March

Disney is releasing their first Marvel film and their first live action remake of the year but, most importantly, Jordan Peele is releasing his second horror film!

2019 is a big year for Marvel but with last year’s Black Panther winning 3 Oscars during February's award ceremony, things are looking good for them. Over the next 4 months they have 3 big releases starting with this month’s Captain Marvel. This film represents several firsts for the Marvel Cinematic Universe. It is the first with a woman in the lead role, the first with a woman director (co-directing with a man, also the first to have co-directors) and the first period piece (the 90's setting and images of Blockbuster in the trailer really excite me). This film will take place long before 2008's Iron Man and the 10 years that passed up until we see Captain Marvel's logo appear at the very end of 2018's Avengers: Infinity War. Brie Larson will be portraying Carol Danvers - once an Air Force pilot, now an intergalactic soldier who will become Captain Marvel. The story will focus on her journey from joining the Air Force, to fighting space aliens, to protecting the earth in the 90's when the alien war comes home. Somehow this will tie into events that occur 20 years later. It's going to be a very big, busy movie and it looks awesome.

An alien invasion movie featuring earth in ruins is nothing new, but Captive State imagines a world in ruins by its own inhabitants and then one day aliens arrive and seem to want to help us. Some are against the idea but the ruling powers give in and 10 years later, this is the way of the world - aliens exist and they live on earth now. Those that are against the idea have gone deep underground and one man finds himself in between those who have sided with the aliens, and those that see the true dangers of the alien invasion and want to fight back. The first trailers for this were mysterious and I wish they'd kept it that way. There's a familiarity to this but it could still be worth a watch.

From 2003 – 2016, Jordan Peele was known for his comedy. He had written for and was featured in Mad TV for years until his own show with Keegan Michael Key, Key and Peele, was picked up by Comedy Central. Then he did the action comedy Keanu, which was real fun and that was followed with an announcement that he would do a horror film. That announcement caught many off guard, but the trailers were interesting and early reviews were amazing (around the time of its release it famously received only 1 negative review). Get Out turned out to be a massive hit, becoming the 15th top grossing film of 2017, and winning Peele the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay. Then it was announced that he would be the narrator of the new Twilight Zone and would be releasing a new horror film called Us. Much like Get Out, details are light but the trailer is effective. It is about a family on vacation who comes across and is attacked by their doppelgangers. Expectations are understandably high for this one.

In the mid 90's there were a couple Disney live-action remakes, then about a decade ago a couple more popped up and now it seems we are inundated with them. Since 2014, there has been one a year and this year we are getting four(!!!) and the first of the year is Dumbo - the long eared flying elephant. In it Colin Farrell plays a circus star who has recently come back from the war and is tasked with watching over the circus outcast - Dumbo. Once it is made apparent that this elephant can fly, evil Michael Keaton wants to cash in. I don't remember all that from the original but I do remember an adorable flying elephant, which is really all this movie needs to deliver to be a hit.

From the director of the flashy, bright but twisted and violent Spring Breakers comes another film about people who want to live the endless summer.  Matthew McConaughey is The Beach Bum, who goes by Moondog and he is quite the aging hard partier. I wish I could touch on the plot but it just looks like him and other famous people with ridiculous names (Snoop Dog as Lingerie, Zac Efron as Flicker, Martin Lawrence as Captain Wack) having a party in Florida. At one point it looks like he may be in some small amount of trouble with the law and that may be where the story really starts but it's hard to tell. Spring Breakers was similar - people having a good time then trouble starts late into the movie. The director has a vision and it is certainly not for everyone but it is interesting stuff.