2010 Movie Preview: Part One – From ‘The Adjustment Bureau’ to ‘Iron Man 2’

QUICK THOUGHTS: The plotline seems extremely strange, but the fact Darren Aronofsky is directing is enough for me. Aronofsky co-wrote the original screenplay with The Wrestler producer Mark Heyman, serving as Heyman’s first feature length script to go into production. Will be interesting to see how it turns out.

SYNOPSIS: Centers on a talented ballerina (Portman) in the New York City Ballet who is tormented by a rival who might or might not be a figment of the dancer’s imagination. Kunis would play the rival, Lilly, with strange occurrences between the two increasing as they prepare for a big performance.

QUICK THOUGHTS: This movie could be a balls to the wall blast or it could be an absolute nightmare of stupidity. As long as it delivers on what the trailer is promising I think it could be a lot of fun as an early year actioner along with the likes of Legion and From Paris with Love as studios are starting to realize people will pay money for movies at the beginning of the year as long as they are worth seeing.

SYNOPSIS: In the not-too-distant future, some 30 years after the final war, a solitary man walks across the wasteland that was once America. Empty cities, broken highways, seared earth–all around him, the marks of catastrophic destruction. There is no civilization here, no law. The roads belong to gangs that would murder a man for his shoes, an ounce of water…or for nothing at all.

But they’re no match for this traveler.

A warrior not by choice but necessity, Eli (Denzel Washington) seeks only peace but, if challenged, will cut his attackers down before they realize their fatal mistake. It’s not his life he guards so fiercely but his hope for the future; a hope he has carried and protected for 30 years and is determined to realize. Driven by this commitment and guided by his belief in something greater than himself, Eli does what he must to survive–and continue.

Only one other man in this ruined world understands the power Eli holds, and is determined to make it his own: Carnegie (Gary Oldman), the self-appointed despot of a makeshift town of thieves and gunmen. Meanwhile, Carnegie’s adopted daughter Solara (Mila Kunis) is fascinated by Eli for another reason: the glimpse he offers of what may exist beyond her stepfather’s domain.

But neither will find it easy to deter him. Nothing–and no one–can stand in his way. Eli must keep moving to fulfill his destiny and bring help to a ravaged humanity.

QUICK THOUGHTS: I loved the original film and visually this remake already looks like a lot of fun, but will it go too far over the top with its fantastical elements and forget about telling the story? The 1981 original had some special effects that were glorious for its time, but are now looked at as cheesy, yet the film remains entirely enjoyable. That’s what you get when you allow the viewer’s imagination to run free inside an entertaining story. I hope director Louis Leterrier (Transporter 2 and The Incredible Hulk) accomplishes the same thing.

SYNOPSIS: In Clash of the Titans the ultimate struggle for power pitting men against kings and kings against gods. But the war between the gods themselves could destroy the world. Born of a god but raised as a man, Perseus (Worthington) is helpless to save his family from Hades (Fiennes), vengeful god of the underworld. With nothing left to lose, Perseus volunteers to lead a dangerous mission to defeat Hades before he can seize power from Zeus (Neeson) and unleash hell on earth. Leading a daring band of warriors, Perseus sets off on a perilous journey deep into forbidden worlds. Battling unholy demons and fearsome beasts, he will only survive if he can accept his power as a god, defy his fate and create his own destiny.

QUICK THOUGHTS: If people think Up in the Air is a reflection of our times I wonder if this one will enjoy as much credit or if it will be seen as oto on-the-nose to be taken seriously or even interesting enough to see it at all. John Wells wrote and directed several episodes of “ER” and also wrote episodes of “The West Wing” inside a lengthy television career takes his first stab at directing a feature film with The Company Men using a script he wrote, so it could be the start of good things for him.

SYNOPSIS: The film is described as a drama about the impact that a corporate downsizing has on both its casualties and survivors. Affleck plays a corporate hotshot whose Porsche and six-figure salary vanish after he gets laid off. Costner plays his brother-in-law, a salt-of-the-earth drywall installer who gives him a construction job. Jones plays a senior partner in the firm, a principled man who struggles with the greedy actions of his partners.

QUICK THOUGHTS: Steven Spielberg has been talking about doing an Abraham Lincoln film for the longest time, but he decided to do Munich and Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull instead. Then he threatened to do a Harvey remake that went bust. Well, Robert Redford just up and decided to do a film with Lincoln’s assassination as the catalyst and here it comes. With a strong cast I hope this one can turn out better than Lions for Lambs.

SYNOPSIS: In the wake of Abraham Lincoln’s assassination, seven men and one woman are arrested and charged with conspiring to kill the President, Vice-President, and Secretary of State. The lone woman charged, Mary Surratt, 42, owns a boarding house where John Wilkes Booth and others met and planned the simultaneous attacks. Against the ominous back-drop of post-Civil War Washington, newly-minted lawyer, Frederick Aiken, a 28-year-old Union war-hero, reluctantly agrees to defend Surratt before a military tribunal. Aiken realizes his client may be innocent and that she is being used as bait and hostage in order to capture the only conspirator to have escaped a massive manhunt: her own son.

QUICK THOUGHTS: I know very little more about this film than the synopsis you can read below, but it is more than enough to get me interested.

SYNOPSIS: Set in a border town the film is set in the near future. Bloom plays a man seeking to cross a mysterious border, something no one else has achieved; Cassel will play the sentry who wants to stop him.

QUICK THOUGHTS: Todd Phillips went from the forgotten director of Old School to a hot commodity after the success of The Hangover. The question now is whether or not Due Date will be another Starsky and Hutch or if the casting of Zach Galifianakis and Robert Downey Jr. will prove to be as inspired as it seems.

SYNOPSIS: An expectant dad and his unlikely travel companion (Galifianakis) race cross-country in hopes of making it home for the birth of his first child.

QUICK THOUGHTS: Kevin Macdonald stumbled slightly with State of Play, a film that was decent but tried too hard to be all things at once. The Eagle of the Ninth sounds intriguing enough, but the casting of Channing Tatum has me second guessing it. The film is an adaptation of Rosemary Sutcliff’s novel written by Jeremy Brock who co-wrote Macdonald’s The Last King of Scotland with Peter Morgan, which would seem to be a sign of moving in the right direction. State of Play had an excellent list of scripters, but it almost seemed to have had too many hands in the cookie jar, we’ll have to wait and see how this one turns out.

SYNOPSIS: The Eagle of the Ninth is set in the dangerous world of second-century Britain. In 140 AD, twenty years after the unexplained disappearance of the entire Ninth Legion in the mountains of Scotland, young centurion Marcus Aquila (Tatum) arrives from Rome to solve the mystery and restore the reputation of his father, the commander of the Ninth. Accompanied only by his British slave Esca (Bell), Marcus sets out across Hadrian’s Wall into the uncharted highlands of Caledonia – to confront its savage tribes, make peace with his father’s memory, and retrieve the lost legion’s golden emblem, the Eagle of the Ninth. Donald Sutherland portrays Marcus’ uncle Aquila, who has retired in Britain; Mark Strong is cast as Guern, an ex-soldier who holds crucial information about the Ninth.

QUICK THOUGHTS: This one is already drawing comparisons to last year’s breakout hit Taken, which I enjoyed and wouldn’t mind seeing a similar thriller in late January. Plus, a cast including Mel Gibson, Ray Winstone and Danny Huston doesn’t hurt and with Casino Royale helmer Martin Campbell in the driver’s seat how can we not expect to be entertained?

SYNOPSIS: Thomas Craven (Gibson) is a veteran homicide detective for the Boston Police Department and a single father. When his only child, 24-year-old Emma, is murdered on the steps of his home, everyone assumes that he was the target. But he soon suspects otherwise, and embarks on a mission to find out about his daughter’s secret life and her killing. His investigation leads him into a dangerous looking-glass world of corporate cover-ups, government collusion and murder — and to shadowy government operative Darius Jedburgh who has been sent in to clean up the evidence. Craven’s solitary search for answers about his daughter’s death transforms into an odyssey of emotional discovery and redemption.

QUICK THOUGHTS: Doug Liman has had an interesting road leading up to Fair Game. From The Bourne Identity, to Mr. and Mrs. Smith to Jumper. I hated Jumper, but Bourne is great and Smith can be fun if in the right mood. My guess is Fair Game will be more Bourne in terms of mood than the others as this takes on the true story of covert CIA agent Valerie Plame Wilson. This definitely isn’t Anakin Skywalker jumping around the world as a snobby brat. Let’s hope this gets Liman back on track.

SYNOPSIS: On July 6, 2003, four months after the United States invaded Iraq, former Ambassador Joseph Wilson’s now historic op-ed, “What I Didn’t Find in Africa,” appeared in The New York Times. A week later, conservative pundit Robert Novak revealed in his newspaper column that Ambassador Wilson’s wife, Valerie Plame Wilson (Naomi Watts), was a covert CIA agent. The public disclosure of that classified information spurred a federal investigation and led to the trial and conviction of Vice President Dick Cheney’s chief of staff, Scooter Libby, and the Wilsons’ civil suit against top officials of the Bush administration. Much has been written about the “Valerie Plame” story, but Valerie herself has been silent, until now. Some of what has been reported about her has been frighteningly accurate, serving as a pungent reminder to the Wilsons that their lives are no longer private. And some has been completely false – distorted characterizations of Valerie and her husband and their shared integrity.