The New Wave: 3/18/11

Neil Burger(The Illusionist, The Lucky Ones) brings Alan Glynn's ambitious novel, The Dark Fields, to the big screen as a starring vehicle for Bradley Cooper, who has thrived mostly on good lucks at this point. This will be the first and best chance to test his box office prowess, paired up opposite Robert De Niro and amazing Abbie Cornish. Cooper stars as an average guy who begins taking an experimental drug that amps his brain power to the maximum.  My review of Limitless can be read here.

Let's see...zombies...cop comedy....what's next? Oh yeah! Sci-fi road trip!! Simon Pegg and Nick Frost have two big time cult favorites with Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz, both with their usualy directing partner, Edgar Wright. Paul sees them teaming up with Superbad director, Greg Mottola, in a movie that is squarely for the Star Trek-lover in your family. A geek-tastic cast consisting of Sigourney Weaver, Bill Hader, and Kristen Wiig are bound to be good for a few laughs, but the real steal is Seth Rogen as the vulgar, weed smokin' alien trying to get back home. Here's the thing: I'm sure Paul will find a very loyal audience who will cherish this movie and all it's science fiction homages. I just wonder how big that audience will be, and if Paul fails, how many more movies like this are we gonna get? My review of Paul can be read by clicking here.

When he's not hip deep in another stinking pile of Kate Hudson rom-com, Matthew McConaughey is actually a darn good actor. It's just been awhile since we've had a chance to see it. The Lincoln Lawyer is his best chance to reestablish himself, as a slick LA defense attorney caught up in the scandal of a lifetime. If this movie succeeds, expect every big lawyer role to be thrown his way, and possibly more of Michael Connelly's gritty novels headed to the big screen. My review of The Lincoln Lawyer can be found here.

I could probably think of a million different books I'd rather see adapted before yet another version of Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre. In the hands of Sin Nombre director Carey Fukunaga, however, the classic tale of social class, love, and loneliness is given a whole new sheen. Mia Wasikowska, quickly becoming one of my favorite actresses, is a perfect choice for the strong-willed heroine. And Michael Fassbender? One word comes to mind: smoldering. My review of Jane Eyre can be read here.

South Korean director Kim Ji-Woon gave us crazy with his oddball Western, The Good, The Bad, The Weird. Not even that was insane enough to prepare us for this. I Saw the Devil is a psychopathic orgy of violence, pitting a hellacious serial killer and a crazed cop in a brutal game of "Who can top who?" in doing the most bodily harm to the other. I need to see this now. As in right now.

Of Gods and Men tells the story eight French Christian monks living in peace with their Muslim brothers on a mountaintop monastery. That is until a group of workers are murdered by an Islamic fundamentalist group, leading to widespread fear. Based in part on the true story of the 1996 kidnapping and murder of seven French monks in Algeria.