Trailers of the Week: 4/27/2011

The Debt

This was a trailer I saw a few weeks ago that I thought deserved a mention. Its a political thriller set around a trio of spies and a mission they undertook when they younger, with the story being told both from when they were younger as well as when they have become older and dealing with the consequences of what happened.

I'm a sucker for political/spy thrillers, especially when there is talent on both sides of the camera. With John Madden (Shakespeare in Love) directing and Matthew Vaughn (Kick-Ass) penning the script, it has all of the potential to be an enthralling thriller. What makes this a great trailer too is that it gives the audience just enough of a taste of the story without spoiling any of the vital plot points to ruin the experience when it comes out.

The Debt is scheduled for release on August 31st.

The Devil's Double

This one was a big sell out of Sundance this past year. It stars Dominic Cooper (An Education) in dual roles as Uday Hussein (Saddam's son) and his body double, Latif Yahia.

The film is based on a true story/Yahia's book about his relationship with the Hussein family, in particular Uday. The trailer gives off the feeling of being a Scarface clone, with all of the excess and crime, you also cant help but imagine its going to have political overtones to it as well (for obvious reasons). With a great deal of unknowns out side of Cooper in the lead roles and Lee Tamahori (Die Another Day) directing The Devil's Double looks intriguing, but we'll have to wait until July 29th to see if it lives up to the trailer.

Call Them As I See Them: Limitless (2011)

So I’m just going to come out and say it, Limitless flat out sucked. I mean, it was really bad, and as far as storytelling it failed in almost every aspect.

The movie centers around a downbeat writer, played by Bradley Cooper, who after a chance meeting gets a secret drug that enhances his brain activity, essentially making him super smart. We then follow him as he quickly rises through the ranks of the financial world and dealing with others that want the drug.

Now where to begin…

For a positive, the acting for the most part is good, if not over-dramatic at times, the only real negative in this department goes to Robert De Niro, who plays a powerful business man that employs Cooper to assist him with a business merger. As typical for De Niro over the past decade, it’s a mailed in performance, that he cant put an emotion into the few scenes where he is called on to do it. Then again, that’s what he has done almost exclusively of late, relying on his star power to carry him, and it’s a real shame for one of the all-time great actors to simply not care anymore. As I said, everyone else is passable, I have more issue with the characters than the actual performances.

So let’s talk about the pathetic excuse for characters that Limitless has, Cooper’s writer is pretty typical actually, in all honestly I find he would do what most of us would if put in the same situation, use the new found abilities for personal gain. Abbie Cornish plays his girlfriend, whom at first we can empathize with, since she is clearly intimidate by Cooper showing off all of his new found knowledge. She then leaves him, only to come back right before the end credits. So instead of having him take a stance against him using a drug to make him into a new person, she simply gives in accepts all of the benefits she can reap from it. You see, now you just turned the character into a gold-digger as opposed to giving her some kind of personality or moral ground, so in the end, who cares?

This leads into a whole new issue with this movie, its actually a pro-drug movie. Cooper’s character suffers no real consequences for the fact that he is taking a supposedly illegal drug, aside from the occasional bout of withdrawal or guy following him, but these are more inconveniences than anything. When the movie is over, he is heading for the top of the world, ‘winning’ the girl and able to face anything. All one can take from this movie is that you need to find some drugs cause they are going to make your life better…seriously, did these people even read the script?

The ‘villains’ are a joke. There is this menacing looking guy that follows Cooper around trying to get his stash of drugs, but it amounts to little else than a couple of dull chase sequences, and there is a gangster that Cooper borrows money from who also wants the drug after accidentally ingesting some. For a drug that is supposed to make you smarter, this guy is pretty dumb and easily dispatched when the movie realizes it needs to wrap up soon. So Limitless comprises of Cooper’s life becoming awesome while people inconvenience him a few times, you can almost feel the tension oozing off the screen.

This movie sucks, its boring and poorly done, with absolutely no payoff for the time wasted to sit through it. It had its opportunities, but squandered them for no good reason. The only good thing I can say about Limitless is that was somewhat watchable…once. After you suffer through the let down that this movie is, you never have to do it again as it quickly fades from memory.

Call Them As I See Them: Scream 4 (2011)

I should preface this by saying up to this point I have only seen the first scream in its entirety, the nice thing about this sequel though, is that that’s really all you need to know to get what’s going on.

This movie is okay, far from great. There was a lot of humor that I think anyone who is a fan of the horror genre can appreciate that perhaps others might miss, and it does a lot to comment on and satire the current state of the genre (i.e. all of the sequels and remakes). Some can consider it giving into the same things that the film might be commenting on, I for one feel that it knows exactly what it is doing and I felt it treaded that line rather well.

With that said, there are some glaring problems with Scream 4 as well. The one that stuck out the most to me was the acting, which is either passable, or downright terrible. It gets really distracting when someone is attempting to be dramatic or sinister but fail miserably at it. Some of this can be looked over just for the shear number of characters that are in the movie, as well as the young and potential up and comers/those making a last ditch attempt at a career. It almost gets distracting the number of characters in this film, like the producers were thinking that they needed to cram as many names as they could into one film in order to keep people interested and it actually kind of works for the first five minutes or so, but by the halfway point its just too much, especially when you realize that half of the people are just cannon fodder.

The other thing that bugged me about Scream 4 is the same thing that most horror movies suffer from, and that is the laziness in the attempts to scare the audience, in other words, ‘jump scares’. A jump scare is essentially the cinematic equivalent to someone jumping out a yelling “BOO!” at you. Its not really scaring you, its startling very loudly. Really frightening someone means getting the blood flowing and heart racing, not just causing you to jump in the seat and make you uneasy for a moment. It’s a tactic that is cheap and only dilutes itself after a while, especially once you get to know when and where they are coming from.

All in all Scream 4 is a good movie that has its problems, it doesn’t nearly have the iconic status that the first film has and it kind of knows it, which is part of what makes enjoying to watch…once. The entertainment value loses its luster by the end of the film, its just enough to get through, anything else would just be wearing the joke too thin and it doesn’t have the horror elements to continue to scare either. Hopefully this marks the last film in the Scream series since its only going to sink further from 

Trailers of the Week: 4/12/2011

Kind of a bad week for trailers, but here are a few that I've missed

Warrior

The story for this one is rather simple. A former MMA fighter has to return to the ring in order to care for his family, only to have to face his brother in the final round. Basically the makings of 90%of all sports movies.

Two things make this movie stand out for me. First off is the cast, I'm quickly becoming a fan of Tom Hardy (Inception) he's really been on a rocket as far as his career has gone, and its only going to improve when he plays Bane in Christopher Nolan's next Batman movie. Also, there is some very early Oscar buzz going for Nick Nolte, who plays the recovering alcoholic father that trains Hardy for his bout against his brother. Nolte has always gotten a bit of a bad reputation as of late, but believe or not he is more than capable of giving a really good performance. If I had to say his greatest fault as an actor is never reaching the potential he has shown in a few of his movies, allowing the outside world to overshadow them.

The other thing that catches my eye is that fact that it has Gavin O'Connor directing it. He hasn't made many films (this marking his third in the past decade), but among them was Miracle from 2004, which is a really underrated sports movie in my opinion, so hopefully he recaptures some of that magic for this movie.

Warrior is expected to come out September 9th

Crazy Stupid Love

Lately it seems as though more and more ensemble comedies are being released as of late, where we get a whole bunch of name actors portraying characters in a number of intertwining stories with no real focus. Crazy Stupid Love is kind of like that, but not entirely. It instead focuses on three select story lines rather than a multitude of them to spread out a weak plot.

The story at the core of this one centers around Steve Carrell, who is in the middle of a divorce with his wife, played by Julianne Moore. So in order to rebound he goes out to meet women and gets tutored in the way of modern women by a womanizer named Ryan Gosling. It gets a little more complicated and that, but essentially thats the gist of it.

I really like the cast for this one, Carrell in anything not related to The Office has always been good (I cant stand him on The Office), and the rest of them are primarily dramatic actors who have dabbled in comedy, but it looks like this movie will have a nice balance between both the drama and comedy to help that. Ryan Gosling will be interesting to see how he holds up, since this is his first role in a comedy, and this is a guy who is primed for a commercial breakout...well, at least for a breakout in something that isnt The Notebook.

Crazy Stupid Love is slated for a July 29th release date.

Call Them As I See Them: Source Code (2011)

This was one I had been looking forward to for quite a while, ever since I learned that it was being helmed by relative newcomer Duncan Jones (a little bit of trivia, his father is rock god David Bowie). Ever since I saw his previous film Moon it was clear he would be the new hot talent in Hollywood, much in the same vein as Christopher Nolan was after he mad Memento. He has a great ability to input very personal stories in to films that exist on a much grander scale, even if they seem t be by the naked eye.

The story starts out simple enough, a pilot is placed into a program called the Source Code that enables him to relive the last eight minutes of someone else’s life. It is up to him to find out who is behind a terrorist bombing on a commuter train in order to help prevent another attack. As a result he has to relive the same events over and over again, and slowly we realize that not everything is quite as it seems in regards to the Source Code (that’s all I’ll say in order to avoid spoilers).

The story could have been done as a straight forward action flick, but so many different elements are brought into play that it is able to become something far more, with discussions going on about philosophy, ethics, and the question “if you knew you only had a few minutes left to live, what would you do?” Unlike the other movie I reviewed this weekend, Hanna, none of this is thrown in your face either, it allows you to think about it and come up with some of your own conclusions to the issues raised.

From an acting standpoint, everyone involves give a good performance throughout the film, whether it is Jake Gyllenhal, Vera Farminga, and Michelle Monaghan, to the bit characters we only see or here from once or twice. My one gripe would be with Jeffrey Wright, who plays the scientist who invented the Source Code, while he is normally a very good actor, there are times when he falls into the clichéd of movie scientists. Sure it’s picking at the small details, but it was something that grated on me on occasion.

I also thought the ending could have been handled a little better. Not to give anything away, but I think it went on for a few minutes too long in order to give a more conventional ending that movie goers would enjoy instead of a more open ended one, but that is just a preferential thing.

Source Code is a well-put together, exciting film that is worth being seen, and garners multiple viewing in order to get all of the nuances that the story holds. In the meanwhile I look forward to the next film from Duncan Jones, it seems as though a real treasure of filmmaking has come forward, and frankly that is something Hollywood desperately needs.

Next week...Scream 4(*sigh*)

Call Them As I See Them: Hanna (2011)

A few weeks ago I chronicled Joe Wright’s new movie in my Trailers of the Week. The film was released this weekend and I had a chance to go see it, and I have to say, I was impressed. I have seen most of Wright’s other movies, and based on that I can say that these is probably the least of his movies, but then again his least is better than most others finest efforts.

One thing for sure, Wright is a technical genius behind the camera, he is really able to capture the beauty in each scene and provides a visual flair to the film that few others would, it’s a trait that carries throughout his films.  Given the fact that this is a film that carries a great variety of locations and environments, each looks more fantastical than the last.

When I originally, talked about Hanna I stated that the trailer gave off a feel of one of the Bourne movies mixed with fairy tale elements. That’s exactly what this movie is. The story follows a young girl (Saorise Ronan) who sets out to kill a special agent operative (Cate Blanchett) who has a past with her father (Eric Bana). We see Hanna as she travels from her wilderness home in the forest and coming into contact with the modern world for the first time. It all has an Alice in Wonderland feel to it, there is even a ‘falling down the rabbit hole’ scene as Hanna escapes from a government facility.

While I do appreciate the fairy tale elements that the film carries with it, where it fails in my opinion is how it handles the elements. Its just too much sometimes, like the film is shoving down our throats that this movie is supposed to be a modern fairy tale. It could have been toned down a little bit, instead its just distracting sometimes, and you wind up playing spot the reference instead of what is actually going on in a scene.

Everything else in Hanna is done fairly well, the acting is a little inconsistent, Cate Blanchett’s accent keeps changing it, while everyone else good performances. When there are action scenes are handled very well by Wright given that this was his first attempt at a film that handles such (a standout being a long tracking shot where Eric Bana is followed then fights of a group of agents attempting to capture him.

Hanna is the type of film worth seeing. There is nothing about that is extraordinary with exception to the visual feel throughout. It is a good solid movie from a director taking his first crack at a genre he hadn’t dabbled in before, and ultimately the results are satisfying. It just isn’t on the level of other films that would command repeat viewings.

Call Them As I See Them: 1960's Black Sunday (The Mask of Satan)

Old horror movies are tough ones to call. The things that people seemed to be scared by were simpler back then. You can read about how movies affected audiences in extreme ways, only to see them and unable to see what all of the fuss was about. Sure, there are the gems from back then, in particular the Universal movies of the thirties and forties, and there is quite a lot to appreciate in the influence that such movies gave to the horror genre for decades.

It was not only for American cinema that these films would hold influence, but around the world as well. Other countries would begin getting into the horror genre as well. One country that seemed to resist the horror genre was surprisingly enough Italy. I say surprising because of all the countries in the world, Italy is among one of the top producers of horror films. It all started with one movie in particular, Mario Bava’s Black Sunday aka The Mask of Satan (there has always been something special about titles of the old horror movies).

It was among of the first horror film’s produced in Italy, this was mainly because for the most part Italians rejected the horror genre until the late 50’s when England’s Hammer films were brought in. It being among the first of its kind would automatically do so, but that that it is a masterpiece only adds to that. Mario Bava really does nothing wrong with Black Sunday, for the most part that is, with a budget that was miniscule even by the standards of the day.

The story follows a witch/vampire (the film really does get these two mixed up), who in the first scene is killed for witchcraft and revived two hundred years later and attempts possess the body of her descendent. Its up to her brother and a young doctor to try and stop her and her minion.

Bava uses the most with what he has to work with creating an environmental tension to Black Sunday from the opening scene (the execution of the witch), which still holds up even today. He also frames the scene to give the film a sense of authenticity, as opposed to many of its contemporaries where staged sets were built and little detail added to them.

The visual effects as well are surprisingly detailed and authentic for the time as well, with many of them developed by the director’s father Eugenio Bava, and they all feel very realistic.

From an acting standpoint, the film primarily stars Barbara Steele as the witch and her descendent, and John Richardson as the young doctor/love interest out to stop/save her. It is really difficult to tell whether or not the actors were good or not since most of the film is dubbed over, which is odd given that all of the lines were spoken in English during production. For the most part, everyone does a good job and is very believable both in their action and dialogue, despite the film sometimes venturing into the melodramatic and when it comes to horror, you can’t ask for much more.

Horror movies in general tend to lose their luster over time, this is mostly because of filmmakers always attempting to push the envelope of the medium further and further. Black Sunday though is a film that while perhaps not as frightening as it once was, still carries a great deal of tension throughout it. This is just a testament to what a great film that Mario Bava created so early in the history of Italian horror cinema. The film is a must for enthusiasts of the horror genre, as well as anyone who is interested in seeing the evolution of the genre across the world.

In Memorandum: Blockbuster Video

Do you remember your first trip to Blockbuster Video to rent a movie?

Well truthfully neither do I (I’m getting old I cant help it), though I can imagine my first memory of going there than most people though, and I’ll never forget it only because it was probably the one single moment that set the course for the rest of my life.

I was four. My dad took me to rent a movie for us to watch while my mother and sister were away for the weekend. Instead of allowing me to torture him with some crappy kid movie he instead found something he thought I would enjoy. It was Star Wars, and from then on I was hooked on movies.

Over the years I would continue to go back, looking for the next great movie I would love, scourging the shelves for whatever caught my interest for better or worse to try and discover what hidden treasures laid in those shelves waiting to be seen (I usually got a little guidance from my Dad as well).

As the years went by I didn’t go as much as I wanted to, but loved every trip I took there for what I learned, and as I got older the trips evolved as well.

In high school I met a group of friends that began a tradition, nearly every weekend going to one of the local Blockbusters and finding the worst movies we could find. That introduced us to such schlock gems as Killer Klowns fro Outer Space, Mr. Jingles, the films of Uwe Boll, and perhaps king among them Gingerdead Man (a movie so bad the checkout clerk wanted to double check to see if we were renting the right movie).

Blockbuster gave me so many memories as a kid, and it probably bestowed memories on all of us, whether we realize it or not.

Sadly, those days have past. While I for one still love a good trip to Blockbuster, I also recognize that technology has made it an incovienence to make such trips. Nowadays we have Netflix, which will deliver movies right to us via mail or even streaming them right to us in an instant. That’s not even bringing On Demand or torrenting movies into the fold.

Now Blockbuster is almost gone, in a state of bankruptcy and closing the doors to its stores left and right, now a just a means for movie scavengers (myself included) to pick on the corpse and get a load of movies on the cheap.

With what little time we have left, lets reflect on the joys and memories that Blockbuster video has left us and an entire generation of movie fans, and if at al possible, hit up the old place for one last rental before its gone for good.

Trailers of the Week: 4/6/2011

Okay, so three trailers to look at this week (making up for last weeks lack of videos)

First off is a dramatic comedy featuring Will Ferrell called Everything Must Go. The film is the story of an alcoholic who relapses, and as a result in one day loses his job and has his wife leave him and his stuff on the front lawn of his house, so he decides to have yard sale to help him start over. While doing so, he meets a neighborhood kid and new neighbor that may help bring him back from the edge (pretty cliched there).

I'm intrigued by this movie because it doesn't seem like your typical Will Ferrell movie, where he just plays the goofy idiot. Instead it feels like he is going more towards the dramatic with this performance, which is an area is is far underrated in doing (see Stranger Than Fiction).

I do have a hunch that this is a misleading trailer though, playing towards the comedy of Ferrell as opposed to the dramatic tendincies that the film could be focusing on. Still, I for one am intrigued by the trailer and look forward to its release day on May 13th (limited)

This next one is a little bit of a cheat. At Wondercon this past weekend (a convention held in San Francisco), new footage for the upcoming Green Lantern movie was released. Part of the footage went online this week, and feels exactly like a trailer should. Not giving too much information about the film yet giving us just enough of a taste to make you want to see it.

The film features Ryan Reynolds as Hal Jordan aka The Green Lantern. Its the typical first film of a new franchise, being an origin story and setting up the mythos which the comic and future films will be based upon.

Based on the footage, I get an Iron Man feel for the direction the franchise will be going in (which is a very good thing), though DC based movies are either hit or miss. You have all of the Batman movies (one year until Dark Knight Rises!) but you also have the recent Superman Returns...which was just boring. I think that the people behind Green Lantern will take a page out of Marvel's book and try to mimic what they have done to much success, and if that happens everyone wins.

Last but not least...The Hangover II.

A teaser was just released a few weeks ago, but now we are treated to a full three minute trailer that plays out more what the story will be about and things that will happen.

Essentially its the same trio from the first movie, this time in Thailand for Stu's (Ed Helms) bachelor party, this time they lose the younger brother of Stu's fiance and have to find him before the wedding.

The story is the one red flag for me, it feels exactly the same as the original, so the writers were following the "if it aint broke dont fix it mentality", which you really cant blame them, given the previous film was the highest grossing R-rated comedy of all time. There is plenty of references to the fact that the characters are going through the same situations again (even Ken Jeong is back in what looks to be a much expanded role).

That being said, the trailer I still laughed at the trailer and no matter what anyone says, this movie is going to be a hit. I look forward to what they weren't able to show, this trailer is actually meant for a PG-13 rating and has actually been pulled to the censors freaking out over some of the language and imagery shown (none of which is that bad, but thats the MPAA for you)

It opens Memorial Day weekend (May 26th).

Trailers of the Week: 3/31/2011

Sorry this one took so long to get out, internet wasn't cooperating this week, and as a result I don't have any videos to go with this post. Instead I included the links to watch the trailers on youtube, so enjoy and I should have a new post up early next week (if all goes well).

13 Assassins

I love samurai movies. I love Takashi Miike movies. I love when Takashi Miike makes samurai movie. So of course I'm going to love 13 Assassins, Miike's latest film that tells about the 13 assassins of the title going on a suicide mission to kill an evil lord in feudal Japan.

Miike is well known as a prolific director (this marks his 40th film in less than twenty years) who uses perverse amounts of violence and themes most people stay away from to make his films stand out...and indeed they have. His first international success was his 1999 psychological horror film Audition, which scarred many a movie goer and forced Miike to say "I just don't understand why people would walk out of a movie." He has since caught the eye of the likes of Quentin Tarantino (who had a small role in his Sergio Leone homage Sukiyaki Western Django) and Eli Roth (for whom Miike would cameo in Hostel).

Based on this preview and the director's reputation, it looks as though 13 Assassins is going to be a brutally ass-kicking festival of bloody action, and while the setting might be a turn-off for some (I know people who tend to not be fans of historically set movies), but take a look at the trailer and tell me it doesn't look freaking awesome.

13 Assassins hits theaters in a limited capacity starting April 29th

Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_-IzbkXo7bo

Hobo with a Shotgun

I dare you to say that title without wanting to smile just a little bit.

The latest feature film to be made from what started out as one of the fake trailers during Grindhouse, it features Rutger Hauer (Blade Runner), who these days has been reduced to bit supporting roles, as...well...a hobo with a shotgun. Essentially the movie is about a hobo who arrives in a new town, snaps, and goes vigilante on all of the corruption and filth around him...with a shotgun.

What I like about this movie is simple, it knows what it is. By that I mean it isn't going to try and be pretentious or take itself seriously, its going to be violent and over the top, and it looks like its going to be a lot of fun too.

Hobo with a Shotgun is actually available to rent on iTunes, but will be hitting theaters starting May 6th

Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ASomc2O6eqY