The Players: Director: Jeremy Garelick (debut) Writer: Jay Lavender (The Break-Up, Missing Links), Will Packer (debut) Starring: Kevin Hart (Ride Along, Top Five), Josh Gad (Frozen, Love And Other Drugs), Kaley Cuoco-Sweeting (The Big Bang Theory, Hop).
Synopsis: Doug Harris (Josh Gad) is a lovable but socially awkward groom-to-be with a problem: he has no best man. With less than two weeks to go until he marries the girl of his dreams (Kaley Cuoco-Sweeting), Doug is referred to Jimmy Callahan (Kevin Hart), owner and CEO of Best Man, Inc., a company that provides flattering best men for socially challenged guys in need. What ensues is a hilarious wedding charade as they try to pull off the big con, and an unexpected budding bromance between Doug and his fake best man Jimmy.
Why you should watch it: It's no secret that movies are often released in January to die, a few franchises have been able to pull of the January release date to success (Underworld and Taken) but for the most part it's meant to have movies flop. Which is why it's no surprise that in the last 5 years only one January release has topped 100 million domestically, and that was last year's Ride Along. So Sony is hoping Kevin Hart can lead another 100+ million movie that opens in January. But it'll be tough, using the same 5 year time frame and ignoring Ride Along the highest grossing comedy was 2011's No Strings Attached. This film looks cliched but it looks fun as well, I'm betting No Strings Attached is the floor for gross but I don't think it touched Ride Alongs 134 million total.
4. Paddington
The Players: Director: Paul King (Bunny And The Bull, Come Fly With Me) Writer: Paul King (debut) Starring: Hugh Bonneville (The Monuments Men, The Muppets: Most Wanted), Sally Hawkins (Happy Go Lucky, Godzilla), Jim Broadbent (Robots, Harry Potter), Nicole Kidman (The Golden Compass, Happy Feet).
Synopsis: From the beloved novels by Michael Bond and producer David Heyman (HARRY POTTER), PADDINGTON tells the story of the comic misadventures of a young Peruvian bear who travels to the city in search of a home. Finding himself lost and alone, he begins to realize that city life is not all he had imagined - until he meets the kindly Brown family who read the label around his neck that says "Please look after this bear. Thank you," and offer him a temporary haven. It looks as though his luck has changed until this rarest of bears catches the eye of a museum taxidermist.
Why you should watch it: Curiously this movie was moved into January from it's original Christmas Day release day. Perhaps it feared competition from Into The Woods, Annie and Night At The Museum. Or perhaps it was that whole Paddington's voice debacle (Colin Firth was originally the voice before being replaced in July after they (Firth included) decided Firth wasn't the right voice). With no family films on the horizon and Annie and Night At The Museum coming up under projections Paddington could do big business assuming Into The Woods doesn't hold up well in the long run after doing good business on Christmas and the following week. The reviews are spectacular and ever Firth himself said after the split that this film would be tremendous, unfortunately it'll miss out on awards now that it won't open in 2014.
3. Taken 3
The Players: Director: Olivier Megaton (Taken 2, The Transporter 3) Writers: Luc Besson (Lucy, Taken), Robert Mark Kamen (The Fugitive, The Karate Kid) Starring: Liam Neeson (Batman Begins, Non-Stop), Maggie Grace (Knight & Day, Twilight: Breaking Dawn), Famke Janssen (X-Men, Hansel & Gretal: Witch Hunters), Forest Whitaker (The Butler, Repo Men).
Synopsis: Liam Neeson returns as ex-covert operative Bryan Mills, whose reconciliation with his ex-wife is tragically cut short when she is brutally murdered. Consumed with rage, and framed for the crime, he goes on the run to evade the relentless pursuit of the CIA, FBI and the police. For one last time, Mills must use his "particular set of skills," to track down the real killers, exact his unique brand of justice, and protect the only thing that matters to him now - his daughter.
Why you should watch it: Sure the Taken movies get stale, the 2nd instalment was a little meh but last year's Non-Stop showed that people still like to watch Neeson kick ass. Plus the trailer for part 3 shows a whole different angle for the franchise which has saved quite a few stale franchises recently (The Hangover immediately comes to mind).
2. Blackhat
The Players: Director: Michael Mann (Collateral, Public Enemies) Writer: Michael Mann (Ali, Heat) Starring: Chris Hemsworth (Thor, Star Trek), Viola Davis (The Help, Ender's Game)
Synopsis: Set within the world of global cybercrime, Legendary's Blackhat follows a furloughed convict and his American and Chinese partners as they hunt a high-level cybercrime network from Chicago to Los Angeles to Hong Kong to Jakarta.
Why you should watch it: Hemsworth doesn't get a ton of time to do standalone projects between all the Marvel and Star Trek stuff, but when he does it tends to be great (Rush, Cabin In The Woods, Red Dawn) add in Davis and a script by Mann who generally takes his time on passion projects such as this and this is bound to be good.
1. Mortdecai
The Players: Director: David Koepp (Premium Rush, Ghost Town) Writer: Eric Aronson (On The Line) Starring: Johnny Depp (Pirates Of The Caribbean, Into The Woods), Gwyneth Paltrow (Iron Man, Contagion), Ewan McGregor (Jack The Giant Slayer, Robots), Olivia Munn (The Newsroom, Magic Mike), Paul Bettany (The Avengers, The Da Vinci Code), Jeff Goldblum (Independence Day, The Grand Budapest Hotel).
Synopsis: Juggling some angry Russians, the British Mi5, his impossibly leggy wife and an international terrorist, debonair art dealer and part time rogue Charlie Mortdecai (Johnny Depp) must traverse the globe armed only with his good looks and special charm in a race to recover a stolen painting rumoured to contain the code to a lost bank account filled with Nazi gold.
Why you should watch it: I realize it's been a while since Depp was truly great in a movie (though I'm yet to see Into The Woods, I'd have to say it's Alice In Wonderland in 2010) this seems like the perfect chance to get back on the horse and Lionsgate is expecting big things from this film as they have possible sequels lined up and moved the release date up 2 weeks to a much easier weekend to dominate the box office (it'll be up against a J-Lo thriller... Yawn) and avoids direct competition from Spongebob Squarepants.
No comments:
Post a Comment