December is traditionally a big movie season, as the Hollywood studios unleash a slew of prestige pictures looking for Oscar attention and potential blockbusters hoping to draw the holiday crowds. Which of this month’s movies are you looking forward to?
I’m dying to see ‘Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy’. It has a great cast, great source material, and the trailer is fantastic. I’m also curious to see what Brad Bird does for his live action directorial debut with the latest ‘Mission: Impossible’ sequel. It helps that I like the franchise. (Even the second one is a guilty pleasure of sorts.)
I’ll probably go to see David Fincher’s adaptation of ‘The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo’, though I’m (perhaps surprisingly) not all that excited about it. I liked the Swedish film a lot, but the trailers for this one look like a shot-for-shot remake that’s been Hollywooded up a little. It just looks like too much of a “packaged” movie assembled by a studio committee. Take one bestselling novel, add an A-list director who seems almost too perfectly suited for the material, pop in a ruggedly handsome leading man and a young ingénue, reap rewards. I hope to be proven wrong, but it really doesn’t seem like Fincher’s heart is in this one. We shall see.
What movies are you excited for? You may vote for as many options as you’d like.
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EM
None of these…I’m still waiting for The Artist.
Julian
Do check out “The Adventures of Tintin”, Josh. It’s nigh brilliant. The best motion capture movie ever (and yes, I realise that’s faint praise). But the movie is a very, very fun ride. It’s more Indy than “Kingdom of the Crystal Skull” ever was.
Josh Zyber
AuthorI don’t know, I’m skeptical. The trailers have that seriously creepy Uncanny Valley thing going on, perhaps the worst I’ve seen since The Polar Express.
Julian
I wonder if the Tintin-trailers show older footage than the finished product. All I can say is, I never felt any uncanny valley-sentiments during the movie. Whereas I was seriously creeped out during certain segments in both “The Polar Express” and “Beowulf”.
William Henley
I’ll admit it – I’m the one looking forward to he new Alvin and the Chipmunks movie.
Javier Aleman
TinTin! I wish I still had all the books
JM
I have to keep reminding myself that ‘War Horse’ is written by the ‘Love Actually’ guy, and that it’s not just a horse movie or another serving of Spielbergian bullshit, because the trailers keep selling the latter.
The only thing giving me hope about the film is that it’s based on a play.
Josh Zyber
AuthorWar Horse the play and War Horse the movie are based on a common book. The movie is not based on the play.
JM
Technically, you’re correct. But ‘War Horse’ the novel came out in ’82, and it wasn’t until the West End production in ’09 that Hollywood awoke to the story’s potential dramatic structure. Add in the hiring of Richard Curtis, and the project feels theatrical enough to entice my pro-Art / anti-Spielberg sensibility.
Aaron Peck
I’m seeing ‘War Horse’ tonight. I’m apprehensive too.
Aaron Peck
Glad to see ‘I Melt With You’ has zero votes. I’m still trying to forget that movie after seeing it a year ago at Sundance.
Watched ‘Tinker’ the other night on a studio screener. Good stuff.
JM
Sometimes, instead of film reviews, I wish you and Luke would team up for film debates, for major films. i.e. ‘Tinker.’ Like the old Siskel and Ebert conversations, except all blogger-y.
Maybe starting with a review post, except the comment section is limited to just the two of you, and you can delve as deep a dialogue as sustains your interest. Then, one week later, the discussion is opened up for all the readers to comment on your professional critique.
I don’t know. It feels like TBV is not yet unleashing your full potential.
What are the film geek websites you guys read, that have the most entertaining discussions?
Dail Whiteley
they can call it mass debates. 🙂
EM
When I was in college, I served on a student paper’s movie-review board. A group of us (it was supposed to be 5, but sometimes it was 4 or 6) would see some current movie and then discuss it. Usually we would end up writing two reviews, a majority and a minority opinion, à la the Supreme Court. That was the plan; but the first time out, we wrote a single review, because we all liked the movie. Usually split opinions were yeses vs. noes; but sometimes they split along other lines, like strong recommendation vs. weak recommendation or “whatever you do, don’t see this movie” vs. “watch this only if in you’re in the mood to laugh at something awful”. Because reviewers in the same camp never agreed 100%, we also had a sidebar in which each reviewer gave the movie a score and issued some brief individual comment.
The printed result did not show a discussion or debate per se, but it was the result of such, and readers could benefit from the diverse opinions. Maybe readers could have benefited more from something more blog-style, but this was before the Web was created. (Even so, all the films we reviewed were in color and had synchronized soundtracks.)
Aaron Peck
This could very well be implemented. Luke and I are in talks to see how it would work out.
Luke Hickman
I didn’t much care for Tinker, but I’ll save my thoughts and plug the upcoming review on Friday!
JM
What films in the ‘Tinker’ genre do you love, that this one failed compared against?
Aaron Peck
I don’t understand how you can really like ‘The American’ but not enjoy ‘Tinker.’ Although, maybe that’s a discussion better left to when we discuss it together…
Luke Hickman
Having seen several of these movies already, I going to say that the ones I’ve been most excited for have been pretty disappointing. Here’s to hoping Sherlock, Ghost Protocol, Tintin and Dragon Tattoo are amazing!
Dail Whiteley
keep hope alive. 🙂
Deaditelord
The movie I’m most excited about is Tintin, although I must admit I am curious to find out if Brad Bird can inject some life into Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol. I know a lot of people liked M:I 3, but for me the ending (more specifically, the resolution of the prologue sequence and everything that occurs afterwards) destroyed any good will the movie had generated up to that point. Such a cheat.
As for The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, my skepticism regarding David Fincher’s version of the book is entirely due to Rooney Mara’s casting as Lisbeth. Oh well, at the very least the ending will be different.
Josh Zyber
AuthorI’m a little surprised that Sherlock Holmes is leading the vote count, but nobody’s really talking about it. I enjoyed the first movie for what it was, but I’m having a hard time building any enthusiasm for a sequel.
What has Rooney Mara been in that people are so down on her casting in Dragon Tattoo? Her role in The Social Network is so small and inconsequential that it’s not really possible to judge her as an actress.
Deaditelord
Check out her “ahem” fine work as Nancy in the Nightmare on Elm Street remake.
Andi Wettleson
I only voted for Sherlock Holmes simply for the fact that the new trailer for the Dark Knight Rises will be in front of it. Ghost Protocol has the prologue but I’m also genuinely excited for that to come out.
JM
Noomi Rapace was a special fusion of actress, character, and design.
Rooney Mara looks like she’s doing cosplay.
Maybe if Swedish Lisbeth didn’t exist, or if she was less iconic, Fincher Lisbeth would be the sexy one. It’s like when the Kardashian sisters both wore the same dress the same week. One looked hot, one looked fat.
Basically, Rooney Mara is the Khloe Kardashian of actresses.
Thulsadoom
Unfortunately I think it’s simple why Holmes is/was leading the pack. The selection of movies is so difficult to get enthusiastic about, that a film which at least looks to be reliably fun but not tooo dumb garners the most interest, despite most people still not being that bothered about it.
Out of that list, I must admit I’ll probably see Holmes for fun, even though I’m not bothered if I end up missing it. Other than that, I can’t say any of the others make me interested. Tintin looks awful, War Horse looks frankly boring… etc, etc…
Oh, I forgot, I’m being dragged to see that New Year’s Eve this weekend. It looks awful. Is it actually a sequel to that hideous mess that was Valentine’s Day? (Which was itself just trying to duplicate the success and style of Love Actually)
Julian
Do try Tintin. It’s great!
Dail Whiteley
i put tin tin down as it looks pretty good but there is nothing out there that screams gotta see that. i’ll save cash for underworld 4.
Luke Hickman
I saw ‘Tintin’ last night and can’t review it yet, but I WILL say that it’s the best ‘Indiana Jones’ movie that we’ve received in over 22 years!
JM
‘Tintin’ is what happens when you replace George Lucas with Peter Jackson.
EM
Tintin’ is what happens when you replace white light with another color by dyein’ and stainin’ the film, as was common in the silent era.
(Sorry, couldn’t resist.)
Deaditelord
Awesome news! Now I really can’t wait to check Tintin out.
Julian
As always, Luke is right on the money.