Posts Tagged ‘movie’

Having just watched the movie trailer for Transporter 3, I’m quite amused by how cocky the B-grade Jason Statham franchise has become. The studio seems to be taking the film for granted, as it blatantly markets that the film is about the same as the last two. Of course, they’ve thrown in a Crank twist just to appeal to those fans, too (though I’m pretty sure there is only one kind of Jason Statham fan) – this time, Statham has an explosive device fastened to his wrist.

The Transporter 3 movie trailer is pretty weak; it has poor setup, shoddy editing and really is quite incoherent. I have it listed as the full trailer, but it plays like a teaser trailer, so maybe I just have it poorly named – but regardless, as a teaser trailer, it doesn’t do a good job of setting the stage. It just jumps right into the action and what’s done is done.

That being said, everyone knows what to expect from a Jason Statham action movie, so why beat around the bush, right? Everyone knows they are going to get a pretty silly and dumb action movie, but one that’s full of adrenaline and some snarky British dialogue. Frankly, that’s enough for me, though I could certainly wait until DVD and not be any worse for it.

The movie trailer for the upcoming Anne Hathaway flick Passengers is now online, giving us a look at the increasingly sexy Hathaway as a federal psychologist who is assigned to work with the only ten survivors of a fiery jetliner crash. While most of the passengers show the typical signs of post traumatic stress, one passenger (Patrick Wilson) stands out as curiously different. Specifically, the guy is in a great mood, but also appears to have developed special powers since the crash (apparently, some kind of connection to the next world). This doesn’t stop Hathaway from breaking her professional ethics and sleeping with the guy, of course.

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Another one of Chuck Palahniuk’s books is being turned into a movie, and the world will be better for it. Assuming they do it right, of course.

Palahniuk has Choke, starring Sam Rockwell, coming to theaters this fall, but the author with the name that no one quite knows how to pronounce is best known for Fight Club. Take Fight Club, make it stranger and even better and you get Rant, one of my all-time favorite books.

I had received Rant, the book, as a contest giveaway last summer, and almost gave every copy away. Thankfully, my roommate is a Palahniuk fan and alerted me to the fact that the book may actually be good. So, I decided to read it. A weekend later, I set that book down, utterly amazed at what I had read. It was a frikkin’ masterpiece.

Rant, as described on the book cover, is about the world’s most lethal serial killer. That seems simple enough, right? Right? Wrong! The book is told as an oral history; that is, while fiction, it is told in an interview-style narrative with dozens of characters, all of whom have their own perspective and stories to tell about the infamous Buster Casey. Casey is an odd fellow… he likes to stick his hands down animal holes with hopes of getting bitten, and he also heads up an urban night game that involves smashing cars. He’s not exactly serial killer material, but when Palahniuk means serial killer, he may mean a whole spectrum of things. Trust me – until you read the book through to the end, you will not understand what this book is like, or what it is about.

As you can tell, I am excited at the prospect of a movie. At the same time, this is a book that, if done right – and it can be done right – could be made into an exceptional movie, but it also has a 95% chance of missing the mark. The director, writer and approach will all have a significant bearing on the film’s quality, more so than other, more standard pieces of work. It will be interesting to see how the project progresses.

In the devastating hole left by the retreat of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Disney’s Bolt and Summit’s Twilight have moved into feast on the potential box office dollars left behind. The movies – both of which aim at younger audiences (Bolt at considerably younger) – had been staying clear of the coveted November 21 release date out of respect – or -fear of the sixth Harry Potter flick. With announcement that that highly anticipated film was being pushed back to summer 2009, the coveted date was scooped up by the two films, which now look to take advantage of Thanksgiving weekend to earn some extra dough.

This is a good opportunity for Twilight, which is based on an allegedly popular book series about a normal girl (the gorgeous Kristin Stewart) who likes to screw around with vampires. OK, to be fair, she’s monogamous and prefers to share her time with just one vampire (Robert Pattison, who actually lays claim to being the first profound death in the Harry Potter franchise), but you get the point. There’s certainly some buzz around the picture, but having known nothing about the story other than what Summit’s marketing reps tell me, I don’t really see the big deal.

Personally, I don’t think Twilight is going to be the massive picture that some expect it to be. It’s definitely going to get a boost from the Thanksgiving weekend, but is it going to be a valid replacement for Harry Potter? No. The “franchise” doesn’t have the same name recognition that made Harry Potter so successful, and while it looks decent, it doesn’t look that much different than a dozen other teeny bopper horror movies that have come before it. General audiences aren’t going to be that motivated to go see this one, except for a lack of other entertainment.

Only time shall tell.

I just watched the new movie trailer for Body of Lies, the action-drama starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Russell Crowe (directed by Ridley Scott), and it’s a lot better than the original that I saw in theaters a month or two back. That first trailer implied that the movie could be good while trying its hardest to prove otherwise; this new one is much more focused and developed.

Body of Lies, about a spy in the Middle East (DiCaprio) who finds himself on the outside when his handler (Crowe) goes over the edge, looks to have plenty of action and, of course, terrific acting. Of course, following the flop that was The Kingdom, will this one earn some bucks?

Watch the Body of Lies movie trailer here.

Has anyone watched the movie trailer for The Haunting of Molly Hartley yet? It comes out on October 31, 2008, but, frankly, does it matter? This movie does not look good at all. The movie trailer is plagued with cliches, and, more importantly, it’s as boring as Hell. The lack of engaging music or even an attempt to do something clever with the presentation (think of the camera flash technique used to advertise The Texas Chainsaw Massacre) absolutely kills its chances at being successful. The entire plot is revealed in the two-minute trailer, which seems to drag on for five.

Seriously, I don’t even think Halloween can save this one.

Just kidding… Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince will not be delayed that much, but to the horror of Harry Potter fans around the world, it was announced today that the movie would indeed be shifted from its November 2008 release date to Summer 2009 – July 17, 2009 to be exact.

Warner Brothers said it moved the film to take full advantage of its box office capabilities by releasing it in the summer, though frankly I’ve always regarded the November releases to be more successful. I can’t back that up with statistics, but according to today’s release, the last Harry Potter movie – which, in my opinion, was by far the worst of the franchise – was the second highest grosser, and it was released in the summer.

Reading between the lines, though, this release date push probably signifies production delays, perhaps from the various strikes and de facto strikes that have ravaged Hollywood over the last year. I can’t imagine that Warner Brothers would simply sit on a finished Harry Potter movie for eight months, as not only would it be denying them hundreds of millions of dollars, but would also be asking for piracy.

As a Harry Potter fan, however, I am hugely disappointed that the movie has been pushed back to 2009, especially since Warner Brothers had just started to whet our appetites with teaser trailers and the like. Word is that the planned November 2010 release of Part One of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows has not been affected by this delay.

With great reluctance, I offered to review The Scorpion King 2: Rise of a Warrior. A direct-to-DVD release, the action-thriller had very little going for it, but considering the fact that it’s “from the producers of The Mummy” and stars UFC champion Randy Couture, it had to be great, right? Wrong.

The Scorpion King 2: Rise of a Warrior is your pretty typical direct-to-DVD movie, which means it’s pretty damn bad. While the production values are decent enough for a film like this, you can tell from minute one that this movie was made simply to coincide with the theatrical release of The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor, though why it isn’t being released until August 19th is beyond me. Cash was in the mind of Universal Studios – not quality – and it shows throughout the film.

The movie features a young Mathayus (Michael Copon), the character who will grow up to be the Scorpion King as portrayed by Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson in The Mummy Returns and The Scorpion King. Long after his father is murdered by a ruthless king (Couture) who has magical powers, Mathayus grows up to be a great warrior and vows vengeance – though killing the king is going to be harder than first thought.

The acting is the first thing that clues you into the fact that you’re watching a cheap production. Copon is pretty bad, and Couture is especially painful to watch. Combined with the clunky screenplay, the actors are barely able to pull off a line without sounding like they’re reading from a teleprompter. Worse still is that the characters – especially Layla, played by the beautiful Karen David – spit out lines that sound like they were written for an MTV reality show; rather modern-sounding jokes and interchange really kill the mood, if there ever was one to begin with.

The action isn’t anything to scream about, and that’s assuming you have the patience to make it to the action. At an hour and 49 minutes, The Scorpion King 2 feels overly long, and while there are plenty of action sequences, they are all relatively small and unimpressive. I could only watch 20 minutes at a time before turning it off to shift my attention to something much more interesting, like preliminary trials in the Olympics.

Basically, there’s no love to be had for The Scorpion King 2: Rise of a Warrior. Despite the fact that it’s directed by the guy who did Highlander, the movie lacks action, excitement and, more importantly, quality.

I watched the Rachel Getting Married movie trailer the other day. Pretty good, but not great. I’m starting to believe more and more that Anne Hathaway has potential to be a pretty good actress, but I still have a bit of trouble taking her seriously (even though she has had serious roles in the past, she is best known for “fluffier” films). Perhaps this indie role will help change my viewpoint.

Nevertheless, the movie trailer for Rachel Getting Married does not have me clamboring to get to theaters in October. There are some mildly funny bits, but the offputting outcast story has been done better to funnier results. The movie looks like it’s going to be more of a drama than a comedy, which is fine, but it seems like the studio thinks that there are more laughs then there actually are. That could spell trouble.

Here’s the Rachel Getting Married movie trailer for your perusal:

George Lucas, who doesn’t inspire much confidence these days after three so-so Star Wars prequels and an Indiana Jones movie that could have, should have, could have so easily been so much better, is on my good side for the day. While Indiana Jones 5 is still just an idea bouncing around in his head (who blames him, after the movie made $300 million), he had these words to say on the MTV Movie Blog:

“Indiana Jones is Indiana Jones. Harrison Ford IS Indiana Jones. If it was Mutt Williams it would be ‘Mutt Williams and the Search for Elvis’ or something.”

Personally, I think Indiana Jones 5 is a good idea. Yes, Kingdom of the Crystal Skull was not all that great, but it seems like it would be pretty easy – if Lucas actually looked at his original films and made something a little more realistic, a little more down to earth – to do a good Indiana Jones movie. And, considering that the last one wasn’t terrific, I’m actually hoping they do another one to wash the bad taste out of my mouth.

Of course, all of that is said with the condition that Harrison Ford is Indiana Jones. No one wants to see Shia LaBeouf’s character take over; that’d just be stupid. Harrison Ford is Indiana Jones, and if he won’t do another one, don’t do another movie. Twenty years down the line, I’m sure they’ll remake the films or something, but keep the main character Indiana Jones, not his bastard child (named Mutt of all things).

As for Indiana Jones 5, Lucas would only say, “We are looking for something for him to go after. They are very hard to find. It’s like archeology. It takes a huge amount of research to come up with something that will fit.” How about something not involving aliens.

Check out the all-new movie trailer for Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa. God, I hate it when “2″ is used in place of a word, but since it’s a kid’s movie I’ll let them get away with it.

My roommate and I were there on opening night to watch Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay in theaters. The movie, packed full of racist jokes and pokes at stereotypes (primarily against Indians/Arabs/Asians, with a few black jokes sprinkled in as well), was pretty funny, especially since the theater was 75% Indians and Asians, or at least Indian-Americans and Asian-Americans. It wasn’t as good as the original, but, then again, how it could it be? (read my full Harold and Kumar 2 movie review)

I received a box full of the unrated DVDs yesterday (well, I had to drive out to a very inconvenient FedEx location to get them, as FedEx hasn’t figured out that some of us work during the day, aren’t at home to sign for our packages, and don’t like to put their pickup locations in places where people actually live), and so my roommate and I just had to pop in the movie for a second round.

It was still pretty funny, though not as funny as watching with a bunch of people who found it especially funny considering that they had heard variants of the jokes directed at them in real life. Harold and Kumar 2 doesn’t have the repeat value of White Castle, but that’s OK. It’s still pretty entertaining. The cyclops scene is still pretty classic.

Unfortunately, the Unrated Edition DVD is a scam. Granted, it includes the theatrical version as well, but what the hell is the difference? There are six minutes of added footage, but nothing remarkably different. There’s a below-the-waist shot that my roommate claims wasn’t in the theatrical version, but I’m not so sure. Either way, there is nothing particularly “unrated” about it.

What’s worse? There are no special features. I mean none. Other than a few movie previews, there are no bloopers, deleted scenes and so on and so forth. Clearly, New Line (Warner Brothers) is setting up for a two-disc special edition, but come on. What a waste of a DVD.

A coworker sent me this YouTube video today. It’s been online for two years, but that doesn’t make it any less funny. Can you name all of the films shown in here, which depict some pretty ridiculous death scenes? I sure as hell can’t.

I particularly like the one with the hook through the guy’s eye, though I wouldn’t call that the funniest of the bunch. Some of the shark deaths are pretty classic, although I think the throwing star one gets me chuckling the most.

I just Hancock, the superhero action-comedy starring Will Smith as a drunken bastard of a superhero. While the guy stops crime and saves people, he does so with complete disregard for his reputation and city property, often causing millions of dollars in damage every time he shows up to save the day.

The movie is pretty good and always entertaining, with lots of laughs and some good action. That being said, the movie isn’t without its flaws, and while I was able to look past them for the most part, there are some people that are not going to like the direction the movie takes at all. For a spoiler-free movie review of Hancock, click here. For a list of what I would have done differently to make Hancock one of the most solid films of the summer, read on.

Note, this list does contain major SPOILERS, as there is a pretty surprising twist in the movie that you won’t see coming.

Here are five ways Hancock could have been better:

1. Keep the laughs going in the second half in the movie, or deliver some major action.
   After the big twist is revealed, the movie loses a lot of its laughs and it focuses more on character back story. This is fine – if there were some giant, Transformers-size action sequences waiting for us. There are some good action scenes, but not explosive ones; Peter Berg and his writers seemed to have forgotten that they were making an action-comedy.
2. Have a central villain.
   The movie doesn’t have one. Enough said.
3. Improve the special effects.
   While not great, they really didn’t detract from the film too much. Still, when the tornadoes show up and Will Smith and Charlize Theron start wailing on each other, things don’t look very realistic; nor do they make much sense. Why are there tornadoes again?
4. Drop the back story.
   The back story for Hancock isn’t terrible, but isn’t necessary. I would have sacrificed an explanation of where he came from and how he got his powers a killer villain or an onslaught of huge action sequences. Learning that Hancock has been alive for thousands of years and blah blah blah is interesting and unique, but hardly necessary for a film like this.
5. Make Charlize Theron the main bad guy.
   If you’re going to have the super hot Charlize Theron be a super-powered being as well – which in itself is a questionable move on the writers’ part – at least make her the villain. Have it revealed that she killed off everyone else like them so she could be a God, or something like that. Either way, make her one crazy bitch.

Wow. I finally watched The Happening last night, after over a week of listening to bad reviews and a warning from my brother that M. Night Shyamalan had inflicted upon audiences something worse than death. But the movie looked cool, and I was willing to look past the quasi-disappointing The Village and the downright bad Lady in the Water in hopes that The Happening would be more along the lines of his first three major films, which I liked.

I didn’t think The Happening could be that bad. At the very least, my expectations were so hampered by other people’s opinions that I figured I’d like it on those merits alone – after all, if you’re expecting something bad, you can often come away enjoying the picture (like Fantastic Four 2).

The Happening was worse than I could have ever imagined. In fact, it will most likely go down as the worst movie of 2008 and a likely candidate for the ultimate Razzie. It’s amazing, but it’s true. Read my full, profanity-laden The Happening movie review here.