Vancouver Sun

MOVIES: PLENTY TO ANTICIPATE IN 2015

Highly anticipate­d films include Mad Max, Star Wars, Terminator, Avengers and Fifty Shades of Grey

- BOB THOMPSON

There are so many popcornrea­dy movies in 2015, but here are my top picks for this year, understand­ing that all release dates are subject to change:

1. Star Wars: Episode VII — The Force Awakens, Dec. 18

The J.J. Abrams force will be strong with the latest Star Wars chapter.

A few decades after Return of the Jedi, the Force Awakens and takes us to … well, it’s still a secret. Which is just like the relationsh­ip between Han Solo and Chewbacca.

2. Fifty Shades of Grey, Feb. 13

It’s sex with a capital X, as director Sam Taylor-Johnson translates the first in a series of three popular novels by E.L. James.

This is the thing: A student (Dakota Johnson) gets involved with a wealthy hedonist (James Dornan) hopelessly devoted to carnal knowledge in the most flagrant ways. The trick is, so to speak, in showcasing the endlessly erotic ways and means of rough coupling while earning a box-office friendly R-rating.

3. The Man From U.N.C.L.E., Aug. 14

In the redo still set in the 1960s, super agents Napoleon Solo (Man of Steel’s Henry Cavill) and Illya Kuryakin (The Lone Ranger’s Armie Hammer) are up to their usual droll shenanigan­s. That means the duo confronts a secret bad guy organizati­on trying to dominate the world even as the team receives help from handler Mr. Waverley as defined by the stammering Hugh Grant.

4. Mad Max: Fury Road, May 15

Fans have great expectatio­ns for the fourth film in the series that took nearly 25 years to hit the big screen. George Miller’s determinat­ion deserves to be rewarded, and it just might be, with Tom Hardy replacing Mel Gibson as the loner anti-hero. If Miller can maintain the attack-ofthe-ghoulish-bikers tone from the first and second flicks, he should entice a whole new generation of moviegoers and reconnect with the nostalgia crowd.

5. Droid flicks

First there is Chappie (out March 6). It reunites the District 9 guys for all the right reasons as filmmaker Neill Blomkamp directs a coming-of-age replicant coping with mortal dilemmas and comic-relief malapropis­ms.

There is Terminator: Genisys (in theatres July 1), and yes he’s back. But Arnold Schwarzene­gger already warned us.

And then there is the muchantici­pated Avengers: Age of Ultron (arriving May 1) in which Robert Downey Jr. builds the war-bot Ultron to protect humankind.

 ??  ?? A few decades after Return of the Jedi, Star Wars: The Force Awakens takes us to ... well, we’ll have to wait until Dec. 18 to find out.
A few decades after Return of the Jedi, Star Wars: The Force Awakens takes us to ... well, we’ll have to wait until Dec. 18 to find out.

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