there. Because of this, Jackson helped produce and has been marketing it. So that's a big help.

In the DC comics there was Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, a dozen others I'm only just learning about and a guy who talks to fish. After several bleak action movies and one fun movie, the folks behind the scenes of DC look like they have another fun movie on their hands with Aquaman. They've taken the idea of a man who talks to fish and made him look cool by casting Dothraki warrior Jason Momoa and by getting James Wan to direct. Wan has a background in low budget horror but proved he can also make a great action film by salvaging Furious 7 and turning it into a great and emotional action film. We've seen Aquaman in action in Justice League, but here we get to see him fight underwater with giant sea creatures and Dolph Lundgren rides a seahorse. The trailers have alluded to a very fast, busy movie but early reviews are that it's a good time.

I haven't seen a Transformers movie since the 3rd one. They're pretty dumb and reportedly only got dumber. No longer wanting to be known as the dumb action series, the producers are hoping to revamp their image and I have high hopes for Bumblebee. The year is 1987, the place is California and, much like the first film, a teenager wants to get their first car (except instead of the usually weird Shia LeBeouf it's the always charming Hailee Steinfeld) and they come across a yellow Beetle. Well it turns out that Beetle is a robot and is hiding out from his robotic enemies and the government. Now this teenager is at the center of an intergalactic battle and a government agent is chasing after them. This sounds a lot like the first one but it's the live action directorial debut of Travis Knight, who was an animator on Paranorman, Coraline and a couple other very impressive looking films. The trailers look great and if nothing else, this looks to have some heart to it and that's nice to see during Christmas time.

Minimal research shows that the longest gap between original film and sequel release date is 63 years with Bambi and Bambi II, it also taught me that there was a Bambi II. Mary Poppins Returns may not be a record breaker, but that 54 year gap is still pretty impressive. More impressive is that Dick Van Dyke and Julie Andrews, the original leads, are still regularly acting. However, Andrews declined to appear in a cameo as not to steal attention from Emily Blunt (although she will be voicing a character in this month’s Aquaman) and Van Dyke will be playing the son of his character from the original. Blunt will be portraying the titular Poppins, who has returned to help the Banks family once again and I imagine there will be some singing as Lin Manuel Miranda is also in this one.

With a smiling Steve Carell and some action figures, you'd think Welcome to Marwen is a comedy. It even features his 40 Year Old Virgin co-star Leslie Mann, but the story is anything but funny. After a man is beaten nearly to death, he finds that the best way for him to cope and recover from the horrific attack is to build a World War 2 era town in his yard and fill it with characters that represent people in his life. The true story and documentary is about a reporter discovering and breaking the story and the art installation that this story becomes. This movie touches on that, but it seems to be more about the goings on in the little town cut with animated G.I. Joe like characters living out an adventure in a backyard that represents a man trying to learn to live again. Heavy stuff for a sweet looking movie.

In the past 10 years there's been like 20 iterations of Sherlock, portrayed by some pretty big- name actors and that continues with Holmes and Watson, where the famous detective duo will be portrayed by Will Ferrell and John C Reilly. While the two leads are obviously not British, they did populate the rest of the cast with British actors, including Ralph Fiennes as Holmes' nemesis Moriarty who is out to kill the queen. I expect a lot of pratfalls and jokes about the 1800’s.

The director of Anchorman and Step Brothers is an Oscar winning director. That Oscar was for The Big Short, but it should have been his other, and in my opinion better, movie about corrupt banking, The Other Guys. Point is, whether he's making a comedy or a serious movie, Adam McKay is a pretty good director and Vice looks fantastic. For past roles, Christian Bale has lost a dangerous amount of weight and gained an impressive amount of muscle, but for this role as Dick Cheney, he reportedly ate a lot of pie. Vice tells the story of the man who actually ran the country in the shadows of George W. Bush and with Bush being portrayed by Sam Rockwell, this should prove to be a very good movie. 

Years after a botched robbery while undercover, a cop needs to reinsert herself into the criminal underworld that ruined her life and career. Destroyer is a fitting title and in this Nicole Kidman really looks like someone who has lived quite a rough life and has seen things that will haunt her forever. Director Karyn Kusama knows how to shoot tension (The Invitation has ruined dinner parties for me and it does so in an amazing way) and this cop thriller looks like a very tense one.

2018 is the year of John C Reilly. He's back as Ralph, he's playing the classic character Watson, he was one of The Sister's Brothers and now he's playing Oliver Hardy in Stan & Ollie opposite Steve Coogan as Stan Laurel. Now while this movie may be about funny guys, it looks to be more of a docudrama about the comedic pair’s farewell tour through Britain and Ireland. Reilly and Coogan are great whether it's comedic or dramatic, so something in between sounds perfect for them and I don't believe they'd want to do legends like Laurel and Hardy an injustice.

It's been a while since we've had a new Peter Jackson film and the announcement of They Shall Not Grow Old completely caught me off guard. Using footage shot over 100 years ago during World War 1, Jackson (who worked for free) and his crew sifted through hundreds of hours of real footage, cleaned it up, colorized it and compacted it into a 99 minute movie. This movie is supposed to be amazing but will not have a wide release. Fortunately, my wife surprised me and bought tickets for us to see it on one of the few nights it will be in theaters. Very excited.

 I'm not sure this has ever been done before, let alone by Fox Studios, but they are re-releasing Deadpool 2, except it's a family friendly, wildly edited down version and they're calling it Once Upon a Deadpool. The marketing has been pretty great. In it, Deadpool reads a story to Fred Savage, except it's 30 years after The Princess Bride and he's been kidnapped by the man reading to him as opposed to sick in bed. This is dumb and silly but $1 of every ticket goes to the Fudge Cancer foundation (rebranded for PG-13 purposes).

I think 2018 is a good a time as any for a Ruth Bader Ginsburg movie. Played by Felicity Jones, On The Basis of Sex tells the story RBG and the hardships, specifically those dealing with equality, she had to overcome to become a U.S. Supreme Court Justice. The script has been in circulation since 2014 and gained a lot of attention. It took several years to get made and it will be released on Christmas. Not your usual Christmas fare but an important movie nonetheless.

november movie

November is usually a month for Oscar hopefuls to start popping up, but this month seems to be populated with films that look to be a bit better than your average summer fare but didn’t quite make the Christmas cut.

Normally when a film comes out based on a popular property I have at least a passing knowledge of the material, but I know nothing of the story of The Nutcracker and the Four Realms. When a young girl finds she has a gift from her late mother, she needs to find a key to open it. Her journey to find the key takes her on a Looking Glass/Wardrobe adventure where she finds a magical world in the midst of a struggle and she is the literal key to bringing peace to this world. Sounds more complicated than lifting a couch cushion, which is where my keys usually wind up.

The story of Freddy Mercury and Queen’s rise to fame has been in the works for quite some time. Initially Bohemian Rhapsody was going to be a Sacha Baren Cohen vehicle, but his popular onscreen antics brought anxiety to the Mercury Estate as they were unsure what he would do with such a beloved icon. Eventually Rami Malek was brought on board as Mercury, along with Bryan Singer as director. Singer was then fired from the project and Dexter Fletcher, who will be directing the upcoming Elton John biopic, was brought on to finish the film. It’s taken a lot of time and no shortage of drama to bring this story to the big screen, but Malek looks the part and his voice is amazing. This might not be the deepest story into the artist’s life but I think it will make a fine film.

Last year I attended a festival and got to see a film I thought would never see the light of day. Bodied is the story of a young, affluent white college student who manages to break into the world of underground freestyle battle rap, where your rhymes need to be as sharp as your insults. This film was made to offend but it does so in an intelligent way and the pace, humor and music is all incredible. The director told the audience that he had received offers to buy the film, but his refusal to to cut any of the questionable material (and there would be A LOT to cut) made things difficult. It’s been over a year since I saw it and I’m hopeful that this gets a decent theatrical release before going to YouTube Red, the streaming service that bought the rights.

The story of The Grinch is so popular that it is an adjective to describe anyone not in the holiday spirit. For example, if Christmas music playing at a supermarket on NOVEMBER FIRST irks you, then you may be called a ‘grinch.’ But the real Grinch is much worse than that! He’s just a jerk, once played by Jim Carrey and now voiced by Benedict Cumberbatch, who hates the friendly, loving inhabitants of nearby Whoville and wants to destroy their happiness by ruining Christmas. By now you probably know the story, but every classic gets redone so why not this one?

Years ago there was so much talk of The Girl In The Spider’s Web, it was a big European hit and became quite popular over here. Then the remake hit the states and suddenly no one cared anymore. The original was a moody thriller with a great performance from Noomi Rapace and the remake was a big, bloated movie that used the same story but wasn’t nearly as thrilling, it just looked expensive. Claire Foy takes over the role of Lisbeth Salander after playing Queen Elizabeth II in The Crown for the past few years, so this is a change of pace. This one also looks a bit more action packed, so it has my attention. In this chapter Lisbteth, the vigilante hacker, finds herself up against a corrupt government and someone from her past who is targeting her.

There’s an old school video game called Wolfenstein, where you play a soldier walking around a castle battling Nazis and the evil creatures they have created, it’s a very simple game. They updated the game recently and I’m actually playing it now. Currently, my character is on the moon, so they’ve expanded on the initial idea. Overlord looks to borrow from the originals simple idea of Nazis being evil and doing evil things and creating evil creatures. On D-Day, American soldiers lead by Wyatt Russell (little Kurt!!!) get lost behind enemy lines and come across a compound where strange experiments are occurring. This was supposed to be a prequel to Cloverfield, but I believe it’s been altered to be its own thing. Either way, it looks awesome. 

When there’s literally a billion dollars on the line, you better believe a series will continue indefinitely and that’s why we have Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald. Now the first was a fun continuation/prequel to the Harry Potter series, but it had a few good actors in roles that really didn’t fit them and I found it forgettable. The sequel continues the adventures of creature researcher and writer Newt as he teams up with his old teacher Dumbledore, who needs his help stopping the evil Grindelwald, played by Johnny Depp, who has been pretty much completely cut out of marketing for this film. This also looks fun and casting Jude Law as young Dumbledore is pretty great.

When a crew of thieves played by famous actors get killed, their Widows come together for a heist in an attempt to get back at the criminals and corrupt politicians responsible for their husbands’ deaths. This movie looks incredibly intense and with Viola Davis heading the crew, you know there will some great acting in this update of an old British series. The supporting cast is pretty big too, I expect to see some of these folks at the Oscars.

The first Wreck It Ralph was a fun adventure about a video game villain wanting to be more than just the bad guy. Along the way be befriends Vanellope, who is a glitchy character in her own video game and no one likes her. The two wind up saving the day and become heroes. Yay! Now the first took place in one arcade, populated by popular video game characters and others made just for the movie. Ralph Breaks the Internet has the leads discover a wi-fi router so they get to venture into the internet. Coupled with the fact that this is a Disney produced movie, there’s pretty much a guarantee that this will just be overflowing with beloved characters. I’m not sure kids will get all the jokes, but this could be fun for everyone.

I haven’t seen a full Rocky movie and I haven’t seen Creed, but I have seen the end of Rocky IV when Rocky went up against Drago for killing his friend, Apollo Creed, in the ring. Now 33 years later, the son of Apollo and the son of Drago will face off in Creed II. The first was a huge hit and proved Michael B. Jordan was a born star (anyone who watched The Wire already knew this), so hopefully this is another positive step forward in his career. It’s also nice to see Dolph Lundgren and Sylvester Stallone on the big screen.

During the Game of Thrones drought we are currently experiencing, and will be in for the next few months, perhaps a new Robin Hood will supply what people are looking for. It’s got intrigue, arrows, swords and a big budget. Starring Taron Egerton as Mr. Hood and Jamie Foxx as Little John, this looks like every other iteration of the character, maybe a little more flashy.

I got to see another film at the festival last year that was the super fun, delightful and very bloody, Anna and the Apocalypse. It’s a Christmas zombie musical! When Anna wakes up one day to go to school she finds that the zombies are starting to take over the world. She and her friends must fight and sing their way to safety. Without the music, this might just be another in a long line of zombie films, but it’s a great time.