In the past, the first four months of the year in the world of film were pretty much designed to catch up on the awards contenders from the previous year. Recently, that formula has changed as studios have started to release more intriguing, high-profile in the early months of the year. This year's slate isn't quite as strong as the past few, but there are still a number of interesting releases on the schedule for January through April. Here are the 10 films I'm most looking forward to in the winter/spring of 2015.
10.The Divergent Series: Insurgent (3/20): Of all the dystopian YA franchises, this is the best that I've seen behind The Hunger Games. The first Divergent film was one of the most pleasant surprises of 2014 and laid down the groundwork for what could be a very solid franchise. I'm really intrigued to see if Insurgent can build off the strong foundation its predecessor built. I've heard from multiple people that have read the Divergent trilogy that Insurgent is the best of the series. Fingers crossed that can carry over to the film adaption.
9.Get Hard (3/27): The trailer isn't anything overly special, but the pairing of Kevin Hart and Will Ferrell in the same movie still gives me a lot of hope for Get Hard. As far as I'm concerned, Hart and Ferrell are two of the sharpest comic performances in the business and with a script penned by two of the writers from the hilarious Comedy Central series Key & Peele, this could be a comedy standout.
8.Run All Night (4/17): Run All Night currently has no trailer and the plot outlines available online are very vague. Even with this lack of information on the project, I'm still really looking forward to this. Why may you ask? The answer is simple: It's the third collaboration between Liam Nesson and director Jaume Collet-Serra. The previous two collaborations between Nesson and Collet-Sara, 2014's Non-Stop and 2011's Unknown, were amongst the best of Nesson's recent filmography, and I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if Run All Night was of the same caliber.
7.Jupiter Ascending (2/6): The delay from July to February is certainly is a bit disconcerting and the early buzz from test screenings has been generally negative. However, Jupiter Ascending looks way too cool to write off completely. The stunning visuals and unique albeit somewhat incoherent premise paired with a cast including Channing Tatum, Mila Kunis, Sean Bean and Eddie Redmayne gives me a lot of hope that this will be a return to form for The Wachowski's.
6.In The Heart of the Sea (3/13): After his excellent last film Rush, Ron Howard has become a substantially more interesting director to me. Howard's follow-up to Rush, In the Heart of the Sea, sounds like another interesting, fact-based drama for him to sink his teeth into. In the Heart of the Sea follows the journey of four sailors (Chris Hemsworth, Cillian Murphy, Benjamin Walker, Tom Holland) who get stuck in the middle of the ocean after a whale attacks and sinks their boat. Stranded over 1,000 miles from land, the crew is forced to resort to cannibalism to survive. The pedigree of this film is much stronger than most of the material that comes out at this point of the year and if it lives up to it's potential, In the Heart of the Sea could be a very early awards contender for 2015.
5.Focus (2/27): Will Smith returns to the big screen with his interesting first interesting original project since 2008's Hancock! Based on the trailers, Smith seems to back at his suave, sharp best as a con man who gets thrown off his game when he falls for his protegee (Margot Robbie) during the most potentially prosperous con of his life. In addition to Smith's always welcome presence, the film looks fun as hell and it should be interesting to see how Robbie does in her first major role after The Wolf of Wall Street. Even if it doesn't end up being one of Smith's better films, at least it's pretty much a lock to be more enjoyable than After Earth.
4.Chappie (3/6): Neil Bloomkamp has made serious waves his brief career so and his latest Chappie could cement him firmly atop the list of best modern sci-fi directors. Chappie looks a bit tamer than his previous work, but seems to maintain the creativity and social commentary edge that made District 9 and Elysium standout. If Chappie ends up following the path of Bloomkamp's previous work, sci-fi lovers everywhere will be in for a serious treat.
3.Hot Tub Time Machine 2 (2/20): Hot Tub Time Machine is one of the most gleefully absurd, consistently funny and criminally under-appreciated comedies in recent memory. While I'm not entirely sure if this sequel was necessary, I'm still glad it was made. With a majority of the original cast and crew returning and an amusing set of trailers, this should be at least close to the quality of the original.
2.Kingsman: The Secret Service (2/13): I'm not going to lie, Kingsman: The Secret Service was a film I wasn't overly excited about until I saw a redband trailer for it before The Gambler. The confirmation of an R-rating alone was enough for this to shoot up most-anticipated films of the winter/spring list. Director Matthew Vaughn was responsible for the phenomenal 2010 B-action film Kick-Ass, and with another over-the-top story that's adapted from a comic book and an R-rating to play with, the potential is off-the-charts for him to duplicate that success here. This film looks to be heavy on the action and features a talented cast headlined by Colin Firth, Samuel L. Jackson and Mark Strong who should be more than game to roll with Vaughn's tongue-in-cheek style. Kingsman is one of the very few films I'm overwhelmingly excited for in the early portion of 2015.
1.Furious 7 (4/3): The Fast and Furious franchise has been on fire of late, with the last two entries being the best of the entire series. With everyone (save for director Justin Lin, who's directed the last four entries in the series) who's responible for the series recent triumphs returning for Furious 7, this film appears to be destined to repeat that success again. Throw in the addition of the always great Jason Statham as the villain and the added emotional weight of this being the late Paul Walker's final on-screen appearance, and Furious 7 has the potential to be the best of the entire bunch.
Also interested in:
Blackhat (1/16)
The Wedding Ringer (1/16)
The Boy Next Door (1/23)
Mortdecai (1/23)
Black or White (1/30)
Project Almanac (1/30)
Wild Card (1/30)
SpongeBob : Sponge Out of Water (2/6)
McFarland, USA (2/20)
The Coup (3/6)
Unfinished Business (3/6)
The Gunman (3/20)
Serena (3/27)
True Story (4/10)
Child 44 (4/17)
Rock the Cashbah (4/24)
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