Boondock's Movies of 2010

[Eric]

Okay, here we go!

I'll be revisiting this thread hopefully every couple months to identify new release dates and new movies that have been announced.

It'll be broken up into three sections:

1. The Biggest of 2010 (parts 1 & 2)
2. The FAIL's of 2010
3. The Surprises of 2010

Without further ado, here is my list! (Info blatantly stolen from Comingsoon.net, Firstshowing.net and Wikipedia)

The Biggest of 2010 - (Part 1)


February 12
Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief

• Chris Columbus (Gremlins, The Goonies, Night At The Museum 1-2, Harry Potter 1-3, Fantastic Four 1-2, etc.) directing, big cast (Uma Thurman, Pierce Brosnan, Sean Bean [A CATAPULT!], Rosario Dawson, etc), sequel already coming, based off 5 books surrounding Greek mythology.

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February 26
Cop Out

• Kevin Smith’s new movie, starring Bruce Willis and Tracy Morgan looks hilarious. Our local Minnesota boy Sean William Scott is in it, and it’s Kevin Smith so there will be plenty of cameos. Doesn’t look like it’s set in the Askewniverse or whatever, it actually looks more like it’s own world. I think I remember Smith saying somewhere that Clerks 2 was the last film set in that old universe, but I’m not sure...Joe?
• Anyway, should be excellent, trailers look very amusing.

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March 5
Alice in Wonderland

• Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter, Anne Hathaway, Crispin Glover, and directed by Tim Burton, this movie is going to be huge. Trailers look fantastic too.

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March 26
Clash of the Titans

• A remake of the classic starting Sam Worthington (Terminator Salvation, Avatar) as Perseus, Ralph Fiennes as Hades, Liam Neeson as Zeus, a $180 million budget, and directed by the guy who made The Incredible Hulk and The Transporter movies.
• Should be huge, but honestly it looks like a CGI festival…has a lot to live up to. I remember watching the original as a kid. That silly ass mechanical owl…hope he makes an appearance!

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April 9
Date Night

• Wow. Steve Carrell and Tina Fey are a couple out for a date night and some wacky hijinks ensue. Awesome cast, including Mark Wahlberg, James Franco, Mila Kunis, Mark Ruffalo, Ray Liotta, Common, etc.
• Will be huge, Steve Carrell’s movies generally do well, and add Tina Fey, Marky Mark, James Franco, etc. in the mix and this movie will bank.

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April 16
Kick-Ass

• I really want to put this one the “surprises” list to be safe, but I’ll take a risk here. A comic book movie about a kid with no real special powers who goes out and kicks ass (oh, a pun!) becomes an internet sensation, eventually crosses paths with a couple other masked vigilantes and apparently adventure ensues. McLovin is in this as well, along with good old Nicholas Cage. I think this movie might find a way to get past the Nic Cage curse, but you never know.
• The director’s previous two movies (Layer Cake, Stardust) weren’t bad, had a little style and the trailer looks great. Plus it’s definitely rated R, with "massive profanity and violence". It could FAIL but I’m thinking this is going to be big.

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May 7
Iron Man 2

• The first Iron Man ranks up there with the best comic book movies ever made. Right behind "The Dark Knight" and right before "Catwoman". Ha! This movie looks fantastic, Favreau is becoming quite the Hollywood powerhouse (and an excellent director), Downy Jr. continues to impress as Tony Stark, and now that I’m not so ignorant about it (thanks Trany!) I’m eager to see War Machine fight next to Iron Man. Plus the fact that all these Marvel movies are starting to tie into each other with the whole Nick Fury business, what is that, the Avenger Initiative? “Samuel L. Jackson is also signed onto to reprise the role in nine more Marvel movies, including Iron Man 2, Thor, The First Avenger: Captain America, and The Avengers” very cool stuff…
• Not sure about adding Don Cheadle, but I wasn’t sure that Terrence Howard was any good in the first movie. Apparently I wasn’t the only one. We’ll see…Cheadle rarely disappoints. Add Mickey Rourke, Scarlett Johanssen, and Sam Rockwell as adversaries and of course, Gwyneth Paltrow as Pepper Potts and this flick should be gigantic. Especially if it’s actually a GOOD comic book movie like the first one was…which I totally expect it will be.

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May 14
Robin Hood

• Looks epic. Ridley Scott (Alien, Blade Runner, Gladiator, Black Hawk Down), Russell Crowe (who looks a little too much like Maximus , but should still be excellent), Cate Blanchett, and academy award winning (LA Confidential) writer Brian Helgeland in an adult retelling of the Robin Hood story.
• All the pieces are in place for a huge win, and if it’s anything like Gladiator turned out to be, this could be one of the biggest films of the year.

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May 21
Shrek Forever After

• You all know I have kids now and that my movie watching has taken a turn into the more animated variety. I’m pleased that my 2.5 year old just loves Shrek 1 & 2 and has the good taste to rarely ask to watch Shrek 3. However, Shrek 4 (4ever After, oh I get it) looks like it might get back to the first 2 good Shrek movies.
• Good story: (Shrek gets tricked into signing a curse from Rumpelstiltskin where he goes to an alternate universe where he never existed, no one knows him, Rumpelstiltskin is king, etc.
• Tons of people, including the entire original cast, but add people like Megan Fox, John Krasinski (Jim Halpert from The Office) and more, and it has the makings of a blockbuster. It better be, because the budget was around $300 MILLION. Considering that the first ones made 400, 900 and 800 million dollars, and that this is being advertised as the LAST CHAPTER in the Shrek series, this is going to be huge.

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May 28
Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time

• $200 million, Disney, Jake Gyllenhal and a ridiculously huge franchise. Video game movies are very much hit or miss, but this one looks like it has the fan base, marketing and star power to succeed, and it really needs to be a hit or it won’t make it’s $200 million back. I think it will.
• Trailers aren’t blowing me away, but they’ll release a newer & better trailer in a couple months and the buzz will start. Without sounding too Brokeback (hahah, see what I did there?), Gyllenhal looks ripped, and should be fine as the Prince.
• Depending on what they do, there could be some really interesting things done with the sands of time and the battle sequences. Because it’s Disney I think it’s getting a PG-13, which is a shame because there were some pretty bad ass attacks done in the video games that obviously won’t translate…or if they do it’ll be bloodless battles…(Pirates of the Caribbean-ish).

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Sex and the City 2

• As much as it pains me to do it, I can’t deny that this flick will be one of the biggest of 2010. This is part of the reason I renamed this to “Biggest of 2010” instead of “Best of 2010”. I understand, if your first movie makes 300 million dollars, you must make sequel(s), but god do I hate these movies. And it all boils down to Sarah Jessica Parker. She’s hideous. I was Google image searching “Sarah Jessica Parker” to find a good pic of her fugly ass and Google auto completed with: “Sarah Jessica Parker looks like a horse” so I’m not the only one.

• Will be huge, but the only reason it might not be as huge (other than sucking) is that some of the ladies who are out for a date might want to see a ripped up brokeback guy (see above) instead of more and more of the same from four whiny bitches that no one cares about anymore.

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June 18
Toy Story 3

• Nice, the new Pixar movie is Toy Story 3! I’m such a dork when it comes to these movies because Pixar reminds me of Blizzard; they generally don’t mass release products, and everything they release has the polish and shine of something that someone takes pride in. They take the time, put the effort into only putting out good things, and that’s why almost every one of their movies is a 5 star movie and makes a ton of money.
• Toy Story is one of those rare film series’ where the sequel was as good, if not better than the original. “Toy Story 2 received universal critical acclaim and earned a 100% approval rating at Rotten Tomatoes (one of the only animated films to do so)”. So I have no doubt that Toy Story 3 will be successful. All the voice talent is back, (other than Jim Varney who is dead) and it looks like there are some new ones (Michael Keaton, Whoopi Goldberg, etc).

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June 25
Grown Ups

• Last year I got burned by putting an Adam Sandler flick on the “Best of” list (“Funny People”) but this year I have to put “Grown Ups” on here. The cast is ridiculous: Adam Sandler, Kevin James, David Spade, Chris Rock, Rob Schneider, Salma Hayek, Salma Hayek’s boobs (yes, they deserve special mention) and a ton of other bit roles by the SNL people from back in our day (Tim Meadows, Norm MacDonald, hell even Steve Buscemi is listed).
• Anyway, sounds like the 5 stars used to play on a basketball team together, then grew up and went their separate ways and have come back for the funeral of their old coach. Naturally, spending the weekend together with old friends results in comic mischief, so it should be funny. It looks like it’s going for a mix of kid humor and parent humor, and with this cast that’s part of the reason I’m throwing it on the “Biggest of 2010” list. Unless it gets an R rating…but even then I still see it doing very well.

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June 25
Knight & Day

• Ugh…it’s hard but I have to keep this on the “Biggest of 2010” list simply because it’s Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz, but I have to. Action/comedy where Cruise is the action hero and Diaz is the comic relief. Writing that sentence makes me want to move this to the “Surprises of 2010”, but then I watched the trailer and it definitely looks like it could be a big summer movie.

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June 30
The Twilight Saga: Eclipse

• Wow, that was fast. Are they going with the angle of “we must mass release these films before our target audience gets any older”? Not that it’ll matter, this movie will bank huge, especially being a summer release. The third film in the Twilight saga…I think there are certain people who read this forum who could talk about Twilight extensively…almost as if they were more excited than their wives to see the movies…hmmmmm? I kid, I plan on reading the books on my iPhone once I finish the one I’m currently reading.

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The Last Airbender

• On the same weekend as the Tom Cruise/Cameron Diaz flick above, is M. Night Shyamalan’s “The Last Airbender”, the first of the live action movies in the trilogy. $250 million has been invested in this trilogy, and while the rough trailer doesn’t show much and the effects are so-so, I’m guessing it’ll be a big success.
• M Night Shamalama has missed a bit over the last couple years, (The Village, The Happening, etc), but this already has quite the Nickelodeon fan base, and should hit. Notice that this used to be called "Avatar: The Last Airbender"...and now the "Avatar" part is gone. Man, "Avatar" has that much power, it can even rename other movies!

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July 7
Predators

• Another risky pick here, given that the last Alien vs. Predator movies have possibly done irreversible damage to this once outstanding franchise, but here comes “Predators”, a movie written by Robert Rodriguez that is going back to the rated R roots of a Predator movie. Call me crazy, but I didn’t mind “Predator 2” as much as some did, and I loved “Predator”. The AVP movies can just disappear for all I care at this point, but this movie has me hopeful.
• The cast is just as interesting as the director that was chosen. Nimrod Antal hasn’t made many movies, and the cast is a bit on the weak side if you ask me. They went with the realism side, saying that real soldiers aren’t like Arnold, they’re regular looking guys. So we’ve got Adrian Brodie (really?!!), Topher Grace (from That 70’s Show?!?!), Danny Trejo (he’s been busy), Laurence Fishburne and more.
• Okay…for a reboot, it’s not a bad idea to go in a different direction, but part of me wants to go safe and put this one on the “surprises of 2010” instead of the “Biggest of 2010” but I’m going to have faith!

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July 9
Despicable Me

• See? I learned my lesson from last year. Any and pretty much all kids movies go on the “Biggest of” list now because they make obscene amounts of money. Especially those that have star voice talent like: Steve Carrel, Jason Segel, Will Arnett, Danny McBride, Dave Foley, and more.
• Honestly, I think this movie looks stupid, but the kids movies over the last 5 years have looked stupid and they’ve made hundreds of millions of dollars, so here ya go.

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July 16
Inception

• The Dark Knight’s Christopher Nolan wrote, produced and directed this film, starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Joseph Gordan-Levitt (I’m a big fan), Juno’s Ellen Page, Ken Watanabe and oh hell, Lukas Haas and his ears!
• Anyway, looks like a very interesting movie, trailers are fantastic, and it’s getting released in IMAX so generally that’s only done with the big hits of the year. Nolan and DiCaprio are successful apart, so together I imagine it’ll be gigantic.

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The Sorcerer's Apprentice

• This is difficult to leave on here because it has all signs of a FAIL. Nicholas Cage, a $140 million budget, Nicholas Cage, a movie based off a sequence in the “Fantasia”, and Nicholas Cage. I’ve actually cut/pasted this into the FAIL list 3 times now but I keep putting it back here because it has several things going for it. First, it’s a movie about a regular, dorky kid who becomes a wizard. Hmmm…we’ve heard that before somewhere. Second, it’s got the words “Disney” and “family film” all over it. These generally do pretty well. Third, it’s got Jay Baruchel, who audiences like watching for some reason. Finally, it’s got a summer release date, pretty cool looking special effects, Jerry Bruckheimer producing and Jon Turteltaub (National Treasure, etc) directing. So I have to leave it on the “Biggest of” list, even though my gut is telling me that the Nic Cage curse could sabotage this movie.

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July 23
Dinner for Schmucks

• Remake of a French comedy, "Le dîner de cons", where apparently some guys have a weekly dinner where it’s a competition to bring the most idiotic guest. Politicians, businessmen, locals, friends, etc and then they spend the dinner making fun of them and then one is identified as the champion.
• Apparently, one of these guests ends up making quite a mess of everyone’s life, so bringing that schmuck backfires on the hosts. Sounds like the cast alone will make this a hit: Steve Carrell & Paul Rudd (as the dinner hosts I’m assuming) Zach Galifianakis & Ron Livingston as guests, and Galifianakis is probably the schmuck that screws everything up.
• I anticipate that this will be a big hit because of the cast, and even though the trailer isn’t out yet, it sounds like it could be hilarious.

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Salt

• Angelina Jolie in a very interesting looking movie where she plays a CIA operative who is accused of being a Russian sleeper agent who is going to assassinate the Prez. She goes on the run, is chased and looks like has some adventures. Looks very much like Marky Mark’s “Shooter” from a couple years ago, and is directed by Phillip Noyce who did “Patriot Games”, and “Clear & Present Danger” a while back. Trailer looks excellent, and even though I’m not the biggest Angelina Jolie fan, it’ll bank because everyone else is.

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July 30
Beastly

• I only put this on here because I think the “Twilight” teenyboppers will go bananas over this movie. It’s a modern remake of “Beauty And The Beast”, where a super popular guy invites Mary-Kate Olsen to a dance and then stands her up (because he’s just a prick like that) and she casts a spell on him that makes him hideous. He finds that the only way to break the spell is to find someone who loves him for who he is, and he eventually is banished by his father to a home in Brooklyn, where he meets a housekeeper and a blind person (Dr. Horrible himself, Neil Patrick-Harris omg) who help him. He eventually finds his beauty, Vanessa Hudgens, and you can probably figure the rest out.
• I think it’ll be big because of who’s in it, and this is the type of teen movie that the brooding girls are seeing nowadays. Plus it’s based off a very successful novel (heard that before?), and had a pretty small budget so it won’t take much for this to be a success.

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