Shadow and Flame with Magik

One thing I loved doing, back when I was addicted to the American Film Institute’s Top 100 lists was at the end of the year or the beginning of the next, was look back at the movies of yesterday, in five year intervals.  Remember the days when studios would release anniversary DVDs?  Those days seem to be gone now, or they wait for the 25 or 50 year milestones.  We also are not buying as many DVDs or BluRays as we use too, which I suppose Netflix hurt that.  In my opinion, what really hurt those sales were all of those bare bone DVDs.  I, myself, love a commentary track, and won’t even buy a new disc unless that is on it or at least two or three other features.   I also like to look at the year ahead to see what movies I am going to be interested on, just based off of who is making it or if it is a sequel.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2014_in_film

I should say here, that I list a bunch of these films, and will probably only be able to watch a quarter of them, or lose (or gain) interest as actual promotion comes out.

January

I am very interested in Aaron Eckhart’s I, Frankenstein.  Been reading some good buzz about it and it has been quite some time since the last adaption.

February

The LEGO Movie, there was a time when they were announcing which characters were showing up in it and it sounds awesome.  I know we are going to be getting LEGO Batman and Superman in it.

RoboCop with Michael Keaton and Gary Oldman, and a slew of others.

Pompeii, I want to see, ever since our Italy honeymoon, I’ve been trying to relive it through other means.

March

Mr. Peabody & Sherman, may have been my favorite segment of Bullwinkle and Rocky.  Haven’t seen any footage, hopefully it isn’t like the Smurfs or the Chipmunks live action films.

Need for Speed, looks like Keaton is coming back, yo!

Veronica Mars, we still haven’t made great headway with the series but this might just do it to motivate us.

Bad Words, Jason Bateman directing and starring, after the rough year he had in 2013, this might just turn things around.

Muppets Most Wanted, hopefully Jaosn Segel can show up for just a bit in this one.  Glad Nicholas Stoller is still around as writer.

April

Captain America : Winter Soldier, so excited!  April will be Captain America month like how November was Thor Month here at S&FwM.  I am hoping we start seeing footage of Emily VanCamp soon!  Looking at this, I bet Alan Dale is an evil business man!

Walk of Shame, I do enjoy James Marsden.  Also has Elizabeth Banks and Gillian Jacobs!  Ethan Suplee for good measure as well.

May

Amazing Spider-Man 2, movie gets better and better the more I hear about it.  Chris Cooper is going to own this film!

Legends of Oz : Dorothy’s Return, oooof!  This must be trying to make up for Oz the Great and Wonderful.  Though I already have seen the sequel of Wizard of Oz, and if this one doesn’t have the Pumpkin Prince, then I am passing.  Plus, it has modern day Martin Short, and I can’t handle that guy.

Chef, just the talent alone perks my interest.  Jon Favreau directing and playing.  Sofia Vergara, Scarlett Johansson, Jonny Legs (John Leguizamo), RDJ (Robert Downey Jr.), Dustin Hoffman and Oliver Platt.

Neighbors, Nicholas Stoller stepping into directing now!  Good for him.  Jake Johnson, Seth Rogen, Rose Byrne, Lisa Kudrow, Craig Roberts, this looks to be pretty funny.

Godzilla, I have heard good things but I haven’t seen the trailer yet.

Blended, ha Joel McHale, so I will be on the look out.  Most likely it is a Adam Sandler & Drew Barrymore reunion, so I am weary of that.

X-Men Days of Future Past, oh yeah!  I have some good plans for May here.

Maleficent, this is the first I’ve heard that Paul Dini co-wrote the screenplay.

A Million Ways to Die in the West, Seth MacFarlane’s follow up to Ted.  Has NPH (Neil Patrick Harris) and Sarah Silverman.

June

The Fault of Our Stars, my wife will be interested due to Shailene Woodley being in it.

Jersey Boys, with Clint Eastwood directing and Christopher Walken as one of the cast?  To whom do I give my money to?

Purge 2, didn’t know it made enough money for that but that’s interesting.

July

Deliver Us from Evil has Eric Bana and Olivia Munn with Joel McHale.

Tammy, directed and starring Melissa McCarthy.  Could go one way or another.  Harrison Ford and Dan Aykroyd, I like them.

Two Hercules films in one year?  Oh boy

They are going by Wachowskis now?  That makes sense.

August

Basic Math, Jason Segel and Cameron Diaz, I can do with one and can lose the other.

Looks like Dan Aykroyd is coming back too!

Guardians of the Galaxy, so excited, now that I know Karen Gillan is in it, I am all set for this.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, really hoping that this will be good and we don’t have to go several more years before another Turtle film.

The Giver, I love the novel so much!  Hopefully they don’t screw this up!  Good cast though, Jeff Bridges, Meryl Streep, Alexander Skarsgard, Katie Holms.  Not sure who will play Jonas, but the movie rests on that young man’s shoulders.  Taylor Swift is in it too.

Sin City : A Dame to Kill For, been waiting for this one!

Jane Got a Gun, I feel like I just read something about this the other day that sounded good.  Natalie Portman, will see this eventually.

The Loft, apparently a Thriller.  James Marsden.  Wentworth Miller, haven’t seen him since that episode of SVU he was in.  Eric Stonestreet, I do enjoy the films he chooses, definitely doesn’t want to be type casted.

September

No Good Deed, probably won’t see this but I do enjoy Taraji P. Henson from Person of Interest.

Search Party, has Alison Brie!

This is Where I Leave You, Tina Fey and Jason Bateman! Sold!

October

Gone Girl, NPH in a Thriller!  With Ben Affleck and Tyler Perry in a non Tyler Perry film, so brave David Fincher!

The Interview, Seth Rogen & Evan Goldberg writing and directing again.  This one has Lizzy Caplan!

November

Big Hero 6, still can’t believe Disney went with this as their first animated feature from Marvel.  Hopefully the lack of sales don’t turn them off from making a Pet Avengers film.

Interstellar, Christopher Nolan’s next film!  Excited from that alone.  Huge cast!

Dumb and Dumber To, they finally decided to make this.

The Hunger Games : Mockingjay – Part 1, oof,, that is quite the title.

Horrible Bosses 2, still not sure how they can pull this off.

December

Exodus, Christan Bale as Moses!

The Hobbit : There and Back Again.  Final part of the Hobbit Trilogy.

Annie, hopefully this doesn’t ruin Annie for an entire generation.

No Luke Wilson films unfortunately.  This Luke Evans guy is blowing up though.  No Ryan Reynolds either.

2009

They never did make another Die Hard in a Mall comedy did they?  Shoot!

Already own Dark Knight, Fanboys, Watchmen, I Love You Man, Wolverien Origins, 500 Days of Summer, and Paper Heart

Race to Witch Mountain, wish it was a better film.

Would not mind owning Adventureland, Angels & Demons – had Warrior Pope!  Still need to see Terminator Salvation.  With the way the Hangover movies went, probably never own the first one.  Hurt Locker will be nice to have on the shelf.  Still need Public Enemies for my Bale collection, along with Terminator Salvation.

I still want to see I Love You, Beth Cooper.

One of these days, I will treat my wife to owning all of the Harry Potter films.  That one gorgeous set is like 400 dollars!?!

Cove, such a good documentary, I still think about it.  Should buy it.

Still need to watch Time Traveler’s Wife.  Still need to own Donald Glover’s Mystery Team, such a fun movie.  Still need to watch Extract.  Still need to watch Whiteout too, I’m further behind on my comic book movies than I thought.  I did enjoy the trade.  I remember wanting to watch Love Happens with Aaron Eckhart and Jennifer Aniston.  Still need to own Whip It.

Couples Retreat, should have been so much better with that cast.

Still need to watch The Box with James Marsden.  I have almost bought it on several occasions.  Still need to watch The Men Who Stare at Goats.  Brothers was so good with Jake Gyllenhall and Tobey Maguire.  I liked Natalie Portman in it as well.  If the DVD has good features, I could be tempted to own it.  I really liked Up in the Air, I need to start an Anna Kendrick collection.

2004

I wouldn’t mind owning Win a Date with Tad Hamilton!, such a fun movie.  Probably lose some street cred but I liked it.  If asked who I would want to star as me in a movie, I go to choice has been Topher Grace.  If he an Erica Christensen can do a movie together, that would be awesome.  That’s who I would get to play my wife.  They both have cute noses.  I’m that guy, I guess.

I need to reown Perfect Score, such a fun movie as well.  Sold it as my wife thought it was a dumb movie on premise alone.

I already own : EuroTrip, Passion of the Christ, Club Dredd (I was a big Broken Lizard fan at one time), Scooby Doo 2 (should not be the last live action film with that cast but I can see why it has been), Jersey Girl, Hellboy (still need to own the sequel with that 3 disc set), The Punisher (the Tom Jane one), Napoleon Dynamite, The Notebook, Spider-Man 2 (still the best one), Anchorman, Garden State (sequel should be out one of these days), Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle (still need to own the other two films), Without a Paddle, Cellular, Team America : World Police, Sideways, and Blade : Trinity.

I didn’t even know they made a sequel to Agent Cody Banks.  Can’t believe (or can really believe) that Hilary Duff didn’t come back for it.  Has Frankie Muniz worked since then?

Secret Window, hated.

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, I want to still see.

Remember Anne Hathaway’s Ella Enchanted era of films?  Boy did she break and not break from that mold.  She has had quite the career.  Princess Diaries 2 came out that year too.

Been tempted to watch The Girl Next Door.  Still need to own Shaun of the Dead.  13 Going on 30 is a cute film.

My favorite Harry Potter film, Prisoner of Azkaban came out.  I’ve been told I would like Dodgeball, still haven’t seen it.  The Terminal was a cute movie.

I, Robot, is like my thesis statement on why I hate robots so much.  Should own this but then I will own a robot film.

Halle Bery’s Catwoman, ooof, that movie is turning ten!  That’s the thing about movies, no matter how bad they are, they do get older.  One day Warner Brothers will release an anniversary edition of it one day.

I’ve read something regarding Tom Cruise’s Collateral that made me want to watch this.   Apparently, he is quite bad ass in it.

Little Black Book, I have forgotten that Brittany Murphy passed away.

Alien vs. Predator, would have been better without the humans in it.  I would love to see that movie.  Whatever happen to Sanaa Lathan?  Loved her in Love & Basketball.

Still need to watch Layer Cake.  Heard good things.

Suspect Zero, now that was a truly horrible film.

First Daughter with Katie Holmes and Michael Keaton, was this his last live action film until 2014?  He was awesome as Ken in Toy Story 3.

Saw, I need to own this one and whichever ones has Donnie Walhberg.  The ending to Saw is still one of my favorite endings.

Still not sure why I don’t own The Incredibles, so odd.

Flight of the Phoenix, I still think about this film, should get it one of these days.  Spanglish, my wife really likes.

I remember really liking Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, not sure why others didn’t.  In Good Company, I need to watch one of these days, fully.  I feel like I’ve seen it on television from time to time but never committed to the whole film.  Remember this phase of Scarlet Johansson’s career?  Now she is a megastar.

It never fails, I will almost always own more films from the ten years ago category than the five years ago.  Once we got married, my movie buying ways had to be cleared and most don’t hold make the cut.  Now with Netflix, it is hard to even try to keep the ones we do own, but I like special features and will get rid of bare bone DVDs in a heartbeat.  Still cant’ believe they make bare bone BluRays.  Seems to have completely missed the point of a bigger storage space capacity.  We do live in an era where you can get five dollar BluRays so they are not the Criterion medium like they started off as.

Everyone, thanks for reading!  Not just this post but for the past months!  2014 should be pretty exciting and be safe out there tonight if you are traveling!  Also, be safe if you are indoors!  There are crazies out there!