Trailer news

‘Jumper’

admin — Thu, 11 Oct 2007 12:36:27 +0000

Look! It’s Anakin Skywalker, Mace Windu, and Billy Elliot…together again for the first time! In a movie about the handsome, entitled Hayden Christensen who can teleport around the world, going on picnics, stealing cars, going to the fridge (jeez, how lazy do you have to be to teleport to the fridge?). And then he meets other ”jumpers” like Billy Elliot (yes, I know his real name, I just choose not to use it) — and the bad, bad man who wants to harness their power for… something.

The special effects are cool and all, but I have no idea what this movie’s about. Billy tells Anakin ”Welcome to the war.” What war? Did they throw a war and I missed it? Still, I’ll go come next February, because I like Doug Liman (The Bourne Identity, Mr. and Mrs. Smith)… but since I’ll get in for free, I don’t count. Would you pay good money to see this movie, based on this trailer?

‘Funny Games’

admin — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 12:31:51 +0000

Funny Games, a remake of the 1997 Michael Haneke movie that Haneke himself is re-directing. (Naomi Watts and Tim Roth star.) I liked Cache and loved, loved, loved The Piano Teacher, Haneke’s two other high-profile previous films; I haven’t seen the original Funny Games but I hear it’s intense. You figure this new one will be too — but something about the way this trailer overuses Grieg’s “In the Hall of the Mountain King” strikes me as stale and not very creepy and even unintentionally amusing in places.

‘Iron Man’

admin — Tue, 11 Sep 2007 12:28:51 +0000

The geeks grokked out at Comic-Con when they saw this trailer (now finally up at Apple), and it’s easy to understand why. Sure, there’s the pleasure of seeing Robert Downey Jr. (pictured) playing a character tailored to his talents: glib arms merchant Tony Stark, who discovers his inner superhero more out of feelings of guilt and payback than honor and idealism. And sure, it’s cool to see surprisingly lyrical and graceful shots of Iron Man flying alongside warplanes; taking advantage of the hero’s retro design, director Jon Favreau evokes the sense of childlike fun of another comic-book hero movie, the underrated Rocketeer. And sure, it’s also nice to see a couple glimpses of Terrence Howard and Gwyneth Paltrow. But mostly, you’ll enjoy this clip (and feel your higher brain functions shutting down, to be replaced by more atavistic impulses) during the shots where Iron Man is kicking ass and blowing stuff up real good, all to the inevitable crunch of Black Sabbath’s classic track. Movie doesn’t open for another eight months, but I’m getting in line now.

‘No Country for Old Men’

admin — Tue, 21 Aug 2007 12:24:52 +0000

No Country for Old Men, the new movie from the Coen Brothers. And, man, is it bloody! No Country is adapted from Cormac McCarthy’s brutal 2005 novel, and in the first scene of the trailer, Javier Bardem (pictured) takes out an old guy with a cattle gun to the forehead. Bardem’s character is an angel of death hunting a Texas dude (Josh Brolin) who’s stumbled onto a couple million in cash, and a lot of bodies get dropped along the way; the mayhem in this trailer is crimson-red. Now here’s the thing: I saw a preview screening of No Country two days ago. And if I’m not sure if this trailer does it justice, it’s only because I’m not sure any trailer could do it justice. Don’t assume from what you see here that Joel and Ethan’s latest is merely a handsome Tarantino-esque bloodbath. The movie is fast, exciting, and downright ferocious, yes, but it’s also — I dunno — profound. Two days after I walked out of the screening room, a few of its scenes and moods and lines are still rattling around in my head at an hourly rate. So skip the trailer if you’re busy, put your trust in the Coens, and just go see the movie (opening November 21).

‘Walk Hard’

admin — Mon, 20 Aug 2007 12:24:12 +0000

Walk Hard (Dec. 21), a delicious-looking parody of recent musical biopics. Fictional star Dewey Cox (the reliably goofy John C. Reilly) interacts hilariously with some real-life stars (Elvis, the Beatles) played by some well-disguised comedy pros, and with some real-life celebs playing themselves — Eddie Vedder and (WTF?) Patrick Duffy. I wanted to see more of Jenna Fischer, but Kristin Wiig looks like she’ll steal scenes in the stock role of Dewey’s first wife (you know, the one he discards on the way up because she doesn’t believe in him). Judd Apatow’s name in the writing credits certainly doesn’t hurt, and the music even sounds decent, in an homage-to-Johnny-Cash way. This clip has me not only eagerly anticipating the movie, but the DVD extras as well.

‘Harold and Kumar 2′

admin — Sat, 18 Aug 2007 12:14:06 +0000

Poor Kal Penn, he keeps getting mistaken for a terrorist. First, there was 24, where — d’oh! — it turned out not to be a mistake, and he really was a terrorist. Then there’s this teaser trailer, below, for Harold and Kumar 2 (due in 2008), in which one-half of our favorite pair of New Jersey potheads gets racially profiled by an airplane passenger. (Question: Is making fun of terrorism funnier when you make fun of bigotry at the same time?) I know this is just a one-minute teaser, but it’s going to take more than that gag and the reappearance of a wild-eyed Neil Patrick Harris to convince me that it’s worth taking another long, strange trip with these jokers.

‘Be Kind Rewind’

admin — Fri, 17 Aug 2007 12:13:15 +0000

The Science of Sleep was way underrated. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is a masterwork. Michel Gondry’s a brilliant director and a real innovator. His new movie is called Be Kind Rewind (Dec. 21) and stars Jack Black and Mos Def as video store clerks who, after their entire inventory gets demagnetized, recreate their favorite movies by shooting their own reenactments. Even before this most excellent trailer came along, this sounded like a must-see.

‘Lars and the Real Girl’

admin — Thu, 16 Aug 2007 12:12:03 +0000

Lars and the Real Girl (also due Oct. 12), looks to be a comedy with heart that gives Ryan Gosling a My-Name-is-Earl mustache and casts him as a singleton who falls in love with an inflatable doll. Looks kind of sweet, and not too goofy — encouraging signs, since it’s all too easy to imagine how a love story between a man and a blow-up woman could go very wrong. Still, you figure there’s gotta be something here if a young actor of Gosling’s caliber has signed up for it. What if this thing outromances The Notebook?

‘Dan in Real Life’

admin — Wed, 15 Aug 2007 11:43:52 +0000

Dan in Real Life (Oct. 12), the new dramedy from Peter Hedges (What’s Eating Gilbert Grape, Pieces of April). Steve Carell (pictured) plays a single father-of-three-girls who falls for the girlfriend (Juliette Binoche) of his brother (Dane Cook), and the whole thing appears to take place in a family-stuffed, catalog-ready autumn New England dreamscape. (Hopefully, there’s at least one scene with everybody out on the front lawn playing touch football in cozy sweaters.) Only one thing’s wrong with this trailer: the voiceover guy whose narration hits all the usual movie-trailer notes (”But the only thing you can truly plan on… is to be surprised!”) sounds like a second-stringer. His voice lacks the faux-gravitas of those anonymous voiceovers we’re used to in trailers like this, don’t you think? In fact, he kind of sounds like the announcer-man from that great Shining mock trailer from a while back — agreed?

‘The Kite Runner’

admin — Tue, 14 Aug 2007 11:41:36 +0000

The Kite Runner (Nov. 2) Okay, so this adaptation of Khaled Hosseini’s best-seller just has to be good, right? I mean, not even Hollywood execs could mess up a book this riveting, right? Relative unknown Khalid Abdalla takes the pivotal role of Amir, while Finding Neverland’s Marc Forster directs, and while I’m pre-programmed to love this one, the two minutes of footage here look lush and evocative — just the way I hoped they would.