The basic gist of the year so far is that the only films I've thought were absolutely fantastic are "Source Code", "Submarine" and "Kung Fu
Panda 2". Which one do you think will win "Best Picture" at the Oscars? :P
Okay, so the real contenders don't come until later, so I thought I'd check out what was still to come. I was surprised to
see that I'm actually really excited about a lot of different movies which are all coming to cinemas in the UK this year. Unfortunately I'm
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Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy
: 16/09/2011
Absolutely massive cast of fantastic British actors and the director of "Let The Right One In".
Oscar? Very possibly!
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Drive
: 23/09/2011
The director of the Pusher trilogy. His previous film was the rather overly arty "Valhalla Rising" about Vikings who sail to America. However, "Drive" seems to be a return to form. Ryan Gosling, star of "Lars and the Real Girl", is in the starring role. "Drive" is currently on a 9.0 on imdb which is a pretty promising sign. I'm hearing very excitingly positive stuff about this one and I can't wait. The Pusher movie series just seemed to get better and better, so if this is Nicolas Winding Refn on a good day, it's worth keeping your eyes peeled.
Oscar? Very possibly!
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Red State
: 30/09/2011
Okay, I wasn't at all sure about this. Kevin Smith has seemed to be going massively downhill as a director for a while now. However, when the trailer turned out to be pretty much an action movie with John Goodman shouting "you wanted simple sir? Well simple just s**t itself!", I strangely found myself interested all of a sudden. Apparently Tarantino loves this movie. Admittedly Kevin Smith did once say that films like Reservoir Dogs inspired him to believe that he could make movies, so perhaps it isn't so surprising to see him doing something with some echoes of Tarantino to it. The trailer makes me excited, but trailers are often misleading. Still, not much more to go on right now.
Oscar? Probably not, but who knows?
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Tyrannosaur
: 07/10/2011
Paddy Considine has a go at directing. I've loved Paddy Considine for a while now. He's probably best known as the Guardian journalist who gets himself killed in The Bourne Ultimatum. I absolutely loved his leading performance in the Shane Meadows movie "Dead Man's Shoes" and his recent comedic performance in "Submarine" was incredible. Now he's trying his hand at directing with the talents of Olivia Colman and Eddie Marsan to draw from and I can't help but feel that this is going to be incredible. The bad side? It's about a woman who's being domestically abused. Still, it's about how she's going to get herself out of it, so hopefully it won't just leave us completely stuck with gloom and doom (but then again, with this subject matter isn't that inevitable?).
Oscar? Well...
Positive: It's about a serious topic and it's most likely very very good.
Negative: No one's heard of it.
....yeah, probably no Oscar.
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Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark
: 07/10/2011
Guillermo's involved in the creature stuff and this is getting hyped up quite a bit. However, it's not Guillermo directing and his involvement doesn't guarantee a good movie. There've already been some reviews and they aren't really glowing. Still, I'm really intrigued by this.
Oscar? I doubt it.
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Another Earth
: 07/12/2011
I'm not so sure about this release date, but as a science fiction fan I'm intrigued by the premise. An identical Earth suddenly appears and issues are raised. That's about all I know and all I need to know right now. Still, while I'm hearing good things, the preference seems to be for the other Brit Marling movie (further down the list) "Sound Of My Voice". Still, after loving "Source Code" so much, I think I'm ready for another intelligent sci-fi movie.
Oscar? Presumably as much chance as Source Code if it's good. How much chance does Source Code have though?
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The Adventures of Tintin
: 26/10/2011
Less impressed because of the Tintin character of Spielberg directing and more impressed by the "fantasy writing team" of Stephen Moffat (Coupling, Sherlock, Doctor Who) Edgar Wright (Spaced, Hot Fuzz, Shaun of the Dead) and Joe Cornish (Attack The Block). Wow. Just wow. Also with Jamie Bell (Billy Elliot, The Eagle) in the starring role and Andy Serkis, Daniel Craig and Simon Pegg also starring, I doubt I'll be able to stay away from this one.
Oscar? Well, Pixar has been failing to win an Oscar with films like Wall-E and Up in previous years, but if the competition isn't up to much and the writing is as good as it promises to be this could be in with a chance. Perhaps.
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In Time
: 01/11/2011
After Justin Timberlake proved himself by being pretty much the best thing in "The Social Network", perhaps it wasn't surprising to see him getting signed up for a starring role. Andrew Niccol is no stranger to quality sci-fi having written "The Truman Show" and "Gattaca" (the latter of which he directed). While "S1m0ne" is a spectacularly horrendous blight on his record, the same cannot be said for "Lord of War" which knocked my socks off. It's been widely noted that the "In Time" trailer appears to give away rather more details than we might want it to, but the basic gist is that this is a science fiction Robin Hood story. In a future where people no longer age past 25 and from then on trade their lifespan rather than money, Justin Timberlake decides to try to infiltrate an elite who wish to make themselves immortal at the expense of the rest of humanity. Other actors in this include: Vincent Kartheiser (Connor from "Angel"), Johnny Galecki (Leonard from "The Big Bang Theory") and Cillian Murphy (Batman Begins, 28 Days Later).
Oscar? Probably the wrong sort of movie. Looks a bit too action-y.
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Immortals
: 11/11/2011
From the director Tarsem Singh. His first movie had a very interesting visual style and involved a strange new sci-fi psychology where special technology allows an individual to explore inside someone's mind. The technique was being used on a serial killer's mind. The movie was probably most held back because it starred Jennifer Lopez, but I remember it being pretty impressive overall. More recently he made the excellent "The Fall" which involved bringing the inside of a child's mind to life as she is told a story by a manipulative patient in the same hospital.
Now finally he is producing an epic based on Greek mythology and everyone's saying that it looks like a copy of 300. Ironically "300" was based on Tarsem Singh's own style. Still, asides from Mickey Rourke as the bad guy, I can't say that the cast is really jumping out at me. Also, this is frankly looking like Tarsem Singh's least visually interesting movie (though that's still pretty visually impressive all the same). I'm probably more excited than the marketing so far really warrants, but I can't help it. Not only am I actually really impressed by the trailer, but this isn't a director who I'm expecting to let me down.
Oscar? Tarsem Singh's movies have consistently failed to gain wide appreciation and with its current reputation as a "300" clone, this is likely to follow a similar path. That's even ignoring that this is an action movie. I don't think it has a hope in hell, but I think I'm going to love this all the same.
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The Deep Blue Sea
: 11/11/2011
A while back Mark Kermode recommended a movie called "Of Time and the City". I don't think I'll ever watch it. The suggestion seemed to be that you need to care about the history of Liverpool and I simply don't. Plus it's a documentary and it's always harder to convince me to watch a documentary. Still, the director was Terence Davies and the recommendation of his previous movie served as sufficient to turn my head towards this more recent production. "The Deep Blue Sea" stars Tom Hiddlestone (Loki from "Thor) and Rachel Weisz (The Constant Gardener, The Fountain, Agora, About A Boy, The Mummy Returns). Okay so admittedly my main reason for being interested is Rachel Weisz who has proven more recently to be quite incredibly talented.
Oscar? Who knows? Possibly. Then again, no one has heard of this thing!
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The Thing
: 02/12/2011
Okay, I'll admit it. The only reason I'm excited about this one is because I loved the original so much. Now we've seen a trailer, this does at least look like it'll be similar in style to the original. Sure, it looks like we'll be pretty much watching the exact same movie all over again (and probably not quite as well done), but the original was so fantastic that I'm not sure I'll mind watching a slightly impressive version of the same thing done all over again. (I won't be surprised to find myself eating those words in the not-so-distant future.) The director has done bugger all, the writer wrote the "Nighmare on Elm Street" remake and "Final Destination 5" ('nuff said), and frankly Mary Elizabeth Winstead's performance in "Scott Pilgrim" didn't give me the impression that, outside of playing characters who are distant, dismissive and condescending, she had a particular shiny acting career ahead of her. But yeah, it could surprise me....
Oscar? Lol!
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The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo
:26/12/2011
Following David Fincher's career has turned out to be a bit of a punishing experience of late, with "Social Network" leaving me with a bit of a "meh" feeling and "Zodiac" being impressively forgettable. To be honest, the bigger draw for this movie is probably Daniel Craig in an adaptation of Stieg Larsson's novel.
Oscar? David Fincher has got close before. Yeah, probably.
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Coriolanus
: 20/01/2012
Ralph Fiennes directing. Film about Rome (apparently). Um, yeah sure. Looks cool. :)
Oscar? No one's heard of it so, um, perhaps?
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Haywire
: 20/01/2012
Stephen Soderbergh does an action movie with a female heroine. Female action stars haven't been doing great recently. "Colombiana" already has some pretty poor responses. As much as I loved "Tomb Raider", "Mr and Mrs Smith" and "Salt" Angelina Jolie doesn't seem to be convincing audiences for the most part. Milla Jovovich's work seems to have turned into the female equivalent of Jean Claude Van Damme, starring mainly in the kind of schlock which only appears to have avoided going straight-to-DVD by some kind of miracle. (I actually really like Milla Jovovich as an actress, but that just makes it all the sadder to see her appearing in nonsense like "The Fourth Kind".) Still, this time the action hero is an actress with a background in martial arts: Gina Carano. Backed up by Ewan McGregor and , Michael Fassbender and Michael Douglas, this is shaping up to be pretty impressive. As far as Soderbergh projects go, I'm much more keen on checking this out rather than Soderbergh's other project: "Contagion".
Oscar? An action movie, so probably not.
"Honourable Mentions"
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Sound Of My Voice
The other Brit Marling movie (other than "Another Earth" mentioned above). A story about journalists who try to infiltrate a bizarre cult. From what I've heard, it's the better Brit Marling movie, but it's also the Brit Marling movie we may never see. *sulks*
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Bellflower
I mainly want to see this because it sounds bizarre. Opinions seem to be quite strongly divided on this one, but so far it only seems to have been shown at film festivals. Two friends are fitting out a special weaponised car and waiting for a global apocalypse so they can use it (seems to be the basic gist). Please let me see it!
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J. Edgar
The latest movie from Clint Eastwood and starring Matt Damon, so I'm sure we'll hear about it eventually. But why haven't I heard about this
already. Biopics aren't always great, but Clint Eastwood normally gives us something a little bit special so I think there's reason to be hopeful. But when will the marketing start eh?
So... anyone got any other movie recommendations?
What do you think about this selection?
Panda 2". Which one do you think will win "Best Picture" at the Oscars? :P
Okay, so the real contenders don't come until later, so I thought I'd check out what was still to come. I was surprised to
see that I'm actually really excited about a lot of different movies which are all coming to cinemas in the UK this year. Unfortunately I'm
not sure that this is going to make me terribly pleased with the year as a whole.
Then again, there are 18 titles on this list (though the last three are kind of "honourable mentions" since they don't actually have a release date for the UK yet). See what you think. The full list is on imdb here if you want links.)
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The Troll Hunter
: 09/09/2011
The trailer reminds me of the trailer for "Rare Exports" which a lot of people seemed pretty impressed with. It just looks like great fun, if not high art.
Oscar? Hardly. Wrong sort of movie, I'd have thought.
Then again, there are 18 titles on this list (though the last three are kind of "honourable mentions" since they don't actually have a release date for the UK yet). See what you think. The full list is on imdb here if you want links.)
The Troll Hunter
: 09/09/2011
The trailer reminds me of the trailer for "Rare Exports" which a lot of people seemed pretty impressed with. It just looks like great fun, if not high art.
Oscar? Hardly. Wrong sort of movie, I'd have thought.
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy
: 16/09/2011
Absolutely massive cast of fantastic British actors and the director of "Let The Right One In".
Oscar? Very possibly!
Drive
: 23/09/2011
The director of the Pusher trilogy. His previous film was the rather overly arty "Valhalla Rising" about Vikings who sail to America. However, "Drive" seems to be a return to form. Ryan Gosling, star of "Lars and the Real Girl", is in the starring role. "Drive" is currently on a 9.0 on imdb which is a pretty promising sign. I'm hearing very excitingly positive stuff about this one and I can't wait. The Pusher movie series just seemed to get better and better, so if this is Nicolas Winding Refn on a good day, it's worth keeping your eyes peeled.
Oscar? Very possibly!
Red State
: 30/09/2011
Okay, I wasn't at all sure about this. Kevin Smith has seemed to be going massively downhill as a director for a while now. However, when the trailer turned out to be pretty much an action movie with John Goodman shouting "you wanted simple sir? Well simple just s**t itself!", I strangely found myself interested all of a sudden. Apparently Tarantino loves this movie. Admittedly Kevin Smith did once say that films like Reservoir Dogs inspired him to believe that he could make movies, so perhaps it isn't so surprising to see him doing something with some echoes of Tarantino to it. The trailer makes me excited, but trailers are often misleading. Still, not much more to go on right now.
Oscar? Probably not, but who knows?
Tyrannosaur
: 07/10/2011
Paddy Considine has a go at directing. I've loved Paddy Considine for a while now. He's probably best known as the Guardian journalist who gets himself killed in The Bourne Ultimatum. I absolutely loved his leading performance in the Shane Meadows movie "Dead Man's Shoes" and his recent comedic performance in "Submarine" was incredible. Now he's trying his hand at directing with the talents of Olivia Colman and Eddie Marsan to draw from and I can't help but feel that this is going to be incredible. The bad side? It's about a woman who's being domestically abused. Still, it's about how she's going to get herself out of it, so hopefully it won't just leave us completely stuck with gloom and doom (but then again, with this subject matter isn't that inevitable?).
Oscar? Well...
Positive: It's about a serious topic and it's most likely very very good.
Negative: No one's heard of it.
....yeah, probably no Oscar.
Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark
: 07/10/2011
Guillermo's involved in the creature stuff and this is getting hyped up quite a bit. However, it's not Guillermo directing and his involvement doesn't guarantee a good movie. There've already been some reviews and they aren't really glowing. Still, I'm really intrigued by this.
Oscar? I doubt it.
Another Earth
: 07/12/2011
I'm not so sure about this release date, but as a science fiction fan I'm intrigued by the premise. An identical Earth suddenly appears and issues are raised. That's about all I know and all I need to know right now. Still, while I'm hearing good things, the preference seems to be for the other Brit Marling movie (further down the list) "Sound Of My Voice". Still, after loving "Source Code" so much, I think I'm ready for another intelligent sci-fi movie.
Oscar? Presumably as much chance as Source Code if it's good. How much chance does Source Code have though?
The Adventures of Tintin
: 26/10/2011
Less impressed because of the Tintin character of Spielberg directing and more impressed by the "fantasy writing team" of Stephen Moffat (Coupling, Sherlock, Doctor Who) Edgar Wright (Spaced, Hot Fuzz, Shaun of the Dead) and Joe Cornish (Attack The Block). Wow. Just wow. Also with Jamie Bell (Billy Elliot, The Eagle) in the starring role and Andy Serkis, Daniel Craig and Simon Pegg also starring, I doubt I'll be able to stay away from this one.
Oscar? Well, Pixar has been failing to win an Oscar with films like Wall-E and Up in previous years, but if the competition isn't up to much and the writing is as good as it promises to be this could be in with a chance. Perhaps.
In Time
: 01/11/2011
After Justin Timberlake proved himself by being pretty much the best thing in "The Social Network", perhaps it wasn't surprising to see him getting signed up for a starring role. Andrew Niccol is no stranger to quality sci-fi having written "The Truman Show" and "Gattaca" (the latter of which he directed). While "S1m0ne" is a spectacularly horrendous blight on his record, the same cannot be said for "Lord of War" which knocked my socks off. It's been widely noted that the "In Time" trailer appears to give away rather more details than we might want it to, but the basic gist is that this is a science fiction Robin Hood story. In a future where people no longer age past 25 and from then on trade their lifespan rather than money, Justin Timberlake decides to try to infiltrate an elite who wish to make themselves immortal at the expense of the rest of humanity. Other actors in this include: Vincent Kartheiser (Connor from "Angel"), Johnny Galecki (Leonard from "The Big Bang Theory") and Cillian Murphy (Batman Begins, 28 Days Later).
Oscar? Probably the wrong sort of movie. Looks a bit too action-y.
Immortals
: 11/11/2011
From the director Tarsem Singh. His first movie had a very interesting visual style and involved a strange new sci-fi psychology where special technology allows an individual to explore inside someone's mind. The technique was being used on a serial killer's mind. The movie was probably most held back because it starred Jennifer Lopez, but I remember it being pretty impressive overall. More recently he made the excellent "The Fall" which involved bringing the inside of a child's mind to life as she is told a story by a manipulative patient in the same hospital.
Now finally he is producing an epic based on Greek mythology and everyone's saying that it looks like a copy of 300. Ironically "300" was based on Tarsem Singh's own style. Still, asides from Mickey Rourke as the bad guy, I can't say that the cast is really jumping out at me. Also, this is frankly looking like Tarsem Singh's least visually interesting movie (though that's still pretty visually impressive all the same). I'm probably more excited than the marketing so far really warrants, but I can't help it. Not only am I actually really impressed by the trailer, but this isn't a director who I'm expecting to let me down.
Oscar? Tarsem Singh's movies have consistently failed to gain wide appreciation and with its current reputation as a "300" clone, this is likely to follow a similar path. That's even ignoring that this is an action movie. I don't think it has a hope in hell, but I think I'm going to love this all the same.
The Deep Blue Sea
: 11/11/2011
A while back Mark Kermode recommended a movie called "Of Time and the City". I don't think I'll ever watch it. The suggestion seemed to be that you need to care about the history of Liverpool and I simply don't. Plus it's a documentary and it's always harder to convince me to watch a documentary. Still, the director was Terence Davies and the recommendation of his previous movie served as sufficient to turn my head towards this more recent production. "The Deep Blue Sea" stars Tom Hiddlestone (Loki from "Thor) and Rachel Weisz (The Constant Gardener, The Fountain, Agora, About A Boy, The Mummy Returns). Okay so admittedly my main reason for being interested is Rachel Weisz who has proven more recently to be quite incredibly talented.
Oscar? Who knows? Possibly. Then again, no one has heard of this thing!
The Thing
: 02/12/2011
Okay, I'll admit it. The only reason I'm excited about this one is because I loved the original so much. Now we've seen a trailer, this does at least look like it'll be similar in style to the original. Sure, it looks like we'll be pretty much watching the exact same movie all over again (and probably not quite as well done), but the original was so fantastic that I'm not sure I'll mind watching a slightly impressive version of the same thing done all over again. (I won't be surprised to find myself eating those words in the not-so-distant future.) The director has done bugger all, the writer wrote the "Nighmare on Elm Street" remake and "Final Destination 5" ('nuff said), and frankly Mary Elizabeth Winstead's performance in "Scott Pilgrim" didn't give me the impression that, outside of playing characters who are distant, dismissive and condescending, she had a particular shiny acting career ahead of her. But yeah, it could surprise me....
Oscar? Lol!
The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo
:26/12/2011
Following David Fincher's career has turned out to be a bit of a punishing experience of late, with "Social Network" leaving me with a bit of a "meh" feeling and "Zodiac" being impressively forgettable. To be honest, the bigger draw for this movie is probably Daniel Craig in an adaptation of Stieg Larsson's novel.
Oscar? David Fincher has got close before. Yeah, probably.
Coriolanus
: 20/01/2012
Ralph Fiennes directing. Film about Rome (apparently). Um, yeah sure. Looks cool. :)
Oscar? No one's heard of it so, um, perhaps?
Haywire
: 20/01/2012
Stephen Soderbergh does an action movie with a female heroine. Female action stars haven't been doing great recently. "Colombiana" already has some pretty poor responses. As much as I loved "Tomb Raider", "Mr and Mrs Smith" and "Salt" Angelina Jolie doesn't seem to be convincing audiences for the most part. Milla Jovovich's work seems to have turned into the female equivalent of Jean Claude Van Damme, starring mainly in the kind of schlock which only appears to have avoided going straight-to-DVD by some kind of miracle. (I actually really like Milla Jovovich as an actress, but that just makes it all the sadder to see her appearing in nonsense like "The Fourth Kind".) Still, this time the action hero is an actress with a background in martial arts: Gina Carano. Backed up by Ewan McGregor and , Michael Fassbender and Michael Douglas, this is shaping up to be pretty impressive. As far as Soderbergh projects go, I'm much more keen on checking this out rather than Soderbergh's other project: "Contagion".
Oscar? An action movie, so probably not.
"Honourable Mentions"
Sound Of My Voice
The other Brit Marling movie (other than "Another Earth" mentioned above). A story about journalists who try to infiltrate a bizarre cult. From what I've heard, it's the better Brit Marling movie, but it's also the Brit Marling movie we may never see. *sulks*
Bellflower
I mainly want to see this because it sounds bizarre. Opinions seem to be quite strongly divided on this one, but so far it only seems to have been shown at film festivals. Two friends are fitting out a special weaponised car and waiting for a global apocalypse so they can use it (seems to be the basic gist). Please let me see it!
J. Edgar
The latest movie from Clint Eastwood and starring Matt Damon, so I'm sure we'll hear about it eventually. But why haven't I heard about this
already. Biopics aren't always great, but Clint Eastwood normally gives us something a little bit special so I think there's reason to be hopeful. But when will the marketing start eh?
So... anyone got any other movie recommendations?
What do you think about this selection?