The Scenesters (Out Not) - Imagine if Todd Solondz wasn’t so dark, wanted to make young people laugh for the first time in his career, and shot his movie with the crew who made Cloverfield. That’s about what this trailer looks like – no offense to Todd Solondz. Lead Todd Berger wrote the script and directs this LA-set comedy that, from what we can tell, has nothing to do with Scenesters of any kind. The humor here is low-brow idiocy, made perfect for your most obvious friends and family members. Okay, enough talking about The Scenesters; I just can’t find anything good to say about Berger or the trailer for his first proper feature film. Looks like a big waste of money. F
The Trip (June 10) – Michael Winterbottom is one of the most prolific and diverse British directors of his time, going back and forth between serious and outrageously strange and funny. Here he re-teams with Steven Coogan and Rob Brydon for a road trip movie about two actors (playing themselves) who tour the country for The Observer, stopping at all the finest restaurants. Sounds okay, right? Well, the two actors happen to be hilarious dudes (who also happen to be great actors) who sit around amusing each other, doing loads of impressions and generally fucking around and talking about nothing of any importance. Sounds perfect to me! If you’ve seen Winterbottom’s Spinal Tap-esqeTristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story, also starring Coogan and Brydon as themselves, then the premise sounds familiar. Will the result be as good? Looks like it. Very, very stoked about this one. A
Martha Marcy May Marlene (October 7) – One of the year’s official Cannes selections, MMMM is a beautifully shot, dreamlike dramatic thriller from first time director Sean Durkin. Starring the only Olsen sister with any real acting skill, Elizabeth (not one of the twins, thank goodness) and the always great John Hawkes (Winter’s Bone), the flick looks oddly creepy, telling the story of a young girl who flees a cult to return to her family, only to find herself haunted by intense memories and a whole lot of paranoia. The scenes a mix of dreams, memories and reality, the movie looks to stand the chance to be one of the year’s very best, and the coming out party for two solid new talents in Durkin (who also penned the script) and Olsen. Definitely be sure to check out the trailer for this one; it’s a bit confusing the first time around, but once you realize that it’s an unapologetic mix of past and current, it begins to click beautifully. One of our Top 5 most anticipated flicks of 2011. A+
X-Men: First Class (June 3) - Like many, I was done with the X-Men film franchise once director Bryan Singer left and Brett Ratner took over for X-Men: The Last Stand. But now we have something of a reboot/prequal in Matthew Vaughan’s (Kick-Ass) First class. The film tells the story of how head honchos Charles Xavier and and Erik “Magneto” Lehnsherr got their start in the mutant world. The production looks far less cheesy – and definitely more gritty – than any of the past X-Men flicks … and damn if the cast isn’t packed to the gills with worldclass beauties like Rose Byrne, Jennifer Lawrence, January Jones and Zoe Kravitz. Mostly, though, we have leads James McAvoy (as Prof X) and Michael Fassbender (as Magneto). Those two talents – especially Fassbender – mixed with director Vaughan make this a must-see movie. And, yeah, it’ll probably be one of the biggest movies of the year, if that matters to you. As for the trailer, well, it’s more of a brag piece than anything else, flaunting it’s worldclass actors, hotties and big budget. Hopefully the writing is solid, as everything else seems to be in the right place. B
30 Minutes or Less (August 12) – Check out this cast of funny: Jesse Eisenberg; Danny McBride; Aziz Ansari; Nick Swardson; Michael Pena; and Fred Ward. Damn. Or, as Aziz would say: DAAAAAAMN. Directed by Ruben Fleischer (Zombieland), the trailer has us thinking this will be one of the better studio comedies of the year. Basically, Eisenberg is a pizza delivery man who attempts to make a delivery while McBride and Swardson are committing a robbery. The two criminals then strap a bomb to Eisenberg’s chest and tell him that they’ll blow him up if he doesn’t rob a bank for them. Eisenberg’s once-bestfriend, played by Ansari, ends up going along for the wild ride – spraypainting squirtguns black while driving to the bank they’re about to knock off. Yeah, it’ll be outrageous and, at times, far too obvious. But Fleischer’s likely brilliant mixing of Eisenberg’s awkward charm with Ansari’s geek strut and McBride’s offbeat boyish humor is something we don’t want to miss. The trailer isn’t the greatest but, on paper, this looks like one of the very few must-see comedies of 2011. B
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Pt. 2 (July 15) - And last but not least, the Big Dog of the year. To be honest with ya, Deathly Hallows, Pt. 1 was the first Potter flick I didn’t love. This reaction may have something to do with the fact that the franchise’s prior installment, Half-Blood Prince, was my favorite. There was just something about Pt. 1 that didn’t work. Maybe it was the lack of the Hogwarts homestead or maybe it was the general production style – which often felt totally cheesy. Still, it was a good movie that left me excited for Pt. 2, the conclusion of the series. Directed again by David Yates (who will have now directed the final four movies of the series), Pt. 2 looks big and grand, full of action and big-dollar moments of movie magic. The trailer doesn’t tell much about the story – this because just about everyone who goes to these movies already knows the story from reading the books. What the trailer does do is imply that Yates and his producers went for broke with this one, trying to make an all-time classic that will makes loads of money and maybe even with some awards. We predict that it’ll be the biggest moneymaker of the year, and probably get mixed reviews. Either way, be sure to check the trailer for some killer visuals and wild action. B-
