2015
2014
2013
4/3
Working For It: After six movies, you know what these movies are about. Action. Fast cars. Vin Diesel talking about family. This has extra stakes attached with the death of Paul Walker in the middle of filming. The Rock, Michelle Rodriguez, Ludacris, Tyrese Gibson, and Jordana Brewster are all back. Jason Statham, Kurt Russell, and Ronda Rousey join along. I for one am very excited because I gave up finding a reason to hate (or explain logically) these movies a long time ago.
Working Against It: Obviously, no one planned on Paul walker's death and it happened in the middle of filming. It would take some truly impressive editing to not make that clunky in the final cut.
Interest Level:As much as anything this April
Working For It: Helen Mirren is a Jewish refugee who goes against the government to reclaim a famous piece of art that was stolen from her family by the Nazis in WWII. It also has Ryan Reynolds and Daniel Bruhl (Remember him? The best part of Rush). This looks like a vintage prestige movie.
Working Against It: Vintage is another world for old. This reminds me a lot of The Railway Man from last year. Both would've been major Oscar-bait a decade (or more) ago. It's also really difficult to make legal proceedings interesting without some more salacious plot points, which this appears to lack.
Interest Level: Virtually none
4/10
Working For It: Another Nicholas Sparks adaptation. This time, it tells the story of two timelines: one is a woman in the present day falling for a studly bull rider; the other is a woman from the 50s (?) falling for a military officer who is an old man where the people in the present live. I'm pretty sure that anyone who plans to see this knew by the time I said "Nicholas Sparks", and that's fine for them.
Working Against It: More so than most of these movies, this is a no-name cast. When Alan Alda is by far the biggest star in the cast, you know that that means people aren't clamoring to be in Sparks adaptations like they were in the days of Rachel McAdams and Channing Tatum*. It certainly doesn't help that this looks as formulaic as could be. Only die-hards could still be excited for this.
Interest Level: About as low as the chance that all the characters survive the movie.
*The Vow was not actually a Nicholas Sparks adaptation apparently**.
**Oh, but The Notebook and Dear John were...They really need to diversify the talent pool a little bit in this genre.
Working For It: Domhnall Gleeson helps Oscar Isaac with an experiment involving the creation of artificial intelligence in the form of an unsettlingly attractive robot played by Alicia Vikander (anyone remember A Royal Affair?). The teaming of Gleeson and Isaac makes this either an Unsung Heroes of 2013 collaboration and a peak at The Force Awakens. Both make this exciting for me. I also remember Alicia Vikander as one of the better parts of the forgettable Anna Karenina. The writer/director also wrote 28 Days Later... and Never Let Me Go, which are promising credentials.
Working Against It: This is the kind of high concept movie that can either been greatly effective (Her) or completely fall apart (Transcendence). With this being a first time Director, I don't have a ton of confidence.
Interest Level: High, if I can find it
Working For It: Juliette Binoche plays a veteran actress hired to be in a remake of a movie she received acclaim for years ago but with the younger Chloe Grace Moretz playing the role that made her famous. Oh, and she might be in love with her assistant, played by Kristen Stewart. It comes from a French director who, while I've never heard of him, is prolific over there, and Stewart won a Cesar award (a French Oscar; the first American woman to do so) for it, which is encouraging.
Working Against It: I can't shake the feeling that this movie is being buried for some reason. It's been in the festival circuit for a while (I think it played in Cannes even) but I don't recall reading any great reviews for it. It's doubtful that I get enough of an idea about it in time to see in theaters (not to mention the unlikelihood that it expands to me anyway).
Interest Level: Middling
Working For It: It's an Australian comedy with Simon Pegg, Teresa Palmer (Warm Bodies), Alice Braga (City of God...anyone?), and a Hemsworth brother (Luke). It involves a hitman, a bit hit, and a lot of double-crossing. More than anything, it looks like lively, fun farce.
Working Against It: This doesn't strike me as particularly original. Immediately, it reminds me of The Big Hit, The Big Bounce, and Hit & Run. None of which are bad movies, merely familiar. I'm not going to dismiss this, but I will assume that it isn't executed well enough to be something special.
Interest Level: I'll look for it streaming
4/17
Working For It: A Russian soldier investigates a series of child murders in Stalin's Russia. It features an impressive cast including Tom Hardy, Gary Oldman, and Noomi Rapace. This is certainly not a setting I've seen before for a thriller.
Working Against It: Based on the trailer, it looks like the period aspects of it swallow up the mystery part. Also mystery thrillers are hard to get right. So many things can go wrong, and in many cases, even good ones aren't very memorable given all the parity in the genre. I'll say this though: the setting, if this turns out to be a strong movie, will set this apart.
Interest Level: Low to diffuse the chance that it lets me down
Working For It: Disney Nature has a new one of these each year in time for [I want to say] Earth Day. This year, it's a documentary about monkeys. I like monkeys. According to IMDB, this is starring Tina Fey. I don't know if that means she's narrating or if she's doing a voice for a monkey for some reason or even just randomly popping up for no reason. Whatever the reason, having her name attached to it excites me about it.
Working Against It: It doesn't excite me enough to actually see this. Documentaries are a tough sell to begin with. Child-geared monkey documentaries with no narrative hook are virtually a deterrent.
Interest Level:Variable based on Tina Fey's involvement
Working For It: You know, Paul Blart: Mall Cop was charming. It wasn't too long. It knew the audience it was targeting. Kevin James committed to it fully. Paul Blart 2 looks to capitalize on all the same things. The director, Andy Finkman, is the right guy for this kind of movie having previously directed movies like Parental Guidance, You Again, and The Game Plan. The Vegas setting ups the stakes appropriately too.
Working Against It: First of all, the first movie was a surprise hit for a reason. I mean, I don't know why it was a hit exactly, but I know why it was a surprise that it was a hit. Based on James' follow-up efforts, I'm not expecting this to match part one. Secondly, I worry that this will have the same problem as Die Hard. The conceit of the first movie is "wrong place, wrong time". For it to happen a second time takes away some of the charm. This doesn't immediately look like it should be franchised into more than the first movie (creatively, that is. I get the financial incentive).
Interest Level: directly proportional to the amount of money it makes
Working For It: It's I Know What You Did Last Summer for the found footage generation. Some kids film an embarrassing video of a classmate who then kills herself. A year later, they all start dying while on a video chat. Not much more to it. If you recognize a single actor in this, good on you. I'm a sucker for found footage movies. Also, despite being transparently aimed at teens, it keeps an R rating, meaning they won't hold any punches (unlike, say, Ouija).
Working Against It: This style of movie has reached a point where the gimmick is bigger than the story. There's a chance this movie is nothing more than a movie executive demanding that someone "make Skype into a horror movie". In fact, it's very likely that that is all the thought that went into it.
Interest Level:Who am I kidding, I'll see you there that weekend
Working For It: The Oscar nominees of the Judd Apatow tribe (James Franco and Jonah Hill) team up in a movie about a disgraced reporter who "befriends" a man in jail for killing his family. It also has Felicity Jones. In other words, the casting director gets me.
Working Against It: The first time I saw the trailer, I spent until the closing seconds waiting for the punchline. I'm physically not ready to see those two in a serious movie like this together. When surrounded by others, sure. As leads together, I can't do it, not yet. It doesn't help that I've heard tepid reviews for it coming out of the festival circuit.
Interest Level: Lower than it should be.
4/24
Working For It: Blake Lively plays a woman who stops aging in the 30s and learns to love again in the present day, with the son of a man she used to love (played by Harrison Ford). This kind of high concept love story has been showing up a lot in recent years (Benjamin Button, The Time Traveler's Wife). I don't think it would take much to make this an easy watch.
Working Against It: Has Blake Lively ever ever led a movie this big? I like her. I've see way more of her movies than I realized before I looked up the IMDB page. I just don't know if she can pull this off. And, there doesn't look to be enough of a movie leftover to salvage if she can't make her part work. There's also some weirdness to the 100+ year old woman falling for a 20-something guy. I guess if it works for vampires though, it can work here.
Interest Level:Higher than it should be.
Working For It: A little boy with magic powers tries to end World War II to get his dad out of fighting in it. I'm not sure if these are literal magic powers or if it's a perception thing like Pan's Labyrinth. Regardless, it looks like it will be high on imagination and heart swelling spectacle.
Working Against It: What's the nicest way to say something looks like a B-movie? Emily Watson and Tom Wilkinson give it some clout, but when was the last time they turned down a movie? Otherwise, it's got Paul Blart, that guy who I just assume is Bill Burr's brother, and the Doritos Girl. Hardly a murderers row.
Interest Level: I mean, no?
Working For It: Nick Kroll moves back to the small town he grew up in and reconnects with his sister, played by Rose Byne. Honestly, I'm nearly obsessed with Rose Byrne enough to see this.
Working Against It: If this sounds familiar, that's because it is. Just last year I can think of This Is Where I Leave You and The Skeleton Twins that sound very similar to this. It's become an indie trope at this point, going back to your childhood home in a small town. I'm pretty tapped out on this type of movie. Perhaps others aren't.
Interest Level: Pretty low despite having Rose Byrne
Working For It: This is a documentary about why comedians are depressed. A large (albeit not diverse) pool of comedians contribute to this and that's all I need to know. I'll see it...
Working Against It: ...at home one night by myself, a glass of bourbon in hand right after I watch The Aristocrats. This is not a theater experience I wish to have.
Interest Level: I won't be in the theater but I will be seeing it.
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