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2009’s biggest blockbuster movies

FINAL CUT

Edsel-Thadeus O. Lorete

01/02/2009

This new year, unlike 2008, promises to be a grand one for Hollywood’s biggest and brightest actors and filmmakers rooting for the Academy Awards. The industry suffered big time from the Hollywood writers’ strike last year, which reduced the usually celebrity-studded Golden Globe Awards into one minuscule television spectacle.

It is payback time! Hollywood, despite the economic setback America is facing now, is gearing for a big commercial bang. Tom Hanks, despite the prevailing negative criticism blown against Dan Brown’s Da Vinci Code and its controversial film version, takes on the Vatican in the major Hollywood sequel Angels and Demons. Denzel Washington messes with train hijackers in The Taking of Pelham 123.

Will Smith returns with another of his thin and cheesy apocalyptic thrillers, playing this man pursuing seven total strangers in Seven Pounds. Brad Pitt takes another shot at an award-winning role playing a man living a full life while strangely aging in reverse in the latest of many feel-good flicks, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, opposite Cate Blanchette.

Christian Bale, based on the theater teaser, gets to play the adult John Connor in the final Terminator chapter, Terminator: Salvation. The movie, concluding the war against intelligent machines, is set in post-apocalyptic 2018.

Roland Emmerich, despite Godzilla and 13th Floor’s failure, is back with 2012, an epic adventure about human survival in a global cataclysm that brings an end to the world. It stars John Cusack (1406) and Amanda Peet (Something’s Gotta Give).

Inspector Jacques Clouseau, played hilariously by Steve Martin, finally meets his nemesis in Chief Inspector Dreyfuss (John Cleese) as they search for the world’s priceless gems in The Pink Panther 2. Jack Black is back in The Year One, Hollywood’s farcical look at the early history of human civilization using Genesis, the first book of the Bible, as war flares up between vampires and werewolves in Underworld: Rise of the Lycans. This is the third and, hopefully, last sequel of its kind.

The International, the story of a determined Interpol agent played by Clive Owen, who tries to bring down the world’s most influential banker financimg crime and terrorism, is another James Bond type thriller to watch out for this January. The Punisher sequel, Punisher: War Zone, makes its big entrance as well, but with Ray Stevenson playing the famed Marvel series comic hero. He wages war against organized criminals.

Happy viewing!

Love and drama

Love is in the air as Hollywood pieces together a slew of its finest romantic tales guaranteed to keep audiences glued to their seats. The Ugly Truth is the story of a romantically challenged morning show producer, played by Katherine Heigl, embroiled in a series of outrageous tests by her chauvinistic correspondent, played by Gerard Butler, to prove his theories on relationships and help her find love. The clever ploy ends up in romance.

Nora Ephron is back with another of her bubbly, intelligent, feel-good romantic flicks. Ephron directs Julie & Julia, a comedy about the real-life story of Julie Powell, who takes on a year-long culinary quest: To cook all 524 recipes in Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking. She chronicles her trials and tribulations in a blog that catches on with the food crowd.

Dylan Walsh stars in The Stepfather, the story of a “family values man” who falls for a single mother played by Sela Ward, and eventually moves in with her and her children. But her teenage son (Penn Badgley) begins to suspect that his stepfather is not quite the dream man he pretends to be.

In Paul Blart: Mall Cap, actor Kevin James plays a young man who loves his job, but his seeming enthusiasm and dedication gets only contempt from his colleagues. He devises a plan to reverse the situation to his advantage.

Kristen Bell plays an ambitious young New Yorker in the drama When in Rome. Disillusioned with love, Bell finds her luck in Rome after plucking magical coins from the famous “foolish fountain love.” Co-starring with Bell are Jon Heder and Danny de Vito.

Meryl Streep and Philip Seymour Hoffman co-star in Doubt, one of the rare film adaptations of a Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award winning play about the quest for truth, the forces of change and the devastating consequences of blind justice.

Bigger family movies

Disney is not far behind with its roster of action and wholesome family blockbusters all slated for a 2009 release. Producer Jerry Bruckheimer (Armageddon) leads Disney’s powerhouse production with the 3D full length feature G Force, a comedy adventure about the latest evolution of a covert government program to train animals to work in espionage. The film’s star-studded voice cast is led by Nicolas Cage, Sam Rockwell and Penelope Cruz.

Pixar’s digital animation Paw, a comedic adventure about a guy named Carl (voiced by Lou Grant’s Ed Asner), who has spent his entire life dreaming of exploring the globe and experiencing life to its fullest. A twist of fate changes that perspective.

Dwayne Johnson is back with another comic feature in Race to Witch Mountain. This remake features the famed American wrestler as a cab driver whose life is thrown into chaos when two apparent runaway teenagers’ paranormal powers jump into his taxi.

Confessions of a Shopaholic, a fancy but wholesome chick flick set in the glamorous world of New York City, features Isla Fisher playing Rebecca, a fun-loving girl who loves shopping and dreams of working in a lucrative fashion magazine.

Beverly Hills Chihuahua, whose trailer has been airing since November about two Chihuahuas, one pampered by her A-list owner and another a street dog, and their adventure in Mexico might just be the ticket to relieve any holiday stress.

Bruce Willis is in the works this time playing an FBI agent investigating the mysterious murder of a college student linked to the man who helped create a high-tech surrogate phenomenon, while Sandra Bullock plays a high-brow book editor who faces deportation to her native Canada in The Proposal.

The Jonas Brothers: The 3D Concert Experience is an added attraction for the boy band’s global fans. The rockumentary blends excerpts from the group’s “Burning Up” concert tour. Hannah Montana: The Movie, which is based on the original Disney television flick about a teenager living a secret pop star lifestyle, is finally coming out this 2009.

Next week Final Cut talks about what the local movie and television industry has in store for year 2009. Watch out for that!