Faster (2010)

If only Dwayne "the Rock" Johnson reduced comic roles and focused more on action stints, then he'd really be the next king of action after Arnie. I liked him only in 2 movies The Rundown, as Beck the bail-jumper bounty hunter, and Walking Tall, as Chris Vaughn an ex-military guy who takes on a whole town. Why? Because the characters he played were well constructed and well focused on kicking ass. So enough with The Game Plan, Tooth Fairy and other comic-contradiction-type films, its time to bring the smack down baby!

The Skinny: Johnson is ex-con out from prison hunting down the man who killed his brother. 

The Helmer: George Tillman Jr - Notorious (2009), Men of Honor (2000), Soul Food (1997), Scenes for the Soul (1995), Paula (1992).

The Casts: Dwayne Johnson (Driver), Billy Bob Thornton (Cop), Micaela Johnson (Cocktail Waitress)

Release Date: 24th November 2010

The Prediction: We have a helmer with slightly significant directing chops, we have the Gayton Brothers on writing duty, and we have the Rock. This is a revenge-mode movie and I've never said no to revenge-fueled action, because revenge is a primal source of human aggression: its justified violence, and that really is good violence to watch. And looking at the trailer, this is a pretty decent ass-kicking revenge-based action flick. It helps that the co-star of this movie is a Mustang.

Wikipedia

Official Site

Trailer 

30 Days of Night: Dark Days (2010) Direct to Video

Vampire movies generally suck, especially emotional vampire movies where the leading vampire dude is pale, moans over lost love and gets entangled in a three-way with a human and a werewolf. Its like watching a vampire version of sex and the city, or desperate housewives. The only vampires i personally like are ones with Christopher Lee in it, The Lost Boys, and John Carpenter's Vampires. These vampire movies had A: Vicious, animal-frenzy vampires and B:Kick-ass vampire killers. Which is how it should be. So when a new vampire movie comes up that defies the current trend of sissy vampires, you take notice and appreciate. Cue 30 Days of Night and the direct to video sequel 30 Days of Night: Dark Days.  

The Skinny: This is continuation from the first installment, where the surviving wife of the sheriff who died whilst defending his small Alaskan town from decimation from a group of vicious vampires, grabs the opportunity to exact revenge on the head vampire which led to the death of her husband. The synopsis from imdb.com reads: 

"It has been a year since the isolated Alaskan town of Barrow's population was decimated by vampires during its annual month long sunset. Riddled with grief over the death of her husband Eben, bound by nightmares and void of all emotions beyond hate and sorrow, Stella Oleson has spent the past months traveling the world, trying to convince others that vampires exist. Met with skepticism and laughter, she is ready to throw in the towel when a group of lost souls offers an incredible opportunity: the chance to exact revenge upon Lilith, the vampire queen responsible for the assault on her sleepy Alaskan town. With nothing remaining to live for, and nothing left to fear, Stella joins their mission and ventures into the uncharted underbelly of Los Angeles where she pushes herself to the most extreme limits to stop the evil from striking again. Written by Fango".

The Helmer: Ben Ketai - 30 Days of Night: Dust to Dust (2008 TV), Megan (2008), Suck (2008)

The Casts: Kiele Sanches (Stella), Mia Kirshner (Lilith), Rhys Coiro (Paul), Ben Cotton (Dane) Stacy Roy (Jane), Troy Ruptash (Agent Norris)

Release Date: 5th October 2010

The Prediction: As a general rule, direct to video movies tend to be low-budgeted, sub-standard produced efforts which, to the best of intentions, gets to the business of just indulging in the whims of audience who are curious about what happened next which in effect dilute over time and sequels. But, there are exceptions, such as Wrong Turn: Dead End ,a sequel to the hugely popular Wrong Turn. It essentially depends on the writer and director and the money splurged on this. Ben Ketai seems to have a career in helming horror movies, and though the original 30 Days was not hugely successful, it was done with great care and craft. Looking at the trailer, production costs and value seems to be high and the pacing pretty exciting. Which added up, looks very promising. 

Trailer

Official Site

Monsters (2010)

I love monster movies; I like the feeling of overpowering dread of horribly ugly large living things slopping its way around causing mayhem and destruction, drawing you close into its gaping horror. It gives me a kick all the time. Which is why this movie looks very very promising. Moreso as it is helmed by a Brit. And everyone knows Brit directors rock. :)

The Skinny: NASA's exploratory expedition into space to seek out intelligent life succeeds as it crash lands in Mexico with an extra payload which in this is of course, monsters.Slashfilm.com has a great synopsis on this:

Six years ago NASA discovered the possibility of alien life within our solar system. A probe was launched to collect samples, but crashed upon re-entry over Central America. Soon after, new life forms began to appear and grow. In an effort to stem the destruction that resulted, half of Mexico was quarantined as an INFECTED ZONE. Today, the American and Mexican military still struggle to contain the massive creatures… Our story begins when a jaded US journalist (McNairy) begrudgingly agrees to find his bosses daughter, a shaken American tourist (Able) and escort her through the infected zone to the safety of the US border.

Read more: Movie Trailer: Gareth Edwards’ Monsters | /Film http://www.slashfilm.com/2010/07/24/movie-trailer-gareth-edwards-monsters/#ixzz0uxqZL7fq

The Helmer: Gareth Edwards- Heroes and Villains (2008 TV), Perfect Disaster (2006 TV), End Day (2005)

The Casts: Scoot McNairy and Whitney Able

The Prediction: Low budget movies are great platforms to promote new, indie players into the market and to provide audience with a seemingly first person horrific moments (think Blair Witch Project) up front. Given that CGIs are more accessible than ever before, and that smart usage of it (i.e. using it sparringly) will make it appear more real, all that is needed is a great story line and effective build up. io9.com has a great write up on this as well, together with some trailers.

The Burrowers (2008)

This is one of those movies where if you blink, you'd miss it because its small enough to just disappear beneath the weight of its more expensive cinematic brothers. But if you do miss, it'd be a loss as its a gem of a movie which deftly balances between the spirit of a western flick and that of good old fashioned creature horror film, the kind which makes your skin crawl and make you look behind your back every few minutes. 

The Skinny: Its the wild wild west in 1879 and a posse of cowboy hunters and a small military unit set out on a search and rescue mission to seek and rescue a family believed to have been kidnapped by a group of native Americans (thats right, injuns). What they encounter is something else altogether, something which lives under the earth and comes out for feeding at night ...things known as 'the Burrowers'.

The Helmer: JT Petty -  Blood Red Earth (2008), The Burrowers (2007 TV), S&Man (2006), Mimic: Sentinel (2003 V), Soft for Digging (2001)

The Casts: Clancy Brown (John Clay), Karl Geary (Fergus Coffey), William Marphother (William Parcher).

The Verdict: This is a great movie. Excellent cinematography, great script, good atmosphere. It succeeds in establishing a rounded western at the same time coincide with a solid horror flick. But what takes it above the norm for western-meets-horror genre, is that it is unapologetic. Don't expect the 'right' turning of events, or the characters to do the right thing. It is focused on one thing only, and that is to depict the story on a what-if basis: What if horrible underground life-sucking creatures were to terrorize the wild wild west?

Trailer 
Great Write-Up 

Battle: Los Angeles (2011)

War movies generally have not changed over the years. There are generally 2 levels of engagement for the audience: one, on the up-close and personal level, where you get to know the soldiers and first person sense of hell, that war brings about, and two, the actual battle itself and the shooting of guns and missiles. This is applicable to almost all war related movies, save of course for a few exceptional ones like Brian de Palma's 1989 anti-war flick Casualties of War. Apart from that, the message imparted is this: war is hell and there no one is actually the victor. The only difference is the enemy the hero army faces and how they are depicted which in this case are aliens.

The Skinny: Marine Platoon led by Marine staff sergeant battles with aliens on the streets of LA. 

The Helmer: Johnathan Liebesman - The Killing Room (2009), The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning (2006), Rings (2005 V), Darkness Falls (2003), Genesis and Catastrophe (2000).

Casts: Aaron Eckhart, Michelle Rodrigez, Michael Pena, Lucas Till, Joey King 

Release Date: 11th March 2011

Prediction: War movies are generally a hit-and-miss thing. Because its both drama and action rolled so closely together that one slip will lead it disastrously into either one of the sides. And for each war movie that comes out, the expections are high in terms of raw action. Of late, the look and feel have been strongly dominated by Spielberg's Saving Private Ryan's jerky, hand-held camera style of film making. Which we may expect from this movie as well in order to portray realism. Be that as it may, the premise though not exactly new (see: War of the Worlds, Independence Day, Mars Attack etc) is fresh in the wake of post-Iraq war movies where the action is always backed by the empty desert sands. I'm just curious to know how the aliens look like - the gooey messy type or the highly efficient shiny-suited bug-eyed type.

Cowboys and Aliens (2011)

Nowadays it seems that its tough going in Hollywood to come with completely new fresh ideas; either its a remake from a TV series back in the 80s, a sequel, an adaptation from a comic book or a game-to-film remake. Which is why new ideas backed by big budget tend to make big sense at the box office, such as Inception  which was a surprising hit to date. It also helped that it was penned and helmed by Nolan the Great. Which brings us to the new upcoming western sci-fi, Cowboys and Aliens slated for release next year, based on a 2007 online-only graphic novel by Alana Joli Abbot. From the outset, its a great combo - you have cowboys and Indians and you have aliens: two very opposite concepts melted together. You have had cowboys and dinosaurs with the 1969 The Valley of Gwangi  where cowboys battled dinosaurs, and you had the 2007 cowboys vs zombies with Undead or Alive concept so if cowboys were to mix up with aliens, its just a progression of where you place your cowboys because cowboys can be almost anywhere. The charm of cowboys (and indians) have always been the innate sense of freedom and rugged living. In a sense, cowboys (and indians) are timeless. Cowboys are cool.

The Skinny: Gunslinger with amnesia must set aside differences with local town sheriff, a drifter, Apache warriors and bandits to prepare for war with invading alien forces.

The Helmer: Jon Favreau - Iron Man 2 (2010), Iron Man (2008), In Case of Emergency (2007 TV), Zathura: A Space Adventure (2005), Elf (2003), Life on Parole (2003 TV), Undeclared (2002 TV), Made (2001), Smog (1999 TV), Bad Cop, Bad Cop (1998 TV).

The Casts: Harrison Ford (Col Dollarhyde), Daniel Craid (Zeke Johnson), Olivia Wilde (Ella), Noah Ringer (Emmet), Walton Goggins.

Release Date: 29th July 2011.

The Prediction: This looks like a pretty big picture with Jon "Iron Man" Favreau helming the reigns, with JJ Abrams scribe partner for Fringe - Alex Kurtzman and Roberta Orci writing the script, Harrison Ford as town tyrant, and Daniel Craig as the amnesiac gunslinger hero taking on the aliens. What I find curious is the overall treatment of this project - we have a fun premise with lots of potential to bleed into sequels, but we have some pretty heavy set individuals involved in it. When we think Ford and Craig, we think SERIOUS SHIT going down. Not some heehaw adverturesome-tomfoolery-ness. Because the very idea of aliens attacking the wild wild west? Its too fun to be serious.

But. 

The ingredient is pretty damn tasty. It has everything you need to excite your bojangles: shooters, aliens and Apache warriors vs aliens. Whatever it is I'm looking forward to this.

Avengers Movie Update

The biggest thing to hit mainstream cinema (with exception of Cameron's 'Avatar') is the seamless creation of the Marvel comic universe. First in the line up is the Hulk followed by Iron Man (inserted in its movie fold are Nick Fury and Black Widow) followed by Thor and right up after that Captain America. You roll them all up and what do you have? The Avengers. Chud.com  has the scoop on this, you can read it here. Suffice to say, it is a comic geek's wet dream in real-time 3D. What more can they ask for? Maybe Captain Kirk making out with Ripley of Alien fame? They wish! Anyway, this is the line up for the Avengers: 

Iron Man - Robert Downey Jr

 

Nick Fury - Samuel L Jackson

Black Widow - Scarlett Johannsen 

Thor - Chris Hemsworth 

Captain America - Chris Evans 

Bruce Banner - Mark Ruffalo

Hawkeye - Jeremy Renner 

Helmed by Joss Whedon of Buffy fame, and the underrated Firefly sci-fi series (which was filmed into the very excellent Serenity.

Pretty interesting casting isnt it? I personally like Ruffalo in place of Edward Norton as the green mean machine. But I am wondering if the X-Men franchise is included in this universe because it would make sense to have the whole shebang in on this alternate universe. I can just imagine the eyes of the studio owners lighting up and going "kerching"! 

It looks good though - great writer/director on board with an intelligently made choice of actors. This is the big one for 2012.