Director: Adam McKay
QUICK THOUGHTS: Can Adam McKay finally deliver a comedy I will truly love? I didn’t mind Anchorman, but I certainly don’t love it the same way everyone else does and his last two films have just gotten increasingly dumber from Talladega Nights to the god-awful Step Brothers. Looking at the cast and the synopsis I can’t really come to any early conclusions, but let’s just say I’m going into this one a hopeful skeptic.
SYNOPSIS: Set in New York City, The Other Guys follows Detective Allen Gamble (Will Ferrell), a forensic accountant who’s more interested in paperwork than hitting the streets, and Detective Terry Hoitz (Mark Wahlberg), a tough guy who has been stuck with Allen as his partner ever since an unfortunate run-in with Derek Jeter. Allen and Terry idolize the city’s top cops, Danson and Highsmith (Dwayne Johnson and Samuel L. Jackson), but when an opportunity arises for the Other Guys to step up, things don’t quite go as planned.
Director: Greg Mottola
QUICK THOUGHTS: There’s a lot to love here including the entire cast (although Seth Rogen doesn’t impress me much) and I was among the fans that enjoyed Greg Mottola’s 2009 feature Adventureland. I guess the big question is whether Mottola’s Area 51 comedy will be better than Oren Peli’s Area 51 thriller?
SYNOPSIS: Story revolves around two British slackers who, after visiting Comic-Con, go on a road trip to Area 51, where they encounter a small alien named Paul, who enlists them to find his way home.
Director: Alexandre Aja
QUICK THOUGHTS: I have this one on here simply because I believe it could be the “shut it down” good time of 2010. The idea is so stupid it could potentially be great, but at the same time it could get bogged down in CG, 3D and gore and forget it’s about entertaining with a story that takes itself too seriously. In all likelihood it will probably end up disappointing me, but I enjoyed Alexandre Aja’s The Hills Have Eyes remake so I’m up for giving this one a chance… but will they screen it for critics?
SYNOPSIS: Jaws… lots and lots of jaws. From acclaimed director Alexandre Aja (The Hills Have Eyes) comes the new action thriller Piranha 3-D, in the latest eye-popping 3D technology. A new type of terror is about to be cut loose on beautiful Lake Victoria. After a sudden underwater tremor sets free scores of the prehistoric man-eating fish, an unlikely group of strangers must band together to stop themselves from becoming fish food for the area’s new razor-toothed residents. But our heroine (Elisabeth Shue) is seriously outnumbered, and with only one chance to save the lake and her family from totally being devoured, she must risk everything to destroy the aquatic carnivores herself.
Director: Nathan Greno, Byron Howard
QUICK THOUGHTS: Disney’s non-Pixar animated film of 2010 is Rapunzel and its inclusion here is for no other reason than the fact it’s Disney and it’s animated. The Princess and the Frog was a disappointment this past year, so here’s to hoping 2010 offers up something a little better.
SYNOPSIS: Mandy Moore will voice the title character in Walt Disney Pictures’ Digital 3D-animated “Rapunzel,” while “Chuck” star Zachary Levi has been cast as the voice of the bandit who finds himself on the road with the rebellious, teenage hair apparent. The movie picks up with the princess, famous for her 70 feet of golden hair, after she’s been stolen from her parents’ castle as an infant and imprisoned. Now a teenager, Rapunzel escapes and goes on the run with a bandit as her captor pursues them.
Director: Robert Schwentke
QUICK THOUGHTS: The cast for this one has me extremely excited. I mean, they were even able to get Ernest Borgnine on board! Of course, Robert Schwentke’s directorial career doesn’t exactly inspire confidence and the one major blow is that the film is written by Erich and Jon Hoeber who penned last year’s awful in-the-snow thriller Whiteout as well as Peter Berg’s upcoming Battleship feature, which sounds about as needless as a movie based on a pegged board game can sound. So, while the cast inspires some true interest there is a lot to keep me wary.
SYNOPSIS: Frank Moses, a former black-ops CIA agent, is now living a quiet life. That is, until the day a hi-tech assassin shows up intent on killing him. With his secret identity compromised and his love interest in danger, Frank must reassemble his old team to figure out who is out to get them.
Director: Ridley Scott
QUICK THOUGHTS: Apparently your interest in this one relies on whether or not you are tired of the Ridley Scott and Russell Crowe cinematic combo. The other complaint is that this looks like Gladiator in tights. Personally, I love Ridley Scott working with Russell Crowe and I loved Gladiator so I’m on board. While this film may not be something entirely original the fact those two are behind it has me interested 100%.
SYNOPSIS: Russell Crowe stars as the legendary figure known by generations as Robin Hood, whose exploits have endured in popular mythology and ignited the imagination of those who share his spirit of adventure and righteousness. In 13th century England, Robin and his band of marauders confront corruption in a local village and lead an uprising against the crown that will forever alter the balance of world power. And whether thief or hero, one man from humble beginnings will become an eternal symbol of freedom for his people.
The untitled Robin Hood adventure chronicles the life of an expert archer, previously interested only in self-preservation, from his service in King Richard’s army against the French. Upon Richard’s death, Robin travels to Nottingham, a town suffering from the corruption of a despotic sheriff and crippling taxation, where he falls for the spirited widow Lady Marion (Blanchett), a woman skeptical of the identity and motivations of this crusader from the forest. Hoping to earn the hand of Maid Marion and salvage the village, Robin assembles a gang whose lethal mercenary skills are matched only by its appetite for life. Together, they begin preying on the indulgent upper class to correct injustices under the sheriff.
With their country weakened from decades of war, embattled from the ineffective rule of the new king and vulnerable to insurgencies from within and threats from afar, Robin and his men heed a call to ever greater adventure. This unlikeliest of heroes and his allies set off to protect their country from slipping into bloody civil war and return glory to England once more.
Director: Phillip Noyce
QUICK THOUGHTS: Phillip Noyce hasn’t made a feature film since 2006’s Catch a Fire and with Salt it appears he is heading a little further back in his directorial past and summoning up some of that excitement that made Patriot Games and Clear and Present Danger big hits and this time he’s bringing along everyone’s favorite female action star Angelina Jolie. Tom Cruise was originally tapped to star in this film, but he dropped out, the script swapped genders and on July 23 we get Ms. Salt instead of Mr.
SYNOPSIS: Angelina Jolie stars as Evelyn Salt, a CIA officer who swore an oath to duty, honor, and country. When she is accused by a defector of being a Russian sleeper spy, Salt goes on the run to clear her name and ultimately prove she is a patriot. Using all her skills and years of experience as a covert operative, she must elude capture and protect her husband or the world’s most powerful forces will erase any trace of her existence.
Liev Schreiber stars as Winter, Salt’s boss and friend on the Russian desk at the CIA, and Chiwetel Ejiofor plays Peabody, a CIA counter-intelligence officer.
Director: Edgar Wright
QUICK THOUGHTS: Here’s another film the vocal online masses are excited to see as a result of a much beloved graphic novel series as well as the fact it’s directed by Edgar Wright (Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz). I don’t know anything about the “Scott Pilgrim” franchise other than what is listed below, but when I interviewed title star Michael Cera he was certainly excited about it.
SYNOPSIS: Meet charming and jobless Scott Pilgrim (Michael Cera). A bass guitarist for totally average garage band Sex Bob-omb, the 22-year-old has just met the girl of his dreams…literally. The only catch to winning Ramona Flowers (Mary Elizabeth Winstead)? Her seven evil exes are coming to kill him. Genre-smashing filmmaker Edgar Wright (Hot Fuzz, Shaun of the Dead) tells the amazing story of one romantic slacker’s quest to power up with love in Scott Pilgrim vs. the World.
Scott Pilgrim has never had a problem getting a girlfriend. It’s getting rid of them that proves difficult. From the girl who kicked his heart’s ass—and now is back in town—to the teenage distraction he’s trying to shake when Ramona rollerblades into his world, love hasn’t been easy. He soon discovers, however, his new crush has the most unusual baggage of all: a nefarious league of exes controls her love life and will do whatever it takes to eliminate him as a suitor.
As Scott gets closer to Ramona, he must face an increasingly vicious rogues’ gallery from her past—from infamous skateboarders to vegan rock stars and fearsomely identical twins. And if he hopes to win his true love, he must vanquish them all before it really is game over.
Director: Martin Scorsese
QUICK THOUGHTS: I guess today’s preview has a lot of films I’m skeptical on as Martin Scorsese’s latest is an adaptation of Dennis Lehane’s 2004 novel, a novel of which I’ve read and was not at all impressed with, especially when it comes to considering it for a feature film. However, it is Scorsese and he’s teaming up with Leonardo DiCaprio for the fourth time and I have loved the previous three, so I’m willing to give it the benefit of the doubt… even if the release date bump to mid-February is a bit of a bad sign.
SYNOPSIS: Laeta Kalogridis’ adaptation of Dennis Lehane’s 2004 novel, in which Ruffalo will play U.S. Marshal Chuck Aule, who travels with his new partner (DiCaprio) to the eponymous Massachusetts island in 1954. As they investigate the disappearance of a patient from a hospital for the criminally insane, they encounter a web of lies, a hurricane and a deadly inmate riot that leaves them trapped on the island.
Director: David Fincher
QUICK THOUGHTS: Adapted by Aaron Sorkin (“The West Wing”) and directed by David Fincher (Seven and Zodiac), those two names are all I need to hear to have enough confidence this story of the Facebook founders is worth watching.
SYNOPSIS: The film is based on the Ben Mezrich novel “The Accidental Billionaires,” focusing on the evolution of Facebook from its 2004 creation on the Harvard campus by sophomore Mark Zuckerberg to a juggernaut with more than 200 million members.
