Blake Schwendiman's Blog and Blook

After writing something serious, it was necessary to write something fun.

Here is a quick list of movies coming this year. Certainly this is not an exhaustive list, but it covers most of the big stuff:

• Nanny McPhee (Jan. 27)
• The Pink Panther (Feb. 10)
• The Shaggy Dog (March 10)
• Ice Age 2: The Meltdown (March 31)
• Flight 93 (April 28)
• Mission: Impossible III (May 5)
• The Da Vinci Code (May 19)
• Over the Hedge (May 19)
• X3 (May 26)
• Nacho Libre (June 2)
• Cars (June 9)
• Click (June 23)
• Superman Returns (June 30)
• Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest (July 7)
• My Super Ex-Girlfriend (July 14)
• Lady in the Water (July 21)
• Miami Vice (July 28)
• World Trade Center (August)
• The Santa Clause 3 (Nov. 3)
• Flushed Away (Nov. 3)
• Stranger Than Fiction (Nov. 10)
• Casino Royale (Nov. 17)
• Charlotte’s Web (Dec. 20)

There are a few obvious must-see movies on the list: Superman, X3, Pirates and The Da Vinci Code. I'm hopeful for each of them and want Superman and Da Vinci to really hit the mark. I expect X3 will be right on since X2 was better than X-Men. I hope a sequel doesn't wreck the Pirates' ship.

I'm excited to see Nanny McPhee for the magic (I guess I'm still thinking about Narnia) and just simply to see how Emma Thompson was transformed for her role.

The Pink Panther could be funny. I've seen all of the others, so I hope this one delivers the style of comedy that its predecessors did. If so, it will be great. If not, it will fall into the slush pile of redo's that really didn't. I feel the same way about the Shaggy Dog. We've seen a lot of Disney redo's lately (mostly responsible for Lindsay Lohan's ... um ... career). With another Santa Clause sequel, we'll see plenty of Tim Allen this year. Hopefully we won't regret it too much.

There are a few comedies that I will see: Stranger Than Fiction has a storyline that reminds me of the John Candy movie, Delirious. If you haven't seen Delirious, throw it in your Netflix.com queue. I think you'll like it. My Super Ex-Girlfriend and Click both have funny-sounding storylines. Let's cross our fingers for those.

Now for the wild cards: Nacho Libre could be funny or it could be complete crap. We'll revisit that in June. Mission Impossible III is anyone's guess. Mission Impossible was great, MI:2 was a disaster. If this series pulls off an Indiana Jones, I'll actually be quite happy, but honestly I'm expecting a Jurassic Park. Casino Royale is supposed to be a Bond movie with less emphasis on gadgets and more edginess. I liked Brosnan, but that last movie was not great. Maybe a new Bond (again) will be a good thing.

There are the 911 movies on the list. I can't even guess on those. I'm sure they'll do well in the box office, but I'm not sure if I'll like them. I'm more of a suspension-of-reality moviegoer. I thought Schindler's List was very good, but too depressing for everyday viewing.

There are plenty of kids films on the list. I'll probably enjoy all of them.

There are two left that I haven't mentioned. Do you know what they are?

First, there's Lady in the Water. This is an M. Night Shyamalan film. So far, I've only liked The Sixth Sense but unfortunately Unbreakable is on my list of worst movies ever. I have no idea what to expect with this film. Second there's Miami Vice. Now that's just wrong.