10 Most Anticipated Films of Fall/Winter 2014

The last four months of the year marks the time where studios pack the schedule to the brim with new releases. With everything from blockbusters to comedies to awards contenders on the docket, September-December offers up the largest and most diverse crop of movies of the entire year. Here are the 10 films I'm looking forward to the most this fall/winter.

10.Exodus: Gods and Kings (12/12):
Ridley's Scott recent filmography has been hit-or-miss, but that won't stop from getting really excited about Exodus: Gods and Kings. Scott is back in the sword-and-sandals subgenre where he hit his last home run with 2000's Gladiator, and with a cast featuring the likes of Christian Bale, Aaron Paul, Ben Kingsley and Joel Edgerton and a script penned by Steve Zaillian (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Moneyball), this has the potential to be Scott's next masterpiece. Hopefully this doesn't turn out to be another film like Prometheus- which looked and sounded great on paper, but was ultimately underwhelming- for Scott.

9.A Walk Among the Tombstones (9/19):
Liam Neeson has reinvented himself as a certified badass, one-man killing machine with movies like Taken and Non-Stop over the past few years. A Walk Among the Tombstones is a bit of departure from his recent work as it's more of a crime drama than a straight-up action film. All of the ad's for this give off an eerie, gritty vibe that is reminiscent of last September's brilliant thriller Prisoners. The seemingly deeper narrative should allow Nesson to show off his deep acting chops without sacrificing the action he's become known for of late. A Walk Among the Tombstones has a lot going for it and I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if this ends up being Nesson's finest work in years.

8.Kill the Messenger (10/10):
In my eyes, Jeremy Renner is one of the criminally underrated actors working in Hollywood today. His abilities has been kind of buried thanks to his recent forays into major action films such as The Avengers, The Bourne Legacy and Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol. Kill the Messenger seems like a project that will remind audiences of how great of an actor he is. Kill the Messenger tells the fascinating story of a journalist (Renner) who uncovers that the Regan administration was giving guns to rebels in Nicaragua and the CIA was importing cocaine on government airplanes. The presence of Renner in the lead role paired with the plot and a strong supporting cast including Michael K. Williams, Michael Sheen, and Mary Elizabeth Winstead makes Kill the Messenger easily one of my most anticipated films of last quarter of 2014.


7.Whiplash (10/10)
Whiplash got a ton of buzz out of Sundance earlier this year as it went onto the win the audience award for best film of the entire festival. Considering my favorite film of 2013(Fruitvale Station) took home the audience award last year, that's a great sign for Whiplash's quality. The film also features one of my favorite up-and-coming actors in Miles Teller and the king of character actors in J.K Simmons. Based on the early reviews, both Teller and Simmons are serious contenders for Academy Award nominations. In short, there's basically no shortage of reasons for me to get really excited about Whiplash.

6.Fury (10/17)
I'm a sucker for a World War II films and Fury is no exception. What makes Fury standout from other WWII films on paper is the fact that's it centers around a five-man tank team. Tank operators are pretty much the only position in the military that have never been the subject of a film before. With a first-rate writer/director in David Ayer (End of Watch, Training Day) at the helm and an extremely gifted cast led by Brad Pitt, Michael Pena and Jon Bernthal, Fury could very well be the next classic in the war genre.  

5.Interstellar (11/7)
Modern sci-fi wizard Christopher Nolan is back at it this year with his first original film since 2010's Inception. Admittedly, the marketing material for Interstellar hasn't been particularly great so far, but it's not doing much to deter from my anticipation for this film. Nolan has pretty much no blemishes on his resume so far and I'd be really surprised if now was the time where he suddenly crapped out. In typical fashion for Nolan, the premise for Interstellar is very vague at this point in time. Basically all that's known about the plot of Interstellar is that the Earth is dying and a team of explorers led by Matthew McConaughey and Anne Hathaway embark on a mission to space to try and find a new place for the citizens of Earth to live. Even with a lack of specific details, there's nothing about a film involving space travel with McConaughy and Hathaway that doesn't sound very intriguing. Nolan's a master of not disclosing a lot of details about his films prior to release and consistently captivating the masses with his work. Let's hope that Interstellar continues that streak.

4.The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part I (11/21)
Last year's second installment of The Hunger Games, Catching Fire, turned me into a fan of this series. With Francis Lawrence back in the director's chair and Juliane Moore, Natalie Dormer and Toby Jones joining the already great cast, Mockingjay very well could recapture the magic of Catching Fire.  

3.Horrible Bosses 2 (11/26)
Horrible Bosses is one of my favorite comedies of the past five years, so I'm absolutely giddy about a sequel. Charlie Day, Jason Bateman and Jason Sudekis have a remarkable chemistry together and the writers of the original are also returning for the sequel, which all but ensures the biting dark tone and constant laugh-out-loud moments the original had will be back. In a pretty good year for comedy so far, Horrible Bosses 2 is in good shape to end up being one of the best.

2.Gone Girl (10/3)
David Fincher is back with another adaptation of a celebrated novel in Gone Girl. I haven't read the book that it's based on, but Gone Girl looks to be an especially disturbing and unique take on the murder mystery genre. Fincher is a master of bleak storytelling and the trailer makes this look like can't-miss cinema. Out of all the Oscar-bait films scheduled for release in the next four months, Gone Girl is by far the one I'm looking forward to the most.
 
1.The Interview (12/25)
Seth Rogen and James Franco play a moronic entertainment show producer and host that land an interview with North Korean dictator Kim Jung Un, the pair then get approached by the United States government to assassinate Un after they conduct the interview. With a concept like this, there's practically no way this film can be anything short of genius. Rogen and writing partner Evan Goldberg have been behind a number of my favorite comedies of the past decade (Superbad, This is the End, Pineapple Express) and with a premise that has comic gold written all over it, The Interview is likely to join that camp. 


Also Interested In:
The Drop (9/12)
The Skeleton Twins (9/12)
This is Where I Leave You (9/19)
The Maze Runner (9/19)
Tusk (9/19)
The Equalizer (9/26)
Men, Women & Children (10/3)
Anabelle (10/3)
The Judge (10/10)
Birdman (10/17)
Dear White People (10/17)
White Bird in a Blizzard (10/24)
Laggies (10/24)
Horns (10/31)
Nightcrawler (10/31)
Rosewater (11/7)
Dumb and Dumber To (11/14)
Foxcatcher (11/14)
American Sniper (12/25)
Big Eyes (12/25)
Hot Tub Time Machine 2 (12/25)
Selma (12/25)

10 Most Anticipated Films of Summer 2014

The summer movie season officially kicked off with the release of The Amazing Spider-Man 2 this past Friday. Here are the 10 films on the docket for this summer that I'm most excited to see.

10.Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (7/11): Rise of the Planet of the Apes was a pleasant surprise back in 2011 and the follow-up look just as promising. The premise of a film mostly driven by the apes led by Ceaser (motion-captured and voiced by the remarkable Andy Serkis),and their continued evolution as a species that has led them to become the most powerful beings in the world sounds very intriguing.

9.Jupiter Ascending (7/18): I'd be lying if I said I fully understood the premise of Jupiter Ascending from the trailers, but it looks cool as hell so I guess it's a moot point. The Wachowskis look to be back in sc-fi visionary mode, which is refreshing after their recent string of flops. Even if the film ends up disappointing, it should at least be fun to see how much of the film Sean Bean can make it through before meeting his inevitable demise. 

8.Neighbors (5/9): To be honest, I'll see anything with Seth Rogen in it, but Neighbors looks like it could be one of his upper-echelon films. The overwhelmingly positive feedback from South by Southwest in March paired with the genius premise of a fraternity moving next door to a young family gives Neighbors a whole lot of potential to be a piece of comic gold. 

7.Guardians of the Galaxy (8/1): Resident Hollywood weirdo James Gunn (Super, Slither) gets the reigns to the weirdest group of superheroes (Bradley Cooper and Vin Diesel voice a gun-toting raccoon and giant tree respectively) in the Marvel universe with Guardians of the Galaxy. If the teaser trailer is any indicator, the good times are going to roll.
   
6.Godzilla (5/16): Godzilla is arguably the most hyped movie of the entire summer. The trailers have pulled off quite a feat by capturing a strong aura of dread without showing much of the titular monster. If this doesn't blow the doors off of Roland Emmerich's 1998 reboot, I'll be beside myself.

5.A Million Ways to Die in the West (5/30): Seth MacFarlane's second entry into the world of cinema look to be even stronger than the first (2012's Ted) as he brings his vulgar, twisted humor to the Old West. The sheer strength of the redband trailer and a cast including Charlize Theron, Neil Patrick Harris, Giovanni Ribsi, Liam Nesson and MacFarlane himself all but assures comedic brilliance from A Million Ways to Die in the West.

4.22 Jump Street (6/13): The sequel to the wildly hysterical 21 Jump Street retains much of the same cast and looks to maintain the same playful tone that made its predecessor so successful. If 22 Jump Street can manage to get anywhere close to as many laughs as the first installment, It's got a good shot of being the funniest film of 2014.

3.The Expendables 3 (8/15): Sylvester Stallone has called the latest entry in his all-star action franchise "bigger and better than ever". With the likes of Wesley Snipes, Mel Gibson and Harrison Ford joining an already stacked cast, and the monumental improvement this series showed from the first to second installment, I can fully believe Stallone's sentiments.
  
2.X-Men: Days of Future Past (5/23): X-Men: Days of Future Past is essentially the X-Men answer to The Avengers. Days of Future Past combines the cast of the original trilogy with the cast of the 2011 prequel First Class for a time-jumping mutant extravaganza. The film also sees such fan favorite mutants Bishop, Warpath and Quicksilver making their long-awaited debut in the X-Men film universe. In my eyes, X-Men: Days of Future Past has all the makings to be the blockbuster event of the summer.

1.Sin City: A Dame to Kill For (8/22): Sin City: A Dame to Kill For is a film that I've been waiting to come out for almost a decade. The sequel to Sin City was announced shortly after the original was released in 2005 and after enduring countless delays, I sincerely didn't even believe it was a real project. Now that a trailer is out and the August release date appears to be firmed up, the dream of a Sin City sequel coming out seems to be coming true. Sin City: A Dame to Kill For features a majority of the (living) original cast returning as well as top Hollywood talents including Josh Brolin, Joesph Gordon-Levitt and Eva Green entering the fold. I can't remember the last time I was this excited for a movie to come out and I really hope Robert Rodriguez and Frank Miller don't drop the ball after all this time.

Also Interested In:
Chef (5/9)
Million Dollar Arm (5/16)
Edge of Tomorrow (6/6) 
The Rover (6/13)
The Signal (6/13)
Snowpiercer (6/27)
They Came Together (6/27)
Transformers: Age of Extinction (6/27)
Tammy (7/2)
The Purge: Anarchy (7/18)
Happy Christmas (7/25)
Hercules (7/25)
Magic in the Moonlight (7/25)
Sex Tape (7/25)
Get on Up (8/1)
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (8/8)
Lucy (8/8)
The Giver (8/15)