Quick note: Want to help me out this week? Go on over to Gather.com where I posted the first chapter of my book, Thank You, Goodnight, in the hopes I can win the First Chapters prize from Simon and Schuster. You’d be doing me a huge solid if I can at least make it to the final rounds and since I’ve never really pimped my book in this space I hope this could be the beginning of something really good or it could mean my writing really sucks and I deserve the mantle of writing a column named Trailer Park. Anyway, thanks for reading… http://www.gather.com/viewArticle.jsp?articleId=281474976932701
Do you consider yourself a geek?
I ask only because there have been moments in the last week that seem to perfectly illustrate the idea of gripping that lingua franca of oddballs and about how some push it away as far as possible.
When you opened your newspaper, or clicked your way through Digg, on Monday morning the one piece of information which should be old news by now is 300’s triumphant take at the box office over the weekend. It’s success was never in doubt, just how much it was going to pull in was up to debate. I believe even the most aggressive pundits were short a few million in thinking how many people were going to show up to watch a bunch of dudes get all homosocial with one another and then go out to slaughter other humans. The story behind the story here is not so much its financial take but the way in which this movie moved from obscurity to full-on hype by the film’s release.
It honestly started back in July of last year when Gerard Butler, Zack Snyder and the rest of the 300 crew showed up to try and create some momentum for the movie. What should have been a Meet-N-Greet turned into a love fest and it was all thanks to the bright lad at WB who thought, “Let’s create the kind of preview that will leave people talking.”
That was all that had to be thought up in order for this movie to have snowballed into the juggernaut it is today.
Where a lot of people, and by people I mean media hacks who want to lump every marketing campaign that uses the Internet as a means, not as an end, see viral marketing as a failed experiment that ended with the SNAKES ON A PLANE fiasco I can categorically state that the reason why SOAP failed was because it depended on GODZILLA-like ambiguity of its product.
There wasn’t any way that those behind 300 did a little shuffle with their feet as the leached out just enough money shots, had those behind the film come out to embrace it and then followed-up with just small bursts of awareness campaigns that kept the movie in front of you, just not in front of every website and blog that would accept the marketing funds of a studio just hoping for a #1 bow.
So, what does this all have to do with REVENGE OF THE NERDS. Apart from the seemingly disparate time in which they were created and the kind of subject matter inherent in them, these movies show the power of support, support of the public variety.
I can understand that there are some actors that believe that participating isn’t their bag and that the movie should be all that’s important when it comes to the finished product but the funny thing about the Special Panty Raid Edition of NERDS has Curtis Armstrong, Robert Carradine, Timothy Busfield and the movie’s director all providing a commentary track for the new DVD. Noticeably absent is ER’s Anthony Edwards who, depending on what really happened, passed on the chance to put his personal stamp on a film that has really defined the nerd experience in the early 80’s for a lot of people who grew up on this film. I can understand that Anthony just wants to forget this movie was what helped establish what would eventually become his empire but it’s just disconcerting that Edwards would eschew this, being the one real hold-out from a cast that involves dudes who have went on to star in an Academy Award winning movie, a successful syndicated television show, an acclaimed television series that will forever provide a sweet royalty check and a director who, well, he made that one movie with Burt Lancaster and Kirk Douglas that I didn’t think completely sucked.
A movie of this comedic resonance deserved a Special Edition if for the only reason that as long as you thought something was funny about it years ago the movie still holds up as something that shouldn’t be ashamed of, but embraced for what it is. It’s great, real great, to see there were some of the pivotal people for NERDS that thought that, as puerile as it may be, it is what it is and so toss the geeks what they really want.
oint is, you have to admire guys who put on capes, acted in front of blue screens, brought a comic book to life and have no compunction about being proud for a movie that speaks to a large segment of the male population. You don’t have to shout from the mountain about every piece of work you do but it’s petty in a Sean Penn “I never want to talk about FAST TIMES AT RIDGEMONT HIGH” sort of way that’s just glaring to witness. Whenever you take a check from someone you have to internalize it somehow, you obviously thought that trading your time for money was OK, and it was just plain great to see the men of this film just ignore the trappings that go along with what some think makes acceptable work of an actor and what does not.
And from the Department That Has No Bearing On Films, The Innocence Mission, a band I would gladly slay a few hippies for if they asked nicely, has a new album that came out this week. If you’re into acts like The Sundays and have been aching for music to have in the background while you watch rain falling you could not do better than these stalwarts of musicianship. As a favor to me, buy it and get mellow. Look for an interview to follow shortly so familiarize yourselves.
SHOOTER (2007)
Director: Antoine Fuqua
Cast: Mark Wahlberg, Michael Peña, Danny Glover, Kate Mara, Elias Koteas, Rhona Mitra, Rade Sherbedgia, Ned Beatty
Release: March 23, 2007
Synopsis: SHOOTER is an action-packed thriller starring Mark Wahlberg as Bob Lee Swagger, a former Marine Corps sniper who leaves the military after a mission goes bad. After he is reluctantly pressed back into service, Swagger is double-crossed again. With two bullets in him and the subject of a nationwide manhunt, Swagger begins his revenge, which will take down the most powerful people in the country.
View Trailer:
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Prognosis: Nah. A couple of things:
1. Good for Marky Mark. I really liked him in that middle-of-the-road Oscar contender, THE DEPARTED, let’s be fair that Marty’s re-make wasn’t as good as GOODFELLAS or CASINO, perhaps the AVIATOR, and call it for what it was: passable. What I think that THE DEPARTED did teach me, however, besides the fact that a lot of people bought into cherub-faced Leonardo’s “toughness†was that Marky Mark is really good at this joke called acting or he just has enough charisma that carry him though whatever part he’s given.
2. This movie represents even more responsibility for the pop hip-hopper in a major film. Yes, he had THE ITALIAN JOB but, really, Charlize and the rest of the ensemble was really what helped pull that movie through the box office like a juggernaut.
That said, then, I like the way this movie looks.
I do, however, have some worries that I don’t really need to be at the theater in time when it starts because we’re given all the information we need about this movie in one long introduction. Por ejemplo, when we open up to Marky’s world he’s in the backwoods, evidenced in movies like COMMANDO and CLIFFHANGER the forest is the one refuge where a strong leading man can go for solace or to “regroup†before slugging it out once more for life, liberty and guns, and of course there is something there about why he’s so reclusive. He drinks Bud, most definitely listens to Toby Keith, likes to pump-n-dump with the ladies who obviously dig this kind of guy and, of course, the government wants him for one..,more…mission. (By the way, that the hell is up with that Fu-Manchu whispy crap on the boy’s face? Whiskers? Hair? Last night’s conquest?)
So, after we see that Mark can shoot from a mile away with a pimp-ass CGI weapon, that the president is in danger, that he’s one of the “only ones†who could help find this miscreant and, hold the phone, it’s a set-up!
People, I know you’re all, for the most part, smart individuals. Can anyone inform me why I wouldn’t want to just come into this movie a good 20-30 minutes late? We’re almost at the half-way point of this thing yet I know everything I need to get me through this movie without missing a beat.
“I didn’t start it but I am going to see it through.â€
This is the BOURNE IDENTITY without insane car chases or exotic locales. I was hoping for a plot twist that didn’t involve a conspiracy where we have people saying how awesome Marky was in his past life as a soldier and that “OMFG! STFU dats pure PWNage lol!!111!!†when Marky gets his cammo all smeared over his face as he comes back for retribution.
I guess the added element Marky’s girl being snatched away from him is fairly original as the sniper hunt near the end of the trailer looks nifty but is it worth a full admission at the theater? Seeing how after I paid to see SNIPER with Tom Beringer and Billy Zane I felt like I had possibly invested in a flick that was marginally worse than THE JERKY BOYS I am not about to get excited at the prospect for a movie that only looks bigger with regard to budget.
Director: Martin Weisz
Cast: Jessica Stroup, Reshad Strik, Michael McMillian, Daniella Alonso, Lee Thompson Young, Ben Crowley, Eric Edelstein, Michael Bailey Smith
Release: March 23, 2007
Synopsis: The sequel to the 2006 horror re-make THE HILLS HAVE EYES which grossed over $41 million at the domestic box office, is written by horror legend Wes Craven and Jonathan Craven and will be directed by Martin Weisz. The storyline follows a group of young National Guard trainees who are attacked by mutants during a training mission in the New Mexico desert.
View Trailer:
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Prognosis: All Sorts Of Positive. First of all, don’t apologize.
This kind of entertainment needs to only do two things for it to be successful enough, in my book, to qualify as a success:
- Exceed it’s budget with the amount it takes in at the box office and home video sales.
- Be violent, gory, toss in a little T&A if possible and be devoid of anything resembling a plot or logical thinking.
These are the reasons why everyone who hated the first one will love the second and, if it’s successful like the SAW franchise has been, a third or a fourth.
Too many people will look at movies like this and write it off but I say that this trailer is the reason why it’s going to do well enough. It’s vaguely creepy, the story is set up wonderfully and we get juuuuust enough of a tease to satiate your desire to peep the mutants who live in the hills. Never mind that these freaks managed to move on from where they were in the first movie, we got an emotional buy-in with a child saying hello to her mother via cell phone. With this, we’re put on the hook as it contextualizes the people who inhabit this film. We actually care about one of them at least and it’s not even five seconds into this thing.
We’re given an explanation of why this military-style squad possesses cell technology in the first place “National Guard Training.†Perfect thinking. It’s plausible, reasonable and we get our geographic bearings with two complete thoughts.
Further contextualization reveals that this location ALSO, like our first installment (How very convenient), was the site for nuclear testing; anyone look into the likelihood that there really could be crazed mutants walking the earth with all the people going to the “atomic testing†card that has set up so many films, comics, books, etc…, in the past? Geez.
So, these “troops†roll into a deserted base where one of our potential victims says, “Where is everybody?†At this stage in the game wouldn’t it be wise to either radio back to HQ or get the fuck out of there, pronto? Again, here I go, with the logic. I have to stop that. Right, trust in the fact that common sense will lose out to sheer stupidity of our characters.
“Last year…The lucky ones died first…On March 23…The lucky ones die fast. â€
The above tagline doesn’t get any more perfect than that. Whoever thought that up deserves their double-mocha, soy, frappuccino on the marketing company’s dime all next week. It’s perfectly aimed at that core 17-25 demo.
Mixed in with all this marketing goodness, and it is good, we get slivers of what the mutants look like; an eye here, some movement here behind a lady who, in my estimation, might be taking a dump (Look for yourself and report back…), a body shot and an eerie score all make for some good build-ups.
The various quick shots of our invaders, the promise of heavy firefights with government issued artillery, some choice looks at what might happen to a few of the captured and some unexplained splatter all are excellent choices for a trailer that knows what it is and what it needs to do. The tongue lick at the every end? Every bit of brilliant.
Director: Marco Kreuzpaintner
Cast: Kevin Kline, Cesar Ramos Ceballos, Alicja Bachleda-Curus, Paulina Gaitani
Release: April 13, 2007
Synopsis: Adriana (Paulina Gaitan) is a 13-year-old girl from Mexico City whose kidnapping by sex traffickers sets in motion a desperate mission by her 17-year-old brother, Jorge (Cesar Ramos), to save her. Trapped and terrified by an underground network of international thugs who earn millions exploiting their human cargo, Adriana’s only friend and protector throughout her ordeal is Veronica (Alicja Bachleda), a young Polish woman tricked into the trade by the same criminal gang. As Jorge dodges immigration officers and incredible obstacles to track the girls’ abductors, he meets Ray (Kevin Kline), a Texas cop whose own family loss to sex trafficking leads him to become an ally in the boy’s quest.
View Trailer:
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Prognosis: Il Est Excellent. I apologize for going down such a low-brow road but from the New Jersey mouth of Carl in Aqua Teen Hunger Force, “That’s friggin’ awesome.â€
I saw a riveting, compelling, and every other shocking –ing you can stick at the end of some verbs, documentary about the sex trade. It only scratched the thin surface of how people are traded, duped and then become prisoners against their will but this movie looks like a nice representation about the drama of what happens when these women are promised one thing only to land themselves in a quagmire of violence and deceit. So, herein lies the issue: How do you make a trailer that not only coveys this but also ties back to something that Ma and Pa Kettle can understand and relate to back in Bumwad, U.S.A.?
You juxtapose, of course.
I really like, I really do, the image of the densely populated terrain, mountainous, in some country that doesn’t look familiar to me. I’m distant from it but see what happens when we then look at the image of some suburban landscape with all these houses that look alike (I’m deep in the heart of one myself). Large foreign capital, large domestic capital. Little baby in far off land, little baby with domestic mama. Some transference starts to happen but there needs to be more in order for this compare/contrast thing to work.
“Every year more than 1 million people are trafficked across international borders…â€
And, pop, we get it. We see a woman who has obviously traveled to some country in the hopes of something, we’re not led to know what it is, but she’s violently taken somewhere. Again, we don’t know.
“…Against their will.â€
Little girl on a bike. She rides and is then kidnapped. Kevin Kline, so good to see him in something that doesn’t involve buffoonery, holds a flashlight but we don’t know what he’s looking for. The utter silence and lack of story could kill lesser flicks but it’s working like a champ here.
We’re given a little something: Kevin is on the hunt for his daughter. A kid, in search of his younger sister. What’s driving a lot of this is the beautiful cinematography and music that doesn’t play too much into our sympathies but rides the moment we’re in like surfers on a crystal wave. These two men, on a mission, juxtapose with the women who have been taken from their lives and put into a situation where there seems be a little aggravated battery and a whole lot of isolation.
And then, from out of nowhere, the music just takes over and it’s blisteringly sweet to listen to as we see Kline, this brother, his sister and Kline’s daughter struggle physically with what’s happening around them. Emotions are just ebbing and flowing and, oddly, none of this feels maudlin or saccharine.
By the end of this thing it’s hard to realize that this is the kind of thing that happens every single day on this planet without any of us realizing it and this trailer captures that panicking feeling if you found out it happened to someone in your own blood line.
Director: Robert Rodriguez, Quentin Tarantino
Cast: DEATH PROOF: Kurt Russell, Zoe Bell, Rosario Dawson, Vanessa Ferlito, Jordan Ladd, Rose McGowan, Michael Bacall, Eli Roth, Sydney Tamiia Poitier, Marley Shelton, Tracie Thoms, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Omar Doom PLANET TERROR: Freddy Rodriguez, Rose McGowan, Josh Brolin, Naveen Andrews, Marley Shelton, Michael Biehn, Stacy Ferguson, Jeff Fahey, Michael Parks
Release: April 6, 2007
Synopsis: Grindhouse – noun – A downtown movie theater – in disrepair since its glory days as a movie palace of the ’30s and ’40s – known for “grinding out” non-stop double-bill programs of B-movies.
From groundbreaking directors Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez comes the ultimate film experience: a double-bill of thrillers that will recall both filmmakers’ favorite exploitation films. “Grindhouse†will be presented as one full-length feature comprised of two individual films helmed separately by each director. Tarantino’s film, “Death Proof,†is a rip-roaring slasher flick where the killer pursues his victims with a car rather than a knife, while Rodriguez’s film explores an alien world eerily familiar to ours in “Planet Terror.†Welcome to the Grindhouse – it’ll tear you in two.
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Prognosis: Positive. So, I’m riding along in a car with a new business acquaintance, Amir.
The topic of discussion touches upon Comic-Con and, before letting it known how big of an inward Geek I am, gauging whether divulging the information would be cannon fodder for an uncomfortable hazing with fellow co-workers back at the office, Amir is down with the whole scene. He’s never been to San Diego and wanted to know what the big appeal was in going. I was at a loss to try and put it into words that could wrap around its largess and indescribably strange, and face-meltingly insane, vibe.
But I did relay what happened when Robert Rodriquez and Quentin Tarantino took the stage last year and introduced PLANET TERROR and DEATH PROOF to the world. The footage that Robert showed just lit the place on fire. Apart from Robert’s insistence that NO ONE even think about doing any kind of recording at all, the moment kind of encapsulated what the Con can be if you want to market right. 300 proved what advance word could do and I would expect nothing less of this production as well.
The problem, though, with marketing this movie by trailer is that you need to beat people into understanding what you’re trying to do with this project. Simply put, it’s two movies, fake trailers and a whole lot of exploitation done out of ironic love for the genre of grindhouse film. Now say that three times fast in a trailer. Somehow, though, that’s exactly what happens when you’re exposed to the marketing campaign right from the beginning.
The trailer lays it right out for all of you out there who are still a little shaky about whether grindhouse is the name of the film that they’re showing or unsure about whether you’re getting one film directed by two different people. Yes, if you’re reading this you’re more than 99% ahead of everyone else in America but look at it from a layperson’s point-of-view. Out of focus camera work, visual cues, narration that takes all of eight seconds to explain everything and the kind of straight off the street vibe that’s unmistakable.
You get Danny Trejo kicking all sorts of ass, money shots galore, Rose McGowan in all her celluloid dissolving glory sexing it up for the rest of us, and an honest-to-God helpful narrator who is thumping us over the head that these are two, separate films.
Cue Robert’s flick with a 30pt font “FIRST†and have it explained to Ma and Pa Kettle. Done. Toss in some Apple-infused graphics that give the whole sequence a dated look, skim over the plot and tease the audience with just enough T&A and unexplained violent confrontations. Done. Oh, and be sure to keep that one sweet sequence of Rose using her prosthetic leg in a ferocious gun battle. The fan boys love that.
Cue Quentin. The challenge here is getting me to stop thinking about guns and guts. I’m not so sure it’s helpful putting Quentin’s last because there’s a lot of talking in this preview and I ain’t keen on so much jibba jabba when I’m postulating why I’m not seeing even more explosions or violence. Yeah, the car crashes are cool and I am pleased as all hell that Kurt “Jack Burton†Russell is in here but I feel kind of limp, sartorially speaking, in that this movie doesn’t feel like an exploitative, derivative homage to wanton sex and violence.
I’ll still see the flicks, no doubt, but I’m already wondering whether I’m going to be more wooed by one or the other.
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