2014 Preview: December

And here we are; we’ve reached the end of 2014 as we now come to the last month of the year, a year full of big hits, big misses, and everything in between. And now it’s time to look at the last batch of new films of 2014 before we officially move on 2015. Welcome back to Rhode Island Movie Corner’s year-long preview of the films that are set to come out in 2014. This is the final part in an 11-part preview (previously 12 before I was unable to do the January post due to computer issues) and today we’ll be looking at the films that will be coming out this holiday season in December. So let’s get started…

DECEMBER 5- Okay remember back in September when I said that there wasn’t really anything noteworthy coming out the first week of the month? Well, I kind of lied because there was one wide release that week, ‘The Identical’, but I didn’t know anything about it so I decided not to cover it in that post (that’s usually what I do when it comes to wide releases I don’t know much about… I just don’t include them in these posts). This first week of December, however, there’s literally no new wide releases coming out. There’s only one notable limited release.

*Director Jean-Marc Vallee follows up on last year’s multiple award winning ‘Dallas Buyers Club’ (which of course as we all know earned Matthew McConaughey an Oscar win for Best Actor) with ‘Wild’, which is based off of the memoir ‘Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail’ by Cheryl Strayed. Reese Witherspoon (who also produces the film) stars as Strayed, who goes on a long hike through the Pacific Crest Trail in the Sierra Nevada on her own in order for her to get over the recent stressful moments in her life, including the death of her mother (played by Laura Dern) and her recent divorce.

DECEMBER 12- Things get back on track this week with two new wide releases along with one notable limited release.

*Ridley Scott takes on the Biblical story of the Exodus with ‘Exodus: Gods and Kings’, in which Christian Bale stars as Moses, the Hebrew man who became a prince of Egypt and then the leader of his people after learning the truth about who he really is as he leads them to freedom after years of slavery in defiance of his adoptive brother, the Egyptian Pharaoh Ramses (Joel Edgerton). The film also stars Aaron Paul, Sigourney Weaver, John Turturro, and Ben Kingsley.

*Chris Rock writes and directs ‘Top Five’, in which he also stars as a comedian turned film star who seeks to become a ‘serious’ actor despite all of the expectations from his fan base. The film also stars Gabrielle Union, Rosario Dawson, and Kevin Hart.

*Director Paul Thomas Anderson’s newest film, ‘Inherent Vice’, opens in limited release this weekend and is based on the novel of the same name by Thomas Pynchon. Joaquin Phoenix stars as Larry ‘Doc’ Sportello, a private investigator who looks into the disappearance of his ex-girlfriend’s boyfriend. The large ensemble cast also includes Josh Brolin, Owen Wilson, Benicio Del Toro, Katherine Waterston, Reese Witherspoon, and Martin Short.

DECEMBER 19- The weekend before Christmas sees the release of three movies, one of which opens early on Wednesday December 17^th.

*Peter Jackson’s ‘Hobbit’ trilogy finally comes to a close this month with ‘The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies’ (previously ‘The Hobbit: There and Back Again’). In this film, Thorin Oakenshield (Richard Armitage) and his Company of Dwarves, with the help of hobbit Bilbo Baggins (Martin Freeman), have reclaimed their home of Erebor in the Lonely Mountain but must now face the consequences of unleashing the fearsome dragon Smaug (portrayed through motion capture by Benedict Cumberbatch) upon the world along with the growing threat of the armies of the Dark Lord Sauron.

*Director Will Gluck (‘Easy A’) helms ‘Annie’, the third major film adaptation of the musical of the same name (following the 1982 theatrical version starring Carol Burnett and Tim Curry and the 1999 made-for-TV version with Kathy Bates) which in turn was based off of the comic strip ‘Little Orphan Annie’ by Harold Gray. This new version, produced by Will Smith and Jay-Z, stars Quvenzhane Wallis as Annie, an orphan who ends up getting taken in by tycoon/mayoral candidate Will Stacks (Jamie Foxx) so that she can boost his chances of becoming mayor. The film also stars Cameron Diaz as Miss Hannigan, Rose Byrne as Stacks’ personal assistant Grace, and Bobby Cannavale as Stacks’ political adviser Guy.

*The final film in the ‘Night at the Museum’ trilogy, ‘Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb’, hits theaters this week, again directed by Shawn Levy who helmed the first two films along with this year’s ‘This is Where I Leave You’. Ben Stiller reprises his role of Larry Daley, the night guard at the Museum of Natural History in New York where the exhibits there come to life at night through the powers of an ancient Egyptian tablet. In this film, the tablet’s powers start to fade resulting in Larry and the other exhibits traveling the globe in order to keep the magic from dying out. Also reprising their roles are the late Robin Williams, the late Mickey Rooney, Owen Wilson, and Steve Coogan (among others), joined in this one by Ben Kingsley and Rebel Wilson (among others).

DECEMBER 25- I’m finding that Christmas weekend is usually the weekend that sees the biggest number of notable releases and this Christmas is no exception. We got three wide releases and three notable limited releases all of which open in theaters on Christmas Day. Something also noteworthy is that three of them are biopics and one is an historical drama.

*First for the wide releases, we have ‘The Interview’, the new film from directors Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg (the directing duo behind last year’s smash hit ‘This is the End’). In this film, Rogen and James Franco star as a pair of celebrity journalists who land an exclusive interview with North Korea’s Kim Jong-Un but then find themselves tasked with killing him by the CIA. That whole ‘assassination’ subplot has notably attracted quite a lot of controversy in North Korea, where the film has been condemned.

*Rob Marshall, director of 2002’s Oscar-winning musical ‘Chicago’, returns to the musical genre with ‘Into the Woods’, based on the Tony-Award winning Broadway musical of the same name by Stephen Sondheim. The story involves numerous characters from Grimm fairy tales, including Cinderella (Anna Kendrick), Little Red Riding Hood (Lilla Crawford), and Jack (Daniel Huttlestone) and the Beanstalk. It primarily focuses on a Baker (James Corden) and his wife (Emily Blunt) who embark ‘into the woods’ in order to have a curse removed that was set upon them by a witch (Meryl Streep) that has made them unable to have a child. The film also stars, among others, Chris Pine as Cinderella’s Prince Charming and Johnny Depp as the Wolf.

*Angelina Jolie takes on her second directorial effort after 2011’s ‘In the Land of Blood and Honey’ with ‘Unbroken’, based on the biographical book of the same name by Laura Hillenbrand on World War II hero Louis Zamperini. Zamperini (played in the film by Jack O’Connell) was an Olympic track runner who later joined the military and then became a Prisoner of War in Japan under the watch of brutal sergeant Mutshiro ‘The Bird’ Watanabe (played by Japanese pop star Miyavi). The film also stars Garrett Hedlund, Jai Courtney, and Domhnall Gleeson.

*The second major ‘biopic’ of this week, and the first of the noteworthy limited releases, is ‘American Sniper’, the second film of the year from director Clint Eastwood after June’s ‘Jersey Boys’. Based on the book of the same name, Bradley Cooper stars as Chris Kyle, who was known for being the most lethal sniper in U.S. history with over 160 confirmed kills. The film also stars Sienna Miller as Chris’ wife Taya.

*Tim Burton takes on a much smaller project compared to the majority of his work from the past decade with ‘Big Eyes’, centered around Margaret Keane (Amy Adams), the artist behind the famous ‘Big Eye’ paintings. The film also focuses on her relationship with her husband Walter Keane (Christoph Waltz), who claimed that he was the real artist of the paintings when they became popular, and the ensuing legal battle over the rightful ownership of the paintings. The film also stars Krysten Ritter, Danny Huston, Jason Schwartzman, and Terrence Stamp.

*Finally, we have ‘Selma’, directed by Ava DuVernay and produced by Brad Pitt’s production company ‘Plan B’. It centers on the marches made from Selma, Alabama to Montgomery, Alabama during the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960’s. David Oyelowo stars as Martin Luther King Jr. and is also joined by Tom Wilkinson, Tim Roth, Oprah Winfrey, and Cuba Gooding Jr.

So that’s it… those are the films of 2014. Thanks for following along with me this year as I previewed all of the films that were coming out this year. At the moment I think I am planning on doing these again next year so stay tuned.