Director:Jon Turteltaub
Cast:Nicolas Cage, Justin Bartha, Sean Bean, Harvey Keitel, Diane Kruger, Christopher Plummer, Don McManus, Mark Pellegrino
Release: November 24, 2004
Synopsis:Benjamin Franklin Gates (Cage) descends from a family of treasure-seekers who’ve all hunted for the same thing: a war chest hidden by the Founding Fathers after the Revolutionary War. Ben’s close to discovering its whereabouts, as is his competition, but the FBI is also hip to the hunt.

Prognosis: Disaffected.First, there’s a lot of gold everywhere in this trailer.

Whether it’s from some torches or flames from a fire or the appearance of gold coinage, there’s more than enough of the yellow hued color to go around; I am reminded of the kind of imagery I liked with Stephen Sommers’ MUMMY series with its heavy usage on the screen and am wondering if this emblematic of the malaise I felt, the jaundice of my pleasure center, after watching this trailer. .

What I don’t like, initially, about the trailer is the use of an old crotchety Wilford Brimley-esque monologue from Christopher Plummer. I like seeing him but in this film, as he talks to a young Nick Cage about what essentially this whole movie is about, the protection of treasure (which I am still unclear as to the extent of the implications if said treasure is pilfered by someone evildoers), and how clues to the whereabouts of the treasure, that had been moved all over the world, ended up in America and now needs to be found; I, too, was unclear about what I had to remember being important about Cage’s character. We are given to visual clues as to the location of the treasure by clues imbedded in the very money we all enjoy to have in our pockets and, essentially, it is Nick’s destiny to protect it. The whole time the old codger is talking to a more youthful, less nepotistic Cage, the kid is just sitting there all doe eyed and doesn’t say a word. Hell, even I would be thinking it’s time for gramps to take his meds by asking some kind of questions, but we roll on anyway and fast forward decades into the future. We get Cage holding the ubiquitous torch in a tomb (doesn’t anyone carry a flashlight in those things?) as he looks all steely eyed and macho in pursuit of this legendary treasure.

The bravado is halted for a moment for Jon “My Daughter May Be Crazy But She Fine” Voight to rip a page from James Lipton’s Acting in a Box as he scolds Cage for his relentless search for the treasure that seems to be a broken record on everyone’s lips. “Don’t you get it, Ben?! The treasure is a myth.” Of course, our hero will be undeterred by such nay saying and refuses to believe a word of it. Thanks, now that makes two annoying codgers so far in a movie that is being brought to me by the same man who kept me glued to every foible Amazing Race. We finally get to the last real challenge, and point to the whole film, to securing the safety of the elusive treasure at this point in the trailer: stealing the Declaration of Independence. It seems quite manufactured, almost, to have a plot based on one of the hardest things to get access to in the first place, but this isn’t my action movie, it’s about Cage and his plan to boost one of the nation’s oldest documents. There are some scenes cut into the moment where they are trying to get access to the historical artifact through legitimate means that just serve to confuse the viewer. One moment Cage is sitting pretty in an office and then, somehow, he’s in the tundra, snow whizzing everywhere, yelling at some dude to stay down, and then he’s back in his warm little chair. It’s odd. But just when you think all I’m doing is being a playa hata there is a salve that gets applied to my aching action heart: Sean Bean.

Not since Alan Rickman in DIE HARD have I ever wanted a bad guy to win in a movie than I did with Sean Bean in PATRIOT GAMES. Sean is excellent as a baddie and he works it to good effect here. This excitement is counter-balanced by a voice over that does not work well. I swear it’s the same guy who does voice work for PBS’ Frontline series; it’s merely informative, dry and it’s placed into a trailer that doesn’t need a voice over. Regardless, the rest of the trailer is all a bunch of stock action scenes as Cage tries to steal the Declaration to finally satiate 20 centuries worth of work to keep some vague treasure secure.

Seeing how the director Jon Turteltaub was responsible for the 90’s classics 3 NINJAS, DISNEY’S THE KID, WHILE YOU WERE SLEEPING, and, my favorite, COOL RUNNINGS I am curious to see what will emerge from the man in terms of quality. Maybe he could toss a few more torches in there for good measure.

Director:E. Elias Merhige
Cast:Aaron Eckhart, Ben Kingsley, Carrie-Anne Moss, Harry Lennix
Release:August 27, 2004
Synopsis:Dallas FBI agent Thomas Mackelway (Aaron Eckhart) is investigating the case of a murdered serial killer when the trail leads him to a renegade former FBI agent (Ben Kingsley), who is hunting down serial killers on his own, in this crime thriller about a man who becomes the very thing he’s trying to eradicate.

Prognosis: Positive. I like Aaron Eckhart. I love Ben Kingsley. It’s like having an Oreo cookie except these are people and not cookies.

The first half a minute of this two minute trailer is pure delight. We get a good setup by being slightly off balance simply because you have no idea what the hell is going on (one of the best things to do in a trailer if it’s done right) and getting a great payoff before really being given guidance in what the larger implications of this film are. Carrie-Anne Moss, vastly wasted in a couple of small films she did last year, is back to good use here in her first moments back on screen. It will be good to see if she can channel some of the energy that made her a great supporting character in MEMENTO. What’s really noticeable, however, is how deliberately controlled the information being given out is. Not too much, and not to little to keep people confused.

After we find out that Sir Ben is whacking serial killers before the po pos get a chance to rough the suspects up in the interrogation room with plungers, we get introduced the rest of the crew. No one could be more excited than me that Tom Dilton, aka Harry J. Lennix, is in this movie. Say what you will about the man who seems to have one kind of acting style but his place in history is set with me after his role as the man who almost got into it with Damon Wayans in MO’ MONEY. It’s really nice to note that it isn’t until we’re really into this trailer before we get a better glimpse of Eckhart as the ring leader of the investigation, but we also get some great cinematography that goes along with the explanation as to how Kingsley might be doing it. Remote viewing, a practice usually reserved for discussion on Coast-to-Coast with Art Bell, is the root for all evil in Eckhart’s quest to hunt down Kingsley and the information being given to the audience keeps everyone informed without feeling spoon fed.

This is all accomplished in the first minute.

The last half of the trailer is a little more exposition from Ben, “no one told us how to turn it off,” to Eckhart as he becomes entrenched in playing the bad ass mutha who won’t stop rolling on his personal pain train until Kingsley is caught or stopped. There is some really jarring imagery that doesn’t help at all in piecing together what the hell is happening in this film or with any great hint about how it all ends (big thank you to the studio from doing that) but I could have done without the scroll that says “if you think you’re being watched, you are” as it doesn’t serve to add to the work already being done by the players of this film; it distracts. It’s to be expected that things can’t be completely perfect but the film looks like a solid entry into the supernatural/drama/thriller/serial killer genre.

Director: Michael Winterbottom
Cast: Tim Robbins, Samantha Morton
Release:August 6, 2004 (limited)
Synopsis: Code 46 is a love story set in an eerily possible near-future where cities are heavily controlled and only accessible through checkpoints. People cannot travel unless they have “papelles,” a special travel insurance. Outside these cities, the desert has taken over and shanty towns are jammed with non-citizens – people without papelles whose lives are severely restricted. William (Robbins) is a family man who works as an insurance investigator.

View Trailer:
* Small, Medium, Large (Quick Time, Real Media, Windows Media)

Prognosis: Positive. Tim Robbins in a futuristic love fest with a plot that doesn’t make sense even after the trailer is done trying to make a sale for itself?

The trailer, though, is wonderful to look at and admire.

It starts off with a red, barren desert. The digital noise that permeates the visuals in the first few seconds is something akin to the longitude/latitude bearings you would get in a Go Army commercial and I wait with cautious anticipation to see the lone figure moving along the plane with a walking stick get taken out with a sniper’s bullet. The noise has no reason to exist but it is quickly forgotten as the wonderment of trying to figure out what the hell is going on provides just as much amusement.

We get our first look at Robbins driving out on a road that bisects this desert landscape asking how people can exist on the fringe (fringe of what?) but it doesn’t make sense until we see him walking through the neon paradise of a futuristic city that looks like Hong Kong or a densely populated Times Square. Coupled with the scroll, again with that damn digital noise, that says “your life is determined for you” with some scattered imagery along with “including who you can love” I am start to get it. Things are hazy with how any of this applies to a plot, with over a third of the trailer finished, but the visual style is extremely alluring. The voice over finally chimes in and lets us know that Robbins has a skill to read minds and has 24 hours to unravel a mystery (It’s still a friggin’ mystery to me too, Bub.) but then Samantha Morton appears and it’s kismet.

Just as quick as she appears, we get pounded with information pertaining to crime, a murder, and she’s a suspect. He ends up meeting her, gets a few questions answered, boffs her promptly, and then the both of them are caught up in a tangled situation. After we’re told she violated Code 46, which we’re not told what it means, and if it’s anywhere near to a rule on “loving” someone you’re not supposed to I’ll be very upset, but we then get some lazy, slapped together quick clips of the two of them just hanging out with each other, to some of Robbins chasing Morton, to him flirting with her, to her being banished to the red desert land, to a car driving real fast in the city, to a car overturning in the red desert land and the Tilt-O-Whirl of that is this trailer ends with a voice over that tells me, “how do you solve a crime when the last thing you want to know is the truth?” Huh?

This may be the most obfuscating plot line I have ever had to try to figure out. I get it, sorta, about what generally is happening but I am not entirely positive that confusing an audience or being glib about having style trump substance is the direction you really want to go.

Director: Mike Wranovics
Cast: A lot of crybabies
Release: The Film Festival Circuit
Synopsis: The absurd true story of the legal battle over the “Million-Dollar Baseball.” Barry Bonds’ record setting 73rd home run ball sparks a melee in the stands at Pac Bell Park in San Francisco. One guy caught the ball, another guy ended up with it. Who is the rightful owner? The lawyers can’t agree; the fans can’t agree; even the wizened professors of property law can’t agree. This is a story documenting the hilarious lengths to which someone will go for a baseball, and the few fans that will put their lives on hold for years, staking everything on one judge’s decision.

Prognosis: Positive. Going into the All-Star break in a little while, I thought I would throw a bone to those who find themselves glued to SportsCenter night after night to see what happened in the land that baseball, or Kevin Costner, built.

For those in the know, Barry Bonds might as well be the best, pompous, brash, arrogant, athletic, and feared hitter playing baseball today. Many times he never gets a chance to hit simply because he gets walked more often than a prized poodle, but when it was 2001, and the race was on for him to set a new home run record, people were beside themselves to witness baseball history in the making. When he did hit his magical number, and it was a shot deep into right, the gloves of the masses were ready for the snatch and grab of a lifetime. What happened, when the dust settled, was enough fodder to cobble together a documentary.

The trailer to UP FOR GRABS should be commended for its ability to make something fairly mundane, a row between a few people over the ownership of a ball that easily retails for a few bucks, and transforming it into an amusing sports drama.

It starts out explaining everything very clearly for those not familiar what the big hubbub was about as it uses actual footage of the case in question and intersperses it with the accounts of the people who were right in middle of the physical maelstrom. It’s after the frantic grabs by the mob cease when the high pitch hisses, from those involved in the catfight for who was really the owner of the ball, start and make things interesting. Is possession 9/10’s the law or is this a case of someone aggressively snatching what was not theirs? Almost like the Zapruder film was scrutinized by the Warren Commission so too do these “fans” start quibbling over who did what to whom. Then, to add a little more understanding as to what it is going on, the trailer adds in nice visual sound bites from those who’ve seen the film. Instead of the snippets being some plants from 60 Second Review saying “It was farking amazing! It’s better than Cats!” we get “A sports-themed “Rashomon’ with an O. Henry twist” and “Displays the absurd comic qualities of a Christopher Guest movie.” These are the kinds of compliments, subtle and informative, a movie should try to attain if it’s going to use them at all. It’s not so much a review as it is at setting the proper expectations.

“Deliciously mean-spirited.”

After this, we get all those involved in the case, on the witness stand mind you, testifying in a court-o-law like a squad of quibbling sixth graders who feel the need to throw tantrums before feeling a sense of satisfaction. It is of no matter what really happens in the end, as this trailer gives nothing away as to its ending, but the desire here shouldn’t be to look up how things really stand today. It would rob you the satisfaction of seeing these babies duke it out on the big screen. Adult babies are so much better when amplified to a 16:9 ratio.

Director:David S. Goyer
Cast:Wesley Snipes, Kris Kristofferson, Ryan Reynolds, Jessica Biel, Parker Posey
Release: December 10, 2004
Synopsis: Wesley Snipes returns as the day-walking vampire hunter in the explosive third and final film in the Blade franchise, Blade: Trinity. When the Vampire Nation hatches a plan to frame Blade in a series of brutal killings, he must join forces with the Nightstalkers, a clan of human vampire hunters, in an extreme battle in which the trail of blood leads directly to the notorious vampire legend, Dracula.

Prognosis: Positive. Seeing this makes me both wonder why this isn’t coming out until December and why they thought Jessica Biel makes a great vampire huntress. The only answer I can come up with is because she’s hot, but I have no explanation for the former.

“I’m gonna have to ask you a few questions.”

A faceless voice asks this as a nondescript city turns to night. A clip from the first BLADE appears.

We get a good look at a dweeb in glasses who asks Blade, “What can you tell me of vampires?” Before you can wonder if he’s in police custody we get a visage of a pale goddess, sauntering slowly towards the camera, an obvious threat to any human male not already claimed as a slave to the vampire’s cause. Blade says back “they exist” and makes an angry move towards his interrogator as the footage that actually pertains to this film is put on hold and we take a trip in the way back machine.

What’s really nice about this opening is how New Line uses the blood red logo with the blade series; it has become as ubiquitous as the green WB for the Matrix trilogy but brand recognition is taken one step further. The Marvel logo also plays a small role as a leaping Blade arcs in front of it, jumping, obviously cribbed from the first film, and lands, just as he did when he had his final battle with Stephen Dorff. What happens next is either a good thing or a lazy tactic to bring a segment of the audience up to speed with what has happened in Blade’s last two adventures. We get a great “Best of” from the first film as the throaty, chain-smoking action voice over guy tells us “first, he faced their gods.” The same is true for the second film as, “then, he battled their demons, but all that was only the beginning.” Ok, I love the franchise. Nothing has been more delightful than waiting for this film to finally hit but, come on, why does everything have to be ‘just the beginning’ when it comes to a new chapter in the series? No, it’s not the damn beginning. Blade I was the beginning as Blade II was the second and this will be the third. The first Lord Of The Rings was just the beginning and this is simply a continuation.

So, at the halfway point we get some new BLADE footage, and it’s an odd image of some people walking around in space suits (huh?), and it starts to look like a sequel to DUNE or STARGATE before we get into the really meaty bits that make some sense. We get Whistler, the daughter of Whistler doing some old and busted kung-fu with the “come-on” extended arm/hand combo, Ryan Reynolds showing some promise as a former vampire if he isn’t used to amp up the yuk factor, but before it turns into the Nick and Jessica Variety Hour with the level of other B-list talent in the house Snipes shows us why the first flick still stands as the cult classic it should be. Blade tosses weaponry indiscriminately through fire, is looking great from a choreographic standpoint, kicks lots of ass with believable ferocity, and is still the master of being able to deliver one-liners without it being drenched in irony.

The BLADE series has been a very solid series for some very simple reasons:

1. David Goyer. The man has singularly developed this character and it hasn’t been wrested out of his control to the point of dilution from a dozen different writers who “envision” something different for the vampire slayer.

2. The direction. First we get some grade A work from Norrington, then it fell on del Toro’s able shoulders, and now it falls on the man who has seen it all? It doesn’t get better than that.

3. The story. The mythos has been based on a great concept and the viability of the trilogy will only stand insofar as the integrity, yes, you have integrity with an action movie, of what made things interesting as a story stay unmolested.

Leave a Reply