Pro A.
01-10-2006, 08:00 PM
Big year for movies with plenty of promising releases. Here are a few movies that I look forward to:
Inside Man (Spike Lee): The latest take on the complicated bank robbery starring Denzel Washington, Clive Owen, and Jodie Foster. From first glance, it looked like a David Mamet movie, but I am delighted to see Spike Lee making another go-round. I loved Do the Right Thing, Malcolm X, and 25th Hour. While I don't think it'll match that pantheon, it should still be entertaining.
Da Vinci Code (Ron Howard): Do I really need to explain myself here? 3-hour running length is a surprise though. Bless them for not condensing the book, though.
X-Men 3 (Brett Ratner): Hopefully Ratner does better here than he did with Red Dragon, which was a cheap carbon copy of Silence of the Lambs, the best movie of the 1990's.
Superman Returns (Bryan Singer): Again, no real reason necessary. Spacey should be a riot as Lex Luthor.
Killshot (John Madden): This is gonna be cool. Elmore Leonard usually gets the axe at the theater (see Be Cool directed by the untalented F. Gary Gray to see what I mean), but we have had good adaptations with Get Shorty, Jackie Brown, and Out of Sight. This movie, about a couple (Diane Lane, Thomas Jane) terrorized by two murderous thieves (Mickey Rourke, Joseph-Gordon Levitt) after Jane's character stops a scam. If they stay faithful to the book, one of Leonard's best, we should have a real winner for audiences willing to think and not spending 2 hours watching mindless explosions.
Casino Royale (Martin Campbell): Bond's return after a four-year hiatus should be an interesting one, since this will be, by and large, a faithful adaptation of the only novel that has yet to receive one (the Peter Sellers fraud certainly wasn't one). Daniel Craig sold me as a killer and spy in Munich, so now let's see if he can be suave enough. Campbell directed Brosnan in his debut and it was a solid movie. With a good story and some of the elements (Q and Moneypenny are out for just one round) perhaps Bond can get a new lease on life the way Batman did.
Inside Man (Spike Lee): The latest take on the complicated bank robbery starring Denzel Washington, Clive Owen, and Jodie Foster. From first glance, it looked like a David Mamet movie, but I am delighted to see Spike Lee making another go-round. I loved Do the Right Thing, Malcolm X, and 25th Hour. While I don't think it'll match that pantheon, it should still be entertaining.
Da Vinci Code (Ron Howard): Do I really need to explain myself here? 3-hour running length is a surprise though. Bless them for not condensing the book, though.
X-Men 3 (Brett Ratner): Hopefully Ratner does better here than he did with Red Dragon, which was a cheap carbon copy of Silence of the Lambs, the best movie of the 1990's.
Superman Returns (Bryan Singer): Again, no real reason necessary. Spacey should be a riot as Lex Luthor.
Killshot (John Madden): This is gonna be cool. Elmore Leonard usually gets the axe at the theater (see Be Cool directed by the untalented F. Gary Gray to see what I mean), but we have had good adaptations with Get Shorty, Jackie Brown, and Out of Sight. This movie, about a couple (Diane Lane, Thomas Jane) terrorized by two murderous thieves (Mickey Rourke, Joseph-Gordon Levitt) after Jane's character stops a scam. If they stay faithful to the book, one of Leonard's best, we should have a real winner for audiences willing to think and not spending 2 hours watching mindless explosions.
Casino Royale (Martin Campbell): Bond's return after a four-year hiatus should be an interesting one, since this will be, by and large, a faithful adaptation of the only novel that has yet to receive one (the Peter Sellers fraud certainly wasn't one). Daniel Craig sold me as a killer and spy in Munich, so now let's see if he can be suave enough. Campbell directed Brosnan in his debut and it was a solid movie. With a good story and some of the elements (Q and Moneypenny are out for just one round) perhaps Bond can get a new lease on life the way Batman did.