Many of us are sick of the ?Charlie?s Angels? hype and all the talk about ?What Women Want.? Some of us are even speculating about whether Tom Hanks will win yet another Oscar for his performance in ?Cast Away? or if ?Billy Elliot,? arguably the best mainstream movie of last year, will even receive a nomination. The Golden Globes recently rewarded Julia Roberts for her quick-witted portrayal of Erin Brockovich and labeled ?Gladiator? Best Motion Picture. With all the movie talk going on, one would wonder what the next few months have in-store for us.
Inevitably, there will be a lot of hits and misses. As this semester slowly becomes more and more hectic, the only thing better than caffeine during stressful college hassles is a good movie. A preview of the upcoming releases for this semester will serve as a great guide for the thing we all love to do ? procrastinate.
February
For those who are really looking forward to the day of love, Valentine?s Day, picture-perfect Angelina Jolie and exotic Antonio Banderas pair up to star in an erotic thriller that examines love and obsession, entitled ?Original Sin.?
Another love story will hit the big screens starring Heather Graham and Chris Klien. ?Say It Isn?t So? is all about a relationship that, after a shocking revelation, proves to be incestuous ? or not.
For those sick of all the Valentine?s hoopla, the sequel to the classic movie ?Silence of the Lambs? will be released. ?Hannibal? brings Anthony Hopkins back on screen as the cannibalistic Hannibal Lector. However, the FBI detective after him this time is Julianne Moore, who replaces Jodi Foster.
Also, the Disney fever is bound to come back with ?Recess: School?s Out,? a story of an evil school principal who creates a laser beam to alter the weather into permanent winter so that students will attend classes forever. Wait until TJ and all his buddies come to the rescue.
March
As the first signs of spring finally appear a number of movies will, too. ?Squelch? is a cross-country tale of revenge starring Steve Zhan and Paul Walker.
?Squelch? might be all fluff, but the March highlight is the aptly titled ?Animal Husbandry,? where Jane Gooddale, played by Ashley Judd, becomes a sensational sex columnist studying ?the male animal? after her relationship with Ray, played by Greg Kinnear, fails.
Stephen Dorff goes back to 1958 in ?Deuces Wild? as a member of a gang in Brooklyn?s rough streets. March should, not only introduce spring, but a flock of memorable movies.
April
As the temperature increases, many bizarre motion pictures will premiere in April. Starting off with a movie version of a comic. Josie and her galpals follow in the footsteps of Archie, Betty, Veronica and Jughead when everyone?s favorite bubble-singing band ?Josie & The Pussycats? hits theaters internationally.
From cartoons-turned-humans to humans turning into cartoons, ?Monkeybone? is a tale of a coma-stricken cartoonist played by Brendan Fraser who delves into the world he created.
Happy-go-lucky flicks are not all that will be released in April. Vulgar shock king Tom Green takes a break from eating insects on his MTV show and stars in his equally controversial movie, the not-so-surprisingly titled ?Freddy Got Fingered? ? a movie bound to make some people laugh their lungs out and others cringe with disgust.
May
May holds a lot of surprises for us. First, Brendan Fraser returns to the Egyptian deserts for more mystic adventures with ?The Mummy Returns.?
Second, the beautiful Ben Affleck takes the lead in the long-awaited ?Pearl Harbor,? which will be released on Memorial Day.
Finally, Mariah Carey makes her big screen debut, notwithstanding her forgettable cameo on ?The Bachelor,? in the story of a girl who hits high in the music business with ?All That Glitters.? The movie is loosely based on Carey?s life. Watch out for the soundtrack. The immensely talented diva will, in all probability, make us hum for a few months or even years.
Five months into the year and the movie lineup is more impressive than yesteryear?s in its entirety.
Last year?s offerings were generally designed for mass marketing rather than expanding the innovative artistry of filmmaking. Remarkable movies like ?Dancer In The Dark? and ?Billy Elliot? failed to achieve nationwide success, while movies like ?X-Men? and ?How The Grinch Stole Christmas? hit the big time at the box office. Looking on the brighter side, this year will hopefully end this little movie recession.
Upcoming movies are bound to cater the cravings of all. As in many cases with successful movies, sequels usually follow. Sequels this year range from the likely slapstick ?Scary Movie 2? and mysterious ?Jumanji 2? to ?American Pie 2? and the bland ?Jurassic Park 3.? Furthermore, there will be sequels to ?Rush Hour? and ?Blade.?
Will Smith will frequent the silver screen many times this year. First, with yet another sequel ?MIB 2.? Second, Smith will star in the highly-anticipated biopic of Muhammad Ali?s life ?Ali.? Finally, if production goes well, Smith will manage to cram another movie into 2001, this time with Nicholas Cage in the tentatively titled ?I Now Pronounce You Joe And Benny.?
2001 is also filled with surprises. The Broadway show ?Rent? will be made into a motion picture.
Successful books such as ?Memoirs Of A Geisha? and ?Prozac Nation? will be treated with Hollywood hands.
Comedy lovers will have a lot to laugh about. Lisa Kudrow is convinced she is a dog in ?Bark,? and the king of laughter Steve Martin stars in ?Novocaine,? where he plays a dentist who is also a murder suspect.
2001 is bound to be a good movie year. Hopefully, this year will bring what the previous year lacked.
