Winter movies with potential

There aren't a whole lot of movies that I'm pumped for this winter season. After all, we have already encountered the new movies from two of the best filmmakers we have working today, Tarantino and the Coen Brothers. But still, there is some potential in the air. Some newer directors who have only been established in the last five to ten years have their latest projects on the way. Take Jason Reitman who really made a name for himself in 2007 with Juno. His latest movie, the George Clooney vehicle, Up in the Air, looks even better. And James McTeague, who really only got started as a director the year before, with 2006s V For Vendetta, also has a new project coming out. That film is Ninja Assassin and looks like it is holding nothing back. On the topic of action and a movie that looks like the director was born to make it, there's John Woo's new film Red Cliff. It looks like a movie by Zhang Yimou, the only other action director who could have possibly made a film like this. Getting back to America for a moment, there are two other films worth noting. One is actually more British than American, despite starring Robert Downey Jr, and that movie is Sherlock Holmes, directed by Brit director Guy Ritchie. The other movie is James Cameron's Avatar. He hasn't made a movie since 1997s Titanic and this one looks like the thing he's been waiting to make for the past decade. So there you have it. Five movies.

Ninja Assassin

Red Cliff

Up in the Air

Sherlock Holmes

and

Avatar.

They can't all be great. I know that. And my guess would be that Up in the Air is the most sure thing of the pack. But they all look like they'll be fantastic and seem to have a lot of potential going for them.

A Serious Man, not an easy movie to figure out

I saw the most recent Coen Brothers movie, A Serious Man, the other night, and once again these guys found a way to surprise me. Honestly, nothing they do should really surprise me anymore, but this one was pretty unique. It was very Jewish and very into 60s rock. The music was Jefferson Airplane and Jimmy Hendrix and the plot was a black comedy about a man whose life was falling apart. In that way it reminded me of their film noir The Man Who Wasn't There, only there were no crimes and murders here. But there was certainly a femme fatale. Or two. The movie told of this man and his son and his wife leaving him for another man, and his job at school (a blackmail incident, so yeah, some crime I suppose), and his possible tenure. During the course of the film, the man goes to see three rabbis and each one is a pretty humorours experience. The tooth story is truly wonderful. The movie as a whole is just okay, but like most of their movies, I'm sure its smarter than it appears on the surface and will take some serious thinking about and maybe even multiple viewings to truly understand.