1- ONCE UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOOD: This is Quentin Tarantino's latest, a film about a has-been actor and his stunt double, played by Brad Pitt and Leonardo DiCaprio, in the late sixties during the Manson murders. The actor lives next door to Sharon Tate, hence the connection. The star list is huge: Al Pacino, Margo Robbie as Tate, Kurt Russel, Bruce Dern, Dakota Fanning, Damian Lewis, Timothy Olyphant, Lena Dunham. So far, the plot hasn't exactly been revealed. Which is kind of a shame because by the time the film finally hits U.S. theaters after a probable Cannes premiere every secret will be spoiled. But I'm curious; will this be like the rewrite of history that Inglorious Basterds was and we'll have Brad Pitt and DiCaprio hunting down and killing the Manson family members? And I think that sense of mystery is mostly why this is such an anticipated film. It's stars are fictional characters so this isn't strictly a Manson film. Tarantino will obviously never make another great film like Pulp Fiction, but at least he's one of the more entertaining and interesting filmmakers out there. I'm really curious if the studio let him pay big bucks for some of the rare songs off The Beatle's White Album. If I know Tarantino, "The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill" will be making an appearance.
2- STAR WARS: EPISODE IX: There's no title or trailer yet to this, the final installment in the new trilogy. J.J. Abrams is back on board as director, though, which is a good thing since The Force Awakens was better than The Last Jedi. The problem with this film is that they killed off all of the big stars like Luke and Han and Lea won't be in it for long since Carrie Fisher died in real life. That means we're left with the story of Rey vs. Kylo Ren, which, let's face it, isn't all that exciting. But J.J. Abrams and a massive budget should produce a fun tale. Let's hope it ends on a high note.
3- SPIDER-MAN: FAR FROM HOME: So where is he? France? Who cares? It's fucking Spider-Man, the second best super hero (Batman, obviously, is the first). What we do know is that this is the second entry in the Tom-Holland-as-a-high-school-Peter-Parker series and that Jake Gyllenhaal is Mysterio. I loved the first film in this series. It was super fun and action packed and had surprises and was funny. This is what comic book movies should be: fun, not dour like the Avengers films of late.
4- IT: CHAPTER 2: I admit it: I didn't even really enjoy the first It film that came out in 2017 that much. I forget why, but I did read the book right before I saw the movie...so perhaps I didn't like how much they cut out. I think I was also angry that the best part, the clown, wasn't even in it that much, and that they resorted to lame special f/x for a lot of the supposed, "scary" monster bits. This sequel is the kids all grown up and visiting Derry again to battle Pennywise as adults. Bill Hader, James McAvoy, and Jessica Chastain star in this.
5- GLASS: There really isn't much better than going to see the latest M. Night Shymalan film on opening night in a packed, rowdy theater. While his movies usually never turn out great, they always entertain and surprise. And with Split, he seemed to finally get his mojo back after selling his soul and making The Last Airbender and After Earth. His latest, Glass, is the third part of his super hero trilogy that started with Unbreakable, a film I didn't all that much cared for. Samuel L. Jackson and Bruce Willis are back from Unbreakable and James McAvoy and Anya-Taylor Joy are back from Split. I guess this will sort of be like a typical hero vs. villains super hero story? Expect twists, even dumb ones, as usual, and this should be as stupid and as wild as all of Shymalan's features, just how we like them.
6- THE GOLDFINCH: Donna Tartt's mega hit book was one of the best books I've read. Making the 700 plus page epic into a two hour film is, quite obviously, impossible. It's too bad they didn't make this as an HBO mini-series or something, although it doesn't really matter; the book was so great no film will ever touch it. What the film does have going for it is that while Tartt's writing is great, so is the story. It's a hell of a page turner with a fantastic opening sequence and such exotic locales as Vegas after the mortgage crisis and eventually Amsterdam. The film stars Ansel Elgort, Nicole Kidman, and Sarah Paulson. It was directed by Brooklyn's John Crowley. I think it'll be pretty hard to fuck this one up.
7- GODZILLA 2: KING OF THE MONSTERS: Remember how dumb Garth Evans' Godzilla was? Godzilla turned out to be a good guy fighting other monsters when all we really wanted to see was Godzilla destroying cities? Well looking at this title I'm guessing it's more of the same...but I'm still a sucker for mega-budget, disaster, sci-fi, monster epics. Who isn't? This one stars the girl from Stranger Things and the Nordic vampire from True Blood.
8- THE NEW KING OF COMEDY: This is the new Stephen Chow film, a man that is definitely an acquired taste if there ever was one. Case in point: his movies are always the highest grossing films in China, the world's most populated country, yet most Americans have no idea who the hell Stephen Chow is. Even Jackie Chan is famous in the U.S. these days yet Chow probably never will be. He's written/directed/starred in some classics, though, like Shaolin Soccer, Journey to the West, and Kung-Fu Hustle. I even loved his last feature, The Mermaid. Chow is basically a stupid comedian. The comedy is dumb, silly, ridiculous, yet wonderful. The New King of Comedy is a sequel to his '09 feature and is basically about bad actors. Should make a billion dollars and be hilarious and you'll never even know it exists.
9- ZOMBIELAND 2: I put the first Zombieland on my Best of 2009 list (it came in #7). Ten years is a long time and I vaguely remember it (didn't Bill Murray play himself?). But certainly I loved it for some reason and the whole crew is back for a sequel. Director Ruben Fleischer hasn't done too much of anything good lately (he directed the poorly reviewed Venom last year but did make the entertaining 30 Minutes or Less in 2011), but I love zombie movies and Woody Harrelson and Emma Stone and Jesse Eisenberg are always great. The plot involves "evolved" zombies. So, what, they fly now?
10- JOKER: Joaquin Phoenix, Hollywood's best actor, is playing The Joker. That's really all you need to know. This movie doesn't make any sense of course. This is a DC film. The Joker in the DC films is Jared Leto. They didn't re-cast him, this is just a separate film from the Suicide Squad universe for no reason. Don't worry, nobody understands the logic behind this. Robert DeNiro also stars and the director is the guy that made The Hangover. I suppose this will either be awesome or awful, and so far it doesn't sound or look like the usual Wonder Woman or Aquaman DC films. Who fucking knows? Phoenix should give a performance for the ages, so there's that.
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