Thursday Movie Picks: 2019 Movies You're Looking Forward To

Let’s face it 2019 is the year of Disney. 2019 sees the release of following Disney movies – Captain Marvel, Dumbo, Avengers: End Game, Aladdin, Toy Story 4, The Lion King, Artemis Fowl, Frozen 2, Star Wars Episode 9. I can see 3 or 4 of them breaking the $1,000,000,000 barrier with Toy Story, Avengers: End Game (Captain Marvel is a dark horse for that billion dollars), Star Wars and Frozen 2 being the most likely to smash that barrier.

But we’re not here to talk about them. This may surprise you but there are other movies released that year which, more likely than not, will be better movies. So, here’s three (of many) movies I am excited for.

Ad Astra

I loved James Gray’s The Lost City of Z as it harked by to the classic adventure stories of David Lean. His next feature seems even more epic as it sees Brad Pitt travel to the planet Neptune to track down his father (Tommy Lee Jones) who went missing searching for extra-terrestrial life. James Gray intended for this film to have the most realistic space travel ever put to screen. Whether or not this is case is to be seen, but it’s going to look incredible especially with Hoyte van Hoytema as cinematographer.

Maradona

Asif Kapadia’s documentary on legendary racing driver Ayrton Senna wowed fans and non-fans of motorsport (the very unsporty Mark Kermode even dubbed it ‘sennasational’). His third feature focuses on a sporting legend from the same continent, but from a different sport and different country. This man is Diego Maradona. Quite simply Maradona was one of the greatest footballers to ever grace the game. He was also very controversial, and his private life has enough material to fill 20 documentaries rather than solitary one. From the Hand of God to his drug abuse, this will be one gripping documentary.

The Irishman

Martin Scorsese is returning to the gangster genre with The Irishman which surrounds the assassination of union leader Jimmy Hoffa. This true to life story stars Robert De Niro, Joe Pesci, Harvey Keitel and Al Pacino (surprisingly this is the first time Scorsese and Al Pacino have worked together). It’s rumoured to be Scorsese’s most expensive ever picture with de-aging technology used in the movie’s many flashback sequences. It will be 13 years since Scorsese directed a gangster flick (The Departed – which won him his first Oscar) so anticipation is high for this one. The Irishman will be distributed by Netflix.

Thursday Movie Picks is hosted weekly by Wandering Through the Shelves

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