> November 4 - Jarhead
>
> Director Sam Mendes' third film (after two greats, American Beauty and Road To Perdition) looks like a step down to me. It's hard to make early calls on movies that obviously don't sell well in trailers (they're often the best movies anyway), but this looks like a ponderous, preachy, pretentious dissertation on everything wrong with those darned right-wing warmongers.

I know we've talked about this, but I completely disagree with you on the trailers. They come off to me as being in the spirit of Three Kings. I'm psyched for this one, even if I thought Mendes' last film was pretty underwhelming.

> November 18 - Walk the Line
>
> One of the more serious contenders for a Best Picture nomination, people have been gushing accolades on this thing on the festival circuit, and Joaquin Phoenix, playing the late Johnny Cash, seems assured of a nomination. What could hurt its chances is the perception that it's this year's "Ray," but it feels like it's more than that.

I finally got around to seeing a trailer and... I'm interested. I'm a big Johnny Cash fan and I nearly died inside when I heard Phoenix was playing The Man in Black, but I'm relatively happy with what I've seen (not to mention the rave reviews). He doesn't look the part so much as he seems to sound the part. He doesn't sound exactly like Cash, but there's a gravity to his voice that rings true.

> November 18 - Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
>
> Terrible teasers evolved into great trailers. This is probably the most anticipated movie of the season, and I'm hoping for a success here as fervently as anybody.

Three directors in four movies? I wonder where this will go. Columbus had sort of set up a style for the franchise and then Cuaron found a way to subtly subvert that style. Now we have Mike Newell, whose filmography is all over the place.

Still, the recent advertising does look fantastic. Goblet is my favorite of the novels so far published, and I think the most cinematic, but I am a little hesitant simply because so much happens it. I'm bracing for significant cuts to the story, but hopefully it won't be wall-to-wall action.

> December 2 - Aeon Flux
>
> Lara Croft surely paved the way for this to get made, a live-action adaptation of an anime franchise. I don't know anything about the show, but, ok, I confess an interest in science fiction warrioresses.

The series was actually American (produced by MTV of all things), so I don't know if it's fair to call it anime. However, that same series was also terrible -- some interesting animation and mood coupled with incomprehensible storytelling -- so I wouldn't expect much from this.

> December 9 - Brokeback Mountain
>
> Ang Lee takes on a western and social history at the same time. Don't care.

The best part of this movie is South Park predicted it. Years ago, there was an episode of the series that was spoofing the Aspen Film Festival. Cartman's take on independent movies? "They're just a bunch of movies about gay cowboys eating pudding and discussing their feelings."

> December 9 - Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe
>
> Unfortunately, comparisons to the Rings trilogy will be inevitable, and I don't know what can stand up to that.

The novels have dealt with that too, and they don't exactly hold up directly, but they're still great (some of them anyway). I just hope that it's decent and does well enough to merit two sequels so I can finally experience my childhood dream of seeing "Voyage of the Dawn Treader" in a movie theater.

I'm still not sold on this adaptation. Strangely, I'm far more emotionally invested in the Narnia books than Lord of the Rings, but I don't think that same level of reverence for the source material is present here.

> December 9 - Memoirs of a Geisha
>
> If Rob Marshall can keep from cutting like Michael Bay, this could be fantastic. The project was attached to Steven Spielberg for years, who would have turned out an entirely different film, I'm sure. Rob Marshall is no Spielberg, but from the looks and sounds of things, he got this one right -- time will tell. Much controversy has been generated over the choice of Zhang Ziyi to play a very Japanese role. Come on, people, that's what acting IS: convincingly portraying someone you are not. If the performance is up to par (the buzz is that it's brilliant), that will justify the casting.

I sort of wonder if you'd feel entirely the same way if Hollywood cast a Chinese actor to play George Washington? It just seems weird to do.

Anyway, the trailer for this flick makes it look pretty lame. A historical think piece about a woman born into an opressive but beautiful world who dreams of something more? By Rob Marshall? Next.

> December 14 - King Kong
>
> Nobody was asking for another King Kong remake, but I don't understand how there can still be naysayers out there.

Because not everybody loves jungle movies like you do. /me says nay nay nay.

I don't care how gorgeous it is, at the end of the day, it's a movie about a giant ape.


> December 16 - The Producers

I haven't seen the musical, but am I the only one who thinks the original film is overrated? Something about Mel Brooks just doesn't click with me.

> December 23 - Munich
>
> Steven Spielberg directs a film about the 1972 Munich Olympics and its aftermath, during which Israeli athletes were gunned down by Palestinian terrorists. Though nobody's seen it, and frankly it'll be a rush to get it done in time for theatrical exhibition on this date, this is already the early frontrunner for the Oscars this year. This shows two things: One, just how much people have come to expect from Spielberg, if just the thought of his name attached to a historically significant drama screams Oscar at people louder than several strong known quantities. Two, just how much the Academy has come around on Spielberg, after spending the first two decades of his career as a notorious snubbee.

Three: how much the Academy loves movies about Jews.

But I'm looking forward to this movie myself. Even Spielberg's lesser movies are worth seeing, but with a project like this you know he's going to be giving it everything he's got (compared to War of the Worlds, where I think he was on autopilot for much of it).

> December 25 - The New World
>
> It's funny, because this is only director Terrence Malick's fourth film. Fourth film, that is, in a 32 year career. The previous three are all classics of one sort or another. Stephen and I have endeavored to have a meaningful conversation about the guy several times, but it always fails, because he's only seen Badlands and Days of Heaven, which he likes a lot, and I've only seen The Thin Red Line, which I don't like at all. Thus, we are both forced to keep open minds until we each manage to see all three. Anyway, expect this to make big awards waves, even if it isn't able to turn nominations into wins.

I'm willing to say that even if Red Line is as bad as you say it is, two great movies out of three is a pretty good track record. And I think we can also agree that Malick is undeniably insane.

Oh, and it's the first major film since Branagh's "Hamlet" to be shot in 70mm. So definitely I'll be driving a ways to see it projected as such.

Stephen