November 3
Thor Ragnarok
The latest entry in the ever growing Marvel
Cinematic Universe, this has grown into the movie that I wasn’t as interested
in seeing into one of my most anticipated movies of the holiday season. Thor
was an enjoyable character, but for some reason, his movies were the least
interesting in the MCU, if I were to give you a run down of all the movies in
the MCU, his first two movies would be near the bottom, and they aren’t bad
movies at all, they are entertaining movies and I recommend checking them out,
but they just don’t measure up to the other ones found in the MCU. Regardless,
this one could be different, first off, we have The Incredible Hulk. You know,
Thor’s friend from work (easily the best line in any trailer). That is an
element that was missed in the other two movies that I think this one will have
more of, which is humor. Regardless, this one just looks like will be pure fun
and could have some interesting ideas and easter eggs that will make this a fun
movie to go back and watch again and again.
November 10
Murder on the Orient Express
The first thing that grabbed
my attention on this movie wasn’t the trailer (though it really helped), it was
the vlog videos that Josh Gad did when he harassed Daisy Ridley for Star Wars
spoilers (and yes that movie is on this list later). And even that he brought
in Judi Dench, who is amazing, to help get information out of her. Ever since
they came out, I have come to realize that they were staged. Anyway, that was
the entry to this movie, and then the trailer came out and I saw the rest of
the cast, and what would result. A classic murder mystery, I have to say, it’s
been a long time since we had one of those. I will be there when it hits the
big screen.
November 17
Justice League
At one point a bit ago, I heard rumors that
the DC Cinematic Universe (at least in the way established by Marvel) wasn’t
going to be continuing, in terms of how we thought it would, but if those
rumors turn out not to be true, this would be the movie that would determine if
the DCCU could continue to flourish. We ended up with Wonder Woman this Summer
that proved that the DCCU had the potential to be solid, but this will show if
that solidness could continue, or if it will be the next Batman V Superman (or
Suicide Squad), where it made money but was crushed by fans and critics alike.
Regardless, this has the potential to be good. The SDCC trailer that dropped
last year for this really caught my attention, it actually had humor (which was
very much absent in Batman V Superman), and had a developing personality of
it’s own. Regardless of the outcome and the destiny of the DCCU going forward,
I will be in a theater that weekend seeing it unfold in front of me.
Wonder
I just need to get this out of the way as I don’t
want this to be the focus here, but did you ever think you would see a movie
where Owen Wilson and Julia Roberts would be a couple? I certainly didn’t.
Okay, that’s out of the way, I really want to talk about the center character
of the movie, August Pullman, who has a disfigured face and goes to a public
school for the first time, approaching his biggest fear, how will other kids
judge and accept him. If you have seen the trailer, you know basically how it
will unfold, but regardless it’s about the characters, and just something about
this kid is very cool, he has the personality that is shy at first but once is
approached he could be someone incredible. One of my friends pointed this out
and I can see it, but it kind of has vibes of Mask, the one about the true
story of the boy Rocky Dennis who had a severe facial distortion where his face
looked like a big mask, but had incredible skills that allowed him to reach out
and befriend many, I just hope this one doesn’t end on the same downer that
Mask did.
November 24
Coco
When you look at the trailer, what is your first
thought? Besides gorgeous images and beautiful animation, I keep thinking of
the movie The Book of Life, the one that was released three years ago. It’s one
of those animated movies where the visuals were very inventive and creative,
and one if you haven’t seen it, I recommend you go check it out. Regardless, I
keep getting vibes of that when I see the trailer, but when you start breaking
things down, they are still fairly different, and this has something that looks
very intriguing that I can’t wait to go see in theaters. Also, I now can’t get
out of my head that accusation that Conan O’Brien made back in June when the
trailer first debuted, if you haven’t seen it, click here.
The Darkest Hour
Gary Oldman is one of the great actors
around, any role he takes, he tends to disappear into. When I see him in the
trailer for this movie, I have a hard time pointing him out. If I pulled out
the trailer and put it on mute (since when he speaks it’s easier to tell it’s
him), and I asked you to identify an actor you recognize, you probably wouldn’t
be able to point him out. This will probably get him an oscar this time around,
but that’s the challenge, as there are always excellent movies and roles that
take place during the Holiday season that compete for the Academy Awards, but
we will see.
December 8
The Shape of Water
Guillermo Del Toro is a very fasinating
director, a lot of the work he does has a very unique visual style to it. Check
out his two Hellboy movies for an example of his work, or even Pan’s Labyrinth.
This looks like another movie that will be unique to look at and could have a
great story behind it, if all the reviews behind it are true.
The Disaster Artist
A movie that I didn’t think would
really be discovered by a large group of people, entitled “The Room” written,
directed, produced, and starring Tommy Wiseau, it is declared by many as one of
the worst movies ever made, but over the years has gained a following and is
declared as “so bad, it’s good”. I have not seen the movie, but I have read the
book written by Greg Sestero where he recounts his experience of working on
this movie. This book entitled The Disaster Artist, which is what this movie is
based on. I have been hearing good buzz out of it. If you think about it, it is
quite ironic, a movie that is declared by many to be the worst movie, gets a
movie on the making of experience, and it becomes what is being declared to be
an oscar worthy movie. Think about that, that’s really unusual.
December 15
Star Wars: The Last Jedi
A majority of people would be
lying if they admitted this wasn’t their anticipated movie of the season, or
the year. Ever since The Force Awakens was released, I was anticipating this.
Just about everyone and their dog is going to try to get into a theater that
weekend to see the further adventures of Rey and the gang as they take down the
first order and learn about their pasts. Will we find out who Rey’s parents
are? Better yet, will we find out who Rey is in general? Who is Snoke? Why is
Luke on that island alone? Even more so, with the passing of Carrie Fisher late
last year, what will be the fate of Princess (or General) Leia? If any movie has
me just wanting to build a time machine to jump ahead to see, this is it.
Ferdinand
In my books, if any movie is trying to compete
with the biggest movie of the year in the same weekend, then they have guts.
Regardless, if the parents feel that the new Star Wars movie may be too dark
for the kids, then families with younger kids have this to look forward to.
This movie is about a bull that is separated from his family and needs to
return to this home. It looks to have a decent voice cast behind it, and that
Blue Sky is the animators behind the movie, so all that gives it good reason to
check out.
December 20
Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle
This one is a bit more
difficult for me. Let me explain, I like Dwayne Johnson, I like Jumanji, I like
the fact that there is an attempt at a continuation of the Jumanji world (note
that world, attempt). What I don’t like is how this movie doesn’t seem to
capture the feel of the original movie in any real way, and seems to steer it
clear from what made the original a classic. The original had a very mysterious
and fun feel, it was just a creative world that was created, but it still had
that sense of fear injected, but not enough that you would want to stay clear
from it. The trailers I have seen on this seem to have the mysterious and fear
of the world sucked out, and replaced with goofy Kevin Hart and Jack Black fun.
I like Jack Black, I have a harder time liking Kevin Hart though. Regardless of
what I have just said, this looks like it could be a fun movie, one that I will
still check out in the theater and hopefully just enjoy it for what it is, but
I am not expecting this to be a definitive sequel or reboot or anything
regarding Jumanji, but just a fun action adventure movie, which I always enjoy
going to those.
December 22
Pitch Perfect 3
I missed the first movie when it arrived
in theaters back in 2012, for some reason it didn’t catch my attention, but I
ended up discovering it when the sequel was coming out in 2015, and man do I
regret missing this one in theaters. The personality of everyone in the group
is just flat out fun, and very engaging. I remember that one bella who was the
leader of the group and just how uptight she was yet I felt like I have seen
people like her in my life which made the group more relatable, and of course
the scene stealing Fat Amy, who is always a blast anytime she is on screen. I
am looking forward to the final appearance of the bellas when this movie
debutes.
Downsizing
Here is a question, with the resources and
everything disappearing and being consumed at an alarming rate, how do you fix
it? Here is the answer, shrink yourself. That is the main premise behind this
new movie. Matt Damon and Kristin Wiig play a couple that decide to go forward
with this procedure. Matt has been to Mars and also the rest of space (remember
Titan AE), so it makes sense for him to want to explore the world the size of a
small ant. The idea is intriguing and I am looking forward to seeing how this
unravels.
December 25
The Greatest Showman
This may be bad to say, but the first
thing I think of whenever I think of this movie is The Prestige, just not as
mysterious or dark. This movie stars Hugh Jackman as the creator of grand
illusions on stage, in the sense you think of a magician, which is the role
Hugh Jackman played in The Prestige, which is why I think of The Prestige.
