Wednesday, January 11, 2012

My 2012 Hopefuls. When It Comes To Movies That Is

After a lack luster year in movies that was 2011 we now put our hopes into 2012 and that means a whole new crop of movies I want to hopefully see. So here is my list of my 10 most wants-to-see in theaters.

The movies listed are in no particular order of desire or release date.

SKYFALL
The 23rd installment of the James Bond series.

The movie, supposedly picks up right where “Quantum of Solace” ends. Other than that I don’t know much of what the film is about. But it’s Bond and I’m a huge fan, and since the last two Daniel Craig outings I have highly enjoyed I have a feeling that this one I’ll highly enjoy receive as well.

WORLD WAR Z
Even though I’m pretty much zombied out on the whole Zombie movie, book, TV, comic ect, ect. I am, however, looking forward to this one. But from what I’ve gathered the movie is going to be greatly different from the book (no surprise there when it comes to Hollywood, right?). And what I have read is that it might even resemble a little of the “28 Days”, “Dawn of the Dead” look as in fast moving zombies. It seems that Brad Pitt’s character is now instead of gathering the oral history of the dark zombie days, he is now trying to stop the infection. Will see how this goes and while I’m sure -with Hollywood taking it’s usual liberties when it comes to making books into films- it is going to piss off all the die hard followers of the book. Hell, maybe the powers that be -as in Pitt’s production company- will be right doing with what they are going to do to the story. But in the end I have the feeling that the closest thing to the book will be the title of the movie.

THE DARK KNIGHT RISES
The last film in probably one of the greatest super hero trilogies ever we find Batman eight years removed from the events that took place in “The Dark Knight” where he ceremoniously took the responsibility for the deeds done by District Attorney, Harvey Dent after the accident that turned Dent into Two-Face. Now, upon his return, Batman must discover the truth regarding the enigmatic Selina Kyle (Hathaway) and her link to the terrorist Bane (Hardy) as he pushes Gotham City to it’s limits.

Nolan I guess wasn’t to sure that he was going to come back for a third installment but thankfully he did because I don’t think anyone else could of finished with vision of the whole Dark Knight series that Nolan has put forth. Nolan pulls from the well of Batman Mythology for this go around taking elements from the 1993 comic “Knightfall” as well as 1986’s “The Dark Knight Returns” and 1999’s “No Man’s Land”.

The only real gripe I have with this last film is that none of it was shot in Chicago where the previous two films were shot.

ABRAHAM LINCOLN: VAMPIRE HUNTER
Ah, yes. It’s nice to see Vampires back to doing what they do best: ripping people’s throats out and drinking their blood, and not that sparkly, angst-y, staring like two fucking retards over a cookie shit that we have been plagued with for the last few (long) years. This time around we find that the 16th President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln has a secret identity. That of vampire killer. A role Lincoln gladly excepts after his father reveals to him that not only are vampires real but they had actually killed his grandfather and mother. The film will follow Lincoln from childhood and into his beginnings as a politician and from their into the Presidency (where he meets Edgar Allen Poe) itself leading to his assignation.



RAVEN
Set in the final days of Edgar Alan Poe’s life, the famed author finds himself embroiled in a mystery wrapped around some of his greatest published works as someone is using his words to mirror their murders.

I’m really looking forward to this one as I’m a big Poe fan and his death at the ripe old age of 40 is still one of the greatest mysteries. John Cusack portrays the man who has spawned a thousand horror authors and from what I have heard really captures the essence that is Poe.

March can’t get here fast enough.

CHRONICLE
What do you get when you take the tired format of found footage/POV movie and add with an equally tired and much over down superhero genre? A pretty damn cool looking flick. That’s what.

Three high school friends somehow gain superpowers after they make some sort of discovery down a hole. Not much of a premise I know but what would do if the same thing happen when you were a teenager? Exactly.

Things seem to go from playful pranks as the three find that they are able to do amazing things, but as their powers grow so do the pranks right up to the point that they aren’t really that fun anymore as one of the group takes it to the next level.

As their lives begin to spin out of control so is the bond that combines them, bring them to the point of destruction.

Little bit “X-Men”, a little bit “Cloverfield”, And if Max Landis is anything like his father, John (American Werewolf in London) Landis “Chronicle” should be wild ride.

PROMETHEUS
To say the Ridley Scott is the master of his craft would be an understatement. And when I heard that he was going to do a prequel to “Alien” in no way did think it would suck. Then I started researching the plot, and… from what I have read it’s a little muddled. Not saying I don’t get what he wants to do, but with everything that suppose to go on in “PROMETHEUS” I’m not sure it can be done in just one film. The plot sounds like in could be at least two movies if not an entire new trilogy. But hey, it’s Ridley Scott. The guy that gave us “Blade Runner”.

In case you don’t know the premise for PROMETHEUS” it goes as follows:

The film itself revolves around the Space Jockey creature; as seen in the original film “ALIEN” (1979). When the team of scientists embark on this journey, they get stranded on an Alien world which tests their limits; both mental and physical.

PROMETHEUS” is also largely based on the creation of mankind, life and the Earth. From the recent synopsis publicly released by 20th Century Fox, we can determine roughly that Prometheus involves a team of scientists, "The Company" representatives and robot / synthetics which investigate and search for keys to unlock man's ultimate mystery. But in the process, they threaten the future existence of mankind and are faced with unimaginable horrors.

The Aliens themselves are said to be much larger than the original "Xenomorphs" we are used to. However, their overall construction will be easily noticeable to that of the original Alien canon.


What ever the case I’m sure I’ll dig the flick. Even if most probably won’t


THE CABIN IN THE WOODS
The tagline to this movie is to funny: “If you hear a strange sound outside… have sex”

At first I thought we were going to get the same old same old when it comes to horror movies: Young twenty somethings head out for a weekend of fun and cum at a cabin only to find that bad things happen to them once they are there. But after seeing both the poster and the trailer this time it appears that isn’t going to be the whole case.

SILENT HOUSE
Again we find Hollywood going down the remake path when it comes to when they make movies. And while I am not a huge fan of the remake/reboot genre, some have been well done. So after viewing the trailer for this one and how it’s suppose to be one continuous shot with all the events happening in real time I found myself quite intrigued. That and the fact that this movie is directed by “Open Water’s” Chris Kentis.

“Silent House” takes place it was can be considered a ‘self contained’ haunted house and the entire events that take place in the movie unfold in the 86 minute running time and follows Sarah (Olsen) as she helps her father and uncle as they fix up the old family home in hopes for a quick sale. There’s no power or cell phone reception and more unfortunately for Sarah, her father is over controlling and very bossy where as her uncle is the more over friendly type and likes to leer when she’s around. So Sarah finds that she has to tread carefully around the two especially when she doesn’t understand the tension that surrounds the two brothers. It is a dynamic character between the three as the movie progresses and old memories start to emerge.



DJANGO UNCHAINED
We all know what Quentin Tarantino has done for the Grindhouse style of film making because it seems that every other film that goes straight to DVD is of that genre. So how about the Spaghetti Western? Does it need to be resurrected from the past. Well, no matter what your opinions are about it, pro or con, because it’s coming in the form of “Django Unchained”.

Deep in the South of the 1850’s, dentist turned bounty hunter, King Schultz (Waltz) buys a slave by the name Django (Fox) and uses him to aid in finding bounties. After a successful ride in the carrier of hunting humans for profit, Schultz grants Django his freedom who then hones his bounty hunting skills further with the help of his one time owner until he feels that he is ready to return to the state of Mississippi to find and free his slave wife, Broom Hilda (Washington), from the brutal plantation owner, Calvin Candie (DiCaprio). But of course something doesn’t go to plan (of course, other wise we wouldn’t have a movie, right?) causing to find himself fighting for his life, wife, and to seek vengeance upon the Francophile, Candie.

Where as I was a huge fan of Waltz in Tarantino’s “Inglorious Bastards” I wasn’t so much a fan of the film as I was hoping more that Tarantino was going to follow along the lines of the original Italian/American version of the 70’s. And with “Django Unchained” I’m hoping for Tarantino to go back with what made him famous as a director where he interceded the witty dialogue with the violence instead of just loads and loads of his style of writing that “Bastards” only was. While I do enjoy the way Tarantino writes his dialogue it can be a little over indulgent. I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.

On the fence about:One movie I thought I would really clambering to see was the new Rob Zombie movie “Lords of Salem” But the more I read about the film the more I’m not to sure what it’s going to be.

No comments: