There are stories of coincidence and chance, of intersections and strange things told, and which is which and who only knows? And we generally say, "Well, if that was in a movie, I wouldn't believe it." - Magnolia

8.10.10

Week's Trailers (tons of them!)

"Blue Valentine"



According to the reviews and news on this one from the festivals, there should be a disclaimer before this trailer explaining how it really isn't as happy as it looks. It's the old story of a young married couple who are having marital issues, believe it or not. They started out so happy and indie but now they're falling apart! Normally this is something to roll your eyes at, but the great buzz surrounding this one gives me hope. Gosling and Williams are very talented actors and definitely two people I can see working together quite well on screen. It seems Williams will never play a part where she's actually happy (see: "Shutter Island", "Wendy and Lucy", "Brokeback Mountain"). However, interesting and frustrating note on this one is that news was released today that the MPAA just gave this an NC-17 rating. What? Really? Usually when a movie gets anything above an R rating there's talk about it beforehand and it's expected. There wasn't any warning for this movie. Apparently it's because of one scene of sexuality with nudity and whatnot. Makes me wonder how bad it can possibly be for the entire movie to garner the dreaded rating. Whatever, the MPAA is dumb, I'll probably still see it.

"The Tempest"


First of all, this is a TERRIBLE trailer in regards to editing and general structure. What the heck is going on? I'm not saying it should give us the entire story but at least a little hint maybe? I know that Mirren's character is intent upon getting revenge on these men for something they did to her daughter. "The Tempest" is not a Shakespeare play I'm familiar with but I do know that the character Mirren plays was originally a man, Prospero, I think his name was. Early reviews on this one from the New York Film Festival are not so swell. Julie Taymor seems to have a good handle on the visuals but little in regards to plot. The trailer does everything in it's power that this movie is all about the spectacle. They even have a Sigur Ros song in the trailer, for goodness sake! How much more artsy can you get!? (note: I LOVE Sigur Ros, this is not a bash on them). Plus, it's a weird cast. Mirren is a great actress, granted, but Russell Brand? Isn't this a bit far from his raunchy comedy? And Chris Cooper? He's one of those actors who appears everywhere but I just find it weird he's not playing a troubled father like usual. I don't know, I don't have much interest in this one.



"The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest"


Apart from winning the award for most creative title, this trailer doesn't win much else. All it is is a signal to those of us (I being one of them) who saw the last two movies in Stieg Larsson's trilogy that the last one is coming out soon. Foreign trailers are never good. It's just a fact. The narrator always sounds dumb, we just get a flurry of images without much structure, and no talking because there's no English. They're obviously meant for people who know what it is. And sadly, those are the only people who will see this movie. The first two movies were quite entertaining (the first being my favorite) but extremely dark. It's not a series for the faint of heart, let's just say. The second ended with main character Lisbeth being air-lifted from a bloody scene and on the brink of death having just been buried alive. Oh, and that's a SPOILER. Who cares. So I think it's a safe bet that this next film will consist of Lisbeth killing some more misogynistic/abusive men and her sidekick journalist Mikael helping out with the research. Hopefully I'll be around a theater where this is playing in the near future.

"The Warrior's Way"
 

This constitutes as the laughable trailer of the week for reasons which I shouldn't have to explain. Just look at it. "Damn, Ninjas." HAS to be one of the best lines EVER which will soon go right next to "Nazis, I hate these guys". So quick question, are these ninjas only allowed to popped out of the ground or fall out of the sky? What allows them to do this? And what's with everything being shot on a greenscreen? What is this, "300"? I don't see Zack Snyder's name anywhere. Speaking of names, can anyone tell me with an 'international superstar' is? That's a new title to me. Something the studio throws in there and hopes the audience will be too distracted to notice that this guy actually hasn't been in any movies. So he may be good at jumping and flipping, but does that mean he should be in a movie? And Geoffrey Rush, I know you're in this movie called "The King's Speech" that's probably going to win many awards and you'll be even more famous, but does that mean you should feel free to make a fool of yourself elsewhere? Please. 

"True Grit" trailer #2

And I thought I couldn't be any more excited after the first trailer for this new Coen Bros. creation. Well shucks, was I wrong! It has a completely different feel than the last trailer with more dialogue and quicker editing and more general excitement and is still a bit vague as to how exactly the Coens are going to handle this Western. Will it be more traditional Western, modern, a mixture, or neither? Whatever the case, seeing a bit more of Matt Damon as the Texas Ranger was fun and I look forward to seeing Jeff Bridges and him trade snide remarks. This trailer may give away a lot of the plot, but that really doesn't matter when most people are familiar with the old John Wayne version. I just wanted a better look at Barry Pepper as the bad-guy gunslinger 'Lucky' Ned Pepper who was played by Robert Duvall in the original. Anyways, be even more excited.

"Burke and Hare"

This wins the award for most bizarre trailer of the week. Simon Pegg and Andy Serkis is very interesting duo indeed. Naturally, I'm a huge Pegg fan after seeing him in "Hot Fuzz" and "Shaun of the Dead", and Serkis, even though widely known as Gollum, is an underrated actor who has some great supporting roles in his resume. But the story? How are we supposed to take this? It seems almost like an Edgar Wright ("Hot Fuzz") movie which has a semi-serious side to it but on the whole is a comedy. I can see how making a comedy around salvaging dead bodies for science experiments could be funny, but I have to wonder how gory it will be. On top of that, it looks as though this could be somewhat raunchy too. So are we looking at an R or PG-13 rating? It's hard to tell. All I know is that Tom Wilkinson is in EVERY movie these days.

"The Tourist" #2

It's really no different than the first trailer except a bit more action heavy. I'm still excited for it though, even though it looks like "Knight and Day".

"The Troll Hunter"

This trailer definitely wins for the most AWESOME. I've come to have a much deeper respect and attention for Scandinavian (Norwegian, in this case) movies after the "Girl with the Dragoon Tattoo" series and "Dead Snow", the Nazi zombie movie which is just a ton of fun. But this one just takes the cake. A mockumentary about hunting Trolls? It's like the 'storm chasers' or whatever those guys are called on the Discovery channel, except this time it's TROLLS. It's obviously a movie that isn't trying to be serious and looks to fall into the same vein as "Dead Snow"; slightly serious but totally not, if yah know what I mean. Obviously this won't open up in theaters anywhere in the U.S., but there's always Netflix and stuff for later.

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