Frothy Ruminations

Here are some of the movies I’m at least kinda-sorta looking forward to in 2009. There’s bound to be a metric buttload later in the year, as we approach awards shows and such, but it’s too early to know.

So what do you think of these guys? Are there any others you’re keen to see in ’09?

Watchmen (March 6). The trailer looks excellent, and there’s certainly been a lot of buzz about it already. Will it live up to its press? Probably. The downside of this kind of movie is that moviegoers don’t have the benefit of a backstory going in to the theater; they have to figure things out as the movie plays out. Taking time to explain motives to an audience can be time consuming, but I get the impression that won’t be a problem here.

Monsters versus Aliens (March 27). Some might say this could be the WALL-E of 2009, but I think it’ll be more like the Monsters, Inc.: fun, cute, very well done, but not a box-office smash. Me, I loved Monsters, Inc, so I’m all for this one. Plot? See title. Monsters, in this case, are on our side. Don’t get used to it.

X-Men Origins: Wolverine (May 1). I liked X-Men. X2, not so much. Liked X-Men: The Last Stand a lot, which might say more about me than about the movie. This movie will tell us how Logan came to be Wolverine, apparently, which is something I thought we’d learned in X2. Still, the preview looks pretty badass. Expect a lot of grunting, grimacing, and angst.

Star Trek (May 8). This totally looks freaking fantastic, not to get all fanboy on you. Everyone’s young! Spock is torn between being logical and being human! Kirk is a troublemaker with an eye for the ladies! Scotty’s played by a Englishman! There’s a cool cameo at the end of the trailer, just to get your anticipatory juices flowing even more readily.

Bruno (May 15). Sacha Baron Cohen’s follow up to Borat could be twelve kinds of awesome. This time, he’s a homosexual Austrian reporter, a character he originated on Da Ali G Show. Borat worked because people couldn’t tell he was a total fraud (and some were pissed later), and I suspect Bruno will be able to show people their own bigotry just as easily. Maybe this time he’ll obsess over Heidi Klum. I can’t find a trailer yet, so here’s a clip of Cohen doing Bruno on his show.

Angels and Demons (May 15). The Da Vinci had box-office mojo, so why not return to that well? The novel’s supposedly better than TDC was, but that’s little relief. I read the novel, and it’s better, yes, just not very good. In fact, the plot might seem a bit familiar. Tom Hanks returns in this prequel to TDC, and I see that Obi-Wan Kenobi, er, Ewan McGregor is there as well. I bet it grosses $150 million and incurs the wrath of the Pope. I see that the Illuminati are involved in the plot. They’re always handy for that.

Terminator: Salvation (May 22). John Connor’s now grown up, and he’s leading the fight against those nasty skull-stomping machines. Then a dude shows up -- is he from the past sent by his mom, or from the future? This is what happens when you muck with time travel. Anyway, Connor is played by Christian Bale -- is it possible he could revive TWO franchises? (He even sounds like Bruce Wayne.) Then again, McG -- yes, the one-named McG -- is the director.

Up (May 29). Another from Pixar, this one has a 70-year-old man using a bevy of balloons to fly to South America, with a stowaway aboard. Christopher Plummer stars. Don’t know much else about it, but I hope Pixar finally shows us well-animated (i.e., not creepy, not too realistic) humans for once. It does look cute and endearing.

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (June 26). I’m getting an Empire Strikes Back vibe here, since the good guys won at the end of the last Transformers movie. This could be a mountain of suck, a loud, PG-13-violent cacaphony of heavy metal and CGI, but it could also be almost not quite that bad. Your mileage, or kilometerage, may vary quite a bit, depending on how deaf you are. You might get the impression I’m not anticipating this. Here’s the trailer, not that it tells you much.

Public Enemies (July 1). Johnny Depp is John Dillenger! Christian Bale (again) is the Johnny Law on his trail. Yes, it’s Batman verus Jack Sparrow in a tommy-gun duel. Depp rarely makes a mistep nowadays, and I anticipate his making this character quirky in some way. I expect Bale to be dependable and resolute, sort of like how Kevin Costner was in The Untouchables. No trailer yet; here’s a picture.

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (July 17). If you’ve read the books and have seen any of the movies, there’s no way you’re missing this one -- you have too much invested to give up now. Harry’s getting older and is facing more-adult challenges. Will he survive? Well, there IS a seventh book, which’ll be turned into not one but two movies (the seventh and eighth). The surprise, for those who have not read the books, will involve the death of someone imporant in the book. I have liked all of the movies. As they’ve progressed, they have become darker, more terrifying in tone. The first one was almost a kid’s movie, but now we’re into Serious Stuff.

The Taking of Pelham 123 (July 31). The original starred Walter Matthau and Robert Shaw. Replacing them in the remake will be Denzel Washington and John Travolta. Kind of an upgrade, aesthetically speaking. This could be a huge winner. We did see Washington play the curious, intrepid cop working a caper case in The Inside Man recently, so we know he can handle this kind of lifting. Travolta will likely ham it up, though. And the bad guys don’t seem to have the color nicknames that Shaw’s character gave them in the original! What gives? Here’s a picture of Travolta looking porky with weird facial hair.