2007 at The Movies
Fishing around for movie trailers and, at least, titles and info, mapping out some potential cinema for the year. For this I'm likely to be leaning on comics adaptations, brainless action films, appropriate bits of horror, spectacles, etc.
I'm sure there will be many other, far superior movies coming out this year -- some of which I might even get out to see -- but these are the ones I know about now.
Something that technically came out (in limited release)just before the end of 2006, that I'm considering going to see Sunday (today) is Guilllermo del Toro's Pan's Labyrinth.
Okay, I've been needing a shoot 'em up action film, even if almost mindless, and it appears that Smokin' Aces may be the first one of 2007 -- I don't care if IMDB says it was scheduled for 2006, it's coming out January 26th. At least it appears to have a good cast.
A contender of a different stripe, a likely lowbrow comedy, comes out the same weekend. It's Epic Movie. This one parodies X-Men, Chronicles of Narnia, Snakes On A Plane, Charlie & the Chocolate Factory and likely one or two others,so... at least they deserve it.
One I will likely skip, but it'll largely come down to whether or not someone else wants to see it is Ghost Rider, rolling into town February 16th. Surely, the prospects are better for him as Johnny Blaze than they would have been as Superman.
March 9th brings a Frank Miller adaptation to the screen, this one the fanciful historical epic 300.
April 13th sees the team behind Shaun of the Dead reunited for a different type of action comedy with Hot Fuzz.
May 4th brings Spider-Man 3, which I'm generally expecting to be the last in the series, at least with this cast.
Coming June 15th -- the same week Wizard World East will be hitting here in Philadelpha, is Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer. The trailer's a little promising over all, but I still mentally wince every time I see the movie's version of Reed. At least, I tell myself, they didn't do this years earlier and cast Jeff Goldblum...
Something I note almost entirely because it's becoming the focus of so much attention among the twenty-somethings in the workplace, is the July 4th release of The Transformers. A Michael Bay film, the most recent trailer at least attempts to sell it as a blend of War of the Worlds and Terminator.
July 13th brings the latest in the J.K. Rowling golden potboiler series, with Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. Last year's entry was the only one I ended up seeing on the big screen. This will be another of those cases where I'll go if there's local interest and the timing's right. They do appear to be ratcheting up the menace and confrontation, as one would expect as young Harry becomes, well, less young.
July 27th will see The Simpsons Movie in theaters. Hopefully they'll do something with it to justify the format and not simply be a Simpsons episode Too Long For TV.
August and September are looking pitifully lean, but that'll likely fill out soon.
October 19th sees the adaptation of a Steve Niles horror comic -- 30 Days of Night. Thumbnail: Vampires finally realize that a remote Alaskan town -- a spot sufficiently North to fall into darkness for a solid month -- might be a great vacation & buffet location. No trailer for this one, but it should be a simple enough story to get right. (Ha!)
October 26th will see the fourth Saw movie hit, and, Hell, by this point it's become a tradition for Nick and I to go see them. The first three each ultimately held up, so here's hoping they're not all crapped out by the time they've hit IV. No trailer as yet.
November 16th brings Beowulf to the screen, which should at least make for an adventure epic less likely to put the audience to sleep than an attempt to read the source material. This one's by Roger Zemeckis, and is already being pushed to potential audiences. Click here for the official site. If you go to YouTube you'll find a bewildering array of amateur films based on this tale, most of them submitted for English classes.
November 21st is expected to see the release of a Stephen King short story adaptation I've been waiting for a movie version of for over 20 years: The Mist. Unfortunately, the tiny piece on IMDB reads as if it's such a loose adaptation as to be a different story. No trailer so far. I'm going to expect the worst in the interim.
Waaay off in December, I see a couple items.
December 7th is another one of those bids to launch the movie franchise of a trilogy of novels. This time it's His Dark Materials: The Golden Compass. At this stage I have no reason to think I'll be going out to see it, and am mostly mentioning it simply because it's at least attempting to be a serial epic. Here's a teaser trailer.
On the 14th, I see that after all these decades we're getting an adaptation of Richard Matheson's book that shares its title at least. It's I Am Legend. (Vincent Price had a go at it with The Last Man On Earth, then Charlton Heston got a shot as The Omega Man) However... this one's a Will Smith vehicle, so I'm in no hurry to get to mid-December. No trailer for this so far, at least not on You Tube.
Plenty of gaps in there, and chances are one or two of these will shift a little as competition plants itself in key weekends. Still, it's a start.
Tags: 2007 movies
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Comments
Of those you list, I'm curious about Pan's Labyrinth. Let me know what you think of it.
Smokin' Aces and Epic Movie you can have. I have no interest in either.
Ghost Rider, 300 and Hot Fuzz will likely ALL be must sees for me. As will Spiderman 3 and Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer.
The Transformers and Harry Potter are unlikely to get any of my cash at the box office.
The Simpsons...I don't know. Maybe.
Of the rest, maybe 30 Days of Night might be a go, but I doubt I'd be much interested in any of the balance of your list.
Looking forward to your reviews, though!
I definitely put several films on this list I'm unlikely to see. I was looking to fill the list out a little with the info that's available, and - to be brutally honest - I know I've ended up seeing worse films from time to time. Still, I'm not sure what would get me in to see TRANSFORMERS. Still, I know how often movie decisions become as much a measure of what else is going on as they are about the movies themselves.
Chances are, as it's only January, one or two of what will become my favorite films for 2007 are ones I'm unaware of so far.
And I'm sure I will see several Disney/Pixar/Whoever animated flicks with the 6 yr. old.
Thanks for the low down.
J.