May 2014 Film Preview

May 2nd

• The Amazing Spider Man 2: There's three villains (Electro, Green Goblins and Rhino), a conspiracy in regards to Peter's dad, and a look into Sinister Six. It is with a high level of certainty that I will see this film. 
• Walk of Shame: Elizabeth Banks, is an local LA news anchor who goes out for a night of drunken revelry with her pals. Since the title is a small hint, Banks finds herself in a bad part of town, in a revealing outfit with out her car or any ID. Oh and she's going to be looked at for a network gig so she has to get to the studio for her big break. This is pretty predictable and is littered with cliches. Banks is talented and funny but I don't know that she can carry a film.
• Belle: Gugu Mabatha-Raw plays the lead character, a woman of mixed race who is raised by her British Naval officer father's aristocratic family. Belle is raised as kind of an equal, by that I mean she's not treated as a slave, just as the help (so much better). Belle struggles to gain acceptance within her family and the upper society she's been brought up in. She also falls in love with a young aristocrat and surprise! That causes a problem with his family. Belle has an all-star cast and looks to be a solid period piece. If period pieces are your thing, then this could be a film for you.
• Mr. Jones: After watching the trailer, this appears to be a "found footage" film that has all the makings of The Blair Witch Project. A cutesy couple drive into a remote section of the woods (a swell idea) to look for a recluse named, Mr. Jones apparently. The first sign they should've turned around and left would be the creepy stick-like creations depicting crucifixion and other fun things. As with all scary films, make sure you do your research as most of them seem to suck.

May 9th

• Neighbors: Ugh! Where to begin? Seth Rogen and Rose Byrne are your typical white breed couple with a newborn living in a nice suburban neighborhood. Their domestic tranquility is interrupted when Zac Efron and his fraternity, Phi Crotcha Stud, move in next door and act like stereotypical fraternity douches. The very thought of this hideous Old School wannabe hurts my brain. Every scene from the trailer is a brutal cliche. Admittedly, the scenes where Rogen falls into multiple booby traps involving an airbag bring a smile to my face. Otherwise this looks beyond stupid.
• Chef: Jon Favreau writes, stars and directs an all-star cast about a chef who tries to find himself by cooking food he believes in. That leads him to making Cuban Sandwiches out of a truck (just like Jason Segel in The Five Year Engagement) and good times ensue. Normally I'd avoid a film like this but Favreau is a good writer/director and it's got a great cast so it could be worth a look.
• The Double: Jesse Eisenberg plays nerdy nobody Simon, the kind of guy no one notices (like most of the characters Eisenberg plays). Then one day the new guy at work James, turns Simon's world upside down. James is the exact double as Simon except that he's a bit more assertive. James slowly starts to take over Simon's life but no one around seems to notice. This looks like it could be an interesting dark comedy art house film. 
• Devil's Knot: Director Atom Egoyan's latest film brings us a dramatic story of the West Memphis Three. Reese Witherspoon puts on a few pounds (in an obvious attempt at Oscar recognition) as she plays one of the mothers of the victims. The film focuses on how the murder, arrest and trial affects her and her family. Egoyan has made some really good films (check out The Sweet Hereafter) but I don't know where I stand on this. Colin Firth stars as one of the lawyers but I think that you would get more out of watching one of the three documentaries about the subject.
• God's Pocket: In what looks to be Philip Seymour Hoffman's last film, he plays a small time hood who investigates the death of his stepson (who no one in the town really cares about except his mom played by Christina Hendricks). Th trailer shows PSH getting into all sorts of hijinx snooping around the construction site where the boy died and with the body itself. I guess it's a black comedy or something but it doesn't look all that great (guess that's why it only got a 14% at Rotten Tomatoes). This looks like it's a small independent film so it may not get a wide relsease but it has a solid cast with Richard Jenkins and John Turturro along with Hendricks and PSH.

There are a bunch of other titles that open this weekend but after reading the summary about them, they don't seem worth mentioning. 

May 16th

• Godzilla: Once again there is a high probability that I will be seeing this film on or about opening day. The trailer looks cool as balls and should erase the memory of the 1997 version where Matthew Broderick (?) was the hero.
• Million Dollar Arm: Don Draper plays a baseball scout who thinks outside the box and defines conventional wisdom by going to India in search of pitching prospects. This film is from Disney so it'll most likely have a happy ending, they'll be some fish out of water jokes and I wouldn't be surprised if Draper has some sort of epiphany towards the end of the film. It's allegedly based on a true story. I seem to recall Kevin Bacon doing the same thing in The Air Up There when he went to Africa to find basketball players.
• The Immigrant: Marion Cotillard is an immigrant separated from her sister at Ellis Island. She's forced to fend for herself. Things go from bad to worse when she runs into Joaquin Phoenix who forces her into prostitution. Eventually she runs into stage magician Jeremy Renner and things start to look up. Talented cast, could be worth seeing.
• Wolf Creek 2: The evil Crocodile Dundee is back for another go around as he menaces twenty-somethings in the Outback. The Outback is such a HUUUGE area it seems unlikely that campers would stumble upon this guy's hunting ground but it happened again.
• A Night in Old Mexico: Robert Duvall plays a Texan who loses his ranch and is forced to relocate to a trailer park. Being an old codger, Duvall is having none of it, so he and his grandson make for Mexico and along the way they encounter some seedy hitchhikers. After ditching to hitchers they get to Mexico for one last hurrah. The problem is that the hitchers left a bag of money in the car and things get a little No Country for Old Men.

May 23rd

• X-Men: Days of Future Past: The newest installment of the X-Men franchise has Wolverine going back in time to warn Professor X and the X-Men: First Class gang that the future is really bleak. This film is based a two issue story arc that took place after the Dark Phoenix saga. Make no mistake, I will be seeing this film and perhaps even more than once. The trailer raises some interesting questions, like how did Professor X get unparalyzed? But instead of trying to answer these questions, I will allow the film to take a swing at it.
• Blended: Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore team up again as single parents who have a bad date but manage to run into each other, with kids in tow, on vacation. I will lay dollars to donuts that there is absolutely nothing original here. Both Sandler and Barrymore have bled the romcom dry. Do something else already.
• Palo Alto: A group of high school kids are disenchanted with life in a well to do suburb and go looking for trouble. Also, James Franco gets a little inappropriate with one of his students, Emma Roberts. It looks gritty but I have a hard time empathizing with teens who aren't satisfied with their upper middle class lives and need an adrenaline fix. 
• Tracks: Mia Wasikowska plays Robyn Davidson, who decided to trek across 2,000 miles of Australian desert with her dog and 4 camels in 1977. Why did she do this? Why the heck not apparently! Lots of great cinematography and of course the conquering spirit of the heroine. Adam Driver plays the National Geographic photographer sent to document her trip. 
• The Angriest Man in Brooklyn: Robin Williams is a bitter New York jerk who is diagnosed with a deadly brain aneurism by Mila Kunis and is given 90 minutes to live. So naturally he wants to reconcile his life and it being Robin Williams, hilarity ensues. Being a jerk, Williams has his work cut out for him. This film has a solid cast but the jokes from the trailer fell flat.
• The Hornets Nest: Documentary about U.S. troops (it appears to be the 101st Airborne by the looks of it) fighting the War in Afghanistan. Lots of up close footage of troops in close quarter fire fights. This is a film that most Americans should see.
• Words and Pictures: Clive Owen is an English teacher at an upscale prep-school with writer's block (words). Juliette Binoche is the new art teacher who paints (pictures). Both have some baggage and manage to overcome and fall in love. I managed to put that all together by only watching half the trailer. Ugh!

May 30th

• Maleficent: Angelina Jolie is the evil witch from Sleeping Beauty as we get to learn her origin! Jolie looks awesome and the film looks very interesting. It may not be as dark as some would like it because it's a Disney film but it could be worth it as there's a lot early buzz around the film.
• A Million Ways to Die in the West: Seth MacFarlane's 2nd directorial feature has him in Arizona in 1882 where the odds of a long life are stacked against you. Part of the film spends time on the different ways the town folk "buy the farm," from getting crushed by a giant block of ice to burning to death from taking a photo at the town fair. Then along comes Liam Neeson, the local bad ass who starts shooting up the town and MacFarlane has to stand up to him (this part seems to play out in a similar manner to Marty and "Mad Dog" Tannen from Back to the Future 3). Charlize Theron has to train MacFarlane in the finer points of marksmanship in increase his odds of survival (this led to the one laugh out loud scene from the trailer). I saw Ted, and I will probably see this but I suspect there will be plenty of recycled Family Guy jokes littered throughout the film. 
• Filth: James McAvoy is a dirty cop along the lines of Harvey Keitel in Bad Lieutenant. This is a gritty cop drama from the creators of Trainspotting but it is not directed by Danny Boyle. 
• Night Moves: Jesse Eisenberg, Dakota Fanning and Peter Sarsgaard team up to conspire to do something to a dam. The trailer doesn't give you much other than they do a lot of stuff at dusk and they always seem to have a sullen look on their respective faces. Indie film that may not get a wide release so you may have to look for it.
• Kornegal: Sebastian Junger's follow-up to Restrepo with the same troops in the same valley. A must see!
• Delivery: The Beast Within: A low budget, indie found footage film that mixes Rosemary's Baby with Paranormal Activity (it actually says that in one of the review blurbs). Pregnant heroine does weird stuff as she gets closer to her delivery date. Ugh.