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.

february 2019

February is the year’s first battleground for movie studios and it's all built around love and money. Valentine's Day is the day for dinner and a movie (although I'm a proponent of movie followed by dinner) and this month there is a lot to choose from. I'm not sure what the top Valentine's Day movie will be but I have my predictions.

Released before VDay so probably not:

In the early 00's, Catherine Hardwicke had a good run as a director of Thirteen, Lords of Dog Town and Twilight but has since directed smaller films and TV shows. Gina Rodriguez is the star of Jane the Virgin and future Carmen Sandiego, but before that she will star in the action thriller Miss Bala, a remake of a 2011 Mexican film with the same title. The original was loosely based on a true story and I believe this one strays even farther. Rodriguez stars alongside Anthony Mackie in the story about a woman unwillingly pulled into a drug war between cops and criminals who has to play both sides if she wants to come out alive. This looks like a tense action thriller.

Mads Mikkelsen is about to appear in a TV show called Polar and a movie called Arctic. That is confusing. One is a show that is coming to Netflix soon about a hitman, the other is about a man who crashes his plane in the Arctic. This is another one of those survival films where the director really needs to make sure they have a solid lead and a thrilling environment. Mads and the arctic checks those boxes. This apparently got a 10 minute standing ovation at Cannes, so that's a good sign.

Almost definitely:

Christopher Miller and Phil Lord were on a career high after making 22 Jump Street, a movie no one thought would be funny. Then they did it again with The Lego Movie, a movie no one thought would work. Then they got the opportunity of a lifetime when they were hired to make the Solo movie, a movie no one needed. Unfortunately, that last one went famously bad and they were fired, but I think they'll be all right. Lord wrote the screenplay and produced last year’s Spider-Verse but the Lord/Miller team is back to help write and produced this month’s The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part. The first Lego Movie was a blast and used so much licensed material and fun original characters to tell a fun adventure story. It ended with the invasion of the Duplos (which are bigger Legos for younger kids) and that seems to be where this story begins. Expect lots of recognizable comic book characters, goofy jokes and a new song that will be stuck in your head much like 'Everything is Awesome.'

In all of his years of being a famous actor/ controversial figure, Mel Gibson has only starred in one romantic-comedy. It was called What Women Want and he played a jerk who gets conked on the head and wakes up with the ability to hear women's thoughts and become a better person. 19 years later we have the much less controversial Taraji P. Henson as the lead in What Men Want. Henson plays a sports agent up who uses her newfound ability to hear men's thoughts to rise through the ranks after seeing others unjustly promoted above her. Tracy Morgan costars in this fantasy comedy.

What's more romantic than a slasher? Well, lots of things but Happy Death Day is a fun slasher and a perfect popcorn date flick about a college student dying and reliving the same day in a movie clearly inspired by Groundhog Day. Jessica Rothe is great as the lead who starts out unsympathetic, but on her horrifying journey we start to like her more and start rooting for her. In the end she saves the day but it seems this day is not yet over. Happy Death Day 2 U (silly? yes, but at least they got a little creative) continues the worst day ever and throws in a few new twists. I really feel this will be the winner for Valentine’s Day.

Valentine's Day is the perfect day for a formulaic romantic comedy about people meeting, overcoming some obstacle and falling in love. Some viewers may be tired of that and they are the target audience of Isn't it Romantic. Rebel Wilson plays a woman who grew up hating the romantic movies she saw on TV. Knowing that life doesn't work like it does in the movies, she found them more disappointing than entertaining. Then one day she gets mugged, knocked out, and wakes up in a PG-13 romantic comedy where she's the lead - but is limited by the rules of the PG-13 rating. Suddenly she can't use profanity but she has a nice apartment and a boyfriend, played by Liam Hemsworth, who seems to be following in his brother’s comedic footsteps. This looks funny and hopefully it doesn't fall victim to the clichés it is trying to call out.

Wild card:

Some films have the bad luck at coming out at the wrong time. Maybe a January release would have done better in the summer or a fun movie comes out in too close proximity to a similar looking yet lousier movie and sours everyone on seeing it. A few months difference in release date and the fate of the movie could have been different. In the case of Alita: Battle Angel, it is not a matter of months that could make the difference, it is the matter of years. I first started hearing about Alita as early as 2005 when James Cameron stated he would be making a movie based on the comic about a young woman who is made up of spare robot parts and a human brain. If this came out in the early 00's around when Avatar came out (which was what Cameron initially imagined) it might be huge, but he focused solely on Avatar and Alita was forgotten until 2015, when it was announced Robert Rodriguez would be directing. Now all these years later we have a $200 million sci-fi adventure film with a great cast and I think this will come in at least 4th place over Valentine’s Day weekend.
 

A current rule of thumb in Hollywood is that if you have a thriller starring an older gentlemen CALL LIAM NEESON. When the plow operator in a small Rocky Mountain town and Citizen of the Year recipient learns that his son has died, he takes it upon himself to use his plow and the landscape to kill all those he feels are responsible. Cold Pursuit is a remake of a Norwegian thriller In Order of Disappearance that was a pretty popular thriller starring Stellan Skarsgård that I really enjoyed. The film is dark and violent with a Fargo-esque sense of humor and it looks as if the American remake is pretty loyal to the original, with maybe a bit more humor to help the otherwise bleak story of revenge.

Comes out after Valentine's Day :(

I'm usually very entertained by kids cartoon movies, there's usually some fun escapism and humor for an older audience peppered in. When it's also an action movie, well them I'm all in. This is the case with How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World, the 3rd in the dragon based adventure series. The first was about Hiccup, son of Stoick - the best Viking dragon fighter. Hiccup befriends a wounded dragon and convinces his people to live among, instead of in fear, and fight the dragons. The 2nd one has Hiccup discover another group of dragons and it turns out his assumed dead mother has been living with and riding dragons for years. This brings us to the 3rd one where a Hidden World of dragons is discovered and creates more reason for humor and excitement. I have early tickets to this one, I'm very much so looking forward to it.

January 2019

January was once the dumping ground for many movies, now it seems there are movies that are specifically made for this month. After awards season and before February, when at least 2 big movies get released to capitalize on Valentine's day, it's a tricky time. A movie that once had promise but got bumped for whatever reason may wind up in January or perhaps a B movie with an A cast may feel more at home in January than an Awards season or Spring/Summer release. The stuff coming out this month may not make appear at next years Awards ceremony but there is still fun to be had.

After decades of flops studios may be getting tired of making video game movies and no on in their right mind wants to go up against Marvel so studios are starting to make movies out of games. Quija, Battleship, Jumanji and you can even throw Game Night. Now this brings us to Escape Room. Escape rooms started popping up all over a few years ago and people seem to enjoy them. The ideas is you and a few friends are locked in a room, you're given a couple of clues and you have to find the key to get out of the room before time is up. When a group of people accept an invite to a new escape room they find themselves dealing with dangers not found in the ones that have taken over empty store fronts in recent years. This one is deadly and if you don't solve the riddles you lose a lot more than a free t-shirt.  This is like the definitive January release. It's perfect for the college aged and high schoolers home from school and it looks to be fun but bordering on mindless entertainment for film goers.

Back in 2011, The Intouchables was a massive worldwide and was receiving rave reviews and some awards attention. It's about a wealthy paraplegic who is holding interviews for a new caretaker. When a man with no interest in the job, he just wants a signature showing he attended the interview to show the unemployment office, comes to the interview he makes an impression and gets the job on a temporary basis. I didn't see this movie but people love it and, as with any popular foreign film, an American remake was probably going to happen. The Upside stars Kevin Hart as the caretaker and Bryan Cranston as the paraplegic. It was actually made back in 2017 and was one of the last films to be produced by someone who is now persona non grata in Hollywood (and everywhere else) and that association, and middling reviews, pushed it to a January release. The word 'sentimental' appears in a couple reviews and the leads have good chemistry but when compared to the original this one is seemingly just okay

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Back in 2011 Joe Cornish made Attack the Block which comes from the Shaun of the Dead corner of the film world. It's a super fun, fast paced action horror film starring the future leads of the new Star Wars films and Dr. Who. I've waited 7 years to see what he would do next and besides a couple writing credits there was nothing on the horizon. I have not checked his IMDb page in a couple years and had no idea he had already written and directed The Kid Who Would Be King and that it was coming out next month. Ordinarily I ignore these sword and sorcery stories, I even passed on watching Game of Thrones until nearly every person I know told me I had to check it out. This is definitely something I would have no interest if it were not for the creative power behind it. I'm giving his film high praise before I even see a trailer, that's how much I enjoy Attack the Block.

Every so often an actor will appear in something and you have to think 'what did they do to wind up in something like this?' For Nic Cage it's that he didn't pay taxes and spent too much on weird expensive stuff. For Keanu Reeves it seems he owed a producer friend a favor and that's why he is in Replicas a very Direct to Video looking movie that I only recently saw a poster for at a theater. It's about a man trying to clone his family after they died tragically. We've seen this story before. It doesn't go well but Reeves is usually entertaining.

A few years ago a movie called A Dog's Purpose came out and, like many dog movies, it made people cry. I learned what the 'purpose' was and skipped the movie entirely but A Dog's Way Home, from the same writer as Purpose, looks like another sappy dogventure and looks cute and charming. The movie features real life people and animals but the dog is voiced by Bryce Dallas Howard. This is the kind of cute family stuff that works real well in the month of January.

A movie with Matthew McConaughey and Anne Hathaway about intrigue on the ocean sounds like a pulpy summer thriller but alas Serenity will be a January release. Not sure why because the director has written and directed some great thrillers in the past few years and the leads are still pretty big. It does have the same name as a beloved sci-fi movie so maybe that's why it doesn't appear to have a big release. It also is a noir-ish femme fatale story and those aren't as popular as they were 60 years ago. Hathaway is McConaughey (he is your cousin; you should know how to spell his name)'s ex wife and asks him to kill her abusive boyfriend to save their child from him. This story isn't new but I have to imagine it'll be performed well enough since the director, actors and supporting cast are all solid.   

Remember when M. Night Shyamalan was THE name in in Hollywood? It lasted for a couple years. He had a hot streak with The Sixth Sense, Unbreakable and Signs then things took a turn. His next 5 movies didn't wow audiences and he then he quietly came back with a few lower budget thrillers. It wasn't until 2016's Split that a lot of people jumped back on the Shyamalan train. It was a great movie and as a bonus it turned out to be a secret sequel to Unbreakable that ended with a cliffhanger featuring Bruce Willis reprising his character. Now 3 years later we have Glass which is Samuel L. Jackson's terrorist alias in Unbreakable. He has teamed up with McAvoy's Beast, who has multiple personalities and the deadliest seems to be taking over, from Split and they are up against Willis' super strong David Dunn. I'm very excited for this one and I think that the January release is more tactical that damning as I believe this will do very well. 

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.