My son has only one question regarding 2011 and its movies: Are those machine guns the Green Hornet has on the hood of his vehicle available for purchase without a permit?
You try to raise these kids right, and then everything in popular culture conspires to turn them into weapons fetishists. Oh, well. I hope the big-screen "Green Hornet" beats the odds and brings some spark and zip to the proceedings, the proceedings being the latest Hollywood attempt to cash in on boomer nostalgia for an old childhood title, while enticing the new generation with the big guns.
Here are 10 to watch for in 2011. Dates in some cases are tentative and prone to shuffling.
-"Country Strong," opening Jan. 7. More crazy hearts in the world of country music. This tale of romantic woe and romantic "whoa!" stars Gwyneth Paltrow as "a fallen, emotionally unstable" chantoosie who falls in with a rising young singer-writer played by Garrett Hedlund of "Tron: Legacy." Tim McGraw co-stars as Paltrow's husband and manager.
-"The Green Hornet," opening Jan.14. The character goes back to the golden age of radio. Now, director Michel Gondry ("Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind") takes on what promises to be an unconventional superhero outing, starring Seth Rogen (who co-wrote) as the dissolute son of a Murdoch-like media magnate (Tom Wilkinson). The latter's death prompts party boy Britt to hit the streets with his souped-up set of wheels, the Black Beauty, and clean up some crime (Christoph Waltz plays the chief scum of the L.A. underworld) with his ally and fellow masquerader, Kato (Jay Chou).
-"The Illusionist," opening in limited release Jan. 14. An old script given new life: Decades ago, French master Jacques Tati wrote a fable about a young girl whose wanderings intersect with the struggling career of a traveling magician. Never filmed during Tati's lifetime, it has become an enormously charming and plaintive animated feature from filmmaker Sylvain Chomet.
-"Blue Valentine," opening Jan. 14. Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams star in this drama of a house painter and a nurse and a wobbly marriage. Director Derek Cianfrance shows us both the present-day lives and the early days, years earlier, of this couple. The film originally was rated NC-17 for a few seconds of sexual activity; wisely, the MPAA rerated it R.
-"The Dilemma," opening Jan.14. Suspected infidelity is the dilemma, and the comedy stars Vince Vaughn, Kevin James, Jennifer Connelly and Winona Ryder. Directed by Ron Howard, this picture took some heat for its coming-attractions trailer, the one with the "it's so gay" wisecrack. Let's hope the picture is more interesting than that controversy.
-"The Way Back," opening Jan. 21. Director Peter Weir has taken us to some forbidding locales in his career, but this story of prisoners escaping from a Stalinist Siberian gulag in the early '40s, and their perilous trek to India, promises something new, as well as harsh. It's based on the Slawomir Rawicz memoir and stars Jim Sturgess, Colin Farrell, Ed Harris and, from "The Lovely Bones" and "Atonement," Saoirse Ronan.
-"The Mechanic," opening Jan. 28. A remake of the Nixon-era Charles Bronson flick stars Jason Statham as the assassin breaking in the new guy (Ben Foster). Expect some bleeding, and some scowling, and more bleeding.
-"Frankie and Alice," opening Feb. 4. Halle Berry stars in this multiple-personality-disorder drama, and if that's not the sort of role that showcases an Oscar winner's versatility, nothing is.
-"Drive Angry 3D," opening Feb. 25. "Shot in 3D," as the posters say, as opposed to "lamely retrofitted in postproduction the way 'Clash of the Titans' and 'The Last Airbender' were," this study in vehicular homicide and second chances stars Nicolas Cage as a felon released not from jail, but from hell, in order to "make things right" and save his granddaughter from being murdered by a cult. Hell, I'd bust outta hell for that.
"Red Riding Hood," opening March 11. Amanda Seyfried stars in this edgy update on the crimson-caped crusader of old, directed by Catherine Hardwicke. Co-starring werewolves, played by Gary Oldman and Lukas Haas.
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