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Film Gecko: 16 Movies I Can’t Wait to See in 2009

by Jane Boursaw on March 4th, 2009

There are some fantastic movies coming up in 2009, and while you never know how a movie will fare until you actually see it, I’ve picked out 16 movies that I think will knock us out with their awesomeness. See if you agree, and add your own in the comments!

1. Watchmen (March 6). “Who watches the Watchmen?” That’s the question in this graphic-novel-turned-movie directed by Zach Snyder. Vigilantes, murders, superheroes, and lots of good and bad karma populate this movie, along with stars Billy Crudup, Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Jackie Earle Haley. [Trailer] [Film Gecko Links] [Official Site]

2. Sunshine Cleaning (March 13). This probably won’t hit all the mainstream theaters, but it looks like a quirky film that will hit all the right notes. Amy Adams is a single mom who, along with her slacker sister (Emily Blunt) starts a crime-scene cleanup biz as a way out of their dead-end lives. Alan Arkin plays the doting dad in this dramedy that scored big at Sundance last year. [Official Site]

3. Knowing (March 20). Nicolas Cage and Rose Byrne star in this latest movie about number puzzles. Cage plays an MIT professor investigating a mysterious sequence of digits unearthed in a time capsule. Oh, and the numbers foretell tragic events, like a jet crashing on a freeway. [Official Site]

4. Duplicity (March 20). Ack! Julia Roberts and Clive Owen star in this romantic crime-thriller from Michael Clayton mastermind Tony Gilroy. I’ve heard that Clive Owen watched old Cary Grant films like “His Girl Friday” to get the fast-talking witty banter down to a science. [Trailer] [Official Site]

5. Monsters vs. Aliens (March 27). Reese Witherspoon, Hugh Laurie, Will Arnett, and Seth Rogen star in this animated 3D flick from DreamWorks about, you guessed it, monsters who are called upon to battle a group of aliens who’ve invaded Earth. They’re the kind of monsters you’d see in a B movie in the 1950s. [Trailer and Super Bowl Spot] [Official Site]

6. Fast & Furious (April 3). Get your speed fix with this newest installment of the “Fast and Furious” franchise. Crash-and-burn stunts, high-octane chases, and plenty of action are in store here. The stunt doubles have all the fun, don’t they? After his release from prison, Brian O’Conner (Paul Walker) teams up with Dominic Toretto (Vin Diesel) to work with the feds and bring down a heroin importer. Michelle Rodriguez and Jordana Brewster also star. [Trailer] [Official Site]

7. Dragonball: Evolution (April 8). If you missed the cult manga comics/animated TV shows, you can catch up with this movie. It’s a live-action version about a group of warriors protecting Earth from an evil force. Stars Justin Chatwin, Jamie Chung, Emmy Rossum, James Marsters, Yun-Fat Chow and Ernic Hudson. [Official Site]

8. State of Play (April 17). An overweight Russell Crowe plays a hard-nosed crime reporter investigating a politician (Ben Affleck) implicated in his assistant’s murder. Rachel McAdams and the fabulous Helen Mirren also star. [Official Site]

9. Angels & Demons (May 15). This sequel to 2006’s brings back Tom Hanks as Robert Langdon, a Harvard symbologist working to solve a murder and thwart a terrorist attack on the Vatican. Newcomer Ayelet Zurer also stars. [Teaser Trailer] [Official Site]

10. Terminator Salvation (May 22). Christian Bale plays John Connor, roaming a post-Judgment Day wasteland and gathering an army to fight the dreaded terminators. I can already tell this McG-directed flick will feature fantastic special fx. [Trailer] [Moon Bloodgood Gets Nude] [Christian Bale Goes Ballistic] [Official Site]

11. Up (May 29). Some animated movies just look lame right off the bat, and others look awesome. This one falls into the latter category. It’s a Pixar story about a curmudgeon (voiced by Ed Asner) who tries to escape his life by floating away in a house buoyed by balloons. The only flaw in the plan is the chirpy stowaway voiced by Jordan Nagai. [Official Site]

12. Public Enemies (July 1). Could a 1930’s gangster movie directed by Michael Mann and starring Johnny Depp, Christian Bale, Billy Crudup, Marion Cotillard, and Channing Tatum be anything less than magnificent? I doubt it! It’s all about the Feds trying to take down notorious gangsters John Dillinger, Baby Face Nelson and Pretty Boy Floyd during the gritty crime wave of the 1930s. [30-Second Clip] [UNOfficial Site]

13. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (July 17). Harry and the gang return for their sixth year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. As usual, nothing is as it seems. Harry comes into possession of a mysterious book scrawled with “This book is the property of the Half-Blood Prince,” and learns more about Lord Voldemort and how he got to be so evil. [Trailer] [Official Site]

14. 2012 (Nov. 13). John Cusack and Amanda Peet star in this Roland Emmerich-directed movie about the year 2012, when a global cataclysm that brings ruin to the world and leaves a few struggling to survive. [Trailer]

15. New Moon (Nov. 20). The much-anticipated sequel to “Twilight” continues the romantic and brooding story of vampire Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson) and Bella Swann (Kristen Stewart). Directed by Chris Weitz, Bella finds herself drawn into the world of the werewolves, ancestral enemies of the vampires. [Film Gecko Links]

16. Sherlock Holmes (Dec. 25). My family and I will make our traditional trek to the theater on Christmas to see this flick, starring Robert Downey, Jr. as the classic detective. Directed by Guy Ritchie, also stars Jude Law and Rachel McAdams. [Film Gecko Links]

Images: Watchmen, © 2009 Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. All Rights Reserved; Duplicity, Universal Pictures; Terminator Salvation, © 2009 Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. All Rights Reserved.

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