Thursday, November 5, 2009

November Movies

Another month brings more movie releases. We're into November now if you can believe it and get ready because the Twilight sequel comes out this month!!!! Sorry, I just transformed into a 12 year old girl for a second, what was I saying? Oh yea...November movies. There are a few releases that I'm looking forward to and a few that I'm not...

What to see:

-Disney's A Christmas Carol (11/6) - The feel-good holiday movie of the year. I enjoyed The Polar Express so I think this one will be just as entertaining, especially with the inner child of Jim Carrey doing voices. However, I don't start getting into the Christmas spirit until Thanksgiving is over...

-Pirate Radio (11/6) - Philip Seymour Hoffman, or as I like to call him, "PSH," is in the cast of DJs who fight the man and take to the seas to broadcast a little rock and roll for Britain in the 60's. Also in the cast are Nick Frost and Bill Nighy (from Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz). This will be the second film for director Richard Curtis, the first being Love Actually, which I will confess is a guilty pleasure of mine - definitely the best "chick flick" I've ever seen.

-The Fourth Kind (11/6) - A movie about aliens based on truth...call me a geek but that's all I need to know. I like how they appear to use real archived footage and how Milla Jovovich warns you in the trailer that "some of what you are about to see is extremely disturbing." This really looks like it could be one of the best alien movies to come out. My only concern is that it can't be THAT disturbing if it's rated PG-13, but sometimes you don't need violence to get creeped out.

-Fantastic Mr. Fox (11/25) - One of my favorite stories growing up by Roald Dahl and I'm really excited to see how Wes Anderson puts it together. Most people either love or hate the work of Wes Anderson, but I think he could blur that line with an animated film like this. The animation looks unique and creative and the voices come from what seems to be the click of Anderson, Jason Schwartzman, Bill Murray and Owen Wilson, along with some pretty recognizable additions in George Clooney, Meryl Streep and Willem Dafoe.

-The Road (11/25) - A great read from Cormac McCarthy if you get the chance. Set in a mysteriously apocalyptic world, the story creates some extremely dark and barren imagery as it follows a father and his son in their struggle to survive and avoid the few dangerous cannibalistic humans that they encounter. Viggo Mortensen plays the father, an excellent actor. Often when I read a book prior to seeing the film, I'm disappointed with the film; I have a feeling that this one may be an exception.

On the cusp:

-Ninja Assassin (11/25) - I love ninjas. The thought of a ninja movie gets me excited. However, I found the trailer to be a little disappointing. It looks like it might be a little too over-the-top and considering it's produced by the Wachowski brothers, that's pretty much inevitable anyway. I did read that the lead actor/ninja trained something like 8 hours a day for 10 months for this film, so that's pretty impressive. For the sake of ninjas, I hope my hesitation is proved wrong.

-The Men Who Stare At Goats (11/6) - Superstar casts don't always make for great movies. I think this film will be entertaining and receive good reviews but it just looks too bizarre for me. Grant Heslov is directing, a guy you might recognize from acting; this is definitely the biggest directorial work he's done. The screenplay was adapted from a British author, which explains why it has a bizarre feel.

No thanks:

-The Box - Let's take a basic philosophical question and make an entire film about it: would you push a button to kill someone you don't know for a million dollars? I loved Donnie Darko, I like Frank Langella and Cameron Diaz, but this plot just looks a little too cheesy for me. I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that this married couple's decision is tough and doesn't end well.

-2012 - Yeah, yeah, the world's gonna end...we get it already. I'm just a little burnt out on the apocalyptic imagery and cheesy conspiracy themes that constantly get recycled in Hollywood.

-Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans - Aside from a horribly long name, Nic Cage is this so-called "bad lieutenant." A review states that it's his best performance in years, but that sure as hell doesn't say anything to me. Bad Lieutenant was a 1992 film starring Harvey Keitel, a cop that spirals downward with drug addiction. Apparently this isn't supposed to be a remake though. The original director, Abel Ferrara was quoted as saying that directors who make remakes should burn in hell; the director of this film didn't even know who Ferrara was. So it begs the question, why the hell did they name it Bad Lieutenant? I should also add that Xzibit has a substantial role in this film...rappers, can you stick to rapping?