Posts tagged My Top 10 Anticipated Films Of 2010

1. The Tree Of Life

Release Date: TBC, I’d assume late summer in time for award season.

Terrence Mallick is quite possibly my favourite director, his films say so much without much words, they’re all extremely philosophical, moving and visually stunning. Since his debut film Badlands in 1973 he has only made 3 other films which were all amazing (Days Of Heaven, The Thin Red Line and The New World).

Directed by Terrence Mallick and starring Brad Pitt and Sean Penn. The tale of a Midwestern boy’s journey from the innocence of childhood to his disillusioned adult years as a “lost soul in the modern world”, and into his quest to regain meaning in life. The “tree of life” is the framework of the story, how one thing leads to another, a miracle of growth and evolution, where nature is purposeful, and never random.

2. Inception

Release Date: July 2010

Christopher Nolan’s succession of great films doesn’t looks like it’s gonna stop – Memento, Insomnia, Batman Begins, The Prestige, The Dark Knight…….. I like how Warner Brothers are approaching the film, it’s got a real mystique about it in that it’s not giving away too much but still giving us enough to want much much more and keep us guessing. The visuals in the two teaser trailers look ridiculously good.

The plot is top secret, we’ve only been given extremely brief information about the film, all we know about it is that it’s a – “a contemporary sci-fi actioner set within the architecture of the mind.” “Inception is about entering peoples’ minds/dreams. A technology to do so has been developed and is done through an injection. DiCaprio and his team work to enter the minds of other characters in order to retrieve/plant information.” Nolan wrote the original screenplay himself, Inception stars Leonardo DiCaprio, Cillian Murphy, Ellen Page, Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Marion Cotillard. The film will open on July 16th, 2010, in both traditional theatres and in IMAX. DiCaprio is a CEO character named Cobb, Ellen Page is Ariadne -a grad student working for Cobb and a sidekick of sorts, Joseph Gordon-Levitt is Arthur – an associate to Cobb at his company, Tom Hardy is Eames, Ken Watanabe is Saito, Dileep Rao is Yusef, Cillian Murphy is Fischer, Tom Berenger is Browning and Marion Cotillard plays Cobb’s wife.

3. The Fighter

Release Date: TBC

This might be the filmthat Christian Bale finally gets his Oscar nomination. Both him and Mark Wahlberg don’t look like their messing around with their respected rolls, Bale has lost a tonne of weight to play an addict (as he done in Rescue Dawn and more extremely in The Machinist) and Mark Wahlberg has beefed up to play former Welterweight Micky Ward

Starring Christian Bale, Amy Adams and Mark Wahlberg and Directed by David O. Russell. The film centres around the life of professional boxer “Irish” Micky Ward (Wahlberg) and his older drug addicted brother Dickie Eklund (Bale). Amy Adams has also been confirmed as a love interest of Ward.

4. Black Swan

Release Date: TBC

I’m a big big fan of Darren Aronofsky, for me Requiem for a Dream is the greatest addiction movie ever made, The Wrestler was brilliant and I really enjoyed The Fountain (I know that was a bit hit and miss for some people though). If the story’s a bit slow for you, who doesn’t like a bunch of pretty brunettes (Natalie Portman & Mila Kunis) dressed up as Ballerinas.  Also for you pervs, i.e men with red blood they both have sex in the film, I’m not making that up!

The film has been described as a supernatural drama set in the world of New York City Ballet which centers on a veteran ballerina (Portman) who finds herself locked in a competitive situation with a rival dancer (Kunis), with the stakes and twists increasing as the dancers approach a big performance. The big twist is that Portman’s character is not sure whether her rival is a supernatural apparition or if she is having delusions.

5. The Way Back

Release Date: TBC

First of all the cast is stella, Colin Farrell, Ed Harris, Jim Sturgess, Mark Strong and Saoirse Ronan. It is also directed by the brilliant Peter Weir (Master And Commander, The Truman Show, Witness) who after five Oscar nominations may finally to bring home that faceless gold man with this. The premise is right up my alley as well

Seven courageous multi-national prisoners discover the true meaning of friendship as their epic journey takes them across thousands of miles of hostile terrain en-route to India and their freedom.

6. Shutter Island

Release Date: 19 February 2010

I’ve been really looking forward to this for a good while now, Martin Scorsese has made classic after classic. The only thing that makes me slightly sceptical about the film is the push backs, if it wasn’t for that this would probably be higher up on my list

Directed by Martin Scorsese and starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Ben Kingsley and Jackie Earle Haly. In 1954, US Marshall Teddy Daniels (DiCaprio) hunts down a murderess who’s escaped from the Shutter Island hospital for the criminally insane. Though she can’t get off the island, Daniels’ job is made harder by an approaching hurricane.

7. Kick Ass

Release Date: 16^th April 2010

No trailer has sold me for a film in 2010 like the Hit Girl Red Band Trailer, it looks hilarious and to put it lightly INSANE!

Kick-Ass is based on the comic by Mark Millar and John Romita Jr., telling the story of average teenager Dave Lizewski (Aaron Johnson), a comic-book fanboy who decides to take his obsession as inspiration to become a real-life superhero. As any good superhero would, he chooses a new name — Kick-Ass — assembles a suit and mask to wear, and gets to work fighting crime. There’s only one problem standing in his way: Kick-Ass has absolutely no superpowers. Kick-Ass directed by Matthew Vaughn and stars Nicolas Cage, Aaron Johnson, Lyndsy Fonseca, Mark Strong, Christopher Mintz-Plasse and Chloe Moretz.

8. A Simple Noodle Story

Release Date: TBC

I love Blood Simple and I love the idea of putting a twist on that story. Zhang Zimou is one of my favourite modern directors. Visually he’s on a different level. A number of his films blew me away – House Of Flying Daggers, Curse of the Golden Flower, Hero, Not One Less and The Story Of Qui Ju

A Simple Noodle Story is Zhang Yimou’s first film since Curse of the Golden Flower in 2006, it is a remake of Blood Simple, the 1985 debut of the Coen brothers, whose films Zhang Yimou lists among his favorites. The film transports the original film’s plot from a town in Texas, to a noodle shop in a small town in the Chinese desert.

A Simple Noodle Story will reportedly consist of two distinct segments, a thriller segment, and a comedic segment. The film will star Sun Honglei, Ni Dahong in the thriller segment while comedians Xiao Shenyang and Yan Ni will star in the comedic segment.

9. London Boulevard

Release Date: TBC

This is directed by the William Monohen in his first feature film debut, he is no stranger to the film business, he wrote the screenplay for Kings Of Heaven, Body Of Lies, The Departed and the upcoming film Edge Of Darkness. I’ve heard great things about the novel which this film is based on and looking at the cast (Colin Farrell, Ray Winstone..) this looks like a winner

A freshly released ex-con from South London attempts to stay out of the way of a ruthless loan shark by finding honest work at the Holland Park mansion of faded movie actress. As his violent past catches up with him and his disturbed sister is threatened, he is forced to act.

10. Machete, Clash Of The Titans and Robin Hood

Release Dates: TBC, April and May

I didn’t know which one to pick so I though f*ck it I’ll pick 3 films at number 10, all action packed movies, with great casts. Hopefully good popcorn fun!

Honourable Mentions

Alice In Wonderland, Book Of Eli, The Boys Are Back, Jonah Hex, Iron Man 2, The Wolfman, Predators, Tron Legacy, Paul, Buried, The Rum Diary, Youth In Revolt, Edge Ef Darkness, Stone, The Expendables, Toy Story 3, Wall Street 2, The A Team, Rec 2, Frozen, Biutiful, Green Zone, The American, Knockout, The Conspirator, The Grand Master, Triple Frontier, Salt, Onedin, Mother And Child, The Other Guys, The Social Network, Brothers, Invictus, Leap Year, 4 3 2 1, Centurion and Area 51,