The Spanish equivalent of the Oscars, the Goyas, nodded “The Impossible” way 14 times today.
And an actual Spanish language drama from Spain, “Blancanieves,” scored 18.
Not the film selected for their “best foreign language” Oscar contender, but one the judging body deemed the most worthy. It’s a black and white silent retelling of “Snow White,” so this is Spain’s year to get all gushy over a silent film — like “The Artist.”
“Comic Con: Episode IV, a Fan’s Hope” is Morgan “Super Size Me” Spurlock’s affectionate visit to San Diego’s annual super-sized comic book, and sci-fi and fantasy movie, TV and game gathering of the nerd tribes. It’s a gentle, almost nostalgic look at fanboy and fangirldom.
In the decade-plus since filmmaker James Cameron created Hollywood’s favorite punchline, the world has truly been the man’s oyster. He’s taken cameras underwater to film shipwrecks, and plunged even deeper in his own submersible into Challenger Deep, the deepest spot in the deepest part of the biggest ocean.
Just last month, he presented his findings there at the Deep-Sea Biology Symposium in New Zealand, and is slated to do the same at the American Geophysical Union meeting in San Francisco in a few days.
He’s announced a Showtime TV series which he’ll produce about global climate change. “The Years of Living Dangerously” will feature famous eco-friendly actors interviewing local people dealing with the consequences of climate change in their part of the world.
“We’ll make it exciting,” added Cameron. “We’ll make it investigative.”
Sure, it’s Oscar season. But the Oscars are the ghosts of Movies Past – last year’s movies, yesterday’s news.
It’s 2013. What do THIS year’s movies hold in store for us?
We’ve got remakes of “Evil Dead,” “Old Boy” and “Carrie,” reboots of Superman (“Man of Steel”) and Mr. Patriot Games (“Jack Ryan”).
There are, of course, sequels galore, from “Iron Man 3, “Star Trek Into Darkness” and “Sin City: A Dame to Kill For” to “Monsters University,” “A Good Day to Die Hard,” “Fast & Furious 6,” “G.I. Joe: Retaliation,” “RED 2,” “300: Rise of an Empire” to “The Best Man 2,” “Thor : The Dark World” and – shudder – “Anchorman: The Legend Continues.”
Will the second “Hunger Games” (“Catching Fire,” Nov. 22) improve on the first one? Will “The Desolation of Smaug” (Dec. 13) be a shorter, quicker “Hobbit” than the first one?
Is “Ender’s Game” (Nov. 1) the next “Hunger Games”?
Does Tom Hanks (“Captain Phillips” the one about the Mersk Alabama hijacking, Oct. 11) still have box office clout? Does “The Hangover” (“Hangover III”) still have legs?
Just from scanning the hundreds of titles slated to head our way this year, it’s obvious that may be more of a guy’s year at the movies than usual – even with a “Hunger Games” sequel. But there are plenty of pictures with intriguing combinations of story, cast, director and place within the zeitgeist to give us hope. Here are ten of them.
“Oz the Great and Powerful” (March 8) is Disney’s prequel to “The Wizard of Oz,” how the Midwestern magician landed in Oz and became a wonderful wizard. This could be this year’s “John Carter,” or it could be the film every child is dying to see over spring break.
“The Heat” (April 5) will be the second Melissa McCarthy comedy (after “Identity Thief,” Feb. 8). Is there such a thing as too much Melissa? Sandra Bullock spent WAY too much time after winning her Oscar to get back into the swing of things. A buddy comedy will be her first project in theaters this year, with the sci-fi epic “Gravity” awaiting a release date.
“Pain & Gain” (April 26) pairs up Mark Wahlberg and Dwayne Johnson as musclehead ex-cons, a couple of dopes, who stumble into crime. Nobody does buddy pictures like Wahlberg, and the trailers are a hoot.
“Star Trek Into Darkness” (May 17) appears to be a J.J. Abrams re-engineering of the “The Wrath of Khan” and the original “Khan” episode of the first “Star Trek” series. He’s got Benedict Cumberbatch as his villain and a rumor of a “Wrath of Khan” style death of a principal character. Curious to see how he pulls this off, because you know he will.
“Man of Steel” (June 14) has a star (Henry Cavill) who has had a few shots at box office success, and a director (Zack Snyder of “300” and “Watchmen” and “Sucker Punch”) who could use a hit. So there are doubts. But the first trailer brought “Superman” film and comic book fans to tears. This could be special.
“World War Z” (June 21) promises to be the ultimate zombie picture. With zombies all over TV, and over-exposed by “Warm Bodies” (Feb. 1), this delayed Brad Pitt vehicle has its work cut out for it.
“Pacific Rim” (July 12) looks like “Godzilla” meets “Transformers.” But it’s from fanboy favorite Guillermo del Toro,and is the big budget sci-fi movie he chose to do instead of hanging out with “The Hobbit” for years. So we’ll see.
“White House Down” (June 28) has Channing Tatum as a secret service agent fighting his way through 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. after paramilitary terrorists take over the place, and seize the president.
“Rush” (Sept. 20) is Ron Howard’s film about an epic era in Formula One racing, the Niki Lauda/James Hunt duel on the world’s fastest, most dangerous race tracks.
“The Secret Life of Walter Mitty” (Dec. 25) was a famous James Thurber story about a man who lets his imagination run wild, contributing to his arrested development. Men acting like children was unusual in the 1940s. Can Ben Stiller & Co. spin this funny, if dated concept into comic gold?
The second coolest thing about the Wolverine of the X-Men movies — after Hugh Jackman‘s epic sideburns — was his mystery. So naturally that’s what Marvel set out to delete with its first X-Men sequel.
X-Men Origins: Wolverine, may be a perfectly adequate superhero comic-book movie, all explosions, chases, gunfights, sword fights and blood feuds. There’s even a little humor in it. But that irritable loner who shows up on a snowy road without a memory, with a past we can only guess at, in X-Men? That dude is explained away as we get 150 years of history in this movie about the mutant’s early life, his first killing, the reasons Sabretooth becomes his nemesis.
You title your movie “Hobo With a Shotgun,” you build in certain expectations. It’s going to be violent. VERY violent. It’s going to be out there. It’s going to be camp, like “Snakes on a Plane.”
That seems to have been the idea Jason Eisener had when he did the fake trailer for this Rutger Hauer film, part of the movie “Grindhouse” a few years back.
“X-Men: First Class” is an homage to the James Bond movies from the ’60s — you know, back when Bond was fun.
A faith-based cartoon aimed at the very youngest Sunday School students, “The Lion of Judah” is the story of Easter as witnessed by farm animals. The most startling thing about it is that having an animated cow, horse, donkey, chicken, rat and lamb witness the crucifixion doesn’t diminish it as a symbol.
Souffle-light and long on charm, “Midnight in Paris” may not be as laugh-out-loud witty as the comedies of Woody Allen’s professional Belle Epoque. But it at least recaptures the warm glow so often missing from his last 20 uneven years of work.
M. Night Shyamalan’s odd sci-fi meets faith thriller “Signs” might seem an odd jumping off point for a comedy about family, relationships and fate. But “odd” tends to show up in conversations when you’re talking with, or about, the filmmaking Duplass Brothers, Jay and Mark.
“Signs” inspired “Jeff, Who Lives at Home,” the latest film from the guys who first gained notice with “The Puffy Chair,” and who broke into the mainstream with their decidedly non-mainstream darkly comic romance, “Cyrus.”
