THIS YEAR'S MOVIES, PART ONE

In case you were assuming that this column and its three upcoming sequels are a complete and accurate list of the year's major releases, be warned that last year's series managed to omit the following obscure 2006 films: Apocalypto, Arthur and the Invisibles, Black Christmas, Blood Diamond, Bobby, Borat, Copying Beethoven, Curse of the Golden Flower, Deck the Halls, Eragon, Fast Food Nation, Flyboys, Garfield: A Tail of Two Kitties, A Good Year, Gridiron Gang, The Grudge 2, The Guardian, The History Boys, The Holiday, Home of the Brave, The Illusionist, Jackass Number Two, The Lake House, The Last King of Scotland, Letters from Iwo Jima, The Lives of Others, Man of the Year, The Marine, Miss Potter, The Nativity Story, Pan's Labyrinth, Peaceful Warrior, Saw III, The Science of Sleep, Sherrybaby, Shortbus, Step Up, Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny, Tideland, Volver, and We Are Marshall.

Conversely, both Dr. Dolittle 3 and Mozart and the Whale were ultimately released direct-to-video.

Taymor follows up Titus and Frida with this '60s musical romance set to Beatles songs (and of course the scoring of Mr. Taymor, Elliot Goldenthal). Wood is a familiar face from such films as Thirteen, Pretty Persuasion and The Missing. Anderson played the nephew in Copying Beethoven, while Sturgess largely has British TV credits to his name.
POSTPONED FROM LAST YEAR

This one is a sequel to Alien vs. Predator and not a battle between Ridley Scott's Alien and Stephen Hopkins' Predator 2. Apparently, this time the warring alien races battle in a small town, because the Antarctic's just too dern cold. Epps played the student in Half Nelson, and overall the cast is so obscure it makes the first Alien vs. Predator look like Murder on the Orient Express.

Filmed in 2004, plagued by legal difficulties (the suspect in the real life crime this was inspired by has since been arrested, and lawyers feared the film could prejudice his case), moved from New Line to Universal, Nick Cassavetes' true-crime black comedy/tragedy is surprisingly effective, with memorable performances ranging from the naturalistic (the always excellent Emile Hirsch, a surprisingly good Justin Timberlake) to the comedic and inspired (Chris Marquette, a fascinatingly over-the-top Ben Foster). The film doesn't always work -- much of Cassavetes' visual gimmicry (especially the split screens) adds little, and the abrupt changes in tone are sometimes jarring -- but it's a fascinating film, morbidly funny and genuinely moving.
POSTPONED FROM LAST YEAR, AND THE YEAR BEFORE THAT

18th century biopic with Gruffudd as William Wilberforce, who worked to end slavery in the British Empire. It'll be nice to hear Arnold tackle this kind of period material (it's Arnold's third film for Apted) though alas no score album has been announced.

Cop Crowe battles Harlem druglord Washington in the '70s. Antoine Fuqua almost directed this a year or so ago. Great cast, talented director, terrific writer (All the King's Men notwithstanding). I have a hunch there will be one or two '70s songs on the soundtrack.

Its predecessor, Are We There Yet?, was an unofficial remake of Dutch; this sequel is an official remake of Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House, with our 21st century Cary Grant, Ice Cube, and, I expect, a lot more crotch injuries than Grant ever had to suffer in his esteemed career.

Yes, Branagh really did make a film version of Shakespeare's comedy that included Ninjas, but Heaven knows when it will actually be released. He has since made a film of Mozart's The Magic Flute, and his next film is a remake of Sleuth, with a Harold Pinter script and starring Michael Caine and Jude Law, a project which has no reason to exist but which I can't wait to see.
POSTPONED FROM LAST YEAR

Westerns. Everybody loves them, nobody wants to pay to see them. Based on the title, I'm a little confused about what happens in this one. Pitt plays James, Affleck plays Ford, and the finale is a shootout to decide who's dreamier; advantage:Brad.
POSTPONED FROM LAST YEAR

Arthouse specialists the Polish brothers (Twin Falls Idaho, Jackpot, Northfork) move into more mainstream material with this Fields of Dreams-ish story of family man Thornton's obsession with building a space rocket in his back yard. Expect a lot of slow track-ins to faces beaming with wonder, and one can only pray it's better than the beautifully photographed but smug and annoying Northfork..

Ian McEwan's acclaimed novel becomes the new collaboration between Pride & Prejudice's star and director, plus the ubiquitous James McAvoy. The IMDB lists Dario Marianelli as composer; can anyone reliably confirm this?

Piano prodigy Highmore (the little British boy in every Johnny Depp film of the last few years) tries to find his real parents. Sheridan is the daughter of Jim Sheridan, and co-writer of his In America.

Christensen wakes up during surgery, paralyzed but aware; Alba, as always, looks like the world's cutest porn star. Drama ensues.

The creators of Reno 911 present an Enter the Dragon parody about ping pong. Fogler, an exceptionally unlikely looking movie lead, was the Tony-winning co-star of The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee.

Bean returns and goes to the South of France; I hope without the icky John Hughes-style sentimentality of the first Bean film.

Keaton plays the bossy mother of three sisters -- no, not those three sisters she bossed around in The Other Sister (you know, the lesbian one, the mentally handicapped one, and the other one) -- but three different sisters, played by Moore, Graham and Perabo. Gabriel Macht, who was in that Matt Damon spy film The Good Shepherd, should not be mistaken for Gabriel Mann, who was in those Matt Damon spy films The Bourne Identity and The Bourne Supremacy. And to make things more confusing, Gabriel Mann began his acting career under the name Gabriel Mick. But he's not Gabriel Macht. Different dude.

Or Austen in Love. Hathaway plays the young Jane Austen, and McAvoy plays the young man who inspires her to write Pride & Prejudice & Romeo & Juliet & Sense & Sensibility, and who inspires casting directors to put him in every British film of the last three years. The IMDB lists Adrian Johnston as the composer; he scored Kinky Boots for Jane director Jarrold.

Yes, the parade of CGI animals voiced by big stars continues. So even though Nic Cage, Julia Roberts and Meryl Streep in The Ant Bully was a flop, here come Seinfeld, Zellweger and Broderick as more oddly plastic looking bugs.

Two brothers pull off a heist that, as so many movie heists do, goes south. Lumet is still directing at age 82; that's something to be thankful for.

Zemeckis uses the motion capture technology of The Polar Express to tell the ancient legend of Beuwolf's battle with the monster Grendel. If nothing else, this could be one of the great scores of the year, and with luck the characters won't look like creepy doll zombies like Polar Express's nightmare children.

Priest Hurt and teacher Dancy try to save people from the Rwandan massacre; because what's important about Rwanda is how it affected white people. This can only be a major step up from Caton-Jones's last film, Basic Instinct 2.

Paul Verhoeven's return to European filmmaking was short-listed for the Foreign Language Oscar this year but alas wasn't one of the five nominees. Despite a somewhat clunky opening, this is a true return to form for the Dutch Master, not so much Soldier of Orange Redux as Flesh + Blood In the Nazi Occupation. Fortunately, there's no brutal rape scene (for once), though van Houten is mistreated so badly by the end of the film that there might as well have been. The film is as exciting and eventful as an old-time serial, and it's a kick to see actors from Verhoeven's earlier Dutch films in major roles, including 4th Man's Thom Hoffman and Soldier of Orange's Derek de Lint. The only real disappointment is Anne Dudley's score -- not bad, but a bit generic and nowhere near as memorable as Poledouris and Goldsmith's scores for the director, or even Loek Dikker's terrific 4th Man.
POSTPONED FROM LAST YEAR

For those who felt Brewer's Hustle & Flow, the story of a sympathetic pimp-turned-rapper, wasn't button-pushing enough, he gives us recluse Jackson chaining Ricci in his home to cure her nymphomania. The film has a terrific pulp novel-style poster, and one can only commend the anonymous wit who titled it Skanks on a Chain.

Ferrell and Heder play rival ice skaters who are forced to team up; your enjoyment will probably depend on your feelings about the two stars. The trailer is pretty funny, but a little homosexual panic humor can go a long way.

This dull, clumsily directed werewolf romance, with the most laughable title of the year, makes one long for the B-movie charms of An American Werewolf in Paris, and makes the Underworld films look like horror classics. Blue Car star Agnes Bruckner deserves much better; Martinez plays the same sneering Eurotrash he plays in every English language film he appears in. The film does improve somewhat as it goes along, there are nice shots of wolves running through the woods at night, and it's a novelty to see a film shot in Romania that's actually set in Romania. But still. It would make a good/bad double feature with The Covenant, though it isn't quite as gay (close, though).

The third of the Ludlum inspired Bourne thrillers (and nicely enough, they used an actual Ludlum title once again), so we can only hope it maintains the high quality of its predecessors, and we don't see Bourne battling Richard Kiel on a Rio sky tram or swinging through the jungle with a Tarzan yell.

Foster turns urban vigilante. The combination of director Jordan and producer Joel Silver seems an intriguing one, but where's Elliot Goldenthal? (IMDB lists Dario Marianelli as composer -- any confirmation?)

Cooper plays Robert Hanssen, the FBI agent caught selling secrets to the Russians, with Philippe as the agent assigned to investigate him. Director-co-writer Ray made Shattered Glass, so this could actually be good.

The classic children's novel that I'd never heard of becomes a feature directed by Gabor Csupo, whose animation company makes all those TV shows with distractingly ugly looking characters (Rugrates, Wild Thornberrys, et al).

Friedkin directs this adaptation of a play with Shannon (a familiar face from 8 Mile and World Trade Center -- he looks a little like Jude Law's scary brother) as a mentally unbalanced veteran.

Erin Brockovich writer Grant makes her directorial debut with the story of Garner coping with her fiance's death with the help of her friends, one of whom she'll end up with, because a woman can't end up alone at the finale of a romantic comedy (unless she's an over-30 woman and she's in Love Actually).

Is it that Hanks-Roberts romantic comedy we've all been waiting for? Not so much; instead it's a docudrama about a Congressman's involvement in the Soviet-Afghanistan war -- didn't he know that Rambo and James Bond were already on the case?

Cedric wakes up next to a corpse (who looks oddly like Steven Soderbergh -- Cedric's revenge for not getting the Bernie Mac role in the Ocean's movies?) and suffers from amnesia, not sure if he's the wealthy husband of Nicolette Sheridan (in the Kelly Lynch role), the janitor boyfriend of Lucy Liu, or a top government agent. This comedy-thriller has some decent ideas but, except for the inevitable outtake reel at the end, is depressingly unfunny, and the cheap, flat feeling (including, surprisingly, Clinton's score) make it seem like a direct-to-video release.
POSTPONED FROM LAST YEAR

Romantic comedy from the maker of Pieces of April. When I used to enjoy Carell on The Daily Show I would never have guessed he'd become an A-list film star, but I'm glad he did. Josh Hartnett, though, I still don't get. Does he even have eyes?

The writing-directing team of Saw returns with a horror tale involving dolls and ventriloquist dummies. The trailer didn't seem at all scary to me, but the folks on the IMDB message board seemed to groove on it. Kwanten was the brother in Flicka, for the five of you who saw that one.

Oz takes a break from star vehicles (The Score, The Stepford Wives) with this British dark comedy pairing arthouse perennial Graves (A Room with a View, Maurice, Damage) with Pride & Prejudice star McFadyen. The IMDB lists the composer as Murray Gold, a familiar name from such British TV as Doctor Who, Vanity Fair and Queer as Folk.

This teen thriller looks so much like Rear Window that Cornel Woolrich's estate should sue, but at least it's got a good cast (and Morse is an inspired choice for the Raymond Burr role).

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