Movies
“Smaller” Films to Watch for in 2009
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- Killshot (January 23)Â – This movie started shooting when Methuselah was a baby. Okay, that’s a little exaggerated, but it was shot between October 2005 and January 2006. John Madden’s adaptation of this Elmore Leonard crime novel has been sitting on the shelf for years. Presented by Quentin Tarantino, it stars Thomas Jane and Diane Lane as a couple who get tangled in a scam with a bumbling, small-time con artist (Joseph Gordon Levitt) and his over-the-hill hitman partner, the Blackbird (Mickey Rourke). Rosario Dawson and Johnny Knoxville costar. The novel was great, and this one has been on my most anticipated list for the past two years now. Hopefully it actually gets released this year. Â Maybe we’ll have to wait anther 30 or 40 years.
- Outlander (January 23) – So, technically this is not a 2009 movie, as it’s played in virtually every country EXCEPT the US, from Latvia to France, from Spain to Kuwait, and so on. That’s about to change. Howard McCain’s sci-fi/action/adventure film will be hitting US theaters, just not in as many as we’d like. The story follows Kainan, a man from another planet, who crash lands on Earth during the time of the Vikings. He also happens to bring with him a giant predatory alien, both of whom are out for each other’s blood. Kainan forms an alliance with the Vikings to defeat the alien. The cast alone has me eager for this already fairly well-excepted genre flick, featuring Jim Caviezel as Kainan, Sophia Myles, Ron Perlman and John Hurt. It may sound cheesy, but I wouldn’t judge this book by it’s cover.
- Fanboys (February 6) – Five different release dates, a whole bunch of re-shoots, and two different versions. Those are just a few figures to mull over when thinking about ‘Fanboys’. The premise about a group of friends who, in 1998, try to break into Skywalker Ranch to steal an early print of ‘The Phantom Menace’ for their dying friend is original and ripe for a whole heap of comedy. One version of the film includes the dying friend angle and is more heartfelt. The other version has the dying friend plot point excised and is replaced by raunchy, vulgar humor. Which version we’ll get on February 6 is anyone’s guess, but the mere fact that the film is finally coming out is a miracle in of itself.
- Tokyo! (March 6) -Â While comic book geeks and movie geeks alike pour into theaters to see ‘Watchmen’, this intriguing, independent film will be getting released in art house theaters across the country. ‘Tokyo!’ is a film by three daring filmmakers: Michel Gondry, Leos Carax, and Bong Joon-ho. It explores the Japanese capital city through three stories. The young girlfriend of a filmmaker wakes up one morning to find she has gone through a bizarre, physical transformation. A monster-man rises from the sewers of the city to cause havoc. An apartment shut-in must venture outside his front door when a beautiful pizza delivery-woman collapses in his hallway. These three tales are going to make for one captivating film.
- The Horsemen (March 13) – There are a number of reasons this film has me excited. One of them is the original slant on the serial killer story. More importantly, it’s the first feature film from Swedish director Jonas Akerlund, who last entertained us in 2002 with ‘Spun’. In the six years that fell in between, Akerlund was busy doing music videos and concert tours for the likes of Metallica, Madonna, Blink 182, The Prodigy and U2. As if this wasn’t reason enough, the film stars the highly under-rated Dennis Quaid, Ziyi Zhang, Patrick Fugit, Eric Balfour (Hell Ride) and the great character actor Peter Stormare (Constantine). The story follows a widowed detective who can’t get over his wife’s death and discovers a connection exists between himself and the suspects of a string of murders related to the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.
- Sunshine Cleaning (March 13) – Director Christine Jeffs giving us something a little “lighter” than her previous ‘Sylvia’ and ‘Rain’. This quirky crime-dramedy follows a mother, played by Amy Adams, who decides to start her own unique business with a specific niche market as a way to pay for her son’s expensive private school tuition. She starts a biohazard/crime scene clean-up service. If you aren’t familiar with this, I refer you to an episode of ‘Mythbusters’ in which they test whether it’s possible to clean the rotting stench of death out of a Corvette after a pig carcass has been locked inside for a month. Yeah, sounds fun, huh? The cast also includes Alan Arkin, Emily Blunt, Steve Zahn and Eric Christian Olsen.
- I Love You, Man (March 20) – ‘I Love You, Man’ marks the third time Paul Rudd and Jason Segel have worked together. This time around Rudd plays Greg, a newly engaged man who, after evaluating his life, realizes he has no best friend to serve as his Best Man. He begins auditioning men to find the perfect “Best Man†and comes across Dave, played by Segel. Pretty soon, the two are best friends, and Greg’s fiancà ©e begins to learn the true meaning of the term “bros before hos†. This marks the feature film debut of John Hamburg, who previously worked on “Undeclared†. ‘I Love You, Man’ sounds like a hilarious film featuring two of the funniest actors working today.
- Knowing (March 20) – I’m really having to force myself to NOT go on for too long talking about how much I want to see this movie! You may be thinking, wait… Travis is “excited” about a Nic Cage movie? Yep! But, it’s not because of the Coppola kin. This is director Alex Proyas’ first feature film since 2004, when he gave us ‘I,Robot’. Just in case you forget, Proyas also gave us ‘Dark City’ and ‘The Crow’. Proyas is one of the coolest, yet slowly working filmmakers out there and he’s very much in tune with what makes a good sci-fi film. The story follows a teacher (Cage) who digs up a time capsule at his school, finding some unsettling predictions inside that suggest his family plays a key role in the events being foretold. The cast also includes Rose Byrne, but otherwise is short on recognizable talent. That’s OK with me! Oh yeah, and there’s the bit about how Proyas used the new Red One digital cinema technology to shoot the film.
- Adventureland (March 27) – The fact that there has never been a comedy about people who work at an amusement park is beyond me. The idea seems like such a no-brainer when it comes to hilarity. Writer/director Greg Mottola based this film on his own experiences working at Adventureland. Jesse Eisenberg, Ryan Reynolds, Kristen Stewart, Bill Hader, and Kristina Wiig star in ‘Adventureland’. It’s 1987, and James (Eisenberg), a recent college graduate, is looking for a job. He finds all the things he needs to prepare himself for the real world, including love, working at Adventureland.
- State of Play (April 17) - Ben Affleck? Russell Crowe? Screenplay by Tony Gilroy? The director of ‘The Last King of Scotland’? Do we really need to know what this film is about to know we wanna see it? In case you do, ‘State of Play’ is about a congressman (Affleck) and an investigative journalist (Crowe) who find themselves involved in a series of brutal murders and a conspiracy concerning some of the nation’s most promising political and corporate figures. This one promises to be an exhilarating political thriller that calls back to the best political thrillers of the ‘70s.
- Bruno (May 15) – After the monster success of 2006’s ‘Borat’, it’s amazing to think that it took this long to get a film based around Bruno off the ground. Sacha Baron Cohen finally brings the gay foreign talk show host to the big screen. ‘Bruno’ will follow roughly the same structure as ‘Borat’. The film will be made up of real-life interviews that are strung together to form a narrative. I can’t wait to see this film. ‘Borat’ was one of the funniest movies in recent memory. Hopefully Cohen can continue bringing these characters to the realm of feature films and the exposure they are getting doesn’t ruin the interviews they might get. Regardless, ‘Bruno’ comes out this Summer, and it’s going to be hilarious.
- Drag Me to Hell (May 29) – Uh, hello! Two words… Sam Raimi? How can you not be excited about Raimi’s first horror/thriller flick since 2000 when he gave us ‘The Gift’ and Katie Holmes’ post-mortem boobies. I am so glad he got a short break between the first and second ‘Spider-Man’ trilogy. The shift from Juno (Ellen Page) to Alison Lohman (Big Fish) initially was curious, but I’m past that. Now I look forward to the increasingly intriguing Justin Long in this story about a loan officer (Lohman) who must evict an elderly woman from her home, in turn finding herself the bearer of a curse that turns her life literally into a living Hell. She seeks the help of a clairvoyant in an attempt to save herself while evil attempts to push her over the edge.
- 500 Days of Summer (July 24) - Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Zooey Deschanel are two of the best young actors working today, so imagine the attention that piqued when it was learned they were starring together. ‘500 Days of Summer’ sounds like a pretty conventional rom-com. Levitt plays a man who falls hopelessly in love with a woman (Deschanel) who doesn’t believe in love. It doesn’t take Einstein to sort out where this one is going, but it’s going to be fascinating to see how it gets there. Once you know you’re dealing with a romantic comedy of this nature, it’s all up to the execution in the directing and the acting to bring some freshness to the predictability. The acting duties seem pretty secure falling into the hands of these two actors. It should make for a pleasantly high-quality film.
- Funny People (July 31) – Okay, so the latest comedy written and directed by Judd Apatow and starring Adam Sandler might not really be one of the “smaller†films to come out this year. However, compared to films like ‘Transformers 2’ and ‘Star Trek’, it is pretty miniscule. Apatow seems to be bringing the same type of crude comedy with a heart of gold to this project. Sandler plays a stand-up comedian who finds out he has less than a year to live. Seth Rogen plays an up-and-coming stand-up who is hired to be Sandler’s character’s personal assistant. Hilarity, and more than likely some emotion, ensues. After ‘40-Year-Old Virgin’ and ‘Knocked Up’, it’s going to be interesting to see what Apatow has in store for us next. With Sandler on board, this film is sure to make a fortune, but, above that, it is sure to be very funny. Bruce Springsteen is rumored to have a cameo as a spiritual guide, and, God, I hope those rumors turn out to be true.
- Game (September 4) - Neveldine and Taylor, the directing duo who brought us ‘Crank’, made this ‘Running Man’-esque film about an ultra-violent multi-player online game. Gerard Butler plays Kabel, a death row inmate who has become a pop culture hero. Add to this Dexter, himself, Michael C. Hall, as the developer of the game who also acts as a high-tech slave master to the occupants involved. It is up to Kable to escape from the game and bring it and its inventor down. If ‘Game’ is anything like ‘Crank’, it’s gonna be a helluva great ride, and the two actors involved make it all the better. If for nothing else, it will be great to see what Hall brings to the role of an out-and-out villain.
- Daybreakers (September 11) – This one deserves a little explaining. The German-born Spierig brothers return with their sophomore feature film effort after ‘Undead’ in 2003, which gets an awkwardly bi-polar place in my book as being both excruciatingly terrible and relentlessly, unexplainably appealing. Do you see, maybe, why movie #2 has taken six years! Yes, it’s a vampire flick and yes, it’s curiously familiar story does suggest it’s just another remake of ‘Last Man on Earth’, post ‘Omega Man’, post ‘I Am Legend’. However, if you’ve seen ‘Undead’ you’ll realize you never know what you’re gonna get from these two until you actually subject yourself to the experience. The story takes place in 2017 after a plague has turned nearly every human into vampires. As the blood supply grows increasingly scarce, a researcher works with a band of bloodsuckers to try and save humankind. The cast includes Ethan Hawke, Willem Dafoe and Sam Neill… how cool is that?
- Whiteout (September 11) – Once again, we find another temporarily absent filmmaker on this list. Dominic Sena returns with his first feature film since ‘Swordfish’ in 2001. In my opinion, the guy knows action as he proved to me with the remake of ‘Gone in Sixty Seconds’, but does he know crime-thriller? The story is fairly simple, but the brilliance of the idea thrives in this simplicity. The story involves a U.S. Marshall tracking a serial killer in Antarctica as the sun is about to set for six months. That’s it, but it’s perfect! Oh, and did I mention Kate Beckinsale plays the Marshall? The cast also includes veteran actor Tom Skerritt.
- Zombieland (October 9) – Let me specify… this is NOT the horror-comedy everyone has heard about starring Woody Harrelson. No, while it has appeal, it does come out until 2010. This ‘Zombieland’ is a much smaller production from indie filmmaker James L. Frachon and will be shot on location in France. The story follows a retired funeral director who turns an old funeral home into a twisted attraction of terror. Part wax museum, part haunted house, this morbid museum uses the “real thing” instead of props and dummies. I hear you. It’s not the most original sounding story, but it is French and it stars Brad Dourif, so I found myself interested. On a side note, Laurent Chalet is set as cinematographer. He shot ‘March of the Penguins’.
- The Box (November 6) - After the expansive looks at sci-fi with ‘Donnie Darko’ and ‘Southland Tales’, the latter of which I loved, by the way, it’s gonna be interesting to see what writer/director Richard Kelly will do with a more straightforward story. This one involves a suburban couple (Cameron Diaz & James Marsden) who find themselves in the possession of a wooden box. The box has a button. If they push the button, they will be $1 million richer, but they will also instantly kill another human being somewhere in the world. This one has the potential of being a very intense story that ranks among the best Twilight Zone episodes.
- The Lovely Bones (December 11) – Peter Jackson. Peter Jackson. Peter Jackson! Come on, do I really need to say anything else? Fine, so maybe you’re not as big a Peter Jackson fan as I am, but the tales of controversy, rumors and obstacles in making this film must make you curious. The story centers on a young girl who was murdered and now watches from the afterlife over both her family and her killer. She struggles to weigh her thirst for vengeance with her desire to see her family heal. For those of you unfamiliar with Jackson’s work outside of Middle Earth, I recommend viewing ‘Heavenly Creatures’ to fully understand what Jackson can do with a touching story and a different kind of beautiful photography. The cast includes Rachel Weisz, Mark Wahlberg, Susan Sarandon, Stanley Tucci, Saoirse Ronan and Michael Imperioli.
- 25/8 (TBA) -‘25/8’ is the first original horror script Wes Craven has written since ‘New Nightmare’ back in ’94. This film involves a serial killer who turns up 15 years after his supposed death. He sets out to kill the seven children who were born on the same night he allegedly died. It will be good to see Craven get back to his horror-directing roots. Hopefully this is better than ‘Cursed’ and the last two ‘Scream’ movies. It certainly sounds more appealing.
- Crows Zero II/Yatterman (TBA) - Takashi Miike is arguably the most prolific filmmaker working today. Next year, he has two films coming out. ‘Crows Zero II’ is the follow-up to his 2007 film about a school where the children don’t learn math or geometry. They create warring factions where the top fighters have free-run of the school and everyone in it. ‘Yatterman’ is the big-screen adaptation of the Anime series about a villainous gang who seek a large sum of gold and the righteous duo who stand in their way. Hopefully, we’ll get at least one of these released here in the states. With a slight miracle, we’ll get them both. They are both currently set for release only in Japan, but Miike’s direction is so spectacular, it’s almost worth the price of a plane ticket.
- Ong-Bak 2 (TBA) - The Muay Thai badass, Tony Jaa, comes back to star in and co-direct this prequel to ‘Ong-Bank: Muary Thai Warrior’. After severe negotiations with the Weinstein Company and Sahamongkol Films, a lot of arduous filming, and even a mysterious disappearance by Jaa, ‘Ong-Bak 2’ is finally getting released. ‘Ong-Bak’ was one of the most impressive martial arts films to come around in a long time, and it made a star of Jaa. It will be interesting to see what he has up his sleeve for this film. As long as there are plenty of flying elbows and knees, I’ll be a happy camper.
- Riot (TBA) - It’s been nearly eight years since John Carpenter had a film in theaters. That was ‘Ghosts of Mars’, but we won’t hold that against him too much. With ‘Riot’, he returns to his ‘Assault on Precinct 13’ subject matter. The film is about a prison riot and the teenager who is gets swept up in it while he is at the prison under the Scared Straight program. Nicolas Cage stars as one of the inmates who helps the teenager survive. Since his last theatrical film, Carpenter has directed two short films for the Masters of Horror series. ‘Cigarette Burns’ was the best thing he has directed in almost 20 years. ‘Pro Life’ was nearly unwatchable. Hopefully ‘Riot’ is more the former than the latter.
- Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (TBA) – Edgar Wright’s latest is based on a series of black-and-white graphic novels about Scott Pilgrim, a slacker and wannabe-rock star who plays bass for the band Sex Bom-Omb (yeah, it’s a Super Mario reference). After falling in love with a delivery girl for Amazon.ca, Scott realizes that the girl has seven evil ex-boyfriends, each of whom have special powers such as vegan psychic powers and the ability to summon Demon Hipster Girls at will. Comedy, action, romance. This film is going to have something for everyone, something Wright seems to be able to pull off really well. Wright is filming this live-action, but I can’t help but think it would probably be better played out in animation. Regardless, this is a great premise, and it is always something to look forward to whenever Wright has his hand in it. Michael Cera has signed on to play the title character.
- Thirst (TBA) – Chan-wook Park, the legendary Korean director of ‘Oldboy’, returns with his take on the vampire flick. The story follows Sang-hyun, a highly-respected priest of a small town who volunteers in a hospital. There’s a new infectious disease spreading and Sang-hyun agrees to participate in an experimental vaccination development program. The vaccination fails and he is infected, but later is miraculously cured. Upon news of this, people flock to Sang-hyun believing he has the divine gift of healing. Sang-hyun meets a childhood friend and his wife, leading to his having a secret affair with her before he suddunly dies and then wakes the next morning as a vampire. If you’ve seen Park’s vengeance trilogy, then you know you’re in for great filmmaking. If not, well… you’re simply missing out. What are you waiting for?
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