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Buzzman’s Most Anticipated Movies of Q3-2012
Last quarter was a bit of a disappointment with its wide release films. A lot of the bigger budgeted films that had a lot potential either fizzled out before there release or died on their release date. You had some really awful crap in the last three months that you expected to be bad which seemed to make up a lot of the major releases, but ones I thought might have had a chance to have been good like the Dictator, Snow White, or Seeking a Friend wound up being pure meh movies or worse. That’s not to say it didn’t have some great films. The Avengers more than lived up the exceedingly high expectations and Prometheus whether you enjoyed it or not, gained a ton of debate that still seems to be going on today. Aside from those two blockbusters, nothing really stood out. If you looked closer though, much of the smaller releases turned out to be more worthy of your attention. Sound of My Voice, Take This Waltz, Moonrise Kingdom, and Safety not Guaranteed more than excelled at capturing your attention. They more than made up for the lousy shit Hollywood decided to pump out t start the summer and still need to realize bigger is not always better.
#9 | V/H/S (Sept 12th)
You normally can tell what you are going to get from a horror film, which is why they can be some of the most, if not the most, generic movies made today, but V/H/S appears to be none of that. It premiered a while back at a festival I can’t recall and got a lot of good reviews for being original, scary, and shocking. It seems to be a movie about 6 short stories that happen to all by on one videotape. Where they take it and where they can wind up is unforeseen, but the minute the trailer premiere, it stayed on my radar and I cannot wait to see what exactly I get from it.
#8 | Gangster Squad (Sept 7th)
This movie seems destined to be more badass than good. A great time rather than an a great crime drama. I am more than fine with that. Take a Noire style throwback and gather a great range of cast members and can create something awesome. The one thing holding me back a bit though is the director. He made the awesome Zombieland, but then comeback with 30 Minutes or less which was not only unfunny, but had some awful looking action scenes. If you cannot handle it in a movie where people don’t care what it looks like, what are you going to get when they do? I have a felling it’ll be awesome, but the doubt is there that it won’t be.
#7 | Looper (Sept 28th)
I would not be the least bit surprised if Looper ended up being one of the best movies of the year. The trailers have been more than solid, the premise is intriguing, and early buzz on Twitter from a screener awhile back had people praising the hell out of an unfinished product. It certainly gave me awareness to the project, but something seems to be holding me back from truly drooling for it. Maybe it’s the fact that I’ve tried to stay in the dark about the film so I can be a bit more surprised or that Bruce Willis is a co-lead, I don’t know really what it is, but I have a lot of faith it winds up being better than most of the movies on this list.
#6 | Celeste and Jesse Forever (Aug 3rd)
I don’t know what it is about depressing romances that draw me to them, but I love them. Maybe I can relate to seeing the slow collapse of something that was once happy turn into hell, but Celeste and Jesse Forever looks like it’s just that. It won’t be a Blue Valentine or a 500 Days of Summer, but it looks like a good clone formed between the two. I’m curious to see Andy Samberg not going over the top and Rashida Jones in her first lead role. The real problem comes in finding a theater that will be playing this near me, as the rest of movies on this list already have firm theater listings.
#5 | Lawless (Aug 29th)
I thought this movie was going to be more badass than good, but once the reviews from Cannes came out, I have no doubts this will be fantastic. They say it’s a really unsettling crime drama that is super violent and features a wide range of good performances from the always great Tom Hardy all the way down to Shia LeBouf. I can see why the delayed it so long for money reasons, but damn them for making us wait so long. I also dislike the title change, but if that helps it bring in more business, so be it. Cannot wait to see what John Hillcoat has made this time around.
#4 | Cosmopolis (Aug 17th)
I am one of the few that has enjoyed most of Pattinsons work outside of Twilight franchise, and this looks to be his most ambitious role to date. I know nothing about the movie or how its going to work out, but the very random shots in the trailers and the buzz I read about it at Cannes was more good than bad, and I really want to see David Cronenberg return to form after a few less than stellar movies of late. It very well could be the worst movie on this list, but it’s not from a lack of marketing, they really nailed it for me.
#3 | The Perks of Being a Wallflower (Sept 14th)
Another film that I read on paper that got me curious about it, but once the trailer appeared online, it got me drooling. It’s probably my favorite trailer of the year. Its strange because I really do not like the lead Logan Lerman, but he looks alright here. It’s the supporting actors that lead me to the film in the first place. Emma Watson can do no wrong for me, and Eiza Miller was fantastic in last year’s truly overlooked film, We Need To Talk About Kevin. The trailer starts off feel goody, but I have a feeling this will be one depressing movie with just a touch of indie happiness that falls into my perfect genre for a film.
#2 | Killing Them Softly (Sept 21st)
This ranking comes solely off of the director and Brad Pitt. There last collaboration was the epic masterpiece The Assassination of Jesse James. It is one of the best movies I’ve ever seen and it’s a true shame everybody hasn’t even heard of it. How it didn’t get a slew of Oscar nominations is beyond me. I know nothing about this movie besides of few remarks on read in some reviews, and despite being only two months away the marketing has still not been present. I fear it may wound up with the same fate as their other film, but at least time I’ll have the pleasure of catching it in a theater.
#1 | The Dark Knight Rises (July 20th)
There is no other film that could have been on top. The Batman movies have only gotten better and this last installment looks fucking amazing. I don’t even begin to remember if ever a movie ever got me this excited, but I find myself at times just staring into space thinking about it. It’s kind of sad really that this will be the end of Nolan’s Batman, but thank god its almost three hours long, I know even if it’s not a masterpiece I’ll love every minute of it.
Honorable Mentions: Savages | Killer Joe | End of Watch | The Bourne Legacy | Paranorman
Last quarter was a bit of a disappointment with its wide release films. A lot of the bigger budgeted films that had a lot potential either fizzled out before there release or died on their release date. You had some really awful crap in the last three months that you expected to be bad which seemed to make up a lot of the major releases, but ones I thought might have had a chance to have been good like the Dictator, Snow White, or Seeking a Friend wound up being pure meh movies or worse. That’s not to say it didn’t have some great films. The Avengers more than lived up the exceedingly high expectations and Prometheus whether you enjoyed it or not, gained a ton of debate that still seems to be going on today. Aside from those two blockbusters, nothing really stood out. If you looked closer though, much of the smaller releases turned out to be more worthy of your attention. Sound of My Voice, Take This Waltz, Moonrise Kingdom, and Safety not Guaranteed more than excelled at capturing your attention. They more than made up for the lousy shit Hollywood decided to pump out t start the summer and still need to realize bigger is not always better.
#9 | V/H/S (Sept 12th)
You normally can tell what you are going to get from a horror film, which is why they can be some of the most, if not the most, generic movies made today, but V/H/S appears to be none of that. It premiered a while back at a festival I can’t recall and got a lot of good reviews for being original, scary, and shocking. It seems to be a movie about 6 short stories that happen to all by on one videotape. Where they take it and where they can wind up is unforeseen, but the minute the trailer premiere, it stayed on my radar and I cannot wait to see what exactly I get from it.
#8 | Gangster Squad (Sept 7th)
This movie seems destined to be more badass than good. A great time rather than an a great crime drama. I am more than fine with that. Take a Noire style throwback and gather a great range of cast members and can create something awesome. The one thing holding me back a bit though is the director. He made the awesome Zombieland, but then comeback with 30 Minutes or less which was not only unfunny, but had some awful looking action scenes. If you cannot handle it in a movie where people don’t care what it looks like, what are you going to get when they do? I have a felling it’ll be awesome, but the doubt is there that it won’t be.
#7 | Looper (Sept 28th)
I would not be the least bit surprised if Looper ended up being one of the best movies of the year. The trailers have been more than solid, the premise is intriguing, and early buzz on Twitter from a screener awhile back had people praising the hell out of an unfinished product. It certainly gave me awareness to the project, but something seems to be holding me back from truly drooling for it. Maybe it’s the fact that I’ve tried to stay in the dark about the film so I can be a bit more surprised or that Bruce Willis is a co-lead, I don’t know really what it is, but I have a lot of faith it winds up being better than most of the movies on this list.
#6 | Celeste and Jesse Forever (Aug 3rd)
I don’t know what it is about depressing romances that draw me to them, but I love them. Maybe I can relate to seeing the slow collapse of something that was once happy turn into hell, but Celeste and Jesse Forever looks like it’s just that. It won’t be a Blue Valentine or a 500 Days of Summer, but it looks like a good clone formed between the two. I’m curious to see Andy Samberg not going over the top and Rashida Jones in her first lead role. The real problem comes in finding a theater that will be playing this near me, as the rest of movies on this list already have firm theater listings.
#5 | Lawless (Aug 29th)
I thought this movie was going to be more badass than good, but once the reviews from Cannes came out, I have no doubts this will be fantastic. They say it’s a really unsettling crime drama that is super violent and features a wide range of good performances from the always great Tom Hardy all the way down to Shia LeBouf. I can see why the delayed it so long for money reasons, but damn them for making us wait so long. I also dislike the title change, but if that helps it bring in more business, so be it. Cannot wait to see what John Hillcoat has made this time around.
#4 | Cosmopolis (Aug 17th)
I am one of the few that has enjoyed most of Pattinsons work outside of Twilight franchise, and this looks to be his most ambitious role to date. I know nothing about the movie or how its going to work out, but the very random shots in the trailers and the buzz I read about it at Cannes was more good than bad, and I really want to see David Cronenberg return to form after a few less than stellar movies of late. It very well could be the worst movie on this list, but it’s not from a lack of marketing, they really nailed it for me.
#3 | The Perks of Being a Wallflower (Sept 14th)
Another film that I read on paper that got me curious about it, but once the trailer appeared online, it got me drooling. It’s probably my favorite trailer of the year. Its strange because I really do not like the lead Logan Lerman, but he looks alright here. It’s the supporting actors that lead me to the film in the first place. Emma Watson can do no wrong for me, and Eiza Miller was fantastic in last year’s truly overlooked film, We Need To Talk About Kevin. The trailer starts off feel goody, but I have a feeling this will be one depressing movie with just a touch of indie happiness that falls into my perfect genre for a film.
#2 | Killing Them Softly (Sept 21st)
This ranking comes solely off of the director and Brad Pitt. There last collaboration was the epic masterpiece The Assassination of Jesse James. It is one of the best movies I’ve ever seen and it’s a true shame everybody hasn’t even heard of it. How it didn’t get a slew of Oscar nominations is beyond me. I know nothing about this movie besides of few remarks on read in some reviews, and despite being only two months away the marketing has still not been present. I fear it may wound up with the same fate as their other film, but at least time I’ll have the pleasure of catching it in a theater.
#1 | The Dark Knight Rises (July 20th)
There is no other film that could have been on top. The Batman movies have only gotten better and this last installment looks fucking amazing. I don’t even begin to remember if ever a movie ever got me this excited, but I find myself at times just staring into space thinking about it. It’s kind of sad really that this will be the end of Nolan’s Batman, but thank god its almost three hours long, I know even if it’s not a masterpiece I’ll love every minute of it.
Honorable Mentions: Savages | Killer Joe | End of Watch | The Bourne Legacy | Paranorman