Review of 2015 from January to August

A couple of months ago we released our top picks for the first half of the year but, with the summer season finishing, we’ll give an overview of the year’s films from a commercial and critical perspective.

Film: Taken 3
Director: Olivier Megaton
Starring: Liam Neeson, Forest Whitaker, Famke Janssen, Maggie Grace, Dougray Scott
IMDb/RT: 6.1/10 – 9%
Budget: $48 million
Opening weekend: $39 million
Box-office: $325 million
Summary: The second highest grossing outing in the series is thankfully the last. There’s been growth since Taken ($226 million) but less than Taken 3 ($376 million).

Film: Blackhat
Director: Michael Mann
Starring: Chris Hemsworth, Leehom Wang, Ritchie Coster, Holt McCallany, Viola Davis
IMDb/RT: 5.4/10 – 34%
Budget: $70 million
Opening weekend: $4 million
Box-office: $18 million
Summary: The star of Thor ($644 million) and Rush ($90 million) and the director of Heat ($187 million) and Collateral ($217 million) should have been a match-up to enjoy but somehow Blackhat flopped.

Film: The Wedding Ringer
Director: Jeremy Garelick
Starring: Kevin Hart, Josh Gad, Kaley Cuco Sweeting, Alan Richson, Jorge Garcia
IMDb/RT: 6.7 – 27%
Budget: $23 million
Opening weekend: $20 million
Box-office: $79 million
Summary: A slip up in comparison to Kevin Hart’s 2014 hit Ride Along ($154 million).

Film: Mortdecai
Director: David Koepp
Starring: Johnny Depp, Gwyneth Paltrow, Ewan McGregor, Olivia Munn, Paul Bettany
IMDb/RT: 5.5/10 – 12%
Budget: $60 million
Opening weekend: $4 million
Box-office: $30 million
Summary: This disastrous caper is proof of former superstar Johnny Depp’s dwindling popularity outside of Pirates.

Film: Jupiter Ascending
Directors: Andy and Lana Wachowski
Starring: Mila Kunis, Channing Tatum, Eddie Redmayne, Sean Bean, Terry Gilliam
IMDb/RT: 5.5/10 – 25%
Budget: $176 million
Opening weekend: $18 million
Box-office: $182 million
Summary: This effort from the creators of The Matrix ($463 million) suffered from its release delays and ridiculously overpriced budget.

Film: Fifty Shades of Grey
Director: Sam Taylor Johnson
Starring: Dakota Johnson, Jamie Dornan, Eloise Mumford, Jennifer Ehle, Marcia Gay Harden
IMDb/RT: 4.2/10 – 25%
Budget: $40 million
Opening weekend: $85 million
Box-office: $570 million
Summary: Being critically reviled didn’t get in the way of this erotic drama.

Film: Kingsman: The Secret Service
Director: Matthew Vaughn
Starring: Taron Egerton, Colin Firth, Samuel L Jackson, Sophie Cookson, Mark Strong
IMDb/RT: 7.8/10 – 75%
Budget: $81 million
Opening weekend: $35 million
Box-office: $406 million
Summary: The spy thriller from Kick-Ass ($96 million) Vaughn turned out to be his most acclaimed and profitable yet, even out grossing the likes of The Bourne Legacy ($276 million).

Film: Focus
Director: Glenn Ficara, John Requa
Starring: Will Smith, Margot Robbie, Rodrigo Santoro, Gerald McRaney, BD Wong
IMDb/RT: 6.6/10 – 57%
Budget: $50 million
Opening weekend: $19 million
Box-office: $159 million
Summary: A strong performance from Smith renews his popularity after the mediocre After Earth ($243 million).

Film: Chappie
Director: Neill Blompkamp
Starring: Sharlto Copley, Dev Patel, Hugh Jackman, Sigourney Weaver, Die Antwoord
IMDb/RT: 7.0/10 – 30%
Budget: $49 million
Opening weekend: $13 million
Box-office: $102 million
Summary: A let down in comparison to Blomkamp’s more lucrative works – District 9 ($210 million) or Elysium ($286 million).

Film: Cinderella
Director: Kenneth Branagh
Starring: Lily James, Cate Blanchett, Richard Madden, Stellan Skarsgard, Helena Bonham Carter
IMDb/RT: 7.1/10 – 85%
Budget: $95 million
Opening weekend: $68 million
Box-office: $542 million
Summary: Branagh’s lavish take on the period fantasy romance has successfully found a new following for the fairy tale.

Film: Insurgent
Director: Robert Schwentke
Starring: Shailene Woodley, Theo James, Miles Teller, Ansel Elgort, Kate Winslet
IMDb/RT: 6.4/10 – 30%
Budget: $110 million
Opening weekend: $53 million
Box-office: $295 million
Summary: The Divergent series has quickly turned out to be the inferior of The Hunger Games.

Film: Home
Director: Tim Johnson
Starring: Jim Parsons, Rihanna, Jennifer Lopez, Matt Jones, Steve Martin
IMDb/RT: 6.7/10 – 45%
Budget: $135 million
Opening weekend: $52 million
Box-office: $387 million
Summary: Dreamworks are struggling to stand out with their new properties in a market dominated by the likes of Warner Bros’ The Lego Movie or Disney’s Frozen.

Film: Get Hard
Director: Etan Cohen
Starring: Will Ferrell, Kevin Hart, Alison Brie, Tip Harris, Craig T Nelson
IMDb/RT: 6.1/10 – 29%
Budget: $40 million
Opening weekend: $34 million
Box-office: $106 million
Summary: The combination of these celebrated comics ought to have been special but didn’t come close.

Film: Furious 7
Director: James Wan
Starring: Vin Diesel, Paul Walker, Dwayne Johnson, Michelle Rodriguez, Jason Statham
IMDb/RT: 7.4/10 – 81%
Budget: $190 million
Opening weekend: $147 million
Box-office: $1.512 billion
Summary: The blockbuster sequel made seven times more than the original did 14 years ago ($207 million) but the series might not have much room to grow into for film eight.

Film: The Avengers: Age of Ultron
Director: Joss Whedon
Starring: Robert Downey Jr, Mark Ruffalo, Scarlett Johansson, Chris Evans, James Spader
IMDb/RT: 7.8/10 – 74%
Budget: $280 million
Opening weekend: $191 million
Box-office: $1.401 billion
Summary: A slight slip up from 2012’s Avengers Assemble ($1.520 billion), the sequel still delivered the goods for the fans.

Film: Pitch Perfect 2
Director: Elizabeth Banks
Starring: Anna Kendrick, Rebel Wilson, Brittany Snow, Hailee Steinfeld, Elizabeth Banks
IMDb/RT: 6.7 – 67%
Budget: $29 million
Opening weekend: $69 million
Box-office: $285 million
Summary: Pitch Perfect is quickly rivaling Jump Street and Bridesmaids to be the best comedy of the decade so far, while growing from the original’s $115 million.

Film: Mad Max: Fury Road
Director: George Miller
Starring: Tom Hardy, Charlize Theron, Rosie Huntington Whitely, Zoe Kravitz, Nicholas Hoult
IMDb/RT: 8.3/10 – 98%
Budget: $150 million
Opening weekend: $45 million
Box-office: $374 million
Summary: A stunningly successful return from the road warrior.

Film: Tomorrowland
Director: Brad Bird
Starring: Britt Robertson, George Clooney, Raffey Cassidy, Tim McGraw, Hugh Laurie
IMDb/RT: 6.6/10 – 50%
Budget: $190 million
Opening weekend: $33 million
Box-office: $208 million
Summary: While it polarized critics, concealing many secrets during marketing may have been the financial downfall of the underrated sci-fi adventure and another disappointment for Disney after John Carter ($284 million) and The Lone Ranger ($260 million).

Film: San Andreas
Director: Brad Peyton
Starring: Dwayne Johnson, Carla Gugino, Alexandra Daddario, Ioan Gruffudd, Paul Giamatti
IMDb/RT: 6.4/10 – 50%
Budget: $110 million
Opening weekend: $55 million
Box-office: $469 million
Summary: The disaster thriller was a success but not a 2012 ($769 million) style smash hit.

Film: Spy
Director: Paul Feig
Starring: Melissa McCarthy, Jason Statham, Rose Byrne, Miranda Hart, Jude Law
IMDb/RT: 7.3/10 – 94%
Budget: $65 million
Opening weekend: $29 million
Box-office: $236 million
Summary: After striking big with Bridesmaids ($288 million) and The Heat ($229 million), Paul Feig is continuing to put himself on a good track for the Ghost Busters reboot.

Film: Jurassic World
Director: Colin Trevorrow
Starring: Chris Pratt, Bryce Dallas Howard, Irrfan Khan, Omar Sy, Vincent D’Onofrio
IMDb/RT: 7.3/10 – 71%
Budget: $150 million
Opening weekend: $208 million
Box-office: $1.642 billion
Summary: With a sequel coming in 2018, the franchise (dormant for fourteen years) is now set for big things.

Film: Inside Out
Directors: Pete Docter, Ronaldo Del Carmen
Starring: Amy Poehler, Phyllis Smith, Richard Kind, Bill Hader, Kyle MacLachlan
IMDb/RT: 8.6/10 – 98%
Budget: $175 million
Opening weekend: $90 million
Box-office: $701 million
Summary: Inside Out has become Pixar’s third biggest original feature.

Film: Ted 2
Director: Seth MacFarlane
Starring: Mark Wahlberg, Seth MacFarlane, Amanda Seyfried, Giovanni Ribisi, Patrick Stewart
IMDb/RT: 6.6/10 – 46%
Budget: $68 million
Opening weekend: $33.5 million
Box-office: $180 million
Summary: A very disappointing follow up to 2012’s Ted ($549 million). After the mediocre performance of MacFarlane’s western A Million Ways to Die in the West ($86 million), there’s increasing doubt in the Family Guy creator’s popularity.

Film: Terminator Genisys
Director: Alan Taylor
Starring: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Emilia Clarke, Jai Courtney, Jason Clarke, JK Simmons
IMDb/RT: 6.9/10 – 26%
Budget: $155 million
Opening weekend: $27 million
Box-office: $352 million
Summary: While it was a healthy opening but the franchise has long lost its previously stellar hype. Still not an improvement on 2009’s Terminator Salvation ($371 million).

Film: Magic Mike XXL
Director: Gregory Jacobs
Starring: Channing Tatum, Matt Bomer, Joe Manganiello, Amber Heard, Jada Pinkett Smith
IMDb/RT: 6.3/10 – 65%
Budget: $14 million
Opening weekend: $123 million
Box-office: $117 million
Summary: The progressive stripper comedy sequel has decreased from Steven Soderbergh’s 2012 original ($167 million) and other raunchy blockbusters have been more profitable – for example Fifty Shades of Grey ($569 million) – but it’s still an impressive tally.

Film: Minions
Directors: Pierre Coffin, Kyle Balda
Starring: Sandra Bullock, Pierre Coffin, Jon Hamm, Michael Keaton, Geoffrey Rush
IMDb/RT: 6.7/10 – 54%
Budget: $74 million
Opening weekend: $115 million
Box-office: $1.004 billion
Summary: This triumphant spin off managed to surpass and compete with the previous instalments of the beloved Despicable Me franchise ($543 million – $970 million).

Film: Ant-Man
Director: Peyton Reed
Starring: Paul Rudd, Evangeline Lilly, Corey Stoll, Michael Pena, Michael Douglas
IMDb/RT: 7.8/10 – 79%
Budget: $130 million
Opening weekend: $57 million
Box-office: $363 million
Summary: It’s an underperformance in comparison to Marvel’s fellow Phase 2 superhero flicks such as Iron Man 3 ($1215 million), Thor: The Dark World ($644 million), Captain America: The Winter Soldier ($714 million) or Guardians of the Galaxy ($774 million) but is a worthy reception for the kings of summer blockbusters.

Film: Trainwreck
Director: Judd Apatow
Starring: Amy Schumer, Bill Hader, Brie Larson, John Cena, Tilda Swinton
Budget: $35 million
Opening weekend: $30 million
Box-office: $123 million
Summary: A traditional fooled-around-and-fell-in-love rom-com might have sank but the presence of rising star Amy Schumer has elevated this to the likes of Apatow’s The 40 Year Old Virgin ($177 million) or Knocked Up ($219 million).

Film: Pixels
Director: Chris Columbus
Starring: Adam Sandler, Kevin James, Josh Gad, Michelle Monaghan, Peter Dinklage
IMDb/RT: 5.6/10 – 17%
Budget: $88 million
Opening weekend: $24 million
Box-office: $174 million
Summary: This sci-fi adventure’s financial reception didn’t live up to the premise but a budget half the size of Tomorrowland’s means that it may actually breakeven at the box-office.

Film: Southpaw
Director: Antoine Fuqua
Starring: Jake Gyllenhaal, Forest Whitaker, Oona Laurence, Naomie Harris, Rachel McAdams
IMDb/RT: 7.8/10 – 60%
Budget: $25 million
Opening weekend: $17 million
Box-office: $67 million
Summary: This sport drama failed to rekindle the mass popularity of boxing flicks such as Rocky ($225 million).

Film: Paper Towns
Director: Jake Schreir
Starring: Nat Wolff, Cara Delevingne, Halston Sage, Jaz Sinclair, Austin Abrams
IMDb/RT: 6.9/10 – 55%
Budget: $12 million
Opening weekend: $13 million
Box-office: $75 million
Summary: A decent opening for the young adult romantic drama but well off the other John Green adaptation The Fault in Our Stars ($307 million).

Film: Vacation
Directors: Jonathan Goldstein, John Francis Daley
Starring: Ed Helms, Christina Applegate, Leslie Mann, Chris Hemsworth, Chevy Chase
IMDb/RT: 6.3/10 – 26%
Budget: $31 million
Opening weekend: $15 million
Box-office: $69 million
Summary: The comedy reboot of the adored Chevy Chase franchise didn’t inspire a great amount of nostalgia for fans of the originals.

Film: Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation
Director: Christopher McQuarrie
Starring: Tom Cruise, Jeremy Renner, Rebecca Ferguson, Simon Pegg, Alec Baldwin
IMDb/RT: 7.8/10 – 93%
Budget: $150 million
Opening weekend: $56 million
Box-office: $445 million
Summary: The Cruise action vehicle builds off the wobble of Edge of Tomorrow ($369 million). The spy series returned in style and will grow throughout the summer.

Film: Fantastic Four
Director: Josh Trank
Starring: Miles Teller, Michael B Jordan, Jamie Bell, Kate Mara, Toby Kebbell
IMDb/RT: 4.0/10 – 8%
Budget: $120 million
Opening weekend: $26 million
Box-office: $134 million
Summary: A superhero reboot full of hope and promise morphed into the year’s most depressing car crash. It was even a decrease from the 2005 film ($330 million) and its sequel ($289 million).

Film: Straight Outta Compton
Director: F Gary Gray
Starring: O’Shea Jackson Jr, Corey Hawkins, Jason Mitchell, Aldis Hodge, Paul Giamatti
IMDb/RT: 8.4/10 – 89%
Budget: $28 million
Opening weekend: $60 million
Box-office: $125 million
Summary: The musical biopic has become one of August’s biggest hits but did smaller numbers than 2002’s Eminem effort 8 Mile ($242 million).

Film: The Man From UNCLE
Director: Guy Ritchie
Starring: Henry Cavill, Armie Hammer, Alicia Vikander, Elizabeth Debicki, Hugh Grant
IMDb/RT: 7.6/10 – 67%
Budget: $75 million
Opening weekend: $13 million
Box-office: $57 million
Summary: The star studded spy thriller from the director of the Sherlock Holmes films ($524 million – $545 million) has struggled to find a home with fans.

Ant-Man review

Director: Peyton Reed

Starring: Paul Rudd, Michael Douglas, Evangeline Lilly, Corey Stoll, Michael Pena, Bobby Cannavale, Judy Greer, Abby Ryder Fortson, Tip Harris, David Dastmalchian, Martin Donovan, John Slattery, Hayley Atwell

The production of Ant-Man is the most troubled in the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s history: the departure of fan favourite director Edgar Wright seemed to leave an irreplaceable hole in the superhero production. His replacement – rom-com filmmaker Peyton Reed who’s credits include the mediocre Bring It On, The Break-Up and Yes Man – didn’t inspire a great amount of confidence but the flick might have been able to overcome its rough road to the big screen.

Low level thief Scott Lang (Rudd) is released from prison and attempts to fund his estranged daughter (Ryder Fortson) by breaking into the house of an old inventor/businessman Hank Pym (Douglas) and stumbles across a suit that can shrink its user to the size of an ant. Pym then recruits and trains him to pull off a heist to prevent Pym’s former pupil and successor of his company from using that technology for evil.

Despite concerns, Peyton Reed has managed to pull off an accomplished superhero adventure even though he was only drafted into the project just over a year ago. The studio’s trick of banking on a risky candidate for the director’s chair (Joss Whedon in Avengers, Anthony and Joe Russo in The Winter Soldier, James Gunn in Guardians of the Galaxy) often pay off more frequently than films from seasoned filmmakers (Joe Johnston in The First Avenger, Kenneth Branagh in Thor).

While sequels such as Avengers: Age of Ultron seek to take the action to new heights in scale and stakes, Ant-Man cleverly brings the action to a smaller stage to make some of the more preposterous events more relatable. However because of that it often feels more like a charming sidenote to the films that are actually developing and expanding the MCU. The film still impresses off of its conservative $130 million budget (less than half the cost of this year’s Age of Ultron) but the special effects, while far from second rate, are also far from the groundbreaking likes of the similarly budgeted Rise of the Planet of the Apes or Life of Pi.

The film’s ensemble of performances are decent but never prove to be as engaging as the likes of Robert Downey Jr, Chris Evans, Scarlett Johansson or Chris Pratt. Anchorman star Paul Rudd’s portrayal of Scott Lang is likable the first act, bringing Rudd’s trademark flair and charisma but also being far more down to Earth than either his previous work or various other heroes in the MCU. Sadly, later on in the film, he struggles from the same problem of Andrew Garfield’s Spider-Man: once Lang is in the suit he’s hard to appreciate as a character and sinks to just being a vehicle for the action, a problem that Downey Jr’s Iron Man easily overcame with the in-suit camera to capture Stark’s typically arrogant persona in the midst of an epic fight sequence.

Two time Oscar winner Michael Douglas’ aging inventor Hank Pym who becomes Scott’s mentor exists as this film’s venerable-actor slot (previously occupied by Anthony Hopkins, Robert Redford or Samuel L Jackson). His performance is distinctly standard as the world weary original Ant-Man, a 1970s SHIELD project that turned sour after a fatal final mission. Pym’s infamous temper and checkered past are alluded to but never actually deepen the character or effect the plot.

Similarly, Lost alumni Evangeline Lilly’s role as Pym’s hard edged daughter Hope is one of the better aspects of the cast but is frustratingly written out of the finale and never significantly contributes to the action. A post credit scene teases the future of the character of Wasp but the filmmakers disappointingly missed out on not providing a platform for the fan favourite sooner.

House of Cards star Corey Stoll manages to prove why Marvel’s villains are some of the weakest around. Crooked businessman Daniel Cross is sadly one of the more generic, cookie-cutter stock villains in the MCU so far; his motivations are never explained until they’re no longer relevant to the plot and he becomes an attempted child murderer and terrorist, besides the unconvincing implication of his disappointment in Hank in a mentor. Too many elements of his story tread on the toes of Obadiah Stane (a wealthy sucessor of a protagonist’s business who turns his power and technology to terrorism) and Loki (a spoiled protegee who turns on his disappointment of a father figure). Despite the success of James Spader’s Ultron earlier this year, Marvel’s issue with bad guys appears to be ongoing.

The main gem among the ensemble is Michael Pena’s performance as Lang’s hyperactive, fast talking and eternally optimistic partner in crime, Luis. The role is one of the best original characters in the series so far and Pena’s electric double act with Rudd is one of the few pairing’s in the film with a tangible dynamic. Sadly, the other members of Lang’s crew don’t match up: two outdated racial stereotypes played by David Dastmalchian and rapper T.I.

The film struggles to find use of the talents of Judy Greer (Archer) and Bobby Cannavale (Blue Jasmine) as Scott’s estranged ex-wife Maggie and her new husband/cop Paxton but there was a surprisingly likeable performance from newcomer Abby Ryder Fortson as Scott’s young daughter Cassie. Overall, too many members of the ensemble are stand-ins (only present to advance the plot or fill time) with no real emotional connection to the story or the audience.

However, Ant-Man thrives in other moments: the shrinking sequences (while hardly groundbreaking) are entertaining and well executed and thankfully Marvel’s formula of the finale setting up the heroes to defend a city from an aerial threat is finally retired with one of the studio’s most funny thrilling and refreshing endings in years. Additionally, Lang’s close encounter with an Avenger is a hilarious highlight. Aside from the action, the humorous elements suffice (“Baskin Robbins always finds out.”) but never reach the erudite heights of Joss Whedon’s zingers in Avengers or James Gunn’s iconic dialogue in Guardians of the Galaxy.

While it’s unquestionably enjoyable, exciting and action packed, years from now Ant-Man will most likely go down as one of the more lightweight and less revolutionary flicks in the Marvel cannon. Far from disappointing, Peyton Reed has done a fine job considering his short amount of time at the helm of the film but (with the exclusion of Edgar Wright) many fans will leave wondering what could have been.

7/10

“Scott, I need you to be the Ant-Man.”

“One question…is it too late to change the name?”

Summer box-office part 1 – Ant-Man, M:I-5, Ted 2, Terminator 5, Minions and more!

Its been a while since our last box-office update so in this instalment we’ll roundup the best of the summer so far. The pre-Summer cash-in period was dominated by the likes of superhero smash hit sequel The Avengers: Age of Ultron ($1396 million), Pixar’s acclaimed animation Inside Out ($556 million), fast follow up Furious 7 ($1512 million), musical comedy Pitch Perfect 2 ($282 million), disaster thriller San Andreas ($461 million), action reboot Mad Max: Fury Road ($367 million) and the multi-record breaking dinosaur mayhem of Jurassic World ($1547 million). Moving into July, here some major favourites.

Film: Ted 2
Director: Seth MacFarlane
Starring: Mark Wahlberg, Seth MacFarlane, Amanda Seyfried, Giovanni Ribisi, Patrick Stewart
Budget: $68 million
Opening weekend: $33.5 million
Box-office: $160 million
Summary: A very disappointing follow up to 2012’s Ted ($549 million). After the mediocre performance of MacFarlane’s western A Million Ways to Die in the West ($86 million), there’s increasing doubt in the Family Guy creator’s popularity.

Film: Terminator Genisys
Director: Alan Taylor
Starring: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Emilia Clarke, Jai Courtney, Jason Clarke, JK Simmons
Budget: $155 million
Opening weekend: $27 million
Box-office: $318 million
Summary: While it was a healthy opening but the franchise has long lost its previously stellar hype.

Film: Magic Mike XXL
Director: Gregory Jacobs
Starring: Channing Tatum, Matt Bomer, Joe Manganiello, Amber Heard, Jada Pinkett Smith
Budget: $14 million
Opening weekend: $12.9 million
Box-office: $102 million
Summary: The progressive stripper comedy sequel has decreased from Steven Soderbergh’s 2012 original ($167 million) and other raunchy blockbusters have been more profitable – for example Fifty Shades of Grey ($569 million) – but it’s still an impressive tally.

Film: Minions
Directors: Pierre Coffin, Kyle Balda
Starring: Sandra Bullock, Pierre Coffin, Jon Hamm, Michael Keaton, Geoffrey Rush
Budget: $74 million
Opening weekend: $115 million
Box-office: $854 million
Summary: This triumphant spin off managed to surpass and compete with the previous instalments of the beloved Despicable Me franchise.

Film: Ant-Man
Director: Peyton Reed
Starring: Paul Rudd, Evangeline Lilly, Corey Stoll, Michael Pena, Michael Douglas
Budget: $130 million
Opening weekend: $57 million
Box-office: $291 million
Summary: It’s an underperformance in comparison to Marvel’s fellow Phase 2 superhero flicks such as Avengers Assemble ($1519 million), Iron Man 3 ($1215 million), Thor: The Dark World ($644 million), Captain America: The Winter Soldier ($714 million), Guardians of the Galaxy ($774 million) and The Avengers: Age of Ultron ($1396 million) but is a worthy reception for the kings of summer blockbusters.

Film: Trainwreck
Director: Judd Apatow
Starring: Amy Schumer, Bill Hader, Brie Larson, Colin Quinn, Tilda Swinton
Budget: $35 million
Opening weekend: $30.1 million
Box-office: $80 million
Summary: A traditional fooled-around-and-fell-in-love rom-com might have sank but the presence of rising star Amy Schumer has elevated this to the likes of Apatow’s The 40 Year Old Virgin ($177 million) or Knocked Up ($219 million).

Film: Pixels
Director: Chris Columbus
Starring: Adam Sandler, Kevin James, Josh Gad, Michelle Monaghan, Peter Dinklage
Budget: $88 million
Opening weekend: $24 million
Box-office: $102 million
Summary: This sci-fi adventure’s financial reception didn’t live up to the premise but a budget half the size of Tomorrowland’s means that it may actually breakeven at the box-office.

Film: Southpaw
Director: Antoine Fuqua
Starring: Jake Gyllenhaal, Forest Whitaker, Oona Laurence, Naomie Harris, Rachel McAdams
Budget: $25 million
Opening weekend: $16.7 million
Box-office: $34.2 million
Summary: This sport drama failed to rekindle the mass popularity of boxing flicks such as Rocky ($225 million).

Film: Paper Towns
Director: Jake Schreir
Starring: Nat Wolff, Cara Delevingne, Halston Sage, Jaz Sinclair, Austin Abrams
Budget: $12 million
Opening weekend: $12.7 million
Box-office: $49.5 million
Summary: A decent opening for the young adult romantic drama but well off the other John Green adaptation The Fault in Our Stars ($307 million).

Film: Vacation
Directors: Jonathan Goldstein, John Francis Daley
Starring: Ed Helms, Christina Applegate, Leslie Mann, Chris Hemsworth, Chevy Chase
Budget: $31 million
Opening weekend: $14.9 million
Box-office: $22 million
Summary: The comedy reboot of the adored Chevy Chase franchise didn’t inspire a great amount of nostalgia for fans of the originals.

Film: Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation
Director: Christopher McQuarrie
Starring: Tom Cruise, Jeremy Renner, Rebecca Ferguson, Simon Pegg, Alec Baldwin
Budget: $150 million
Opening weekend: $56 million
Box-office: $121 million
Summary: The Cruise action vehicle builds off the wobble of Edge of Tomorrow ($369 million). The spy series returned in style and will grow throughout the summer.

Paul Rudd in new Ant-Man poster, Emily Blunt in Sicario trailer and Kick-Ass sequel talk

Matthew Vaughn (Kingsman: The Secret Service, Layer Cake, Stardust, X-Men: First Class) most celebrated film was the ingenious superhero satire Kick-Ass. As well as brilliant turns from Aaron Taylor Johnson, Christopher Mintz Plasse and Mark Strong, the most outstanding performances came from Nicolas Cage (Leaving Las Vegas, Lord of War) and Chloe Grace Moretz (Hugo, Clouds of Sils Maria) as the duo of superheroes Big Daddy and Hit Girl. The disappointing Kick-Ass 2 had Jeff Wadlow in place of Vaughn and seemed to derail the franchise.

Vaughn has now revealed that he’s developing a Big Daddy/Hit Girl based spin off as well as a straightforward sequel. “We’re working on an idea for a prequel of how did Hit-Girl and Big Daddy become Hit-Girl and Big Daddy,” he said. “If we make that, hopefully that will be the sorbet for the people that didn’t like Kick-Ass 2 and then we can go off and make ‘Kick-Ass 3’ I think we’ve got to do this prequel to regain the love that we had with ‘Kick-Ass.” We expect the prequel to star Cage and Moretz and Kick-Ass 3 to star Aaron Taylor Johnson (Godzilla, The Avengers: Age of Ultron).

The unimpressive first poster for Ant-Man may have put some off the Marvel sci-fi blockbuster but it seems to be getting its marketing right in these stylish new shots. Peyton Reed (Yes Man) directs the cast of Paul Rudd (Anchorman, Knocked Up), Evangeline Lilly (Lost, The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug), Corey Stoll (House of Cards, Salt), Michael Pena (End of Watch, American Hustle), Judy Greer (Archer, Jurassic World), Bobby Cannavale (Chef, Blue Jasmine) and Michael Douglas (The Game, Falling Down).

After receiving acclaim at Cannes, the Oscar-tipped action thriller Sicario has debuted its first trailer in breathtaking style. Denis Villeneuve (Enemy, Prisoners) directs the cast of Emily Blunt (Edge of Tomorrow, Into the Woods, Looper), Benicio Del Toro (Guardians of the Galaxy, Traffic, The Usual Suspects), Jon Beranthal (Fury, Me and Earl and the Dying Girl, The Wolf of Wall Street) and Josh Brolin (American Gangster, Inherent Vice, No Country for Old Men).

Ant-Man – July 17th

Sicario – September 15th

Hit Girl – 2018?

Kick-Ass 3 – 2019?

New poster for Marvel’s Ant-Man

Marvel Studios took a major gamble last year with Guardians of the Galaxy, a sci-fi action that picked up on one of the comics’ little known properties, and gained one of their biggest ever hits. Ant-Man seems even riskier with various dropouts from director Edgar Wright (Shaun of the Dead), composer Steve Price (Gravity) and supporting star Patrick Wilson (The Conjuring) seemingly plaguing the film. The new poster however is significantly more promising than the last.

Ant-Man stars Paul Rudd (Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy, Knocked Up), Evangeline Lilly (Lost, The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug), Corey Stoll (House of Cards, The Strain), Bobby Cannavale (Danny Collins, Blue Jasmine), Judy Greer (Archer, Men Women & Children), Michael Pena (End of Watch, American Hustle) and Michael Douglas (The Game, Wall Street).

Ant-Man – July 17th

Marvel double bill: new Spider-Man director shortlist and poster for Ant-Man

Spider-Man has been absorbed into the world of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and it appears as if the casting of Peter Parker is in place – either Hugo’s Asa Butterfield or The Impossible’s Tom Holland one of whom will debut the role in next year’s Captain America: Civil War. We reckoned that the newly announced Cap’ 3 cast member Martin Freeman (The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, Sherlock, Fargo) will play villain Norman Osborn. We also thought that The Cabin in the Woods’ Drew Goddard would helm the film but Marvel had produced an alternative director’s shortlist.

The lineup includes Jonathan Levine (50/50, Warm Bodies), Ted Melfi (St Vincent), Jason Moore (Pitch Perfect), Jared Hess (Napoleon Dynamite) and the duo John Francis Daley & Jonathan M Goldstein (Horrible Bosses). Honestly, none of the names are especially exciting considering that Marvel have let names like Edgar Wright (Shaun of the Dead) and Patty Jenkins (Monster slip by in the past. We’d rather see a classier hiring like Nikoaj Arcel (A Royal Affair), who nearly made Doctor Strange or someone with a Sam Raimi-like horror heritage like Aussie newcomer Jennifer Kent (The Babadook).

Our final item today is the first major poster for Marvel’s other upcoming sci-fi action Ant-Man and we can best describe the one sheet as truly awful. The first point of business is the remarkably dull colour scheme, which is highlighted in all its horror when you compare it to the colourful shots for Guardians of the Galaxy (below).

Next, while it’s good to see two time Oscar winner Michael Douglas adding some class to proceedings his on screen daughter, Evangeline Lilly who played an eternally youthful Elf in The Hobbit films, looks like an aged version of Cate Blanchett’s woeful Ukrainian explorer Irina Spalko from Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. There’s good points with the suit making a guy called Ant-Man actually appear cool and new villain Darren Cross looking very sinister (or unhappy, still undecided) in the bottom left corner but Cross’ unfathomably generic sun-bespectacled henchman and two guys called Paxton and Luis on the right looking like they’ve been pulled off the set of a dull economic drama make this poster, overall, a hideously constructed disaster.

Ant-Man is directed by Peyton Reed and stars Paul Rudd (Anchorman, Knocked Up), Evangeline Lilly (Lost, The Hobbit), Corey Stoll (House of Cards, The Strain), Michael Pena (American Hustle, The Lincoln Lawyer), Judy Greer (Archer, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes), Bobby Cannavale (Danny Collins, Blue Jasmine) and Michael Douglas (The Game, Wall Street, Behind the Candelabra).

Ant-Man – July 17th

Spider-Man – July 28th 2017

Del Toro’s Crimson Peak releases trailer, SNL 40 lineup, Cotillard joins Assassin’s Creed and castings and images fro Deadpool

Until fairly recently, the gaming adaptation Assassin’s Creed was still set for a ridiculous August 2015 release date, before production and most of the casting, but there was then a eighteen month delay. Michael Fassbender (X-Men: First Class, Prometheus, 300, Shame, 12 Years a Slave) will star as a modern day man who’s forced to relive the memories of his ancestors, who are members of an ancient order while Justin Kurzel (Snowtown) directs.

A new addition is Marion Cotillard, the French-born Oscar winning star of Inception, The Dark Knight Rises, Big Fish, Two Days One Night, Rust and Bone, Contagion, La Vie en Rose, Midnight in Paris and Public Enemies. She teams with her future Macbeth co-star Fassbender in a undisclosed role.

Safe House star Ryan Reynolds and director Tim Miller have been lobbying for a greenlight for so long on mutant spinoff Deadpool and it’s finally on its way. On on set image reveals Wade Wilson’s iconic mask, pleasingly not tampered with from the comic book depiction, while some strides are being made in the casting department. Gina Carano (Fast and Furious 6, Haywire) has joined while three time X-Men star Daniel Cudmore will reprise his rule as Colossus.

It came close to topping our most anticipated list for 2015 and we can now reveal the very first look at Crimson Peak. Pan’s Labyrinth’s Guillermo Del Toro brings us this bold new horror entry which sees a young author lured into a reclusive house by her secretive new husband. It stars Mia Wasikowska (Stoker, Maps to the Stars), Tom Hiddleston (Thor, War Horse), Jessica Chastain (Interstellar, Zero Dark Thirty), Charlie Hunnam (Pacific Rim, Sons of Anarchy) and Doug Jones (Hellboy).

Many Americans will know that this weekend heralds the fortieth anniversary of the sketch show Saturday Night Live and we’ll give a special mention to the phenomenal ensemble of their new special including:

Adam Sandler (actor – Happy Gilmore)
Alec Baldwin (actor – 30 Rock, The Departed, Beetlejuice, The Hunt for Red October)
Amy Poehler (actress – Parks and Recreation)
Andy Samberg (actor – Brooklyn Nine Nine)
Bill Hader (actor – The Skeleton Twins)
Bill Murray (actor – Ghost Busters, Lost in Translation, Groundhog Day)
Billy Crystal (actor – Monsters Inc, When Harry Met Sally)
Bradley Cooper (actor – Guardians of the Galaxy, American Sniper, The Hangover)
Catherine Zeta Jones (actress – The Terminal, Chicago)
Charlie Day (actor – Horrible Bosses, The Lego Movie)
Chris Rock (actor – Madagascar, Top Five)
Christopher Walken (actor – Catch Me if You Can, Pulp Fiction)
Dan Aykroyd (actor – Ghostbusters, The Blues Brothers)
Eddie Murphy (actor – Shrek, Beverly Hills Cop)
Edward Norton (actor – Fight Club, The Bourne Legacy, Birdman)
Emma Stone (actress – Easy A, The Amazing Spider-Man)
George Lucas (director – Star Wars, American Graffiti)
Glenn Close (actress – Guardians of the Galaxy, Mars Attacks)
JK Simmons (actor – Whiplash, Spider-Man)
Jack Nicholson (actor – The Shining, The Departed, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Batman)
James Franco (actor – 127 Hours, Spider-Man, The Interview)
Jim Carrey (actor – The Truman Show, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Dumb and Dumber)
John Goodman (actor – The Artist, Argo, Monsters Inc, The Big Lebowski)
Kristen Wiig (actress – Bridesmaids, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty)
Martin Short (actor – Innerspace, !Three Amigos!)
Maya Rudolph (actress – Bridesmaids, Away We Go)
Melissa McCarthy (actress – Bridesmaids, The Heat, St Vincent)
Michael Douglas (actor – The Game, Wall Street, Ant-Man)
Mike Myers (actor – Wayne’s World, Shrek, Austin Powers)
Paul Rudd (actor – Anchorman, Knocked Up)
Robert De Niro (actor – The Godfather Part II, Goodfellas, Heat, Casino)
Sarah Silverman (actress – School of Rock, Wreck It Ralph)
Sigourney Weaver (actress – Avatar, Aliens)
Steve Martin (actor – Cheaper by the Dozen)
Steven Spielberg (director – ET, Jurassic Park, Schindler’s List, Saving Private Ryan, Jaws, Raiders)
Tina Fey (actress/writer – 30 Rock, Mean Girls)
Tom Hanks (actor – Toy Story, Cast Away, Forrest Gump, Captain Phillips, Saving Private Ryan, Big)
Will Ferrell (actor – Anchorman, The Lego Movie, Elf, Step Brothers)
Zach Galifianakis (actor – The Hangover, The Campaign, Into the Wild, Birdman)

Crimson Peak – October

Deadpool – February 2016

Assassin’s Creed – December 2016

The 2015 Preview Issue

2015 is the new 2012 (The Avengers, The Dark Knight Rises, Skyfall, The Hunger Games, The Hobbit), which itself was the new 1999 (The Sixth Sense, The Phantom Menace, The Matrix, Two Story 2). Its releases should not only be huge financial successes but promise to be delightful watches as well. Here’s what we reckon will be topping the year’s box office in twelve months time.

1. The Avengers: Age of Ultron – Director: Joss Whedon – $1.7 billion
2. Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens – JJ Abrams – $1.4 billion
3. Spectre – Sam Mendes – $1.2 billion
4. The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1 – Francis Lawrence – $925 million
5. Furious 7 – James Wan – $875 million
6. Minions – Kyle Balda, Pierre Coffin – $800 million
7. Jurassic World – Colin Trevorrow – $775 million
8. Inside Out – Pete Docter – $725 million
9. Mission: Impossible 5 – Christopher McQuarrie – $700 million
10. Ant-Man – Peyton Reed – $675 million
11. The Good Dinosaur – Peter Sohn – $625 million
12. Ted 2 – Seth MacFarlane – $600 million
13. Terminator Genisys – Alan Taylor – $575 million
14. The Fantastic Four – Josh Trank – $550 million
15. Tomorrowland – Brad Bird – $525 million

We reckon The Avengers sequel will edge Star Wars seeing as the former series’ commercial success is actually growing. Pixar’s double-billed return to original storytelling with Inside Out and The Good Dinosaur should score them impressively but Minions will triumph on the animation front. The only other original work we expect to see doing well is sci-fi adventure Tomorrowland. The race in the new crop of reboots will be won by Jurassic World, beating off competition from Terminator and Fantastic Four. Close to gracing the Top 15 will be sequels to YA franchises (The Maze Runner: Scorch Trials, Insurgent) and there might be an upset for Chris Columbus/Adam Sandler comedy Pixels and Joe Wright/Hugh Jackman fantasy adventure Pan. Should it finally get a major release, The Interview may well be a smash hit.

Now here are our top twenty to one most anticipated releases of the year.

20) The Fantastic Four

Director: Josh Trank
Writers: Josh Trank, Simon Kinberg, Jeremy Slater, TS Nowlin
Starring: Miles Teller, Jamie Bell, Kate Mara, Michael B Jordan, Toby Kebbell
Premise: For a very long time, next to nothing had been revealed about Fox’s Fantastic Four reboot. Star Wars took a similar approach and that sent fans running wild with speculation but no such hype surrounded the FF, exposing a serious lack of interest. Still, Chronicle’s Trank is a promising hope and the the high-end castings of Teller (Whiplash), Bell (Bill Elliot), Mara (House of Cards), Kebbell (Dawn of the Planet of the Apes) and Jordan (Fruitvale Station) ought to liven things up.
Release: August 6th

19) Everest

Director: Baltasar Kormakur
Writers: William Nicholson, Mark Medoff, Justin Isbell, Lem Dobbs, Simon Beaufoy
Starring: Jake Gyllenhaal, Josh Brolin, Keira Knightley, Sam Worthington, Robin Wright, Jason Clarke, Elizabeth Debicki, John Hawkes, Emily Watson
Premise: An absolute first-rate cast from two teams who embark on an expedition to the peak of the world’s highest mountain, where they also face the world’s toughest terrain. The stills so far reveal some spectacular drama.
Release: October 2nd

18) Mission: Impossible 5

Director: Christopher McQuarrie
Writers: Drew Pearce, Will Staples
Starring: Tom Cruise, Simon Pegg, Jeremy Renner, Paula Patton, Alec Baldwin, Rebecca Ferguson, Sean Harris, Ving Rhames
Premise: It’s hard to get excited when all we have to go on is a few on-set snaps but we can still expect a high-end spectacle of action. Uniting Cruise and McQuarrie (star/writer of Edge of Tomorrow) is a solid move and the returning cast of Ghost Protocol (Pegg, Renner, Patton) hints at more franchise continuity than before.
Release: December 26th

17) The Man From UNCLE

Director: Guy Ritchie
Writers: Guy Ritchie, Lionel Wigram, Jeff Kleeman, David Campbell Wilson
Starring: Henry Cavill, Armie Hammer, Alicia Vikander, Hugh Grant, Elizabeth Debicki, Jared Harris
Premise: Bond and Hunt are both set in stone in their nationalities but spy reboot The Man From UNCLE pitches a teaming up of the American Napoleon Solo (Cavill) and the Russian Illya Kuryakin (Hammer). With Sherlock Holmes/Snatch director Guy Ritchie helming it ought to be a truly gripping thriller.
Release: August 14th

16) Child 44

Director: Daniel Espinosa
Writers: Richard Price
Starring: Tom Hardy, Gary Oldman, Noomi Rapace, Paddy Considine, Jason Clarke, Dev Patel, Joel Kinnaman, Charles Dance
Premise: In Stalin-era Soviet Union, a detective investigates a series of murder, the complication is that the state believes crime doesn’t exist. The cast alone is enough of a reason to get interested and Daniel Espinosa proved his action credentials in Safe House.
Release: April 17th

15) Minions

Director: Kyle Balda, Pierre Coffin
Writer: Brian Lynch
Starring: Pierre Coffin, Chris Renaud, Sandra Bullock, Jon Hamm, Michael Keaton
Premise: There are very few well favoured comedy spin offs but the first trailer for Despicable Me’s spawn the Minions looked promising.
Release: June 26th

14) Untitled Steven Spielberg Cold War Project

Director: Steven Spielberg
Writers: Matt Charman, Joel and Ethan Coen
Starring: Tom Hanks, Amy Ryan, Alan Alda, Mark Rylance
Premise: We know nothing more than the title suggests but another collaboration between Spielberg (Jaws, ET, AI, Minority Report, Schindler’s List, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Jurassic Park) and Hanks (Forrest Gump, Captain Phillips, Cast Away, The Green Mile, Road to Perdition) is a huge attention grabber. The pair’s previous collaborations are Catch Me If You Can, The Terminal and Saving Private Ryan.
Release: October 9th

13) Chappie

Director: Neill Blomkamp
Writers: Neill Blomkamp, Terri Tatchell
Starring: Sharlto Copley, Hugh Jackman, Dev Patel, Sigourney Weaver
Premise: The director of District 9 takes on a slightly more light hearted venture as Chappie, a discarded robotic cop, us taken under the wing of a group of scientists who teach it. Soon, others realise that Chappie is potentially dangerous.
Release: March 6th

12) The Walk

Director: Robert Zemeckis
Writers: Robert Zemeckis, Christopher Browne
Starring: Joseph Gordon Levitt, Ben Kingsley, Charlotte Le Bon, James Badge Dale
Premise: As chronicled in the Oscar winning documentary Man on Wire, stuntman Philippe Petit begins his ultimate accomplishment by wire walking from one Twin Tower to the other. This is the first teaming up of the duo Robert Zemeckis (Back to the Future, Forrest Gump, Cast Away) and Joseph Gordon Levitt (Looper, The Dark Knight Rises, Inception).
Release: October 2nd

11) Ant-Man

Director; Peyton Reed
Writers: Gabriel Ferrari, Andrew Barrer, Adam McKay, Edgar Wright
Starring: Paul Rudd, Michael Douglas, Corey Stoll, Evangeline Lilly, Michael Pena, Judy Greer

10) Inside Out

Director: Pete Docter, Ronaldo Del Carmen
Writers: Michael Arndt, Pete Docter
Starring: Amy Poehler, Bill Hader, Mindy Kaling, Lewis Black, Kyle MacLachlan, Diane Lane
Premise: Pixar’s second release of 2015 is the brilliantly madcap concept of emotions, symbolised as the characters above, controlling the emotions within our mind. Unlike The Good Dinosaur, this has a Pixar regular, Pete Docter (Monsters Inc, Up), at the helm as well as Toy Story 3 writer Michael Arndt.
Release: July 24th

9) Jurassic World

Director: Colin Trevorrow
Writers: Colin Trevorrow, Derek Connolly
Starring: Bryce Dallas Howard, Chris Pratt, Nick Robinson, Ty Simpkins, Omar Sy, Judy Greer, Jake Johnson, Vincent D’Onofrio
Premise: We’re well prepared for a sequel that won’t live up to the original’s same magic. Still, Trevorrow (Safety Not Guaranteed) and his new set of leads – Pratt (Guardians of the Galaxy), Howard (The Help), Robinson (The Kings of Summer) and Simpkins (Insidious) – look set to give a fresh rebranding.
Release: June 12th

8) Tomorrowland

Director: Brad Bird
Writers: Damon Lindelof, Brad Bird
Starring: Britt Robertson, George Clooney, Hugh Laurie, Judy Greer
Premise: One f the year’s most secretive releases comes from Pixar protogee Brad Bird (The Incredibles, Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol) and, while it is a fairly original prospect, it’s in fact roughly based upon Walt Disney’s own bright and bold vision of the future.
Release: May 22nd

7) Mad Max: Fury Road

Director: George Miller
Writers: George Miller, Brendan McCarthy, Nick Lathouris
Starring: Tom Hardy, Charlize Theron, Zoe Kravitz, Nicholas Hoult
Premise: Pleasing the die hard fans of the original will be a tough task but the footage so far revealed for this sequel is phenomenal. It’ll be massively entertaining to see Hardy (The Dark Knight Rises, Locke) in a rawer action role.
Release: May 15th

6) The Martian

Director: Ridley Scott
Writer: Drew Goddard
Starring: Matt Damon, Jessican Chastain, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Kirsten Wiig, Kate Mara, Sebastian Stan, Michael Pena, Jeff Daniels, Sean Bean
Premise: The film’s tone, either epic or dramatic, has yet to have been established but it sees Damon’s astronaut stranded on the red planet. Still, we’re immediately excited to see what legendary Brit director Ridley Scott (Gladiator, Exodus: Gods and Kings, Black Hawk Dawn, Alien, Blade Runner) can bring next.
Release: November 27th

5) Spectre

Director: Sam Mendes
Writers: John Logan, Neil Purvis, Robert Wade
Starring: Daniel Craig, Christoph Waltz, Lea Seydoux, Ralph Fiennes, Naomie Harris, Dave Bautista, Monica Bellucci, Andrew Scott, Ben Whishaw, Rory Kinnear, Jesper Christensen
Premise: After Skyfall became one of the undisputedly great Bond films (rivalling Dr No, Goldfinger, GoldenEye and Casino Royale) and its follow up is hoping to be just as successful. In this new adventure, Bond (Craig) tracks a mysterious signal from a previous mission and finds a secret organisation, led by Waltz’s Oberhauser.
Release: October 23rd

4) In the Heart of the Sea

Director: Ron Howard
Writers: Charles Leavitt, Rick Jaffa, Amanda Silver
Starring: Chris Hemsworth, Cillian Murphy, Charlotte Riley, Tom Holland, Ben Whishaw, Brendan Gleeson
Premise: Fresh off of smash hit racing drama Rush, Ron Howard (Apollo 13, A Beautiful Mind) returns with a period thriller based on the true story that inspire Moby Dick. Hemsworth’s whaling crew are stranded in the see for weeks on end as the most fearsome whale they have ever witnessed haunts them. The trailer is awesome, terrifying and truly monstrous.
Release: March 13th

3) Crimson Peak

Director: Guillermo Del Toro
Writers: Guillermo Del Toro, Matthew Robbins, Lucinda Coxon
Starring: Mia Wasikowska, Tom Hiddleston, Jessica Chastain, Charlie Hunnam, Doug Jones, Burn Gorman
Premise: The masterful Mexican Del Toro, director of Pan’s Labyrinth and Pacific Rim/writer of The Hobbit trilogy, returns to properly gothic horror as aspiring author Edith Cushing (Wasikowska) moves into a new home with her sinister new husband Thomas Sharpe (Hiddleston). If it’s what it promises to be, we could have a chilling masterpiece on our hands.
Release: October 16th

2) The Avengers: Age of Ultron

Director: Joss Whedon
Writer: Joss Whedon
Starring: Robert Downey Jr, Mark Ruffalo, Scarlett Johansson, James Spader, Chris Hemsworth, Chris Evans, Jeremy Renner, Paul Bettany, Elizabeth Olsen, Aaron Taylor Johnson, Samuel L Jackson, Andy Serkis, Cobie Smulders, Don Cheadle, Stellan Skarsgard, Hayley Atwell, Thomas Kretschmann
Premise: Stark’s robot peacekeeping program gets out of hand as his creation begins its own global dominations. Marvel’s other properties (Inhumans and Doctor Strange) are being set up elsewhere but this is sowing the seeds of Civil War, Black Panther and Infinity War. Still Whedon’s superhero sequel will be darker, bolder, bigger and better.
Release: April 24th

1) Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens

Director: JJ Abrams
Writers: JJ Abrams, Lawrence Kasdan
Starring: Andy Serkis, Max Von Sydow, John Boyega, Adam Driver, Daisy Ridley, Oscar Isaac, Domhnall Gleeson, Lupita Nyong’o, Gwendoline Christie, Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, Anthony Daniels, Kenny Baker, Peter Mayhew, Warwick Davis, Christina Chong, Iko Uwais, Maisie Richardson Sellers
Premise: Besides the setting (30 years on from Return of the Jedi) we know almost nothing but how could anything else be number one? Perhaps it would have been lower down before that trailer landed but it just blew 90% of our worries out the water. We’re equally terrified and excited to what JJ will produce. Others may be surefire hits but this is the one we hope for the most.
Release: December 18th

Paul Rudd and Michael Douglas star as Marvel’s Ant-Man trailer lands

A long time ago, Marvel’s only major hit was Iron Man (IMDb: 7.9 – Box office: $585 million). Both Phase One follow ups The Incredible Hulk (6.9 – $265 million), Thor (7.0 – $450 million) and Captain America: The First Avenger (6.8 – $370 million) didn’t quite live up to that, even its own sequel Iron Man 2 (7.1 – $625 million) fell short. Joss Whedon’s The Avengers (8.2 – $1.5 billion) took the series to incredible new heights and that form flowed into Phase 2 – Iron Man 3 (7.3 – $1.2 billion), Thor: The Dark World (7.2 – $665 million) and Captain America: The Winter Soldier (7.8 – $715 million) accelerated far from their predecessors. Still it was Guardians of the Galaxy (8.2 – $770 million) that proved Marvel can triumph even with a lesser known property.

Ant-Man is exactly that and it seemed destined to rival some of Marvel’s greatest but the creative differences of Studio head Kevin Feige and ideal director Edgar Wright (Scott Pilgrim VS The World, Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz, The World’s End) saw Wright leave and action amateur Peyton Reed (Yes Man) succeed. We were immediately worried that we were seeing a second best version of the film but finally get our first decent look at the film in this new trailer.

Overall, the trailer isn’t overly impressive and I’m still worried that Reed doesn’t have the high end filmmaking credentials to helm it. Still, the charm of the stars ought to shine through and we’ll see more back story for the characters Peggy Carter (Hayley Atwell) and Howard Stark (John Slattery). Ant-Man will star Paul Rudd (Anchorman), Evangeline Lilly (The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies), Corey Stoll (House of Cards), Michael Pena (American Hustle), Judy Greer (Dawn of the Planet of the Apes) and Michael Douglas (The Game).

Ant-Man – July 17th

Review of the year – The Five Biggest News Stories of 2014, including Spectre, Doctor Strange, The Interview and more

5) The Force awakens for Star Wars

It was mysterious and secretive right up until it didn’t want to be and JJ Abrams’ (Super 8, Lost, Star Trek) new Star Wars sequel has become the year’s biggest hype monster. We new nothing until the entire cast were announced in one swoop. Newcomers to the series Daisy Ridley, Oscar Isaac (Inside Llewyn Davis), John Boyega (Attack the Block), Domhnall Gleeson (About Time), Lupita Nyong’o (12 Years a Slave), Adam Driver (Tracks), Gwendoline Christie (Game of Thrones), Max Von Sydow (Minority Report) and Andy Serkis (Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, The Lord of the Rings) will rub shoulders with the original crew of Mark Hamill (The Big Red One), Carrie Fisher (The Blues Brothers), Peter Mayhew, Anthony Daniels, Kenny Baker, Warwick Davis (Willow) and Harrison Ford (Blade Runner, The Witness, Raiders of Lost Ark).

The Force Awakens was revealed as the title and this phenomenon of a trailer was released.

4) The Interview – when Hollywood enters world politics

We continue proceedings with the most recent and easily the most controversial scoop of the year. The Interview began harmlessly as a Sony comedy project poised to be the directorial follow up for This Is the End Team Evan Goldberg (Superbad) and Seth Rogen (Knocked Up, 50/50) with regular collaborator James Franco (Spider-Man, Rise of the Planet of the Apes, 127 Hours). Lizzy Caplan (Cloverfield, Masters of Sex) was recruited to star but things kicked off when the film’s full extent was revealed.

The Interview would see extravagant broadcaster Dave Skylark (Franco) and producer Aaron Rapaport (Rogen) are enlisted by the FBI to infiltrate North Korea, via an interview with their real-life leader Kim Jung-Un (here played by Randall Park), and assassinate him. Production went swimmingly but the release is where trouble was aroused. To provide some political context, Kim Jung-Un is the successor of Kim Jung-Il. This dynasty, responsible for the atrocities or just the face of the oppression, are allegedly conducting massacres of their own people but the (and I know this is a woeful understatement) tightly regulated press cannot confirm any story of the like.

North Korea’s potential response was always dreaded but it was only in the past month that events spiralled. The country seemed placid enough until declaring it an act of war. The first aggressive move was made when Sony were mysteriously hacked and numerous stories (a clean slate for Spider-Man?) and entire films, including The Interview, were leaked online. North Korea denied responsibility for the hack but the methods bared great similarity to another attack on the South Korean government. The nation then made the grave threats of 9\11 style attacks on all cinemas showing the film – not even Team America prompted this sort of retaliation.

And so Sony had to pull the release. It’s still unclear if they plan to postpone or entirely cancel the film, if the latter Sony will have suffered losses of $40 million on budget, $30 million on marketing as well as whatever money they claimed from the box office. You can see why Sony would be keen to negotiate some form of release. If so cult stardom awaits.

Not only this film was pulled (Oscar hopeful Foxcatcher, starring Steve Carell, Mark Ruffalo and Channing Tatum, has suffered delays) due to the attack and this isn’t the only film of this year to have caused major political impact; action sci-fi sequel The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1 was forced to scrap its Taiwan release, worried that the rebellious themes would stir public unrest.

Many of Hollywood’s elite, including The Secret Life of Walter Mitty star Ben Stiller, criticized Sony’s response for caving in and not exercising freedom of speech. US President Barack Obama himself condemned Sony but I doubt he’d have been so critical if a matter so trivial as a farcical comedy film were to bring harm to others.

3) Marvel’s Third Phase – difficulty casting Strange and creative power struggle for Ant-Man

Four films based upon Marvel comics dominated the financial skyline of this year: Sony’s The Amazing Spider-Man 2 ($708 million – 6th highest grossing film of the year), Fox’s X-Men: Days of Future Past ($746 million – 4th) and the official Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Captain America: The Winter Soldier ($714 million – 5th) and Guardians of the Galaxy ($772 million – 2nd). After next year’s Avengers sequel Age of Ultron, the MCU are advancing with its third phase. It was confirmed all in one massive, mid-week presentation.

Captain America (starring Chris Evans and Robert Downey Jr) and Thor (starring Chris Hemsworth and Tom Hiddleston) are receiving their third films (Civil War and Ragnarok respectively; Guardians of the Galaxy is getting the sequel treatment; the Avengers will return in a two part event titled Infinity War and the new properties of Black Panther (starring Chadwick Boseman), Captain Marvel and Inhumans will be put into production.

One of Marvel’s most promising projects was Ant-Man, a sci-fi that Edgar Wright (Shaun of the Dead, Scott Pilgrim VS The World) had been developing for years. The casting of Paul Rudd (Anchorman), Corey Stoll (House of Cards), Evangeline Lilly (The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug), Michael Pena (American Hustle) and Michael Douglas (The Game) went swimmingly but Wright’s departure sent the film spiralling. There was a scramble for a replacement saw comedy veterans Rawson Marshall Thurber (We’re the Millers) and Adam McKay (Anchorman) in consideration but Peyton Reed, still best known for Yes Man, got the job. Annoyingly the decision has all the signs of a last minute filler job.

Doctor Strange had an easier time picking its helmer in the form of Sinister’s Scott Derickson. Casting was far trickier. Tom Hardy (The Dark Knight Rises) and Benedict Cumberbatch were the first to be rumoured for the role in a long chain of names featuring Jared Leto (Dallas Buyers Club), Jack Huston (Broadwalk Empire), Edgar Ramirez (Deliver Us From Evil) and Andy Serkis (Dawn of the Planet of the Apes) with the persisting, if far fetched, claims of Adrien Brody (The Pianist) and Johnny Depp (Pirates of the Caribbean). In the summer Joaquin Phoenix (Her, Walk the Line, Inherent Vice) was revealed to be in talks but didn’t immediately sign on and he seemed reluctant to be joining.

Indeed he was and his departure left the casting process at square one. After this a host of actors were mentioned in connection: Matthew MacConaughey (Interstellar), Oscar Isaac (Inside Llewyn Davis), Ethan Hawke (Before Sunrise), Ewan MacGregor (Transpotting), Jake Gyllenhaal (Nightcrawler) and Ryan Gosling (The Ides of March). Eventually Marvel circled back to Golden Globe nominee Cumberbatch (Sherlock, Star Trek Into Darkness, The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, 12 Years a Slave, The Imitation Game). Despite these delays the franchise is interlocking into place.

2) Homegrown talent triumphs at Oscars

Besides Spike Jonze’s awful robo-romance Her, 2014’s Academy Awards Best Picture selection was phenomenal. The strong contenders were American Hustle (’70s set hustler drama starring Christian Bale, Bradley Cooper, Amy Adams, Jeremy Renner and Jennifer Lawrence), Captain Phillips (hijacking thriller with Tom Hanks), Gravity (spaceship disaster action with Sandra Bullock and George Clooney), Philomena (Steve Coogan written comedy/drama starring Coogan and Judi Dench) and Scorcese’s modern crime flick The Wolf of Wall Street.

Unsurprisingly it was the thoroughly acclaimed period drama 12 Years a Slave that triumphed. While it is a largely American production, the film, depicted a harrowing account of slavery through the story of Solomon Northup, but has an immense amount of British. The film’s grand ensemble (including Benedict Cumberbatch, Paul Dano, Sarah Paulson, Scoot McNairy, Quvenzhane Wallis, Paul Giamatti and Brad Pitt) picked up three acting nominations: Brit Chiwetel Ejiofor for Best Leading Actors; Irish-Germanic star Michael Fassbender for Best Supporting Actor; Mexican-born unknown Lupita Nyong’o won for Best Supporting Actress.

The ceremony’s most important victor was Steve McQueen. Although the Brit lost out on Best Director to Gravity’s Alfonso Cuaron his work became the first Best Picture winner to have been directed and produced by a black filmmaker. This year, 12 Years a Slave made film history.

1) Spectre-falls

Spectre triumphs as our most exciting news story of 2014. The mega-announcement revealed the title of the twenty fourth Bond instalment as well as the cast and some plot details. Sam Mendes’ (Road to Perdition, Revolutionary Road, American Beauty) follow up to the billion dollar success of Skyfall sees James Bond tracking down a mysterious signal that leads him to uncovering a hidden organisation. The cast includes Daniel Craig (Munich), Christoph Waltz (Django Unchained), Lea Seydoux (Blue is the Warmest Colour), Ralph Fiennes (The Grand Budapest Hotel), Andrew Scott (Sherlock), Dave Bautista (Guardians of the Galaxy), Naomie Harris (Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom), Jesper Christiansen (Melancholia), Rory Kinnear (The Imitation Game) and Ben Whishaw (Cloud Atlas).