Movie Muse

As promised, here are some other films that might pan out that didn’t quite have the chops for my Top 10 list. Check out the trailers below on YouTube and decide for yourself if they should’ve been Top 10 material.

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Leap Year (Jan. 8)

The Word: The impossible-to-dislike-even-slightly Amy Adams stars with handsome Brit Matthew Goode in a film about a girl who travels to Ireland because on Feb. 29 every year leap year, women are encouraged to propose to their boyfriends and Adams’ character is anxious to tie the knot. Why she doesn’t realize her beaux (Adam Scott) is a dick and why this film didn’t come out a little closer to Valentines Day (or on a leap year) is still up in the air.

My Thoughts: Rarely does a Rom Com choose two fresher talents in Adams and Goode instead of actors who guarantee more dollars (although you can make a case Adams is totally read). That alone makes me feel like there are worse romantic comedies to see than this one – in general. (View Trailer) Read the rest of this entry »

As I present you the Top 5 movies on my list of films to watch these next couple of winter months (click here for the first five), I’m getting a bit nervous. The reason is because when it comes to January and February, it’s hard to say with certainty that anything will be good.

But I’ve taken a stab and I think that regardless of how the movies turn out, they are still the five movies that warrant the most legitimate consumer interest because they appear to have the pieces to be good.

Anyway, read what I have to say, check out the trailers and tell me what you think. Read the rest of this entry »

Winter is a season where bad movies are like landmines. These are all the movies every year that the studios lost confidence in so they release them during months when the box office historically does so-so and cross the fingers on making money back through a surprise hit. The only exception is usually Valentine’s Day weekend, which has become competitive since Will Smith and Hitch broke records back in 2005.

The reason for the landmine analogy is that a lot of these movies seem either cute, cool, funny or good in premise (the reason the studio made them in the first place) but they’re actually something terrible.

That’s where I come in. More critical than ever is my winter list of movies not to see for this reason (at least so I believe). I think some of them speak for themselves, but some of them are ever so deceiving, using techniques like hot (as in currently popular) actors/actresses and excessive trailer shenanigans.

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5. Valentine’s Day (Feb. 12)

The Word: Can you count the number of stars in this film? I would venture a large population of Americans can’t – and so a large population of Americans will go see Valentine’s Day, the more explicitly named version of last year’s star-studded He’s Just Not That Into You. Let’s see how I do: Bradley Cooper, Ashton Kutcher, Jessica Biel, Anne Hathaway, Jessica Alba, Patrick Dempsey, Topher Grace, Taylor Swift, Taylor Lautner (gasp!), Emma Roberts, Jamie Foxx, Jennifer Garner, Queen Latifah, Shirley MacLaine, George Lopez and … Julia Roberts! Okay, I cheated. The trailer is like a visual word search of stars and then it tries to sneak in Roberts right at the end, who probably agreed because the man who made her famous, Garry Marshall (Pretty Woman) directs.

My Thoughts: I certainly trust a guy like Garry Marshall to properly direct a romantic comedy, so this could end up being watchable, but it really bothers me when studios sign a dozen or so big names to be in a film because they’re only in it for several minutes so they can pay them less. Then they expect us to go because it has “so many good people in it.” If He’s Just Not That Into You had been well-received last year, maybe I sing a different tune, but I’m not about to get starry-eyed and blindly shell money out for this one. Read the rest of this entry »

Winter is upon us! The first films of 2010 will vie to become the surprise first hits of the year. Last year, these films were Liam Neeson in Taken and sadly, Paul Blart: Mall Cop.

As I mentioned during my Holiday Movie Preview, there’s a difference between Holiday and Winter – in my world. Any true movie fan understands that January is where the movies go that the studios are iffy on, that they didn’t want to release in a prime spot, etc. Sometimes, they just want to give the film an underdog chance, however, of doing well when the film probably would not in a more crowded/popular movie season.

Anyway, here is the first half – as always – of my Top 10 films for the upcoming season. These are all for films being released in January and February. This half of the list is more speculation – in a longer season or a busier one like Holiday, some of these films might not have made it. Links to trailers on YouTube, as always, are provided. Read the rest of this entry »