Saturday, April 4, 2009

Top 30 most anticipated movies for 2009

That's right, 30. I'm so excited for this year I couldn't confine the list to 20.

#30:Terminator salvation
Dir:McG!!
The new Terminator movie shouldn't be exciting, due to the involvement of one McG. However, the addition of Christian Bale gives me hope, and the trailers set this world up as being dark, destructive, and dystopia in it's finest. Plus, there's a huge robot. That's enough to keep me satisfied for 2 hours.

#29:Let The Right One In
Dir:Tomas Alfredson
This is a bit of a cheat putting this one on, because while Let the Right One in was one of the most acclaimed movies of last year, it took it's time getting back over the Atlantic. Slated to release here next weekend, Let the Right One In follows the story of a boy named Oskar, who is bullied at school. He befriends a vampire, called Eli. This is apparently a movie that turns the vampire movie on it's head, something the big hit movie Twilight didn't do last year, with a dark, twisted tale of friendship and bloodsucking. I am dying to see this.

#28:Sherlock Holmes
Dir:Guy Ritchie
I may be the only person in the world who liked Rocknrolla, but I did. Ritchie's visual style was fantastic, and it was just fun. It gets me excited for this, as I think Ritchie can pull off something like this with a good script. You add Robert Downey Jr. to the mix, as well as one of my favorite actors, Mark strong(also in Rocknrolla) and I'm there.

#27:Citizen Game/Crank:High Voltage
Dir:Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor
Speaking of fun, It's a tie!! But you should forgive, as these are two movies directed by Brian Taylor and Mark Neveldine promise to counter balance the death and destruction we should get in Terminator by giving us two over the top action movies. Crank: High voltage follows Chev Chelios(now winner of the greatest name of 2009 competition, played by Jason Statham) as his heart gets taken and replaced by an electrical one(!!) which means he's gotta electrocute himself to stay alive. Citizen Game, is about a multi-player role playing game where actual people are being controlled by kids at home on their computers. one player, Kable, wants out. Violence ensues. and the only person who can out man the Stat? That's right, Gerard butler. Can't wait.

#26:In The Loop
Dir:Armando Iannucci
A comedy about war, Armando Iannucci's debut feature length film is trying to recreate the success of something like Dr. Strangelove. and with great lines like ""Climb the mountain of Conflict"? You sound like Nazi Julie Andrews." it could very well do.

#25:500 Days of Summer
Dir:Mark Webb
Rom-com. Gordan-Levitt. Deschanel. Sounds good.

#24:Sugar
Dir:Anna Boyden and Ryan Fleck
Anna Boyden and Ryan Fleck, the writer/director pairing of Half Nelson, seem to be encroaching on the same territory as they did with Half Nelson, covering the story of one Miguel "Sugar" Santos, a Dominican baseball start trying to make it big in the states, and that's fine by me.

#23:Taking Woodstock
Dir:Ang Lee
I don't love Ang Lee. I love Brokeback Mountain, but Crouching Tiger, the other film of his I have seen, didn't captivate me the way it captivated everyone else. However, I don't know a lot about the festival of Woodstock, and with a cast containing Emile Hirsch, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, and my favorite Paul Dano, I'm excited.

#22:Avatar
Dir:James Cameron
The hype for this movie is so huge, that I can't help but be wary. However, I know that James Cameron knows what he's doing, and hope he can make another Terminator and not another Titanic. but I'm still wary.

#21:The Lovely Bones
Dir:Peter Jackson
Sorry FLY, #21 is not, in fact, Hannah Montana. It is Peter Jackson's The Lovely Bones. I know Mr. Jackson mostly for his blockbuster work, such as Lord of the Rings and King Kong, so I don't know how well he can handle this material, but we'll see.

#20:Brothers
Dir:Jim Sheridan
Let's get this out of the way first, I am frightened to death about this cast. Gyllenhaal, Mcguire, and Portman is a trio no director should ever want. But It's Jim Sheridan, who directed two films I love (In America and In the Name of the Father) and the story is interesting, so I will look over the cast. Hopefully this will work.

#19:The Brothers Bloom
Dir:Rian Johnson
Speaking of brothers, I've got the Rian Johnson movie on here. While the trailer does nothing for me and the cast, while good, also does not a lot for me( great job casting Kikuchi, not sure about Brody) but it's Johnson, how I think made a modern masterpiece with Brick, so I can't help but be excited.

#18:44 Inch Chest
Dir:Malcolm Venville
the reason I'm looking forward to this can be described easily, Ray Winstone. A brilliant actor, I always rush out to see Winstone in anything, which gets me excited for this. It helps that John Hurt, Tom Wilkinson, and Ian Mcshane are involved, and that the few images I've seen makes my image of the film look brilliant, but we'll see.

17:Fantastic Mr.Fox
Dir:Wes Anderson
I might as well confess now, I have never seen a Wes Anderson movie. and the cats, with Cate Blanchett, George Clooney, and Jason Schwartzmann is good, but doesn't excite me. The only reason this is so high, is the book. Probably my favorite Roald Dahl novel, I am very excited to see this played out on the screen.

16:A Serious Man
Dir:Joel and Ethan Coen
I am a huge fan of the Coen's, but it's no surprise that they aren't up to their usual standard lately. I was slightly underwhelmed by No Country, and really underwhelmed by Burn After Reading, but I have high hopes that they can redeem themselves(then again I always have those high hopes.) The story of a rabbi whose life is unraveling looks interesting, especially since the cast is made of complete unknowns.

15:Public Enemies
Dir:Michael Mann
Michael Mann, doing the story of John Dillinger, a notorious bank robber who, well, robbed banks in Chicago in the 1930's. Johnny Depp is John Dillinger. Christian Bale is Melvin Purvis, the man on his trail. The trailer is pretty awesome. I'm excited.

14:The Informant
Dir:Steven Soderbergh
Hehe. Matt Damon is fat in this movie.
I have loved Soderbergh ever since I saw Che last year, and hopefully this, the story of an informant in a large but possibly illegal corporation, keeps up his winning streak.

13:Up
Dir:Pete Docter
There's a house flying through the air on balloons. There's a dog that has a collar which allows him to speak. There's a grumpy old man. But most of all, there's Pixar.

12:Up in the Air
Dir:Jason Reitman
Jason Reitman, director of Juno, returns for another quirky comedy about a man with a goal of picking up frequent flier miles. I am not so sure about George Clooney, an actor I like but don't love, in the lead role, but Juno alumni Jason Bateman is also involved, and I place my trust that Reitman can pull this material off.

11:Biutiful
Dir:Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu
While I will cop to having never seen Amores Perros, but I love 21 Grams and Babel holds a special place in my heart being the first film I saw as a film fan(i.e. not animated Kiddy fare) You add the great Javier Bardem, which, having seen No Country for Old Men recently, is a brilliant casting choice.

10:Shutter Island
Dir:Martin Scorsese
I can just go to #9 right?

9:Tree of Life
Dir:Terrence Malick
Another very obvious choice, Terrence Malick's fifth film, starring Sean Penn and Brad Pitt, seems to be another ambitious movie. About trees. I think we all know what to expect from this. However, I do like both leads and, Malick does shoot nature very well.

8:Broken Hugs
Dir:Pedro Almodovar
Pedro Almodovar's new film is always an occasion, cause you never know what he's gonna come up with. Reuniting with Volver star Penelope Cruz, for a movie that according to imdb, has no plot, should be very much like Almodovar's other films. Which is fine by me.

7:Inglourious Basterds
Dir:Quentin Tarantino
While my enthusiasm for Quentin Tarantino is not as large as many people, I still love most of his films. This one, about the "bastards" a group of US soldiers who went around killing and brutally scalping Nazis in occupied France, is a script that Tarantino had been working on even before he made the Kill Bill movies. I hope that means "amazingly perfect" rather then "I couldn't finish it because It's impossible to do right but I'm doing it anyways" but I have my hopes. As a side note, one of my favorite actors, Michael Fassbender(who gave the best performance of last year as Bobby Sands in Hunger) is in a small role in this.

6:Green Zone
Dir:Paul Greengrass
Inglourious Basterds, pretty much considered by most film fans the most anticipated movie of this year, #7. Green Zone, a movie that's fallen of the map for most people, #6. While there hasn't been any movies that have gotten the Iraq war subject right yet, I think that if anyone can do it, it's Greengrass. I love the two Bourne movies he made, Supremacy and Ultimatum, and can't wait for this, an adaptation of the book Imperial Life in the Emerald City, by Rajiv Chandrasekaran.

5:Thirst
Dir:Park Chan-Wook
The other vampire film on my list, Thirst is continuing the trend that Let the Right One in started, that of reviving the vampire movie. Park Chan-Wook, director of Oldboy, is one who I love, and the trailer looks absolutely brilliant.

4:The Road
Dir:John Hillcoat
I don't think there's been a better pairing of Director, actor and material then this. The Road, a post-apocalyptic novel about a man and a boy walking down the road, seems to fit the style of John Hillcoat, best known for his apocalyptic western The Proposition. and I'm not sure I can think of a better fit for the man then Viggo Mortensen.

3:The Limits of Control
Dir:Jim Jarmusch
I'm kind of surprised this made it all the way to #3, but That's what it did. I have been in love with both Jarmusch and star Isaach de Bankhole ever since I saw Ghost dog, and the trailer is amazing. The rest of the cast is amazing as well, with John Hurt, Tilda Swinton, Gael Garcia Bernal, and the great Bill Murray.

2:Adoration
Dir:Atom Egoyan
Another choice that's strangely high, maybe because I have no idea what this movie is about. The trailer doesn't help at all. Is it a terrorist plot, is it about this kid, is he making it all up? I am dying in anticipation for this.

1:Where the Wild Things Are
Dir:Spike Jonze
My number one, however, is an obvious choice. Take Spike Jonze, easily one of the greatest directors working today, add one of the most beloved children's books ever made, plus a great cast, and the movies already great. And yet this movie looks like so much more then the sum of it's parts.

1 comment:

  1. i doubt if any other auteurs are as depressing as moi

    ReplyDelete