Six years ago NASA discovered the possibility of alien life within our solar system. A probe was launched to collect samples, but crashed upon re-entry over Central America. Soon after, new life form began to appear and half of Mexico was quarantined as an INFECTED ZONE. Today, the American and Mexican military still struggle to contain "the creatures"...... Our story begins when a US journalist agrees to escort a shaken tourist through the infected zone in Mexico to the safety of the US border.
I smell a 'District 9' cash in, in terms of advertising, but we shall see how effective the actual film is. Word of mouth is strong, yet there is no official release date for 'Monsters'.
Wowee, these trailers are certainly dramatic (read Oscar baiting), however they all cannot make it in the end (or can they?)
Let's take a look at the very baity films that are being released in time for the big awards rush.
'Miral'
Julian Schabel's follow up to 'Le scaphandre et le papillon' ('The Diving Bell and the Butterly') find him going political with this extremely interesting story with a killer cast. The Premise goes:
Jerusalem, 1948. On her way to work, Hind Husseini (Hiam Abbass) comes across 55 orphaned children in the street. She takes them home to give them food and shelter. Within six months, 55 had grown to almost 2000, and the Dar Al-Tifel Institute was born.
At the age of 7, Miral (Frieda Pinto) was sent to the Institute by her father following her mothers death. Brought up safely inside the Institutes walls, she is naïve to the troubles that surround her. Then, at the age of 17, she is assigned to teach at a refugee camp where she is awakened to the reality of her peoples struggle. When she falls for political activist, Hani, she finds herself torn between the fight for the future of her people and Mama Hinds belief that education is the road to peace.
The Good - Nice to see Pinto get to stretch her chops in a film that will no doubt be important for a lot of people. The film looks amazing and I am sure it will be an strong emotional and political story. I think it will Abbass who garners the most attention, but Pinto could be a real surprise
The Bad - The wonderful and amazing Hiam Abbass is hardly seen in the trailer, and no sign of Vanessa Redgrave or Willem Dafoe. Odd eh?
The Ugly - Repression of people is never a good thing. In terms of the trailer though, I see nothing ugly in it at all and fully expect this to be a critically acclaimed film if not an awards contender (the Academy are reluctant to embrace other ethnicity's in the actress categories)
'The Town'
Now I was not a fan of 'Gone Baby Gone' but did find it atmospheric and showing promise in Ben Affleck as a director.
The Good - The cast look very impressive with John Hamm, Blake Lively, Ben Affleck, Jeremy Renner, Chris Cooper and Rebecca Hall. I have a distinct feeling that we could be looking at a few contenders in this film, especially in the form of Hamm, Renner, Cooper, Lively and especially Hall.
The Bad - Kind of do not need to see the film now since the trailer has given away far too many plot devises. Not that I could not have guessed the twist, but it seems to take away from the excitement the film could have generated.
The Ugly - Trailers that feel the need to play out the entire movie for you, as though they feel there are no intelligent people out there anymore - here is hoping it has much more to offer.
'Biutiful'
Javier Bardem in his Cannes winning performance - he will be looking for replicate that at the Oscars.
The Good - It is Javier Bardem and Alejandro González Iñárritu who is always interesting to watch. Plus it looks like it will be a very dramatic and gripping story
The Bad - It also looks incredibly bleak and that voice over really upsets me for some reason. It sounds so 'wannabe'
The Ugly - Crime is never a pretty thing, neither is grime. I guess you could argue that rhyming can be ugly too.
'The Social Network'
The story of the beginning of Facebook.
The Good - David Fincher is a wonderful director of suspense, which by the looks of things he is going to wring out of this story. This looks to be his element so I am sure this will be a respected film. Plus the cast of up and comers looks intriguing.
The Bad - Whiny, back-stabbing, money grabbing white kids never really engross me - even if I do use Facebook a little too much.
The Ugly - Farmville, the Facebook game, literally sucked a lot of time away from me. Running home at the speed of light because my tomatoes were about to wither kind of makes you a sad twat.
The wonderful and brilliant character actress Allison Janney has joined what you will all know is one of my very anticipated films of 2011 'The Help'.
She has been cast as Skeeters interfering mother, Charlotte Phelan, and the role is one ripe for scene stealing.
She now joins Emma Stone as aspiring writer Eugenia “Skeeter” Phelan, Viola Davis as Aibileen. Octavia Spencer as Minnie, and Bryce Dallas Howard as Hilly, Skeeter’s childhood friend and adult nemesis.
I tis my belief that Janney is an actress that will one day be embraced by the Academy, she just constantly works so much and is always consistently good - besides, when it does happen, she will have the entire actors branch behind her - she has just worked with everyone.
So apparently 'The Hobbit' is in the casting phase right now. Apparently Peter Jackson has been in London 'meeting with actors'.
There is still no official word on if the man will direct the next two films (I would like to see the financial problems with MGM get fixed first) or if he will pass it on to someone else, however they appear to be going ahead as planned. This is good news for all the costume, set, make up, big-a-ture, and fx people who have no doubt been spending years prepping these films, however with such a troubled pre production once has to wonder just how good the film will have to be to make up for all these headaches.
