2011 film preview

So, 2010 is nearly at an end, and thus it is time to look forward to 2011. Here are just some of the cinematic delights to look forward to and quite probably some filmic horrors to avoid.

7 January
The King’s Speech
Outstanding! Awards ahoy for Colin Firth. A must see.

127 Hours
Danny Boyle’s follow-up to Slumdog.

The Next Three Days
The new Paul Haggis.

14 January
Green Hornet
Seth Rogen is the Green Hornet… Will anyone care?

Conviction
Hilary Swank’s latest Oscar bait…

21 January
Black Swan
Amazing: see it or die having lived a worthless life!

Morning Glory
The lovely Rachel McAdam stars with Harrison Ford doing comedy.

The Dilemma
Ron Howard directs Vince Vaughn and Winona Ryder.

28 January
Biutiful
The latest Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu. Poorly reviewed by me.

Hereafter
Clint Eastwood’s first foray into fantasy/chiller territory. Matt Damon stars.

Barney’s Version
A curmudgeonly Paul Giamatti is the reason to see this.

4 February
The Fighter
David O Russell’s Golden Globe-nominated boxing movie. Great reviews everywhere.

Rabbit Hole
Nicole Kidman’s latest Oscar bait…

Brighton Rock
A remake of a classic.

11 February
True Grit
The Coens remake a classic.

Never Let Me Go
Austere fantasy Brit-flick with the best of young Britain: Keira, Andrew Garfield and Carey Mulligan.

No Strings Attached
This year’s Valentine’s movie. I only mention it because of Natalie Portman’s 'appearance' in the poster art to the left…

The Beaver
Jodie Foster directs Mel Gibson as an emotionally crippled high flyer in business who finds that he can only communicate via a beaver glove puppet.

18 February
Paul
The new Simon Pegg/Nick Frost.

25 February
The Rite
This appears to be Anthony Hopkins doing the Exorcist.

4 March
The Adjustment Bureau
Third month of the year, third Matt Damon film after Hereafter and True Grit. It's a Philip K Dick adaptation.

Fair Game
Based on a true story. Doug Liman directs Naomi Watts and Sean Penn in this anti-US espionage thriller.

11 March
Source Code
The new Duncan ‘Moon’ Jones.

18 March
The Eagle
Kevin ‘Touching The Void’ Macdonald does swords and sandals epic in the Roman army.

25 March
Sucker Punch
Zack Snyder’s latest slice of pseudo-B-movie horror.

World Invasion: Battle LA
When aliens attack LA… Cue big effects.

15 April
Red Riding Hood
Catherine ‘Twilight’ Hardwicke directs the fairy tale with Amanda Seyfried in the lead – lucky wolf!

29 April
Thor
The trailer looks fantastic. Natalie Portman’s third film of the year. Will Branagh deliver?

18 May
Pirates 4
Depp, but no Orlando or Keira.

27 May
The Hangover II
I didn’t think the original was all that, but it was a huge success, so here’s the sequel.

2 June
X-Men: First Class
The Kick-Ass team bring us the origin of the X-Men. It should be good.

17 June
Green Lantern
Can DC do for the Green Lantern what Marvel did for Iron Man? As the third superhero movie of the year and given the unconvincing trailer, I have my doubts.

29 June
Transformers 3
Yawn…

15 July
Harry Potter: Deathly Hallows Part 2
The end at last for Mr Potter.

22 July
Captain America
Please, please, please let it be brilliant.

3 August
The Smurfs
Where are they coming from?

12 August
Cowboys & Aliens
Daniel Craig and Harrison Ford are the cowboys…

9 September
War Horse
The Oscar campaign starts here: Spielberg does the award-winning play.

16 September
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy
Gary Oldman is Smiley.

7 October
Real Steel
Bizarre sci-fi boxing fable in which Hugh Jackman is the coach to a robot boxer: WTF?

21 October
Contagion
The new Steve Soderbergh.

26 October
Tintin
Spielberg and friends deliver motion-capture animation adaptation of the beloved comics.

28 October
The Woman In Black
Daniel Radcliffe stars in this classic adaptation.

Straw Dogs
A remake of Sam Peckinpah’s classic. Intriguing intellectually; could be utterly shit in the execution though.

18 November
Twilight: Breaking Dawn Part 1
The penultimate part of the bloodless, sexless vampire saga.

1 December
Dredd
Karl Urban is The Law.

16 December
Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol
Tom Cruise’s latest attempt to star in a genuine hit. Brad Bird directs. Simon Pegg and Jeremy Renner co-star.

Sherlock Holmes 2
A welcome sequel to Guy Ritchie’s interpretation of the Great Detective.

26 December
The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo
David Fincher directs the US remake of the international best seller. What can this master director bring to this nasty tale?