Movie Trailers

The new, full-length movie trailer for Guillermo Del Toro’s Hellboy II: The Golden Army is now online, and guess what? I watched it!

Yes, exciting news I know, but hold your breath because there’s more: I wrote a review about Hellboy 2‘s trailer! I know, it’s shocking that I of all people would cast my opinion so valiantly into the night, as if nothing frightened or shocked me, but it’s true. But enough about me, on with the Hellboy 2 movie trailer review…

I don’t know what it is about the big blockbuster movie trailers this year, but they are just not connecting with me. Am I being too picky? Maybe. Am I in a bad mood? I’ve been a bad mood all week. I’m not exactly sure what the reason is, but since I consider myself perfect, I’m going to blame someone else. The movie trailer for Hellboy 2 is… good. Good, but not great. It has a fair amount of action, some impressive special effects, so on and so forth, but once again, something just didn’t click for me. The setup for the characters and plot line seems uninspired, as if the trailer team was more intent on summarizing the film rather than promoting it. The introduction to the main villain at the beginning of the trailer seemed a bit too casual; the villain himself is never made out to be all that intimidating (besides being rather homely).

When Hellboy shows up, there isn’t that, “Ohhh, it’s Hellboy!” It’s more like, “Well, clearly it’s Hellboy. I saw that coming from a mile away.” Again, that might be overly picky, but I’m big on good setups in movie trailers – start off with a little mystery, present the threat, and then, in glorious fashion, present the solution. The Hellboy 2 trailer bypasses the mystery and doesn’t introduce the threat or solution in any amazing way.

All that being said, the movie trailer is still pretty entertaining. The dry humor is clearly still intact, and the theme music is back. There looks like they’ll be plenty of action and strange creatures, which is good. All in all, Hellboy 2 looks like it could end up being pretty good, but the movie trailer hasn’t convinced me of it.

More interesting to see will be whether Hellboy 2 does better than the original; it’s got the sequel thing going for it, but did the original gather that much of a following to make this sequel a true blockbuster sequel? I’m hesitant to say, “yes.”

Get the skinny on the movie at my Hellboy 2 details page.

I just watched the movie trailer for Bangkok Dangerous, the new action movie starring Nicolas Cage. In it, Cage stars as an elusive assassin who finds himself in over his head when he takes a job where he is set up to kill a political figure in Bangkok, and ends up falling in love instead.

It looks like the pretty typical assassin movie, where the assassin finally gets a conscience and decides to turn on those who hired him. Bangkok Dangerous looks just okay, as there aren’t any bankable action sequences or on-screen events to really wow the audience, and Nic Cage looks to be playing just a variation of other characters he has done before. Despite the titlel, Bangkok Dangerous really doesn’t look all that sexy, exciting or smart, and that’s a problem.

Still, as mindless entertainment goes, we can hope that this one falls in line with Shooter. Watch the Bangkok Dangerous movie trailer below:

As I’m sure you’ve heard by now, Regal Theaters/Cinemas/whatever the official name of the company is, has announced that they will officially begin showing Red Band trailers to restricted audiences. As my loyal readers know, I’m not a big fan of censorship, and while having PG-rated trailers is not exactly censorship, it’s great to see that a company is going against the tide of political correctness and overzealous religious groups to show advertising more suitable for the target audiences of certain films.

Red Band trailers are previews made for restricted audiences, i.e. those attending R-rated, NC-17 and unrated movies. You’re used to seeing Green Band trailers, which are “approved for general audiences” and currently shown in theaters. Studios have been complaining for years that Green Band trailers are not as effective for marketing certain movies to their target audience. If you are a teenage guy and you go to an R-rated movie and see a preview for American Pie that’s full of inappropriate humor and even nudity, you’re more likely to see the film. What if you like gory horror movies; wouldn’t a Red Band trailer full of explicit gore entice you to go see an upcoming movie?

Basically, Red Band trailers allow studios to show a lot more footage for certain movies than they have been previously, as exemplified with the Pathology movie trailer. Want to see a more detailed breakdown of the difference between Green Band trailers and Red Band trailers? Check out this great post.

Kudos to Regal for going the other direction and appealing to the studios. The studios are happy, I’m happy, and hopefully other theater chains will follow suit.

Most of you have probably not seen the movie trailer for The Children of Huang Shi, a war drama starring Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Radha Mitchell and Chow Yun-Fat. The movie is about a war journalist in China in the 1930′s who decides to help transport a bunch of children over a dangerous mountain pass to spare them from violence.

The look of the film, directed by Roger Spottiswoode, is quite nice; it has a very crisp, rich look to it. That being said, the movie trailer isn’t very exciting. It’s constructed well enough, but is rather slow and uneventful. Better use of music and proper pacing would have done wonders for what otherwise looks like a pretty intriguing story.

The release date for the picture is a bit suspicious; if this were very good, I would think Sony Pictures Classics would launch it later in the year as award bait. Considering that the film arrives in theaters in May, that does not bode well.

I recently watched the new movie trailer for Tropic Thunder, starring Ben Stiller, Robert Downey Jr. and Jack Black. Surprisingly, I think this movie looks pretty damn funny.

I’ve grown tired of Ben Stiller, and, after his last God-awful film, The Heartbreak Kid (honestly, one of the worst comedies ever), I had really lost faith. However, Tropic Thunder looks like a whole different can of worms. For one, it’s more of an ensemble bit, which is nice, and two, the movie looks not unlike Hot Fuzz is some ways or another. The movie is going to have a ton of action, some pretty good special effects and a lot of jokes.

After all, the plot of the movie is that several actors who think they’re filming a movie get involved in a real Asian conflict; in other words, it’s like Platoon, only funny. The highlight of the trailer: Robert Downey Jr. gets an experimental surgical procedure to play his part – he dyes his skin black to look like a black man. How is that not funny?

Overall, I think the trailer’s very effective. It starts off looking like a legitimate action/war movie, complete with 60′s music, crashing helicopters and huge explosions. From there, it gets funnier and funnier as it goes along. I’m definitely looking forward to Tropic Thunder.

Somehow, despite stints in a mental facility, her “ownership” being transferred to her father, an odd British accent, a bitter custodial battle and more, Britney Spears has managed to release a new music video. This music video is animated, and features Britney Spears as a superhero who fights bad guys, flies through the air and more. Too bad the music video sucks.

Don’t get me wrong: I have nothing against Britney Spears. I love comebacks, and I hope she gets to do one of those one of these days. At first, her self destructive behavior was a bit entertaining, but once we found out she has some more serious issues, it became more troubling than anything else. I think even the biggest Spears haters are hoping that she stops makes a fool for herself and at least lands on even footing, though feel free to correct me if I’m wrong.

Regardless, this new Britney Spears music video, called “Break the Ice,” does not spell comeback in any way or form. Here are five reasons why:

• The song is terrible. Like most Britney Spears songs, the techno mix is over-the-top, cheesy and manufactured. If her real voice is in there somewhere, it’s hard to tell. The song sounds like countless other forgettable pop songs before it, and doesn’t have the quality to be a big radio hit or the beat to succeed at dance clubs. Unfortunately, the song sounds like a Britney Spears song, which means it might have been successful five years ago.
• The music video has nothing to do with the song. If the lyrics have something to do with what’s happening visually, I didn’t pick up on it. The song begins and the music video begins, but rarely do the two seem synced or even related. The video doesn’t feature a singing superhero, and when it does show Britney’s lips, they don’t match up to the words we’re hearing. It seems as though the animators were told to make a three-minute superhero cartoon, but were never given the song to work off.
• The animation isn’t very good. Aside from the fact that the music video has nothing to do with the Britney Spears song, the animation isn’t intriguing enough to make us watch for watching’s sake. Had everything matched up, it wouldn’t be that big of a deal, but as is, it seems as though this music video needed to look really, really cool and really edgy to overcome its deficiencies, but alas, that is not the case. The animation is basic at best, and not worth even a minute of your time.
• Britney Spears isn’t in the music video. I’ve never liked Britney Spears’ songs. Over the course of her up-and-down history, there are probably two or three songs that I’ve tolerated enough to listen to. However, that hasn’t stopped me from looking at her. Even now, after everything, she’s pretty good looking, and the only reason I’d even consider watching her old music videos were to see her strutting her stuff in some sexy outfit. Unfortunately, this “Break the Ice” video does not show even a second of the real Britney Spears, which begs the question: “What’s the point?”

I’ve posted ten new clips for Drillbit Taylor, the new Owen Wilson movie. As I’ve calculated out, this probably means you can see about a third of the movie sitting in front of your computer… legally.

Drillbit Taylor opens this Friday, and is the first major film release for Wilson since his suicide attempt last year. Will he get extra fan support as a result? I think he might, though I haven’t seen much promotion for the film, if any.

Watch the Drillbit Taylor media clips here.

Check out the new Red Band movie trailer for the upcoming movie Pathology (2008), which comes to theaters on April 18th. To think that Regal has decided to start showing Red Band trailers at R-rated films is a pleasant thought, as this pretty cool trailer has a fair amount of gore and a surprising amount of sex and nudity.

This is not appropriate for work, church or grandparents!

Brendan over at Empire Movies posted this video, calling it possibly the best of the Andy Samberg shorts. I’d have to disagree with that, but the video is still pretty funny.

Watch the rather unique movie trailer for the upcoming action comedy Pineapple Express, starring Seth Rogen and James Franco. I actually love this trailer. It isn’t downright hilarious, but the film looks like a blend between an indie action film and a Superbad-esque comedy… which, needless to say, isn’t seen too often. I especially love the part about where Franco is driving the police car and attempts to kick out the blood-soaked windshield, only to get his foot stuck in the windshield instead.

This may be 2008′s Hot Fuzz, but only time will tell. Watch the Pineapple Express movie trailer here:

Here’s the movie trailer for The Fall:

I just watched the movie trailer for the upcoming Edward Norton action flick The Incredible Hulk, which looks to repair the damage done to the character in Ang Lee’s version a couple years back. Expectations are high for the film considering that Norton rarely does poor movies and is one of the best actors of the last ten years.

Here’s the movie trailer for The Incredible Hulk:

Unfortunately, the trailer leaves little to be desired for. The movie looks a bit grittier than the last one, which is good, and the dramatic scenes could have impact with Norton at the wheel, but there’s just something about this trailer that doesn’t work. The setup for the introduction to the Hulk seems a bit cluttered and is not as exciting or suspenseful as it should have been. Of course, what really hurts are the scenes with the Hulk – and that’s not good.

Standing still, I think the Hulk looks pretty cool. I love the veins. However, in motion, neither he nor the villain (Tim Roth) look very good at all. The sequence is just cheesy; the two “creatures” running at each other in slow motion looks like something out of a video game. Right now, I’m still holding out hope, but this one looks like another box office dud.

The Righteous Kill movie trailer is now online – watch it below. The movie unites Al Pacino and Robert De Niro as two police detectives who are investigating a serial killer who kills other bad guys. Is it Chuck? Righteous Kill is currently slated for 2009, though I could see this one moving up to the fall [CORRECTION: Now September 12, 2008].

Here is the Righteous Kill movie trailer:

I am a supporter of Barack Obama; I think Hillary Clinton may be a better President, but Obama has a few things going for him. He is more electable. Clinton divides, whereas Obama bridges the gap. This is both good for winning against McCain, and for the nation in general. That being said, Clinton just found a way to get her message to spread virally on the Internet; I have to imagine this political ad is going to wind up all over the place…

The Jack Nicholson political ad, which has Nicholson supporting Hillary Clinton, takes blurbs from some of his most memorable roles and twist them into support for what Clinton. The Joker, the guy from The Shining, and several other Nicholson characters are shown off and on with political messages intertwined. It’s a clever ad, though I have to question whether it’s smart to have Nicholson’s most psychotic characters voting for Clinton. After all, does it mean you have to be crazy to throw your support behind here?

Watch for yourself, and let me know what you think:

I hate to say it, but the new Step Brothers movie trailer is not that funny. The movie stars one of my favorite all-time actors, John C. Reilly… oh, and Will Ferrell… and is about two grown men who become step brothers when their parents get married. The catch: they’re both losers, so they both live at home, which means they have to share a room. Essentially, it’s like Billy Madison only with two of them.

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