2014 is set to be a memorable year for cinema releases with some major titles making an appearance. In part one of of our coverage, David lists his ten films to look forward to.
12 Years a Slave
Steve McQueen deservedly steps into the spotlight with his third film following 2008’s Hunger and 2011’s Shame. The A-List cast features Michael Fassbender, Brad Pitt and Benedict Cumberbatch though they look like being overshadowed by Chiwetel Ejiofor who stars as Solomon Northup, a free man sold into slavery in 1841 New York. The film is released in the UK on the 10th of January.The preview trailer can be found here.
The Wolf of Wall Street
Martin Scorsese teams up with Leonardo DiCaprio for the fifth time for this adaption of Jordan Belfort’s autobiographical tale of how he made millions and then fell foul of the Mob. As ever with Scorsese, you know what to expect as he lifts the lid on the underside of the American Dream and this doesn’t look like disappointing. The no holds barred first trailer for the film can be found here. The wiolf will be unleashed on the 17th of January.
Inside Llewyn Davis
First shown at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival, fans of the Coen Brothers have had to wait patiently for the release of Inside Llewyn Davis, a story of an unlucky New York folk singer. A star-making performance by Oscar Isaac as the title character carries the film’s hopes for the 2014 Academy Awards, while the Coen Brother’s usual quirky casting brings Justin Timberlake into the fold. For a preview and the trailer please go here. The film hits the UK cinemas on the 24th of January.
RoboCop
Paul Verhoeven’s 1987 science-fiction action thriller was an ultra-violent satire which matched the director’s critiques on corporate business, capitalism and the media’s thirst for blood with the American TV staples of Cops and Robbers and Westerns. The question is whether Brazilian director Jose Padilha’s first foray in English language film will keep an eye on the brain of the original alongside the inevitable brawn. For the explosive second trailer please go here. RoboCop is released on the 7th of February.
Her
It’s been a long wait for Spike Jonze to return to the wistful dream-like fables that he made his name with on Being John Malkovich in 1999, before switching to a more youthful audience for 2009’s Where The Wild Things Are. This tale of Joaquin Phoenix’s Theodore who falls in love with his computing operation system,as voiced by Scarlett Johansson , looks promising. The trailer for Her can be found on the moviescramble site, here. Her gets an appropriaterelease on the 14th of February.
The Amazing Spider-man 2
Andrew Garfield returns as Peter Parker in director Mark Webb’s sequel to 2012’s The Amazing Spider-man with Jamie Foxx and Paul Giamatti featuring as villains Electro and Rhino. The first film went some way to successfully wiping away the memory of Sam Raimi’s disastrous 2005 Spider-man 3 but much work remains to re-establish Spider-man as Hollywood’s leading Superhero. The film is released on the 18th of April. You can view the trailer here
Godzilla
Making his name on 2010’s Monsters, Gareth Edwards moves centre stage with another creature feature. A recently released teaser shows Edwards carrying forward the natural directing style he developed on Monsters for his rendering of Japan’s iconic Godzilla. The movie will be released in the UK on the 14th of May.
X-Men: Days of Future Past
Bryan Singer returns as director to the X-Men franchise for this adaption of the classic 1981 comic book storyline by John Byrne and Chris Claremont. An ambitious undertaking which sees characters from Singer’s original films appear alongside their younger versions introduced in Matthew Vaughns’s X-Men First Class in 2011. Brett Ratner’s Last Stand was a notable failure when it came to successfully adapting a classic storyline in the ‘Dark Phoenix’ series, so all hopes are that Singer will succeed where other have failed. The film is released on the 23rd May. The promotional push for the film has included a trask industries teaser as well as the standard teaser trailer.
Transformers : Age of Extinction
A chance to see if Michael Bay learned anything from his sidestep into more mature fare Pain & Gain. This time around there is no Shia Lebouf, Megan Fox and Rosie Huntington-Whitely and in their place Mark Wahlberg, Sophia Myles and Stanley Tucci. The box office return is guaranteed, an improvement on 2011’s Transformers: Dark of The Moon may be harder to predict. The movie will be released on 27th June.
Guardians of the Galaxy
An epic space adventure, Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy expands the Marvel Cinematic Universe into the cosmos. Adventurer Peter Quill, played by Chris Pratt, finds himself the object of an bounty hunt after stealing a mysterious orb coveted by Ronan, a powerful space -villain. To ensure his safety, Quill is forced into an uneasy truce with a quartet of disparate misfits including Rocket, a gun-toting raccoon and Groot, a tree-like humanoid. Whether cinema audiences, who have flocked to see the likes of Iron Man and The Avengers, do the same for the adventures of a CGI -racoon and a tree-man remains to be seen. Guardians is released on the 1st of August.
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