Spring Movie Preview - March/April
As of yesterday, it's officially spring. But since I live in Boston, and it is probably going to continue to be cold as hell for an extended period of time, I'd prefer to spend as much time as possible indoors... perhaps in theaters? Let's take a week-by-week look at what spring has to offer. In most cases I'm going to pick the standout per week, but in some cases I might do two. Release schedule courtesy of ComingSoon.net, and I am sticking to wide release dates, not limited or NY/LA. Title links are going to jump to IMDb listings.
THIS WEEK: March 24
INSIDE MAN
The latest Spike Lee joint seems to be a bit more mainstream than his usual fare, but that little touch of Hollywood looks to be creating something interesting. He's putting Denzel Washington and Clive Owen on opposing sides of a bank job that Owen has masterminded. When the "perfect heist" goes to hell, he's forced to take hostages, and Washington is the detective who has to talk him out of doing anything crazy. Sounds pretty typical. The interesting twist comes from Jodie Foster, playing a power broker for unknown parties that apparently have an interest in how this situation plays out. This one has a kickass cast, with a couple of big supporting names as well (Christopher Plummer and Willem Dafoe both show up). I just recently had my first real exposure to Spike Lee watching Do the Right Thingfor a class. This is CLEARLY a different movie, but the previews look very, very promising. It's become apparent that the cop movie is not old and tired - 16 Blocks and the preview for this one make that clear. You just need to put good people behind it to start, and this one looks to be off and running.
Website: InsideMan.net
MARCH 31
Ice Age 2: The Meltdown
I don't need this movie. What I need is an hour and a half of the sabertooth squirrel Scrat trying to get ahold of that damned acorn. Save the Happy Feet promos, the Ice Age 2 teasers make me laugh harder than most other trailers out right now. But I suppose to get my Scrat fill, I'll have to deal with the rest of the cast as well, which probably isn't as bad as I make it sound. I enjoyed the first one, and knew a sequel was more or less a given, but I still don't see it as a good replacement for the 30-minute Scrat TV series that we all really want. But the voice cast is good (Denis Leary, Ray Romano and John Leguizamo return), with a lot of fun people in the supporting cast as well, so all I can do is hope for some funny moments to balance out the rest, and fill in the non-Scrat time.
Website: IceAgetheMovie.com
Slither
I can't quite decide on this one. I sort of like the trailers... except that I've seen one trailer that pushes this as a pretty extreme gross-out horror movie, and another that tries really hard to sell it as a gross-out comedy in horror clothes. So we know one thing - it's gross... which could be fun. Aliens in the form of little maggot-like critters invade a little rural town, turning the residents into zombies in all manner of disgusting fashion. The survivors, led by Nathan Fillion and Elizabeth Banks, have to try and find a way to end the infestation, or get the hell out. I think this might be a nice, welcome break from the string of "real" horror movies that seem to come out every weekend, because there is no indication from any of the promotional stuff I've seen that this movie takes itself seriously on any level. I've also got some loyal to Fillion after his "Firefly"/Serenity days, so that might push me over the edge and get me into this one... but we'll have to see if that extends to White Noise 2 later this year.
Website: SlitherMovie.net
And yes, Sharon Stone's breasts come out to play this week as well, and more power to her for it. I just have no interest.
APRIL 7
Lucky Number Slevin
Another film with a pretty ridiculous cast that should make it fun to watch. Josh Hartnett is the title character Slevin, who gets caught in the middle of a mob war being waged between Morgan Freeman's gang and Ben Kingsley's gang... which I think would be a sweet movie without being fiction. Mix in Stanley Tucci and Bruce Willis as people observing Slevin for different reasons (a cop and a hitman, respectively), AND throw in Lucy Liu as a scenario-muddling love interest, and this is one hell of a start. I've only seen one of the director's films (The Reckoning) which was OK, if a little standard. What that did prove is that he knows how to get good performances out of good people, or how to leave them alone to let those performances develop. I'm more and more a fan of the quirky crime films - Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang and The Matador stick in my head very fondly - and hopefully my general disinterest in all things Josh Hartnett will be disproved and dismantled.
Website: Slevin-Movie.com
APRIL 14
Nothing of any real interest this week. I refuse to write about Scary Movie 4, because that's just unnecessary and ridiculous. The only thing other than that is The Wild, an animated adventure with uninspiring trailers. The voice cast is an interesting mix, though. Kiefer "Jack Bauer" Sutherland heads it up, with Jim Belushi, Janeane Garofolo and Eddie Izzard backing him up. Is it bad that I even think the lion in The Wild is picking up a little Jack Bauer personality? I love Jack Bauer.
APRIL 21
This is probably the best week of this two month period, with a little something for everyone.
American Dreamz
There is nothing more fun to watch than Hugh Grant sleazing it up. The dirtier and meaner he is, the more fun he is to watch. This blatant rip on reality competition shows (and "American Idol" directly) looks to be poking fun at everyone involved, just like a good satire should. Paul Weitz has a good track record for this kind of funny, since he hit the nail pretty squarely on the head in the original American Pie. He got the best out of Hugh Grant in About a Boy, and he can actually be heartwarming and touching a la In Good Company. He pulled the best from all those casts for this one, revolving around an out of touch president (Dennis Quaid) who goes on the "Idol"-esque singing competition to prove he's not crazy. Add in Willem Dafoe in a REALLY funny Dick Cheney costume, Mandy Moore as the star contestant, Jennifer Coolidge and a handful of other people who have worked with Weitz before, and even if this one misfires, there is bound to be some pretty amazing comedic moments in it. I will drop the money just to see the lead-in and follow-up to some moments from the trailer - the President/VP combo of Quaid and Dafoe is sheer brilliance.
Website: AmericanDreamzMovie.com
Silent Hill
That's right. Christophe Gans is going to prove that video game adaptations don't have to suck. And neither do non-remake horror movies. I admit, the survival-horror-videogame adaptations have not been what most people would call "good" (if you saw Alone in the Dark, get off of my blog right now!), but I put any and all faith I have in Gans. He directed Le Pacte de loups (Brotherhood of the Wolf for everyone else), which is easily my favorite foreign film of all time, and pretty high on the general all time list as well. He has a nice, varied and experienced primary cast to work with in Radha Mitchell, Sean Bean, Deborah Unger and Laurie Holden, and some of the pictures I've seen popping up have been downright freaky. Also, the poster is perfect AND the trailer is nice and ambiguous - it gives you the mood and feel of the movie without really giving anything away. Gans is one helluva storyteller, especially visually, and I can't wait to see what he pulls out for this, his first full-blown Hollywood production. I can only hope Mark Dacascos cameos somewhere.
Website: WelcometoSilentHill.com
Honorable mention this week goes to The Sentinel, because Kiefer Sutherland will never play anyone but Jack Bauer with a different name ever again. And he's hunting Michael Douglas.
APRIL 28
Another largely unimpressive week, despite quite a few releases. The most promising is...
Akeelah and the Bee
Who said that inspirational movies had to be about sports? This one follows an 11-year old girl from South LA who enters into the National Spelling Bee, despite a doubtful mother and educational disadvantages. After Spellbound from a few years ago, I suppose it was only a matter of time until a fictional account came out, but this one looks like it could be a winner. It's got a good supporting cast in Angela Bassett and Laurence Fishburne, and Keke Palmer herself has a good list of credits for a 13-year old.
Website: AkeelahandtheBee.com
That's what I've got so far. Hopefully May will go up before May actually arrives, and that could lead into a summer preview too! Enjoy!
THIS WEEK: March 24
INSIDE MAN
The latest Spike Lee joint seems to be a bit more mainstream than his usual fare, but that little touch of Hollywood looks to be creating something interesting. He's putting Denzel Washington and Clive Owen on opposing sides of a bank job that Owen has masterminded. When the "perfect heist" goes to hell, he's forced to take hostages, and Washington is the detective who has to talk him out of doing anything crazy. Sounds pretty typical. The interesting twist comes from Jodie Foster, playing a power broker for unknown parties that apparently have an interest in how this situation plays out. This one has a kickass cast, with a couple of big supporting names as well (Christopher Plummer and Willem Dafoe both show up). I just recently had my first real exposure to Spike Lee watching Do the Right Thingfor a class. This is CLEARLY a different movie, but the previews look very, very promising. It's become apparent that the cop movie is not old and tired - 16 Blocks and the preview for this one make that clear. You just need to put good people behind it to start, and this one looks to be off and running.
Website: InsideMan.net
MARCH 31
Ice Age 2: The Meltdown
I don't need this movie. What I need is an hour and a half of the sabertooth squirrel Scrat trying to get ahold of that damned acorn. Save the Happy Feet promos, the Ice Age 2 teasers make me laugh harder than most other trailers out right now. But I suppose to get my Scrat fill, I'll have to deal with the rest of the cast as well, which probably isn't as bad as I make it sound. I enjoyed the first one, and knew a sequel was more or less a given, but I still don't see it as a good replacement for the 30-minute Scrat TV series that we all really want. But the voice cast is good (Denis Leary, Ray Romano and John Leguizamo return), with a lot of fun people in the supporting cast as well, so all I can do is hope for some funny moments to balance out the rest, and fill in the non-Scrat time.
Website: IceAgetheMovie.com
Slither
I can't quite decide on this one. I sort of like the trailers... except that I've seen one trailer that pushes this as a pretty extreme gross-out horror movie, and another that tries really hard to sell it as a gross-out comedy in horror clothes. So we know one thing - it's gross... which could be fun. Aliens in the form of little maggot-like critters invade a little rural town, turning the residents into zombies in all manner of disgusting fashion. The survivors, led by Nathan Fillion and Elizabeth Banks, have to try and find a way to end the infestation, or get the hell out. I think this might be a nice, welcome break from the string of "real" horror movies that seem to come out every weekend, because there is no indication from any of the promotional stuff I've seen that this movie takes itself seriously on any level. I've also got some loyal to Fillion after his "Firefly"/Serenity days, so that might push me over the edge and get me into this one... but we'll have to see if that extends to White Noise 2 later this year.
Website: SlitherMovie.net
And yes, Sharon Stone's breasts come out to play this week as well, and more power to her for it. I just have no interest.
APRIL 7
Lucky Number Slevin
Another film with a pretty ridiculous cast that should make it fun to watch. Josh Hartnett is the title character Slevin, who gets caught in the middle of a mob war being waged between Morgan Freeman's gang and Ben Kingsley's gang... which I think would be a sweet movie without being fiction. Mix in Stanley Tucci and Bruce Willis as people observing Slevin for different reasons (a cop and a hitman, respectively), AND throw in Lucy Liu as a scenario-muddling love interest, and this is one hell of a start. I've only seen one of the director's films (The Reckoning) which was OK, if a little standard. What that did prove is that he knows how to get good performances out of good people, or how to leave them alone to let those performances develop. I'm more and more a fan of the quirky crime films - Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang and The Matador stick in my head very fondly - and hopefully my general disinterest in all things Josh Hartnett will be disproved and dismantled.
Website: Slevin-Movie.com
APRIL 14
Nothing of any real interest this week. I refuse to write about Scary Movie 4, because that's just unnecessary and ridiculous. The only thing other than that is The Wild, an animated adventure with uninspiring trailers. The voice cast is an interesting mix, though. Kiefer "Jack Bauer" Sutherland heads it up, with Jim Belushi, Janeane Garofolo and Eddie Izzard backing him up. Is it bad that I even think the lion in The Wild is picking up a little Jack Bauer personality? I love Jack Bauer.
APRIL 21
This is probably the best week of this two month period, with a little something for everyone.
American Dreamz
There is nothing more fun to watch than Hugh Grant sleazing it up. The dirtier and meaner he is, the more fun he is to watch. This blatant rip on reality competition shows (and "American Idol" directly) looks to be poking fun at everyone involved, just like a good satire should. Paul Weitz has a good track record for this kind of funny, since he hit the nail pretty squarely on the head in the original American Pie. He got the best out of Hugh Grant in About a Boy, and he can actually be heartwarming and touching a la In Good Company. He pulled the best from all those casts for this one, revolving around an out of touch president (Dennis Quaid) who goes on the "Idol"-esque singing competition to prove he's not crazy. Add in Willem Dafoe in a REALLY funny Dick Cheney costume, Mandy Moore as the star contestant, Jennifer Coolidge and a handful of other people who have worked with Weitz before, and even if this one misfires, there is bound to be some pretty amazing comedic moments in it. I will drop the money just to see the lead-in and follow-up to some moments from the trailer - the President/VP combo of Quaid and Dafoe is sheer brilliance.
Website: AmericanDreamzMovie.com
Silent Hill
That's right. Christophe Gans is going to prove that video game adaptations don't have to suck. And neither do non-remake horror movies. I admit, the survival-horror-videogame adaptations have not been what most people would call "good" (if you saw Alone in the Dark, get off of my blog right now!), but I put any and all faith I have in Gans. He directed Le Pacte de loups (Brotherhood of the Wolf for everyone else), which is easily my favorite foreign film of all time, and pretty high on the general all time list as well. He has a nice, varied and experienced primary cast to work with in Radha Mitchell, Sean Bean, Deborah Unger and Laurie Holden, and some of the pictures I've seen popping up have been downright freaky. Also, the poster is perfect AND the trailer is nice and ambiguous - it gives you the mood and feel of the movie without really giving anything away. Gans is one helluva storyteller, especially visually, and I can't wait to see what he pulls out for this, his first full-blown Hollywood production. I can only hope Mark Dacascos cameos somewhere.
Website: WelcometoSilentHill.com
Honorable mention this week goes to The Sentinel, because Kiefer Sutherland will never play anyone but Jack Bauer with a different name ever again. And he's hunting Michael Douglas.
APRIL 28
Another largely unimpressive week, despite quite a few releases. The most promising is...
Akeelah and the Bee
Who said that inspirational movies had to be about sports? This one follows an 11-year old girl from South LA who enters into the National Spelling Bee, despite a doubtful mother and educational disadvantages. After Spellbound from a few years ago, I suppose it was only a matter of time until a fictional account came out, but this one looks like it could be a winner. It's got a good supporting cast in Angela Bassett and Laurence Fishburne, and Keke Palmer herself has a good list of credits for a 13-year old.
Website: AkeelahandtheBee.com
That's what I've got so far. Hopefully May will go up before May actually arrives, and that could lead into a summer preview too! Enjoy!
posted by Matt S. at
11:25 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home