By: Christopher Stipp ; E-Mail: Christopher_Stipp@yahoo.com ; Archives? Right here…
My new editor requested I do something I haven’t done since starting my career with the ‘Shoot and, now, Quick Stop: introduce myself. Hi, my name is Christopher and this is my column entitled Trailer Park. I’ve been around these parts for a good two and a half years, every week, with new material and now I am brining it to you out there in the Quick Stop ephemera.
Turn-Ons: Action movies, Foreign films that aren’t predicated on pretentiousness, Romantic comedies that don’t completely suck (read here: SINGLES, SO I MARRIED AN AXE MURDERER,) Anything starring Bob and Doug McKenzie and fresh hummus from The Pita Jungle.
This re-introduction of sorts is a great idea because now there is a healthy mix of some of my older brother and sisters who now have to mesh in with the step-kids. It’s hard whenever you have transition but I am happy to say that I am going to violate every single one of you newbies just as if you were my own.
Turn-Offs: Anything with Diane Keaton, Brett Ratner, Badly dubbed kung-fu films, Movie houses that sit on good foriegn films for an inexorably long time and flip-flops.
The short of it is that this column was created to comment on movie trailers. Just comment on them, say whether you like them and then be done with it. I thought it was a wonderful concept, the trailer review. For all the posturing that people comment on when they’re asked what the best thing about going to the movies is I was amazed, and still am, that there aren’t more writers really commenting and deconstructing these little two and a half minute advertisements; people say that seeing the trailers are sometimes the best part of the filmic experience but where’s the friggin’ love for these things?
Favorite movie in the past 6 years: IN THE MOOD FOR LOVE. Favorite movie in the past 10 years: BOTTLE ROCKET. Favorite movie in the past 25 years: STRANGE BREW.
When I took over this column two and a half years ago I just felt like commenting on them wasn’t enough. I wanted to have fun with it. I wanted to be the one stop shop for someone wondering if a movie Coming Soon to Theaters was worth spending your money on. This column really has become more than just giving a one or two sentence blurb about how “cool†or “teh awesome†a trailer is, this column is about the potential for what can happen when you marry creativity and economics in a tight package.
Favorite Trailer of 2005: DAWN OF THE DEAD. Favorite trailer of 2006: BATMAN BEGINS.
I’ll admit it outright: I am the only person doing what I do on this scale on The Internets and it’s the exact Coming Soon experience that I am looking to catch right here from week to week and that means I’m not always about the trailers.
Best Interview: Robert Patrick, WALK THE LINE
Some weeks I run interviews with people who have movies that are about to come out, sometimes I feel it’s right to delve into television every now and again, I’ll take a peek at a particularly neglected feature that many people don’t know a lot about and which deserves a little limelight and sometimes, when it’s good enough, I’ll run video clips right in this space of filmmakers who think they’ve got what it takes to be noticed.
Worst Atrocity Committed On Screen (tie): Han not shooting first and the FBI dudes in E.T. who had guns in their hands only to be digitially replaced with walkie-talkies. I mean, for reals, what was the hell is it about revisionist history?
I just reserve the right to do whatever fits the vibe of the space here, plain and simple.
Best 80’s Movie: REAL GENIUS. This is not open for debate.
I love hearing from people out there, you in the audience, and running comments about what you think about the potential for whatever is coming down the proverbial pike when I run a particularly spirited review of a trailer. This column shouldn’t be all about me but it should be about the free flow of things that are interesting with regard to entertainment for any given week.
Movie That Sunk My Chances For A 2nd Date With That One Girl From English 102: THREESOME; I still like that movie.
Just look what’s on the horizon for the next few weeks:
-A review of WHO KILLED THE ELECTRIC CAR, a documentary exploring what happened to the automobile industry’s answer to hippies everywhere who wanted an electric vehicle on the market that didn’t pollute the earth as bad as their petroleum sucking brethren.
-An interview with Tim Nett, President and founder of Trailer Park, one of the most successful trailer houses in Hollywood. His insight will help some of you understand this mostly mysterious business a little better as to why certain things are done in this medium.
-Comic-Con. San Diego. July. Who else is gonna come get some? I know I am and, if you’ve been a reader for longer than a year, you know this where some really great material starts to trickle out. Last year I hustled some time with Josh Holloway from Lost, Natalie Portman and Joel Silver for V FOR VENDETTA, Darren Aronofsky and Rachel Weisz for THE FOUNTAIN, Jack Black and Kyle Gass for PICK OF DESTINY, the Tenacious D movie, Stan Lee and lots more. I am hoping for more exclusive material and I am aiming to deliver on that.
-New Director Showcase. Sometimes I find things good enough to share with the rest of the class. This video is the reason why I appreciate the dedication some have to the craft of telling great stories in as little time as possible. Like this man, Steve Delahoyde. He makes funny look easy and the man easily has handfulls of videos that I’ve enjoyed too much to just let sit around without giving the man some attention. Just peer into the notion of what would happen if you took a 4+ hour road trip and all you allowed yourself to listen to was Abba’s “Dancing Queen.” Click on the picture. Solid. Gold.
So, you see, there is now a great reason to stay with Quick Stop Entertainment all week. I cherish my Friday spot here if for the only reason that it’s like the reliever position in the 7th inning. It’s my job to get the win and to close out all any other site who thinks they can just cruise into the weekend by giving you some crap review and leaving you for the weekend. Not here.
Influences Growing Up: Bobcat Goldthwait’s “Meat Bob,” Bill Hicks’ “Relentless,” G.I. Joe, Comic books, Comic Strip Live on Fox every Saturday night, Wild Chicago on WTTW every Sunday night, Freddy, Jason and Sigourney Weaver showing me what a hardcore lady can do.
Trailer Park. New material every Friday.
Influences Now: Weekly TWiT Podcast, King of Cars on A&E, Frontline (bar none the best show your ass isn’t watching right at this very moment), The Cardigans, John Holmberg, Bill Hicks and Adam Witt over there at Schadenfreude. Adam currently be found in the unemployment line when not already working mightily on his skills as 1/5th of Chi-Town’s own Voltron of comedy. The guy and his band of merry men, and lady, rock the stage and iPods weekly (keyword: Schadenfreude) so give them some non-genital loving.
So, let’s get into it with some reviews and, in the legendary words of Bony-T from BOOMERANG, “Set this mutha fucking thing off!â€
…And, if you have the time, stop on over to MySpace. Lot more of where this came from over there. Plus, I haven’t been found out yet by Dateline NBC.
Director: Phil Joanou
Cast: Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, Xzibit, Danny Martinez, Mo, Trever O’Brien, Six Reasons, Brandon Smith, Jade Yorker, Robert Zepeda, Michael Jace, Bill Smitrovich
Release: September 15, 2006
Synopsis: The Rock and Xzibit star in a story based on actual events about the creation of a football team within the confines of a juvenile detention camp.
View Trailer:
* Large (QuickTime)
Prognosis: Negative. I like The Rock.
Every time I see this dude on the screen, big or small, he’s got that kind of vibe that makes you want to see good things for his future. He’s charismatic, proven he can be funny, really is heir apparent for many action films to come but he’s got heart in everything he does; with the exception of THE MUMMY 2, which was crap. This trailer is no different, I am glad to see, as Rock’s vibe comes through from the first moment he narrates his first word on the voiceover in this trailer.
I don’t appreciate, however, the hokey as hell “introduction†to this piece of advertisement. We’ve seen this before with UNDERWORLD and who knows how many other times and I am at a loss as to why there was a compelling need to produce a less than 10 second blurb telling me that I am about to watch a trailer that I just chose to watch before I was told I was doing so. It’s weird but whatever.
Now, when we get to the gritty of the trailer, and it is gritty which is very aesthetic we get the Rock’s voice telling us that when some people act out they get their car keys taken away or grounded; the images that go along with this, however, of the hot WHITE chick cheerleader and the frolicking WHITE boys stand in comparison to The Rock’s next comment that some make bad choices, here, accompanying images of a violent BLACK kid with a pistol. I’m not sure if there’s a racial element that’s being implied but I am aware of the visual cues that show the every same kid being shipped off to prison because of his actions. I don’t know if I’m being too sensitive to this but I’d like to think that there’s some purposeful reason why this is.
We end up in the self same prison and The Rock now is shown to be one of the more important elements in this prison/probationary center as a guard/counselor as he says to his boss that these angry young men have problems with a host of different things but that football may help. Huh?
FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS this is not.
Now, the musical element that starts to play underneath Rock’s insistence that a football team be formed to help facilitate a meaningful rehabilitation is kind of like Eminem’s “Lose It†but it really works here to establish a good flow for the events that follow. Now, I don’t particularly like Xzibit as an entertainment figure, as for all his hardcore rapping and attitude seems available for readjustment as long as MTV is paying for the castration, and thankfully this is all about The Rock and his insistence that these guys find something they can conform to under the guise of playing a little football. Not sure I buy the premise but it looks and feels better than most films that want to cater to the young male demographic with nothing more than flash and no substance.
And I pained, really pained, by the progression of the plot that unfolds before us. I mean it’s great that this trailer really knows to move through the high points of the plot quickly with a little pizzazz but when this troubled boy squad (gasp!) has to go up against the 38-0 football team, filled with pretty white people from before natch, this seems more Disney than WWE. The two kinds of films, the Disney Sports genre which should be copyrighted by now, and this one both share another kind of element: they’re all based, somehow, on a true story.
I don’t know if I keep up with current events but are there really that many “true†stories out there where underdogs have come from behind to triumph over adversity? Isn’t that what being in competition is all about? Maybe I’m just disenfranchised with the ideas of being based on reality but if you’ve got nothing else to say other than adversity + pain = enlightenment I’ve got little interest.
WHO KILLED THE ELECTRIC CAR? (2006)
Director: Chris Paine
Cast: Colette Divine, David Freeman, Alexandra Paul, Chelsea Sexton, J. Karen Thomas
Release: June 28, 2006 (Limited)
Synopsis: WHO KILLED THE ELECTRIC CAR? chronicles the life and mysterious death of the GM EV1, examining its cultural and economic ripple effects and how they reverberated through the halls of government and big business.
View Trailer:
* Large (QuickTime)
Prognosis: Dirty Hippie Propaganda. Yeah, I’ll Watch It…
It’s amazing to me that when certain conflagrations of media and popular culture come together you sometimes get films that come at the right time. For example, when corporate culture was being dissected and ripped apart for what it was in the late 80’s we saw the documentary, ROGER & ME; fast food culture took a hell of a beating, and even effected positive change, when SUPER SIZE ME showed that our country’s more more more attitude when it came to desiring more on our collective plates wasn’t really a healthy thing; and now, with the rise of concerns over equally rising gas prices you have this film about a little car that could’ve but has ended up dying an inglorious death right here in the Southwest. You’re welcome for that.
I weary that we start this thing like so many stories I get assaulted with by my local Fox affiliate every night: fear mongering. Yes, I get that the really haunting score behind the shot of some lucky dude who now has to pay over $75.00 to fill up his tank is supposed to make me clench my pearl necklace in abject disgust but the accompanying card that simply pops up the words “Global Warming,†“Pollution,†“Unrest in the Middle East†and “Rising Gas Prices†makes the point. This is the attention grabber and it does what it needs to do; I’m not a big of going this route, however, as I think you could’ve went with the quality of the work you’re about to showcase but that’s just me.
Now, when we get into the real crux of this story, the narrative of this little car, the EV1, that only ran on electricity I find myself engaged to the quick history of the vehicle if, for no other reason, than this is a topic that has been reaching a din every day in every paper across America thanks to the three plus dollar a gallon I’m paying at the local Chevron.
If I could, here, make a point to the person who made this trailer I would have two things to say:
1) The spooky music you hooked people when you employed your fear mongering at the beginning of the trailer drops too precipitously when you launch into the mellow narration about this car.
2) When you tell me that this buggy was fast, put out no emissions and was so “teh awesome†when you tell me that it almost went the way of the dodo and you put up a picture of a landfill are you really telling me that GM put these cars in a wood chipper or are you exaggerating again?
It’s little things like this that take a perfectly solid story and turn it into a movie where I question if it’s a piece of hippy propaganda even before I see the first frame because of the way I am being sold.
And then it changes.
Unbelievable as it is we actually are launched into the real meat of this story by being told that the cost to operate this car is the same as if you were driving a regular one with the exception that the cost of gas for the EV1 is sixty cents a gallon. Now that’s a factoid we could’ve led with but, again, like I said, it seems that the initial volley to get people to watch was done out of provocation, not the merits of the movie itself. But, no matter, as I’m hooked on finding out more.
We get a testimonial from Tom Hanks on the speed of this car which I imagine is a big concern for dudes, some comments about how no one knew that this car even existed and then we descend into the reasons why you’ve probably never read word one on this vehicle: Dick Cheney, Condoleeza Rice and your local neighborhood Bush administration.
The trailer is good about quickly pivoting from one talking head to another about the reasons why we, as a country, haven’t been exposed to this alternative, about establishing the relationship between oil and the moneyed interests with power to keep this under wraps and this trailer is also good about providing quick blurbs from those who have seen the flick to give us all an idea of why this movie is so poignant at this stage in our nation’s development.
I’ll see this documentary because of the latter half of this trailer but if you expect to get people’s attention sometimes it’s all about selling the facts, not fear. I am really receptive, as are a lot of people, to having a point of view leveled as honestly as it can be put out there, as Tom Russert from Meet the Press stated in an interview with Bob Edwards on XM this week, but when you try to spin something you’re going to get into trouble; people see through it, as cliched as it sounds, like a sheet of paper held to the sun. However, this trailer has a tricky line to walk with balancing attention grabbing and fact presenting. It’s hard to do but I think it does its job well in this trailer. A must see for anyone who wants a better understanding of oil politics and doesn’t want to sit down with a global economics textbook.
I’m lazy like that, too.
Director: Mark Steven Johnson
Cast: Nicolas Cage, Eva Mendes, Wes Bentley, Sam Elliott, Peter Fonda
Release: February 16, 2007
Synopsis: In order to save his dying father, young stunt cyclist Johnny Blaze sells his soul to Mephistopheles and sadly parts from the pure-hearted Roxanne Simpson, the love of his life. Years later, Johnny’s path crosses again with Roxanne, now a gogetting reporter, and also with Mephistopheles, who offers to release Johnny’s soul if Johnny becomes the fabled, fiery Ghost Rider, a supernatural agent of vengeance and justice. Mephistopheles charges Johnny with defeating the despicable Blackheart, Mephistopheles’s nemesis and son, who plans to displace his father and create a new hell even more terrible than the old one.
View Trailer:
* Large (QuickTime)
Prognosis: Positive. You just want good things to happen to good people. Pure and simple.
When I was at the Comic-Con in San Diego last year I sat with director Mark Steven Johnson and Eva Mendes and it was just a really pleasant experience. To hear that GHOST RIDER was getting pushed back, way back, from its initial early 2006 release date was both disconcerting because release shifts aren’t necessarily done to great movies and disappointing because when you meet the people who have helped to make the film what it is, and they seem genuine, you feel bad in a way. Good thing, though, that they’ve decided to focus on enhancing the film, though, because this is a great trailer.
I don’t think that Nic Cage was the most believable choice for the role of Johnny Blaze as when this trailer opens up and you see his wizened eyes popping out at you in full screen glory one has to wonder if this is really a story about a dude who makes a deal with the devil or if it’s the story of a middle aged man who makes a deal with the devil because he knows he already has one foot in the grave.
It’s ok, though, as once we see his digital stunt double take off a jump that sees him launching over 5 working, military style, helicopters (By the way, it’s in a domed arena, soooo how did they get them in there? Movie magic, kids.) and we see him eat it the crash is wonderfully rendered; the colors pop off the screen and the momentum that begins and carries us through the rest of the trailer is undeniable.
I don’t know so much about the actual idea of Cage being heir to this evil indenture of sorts but the trailer, sans musical interlude or voiceover, bold choice, carries us through the moment when we are all let in on his deal “To save someone he loved.†Of course it was to save someone he loved but I am especially impressed with this ad for not belaboring the point that he was a reckless dude with a heart of steel and a will of iron who shook hands with the devil or any such dramatics. No pictures of Eva Mendes pop up; no slow mo shots of his happier days as a frolicking dude with hair and a smile; and I’m happy that Sam Elliott still thinks that looking like an aging porn star with that trucker ‘stache of his is still pimp.
Then, bam! (Deep apologies for the Emeril reference. It was unintended.)
We get aquatic zombies, church dwelling vampires and a sweet Transformers-type metamorphosis of Cage into Ghost Rider that I think even Franz Kafka would give two thumbs on. I was once afraid of the cheesy ass effects that were employed in the “leaked†trailer months ago but when I watch his hog go from yuppie weekend warrior chopper in all its waxy glory to bad ass cycle of Satan my interest is genuinely piqued in this project.
I am launched even further into this world of leather and chains when Cage starts riding his bike with his tires aflame like some out of control Bridgestone Firestone blow-out circa 2000. Cage rides it with a vengeance and even with the inclusion of a static shot of Eva Mendes looking all sorts of concerned with the popos behind her, guns drawn, no doubt to shred Cage doesn’t deter me from getting fanboy crazy over seeing Ghost Rider tear vertically up the side of a skyscraper, windows shattering in its wake. Not only is this a nice inclusion but the trailer just slips it in there and keeps going.
We see him tearing down the street, riding alongside some Old Man River who’s galloping on a flaming horse, we get a more than ample look at the Ghost Rider’s head and, my favorite shot of them all, we see Ghost whipping his chains over his head and whipping them downward on that skyscraper as he heads downward.
I’m impressed by this trailer for a number of reasons but the decision to show so much, and have it be of good quality, deserve a positive review of this advertising’s efforts.
FEARLESS aka HUO YUAN JIA (2006)
Director: Ronny Yu
Cast: Jet Li
Release: August 4, 2006
Synopsis: Fok Yuanjia (Li) dreams of continuing the legacy his father established as a world-class fighter in China. After reaching his goal, however, a personal tragedy causes him to disappear for several years. He’s not heard from until the honor of defending his country in an international tournament surfaces.
View Trailer:
* Medium (QuickTime)
Prognosis: Positive. Of course Li is the “only one†mentioned in this trailer who could’ve thrashed the piss out of his corporate overlords; sometimes it’s just pure drivel that begins these sorts of things.
I know the whole singular person trope, that one that states that there really can be only one individual, usually a dude, to make change in an action movie, is a whole lot of busted, tired and lame but I still have a fondness for it; especially if that person is Jet Le, you understand, and you know that there’s going to be a whole lot of ass kicking going around. And there will.“Mastering others is strength, Mastering yourself makes you fearless.†Consider me entranced by the wide shot that opens this trailer as we’re treated to a little quote beforehand about something or another regarding strength.
All’s I know’s is that when you start a movie talking about mastering and strength in the same sentence there’s going to be a while lot of ass kicking going around. I’m not let down in this regard as the wide shot goes from abstract to focused as we listen to the premise of the flick: China is overtaken in a war, whiteys move in and said white men want to flex their physicality over the Chinaman by having public fights to demonstrate this. This is where you feel the surge building.
So, you’ve got dudes fighting with fists, swords, muscles, what have you, but when the narrator of this trailer, who does a better job than just going with throaty Voiceover Guy, and who I think sounds a lot like David Lo-Pan from BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE CHINA, says that only one man rose to challenge them you know exactly who they’re talking about.
Jet slowly thumps his fists as we’re informed, delicately, this is coming to us via the producer of HERO and CROUCHING TIGER, that the fight choreographer is Yeun Wo Ping all the while Jet gets a little faster with his moves. I am especially delighted by Jet’s moves as he’s holding an umbrella in the rain and uses his legs to do the fighting for him.
The music gets faster, the drums beat a little louder and Li starts to take the imperialists to task one by one; he tarries mid-court inside the fighting ring as this little David takes on all the Goliaths sent his way. No matter how much older Jet is getting he is still blazing fast and amazing to watch just within the parameters of this trailer.
The story continues on as Jet is deceived from within his population as he gets it on with some sword fighting against one of his own, we see the softer side of Sears as we get glimpses of little kids coming up to him, perhaps his own, as then we’re whisked away to another moment as Li is beset in a circle, on all sides, by an encroaching mob. We’re told that this is his final martial arts epic and I cannot see anything here that would tell me this is going to be anything else but. We’ve got a multitude of sweeping fight sequences that seem to pull at Li’s every ability but, more than that, this trailer plays like it was the next installment of a Michael Bay cluster bomb.
You’ve got Jet’s kinetic fluidity that has always been his calling card and this trailer captures it wonderfully. You’ve got a reason to see this film for a number of reasons, be it the story of Western colonization or the chance to see Jet doing what he does well or even to see a flick where dudes are going to get served many times over.
Simply put, after wretched examples of Hollywood directors misusing Jet it is nice to see, just in this trailer, Jet once again being able to let himself be free to express the reasons why he’s been a talent within this genre for decades.
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