The Phoenix Network:
 
 
About  |  Advertise
Adult  |  Moonsigns  |  Band Guide  |  Blogs  |  In Pictures
 
Features  |  Reviews
FIND MOVIES
Find a Movie
Movie List
Loading ...
or
Find Theaters and Movie Times
or
Search Movies
2009-year-end-review-see-all

Lite at the end of the tunnel?

Fun and games in post-apocalyptic Hollywood
By PETER KEOUGH  |  December 30, 2009

 
VIDEO: The trailer for The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus

If you had enough of the end of the world with 2012, you might be relieved when it comes to 2010. Hollywood still has a few more doomsday scenarios to get out of its system in the months to come, but the fact that one of them is set in a diner (Legion) indicates that the studios might not be taking the Apocalypse all that seriously.

In general, Hollywood appears to be offering a more light-hearted approach to the dark side. Following up on the success of teenybopper terror flicks like Twilight and Zombieland are such not-so-scary-looking fantasy and horror features as Daybreakers, Season of the Witch, How To Train Your Dragon, and Tooth Fairy. True, such masters of the morbid as Michael Haneke (The White Ribbon) and Martin Scorsese (Shutter Island) have returned. But how bad can things be when death, as depicted in Peter Jackson's The Lovely Bones, is no more daunting than a stroll in Middle-earth? Or is that New Zealand?

JANUARY
The vampire trend can hardly go any farther than Michael and Peter Spierig's DAYBREAKERS (January 8). It's 2019, and just about everyone has joined the ranks of the undead — which leaves the few diehard humans in a sticky situation. Willem Dafoe, Isabel Lucas, and Ethan Hawke shed light on the matter.

Undead also is the late Heath Ledger, as he lives on in Terry Gilliam's THE IMAGINARIUM OF DR. PARNASSUS (January 8), his final screen appearance. It's a Faustian fantasia that also stars Christopher Plummer, Jude Law, and Colin Farrell.

Trying to bring his career back from the dead is the down-and-out country singer played by Jeff Bridges in Scott Cooper's CRAZY HEART (January 8). Music journalist Maggie Gyllenhaal is there to help out, as is Robert Duvall with tips from his own Tender Mercies.

And just when you thought it was safe to return to the cineplex, it's the gosh darn end of the world again. This time it comes courtesy of Albert and Allen Hughes's THE BOOK OF ELI (January 15), in which Denzel Washington gets stuck with guarding the tome that can save us, or at least co-stars Mila Kunis and Gary Oldman.

Let's hope Denzel makes a more intimidating impression than the fairy-tale crew of heroes in HOODWINKED TOO! HOOD VS. EVIL (January 15), an animated sequel directed by Mike Disa in which Anne Hathaway provides the voice for Little Red Riding Hood, who teams up with the Wolf to solve the disappearance of Hansel and Gretel. Hayden Panettiere, Joan Cusack, and Bill Hader chime in. And speaking of fairy tales: Peter Jackson takes on the afterlife as he adapts Alice Sebold's THE LOVELY BONES (January 15), in which a murdered girl can't find peace until her killer is brought to justice. Mark Wahlberg, Rachel Weisz, and Stanley Tucci help out.

Real life invariably intrudes on make-believe, and as usual it comes in the form of foreign movies. Like Romanian director Corneliu Porumboiu's POLICE, ADJECTIVE (January 15), in which a cop has a crisis of conscience after busting a teen for dope. Or South African director Anthony Fabian's SKIN (January 15), a true story about white parents in the '50s apartheid era who are shocked when they give birth to a black child; Sam Neill and Sophie Okonedo star. Or the ever misanthropic Austrian Haneke, whose THE WHITE RIBBON (January 15) explores the depths of depravity in a German village just prior to World War I.

1  |  2  |  3  |   next >
Related: Review: Invictus, Review: Sherlock Holmes, 2009 Oscar predictions, More more >
  Topics: Features , Barack Obama, Celebrity News, Kristen Bell,  More more >
  • Share:
  • Share this entry with Facebook
  • Share this entry with Digg
  • Share this entry with Delicious
  • RSS feed
  • Email this article to a friend
  • Print this article
Comments

ARTICLES BY PETER KEOUGH
Share this entry with Delicious
  •   LITE AT THE END OF THE TUNNEL?  |  December 30, 2009
    If you had enough of the end of the world with 2012 , you might be relieved when it comes to 2010.
  •   REVIEW: THE YOUNG VICTORIA  |  December 22, 2009
    Who knew Queen Victoria was such a babe?
  •   REVIEW: BROKEN EMBRACES [LOS ABRAZOS ROTOS]  |  December 22, 2009
    No filmmaker generates narrative like Pedro Almodóvar. Five minutes into Broken Embraces and he's got half a dozen potential storylines spinning.
  •   REVIEW: NINE  |  December 22, 2009
    It doesn't get much farther from human experience than this: an adaptation of a Broadway production adapting a film ( 8-1/2 ) about a filmmaker who imagines making a film.
  •   REVIEW: A SINGLE MAN  |  December 22, 2009
    Christopher Isherwood published his novel about a middle-aged homosexual grieving for a lost lover, the frank depiction of gay desire scandalized some readers.

 See all articles by: PETER KEOUGH

MOST POPULAR
RSS Feed of for the most popular articles
 Most Viewed   Most Emailed 



  |  Sign In  |  Register
 
thePhoenix.com:
Phoenix Media/Communications Group:
TODAY'S FEATURED ADVERTISERS
Copyright © 2010 The Phoenix Media/Communications Group