Due 2009 - Nine (Rob Marshall)

Another film to wait for, next year, is Nine, directed by Rob Marshall (Chicago, Memoirs of a Geisha). Based on the 1982 Tony Award-winning musical of the same name and with an excellent cast (Nicole Kidman, Sophia Loren, Daniel Day-Lewis, Judi Dench, Kate Hudson, Penélope Cruz, Marion Cotillard, and Fergie - yep... BEP lady), Nine is bound to be a winner.

Go Fergie!
Rumor has it that Fergie is battling to put on weight (especially on her skinny legs) for her upcoming role in the film - a prostitute named Saraghina. Apparently, the singer/actress was told to pack on a load of pounds, and is currently rehearsing in Britain before shooting the first scenes.

Fergie had to say: "I actually love (British food). I was actually told to gain weight for the film so I've been eating everything - anything and everything. That's why I am covering up except for my legs because they never gain weight and that's the only part that never changes but everything else is covered."

Burn After Reading (Ethan and Joel Coen)

Once again the Coen brothers put together a suspense film without any of the logic of a typical Hollywood thriller. Burn After Reading is nothing but an excellent joke about how idiotic people (of all sorts of age/generation/career/upbringing/social status/etc.) can be. In spite of having spies, suspense, assassinations and thrills, it comes across as a surreal satire about spy thrillers.
The characters are madly absurd - no one really knows anything and what they do know isn't very important to anyone but themselves. The plot is completely ridiculous, nothing adds up as everyone lives in their own little bubble of obsession and confusion.
The film shouldn’t work, but it does.

Harry (George Clooney) is a federal marshal who is addicted to internet dating websites and has a weird fetish for wooden floor finishings. He is having one too many affairs: 1 - Linda (Frances McDormand), a needy secretary as well as a jittery instructor at Hardbodies Gym who convinces herself that costly cosmetic medical procedures will make her more desirable; and 2 - a bitter, loathsome paediatrician Katie (Tilda Swinton) who is married to Osbourne Cox (John Malkovich). Osbourne is a CIA agent who gets sacked because of his drinking problem and the fact that his wife, Katie, is banging more wooden planes of his boat than ever the ocean waves did, seems to be totally beyond him.
There's also Chad (Brad Pitt), a bubble-gum air-head who works as a trainer at the gym who can't live without his bike or his iPod and is Linda's best buddy.
The plot thickens and the characters come together when a CD of incomprehensible CIA type material referred to as “top-secret shit” by Chad containing Malkovich’s mad Balkan memoirs is discovered on the floor of a changing room at Hardbodies.

On the whole there is chilling cynical tone to the whole film but one has to be very attentive to notice it because the hilarious scenes, the set details and the great photography are bound to grab your attention.

Comin soon

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (David Fincher)
With a release date until the end of this year this seems like it might just be the film to have waited for. With a budget of some odd 150 million USD, director David Fincher (Fight Club, Zodiac) along with writer Eric Roth (Forrest Gump, Munich) have finally put together an excellent cast to rekindle the 1922 short story by F. Scott Fitzgerald.

"Benjamin Button (Brad Pitt) is born as a feeble old man, and ages in reverse until he becomes a baby at the end of his life. This causes complications when he falls in love with a 30-year-old woman (Cate Blanchett)."

Before the Devil Knows You're Dead (Sidney Lumet)

First and above all "Before the Devil knows you're Dead" is living proof that, although now into his eighties, Sidney Lumet (12 angry men, Dog Day Afternoon, Network, Gloria, Night Falls on Manhattan) hasn't lost his edge.

The first five minutes of the gory, dark and twisted tale of greed and betrayal, introduce us to a naked, overweight corporate executive for a large New York real-estate firm, Andy (Philip Seymour Hoffman) in the heat of passion with his high-maintenance trophy wife, Gina (Marisa Tomei). Quickly, we realize that, along with his unflatteringly figure, Andy's life if far from picture perfect: an appreciable portion of his six figure salary goes up his nose, into his arm and into the lavish lifestyle Gina has become accustomed to.

Conveniently, Hank (Ethan Hawke), Andy's younger, good-for-nothing brother has financial troubles of his own, albeit of a more subtle sort (child support, school tuition and probably a considerable liquor bill at Mooney's). So Andy, who's always imagined himself the responsible, successful and smart brother, enlists the assistance of his struggling brother in hatching what's supposed to be the perfect, victimless solution to all their troubles: Hank will rob a “mom and pop” jewellery store — their own mom and pop’s (Albert Finney and Rosemary Harris) jewelry store.

The the title of the film, taken from the end line of an old Irish toast, "May you be in heaven half an hour, before the devil knows you're dead" is spot on and more than appropriate.

Gomorra (Matteo Garrone)

Gomorra controls Naples. A cynical fiction based analysis of a criminal organization. The passiveness of corruption is striking and the narrative is fair but a whole two hours and a half tends to somewhat exaggerate certain scenes.

Mamma Mia (Phyllida Lloyd)

Something fun for summer but somewhat disappointing. Meryl Streep is great and Amanda Seyfried (Alpha Dog) can carry a note . Despite having a sound soaring male cast it's sad to see that neither Pierce Brosnan nor Colin Firth could join any junior scouts' choir.