The first four months of the year use to be a typical wasteland for bad romantic comedies and cheap thrillers. Now summer-caliber event films are coming out as early as February. Big stars and big directors are involved. Of course hot indies will pop up from now till then, but these are the exciting releases on the board thus far.
15) How to Train Your Dragon (March 26)
Trailer
This one barely made beat out some flicks like HOT TUB TIME MACHINE and THE DIARY OF A WIMPY KID. The trailer was not that impressive. Based on Cressida Cowell's picture book, Hiccup is a young Viking who instead of slaying dragons, he learns to train them, which is an embarrassment to his clan. Let us hope for more KUNG FU PANDA and less MONSTERS VS. ALIENS.
14) Repo Men (April 2)
In the future synthetic organs can be bought on credit, but if you don't pay repo men comes to collect. Jude Law plays Remy, a repo man, and Forest Whitaker is Remy's former partner Jake Freivald. The beautiful Carice Van Houten (BLACK BOOK) plays Remy's wife. Liev Schreiber is Remy's chief. Former storyboard artist Miguel Sapochnik is directing. The interesting premise seems like a great set up for a nice cat and mouse thriller.
13) A Nightmare on Elm Street (April 30)
Trailer
Some might say its sacrilege to say this, but this is a horror film that needed a good remake. Wes Craven's original had an ingenious idea, but was marred by some awful acting. While it's going to be tough to see anyone other than Robert Englund playing the iconic Freddie Krueger, I think Jackie Earle Haley is someone up for the challenge. The reboot seems to be taking pieces from the whole franchise in order to paint a fuller picture of who Freddie Krueger is. Director Sam Bayer is a video director and cinematographer, which do not always make good fiction directors. One can count on it looking good, I'm hoping for more than just that.
12) Date Night (April 9)
Trailer
Director Shawn Levy moved from tween television to doing bad family comedies. But now he's taking on this more adult action comedy. It teams Steve Carell and Tina Fey as a couple who pretend to be another couple to get into a nice restaurant. Big mistake. Their romantic evening is turned into an escape from killers. Also stars Mila Kunis, James Franco, Mark Wahlberg, Kristen Wiig, Ray Liotta, Mark Ruffalo, and Taraji P. Henson. Looks very funny.
11) I Love You, Phillip Morris (March 26)
Trailer
This Sundance fav finds Jim Carrey playing a former cop who throws away his life as a married man who plays the organ at church for a life as a flamboyant gay partier in Miami. But his lifestyle change is expensive, so he becomes conman and ends up in jail. Instantly he falls in love with his cellmate Phillip Morris (Ewan McGregor). Sounds like a crazy ironic comedy.
10) Cop Out (Feb. 26)
Formerly known as A COUPLE OF DICKS, this is the first for-hire flick Kevin Smith has made. The buddy cop comedy finds partners played by Bruce Willis and Tracy Morgan hunting down a stolen vintage baseball card. During their investigation they get wrapped up in a kidnapping, gangsters and money laundering. Smith has never stepped wrong. Even his weaker films are funny as hell.
9) Kick-Ass (April 16)
Trailer
Matthew Vaughn (LAYER CAKE, STARDUST) directs an adaptation of Mark Millar's popular new comic series. Aaron Johnson (THE ILLUSIONIST) plays a nerdy high school student who decides to become a real life superhero. He of course gets his ass kicked, but then he meets better trained masked vigilantes played by Nicolas Cage, Christopher "McLovin" Mintz-Plasse, and Chloe Moretz ((500) DAYS OF SUMMER). The comic is beloved and seems like a great title to bring to the big screen.
8) Clash of the Titans (March 26)
Trailer
I loved the original when I was a kid. I'm talking obsessed about it. AVATAR's Sam Worthington takes on the Harry Hamlin role as Perseus. Liam Neeson (Zeus), Ralph Fiennes (Hades), Gemma Arterton (Io), Danny Huston (Poseidon), and Mads Mikkelsen (Draco) also star. While Ray Harryhausen's raw stop-motion special effects will be replaced by slick vfx, slick vfx could make this a great piece of eye candy. Looking forward to seeing Medusa, Kraken and Pegasus in modern CG.
7) Green Zone (March 12)
Trailer
Matt Damon reteams with his BOURNE sequels director Paul Greengrass for another action thriller. L.A. CONFIDENTIAL writer Brian Helgeland adapts Rajiv Chandrasekaran's non-fiction book about U.S. Army officer that goes off the reservation when he discovers faulty intelligence was tied to WMDs. Also stars Oscar nominees Greg Kinnear and Amy Ryan, as well as Jason Isaacs and Brendan Gleeson. The film takes the critique of the Coalition Provisional Authority's handling of the Iraq invasion aftermath from the book and wraps it up in a war thriller.
6) A Prophet (Feb. 12)
Trailer
Don't be surprised if this French crime drama is among the Best Foreign Language nominees when the Oscar nods are announced in February. Many critics thought it was going to win the Cannes Film Festival. This critique of the treatment of Arabs in France follows a young Arab who is imprisoned for six years. He starts out as a scared outsider and develops into a gang leader. Word is that its powerful stuff.
5) The Wolfman (Feb. 12)
Trailer
This remake of the classic Universal horror film has been delayed several times. Word that the film has gone through several edits is not promising. However, I still hold out hope that my favorite of the classic horror tales will get a competent modern retelling. A cast that includes Benicio Del Toro, Anthony Hopkins, Emily Blunt and Hugo Weaving makes me have increased confidence.
4) Alice in Wonderland (March 5)
Trailer
Tim Burton enters Lewis Carroll's Wonderland and makes his own version of the characters and world. Mia Wasikowska (AMELIA) plays a 19-year-old Alice who runs away when she thinks an unwanted suitor is about to publically propose to her. She ends up back in Wonderland where she visited as a child. She meets up with her old friend the Mad Hatter, played by Johnny Depp, and joins with the White Queen (Anne Hathaway) to try and dethrone the Red Queen (Helena Bonham Carter). The surreal vfx on display in the trailer seem to be showing Burton at his manic best.
3) Creation (Jan. 22)
Trailer
Jon Amiel's biopic of Charles Darwin opened the Toronto Film Festival. It gained press from the fact that many distributors were scared to acquire the critically praise film because of the subject matter. Eventually Newmarket Films snatched up the film and originally planned to release it in December, but opted to avoid the awards season pile up of indie releases and put the film in theaters in January. The film chronicles Darwin (Paul Bettany) as he contemplates the potential affects of publishing his "On the Origin of the Species." The film personalizes the struggle between religious faith and scientific fact by delving into the relationship between Darwin and his religious wife Emma (Jennifer Connelly). The fact that people think this film is controversial today just proves how important this film is.
2) Wall Street 2: Money Never Sleeps (April 23)
What a better time than now for Oliver Stone to make a sequel to his 1987 critique of Wall Street. Shia LaBeouf stars as a young trader who seeks the help of discredited corporate raider Gordon Gekko (Michael Douglas) to try and warn Wall Street of an eminent collapse. Also stars Carey Mulligan (most likely an Oscar nominee by the time the film comes out), Oscar-winner Susan Sarandon, Charlie Sheen, Oscar-nominee Josh Brolin, and Oscar-nominee Frank Langella. The original coined the phrase "Greed is good." I'm hoping the irony of that '80s Wall Street motto fills this look at the corruption of Wall Street, which led to the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression.
1) Shutter Island (Feb. 19)
Trailer
When I was writing my most anticipated films of the fall list, this one was near the top, but just before I published it, the film was moved to 2010. The Martin Scorsese crime thriller looks like a nail bitter. Set in 1954, Leonardo DiCaprio plays a U.S. Marshal who goes to investigate the disappearance of a murderess from an asylum for the criminally insane. Also stars Mark Ruffalo, Oscar-winner Ben Kingsley, Emily Mortimer, Oscar-nominee Michelle Williams, Oscar-nominee Max von Sydow, Oscar-nominee Patricia Clarkson, Elias Koteas, and Oscar-nominee Jackie Earle Haley. The last time Scorsese tackled a straight thriller he made the haunting CAPE FEAR. Any new Scorsese film is worth getting excited about.
Rick DeMott
Animation World Network
Creator of Rick's Flicks Picks
