Ten reasons to go to the movies in 2019

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This article was published 04/01/2019 (2471 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Since television aerials first started blighting urban horizons 70 years ago, people have been predicting the death of movies.

Yet movies keep on going. The cinematic format somehow entices people going to cinemas even as alternatives — Netflix, a television renaissance and ever more available digital downloads — try to siren audiences away from the local bijou.

We might like to kid ourselves that it’s because movies are better than ever. But really, it has a lot to do with the sophistication of movie studios hooking us into franchises, assembling stories that are both familiar and surprising, or just getting us invested in the careers of beautiful and/or talented actors.

Examples? Let’s begin with:

Endings

This is a year of culmination when it comes to two massive movie franchises. Avengers Endgame (April 26) wraps up a decade-long franchise of films in the Marvel Universe, promising a satisfying concluding to the apocalyptic conclusion of 2018’s Avengers Infinity War, which went the extra step beyond placing half our heroes in mortal peril at the begloved hand of Thanos (Josh Brolin).

The years also sees the release of Star Wars: Episode IX (Dec. 20), the wrap-up of the third — and possibly final — Star Wars trilogy begat by George Lucas in 1977. Even if naysayers tamped their enthusiasm for Daisy Ridley’s up-and-coming Jedi Rey and Adam Driver’s wannabe Darth Vader Kylo Ren, it’s going to be huge.

 

Locally sourced product

Composer and impresario Danny Schur long promised a movie version of his Strike: The Musical and this is the year he delivers … the centenary of the Winnipeg General Strike as luck would have it. Now titled Stand!, its release date has yet to be determined, but it’s an exciting benchmark for local film.

Studios came to town in 2018 to shoot bigger-than-usual films, including A Dog’s Journey (May 17), a sequel to A Dog’s Purpose, also starring Dennis Quaid, who reprises his role as a two-legged character. The Grudge (June 21), a reboot of the enduring Japanese horror franchise, stars John Cho and Andrea Riseborough and comes from promising young horror auteur Nicolas Pesce (Piercing, The Eyes of My Mother).

Winnipeg filmmaker Danishka Esterhazy went elsewhere — specifically Hamilton, Ont. — to shoot her new dystopian thriller Level 16, about a group of young women trying to learn the truth about the institution in which they’ve spent their lives. It should arrive in theatres by March.

We are still awaiting release dates for other locally-lensed movies including Jeremiah Terminator Leroy, starring Kristen Stewart and Laura Dern as the perpetrators of a cunning literary hoax. Percy stars Christopher Walken, of all people, as Saskatchewan canola farmer Percy Schmeiser doing legal battle with agribusiness giant Monsanto.

In 2018, director Aneesh Chaganty proved his ability to make a compelling thriller on a low budget with Searching, starring John Cho, and he hopes lightning will strike twice with a new thriller, shot here at the end of the year. It’s titled Run, and stars Sarah Paulson.

 

Biopics

The success of Bohemian Rhapsody proved audiences have an insatiable appetite for true stories of famous people. So 2019 offers up a whole selection of possibilities, starting with Stan & Ollie (Jan. 25) starring Steve Coogan and John C. Reilly as Laurel and Hardy, arguably one of the greatest comedy teams ever, seen in this drama at the melancholy end of their run.

Tom Hanks stars in not one but two movies about real people, first in Greyhound (March 22) a Second World War drama in which he stars as the career officer obliged to take command of the titular destroyer. Hanks will be seen later in the year putting on the famous red cardigan sweater as Mr. Rogers in A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood (Oct. 18).

Taron Egerton appeared opposite Elton John in Kingsmen: The Golden Circle and will actually play the former Reggie Dwight in the screen bio Rocketman (May 31).

Renee Zellweger proved her movie musical chops in Chicago (2002), and returns 17 years later to portray musical legend Judy Garland in Judy (Sept. 27).

 

Remakes

Disney has basically gone bonkers for the notion of doing live-action remakes of their animated catalogue with three projects this year. Dumbo (March 29), directed by Tim Burton and starring Colin Farrell, Michael Keaton and Danny DeVito, dispenses with the motivational mouse character and reframes the story of a flying elephant with emphasis on human characters.

The biggest surprise of the rebooted Aladdin (May 24) is that it’s directed by Guy Ritchie, but then again, the Brit bloke does have a way with an action scene. Whether he can do a romantic musical interlude on a flying carpet is another matter. Will Smith takes on the daunting task of playing the Genie once memorably essayed by Robin Williams.

The Lion King (July 19) isn’t so much live action as it is photorealistic computer animation, but it still relies on big names to flesh out characters including Donald Glover as Simba, Beyoncé as Nala, Seth Rogen as Pumbaa and Billy Eichner as Timon.

Not all remakes are wholesome. Pet Sematary (April 5) revives a 30-year-old Stephen King-penned property about a cursed graveyard that brings both pets and people back from the dead, only… changed.

 

Superheroes/villains: The A-List

Marvel finally breaks its embarrassing run of male-focused superheroes with Captain Marvel (March 8), starring Brie Larson as a former earthling invested with devastating superpowers, enlisted in a fight against ruthless extraterrestrials. The erstwhile Ms. Marvel should also figure prominently in Avengers: Endgame.

Over at Fox, Dark Phoenix (June 7) diminishingly returns to the X-Men franchise for another go at the story of Jean Grey already seen in X-Men: The Last Stand, wherein the once heroic Jean Grey/Phoenix goes devastatingly bad. Sophie Turner inherits the title role from Famke Janssen.

This may be a spoiler if anyone was dismayed by the end of Avengers: Infinity War, but Spider-Man returns in Spider-Man: Far From Home (July 5) with Tom Holland reprising his role and Jake Gyllenhaal playing classic Spidey villain Mysterio.

Hoping to get the taste of Suicide Squad’s Jared Leto out of our collective palate, Warner Bros. delivers the supervillain origin story Joker (Oct. 4) starring Joaquin Phoenix as the Clown Prince of Crime.

 

Off-brand superheroes

M. Night Shyamalan ties together the 2016 thriller Split and the 2000 thriller Unbreakable with Glass (Jan. 18), starring Samuel L. Jackson as the titular criminal mastermind who arranges a violent playdate between Unbreakable’s David Dunn (Bruce Willis) and Split’s enhanced psycho Kevin Crumb (James McAvoy).

One of the corniest Golden Age superheroes gets an ironic makeover in Shazam (April 5) starring Zachary Levi as the muscle-bound alter ego of troubled juvie Billy Batson (Asher Angel).

The New Mutants (Aug. 2) is an X-Men spinoff with shades of X-Files horror as five teenage mutants find themselves trapped in a government facility.

 

Sequels

If it was a hit in the last few years, it’s probably got a number after it in 2019. Expect The Lego Movie 2 (Feb. 8) and John Wick 3 (May 17), this time pairing the Keanu Reeves’s relentless assassin opposite Halle Berry. Look for Zombieland 2 (Oct. 11) wherein Jesse Eisenberg tries to erase his Lex Luthor from our collective memory banks.

Woody, Buzz and the other toys go for another peril-fraught road trip in Toy Story 4 (June 21). The realm of the scary clown Pennywise undergoes a generational shift in It: Chapter 2 (Sept. 6). And finally, royal sisters Anna and Elsa (Kristen Bell and Idina Menzel) bundle up for more musical adventure in Frozen 2 (Nov. 22)

 

New beginnings

Yes, it’s time for redos of mothballed franchises. Hence Hellboy (April 12) revives the supernatural demon do-gooder, this time played by Stranger Things’ David Harbour. Men in Black: International (June 14) casts Chris Hemsworth and non-man Tessa Thompson as, respectively, Agents H and M.

Charlie’s Angels (Nov. 1) is a third reboot (counting a short-lived 2011 television version) of the jiggly ‘70s TV series. Kristen Stewart stars and Elizabeth Banks — one of three credited Bosleys in the film — also directs.

 

Linking with the kids

In a year when studios are betting on tried-and-true sequels and reboots, it’s nice to see the crackerjack stop-motion animators Laika continuing their run of original films. Missing Link (April 12) tells the story of a hunter (Hugh Jackman) stalking the missing link (Zach Galifianakis), from the director of the excellent ParaNorman.

 

Big-gun directors

Alita: Battle Angel (Feb. 14) sees spendthrift box-office champ James Cameron (Titanic, Avatar) producing a future fantasy about a very human battle droid (Rosa Salazar) with penny-pinching Robert Rodriguez (Spy Kids, Planet Terror) at the helm.

Where’d You Go Bernadette? (March 22) is an adaptation of a beloved bestseller about a missing mom (Cate Blanchett) from director Richard Linklater.

Quentin Tarantino takes a shot at proving his relevance by returning to the darkest days of the 1960s — the Manson murders — with Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (July 26) starring Leonardo Di Caprio, Brad Pitt and Margot Robbie as Sharon Tate.

After proving himself with the terrific thriller Get Out, Jordan Peele returns to the horror genre with Us (March 15), which sees a nice American family terrorized by evil mirror images of themselves.

The Irishman (Fall) sees Martin Scorsese reunite with Robert De Niro while De Niro reunites with Al Pacino in this gangster movie about the man who may or may not have killed Jimmy Hoffa. (Pacino plays Hoffa, by the way.) No ticket purchase required; It’s destined for Netflix.

Greta Gerwig, the indie-darling actress who became an indie-darling director of the strength of Lady Bird, returns for her adaptation of Little Women (Dec. 25) starring Saoirse Ronan and Emma Watson as Jo and Meg March.

randall.king@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @FreepKing