Thoughts and Observations from my NATO meeting (Movies)
 

I'm not talking about the North Atlantic Tree Organization. NATO in this case stands for National Association of Theater Owners. For seven hours we heard presentations from not only vendors but also every major production company in the movie business. Each company gave us all exclusive previews of films that will be coming out this year. Some of the previews are out and some were literally raw footage of films. Here are my observations...

• Men in Black III is probably going to suck. We saw exclusive footage of a few scenes and the whole thing just seems REALLY cartoony and bad. I'm going to see it but was really let down by what I saw.
• Prometheus could end up being a better movie than Dark Knight Rises. These are my two blackbusters of the year I can;t wait to see and I know I'm not the only one. Prometheus just looks like it's going to be a staple in the sci fi genre. It's going to be everything we loved about the Alien series but with modern day filming and fresh ideas. Can't wait.
• Ted is going to be hilarious. I know the redband trailer is out to the public but I saw it for the first time yesterday and it was hysterical. I think it's just because I love Seth Mcfarlane's humor.
• Bill Murray could get another Oscar nomination for his role as FDR in Hyde Park on the Hudson. We saw a raw trailer and not only does the movie look really good but Murray is going to shine in it.
• John Hillcoat's Lawless looks awesome. I don't know if that preview is public but it's going to be really good. I actually am not going to want to kill Shia Labouf in this one.
• Andrew Dominik's Killing Them Softley is going to be this years most violent and gritty action thriller. We saw some raw footage and it looks amazing.
• The ****ty comedies are coming. We have another Project X college party movie, a most likey ****ty Will Ferrel and Galifianakis movie, and more Kevin James doing stupid ****. Seems like the best comedies this year will be under the radar films.

This year is going to be an amazing year for film and I can't wait to see it start.

I concur about Men in Black, just judging by what I've seen in the trailer and the previous sequel. The Prometheus trailer gave me chills, but I'm worried that the visual effects of the actual antagonist, whatever the creature may be, might be disappointing. I think the film will be incredible if they get that right and don't rely too much on computer generated imagery. The Dark Knight Rises, while having one of the weakest titles I've ever heard, looks promising. Somehow I doubt it could live up to the hype, but objectively speaking I think it will be a great film.

Ted looks like it's the only comedy I'm interested in seeing this year. The "fuck you, thunder!" song from the Redband trailer made me crack up harder than any of the other comedy trailers I've seen this year.

And wow, Kevin James hasn't given the fuck up yet?

At least Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer aren't doing anything this year. At least, I hope to Galactus they aren't.

Yeah the Men In Black one doesn't good look, which is a bummer cause I grew up with those films. The Prometheus trailer looked pretty cool though.

I want to see the Chernobyl Diaries movie mostly because I've always had a fascination with Chernobyl and the shots of Prypiat would be cool to see, but at the same time I don't want to support some mediocre Hollywood found footage film, which is what it seems to be shaping up to be.

I'm getting sick of found footage films. It's not like there are all that many of them, but the last few that have come out have been super-mediocre.

I thought both earlier Men In Black films pretty much sucked so I haven't exactly been looking forward to the third one. I think it could only surprise me in a positive way.

As a big Alien and Blade Runner (also directed by Ridley Scott) fan, Prometheus is the cinema experience I'm looking forward to the most this year. And I'm also looking very much forward to Wes Anderson's upcoming film :)

Seems like a love it or hate it genre tbh. I would guess Blair Witch Project is considered a classic of the genre, and it's a very polarizing film; I've seen tons of people who hate it (though I actually did like it). Never saw Cloverfield though.

I think it can be a very powerful gimmick when done correctly, but it's also something that's ridiculously easy to get wrong.

Cloverfield, Blair Witch Project, and [REC] are all excellent films in my opinion.

I didn't care so much for Cloverfield and Blair Witch Project. [REC] was alright .. Need to see the sequel. The Akira-inspired movie Chronicle (which isn't exactly found footage, but similar in style) wasn't a brilliant film either, but much more enjoyable than I expected.

Add Quarantine to the list. Only found footage movie I've seen that didn't mostly suck. I've also never understood why found footage movies have to be horror movies. A found footage movie about an embedded journalist in Iraq or Afghanistan seems so obvious that I'm almost mystified that it hasn't been done yet.