Written by Mitch Cyrus

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Wolverine was just the opening act for the line-up of heavy hitters coming at us this summer. Today, a serious contender for Box Office Champion: 2009 is released; the much anticipated rebooting of "Star Trek" by "Lost" creator/Mad Genius JJ Abrams. Mitch lets us know what movies he thinks will rule supreme at the box office this year, along with his weekly News and Rumors Another huge weekend this week, as one of the most anticipated films of the year is coming out today.

Mos Def in "Next Day Air".  I've been waiting for this for months.

Anyway...as I did last year, it's time for my annual prediction of the Top 10 Box Office hits of 2009.  I didn't do too badly last year.   Only picked five of the top ten correctly, but I was robbed on one of them, because when I made my prediction, "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" was supposed to be a 2008 film...and then got shifted to this summer.

I did at least have the Top 3 right with Batman, Iron Man and Indiana Jones as the big winners.  And then I really missed by predicting big numbers for Chronicles of Narnia, Speed Racer, and Get Smart.  So we'll see if I can be Smarter this year.

My Guesses:

1. Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen

2. Star Trek

3. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

4. Terminator: Salvation

5. Up

6. Ice Age 3

7. 2012

8. X-Men Origins: Wolverine

9. Astro Boy

10. Sherlock Holmes

Possible other breakthroughs; James Cameron's "Avatar" (assuming it's actually released this year...I'm not optimistic), "Year One", "The Wolf Man", "Nine", "Inglorious Basterds", "The Lovely Bones", and "Angels & Demons".

News and Rumors 

~ As big fans of "24" you know it's with sadness that we have to talk about Kiefer Sutherland's latest escapade where he was arrested for assault for headbutting a fashion designer at a party.  "Alcohol was involved".  That's pretty much a given after the word "headbutting" has been used.  Not sure if this will be a parole violation for Kiefer, or if it might impact the start of filming for the eighth season of "24".

~ News about Wolverine, Part I.  A sequel has already been given the green light.  Reports are that it will be filmed in Japan, which would be welcome news to fans of the comic book, as part of Wolverine's mythology has him spending time in Japan as a Gaijan...and falling in love with a warlord's daughter.  Here's hoping that it's better than this one (maybe if Liev Schreiber gets brought back, I'll have even more hope).

~ Wolverine News, Part II.  Also just given the green light: A movie about Deadpool.  I'm not really sure why, as there wasn't much about the character that seemed worthy to me of its own movie...but evidently the idea of Ryan Reynolds as a wise-cracking superhero is making the studio excited.

~ Robert De Niro is set to reteam with Ed Norton in "Stone", a thriller about a correction officer (De Niro) who is seduced by the wife of a convicted arsonist (Norton) up for parole.  Although I wasn't a fan of the last De Niro/Norton film "The Score", this one bears keeping an eye on.

~ Hugh Hefner has given his blessing for Robert Downey, Jr. to portray the legendary Playboy founder in a biographical picture.  No other details at this time.

~ A thriller/horror film starring Katie Holmes called "Don't Be Afraid of the Dark"? Color me "not interested".  What?  It's t be written by Guillermo del Toro?  Hmmm...this also warrants further consideration.

Stupid Remakes and Sequels

~ Keanu Reeves is said to be tapped to star in a modernization of "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde".  I guess by "modernization", they mean having a no talent robotron as the lead role.

This week's new movie releases: 

Star Trek

Starring: Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Karl Urban, Eric Bana.

Plot: Reboot of the tired old franchise, going back to the start with Kirk, Spock, McCoy, et al.

View Trailer

The BeerBuzz: The review will be coming out (probably) tomorrow, as I just saw it a few hours ago.

Wow!

This is a great film, and they get just about everything not only right, but also perfect.  And even when Uber Director/Mad Genius J.J. Abrams goes off in a totally different direction from the original series, it still works.  This is a "Star Trek" for everyone...if you'd never watched a single episode, you won't feel you're missing anything at all (even though you'll be wondering at some points why the rest of the audience is laughing so hard or clapping at certain innocent lines like "Dammit, I'm a Doctor, not a Physicist!"

Go see it.  At the theater.

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Next Day Air

Starring: Mos Def, Mike Epps, Donald Faison

Plot: A delivery man leaves a package containing bricks of cocaine at the wrong address, setting of confusion and hilarity.

View Trailer

The BeerBuzz: This is only being released into 1,100 theaters on the same weekend that Star Trek comes out.  Obviously, there's not too much in way of expectations even for the studio.  I guess that they are hoping that maybe some people will decide to see this when they get to the theater and find out that Star Trek is sold out.

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New DVD Releases

Tuesday, May 12^th Releases

Taken - I'm looking forward to renting this one, as it was one of the biggest Guilty Pleasures I've had in a long time.  This has been the surprise movie of the year, raking in over $140 million, not numbers you'd expect from a Liam Neeson movie.  But you don't usually picture Liam as an action hero either, but he is every bit an older, sadder, wiser Jason Bourne type in this film of a very pissed off father trying to find his kidnapped daughter.

Underworld: Rise of the Lycans - My problem with this movie is that they basically told the entire tale in the first "Underworld" movie, about how the werewovles and the vampires started their centuries old war.  But if you're into the series, you'll probably want to rent it.

Calendar Watch  

Next week; Angels and Demons

Upcoming Biggies (click on the hyperlink to view the available trailers).

Terminator: Salvation - May 22 - Christian Bale as John Conner as the franchise moves into the apocalyptic future.

Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian - May 22 - This time, Ben Stiller's hapless security guard has to break into the Smithsonian Museum to rescue some of his peeps who've been shipped there by mistake.  The biggest mistake is scheduling this movie on the same weekend as Terminator.

Up - May 29 - Pixar's latest movie certain to be an Oscar winner for "Best Animated Feature".  This time, it's an old man who ties hundreds of balloons to his house so he can go on an adventure while staying home.

Land of the Lost - June 5 - Will Ferrell will now do his completely predictable mugging as a scientist sucked into a space-time vortex into an alternate universe complete with dinosaurs.  Based on the lame TV series.

The Taking of Pelham 123- June 12 - Denzel Washington, John Travolta, and James Gandolfini in a remake of the classic 1974 film about a hijacked subway car.

Year One - June 19 - Jack Black and Michael Cera as a couple of lazy hunter-gatherers on an epic journey through the ancient world.  Harold Ramis directs

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen: - June 26 - The next chapter of Robots In Disguise!

Public Enemy - July 1 - Johnny Depp as John Dillinger.  Co-starring Christian Bale, and directed by Michael Mann

Bruno - July 10 - Sacha Baron Cohen attempts to recreate the magic he found in "Borat"; this time featuring his flamboyant Austrian fashion reporter character.

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince - July 17 - The sixth of J.K. Rowling's seven books, setting the stage for the two part conclusion in 2010 and 2011.

G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra - August 7 - Every year, there is one big-budget movie that bombs.  My prediction is that it will be this one.

Inglourious Basterds - August 21 - Quentin Tarantino directs Brad Pitt in this violent (of course) tale of a group of WWII commandos who conducted high-profile executions/terrorist acts against the Nazis in occupied France prior to D-Day.

Astro Boy - September 23 - They are really making a full length animated feature about this Japanese Anime chestnut?

Surrogates - September 25 - Bruce Willis as a cop in a futuristic world where humans live in isolation and interact through surrogate robots.

Shutter Island - October 2 - Martin Scorsese working once again with Leonardo DiCaprio in this mystery set in 1954.

The Road - October 16 - Viggo Mortensen as a man walking with his son for months across a ravaged, post-apocalyptic landscape in search of civilization.  Charlize Theron co-stars.

The Wolf Man - November 6 - Benicio Del Toro and Anthony Hopkins in the retelling of the classic horror tale.

2012 - November 13 - Roland Emmerich's ("The Day After Tomorrow") tale of global cataclysm and the struggle of the survivors.

Nine  - November 27 - Tim Burton's latest animated strangeness, with Elijah Wood and Jennifer Connelly voicing characters fighting aliens in a post apocalyptic world.

The Lovely Bones - December 11 - Peter Jackson's latest, about the ghost of a young, murdered girl watching over her family and friends' reactions to the event.  Mark Wahlberg and Rachel Weisz star.

Avatar - December 18 - James Cameron's sci-fi/CGI extravaganza.  The C.I.A. should take lessons about secrecy from Cameron, as he's keeping info about this film very much to himself at this time.

Sherlock Holmes - December 25^th - Guy Ritchie's interpretation of the famous sleuth, with Robert Downey, Jr. in the lead role

Blockbusters on the Distant Horizon (movies that would seem to be big hits...as soon as they get made or released).

The Informant - (limited release in Sept) - Steven Soderbergh's latest attempt at Oscar with Matt Damon as a company-man turned whistleblower against an agri-business giant.  Might have touches of Coen Brother-like dark humor.

Iron Man 2 - May, 2010 - Right on the heels of the success of the first one, Marvel is quick to get Robert Downey Jr. back into his titanium suit.  Mickey Rourke and Scarlett Johansson to co-star.

The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader - May, 2010 - The series goes off in a bit of a different direction, as those of you who love the books already know.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part I - 2010 - The start of the End for the boy wizard and his battle against He-Who-Shall-not-Be-Named

Lincoln - 2010 - Steven Spielberg directs the biographical film of the 16^th President (Liam Neeson)

The Hobbit - 2010 - Guillermo del Toro directs and Peter Jackson will produce the prequel to "Lord of the Rings".  Ian McKellen will return as Gandalf

Fantastic Voyage - 2010 - Roland Emmerich ("The Day After Tomorrow", "10,000 B.C.") remakes the classic 1967 movie about a miniaturized sub and crew operating on a scientist from inside his brain.

Spider-Man 4 - May 2011 - Tobey Maquire is back as the angst ridden arachnid powered hero.

Thor - June 2011 - Another Marvel superhero...but the Nordic God is about as bland personality-wise as Superman, so we'll see how it goes.  Kevin Kidd (Rome) is said to be playing the title role.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part II - 2011 - The end of the line for what will be beyond doubt the most profitable series in the history of film making.

The Hobbit 2 - 2011 - del Toro and Jackson again, this time covering the time between the end of Tolkien's book, "The Hobbit" and the start of LOTR.

The Avengers - 2012 - Iron Man, Hulk, Thor, and Captain America open up a can of whoopass on bad guys everywhere.