What's on the Horizon: 2011

Now that 2011 is upon us, it’s time to look ahead at the films I’m looking forward to and my plans for this blog.

The biggest news coming on the blog front is a redesign and domain change. My girlfriend is a web designer and was kind enough to revamp the site for me. I’ll be starting a migration to WordPress soon, and around May or June, johnlikesmovies.com will be live.

In terms of projects, I don’t have any big things in mind. I’ll continue plugging away at my goal to watch and review every Best Picture winner. I’ll be doing a few director blog-a-thons (continuing the Coen Brothers in January and moving on to Peter Weir, John Ford, and Stanley Kubrick at some point over the year). And I hope to have finished watching everything I intend to from 2010 by April or May (depending on DVD release dates), so I’ll revisit my top 10 and provide a more complete introspective of the year around that time.

In terms of movies, it’s hard to say what I’m most looking forward to because I don’t really know everything that’s scheduled to be released and so much of what I see will be determined by word out of the festivals. As far as January goes, the only new film I have any interest in seeing is The Green Hornet (and saying I have any interest in that is a bit of a stretch). Most of my early year reviews will be catching up on what I missed from 2010 (though I do look forward to some early year releases, like Battle: Los Angeles, The Adjustment Bureau, Paul, Sucker Punch, and Source Code, which I will be seeing if I make a return trip to Austin this year for SXSW—still up in the air at this point).

The summer is loaded, though not with many projects I’m truly excited for. Thor, Captain America, and The Green Lantern are just whatever for me at this point. I can’t imagine Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides being all that good. I’m dreading The Hangover 2 (didn’t care for the first one at all). Even Cars 2 isn’t all the exciting for me. Why make what appears to be a totally uninspired sequel to Pixar’s worst movie by a mile?

I am, however, looking forward to some summer releases. The Tree of Life, obviously, is one. The Super 8 trailer looks fantastic, so I’m pumped for that. Cowboys and Aliens looks like a good time from the usually reliable Jon Favreau. And on the sequel front, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows—Part 2 is the big draw. Can’t wait for that!

Going into the fall, Moneyball from Bennett Miller and Contagion from Steven Soderbergh intrigue me. We’ve got a double dose of Spielberg in December with The War Horse and The Adventures of Tintin. David Fincher returns with a remake of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (let’s hope it’s loads more successful than the incredibly disappointing Swedish version). We’ve got sequels to Mission: Impossible (which I’m excited for) and Sherlock Holmes (which I’m not). Then there are what might be my two most anticipated movies of the year. Hugo Cabret (Martin Scorsese’s foray into 3-D family films) and We Bought a Zoo (the long anticipated return of Cameron Crowe).

So that’s that, I guess. I hope it’s a successful year. If it can match 2010 in terms of film quality and blog output and growth, I’ll definitely be pleased. Happy New Year, everyone! And here’s to 2011.