The following were on my mind between Monday, August 9th and Monday, August 16th:
-Last year at this time I decided to give you my ten most anticipated movies from August of 2009 to July of 2010. A pretty interesting list looking back since 1/3 of the movies I ended up not liking and 1/3 of them I didn't see at all. Anyways, it was fun making that list and I decided on doing again this year. The following are the movies expected to be released between August 2010 and July 2011 that I am anticipating for the most, now extended from ten to thirteen this time;
13. "Machete" (09/03/2010)
I've never been a big fan of the films of Robert Rodriguez. But the trailer does look epic and makes the film quite promising. It's also got quite a good cast with some good stars like Danny Trejo, Jessica Alba and Robert de Niro. This is also the first movie Quentin Tarantino has been involved in since "Inglourious Basterds." And if Quentin Tarantino's involved in something, you know that there's a 85% chance that it will be good.
12. "Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides" (05/20/2011)
Just when you thought we would never see Captain Jack Sparrow on the big screen ever again, he comes right back...along with the whole 'POTC' franchise. In this one, Johnny Depp's famous character gets aboard Captain Blackbeard's famous Queen Ann's Revenge on a quest to search for the legendary Fountain of Youth and dealing with an ex-lover named Angelica. There's going to be quite a few differences in this film compared to the last three, with both Orlando Bloom and Kiera Knightley both not in the movie. But it does have Penelope Cruz playing Sparrow's ex-lover and Ian McShane playing Blackbeard, so it should make things interesting and add some new spice to the franchise. Plus the first three were pretty good, so I'm expected another good one the next time around.
11. "Cowboys and Aliens" (07/29/2011)
A Steven Spielberg production of a Jon Favreau film is already making me interested. Add in the fact that Daniel Craig and Harrison Ford are the main actors and that it's about 1800s Arizona cowboys fighting aliens, then all you basically need is a good script and some good reviews and you got my butt in the movie theaters to watch
it.
10. "Green Lantern" (06/17/2011)
I don't understand why people rush to conclusions whether or not an actor is the right fit playing a superhero. When it was announced that Heath Ledger would be playing The Joker in "The Dark Knight," many
people thought that he just wasn't the right fit. But then when they sawhis Oscar winning performance as the Joker, people never doubted that move ever again. The same thing happened again when it was announed that
Seth Rogen will be playing The Green Hornet and that Ryan Reynolds would star as Green Lantern in this movie. Is it too much to just wait and see whether it was the right choice before jumping to conclusions? Anyways, I think this movie should be pretty good, what with the director of "Casino Royale" doing the movie. It has the chance to be pretty gritty.
9. "Sucker Punch" (03/25/2011)
In what is to be his fourth live action film after previously making great movies like the "Dawn of the Dead" remake and "300" as wellas the mix reviewed "Watchmen" (I thought it was okay, but would've
been better as an HBO miniseries), Zac Snyder is back with the film thatproducers of the film call "Alice in Wonderland" with machine guns, including dragons, B-52 bombers and brothels. That description alone is making my mouth drool. The plot is a little bit more complicated, however, with imaginary worlds, mental institutions, lobotomy and a hyper real world where the main character's fake world and real world begin to blur together. It's got a pretty good cast that includes Jon Hamm, Jena Malone and some of my generation's top actresses thus far like Vanessa Hudgens and Emily Browning. And, my God, does the trailer for the movie look awesome! In other words, I expect it to be at least a B- movie when I watch it.
8. "The Town" (09/17/2010)
Thanks to his performance on "Mad Men," Jon Hamm has become my Stephen Strasburg of acting. I want to see every project he's involved in these days, including this one which is his first major movie role in his career. Hamm plays an FBI agent who is trying to stop some of the top bank robbers in the town of Charlestown, Massachusetts. It's also got Blake Lively, Jeremy Renner from "The Hurt Locker," Rebecca Hall and Ben Affleck as the star, the writer and the director of the film. It's about a month away from releasing, and it's already got some Oscar buzz going around. Should be an interesting one.
7. "Due Date" (11/05/2010)
Judging from the trailer, this movie has the potential as being one really awesome comedy. Some of the parts in the trailer are simply hilarious, it's got Zach Galifinakis who's been on a roll in terms of the funny since "The Hangover" and Robert Downey Jr. who's a great actor in almost every movie he's in, especially comedies. To add chocolate syrup on that delicious sundae, Todd Phillips is directing it in his first movie since "The Hangover." This has the potential to be the funniest movie of the year, and I wanna see it.
6. "Captain America: The First Avenger" (07/22/2011)
I can't believe it's taken this long to make a movie of one of the most popular comic book characters of all time. In fact, I still can't believe how Fantastic Four and Daredevil movies came out before a Captain America one. Still, I'm glad that the wait will come to an end very soon and I feel that this could be a good one. Hopefully, Chris Evans was the right pick for Captain America.
5. "Kung Fu Panda 2: The Kaboom of Doom" (05/26/2011)
I loved the first Kung Fu Panda movie. It was funny, it was quirky and it had some good heartfelt moments. If it weren't for "Wall-E," I'm still convinced it would have won an Oscar. Hopefully the second movie hasn't lost any of that charm from the first one as another Dreamworks' sequel, "Madagascar 2," did.
4. "Thor" (05/06/2011)
2011 promises to be quite the year for the superhero film genre. It all starts in January with "The Green Hornet" staring Seth Rogen. Then in the summer comes a whole mob of superhero movies from another "X-Men" movie to "Green Lantern" to even "Captain America" at last. And yet, none of these movies are as anticipated by comic book nerds and movie fans alike then this movie, based on the comic books of the Greek God of thunder. It's set to be the first major blockbuster of the 2011 summer movie season and it has Kenneth Branagh as director. Branagh is famous for being the director of some notable Shakespeare movies from Henry V to Hamlet, so this could be more than just an action movie and more of a thinking man's superhero movie like "The Dark Knight." The one question mark lies in Australian actor Chris Hensworth playing Thor, but with a year of so many new actor playing superheroes next time, that will be a question that will be asked many times.
3. "True Grit" (12/25/2010)
It's an adaptation of the 1969 film starring John Wayne. Only this time's it's directed by the Coen Brothers with reigning Academy Award winning actor Jeff Bridges and Matt Damon staring, so it already promises to be as good or better than the original. It's also got Josh Brolin in it, who's been quite the lucky charm for films trying to get nominated for an Academy Award. However, the fact that the Coen Brothers are directing is already giving this movie Oscar buzz and is making me think that just maybe the two will create another great classic. So, yeah, I'm pretty much hyped up for this. A lot.
2. "The Hangover 2" (05/26/2011)
The thing I'm going to be most interesting in seeing this is how funny the movie will be compared to the awesome first movie, which was the funniest movie of 2009, earned over $200 million domestically and won the Golden Glove for Best Comedy. I expect the box office money to be much bigger, but I'm not sure if the quality will be the same. It's been seen over the years that sequels to great comedies have not done well. Take "Caddyshack 2" for example, or the second "Airplane" movie. Will this movie be another example of history repeating itself, or will it be another huge success? We shall find out very soon.
1. "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part I and II" (11/19/2010 and 07/15/2011 respectively)
Well, this is it. After nine years, and billions of dollars in the box office, the final adaptation of a Harry Potter book will finally hit theaters in two parts ,with part one premiering this winter and part two premiering this summer. Now, since the book hit the stands three years ago, there's no point in guessing what will happen except if you're too lazy to read the book. Let's just hope that David Yates can do a good job putting the final book into the big screen to his best abilities. And with the movie being two parts, he has no excuses not getting the details right. With that said, it's gonna be real sad seeing part II in theaters next summer knowing that this will be the last time we get to see Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint among others on the big screens performing the stories of one of the most popular book characters of the past fifteen years. It really will.
-How is it that for the last two seasons, whenever Justin Morneau has been on the disabled list, the Twins played better when he was gone than in the weeks before his injury? Last year when Morneau was out at the end of the season they came back from a large deficit to win the division over the Tigers in a one game playoff. This year, after Morneau was out before the All Star Game, they have had the best record during that span and now are leading the AL Central by three games over the White Sox. It's crazy.
- Brett Favre is now becoming the mid 2000s version of Roger Clemens. I'm afraid that the only thing these days that could get him out of football for good is if he is accused of using steroids.
- I'm starting to hate the YouTube comments sections these days. The worst part about it is the reading the comments from people who are pissed out that a miniscule number of people voted "dislike" on a certain video they like. Oh, what's this? 27 people don't like Metallica's "Orion"?!?! Let me just write down how I want all those 27 people dead and maybe get a few +1s from other commenters! Look, it may shock you, but there are some people who have different opinions on clip and videos than you. Some people who rather do stuff like listening to Lady Gaga than Pink Floyd. So please, respect those people...no matter how wrong they are or how much of a bad taste they may be. (Counterpoint: it does give you a better chance of you getting a "highest rated comment" honor. At least that's what happened to me)
- It's nice to see that Bill Simmons can still write some good columns. This may have been the first non-mailbag column I liked since the Wrestlemania 26 game diary (http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=simmons/100813)
- Seven men within a shot of the lead for most of the final round, a major choke by the third round leader, a three hole playoff to decide the whole thing and a controversial call/major gaffe in the final hole that cost a guy a shot at joining the three hole playoff...who said that this year's PGA championship wouldn't be exciting if Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson weren't in contention?
More random thoughts to come next Monday same time, same place. Enjoy the start of your week, everyone!
Sincerely,
Your pal: mj15
If you have any opinions on today's post, or if you want to suggest anything to mj15 for his next blog entry (tips, perhaps?), e-mail him at: mj1599@aol.com. Your e-mails are greatly appreciated.
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