THE UPCOMING YEAR

Sorry that my blog has been very intermittent but all that's about to change.

2008 is a new year and I will put more articles up, maybe a few small reviews, charts etc.

The way way to start bulking up my blog is a quick look at the upcoming movies that I'm wanting to see as it's the beginning of the year. Without further ado lets have a look at some of the movies that I can't wait to see this year!*



Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull:

After years in development hell, Lucas and Spielberg are now in post production of their forth installment of the Indiana saga and I can't wait to see what the cast and crew come up with.

Ford is once again donning the Fedora, Karen Allen is coming back as Indy's old flame, and the filmmakers have decided to go back to basics with the action. No CGI here folks, only stunt men half killing themselves for our entertainment.

The addition of Shia LaBeouf and Cate Blanchett in the cast are also much welcomed in Camp Byron. Blanchett is a strong actress who deserves to be in a fun movie (Hot Fuzz cameo excluded) after spending her time in some heavy affair. LaBeouf was the best thing about Transformers and has shown at a young age he has more than enough charm and comic timing to keep up with such a huge project.

Hopefully Ford's age won't be a problem and David Koepp's script is more Raiders of the Lost Ark than Death Becomes Her.


Jumper

I am a big fan of Doug Limans films, even Mr and Mrs Smith, so I'm quite intrigued on how this film will turn out. Now is the time for Hayden Christensen to show that he can actually carry a movie well (sorry haven't seen Shattered Glass yet). The cast is an interesting mix that could work and Samuel L Jackson might not phone in a performance this time.
Liman is a director who has not only made successful films but made them with a bit of talent also. It's hard to believe this guy made the cult comedy Swingers before starting off the intensely popular Bourne franchise. He has a great ability to adapt to whatever material with ease and with David S Goyer (Batman Begins) and Jim Uhls (Fight Club) helming the script this could be a fun two hours.

No Country For Old Men

It's the fucking Coens! Need I say more? Yes? Well ok then, it's the Coens with a flick that's doing well in critical praise as well as award nominations. While many look at Quintin Tarantino as a director who makes films only for himself, you only have to pick one or two titles from the Coen filmography to see that Ethan and Joel have always done things THEIR way. This has lead to some dubious recent outings which i won't mention (I will say Alec Guinness may have turned in his grave), however their portfolio is a eclectic mix of great entertainment and this looks like no exception.

Wanted

While all the subtely of the comics will probably be lost, Wanted still looks like it could be a good laugh. Timur Bekmambetov is an action director I can really get behind. Despite being a director that places style over substance, Bekmambetov can still tell a better story than say I don't know.......Micheal Bay. Bekmambetov has also grabbed himself a cast which not only combines strong character acting (Terrance Stamp, Morgan Freedman) but box office draw as well (Angelina Jolie). The film is also taking a bit of a risk with the lead. James McAvoy is not only making a name for himself in kiddy blockbuster affair (Narnia) but in period drama Oscar Bait (Atonement). It will be interesting to see the actor adapt to something such as this. The trailer has the kind of crazy action which made the Night Watch franchise so watchable and while it will upset every comic nerd from here to Ohio, it could become a cult classic to others who know nothing about it.


Sweeney Todd

I am not the biggest Burton fan, however I'm oddly curious about his next endeavour. I love violent revenge movies, Depp's a great actor and Burton's style is prefect for the material at hand. Sweeney Todd is coming over from America with high praise from the likes of Roger Ebert (like him or not) and has hit the imdb's top 250 films list extremely quickly (most likely Burton fans rating it ten for the sake of it).

The art direction looks top notch (Typical Burton) and supposedly Depp and Bonhiem Carter can sing. One thing that bothers me however is Depp's preformance. Granted I haven't seen the film yet but in watching the trailer, Depp acts like he's Jack Sparrow with a razor. This wouldn't be such a bad thing if I hadn't had grown so tired of the Keith Richards impression after three movies.

Issues aside the film looks delectably, twisted and evil. The film might keep me distanced from any emotional response (I get that a lot with Burton) but the films tale of madness and murder should keep me going for the duration.

Cloverfield

I've typed some insane ramblings about this little ditty on my site already but it's worth mentioning again. Matt Reeves film looks like it could be one of the surprises of the year. Cloverfield look like it's going to take a few risks such as unknown actors and a release date during Hollywood down time. However, net hype has kept interest ticking over and unlike crap like Snakes on a Plane, Cloverfield looks like it's more going for it than a ridiculous name.

The Dark Knight

For me Batman Begins was brilliant. It was one of my favorite movies of 2005 and of recent times. To me The Dark Knight looks willing to make Begins look like a piece of shit. I checked out the trailer only recently this week (after a very entertaining marketing campaign) and I went nuts. I know many people are still quite worried about Ledger and what his portrayal of the "clown prince of crime" may be like. However, Heaths "down to earth" Psychopath is so much more creepier than the previous portrayal. In fact this joker is likened more to Nicholson's performance in The Shining than anything else. Fans always worry when actors aren't too familiar with the source material. But seeing Ledger in action during the trailer brings a lot of confront.

The trailer itself, is full of shots which should tantalizes fans, including the very intriguing destruction of the bat signal. This is the film I am waiting for the most this year and I have to wait till fucking July!!!!!!!!


There Will Be Blood

Being the P.T.A whore that I am, I cannot wait for this movie. It's been five long years since Punch Drunk Love and it's about time Mr Anderson came back with some serious cinema. As I write this, the National Society of Film Critics have picked There Will Be Blood with their Best Picture award. Once again rave reviews have been landed upon the director and one of his works. To add to this reviews have described the film as less pompous, something that has followed the director since Magnolia. With this said the trailer gives off an even more epic feel than Anderson's three hour opus.

The cast has Daniel Day Lewis leading from the front and he appears to channelling his Bill the Butcher role from Gangs of New York. Paul Dano is bringing up the rear, also garnering some optimistic approval. Day Lewis put in one of my favorite performances of 2002 in Gangs and it looks like he will be well remembered again with this performance. I have only seen Dano in The Girl Next Door (2004) which while cute wasn't anything too outstanding. In TWBB however, he looks set to expand his acting wings.

Oh and the music.....is by Radioheads Johnny Greenwood! So one of my favourite directors is working with one of the musicians from one of my favorite bands. Good times methinks.

Funny Games

Now I don't understand why Micheal Hanke would want to make a shot for shot remake of his disturbing yet brilliant critique on violence. But then it's clearly made for people who don't watch subtitled movies. Fair enough I guess. However those people Hanke may be aiming for might miss the point of Hanke's scathing attack on well....themselves. I loved the original film because it's one of the most provocative and frustrating works I've ever seen. Feel shit after watching it? You should. Despite the director's arrogance at his own audience, the film has made me think twice about some of the violence I watch in films.

The remake? Well it has Tim Roth and Naomi Watts as the unfortunate souls whose idyllic trip to a holiday home ends in pain and murder. While Micheal Pitt (The Dreamers) and Brady Corbet (Mysterious Skin) are the two villains of the piece.

While I've seen the bad side of directors remaking their own films again for the American Market (I'm looking at you George Sluizer). However, with this said If done right, Hanke could garner himself some new fans.

Bond 22

Not the biggest bond fan in the world but Casino Royale was worth watching. The film's success (both critical and box office) might make a certain stupid website look even more ridiculous. Craig may not be the quintessential Bond that many would like to see. However not only he's closer to Flamings model of Bond, but his performance not only had an assured coolness but was more grounded in realism. (thank you Doug Liman and Matt Damon!)
Paul Haggis is once again behind the screenplay which should only be a good thing, the director however is an odd choice. Marc Forster is known for his touchy feely movies (Finding Neverland, Monster's Ball). Never the less the change in direction of the franchise may suit the German director.


* Please note that some of the films have already been released in the U.S. However I going with U.K releases.

Is it April Fools day?

Walking around today I walk past a T.V and see that Christian Bale is going to star in the new Terminator film. "Not a great idea" I say to myself. I mean the dead house that is the franchise should really stopped being flogged so its hooves can be used for glue.

I walk on and I forget about it. "Not enough info for a blog entry" I say to myself and think no more of it.

I get home. I am run down and completly knackered but I have more than enough energy to warm up my casserole and check the net for any interesting film. I do find some news..... however interesting is not the word I could use.

I read in a mixture of amazement, shock and disgust as I read that the Terminator movie is being made by McG!! All the energy drains from my body and all the colour drains from my face.

Mc fucking G!?

So who was drunk at the wheel when they decided this?

Oh it gets better......

The two writers also wrote that classic hit........CATWOMAN!


How bad can this movie be?

I'm guessing this may depend on how much you like Terminator 1 & 2 to T3:Rise of the machines (the writers wrote that also) and Charlies Angels 2: Full Throttle. (I'm guessing not too much)

Somewhere James Cameron is crying underwater.

Wandering in Cloverfield

If you haven't seen this site or seen either of these trailers I will wonder where you've been in the last view months (if your a film wanker like myself that is). Yes it finally has a name and we finally get a full trailer...and yet like another J.J Abrams project Lost, the more we see the more questions have to ask.

What about the monster?

Who are these non-stars?

Why don't we know more etc.

Well I don't know about you but I love how this project is being handled. It's nice to see a film being pushed with an air of mystery about it. The net news is few and far between and even the most sneaky of scoopers are finding trouble trying to get information.

I say good. I'm sick of trailers (especially trailers of the recent spate of remakes) that try and condense the whole films story into 3 minutes. I hate the fact that by the time you get to the cinema, you know whats going down with the film because your waiting for that money shot that hasn't happened just yet.

The less I know the more I'm interested. You want to know the story when you see the actual film not during the preview of another film.

The films wish to hide it's secrets are a blessing and a curse. The Blair Witch Project is one of the biggest independent films to date in in terms of money however the amount of people truly FUCKED OFF with the film is understandable (I love it).

Also releasing the film in January is either genius (release a good money spinner in a dumping ground for shite? mega bucks) or stupidly (release a naff product to shift it quickly and bring on the summer.)

But who cares right now? The outlook for me looks more positive than negative. I like the films modern, intense feel towards the monster movie. It makes an interesting comparison to Peter Jackson's more classic feel to his monster epic King Kong.

I have a lot of high hopes for this flick and hope it will do ok critically and financially.


NOTE: Those into a good little monster movie should do well to seek out the Korean ditty The Host. It's an interesting take on the sub genre.

Dark Knight

It's old news and every Bat fan has probably visited that site by now. However if you haven't you should really check out. http://www.whysoserious.com/

Not too much to it, got a new shot of the joker some werid clues and another website called rorys death kiss. The site allows fans to submit pictures of themseleves as the joker.

Some of the stuff out there is pretty cool. Fun times.

Woman in a lead role? You better Warner Brother

It's been two days after this article and blogs everywhere are rife with outrage. Much has been said about the article and here will be no exception.


It's been two days since the first blogs reported this and it seems that now the WB is on damage control stating that its president did not say such terrible things. Lets be honest with ourselves right now. It may be a blogger taking a statement out of context or an oafish head of a studio (see smug picture) with a very shorted sighted and imbecilic viewpoint of why a few average looking movies didn't make the grade but I do believe something dumb must of been said.

We as bloggers write for many reasons but one of them is simply to get read and to get seen. Now in looking at the Deadline Hollywood Daily and it's blogger. I don't think Nikki Finke has to do to much to get read. She's not like stragglers like me who'd love to get just ten readers a day. So if she was to make something like this up Warner could take her to cleaners easily. But they haven't.

What will happen? A few statements stating that the comment weren't said will arrive this week. Warner Brothers will still release pictures with female leads for the time being and wait for the situation to blow over. And of course, like all big studios, they will be far too important to do anything to make them appear more caring to anyone offended.

But lets look two of the main supposed failures in question. The Brave One and The Invasion.

The Brave One

To be completely honest. After watching this trailer the film looks a lot like an retread of Micheal Winner's Death Wish. To add to this, the film also had to do battle with the eerily similar Death Sentence which came out two week earlier. The trailers do nothing to try and show any differences between the two films other than one has a woman in the lead and one has a man.

To add to this. Observing as many opinions as I could in the short amount of time before having to go to bed and then back to work. both critics and film goers didn't mind the film depending on where you go. If you go to the rotten tomatoes web page you get a middling average, while the imdb gives off a different picture. same with metacritc....actually hang on a minute....go back one. the imdb......yes NORMAL PEOPLE are enjoying the film....isn't that what a studio wants?

In fact the film reviewed better than Death Sentence but flopped....well after watching a revenge movie that didn't work, not everybody may want to see another in such a short space of time....even if they love Jodie Foster.

The Invasion

The FORTH remake of Invasion of the Body Snatchers. A film which went through a massive rewrite (The Wachowskis) and a new director (their mate James McTeigue) re-shooting much of the film. Now this reminds me of when a studio wanted to bring The Exorcist up to date after it's successful re-release in 1999. Remember? When they got a director (Paul Schrader) to make a prequel. Then they didn't think it was bloody enough for the backers and hired another director (Renny Harlin) to shoot the same film but "different".

Now look at who the producers hired first Paul Schrader the guy who made films like Blue Collar and wrote the seriously twisted Taxi Driver. For him to make a horror film it's going to be a more more grounded look at horror. No...no good fire him and get in the guy that lost a shit load of money with Cutthroat Island and bankrupted a production company....but that's another story.

Schraders film was limited release while Harlin's flick went widespread and only made it's money back with it's overseas box office.

Now who owns The Exorcist series....yes.....thats right FUCKING WARNER BROTHERS. The dudes that got a fuck load of money from The Exorcist...twice. A film that earned it's two main female stars Oscar nominations (not that awards are important two these people but the money sure is).

Back to the point. Original director: Oliver Hirschbiegel. Director of the Somber Downfall detailing the last hours of Hitler.

New Director: James McTeigue director of comic book adaptation V for Vendetta and assistant director For The matrix films.

Lets look at it like this. I want a picture of a domestic cat. I get someone who doesn't mind drawing cats but would rather draw dogs to draw it for me. He draws a cat which isn't to my liking. I get someone who likes cats but I want him to draw I tiger over the first cat....you get a mess. That's my overlong metaphor and I'm sticking to it.

Er....Byron...the point?

Point being (sorry) in looking at the high hopes of these movies on the back of a load of shoddy summer blockbusters, bad marketing, naff planning...your not going to get much. It doesn't help by placing solid actresses in bog standard films. Both Kidman and Foster have won Oscars, both like to diverse into projects that suit them and both aren't your usual Hollywood fodder.

If you want place Jodie Foster in a revenge movie. Don't place her right next to another revenge movie. Especially if that other revenge movie has a director that has come of the back of a very successful horror series. Death Sentence is directed by James Wan who is partly responsible for the Saw Series (forth one on its way). Death Sentence also has that fact plastered on it's advertising. Now no offence but not that many people in middle America are gonna watch the brave one because "the guy who did in the company of wolves did it" and hell...I own that movie.

Nicole Kidman is not really the woman that I'd pick for a film like The Invasion. But like fuck it's her fault that the film can't pick a writer, let alone a director.

No matter what, something was said and it has been broadcast. To be honest Warner Brothers will be fortunate enough not to lose half of their Harry Potter sales on a boycott. But hey, we still have to watch movies at the cinema in a regime in where if your actor whose name isn't Morgan Freeman, Will Smith or Denzel Washington your black ass ain't getting no leading role....unless you can rap.