Furious on Film 12.17.09: Coming Soon Part 2

Posted by Arnold Furious on 12.17.2009

Finishing my 2010 preview plus the usual Chantics

Furious on Film 158: Coming Soon Part 2

Finishing my 2010 preview plus the usual Chantics

Last week I talked about the new releases arriving in 2010. This week that rundown continues bringing you news of the forthcoming releases between September and December 2010 plus some other releases that don't have release dates at time of writing. Seeing as most of these films are off in the distant future this column has far fewer trailers than last week. You have my apologies…but not those of the major studios. They want you to be less nosy.

SEPTEMBER

Ben Affleck may have practically destroyed his acting career with a series of lousy roles and poor choices. Also two very public celebrity relationships have made people tired of Affleck's antics. But in Hollywood if people get tired of seeing you…you can always jump behind the camera. Directing isn't for everyone but Affleck's debut Gone Baby Gone was extremely strong. Perhaps Ben has found his true calling? Next up for him as a directing is sophomore effort The Town based on Chuck Hogan's novel. Affleck is set to direct himself along with Blake Lively and Chris Cooper. If you're worried about seeing Ben hanging around in front of camera then go back and check out Hollywoodland where Ben channels his own disenfranchisement with Hollywood into a tragic yet brilliant role as the ‘original' Superman; George Reeves. Not a great movie but Affleck is incredible.

Also in September is Guardians of Ga'Hoole. An animated adventure from director Zack Snyder who's previous work has included 300 and Watchmen. The film stars Jim Sturgess, Hugo Weaving, David Wenham, Helen Mirren and Sam Neill. Sturgess has already described the footage he's seen as "breathtaking". The plot sees a young owl in the middle of a conflict between two groups of owls. Kind of like Duncton Wood or Watership Down. With owls. Promises to be interesting.

OCTOBER

Your Highness promises to be quite the adventure. Danny McBride made a career out of scene stealing and now he's written a movie for himself to star in. Partnered up with a straight-laced James Franco and warrior woman Natalie Portman he's off on an adventure to save a fair maiden (Zooey Deschanel). If he can be bothered. It is hard work after all. Given the fantastical nature of the film it's likely to look like a real-world Shrek and could be one of the year's biggest comedies. If it hits big then Danny McBride is set for a career as an A-lister. Hard to imagine that two years ago!

Another animated film is due to hit in October. Starring Kevin James, Adam Sandler Sylvester Stallone, Judd Apatow, Jon Favreau, Rosario Dawson and Cher it's set in a zoo. Called, appropriately The Zookeeper, it features a cast of loveable animals breaking their vow of speaking human words to help out their hapless but loveable zookeep (Kevin James). Happy Madison doesn't usually make animated films but the success they scored with Bedtime Stories would suggest that Sandler can make a packet by making children's movies. I can believe that. I'm surprised it hadn't occurred to him to make movies directly for kids before seeing as his juvenile man-boy behaviour seemed engineered to that market in the first place.

NOVEMBER

When I heard that Robert Downey Jr was making another comedy I figured he'd have a lot to live up to. Seeing as his last comic role was in black-up for Tropic Thunder where he got Oscar nominated! Then I heard he was teaming up with The Hangover director Todd Phillips. And then I heard the rest of the cast; Zach Galifianakis, Jamie Foxx, Juliette Lewis and Alan Arkin! The plot sees highly-strung Downey Jr having to get a ride from a college slacker in order to get to his child's birth in time. Road trips are usually a good source of mirth and if Zach and Downey Jr have good chemistry they should be on to a winner.

Oobermind is DreamWorks big 2010 movie. Starring Brad Pitt and Will Ferrell plus Tina Fey and Jonah Hill. DreamWorks have three animated movies out in 2010. Shrek 4 and How to Train Your Dragon being the other two. For me, Oobermind, has the potential to be their best movie in quite some time. The titular "Mega"mind (Will Ferrell) is a notorious super-villain who accidentally kills his long-time adversary Metro-Man (Brad Pitt) and is left without a purpose. A Green Goblin without a spider to play with. So he decides to create a new opponent but gets it a bit wrong and his created hero Titan (Jonah Hill) wants to take over the world. Consider me onboard for this one.

Tony Scott & Denzel Washington seem to enjoy each other's company. They've made four movies together. Three of them quite recently. Unstoppable sees a runaway train carrying poisonous gas in danger of ploughing into a major city. Alongside Denzel in this actioner are Chris Pine, Rosario Dawson and Kevin Dunn. The Scott/Washington partnership has been kinda hit & miss but this is a pretty straightforward concept. It shouldn't be difficult to slap together an action movie based on the content. That said, Under Siege 2 was basically the same movie and that sucked.

Love and Other Drugs gets mentioned for two reasons. 1. I think Anne Hathaway is about due for an absolute blow-away acting performance. She's been getting closer and closer with every challenging film she gets. Well, except for Bride Wars. 2. Ed Zwick is a very consistent filmmaker and if he keeps up his recent average this should be a very good film. The plot sees young Jamie Reidy (Jake Gyllenhaal) trying to make his way in the world by selling Viagra during the sex drug boom. Co-stars include Hank Azaria, Judy Greer, Oliver Platt and the unfortunate Gabriel Macht. I say unfortunate because I saw The Spirit a few weeks back.

Oh yeah and there's some movie about a kid wizard. I don't think it'll catch on.

Oh ok, Harry Potter reaches it's conclusion…well "part one" of it's conclusion in 2010. Voldemort has basically taken over Hogwarts and Harry is left with his back to the wall for the finale. The film stars all the usual lot and Jamie Campbell Bower. The Potter series has been very hit and miss for me and I was disappointed that Alfonso Cuaron didn't stick around after making The Prisoner of Azkaban such a solid movie. Goblet of Fire was pretty good too. The rest of the series…so-so. I haven't seen Half Blood Prince yet though so time will tell if David Yates was the right choice to see Harry through to his logical conclusion. By this time next year we should have a pretty good idea of whether it was the right call to put him in charge.

DECEMBER.

The other big franchise based on a kids book is the Chronicles of Narnia. The series seemed doomed after the failure of Prince Caspian. Disney basically bailed on the series but Fox were interested in picking it up for the continuing adventures of the Pevensie children in Narnia. So 2010 sees the release of Voyage of the Dawn Treader. Originally this was planned to be a summer movie but delays in production have knocked it back to Christmas 2010. Former Bond and Gorillas in the Mist director Michael Apted will oversee this one from the director's chair.

And the round out the year December also sees the releases of Tron: Legacy, Jack Black in Gulliver's Travels and Seth Rogen's superhero bow in Green Hornet. He's been working out!

Tron Legacy even has a trailer already. I guess that's the benefit of having a nerd-friendly audience. It looks…odd. I'm not sure why they've decided to re-visit the franchise but clearly some people are excited about it so I'll just shut up and let them enjoy themselves.



With Green Hornet I'm just glad Seth Rogen is doing something different! I hope the script doesn't have any swearing or pot-smoking in it. Rogen seriously needed to just take a big step away from the same old, same old. Big, big chance for him.

Also set for a 2010 release but either without a release date or distributor are the following movies of interest…

The Fighter is Mark Wahlberg's upcoming boxing movie co-starring Christian Bale, Amy Adams and Melissa Leo. Director David O. Russell hasn't done much of note since Three Kings. Or much of anything for that matter. But Three Kings was a really good movie so we know he has a lot of style.



Fish Tank is the latest film from a British director who I've been keeping tabs on. Ever since seeing Andrea Arnold's brilliant Red Road in 2006 I've been patiently waiting for a follow up and here it is. It promises plenty of gritty realism and the problems with growing up in modern Britain. If it's anything like as good as Red Road it'll be an essential watch. Speaking of which, that's exactly what Red Road is for anyone that's not seen it.



Rum Diary is one of my most awaited films of 2010. Being a big fan of Hunter S. Thompson its great to see his only real novel make the translation to the big screen. And who better to do it than Bruce Robinson, director of Withnail & I, and Johnny Depp who already nailed the HST characteristics on Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. Hopefully it'll be a fine tribute to a fallen god in the world of writing.

Remember when Kevin Williamson said that he saw Scream as a 3-part series so if you ever saw a Scream 4 it'd be nothing to do with him? So now in 2010 from the pen of Kevin Williamson comes Scream 4. I love Hollywood!



2010 will also see the much anticipated Scott Pilgrim movie. Starring Michael Cera it's the first Hollywood film from reputatable British director Edgar Wright who made Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz. Of course without Simon Pegg and Nick Frost it's not the dream team but we'll see how he does. The plot sees Scott Pilgrim aiming to win the heart of Mary Elizabeth Winstead. But in order to do so he must defeat her evil 7 previous boyfriends. Co-stars include Kieran Culkin, Chris Evans, Brandon Routh and Jason Schwartzman.

Finally 2010 sees another film from legendary director Terrence Malick. Tree of Life sees a young boy growing up in the Midwest. He at first learns of life's beauty courtesy of his loving mother (Jessica Chastain) but then learns of the horrors of the real world courtesy of his realist father (Brad Pitt). The adult version of the child is played by Sean Penn. It promises to be an acting tour-de-force and hopefully better than Malick's last somewhat overblown film The New World. But that film sure was beautiful and I'm sure this will be too. For a director who averages a movie every 20 years it's nice to see something just 5 years after his last film.

That's 2010. It looks to be a good year at the movies!

CHAN-TASTIC – The Good, The (Not) Bad and the Ugly



The wife and I both enjoy the movies of Jackie Chan. I've seen a LOT of Chan movies over the years but I continue to be amazed at just how many there actually are. So I'll be trying to take a look at one Jackie Chan movie every week for you lucky people. This week however I have three. A good one, one that's not so bad and one that just sucks. This week's Jackie Chan movies are…

Drunken Master

This is one of Jackie's most definitive films. The fight scenes are fantastic and the only downside is the film doesn't really have a cinematic finale. It just feels like some scrap outside a pub. Although Jackie Chan's style in Drunken Master is superb. The drunk fights are great. It also helps that Jackie Chan isn't the be all and end all of kung-fu in Drunken Master. He's a real guy who loses fights to women and old men. Having established the comedy-fu style in Snake in the Eagle's Shadow he followed up with Drunken Master. It's hard to decide which is the better film but both of them helped Chan to crack into the mainstream. Two years later Chan was in Hollywood making Battle Creek Brawl, which isn't a bad film but if you compare it to Drunken Master you can see why Chan's first run in America failed. They tried to tone him down and make the story more prevalent. In Drunken Master Chan tells the story with action and training sequences that show off what he's capable of. At the same time they build characters and personalities. Some of the styles on display are brilliant outside of the drunken stuff especially the "head-fu" where Chan battles a bully with an extremely hard head. Among Chan's early work Drunken Master and Snake in the Eagle's Shadow both work as good examples of the potential Chan had as a filmmaker and action star. He has at times lived up to that potential. Drunken Master & Snake in the Eagle's Shadow are Chan at his purest. Good!



Around The World in 80 Days

A lot of people don't rate this film, which I can completely understand because the first time I tried to sit down and watch it I got about 20 minutes in and it bored the shit out of me. I asked Redje, another Chan fan, what he thought about it and he said he turned it off after about 30 minutes. Maria, my darling wife, wasn't enjoying herself after about 20 minutes. But Around the World in 80 Days is a slow starter. After about 30 minutes the cameo appearances start to kick in. And Around the World in 80 Days has AWESOME cameos. Ahnolt for one. Then Sammo Hung turns up and Jackie gets in a wicked brawl with Daniel Wu, which channels the bench fight from Drunken Master. Meanwhile Steve Coogan is off fighting Maggie Q. The cameos keep on coming as the film progresses and it's actually quite funny and has solid action. But you literally have to survive 30 minutes before the movie finds it's rhythm. The remainder of the film almost seems rushed by comparison because of how much action they cram into it. Of course it got panned for not sticking to the source material but we all know what the story is…how's about a massive kung-fu battle in China instead! Yeah, it's not a perfect film or anything but it's much better than critics gave it credit for. Perhaps those dull opening 30 minutes remained fresh in the mind. That or the ludicrous ‘flying machine' conclusion. Not bad!



Eagle Shadow Fist

People often fail to remember why Jackie Chan's movies became so successful. It wasn't just because of the comedy, although that helped, it was largely because of the quality of the fight scenes. Bruce Lee movies had spawned a tonne of copycats. Most of Jackie's early roles came in cameos in these films. He was in Enter the Dragon in 1973 but also appeared in three other films the same year before grabbing the lead in Little Tiger of Canton. Eagle Shadow Fist is one of the three times he had a smaller role in another film. Production values are extremely poor. There's a bad dub, simplistic kung-fu action. Unimaginative set-pieces and worst of all, the advertised star doesn't get to strut his stuff at all. Simple fact of the matter is the producers realised after Chan got famous that they could make a quick buck by peddling this piece of shit that he made when he was younger. Ugly!

What's in it for Me?

Aka "The Chick Flick & You".

I'm well aware that the vast majority of 411's readership are men. Let's face it; this is a man's website. But I'm sure many of those manly men are often subjected to the horrors of the "chick flick". You all know the kind of movie I'm talking about. It usually stars an actor you'd like to punch in the face and/or a female actor who makes you sick. Until recently I'd quite happily coasted through life avoiding the chick flick. It's never really come up. If I was dating a girl and she wanted to watch a chick flick I'd just avoid it. After all it was never really that important. But now I'm a married man I'm finding the chick flick has invaded my house. There was a Richard Gere movie on TV the other day and all I could do was protest. I couldn't just go and switch it off like I normally would. So I went on 411 and read some quality articles instead. Here in Furious on Film I'd like to take the opportunity to provide some chick flick coverage. Yanno, what's passable and what to completely avoid. This week I have two examples. One to avoid. One to watch if you get stuck in the situation.

First; Bride Wars. Now this should be flagging emergency in your brain right away. The title has the word "bride" in it. For you unmarried men the very word might suggest a bit of a panic. Unless talking about "The Bride" in Kill Bill or Danny McBride's latest movie. Next the cast is headed up by known chick-flicker Kate Hudson. Don't be dragged in by the inclusion of Anne Hathaway. The movie about a wedding that she's really good in is Rachel Getting Married. Don't be fooled by this. The comedy highlights include a tan gone wrong and someone's hair turning a funny colour. Bride Wars, despite including the word "wars" in it's title, is perhaps the very definition of a chick flick. Let her watch this one with her friends. Trust me. You'll be scarred by it's stupidity. Four thumbs down.

Then we have 17 Again. Starring chick flick actor Zac Efron the emergency flags should be going off again. Luckily the producers of 17 Again are able to provide the male viewer with something to keep them amused. Yeah, the story is a re-hash of countless others including Big, but while little Zaccy is still an enormous pain in the ass there is an upside. The upside comes in the form of Thomas Lennon. The geeky grown up friend of Efron's older self Matthew Perry. He's the man-friendly character. The one little Zac has a lightsabre fight with. Yeah, a lightsabre fight. That was easily the best part of the movie. Also Lennon gets to slap Zac and call him a douche. But what about if that's not enough for you? How's about you want to see Zac Efron get his ass kicked? Step forward fellow teen douchebag Hunter Parrish who gets to smack Zac around not once but twice. POW, right in the kisser. The movie is bland and unoriginal but there are enough moments like that to make it tolerable. And for sitting through a Zac Efron movie you get the bargaining posture to make the other half watch something less sissy. Yay! Two thumbs down.

SNOWFLAKE CITY

Seven Pounds ****
Year One **1/2
Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist ***1/2

Seven Pounds is a weepie disguised as a Will Smith movie. But what it does show is that Smith really has quite a large range. One not entirely evident in past films where he seems to substitute "aww, hell no" for acting. Which is fine in action films and he's been good in them. But recently he's been aiming to get a little more grit into his performances. Like The Pursuit of Happyness and I Am Legend. Also in Hancock he put a lot more thought into the main character than was really required. It gave a blockbuster a little more meat than necessary. I like that. In Seven Pounds he's full on into the acting. At first I wasn't convinced. In the opening scene he blubs down the telephone to the emergency services and without the context it's just not a good scene. When it comes around to that scene again later in the film I was fighting back the tears. The difference being that Will Smith had made me care about his character during the 100 minutes or so in between. The modern Will Smith has a lot more going on behind his eyes than the guy who was in Independence Day. I credit him for that.

Year One was billed as a bit of a disappointment but like any Jack Black film it had it's moments. Not quite enough for him to break the rough run he's been on of late though. Michael Cera is getting more than a little samey but his efforts were put to better use in Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist. Those who saw it as a modern day Before Sunrise clearly didn't pay too much attention to that film, which spends a long time on very deep and emotional subjects. Nick & Norah is significantly more lightweight with more puking and nonsense. Still a solid movie. I respect the effort.

Until next time I'm Arnold Furious…and you're not.