What you may need to know:

1. Jupiter (Mila Kunis) is a mild-mannered janitor (just like Hong Kong Phooey) destined for greatness. When Caine (Channing Tatum), a genetically engineered hunter arrives on earth, Jupiter discovers that she is heir to an inheritance that could alter the balance of the cosmos.

2. Does anyone else find this whole “Wachowski siblings” thing ridiculous? Surely “The Wachowskis” covers everything?

3. After two diabolical Matrix sequels, Speed Racer (2008) and Cloud Atlas (2012), the Wachowskis have squandered more goodwill than M Night Shyamalan.

4. Poor Channing – looks like he’s playing with the double handicap of a ropey British accent and bad facial hair.

5. Jupiter Ascending was originally slated for release in July 2014 but Warner Bros pushed it back by seven months. Box office competition? Spongebob: Sponge out of Water.

6. Broadsheet Prognosis: Wachowskis Descending.

Release Date: February 6, 2015.

(DelBoy is away. Mark blogs about film, TV and other stuff at WhyBother.ie)

What you may need to know:

1. Set in 1970’s California, a permanently stoned Private Dick gets dragged in to a kidnapping conspiracy by a former girlfriend.

2. It’s Paul Thomas Anderson’s new film! The most anticipated release since the birth of Saphur II The Great.

3. The film is an adaptation of Thomas Pynchon’s novel of the same name.

4. It’s also Pynchon’s first book to be adapted for screen and he is rumored to have cameo in it. It will be hard to tell as there has not been a reliable photograph taken of him in 50 years.

5. Unlike Anderson’s last two movies – There Will Be Blood (2007) and The Master (2013) – this is less character study more slapstick comedy. He said that he took a lot of inspiration from the makers of Airplane! (1980) and The Naked Gun (1988).

6. No John C. Reilly or Luiz Guzman?

7. Anderson left film school after two days because he felt his lecturers were making film boring.

8. Broadsheet Prognosis: Vice vice baby.

Release date: January 30, 2015

What you may need to know:

1. It’s Taken 3, or Tak3n if you must. This time Bryan Mills must defend himself after being framed for the murder of his wife. And protect his daughter from a similar fate.

2. “My first priority is to protect the only one I have left”. Yusss.

3. When Liam Neeson was in Dublin for the premier of Taken 2 (2012) he told 98fm that he would not be interested in a Taken 3. He believed that it would be tantamount to “bad parenting”.

4. He finally agreed so long as nobody was actually taken.

5. Tak3n has the same writers and directors as Taken 2 (2012). They really have a very specific set of skills.

6. There are some pretty bad-ass scenes in the trailer. The jet having its landing gear removed by the drifting Porsche is one of them.

7. The film’s director is Olivier Megaton. His original name was Olivier Fontana but took Megaton as an artistic name, inspired by the fact that he was born 20 years to the day after the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. The Hiroshima bomb was 16 kilotons.

8. Broadsheet Prognosis: Tak3n the p*ss.

Release Date: January 8, 2015

Apologies for French-language poster.

(DelBoy is away)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S5CjKEFb-sM

What you may need to know:

1. Historical thriller about pioneering British computer scientist Alan Turing (Benedict Cumberbatch), a key figure in cracking the Nazis’ Enigma code that helped the Allies win World War II.

2. To show their gratitude, the British Government prosecuted Turing for homosexuality in 1952. He elected to undergo chemical castration in order to avoid a custodial sentence and died in 1954. You’re welcome.

3. Looks like Cumberbatch’s Turing has all the natural charm and charisma of Cumberbatch’s Sherlock.

4. Mark Strong is consistently better than the material he’s given.

5. Allen Leech takes a well-deserved break from pig-fretting on Downton Abbey.

6. Broadsheet Prognosis: Cracking.

Release Date: November 14

(DelBoy is away. Mark blogs about film, TV and other stuff at WhyBother.ie)

What you may need to know:

1. A talented young jazz drummer secures a place in one of the country’s top music schools where he is placed under the tutelage of a fearsome jazz music teacher.

2. The title is a nod to Hank Levy’s jazz classic ‘Whiplash‘.

3. It’s unnerving to see J.K. Simmons play such a role. He’s usually so nice!

4. The film has been doing the festival rounds garnering high praise along the way. It picked up the top audience and grand jury awards at Sundance.

5. Writer and director Damien Chazelle took 15  pages from his original screenplay and adapted it into a short film starring Johnny Simmons in the role of the drummer and J. K. Simmons in the role of the teacher. The 18-minute short of the same name ultimately attracted investors to sign on and produce the complete version of the script.

6. To prepare for the role Miles Teller had to stop working out or even going outside so that he would be “pale and doughy”. Teller described it as being “by far, the hardest thing I’ve ever done”. Mmmf.

7. Broadsheet Prognosis: We’re snared.

Release Date: January 16, 2015

What you may need to know:

1. Comedy about Ray (David Wilmot), an estranged father who returns to his hometown after an absence of ten years in order to reconnect with his daughter (Maisie Williams) and ex-wife (Kerry Condon) but finds that his place has been taken by PE teacher and life coach Frank (James Nesbitt).

2. “You’re indestructible…” Great, now I can’t get Spandau Ballet out of my head.

3. Writer/director Niall Heery won the IFTA for Breakthrough Talent for his debut, Small Engine Repair (2006).

4. Who’d have thought that one well-placed moustache could turn James Nesbitt into George Clooney?

5. Nice little trailer with some obvious nods to Alexander Payne. If Heery keeps the comedy subtle, it may be very good indeed.

6. “Always believe in your soul…” Dammit.

7. Broadsheet Prognosis: Could be a winner.

Release Date: October 10

(DelBoy is away. Mark blogs about film, TV and other stuff at WhyBother.ie)

What you may need to know:

1. Philip is a self-absorbed writer awaiting the release of his second novel which he is convinced will be a hit. Bored with both his daily routine and his girlfriend, a meeting with his literary idol offers him a chance to escape the city for a while. Much comedic navel-gazing ensues.

2. The film has been doing the film festival rounds since Sundance in January. It’s going to the London Film Festival on October 9 before going on limited release in the US after securing a distributor back in June.

3. This is director Alex Ross Perry’s third feature and it focuses on middle aged regret, among other themes. Perry has just turned 30. Mmmmf.

4. Perry’s meandering film narrative, where the character focus changes for large periods of time, was inspired by William Gaddis’ novel The Recognitions.

5. Perry’s previous film The Colour Wheel (2011) was theindiewire.com’s best undistributed film of 2011. Being undistributed is the new beard.

6. Jason Schwartzman was previously the drummer with the band Phantom Planet. Phantom Planet was responsible for some horrendous dancing on an episode of Sabrina The Teenage Witch as well as the the ear assault that is ‘California’, the theme tune to teen-drama ‘The O.C.‘

7. Broadsheet Prognosis: Rushmore is middle aged.

Release Date: TBC

What you may need to know:

1. Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) finds herself in District 13 after shattering the Games forever. Under the leadership of President Coin (Julianne Moore) and the advice of her trusted friends, Katniss fights to save Peeta (Josh Hutcherson) and a nation moved by her courage.

2. Going by the source novel, Mockingjay Pt. 1 will be more touchy feely than shooty stabby.

3. Remember when Hollywood just made trilogies? Good times.

4. The Hunger Games>The Maze Runner>Divergent> Twilight. Everything beats Twilight.

5. Donald Sutherland is a classy actor, right? But just remember that he made Ray Winstone look good in Fool’s Gold (2008).

6. Broadsheet Prognosis: Depends entirely on whether “third quarter quell” or “the reaping” means anything to you.

Release Date: November 21

(DelBoy is away. Mark blogs about film, TV and other stuff at WhyBother.ie)

What you may need to know:

1. It’s an action drama set in New York City during the winter of 1981. The film follows the lives of an immigrant and his family whose business keeps running into corruption and violence.

2. 1981 was the most violent year in New York City history with 637,451 reported felonies that year. 19,475 1,832 of those were murders.

3. Oscar Isaac replaced Javier Bardem in the lead after Bardem and the film’s director J.C Chandor fell out over the “direction of the script”. The film was also still without finance at that point.

4. This is Chandor’s own script and he really impressed with his two previous productions, Margin Call (2011) and All Is Lost (2013). “Elegant and handsome” Jeremy Irons is a most impressive bastard in Margin Call.

5. Co-star Jessica Chastain and Oscar Isaac were classmates in Julliard, the School for Performing arts in New York.

6. The film sneaks in just ahead of the Oscars deadline which is midnight on December 31. Aye Aye!

7. Broadsheet Prognosis: Escape from…Escape From New York (1981)

Release Date: New Years Eve

(DelBoy is away)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YOavDSErmak

What you may need to know:

1. Director Tim Burton’s biopic of the artist Margaret Keane (played by Amy Adams). Keane’s paintings of doe-eyed children were hugely popular but her husband, Walter (Christoph Waltz) took sole credit for her work.

2. What’s this? No Johnny Depp? No Helena Bonham Carter? That should keep the Burton naysayers quiet for a while.

3. With a 30-year career based on expressionistic weirdness, how does Burton keep his audience on their toes? He goes full-on normal, that’s how.

4. Burton hasn’t used a non-fictive biographical source since Ed Wood (1994). That was a good one.

5. He seems to have lost his mojo ever since Planet of the Apes (2001). Hopefully Big Eyes will mark a return to form.

6. Broadsheet Prognosis: Weirdly normal.

Release Date: December 26 (UK)

(DelBoy is away. Mark blogs about film, TV and other stuff at WhyBother.ie)