2004 MOVIE PREVIEW (1-13-2004)

by David Blackwell

MINDHUNTERS (June)- Val Kilmer stars in this movie directed by Renny Harlin (who is directing the reshoot of that Exorcist prequel right now).

SPARTAN (March 12)- Val Kilmer stars in this movie too.

KILL BILL, VOLUME 2 (April 16)- the conclusion after Vol 1 hits DVD on April 13.

THE DAY AFTER TOMMORROW (May 26)-

THE BOURNE SUPREMACY (July 23)- Matt Damon is back as Jason Bourne.

NED KELLY (March 26)- Let's hope Universal finally releases this drama about Austrailan outlaw Ned Kelly (Heath Ledger). It has already came out on DVD in the land Down Under and is about to be released to DVD in the UK. This movie also stars Orlando Bloom and Geoffrey Rush.

AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 DAYS (June 16)- Jackie Chan plays the servant to Phileas Fog in the latest adaptation of the Jules Verne novel.

HILDAGO (March 5)-  The true (or not) story of a man and his horse racing in a legendary Arabian horse race (that might not have happened).  The movie stars Viggo Mortensen.

THE ALMO (April 9)- Billy Bob Thornton is Davy Crockett in the latest movie to tell the story about the last stand at the Alamo.  The movie was originally schedulled to come out at Christmas, but it has been delayed to April.

TROY (May 21)- The legendary tale about Helen and the fall of Troy is directed by Wolfgang Peterson and features a big cast including Brad Pitt and Saffron Burrows.

KING ARTHUR (July 7 (USA)/July 30 (UK))-   Clive Owen is King Arthur, Kierra Knightley is Guinevere, Ioan Gruffudd is Lancelot, and Stephane Dillane as Merlin in this demystified take on King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table

ALEXANDER (Nov 5)- Oliver Stone directs the movie about Alexander The Great.

SCI-FI:

THE CHRONICLES OF RIDDICK (June 11)- Vin Diesel is back as anti-hero Riddick in the first movie of a proposed trilogy written and directed by David Twohy. The cast includes Judi Dench, Karl Urban, Thandie Newton, Colm Feore, and Alexa Davalos. This movie is said to be the "Anti-Star Wars". RIDDICK picks up five years after PITCH BLACK as Riddick finds himself in the middle of a galactic war between the Necromongers and the Elementals.

I, ROBOT (July 16)- Will Smith stars in this adaptation of a story by Isaac Asimov where a techno-phobic cop (Smith) investigates a murder caused by a robot in 2035.

ALIEN VS. PREDATOR (Aug 6)- Lance Henrikson stars in a movie that pits Alien vs. Predator in Antartica. Directed by Paul W. Anderson.

RESIDENT EVIL: APOCALYPSE (Sept 10)- Meanwhile Milla Jovovich is back for a sequel as her character teams up with Jill Valentine, a character form the video games, to kick some undead butt.

INNOCENCE: GHOST IN  THE SHELL- another movie in the Ghost In The Shell series.  It will be released in March in Japan.  No US release date has been set by Big Fish Pictures (a division of Dreamworks).

COMIC BOOK MOVIES:

SPIDER-MAN 2 (July 2)- Spider-Man faces off against Doctor Octopus in the sequel to the mega-hit movie.
BLADE: TRINITY (Aug 13)- David Goyer writes and directs the final movie in the Blade trilogy that stars Wesley Snipes, Kris Kristofferson, and Jessica Bliel. The vampires try to turn humanity against Blade when he gets help from The Nightstalkers.

SCOOBY  DOO 2 (March 26)- One of the worst movies ever gets a sequel. I like the original cartoon better.

CATWOMAN (July 30)- Halle Berry is Catwoman in a mvoie that bears no resemblance to the Catwoman comic book character in any shape or form including story.

PUNISHER (April 16)- This is definitely not the version with Dolph Lundgren, and this movie promises to be better as Thomas Jayne stars as the title character in the newest movie adaptation based on the Marvel comic book character.

HELLBOY (April 2)- Director Del Toro adapts the comic book about a demon who was raised by the good guys to battle the bad guys. This movie is based on the Dark horse comic book by Mike Mignola.

FANTASY:

HARRY POTTER AND THE PRISONER OF AZKABAN (June 4)-  Harry Potter and his Hogwarts buddies are back in this adaptation of the third book of the popular Harry Potter series.

ACTION/ THRILLERS:

THE CRIMISON RIVERS: ANGELS OF THE APOCALYPSE-   Luc Besson wrote the script to this sequel which sees Jean Reno return as Commisaire Pierre Niemans. It will be released in France on Feb 18th, but no US release date has beeen set.

DANNY THE DOG- Luc Besson writes the story of a slave (Jet Li) raised to be a fighter (without a normal human education) in illegal gladiator type fight clubs. Danny meets a blind piano tuner (Morgan Freeman) on the run when Danny's master, Bart, ends up in a coma. The piano tuner uses music to teach Danny that there is more to the world than fighting.

HERO- Yet again, Miramax fails to see the potential of one of their movies. This one is a Chinese action movie starring Jet Li.

BLUEBERRY- Vincent Cassel is U.S. Marshall Blueberry in this adaptation of the French (Western) graphic novel series created by Jean Giraud aka "Mobieus". the movie also stars Michael Madsen, Dennis Hopper, Eddie Izzard, Colm Meany, Juliette Lewis, Tcheky Karyo, Djimon Hounsou, and Ernest Borgnine.

HORROR:

VAN HELSING (May 7)- Hugh Jackman is the title character battling Dracula (Richard Roxburgh) with the help of Anna, a gypsy (Kate Beckinsale) in this Stephen Sommers movie that also features the Wolfman and Frankenstein's Monster.

CONSTANTINE (Sept 17)- Keanu reeves plays the title character in this movie loosely based on the DC/Vertigo comic book HELLBLAZER anout a blond British guy who fights demons. I mean loosely as Keanu plays the character as American and without blond hair.

HOUSE OF WAX 3-D (Oct 22)- a remake of an old horror movie.

DAWN OF THE DEAD (March 19)- The remake of the classic George Romero zombie movie.

THE BROTHERS GRIMM- Director Terry Gilliam takes on a movie about the grimm fairy tales starring Matt Damon and Heath Ledger.

HIGHWAYMEN- New Line keeps bumping this movie from being released. It is reported that it has done poorly at test screenings. the tariler looks cool and this movie is from the director of THE HITCHER.

EXORCIST: THE BEGINNING- The original director was fired after he turned in his first cut of the movie, and now Morgan Creek has decided to reshoot the whole movie (including major rewrites and some recasting). They done the same thing to the last Exorcist movie.

GINGER SNAPS: UNLEASHED (April 13- DVD)- The sequel to the Canadian cult werewolf movie.  A prequel, GINGER SNAPS BACK (due on DVD in the fall) was also filmed too that takes place 100 years before the first movie. 

THE MACHINIST- stars Christian Bale as a factory worker who can't sleep and starts getting paranoid.

THE RING 2 (Nov 10)- a seuqel to the remake of the Japanese horror movie Ringu.  This sequel has nothing to do with the sequel of the Japanes movie Ringu.

GODSEND (April 16)-  This horror movie starring Robert DeNiro and Rebecca Romijn-Satmos might finally seee the light of day.

THE VILLAGE (August)-  Another overrated affort from the director of THE SIXTH SENSE.  Maybe he will prove me wrong this time (and it will be as good as UNBREAKABLE).

DIRECT TO DVD SEQUELS-

STARSHIP TROOPERS 2: HERO OF THE FEDERATION (June 8)- This is the movie I want to see on DVD the most. The writer of the first movie is back with Phil Tippen directing.

HELLRAISER: DEADER (Aug 31), HELLRAISER: HELLWORLD- Pinhead is back to send more people straight to hell. DEADER stars Kari Wuhrer as a journalist who uncovers a group that can bring back the dead. HELLWORLD has Pinhead torturing computer hackers who have created a virtual Lament Configuration at HellWorld.com

PROPHECY 4 and 5- the first movie is PROPHECY: REVELATION starring Kari Wuhrer who must protect an ancient manuscript from renegade angels. Also starring is Sean Pertwee, Jason Scott Lee, and Doug Bradley. Christopher Walken isn't in these sequels.

DRACULA 3: LEGACY (Aug 31)-    Rutger Hauer is Dracula in the sequel to the very bad Dracula 2. Jason Scott Lee returns to do battle with Dracula in Transylvania.

THEY 2 (late 2004)- a sequel to the much hated horror movie which seem to go from a great script to a bad movie.

CUBE ZERO-  A prequel to the first two CUBE movies.

This is only a sample of movies coming out in 2004 and all release dates are subject to change without notice.   Unless ortherwise noted, all release dates listed are USA release dates.

this article is (c)2004 David Blackwell and this article can't be reprinted without the author's permission.  This article was updated on 2-25-2004.

For part 2:  https://enterline2.tripod.com/enterline/id123.html

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