November 7thBIG HERO 6 (ANIMATED/ACTION-COMEDY)
Directed by Don Hall & Chris Williams; Featuring the Voices of: Ryan Potter, Scott Adsit, Jamie Chung, Damon Wayans Jr., Genesis Rodriguez, T.J. Miller, Maya Rudolph, James Cromwell, Alan Tudyk
Rated PG for action and peril, some rude humor, and thematic elements.
Walt Disney Animation's 54th feature film is based on a comic book superhero team from Marvel Comics, which the Walt Disney Company acquired in 2009, although in light of the surprise phenomenon of FROZEN, they've been proud to market the Disney Animation angle, with hardly any mention of the Marvel brand. The story centers on Hiro Hamada, a young robotics prodigy in the futuristic metropolis of San Fransokyo, whose best friend is Baymax (voiced by 30 Rock's Scott Adsit), an inflatable medic robot who Hiro occupies himself in modifying. When they stumble upon a criminal conspiracy of vast proportions, Hiro and Baymax team up with four friends, including an adrenaline junkie, an obsessive-compulsive and muscular beatnik, an optimistic chemistry genius, and a laid-back professional sign-twirler; together they form the superhero crime-fighting team "Big Hero 6". Even while the Disney-owned Pixar Animation has seen an unfortunate decline in the quality of their output, Disney Animation has had a substantial incline in quality with TANGLED, WRECK-IT RALPH and FROZEN (WINNIE THE POOH is on a slightly lower plane of success, but it's still pretty good). For my part, I'm willing to take the whatever Walt Disney Animation turns out for now on the value of the brand. The obvious measuring stick for an animated superhero action-comedy is Pixar's THE INCREDIBLES, and I'm hoping Disney is up to the task.
Note: Early reviews for BIG HERO 6 have been enthusiastically positive.
INTERSTELLAR (SCI-FI/ADVENTURE)
Directed by Christopher Nolan; Starring: Matthew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway, Jessica Chastain, Michael Caine, Bill Irwin, Ellen Burstyn
Rated PG-13 for some intense perilous action and brief strong language.
Plot details of Christopher Nolan's newest film have still been largely kept under wraps, but what has been advertised is an original science fiction adventure where mankind on Earth is suffering the consequences of environmental devastation. Mankind has found one last hope- a wormhole that, theoretically, connects widely separated points of space and time, allowing a small crew of astronauts to scout out a new inhabitable planet to save the human race. Matthew McConaughey, freshly-anointed Academy Award-winner for Best Actor, stars as a widowed farmer raising two kids, faced with the choice of accompanying the mission, from which he may not return. The main selling point of course is Nolan, the co-writer/director of the Dark Knight trilogy and the writer/director of INCEPTION, with his follow-up to THE DARK KNIGHT RISES, who directs INTERSTELLAR with a screenplay co-written with his brother Jonathan (a regular collaborator). It's been fairly long in gestation, previously considered as a project for Steven Spielberg eight years ago, but since it was owned by Paramount, Warner Brothers, who produced the Dark Knight films, negotiated fiercely to get a stake in, so there's a lot of interesting stuff going on in there. Nolan hopes to reignite an interest in human spaceflight, so the ambitions are lofty, and a substantial portion of the film was shot with IMAX cameras (Nolan's preferred format), so that will be the ideal way to see it. Expect this film to become a major talking point for a good while.
Note: Early reviews for INTERSTELLAR have been mostly positive, though qualified in their praise.
BEYOND THE LIGHTS (ROMANCE/DRAMA)
Directed by Gina Prince-Bythewood; Starring: Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Minnie Driver, Danny Glover, Aisha Hinds, Aml Ameen, Nate Parker, Hayley Marie Norman, Jordan Belfi
Rated PG-13 for sexual content including suggestive gestures, partial nudity, language and thematic elements.
In this romantic drama, a rising pop star falls for a police officer against the protestations of her mother who pushes her to pursue stardom at all costs. It doesn't look like anything much that we haven't seen before, although it appears to have something to say about the sexual exploitation of women celebrities- ironically with a soapy exploitative slant itself. Some early reviews have been reservedly positive, and it's clearly for a specific audience who just may eat it up.
DUMB AND DUMBER TO (COMEDY)
Directed by Bobby Farrelly & Peter Farrelly; Starring: Jim Carrey, Jeff Daniels, Laurie Holden, Kathleen Turner, Jennifer Lawrence, Brady Bluhm, Steve Tom, Rachel Melvin, Rob Riggle
Rated PG-13 for crude and sexual humor, partial nudity, language and some drug references.
A month and two days before the anniversary of the original, Harry Dunne (Jeff Daniels) and Lloyd Christmas (Jim Carrey) set off on another road trip, this time to find Harry's long-lost daughter, who Lloyd falls in love with. Neither the Farrellys nor Daniels and Carrey were involved with the much-hated prequel DUMB AND DUMBERER: WHEN HARRY MET LLOYD (which unfortunately used the great title of DUMB AND DUMBERER), but this still comes with a lot of baggage. I'll probably lose some credibility for this, but the Farrelly Brothers' last film, the aggressively-maligned MOVIE 43 was not that bad, in my humble opinion. No, it wasn't intelligent and it was full of Hollywood A-listers debasing themselves (that could be an argument in its favor though), and as an anthology, there were a few segments that downright sucked (the two I really hated were "Veronica" and "Superhero Speed Dating"), but it was plenty funny whenever it went all out in recklessly unhinged vulgarity. So I don't think the Farrelly Brothers are totally washed up, but they've always been hit-and-miss, with bigger misses than the hits. Carrey is obviously who most people associate with DUMB AND DUMBER, but his brand of comedy is typically ruined by his mugging and manner of fourth wall-breaking, even though he has a lot of fans who don't seem to mind. The previews have a few amusing (and surprisingly vulgar) cheap gags, but there's high risk of referential humor, which would be disappointing. You can practically guarantee though that fans of the original will see this and not like it as much. After all, the original has had twenty years to grow on them.
November 21stTHE HUNGER GAMES: MOCKINGJAY PART 1 (ACTION-ADVENTURE/SCI-FI)
Directed by Francis Lawrence; Starring: Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, Liam Hemsworth, Woody Harrelson, Elizabeth Banks, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Julianne Moore, Donald Sutherland
Rated PG-13 for intense sequences of violence and action, some disturbing images and thematic material.
There are a few minor details that might trip this up a bit, but the last two films in this series were both surprisingly excellent action films, and I can't help but be excited for this. Readers seem to be widely in agreement that Mockingjay is the weakest of the books (I haven't read them, preferring to watch the movies with a blank slate), but there have reportedly been substantial changes for the film, partly to address readers' complaints, partly to divide it into two parts and partly to better utilize the all-star cast (for instance, Effie Trinket, played by Elizabeth Banks, is said to play a larger role in the film). Francis Lawrence is returning to direct, and while some apprehension was due as he was most notable before as the director of the so-so I AM LEGEND, but CATCHING FIRE was at least as good as the Gary Ross-directed THE HUNGER GAMES, if not better. CATCHING FIRE left us on a cliffhanger as the rebellion was revealed and Katniss was to become their figurehead, while Peeta has become a spokesperson for the autocratic Capitol, and political tensions have reached the boiling point of war. This is the big blockbuster audiences have been waiting for all year.
HORRIBLE BOSSES 2 (COMEDY)
Directed by Sean Anders; Starring: Jason Bateman, Charlie Day, Jason Sudeikis, Jennifer Aniston, Jamie Foxx, Chris Pine, Christoph Waltz, Kevin Spacey
Rated R for strong crude sexual content and language throughout.
Everyone knows comedy sequels are rarely good news; there's a lot of luck and inspiration involved with creating a good comedy, so trying to make a good comedy sequel is like trying to catch lightning in a bottle twice. HORRIBLE BOSSES was pretty funny, but I'm not sure I'd call it "lightning in a bottle." Whatever it was, they're trying to re-capture it, but this time, the trio of Nick (Jason Bateman), Dale (Charlie Day) and Kurt (Jason Sudeikis) have gone into business together with their own new product, when a their would-be investor (Christoph Waltz) rips them off. Once again, they enlist Motherf***a Jones (Jamie Foxx), as well as Dale's old nympho boss (Jennifer Aniston), to help kidnap the investor's son and hold him for ransom. Although they managed to get the cast back together (including an appearance by Kevin Spacey), it's a new set of writers and director, and unfortunately that director's credits include THAT'S MY BOY, so things don't bode well. Plus, the previews had the good taste to throw in some raunchy homophobic humor, so that's nice. I just wouldn't get my hopes up.
PENGUINS OF MADAGASCAR (ANIMATED/ADVENTURE-COMEDY)
Directed by Eric Darnell & Simon J. Smith; Featuring the Voices of: Tom McGrath, Chris Miller, John DiMaggio, Christopher Knights, Benedict Cumberbatch, John Malkovich, Ken Jeong
Rated PG for mild action and some rude humor.
When DreamWorks' MADAGASCAR came out close to a decade ago, the Penguins, it was often noted, were the most successful element of the very hit-and-miss animated comedy. Not unusual for such comic side characters in an animated film, three of the penguins were voiced by crew members, Skipper by director Tom McGrath, Kowalski by story artist Chris Miller, and Private by first assistant editor Christopher Knights (the exception was John DiMaggio, best known as the voice of Futurama's Bender, as Rico). So DreamWorks now finds themselves with a rare leading cast of non-celebrities, forced to use Benedict Cumberbatch and Ken Jeong as supporting roles. Although the MADAGASCAR series has been largely unimpressive, the footage in previews so far has been surprisingly funny, especially a prolonged bit involving cheese puffs, so it may warrant a look.
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