Director: Bill Condon
Cast: Liam Neeson, Laura Linney, Chris O’Donnell, Peter Sarsgaard, Timothy Hutton, John Lithgow, Oliver Platt, Tim Curry
Release: November 12, 2004 (Limited)
Synopsis: Academy Award-winning Bill Condon (GODS & MONSTERS, CHICAGO) explores the life of the pioneer of human sexuality research, Alfred Kinsey (Liam Neeson). Spanning six decades from his childhood in the early 1900s to his death in 1956, the film turns the microscope on the man whose landmark studies on the sexual behaviors of the common man rocked a nation. The interviewer of tens of thousands, Kinsey subjected his own life and that of his researchers to the same type of analysis that produced his 1948 best-selling book “Sexual Behavior in the Human Male.” But while the Kinsey team’s focus was predominantly outward, perhaps what they learned about themselves was as great as that which they taught their country.

Prognosis: Positive. I’ve always known that Kinsey was right.

What people admit they do, sexually, when asked publicly is a lot different than what actually happens when the doors are closed, curtains are drawn and people get freaky deaky. This trailer gets right to the heart of this and doesn’t waste a moment.

This, the second trailer in the series, feeds off the first which simply had Liam Neeson sitting in a chair behind a white background as he speaks directly to the audience in an interview-type fashion. Chris O’Donnell, whose last good film, really, tapped into every middle-aged man’s zeitgeist and vocal repertoire with the phrase “hoo-ha,” looks good as one of Kinsey’s interviewers as does Peter Sarsgaard.

“All we have is what people like you are willing to share with us.”

I like the preceding comment because Liam addresses the audience and it not only works well to create some intimacy but it has the same effect as it did when Kinsey did it so many decades ago with people who sat in his office giving up details about their most intimate of activities. I appreciate the rapid fire answers some of the people offer to questions we aren’t given but we can only imagine what they are as one blonde beauty gives a cryptic answer to some question that she, “thinks about her cat.” I’m not sure what this was in regard to but I only hope she was a minority sample.

Just as we hit the midpoint we are thrust into knowing that Bill Condon, the man who won a well-deserved Academy Award for his writing on GODS AND MONSTERS, is the same man who brings us this one. The accolade is not too intrusive and it even adds some credibility to the project. What furthers the feeling that this movie is a statement more about our culture dealing with sexuality than just simply about the man who reported on it, a man who wanted only to find some sliver of truth about people, is the way the trailer unfolds showing how social forces moved against him. People wanted his knowledge to further their own agendas, but Kinsey became vilified by some in the government who couldn’t appreciate what his scientific work was doing.

There was also conflict at home and at the office and you see what kinds of strife await the man on all fronts of his life. The mood by the end of the trailer is heavier than when it started as there are questions about not only how far Kinsey went to get the information he needed but what kinds of questions he didn’t ask about himself when dealing with those whom he loved.

This looks like a middle of the road drama that may get some buzz later for Oscar consideration but I can’t see anything that may provoke that kind of talk.

Director: Geoffrey Sax
Cast: Michael Keaton, Deborah Kara Unger, Chandra West, Ian McNeice
Release: January 7, 2005
Synopsis: Michael Keaton plays successful architect Jonathan Rivers, whose peaceful existence is shattered by the unexplained disappearance and death of his wife, Anna (Chandra West). Jonathan is eventually contacted by a man (Ian McNeice), who claims to be receiving messages from Anna through EVP (Electronic Voice Phenomenon), the process through which the dead communicate with the living through household recording devices. At first skeptical, Jonathan then becomes convinced of the messages’ validity, and is soon obsessed with trying to contact her on his own. His further explorations into EVP and the accompanying supernatural messages unwittingly open a door to another world, allowing something uninvited into his life.

Prognosis: Positive. Where the hell did Michael Keaton go?

The man, at one time, was poised for a long, Tom Hanks-ian career. There was the BATMAN franchise that started in the late eighties, and before that, BEETLE JUICE, MR. MOM, and I still admit to being glued to basic cable when GUNG-HO is on the television. So, it’s good to not only see him back in something more high profile than just LIVE FROM BAGHDAD which was excellent but was limited in the number of people it actually was able to reach, but this is a good trailer that seems like a mix of WHAT LIES BENEATH and POLTERGEIST.

The trailer begins with a really bad voice over, that much I can say. The man tries to be throaty and ominous but he really only manages to get to a level where it seems he should be sticking to his night job of being the guy who says, “Next week, on Law and Order…” That aside, it’s a great setup. It presupposes that you’ll believe that what you’re about to hear is real.

What happens is that the screen gets all green and you get slow close-up a voice modulation system that flickers up and down. A voice speaks out: “I will see you no more.”

Ok. So what? The voice comes on but there’s no context. Before you get completely befuddled about what it is you think you’re listening to, this voice, and a few others that follow, turn out to be voices from the dead. The subtitles try and break it down and interpret what the people think they hear from all the static in the background, but it’s like listening to those dogs at the beginning of that dope Beastie Boys song “Sure Shot” that say “I love you.” Convince me that those dogs are really able to say “I love you” and I’ll start believing your trailer but as I was a bit of a freak on the subject when I was fourteen and stupid the trailer’s conceit still intrigues me.

The guy doing the voiceover does a serviceable job, though, to let us know that what is going on is the art of electronic voice phenomenon; through sound and image the dead communicate with the living. Pure and simple. We get a few more audio examples which includes the obligatory “I love you,” but, sadly, no dogs come through.

This all leads nicely to Michael Keaton mourning the loss of his wife. Some wag asks if he’d like to hear his dead wife’s voice. He’s torn up, bummed out, probably slightly happy now that he has a free ticket on the indiscriminate poon express, but this opportunity brings him some solace. However, things always have a way in these kinds of movies to veer off course. His life becomes infected with poltergeists from voices on the television, the phone, to apparitions in the hallway. Now, and I’m being absolutely serious here, I’m not sure about you but Deborah Unger appears to be playing some chick who is somehow staying with Keaton in his house. Let’s all say a prayer that the old wife gets jealous and does a little somethin’ somethin’ like what was done with JoBeth Williams in POLTERGEIST in that scene where she’s tossed around on the ceiling wearing nothing but…well, just get on your knees and pray to Zod. May our voices be heard.

What’s also intriguing is the website, aaevp.com, that’s given out at the end of this trailer. I checked it out and the page seems to be designed by Mrs. Lipinski’s third grade class. I’m not kidding you when I say there is a little animated ghost, hovering sheet with black eyeholes and all, which sits near the top of the page. HTML never looked so bland. However, the trailer gets some additional points for trying to make things feel more real.

Director: Roger Michell
Cast: Daniel Craig, Samantha Morton, Rhys Ifans
Release: September 17, 2004 (Limited)
Synopsis: Adapted from Ian McEwan’s novel, ENDURING LOVE begins by showing a young man named Joe Rose (Craig) who has planned an exquisite afternoon in the British countryside to celebrate his girlfriend Clarissa’s (Morton) return a six-week stint in the United States. This beautiful picture quickly takes a turn for the strange and ugly when a hot air balloon attempts to make a crash landing. The pilot catches his leg in the anchor rope while his passenger, a young boy, is far too afraid to jump down. Suddenly, the wind starts whipping and Joe and a group of four other men rush to secure the basket.

View Trailer:
* Medium (Quick Time)

Prognosis: Positive. “I think that you think that there’s this sort of bond between us because of what we went through.”

In my eyes, Rhys Ifans is still the man who daringly went out to greet a media onslaught outside his front door wearing nothing but his knickers in NOTTING HILL. I only remember this because I am still in therapy trying to forget every detail of the tiny plum smugglers he was wearing. Daniel Craig, on the other hand, only reminds me of that South African fellow from LETHAL WEAPON, Derrick O’Connor, who should have been in a lot more villain roles after carrying off a pitch perfect in that flick. Other than LAYER CAKE I don’t really have a good reference point for Daniel but that’s a good thing here; it’s nice for an actor not have to live up to any kind of role they’ve played in the past.

The two of them share some coffee time together while Daniel enjoys a fag. Mind you, the mood seems tense. Rhys looks despondent and maniacal, but we see what Daniel is referring to when he comments about sharing an unsettling moment with his new friend. A hot air balloon accident tangles their two fates together and Rhys is now the Bobby to this Peter’s Brady Bunch moment (you know, the one where Bobby locks himself in Mel’s meat locker and…never mind…).

There is wonderful score tucked in the background as we see the events in question unfold. It seems that Daniel was all ready to propose to Samantha Morton before Rhys and he try to save a little boy in a hot air balloon. You can see how that would ruin the cozy couple’s picnic plans, but it appears that Daniel let go of the balloon rope before one of the other rescuers forgot to do so. That person fell to their death. Rhys was there and now he won’t leave the poor sod alone.

The film has a stalker vibe to it but Rhys really plays up an angle of someone who’s really depressed yet incredibly clingy. He’s obsessed with the death of one of the rescuers and he starts to show up at odd moments, at odd times and tries to slip into this guy’s life.

We’re told, at this point, that the same guy who directed NOTTING HILL and CHANGING LANES is the man behind this one. At the same time Rhys serenades Daniel in the most uncomfortable way as it’s creepy and it’s more different than anything we’ve come to expect from the director.

We are given nary an inch of inkling about how this film is going to end. Splendid tease in every sense of the word.

Director: Jonathan Glazer
Cast: Nicole Kidman, Cameron Bright, Danny Huston, Lauren Bacall, Arliss Howard, Peter Stormare, Anne Heche
Release: November 5, 2004
Synopsis: A young widow is finally getting on with her life after the death of her husband, Sean. Now engaged to be married, Anna meets a ten year-old boy (Cameron Bright) who tells her he is Sean reincarnated. Though his story is both unsettling and absurd, Anna can’t get the boy out of her mind. And much to the concern of her fiancée (Danny Huston), her increased contact with him leads her to question the choices she has made in her life.

Prognosis: Positive. I like the opening.

There’s a person jogging on a snowy path. It looks cold, it’s empty, it feels lonely and a pack of dogs (?) with no owner crosses his path. He keeps running. The hooded man stops underneath a small jogging bridge. He collapses and dies.

Nicole Kidman says he can’t get him out of her system as she stands over his snowy grave.

Time goes on, Nicole tries to shake the fact she was 1/3 of BMX BANDITS, but then something else more extraordinary happens.

Out of the blue, after visiting the very same place her poor husband collapsed and died, Nicole says that a kid she met is the reincarnation of her late husband. The child comes to live with her. The only rebuttal that Nicole can give to the more forward thinking people in her family who say “And what kind of Jamaican Red have you been throwing in your hash pipe this week?” is this: “He said, ‘it’s me, Shawn.’ What am I supposed to think?” I’ll tell you what I think: that I should have been scrolling the obituaries and tracking down hot young widows as soon as I hit puberty, that’s what. Damn, that kid’s got game.

So, ok, I’ll give the film the benefit of the doubt.

Nicole’s new fiancée doesn’t believe the kid. I don’t blame him, either. Hey, if I was about to marry that kind of woman, all crazy but incredibly rich, I would probably even be suspicious of myself, so I believe the fiancée’s character. So, what does he do instead of taking the kid out back and hitting him in the head with a phone book so it doesn’t leave a mark? He questions him. The child has an answer for every question. The music in the background keeps things tense as we look for chinks in this kid’s armor but it doesn’t show. Nicole is all confused because she doesn’t know what to believe and the fiancée is freaking out because he knows that until this kid is out of the picture he ain’t getting any anytime soon.

The trailer is fast, gets in and does what it needs to do, and gets out. There isn’t a wasted moment or lost opportunity. This is a solid trailer. Granted, it doesn’t blow me away as the last time I thought a flick with the young Cameron Bright was going to be a good hit, GODSEND, he ended up effin’ up the works. So, I’ll give him another chance to be the creepy wildcard and we’ll see where this one goes. The director, as well, should get some props for making one of the best movies of 2000: SEXY BEAST.

With Lauren Bacall in the mix there is some good talent present. Let’s hope it doesn’t go to waste.

Director: Andrew Lau, Alan Mak
Cast: Tony Leung, Andy Lau, Anthony Wong, Eric Tsang
Release: September 24, 2004 (limited)br> Synopsis: Directed by Andrew Lau and Alan Mak and headlined by Asian superstars Andy Lau and Tony Leung, INFERNAL AFFAIRS is a tightly wound thriller which centers on two Hong Kong police officers – one a gang mole on the force and the other an undercover cop in the gang – who share the same objectives and who find their destinies intertwined in this high-octane police actioner.

Prognosis: Positive. This one has been sitting on the shelf for a little while.

Released in Hong Kong on December 12, 2002 this movie has made its way, finally, to US shores. For those of you at home keeping track of Miramax’s score for how many other countries have seen this film before us, the movie has been from Hong Kong to Norway, Australia, the UK, Sweden, France, Denmark, Germany, flippin’ Estonia, Romania, Hungary and on and on it goes until the United States, the last country on record, is the final kid to pick up the scraps of what everyone else has been enjoying. I make no presumptions about why it has taken this long but it has and we’re the last to see it, again.

The voiceover we get for this trailer is good. Because it’s a foreign language flick and it’s an action/drama kind of film you need someone to really play up the kinetic quality of the whole production. The beginning opens with a great shot of Hong Kong at night, just to provide some geographic clue as to where we are, and then, in the daylight, we get some dude in a black wife beater running from something or someone we can’t see.

Before we get too far into things we are shown all the awards this film has won but it seems more focused on getting the word WINNER fully legible in big letters than they are with telling in which competition it actually won them. I even tried pausing the screen and I still can’t make out what the hell is written at the bottom. It could’ve been a student film contest sponsored by Dunkin’ Donuts, but it’s ok because for the last two years the world has been speaking with their dollars about this film.

From the wife beater guy we’re told that two friends became the “best cadets on the force.” At first it looks like a military operation but it turns out to be a proving ground for Hong Kong’s finest po-pos. At one point one of the two friends is shooting a pistol without his shirt on but still has his cop hat and cop glasses on as I wait to hear some “It’s Raining Men” in the background. One of the guys goes undercover to infiltrate the mob, looking all scruffy in his undercover getup, but the other one stays on the visible side of the law with a snappy haircut to boot. What seems to be the case here is that both men are after a traitor in their midst.

While the voiceover guy says that said traitor is deadly, dangerous, blabbity blah blah, I see some flashy moments of split screen being employed; with two guys going after the same dude it makes sense. The level of direction this movie appears to possess and the way it shows how competent its cinematography makes me wonder why this has languished in Miramax’s vaults. Actually, I can forward a few hypotheses but doing that may push back the release date by a few more months so I’ll just stay mum on the subject.

“What they don’t know is that they are hunting for each other.”

Normally I wouldn’t get all giddy for a line that a voiceover ever tosses out, as it’s always a hackneyed, sales pitch-y rhetorical device to brainwash twelve-year olds, but it worked well for me here. The small bits of press praise the film has received is welcomed as it helps people decide, for some of them anyway, whether it’s worth going out of their way to see.

As a side note I also like the body falling on top of the car at the very end too. If you ever need a way to end a trailer, having a lifeless body fall on top of a car will always get kudos from me.

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