Before I get to that, a little bookkeeping is in order. I'm going to change things up a little. I'm going to do away with the Lock status and Odds I'll See a movie. Recently, the Locks have been unreliable as of late (Hot Tub Time Machine 2, anyone?). The odds have never made sense. They are completely made up and unreliable anyway. Instead, I'm going to try out a more broad "Interest Level". I'm not sure If I'll standardize it at some point (or how). For now, I'll try to keep it simple. As always though, each week I will order things from most to least likely to see.
2015
2014
2013
3/6
Working For It: From writer/director Neill Blomkamp, of District 9 fame, this is the story of a robot in a not too distant future who learns how to think and feel (Not unlike Short Circuit). It's a neat, somewhat familiar idea, that looks to have a lot of the things that made District 9 so appealing. Hugh Jackman, Sigourney Weaver, and Dev Patel lead a good cast.
Working Against It: Blomkamp is also of Elysium fame. Where the Apartheid commentary of District 9 was well done, the 99% commentary of Elysium was nonsense in its handling. I like that Blomkamp has ideas like this on his mind, but his record is spotty enough to give me pause.
Interest Level: Cautiously very curious.
Working For It: Vince Vaughn, Dave Franco, and Tom Wilkinson are a small company looking to finish a big deal in Europe. From there, hijinks ensue. It's a simple enough premise. Those three are a ideal Odd Couple (Odd Trio?) grouping. It's like the idea for The Internship was adapted by the Eurotrip guys and given the freedom of an R-rating.
Working Against It: The ads for it are ubiquitous enough that if I heave to hear Dave Franco say "I've never been on a business trip before", I'm going to lose it. In that respect, there is a "trying too hard" element to the promotion of it that leaves me wondering what they are trying to hide. The director is famous for Delivery Man, with Vaughn, which was just a remake of a French-Canadian movie he made, so I don't know what to expect behind the camera. Lately, I've been getting played out on Vaughn as a lead comedic presence. I don't dislike him. I just haven't seen anyone try something new with him in a while.
Interest Level: Low, but willing to change with good word of mouth.
Working For It: Returning Maggie Smith, Judi Dench, Bill Nighy, and Dev Patel (big week for him) and bringing in Richard Gere, this is a sequel to the quite 2011 counter-programming hit. I remember the word "charming" being used a lot regarding the first movie and it's not the kind of franchise I expect to change much in that regard.
Working Against It: It's a pleasant looking movie of which I'm far out of the target demographic. I can go ahead and say that there's no chance I'll have seen the first movie before this comes out, which is likely to prevent me from seeing this.
Interest Level: Slight, with too much otherwise hindering it.
Working For It: Luke Wilson and Lake Bell are an American family abroad trying to stay alive amidst a coup that puts non-natives in danger. Pierce Brosnan is in there, although I'm not sure if he's an ally or the villain. It's from the people who made Quarantine, and I did like that movie.
Working Against It: I don't know much about it. I've seen no advertisements for it. The cast looks like it's made up of whoever was available at the time. It's less that I think it will be bad, and more that I think it will be wholly unremarkable.
Interest Level: About as small as the theater count and box office returns for this will be.
3/13
Working For It: Disney is back with another live-action adaptation/retelling/reimagining of a classic story. I can't fault their effort from the look of things. Kenneth Brannaugh is directing. The cast is filled with names both familiar (Helena Bonham Carter, Cate Blanchett), less familiar (Hayley Atwell, Holliday Granger), and familiar mainly to fans of the right shows (Lily James, Richard Madden). It's certain to be a pretty movie with a hundred million dollar sheen on it.
Working Against It: Disney has been dipping into this live-action well for a while. At best (Maleficent) they've been fine. At worst (Alice in Wonderland) they've been not awful. They have yet to produce a great movie out of these and one begins to wonder if they will only serve to tarnish the brand down the line.
Interest Level: Very interested but worried.
Working For It: Liam Nesson has to kill a bunch of people to protect his family. Unlike some of his similar movies, it looks like they hired a real cast around him, including Ed Harris, Vincent D'Onofrio, Joel Kinnaman, and Genesis Rodriguez. It's impressive how many of these movies he can churn out per year.
Working Against It: I wonder why Nesson is so committed to making this kind of movie. He can't need the money. Is no one offering him any other roles? Is he just having a lot of fun making these? Whatever the reason may be, the marketing for this one isn't trying very hard, relying on the same Taken strategy (advertise only one scene and hope it's enough to get people's interest) to greatly diminished effect. Also, it's from the director of Non-Stop. I hated Non-Stop.
Interest Level: After Non-Stop and Taken 3, almost none.
3/20
Working For It: It's the sequel to last year's Divergent. Shailene Woodley is back. That's enough for me. The first movie left off on a good cliffhanger so it's ridiculous to assume I won't be back. A supporting cast including Miles Teller, Kate Winslet, and Naomi Watts is just gravy.
Working Against It: Not a whole lot. I am getting tired of all these Young Adult dystopia adaptations. Divergent was in the upper-tier of those though. Unless this one falls off a cliff, narratively speaking, then I'm in until the end.
Interest Level: Highly interested
Working For It: Starring Sean Penn, Idris Elba, and Javier Bardem. It's a crime thriller in which Penn is an army veteran with PTSD traveling through Europe, trying to clear his name. I mean, with those three front and center, it's hard to not be a little curious.
Working Against It: This sounds like the Taken formula on crack. Penn isn't a guarantee of quality. People just tend to forget his questionable projects (This Must Be the Place anyone?). The screenwriter's last movie credit was for The Avengers. No, not that Avengers. This Avengers. The director* is best known for directing Taken, but hasn't done much else. There's a possibility for this to become something of note, albeit remote.
Interest Level: Quite low
*I swear, I wrote the Taken comment before I looked this part up.
Working For It: From what I can gather, it's like a religious Love, Actually. It's written by the same guy as God's Not Dead, so you kind of know what to expect. Telling a movie with interlocking narratives is a quic way to my heart and I think it's nice that the religious sub-genre isn't sticking too rigidly to a formula.
Working Against It: Once these movies very directly go into the god stuff, I'll admit that I'm turned off. I'm sorry, but it's true. The cast is weak for a theatrical release. It's a first time director. The screenplay credits of the writer are unremarkable, except, perhaps for God's Not Dead (which no doubt benefited financially from a direct title).
Interest Level: About as low as my desire to go to mass.
3/27
Working For It: Kevin Hart teaches disgraced businessman, Will Ferrell how to be tough before being sent to prison. It's a simple premise with a lot of opportunity for jokes. Ferrell inhabits a specific comedic universe that it looks like Hart is trying to fit into. I'm more than a little exited to see Alison Brie in the credits (how is she not a bigger star by now?).
Working Against It: Sadly, Ferrell has had more misses than hits lately. Hart hasn't connected with me in any of his leading roles yet. I'm open to this being really good, but it has the look of something that starts really funny and ends weak*.
Interest Level: Higher than it should be
* The classic "comedy movie that remembers it has to have a plot in the third act". For good examples of this, watch almost ANY comedy movie ever.
Working For It: Writer/director of Frances Ha and Greenberg, starring Ben Stiller, Naomi Watts, Amanda Seyfried, and Adam Driver (of Girls and soon Star Wars fame). As far as indie movies go, that's great credentials. I don't know a lot about the plot, but it sounds generic enough (a couple with marital problems) that knowing it's from Noah Baumbach tells me most of what I need to know.
Working Against It: It doesn't help that it's certain to have a limited expansion. It'll matter less what I'm scheduled to watch in March than in April or later. I'm not a big enough fan of Baumbach yet that I can't wait to catch it online in some capacity rather than see it immediately.
Interest Level: Pretty high, but not in a "gets me to a theater" way.
Working For It: A Dreamworks movie about an alien from another planet hiding on Earth from his own people. With Jim Parsons as the voice of this alien, Oh, it's hard not to assume he will be lovable. Employing a diverse voice cast including Rihanna, Steve Martin, J-Lo, and Badger Matt Jones, this should be welcome by families to end the animated movie drought of the weeks preceding it.
Working Against It: There's always potential for a How To Train Your Dragon to surprise me, but Dreamworks largely underwhelms me. Often, they have an upside of being "easily watchable" and not much more. The onus is on Home to prove to me that it's anything more, fair or not.
Interest Level: Mildly interested
Working For It: It's a period piece starring Jennifer Lawrence and Bradley Cooper set in the Great Depression about a man with a timber empire. I'm interested in this based on the strength of the two leads.
Working Against It: I haven't heard of the director. The screenwriter hasn't gotten a script produced in a decade (Alexander, oh boy). Just looking at the posters makes me think this will take itself entirely too seriously.
Interest Level: Tepid and that much is generous.
No comments:
Post a Comment