Number of films I’m interested in this year up…

Updated on June 22, 2012 By Ken Begg 27 Comments

I speak of new films. Last year I saw three total; Thor (twice), Captain America and just before the year ended, The Muppets. I did mean to see Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol, but with Paul and Holly in California now, I really don’t hang out with anyone. So few (again, new) films motivate me to leave the house on my own.

This year I’ve seen a grand total of one new theatrical film, although I’ve now seen that film, The Avengers, three times. Still, there’s a veritable rush of new films in the second half of the year that I’ll probably see: The Dark Knight, The Hobbit, the new James Bond film, and both Expendables 2 (please, much less shaky cam!) and Taken 2. Just saw the trailer for that one, and it promises a hilariously upgraded amount of carnage. (Wish it wasn’t directed by the guy who helmed the awful Transporter 3, though.)

I’ve seen a lot of Luc Besson movies over the years, because he’s one of the few guys out there making those sorts of action films. Even so, I have to admit I’ve never loved anything he’s made, and his creepy kid thing (Natalie Portman’s 13 year old nipples got a bit too much play for my taste in The Professional) and ‘sexy’ urination fixation (Kiss of the Dragon, Transporter 3) don’t help. On the other hand, he did write District B13, which is great, although I think the director and fight choreographer had more to do with that than Besson’s script did.

Probably also true of Taken, which Besson similarly wrote. Except for District B13, it’s probably the best thing Besson’s associated with, almost making up for the hideous From Paris with Love. Uck, John Travolta. Even Taken was basically a three star movie, though. Competent and fun, but not great. One great moment, but that basically just left me hungry for more. Hopefully the new one scratches that itch. Nice to see Liam Neeson become an action star at this stage of things. He’s pretty good at it. Hopefully one of these things will be fully worthy of him.

Anyway, that’s almost a movie a month for the rest of the year, which is pretty good for me these days. And maybe there’s something else I’ll see that I’m not now thinking of.

What are you guys looking forward to?

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  • kgb_san_diego

    Dark Knight and the Hobbit, for sure.  Also Brave, which just now started.

  • Ken_Begg

    True, you can seldom go wrong with Pixar.

    Damn, I wish Disney would assign them a Marvel movie.

  • Toby Clark

    Ant-Man, preferably.

    Aside The Dark Knight Rises, Skyfall and The Hobbit, I’m looking forward to the Red Dawn remake – I was kinda underwhelmed by the original, plus, Chris Hemsworth and Isabel Lucas – Wreck-it Ralph, The Bourne Legacy and, if it ever gets a release in Ballarat or Melbourne, the Ace Attorney movie. Also Prometheus, still a week or two away from screening in my town.

    Incidentally, Brave is excellent – maybe not a top 5-er, but mostly up to Pixar’s standards.

  • Beckoning Chasm

    I absolutely love The Fifth Element.  I watch that one pretty regularly.

    This year I saw The Avengers and Prometheus.  The latest trailer for Dark Knight Rises makes the film look depressing.  Granted both previous Batman films could hardly have been called “sunny,” but this one just looks despairing.  I will probably wait until home video.

    When did Paul and Holly move to California?

  • Scopi314

    When it comes to Besson, the best movie to come out of his action factory is Danny the Dog/ Unleashed. That was ridiculous, but fun. Mr. Besson also directed an Adele Blanc-Sec movie recently that was pretty great, though I don’t think it’s been released in the US yet.

  • Ken_Begg

    Hmm, at least eight months ago. Paul’s job moved out there. They come back every once in a while for a few weeks, and are still (I think) planning to move back once the job permits. We’ll see.

    But yeah, I’m basically in Howard Hughes mode here.

  • Liam Neeson is quickly becoming my favorite contemporary actor, aided no end by his doing a series of increasingly rare macho movies. TAKEN was a terrific movie, a nice throwback to the sort of Charles Bronson/Clint Eastwood tough-guy-who-gets-things-done action/adventure movie that doesn’t get made anymore. Still, the film hardly seemed material for sequels, so hearing of a TAKEN 2 is more puzzling than exciting. (I would love to think there’ll be a A-TEAM 2, though!)

    For the most part, PIRANHA 3-D ruined much chance of me ever going to another walk-in to see a new movie. I suppose if something really promising rears up (an increasing unlikelihood), I’ll make an effort to catch it at the drive-in (where they HAVE to use actual film prints). Right now, I have no clue what that would be. Once bitten, twice shy.

  • sandra

    A sequel to Taken would practically write itself, since at the end of the movie Neeson has rescued his daughter, and left her innocent best friend in the hands of the sex traffickers !  Not to mention all the other innocent tourists they have abducted.   I liked Unleashed ; it was that rare thing,   an action movie with heart.

  • I’m looking forward to The Amazing Spider-man.  It’s got Gwen Stacy in it, it’s got the Lizard in it, and a quip happy Spidey.  The kid playing Peter doesn’t seem to be doing a terrible job in the part, either.  I’m not saying I’m not nervous about other aspects, but frankly it has to be better than Spider-man 3  and can’t possibly be as bad as the quality killing Ultimate Spider-man cartoon.

    But what do I know?  I’m the guy who keeps wondering why they haven’t released The Amazing Spider-man TV show on DVD yet.

  •  For the record, I know why they SHOULDN’T release it…

  • Ken_Begg

     I think I’m just Spider-Manned out. I’ve seen a *lot* of Spider-Man adaptations over the years. I will say the preview looks pretty good, although I don’t really dig the whole idea of some big secret regarding Parker’s parents. I think origins work best in broad strokes; attempts to complicate them (i.e., Joe Chill) kind of defuse what works about them.

  • I can’t possibly be be Spider-manned out.  He was one of the Big Three in my childhood and every now and then I need a good Spider-man story.  That said, I agree about origins.  Simple is best.

    If the film has nothing else going for it, it’s handling of the death of Peter’s parents HAS to be simpler than the original comic’s version.

  • Petoht

    I’m pretty sure the best friend died from heroin overdose.

    Which makes sense in Twisted Movie Morality, since she was the one who wanted all the sex.

  • Petoht

    And it’s got the cops going after him!  He’s an outlaw!  He’s edgy!

    It’s like Spider-man got the Dark Knight treatment, and I’m really not sure it’s going to work.  At all.

  • Beckoning Chasm

     The fact that it’s still Sony doing it just makes me think “We can get more money out of this!”  I’m not hopeful.  Spider-Man: let’s get this franchise started!  Spider-Man 2: Okay, we can afford to make an actual good movie.  Spider-Man 3: let’s suck all the money we can out of this!  Spider-Man Reboot: let’s get this franchise started!

    It would be great beyond measure if the success of “The Avengers” allowed Disney/Marvel to buy Spider-Man, the X-Men, and especially The Fantastic Four.  That would be a trio of films I would actually go to the theatre to see.

  •  Often in the comics Spider-man and the law are at odds, with the cops trying to capture him for one reason or another.  And there are a whole slew of dark stories for the webslinger.  But yeah, that’s been a little worrisome for me, too.

  •  On the one hand, I agree.  Disney/Marvel making Spider-man movies might be great.

    Then I think of the brief, painful episode of the Ultimate Spider-Man cartoon I watched and I have my doubts on that, too.

  • Ken_Begg

     Yes, the friend she was kidnapped with was found dead by Neeson.

  • Ken_Begg

    Sony will *never* give up Spider-Man. 20th Century Fox will *never* give up X-Men, Wolverine, etc. At least for the foreseeable future. Those are billion dollar franchises.

    Fox will take one more crack at the FF, I think. However, if they manage to screw the pooch a third time, I think they’ll give up and try to get something back from Disney for the rights, like a baseball trade. Fox might similarly take another crack with Daredevil–who the hell at Marvel signed a contract that allowed them to keep the rights without a film being in production for ten (more?) years?–and I think that’s the same boat.

    Following the very bare profit reaped from Ghost Rider II, I wouldn’t be surprised if Sony / Columbia traded those rights back.

    The big danger is that, even if Warners never gets its own act together–which seems quite possible at this point–that between Marvel’s own parade of movies, as well as the other studios churning out a zillion movies featuring the Marvel characters they have the rights to, the market will be flooded with half a dozen superhero pictures a year, until the market for them implodes.

  • I saw the preview on the disk for GHOST RIDER 2. Frankly, it doesn’t look very good to me. They did everything they could to make it look like the recent slew of Batman movies, only with Spiderman. It reeks of desperation. I’d argue what made the previous Spiderman movies work was that they were more upbeat than Batman, and thus each franchise offered something different in tone. Looking at it from the outside, it gives the impression that DC is still the top dog in the kennel, and Marvel is desperate to copy DC’s success. (Or at least Sony is, as the more colorful and upbeat continuity movies from Disney/Marvel are providing far more satisfying results by NOT trying to pattern themselves off of Batman.)

    I’ll wager that the new, darker Superman won’t be found any more attractive, by the way. 

  • The Rev.

    Didn’t I meet them B-Fest weekend?  Did they come back for that?  For some reason I thought they were moving after that.

  • The Rev.

    Keith over at Teleport City liked it, too.  I’d like to see it when I have a chance.

  • Petoht

    Seeing as how the Avengers is on the march towards being the most successful movie of all time, I don’t think Marvel’s particularly worried.  Smells more of Sony’s flop sweat.

    I mean, the Avengers has almost $600M in domestic take (1.4 billion worldwide), making it #3 in raw dollars, #27 adjusted for inflation.

  • Aussiesmurf

    I honestly can’t see how you view dc as being top re movies. Green Lantern bombed. Wonder woman still hasn’t gotten off the ground. Superman returns disappointed. By comparison, in addition to Avengers, Thor and cap America made money, and iron man 3 is coming soon

  • Ken_Begg

     Yes, they came back into town for that. And they’ll be back in July for a couple of weeks. Hopefully they’ll return for B-Fest next year as well. I imagine they will, barring complications.

  • Ken_Begg

    I think Sony is being more influenced by Twilight than Dark Knight, quite frankly.

  • Well, DC used to rule the roost, let’s put it that way. Right now, admittedly, they claim success based almost entirely on their recent Batman cycle. Were I to place a bet, though, I’d say their next Batman movie is likely to under-perform. Given the current record for Marvel/Disney movies, I’d say the heyday of darker superhero movies has about run its coarse.

    In the eyes of the average Joe, however, DC is still the reining pop culture champ, since their wares have been around long enough to be truly trenched in the American psyche (no matter how their current handlers are trying to screw them up). Most every hick knows what Superman and Batman are all about, but the Marvel characters are more well-known to the geeks. I think DC gets a lot of mileage from that.