What to watch out for in 2004
Jan-Feb
The first two months of this year are loaded with potential award winners, as producers don’t trust academy members to have particularly long memories. So, January holds the offerings of The Last Samurai, Lost in Translation (see the reviews), Sylvia (the biopic of the poet Sylvia Plath with Gwyneth Paltrow, of all people) Tim Burton’s Big Fish and also American Splendour all vying for statuettes in the approach to the Oscars. Big Fish is an especially interesting film to see, as Burton seems to be returning to his gothic fantasy form, albeit slightly sweetened, after the disastrous ‘reimagining’ of Planet of the Apes. February welcomes a manic Jack Black (right) as a music teacher imparting the basics of rocking hard in School of Rock, and The Barbarian Invasions, the long awaited follow up for Decline of the American Empire, is the more high brow offering for this month.
Mar-Apr
March and April have two big screen adaptions in store. Firstly, in March we are set to see Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson (left) as Starsky and Hutch. This may be an entertaining premise, but as Snoop Dogg is playing Huggy Bear, I fear that the film may have serious casting problems. April sees the second big adaption- The Cat in the Hat. This mildly insane attempt to put Doctor Seuss onto celluloid could be a high grosser just because many people, including myself, will be curious to see the results of Mike Myers playing the feline in the stripy headgear.
The Fog of War, a biopic of former US defence secretary Robert MacNamara, could be a minor hit in March: his life is a fascinating look into how American intervention went horribly wrong in Vietnam. Also for March is the re- release of the Last Emperor, a director’s cut that will be long, but completely absorbing and a must see for those who always wanted to see those immense shots of the Forbidden City on the big screen.
May-Jun
May and June have two major fantasies surfacing. Yes, Harry Potter is arriving in June, and it is claimed to be the best yet. Gary Oldman and Timothy Spall appear to be perfectly cast in their respective roles as Sirius Black and Peter Pettigrew, and as we all know, Michael Gambon is set to make a good Albus Dumbledore. May sees a fantasy that could be eclipsed by Potter frenzy , but is still worth watching. Hugh Jackman, previously best known as Wolverine from the X Men, is the monster hunter Van Helsing, in an interesting conflation of Gothic horror movies, tracking not only Dracula, but the Wolfman (left), Frankenstein’s monster, and many more. It seems to be in the mould of League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, so don’t expect a sophisticated adaption, but bring an enormous bucket of popcorn.
Troy is a massive sword and sandals epic appearing in May- with brad Pitt at the fore of William Petersen’s movie, looking more like a bronze figure than a man in a terrible siege.
Jul-Aug
July and August: sequel season! The cinema goer in July will expect to see Shrek 2, suggested to be even beeter than the first, and also Spiderman 2, with Toby Macguire donning the lurid spandex again. The colourful villain for the comic book hero to face this time will be the rather unsettling Doctor Octopus, so expect some good set piece action sequences involving those mechanical arms.
A rather less high profile sequel appearing in August will be The Chronicles of Riddick(left), following the science fiction horror Pitch Black. Totally mystified as to why on earth Vin Diesel has agreed to return to the role of a psychotic criminal who fought off nameless monsters in the original film, many will go to see this either out of boredom or curiosity.Another science fiction effort which I hope to be vastly better, is I, Robot- an adaption of the Isaac Asimov book of the same name appearing in August. Will Smith is in the lead role as a policeman tracking what he thinks is a villanous robot in a society that blindly trusts machines, promising much dark intrigue.
Sep-Oct
September and October have as yet revealed little this early in the year, yet the films that have been uncovered are pretty diverting. There is another remake- this time of the 1955 Ladykillers in September, in which Tom Hanks replaces Alec Guinness in the lead role. There is no replacement for Alec Guinness (or indeed Peter Sellers), so the end result may seem uttlery pointless. However, the film does retain some potential, as it is headed by the legendary Coen brothers.
October may have the film worthy of an award for most blatant spin off. We will have the dubious privilege of seeing the release of Alien vs Predator. The tag line states that ‘whoever wins, we lose’. Indeed, anybody willing to pay to see this will have the same feeling. However, the redeeming feature film of this period could be Shark Tale- a computer animation involving a bottom feeder fish, voiced by Will Smith, who is drawn into the underworld of great white mobsters. Fun with fish in the form of Finding Nemo is likely to follow.
Nov-Dec
As we hurtle to the end of the year and the Christmas season looms, Pixar’s new feature, The Incredibles (left), is set to appear on our screens in December. A departure from its usual fare, Pixar is making its central figures human. Or at least superhuman. The father of a family of superheroes, Mr Incredible, complete with middle aged spread, has to don his cape and rather tight belt again to save the world.
Preceding the Incredibles in November is the next instalment of the Bridget Jones saga- The Edge of Reason. So, the same anxieties and worries about weight, fags, love, rejection and getting trolleyed on white wine are to be expected. Not to everybody’s taste.
Christmas is also a sword and sandals epic period. Curiously, the two films in this mould are on the very same subject of Alexander the Great. Oliver Stone’s Alexander and Baz Luhrmann’s lavishly funded Alexander the Great are going head to head. The rivalry between the films is fascinating enough, . but as for the films themselves, Colin Firth stars in Stone’s effort looks suitably imposing as the great commander.
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