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The Road

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Back when he was still a functioning member of Public Enemy, long before he began publicly wooing the world’s trashiest women on VH1, Flava Flav delivered a simple message to American public: don’t believe the hype. I always took Flav’s advice with a grain of salt. For one, it seemed contradictory for a rap group’s hype man to emphatically and repeatedly demand that his listeners not believe him. And two, anyone who has followed Flav’s epic reality television career knows that his advice is less than sound.

But hype is what movies are all about. Some moviegoers take the coming of the New Year as the cue to start Oscar speculation. But for those who can’t live in the present, its time to start looking toward what 2009 will offer.

The early Oscar favorite: The Road

The Coen brothers struck Oscar gold in 2007 with No Country for Old Men, the modern day classic adapted from the Cormac McCarthy novel of the same name. This spring, McCarthy’s The Road will reach the big screen, bringing with it the lofty expectations of film critics and McCarthy purists alike.

Winner of the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and a finalist for the 2006 National Book Critics Circle Award, The Road is the survival story of a man and his son journeying across a post-apocalyptic earth, where an unidentified cataclysm has destroyed civilization and left the world in a state of perpetual chaos.

Directed by John Hillcoat and starring Viggo Mortensen as the Man and Kodi Smit-McPhee as the Boy, The Road’s film release will be subject to intense scrutiny due to the runaway success of the novel and the latest McCarthy adaptation. But as the Coen brothers proved, McCarthy’s imagery and weighty narrative style translate amazingly well to the screen when executed properly.

However, the film’s tentative release date and inordinate amount of time in post-production suggest that The Road might be a disaster. Don’t be surprised if this epic tale of love and perseverance emerges as the early best picture frontrunner or a cheap bastardization of the greatest fiction novel of the past 25 years.

The summer blockbuster: Public Enemies

Moviegoers will come out in droves this summer to see Johnny Depp depict famous Depression-era bank robber John Dillinger in this Michael Mann directed crime drama. Costarring Christian Bale as federal agent Melvin Purvis, Channing Tatum as Pretty Boy Floyd, and Billy Crudup as J. Edgar Hoover, Public Enemies has the star power and directorial vision necessary to create a film that does justice to the most notorious criminals in American history and the FBI founders that pursued them. Expect this crime film to be 2009’s The Departed.

The Terminator movie that we’ve always wanted to see: Terminator Salvation

Christian Bale looks to extend his reign as the film industry’s biggest box office draw in Terminator Salvation, the fourth installment in the series. This time around, Bale plays a fully grown John Connor battling the machines in the war that he was born and protected to lead.

With Academy Award winners James Cameron and Paul Haggis working as screenplay contributors, expect the film’s story and characters to extend upon the tradition that has made this series so successful. The only question that remains is whether director McG, better known for his accomplishments as a music video director rather than major Hollywood player, can deliver the action-packed thriller viewers want to see.

The comic book movie: The Watchmen

The Dark Knight brought legitimacy to the comic book movie genre, proving that such films can convey emotion, provoke thought, and garner genuine Oscar buzz. Although The Watchmen lacks the pervasive cultural recognition of the Batman comic book series, it is the world’s most celebrated graphic novel and its film version will reach theaters March 6.

Whether The Watchmen will meet the expectations of its devoted fanboy supporters is unlikely as Alan Moore, the novel’s author, has publicly expressed his displeasure with the film’s production. Nonetheless, the film will certainly reach its box office goals and could solidify the comic book genre as a viable cinematic art form.