DECEMBER 6- One major release this weekend.
*After debuting in New York and LA markets on December 4th,
the first major release of the month, ‘Out of the Furnace’ will get a
nationwide release two days later. Directed by Scott Cooper (2009’s ‘Crazy
Heart’), the film stars Christian Bale as a man who suddenly finds himself in
prison as his brother (Casey Affleck) gets involved with a dangerous crime
ring. The film also stars Zoe Saldana, Woody Harrelson, Forest Whitaker, and
Willem Dafoe.
DECEMBER 13- It’s a rather interesting competition this
weekend at the movies. On one side, we have the next Hobbit film and on the
other, a Tyler Perry movie.
*Last December, the first entry in ‘The Hobbit’ trilogy, ‘An
Unexpected Journey’, hit theaters, eventually ending up with over $1 Billion at
the box office. Its sequel, ‘The Desolation of Smaug’, will continue the
adventures of Bilbo Baggins, Gandalf the Grey, and Thorin Oakenshield’s company
of dwarves. In this film, the group begins their attempt to take back the
dwarves’ homeland of Erebor from the dragon Smaug (portrayed through motion capture
by Benedict Cumberbatch). The returning cast from the first film is joined in
this one by Orlando Bloom (reprising the role of Legolas from the ‘LOTR’
trilogy), Evangeline Lilly (who’s portraying an original character, Tauriel),
and Luke Evans.
*On the other side of the spectrum is the next film in Tyler
Perry’s ‘Madea’ franchise, which stars Perry as the titular elderly Madea, ‘A
Madea Christmas’. As the title suggests, this one is set during Christmas.
DECEMBER 20- It’s a pretty stacked weekend with five new
movies coming out, two of them immediately being released nationwide while the
other three expand from earlier releases.
(Note: The following film will hit theaters two days earlier
on December 18th)
*Great Odin’s Raven! 9 years after 2004’s hit comedy
‘Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy’ hit theaters, everyone’s favorite news
team returns for ‘Anchorman: The Legend Continues’. In this film, confident but
egotistical news reporter Ron Burgundy (Will Ferrell) and the Channel 4 News
team (Paul Rudd, Steve Carell, and David Koechner) reunite after disbanding
after the 70’s when they are recruited to join a 24-hour news channel.
Christina Applegate, Fred Willard, and others from the previous film return and
are joined in this one by Kristen Wiig, Greg Kinnear, and a whole bunch of
cameos (Harrison Ford, Jim Carrey, Nicole Kidman, Sacha Baron Cohen, the list
goes on and on).
*In 1999, BBC aired a six-part series ‘Walking with
Dinosaurs’, recreating what it was like on Earth during the Mesozoic Era. This
month, a film adaptation of the series will be released in 3-D. It will focus
on a group of Pachyrhinosauruses as they migrate.
*The first ‘expanding’ release of the week is ‘Inside Llewyn
Davis’, the latest film from the Coen brothers. Although Joel Coen has stated
that the film has ‘no plot’, it will be following the titular Llewyn Davis
(Oscar Issac), a singer-songwriter who navigates the folk music scene of New
York in the 60’s. The film also stars Carey Mulligan, John Goodman, and Justin
Timberlake.
*Disney’s ‘Saving Mr. Banks’ is the first Disney film to
star the company’s creator, Walt Disney. The story, however, is more about the
production of Disney’s 1964 classic, ‘Mary Poppins’, and Walt’s (Tom Hanks)
efforts to work with the author of the novel, ‘P.L.’ Travers (Emma Thompson).
The film also stars Jason Schwartzman and B.J. Novak as the Sherman Brothers
along with Paul Giamatti and Colin Farrell.
*A year after ‘Silver Linings Playbook’ was both a critical
and commercial success, director David O. Russell’s next film, ‘American
Hustle’, will hit theaters after opening in limited release earlier this month.
The film is based off of the ABSCAM operation that took place during the 70’s
and 80’s. Christian Bale stars as a con man that, along with his
partner/mistress (Amy Adams), is recruited by an FBI agent (Bradley Cooper) to
work for him. The film also stars Jeremy Renner as the corrupt mayor of New
Jersey and Jennifer Lawrence as the unpredictable wife of Bale’s character
(will also be opening on Wednesday, December 18th).
DECEMBER 25- In what is probably the most packed weekend of
the year (ironic seeing how it is the last weekend of 2013 for new releases),
there are five new releases along with 1 nationwide expansion as the year ends
with a total of 6 films coming out nationwide in a single weekend.
*Keanu Reeves headlines ’47 Ronin’, a fantasy samurai movie
based on the titular fictional group of the same name. Reeves stars as an
outcast who joins a group of ronin who are looking to get their revenge against
the evil Lord Kira (Tadanobu Asano) after he killed their master.
*After his 2011 concert film ‘Never Say Never’, Justin
Bieber’s new concert film, ‘Believe’ will hit theaters.
*Sylvester Stallone’s most famous role is that of boxer
Rocky Balboa in the franchise of the same name and one of Robert De Niro’s most
famous roles is that of boxer Jake LaMotta in Martin Scorcese’s ‘Raging Bull’ .
The two headline ‘Grudge Match’, albeit while playing different characters.
They star as a pair of retired boxers who decide to step back into the ring in
order to settle the score after their title match 30 years ago was canceled
when Stallone’s character retired from boxing. The film, directed by Peter
Segal (‘50 First Dates’, ‘Get Smart’), also stars Alan Arkin, Kevin Hart, and
Kim Basinger.
*‘The Secret Life of Walter Mitty’ is a remake of the 1947
film of the same name, which itself was based on the 1939 short story, also of
the same name, by James Thurber. Ben Stiller (who also directs the film), stars
as the titular Walter Mitty, a worker at Life Magazine who usually retreats into
his fantasy worlds but then sets off on a journey to find a picture that is needed
for the magazine when his and his co-worker/love interest’s (Kristen Wiig) jobs
are on the line.
*Martin Scorcese reunites with Leonardo DiCaprio for their
fifth film together since 2002’s ‘Gangs of New York’ with ‘The Wolf of Wall
Street’, a film that was originally supposed to be released on November 15th,
but was pushed back a month so that Scorcese could finish the movie in time
(thankfully the film wasn’t pushed back even further to next year). Based off
of the memoir of the same name by former New York stockbroker Jordan Belfort,
the film stars DiCaprio as Belfort, who refuses to be involved in a security
fraud case revolving around corruption on Wall Street. The film’s large
ensemble cast also includes Jonah Hill, Matthew McConaughey, Jean Dujardin, and
Kyle Chandler among others.
*Finally, we have ‘Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom’, a
biographical film about former South Africa President Nelson Mandela (portrayed
by Idris Elba), which details the 27 years he spent in prison before he became
president of South Africa.
With that, 2013 will officially come to an end. Thanks for
reading these posts and I’m expecting to start this up again next year. Stay
tuned…
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