Today’s Trailer Wednesday features two action movies coming out this summer that land on opposite ends of the spectrum as far as creativity and originality. The first is the video-game inspired romantic indie comedy Scott Pilgrim vs. The World which is unlike anything you’ve ever seen before and the second is Tom Cruise action movie Knight and Day which is like tons of things you’ve seen before.
Noah Baumbach (“The Squid and the Whale”) films are always difficult. The concept of going to the movies for the sake of escapism is lost on him. If anyone tried harder to make real life into a movie, they’d have to compete with Baumbach. If anyone tried to make a film where dialogue is king, they’d have to compete with Quentin Tarantino — and Baumbach. “Greenberg” is certainly one of his better films, but the casual viewer can only enjoy it to a point. Read the rest of this entry »
Hullo mah wee drehgons! Dreamworks Animation produced a No. 1 hit this weekend although I must say, not nearly as well as I would’ve expected based on the reviews. Positive word of mouth, however, should keep How to Train Your Dragon going strong throughout the week and onto next weekend.
Dreamworks’ last spring effort was Monsters vs. Aliens which earned nearly $60 million it’s opening weekend to the $43.7 of “Dragon.” Is it the subject matter? Appeal to girls? Or was the recent rise in 3D ticket prices not as coincidental? It’s possible we might be seeing some backlash toward 3D movies.
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“Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs” is about the closest any major CGI animation studio has come to a classic cartoon done in a modern style. It would appear that somewhere between “Looney Tunes” and Pixar’s “Up” that animation has lost a bit of its rule-bending nature. Phil Lord and Chris Miller, co-executive producers of CBS comedy “How I Met Your Mother” and the short-lived cult favorite “Clone High” have restored that sense of abstract physical humor in Judi and Ron Barrett’s book while infusing it with a modern sense of humor. Read the rest of this entry »
Well, for most children around the world, it’s Spring Break. Whereas “our” spring break consists of either rest, sun, friend, booze or e.) all of the above, most children are busy causing their parents headaches despite how nice it is to spend some family time together. That’s where the movies come in. There’s Disney’s Alice in Wonderland still competing in what will be it’s fourth weekend and Dreamworks new animated adventure film — get your brogue ready — How to Train Your Dragon.
Dreamworks had one of the highest early opening weekends this time last year with Monsters vs. Aliens and “Dragon” doesn’t appear to be much different. Both were released in 3D only now, Dreamworks has another year under its belt to make the animation a bit more astounding. It should soar over “Alice” and the Jabberwock.
More indies are hitting theaters too this week, but none in wide enough release to warrant a preview — yet. Ben Stiller indie comedy from Noah Baumbach, Greenberg is making a slightly wider release and sexual thriller (no better way to describe it) Chloe, starring Amanda Seyfriend, Julianne Moore and Liam Neeson comes to a few hundred theaters.
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For some reason, one of my favorite plot devices of all time is time travel, or really any film that messes with the framework of time. Even a film that tells the story in non-traditional chronological order such as Memento or Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind get extra props for time manipulation.
With Hot Tub Time Machine hitting theaters tomorrow, I’m jumping at the excuse to put together a list of my favorite time travel movies. Ooh … I can feel you getting excited already. Once again, can’t claim to have seen every time travel movie, but I have seen all of these for sure. Read the rest of this entry »
The giant gray cloud that hovers over the setting for almost the entirety of Roman Polanski’s “The Ghost Writer” is like the film’s suspense. The truly excellent mysteries in cinema are drawn out, almost at times torturous, hanging questions over our heads like — giant gray clouds. I wouldn’t say “The Ghost Writer” deserves comparison to Polanski’s masterpiece “Chinatown,” but it’s very much in that tradition, only substitute private investigator for biographer. It’s the story of the man who doesn’t know what he’s gotten into until he’s into it and the audience never saw it coming but strangely we knew it all along. Read the rest of this entry »
This post title just gave me a great spoof idea for a film entitled Predators: Eat, Prey, Love. I’m not sure how the love part factors in yet, but that could be interesting.
I think these movies are about as far apart as any two chosen in the short life of Trailer Wednesday. One is a feel-good story about taking control of your life starring Julia Roberts, the other is a film about ruthless killers being dumped on a planet for the sake of the sport of watching them be hunted by more ruthless aliens. I apologize in advance for “Blind Side on DVD” ads before each trailer. Just wasn’t sure if they were YouTube-able yet. Read the rest of this entry »
It’s hard to believe a film such as “Harold and Maude” was made in the 1970s. Movies like this one, the off-kilter teen coming-of-age story, haven’t really become common place until today. Hal Ashby and Colin Higgins’ film was undoubtedly ahead of its time. It’s not rooted in pop culture, popular folk-style music is a central element and its sense of humor is a one- of-a-kind blend of dark and free-spirited. Teenagers of today would have an appreciation of it that teenagers in 1971 probably didn’t have. It was still probably uncomfortable for a lot of people to embrace the relationship of an older teenager and a crazy old woman, but it’s a thing of beauty in this movie. Read the rest of this entry »
The rumor mill has finally stopped. After much deliberation over a pretty definitive shortlist, Marvel has chosen, well, The Human Torch. Chris Evans will star as the leader of the Avengers, Steve Rogers aka Captain America in Captain America: The First Avenger. Read the rest of this entry »
A weekend of weak releases has kept Alice in Wonderland the uncontested box office No. 1 for the third straight week. And I keep wondering when I’m going to go see it and when I post a review, if any of you will even care by then.
Certainly 3D will not do for Alice and Wonderland what it did for Avatar, but it was definitely essential to getting “Alice” past $200 M in only its second week – that and no competition in terms of demographic. I’ve still yet to see it, but at some point I’ll get around to it. Read the rest of this entry »
The American public is no stranger to the MPAA ratings system and its inherent flaws. Everyone has his or her own opinion about the level of censorship that goes on in Hollywood and what is appropriate for what age group and so on. But you don’t really know what it’s about until you watch Kirby Dick’s documentary “This Film is Not Yet Rated.” Read the rest of this entry »
This is one of those weekends where the films with the best reviews are not the ones in wide release. New Ben Stiller indie Greenberg is getting great reviews and rock biopic The Runaways is getting some decent early buzz, but the three films opening this weekend en masse are getting ripped.
Then there’s one movie getting a wider release which has seen the best reviews of 2010, Roman Polanski’s The Ghost Writer. If it’s snuck into a theater by you, critically speaking it’s the most worth your time. Read the rest of this entry »
I normally hate child actors, especially the prolific ones. Every time I saw a preview with 9-year-old Dakota Fanning I rolled my eyes. Spencer Breslin in his day was painful to look at and his sister Abigail was not in anything good outside of Little Miss Sunshine. Freddie Highmore of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory was acceptable but did he have to be in everything back then?
But now there’s finally a kid actor worth liking and her name is Chloe Moretz. Playing the smart kid sister to Joseph Gordon-Levitt in (500) Days of Summer, she instantly jumped out as being more than just an annoying little girl. She’s mature and she’s actually funny; she has good comedic timing. She’s also about to explode onto the scene in next month’s highly anticipated Kick-Ass. Read the rest of this entry »
Insert loud sigh here. Finally — finally — we get the trailer for the last — the last — installment of Dreamworks’ money-making ogre, Shrek. Well-titled Shrek Forever After (without inserting a “u” in “forever” amazingly enough), Dreamworks has said this is Shrek’s last hurrah. They’ll need to scramble to find his successor, but for now, more money to be made on numero cuatro.
