Romance and Rom-Coms:
Plot
Summary: A man and woman meet in a bar, which then becomes sex, which
then becomes a relationship. Can this romantic affair stand the test of the
real world and the interference of their friends? Filmmakers:
Director Steve Pink is probably better known as a writer – co-writing
the John Cusack classics Grosse
Pointe Blank and High
Fidelity. But, he has had some success as a comedy director too with the
films Accepted
and Hot
Tub Time Machine (both of which I found funny). He is working with composer
Marcus Miller
(Good Hair),
cinematographer Michael
Barrett (Ted),
and production designer Jon Gary Steele
(Footloose,
the remake). Cast: The film stars Kevin Hart
(who is in everything this winter), Michael Ealy,
Regina Hall,
and Joy Bryant.
Christopher
McDonald, Joe
Lo Truglio, and Paula Patton
feature in support. Expectations: How
desperate is Hollywood for ideas that remaking a very mediocre 1980s Brat Pack
romantic drama (About
Last Night…, which is based on a David Mamet
play) as a comedy sounded like a good idea? Pretty desperate. But at the same
time, this was never going to be a ‘good’ movie anyway. The best we can hope
for is something entertaining and hopefully funny. Kevin Hart, regardless of
terrible reviews, has been on a role at the box office. Can he keep it going to
become 2014’s comedian of the year (he also has Think Like a Man
Too and Dance
School scheduled for release? Trailer: Here.
Plot
Summary: Career burglar Peter Lake decides that his next score will be
the very lavish Penn estate; however, mid robbery, he runs into Beverly Penn,
the heiress of the estate, and surprisingly they hit it off, falling for each
other. The problem is that Beverly is sick and soon dies in Peter’s arms.
Magically though, Peter has the ability to be reincarnated, finding himself in
modern day New York many decades after his death. As he comes to terms with his
gift, he makes it his mission to somehow save the woman he loves (does that
mean he time travels too?). Filmmakers:
Writer-director Akivia Goldsman makes his feature debut with the film as a
director – although, he has written many features (winning an Oscar for A Beautiful Mind)
and has directed episodes of the TV series Kings
and Fringe.
He is working with composers Rupert
Gregson-Williams (Veep) and Hans Zimmer (12
Years a Slave), cinematographer Caleb Deschanel
(Jack
Reacher), and production designer Naomi Shohan (The
Lovely Bones). Cast: The film stars Colin Farrell
and co-stars Jessica
Brown Findlay, Jennifer Connelly,
and Russell
Crowe (reuniting the stars of A Beautiful Mind, though I do not think they
share any scenes). Will Smith, Matt Bomer, Kevin Durand,
William Hurt,
Lucy Griffiths,
Kevin
Corrigan, Eva
Marie Saint, and Graham Greene
feature in support. Expectations: I like the
work Akivia Goldsman did on Kings and Fringe (for the most part), and a few of
the films he wrote are good (and a few are terrible, but that is not necessarily
his fault). That said, Winter’s Tale just looks incredibly cheesy, hokey,
sappy, and downright schmaltzy – sickeningly so. It just oozes with vapid
Hollywood mawkishness. But maybe I am wrong and it will be an enjoyable
romantic fantasy drama… not likely. Trailer: Here.
Action/Adventure:
Plot
Summary: Detroit 2028, OmniCorp has created a robotic force to patrol
the world, well except in their home base of America. OmniCorp is desperate to
bring their robot guardians to the States, but they need a more human segue to
bridge the gap. They get their man in Alex Murphy, a police officer who is critically
wounded in the line of duty. To save him, they create a part-man, part-robot
police officer. Alex was a good, caring husband and father, but OmniCorp has
much more nefarious plans for him. What they did not anticipate however was
Alex fighting back against his programming. Filmmakers:
Brazilian director Jose Padilha is potentially a fantastic fit for this
remake. His Elite
Squad films are very good action thrillers. He is working with composer Pedro Bromfman,
cinematographer Lula
Carvalho (both of whom worked with Padilha on the two Elite Squad films),
and great production designer Martin Whist (Cabin
in the Woods). Cast: Joel Kinnaman
stars with a great supporting group, including: Gary
Oldman, Michael
Keaton, Abbie
Cornish, Jackie
Earle Haley, Michael K.
Williams, Jennifer
Ehle, Jay
Baruchel, Marianne
Jean-Baptiste, Samuel L.
Jackson, and Aimee Garcia.
Expectations: While fans of the cult classic
RoboCop will
probably be annoyed that it is being remade, let us be honest with ourselves
there is only upside to this remake. If it is great then fans should be pleased
(as really the original series is not that good, even RoboCop is a little
shaky), and if it is bad then the cult fans still have their original and the
rest of us will just move on with our lives. I cannot really tell if the remake
is going to be good. The cast and crew give me optimism, but the trailer feels
a little generic and boring – probably because I have seen RoboCop many times.
In any case, it will probably be somewhat entertaining and a worthwhile rental
for genre fans. Trailer: Here.
Plot
Summary: Milo is a slave turned gladiator who is in love with Cassia, a
young woman who is betrothed to a corrupt Senator. Milo is already facing
seemingly insurmountable obstacles to be with the one he loves, and then Mount
Vesuvius erupts. Milo must now fight to save Cassia as the city of Pompeii falls
into ruin around him. Filmmakers: Paul W.S.
Anderson makes action films that are just mindless with over-the-top visuals,
but they are also usually entertaining. Easy to watch spectacle driven films
(things like Mortal
Kombat, the Resident
Evil series, and The Three
Musketeers – that while not great, I did find very entertaining). He is
working with composer Clinton Shorter
(2 Guns),
cinematographer Glen
MacPherson (a frequent collaborator), and production designer Paul D.
Austerberry (also a frequent collaborator). Randomly, screenwriter Julian Fellowes
is one of the credited writers on the film, presumably when it was a much
different movie than it is now. Cast: Kit Harington
stars and Emily
Browning co-stars, while Carrie-Anne Moss,
Adewale
Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Jessica Lucas,
Jared Harris,
and Kiefer
Sutherland feature in support. Expectations: Fun
fact, this is technically a foreign film, as it is a Constantin Film Produktion
production – a German production house that Paul W.S. Anderson frequently works
with. Anyway, Pompeii is going to be a big fun mess, as Anderson combines the
disaster epic with the period epic to make a massive action thriller epic. Is
it going to be good? Critically, I think the answer is no, but it will probably
be very entertaining as a piece of escapist spectacle. Trailer:
Here.
Plot
Summary: Ethan Runner is a dying spy looking to reassess his priorities,
having pushed his family away to keep them safe. He wants to reconnect with his
estranged daughter before it is too late; however, when he is offered an
experimental drug that could save his life in exchange for doing one more job,
Ethan must figure out how to both make time for his daughter and accomplish his
mission. Filmmakers: Director McG is a
filmmaker who has cultivated a style that comprises over-stylized action
sequences with a light, fun tone with films like Charlie’s Angels
and This Means
War (both fairly terrible movies). He also directed the very disappointing Terminator
Salvation. In many ways, McG is the embodiment of the hack Hollywood
director who makes soulless films aimed at appealing to the masses, void of any
real artistic expression of merit (okay, maybe that is a bit harsh, but still
his films are never good). He is working with composer Guillaume Roussel,
cinematographer Thierry
Arbogast (who shot Luc Besson’s great
1990s films), and production designers Jeremy Cassells
(House M.D.)
and Sebastien
Inizan (Taken
2). Cast: Kevin Costner
stars with support from Amber Heard, Hailee Steinfeld,
and Connie
Nielsen. Expectations: 3 Days to Kill
feels like a loose attempt to create a new Taken-like film,
but with McG behind the camera the best anyone can hope for is a vaguely
entertaining action thriller that succeeds thanks to its cast. It will probably
be a lesser, lighter version of a ‘Taken’ movie. Kevin Costner seems to be
really looking to reemerge as an A-list star (recapturing his status – he was a
good leading man in the 1980s/1990s with many great films). He was good in Man
of Steel last summer, and in 2014 he has Jack
Ryan: Shadow Recruit (which was generic but enjoyable), this film, Draft Day
(which looks like a good sports drama, something he excels at), McFarland,
and Black and
White – very busy (I wonder if it will pay-off). Trailer:
Here.
Plot
Summary: Bill Marks is an air marshal aboard a transatlantic flight.
Everything seems calm and normal until he receives a mysterious text claiming
that a passenger will be killed every few minutes until the airline transfers
$150 million into an off-shore account. Marks begins to investigate, only to
find that he is being set up and the account is in his name. Now, he must find
the killer among a plane full of ordinary-looking passengers and crew, while
those around him begin to question whether he might be the killer himself. Filmmakers: Director Jaume Collet-Serra reunites
with star Liam
Neeson for another mystery action thriller, following up Unknown,
which was decently enjoyable. Collet-Serra is also working with composer John Ottman
and cinematographer Flavio Martinez
Labiano again, while production designer Alec Hammond (Sleepy Hollow)
is new to the team. Cast: Liam Neeson stars
with a surprisingly great supporting cast featuring Lupita Nyong’o,
Julianne Moore,
Michelle
Dockery, Anson
Mount, Corey
Stoll, Bar
Paly, and Scoot
McNairy. Expectations: Speaking of Taken (see
above, 3 Days to
Kill), it is hard to separate Liam Neeson from that franchise. When I see
the trailer for Non-Stop all I can think is Taken on a plane, even though
narratively that does not seem the case at all. Instead, this looks to be a
twist driven action thriller with all the characters trapped in a small space.
Yes, this has been done many times, but of all the action movies in February
this looks the most promising. I may even see it in theaters. Trailer: Here.
Comedy:
Plot
Summary: Emmet Brickowoski is just an ordinary Lego man, nothing extraordinary
about him at all. His whole life suddenly changes when he is mistaken as the
MasterBuilder – the only one who can stop Lord Business from destroying the
Lego world by gluing it together. To do this, Emmet must rediscover the power
of imagination, with the help of a few friends. Filmmakers:
The directing team of Phil Lord and Christopher Miller has proved themselves to
be good comedy filmmakers. Both Cloudy with a
Chance of Meatballs and 21
Jump Street are very funny. They are a perfect fit for The Lego Movie. They
are working with again with composer Mark Mothersbaugh
and cinematographer Barry Peterson,
while animation/vfx experts cinematographer Pablo Paisted
and production designer Grant Freckelton
join the team to help with the stop-motion aspect of the film. Cast: The voice cast is pretty great. Chris Pratt
voices Emmet, while Will Arnett, Elizabeth Banks,
Alison Brie,
Anthony
Daniels, Charlie
Day, Will
Ferrell, Will
Forte, Dave
Franco, Morgan
Freeman, Jonah
Hill, Jake
Johnson, Liam
Neeson, Shaquille
O’Neal, Nick
Offerman, Cobie
Smulders, Jorma
Taccone, Channing
Tatum, and Billy
Dee Williams lend their voices as well in support. Expectations:
The Lego Movie looks really funny, and fantastically imaginative with a bunch
of recognizable characters showing up (like Batman!). This very well could be
the best movie of the month and a kids’ movie that will probably be a blast for
the parents too. It also has a fun lead in song: Everything is Awesome by
Lonely Island and Tegan and Sara. I think this is definitely a worthwhile
rental for comedy fans. Trailer: Here.
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