2015's Most Anticipated Movies - Jamie

Not on the list below because I can't find a release date:The Hateful Eight and Spielberg's unnamed cold war thriller.


Black Hat - Michael Mann - 20th Feb

I've already missed this. Apparently it's widely regarded as a steaming pile, but I have never seen a Michael Mann movie I didn't love for its cold, intense aesthetic. Apart from Public Enemics, which looked like it was shot in Tru Motion on a camcorder.

Predestination - The Spierig Bros - 20th Feb

Starring Ethan Hawke, who also made Daybreakers with the Spierig siblings. He picked more succesfully than Paul Bettany, who got Legion and Priest for working with director Scott Stewart twice in a row. Although Predestination seems to have left cinemas very quickly.

Hot Tub Time Machine 2 - 10 April

Apparently it's mean-spritied, so looking forward to it.

John Wick - 10 April

A glaring omission from Danny's list and one I predict we will both love. It's had raves in the states from action movie buffs who say it's the first classic of the genre THIS MILLENNIUM. My most anticipated of the year.

Child 44 - Daniel Espinosa - 17 April

Tom Hardy plays a Russian policeman in the cold war unravelling a conspiracy while investigating a series of child murders. As a fan of Gorky Park and Fatherland, this could be right up my hammer and sickle. One problem: Espinosa also directed the pap (apparently, I haven't seen it) Safe House. And to waste a Denzel is a sin which cannot be lightly forgiven.

The Salvation - 17 April

"In 1870s America, a peaceful American settler kills his family's murderer which unleashes the fury of a notorious gang leader. His cowardly fellow townspeople then betray him, forcing him to hunt down the outlaws alone." Starring Mads Mikkelsen, Eva Green and Eric Cantona. Of course it's on the list.

Chappie - Neill Blomkamp - March

After losing a lot of that District 9 goodwill with handsome but simplistic Elysium, this story about a robot looks a bit like a gritty Short Circuit reboot. Could be dire, then.

Second Best Marigold Hotel - Eli Roth - March

Early reports indicate that the sequel to the feel-good hit has a slightly darker tone. The orignal cast return, but take too much acid in an orphanage and fuck and kill the children. Maggie Smith pulls off Dev Patel's skin and feeds it to Bill Nighy.

Age of Ultron - Joss Whedon - 24 April

With Joss Whedon behind the camera and the script, and James Spader as an evil robot, this is surely going to be superb.

No Escape - 1 May

Pierce Brosnan and Owen Wilson in a film about a US family stuck in a hellhole country when a coup erupts and it's decreed that foreigners are to be executed on sight. Hopefully by Pierce's character from The Matador in the scene where he's only wearing a bath towel.

Everly - Joe Lynch - 1 May

Salma Hayek is confined to her flat as she is attacked, and kills off, waves of assassins.
 
Big Game - 8 May

Sam L Jackson is the US president and crash lands in the Scandinavian wilderness. A young boy helps him survive as he is hunted by terrorists.

Mad Max Fury Road - George Miller - 15 May

A solid lead to replace Mad Mel in Tom Hardy, a hard-as-nails female lead played by Charlize Theron, and have you seen the trailer? Every shot is eye-popping colour and incredible vehicular mayhem. Miller proved he was a master long ago, rarely putting a foot wrong - even when he took a left-turn from the apocalypse into talking pigs and penguins. He's returning to his roots to spill out decades of dreams about lunatic stunts in the desert, and we should all be in the congregation.

Tomorrowland - Brad Bird - 22 May

It's Brad Bird.

The Goob - Guy Myhill - 29 May

"A long hot summer in rural Norfolk and a rough coming of age for Goob Taylor, fighting with brutal,womanizing stock car racer Gene Womack for his mother's attention." Not only is it set in the finest county, but my friend did the (already award-winning) soundtrack.

Jurassic World - Colin Treverrow - 12 June

It's dinosaurs.

Terminator 5 - 3 July

It's Arnie.

Ant Man - Not Edgar Wright - 17 July

Wright spent years prepping this. He wasn't willing to compomise his no-doubt beautiful script which will have been a truckload of pay-offs wrapped up in a clockwork watch of a movie. Instead of adding in clumsy set-ups for future Marvel films, and toning down his script to fit it into Marvel's often very nice, but mite-too homogenous universe of blockbusters, he walked. Good for him, but what a shame - those are years he could have spent on something that made it to the screen. Still, it's got likeable Rudd in it and Duggles, and maybe enough of Wright's material will have survived to make it worth a watch.

Magic Mike XXL - Gregory Jacobs? - 31 July

Soderberg basically directed and shot this. The first one was great despite making me feel wholly inadequate. My wife saw the trailer and has already forgotten who I am.

MI: 5 - Christopher McQuarrie - 31 July

All but Woo's entry in the spy series have been enjoyable, and McQuarrie's recent team-up with Cruise produced Jack Reacher which was a very agreeable thriller.

Fantastic Four - Josh Trank - 6 August

Trank's Chronicle came out of nowhere, a troubling superhero origin story that also aced the much-maligned found footage gimmick. The trailer for the reboot wasn't fantastic, but Trank's pedigree earns the film the benefit of the doubt. Plus any attempt to overwrite the execrable efforts starring Hornblower deserves support.

Straight Outta Compton - F Gary Gray - 14 August

Could be a bloodless hagiography, but the soundtrack on the trailer pushed it up so many notches it only has to play NWA over lookylikeys prancing in front of the popo to be fun.

Legend - Brian Helgeland - 18 September

Alas, not a shot-by-shot remake of the Tim Curry and Tom Crusie-tastic Legend with the same actors, but a film about the Kray twins starring so-hot-right-now Tom Hardy, and probably Tom Hardy. Brian Helgeland's involvement gets it on the list. Yes he wrote crappy versions of Robin Hood and The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3, and The Postman, but he also squeezed out Man on Fire, Blood Work (I like it, ok?) and most importantly, LA Confidential.

Black Mass - Scott Cooper - 25 Sept

Depp has been absolutely stinking up cinemas, but maybe this biopic of Boston mob kingpin Whitey Bulger will allow him to wear weird hats, glasses and facial hair without looking like a coasting tool. Let's pray he brought the Depp of Donnie Brasco, and not the Depp of almost anything else.

The Walk - Robert Zemeckis - 2 October

They already gone done did a fillum about the guy who wire-walked between the twin towers, but it was a documentary with boring real people talking in it. So a fake version is not at all redundant, especially as Zemeckis directed Back to the Future AND Castaway. If anyone can capture lightning in a bottle three times, it's him.

London Has Fallen - Babak Najafi - 2 October 2015

Gerard Butler double-tapped a lot of terrible bastards in the head in Olympus has Fallen. Can a sequel take itself as seriously, or will it foolishly become tongue-in-cheek? Worth a punt, me old mucke- BANGBANG He's down. I bet a trailer is set to the tune of London Bridge is Falling Down, tinkling eerily while Butler shoo-BANGBANG Area clear, moving on.

Crimson Peak - Guillermo del Toro - 16 October

A del Toro haunted house picture! Sounds almost as good as a del Toro giant robot v monster picture. Except Pacific Rim was a bit of a let-down. Too kiddy-friendly and a teeth-grindingly awful British scientist character. Hopefully this will be less broad strokes, more Pan's Labyrinth.

SPECTRE - Sam Mendes - 23 October

Mendes Does Bond Volume 1 was a bit up its own bum and slow, but it did have some great moments. If this one moves quicker than half speed and chucks in some of that spooky, the-evil-network-is-everywhere goodness exemplified in Quantum of Solace's opera scene (you know it, you nerd), then bring it on Rae Dawn Chong (not involved).

Steve Jobs - Danny Boyle - 13 November

Fassbender is good at the acting and if anyone can make a man looking at computer screens and unveiling a laptop exciting, it's Boyle. He turned the defiantly static story of a man trapped under a rock into the most kinetic film of the year, after all.

Hunger Games 4 - 20 Nov

For PSH.

The Martain - Ridley Scott - 27 Nov

Ridley Scott films an astronaut trapped on Mars struggling to survive. I was one of two people who liked Prometheus, and my favourite film last year was All Is Lost, so this is a must-see, unless reviewers say it is worse than Robin Hood.

Star Wars - JJ Abrams - 18 December

We pray this restores our childhood joy and does not, oh Lord, result in Danny having to defend its worth against all evidence to the contrary, like he did with the Phantom Menace.

Into The Woods - Danny's Review

I was slightly duped into seeing this, and it wasn't what I expected. In fact when they started singing in the second minute there was quite a lot of giggling and surprised faces in the cinema. It didn't help that one of the first voices is the cockney boy, who like all cockney boys is a terrible character. I preferred the preppy American Little Red Riding Hood, who along with Chris Pine's over-the-top Prince were the best things in it.

The story is a mash-up of four different fairy tales, all of which lead the protagonists into The Woods where strange and wonderful things happen. Each storyline only lasts for a few minutes before they switch to something else, reflecting the undemanding family-friendly style of the movie. There's lots of comedy and action and fantasy and deaths and cameos to try and keep you entertained. It is moderately charming, but basically I don't like kids films and I don't like musicals so this wasn't for me.

The low-point is when it nearly finishes about 2/3 of the way through, then restarts with an extended epilogue. I don't mind a long film but it's criminal to nearly stop then start again (just like The Thin Red Line and Lord of The Rings Part 3).

Overall, a painful experience.

Taken 3 - Danny's Review

I went to an educational event at a venue which included an IMAX. Afterwards I thought I'd take advantage of the Cinema, but unfortunately the only thing playing was Taken 3. I was as excited as anyone by the first Taken movie, but any goodwill from that has now long faded, and it was no surprise that there were only three of us in the biggest screen in Scotland.

The start is dire as they reintroduce the characters in their daily lives. There's one major update. Since the last movie Famke Jansen has wisely divorced Bryan Mills (Neeson), but very unwisely shacked up with Dougray Scott. Neeson is cool with this though, and is at peace with himself and the world. He grins a lot and says how much he loves his daughter. It's definitely not what action fans want to see, and after 15 minutes of this I was desperate for someone to be taken, even if it was me.

When the action kicks in there are a few satisfying moments - I liked his secret hideout full of guns and other secret stuff. But there's a lot of dross too. The daughter Kim is exactly like Jack Bauer's daughter (also called Kim) in that despite having been kidnapped numerous times she constantly plays down the risk of it happening again. Doesn't she remember Paris? Istanbul?

Forest Whitaker plays the chief detective, who is much smarter than all the other goon policeman that Neeson routinely outwits. And much fatter. Each time when old man Mills gets away the detective says there's no point chasing after him, out of respect for Neeson's skills, or maybe just because he doesn't want to have to run any more.

At the end the plot thickens a bit and builds up to a decent Russian mafia shootout. The very best bit is when Neeson decides to let the final villain live, instead promising that when they get out of prison he'll come find him, "and we both know how that'll end". It's a bit chilling. But after that he ruins it by going to see his daughter and saying how much he loves her again, and the film suffers from the worst tough-guy-softened-by-baby ending since Wall Street 2.

Overall, very poor.

The Theory of Everything - Danny's Reviews

The appeal of this film is a bit like the The Imitation Game, marvelling at an odd genius. There's a further connection in that the 2004 BBC TV Movie about Stephen Hawking stars Benedict Cumberbatch. That film only goes as far 1978 and ends with Hawking's big bang theory being vindicated. The new movie takes us up to the present day, with lots more wheelchair scenes and Hawking's U-turn about black holes not being so black. And whereas the old film focuses on the scientific debate between different theories (with Hawking memorably debunking bluff Yorkshireman Fred Hoyle), the new film is a tearjerker with conflicts of the heart.

At the start Hawking is a bumbling graduate in charming Cambridge. He's a bit shy but meets Jane and they have a bit of banter about croquet and God then get married and have kids and some montages. The montages are presented as shaky and low-resolution exactly as if they've been filmed with an old videocamera, which is a bit confusing as I don't think anyone really was filming. As Hawking deteriorates Jane meets a hunky choirmaster and there's a bit of tension there, then Hawking surprises everyone by running off with his nurse.

There's a recurring theme of Hawking trying to find his big theory uniting the physics of the tiny and massive. This pursuit of a unifying theory is actually something much more associated with Einstein, who tried for years to unify the forces of nature (and failed). I think the reason for the film stressing a grand theory is to build up the moment at the end where Hawking has a little out of body experience then says that his philosophy is that the human spirit is uncrushable and "where there's hope there's life". He gets a standing ovation.

The director James Marsh has previously made the documentaries Project Nim and Man on Wire, and this film is a good case study not so much of Hawkings life but that of his wife Jane, who has an increasingly tough time (in fact the film is based on her memoirs). The leads Eddie Redmayne and Felicity Jones are both excellent, and I also enjoyed all the Cambridge Professors, particularly the character Roger Penrose, who is my favourite living mathematician. It's a very nicely made movie and was enjoyable from start to finish.

2015 preview - by Danny

Here's my 20 films for 2015:

January 9	Foxcatcher	Bennett Miller
January 16	Whiplash	Damien Chazelle
January 23	A Most Violent Year	JC Chandor
March 13	In the Heart of The Sea	Ron Howard
May 1	Far from the Madding Crowd	Thomas Vinterberg
May 15	Mad Max Fury Road	George Miller
May 22	Tomorrowland	Brad Bird
June 12	Jurassic World	Colin Trevorrow
July 3	Terminator Genisys	Alan Taylor
July 17	Ant-Man	Peyton Reed
September 11	Suffragette	Sarah Gavron
October 2	Everest	Baltasar Kormákur
October 9	Untitled Cold War Spy Thriller	Steven Spielberg
October 16	Crimson Peak	Guillermo Del Toro
November 6	Spectre	Sam Mendes
November 13	The Hateful Eight	Quentin Tarantino
November 13	The Look of Silence	Joshua Oppenheimer
November 20	Mockingjay Part 2	Francis Lawrence
December 18	Star Wars: The Force Awakens	JJ Abrams
December 25	Mission Impossible 5	J J Abrams

I hope I've got a better list this year than last year. Had a good read around and found 19 films I really wanted, then added Ant-Man. There's lots of sequels from long-running series, with what is effectively Mad Max 4, Jurassic Park 4, Terminator 5, James Bond 24, Hunger Games 4, Star Wars 7 and Mission Impossible 5. I'm drawing the line at the new Fast & Furious movie though.

2014 review - by Danny

Here's the films I put on my 2014 preview to watch last year. I regret making the list so hastily as some of them I didn't really want to see.

January	Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit	Seen - OK
February	Robocop	Seen - OK
February	Pompeii	Seen - poor
March	Grand Budapest Hotel	Seen - OK
March	Noah	Seen - OK
April	Sabotage	Seen - poor
April	Transcendence	Seen - poor
May	Godzilla	Seen - good
June	Edge of Tomorrow	Seen - good
June	The Purge 2
July	Jupiter Ascending
August	Lucy	Seen - OK
August	The Giver
September	The Equalizer	Seen - OK
October	Gone Girl
November	Interstellar
November	Dumb & Dumber: To
November	Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1	Seen - good
December	Exodus
December	Unbroken

Overall a hit rate of just 12/20.

The Hunger Games Mockingjay Part 1 - Danny's Review

I was hoping for some light hearted entertainment and this delivered in style.

On the upside there's some good emotional moments when Katniss is being heroic, and she is a suitably reluctant hero. The love triangle storyline is much less annoying than the books.

On the downside it suffers slightly from being the first of a two parter, in that lots of the time is spend building things up and clumsily explaining the politics of Panem and Katniss' different colour super-arrows. There also seems to be a shortage of characters from District 13, so all of the main players from the other two films are drafted in to form an instant President's Council, with drunkard Haymitch advising on strategy and Phillip Seymour Hoffman as a general advisor specialising in whimsical filming.

Stanley Tucci has said in interviews that the Hunger Games premieres are a lot like the overblown parties they have at the Capitol, and there's a certain irony to the whole Hunger Games franchise becoming such a consumer hit. He said that Katniss is unaware of the political themes, but maybe becomes more aware during the trilogy, as will some of the teenage audience. However, the author Suzanne Collins is no Iain M Banks and the dystopian world she describes is not very well imagined. Still, it's lots of fun.

Suzanne Collins (author), Gale, Katniss, Peeta, Francis Lawrence (director)