2015 is going to be, in my opinion, a magnificent year
in the movies, sports and TV. Here are a few examples of things I can’t wait to
see during this year.
Top Gear: Series 22 currently, and will keep running for
another 5 episodes. The base is simple; three middle aged men fall over, catch
fire and say something that will make a 9 year old burst into laughs. Or
actually, make the 9 year old inside every petrolhead laugh their asses out. As
an added bonus you get a fair bit of cars testing, as well as a number of very
nice landscapes from around the world. That simple recipe is as successful as
Spaghetti Bolognese; given that Top Gear gets to be watched by about 380
Million people worldwide. But, as with everything as successful as this
programme, I’m afraid there is a but; Top Gear sparks quite a fury sometimes.
That mainly happens between Daily Mail, Daily Mirror and their readers. And it
happens because Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May (mainly
Clarkson) might say one thing or two that -given how these “news”papers
fabricate stories out of nowhere- may be misinterpreted. For instance, the
infamous by now incident in Burma (which actually happened in Thailand), in
which Clarkson talks about a slope that exists on the bridge they built on
River Kwai. That thing was transferred by the Daily Mail as a “derogatory term
for the Asian descent”. I don’t understand it either. Then you have the “n-word
incident” for which a man dug up BBC Archives in order to find something; and
they found something that sounded like nigga, but wasn’t. And then you have the
Argentina Incident -H982 FKL, a reference to the Falklands war according to the
Daily Mail…again-. According to this
non-journalist paper, and some equally politically correct Argentinians, the
number plate on the Porsche 928 Clarkson drove during the Patagonia Special had
been chosen with one purpose in mind; offend Argentina. Obviously, like the
previous incidents, truth is very far away from that. But some people simply
wouldn’t care less about what actually happened, or about the fact that the
writers of Daily Mail and Daily Mirror are mainly jealous of Top Gear’s big and
constant success! I may write something about it in the future that explains it
further. In any way, there are still 5 episodes for this Series, and I
personally hope that they will make another one during 2015; although this seems
unlikely, considering that Series 22 has 10+2 episodes.
Fast & Furious 7: April 3rd. I have been a big fan of Fast
& Furious for all the previous 6 movies, so apparently I can’t wait to see
this one. The impressive thing about this movie franchise is that it managed to
become, from a movie that talked about cars and drag races to an action movie
with a plot; a rather nice one. This movie in particular will feature many
exciting things. Owen Shaw’s big brother is taking revenge by attacking the family members one by one. The man in
question is played by Jason Statham. For those of you with weak memory, the
roles he played include the punch ‘n shoot ‘n drive fast badass in the
Transporter trilogy, as well as the stab ‘n shoot ‘n ride shotgun with badass Stallone in the Expendables trilogy. This, along with the arranged fights between
him and Dwayne Johnson, as well as the fight him with Vin Diesel give a recipe
for epic action. Trailer shows that what I say is rather justified.
Then you
have other additions, like Kurt Russell, and Ronda Rousey. Hopefully this time,
since there is a fight between the Champ and Michelle Rodriguez, normal order will
be restored (unlikely to happen, but…). I say this because, if you remember, in
the previous movie, 2 times Michelle fought with Gina Carano and both times it
wasn’t Gina who came on top. Still, these were great to watch.
Another thing to
expect is various locations. LA, Emirates, Tokyo, and so on. The fact that this
franchise has moved from the streets and the underworld of Los Angeles to all
over the world is clearly a sign of epic things to come. This was the case with
Fast five and Six; this appears to be the case with the upcoming one. Happily
we’ll be able to enjoy a bit of landscape. Then you have the cars; because we
can’t forget that deep down the action scheme, the family story and the big
guns, this is a car franchise. And since it is so much successful, and
therefore the budget for next movies increases, cars get better and better. On
this occasion we will see many great exotics including a Veyron and a McLaren
P1, as well as clapped out things like the magnificent Nissan GTR and a few
American Muscle cars.
To be honest though, there is one more reason why I
want to watch this movie; the obvious. I am one of those who want to see what
did Paul Walker do before he tragically died in this accident while passenger
in a Porsche Carrera GT. As we know, he filmed most of the movie, but I want to
see how they managed to blend CGI along with the real deal.
Formula 1: 15 March - 29 November. This is a total of 21 races
this Season. This is a season of big changes, one of which is Alonso going back
to McLaren and Vettel going to Ferrari. There are a few changes in the
regulations, because Formula One Management and FIA want to constantly remind
as during the last few years that it is British run, therefore completely
obsessed with Health and Safety. This is why they reduced the engine sizes and
increased the minimum weight of the cars, as well as minimized the number of
available engines and gearboxes per driver per season. This sport was supposed
to the pinnacle of motorsport. If we consider the aerodynamics, how pit stops are
executed these days, Energy Recovery System, DRS and the fact that a driver can
crash while doing 300 KpH and come out of the car totally unscaled, then yes it
is the pinnacle of motorsport. But we have to consider the medieval rules and
regulations, the fact that the sport is actually moving backwards instead of
forwards. When you reduce the power of a car, and you increase its weight, it
becomes SLOWER!!!! Still, there are a few things to expect over the coming
Season. I personally want to see how McLaren will do this year with Alonso and
Button. I also want to see what Ferrari is going to do with Vettel, now that
eventually after 7 years they made a decent car. And this is actually very
annoying for a Ferrari fan like me. Ferrari had for 5 years Alonso as their
prime driver, promising each year that they will give him a championship
winning car, but instead all they gave him was excuses. If it wasn’t for
Alonso, Ferrari would definitely be a second rate team during these last 5
years. And now, Ferrari might have this championship winning car, but again it
is in Vettel’s hands. Oh well…
Spectre (Bond 24): October 25th (Or November 6th).
MGM and Eon Productions have a big problem with this Bond Installment. Obviously, that is Skyfall, which is the
best Bond movie…yet. It turns out that the production team realized that such
movie is hard to top, but they have quite a few Aces up their sleeves. Killing Dame Judi Dench is clearly a downside,
but it seems that they might have a way round this. They bring back Mr. White
from Quantum
of Solace, we have the Quartermaster
(Q) and then there’s the question of Bond
Girl. The absolutely beautiful Bérénice
Marlohe did her job brilliantly in Skyfall, and put on a good show.
Putting someone as beautiful and as bright on screen was clearly going to be an
issue. And here comes the goddess Monica
Bellucci, who, despite her age, I think that still looks absolutely
stunning and can still act perfectly well. She will take it where Bérénice left it, and take it a long way
forward. I think I’m right in saying that this is the first time for the whole
period of 53 years that Bond Girl is
actually older than Bond himself. It
doesn’t matter though. Sam Mendes looks as though he is going to do a brilliant
job directing the movie, as he did with Skyfall, Daniel Craig wants to keep
being the best Bond yet, and will do that, the car will be a very special Aston Martin DB10, and everything else
appears to be going as smooth as silk. Or is it? I know that Thomas Newman, the
man who wrote the music of Skyfall will do likewise with Spectre. But, Title Song on Skyfall
was written (and performed) by Adele. That is my concern. Because this
magnificent theme song not only is hard to be topped up by a new one, but it is
the only Bond theme song that has ever won an Oscar. I do really hope that they
will pull this off. Until then we can only speculate. And wait.
Creed: Somewhere between November and December; an official
date has not been announced yet. Here comes another Rocky! This time though, Sylvester
Stallone comes back as a trainer, not a fighter. I don’t know too much
about what is going to be in this movie yet, but I do know that it’s going to
be the story of Rocky training the son of late -once enemy, friend thereafter- Apollo
Creed. Rocky, as a movie franchise, has always been quite an inspirational one.
In fact, Rocky Balboa as a character has become the main inspiration for
many athletes since 1976. Small wonder why. This began in life as a movie which
was written in four(!!!) days, by a man who was believed by the producers to be
talentless, and therefore the restrictions in budget and timelines were extremely
strict. Plus, producers didn’t believe that it would make a success, which was
the main reason why they didn't give a decent budget. What happened was that it
topped Box Office for that year, and it gathered a number of awards (including
Academy Award for Best Picture, Best Director and Best Film Editing) as well as
many nominations, which had as a result Stallone coming back for a second Rocky
movie, this time with a big budget, big promotion and more than 28 days to finish
filming and editing. And this continued until Rocky V, which didn’t turn out to
be a success. Or at least, it wasn’t the Box Office success the producers wanted
to see after the success of the previous four movies. Where I’m standing, I can’t
see why this happened, because Rocky V was a great movie. Okay, not as great as
the previous, but a great movie nonetheless; a movie that definitely belongs to
the franchise. This is the reason why, in 2006 when Stallone wanted to make
Rocky Balboa (Rocky VI) he had restrictions on timelines and budget; just like
the old times. And again, in the usual fashion, Stallone went on to prove
everyone wrong for not having faith in him. He did this movie a success yet
again, although this time he had quite a lot more emotions than ever before (or
ever since). He also wrote and said the following lines:
“Let me tell you something you already know.
The world ain't all sunshine and rainbows.
It's a very mean and nasty place, and I don't care how
tough you are, it will beat you to your knees and keep you there permanently if
you let it.
You, me, or nobody is gonna hit as hard as life.
But it ain't about how hard you hit. It's about how
hard you can get hit and keep moving forward; how much you can take and keep
moving forward. That's how winning is done!
Now, if you know what you're worth, then go out and
get what you're worth. But you gotta be willing to take the hits, and not
pointing fingers saying you ain't where you wanna be because of him, or her, or
anybody.
Cowards do that and that ain't you. You're
better than that!”
I anticipate and hope that Creed will be Stallone’s
greatest Rocky moment. All we have to do now is wait until winter for it to
come along.
In short, this year has quite a few gems coming up. I
know that I missed quite a few of them, but I only mention these ones that I
expect most of all during 2015.
