New Releases for the Week of November 4, 2016

DOCTOR STRANGE

(Disney/Marvel) Benedict Cumberbatch, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Rachel McAdams, Tilda Swinton, Mads Mikkelsen, Benedict Wong, Michael Stuhlbarg. Directed by Scott Derrickson

Renowned neurosurgeon Stephen Strange has everything going for him; a thriving practice in Manhattan, a beautiful girlfriend, wealth and privilege. All of that vanishes in an instant when a tragic car accident severely injures his hands and ends his career as a surgeon. Bitter and directionless, he discovers a larger world, one of mystic powers and strange artifacts. That world is under siege by a remorseless villain; Strange, a novice at the mystic arts, must put aside his ego and take up the mantle of Sorcerer Supreme if he is to save the world.

See the trailer, interviews, a featurette and B-roll video here.
For more on the movie this is the website.
Release Formats: Standard, 3D, IMAX 3D
Genre: Superhero
Now Playing: Wide Release
Rating: PG-13 (for sci-fi violence and action throughout, and an intense crash sequence)

Hacksaw Ridge

(Summit) Andrew Garfield, Sam Worthington, Teresa Palmer, Hugo Weaving. This is the incredible but true story of Private Desmond Doss, an army medic during World War II who believed that while the war was a just one, killing was nonetheless wrong. He refused to abandon his principles and while he enlisted to do his bit while his beliefs got him labeled a coward by his fellow soldiers. Nonetheless he went into battle without a weapon and pulled the wounded from behind enemy lines despite extreme danger to himself. He remains the only conscientious objector to win the Congressional Medal of Honor.

See the trailer, clips, interviews and B-roll video here.
For more on the movie this is the website.
Release Formats: Standard
Genre: Biographical War Drama
Now Playing: Wide Release
Rating: R (for intense prolonged realistically graphic sequences of war violence including grisly bloody images)

The Handmaiden

(Magnolia/Amazon) Min-hee Kim, Tae-ri Kim, Jung-woo Ha, Jin-woong Jo. This twisted romance from acclaimed South Korean director Chan-wook Park is set in the 1930s and is about a handmaiden who is employed by a beautiful Japanese lady. What the lady doesn’t know is that her handmaiden is secretly involved in a plot to defraud her.

See the trailer and a clip here.
For more on the movie this is the website.
Release Formats: Standard
Genre: Drama
Now Playing: Enzian Theater
Rating: NR

Stagecoach: The Texas Jack Story

(Cinedigm) Trace Adkins, Michelle Harrison, Kim Coates, Judd Nelson. A former stagecoach robber, reformed and trying to live a quiet, peaceful life, is pursued by a vengeful U.S. Marshall who was maimed during a gunfight with the ex-criminal.

See the trailer and a clip here.
For more on the movie this is the website.
Release Formats: Standard
Genre: Western
Now Playing: AMC Loew’s Universal Cineplex
Rating: NR

Trolls

(DreamWorks Animation) Starring the voices of Justin Timberlake, Anna Kendrick, Zooey Deschanel, Russell Brand. In the colorful world of trolls, happiness and optimism reign until the troll village is invaded by hungry Bergens who carry off all the villagers save two – Poppy and Branch, the former the most upbeat troll who ever lived, the latter a curmudgeon who prefers to be left alone. The two mismatched trolls must learn to work together in order to save Poppy’s friends.

See the trailer, clips, interviews, a music video and B-roll video here.
For more on the movie this is the website.
Release Formats: Standard, 3D, IMAX 3D
Genre: Animated Feature
Now Playing: Wide Release
Rating: PG (for some mild rude humor)

 

2016 Fall/Holiday Preview

After a record-breaking 2015, the summer of 2016 was a bit of a lull. There have certainly been a share of hits; Captain America: Civil War dominated the early part of the summer and Finding Dory dominated the middle; while Suicide Squad was the dominant force at summer’s end. Otherwise the summer was pretty marginal from a box office standpoint although there have been a few other films that have done some decent box office numbers: The Conjuring 2, for example, as well as The Angry Birds Movie, Independence Day: Resurgence, Central Intelligence, The Secret Life of Pets and X-Men: Apocalypse. However we’ve had our share of box office disappointments as well.

There are a goodly number of releases to eagerly anticipate this fall and holiday season. Of course, what has to be uppermost on every moviegoer’s mind is the first standalone Star Wars film ever – Rogue One which Disney is I’m sure hoping to keep the LucasFilm train roaring down the tracks. There’s also the next installment on Marvel’s license to print money, Dr. Strange and a new film from J.K. Rowling set in the Harry Potter Wizarding World, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.

It is at this time of year that Oscar buzz begins to get generated. It’s a little early yet to get contenders firmed up, but I think we can safely say that Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk will be a contender, as likely will be the latest from Ben Affleck, The Accountant. We can also expect some Oscar voters taking a good, hard look at Loving, the newest from up-and-coming director Jeff Nichols. Birth of a Nation which was an early favorite after a triumphant Sundance debut, may be hampered in its bid for Academy love following the revelations that director and star Nate Parker was accused (and acquitted) of rape when he was a student at Penn State.

At the end of the year we’ll need all the laughs we can get, so expect a surfeit of comedies including Bad Santa 2 and the standup concert film Kevin Hart: What Now? Once that question is answered, we can also find some grins from Bridget Jones’ Baby as well as from Keeping Up with the Joneses, Office Christmas Party, The Greasy Strangler and Why Me. Speaking of sequels, we will not only get Bad Santa 2 and Bridget Jones’ Baby but also Ouija: Origin of Evil, Jack Reacher: Never Look Back, Rings and Inferno (while Rogue One: A Star Wars tale is ostensibly one, it is a stand-alone film in the Star Wars universe and thus not a true sequel).

There is a cornucopia of biographies this season, with Snowden finally set for release (we’ll believe it when it actually hits theaters), Deepwater Horizon, Masterminds, The Queen of Katwe and Sully. Families will get some diverse fare with Disney’s Moana, Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, Sing, Middle School: The Worst Years of My Life, The Wild Life, Trolls and Storks. Those who prefer scary to kids flicks (and kids flicks can be scary) will have plenty of nightmare-inducing movies to check out, including Rod Zombie’s 31, Rings, Morgan, Before I Wake, Incarnate, The Bye-Bye Man, Delirium, Ouija: Origin of Evil, The Ninth Life of Louis Drax and Keep Watching.

There will be plenty of science fiction to whet your appetite for space, with such movies as Passengers, The Space Between Us and Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. Action and adventure will go hand in hand with such films as Assassin’s Creed based on the popular videogame; also you can look forward to Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, Allied, Desierto, Inferno, The Magnificent Seven and Jack Reacher: Never Go Back.

The holidays always bring out the stars and those shining in 2016 will include Tom Hanks (Sully, Inferno), Tom Cruise (Jack Reacher: Never Look Back), Brad Pitt (Allied), Eddie Redmayne (Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them), Benedict Cumberbatch (Dr. Strange), Chris Pratt (Passengers, The Magnificent Seven), Michael Fassbender (The Light Between Oceans, Assassin’s Creed), Kristin Wiig (Masterminds), Lupita Nyong’o (Queen of Katwe), Billy Bob Thornton (Bad Santa 2), Vin Diesel (Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk), Jennifer Connelly (American Pastoral), Denzel Washington (The Magnificent Seven), Dwayne Johnson (Moana), Kevin Hart (Kevin Hart: What Now?), Ben Affleck (The Accountant), Zach Galifianakis (Masterminds, Keeping Up with the Joneses), Mark Wahlberg (Deepwater Horizon), Jennifer Lawrence (Passengers), Andy Samberg (Storks), Marion Cotillard (Assassin’s Creed, Allied), Emma Stone (La La Land), Bryan Cranston (Why Him?), Renee Zellweger (Bridget Jones’ Baby), Rachel McAdams (Dr. Strange), Alicia Vikander (The Light Between Oceans) and Owen Wilson (Masterminds). There are also some high-profile directors with projects big and small this season including Jeff Nichols, Oliver Stone, Ron Howard, Tim Burton, Ang Lee, Mira Nair, Rob Zombie and Denis Villeneuve.

Generally speaking, the release dates listed here will be obsolete the moment this is published. Studios have a habit of shuffling release dates, and the further out you go the more likely they are to change. Don’t be left in the cold; check our weekly previews for movies opening in Central Florida, our monthly Pick of the Litter feature for previews of especially deserving films or our Coming Soon section for regular updates of the release schedule for movies with budgets big and small. Until then, you’ve got a preview to read – better get cracking!

SEPTEMBER

As summer wanes and Labor Day signals the end of the blockbuster and barbecue season and the beginning of school and football season, the studios tend to take a deep breath and program movies here that are not quite so exciting, although there are often a few gems among the rocks. This month we’ll be looking at a true-life mountain adventure, the sequel to a hit Halloween-themed animated feature, the biography of a notorious American criminal and the sequel to a surprise hit young adult sci-fi novel adaptation.

THE ONE TO WATCH

THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN

RELEASE DATE: September 23, 2016
STUDIO: Columbia/MGM
STARRING: Denzel Washington, Chris Pratt, Ethan Hawke, Haley Bennett, Vincent D’Onofrio, Byung Hun Lee, Vinnie Jones, Peter Sarsgaard, Matt Bomer
GENRE: Western
STORY: A desperate town, controlled by a ruthless industrialist, sends a plea for help which is answered by an unlikely ragtag group of outlaws, desperados, bounty hunters, gamblers and gunslingers. As they prepare for the final showdown with the ruthless mercenaries who have been hired as a private army by the industrialist, what began as a job for these seven men becomes something much more.
PROSPECTS: Pratt is on a major roll right now with two huge franchise films that he’s been a part of. Denzel continues to be one of the most popular actors in Hollywood, and this movie is a remake of one of the all-time classic Westerns that a fairly high percentage of modern audiences may be unfamiliar with.
OBSTACLES: Westerns are not super-popular. One has to wonder with a cast with this kind of star power why the movie got exiled to the doldrums of September.
FACTOID: This is a remake of a 1960 Western which itself is a remake of the 1954 Akira Kurosawa classic Seven Samurai.

THE OTHERS TO SEE

SULLY

RELEASE DATE: September 9, 2016
STUDIO: Warner Brothers
STARRING: Tom Hanks, Anna Gunn, Laura Linney, Aaron Eckhart, Autumn Reeser, Sam Huntington, Jerry Ferreira, Holt McCallany
GENRE: Biographical Drama
STORY: After landing his disabled plane on the frigid Hudson River and saving all 155 lives aboard, Capt. “Sully” Sullenberger became a national hero. However, behind the scenes, the accolades and the paparazzi an investigation was quietly launched that threatened to destroy his career, his reputation and his life.
PROSPECTS: Sullenberger remains an object of hero-worship throughout America, and Hanks is one of the most likable actors ever. Add director Clint Eastwood to the mix and you have a movie that is going to pique the interests of a very large demographic.
OBSTACLES: May be a little bit too much like Flight which may suck some of the box office thunder out of it.
FACTOID: Linney and Eckhart played a couple on an episode of Frasier.

DEEPWATER HORIZON

RELEASE DATE: September 30, 2016
STUDIO: Summit
STARRING: Mark Wahlberg, Kate Hudson, Kurt Russell, John Malkovich, Ethan Suplee, Dylan O’Brien, Gina Rodriguez, Joe Chrest
GENRE: True Life Drama
STORY: The story of the events of April 20, 2010 when the offshore oil rig Deepwater Horizon suffered an explosion and a fire that would lead to one of the worst man-made disasters in history. The courage of the crew of the rig will finally get told to a worldwide audience.
PROSPECTS: People tend to have a morbid fascination with disasters and disaster movies. Wahlberg is a charismatic lead whose films tend to be solid performers.
OBSTACLES: Not getting a ton of buzz nor is it getting a lot of push from the studio which leads one to believe they don’t have a whole lot of confidence in the film.
FACTOID: This will be the first time that Kate Hudson has worked on the same movie with her stepfather Kurt Russell.

MISS PEREGRINE’S HOME FOR PECULIAR CHILDREN

RELEASE DATE: September 30, 2016
STUDIO: 20^th Century Fox
STARRING: Eva Green, Asa Butterfield, Chris O’Dowd, Ella Purnell, Alison Janney, Samuel L. Jackson, Rupert Everett, Terence Stamp, Dame Judi Dench
GENRE: Young Adult Fantasy
STORY: A young man stumbles into a deep mystery where children with amazing powers have found refuge in the home of the lovely Miss Peregrine. However, the children are threatened by enemies both secret and overt, who are equally powerful and who want to exploit them; the young man must stand and fight for them but also, in the process, discover who he himself is and what he is capable of.
PROSPECTS: Seems tailor-made for the talents of director Tim Burton. It’s based on a best-selling young adult novel series which gives it an instant audience.
OBSTACLES: Burton’s output has been uneven the last decade or so. Young adult bestsellers haven’t necessarily translated to box office gold overly much.
FACTOID: In the books the character of Dr. Golan was male, but here the character is played by Allison Janney.

SOMETHING DIFFERENT

QUEEN OF KATWE

RELEASE DATE: September 23, 2016 (Limited; expands September 30, 2016)
STUDIO: Disney
STARRING: Lupita Nyong’o, David Oyelowo, Ntare Guma Mbaho Mwine, Madina Malwanga, Russel Salvadier, Charity Rose Pimer, Maurice Kirya
GENRE: True Life Drama
STORY: A little girl from a Ugandan slum discovers the allure of chess and quickly shows aptitude for the game. Supported by family and community, she develops the confidence needed to become a grandmaster.
PROSPECTS: Director Mira Nair is one of the most poetic directors in the business. While the subject matter may not be the stuff of blockbusters, this could garner some Oscar buzz come Awards season; certainly Oscar should be giving the actors of African descent a good hard look considering how they’ve been ignoring actors of color the past couple of years.
OBSTACLES: Chess isn’t exactly the most cinematic game there is. Disney seems to be hedging their bets a little in not planning a full wide release for the film.
FACTOID: Nair decided to do the film after directing a documentary based on the life of Ugandan chess icon Robert Katende.

WORTH A LOOK

SEPTEMBER 2, 2016

In THE 9^TH LIFE OF LOUIS DRAX (Miramax/Summit), a young boy survives a fall off a cliff but in a coma. A neurologist tries a revolutionary new technique to enter the boy’s comatose mind to find out what really happened but unlocks a secret that not only explains how he has cheated death not just here but on eight previous occasions but also opens the door for something incredible…and possibly sinister. In KICKBOXER: VENGEANCE (RLJ) a fighter seeks revenge when his brother is brutally killed in the ring and seeks training from a legendary martial artist. Jean-Claude van Damme returns to this longtime franchise which opens in limited release. THE LIGHT BETWEEN OCEANS (DreamWorks) is the latest from up-and-coming director Derek Cianfrance and concerns a lighthouse keeper and his heartbroken wife who, after she miscarries, discover a baby floating in a lifeboat with a dead man. Seeing this as a sign from heaven, they take the little girl as their own but eventually they realize that they know who the real mother is. MAX ROSE (Paladin) stars the legendary Jerry Lewis in his first onscreen role in 21 years, playing a retired jazz pianist who after his wife of 60 years passes away, discovers that his marriage isn’t what he thought it was. This is opening in limited release. Kate Mara stars in MORGAN (20^th Century Fox) as a corporate troubleshooter who goes to a remote lab to investigate a mysterious accident. She discovers that at the center of it is a teenage girl with incredible powers who shows great promise – and great danger. Opening in limited release is Kevin Smith’s latest, YOGA HOSERS (Invincible), the second in his Canada trilogy and brings back two convenience store clerks and a somewhat rumpled Canadian detective from Tusk brought together to fight an incalculable evil from underneath the good Manitoban soil of Winnipeg.

SEPTEMBER 9, 2016

THE DISAPPOINTMENTS ROOM (Rogue) is about a family that moves into a quaint New England home and discovers a small door in the attic that doesn’t appear in any blueprints. When they see the ghost of a child beckoning to them to open the locked door, they unleash a supernatural firestorm of spirits who want to ensure that door stays locked – and the secrets within kept hidden – forever. KICKS (Focus World) is a cautionary tale concerning a set of stolen sneakers, the status they confer on the wearer and how far a 15-year-old boy will go to get his shoes back. WHEN THE BOUGH BREAKS (Screen Gems) stars Morris Chestnut and Regina King as an urban professional couple who have done everything to have a baby and are now trying surrogacy. The surrogate mom, however, turns out to be a lot more than they bargained for as her unhealthy obsession with the father threatens their very lives. THE WILD LIFE (Summit) is an animated feature that tells the Robinson Crusoe story – from the point of view of the animals on the island and it looks none too favorably on the famous castaway.

SEPTEMBER 16, 2016

BLAIR WITCH (Lionsgate) is a sequel to one of the most successful independent films of all time and finds another group of kids entering the woods which are said to be haunted by the Blair Witch, only to find that the tales are frighteningly true. BRIDGET JONES’ BABY (Universal) stars Renee Zellweger in one of her signature roles as the plucky British girl who after years of romantic misadventures is now trying motherhood on for size – with two different men who could be the father. Opening in limited release as well as on Hulu, EIGHT DAYS A WEEK: THE BEATLES – THE TOURING YEARS (Abramorama) documents the brief period that the Beatles toured from 1963 until their last concert in 1966 (excluding the impromptu show they gave on top of the building where their Apple Records was headquartered) and utilizes much behind the scenes footage as well as never-before-seen concert footage. MR. CHURCH (Cinelou) stars Eddie Murphy as a cook/handyman/housekeeper whose services are  paid for by the boyfriend of a dying mother for six months but whose relationship with her daughter keeps him working for the family for 15 years. This is opening in limited release. SNOWDEN (Open Road) is the oft-delayed Oliver Stone biopic of the notorious whistle-blower (some say traitor who alerted us to the NSA’s program that is in essence spying on the American people. Joseph Gordon-Levitt stars in the title role.

SEPTEMBER 23, 2016

In DIRTY 30 (Lionsgate) lifelong BFFs come together to throw a 30^th birthday party for a third friend which turns into a This Is Your Life-kind of affair which quickly descends into chaos. This is opening in limited release. GOAT (Paramount) stars Nick Jonas in a movie that shows just how deadly fraternity hazing can be. It is getting a brief theatrical release in New York and Los Angeles while simultaneously opening on VOD, something unusual for a major studio. STORKS (Warner Brothers) is an animated feature about the birds noted for delivering babies to their parents but as that has proven unprofitable, they have become a delivery service. When an unauthorized baby is accidentally created, a resourceful stork and the only human on Stork Mountain must find a way to deliver it before the boss finds out.

SEPTEMBER 30, 2015

Opening in limited release, AMERICAN HONEY (A24) is about a rebellious adolescent from a troubled home who runs away and joins a crew of teen…magazine salesmen (I couldn’t make this up). Days of bending the law turn into nights of hard partying and maybe, young love. DENIAL (Bleecker Street) stars Rachel Weisz in the true story of a lawsuit brought about by an academic who claimed the Holocaust never happened against fellow academic Deborah Lipstadt who claimed that it did and led to her legal representatives being forced by English law having to prove that the Holocaust did indeed occur. MASTERMINDS (Relativity) is the (mainly) true story of an armored car driver who is seduced into helping a group of criminals steal $17 million from the armored car company only to be set up as the fall guy. On the run and dodging a hitman, he must find a way to turn the tables on the guys that betrayed him. Zach Galifianakis, Jason Sudeikis and Owen Wilson star.

HOW THEY DID LAST YEAR

A look back at how last year’s previewed movies did at the box office. The budgets and box office numbers are courtesy of Box Office Mojo. My verdicts are based on the typical studio formula that for a movie to break even it must make twice its production budget; any movie that achieves that will be labeled as profitable. I define hit movies as those that make three times the production budget and blockbusters as anything that makes $200 million in domestic box office or more, or made five times the production budget with a minimum of $100 million in domestic box office. The first four movies listed are the four main previewed items; I’ve also chosen a selection of other major releases that made the preview issue as well.

HOTEL TRANSYLVANIA 2 (Columbia) Budget: $80 Million. Domestic Gross: $169.7M Total: $473.2M Verdict: Blockbuster.
MAZE RUNNER: THE SCORCH TRIALS (20^th Century Fox) Budget: $61M. Domestic Gross: $81.7M Total: $312.3M Verdict: Big Hit.
EVEREST (Universal) Budget: $55M. Domestic Gross: $43.5M Total: $203.4M Verdict: Hit.
THE WALK (TriStar) Budget: $35M. Domestic Gross: $10.1M Total: $61.2M Verdict: Made Money.
SICARIO (Lionsgate) Budget: $30M. Domestic Gross: $46.9M Total: $84.9M Verdict: Made Money.
THE INTERN (Warner Brothers) Budget: $35M. Domestic Gross: $75.8M Total: $194.6M Verdict: Big Hit.
THE VISIT (Universal) Budget: $5M. Domestic Gross: $65.2M Total: $98.5M Verdict: Big Hit.
A WALK IN THE WOODS (Broad Green) Budget: $8M. Domestic Gross: $29.5M Total: $36.0M Verdict: Big Hit.
THE PERFECT GUY (Screen Gems) Budget: $12M. Domestic Gross: $57.0M. Total: $60.3M. Verdict: Big Hit.
THE TRANSPORTER REFUELED (Relativity/EuropaCorp) Budget: $25M. Domestic Gross: $16.0M Total: $72.6M Verdict: Made Money.
PAWN SACRIFICE (Bleecker Street) Budget: $19M. Domestic Gross: $2.4M Total: $5.4M Verdict: Flop.
THE GREEN INFERNO (High Top) Budget: $5M. Domestic Gross: $7.2M Total: $7.2M Verdict: Lost Money.

OCTOBER

As the weather grows cooler and kids minds turn to trick or treating, the local multiplex will have a pillowcase full of treats, including a new installment in the cinematic franchise of a bestselling cryptography series, the movie version of a Philip Roth novel, the return of a Tom Cruise action hero, the reboot of a series of films based on an iconic Japanese horror movie and a concert film from America’s most popular stand-up comedian.

THE ONE TO WATCH

INFERNO

RELEASE DATE: October 28, 2016
STUDIO: Columbia
STARRING: Tom Hanks, Felicity Jones, Ben Foster, Irrfan Khan, Omar Sy, Ana Ularu, Sidse Babett Knudsen, Ida Darvish
GENRE: Thriller
STORY: Professor Robert Langdon is once again called upon to solve a seemingly unsolvable puzzle but this time the stakes are much higher, involving a plague that could potentially wipe out half of the world’s population – and Langdon is one of the suspect’s in the investigation!
PROSPECTS: The first two installments in the cinematic franchise based on Dan Brown’s bestselling novels were box office blockbusters.
OBSTACLES: Neither of the films have exactly swept audiences and critics off their feet.
FACTOID: Sy and Khan both appeared in Jurassic World.

THE OTHERS TO SEE

THE GIRL ON THE TRAIN

RELEASE DATE: October 7, 2016
STUDIO: Universal
STARRING: Emily Blunt, Rebecca Ferguson, Luke Evans, Laura Prepon, Justin Theroux, Allison Janney, Edgar Ramirez, Lisa Kudrow
GENRE: Mystery
STORY: A woman who has been devastated by a recent divorce sees a “perfect couple” in a house that her commuter train passes every day and fantasizes wistfully about them. When she witnesses something truly shocking, she is caught in a nightmare in which she may not be an innocent bystander after all.
PROSPECTS: Blunt has been waiting for the right script to elevate her to the next level and this one might be it. The trailer is absolutely Hitchcock-ian.
OBSTACLES: The mystery genre has lately been out of vogue.
FACTOID: This is the first film directed by Tate Taylor in which Octavia Spencer does not appear.

THE ACCOUNTANT

RELEASE DATE: October 14, 2016
STUDIO: Warner Brothers
STARRING: Ben Affleck, Anna Kendrick, Jon Bernthal, J.K. Simmons, John Lithgow, Jeffrey Tambor, Cynthia Addai-Robinson
GENRE: Drama
STORY: A high-functioning math savant is a freelance accountant for some of the most ruthless criminal organizations in the world. When he takes on a legitimate client, it turns out that it could be far more dangerous than the crime bosses he’s used to dealing with.
PROSPECTS: Affleck is a hot commodity these days between his directing triumphs and his roles on-camera as well. Gavin O’Connor is a director who knows how to tell a good story properly.
OBSTACLES: There is a lot of competition for this type of film out there during the month.
FACTOID: The song playing over the trailer is “Everything in Its Right Place” by Radiohead off the Kid-A album. It also played during the opening scene of Vanilla Sky.

JACK REACHER: DON’T LOOK BACK

RELEASE DATE: October 21, 2016
STUDIO: Paramount
STARRING: Tom Cruise, Cobie Smulders, Robert Knepper, Aldis Hodge, Holt McCallany, Danika Yarosh, Wolfgang Stegemann
GENRE: Action
STORY: When a friend of Jack Reacher is arrested and charged with espionage, well, that’s just something he can’t let go. Where the law can’t go, Reacher kicks down the doors and takes names..
PROSPECTS: Cruise is still a big box office draw.
OBSTACLES: The first Jack Reacher film was only a middling success.
FACTOID: The first film was based on the ninth book in the Lee Childs novel series; the sequel is based on the eighteenth.

RINGS

RELEASE DATE: October 28, 2016
STUDIO: Paramount
STARRING: Laura Wiggins, Aimee Teegarden, Johnny Galecki, Lizzie Brocheré, Bonnie Morgan, Alex Roe, Zach Roerig, Matilda Lutz
GENRE: Horror
STORY: When her boyfriend gets caught up in the urban legend about a videotape that kills you seven days after you view it, a young woman sacrifices herself to save him, but finds out something even more horrifying – that there is a movie within the movie.
PROSPECTS: This is a cult favorite among horror fans, particularly those who love Americanized J-horror. It is also the highest profile release of the Halloween season.
OBSTACLES: It has been eleven years since the sequel appeared, which is a long time for a franchise.
FACTOID: Although there were rumors that this would be a prequel, it was recently confirmed on Twitter by the film’s director that it is a sequel set in present day.

SOMETHING DIFFERENT

THE BIRTH OF A NATION

RELEASE DATE: October 7, 2016
STUDIO: Fox Searchlight
STARRING: Nate Parker, Armie Hammer, Mark Boone Junior, Colman Domingo, Aunjanue Ellis, Gabrielle Union, Penelope Ann Miller, Jackie Earle Haley
GENRE: Historical Drama
STORY: Nat Turner, a literate slave and preacher, is used by his financially strapped owner to subdue unruly slaves. A witness to countless atrocities, he is inspired to lead a slave revolt in the days prior to the Civil War.
PROSPECTS: One of the most anticipated indie films of the year drew rave reviews following a triumphant debut at Sundance this past January.
OBSTACLES: Parker, who also directed the film, has been embroiled in a scandal following an interview in which he discussed a 2003 trial when he was accused and acquitted of rape while still a student at Penn State. The outcry of this revelation may end up causing Fox to reassess their strategy with this film which is considered a likely contender for Oscars if released this year.
FACTOID: Fox paid $17.5 million for the rights to the film, a Sundance record.

WORTH A LOOK

OCTOBER 7, 2016

THE GREASY STRANGLER (FilmRise) which appeared at this year’s Florida Film Festival and is now opening in limited release is about a browbeaten son and his degenerate father who are vying for the same girl, right about the time an oily serial killer nicknamed “The Greasy Strangler” shows up to terrorize the women of Los Angeles. MIDDLE SCHOOL: THE WORST YEARS OF MY LIFE (CBS) is based on a best-selling series of young adult books in which an authority-hating young tween boy finds himself in a middle school with a veritable cornucopia of rules. VOYAGE OF TIME (Broad Green) is director Terrence Malick’s ten-years-in-the-making treatise on the birth and death of the universe; it is opening in limited release and in IMAX in selected theaters.

OCTOBER 14, 2016

Opening up in limited release, CERTAIN WOMEN (IFC) is a Montana-set ensemble piece by acclaimed director Kelly Reichardt following three different women whose lives intersect in unexpected ways.  DESIERTO (STX) is a thriller from Mexican director Jonás Cuaron about a group of illegal aliens crossing the U.S./Mexican border who are stalked by a deranged Texan with a high powered rifle and a dog trained to kill. KEVIN HART: WHAT NOW (Universal) is the latest concert film from America’s most popular comedian Kevin Hart on his most recent tour; his historic sold-out stadium performance is bookended by a 007-like spy vignette.

OCTOBER 21, 2016

31 (Saban/Lionsgate) is Rob Zombie’s latest horror epic in which five carnival workers are kidnapped and forced to play a life or death game against an endless parade of homicidal maniacs. This is getting a brief limited theatrical run (including a special Fathom Events presentation which is followed by a live Q&A with the director) with a simultaneous release on VOD. AMERICAN PASTORAL (Lionsgate) is based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Philip Roth regarding an American family shaken to the core when their rebellious daughter disappears after being accused of an unspeakable crime. BOO! A MADEA HALLOWEEN (Lionsgate) stars Tyler Perry as the popular character Madea as she takes on all manners of ghosts and ghouls and scariest of all – a group of uppity teens. All Hallows Eve will never be the same. Opening in limited release, THE HANDMAIDEN (Magnolia/Amazon) is the latest from South Korea’s most acclaimed director Park Chan-wook and tells the tale of a maid installed in a wealthy woman’s household staff who is secretly a con artist working with a heartless partner.  IN A VALLEY OF VIOLENCE (Focus World) stars John Travolta as a world-weary sheriff in a town in the Old West in which his troublemaking son picks a feud with a mysterious drifter who has a skeleton or two in his closet, which escalates into mayhem; it opens in limited release. KEEPING UP WITH THE JONESES (20^th Century Fox) stars Zach Galifianakis and Isla Fisher as a couple who become obsessed with a mysterious seemingly perfect couple who move in next door but turn out to be much more than they seem. OUIJA: ORIGIN OF EVIL (Universal) is a prequel to the surprise 2014 hit and establishes how the house and its accompanying Ouija board got haunted. It’s not a pretty story.

OCTOBER 28, 2016

Opening in limited release THE EAGLE HUNTRESS (Sony Classics) is a documentary chronicling the attempt of a 13-year-old Mongolian girl struggling to become the first female to become an Eagle Hunter, a prestigious position in which trained eagles are used to hunt.

HOW THEY DID LAST YEAR

CRIMSON PEAK (Universal) Budget: $55M. Domestic Gross: $31.1M Total: $74.7M Verdict: Lost Money.
THE MARTIAN (20^th Century Fox) Budget: $108M. Domestic Gross: $228.4M Total: $630.2M Verdict: Blockbuster.
PAN (Warner Brothers) Budget: $150M. Domestic Gross: $35.1M Total: $128.4M Verdict: Flop.
BRIDGE OF SPIES (DreamWorks) Budget: $40M. Domestic Gross: $72.3M Total: $165.5M Verdict: Big Hit.
JEM AND THE HOLOGRAMS (Universal) Budget: $5M. Domestic Gross: $2.2M Total: $2.3 Verdict: Flop.
SUFFRAGETTE (Focus) Budget: $14M. Domestic Gross: $4.7M Total: $32.0 Verdict: Made Money.
STEVE JOBS (Universal) Budget: $30M. Domestic Gross: $17.8M Total: $34.4M Verdict: Broke Even.
LEGEND (Universal) Budget: $25M. Domestic Gross: $1.9M Total: $43.0M Verdict: Lost Money.
GOOSEBUMPS (Columbia) Budget: $58M. Domestic Gross: $80.1M Total: $150.2M Verdict: Made Money.
SCOUT’S GUIDE TO THE ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE (Paramount) Budget: $15M. Domestic Gross: $3.7M Total: $14.9M Verdict: Flop.
THE LAST WITCH HUNTER (Summit) Budget: $90M. Domestic Gross: $27.4M Total: $140.4M Verdict: Lost Money.
BURNT (Weinstein) Budget: $20M. Domestic Gross: $13.7M Total: $36.6M Verdict: Lost Money.

NOVEMBER

As the cold weather begins to make its appearance in earnest, the cold hearts of studio accountants are warmed by the thoughts of potential blockbusters coming their way. This year, Marvel gets mystical with their second film of the year while J.K. Rowling makes a welcome return to the cinematic medium. Disney makes a bid for more animated income and director Ang Lee looks to garner Oscar gold with his latest film.

THE ONE TO WATCH

FANTASTIC BEASTS AND WHERE TO FIND THEM

RELEASE DATE: November 18, 2016
STUDIO: Warner Brothers
STARRING: Eddie Redmayne, Ezra Miller, Colin Farrell, Zoë Kravitz, Jon Voight, Ron Perlman, Gemma Chan, Katherine Waterston, Samantha Morton
GENRE: Fantasy
STORY: Newt Scamander is returning home to England in the 1920s after a global excursion in which he has been cataloguing and collecting magical creatures. A stopover in New York City proves disaster as a no-maj (American for muggle) inadvertently lets some of these creatures loose on an unprepared city.
PROSPECTS: The return of J.K. Rowling’s Wizarding World is being met with extreme anticipation; her Harry Potter series is one of the most profitable of all time.
OBSTACLES: Muggle cinema viewers may not be as eager to see a Wizarding World film without Harry Potter in it.
FACTOID: Rowling, who is making her screenwriting debut, has characterized the film as a spin-off or extension of the Potter universe without being a direct prequel or sequel; no characters from the Potter books appear here (although Scamander is mentioned as the author of the textbook of the same name and has his own chocolate frog card).

THE OTHERS TO SEE

DOCTOR STRANGE

RELEASE DATE: November 4, 2016
STUDIO: Disney/Marvel
STARRING: Benedict Cumberbatch, Rachel McAdams, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Mads Mikkelsen, Tilda Swinton, Benedict Wong, Scott Adkins, Michael Stuhlbarg, Benjamin Bratt
GENRE: Superhero
STORY: A gifted surgeon is badly injured in an auto accident and loses the use of his hands. Devastated by his loss, he discovers a secret world within our own, one of magic and mysticism. He must learn to put aside his ego and become the sorcerer supreme, protector of the mortal realm from threats from other planes.
PROSPECTS: This will be another very different Marvel movie, and much like Guardians of the Galaxy has the opportunity to defy expectations and once again break the bank at the box office.
OBSTACLES: May be a bit too much like Christopher Nolan’s non-Batman films to ignore.
FACTOID: The creators of the character, Stan Lee and Steve Ditko, based the comic book appearance of Dr. Strange on Vincent Price. They even gave him the middle name of Vincent in tribute.

TROLLS

RELEASE DATE: November 4, 2016
STUDIO: DreamWorks Animation/Fox
STARRING THE VOICES OF: Anna Kendrick, Zoey Deschanel, Justin Timberlake, James Corden, John Cleese, Russell Brand, Gwen Stefani, Christine Baranski, Ron Funches
GENRE: Animated Feature
STORY: When the Trolls are kidnapped from their village by the villainous Bergens, only the terminally optimistic Poppy and the equally as pessimistic Branch remain to save their fellow Trolls.
PROSPECTS: The voice cast is literally an all-star cast; while we didn’t have room to list everyone, there are a lot of familiar voices that will be in play.
OBSTACLES: The trailers for the movie have been underwhelming.
FACTOID: The original trolls were created by Thomas Dam in Gjøl, Jutland, Denmark in 1958.

MOANA

RELEASE DATE: November 23, 2016
STUDIO: Disney
STARRING THE VOICES OF: Dwayne Johnson, Auli’i Cravalho, Jemaine Clement, Alan Tudyk, Nicole Scherzinger, Temuera Morrison
GENRE: Animated Feature
STORY: A brave Pacific Islander teen girl must make a perilous voyage to save her people. Aided by the disgraced demigod Maui, she will battle impossible odds and terrifying creatures in the open ocean to fulfill an ancient quest and bring her people to a beautiful paradise.
PROSPECTS: Although the Pixar division gets the lion’s share of attention, Disney’s own animated division has been putting out some very nice films of their own as of late.
OBSTACLES: Anyone remember Lilo and Stitch?
FACTOID: Lin-Manuel Miranda, best known for his work for Hamilton, is the composer of the music and co-writer of the songs. Should he win an Oscar here, he will become just the third person ever to win a Pulitzer, Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony (joining Marvin Hamlisch and Richard Rodgers).

SOMETHING DIFFERENT

BAD SANTA 2

RELEASE DATE: November 23, 2016
STUDIO: Miramax/Broad Green
STARRING: Billy Bob Thornton, Kathy Bates, Tony Cox, Christina Hendricks, Brett Kelly, Ryan Hansen, Jeff Skowron, Jenny Zigrino
GENRE: Comedy
STORY: Willie Soke returns with his angry sidekick Marcus as the two prepare to knock over a Chicago charity on Christmas Eve. This time they’re joined by Willie’s horror show of a mother.
PROSPECTS: This is as cult film as it gets; the first Bad Santa remains a Christmas favorite for people who don’t particularly like Christmas.
OBSTACLES: It’s been 13 years since the original, and while it did decent box office and had a pretty good home video run, its popularity really hasn’t endured.
FACTOID: Bernie Mac co-starred in the original but has passed away since then; his role was not recast out of respect.

WORTH A LOOK

NOVEMBER 4, 2016

HACKSAW RIDGE (Summit) is the story of Desmond Doss, the first conscientious objector who ever received a Congressional Medal of Honor for his actions during the Battle of Okinawa in World War II. LOVING (Focus) is also a true story, this time regarding the interracial marriage of Richard and Mildred Loving which was deemed illegal by the state of Virginia. The couple fought this injustice and took it all the way to the Supreme Court, paving the way for anyone to marry whomever they love regardless of race, creed, color or sexual orientation.

NOVEMBER 11, 2016

ALMOST CHRISTMAS (Universal) is a Christmas comedy about a beloved family patriarch whose wish is for one more Christmas with the entire family together under one roof. However, if this dysfunctional family can manage to make it five days without killing one another it will be a miracle of Biblical proportions. ARRIVAL (Paramount) stars Amy Adams as one of the world’s most expert linguists who is brought in to do the most important work of her career – to help translate for an alien race that has landed in their spacecraft as mankind teeters on the brink of a global war. This is the latest from director Denis Villeneuve who is rapidly becoming one of the best in the business. BILLY LYNN’S LONG HALFTIME WALK (TriStar) is director Ang Lee’s latest as an Iraqi War veteran who survived a harrowing battle is brought home temporarily for a victory tour, culminating in a spectacular halftime show for a Thanksgiving Day football game. As the pomp and circumstance unspools, we learn what really happened in Iraq – and how it differs from our own perceptions of the realities of war. ELLE (Sony Classics) which opens in limited release stars Isabelle Huppert as the ruthless CEO of a videogame company whose home invasion assault lands her in a vicious game with the man who attacked her. Also opening in limited release, SEASONS (Music Box) is a documentary about the seasons of the year and their effects on humans – and animals. SHUT IN (EuropaCorp/Relativity) stars Naomi Watts as a widowed child psychologist who lives an isolated, reclusive existence in New England. During a vicious winter storm she must find a way to rescue a young boy before he disappears forever.

NOVEMBER 18, 2016

In THE EDGE OF SEVENTEEN (STX) an awkward high school junior with enough self-respect issues to begin with is mortified when her “golden boy” brother starts dating her BFF. Drama, drama, drama! MANCHESTER BY THE SEA (Roadside Attractions/Amazon) which is opening in limited release stars Casey Affleck as a troubled soul who is shocked to discover that when his older brother passes away unexpectedly that he has been made legal guardian of his nephew, forcing him to move back to the quiet Massachusetts fishing village where he grew up.

NOVEMBER 23, 2016

ALLIED (Paramount) comes to us from director Robert Zemeckis and stars Brad Pitt and Marion Cotillard as an Army intelligence officer and a French resistance fighter respectively who fall in love during a mission behind enemy lines and after being reunited in London find the pressures of war tearing them apart. BLEED FOR THIS (Open Road) is the story of boxer Vinny Pazienza, who suffered a broken neck in a car accident. Told he would never fight again, he risks everything to try and get back into the ring. This is opening in limited release on the 11^th and then opening wide in time for Thanksgiving. NOCTURNAL ANIMALS (Focus) opens in New York and Los Angeles on the 18^th and then in a limited run here and stars Amy Adams as an art gallery owner whose ex-husband writes a novel whose violence and depravity she interprets as a veiled threat against her. Tom Ford directs this from an Austin Wright novel. In RULES DON’T APPLY (20^th Century Fox) Warren Beatty stars as the eccentric billionaire Howard Hughes who hires a new driver who in turn falls for a devout Baptist starlet that Hughes takes an interest in.

NOVEMBER 25, 2016

Opening in limited release, LION (Focus) stars Dev Patel as a young man who as a five-year-old wandered on a train and was transported across India to Calcutta where he was discovered wandering in the streets by an Australian couple who adopted him. Years later, armed only with a handful of vague memories and Google Earth he sets out to find his home and true parents and in the process discover who he is. This is based on a true story.

HOW THEY DID LAST YEAR

SPECTRE (MGM/Columbia) Budget: $245M. Domestic Gross: $200.1Total: $880.7M Verdict: Hit.
THE PEANUTS MOVIE (20^th Century Fox) Budget: $99M. Domestic Gross: $130.2M Total: $246.2M. Verdict: Made Money.
THE HUNGER GAMES: MOCKINGJAY – PART 2 (Lionsgate) Budget: $160M. Domestic Gross: $281.7M Total: $653.4M Verdict: Big Hit.
THE 33 (Warner Brothers) Budget: $26M. Domestic Gross: $12.2M Total: $24.9M. Verdict: Flop.
TRUMBO (Bleecker Street) Budget: $15M. Domestic Gross: $7.9M Total: $8.2M Verdict: Flop.
CREED (MGM/New Line) Budget: $35M. Domestic Gross: $109.8M Total: $173.67M Verdict: Blockbuster.
BROOKLYN (Fox Searchlight) Budget: $11M Domestic Gross: $38.3M Total: $62.1M Verdict: Big Hit.
THE GOOD DINOSAUR (Disney) Budget: $200M Domestic Gross: $123.1M Total: $332.2M Verdict: Lost Money.
THE NIGHT BEFORE (Columbia) Budget: $25M. Domestic Gross: $43.1M Total: $52.4M Verdict: Broke Even.
VICTOR FRANKENSTEIN (20^th Century Fox) Budget: $40M Domestic Gross: $5.8M Total: $34.2M Verdict: Flop.
THE DANISH GIRL (Focus) Budget: $15M Domestic Gross: $11.1M Total: $64.2M Verdict: Big Hit.

DECEMBER

The last month of the year is often a profitable one as Hollywood counts on people hitting the multiplex while out Christmas shopping. This year should be no exception as we return to the land of Star Wars for a standalone tale that fills in the blanks for the very first film in the franchise, the cinematic debut of a videogame franchise, a star pairing between Jennifer Laurence and Chris Pratt and a new musical from the director of Whiplash.

THE ONE TO WATCH

ROGUE ONE: A STAR WARS STORY

RELEASE DATE: December 18, 2016
STUDIO: Disney
STARRING: Felicity Jones, Riz Ahmed, Forest Whitaker, Mads Mikkelsen, Diego Luna, James Earl Jones, Alan Tudyk, Donnie Yen, Warwick Davis, Ben Mendelsohn, Jimmy Smits
GENRE: Science Fiction
STORY: Have you ever wondered how those plans of the Death Star wound up in the hands of the Rebellion? Wonder no more.
PROSPECTS: Well, the Star Wars universe is alive and well after the reboot last year took the world by storm. While there are a few familiar faces here, this is again mostly an all-new cast and is the very first standalone Star Wars film.
OBSTACLES: It’s a new concept for the franchise and…oh, who are we kidding? Expect big box office pretty much no matter what.
FACTOID: Both Smits and Genevieve O’Reilly appeared in Star Wars Episode III: Return of the Jedi as Bail Organa and Mon Mothma, respectively and are reprising those roles here.

OTHERS TO SEE

LA LA LAND

RELEASE DATE: December 2, 2016 (New York/LA; opens limited 12/9 and wide 12/16)
STUDIO: Summit
STARRING: Emma Stone, Ryan Gosling, Finn Wittrock, J.K. Simmons, Rosemarie DeWitt, John Legend, Callie Hernandez
GENRE: Musical
STORY: A man and a woman come to Hollywood to find their dreams and instead find each other. However as they also find success, stardom threatens to rip them apart.
PROSPECTS: This is a unique spin on the old-time Hollywood musical by Whiplash director Damien Chazelle. The film has enormous buzz and may be an Oscar contender as his first film was.
OBSTACLES: Musicals have largely been hit and miss at the box office as of late, although they tend to have a better chance of success this time of year.
FACTOID: Stone and Simmons have experience in Spider-Man films; Simmons played J. Jonah Jameson in the original trilogy, Stone played Gwen Stacy in the Amazing-Spider Man films.

ASSASSIN’S CREED

RELEASE DATE: December 21, 2016
STUDIO: 20^th Century Fox
STARRING: Michael Fassbender, Marion Cotillard, Jeremy Irons, Michael Kenneth Williams, Brendan Gleeson, Ariane Labed, Callum Turner, Brian Gleeson
GENRE: Adventure
STORY: An executed criminal who has been resurrected discovers he is part of an ancient order of assassins and is sent back in time to occupy the body of an ancestor in order to stop a plot by an oppressive and ruthless order.
PROSPECTS: This is one of the most cinematic of the videogame franchises and the star power of Fassbender and Cotillard should be able to attract some non-gamers into the theaters.
OBSTACLES: “Based on the popular videogame franchise” hasn’t exactly been magic when it’s come to box office.
FACTOID: During the fabrication of a set in Malta, the island was struck by a hurricane and the set damaged, causing a slight delay.

PASSENGERS

RELEASE DATE: December 21, 2016
STUDIO: Columbia
STARRING: Jennifer Laurence, Chris Pratt, Michael Sheen, Laurence Fishburne, Aurora Perrineau, Kimberly Batista, Vince Foster
GENRE: Science Fiction
STORY: On a spaceship travelling to a distant planet on a 120-year journey, a malfunction wakes a mechanic a century early. Alone with only robots for company, he impulsively wakes a passenger. They fall in love but soon realize that something is very wrong with their ship.
PROSPECTS: Pratt and Laurence are two of the biggest stars in Hollywood at the moment.
OBSTACLES: There hasn’t been a lot of buzz about this and the studio has been a bit reticent to release a trailer or any footage, not a good sign.
FACTOID: This was originally developed as a star vehicle for Keanu Reeves with Rachel McAdams in the female lead.

SING

RELEASE DATE: December 21, 2016
STUDIO: Universal/Illumination
STARRING THE VOICES OF: Matthew McConaughey, Scarlett Johansson, Reese Witherspoon, Taron Egerton, Nick Kroll, Leslie Jones, Nick Offerman, Seth MacFarlane, John C. Reilly
GENRE: Animated Feature
STORY: A desperate theater owner decides that the only way to save his struggling venue is to stage a major singing competition, which attracts other desperate sorts trying to seize a chance at a better life.
PROSPECTS: Illumination has released some of the most successful animated features of the last five years. The trailer is absolutely charming.
OBSTACLES: The fourth movie this year with anthropomorphic animals which might have worn out its welcome.
FACTOID: The first animation that MacFarlane has voiced that he didn’t have creative input for.

SOMETHING DIFFERENT

THE SPACE BETWEEN US

RELEASE DATE: December 21, 2016
STUDIO: STX Entertainment
STARRING: Asa Butterfield, Gary Oldman, Britt Robertson, Carla Gugino, BD Wong, Janet Montgomery, Colin Egglesfield
GENRE: Science Fiction
STORY: The first human to be born on Mars comes to Earth to discover who his father is, but finds that he can only live a short time on Earth.
PROSPECTS: A pretty decent cast and a solid premise will attract at least a little bit of attention.
OBSTACLES: Has more of a young adult romance novel feel more than science fiction which might put off sci-fi fans.
FACTOID: The first movie to film at New Mexico’s Spaceport USA.

WORTH A LOOK

DECEMBER 2, 2016

INCARNATE (High Top), opening in limited release, stars Aaron Eckhart as an exorcist confronted by the demons of his past – literally. In KEEP WATCHING (Screen Gems) two serial killers break into a family’s home, which is unbeknownst to them filled with hidden cameras documenting their every move. KIDNAP (Relativity) stars Halle Berry as a desperate mother willing to go to any extreme to get back her kidnapped son. MAN DOWN (Lionsgate) is about a war veteran trying to come to grips with his past and his present in a post-apocalyptic landscape.

DECEMBER 9, 2016

THE BYE-BYE MAN (STX Entertainment) is a horror film about an evil entity that possesses you when you think about his name – and then forces you to do unspeakable horrors. MISS SLOANE (EuropaCorp/Relativity) is about a ruthless lobbyist who will do anything it takes to win, even if it means hurting the ones she loves most. OFFICE CHRISTMAS PARTY (Paramount) features an all-star cast and is about a branch office that puts on an epic Christmas party in order to impress a would-be client and save all their jobs.

DECEMBER 16, 2016

COLLATERAL BEAUTY (New Line) stars Will Smith as an advertising executive who retreats from life after a profound tragedy. His colleagues devise a drastic plan to force him to confront his grief and return to the land of the living. Denzel Washington stars in FENCES (Paramount) as an African-American father trying to raise his family in the 1950s; the movie opens in limited release and gets a wide release on Christmas day. THE FOUNDER (Weinstein) is the story of Ray Kroc, a salesman who saw the potential in a regional restaurant chain and decides to take it national, trampling on the original founders of the restaurant whose name it bears; McDonalds. The movie is getting a limited Oscar qualification run before opening wide on January 20^th..

DECEMBER 21, 2016

JULIETA (Sony Classics) opening in limited release is master Spanish director Pedro Almodovar’s latest and is about a mother’s struggle to survive the uncertainty of parenthood. PATRIOT’S DAY (CBS) chronicles the events of the Boston Marathon bombing; it gets an Oscar qualifying run in New York and Los Angeles (also opening in Boston) before going to a wide release on January 13^th.

DECEMBER 23, 2016

A MONSTER CALLS (Focus) is about a grieving little boy’s retreat into a world of the fantastic and how it teaches him to deal with faith, loss and love. Liam Neeson stars as the monster. The film is getting an Oscar qualifying run before opening everywhere on January 6^th,

DECEMBER 25, 2016

GOLD (Dimension) stars Matthew McConaughey as a modern day prospector searching for his fortune in the jungles of Indonesia; the movie is opening in limited release. Also opening in limited release, TONI ERDMANN (Sony Classics) is a German comedy about a practical joker of a father trying to get the attention of his corporate daughter. WHY HIM? (20^th Century Fox) features Bryan Cranston as a straight-laced dad whose daughter falls for a socially awkward Silicon Valley billionaire (James Franco) whom he despises.

HOW THEY DID LAST YEAR

STAR WARS EPISODE VII: THE FORCE AWAKENS (Disney) Budget: $245M. Domestic Gross: $936.7M Total: $2.01B Verdict: Blockbuster.
IN THE HEART OF THE SEA (Warner Brothers) Budget: $100M. Domestic Gross: $25.0M Total: $93.9 Verdict: Flop
SISTERS (Universal) Budget: $30M. Domestic Gross: $87.0M Total: $105.0M Verdict: Hit.
CONCUSSION (Columbia) Budget: $35M. Domestic Gross: $34.5M Total: $48.6M Verdict: Lost Money.
JOY (20^th Century Fox) Budget: $60M. Domestic Gross: $56.5M Total: $101.1M Verdict: Lost Money.
MACBETH (Weinstein) Budget: $20M. Domestic Gross: $1.1M Total: $16.3M Verdict: Flop.
KRAMPUS (Universal) Budget: $15M. Domestic Gross: $42.7M Total: $61.6M Verdict: Big Hit.
DADDY’S HOME (Paramount) Budget: $69M. Domestic Gross: $150.4M Total: $240.4M Verdict: Blockbuster.
THE HATEFUL EIGHT (Weinstein) Budget: $44M. Domestic Gross: $54.1M Total: $155.8M Verdict: Hit.
THE REVENANT (20^th Century Fox) Budget: $135M. Domestic Gross: $183.6M Total: $533.0M Verdict: Big Hit.
ALVIN AND THE CHIPMUNKS: ROAD CHIP (20^th Century Fox) Budget: $90M. Domestic Gross: $85.9M Total: $234.8M Verdict: Made Money.
POINT BREAK (Warner Brothers) Budget: $105M. Domestic Gross: $28.8M Total: $133.7M Verdict: Lost Money.
YOUTH (Fox Searchlight) Budget: $13M. Domestic Gross: $2.7M Total: $24.0M Verdict: Lost Money.

Well, that will bring the movie release schedule for 2016 to a close. As always, there will be changes but most of the big ticket items are pretty much set where they are. As you can see there’s a lot of variety to choose from and a lot of great movies to look forward to. 2017 is going to be another engaging year as well with some long-awaited sequels and series installments. A number of movies originally scheduled for 2016 will be making their appearance in 2017 but we’ll get into all that – in our 2017 preview post which should be available at the end of December. In the meantime, we at Cinema365 hope you enjoyed our preview for the upcoming fall and holiday movies and hope you found a few here that have whet your appetite for the multiplex. We’ll see you there – don’t forget to bring the popcorn and soda!

The Spiderwick Chronicles

Who says kids don’t listen?

(2008) Fantasy (Paramount) Freddie Highmore, Sarah Bolger, Mary-Louise Parker, David Strathairn, Nick Nolte, Joan Plowright, Martin Short (voice), Seth Rogan (voice), Andrew McCarthy, Jordy Benattar, Tod Fennell, Mariah Inger, Jeremy Lavalley, Lise Durocher-Viens, Ron Perlman (voice), Tyler Patrick Jones, Kyle Switzer, Stefanie Broos. Directed by Mark Waters

Young adult fantasy novels have fared poorly when given the cinematic treatment by various Hollywood entities, some worse than others. While studios are obviously eager to find the next Harry Potter or the next Katniss Everdeen, sometimes in an effort to make a franchise they overlook the simple solution of telling a good story well.

The Grace family has taken their share of blows lately. Mother Helen (Parker) has packed up and moved from New York City into “the middle of nowhere” to a decrepit estate she has inherited from her Aunt Lucinda (Plowright), who has been taken to a sanitarium after a suicide attempt. Her children are handling their situation differently. Mallory (Bolger), the oldest, clearly is behind her mother. She’s obsessed with fencing (the kind with swords, not pickets) and carries her sword with her nearly everywhere she goes. Younger brother Simon (Highmore) has become decidedly non-confrontational (perhaps in response to conflicts between his parents) and instead focuses on his love for animals.

It is Simon’s twin Jared (Highmore again) who is having the toughest time. Already burdened with anger control issues, he feels betrayed by his mother and is anxious to live with his father (McCarthy) instead. He lashes out at his siblings and mother, who tries very hard to be understanding but is obviously close to cracking herself.

It all starts with Jared hearing noises in the wall, banging on them with a broom. Eventually, Mallory accidentally uncovers a dumbwaiter, hidden in the walls behind plaster. In the dumbwaiter are trinkets, including some small items that have disappeared, such as Mallory’s fencing medals and Helen’s car keys, as well as a curious looking key with an old-fashioned letter “S” fashioned into it. Jared is blamed for this (it seems he is usually blamed for any mischief that occurs) and decides to see what is at the other end of the dumbwaiter.

He discovers the dusty old laboratory of his great grand-uncle Arthur Spiderwick (Strathairn), who disappeared years ago. Using the strange key to open up a trunk he finds in the room, he finds a hard-bound book that has been sealed with wax accompanied by a note warning the finder not to read the book upon peril of their lives. Of course, that only whets the boy’s curiosity and of course like any idiot Hollywood boy he opens it up and reads it.

What he finds is Arthur Spiderwick’s Field Guide to the Fantastical World Around You, with copious notes about magical creatures – fairies, trolls, goblins, griffons and ogres, to name a few – as well as means of performing all manners of magic. Unfortunately, the opening of the book has set into motion events that put the lives of the Grace family, as well as all the magical creatures in the book, in mortal danger. Young Jared will have to summon all the courage he can find to survive the perils of the Fantastical World.

A surprisingly solid cast for what is intended to be the first of series of movies which, I’m sure, Paramount was hoping to be successful along the lines of the Harry Potter novels. Children’s fantasy movies, however, have fared less than stellar other than the Potter and Narnia books – see The Golden Compass, The Last Mimzy and Eragon if you haven’t already.

Getting Highmore is a good first step. He’s done exceedingly well in such movies as Finding Neverland and August Rush. This isn’t, sadly, one of his better performances – I think it was a bit much to ask him to take two differing roles. He does OK with Jared, but Simon becomes washed-out and forgettable. The producers would have been better served to get another young actor to take the Simon role. Bolger is decent enough as the sister and Parker does some good work as the much put-upon mother.

Plowright nearly steals the movie as Aunt Lucinda; she is simply so much better than the rest of the cast. Strathairn is one of my favorite actors, but he doesn’t have a whole lot to do here. Even so, he makes the role of Arthur Spiderwick living and breathing.

As for the voice actors, Martin Short is decent as the brownie Thimbletack, but it is Rogan who is so much more entertaining as the easily distracted hobgoblin Hogsqueal. Nolte gets brief on-screen time as the shape-shifting Mulgarath but it is mostly his rumbling voice that we hear throughout.

As solid as the cast is, the talent behind the camera is impressive as well. Producers Kathleen Kennedy and Frank Marshall have, among others, E.T. and Raiders of the Lost Ark to their credits. Legendary cinematographer Caleb Deschanel (father of Zooey and Emily) is responsible for the creepy atmosphere and gorgeous vistas. Oscar-winning composer James Horner has supplied some memorable theme music over the years, although his score doesn’t really hold up as well in this instance. Some Jim Dandy special effects here, mostly from ILM and Tippett Studios (Phil Tippett himself worked for ILM back in the Star Wars days). That’s a good thing, since the movie relies heavily on special effects.

The supporting performances are certainly worth noting. Some of the special effects are magnificent, although not groundbreaking. The creatures (particularly Hogsqueal) are all given a certain amount of individuality and come off realistically and holistically. The story is a little different from most children’s fantasies going on at the moment, although for God’s sake can’t the kids in these stories have two actual parents present? Ye Gods!

The kid actors can be kinda grating. Jared is not an easy character to like and at times, you wonder if everyone involved wouldn’t be much happier if Mulgarath would only eat him.  Occasionally, the effects work actually overwhelms the action. There are some instances in which the children are being chased by various nasty varmints and quite frankly, couldn’t possibly get away given the speed of the creatures and the distance behind the kids they are. After the third instance of this, you really begin to notice it.

It is very enjoyable for the whole family (except as delineated above). Sometimes, kid’s fantasy movies seem a bit too sanitized; this is most assuredly not that. The peril seems real and life-threatening, and while the effects aren’t eye-popping, they nevertheless are enjoyable. Think of Grimm’s Fairy Tales in a modern setting with all the viscera intact and you won’t be far from the mark here.

WHY RENT THIS: Impressive cast, impressive effects. Refreshingly original as recent young adult franchise novels go. The creatures, although frightening, are plenty imaginative.
WHY RENT SOMETHING ELSE: Jared is intensely unlikable. Some of the physics don’t work.
FAMILY MATTERS: Some of the creatures are much scarier than the PG rating would indicate. There are also plenty of instances of kids in peril, and some of the thematic content is on the mature side.
TRIVIAL PURSUITS: This is the first Nickelodeon branded film has been released in the IMAX format.
NOTABLE HOME VIDEO FEATURES: There are interviews with the book’s authors, as well as comparisons between the book’s illustrations and the creatures as they appeared in the film. These appear on both DVD and Blu-Ray editions.
BOX OFFICE PERFORMANCE: $162.8M on a $90M production budget.
SITES TO SEE: Netflix (DVD/Blu-Ray only), iTunes, Amazon, Vudu, Google Play, Fandango Now
COMPARISON SHOPPING: The Seeker: The Dark is Rising
FINAL RATING: 7/10
NEXT: Eye in the Sky

Bridge to Terabithia (2007)

Things are looking up for AnnaSophia Robb.

(2007) Drama (Disney/Walden) Josh Hutcherson, AnnaSophia Robb, Zooey Deschanel, Robert Patrick, Bailee Madison, Kate Butler, Devon Wood, Emma Fenton, Grace Brannigan, Latham Gaines, Judy McIntosh, Patricia Aldersley, Lauren Clinton, Isabelle Rose Kircher, Cameron Wakefield, Elliott Lawless, Carly Owen, Jen Wolfe. Directed by Gabor Csupo

Sometimes a great friend comes along when we least expect it. Someone who broadens our horizons, turns our perspectives upside down and makes us look at the world differently. Sadly, sometimes great friends also leave us when we most need them.

Jesse (Hutcherson) doesn’t have the most ideal home life. Sometimes, he feels like the invisible boy. His dad (Patrick) and mom (Butler) dote on his little sister May Belle (Madison) and all his other little sisters. They have way too much on their minds though to spare much of a thought for him – money is tight and that alone is enough to get him bullied by Janice Avery (Clinton), a large sadistic girl.

There’s a new girl in class though – Leslie Burke (Robb). Jesse has always taken solace that he’s the fastest kid in school, but Leslie beats him in a race, netting him further grief from his tormentors. On the bus ride home, he discovers that Leslie lives next door. Irritated with her victory, he rebuffs her attempts to make friends.

Eventually she wins him over, especially when she expresses her admiration for his drawings in the notebook he carries around with him at all times. She tells him about her love for fantasy stories. Together they go exploring the woods near their home, crossing the creek on a fallen log. They find an abandoned treehouse and a broken down old truck near it. They decide that this is their castle and this is the world of Terabithia, populated by gnomes, trolls and all manner of fearsome beasts. They are the King and Queen of their little world which comes to life in their imagination.

Leslie has had a rough time of it, moving from place to place and having trouble making or keeping friends. Even though her parents are wealthy and loving, Leslie has been a lonely little girl. Jesse is really the first and best friend she’s ever had, so Leslie’s parents embrace him as one of their own. Leslie discovers that Janice has had an even tougher time of it. She is the victim of abuse from her father. Leslie befriends her, a turning point in Janice’s life.

Leslie isn’t the only one noticing Jesse’s talents. Ms. Edmunds (Deschanel), the music teacher Jesse has a secret crush on, invites him on a trip to the art museum. Although he tells his mom where they are going, she is half asleep and he takes her mumbled response for approval for his trip. He has the opportunity to take Leslie along but at the last moment he doesn’t, wanting the experience all for himself. Spending the day at an art museum on a stormy day seems like absolute heaven to him.

However, his trip to the art museum will have unintended but devastating consequences as tragedy will strike very close to him. Jesse’s life will never be the same afterwards.

The movie is based on the award-winning children’s book by Katherine Paterson which is in turn based on the real life experiences of her son David (who wrote the screenplay for the movie). Perhaps that is why the kids seem realistic to me and their relationship organic and natural. Robb who has also turned out impressive performances in Race to Witch Mountain and later in Soul Surfer is a lustrous beauty even at this age who seems almost angelic. Hutcherson who has gone on to star in the Hunger Games movies, shows some solid acting chops. While he doesn’t have Robb’s screen charisma, he is nonetheless more than adequate for the role.

Disney marketed this as a straight up fantasy movie which it isn’t really at all, although there are certainly digital creature effects thanks to WETA (which are better than average, by the way). This is a coming of age drama essentially with elements of fantasy which are meant to highlight the imagination of the children – we see what they see. Some people who saw the movie left disappointing, expecting something along the lines of a Harry Potter movies. There are also those who went into the film expecting another disappointing young adult fantasy movie and emerged pleasantly surprised.

There is a great deal of depth to this movie and it deals with a lot of things that kids deal with – bullying, economic hardship, fitting in, loneliness, imagination, feeling left out, and loss. Some of these things can be difficult for parents to help their kids with and in fact the parents in this movie don’t have all the answers. Just like most of us.

Still, I highly recommend this for not only pre-teen kids but their parents as well. There are some terrific opportunities for dialogue between parents and children to be opened up here. Not only that, this is as satisfying a movie for adults as it’s going to be for their kids. Highly recommended.

WHY RENT THIS: Surprisingly candid and insightful. Pulls no punches. Terrific performances from Hutcherson and Robb, with Deschanel her usual solid self.

WHY RENT SOMETHING ELSE: Fantasy sequences can be a bit cliche.

FAMILY VALUES:  There are depictions of bullying and peril as well as a few mildly bad words.

TRIVIAL PURSUIT: This would be cinematographer Michael Chapman’s final film as he retired after filming was completed.

NOTABLE HOME VIDEO EXTRAS: There is a music video for the song “Keep Your Mind Wide Open” from cast member Robb, as well as a discussion about the book by cast members, educators and most insightful of all, author Katherine Paterson.

BOX OFFICE PERFORMANCE: $137.6M on a $20M production budget.

COMPARISON SHOPPING: Flipped

FINAL RATING: 8.5/10

NEXT: Need for Speed

Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters

This isn’t your grandparents’ Hansel and Gretel.

(2013) Fantasy Action (MGM/Paramount) Jeremy Renner, Gemma Arterton, Famke Janssen, Peter Stormare, Thomas Mann, Pihla Viltala, Derek Mears, Robin Atkin Downes (voice), Ingrid Bolso Berdal, Joanna Kulig, Rainer Bock, Bjorn Sundquist, Zoe Bell, Kathrin Kuhnel. Directed by Tommy Wirkola

Even after I outgrew them, I always loved fairy tales. You know, the sort in which brave heroes outwit fiendish foes, beautiful princesses await rescuing and fantastic creatures exist in a kind of idealized Renaissance Faire-like environment which is free of disease, the commoners were well-treated by their land-owning nobles and nobody starves, living a simple life in which everyone is basically good. You know, Fantasyland.

Certainly it never existed in real life. Still, we all know the story of Hansel and Gretel, a brother and sister who wandered into the woods to find a cottage made of candy – what child wouldn’t investigate that. But then they meet the owner of the cottage – a witch who uses the candy to attract children whom she imprisons, fattens up and then cooks. Sort of like Gordon Ramsay on estrogen. Of course the kids trick the witch and shove her into her own oven. And there the tale ends.

But in a marvelous idea of what-if, a 15-years older and wiser Hansel and Gretel are posited. They have evolved into professional witch hunters, travelling from village to village to rid them of the witch menace while collecting the bounties offered. Hansel (Renner) ate too much candy at the witch’s cottage and now must inject himself periodically or die. Think of it as fairy tale diabetes. Gretel (Arterton) is a kick-ass ninja who while beautiful and desirable doesn’t seem to have any takers. Hansel, on the other hand has attracted the comely Mina (Viltala) whom he rescued from being burned by the overzealous Sheriff (Stormare) who resents the bounty hunters incursion into his territory. It seems that children have been disappearing in great numbers in the village as of late.

Notwithstanding, the Mayor (Bock) insists so the pair go after the kids and find the witch responsible. Which happens to be Muriel (Janssen), who has it in her head to perform a ritual in a few days during the blood moon that will let her create a potion that will permanently make witches immune to fire. Muriel also has a connection to their late mother (Kuhnel) and Gretel herself has in turn a connection to this ritual.

So they need to stop this thing from happening but they will have to get past an angry sheriff (whose had his nose broken by the no-nonsense Gretel), a monstrous troll (Mears, voiced by Downes) and a coven of very nasty witches who have a broomstick up their butts about the whole thing.

Wirkola, best known for Dead Snow, the zombie Nazi ski resort horror film of a few years back, has a great concept to work with. Unfortunately, his writers (of which he is one) do nothing creative with it. This is a generic fantasy action film with nothing unusual to recommend it.

Oh, Renner is good. Renner is, in fact great. He has a kind of sardonic grin throughout as if he is saying to the audience “Yeah, I know it’s crap but it’s a paycheck and I’m gonna have a great time making it.” He’s a terrific action hero as he showed last summer with The Avengers and The Bourne Legacy. He’s a star and time will tell how big he’ll be. This movie unfortunately won’t help.

It might help Arterton though. She’s had some pretty good performances in films that ranged from good (Tamara Drewe) to not-so-good (Prince of Persia) and here she continues that streak. She’s due a movie that is worthy of her talents and one in which she’ll get enough fans where she can be a star herself. She’s not quite there yet though.

As you might guess, there are a lot of effects here much of which have to do with witches getting eviscerated by Hansel and Gretel (a sentence which sounds kind of crazy on its own merits). There is the troll who is well realized with some very evocative facial expressions; there are also tons of fire effects some of which looks none too realistic. It’s pretty much hit and miss. The 3D incidentally is pretty miserable; there really isn’t much reason to have made this movie in 3D other than as a cash grab; that they pushed back the movie nearly a full year in order to retro-convert it is even worse.

This is a major disappointment. They had a great idea but could think of nothing good to do with it. There are some humorous bits – drawings of the missing children on the milk bottles for example but not enough of them. The anachronisms – the swearing, the machine guns, the magic bullets – simply don’t work. They remind you that you’re watching a movie instead of being part of a mysterious. The reason that a movie like this works is that you feel a part of the experience. The reason that it doesn’t is that you’re constantly reminded that you aren’t.

REASONS TO GO: Renner and Arterton are pretty damn good. Janssen makes an effective baddie. Edward the Troll is nicely realized.

REASONS TO STAY: A great concept poorly executed. Too many anachronisms.

FAMILY VALUES:  There is a good deal of violence albeit mostly of the fairy tale variety although there is a goodly amount of gore i.e. heads exploding, heads being hacked off, heads being stepped on etc. – this isn’t a good movie to be a head. There is also some brief nudity, a bit of sexuality and a lot of bad language – who knew there were so many f bombs in medieval Germany!

TRIVIAL PURSUIT: The movie was already in pre-production and was to be about the unsuccessful hunt for Osama Bin Laden when the news broke that Bin Laden was dead. Immediately the screenplay was re-written to turn the movie into the story of the successful hunt for Bin Laden.

CRITICAL MASS: As of 1/30/13: Rotten Tomatoes: 17% positive reviews. Metacritic: 22/100; the reviews are miserable.

COMPARISON SHOPPING: Van Helsing

FINAL RATING: 4/10

NEXT: Pearl Harbor

Hoodwinked Too! Hood vs. Evil

Hell’s Granny comes to town.

 

(2011) Animated Feature (Weinstein) Starring the voices of Hayden Panettiere, Glenn Close, Joan Cusack, David Ogden Stiers, Patrick Warburton, Bill Hader, Amy Poehler, David Allen Grier, Andy Dick, Martin Short, Brad Garrett, Cheech Marin, Tommy Chong. Directed by Mike Disa

 

There seems to be a reigning strategy in Hollywood that a successful original movie’s sequel can be made even more successful by adding 3D. This is of course regardless of whether 3D is necessary or annoying by its presence. It’s all just cash registers ringing up a higher sale.

The Happily Ever After Agency is back to business as usual. Nicky Flippers (Stiers), the froggy head of the agency, is doing without Red (Panettiere, taking over for Anne Hathaway) his best agency who is away for further training from the Sisters of the Hood, who achieve better Kung Fu thru baking. In order to get through them, though, she’s first got to best a somewhat arrogant troll (Grier).

Her partner Wolf (Warburton) and sidekick Twitchy the Squirrel are accompanying Granny (Close) on a rescue mission to retrieve Hansel (Hader) and Gretel (Poehler) from the clutches of the witch Verushka (Cusack). However, due to the incompetence of Wolf, the rescue goes sideways and Verushka escapes not only with her hostages but with Granny as well.

Red in the meantime discovers that the Sisters have created a recipe for a truffle that bestows ultimate power on the person who devours it. Only Granny knows the secret ingredient that makes the powers work, which was why she was kidnapped – Verushka, like Granny, having been a part of the sisterhood at one time. Red must forego further training and rescue Granny before she is forced to bake the unthinkable.

The first Hoodwinked was a surprise hit back in 2005 and a sequel was inevitable. While original director Cory Edwards remains on board, it is only as a producer, co-writer and the voice of Twitchy. In the director’s chair is Disa, a longtime animator getting his feature debut nod.

The animation is in many ways better – it is certainly brighter. Disa shows some imagination, particularly in the backgrounds of the fairy tale city. However, the whole fairy tale spoof thing that the first movie had in common with the Shrek franchise is wearing a little thin here. In all honesty we’ve seen it done elsewhere and better.

The main issue here is the 3D. It’s unnecessary most of the time – 3D tricks for their own sake – and frankly some of it is a little nausea-inducing. Obviously on a home video system, all of the 3D is lost unless you have a TV and Blu-Ray player with 3D capability and so it further illustrates some of the film’s deficiencies. I’m not a big fan of 3D for its own sake.

Still, some of the goofiness from the original is retained and the cast tries hard to maintain the mood -particularly Warburton, whose work as a voice actor (on TV shows like “The Tick” and “Family Guy”) have made him one of the best in the business, I think. Unfortunately, he’s not given a lot to do but to act kind of demented and stupid but Warburton makes a game effort of it.

This is a movie that could have used a bit more cleverness and a bit less pizzazz. Sure, it’s going to keep kids reasonably entertained but discerning kids are going to watch this once and likely not turn back again while their parents are going to flee the room as soon as their rugrats are plopped down in front of the TV. It may make for a decent enough rental but as a purchase it probably isn’t the kind of investment that Jim Cramer would recommend.

WHY RENT THIS: Just enough goofiness to make this worthwhile.

WHY RENT SOMETHING ELSE: Relies far too much on 3D effects that are lost if you don’t have a 3D system.

FAMILY VALUES:  There’s some mildly rude humor and a bit of cartoon action.

TRIVIAL PURSUIT: The film’s release was delayed more than a year while Weinstein resolved a lawsuit brought on by the production company. 

NOTABLE HOME VIDEO EXTRAS: There’s a trio of music videos.

BOX OFFICE PERFORMANCE: $17.0M on a $30M production budget; the movie was a box office failure.

COMPARISON SHOPPING: Happily N’Ever After

FINAL RATING: 5/10

NEXT: The Chernobyl Diaries

Hellboy II: The Golden Army

How about a little eye candy little girl?

(2008) Action (Universal) Ron Perlman, Selma Blair, Doug Jones, Luke Goss, Seth McFarlane, Anna Wilson, Brian Steele, Roy Dotrice, John Hurt, Jeffrey Tambor, Jimmy Kimmel, James Dodd, Andrew Hefler, Ivan Kamaras, Mike Kelly.  Directed by Guillermo del Toro

We’ve seen in movies like An Inconvenient Truth and Wall-E cautionary tales of what happens if we continue to abuse our environment. The end of mankind on Earth may come in an unending pile of garbage in the latter, or in the inability of our planet to sustain us in the former. Of course, what nobody realizes is that our ecological irresponsibility is pissing off the faeries.

That’s right, the races of myth and legend – the trolls, faeries and so on – have been living underground as the result of a treaty imposed on them by humankind  for eons and they are heartbroken at what we’ve done to their planet. One of them – Prince Nuada (Goss) is a little bit more than heartbroken. He’s cheesed off and has decided to resurrect an indestructible Golden Army that will eradicate humans from the Earth if he’s successful.

Of course Hellboy (Perlman) and his cohorts Abe Sapien (Jones), a half-fish half-man telepath, Liz (Blair), a pyromancer, and Johann Krauss (Dodd, voiced by McFarlane) who is more or less a ghost inhabiting a mechanical body, object to this in the strongest possible terms. They do so with the assistance of Princess Nuala (Wilson), Nuada’s twin sister whom Abe has fallen for like a salmon in spawning season.

The group will battle lethal tooth fairies, gigantic squid-like demons, a very dangerous Troll Market and finally the Golden Army itself to save mankind from the mad Prince. There are times that Hellboy has to wonder if we’re really worth saving.

Del Toro, who did this movie immediately after the Oscar nominated Pan’s Labyrinth, is one of the most visually striking directors on Planet Earth. He has an imagination and a vision that is extraordinary and singular; the result is that Hellboy II: The Golden Army is one of the most visually intriguing movies of the past five years. Not only is Mike Mignola’s comic book brought to life, it’s actually fleshed out into a world even Mignola couldn’t adequately create. The movie has an epic quality to it as a result.

Perlman has made Hellboy a relatable character, one who has been forced into isolation for his demonic background and whose many idiosyncrasies rather than make him a caricature serve to make him more human than his visage would allow. While he is less a center of focus than he was in the first film, he is nonetheless a major reason why this movie works so well.

The supporting cast fares pretty well. Tambor, as the bureaucrat who runs Hellboy’s BPRD, is solid and witty, while there is a melancholy element in Goss’s villain performance which makes him stand out among a galaxy of comic book villain who really are more or less all the same. Jones as the lovelorn Sapien gets to voice a character he only played physically in the first movie (David Hyde Pierce gave the original Abe Sapien voice) and does it well. Blair’s character is a little less interesting here than in the first one but she fills it out nicely.

The story here is simple enough on the surface, but there are a lot of complications and it gets a little muddled, particularly near the end. That’s all right; every frame of this movie is an absolute gem, something that you’re going to ooh and ahh at for generations to come. The movie pulled disappointing numbers, to my mind mainly because it was exiled to an August release date in a year where blockbusters limited the landscape and wound up getting trumped by the better-promoted Journey to the Center of the Earth. It’s a shame audiences didn’t get to discover it on the big screen – it was as amazing a theatrical experience as I had that year, and to my way of thinking the kind of movie that should be seen in a movie theater and not streamed to a laptop. Some movies just need to overwhelm you, and this one is definitely one of those.

WHY RENT THIS: Serious eye candy. Del Toro is one of the most visually imaginative directors working today.

WHY RENT SOMETHING ELSE: The story is a bit muddled.

FAMILY VALUES: There is a little bit of foul language but mostly there’s a lot of violence and fantasy/sci-fi action.

TRIVIAL PURSUIT: Thomas Kretschmann was originally cast to voice Johann Kraus but when del Toro found his work dissatisfactory he brought in “Family Guy” creator Seth McFarlane to do the voice making this McFarlane’s feature motion picture debut.

NOTABLE DVD EXTRAS: The 3-Disc DVD includes a featurette on the Troll Market and one of the most informative and detailed making-of documentaries ever. An animated comic serves as an epilogue on the movie that fills in some blanks you didn’t even know were there. The Blu-Ray features a BD-Live chat with del Toro that is quite enlightening on projects he was working on (and is no longer) and the future of the Hellboy franchise. There’s also an interactive feature that allows you to pull still pictures from the movie and create a comic book, complete with word balloons which is a very little fun feature to play with.

BOX OFFICE PERFORMANCE: $160.4M on an $85M production budget; the movie lost a little money.

FINAL RATING: 8.5/10

TOMORROW: City Island

The Troll Hunter (Trolljegeren)

This troll doesnt hang out in chat rooms or message boards.

(2010) Horror (Magnet) Otto Jespersen, Hans Morten Hansen, Tomas Alf Larsen, Johanna Morck, Knut Naerum, Robert Stoltenberg, Glenn Erland Tosterud. Directed by Andre Ovredal

Let’s get one thing straight. First of all, trolls are real. They’re not nice at all, either. Some live under bridges and others in mountains. Most are confined to the wild parts of Norway.

A couple of discs with over 183 hours of raw footage were mysteriously mailed to a Norwegian media outlet. After some investigation, the footage was deemed authentic. They depicted a trio of collegiate filmmakers – narrator Thomas (Tosterud), cameraman Kalle (Larsen) and sound engineer Johanna (Morck) – trying to make a documentary on bear poaching.

They get a lead on a prospective poacher and find him in the wilds of Northwestern Norway and trail him in his battered Land Rover, towing a particularly smelly and dilapidated trailer. His name is Hans (Jespersen) and he is quite rude at first, refusing to talk or to allow them to film.

One night they trail him into the woods near a campground. They lose sight of him but hear strange, terrifying noises and see bright flashes of light in the distance. Then, he comes running back and shouts “TROOOOOOOLLLLLL!!!!!” and then all hell breaks loose.

This is just the beginning of this well-made Norwegian horror/action/adventure/fantasy film. The “found footage” concept is one that has been used successfully in films like The Blair Witch Project and Cloverfield and this one easily bests either of those two movies in many ways. While it doesn’t ratchet up the tension quite as much as Blair Witch does, it also doesn’t have the long periods of lost in the wood meandering that the earlier film has. It also has a much drier sense of humor than the one found in Cloverfield. There are a lot of these types of movies in the pipeline and hopefully the genre won’t get overused.

In fact, one of the things I really liked about the movie was its droll sense of humor. It is discovered that Hans works for a government agency called the Troll Security Service and after slaying every troll he has to fill out a form.

He is not out to kill all trolls, only those that stray out of their designated habitat and threaten populated areas. For reasons never fully explained, the government agency – particularly in the form of a rather smug bureaucrat named Finn (Hansen) – want to keep the existence of trolls secret. They cover up the damage trolls do with increasingly ludicrous explanations, including bear attacks and tornados.

A word about the trolls; they are all done in CGI for the most part and are particularly realistic and dazzling. They sniff about, being able to detect the blood of Christian men (after the terrifying demise of one of the crew they hire a Muslim to replace him). The trolls are incredible and the filmmakers create a whole mythology about them, including medical explanations as to why they turn to stone in sunlight, and a variety of sub-species that range in size from about twenty feet tall to 100 feet tall.

This is one of the more innovative and imaginative horror movies I’ve seen recently. It allows for a sense of wonder as well as a sense of humor before swatting you over the head with a Billy club and tearing a sheep into Lamb McNuggets. It’s a roller coaster ride and like most roller coasters you hope it goes on much longer than it actually does. When it finally does end, you might be tempted to get right back on again.

REASONS TO GO: The trolls are visually amazing. Beautiful cinematography and a droll sense of humor.

REASONS TO STAY: Some might find it too Blair Witch Project for comfort.

FAMILY VALUES: The trolls may be too terrifying for the very young.

TRIVIAL PURSUIT: The movie’s title and cast were kept secret until just before the premiere in order to create a viral buzz. Jespersen is a well-known comic actor in Norway.

HOME OR THEATER: The trolls are amazing and huge and the bigger screen you see them on, the better.

FINAL RATING: 9.5/10

TOMORROW: A Beautiful Belly