Season of Sameness

IT’S A NEW year and a new spirit pervades the land. Nowhere is that sense of innovation and imagination, of bold ideas and daring leaps into the further reaches of artistic realms, more in evidence than in Hollywood.

Look at the films coming our way between now and May – a veritable flood of forward-thinking, radically uncompromising dramas, comedies, romances and thrillers. Even to use those labels – drama, comedy, thriller – unfairly boxes in these adventurous enterprises, when, clearly, the filmmakers and stars behind these projects are genre-busters of the most deep-seated kind.

So take a look at this list – and take heart. There are sequels, two movies about self-aware robots, a few classic Grimm’s fairy tales rebooted, some adaptations of young-adult fiction and kid-lit gems. Actresses of Oscar stripe (Julianne Moore, Kate Winslet) put on their best faces of villainy while actors such as Vin Diesel do stuff they’ve never, ever done before, such as roll out of an aeroplane in a Dodge Charger while trusting that the parachute attached to the roof will function properly on the plummet to Earth.

Here are thumbnails of some of the most hotly anticipated – or not – movies opening in February, March and April (Thailand opening dates, which are subject to change, are in parenthesis). And then, of course, it will be time for something completely different, such as a movie with Marvel superheroes in it, or something.

 

Jupiter Ascending (Thursday) 

Originally slated for last July, this sci-fi opera from ‘The Matrix” creators Andy and Lana Wachowski stars Mila Kunis, Channing Tatum and Oscar nominee Eddie Redmayne. It’s hard to tell from the trailer whether this tale of intergalactic genetic engineering will be awesome, an unintentional laugh-riot, or both. Fun fact: Kunis plays a maid who cleans houses. In her last film, “Third Person”, she played a maid who cleaned hotel rooms. 

Fifty Shades of Grey (February 12)

The Valentine’s Day gift that 100 million fans of EL James’ erotica tomes have been waiting for – with Jamie Dornan as the handsome businessman with a bit of a bondage-and-domination thing going and Dakota Johnson as Anastasia Steele, the innocent student sent to interview him for the college paper. Things get swoony, and kinky, but just how explicit is the movie – directed by a woman, Sam Taylor-Johnson – going to get? 

 

Kingsman: The Secret Service (February 12) 

Colin Firth camps it up as a Bond-ian super spy who recruits a protege (Taron Egerton) to battle an evil villain (Samuel L Jackson). The espionage send-up, directed by Matthew Vaughn (“Kick-Ass”, “X-Men: First Class”), is an adaptation of the “Secret Service” comics by Mark Millar and Dave Gibbons.

 

Focus (February 26) 

Will Smith is an ace con-man who schools Margot Robbie in the tricks of the trade. A few years later they find themselves on opposite sides of an epic scam. Shot in Buenos Aires and New Orleans, with jet-setty high-rollers and jet-powered race cars.

 

Chappie (March 4)

“A thinking robot could be the end of mankind!” Sigourney Weaver warns in the trailer for the latest from Neill Blomkamp, the South African sci-fier behind “District 9” and “Elysium”. A bulked-up Hugh Jackman is on board, too, but the star is the childlike robot, imbued with emotions and artificial intelligence, and deemed a menace to society by the powers that be. 

 

Cinderella (March 12)

Lily James, aka Lady Rose MacClare of Downton Abbey, takes the title role in Disney’s live-action retelling of the Grimm Brothers’ tale. Of course, Disney already has the 1950 animated classic in its archives, and firmly lodged in our collective consciousness. And there’s “Into the Woods”, with Anna Kendrick as Cinderella. (Didn’t we just see that? Yes.) Two reasons this might be good: Cate Blanchett is the Wicked Stepmother and Helena Bonham Carter the Fairy Godmother. The Prince? Game of Thrones star Richard Madden. Kenneth Branagh directs.

Insurgent (March 19) 

The second instalment in “The Divergent Series” finds Shailene Woodley’s Tris and Theo James’ Four on the run in post-apocalyptic dystopian Chicago, with Kate Winslet making frowny faces as head of the Erudites, the governing faction, determined to get Tris under her control. It’s hard to tell from the trailer (actually, it’s not), but it looks like Ashley Judd, who died in “Divergent”, is back. Or flashbacked.

 

Home (March 26)

DreamWorks Animation’s adaptation of Adam Rex’s children’s book, “The True Meaning of Smekday”, is about an alien race that settles on Earth, and then tries to re-settle its human inhabitants. One of said Earthlings is a teenager named Tip, voiced by Rihanna. Steve Martin is the vocal talent behind Captain Smek, leader of the extraterrestrial race, known as the Boovs.

 

Furious 7 (April 1)

“I don’t have friends. I got family,” Vin Diesel says in the trailer for the “Fast and Furious” franchise’s seventh instalment. And, indeed, that’s what these movies are really about – who needs all that crazy stunt driving, the muscle cars, the armoured fortress on wheels? Paul Walker, who died midway through production, is featured prominently in the trailer, trying to rescue a kid from a bus that’s skidded off a mountain road and is hanging over the edge. Also, Thai action star Tony Jaa makes his Hollywood debut. 

 

The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water (April 9)

 “Who wants Krabby Patties?” Uh-oh, someone’s stolen the secret recipe, and so SquarePants and his Bikini Bottom pals make for the surface, heading to a beachside community inhabited by humans – one of whom appears to be Antonio Banderas dressed up like a pirate. The super-popular Nickelodeon TV cartoon show has a legion of fans, many of whom might find it difficult adjusting to their hero’s new computer-generated 3D iteration. Whatever, it’s sure to be an absorbing character study.

 

The Last Five Years (April 16)

“Into the Woods” heroine Anna Kendrick stars opposite Smash’s Jeremy Jordan in the adaptation of the hit musical that tracks the ups and downs of the relationship between a struggling actress and a young writer and their ridiculously big New York apartment.

 

Avengers: Age of Ultron (April 30) 

Another self-aware robot imbued with artificial intelligence (see Chappie, above) and another excuse for Black Widow, Captain America, Hawkeye, the Hulk, Iron Man and Thor to reconvene to try to put this metal alloy menace to bed, once and for all. As if they needed an excuse.