15. Wanderlust – From the minds of Ken Marino and David Wain (The State) comes a new comedy about an urban couple who leaves the big city to explore a different lifestyle. This film stars Paul Rudd, who has appeared in all three Wain/Marino films prior to this (Wet Hot American Summer, The Ten, Role Models), and Jennifer Aniston. There is very little information known other than the fact that Ray Liotta, Malin Akerman and Alan Alda co-star. I find the Wain/Marino films are severely underwatched, but I love every bit of them.
14. Thor – The first of four superhero movies on my list, Thor is a Marvel character based off the hammer-wielding Norse God of thunder. In the film, Thor (Chris Hemsworth) is exiled from the realm of Asgard and forced to live with humans on Earth, where he becomes a hero. The film includes A-list actors Anthony Hopkins and Natalie Portman (mmmmm). I’m just not entirely sure yet how excited I really am about this film. Marvel has proved to bring success to their secondary characters (see Iron Man). Plus this is one of several characters getting their own films in preparation for The Avengers in 2012, which I am more excited about. 13. Sherlock Holmes 2 – The third of four sequels on my list, Sherlock Holmes 2 returns the exciting pairing of Robert Downy Jr.’s Holmes and Jude Law’s Watson. Rachel McAdams is replaced as the female lead by Noomi Rapace from the Millenium trilogy (Girl with the Dragon Tatoo, etc.). What I enjoyed the most about the first film, besides Downy Jr.’s Holmes persona, was the gritty environment that Guy Ritchie put together. Ritchie does well with combining gritty with action and comedy (Lock, Stock & Two Smoking Barrels, Snatch), and it is all on display in Sherlock Holmes. 12. Captain America: The First Avenger – To me, Captain America is one of the superheroes most deserving of a good movie. He is a human who doesn’t really have mythical super powers. He’s just the perfect human, a super soldier. I feel like he’s more relatable than other heroes. I never thought about it before, but that explanation works for two of the most successful superhero franchises, Batman and Iron Man. I like the idea of a Captain America movie and I like Chris Evans, who has been cast as Captain America. Oh, and how awesome will Hugo Weaving be as Red Skull? My guess…pretty awesome. In fact, it can be argued that a superhero movie isn’t good unless it has a compelling villain. 11. X-Men: First Class – Three Marvel superhero movies in one year? Yes, that’s exactly what’s happening. This X-Men film is a prequel. It will bring viewers to the days when Charles Xavier and Eric Lehnsherr, a.k.a. Magneto are best friends. The film is about the start of the X-Men as well as what leads Xavier and Magneto to disagree and break apart. Young versions of previous movie characters will be there, including Beast and Mystique, as well as several from the comics. The antagonists will be the Hellfire Club, led by Sebastian Shaw (Kevin Bacon) and Emma Frost/White Queen (January Jones). This should breathe new life into the X-Men and will hopefully lead to more films. 20. The Change-Up – What if I told you the writers and director of two of the widely considered best R-rated comedies of the past six years were joining forces for a new comedy? The Change-Up combines the writers of The Hangover with the director of Wedding Crashers. Add to the mix Ryan Reynolds and Jason Bateman and I’d say “Yes please!” before hearing what the story is about. Oh, and in case you’re wondering, it’s about a man who switches bodies (not sure how) with his best friend to help him woo a co-worker.
19. Unknown – At the time of me writing this, Unknown is the only film on my list that has already been released. It doesn’t mean it can’t be one of the films I’m most looking forward to seeing in 2011. I just haven’t seen it yet. Liam Neeson looks great as a guy whose identity was stolen. He must fight his way back to normalcy. I’m sure most people have already seen the trailers for this on television. 18. Super 8 – J.J. Abrams is at it again. Like Cloverfield before it, Super 8 is being hyped up without any knowledge of what the film is actually about. Abrams certainly knows about viral campaigns. I guess we’ll just have to wait and see if the buzz is worth it. 17. Vanishing on 7th Street – Brad Anderson, the director of such thrillers as Session 9, The Machinist and several episodes of Fringe, adds another thriller to his repertoire. After a city-wide power outage in Detroit, a man (Hayden Christensen) discovers one morning that virtually the entire population has disappeared. He finds a small amount of survivors, including Thandie Newton (Run Fatboy Run, Crash) and John Leguizamo, and they soon realize the darkness is out to get them. I think it sounds like an interesting idea for a film, and the trailer looks good. 16. The Three Musketeers – Most people are familiar with the story of the three musketeers. D’Artagnan leaves home to become a musketeer and befriends three musketeers (Athos, Pormos and Aramis). Together they protect the French crown from Cardinal Richelieu and whoever else might threaten the Queen. This new take on the classic story is directed by Paul W.S. Anderson (Event Horizon, Resident Evil), which leads me to hoping it’s a bit darker than previous Three Musketeer films. Christopher Waltz (Inglorious Basterds) should provide a delightfully villainous portrayal of the Cardinal, and personal favorites Milla Jovovich (Resident Evil) and Ray Stevenson (Rome) also appear in the film. At the beginning of the year, I started working on a list of films due to be released in 2011 that I most want to see. I did the same thing at the beginning of 2010. It's always fun to look back at lists like that to see how it played out. I wrote a little something about each of my top 26 most anticipated films last year. At the time I was just sharing with a few friends. This blog didn't exist yet, so there was no where for me to publicly display it. I only ended up seeing six of those 26 films (20. Date Night, 10. The Crazies, 5. Shutter Island, 4. Kick-Ass, 3. Machete, 1. Alice in Wonderland), though four were in my top five.
What I like about making the list at the beginning of the year is that you don't know everything that's going to come out. There were a few movies that weren't even on my radar early in the year that I really liked (Scott Pilgrim vs the World, Hot Tub Time Machine, The Losers) as well as one of the biggest hits of year I also didn't know about (Inception). One of the flims on my list ended up not being released until this year (21. The Green Hornet). Point is, you never know how you're going to feel about a movie until the movie is actually released. You ask yourseld, "Am I really THAT excited about seeing this film?" Comparing my list this year to last year's, I must say that I think last year's list is much more exciting, but as usual there could be some surprises. Before I go into the list, here's a couple of things to keep in mind. Again, this is my personal list, not the list of movies I think will be most successful. I am not into the Harry Potter or Twilight series, which no doubt will be two of the highest grossing films this year. One sequel I think I'll probably antcipate once I see the first one is The Hangover: Part II. I know, I've heard from plenty of people that I have to see The Hangover. I believe I'll like it, I just haven't gotten around to it yet. Anyway, here's part one of my top 25 most anticipated films of 2011. 25. Mission: Impossible Ghost Protocol – Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) is back in the fourth installment of the M:I series. I do not know what the plot is about, and I didn’t see the third film, but I do like the cast list (including Ving Rhames, Jeremy Renner, Josh Holloway, Simon Pegg). 24. Now – This sci-fi film is about a future in which aging has stopped and currency is in the form of time. People have been genetically engineered to stop aging at 25, but you will die within a year if you can’t pay to stay alive. A man inherits a fortune of “time” but is accused of murder and ends up on the run. The cast includes some actors I enjoy watching, including Justin Timberlake, Cillian Murphy (28 Days Later, Batman Begins), Matthew Bomer (Chuck, White Collar) and Johnny Galecki (Big Bang Theory). Olivia Wilde (TRON: Legacy) and Amanda Seyfried (Red Riding Hood) also co-star. Now also has a good man at the helm, as it was written and directed by Andrew Niccol (Truman Show, Gattaca). 23. Battle: Los Angeles – This is pretty much another alien invasion movie, but I generally enjoy those. An alien invasion takes place on Earth and Los Angeles is the last great city standing. It becomes the final battleground for the survival of mankind. The trailer shows lots of action and a few familiar faces, including Aaron Eckhart (The Dark Knight), Michelle Rodriguez (Fast and the Furious, LOST) and Bridget Moynahan (I Robot, Blue Bloods, Tom Brady’s baby mama). 22. Cedar Rapids – The last couple of years, Ed Helms has been slowly starting to work his way into everyone’s hearts. Helms was a correspondent on The Daily Show for several years, then joined The Office as the lovable Andy Bernard. In 2009, Helms co-starred in the biggest surprise hit of the year, The Hangover. 2011 could be his biggest year yet. He will be co-starring in The Hangover: Part II, continue to get increased time on The Office, and have his first lead role in a first feature-length film. Cedar Rapids is about an insurance salesman (Helms) who has never really done anything with his life. He is sent to an out-of-town conference where he comes out of his shell. This film co-stars John C. Reilly. 21. Kung Fu Panda – There are a number of potentially good animated movies being released in 2011 including sequels and spin-offs (Cars 2, Puss in Boots, Happy Feet 2) and new films (Rio, Rangu, Gnomeo and Juliet, The Adventures of Tintin). The one I most look forward to however is Kung Fu Panda 2. The first Kung Fu Panda, which was released in 2008, was a wonderful film that has garnered much praise from critics and moviegoers alike. It probably would have won an Oscar that year if it wasn’t for the existence of Pixar (Wall-E won the award). Anyway, the entire cast of heroes returns (including Jack Black, Dustin Hoffman, Angelina Jolie, Jackie Chan, Seth Rogen, Lucy Liu and David Cross). They are joined by James Woods, Michelle Yeoh, Jean-Claude Van Damme and Gary Oldman playing a villainous peacock. I love Dreamworks! 36. Watch 10 non-English language foreign films that I haven't seen (7/10) If you are looking for an intelligent story with unexpected plot twists, you have come to the wrong place. If you want to be entertained for 90 minutes with fast-paced zombie-killing action where cops and gangsters are forced to unite against a legion of the undead...Bienvenue! La Horde is a french zombie movie written and directed by a bunch of newcomers. The story, which doesn't account for much, is about a group of cops who decide to take revenge on a group of gangsters who murdered their comrade. The cops storm a nearly deserted high-rise where the gangsters are hiding out. For a few minutes there is a battle between them, with members of each side getting shot. Then out of nowhere without warning they are fighting off the undead. A small group of them escape to the roof, where the cops and gangsters reluctantly decide to work together to escape the building. The remaining 75 minutes or so follows the survivors struggling to work together while trying to survive. There is no backstory or explanation given regarding the zombies. The entire film save for a funeral at the beginning takes place over the course of one night. The film certainly packs in a lot of action into that one night however. You pretty much just have to sit back and enjoy the ride. There's no reason to have to think at all through the film. There is some great buildup to the end of the film, where the few survivors that are left face increasingly large hordes of zombies. Multiple characters try to be heroes by sacrificing themselves for the benefit of the rest of the group. I'm usually not a fan of this storytelling strategy, but one scene in particular was truly fun to watch. Suspending disbelief briefly, you get to watch one character charge into hundreds of attacking zombies and manage to fight them off for several moments before finally being overcome. It reminded me of Woody Harrelson at the end of Zombieland when he traps himself in a carnival game booth and just unloads on the surrounding zombies. The outcome here is different however. The ending was a bit disappointing, but overall it was 90 minutes of fun. I would definitely recommend it if you are a fan of zombie films, especially ones with action. There's lots of blood and various weapons and methods used to dispense that blood. If anything, at least watch this film for the lead character's awesome mustache. I rated La Horde 7 out of 10 stars on IMDB. |
Archives
November 2015
Check out these other blogs...
Categories
All
|