Being an avid movie watcher, I use the term “movie” to includes both blockbusters and those busters that are somewhat less than blocky. I am constantly waiting on new reels of escapism. Unfortunately, with the film industry going gaga (not of the Lady variety) for 3D and apeshit for reboots and remakes, the offerings are few and far between.

Even though I’m a movie fan and not a film connoisseur, it’s very hard to look forward to anything that doesn’t fit into one of the aforementioned categories. So when prawn1 asked me to make a note of five—yes, Five!—movies that I have been looking forward to seeing this year, it was difficult to list to compile. Who does he think I am? Barry Ronge? However, I have done better than the five he originally asked, and I’ve found not seven, not nine, but a whole ten movies that I would (whether willingly or grudgingly) pay the ridiculous ticket fee to see. Find out what my fantastic choices are—in no particular order—after the jump.

Before I begin I should say that some of these films don’t have teasers as yet…..so too bad.

Prometheus

As I wrote in a previous post, this is the one I have been waiting for the most. Ridley Scott returns to the Alien franchise to save it from being further bastardized. The new story will take us to the beginning of things and probably confuse us even more but at least it has been rescued from so-called fan/directors.

Prometheus is due for release on 8 June and, frankly, it couldn’t get here any sooner.

Django Unchained

The latest offering from Quentin Tarantino stars Jamie Foxx as Django, a slave-turned-bounty hunter who sets out to free his wife from a brutal Mississippi plantation owner, played by Leonardo DiCaprio. The good thing about this is not just the cast but that the cast doesn’t include Will Smith, who was rumoured to play Django (wheeew). The film is said to hearken back to the spaghetti westerns of the 60s and was rumoured to use Kung Fu for the fight scenes. Whatever it is, with Tarantino’s dialogue, it’s going to be epic. Django Unchained is due for release in December.

Skyfall

Daniel Craig returns in the 23rd installment of the James Bond franchise, and judging from his previous 007 outings, he only gets better. In this chapter, M’s past has come back to haunt her, and Bond’s loyalty to her and the Crown is tested. With MI6 under threat, Bond must find and destroy the threat. Now this sounds like just another romp, but what makes 007 shine is the villain, and Javier Bardem (once considered for the role of 007) has been cast in that role.

Skyfall is due for release on 9 November 2012.

The Dark Knight Rises

Christopher Nolan did for comic books-to-film what no other director has been able to do—he made them fun without being camp. I won’t go through the names but we’ve seen them and they suck. And judging by the banner, Nolan is ending it with a smash. After assuming the responsibility for Harvey Dent’s crimes in The Dark Knight, Batman returns to Gotham after being absent for several years only to find his city overrun by gangs and facing off against Selina Kyle (aka Catwoman) and Tom Hardy’s Bane. This will be fun just to watch Tom Hardy, and ever the method actor that he is, Bale seems to have the acting chops to fill the vacuum left by the late Heath Ledger.

http://youtu.be/-yh6SriAjdE

EDIT: Trailer 3

The Dark Knight Rises is due for release on 20 July.

The Gangster Squad

I like gangster films set in the 1930s and 1940s. It was a time where men wore hats, called women dames, smoked freely, and drank unashamedly….in the daytime, in their offices, in public. It was also a time where lots of people got sprayed by tommy gun fire. So with Josh Brolin going up against Sean Penn comes The Gangster Squad. It’s a simple storyline: Los Angeles is being threatened by the intrusion of the Mafia from the east coast. This forces the LAPD to put a squad together that can tackle this criminal organisation. Yes, it sounds very much like The Untouchables meets Mulholland Falls.

Like most gangster films, you want to watch a movie that shows men back when they were being men doing mens’ work. It has a tight cast and is sure to deliver the “cops and robber” goods that we enjoy.

http://youtu.be/YGK0ysEPHxI

The Gangster Squad is due for release on 19 October 2012.

Lincoln

Anything, and I mean anything, with Daniel Day-Lewis is bound to be good, and I’m certain that this film will be no different. The title role, originally offered to Liam Neeeson, sees Day-Lewis assume the part of the 16th president of the United States,  Abraham Lincoln. Neeson bowed out because he felt he had aged too much for the role. Directed by Steven Spielberg and based on Doris Kearns Goodwin’s biography of Lincoln, this movie will cover the last few months of his life during the abolition of slavery and victory in the Civil War.

What will be more exciting to see is Daniel Day-Lewis’ transformation into Lincoln, as can be seen in the above photo. And it didn’t end with him: the casting of actors who resemble the historical figures must be seen. Other than a historical epic of a greater historical figure, it should also give Spielberg back some credibility after his recent projects.

Lincoln is due for release in December 2012.

Dark Shadows

Johnny Depp stars in another Tim Burton project [Ed: I swear you’d think these two are married] based on an American-Gothic soap opera from the 1960s. It tells the story of Barnabas Collins (Depp) who is cursed by a witch, turning him into a vampire and leaving him to be buried alive, only to be freed 200 years later, in the 1970s. It looks hilarious.

Dark Shadows is due for release on 11 May 2012.

 Cloud Atlas

Based on the 2004 David Mitchell novel of the same name, the synopsis goes something like this:

The novel consists of six nested stories that take the reader from the remote South Pacific in the nineteenth century to a distant, post-apocalyptic future. Each tale is revealed to be a story that is read (or observed) by the main character in the next. All stories but the last are interrupted at some moment, and after the sixth story concludes at the center of the book, the novel “goes back” in time, “closing” each story as the book progresses in terms of pages but regresses in terms of the historical period in which the action takes place. Eventually, readers end where they started, with Adam Ewing in the Pacific Ocean, circa 1850.

Adapted for the screen by director Tom Tykwer, the story is so immense that he brought in the Wachowski brothers (Matrix Trilogy, Speed Racer) to co-direct. With their imagination and a stellar ensemble cast which includes, Tom Hanks, Hugh Grant, Halle Berry, Susan Sarandon, and Hugo Weaving to name a  few, this should be an awesome, gigantic movie that will please film and 3D fans alike.

Cloud Atlas is due for release in October 2012.

Dredd

Why? Because it was filmed in Cape Town, South Africa, and Karl Urban promises to never take the helmet off in the film. Directed by Pete Travis, it stars Urban in the titular role and is said to be more faithful to the comic book material than Stallone’s version ever was. To be fair, Stallone was unhappy with his outing from the beginning, but he took the helmet off. So he failed.

The story of Dredd takes place on a fictional, post-apocalyptic Earth, created as a result of the Atomic Wars. Survivors of this period are currently living in Mega-Cities, which protects its citizens from the Cursed Earth, a radioactive desert environment populated by mutants. The main story takes place in Mega-City One, where Judge Dredd, a senior law enforcement officer, teams up with a cadet called Judge Anderson (Olivia Thirlby) to track down a terrorist organization led by Ma-Ma (Lena Headey), who is responsible for selling a reality-altering drug called Slo-Mo.

Unfortunately no teaser has been released as yet, and neither has the film’s rating. I live in hope that it gets an R, as that’s the only way Dredd can be appreciated.

and finally, the only true sequel on this list…

The Expendables 2

 Ok…look, indulge me. It’s not for everyone, but I’m a child of the 80s, and seeing the action stars from my childhood memories together on screen is….I mean just look….

EDIT: Official trailer 2

…come on, when am I ever going to see all these guys with Chuck Norris AND Jean-Claude van Damme together like this ever again? Probably never.

Directed by Simon West, it once again has Barney Ross (Stallone) and his squad of mercenaries who take on a job for Mr. Church (Willis). Things go haywire when one of Ross’ team is murdered by Jean Vilain (Van Damme), a rival mercenary. And that is all I need to know to watch this action romp which is sure to be the buddy film of the year.

The Expendables 2 is due for release on 17 August 2012.

So that’s my list for the year. Yes there’s The Avengers, MIB III, The Hobbit, and The Amazing Spider-Man. I’m sure they will do well and I’m sure I have probably missed out on some gems that you have heard of. So if there are, let us know in the comments. And good luck saving up for the mad ticket prices!