The more I write about next year, the more I'm getting excited about how it's shaping up. After a letdown in the comedy department this year, there's a lot of comedies coming out next year. And the summer is shaping up to have a bevy of (somewhat) original movies, including a lot of great action/sci-fi flicks and comedies. It's going to be another exciting year and this part of the list contains a lot of movies that have the potential to be really funny and really good.
Starring: Jeremy Renner, Gemma Arterton
Director: Tommy Wirkola
Writers: Tommy Wirkola, Dante Harper
Release Date: January 25
Hansel and Gretel was slated for release this year, but got pushed back until January, which doesn't bode well for this film. In the year that's passed since I last wrote about the movie, there's been a trailer released and I'll admit I was both let down and a little bit excited. Ultimately, my disappointment won out and now the movie has jumped down from 29 to 40. The other part of that equation is that this movie looks incredibly corny so much that it could be incredibly awesome. Which is appropriate because the guy writing and directing gave the world Nazi Zombies with the movie Dead Snow. I love the setting - a little bit of steampunk and medieval mixed together is not a bad thing. And I love Gemma Arterton and Jeremy Renner - they're both really good actors enjoying a peak in their respective careers. This could be a fun mix of horror and action and comedy and this will be a fun movie to check out on a cold winter night.
Starring: Johnny Depp, Armie Hammer, Tom Wilkinson
Director: Gore Verbinski
Writers: Justin Haythe, Ted Elliott, Terry Rossio, Eric Aronson
Release Date: July 3
I almost forgot about this movie when compiling the list. Don't get me wrong - I'm still pretty stoked about this movie and maybe six or seven years ago this movie would be in my top 10. But as it stands, Johnny Depp's stock is waning and Gore Verbinski has only directed the movie Rango since helming the Pirates trilogy. I still think this movie could be epically awesome - I've grown to love westerns and it's a genre that hasn't gotten much love in the past fifteen years. I hope this movie hits the right tone - Disney isn't known to make edgy, dark films so you know they're going for the widest possible audience with this movie, especially after the tumultuous and costly production. Armie Harmer plays the actual lead star of the movie and he's yet to prove himself. He did a fantastic job in The Social Network as the Winklevos twins but Mirror Mirror was an awful follow up for him. This movie may have ended up in my runners-up list, but the trailer really got me excited to see the movie. If the movie can keep up with the dark tone and crazy action that the trailer is showing off, this could be one of the best summer blockbusters next year.
Starring: Steve Carrell, Al Pacino, Kristen Wiig
Directors: Pierre Coffin, Chris Renaud
Writers: Ken Daurio, Cinco Paul
Release Date: July 3
Despicable Me was a pleasant surprise a couple years ago and I'm excited to see what Gru and his minions are up to this time around. Al Pacino, Russel Brand and Steve Coogan all lend their voices as well and I'm sure they're going to bring the funny. There's not much to talk about other than if the film strays too far from the formula from the first film, then it's obviously not going to be as good. But I don't think that's going to happen - you have the original writers and directors back. As long as the minions have significant screen time, there's no doubt I'm going to enjoy this one. It's going to be one of two animated movies on my list this year and it seems like lately one of my favorite genres - family animated films - has been waning these past few years. It's too bad because when they do things right, you get classics like Wall-E, Coraline and How to Train Your Dragon. I think Despicable Me was excellent and I expect nothing less from the sequel.
37. White House Down
Starring: Channing Tatum, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Jamie Foxx
Director: Roland Emmerich
Writer: James Vanderbilt
Release Date: June 28
I really love Channing Tatum. I don't know what kind of magic spell he's put America under, but right now, he's got everybody's attention. He seems like a perfect fit for this film - one of the quickest movies to get greenlit and produced in the past ten years (the film was just a spec script this year and is wrapping up filming early next year. If that doesn't tell you how much Hollywood is bullish about this movie, then you should probably get your brain checked. The film is being compared to Air Force One and Die Hard (at least in tone) where a Secret Service agent is tasked with saving the life of the President after a paramilitary group takes over the White House. The film's got an excellent cast along with Tatum - Jamie Foxx, Maggie Gyllenhaal, James Woods and Richard Jenkins all lend there excellent acting skill to this movie. Roland Emmerich, while not my favorite director, was pretty much born to make this movie and I'm confident he's going to do a bang-up job. James Vanderbilt, the writer, has done some excellent work - he wrote The Amazing Spider-Man and Zodiac, so I'm confident he's got a great script. This is going to be an awesome movie and it would be higher on my list, but I'm reserving more judgement for when the trailer comes out.
36. End of the World
Starring: James Franco, Seth Rogen, Jay Baruchel
Directors: Evan Goldberg, Seth Rogen
Writers: Evan Goldberg, Seth Rogen, Jason Stone
Release Date: June 14
This is a weird movie to write about. Not only is there not much information about this movie, the whole cast plays themselves. Basically, the premise is that Seth Rogen and a crap ton of other comediens and celebrities are at a party hosted by James Franco and the apocalypse happens. I really don't know what to make of this movie. It could be simply brilliant - a comedy that makes fun of Hollywood and comediens while dealing with the end of world seems like a unique and quite different comedy that we're used to seeing. However, this could end up being like Movie 43 where there's too many jokes and too many actors. But at the same time there's an amazing smorgasbord of funny people - Craig Robinson, Jonah Hill, Paul Rudd, Jason Segal, Jay Baruchel, Martin Starr, Mindy Kaling and the list goes on! That's insane! The reason this is so high on my list is that the potential for this movie is sky high - I really love Seth Rogen - he's had an amazing career and has written some great comedies (Superbad, The Green Hornet and episodes of Undeclared). This is another movie I can't wait to see the trailer for!
No comments:
Post a Comment