September 2014 Film Preview

The Summer is coming to close and it's times for films to start taking more of a serious edge as we get ready for Oscar buzz season. There appears to be a lot of indie films this month after a Summer of blockbusters. Please check your sources when you hit the cineplex and check out iTunes and On Demand for new releases. The rental prices are cheaper than the theater.

September 5th

• Innocence: Thin good looking wealthy teen has her stepmom enroll her in an stuffy prep school where weird shit happens. The stepmom, Kelly Reilly, seems to be at the source of the weird shit. As it turns out, the step mom is evil and she sacrifices virgins teen girls for eternal youth or something. 
• The Identical: Blake Rayne plays Ryan Wade, son of Ashley Judd and Ray Liotta, a conservative uptight minister. Blake loves to sign and by his teenage years, looks and sounds a lot like Elvis. He's really talented and the chicks dig him but (and there's always a but) his dad disapproves of rock and roll. So Ryan releases records under his alter ego Drexel Hemsley. The film traces wade/Hemsley's career from the 50s to the mid-70s. As Liota adds old man make up, he realizes how proud of Ryan he his. Ashley Judd ages quite well by the way.
• The Longest Week: Jason Bateman plays Conrad, wealthy do nothing living off his hotel-magnate family. One day the gravy train ends and he's evicted and disowned. He moves in with his pal Dylan (Billy Crudup) and falls for Dyaln's girlfriend Beatrice (it's Olivia Wilde, of course he's going to fall for her). As the relationship between Beatrice and Conrad develops, it doesn't sit well with Dylan. Jocelyn (Jenny Slate) plays the grounded friend who works for a living I guess. The film is directed by up and coming Wes Anderson wannabe Peter Glanz. This film looks quriky and has all the indie earmarks but its will be hard for me to get into a film about a 40 something dude who has to cope with the reality of not being wealthy anymore while still acting like an adolescent (wow, I feel like a grown-up). Also, Billy Crudup is a very handsome man (Bateman is no slouch either but...) and Wilde is trading down. Especially since he's penniless but I guess that means she can fix him. This also doesn't seem like a role for Bateman but maybe he feels he can't play Michael Bluth forever.
• God Help the Girl: Speaking of Wes Anderson wannabes  Stuart Murdoch directs a film that's produced by guys who produced a couple of Wes Anderson films. The film stars Emily Browning as a the quirky pretty girl who forms a band with other good looking people and perform in front of good looking (mostly white) people. The trailer is a lot of images of Browning and other cast members dancing around in clothes from a Wes Anderson film whilst the title song to the film plays. That's the trailer and very few people actually speak. I think the guy who Browning falls for says that she needs to join a pop band and then the song queues. If I want to see a Wes Anderson film, I'll go see a Wes Anderson film. PASS. 
• Trailer Park Boys: Don't Legalize It: There's these 3 weird dudes living in a trailer park selling weed to the other weird residents of the trailer park. When the state or provincial government (they might be in Canada) come templates legalizing weed, they see their livelihood threatened. They go the the capital to try and stop the vote but hijinx might ensue. This isn't a slapstick weed comedy like Half Baked. Maybe it's more of the indie version of it instead.
• Frontera: When former sheriff Ed Harris's wife is killed, he wants answers. He's not quite sold on the the guilt of Michael Pena, who just happened to be crossing the border on Harris' property and who may have been the real target, so he decides to look for the real killer. Murder mystery that involves illegal immigrants, racism and killers of illegal of immigrants. My money is on Ed Harris finding the real killer and dispensing his own brand of justice. Maybe.
• Falcon Rising: If all of the good scenes from this film are in the trailer then count me in! Martial arts, Yakuza, katana blades and revenge. F*ck Yea! Michael Jai White (remember him from Spawn?) is an ex-solider with PTSD issues who goes to Brazil to investigate the murder of his sister Laila Ali, who was there doing humanitarian work. Turns out the Yakuza may be behind her murder and White is out for revenge. 
• Last Days in Viet Nam: Documentary about the final days of Saigon before it fell to the communists on April 30th, 1975. The film describes how when the North Vietnamese were on their way in, South Vietnamese were desperate to get out. Rory Kennedy writes/directs/produces a gut wrenching film about how some Americans did all they could to save as many lives as they could by getting as many civilians as they could out of Saigon. This should be a must see.
• The Remaining: Young couple get married and the rapture hits. Whoops! Lots of religious implications about the end of days but in a horror film kind of way. 

September 10th

• My Old Lady: Kevin Kline is an American who inherits a sweet apartment in France. He wants to sell it. Maggie Smith has been living in said apartment for decades and by some obscure French law he can't sell it until she dies. This makes Kline a little more bitter. Luckily, Smith has a daughter who happens to be romantically uninvolved and happens to be Kristin Scott Thomas. 
• Bee People: Compelling documentary about the decline in the Honey Bee population. Why is this important? Bees are responsible for most of the pollination which produces a lot of the food we eat. See why it's important now? Science doesn't know why the bees are dying off. So go out and start beekeeping.

September 12th

• No Good Deed: Idris Elba is a psycho ex-con who enters the life of Taraj P. Henson in a not so nice way and looks to ruin her life. The film takes place in Atlanta because if it was Florida or Detroit, Elba's character would've been shot knocking on the door. Elba looks pretty creepy in this one. Might be worth a look.
• Dolphin Tale 2: The cast from the feel good Dolphin Tale are back with some baby dolphins. 
• The Skeleton Twins: Bill Hader and Kristen Wiig are estranged brothers and sister that haven't spoke in 10 years. Wiig and husband Luke Wilson are thinking about having a baby but Wiig is going through a bit of midlife crisis. Hader is kind of the "weird guy." They reminisce about the past and try to look toward the future. Ty Burrell also stars. Good solid coast, could have a few laughs and be worth a look.
• The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby: James McAvoy and Jessica Chastain are lovers with a great life. They're the 2 best looking people in the room and I can only assume that they have fantastic sex. While living together, McAvoy wakes up and Chastain is gone. It appears she's a commit-a-phobe. The ony thing she can commit to is her commitment issues apparently. This looks like a nice film with great actors but it's hard for me to get into a film like this. Two good looking people that can't make it work. I think things would work out for them eventually. 
• The Drop: Tom Hardy is a not that bright but streetwise Brooklyn bartender who works at James Gandolfini's bar. The bar is a "drop" for mob money. Unsavory characters drop off envelopes of cash all the time. Everything runs pretty smoothly and it's kind of quiet. Until some dudes decide to rob the place. The pleasant nature of this business gets a little of kilter. There's not a lot of violence in the trailer but there's a lot of shots of guys cocking pistols. The mob doesn't like it when people take their hard earned protection money so you know things are going to get violent at some point. These guys aren't known for the negotiating skills. Noomi Rapace also stars as Hardy's love interest. This looks like a solid film with a good cast and an interesting director in Michael Roskam.
• Honeymoon: Young, good looking white newlyweds take their honeymoon at the bride's family's cottage IN THE WOODS! It starts off nice then surprisingly, things get weird. Things go from weird to chaotic. Nothing good ever happens when good looking white people go into the woods. They usually die a gruesome death.
• At the Devils Door: Real estate agent tries to sell a home but the creepy daughter of the owners comes home. Since the realtor is a goody goody, she tries to help the daughter.  The thing is, when the creepy daughter returns, scary shit starts to happen. There's a lot of dimly lit shots with weird stuff and creepy figures coming up behind the realtor. Tough call as it could be a scary film or just a lame attempt at scary film. Buyer beware.

September 17th

• The Guest: Soldier rotates back to the states and visits the family of his friend who was KIA. He's very polite and caring towards the family. After the younger brother gets bullied, he takes care of it. By brutally beating the bullies up. Really bad. Of course the sister of the fallen soldier has feeling about the guy (he's a good looking dude). Things start to unravel and eventually there's a firefight. Tough call on this one. I can't see myself going to see this in the cineplex so maybe iTunes or just passing on it altogether. 
• 20000 Days on Earth: A film the explores the daily life of singer/writer Nick Cave. It's Cave's 20,000th day on Earth and the film takes a look into his life. Doesn't seem all that eventful. Cave still performs, writes and does film soundtracks. He's also a family man who watches tv with his kids. 

September 19th

• The Maze Runner: Set in the dystopian future, good looking teens have to go through an impossible maze or die but the maze does most of the killing. My guess is that the best looking ones make it at through at the end.
• This is Where I Leave You: All star cast consisting of Jason Bateman (his 2nd release this month), Tina Fey, Jane Fonda and Adam Driver as a pseudo-estranged family getting together after the death of the patriarch. Bateman gets informed of the passing after catching his wife sleeping with his boss. Fey plays the older sister who tells him to get his life in order (going after Rose Byrne is a good start) when they sit out on the roof. Fonda is the touched up matriarch who tries to keep the kids in the nest for a little awhile. There are so many cliches in the trailer I don't know where to begin. PASS!
• A Walk Among the Tombstones: What was the last film Liam Neeson kicked a lot of ass or left a large swathe of bodies in his wake? Non-Stop perhaps? I would argue no. We haven't seen a spike in body bag sales from a Neeson film since 2012's Taken 2. Neeson is a disgraced ex-NYC cop who is hired for his "unique skills" to track down some kidnappers. That plot sounds familiar doesn't it? Much like Denzel in The Equalizer, good or bad, I'm seeing this film.
• Tracks: Mia Wasikowska is Robyn Davidson. In 1977 Davidson decided it would be a good idea to travel 1700 miles across the deserts of Australia to the Indian Ocean. She only took her dog and four camels. Why? Why not I guess. She's Australian and Aussies have a tendency to march to the beat of the own drummer. Apparently, it has taken some 30 years to adapt the book to the silver screen. 
• The Zero Theorem: Visionary director Terry Gilliam directs this futuristic film about a programmer (Christoph Waltz) who is searching for an algorithm to determine if life has any meaning. To be honest, I took that from it's wikipedia page because I have no clue how to describe the trailer. Waltz is a bit obsessive and a bit of social outcast. If you've seen any of Gilliam's prior films (Brazil, 12 Monkeys), then you know that he doesn't take the low road. This is a film I am going to see. Gilliam is far from a cookie-cutter director and there is some amazing imagery in the trailer. 
• Tusk: This film is pretty straightforward but it's hard to describe with out a "what the f*ck?" So I'll be brief, Justin Long goes to interview reclusive weirdo Michael Parks, who's got a thing for walruses. You read that right. He's so much into walruses that he turns Justin Long into one. It seems really disturbing. The strong cast includes Genesis Rodriguez and Haley Joel Osment.
• Hector and the Search for Happiness: Simon Pegg plays a psychiatrist who is bored with his life and he feels that his patients under his care are going nowhere. So decides to go on a quest for what makes people happy despite the fact that he lives a pretty good life himself, with a sweet apartment and a lovely live-in girlfriend (Rosamund Pike). But it's not enough. Pegg travels the world, meets people and what not. This is nothing new, well to do white guy who has a lot but still feels empty. The film sports an all-star cast with Toni Collette, Jean Reno, Stellan Skarsgard and Christopher Plummer as the old professor giving out advice in the forms of cliches.
• Pride: Based on a true story. In 1984 there was a particularly nasty miners strike in Britain. A group of gay activists decide to help the miners (a group not typically fond gays in those days) by raising money for their families. The relationship between the townsfolk and the activists is frosty at first but eventually things thaw as the townsfolk see that the activists are genuinely concerned fro them. A real triumph of the spirit. Or something like that.
• Fort Bliss: Michelle Monaghan plays a decorated soldier who faces a mountain of struggles upon returning home from a tour in Afghanistan. She has to reconnect with a son who barley knows her and deal with a jerky ex-husband (Ron Livingston) who seems bitter that she was off serving her country leaving him with all of the parental responsibilities. I cannot begin to imagine how difficult it is for soldiers in general trying to return to their lives after serving in war. I suspect it might be even more so for women in this type of situation. 
• Pump: Documentary about the evils of Big Oil and how really possible it is to start waning America off its oil addiction. I'm always interested in films like this.

September 26th

• The Equalizer: Denzel Washington takes on the role at Edward Woodard made famous on CBS between 1985-1989. Denzel comes out of "retirement" to help out some locals from unsavory characters. This looks a lot like...I don't know...Taken? Or better yet...Man on Fire? Every few years Denzel comes out with a film that he kicks a lot of ass. I'm going to see this. Good or bad. Kind of like Neeson's release from the prior week.
• The Boxtrolls: Animated film about furniture that comes to life or something. Not for my demographic.
• The Two Faces of January: Interesting thriller starring Viggo Mortensen, Kirsten Dunst and Oscar Isaac. Based on a Patricia Highsmith novel, Viggo kills a guy while vacationing in Italy with Dunst. While trying to rid himself of the body he runs into Oscar Isaac and now they're all on the lamb. As they try to dodge the law, Isaac and Dunst start getting a little too close. The trailer looks real interesting and the cast is excellent. There's a lot of similarities between this film and The Talented Mr. Ripley, obviously. I may take this for a test drive.
• Jimi: All is By My Side: Andre Benjamin plays guitar legend Jimi Hendrix in this biopic about Hendrix's life in 60's London. Benjamin looks great as Jimi and makes an honest effort to sound like him too. The film charts Jimi's start in London but it's hard to tell how much of his career it covers. Looks interesting but I'm not 100% on Benjamin as an actor. 

13. Guardians of the Galaxy

August 8th in Chicago. First off, I agree with everything this article mentions. At the end of the day, this was an enjoyable film. The acting is solid and the story is fine. Lots of good action balanced with some genuinely funny moments. Sometimes there's too many jokes but that's the thing with the Guardians of the Galaxy, their a rag tag group who don't take themselves too seriously. Their casual anti-heroes. They're flawed but fun. Since I feel the same way as the article, I really don't want to reiterate something that someone already did a better job of explaining that I could.

According to the IMBD, Guardians grossed over $94 million it's first weekend. Add it up that there's going to be a sequel, the movie film says so at the end. The thing is, I really don't care about a Guardians sequel. It's understandable how Marvel wants to link everything together but is it really necessary? The Guardians of the Galaxy were a tertiary fringe group at best. The first version of the group appeared in 1969 and then appearing sporadically throughout the 70s and 80s. The got their own book in 1990 and ran for 62 issues. Ho hum. This version also has absolutely nothing to do with the version currently in the cineplex.

The version currently in the cineplex, arrived in 2008 but the individual team members had been roaming about the Marvel Universe for quite some time. Star-Lord, Gamora, Rocket and Drax have been around since the mid-70s. Groot on other hand made his first appearance in 1960 and then disappeared soon after that and by soon I mean immediately. Groot showed up 16 years later in a Hulk annual then disappeared until 1997 when he showed up in a Spider-Man title. It wasn't until Marvel's Annihilation: Conquest did Groot get some staying power and that's where he'd team-up with the other members.

Sure the movie was enjoyable but there wasn't a lot of originality. Yeah I know that comes as a shocker but its true. The Guardians team was an interesting bunch. Peter Quill (Chris Pratt) is the terran leader with a James Kirk libido. He was abducted from Earth when his mom died and raised by intergalactic smugglers and scoundrels called the Ravagers. He steals the orb (let's cut to the chase, the orb houses an Infinity Stone, which is vital to Marvel's overall plans) and tries to fence it on Xandar. There he runs into Rocket and Groot who try to collect the bounty on Quill. Rocket is a genetically altered raccoon (voiced by Bradley Cooper) who becomes the team's tech guy. He's a little bitter and has a knack for wanting to blow things up. Groot (voiced by Vin Diesel in what has to be the easiest paycheck he's ever earned) we already talked about. While chasing Quill through Xandar they run into Gamora (Zoe Saldona), Ronan's chief assassin and daughter of Thanos (it's complicated). Sent by Ronan, Gamora has her own ideas and is going to betray Ronan. The four of them eventually get arrested by the Nova Corps and are sent to prison. While in prison they meet up with Drax the Destroyer (Dave Bautista), a man who has sworn revenge on Ronan for killing his family.

So they form a plan to break out of prison, fence the Infinity Stone and destroy Ronan. Who do they decide to fence the stone to? Correct, The Collector.

Remember me?

You know what they say about the best laid plans right? They go to shit. One of The Collector's servants isn't happy with her job and she decides to grab the stone. Bad move. She is disintegrated and Taneleer Tivan's (The Collector's real name) warehouse is nearly destroyed. Oh and Ronan gets the stone. Epic. Fail.

Ronan is now headed for Xandar and the Guardians decide that they can't let Ronan slaughter Xandar. So the enlist the aid of the Ravagers, warn Xandar and try to head Ronan off at the pass, to coin a phrase. The battle that ensues is right out of Star Wars: Episode IV and Episode I with a bit of the final battle from the Avengers thrown in. The good guys face the standard overwhelming odds. Certainty of death. The usual. As you can guess the battle does not go the good guys way. They do end up forcing Ronan's ship down but that's like crossing the streams. It would be very bad. The Guardians manage to throw together another quick half-ass plan do defeat Ronan before he lays waste to Xandar. In a heroic sacrifice Quill wrestles the stone away from Ronan and with the help of Gamora, Drax and Rocket they somehow avoid disintegration and kill Ronan. Saving Xandar in the process. Afterwards they become such pals that they decide to stick together (or else, who would there be a sequel?).

In the comics, Ronan the Accuser is a pretty badass Kree official. In this film he's a whiny brat, so much so Thanos tells him that. In the Marvel Universe a Kree Accuser is a Military Governor and Judge (the Kree by the way are militaristic race of aliens) which is a pretty high ranking position. In this picture, Ronan just seems to be a rogue Kree official who is not happy with the treaty that the Kree Empire signed with Xandar so he continues to attack Xandarian outposts. Ronan just wants to wipe out Xandar for no real reason other than he doesn't like them much and it would bring him much rejoicement. He's basically a big blustery windbag. Sure he kicked Drax's ass but quite frankly,  he's very annoying. Thanos makes another cameo but he presence doesn't really add to the plot.

There's a lot of good action sequences but again, it's all been done before. To be fair, I saw this film because I am invested in the Marvel film universe. I have a connection to the X-men, Spider-Man and the rest. I could care less about the Guardians of the Galaxy. I was entertained by the film but it wasn't all that great. I waited a week after it's premiere to see what the buzz was like and it was a fun ride. Marvel has some big plans that probably involve the Avengers and Thanos in perhaps the 3rd film but who knows. It's possible that this "grand scheme" will tie in Ant-Man and Doctor Strange as well but who knows. It looks like all of us will have to slog through for the next few years. Hopefully the films will keep out interest. We shall see.

That bring us to the inevitable post credit scene post credit scene that Marvel makes me stay for. This one was rough because I had consumed a jug of soda and I really had to make potty. I toughed it out and made it to the scene. Now, I saw a pirated copy of the scene on the web, probably like a lot of other people. SPOILER ALERT! The scene consists of Tivan (that's The Collector), bandaged up and having a stiff drink pondering the destruction of his warehouse. As takes a swig of his beverage, a dog in a space suit licks his face. Then we hear a gruff voice say (paraphrasing), "why do you let him do that? It's gross." The dog is Cosmo, a character that I am unfamiliar with. The voice was none other than Howard the Duck. Yes, Howard the Duck. He of one of the worst film disasters of all-time. A disaster that George Lucas himself had a hand in. I hope that it was just a joke scene to garner a few laughs but who knows. More on that later.

As always, thanks for your time.

Marvel's alleged Phase Three

So I ran across article when cruising around the web and I had to say something. Apparently these titles represent the next wave of Marvel films that have been churned out like an assembly line. According to the article, this is all alleged. The titles were "leaked" so who knows. The Avengers sequel is filming and there are no secrets about Ant-Man and Doctor Strange. The Doctor Strange film is at best in "pre-production," but it has been confirmed by Marvel. Ant-Man is currently in some sort of production although the original director is no longer associated with the project.

The first two Captain America films have grossed over $430 million combined so it makes sense that there's a 3rd installment. The Thor franchise has raked in nearly $400 million so another installment also makes sense and the same goes for a potential third Avengers film. If a film pulls in nearly a billion dollars worldwide you can bet that the sequels will keep coming and coming until the franchise has been squeezed dry. It's not like that's stopped them from cranking out Transformers films, there's a reason for that.

Gobs and Gobs of reasons.

I've said it here before that Ant-Man and Doctor Strange are not the best ideas. Henry Pym decided that Ant-Man was a dead end and became Giant-Man in Avengers #2. The 2nd issue of the comic! Doctor Strange has been around a long time but he was never that exciting to begin with. If we are to believe this list then there will be another Hulk film out in 2018. That will make it 10 years since the Jade Giant had his last feature film and 15 years removed from Ang Lee's interpretation. Hulk will have also have had two spots (and potentially a third) in the Avengers franchise so I guess he could be due. World War Hulk was a crossover series back in 2007 and it could be interesting. 

With images like this, very interesting indeed.

The reports on the opening weekend of  Guardians of the Galaxy put it at $94 million as of this morning. So yeah, they're getting a sequel (I am contemplating an entry on thoughts about Howard the Duck's cameo in the post credits scene but I may wait until I actually see the film first).

Again, the reasons for a sequel.

Now the prospect of an Inhumans film is very intriguing to say the least. The best best to introduce them somehow would probably be in an Avengers sequel. The Inhumans are led by their hereditary ruler Black Bolt. He first appeared in Thor back in the 60s but he and Inhumans were big in the Fantastic Four series. I'm not sure what the legalities of the Fantastic Four are between Marvel Studios and 20th Century Fox, the owners of the rights to the FF, but I guess we'll let the lawyers and the studios figure that out. The Inhumans always had a difficult time finding long term viability but there were always cool in short spurts back in my day. 

That leaves me with the last alleged title in that list, The Black Panther. The Black Panther has always been kind of badass. 

T'Challa, his given name, is the ruler of a fictional African nation of Wakanda. There was a brief Easter Egg of Wakanda on a digital map in an Iron Man film or something (I don't remember which one and I don't feel like researching it, sorry) so he's been on the radar. T'Challa/Black Panther is a Bruce Wayne/Batman type but maybe not as angry. He does however have a lot of cool gadgets and is not afraid to bruise his knuckles. He's also a super stud too since he married Ororo/Storm of the X-Men during a story arc (that's two really good looking people in the comics world). So this could be pretty kick ass if there's any truth to that "leak."

Again, only Ant-Man and Doctor Strange has been confirmed and of those titles only Ant-Man is actually in some form of production but is on it's second director. We shall see what happens in the next few years. DC, which is far behind Marvel in the film churning outing, recently (finally) revealed Gal Gardot as Wonder Woman in the upcoming Batman vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice due out in 2016. Let's see if they can get back on track and get a successful franchise other than Batman or Superman (though Superman's "success" is debatable compared to Batman).  Thank you for your time.