Upcoming Movies

The last film I was looking forward to watching was Mysterious Skin, and it was a stunner. I doubt the ones I want to watch will match its intensity and sensitivity. Even so, not every film I see has to be great of even good.

These are the films I'm looking forward to seeing:

• War of the Worlds I know. It's Tom Cruise. Can we stand to see him in yet another Spielberg movie? Of all the brat pack members, Cruise is the one who's managing his career best. Actors like Drew Barrymore and others are realizing if they want to have good roles, they need to have a marketing engine behind it. Cruise works with great directors, and builds movies around him. The only one that's close to him, and it's not that close, is Johnny Depp. Both have attractive men, but have found roles that are better than those that depend on paparazzi qualities.
  
  Even if Spielberg isn't always successful with his films, there's no denying the man has talent, and that science fiction films often play to his strengths.
  
• Serenity Joss Whedon is a good writer. He writes intriguing dialogue that's a lot smarter than the average screenwriter. Penning the series Firefly upon which this film is based, the one weakness in the film may be its acting. The characters are interesting, but there's no standout among them. It's like watching Star Trek (either series) when the cast went to the big screen. Unlike Star Trek, there's hope that the writing is good for the writer of Buffy and Angel.
  
• Brokeback Mountain Ang Lee has made very good films, but not any (in my opinion) great films. His version of Incredible Hulk was lambasted as much as Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon was lauded. This tells the story of two cowboys who fall in love in the West. Starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Heath Ledger, there's a question about how much risk either actor will take to play these roles.
  
  A friend thinks its possible that the result may be much like The Color Purple where the lesbian aspects were excised to make a film more palatable to red state America (though to be fair, Spielberg seems to find dealing with sexuality very challenging, and tends to avoid it).
  
• Tropical Malady I've yet to see any film by Apichatpong Weerasethakul, clearly the most talented director from Thailand, and perhaps the most talented in Southeast Asia. Whenever Mike D'Angelo puts a film in his top 10 list, I pay attention. This one is number 1 on his list from 2004.
  
• Dallas 362 Number 3 in the 2003 top ten list of Mike D'Angelo. It might make it to the theaters this year, just as Mysterious Skin took 2 years before it was released.
  
• Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit. There have been three Wallace and Gromit films, each lasting about half an hour. Only one was brilliant: The Wrong Trousers. A Close Shave was technically brilliant, but the storyline was weak. This is a full-featured length film. I hope there's a good story line. This is where Pixar shines. It's all about story. Still, it's amazing what they can do with plasticine.
  
• The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe CS Lewis didn't write that many novels, but this was one of the few. From the special effects team that brought you the Lord of the Rings trilogy come the children's fantasy brought to life. Still, there's something scary about selling a film based on its special effects team.
  
• King Kong Peter Jackson cranks out another film. Can he follow up the hugely successful Lord of the Rings trilogy with Jack Black, Adrien Brody, Naomi Watts, and Jamie Bell playing the human roles against Kong (played by Andy Serkis who's getting a reputation as a CGi actor).

Of the films on the list, the top two I want to see are Tropical Malady and Brokeback Mountain.

I'll probably end up seeing Fantastic Four, but it looks bad. Or, at least, average. I'm sure there are a few other good films I haven't heard of that should make this list as the release dates come closer.