Now here's a list, and frankly I’m glad it’s finished, this has taken time and plenty of reading, but it’s been worth it. This is the Filmstalker preview for 2012, the films worth going to see from January through to December, well the ones we know about anyway.
This isn’t your normal preview list though as I’ve dropped a lot that other lists have. These are the films that I’d pay my money to see, or look promising enough this early in the year.
I'm not sure what to call it now, everyone's saying Lockout on the Internet and IMDB still display all three titles but their main one is the English title of MS One: Maximum Security. Whether that means it's only called that in England, and not the rest of Britain, I'm not sure. However let's go with Lockout for the rest of the article for now.
The film is directed by James Mather and Stephen St. Leger, written by both and Luc Besson and stars Guy Pearce, Maggie Grace, Peter Stormare, Lennie James, Vincent Regan and more, and so far it's looked like Escape From New York in Space.
I'm really surprised by what I just read about the voting for the Oscars Best Original Song category for so many reasons, not just the fact that the voting system appears to be different to other categories in the Oscars, not that they are watching and listening to sections of films totally out of context, doesn't include certain songs in any film, but that despite all this "Best" only raises two nominees.
I know that the voting system isn't the best, but I had believe that the panel of people who actually vote for the Oscars is quite a diverse one, and that they are sent screeners that they should watch in order to vote for a film, but so often the nominations list and winners list haven't lived up to the title of "Best".
Iron Sky is complete and a new trailer has arrived to celebrate the first screening in the Berlin International Film Festival on the 11th of February, and there's definitely some excitement about the screening, after all we're talking about Nazis building a secret base on the dark side of the moon and creating a giant army ready to invade Earth.
The effects look great and there's something about the whole silly idea that is both funny and exciting, you just have to see the trailer to see how much effort and quality has been put into some of the effects.
There's a new trailer online for Seeking Justice (or just Justice), giving a little more weight to the incident that drives Nicolas Cage's character into making a deal with a group of professional vigilantes headed by Guy Pearce's character. The trailer also goes deeper into the story, perhaps in a few scenes a little too deep.
Still the idea for the film is a strong one and probably resonates with a lot of people these days, I know it does with me.
Brake may instantly sound like Buried, and a cheap version at that especially as it stars the once were strong Stephen Dorff and Tom Berenger, but the concept behind it sounds rather interesting, even if the lighting in the trailer is a little too bright, it seems wrong that he's seems to be inside a Perspex box in some scenes, and the trailer seems to give too much away.
One of the beautiful things about the Buried trailer is that it doesn't deliver too much, it sets the horrifying scene and leaves the rest to us, and I think that's all we needed to see from Brake, not half the story to boot.
I have to admit that I wasn't interested in seeing The Hangover for a long time; I just thought it would be the same usual puerile humour to come out of so many Hollywood comedies. However I can now officially admit I was wrong as I watched it just last week and I actually laughed at it and thought that it was enjoyable.
For me the whole idea of discovering what had happened step by step was the key to the film, and the situations just getting wilder and wilder without the characters realising it was them until the last moment was what made it. So I'm a little surprised the third one won't follow that formula.
My article yesterday talking about the ending of the legal battle between Relativity Media and the Weinstein Company settled out of court did have me saying that I thought this could be a sign that the production was going to start moving forward, but I didn't think it would really be this quickly.
Now Relativity have announced that F. Javier Gutiérrez is going to direct the film with Jesse Wigutow set to write the script, or should I say write another script.
The Grey has a new MPAA red band trailer on the loose and we get to see a little bit more violence and action from the wolves, the promise of blood, and some swearing to boot. Personally I don't think that it substitutes for the powerful speech from Liam Neeson in the standard trailer but it does provide us with something more of the wolves.
From the first trailers I was worried how the wolves would be portrayed and how they would feel as the adversary in the film, but this new trailer suggests that they aren't going to be over the top and they will have some, how shall I say, bite.
A new trailer for Black Gold has arrived that presents the story quickly and gets on with the dramatic action-adventure type story. It's a shame because I would much rather see a trailer that laid out the story and built on the dramatic side of the story more than this one, but still it does look really good.
Antonio Banderas, Mark Strong, Tahar Rahim, Frieda Pinto, Riz Ahmed and a cast with a mix of nationalities and acting careers between them telling the Jean-Jacques Annaud directed film of a Prince torn between tribes in the 1930's at the cusp of the oil boom in the Arab states.
The Oscar nominations for this year have arrived and the expected films are in there, as expected, but there are also a few surprises. Who realised that The Artist was going to be the second highest nominated film this year coming in behind Hugo as the first?
There are some well deserved mentions and nominations throughout the list, but I find myself rather uninterested in the expected list for Best Picture with the more interesting nominees coming down the list.
You'll remember the uproar that The Crow was getting remade, and the news that the director would be Juan Carlos Fresnadillo and that Bradley Cooper was the one to take the lead. You'll no doubt remember that this was some time ago and both Cooper and Fresnadillo have dropped off the project, that's because Relativity Media and the Weinstein Company went to court over the rights of the project and everything was halted.
Well now an announcement has been made that the rights have been settled out of court, and if someone is willing to pay to stop the court case proceeding, it's not a leap to believe that an adaptation of The Crow is not far behind.
While Tom Wade has already delivered us one list of What Not to Watch with Mother, he's also dropped a list in for his Top Ten films of the year and so here they are for your reading pleasure.
It's a strong list, although I have to claim surprise at a couple of wild entries which I don't think belong anywhere near the top ten, but then it's not my list and I know that both my disagreements seem to go against the populist opinion.
Pinewood was planning a massive expansion, something I wrote about back in June of 2009 but was first planned in 2007, an expansion that would mean building a town where sections of it would look like other cities around the world and as a whole offer the potential to increase the use of the studio by Hollywood and attract a lot of money and jobs from the industry to the UK.
However it would seem that the plans for the expansion have been halted and the £200 million proposal shelved, just over a week after the Prime Minister visited the studio representing a Government that has been talking up the UK film industry.
The sequel to the rather enjoyable and very successful Star Trek (Filmstalker review) is well underway with the script and casting and although the film isn't expected until next year there's still a growing hype for information on the project.
So it was with disappointment that I read today, despite the increased budget and focus on the film, that it will be in 3D and what's more is it will be post-converted 3D, which means it won't be filmed in 3D but sent to companies after completion to make it look like 3D.
There's not a great deal new to this trailer for Snow White and the Huntsman, but there is some new footage and the new shots are more in the effects and creature department and help to make the film look darker and I think more interesting.
The film is one of the many upcoming adaptations of classic stories and fairy tales that we're seeing and it's not the only Snow White adaptation either, still it has a strong cast and some exciting visuals, as well as some accents.
All articlesReviews onlyAudiocasts only
Audiocasts on iTunes
Give credit to your sources. Quote and credit, don't steal
I've been waiting for you, Obi-Wan. We meet again, at last. The circle is now complete. When I met you I was but the learner. Now, *I* am the master
- Darth Vader, Star Wars
