Dr Manhattan from Watchmen

Dr Manhattan from Watchmen

I love movies, that’s one of the main reasons I went into TV and Film production.  The sad reality though was that making movies is really kind of glorified construction work, and I don’t have the patience for that stuff.  I love the pre and post work of movie making, but hate the chewy middle where you have to cut your teeth to make it anywhere.

2008 was a really good year for movies as you can see from my Movies Year in Review post, but already 2009 is shaping up to be even better with a few can’t miss blockbusters in the pipe, and a bunch of “maybe’s” and “possible big surprises” out there.  Plus we don’t even see the post Cannes, Sundance and Toronto Film Fest potentials on the horizon yet.

Watchmen
I want to double dip on this bad boy.  I’m going to see it in theatres when it comes out in March (provided the lawsuit between Warners and Fox is over), but even more I really want the promised extended edition.

Zack Snyder proved that he knows how to do DVD right with the HD DVD version of 300 (sorry folks, but the Blu Ray version is inferior, I know having owned both.  Picture-in-picture commentary is frigging amazing).  If they can figure out some technological limitations of the Blu Ray format and get PIP commentary on there this will be a demo disc for the ages.

X-Men Origins Wolverine
The X-Men movies were really good until the third installment, but they were all just solo Wolverine stories anyway, the other characters were incidental.  Think of this as an X-Men movie without the baggage and I thin that’s what you will get.  The trailer looks spectacular.

Star Trek
Trekkies like Don are up in arms because it doesn’t appear to be cannon.  From what I’ve seen it looks like this is actually a parallel universe created because a Romulan decides to go back in time and get rid of Kirk.  I love time travel/paradox stories almost as much as I love multiple earth stories…so I’m jazzed about this one.

Plus I’m a sci-fi geek, and this looks like sci-fi at its best.

Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince
The Harry Potter films have been uniformally great.  Every one of them has been really good.  I think this one will be no different.  I love how Daniel Radcliffe is growing as both an actor and a man through each installment.  The fact that the stories get darker and more mature with each book is great too.

Monsters vs Aliens
This looks funny, and the story sounds good.  It will be presented in 3D, and this time I plan on making sure we find a 3D equipped theatre (unlike with Bolt).

Where the Wild Things Are
This is one of my favourite children’s books of all time.  Secretly it was one of the reasons why I was so quick to jump on the “Maks” bandwagon with Charlene as the little boy in this book is Max.  Spike Jonze is one of my favourite Hollywood directors too, he’s a true auteur with a slightly off kilter look at the way the world works (see Adaptation or Being John Malkovich).  Three years and $80million in his hands should be spectacular.

Fanboys
This thing should have been out in 2007, but it’s still sitting on a shelf in the Weinstein’s bunker somewhere.  It really needs to come out (supposedly on February 6th).

The Box
Donnie Darko (one of my 5 favourites of all time) director Richard Kelly returns after southland Tales (a horrible flick with momens of genius) for this one starring Cameron Diaz and James Marsden.

Sherlock Holmes
Robert Downey Jr. was a revelation in Iron Man, he was obviously having fun, but he provided a layered depth to an outrageous character that made everything believable and just on the edge of ridiculousness.  Under Guy Ritchie I think he’ll fare even better.

Public Enemies
Johnny Depp as John Dillinger goes up against Christian Bale as an FBI agent in pursuit in this Michael Mann directed action flick.

Nottingham
Ridley Scott’s Robin Hood adventure with Russell Crowe as the Prince of Thieves.

Inglorious Basterds
I love Quentin Tarrantino, and this obvious homage to “The Dirty Dozen” and the other WWII flicks of the 50’s and 60’s.  This guy still hasn’t made a bad movie in my opinion, just sometimes movies that take a couple of viewings to really “get”.  I will admit that Death Proof kind of stretched him for me, but I will give him the benefit of the doubt.

District 9
Neill Blomkamp was hand picked by Peter Jackson to direct a Halo movie based on some short films and TV commercials that the director had done in his native South Africa.  He could be the South African version of Jackson, self taught, self funded, and incredibly visionary.  This could be this year’s Cloverfield.

G.I. Joe Rise of Cobra
This will likely be spectacularly bad, but Stephen Sommers HAS to have a good movie in him.  He’s got style, he’s just been unable to film a compelling story yet.