2012: A Year in Preview

As this year winds down we begin, as we always do, looking to the next one. 2011 saw the release of several big films and the summer blockbuster season was a notable improvement over 2010. Looking ahead to 2012, I see a few films to be excited about, but many more that cause me to question my continuously wavering faith in American cinema.

The following is a list of some of the biggest and most anticipated films coming out in 2012. They are listed in the order they are scheduled to release in with the expected release date and a small write-up containing my opinion of how each film will perform and be received.

Underworld: Awakening - The fourth film in the endlessly disappointing franchise, Awakening marks the return of Kate Beckinsale as vampire Selene. This time, however, she and her fellow vampires are teaming up with their mortal enemies, the lycans, to take on the humans threatening to eradicate them. I guess when you've exhausted all other sequel options (including the ever annoying prequel), having the two opposing forces team up to take on a third opposing force is your one remaining option. Given that these films have never been anything special I expect this to be no different. Release date: Jan. 20

Trailer - http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi1011654169/

Haywire - This film might not be hot on anyone's 'to watch' list, but I'd advise you to reconsider. Director Steven Soderbergh has never confined himself to one genre and this has both worked for and against him. His most recent film, Contagion, was well-received critically and did O.K. for itself at the box office. Haywire is the story of a female CIA operative who is betrayed by her superiors and vows to take them all out. Pretty well-tread stuff, here, but if the trailer is anything to go by, we're in for some innovative action and the chance to see a total unknown actress waste some big names like: Michael Fassbender, Ewan McGregor, Antonio Banderas and Channing Tatum. Release date: Jan. 20

Trailer - http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi405511705/

Journey 2: The Mysterious Island - I'll keep this short and sweet. Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson is shipwrecked on an island with, among others, Vanessa Hudgens and Luis Guzman. Weird things happen. Michael Caine shows up. It's a sequel to a film that starred Brendan Fraser. Need I say more? Release date: Feb. 10

Trailer - http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi4230192665/

Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance - Three things: it's a sequel, it's a sequel to a Nicolas Cage movie, it's a sequel to the worst Marvel superhero movie ever made (including The Punisher and Ang Lee's Hulk), which once again stars Nicolas Cage. It's like they are actively trying to make you not want to watch this movie. Release date: Feb. 17

Trailer - http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi2556337689/

Wanderlust - This is more of a personal entry. Wanderlust is a film from David Wain, the director of the sleeper comedy hit Role Models and the cult comedy hit Wet Hot American Summer. On top of that, he cowrote the film with Ken Marino, a fellow member of the sketch comedy troupe The State. The film stars Paul Rudd and Jennifer Aniston as a work-obsessed married couple who are thrust into the unfamiliar world of communes where they meet a harum of interesting characters like hippies, experimental drug users and nudists. If the trailer doesn't sell you then you should see a doctor about replacing your funny bone. Release date: Feb. 24

Trailer - http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi2251464217/

Mirror Mirror - There are two different types of Snow White coming out this year. One has Snow White as a warrior out to conquer a kingdom. That ain't this one. This Snow White is so pure and so G rated it makes any Disney film look like Steve McQueen's Shame. The film stars up-and-comer Lily Collins as Snow White and Julia Roberts as the Evil Queen. I don't actually know what to say about this film other than it's from director Tarsem Singh, who has two completely awful films (The Cell, Immortals) and one O.K. film (The Fall). Mirror Mirror will probably find its way into the former category. Also, if no one else will ask it then I will, why is Julia Roberts still acting? Release date: Mar. 16

Trailer - http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi3708919321/

The Hunger Games - Sure, there are other 'kind of blockbusters' coming out before, but The Hunger Games is the first true blockbuster of the year. Based on the first book of the immensely popular fantasy series, the film follows one of today's hottest young stars, Jennifer Lawrence, as Katniss Everdeen, who is thrust into competition with 23 other teens to win food for her district. I have not read the books yet, but people have been expressing excitement over the trailer since its release. Given that film adaptations of books have a hard time grasping what made the book so enjoyable, it's tough to call how this film will turn out. It will, however, dominate at the box office for sure. Release date: Mar. 23

Trailer - http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi2402131481/

Wrath of the Titans - It's a sequel to a depressingly bad action film. I think I already did this write up for Ghost Rider. Just replace Nicolas Cage with Sam Worthington. Good night. Release date: Mar. 30

Trailer - http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi3846741529/

The Avengers - And here we come to the first summer blockbuster of the year. The last 10 years of superhero cinema have been leading to this. Here we are presented with Joss Whedon's vision of a majority of the Marvel hero collection getting together to save the world from evil. This film looks good and it appears to have a solid story. The only problem: Loki. Why would you pull the villain from one of the bottom five Marvel superhero movies to return in what was supposed to be the superhero movie to end all superhero movies? There are so many more villains out there with so much more potential than Thor's completely unimpressive brother. Release date: May 4

Trailer - http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi3488652825/

Battleship - Are you kidding me? We've taken to adapting board games into movies? And as if this isn't bad enough, they are also working on a Ouija board movie and a Monopoly movie. I won't even dignify this movie with a proper write-up. You don't need half a brain to know this will be the worst film of the year. Release date: May 18

Trailer - http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi2203360793/

Men in Black III - The third film in a series of underwhelming films. I don't care if it stars Tommy Lee Jones and Josh Brolin. Give it up, Barry Sonnenfield. We know these films are your only source of income, but please, for the sake of the universe, leave it alone. And yes, there is a pun in that last sentence and it was very much so intended. Release date: May 25

Trailer - http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi2656345625/

Snow White and The Huntsman - Now we come to the other Snow White. The one played by Kristen Stewart. While I will say this is the more ambitious of the two projects and this one has a higher chance of success, I don't plan for much here. We see Charlize Theron taking a turn as the Evil Queen, but let's be honest, the only people going to see this movie are those who are die hard Bella Swan fans. But, if memory serves, no one jumped to form a Team Bella when people couldn't decide who they would rather get infected by, the vampire or the werewolf. Once again, there's a bit of tongue-in-cheek in that last sentence. I'll probably see it for the action scenes, but be warned, it pairs a director who has done literally nothing else in his entire career (either he's somebody's son or he slept with the right producer) and a writer who wouldn't have this job is he hadn't won a contest. Release date: June 1

Trailer - http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi1982242329/

Prometheus - This is the summer film that I am most excited about. Prometheus is the prequel to Ridley Scott's (who also directed this) 1979 thriller Alien. It follows Michael Fassbender and Charlize Theron as they look for the origins of man on Earth. It also tells the story behind the mysterious Space Jockey viewed at the beginning of Alien. I'm told the xenomorphs (the aliens) are much bigger and menacing in this film. Given that Scott is so determined to remake his entire back catalog I see this as his test run before trying to do another Blade Runner, which, if I'm counting correctly, would bring all existing cuts up to six. Release date: June 8

Trailer - http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi2035129881/

Jack the Giant Killer - It's a retelling of the Jack & The Beanstalk folk tale as told through the eyes of Bryan Singer, who usually hits his mark every time. He wowed audiences with The Usual Suspects and did a justice to the first two X-Men movies (he didn't direct the third). It also stars upcoming British star and Skins alum Nicholas Hoult. I expect this to do well. Release date: June 15

Trailer - http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi4081294873/

G.I. Joe: Retaliation - Think of this as my write-up for Journey 2: The Mysterious Island, but instead of getting shipwrecked, The Rock fights the Cobra Commander and his allies. Enthralling stuff. Also, swap out the Brendan Fraser cameo for Bruce Willis. Release date: June 29

Trailer - http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi1448713753/

The Amazing Spiderman - This is the first of two July blockbusters and while I expect good things from both, I expect less from this one. With a crazy history battling development Hell, The Amazing Spiderman is a reboot of the film series, which ended four years ago. The timing seems appropriate. Also, that was a joke. This series looks to focus more on Peter Parker the man than on Spiderman the hero and if the trailer is anything to go by, it has a much darker feel than the previous series. Release date: July 3

Trailer - http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi2178784281/

The Dark Knight Rises - I don't know if there's anything I could say to make you not go see this movie, and I wouldn't even try if there were. In fact, if I could make you see this movie more intently I would. It is the final chapter in Christopher Nolan's Batman trilogy and is competing with The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey for the most anticipated film of the year. The main villain this time is Bane, and if the comics Nolan used as inspiration are anything to go off of, we might see Bruce Wayne either dead or severely crippled, opening the door for someone new to accept the Dark Knight mantle. Only time will tell. Now, if only time would go faster. Release date: July 20

Trailer - http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi2823134745/

The Expendables 2 - I mean, the first one was O.K. But, if you think they sold that film on its star power, watch the trailer for this film's line-up. I bet this film's biggest audience will be people looking to gather new material for a slur of new Chuck Norris jokes. Yes, he's in it. Release date: Aug. 17

Trailer - http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi727621145/

The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 2 - A bullshit conclusion to a bullshit franchise. Does more need to be said? Release date: Nov. 16

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey - If any film can be said to have experience development Hell, it's this one. First it'sa Peter Jackson project meant to take root right after he had finished up work on The Lord of the Rings trilogy. Then, he got bogged down doing a decent King Kong remake and a terrible book adaptation in The Lovely Bones. Enter Guillermo del Toro who had achieved success with Pan's Labyrinth and whose adaptation of Hellboy was all right. He has an excellent eye for the fantastic and seemed like the appropriate replacement for Jackson. Fast forward a fews years. Still nothing. Exit del Toro, re-enter Jackson. Jump ahead about a year. Finally, things are underway and a year from now, the fruits of this labor will make themselves known. The Hobbit might be the most anticipated film of the year, but I'd still give that title to The Dark Knight Rises. Even so, it has the potential to be just as grand as its succeeding trilogy. Be patient, folks. Release date: Dec. 14

Trailer - http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi1699192345/

Django Unchained - This is more of a personal entry. I've always been a fan of Quentin Tarantino and I couldn't be more excited for this film. It's a spaghetti Western set in the pre-bellum South and stars Jamie Foxx as Django, a slave freed by German bounty hunter Dr. King Schulz (Christoph Waltz). They are on a mission to save Django's wife from evil plantation owner Calvin Candie (Leonardo DiCaprio). Also in the film are: Samuel L. Jackson, Sasha Baron Cohen, Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Kurt Russell. Expect blood, gore, action, awesome characters and incredibly well-developed dialog, as per usual. Release date: Christmas Day, 2012

Review: The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo

I have received the story of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo on three different occasions. I read the book roughly a year and a half ago and was captivated from the start. It was a complex mystery thriller with some of the most well-conceived characters and a small place in the larger picture that became The Millenium Trilogy (The Girl Who Played With Fire, The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet's Nest).


Almost as soon as finishing the book, I watched the Swedish film adaptation on Netflix and I couldn't believe how disappointed I was. What I had just seen was not The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo. It was hardly a shadow of the source material. Sure, the overall story was there, but that's it. Gone were myriad subplots connecting the whole story. Gone were the well-developed characters. It had been reduced to a simple crime serial. Had I just seen the movie with no context for the actual story, but that isn't the case. As a movie it was pretty good. As an adaptation, well, it was completely awful.


Which brings us to now. The American adaptation started to receive some buzz when it was announced that David Fincher (The Social Network) would be directing the project and has piqued my interest at every junction. First, I learned that Steven Zaillan (Schindler's List, Moneyball) would be adapting Stieg Larsson's work. Then, David Fincher brought Daniel Craig into the mix as disgraced journalist Mikael Blomkvist. The final announcement was that Fincher had chosen Rooney Mara to play social outcast Lisbeth Salander.


Up until this point Mara's most notable screen performances were as Nancy in the A Nightmare on Elm Street remake and in a minor role as Erica Albright in Fincher's The Social Network. This was both interesting and daunting to me at the same time. I was interested because it's always a treat to see a small actress make her big break. I felt daunted because Noomi Rapace was about the only thing I praised when she played Salander in the Swedish adaptation. I felt Mara was up to the task of the character, but Rapace had set the bar very high.


With all that said, let's get down to brass tax. The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, as told through Fincher's eyes, is a cold, dark and haunted tale. It follows journalist Mikael Blomkvist, recently disgraced due to a libelous story and hacker Lisbeth Salander, a ward of the state who has been deemed socially incompetent.


Blomkvist is hired by Henrik Vanger (Christopher Plummer) to find out which member of his family murdered his niece Harriet. Meanwhile, Salander's state appointed guardian suffers a stroke, leaving her in the care of a new guardian, the wholly unsavory Nils Bjurman (Yorick van Wageninjen). Blomkvist and Salander don't actually meet face-to-face until well into the movie when Blomkvist realizes he'll need help in solving the mystery.


Fincher's film tackles the source material much better than its Swedish counterpart. For starters, it actually develops the relationship between Blomkvist and his co-editor at Millenium Magazine, Erika Berger (Robin Wright), which adds another layer of depth to the overall story. Second, it approaches the film's conclusion much better. There are three different resolutions in the book and while I won't divulge any of them here, it is safe to say that Fincher and Zaillan succeed at all three. The Swedish adaptation only succeeded at one.


All of this isn't to say that the film isn't without fault. Despite its grandiosity and haunted beauty, the film feels underdeveloped as a whole. I can't rightly put my finger on it, but it felt like something was missing. Fincher does such a good job at creating a feeling of hopelessness with the cinematography and locations, and the score by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross is so artfully macabre, but it feels like they overlooked something.  That something, perhaps, is silence.


The film is set mainly in the northern Swedish town of Hedestat and the snow, night sky, and overall mood make it seem like such a lonely place, but there always seems to be some noise going on. I wouldn't ask Reznor and Ross to cut their score down, but accentuating the silence may have been the key this film needed to achieve its true effect.


The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo - 4/5

Review: Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol

There is something to be said about Mission Impossible as a film franchise and its staying power. Not many series can reach four films and still maintain the quality it has. Now, that isn't to say they're great films. The most I'll ever say about any of them is that they're pretty good, and that includes the latest installment Ghost Protocol.


The film opens on an action sequence involving former Lost star Josh Holloway running across a rooftop and jumping off, shooting his assailants, and making it to an alley before being offed by an obvious to spot assassin. Enter Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise reprising the role yet again).


Ethan is imprisoned in Russia and is soon busted out by his IMF team made up of Benji Dunn (Simon Pegg) and Jane Carter (Paula Patton). Cue opening credits. Ethan and his team then infiltrate the Kremlin to obtain information on a man code named Cobalt, but are set up by said man and the Kremlin blows up, with blame landing solely on the IMF.


The film's main plot follows Ethan and a now disavowed IMF trying to stop a mad Russian (Michael Nyqvist) from inciting global nuclear war. Along the way, Ethan is paired up with "chief analyst" Brandt (Jeremy Renner), who may or may not have a secret to share about himself and Ethan.


The film as a whole is a commendable project. Being the fourth film in the series it does surprisingly well at not falling into unintentional self-parody. Of course, it does occasionally take a few intentional jabs at the series as a whole, contributing to its overall entertainment value.


Director Brad Bird handles the material well and has an interesting method of building suspense. He also has an eye for creative shots. One sequence involves a car crash shot entirely from the inside of the victimized car and while I've seen this in a few other films, this was the first time I'd seen it in an action film. It's usually a feat to find a single shot that lasts more than a second or two during an action sequence. Kudos, Mr. Bird.


The film is far from perfect, however. There are times when it seems that there is just too much going on. For such a simple premise it certainly progresses in a complex manner. There's also something to say about Cruise, who seems disinterested in the material at times. It's almost as if he disconnects from a scene right in the middle of it.


The film certainly does the franchise justice, though, and certainly surpasses the second and third installments.


Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol - 3/5

From the Collection: Hunger

Country: Ireland

Year of Release: 2008

Hunger is a film from writer/director Steve McQueen that is dark in tone and depressing in mood. It tells the story of Irish paramilitary Bobby Sands (played by Michael Fassbender), who enacted a hunger strike in an Irish prison, which ultimately lead to his death. Although the film is about Sands and his fight for basic human rights he is not introduced into the film until roughly 30 minutes in.

The first third of the film is dedicated to telling the stories of prisoner Davey Gillen (Brian Milligan) and prison guard Raymond Lohan (Stuart Graham). The point of telling these two stories before getting to Sands is to introduce the audience to to overarching conflict, but also to draw parallels between the prisoners and the guards who abuse them.

Gillen is a lanky fellow whose crime is not disclosed, but one is left to assume it was politically fueled. Lohan is in his declining years and is the first character introduced on screen. He is seen going about his morning routine with one notable exception: he puts his hands in a sink of water to clean the cuts on his knuckles, which he gained through the as yet unseen beatings he delivers to the prisoners.

The point of telling Raymond's story at all is the show his two lives. There's Raymond the prison guard, who is a ruthless bastard with no remorse for his actions, and Raymond the husband and son, who visits his mother in her nursing home, which proves to be fatal for Raymond, who becomes one of the many victims of the government/paramilitary conflict.

But above all, Raymond and Davey's stories are told simultaneously as a way of showing what one human can do to another, subsequently pushing the latter man to his physical and mental limits. Enter Bobby Sands.

Bobby is currently participating in the prison's current rebellion, the "blanket" and "no wash" strikes. He and the men also build up a wall of food by their prison doors and dump their excrement behind it so it washes into the hallway. Word of the hunger strike isn't mentioned until Bobby sits down with his priest, Father Dom (Liam Cunningham), to discuss such matters.

This scene is presented in one, long 16-minute shot, totally uncut. The frame is a two-shot of Bobby seated on one side of the table opposite Father Dom and is broken into three segments. The first segment has Bobby and Dom shooting shit and catching up. The second segment has Bobby bring up his plan to enact a hunger strike, to which Father Dom protests, saying that all Bobby needs to do is keep up negotiations. The third segment actually cuts to a close-up of Bobby's face while he expands on why there must be a hunger strike.

Now, most scenes consist of several shots that cut from to another on an average of every two or three seconds (look for it the next time you watch a movie), so the fact that this scene is 16 minutes in length and consists of one, uninterrupted shot, a close-up of Bobby, and a short close-up of Father Dom is nothing short of unprecedented.

One reason McQueen went for such an experimental shot could be due to the fact that all films, by nature, are self-reflexive. Every time one shot cuts (or fades) to another, we are reminded that we are watching a movie and lose some of the escapist mentality we had going in. So, by removing all of the cuts from this scene, McQueen is inviting us to go deeper into Bobby and Dom's conversation, thereby making it about more than just a hot button issue addressed in the film. He's making it more personal and through an incredible stylistic technique, has allowed us to connect on a deeper level with Sands and make him one of the most endearing characters in recent film history, but also in recent human rights history.

It is revelatory, to be sure. The film's final 20 minutes are dedicated to Bobby Sands and the outcome of his hunger strike. Bobby has been admitted to a prisoner's hospital with malnourishment and is being taken care of by a loyal orderly, who is with him until the end. Viewers aren't spared the horrors of Bobby's condition, thereby strengthening the already strong emotional attachment.

What McQueen has created here is a film that is nothing short of historical, both in its content and style. It is available from The Criterion Collection and there really isn't any other version you want to get your hands on