YouSeenThat.com: Article
Ten Movies For The 2009 Financial Year
by Jamie - June 29th 2008
With the new financial year just around the corner, YouSeenThat.Com takes a look at ten films which have made it onto our collective radar. Sure, few of them are Oscar contenders, but hell, we struggled to find ten films as it was.
Note: Release schedule based on Australian information provided by IMDB.
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#1. The Dark KnightCast: Christian Bale, Michael Caine, Heath Ledger IMDB Synopsis: ‘Batman and James Gordon join forces with Gotham's new District Attorney, Harvey Dent, to take on a psychotic bank robber known as The Joker, whilst other forces plot against them, and Joker's crimes grow more and more deadly.’ What We Think: After the turd that was Batman Forever, Batman Begins was the much needed reboot that resurrected a dead-in-the-arse franchise. Now with The Dark Knight just around the corner, Batman looks like it will only get bigger and better. Can you say ‘posthumous Oscar to Heath Ledger’? ETA: July 2008 |
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#2. Terminator SalvationCast: Christian Bale IMDB Synopsis: ‘After Skynet has destroyed much of humanity in a nuclear holocaust, a group of survivors led by John Connor struggles to keep the machines from finishing the job.’ What We Think: This Terminator sequel was totally off of our radar until Christian Bale signed on as John Connor. Forget drugged-up Edward Furlong and that complete pussy Nick Stahl, now it’s time for a real man to take on the role of the cyborg-killing savior. We can only hope that Bale breathes some life into yet another stale franchise. ETA: June 2009 |
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#3. X-Men Origins: WolverineCast: Hugh Jackman, Ryan Reynolds, Liev Schreiber IMDB Synopsis: ‘Wolverine lives a mutant life, seeks revenge against Victor Creed (Sabretooth) for the death of his girlfriend, and ultimately ends up going through the mutant Weapon X program.' What We Think: The first cab off the rank for the inevitable X-Men spin-off treatment is the one and only Adamantium-clawed shortarse known as Wolverine. The most interesting part of X-Men Origins: Wolverine may very likely be the first big screen appearances of Deadpool and Gambit. We are salivating at the thought of a possible Deadpool film! ETA: April 2009 |
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#4. Quantum of SolaceCast: Daniel Craig, Judi Dench IMDB Synopsis: ‘Seeking revenge for the death of his love, secret agent James Bond sets out to stop an environmentalist from taking control of a country's water supply.’ What We Think: Christ, yet another stale franchise reinvigorated by a new dark and gritty direction – we sense a pattern emerging here. Daniel Craig came out of relative obscurity to snatch the iconic role of secret agent James Bond in Casino Royale, time to see if he can continue the trend with the unusually titled Quantum of Solace. ETA: November 2008 |
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#5. WatchmenCast: No one you have heard of. IMDB Synopsis: ‘When an ex-superhero is murdered, a vigilante named Rorshach begins an investigation into the murder, which begins to lead to a much more terrifying conclusion.’ What We Think: When nerds talk about great graphic novels, forget Sin City - allegedly the Watchmen is where it’s at. We use the term ‘allegedly’. We don’t read a lot of graphic novels or comics here at YouSeenThat.Com, so let’s see if the big screen adaption can deliver the goods. ETA: March 2009 |
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#6. Death RaceCast: Jason Statham, Ian McShane, Joan Allen IMDB Synopsis: ‘Ex-con Jensen Ames is forced by the warden of a notorious prison to compete in our post-industrial world's most popular sport: a car race in which inmates must brutalize and kill one another on the road to victory.’ What We Think: Death Race brings us a serious re-envisioning of the 1975 Stallone/Carradine film ‘Death Race 2000’ – a cross between The Longest Yard, Cannonball Run and The Fast and the Furious for a Gen-Y crowd. Jason Statham plus Ian McShane equals C-grade awesome! ETA: December 2008 |
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#7. The Bank JobCast: Jason Statham, Saffron Burrows IMDB Synopsis: ‘Based on the true story of the 1971 Baker Street bank robbery which was prevented from being told for over thirty years because of a Government gagging order. The real story of how one of the biggest robberies in British history took place with no arrests ever made nor money ever recovered.’ What We Think: This relatively unheard of UK heist film staring Jason Statham (is there any other kind of UK heist film) has received a lot of praise in the media, so hell, this one certainly has to be worth a look. We all know that Guy Ritchie hasn’t made a decent film since marrying that Madonna sheila… so The Bank Job should tide us over until his divorce is finalised. ETA: July 2008 |
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#8. WantedCast: James McAvoy, Morgan Freeman, Angelina Jolie IMDB Synopsis: ‘A young man finds out his long lost father is an assassin. And when his father is murdered, the son is recruited into his father's old organization and trained by a man named Sloan to follow in his dad's footsteps.’ What We Think: Wanted looks like pure unadulterated rubbish, but hey, is that necessarily a bad thing? Slacker turned professional assassin – something everyone can relate to. ETA: July 2008 |
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#9. Babylon A.D.Cast: Vin Diesel, Michelle Yeoh IMDB Synopsis: ‘Veteran-turned-mercenary Toorop takes the high-risk job of escorting a woman from Russia to China. Little does he know that she is host to an organism that a cult wants to harvest in order to produce a genetically modified Messiah.’ What We Think: Babylon A.D. has the potential to be one of the biggest flops this year, but that didn’t stop us from putting it on the list. Interesting sci-fi/action films are few and far between lately, so let’s hold hands and pray that Vin Diesel can make one decent film in his lifetime. Sadly, we suspect it will be a major flop. ETA: October 2008 |
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#10. Tropic ThunderCast: Ben Stiller, Jack Black, Robert Downey Jr. IMDB Synopsis: ‘Through a series of freak occurrences, a group of actors shooting a big-budget war movie are forced to become the soldiers they are portraying.’ What We Think: It’s almost impossible to believe that we would ever look forward to anything with the name Ben Stiller attached to it, but three simple words changed that. Robert. Downey. Junior. RDJ playing a black dude, who is pretending to be another dude, who is playing an Australian actor. Well, something like that. Think The Three Amigos meets Full Metal Jacket. ETA: October 2008 |
No doubt we will see more films sneak into the release schedule over the next few months, maybe even good films, but that's all we had to work with at the time of writing this article.
See you at the cinema!