Ringing in the New Years!

In the only style I know

BY COLIN ENQUIST

Hopefully everyone had a good holiday, and will have a good New Years Eve. Thought I should quickly go through a big chunk of the media I got around the holidays. Some were presents, others were boxing day shopping! I will quickly review the ones I have watched since the 25th.

Guessing I should explain that a new TV finally made it to my house. Out goes the small 20 inch tube TV that has been keeping me sane until I upgraded. And in comes a 37 inch LCD! No more getting angry when watching a movie now, as I can now see what is happening without squinting.

The TV was picked up on Boxing Day, and sat till the 29th when I returned home from Nordegg, Alberta. To christen the new TV I was planning on watching Star Trek, which I got in the Chinese Gift Exchange on Christmas Eve. But I was impatient and didn’t want to wait until Meghan was done whatever it was she was doing, so I watched Body of Lies (a Boxing Day purchase).

Can’t say that Body of Lies was a good film, I did like certain things about it, although I disliked more. The acting between Leonardo Dicaprio and Russell Crowe was superb. After that though, much was left to be desired. This is a movie that requires a viewing if it is on cable TV or in the $3.99 bin like I found it.

At least I got to wash the bitter taste out of my mouth with Star Trek a few hours later! Don’t need to talk about it because my review is right here.

Next up I watched Shade, a 2003 neo-noir poker film. Or maybe it should be said a film about cheating at poker. It stars some big names in Sylvester Stallone, Melanie Griffith, Thandie Newton, Stuart Townsend, Gabriel Byrne and Jamie Foxx. Not a spectacular movie but I saw it when it came out and enjoyed it, plus I found it in the 3 for $10 bin with American Gangster and the Aviator so how could I pass it up. I also accepted a challenge laid out on murmur.com to draw a scene from a movie while you watch it. You can read my article about the progress of the drawing here.

More Boxing Day purchases include The Simpsons: The complete 12th season, Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist and RockNRolla. Have yet to watch RockNRolla but have heard good things about it. The Simpsons is still a classic, only behind Seinfeld.

Just finished watching Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist 5 minutes ago. I love that movie, just one of those films that make you smile. The writing is just perfect. And the music doesn’t hurt it either.

That is it on the movie side, the medium of comics is another…

I picked up quite a bit on Boxing Day. The Nobody by Jeff Lemire was one of those books, which I read last night, and loved to death. This will be a book I will be pushing on all my friends along with The Nightly News by Jonathan Hickman and Pride of Baghdad by Brian K. Vaughn. Also sitting next to my nightstand is Lemire’s award winning Essex County trilogy.

A few books are on top of Essex County though, Fear Agent vol 5, Hellboy Library Edition vol 3, Asterios Polyp, Neon Genesis vol 3 and others I can not remember right now.

Over the holidays I finished I Kill Giants, Filthy Rich and Pax Romana. If you follow me on twitter you would know that I didn’t enjoy IKG as much as most people, but it is still a good read and I can see why everyone enjoyed it so much. Filthy Rich left a bad taste in my mouth and I hope the other Vertigo Crime Novels are much better. Pax Romana helped cement the talent of Jonathan Hickman in my mind that The Nightly News created.

Surprisingly I don’t have many novels to read. Water for Elephants is the only one, and I am borrowing it from a family member, not even sure who wrote it and can't tell you because I left it in the van that Meghan is currently using. Surely I will pick up some novels though for the New Year soon!

Now it is off to a New Year party and watch Canada vs. USA in the World Junior Championships! The yearly ritual of Canada beating the USA shall continue!

Friday Flyer: Volume 1

FlashForward gets full season, Toy Story 3 trailer and ID4 2?

BY COLIN ENQUIST

-ABC picks up several shows for a full first season. FlashForward is the most prominent of the shows but Modern Family, The Middle and Cougar Town were also picked up. FlashForward has performed very well in the competitive Thursday night time slot. The show has also been very well liked by critics.

-The Box is Richard Kelly’s newest film. Based off of the 1970 short story Button, Button by author Richard Matheson. The film stars Cameron Diaz, James Marsden and Frank Langella. The website just launched. Click the picture poster below to check it out. If you were a fan of Richard Kelly’s film Donnie Darko and got a chance to see the fantastic site for that film, check this one out for sure.


-Mel Gibson is returning to acting, his first film since The Singing Detective in 2003, and is starring in Edge of Darkness, based off a 1985 BBC mini-series of the same name. As homicide detective Thomas Craven (Mel Gibson) investigates the death of his activist daughter (Bojana Novakovic), he uncovers not only her secret life, but a corporate cover-up and government collusion that attracts an agent tasked with cleaning up the evidence.

-Joe Hill has put out some fantastic stories. I am a big fan of his short story collection 20th Century Ghosts and his comic book series, Locke & Key. Heart-Shaped Box was his first novel (which has gotten rave reviews) but I have not gotten around to reading it. His next book, Horns, is set to be released this coming February but the books is already optioned by Mandalay. It is a story about a man who wakes up after a drunken blackout, only to find horns growing out of his head.

-Independence Day was a surprise blockbuster back in 1996, making an absurd $817.4 million at the worldwide box office. The director, Roland Emmerich, has a new film debuting this year (2012) and Fox wants to bring the director back for a sequel to the Will Smith’s first blockbuster. Emmerich wants to bring Smith back but negotiations between him and Fox have seemed to hit a standstill. Would you watch an ID4 sequel without him?

-The Cleveland Show will now have 22 episodes for the second season. Fox just announced that they ordered a full season. The series premiere of The Cleveland Show was Fox’s highest rated Sunday comedy series debut in over six years. Follow Cleveland’s adventures Sunday evenings (8:30 ET).

-It looks like Bryan Singer may be returning to the X-Men film franchise. According to The Associated Press, Singer and Fox are discussing the possibility of his return. “I’m still looking to possibly returning to the X-Men franchise. I’ve been talking to Fox about it,” the X-Men and X2: X-Men United director said at South Korea’s Pusan International Film Festival. “I love Hugh Jackman. I love the cast.” With the train wreck that was X3 a big disappointment I do hope he returns.

-October 13th we saw the release of Nine Dragons by Michael Connelly. Connelly created his lead character of this series, Harry Bosch, back in 1992. Nine Dragons will be the 15th novel featuring Bosch.

-CBS has given a pilot commitment to Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci (both co-wrote: Star Trek, Fringe, and Mission: Impossible III to name a few). They will update the classic cop series which chronicled the workings of the fictional Hawaiian state police department led by Steve McGarrett (Jack Lord). Originally the series ran from 1968-1980. Not many details have been given on what direction the new show will take.

-Toy Story 1 and 2 were just released in theatres again, this time in glorious 3D! The double feature has a nice trailer before it for the third film…here it is below.

This Ain't Your Father's Star Trek!

Slick new director gives it his all with Kirk, Spock & the Enterprise

BY EMIL TIEDEMANN

Having never seen a single episode of any of the half-dozen Star Trek TV series or any of the ten previous films, I can spare you from all the plot inconsistancies and inaccuracies that the current reboot has pledged, but I'm sure you're more than fine with that! The most recent of the Star Trek motion pictures also happens to be the most acclaimed (a 95% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes), the most profitable ($314 million as of today), and the most likely to convert any of the others who had yet to be acquainted with the iconic sci-fi franchise.

Sophomore director J.J. Abrams (Mission: Impossible III) picked up the pieces of Stuart Baird's ill-fated Nemesis (2002) feature and scrapped them for good, charging through with familiar characters in unfamiliar territory. Abrams was part of a tenacious team of "Trekkie" filmmakers who set out to revive a dying series some four years earlier, including co-producer Damon Lindelof (TV's Lost) and co-screenwriter Roberto Orci (Transformers). They delved back to the premiere television project that included characters like James T. Kirk (Smokin' Aces Chris Pine), Spock (Heroes' Zachary Quinto), Nyota Uhura (Vantage Point's Zoe Saldana), Scotty (Shaun of the Dead's Simon Pegg) and Leonard "Bones" McCoy (The Lord of the Ring's Karl Urban), and--for the first time--casted fresh faces for the esteemed venture.

Hollywood's newest pretty-boy Chris Pine puts on Captain Kirk's space suit and climbs aboard the eminent USS Enterprise to walk in his late father's shoes as the leader of the pack. Along for the ride is Spock, a cross-breed of human and Vulcan played immaculately by Zachary Quinto for most of the 127-minute epic, while the original Spock himself, Leonard Nimoy, puts on those pointy ears and returns for his final frontier. Throw in your indicative love triangle and an all-out war with a near-extinct species from the future, and you've got a potent cinematic formula that's bound to break new ground for an old tale.

Abrams is able to check off almost every possible theatrical highlight with his Trekkie inauguration...tantalizing locales? Check! Well-timed farce? Check! Engrossing characters? Check! He pulls this film together like so many others wouldn't be able to, sparking a renewed interest in Gene Roddenberry's pop cultural phenomenon. Coming from someone who previously couldn't be less interested in this niche-market franchise, I can't wait to see these actors reassemble for a second go-around of where no man (or woman) has gone before. In regards to this rebooted franchise, may it live long and prosper!

4/5 stars

IMAX Success Is Rising

Is IMAX taking over the movie theatre industry?

BY COLIN ENQUIST

Jumping into your seat, staring skyward, wondering exactly where the screen ends and the ceiling begins, you sit, waiting patiently for the film to start. A flash of light, sound bursting inside your eardrums, you can almost hear a drum roll playing as the film is about to start. Extra money well spent you tell yourself, not on the popcorn or the drink but the ticket stub that says The IMAX Experience.

For those who don't know, IMAX is short for Image MAXimum and it is a motion picture film format and projection standard created by Canada's IMAX Corporation which debuted the new technology at Expo ‘67 in Montreal, Canada. IMAX screens have the capacity to display images of far greater size and resolution than conventional film systems. Standard IMAX screens are 22 metres (72 ft) wide and 16.1 metres (53 ft) high, but they can vary. As of April 2009, there are 320 IMAX theatres in 42 countries (65% of these are located in Canada and the United States). About 60% of these are commercial theatres with the other 40% being located in educational venues. Cinesphere (pictured above right), is the world's first permanent IMAX theatre, opening its doors in 1971 at Ontario Place in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

The intent of IMAX is to dramatically increase the resolution of the image by using a much larger film frame. To achieve this, 65 mm film stock is run horizontally through the cameras. While traditional 65 mm film has an image area that is 48.5 mm wide and 22.1 mm tall, in IMAX the image is 69.6 mm wide and 48.5 mm tall (comparison pictured left). In order for the film to expose at standard film speed of 24 frames per second, three times as much film is needed to move through the camera each second.

An IMAX projector (pictured below left) is therefore a substantial piece of equipment, weighing up to 1.8 tonnes and towering at over 70" [178 cm] tall and 75" [195 cm] long. The xenon lamps (pictured right) used are made of a thin layer of quartz crystal, and contain xenon gas at a pressure of about 25 atmospheres; because of this, projectionists are required to wear protective body armour (yikes!) when changing or handling these in case the lamp breaks (so they better not drop them!) because the flying shards of crystal could be extremely deadly when combined with the high pressure of the gas within.

Disney produced Fantasia 2000: The IMAX Experience, the first full-length animated feature released exclusively (on January 1st, 2000) in the IMAX format (the film would later have a conventional theatrical release). Many other films would later open in IMAX the same day they debuted at conventional theatres such as the two Matrix sequels, Superman Returns, Spider-Man 3, Watchmen and all the Harry Potter films released since 2004. Almost all these films had successful runs at the IMAX.

The most successful was the Batman Begins sequel The Dark Knight which featured six sequences (a total of 30 minutes) shot using IMAX technology. This was the first time ever that a major feature film has been even partially shot using IMAX cameras. The film broke box office records for IMAX, taking in about $6.3 million from 94 theatres in the U.S. and Canada over the opening weekend. Star Trek debuted last week surpassing The Dark Knight’s IMAX take, cashing in for $8.3 million. During its second week, Trek’s IMAX portion of its gross was down 29 percent to an estimated $5.1 million at 138 sites, which was a record second weekend for the format. The IMAX tally is $17.4 million, accounting for nearly 12 percent of the overall total. Starting May 22, Star Trek is scheduled to relinquish its IMAX screens to Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian, who will have a tough time topping the Star Trek haul.

Slowly but surely IMAX is taking over the movie theatre industry. The only thing stopping them is their lack of theatres. Many people would rather pay the extra $2-$5 for a movie ticket just to see the film of their choice in IMAX. I know I would, the superior picture is nice for sure, but I can’t get over the sound difference compared to a conventional theatre. If the record openings continue we may get more IMAX theatres opening worldwide.

Check out some of these films upcoming in IMAX in 2009 and beyond that you may need to buy tickets for. Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, A Christmas Carol and the highly anticipated Avatar are all being released in 2009 under the IMAX 3D Experience banner. Around the corner in 2010 is Alice in Wonderland, Shrek Goes Fourth, The Tree of Life and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows Part I. Three films have already been announced for 2011 as well, Spider-Man 4, Kung Fu Panda 2 and Part II of the Deathly Hollows.

Star Trek Shines

Abrams makes a beloved old series, new and exciting!

BY COLIN ENQUIST

J.J. Abrams (Cloverfield, TVs Lost and Fringe) directs the reboot of the space opera, which has a solid cast of mostly unknowns that steal the show in Chris Pine (Smokin’ Aces), Zachary Quinto (TVs Heroes), Leonard Nimoy (Spock in the original Trek series), Eric Bana (Hulk), Bruce Greenwood (Deja Vu), Karl Urban (Pathfinder), Zoe Saldana (Vantage Point), Simon Pegg (Hot Fuzz), John Cho (Harold and Kumar) and Anton Yelchin (You and I).

When I first heard about the Star Trek reboot, I kept wondering who could play Kirk and Spock. Instantly Joshua Jackson jumped out to fill the role of Kirk, but I couldn’t narrow down a solid choice for Spock. Once I heard Pine was selected to play Kirk I realized why I am not a casting director as he not only surpassed my expectations but blew them right out of the water. Not one actor was cast out of place during the entire film.

The film sets up early that this isn’t the normal Star Trek universe, but an alternate timeline that could happen if certain events were triggered. Using time travel, which I thought was going to ruin the movie, turned out to be extraordinary as it basically merged the old Star Trek universe with the new one without using cheesy over the top explanations. Plot wise the film was solid, tying everything together and leaving very little questions asked. Aside from the Spock and Uhura relationship which is never really explained, you just assume they have a relationship to piss off Kirk.

One of the best scenes is probably the orbital dive, showing Abrams’ smart direction, fading to the complete soundless space as they are blasted from the ship, no music, nothing except for the divers breathing in their masks, and then a large boom of them entering the Vulcan atmosphere. Abrams uses the soundless of space a couple times throughout the film and it really jumps out at showing just how lonely and vast it really is.

The choice of using the X, Y axis more on the levels of Star Wars brought realism to the dogfights the Enterprise and the other Starfleet ships were going through. Seems simple having the ships come at each other from different angles, as up and down don’t really apply in space, but this effortless change makes for some great action and an evolution from the original Trek films. Another big budget film recently released (Wolverine) had horrible misuse of the CGI but Star Trek gets it right, creating ships and landscapes that seem plausible and real while keeping with the cinematography of the film incorporating Abrams’ use of lens flares throughout the film.
Some questionable music choices throughout the film, not necessarily bad choices, but I felt they could have been better. A few times it seemed they tried to create new music, trying to fit the futuristic world, while other moments they decide to use older rock and roll.

Star Trek does all the little things right, providing faultless back story that is intricately interlaced into strong character development. Mixing that with the very strong acting makes for almost pitch perfect emotional attachment to everyone on screen hoping they make it through the peril that is being caused during the exciting action sequences.

4 out of 5
Colin Enquist

Star Trek Avoiding Negativity

Looking to prosper at the box office

BY COLIN ENQUIST


Reboots have been taking a lot of flak, mostly because they are being done so poorly. Some exceptions do apply though, King Kong, The Magnificent Seven, Ocean's Eleven, are a few that come to mind. It looks like we may be able to add another film to that list. The J.J. Abrams version of Star Trek, while not being officially released until Thursday at 7:00 PM on May, 7th, preview screenings have been popping up all around. It seems that every person who has seen the film can only say positive things about the it.

Abrams was originally attached as a producer only, citing that he wanted to work with writers Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci again, whom he worked with during the filming of Mission Impossible III. Kurtzman and Orci both label themselves "Trekkies" and wanted to create a script that a die hard fan would enjoy, the casual fan and introduce Star Trek to any newcomers as well. Abrams on the other hand is just a casual fan. Then Abrams read the script, stating that he was envious of whoever got to direct the film. Paramount must have heard this and quickly offered him the job, which Abrams jumped at the chance. The writing duo of Orci and Kurtzman must have done what they set out to do, if a casual fan (Abrams) loved the story so much he had to direct.

The first public screening was held on April 6, 2009, at the Alamo Drafthouse theater in Austin, Texas, hosted by writers Robert Orci, Alex Kurtzman, and producer Damon Lindelof. Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan was what everyone in the theatre thought they were going to see, followed by a ten-minute preview of the new Star Trek film. To the audiences surprise, a few minutes into Khan, the film began to melt on screen and Leonard Nimoy appeared on stage with Orci, Kurtzman and Lindelof, asking the audience, "wouldn’t you rather see the new movie?" For almost two years, Vulcan, Alberta had campaigned to host the film premiere, but the small town lacks a movie theater, so Paramount arranged instead a lottery where 300 winning residents would be taken to a pre-release screening in Calgary, Alberta. The first of many premieres across the world was held at the Sydney Opera House on April 7, 2009. On April 11, the film was screened by 920 soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines at Camp Arifjan, Kuwait. Cast and crew members were in Kuwait to meet with the soldiers.

Not much is known aboout the plot, just that the film will chronicle the early days of James T. Kirk and his fellow crew members aboard the USS Enterprise. Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Leonard Nimoy, Eric Bana, Simon Pegg, Anton Yelchin, John Cho, Karl Urban and Zoe Saldana star in the film. Rumours have been bounding around that William Shatner will have a cameo in the film, but Shatner has stated he did not want a cameo in the film rather a part along the lines of Nimoy's.

Now, as we draw closer to the theatrical release, reviews are showing up across the internet. Boston Globe writer Ty Burr gave the film a 4/4 and said it is "ridiculously satisfying", and the "best prequel ever". Tall words, but with Rotten Tomatoes having the film at 100% fresh rating off of 22 reviews, Metacritic holds a score of 89 and IMDB the film is sitting at 8.2/10, how can you not believe him. The movie trailers have looked fantastic and hearing no negative rumblings from any fan, Trekkie or casual, can you refrain from seeing this film opening night? I know I can't.

Is Hollywood Running Out of Ideas?

Fresh ideas for movies seem to have gone stale

BY EMIL TIEDEMANN

It was not much more than two months ago that I spent $12.50 ($43.50 if you include popcorn!) to see Jason Voohries brought back from the grave (again!) in Friday the 13th, the remake of a 1980 cult classic. It wasn't long after that that I checked out the first movie stills of the sequel to the remake of another horror staple, Halloween. And just days ago I read that the Child's Play and Nightmare on Elm Street franchises will receive their own reboots, just as we are about to see new efforts in the Star Trek, X-Men, and Harry Potter series as well.

Is tinsletown tapped out, or just plain lazy?! Whatever the reasoning behind this trend of remakes, adaptations, sequels, prequels (and even an interquel {see Fast & Furious}), it doesn't seem to be hurting the numbers at the box office, as one of the few industries seemingly unaffected by the current recession.

Let's take a look at the top 20 movies in theatres right now, and it's full of stories we've already heard, or characters we already know. I'm not necessarily complaining here, but these people--the actors, directors, producers, writers, executives--make millions, have the world's most talented peers, and many others begging at their doorsteps, so why is it that the movie industry is starting to sound like a broken record?

The No.2 film in North America, State of Play, is a political thriller born out of a 6-year-old British mini-series of the same name. At No.4 is Hannah Montana: The Movie, Miley Cyrus' feature film debut that is based on her hit TV series, titled...you guessed it, Hannah Montana. As unoriginal as the title of the Montana movie is, it's still not as bad as the No.5 movie, Fast & Furious. All it did was drop a couple of "the's" from the 2001 original, which inspired this new film and two others prior.

Right behind that, at No.6, is Jason Stathem's Crank: High Voltage, a sequel to a film that really had nothing more to say. Moving down the list we run into Observe and Report (No.7), which is set to an original screenplay, but instantly reminds us of another comedy flick that is actually still in the top 20, Paul Blart Mall Cop, at No.17. Rounding out the top 10 is the ghost feature The Haunting in Connecticut, which isn't a remake or a sequel, but is based on a true story (like currently-playing Che and Hunger), dramatized to tie it into every one of the other 'Haunting' movies we've seen of late.

Moving out of the better half of the charts and we come to No.11, Dragonball Evolution, which borrowed its plot from the 25-year-old series of Japanese comics. The live action adaptation was a bust, most likely rushed through the red tape to cash in on a classic children's franchise. Four spots below is Race to Witch Mountain, a "re-imagining" of the 1975 adventure movie Escape to Witch Mountain, it in itself based on a 1968 sci-fi novel by Alexander Key.

No.18 belongs to The Last House on the Left, a re-telling of Wes Craven's infamous horror flick from 1972. They didn't even bother coming up with a new name for this one. Outside of the top 20 are many other examples of movie producers and studio executives who are slowly ridding original stories and ideas more and more, to cut corners perhaps, but at the expense of quality. There are comic book adaptations (Watchmen), video game adaptations (Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li), semi-autobiographical takes (The Class), thrasher reboots (Friday the 13th), short story conversions (Two Lovers), and even a movie adapted from a best-selling relationship book (He's Just Not That Into You)!

But it's not just the movies currently in theatres....it's also the anticipated ones coming up that bare familiar tales, including Angels & Demons (the sequel to The Da Vinci Code and an adaptation of a Dan Brown novel), Harry Potter & the Half-Blood Prince (the sixth installment of a film series based on a 6-part book series by J.K. Rowling), Star Trek (another "re-imagining" of a classic film, based on a classic TV series), X-Men Origins: Wolverwine (a spin-off of a film trilogy based on a comic book chain), and even Where the Wild Things Are, a live action film version of a 46-year-old children's picture book!

What happened to the Matt Damon's and Ben Affleck's of the late-'90s? Where are all the Project Greenlight's? Where's the originality? Hollywood seems to have misplaced all of that (especially Ben Affleck!), relying on motion pictures that resemble graphic novels, television sitcoms, and other motion pictures that got to the punchline years ago.

So, to sum things up, these head honcho's simply need to stop cutting corners in their cheque books, satisfying their bosses, sacrificing our patience, or at least my patience. This is a shout out to all the layman literates and struggling scripters to spread the word, put pencil to paper (or more likely, fingertips to the keyboard), and break the cycle, before some la la land big shot turns this here editorial into a movie!

No Midnight Shows

Star Trek will be released on the 7th!

Planning on catching the midnight show of J.J. Abrams' Star Trek on May 8th? No need, Comingsoon.net is reporting that shows for the highly anticipated reboot will start at 7pm on May 7th! Make sure you send Paramount a thank you for the change.

Written by Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman, the film stars John Cho, Ben Cross, Bruce Greenwood, Simon Pegg, Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Winona Ryder, Zoe Saldana, Karl Urban, Anton Yelchin, Eric Bana and Leonard Nimoy.

Upcoming movies that could knock our socks off in the first half of 2009

While a few of these movies won’t be big box office hits. These are the movies I am most looking forward to watching coming up this New Year. It looks like May will be the busiest month with a movie every week. Guess I should go get my popcorn ready! I would also like to thank Trailer Addicts for making the movie trailers easy to place for your viewing pleasure. Check back shortly after the movies come out as there more than likely will be a review for it.

The Unborn – Jan 2 – David S. Goyer hasn’t succeeded as a director as he has a screenwriter, but the trailer looks good enough that I will check it out.

The Plot: Haunted by strange dreams and recurring ghostly visions, Casey Beldon (Odette Yustman) turns to a spiritual advisor (Gary Oldman) for help. Together, they learn that Casey had a twin brother who never made it to term, and that her intended sibling is tied to a curse that requires Casey's death in order to manifest itself in our world.

Notorious - Jan 16 – A bio pic of the West Coast rapper looks good from the strong cast and with newcomer Jamal Woolard playing a young Notorious B.I.G. looking to make a name for himself. Derek Luke plays Sean “Puffy” Combs who I was surprised didn’t play the role himself.

The Plot: A chronicle of Christopher Wallace's (Woolard) rise from the streets of Brooklyn to become Notorious B.I.G., one of biggest and best rappers of the 1990s, under the tutelage of mentor/producer Sean Combs (Luke)



Watchmen – Mar 6 – Another comic book based film that looks like it could be really good given the director loves the material and didn’t want to do a disservice to it. But with a lawsuit between WB and Fox on who owns the rights the movie has a possibility of the release being pushed back.

The Plot: Set in an alternate vision of the year 1985, the murder of an ex-superhero causes a vigilante named Rorshach (Haley) to look into the matter, an investigation that reunites him with his surviving old colleagues -- all of them former superheroes themselves -- and gradually unveils a conspiracy with links to their shared past and catastrophic consequences for the future.



X-Men Origins: Wolverine – May 1 – With Hugh Jackman returning as the character who made him a household name and his arch nemesis Sabertooth (Liev Schreiber) returning in this prequel we could be looking at another great X-related film. Although the first trailer didn’t make it look fantastic, it definitely looked better than X3.

The Plot: An origins story that follows the early life of James Howlett (Jackman), also known as Logan, and best known as Wolverine. The chronicle of his younger years as a mutant connects to his relationship and eventual falling out with Victor Creed/Sabretooth (Schreiber), and his fateful entry into the Weapons X project, the governmental program that turns willing and unwilling beings into living weapons.



Star Trek – May 8 – I have never been a huge Star Trek fan but after hearing JJ Abrams was going to be taking the helm I was intrigued. And after seeing the first trailer I will be going to see this one in the theatres.

The Plot: The origin story of Captain James T. Kirk, Spock and the crew of the USS Enterprise before they had boldly gone where no man had gone before.



Angels and Demons – May 15 – May will be a busy month already without the sequel to The Da Vinci Code being released. I enjoyed Angels and Demons the book over The Da Vinci Code so I have high hopes for this movie.

The Plot: Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon (Tom Hanks) finds himself in Rome, where he has to race against time to prevent the Illuminati, a secret society, from putting in motion a terrorist act that could destroy the Vatican. He's aided in his quest by the beautiful Italian scientist Vittoria Vetri (Ayelet Zurer).



Terminator Salvation – May 22 – Christian Bale looks like he is more than ready to step into John Conner’s shoes, with McG at the helm and a solid supporting cast of Sam Worthington, Anton Yelchin and others. Another movie franchise I was never fond of looks like it could draw me in for a look see.

The Plot: John Connor (Bale) is joined in his attempt to defeat Skynet and its army of Terminators by Marcus Wright (Worthington), a man who apparently has been rescued from the past, though Connor wonders if instead he's been sent from the future as a foil to his plan. As Connor and Wright push deep into the heart of Skynet, they get closer and closer to learning the secret behind the organization's mission to wipe humankind off the planet.



Up – May 29 – Another Pixar movie taking to the skies, this one literally. Until Pixar makes a bad film I don’t think you can go wrong walking into the theatre to see this movie.

The Plot: By tying thousands of balloon to his home, 78-year-old Carl Fredricksen sets out to fulfill his lifelong dream to see the wilds of South America. Right after lifting off, however, he learns he isn't alone on his journey, since Russell, a wilderness explorer 70 years his junior, has inadvertently become a stowaway on the trip.



Public Enemies – Jul 1 – Johnny Depp and Christian Bale star in this Micheal Mann film base of the real life gangsters of the 1930s. Also has a fantastic supporting cast.

The Plot: The incredible and true story of legendary Depression-era bank robber John Dillinger (Depp)the charismatic bank robber whose lightning raids made him the number one target of J. Edgar Hoovers fledgling FBI and its top agent, Melvin Purvis (Bale), and a folk hero to much of the downtrodden public. No one could stop Dillinger. No jail could hold him.

Transformers Revenge of the Fallen – Jul 3 – Not much is known about the plot yet and no trailer or poster has even been released at this point. But with everyone from the original reprising there roles I don’t think you can not go see this unless the trailer looks god awful.

The Plot: Decepticon forces return to Earth on a mission to take Sam Witwicky prisoner, after the young hero learns the truth about the ancient origins of the Transformers. Joining the mission to protect humankind is Optimus Prime, who forms an alliance with international armies for a second epic battle.

Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince – Jul 17 – I have liked each movie more and more in this franchise so my hopes are rather high for this movie. After being pushed back from a summer 08 release it will finally see the light of day.

The Plot: In his sixth year at Hogwarts, Harry Potter discovers even more about the evil Lord Voldemort's past, thanks to his mentor Dumbledore and mysterious textbook marked "This book is the property of the Half-Blood Prince." By the end of the year, nothing will ever be the same.



Colin Enquist