Author: admin

Director: Sam Mendes
Cast: Jake Gyllenhaal, Peter Sarsgaard, Jamie Foxx, Lucas Black, Chris Cooper
Release: November 4th, 2005
Synopsis: When a young man joins the Marines and trains to be a sniper, he finds himself plunged into the chaotic swirl of sand, oil, fire and death that was the Gulf War. View Trailer:
* Medium (Windows Media)

However, I can look past all this luggage and baggage because any time you have a kid who is narrating his inner feelings about serving his country, and there’s an uneasiness that’s pasting and gelling it all together, you’ve got some good juxtaposition going. I appreciate that.

Even before we get the handle on what Jake Gyllenhaal is doing, preparing for, we get the ubiquitous Directed By card, glossing over his efforts on ROAD TO PERDITION, and going straight for that Oscar card with AMERICAN BEAUTY. Understandable considering the nebulous handle most people either had or didn’t have on PERDITION.

What gets me about this trailer, and how it slowly sucks you in, is that after they flash Jamie “Don’t Call Me Stealth” Foxx it’s Jake’s blind vacancy behind his eyes that gets me. He’s not quite Private Gomer Pile from FULL METAL JACKET but there’s uneasiness behind the anticipation in his face.

Chris Cooper, with his microphone tilted toward his face, the way he’s proselytizing and addressing a choir of hungry soldiers who are all willing to do thy bidding, shows us a flicker of greatness once more as he lays down the aims for the attack that’s about to happen. Cooper isn’t screwing around.

The soundtrack changes. It’s lyrical with a minimalist hip-hop beat pulsating underneath it as the images we’re getting, Jake popping a gum bubble as he mans a sniper rifle, a dude sleeping in a foxhole, a platoon marching with their gas masks on and the sweetest looking line of fighters, a good dozen of them, flying side-by-side with their exhaust lines trailing behind them, trigger curiosity but we don’t get much in the way of narration.

That’s fine, though.

We get more of the same as the trailer goes beyond its halfway mark. Jake dons a Santa hat sans shirt, guys are playing football in their gas masks, oil field flames shoot into the air like geysers and a humvee flips over from an explosion underneath it.

The trailer doesn’t see a need, the precious seconds bleeding away as more discordant images conflagrate to the point of confusion, to fill us in on what the hell this is all about. If we’re going by style alone, that’s fine, A+, but if I had to take any umbrage at all is that we’re not really “in on” what Jake’s role is. Is he an eager boy who turns into a man and then realizes he was eager for all the wrong reasons? Does he turn into a sadist who gives in to his animalistic rage and need for violence? The point is never resolved and I would hope we get a little more insight than this.

James Dean’s adolescent brooding and “dangerous” air went out when he did. I’ve got to identify with who I’m seeing but I got none of that here. The imagery, though, is worth the price of viewing.

Director: Bennett Miller
Cast: Philip Seymour Hoffman, Catherine Keener, Cliffton Collins Jr., Bruce Greenwood, Chris Cooper, Bob Balaban, Mark Pellegrino
Release: September 30, 2005 (limited)
Synopsis: On November 15, 1959, the brutal murder of a family in a small Kansas town sent shockwaves through the nation ““ and captured the attention of one of the most distinctive minds of our time. One-of-a-kind author Truman Capote was sent to Kansas to pen an article about the crimes for The New Yorker magazine. He ended up writing one of the most celebrated books of the century. CAPOTE follows Truman Capote (Hoffman) on his odyssey to create the landmark bestseller In Cold Blood. With signature style and mordant wit ““ and his friend Harper Lee (Keener) in tow ““ Capote attempts to charm the locals and work his way into the story behind the murders. He’s soon shocked, however, to find himself forming a friendship with one of the killers, Perry Smith (Collins). As the book nears completion and execution day approaches, Capote finds himself torn in directions he never anticipated and is forever changed by his experiences.

Prognosis: Confused. Alright, peeps, this is your medicine for the week.

Yeah, it would be Hella Cool if I would’ve looked at the new DOOM trailer this week but you all can’t be living your life under a Technicolor, Dolby Digital, Hi-Fi surround sound rock. Broaden your horizons, as it were.

This has all the horizon you’ll need for a while.

What I like about the opening about this trailer is that even though there is something very quiet about a rural home in Kansas (I lived there for years and I can vouch that there ain’t jack crap going on within its suburbs) it’s very loud when you punctuate that scene, a very cold and blustery scene, with a flash of light and a gun blast. That gets your attention.

Cut to Seymour Hoffman. Tortured with a voice that would’ve made David Sedaris recognize there was probably someone else in this world who got their ass kicked more than he did, Seymour talks about wanting to write about the murders. There’s something that interests him about it. Before we know what really interests him about the story we are shoved into Seymour’s backstory. It’s wickedly brief and you can use the melodic cues to take you through it all.

On the one hand you have this jaunty beat which shows Seymour as the insider for New York’s affluent and aristocratic buffoons in a time when the notion of a social insider meant more than being a Page 6 leech but after the giggles and patronizing accolades are heaped upon Capote’s persona the music gets morose. Seymour is in Kansas, wearing a deliciously well woven scarf, in the middle of winter. We’re not really sure what he hopes to uncover and his laissez faire attitude regarding the crime doesn’t help establish his motives.

At one point in this trailer, after we’re on the hunt for some Midwestern kind of killers, we get Capote reflecting on how people have misjudged him for his entire life just because of the way he talked. True, he does have that kind of whiny, tinny voice that has never really before been harnessed by heterosexual male but that’s no excuse to be so down on yourself. Really, if I want to go to a pity party I would sooner go over to humanitarian Richard Simmons’ house so he can explain to me why he thinks he’s so misunderstood by a society because of his “eccentricities.” After getting this out of the man we’re graciously allowed back into the trailer’s action.

What follows seems pretty conventional just based on what I see in this trailer’s presentation. We have a dude who may or may not be guilty of the crime of murder and you have Capote who is like John Grisham’s wet dream, a man who will defy the odds to prove the man’s innocence, just by investigating the man’s life. It’s all very true to Hollywood form except here you have some black and white pictures of Capote and the would-be killer in some poses you would think they’re shooting for the J. Crew Fall 2005 calendar. It’s very strange.

Chris Cooper, bless his heart, looks like the beleaguered cop who has been on the case for years and has to endure the eccentricities of this fruit loop of a writer. It just looks like it’s taking everything Cooper has to not pistol whip the poor bastard into leaving town on the next Amtrak leaving Wichita, Kansas.

The end of this trailer has Cooper and Hoffman sharing a table, Cooper’s body language subtly showing us the phrase “Get me the hell away from this bastard before I dish out a little small town justice” in all its resplendent glory, and when Hoffman nearly whispers the title of his book the look on Cooper’s face is all but worth a 1,000 hand-typed words.

Director: Mark Waters
Cast: Reese Witherspoon, Mark Ruffalo, Jon Heder, Dina Spybey, Ben Shenkman
Release: September 16th, 2005
Synopsis: When David (Mark Ruffalo) sublet his quaint San Francisco apartment, the last thing he expected – or wanted – was a roommate. He had only begun to make a complete mess of the place when a pretty young woman named Elizabeth (Reese Witherspoon) suddenly shows up, adamantly insisting the apartment is hers. David assumes there’s been a giant misunderstanding”¦until Elizabeth disappears as mysteriously as she appeared. Changing the locks does nothing to deter Elizabeth, who begins to appear and disappear at will – mostly to rebuke David for his personal living habits in her apartment. Convinced that she is a ghost, David tries to help Elizabeth cross over to the “other side.” But while Elizabeth has discovered she does have a distinctly ethereal quality – she can walk through walls – she is equally convinced that she is somehow still alive and isn’t crossing over anywhere. As Elizabeth and David search for the truth about who Elizabeth is and how she came to be in her present state, their relationship deepens into love. Unfortunately, they have very little time before their prospects for a future together permanently fade away.

Prognosis: Awful. Hi, I’m Mark Ruffalo and I was pretty good in that indie tear fest movie YOU CAN COUNT ON ME. Lucky for you I was also in ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND which I got to get my swerve on with Kirsten Dunst in my Fruit Of The Loom’s. You’re lucky because those movies don’t pay enough for me to pay the rent so I have little option but to star in movies like 13 GOING ON 30 and this new one JUST LIKE HEAVEN, big Hollywood marketing darlings which you middle America ladies seem to gobble up like chocolate pudding. I wish things could be different but I can’t see any other way to make sure my career keeps going.

Someone needs to give Mark a check just so he’ll stop appearing in these pre-packaged titter-fests which women love to drag their men to. If there was something redeeming about the filmic history of Reese Whitherspoon I’d love to share it here but since it’s nonexistent I can’t possibly be expected to do that. So far, and this is for those keeping score at home, I have been pulled into every movie that chick has done in the last 7 years because I have a wife who think she’s the bee’s knees and, by default, I’ve been to most every opening weekend of this chick’s flicks.

That’s why, in this movie, I am happy to report, with much glee, Reese is hit, head-on, by a truck and killed.

Let me repeat, she is hit, head-on, by a truck. If this scene could have been filmed at different angles I could actually see the point of watching 90 minutes of just this one moment.

Suffice to say, though, she doesn’t stay dead and that’s a big disappointment. She apparently is a hard working doctor, one commenting that she’s worked for 26 hours and needs to go home to rest her pretty blonde head, to which she keeps on keeping on. And that’s when she’s hit by a truck, head-on.

Cut to Mark Ruffalo who needs a place to live. He, apparently, chooses Reese’s old space and actually sees her after one of his showers. Again, things could be interesting if he was rubbing one out right before their meeting because that would honestly put a new twist in this dead person/live person/no one else can see them genre.

And what’s more about what is so crappy about this picture is that while the two of them are trying to coexist with one another, Reese not believing she’s dead, Mark trying to make sense of what he’s seeing and it all being very zany, who should appear but Jon “Napoleon Dynamite” Heder. He plays a supporting role in this crapfest and I can’t, for the life of me, begrudge the guy who obviously isn’t doing this movie for its great artistic merits but becuase he needs some face time with the American public and would also appreciate some spending money for the weekend.

Oh yeah, the tagline which says that this movie is from the same director of FREAKY FRIDAY and MEAN GIRLS? That should be like one of those Nazi P.O.W. prison camp sirens from Hogan’s Heroes, blaring into your subconscious that you should avoid this at all costs. But, here’s the twist, and this is really complex so I’ll break it down slow: when Mark decides to revisit all Reese’s old friends and colleagues and they all say how she was a workaholic, cold old maid, Reese ends up feeling really bad.

And, stab my eyes, the two of them start to like each other in a most intimate way. Now, even though there are some GHOST, ALL OF ME and DEFENDING YOUR LIFE elements going on in this movie it does not deter from the fact that the further you, your old lady or your quote-un-quote “roommate,” who is wacked out of their skull and thinks Reese is just like one of us from what they’ve seen in US Weekly, get into this trailer the more manipulative it gets.

In much the same way Quint rolled in his rod n’ reel with a crazed look in his eye when he snagged Jaws so too does this trailer play the sappy ass music, interjecting the sappy looks our two players give each other and the false emotion behind Reese’s hope that she wishes she wasn’t so dead, this trailer plays its Mysterio mindfuck trick on those sympathetic to these fake characters’ plight and this will only result in your significant, or insignificant, other drag you against your will into the theater.

This trailer, though, if I am going to be honest with all of you, is a great example of how you make a piece of advertising which does nothing more than try and snowball someone into seeing it. There isn’t one redeeming piece of story hidden behind the fluff but it does a great job in trying to persuade you that there is.

Director: Karyn Kusama
Cast: Charlize Theron, Frances McDormand, Jonnie Lee Miller, Sophie Okonedo
Release: December 12, 2005
Synopsis: The film, based on the futuristic MTV animated series created by Peter Chung, is set 1,000 years in the future, when disease has wiped out the population save for one city. The acrobatic title character (Theron) is the top operative in an underground rebellion, but when sent on a mission to kill the government’s leader, she uncovers a secret making her question if she’s on the right side. McDormand will play the Handler, the leader of the rebellion.

Prognosis: Negative. Raven haired. Can we get that out of the way first? It’s a very becoming look on any lady who wants to put on the affectation of Wednesday Addams. Now, we open onto a scene must like that of the WAR OF THE WORLDS. There are these towers which look like the bulbous heads of the alien invaders in Spielberg’s finale/brake fest and Charlize stands on the precipice of an adjoining structure. It’s up way high and I have no idea why she has a look of fear on her face if she was the one who went up there in the first place.

She rears back and runs off the ledge, looking like Trinity from the original MATRIX: RELOADED, the one that didn’t suck as bad as the other sequel, and she even gives us a wholly unnecessary somersault as she makes it to the other side of a very long space between buildings.

Soon after we are regaled with Charlize’s voiceover about this “last society” on Earth, of course, and how it’s supposed to be this utopia, of course, and how it’s anything but, of course. There are even rebels, who form an underground movement, who are trying to reassert control over the mentally asleep citizens. The imagery and the way she moves seems awfully like Denis Leary’s character in a similarly plotted movie: DEMOLITION MAN.

Now, the government seems to be stealing its citizens on the sly for reasons unknown. That’s why Charlize is on the case, right? We get a flash of skulls, almost too fast, to really throw it home that this is serious shit. They’re not kidding around with this kidnapping stuff.

Transpose onto that, if you will, the next set of visuals: Charlize walking around in some low-cut bikini briefs. What would you be more concerned with? Human life or trying like a Kit-Kat to break you piece off of that? I know where my concern is.

There’s a weird moment when we’re told that there are people who fight for the disappeared. We get some GQ looking dude, all in spandex black, who embraces some chick, also in spandex black, but she’s wearing an eye-less cowl, the exact same lame-ass outfit that Rex Smith, aka The Daredevil, wore in The Trial of the Incredible Hulk. It’s alarming to see it revisited here as is the French kiss which takes between them. The dude passes along some silver pill via his tongue, like this is some high school kegger, and we get up-close to look at the exchange. Why? I don’t know and really don’t care.

Charlize then lets us know that she too is a fighter for those persons who are snatched by the government and we are regaled with a display of her physical prowess. She beautifully kicks some well choreographed butt as we’re told she’s expertly trained and ruthlessly efficient. It’s a little tiresome as the set pieces seem a bit worn and played out.

What does interest me, though, even after recoiling in horror at the sight of Frances McDormand donning some of the most wicked bed head, crow’s nest hair I have ever laid eyes on, is that when Aeon is given the assignment of killing some person or something she stands on the top of this overly green hill. This hill looks straight at the lush grounds which lead to the spooky base of operations of whomever and Charlize takes off running toward the place only to see that the green grass is alive and it’s sharp. Little green needles bend towards Theron’s face as she quickly discovers this. The effects here are pretty nice but that’s about it.

We get NBC Daredevil circa 1989 again, one of those quick drum beats behind the visuals which is supposed to indicate extreme action of some sort and one of the oddest things I’ve ever seen in an action movie: Charlieze whistles like she’s calling Lassie, except here she’s calling a series of iron marbles, and they somehow, someway, assist her in the quest for goodness. It’s awful.

The ending quick shots are just as bad. The low quality execution of what should be pretty intense effects, the bad guy looking just like any conventional bad guy should, the zingers that Charlize throws out which should sound like bon-mots but end up sounding like pathetic one-liners and the way she tries to come off as this tougher than leather warrior just comes across as a pretty girl who is trying to play the part of the bad-ass.

Director: Mike Mills
Cast: Tilda Swinton, Vince Vaughn, Vincent D’Onofrio, Keanu Reeves, Benjamin Bratt
Release: September 16, 2005
Synopsis: Justin throws himself and everyone around him into chaos when he attempts to break free from his addiction to his thumb.

Prognosis: Positive. Big fan of NAPOLEON DYNAMITE.

Huge.

When I saw it I wasn’t quite sure what the hell I was viewing but after getting to the five minute mark, I got it.

That flick makes haters or lovers out of people and, judging by the numbers of people who are wearing Vote for Pedro shirts that they bought at Hot Topic, don’t worry if you’re one of them this is a place for healing, I’d say a lot of people got the vibe of the movie and that’s a good thing.

However, but not so much a “however” as it is an Exhibit A kind of lead-in, a movie that apes the handcraftiness of Napoleon’s artistic scribblings was bound to make its way here and I am happy to say that after one year of being out there, we have our movie and I feel accepting of the angle this marketing is going in.

I wasn’t expecting much but hot damn if I didn’t like this trailer. There’s some independent flavor that’s desperately being sought after and I’ll give the filmmakers that much. The cinematography creeps up on you as what sounds like the opening piano suite from Home Sweet Home by Motley Crue starts to play. It’s not but it just seems so close and apropos. We see our normal suburban stronghold of a house; static, no camera movement. Next we get to infer our protagonist has been living in said tenement with the pencil markings on the wall demarcating how he’s grown as a young child. Next, a crapload of trash falls from the top of the screen, its source nowhere to be found, and you’re left with the “Huh?” feeling as you’re yanked to Keanu’s voiceover. He’s talking to our young man who’s laid out on Dr. Reeve’s dental chair. They’re talking about the effects of thumb sucking and what it’s doing to our adolescent. Keanau gets all New Age with him. It’s amusing in quiet way.

Flash to a hand-drawn card telling us the name of the movie. I want to see a Liger pop out at me but I don’t get it.

What I do get, though, is a rocket ship ride which passes by lots of good information like:

A) Tilda Swinton is the kid’s mom.

B) Benjamin Bratt is a sensitive listener.

C) Vincent D’Onofrio is the kid’s dad.

D) Vince Vaughn plays a creepy teacher.

Solid cast and their parts are well fleshed-out for as little time as we’re given with them.

Our kid hero likes the ladies and if you’re one of those kind of dudes who like seeing young women in their skivvies head on over to this trailer and wait until the 50 second mark. Big payoff.

The music changes to some indie-emo rock, sounds like we moved from the Crue to Foo, Fighters that is, and over the beat of the tune that’s playing we see that little Johnny has ADD, hyperactivity disorder and a couple more behavioral maladies which are easily remedied with some medication. He’s shown taking the pills and, two seconds later, which in movie time really equates to two months, it’s like comic book continuity, he’s better.

“You see those girls out there?”

“Yeah.”

“Go round them up, bring them in here.”

“In the men’s room?”

“It’s okay, I’m a teacher, I’m a teacher.”

Vince Vaughn, while not your typical, amusing wisecrack ace of a guy, does have his part as a creepy educator down pat. I even laugh at the above exchange that Vince has with our once withdrawn teen that’s slowly coming out of his social skin.

There are some weird words between Keanu and our man shortly after the bathroom scene and things take a weird turn when the kid starts to discover things about himself which weren’t previously expressed before his indoctrination into the world of pharmaceuticals. He’s smart, intelligent and he is all about getting his swerve on with many a lady. Again, for those who like teenage girls in their skivvies, go to the 1 minute 50 second mark. I have no idea what its purpose is in the grand context besides giving those playing the home game a little thrill but I’m honestly more interested in the story and I don’t get that.

If there’s anything that leaves me cold is that I don’t really get to know why I should care about the protagonist here besides cheering for the fact that he looks well on his way to scoring some high school tail before the last reel of this movie has come to an end.

Director: James McTeigue
Cast: Natalie Portman, James Purefoy, Stephen Rea
Release: March 17, 2006
Synopsis: Set against the futuristic landscape of totalitarian Britain, V For Vendetta tells the story of a mild-mannered young woman named Evey (Portman) who is rescued from a life-and-death situation by a masked vigilante (Purefoy) known only as “V.” Incomparably charismatic and ferociously skilled in the art of combat and deception, V ignites a revolution when he detonates two London landmarks and takes over the government-controlled airwaves, urging his fellow citizens to rise up against tyranny and oppression. As Evey uncovers the truth about V’s mysterious background, she also discovers the truth about herself ““ and emerges as his unlikely ally in the culmination of his plot to bring freedom and justice back to a society fraught with cruelty and corruption.

With a full head of hair in the beginning, as she’s shaking and quivering from the uncertainty of being interrogated in the old school, Starsky and Hutch ways, with a bright GE 100-Watt, “Gentle enough to read by, bright enough to live with”¦”, being shoved in her face, she’s harkening back to an older time. It was during HEAT, when she’s lost her hair thingy and she’s flippin’ out to her ice queen of a mother and she’s shaking her poodle perm back and forth as she says she can’t be late. I somehow felt this urge to shave that melon right then, but here, when they show they do it, it’s wonderful. Her reaction isn’t like that of a Pauly Shore in IN THE ARMY NOW, but what really could top that, really?

The trailer, though, is masterfully rendered.

While there really isn’t anything that’s done, cinematography wise, to make me feel that the environment is anything less than a soundstage I am still engaged fully with it.

What’s odd is that when she’s asked if she’s going to cooperate with The Man, in finding our dude, V, and when you know she’s going to give the requisite “No” in complete defiance, as she’s wearing some potato sack and looking like a raccoon who’s been tucked away in a barrel for a few months with the rings around her eyes, she gives that “No” and the spirit of Keanu-speak slithers ever so quietly through the speakers.

Things then kick up with the Hitler Youth rally that seems to indicate that the world’s turned into a police state where everyone snitches on each other and that terrorism here is another way to see how the George W. Bush administration has turned the whole world”¦blah blah blah. The idea of the police state and how Natalie is caught up in this web of government control is a good one that’s executed with some good visual aplomb; even though, again, the cinematography and direction is a bit limp, I am still groovin’ on what’s happening.

“From the creators of the Matrix trilogy”

So, we get our V for Vendetta guy. He twirls his little daggers around like he’s part of a new faction of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles that’s crashed into the style of Zorro Gone Wayward. The little wisps of hair that flow like air around his head as he’s delivering a little outsider justice, that mask staying in perfect place as he twirls around, is nice to look at. The guy looks like quite the bad ass. Although, after Natalie listens to how the government made V into the man he is, the line “Then they’ve created a monster” throws my eyeballs back into my skull as I thought that Moore was a better writer than to write something so hokey. I am quickly reminded, though, that he is more than perturbed with the way things went on this production so I feel 90% that wasn’t his doing.

The scenes leading up to the final money shot galore fest help, if nothing else, define what this movie is really about. It juxtaposes the theme of the story, that totalitarian rule over a populace that is so paralyzed by their own complacency is just accepted as fact, with the notion that this guy, V, isn’t a terrorist so much as he is a galvanizing force that tries to help, while harming, those who would just take it in the balloon knots and not so much as say boo about it.

The explosions that trigger our descent into London, circa whenever, are fairly sweet. Our knife wielding protagonist rails against our bad guys, his full-on mop whipping around his head like a showgirl’s wig, and stuff is just blowing up left and right. The bomb strapped to V’s body with his thumb on the slivery trigger is a nice touch.

Director: Werner Herzog
Cast: Amie Huguenard, Timothy Treadwell
Release: August 12, 2005 (Limited)
Synopsis: A devastating and heart-wrenching take on grizzly bear activists Timothy Treadwell and Amie Huguenard, who were killed in October of 2003 while living among grizzlies in Alaska.

I have never been one to romanticize the wonderful things that are hidden in our nation’s forest system but the sweeping views of the tree cobbled mountains that open this trailer are really nice to look at.

And, this is nice, even though you’re enjoying the view and listening to the man who tended to grizzly bears for over a decade Voiceover Guy just barrels right into the obvious when he states that one of the grizzlies he “swore to protect” killed him. That’s funny, though, in a macabre way. Yeah, a grizzly killed him, but they’re grizzlies. They’re carnivores. It doesn’t take anything away from the pacing, though. I was just adding my own reaction to the semantics of the line.

Boom, we’re right into it with some grizzlies, on their hind legs wrestling with each other. It’s a sight to see these beasts of nature so close but then we’re introduced to the bear man himself, Timothy Treadwell. It’s, seriously, a really nice gesture that they put his D.O.B. and date of death on the screen and I think it really helps, in a nuanced way, add a little something human to the moment. Now, Timothy is oblivious to the natural instinct to flee like your ass is in flames and even calls one of his grizzlies “Mr. Chocolate.”

Tim’s voice is so calm and delicate that it’s hard not to just wonder what is racing through the guy’s mind.

Interject a newspaper clip from Ebert, giving this docu a solid thumbs-up.

Tim is given some time to talk about the process of getting in close with the bears and you begin to see where his pathos starts to fragment away from what any other person with a need for self-preservation would likely do if they were in his place. Tim talks about being confronted by these bears and, instead of talking about cutting and running, he uses the metaphor of the samurai.

Interject a newspaper clip from the Times, Variety.

There is interview footage from what appears to be a helicopter pilot, rocking a Wilfred Brimley “˜stache, who essentially says Tim got what he deserved.

And that’s when things take a dark turn.

Instead of this being a celebration of what Tim did there are a good half dozen or so references that Tim makes into the camera which speak to the lethality of one thing or another about being with these bears. It’s haunting.

That’s how this trailer slowly burns out. We get some interview footage, probably post bear attack, which explains that Tim’s death among the bears was something he was willing to go through because it was something that he loved. He was crazy as all hell but I would actually like to see how Werner Herzog pieces it all together.

Director: Rob McKittrick
Cast: Ryan Reynolds, Anna Faris, Justin Long
Release: October 7, 2005
Synopsis: Young employees at Shenanigan’s restaurant collectively stave off boredom and adulthood with their antics.

Reason #2: Dane Cook. Did you read what I wrote about homeboy last week? Have you any clue what I am talking about? If you’re still clueless then clue in on to how he handles his comedic bad self in this trailer. Feel free to write in to disagree but you’re wrong even before you put your fingers onto your greasy keyboard.

The trailer opens up, oddly, with the same kind of jaunty music that opened OFFICE SPACE. I’m not sure if this is intentional but the coincidence of that movie being about jobs we all hate and this movie, which also seems to be about a job any teen who has had to get a job can relate to, is really odd.

No matter, though, as Ryan Reynolds comes bounding onto the screen, seducing the camera like a lover needing a quick hump. He’s just good that way.

The introductions to the other people who Ryan works with are a little funny. It’s nothing I would call hilarious but it’s when we come to the kitchen where the giggles, titters and the chuckles start flowing like a boxed wine with a hole in it.

A steak falls off the grill and onto the ground. Guzman, looking like the head chef, yells out to Cook. You’d expect some sort of lambasting or even a reprimand for dropping the food but he screams out, “The 5 second rule! The 5 second rule!” He starts counting off one, two, three as Cook wrangles it off the brown tile floor and laughs as he gets it onto the plate before five. That’s comedy.

We get that, after we see the kind of “hijinks” that are going on behind the doors of the restaurant and are entertained to see Guzman and Cook going at it again and we even get the idea that this R rating could be for a little sauciness with regard to the ladies. And that’s fine, you know? The world needs more movies in the vein of HOT DOG, MEATBALLS or any other brainless comedy that just plays it for laughs.

When we pick up with some of the storytelling we have Ryan being yelled at by a customer who would like their steak cooked more than it was served. In a quiet voice, Ryan turns around to the kitchen, plate in hand and we get “Ride of the Valkyries.” Dane is there to explain how he’s going to add extra gravy to the mashed potatoes (cue assistant to Dane who generates some nasal phlegm), will put a little garlic salt on her bread (cue another assistant who Ally Sheedy BREAKFAST CLUB’s their scalp to make it rain down dandruff) and they watch as the customer begins once more to eat her meal.

If you found the fortitude to enjoy VAN WILDER I am sure you’ll appreciate the approach to comedy here.

Director: Anand Tucker
Cast: Steve Martin, Claire Danes, Jason Schwartzman, Sam Bottoms, Frances Conroy, Rebecca Pidgeon, Joshua Snyder, Bridgette Wilson-Sampras, Gina Doctor, Anne Marie Howard
Release: October 21, 2005
Synopsis: Based on Steve Martin’s bestselling novella, SHOPGIRL is a funny and poignant story of love in the modern age. The film catches a glimpse inside the lives of three very different people on diverse paths, but all in search of the same thing. Mirabelle (Claire Danes) is a “plain Jane” overseeing the rarely frequented glove counter at Saks Fifth Avenue in Beverly Hills. An artist struggling to keep up with even the minimum payment on her credit card and student loans, she keeps to herself until a rich, handsome fifty something named Ray Porter (Steve Martin) sweeps her off her feet. Simultaneously, Mirabelle is being pursued by Jeremy (Jason Schwartzman), a basic bachelor who’s not quite as cultured and successful as Ray. When fate steps in, the outcome may not always be a storybook ending, because in the end”¦it was life.

It was called “The Pleasure of My Company” and it was alright. It was good, a little quirky in a way that some would call weird, but its resolution was a little less than I would’ve liked. If I had to really make a go at critiquing his novella writing style I would call it “needlessly ambitious.” He just tries too hard.

With this trailer, as well, I think there’s something there that makes me feel like the pretension almost excludes me as a viewer. Let me explain.

We open up in a glove parlor. I’m not sure where one goes to get long gloves or who actually stands behind a counter selling them but when Steve says that the black will do and goes about his merry way I am left thinking what I just witnessed. A guy buying gloves for his wife? Who does that? Obviously, literary people do. Ok, I’ll give him that. A little haughty, but ok.

Now, we focus on Claire. She does her washing at a Laundromat. Jason Schwartzman, who really hasn’t found lightning again since RUSHMORE, almost in I HEART HUCKABEES, insinuates himself into Claire’s life as an oddball love interest. It feels unnatural, and Claire’s understanding of Jason’s oddness which she hopes goes away, is spinning me in all sorts of confused directions.

Then, Steve pops up again. The gloves are waiting for Claire at her humble apartment as Steve wants to hit that. They even go to dinner where Steve looks rather natural as he tries to feel out the skeevy factor of his advances on a girl who is sharply younger than he is.

Click back to Jason. The two of them start dating, for reasons I don’t understand, and, watching Jason, you can’t really empathize with her because he is such an oddball loser.

Steve pops up, asks her if she’d like to dine on his private jet and she acquiesces.

Is this a story where it’s like, “Do I choose the guy who is so obviously wrong or do I chose the guy who has lots of money and privilege but could be my dad?”

Whatever the answer is, and the question actually gets asked in this trailer, I’m not sure I’d want to spend the time to find out. There’s nothing really compelling about the trailer and the story doesn’t seem that novel. What I do know, though, is that the music chosen is top notch, there are no voiceovers that get in the way, and there doesn’t seem to be an obvious answer to any questions that are posed. In that respect I give it some respect but that’s about it.

And P.S. ““ Have any of you seen the movie poster for this flick? Check out the trailer site and see what I’m talking about. Claire Danes looks like a dude. In real life she’s a rather pretty woman but the poster makes her look like a bad transvestite who just discovered wigs and make-up.

Director: Andrew Niccol
Cast: Nicolas Cage, Ethan Hawke, Jared Leto, Bridget Moynahan, Jeffrey Wright, Ian Holm
Release: September 16, 2005
Synopsis: An arms dealer (Cage) who schemes his way to the top of his profession only to face an enemy he never expected: his conscience. But it’s not easy to leave behind a life of girls, guns and glamour, when no-one wants you to stop, not even your enemies.

Who else but Clarence would sit across the desk from a guy who manufactures cocaine, packages them in small glass I Love Jeanie bottles, and then proceeds to dip his fingers in said manufacturers’ red wine and snorts the drippings? That’s not foul, that’s just the making of a better than clichéd envisioning of a crazy mofo. I especially like the part, in the same scene, when Clarence has a half-dozen or so automatic weapons drawn on him to which he quips with a giddy glee, “Guns, guns, guns”¦” That’s what I am reminded here as Nicholas Cage, who is really earning value like a good stock with me with this picture, disregarding his downslide whoring of himself for NATIONAL TREASURE, does the voiceover for this trailer.

As the camera glides over the perfectly placed display of yards and yards of ammunition, Cage explains what he does with not even a tinge of either remorse or some manufactured sense of bravado. It’s a sales job, he explains, with all the responsibilities that go along with it. The fact that’s tossed out, that there’s one firearm for every 12 people in the world, and his calm intonation about wondering about how to arm the other 11 is a sales quandary but one he supposes with steely honesty. It’s darkly amusing and, yet, makes complete sense.

The shot of the man, well, shooting at someone and the accompanying sounds of the ka-ching with every recoil of the man’s AK-47, the shell casing arcing away from the gun, as it exists is wicked sharp.

Then, we get the Flying Lizards’ “Money (That’s What I Want),” a song I’ve never really been too keen on, appropriately slides in as this movie unfolds. Cage in his suit and tie, talking to warlords of countries barely anyone would be able to find on a map, doesn’t look like someone who should be castigated so much as he someone who has seen a niche market and is serving it.

Jared Leto, a man I really did swear a blood oath to revile like a pretty boy in need of a good flogging across the face with a cat-o-nine-tails for all that prissy preening as the hopelessly understood yet incredibly well kempt “bad boy” of My So Called Life, really flickers here and there as he seems to be Cage’s right hand man.

Ethan Hawke is a bit of a distraction as he appears to be requisite Man Who is Trying to Bring Him Down as is the hot dollop of a doll who is Cage’s arm candy. She has no idea what he does and he wants to keep it that way, as he says that there are plenty of sales people who don’t talk about their work, but whatever works, right?

I can’t complain too much as even when Cage is approached by an agent of the Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms unit he cracks a little wise to say he assumes he isn’t being talked to about alcohol or tobacco. It’s a one-liner, sure, but in the moment, in the context of this trailer, it works just fine.

Clarence would be proud of a guy like this.

P.S.S. ““ Have you seen the poster for this flick? I hope next year at the Key Art Awards, where they celebrate movie advertising and trailer work, the graphic artist gets some props for a sweet ass design.

Darren: Oh really? That’s what they told me you’re supposed to do.

Was it cool?

Yes, yes it was”¦

Darren: Is it good?

It was good”¦

Darren: I don’t think it will stop people from coming to see the movie. I think it will probably make them want to see more. Unless it sucked.

Was it confusing?

A little bit”¦

How was it confusing?

Ummmm”¦..What the hell is the tree?

Darren: That’s what the film is about is finding out what it is. It’s a mystery.

[To Rachel] Were you confused, while you were making it?

Rachel: No, I obviously read the script many times. I figured it out.

Is it non-linear?

Darren: Well, emotionally it’s linear. It’s non-linear in time. You’re basically following one character, Hugh Jackman’s character, through the course of the film and it adds up and it makes sense but it’s told in a very PULP FICTION sort of way.

How many drafts, how many revisions has this movie gone through?

Darren: There were probably about 50 official drafts around. Official. Which means when I was just tweaking away there were a lot of drafts. Well”¦50 drafts and 30 official drafts.

Did you ever feel that you were getting to the point where you felt like you were at the point of overworking the material?

Darren: I think that we did over think it at times. That’s part of the process is that you go too far and you have to come back. And you go too far and you have to come back. So, it’s a slow balancing act to get to the place.

Was it significantly rewritten?

Darren: Yeah, when it went from a 95 million dollar film to a 35 million dollar film it changed a lot. And that was my move because I realized they wouldn’t have made it at that level so I had to come up with the cheapest version they could make it with.

Did that help you creatively?

Darren: I think what kicked in was some kind of independent, guerilla filmmaker. So it was probably something more of who I was versus what I was becoming.

So, would either of you characterize this filmic experience as a guerilla”¦ I think I would say it. It’s a 35 million dollar guerilla movie. Absolutely.

[To Rachel] How was that experience for you?

Darren: You’ve done a lot of those big movies, so how did it seem?

Rachel: The thing about that is that you’re talking about money in a way. So, the green’s green is the green’s green. So, for however much money is spent in post is irrelevant to me as an actor. The guerilla aspect of it is just the style in which Darren directs. He’s very passionate and very (laughs) guerilla.

The budget thing doesn’t affect me as an actor.

Darren: Well, were we crappy to you? You had a trailer, though. You were all set.

Did you have to work fast?

Darren: Yeah.

Rachel: We worked long hours.

Darren: We didn’t work that long, did we? Did I go over time a lot? It really should be a 90 million dollar movie so hopefully it looks a lot bigger than 35 million. When you think that an average Hollywood film is, how much, 60 million without P&A, 60-70 million for your average Hollywood movie, this film looks big. I think that’s because we spent 6 years, 5 years, in pre-production and we figured out how we could do everything smart and cheap. Every single dime is on that screen.

Me: How close was it to never being made?

Darren: Yeah, in October 2002, an actor quit and the movie fell apart and it was basically dead and that’s when the graphic novel began because I just wanted to get the story out there somehow. So, we worked on the graphic novel and during that time period I was like, “There’s got to be a way to make this that I can do, that’s make able.” And that’s when I wrote the most guerilla version of it and what came out I showed to Eric, the producer, and he’s like, “Let’s go make it.”

Me: What happened with Hugh where you all of sudden thought, “I gotta get that guy”?

Darren: What happened with Hugh is that, to be frank, he wasn’t really on my radar because he had done X-MEN and he was great but hadn’t done much else.

Then, I went to his Broadway show. Even though that performance, “The Boy From Oz,” is so different than THE FOUNTAIN but there was so much passion and energy and charisma”¦he’s such an untapped talent. I mean, in this film, we really show every side of Hugh Jackman and he just really went for it.

So, I went backstage afterwards and he was really nice and I asked him what he was doing next and he said, “I want to do an Aronofsky film.” “Yeah? Prove it.”

(Laughs)

Then, I showed him the script and, what time do Broadway shows end, 10:30, he read it that night, called me at 10 am the next morning”¦he really got it. As you can tell that this is not your average film to get. So we talked about it and it meant that we had to wait another 8 months, we were ready to go at that point, but he had so much passion and I decided that outweighed the other stuff.

Why was this film right for the Comi-Con audience?

Darren: Well, there’s also the graphic novel.

So, not only is it this movie, it’s also this graphic novel. I mean, I am a comic fan and this just fits right into, you know, what we like. I’ll use the word “we” sparingly but it’s sci-fi, it’s got sword and sandal, and it’s got a love story.

Rachel: Is that a term? Sword and sandal?

(Laughs)

Darren: Isn’t it? It’s a genre.

Rachel: (Surprised) Really?

Thinking of the space portion of the movie? What were some of the challenges in making that part of the movie?

The challenges were, from a production point of view, is that you had to spend a lot of money for a third of the film. So that’s where it was a difficult film to make. It was kind of fun. The only challenge was that if you fuck up when you shave”¦when you make Hugh Jackman go bald, if you fuck up you’re screwed. Are there any kids here?

Rachel: No”¦

(Laughs)

Darren: If you don’t do anything with the Conquistador thing, then you messed up. We had to make sure we had everything before we changed his hairstyle.

For Rachel, what was the most challenging thing for you?

Rachel: I guess the most challenging thing was that it was very emotional, very raw, very exposed part. And it’s a good challenge because it’s a real acting job even though it’s housed inside a real science-fiction movie. I’m not playing an action babe, or whatever, I’m playing a very emotional character so that’s what drew me to it and that’s what was a challenge about it.

Me (Seconds before feeling like a dumb-ass for asking a dumb-ass question): Rachel, how close were you to not being in this movie? It has gone through so many changes, co-stars, etc”¦, did you ever say to yourself, “You know, I don’t think I want to put any more time into this picture”?

Rachel: I hadn’t been attached to it in its initial incarnation. Darren just recounted the story of how he cast Hugh and after he cast Hugh he only then went through the process of casting a female lead. And that’s when he came to me. I hadn’t been attached to it for a long time.

Can you tell us about your character?

Rachel: She’s a woman living in contemporary America who’s married to Hugh, they’re deeply in love and she finds out that she’s terminally ill. It’s about how she comes to terms with dying and leaving her partner. So, that’s why it’s a very emotional role. It’s about love”¦and death.

Darren: And it starts with the fountain of youth.

Rachel: Yep.

Darren: It will all make sense when you see it.

What’s been the reaction of people you’ve met here at the Con?

Darren: (Affecting the sound of a fan boy uncontrollably moistening his Jockey’s at the sight of Rachel) AAAuuuaaahhh!!!

(Laughs)

Rachel: Really passionate and really enthusiastic, everyone I’ve met. Very polite.

Darren: Everyone’s polite.

Rachel: “¦Being asked if there is going to be a MUMMY 3, which I don’t know the answer to. I really enjoyed it. I’m going to hit the floor later, I got a Catwoman mask.

(Laughs)

Darren: Shhh!!!

Rachel: There’s gonna be so many Catwoman’s out there”¦

Darren: Catwoman may NOT be popular. It was a big bomb.

Rachel: It was a big bomb?

Darren: It was a big bomb. I’m not sure it would be popular.

Me: Lessons learned from this whole project?

Darren: I think persistence and patience are two virtues of this film. I mean, the film is about rebirth. It’s about coming to terms with life and death. And the film died and was reborn again. So, that was a great process to witness because I think we had to go through that to make it. It was just too out there of a project to have it happen right away. It had to struggle. I think the only films that happen right away are if you do your comedy, do your action film, that’s what happens right away.

Director: Philip Zlotorynski
Writer:Chris Gore (screenplay), Adam Schwartz
Cast: Paget Brewster, Neil Barton, Eric Hoffman, Darren Reiher, Ashley Head, Brian Krow, Neil Hopkins, Rob Schrab
Release: Fall 2005
Synopsis: “My Big Fat Independent Movie” is a spoof along the lines of “Scary Movie” and “Not Another Teen Movie.” It includes parodies of some of the indie film world’s most renowned movies such as “Memento,” “Pulp Fiction,” “Magnolia,” “My Big Fat Greek Wedding,” “Amelie,” “Run Lola Run,” “El Mariachi,” “The Good Girl,” “Pi,” “Swingers” and many others.

Prognosis: Positive. Of all the “First off” and “Before I begin” statements I could make, none could make me happier than saying that I love seeing the red banner trailer notice. There’s always an air of dangerousness about it because someone made the conscious choice to say, “You know, we could do it the way these people want us to make it”¦” but then go about how they want it done. Be it good, bad, sleazy or dirty, with regard to how well it turns out, you just have to respect the decision, you know?

With that said, the trailer’s damn sweet.

The slippery thing about starting a film with scads of WINNER/OFFICIAL SELECTION wreaths is that since this is a comedy and the voiceover is this jaunty man who begins his spiel with the words “Once in a great while” you’re almost inclined to disregard the display as the first of many jokes. This is perhaps the only point that needs clarification: this part of the trailer is the serious bit. A little research finds out that this flick HAS garnered all that attention and adulation legitimately. This is the one and the only time when the trailer takes anything seriously and so we now return you to the regularly scheduled R-Banner trailer.

You know I wish I wouldn’t say this and if I was really trying to be cool I wouldn’t but I love that things start off with Pauly Shore. I am a drunken fan of IN THE ARMY NOW and that bazooka scene at the end of the flick just ties together the simpleton narrative of the movie so nicely. That’s why I appreciate when we see Pauly getting annihilated by the very same extender bazooka. I may have lost all cred in the world with this paragraph but I can’t deny what’s funny to me.

Some of the confusion I felt at the first incarnation of this trailer when I reviewed it last year (!) was that I really didn’t have an idea of where this story was going. Sure, I understood that we had all these parodies but a parody does not a movie make. That’s why I was so pleased to see the goofing on SWINGERS which takes place. Not only does it profane the hip Daddy-O linguistics which the original flick embraced but I am finally getting somewhere with the story.

What’s more is that convention is being spoofed here and not so much just the emblems of the independent era. To put it another way, what movies like NAKED GUN did was just to be absurd for absurd’s sake. What this trailer is doing, with every subsequent goof, be that PULP FICTION or THE GOOD GIRL, is to make light of the story mechanics that pervaded all these movies.

That’s not to say, though, that there isn’t a good laugh to have here. There are lots to point an index finger at while laughing. I particularly enjoyed the meeting between AIMILE and our hero from DESPERADO. The quick exchange between our two protagonists, before one is dispensed with in a most marvelous fashion, is worth watching just for this.

The special effects that are employed throughout this trailer, though, are understandably low budget. The explosions and gun fire which punctuate a lot of this trailer look independent in nature but that its charm.

What you have here is a movie, which is understandably independent, and, instead of going the route of most every first-year film student, the movie looks to capitalize on the more eye-rolling conventions of the independent landscape.

Also, and I don’t want to go too far without noting this, you can never go wrong with lesbians in lingerie. Hell, I enjoyed it and even though those two women on the screen couldn’t be more hetro you throw a snippet like that in a trailer because you know what kind of reaction it will get, from the one segment of audience who you know will gobble that up like a bowl full of kibble.

And Clint Howard. How can you go wrong with a character actor like Slinky whose performance in TANGO AND CASH was so egregiously overlooked by the Academy.

In all, this trailer fires on the right notes and does what it is supposed to do. With subjectivity looming large over the heads of anyone trying to thumb what will play with the greatest amounts of people I can reasonably say that an orgy scene with more chicks in their underwear and depicts a midget getting all up in it with someone trying to ascribe the proper PC designation for him is perhaps the best way to end things.

I just wish this flick finally would come out before its material gets too old for its own good. Weird Al Yankovik understood the timeliness of a good parody and I hope this one does as well.

Director: Rupert Wainwright
Cast: Tom Welling, Maggie Grace, Rade Sherbedgia, Selma Blair
Release: October 14, 2005
Synopsis: Exactly one hundred years ago, off the rocky shore of an isolated Northern California town, a ship of lepers was horribly wrecked in an eerie fog when the founders of the town purposefully misguided the ship, dooming everyone aboard. Now, tonight, the ghosts of the long-dead mariners have returned from their watery graves to exact revenge. Shrouded within a supernatural fog, the ghosts trap the residents of the remote community, intent on seeking out the descendents of those who founded the town…and killing anyone who stands in their murderous path.

Prognosis: Positive. Alright, everyone get it out of your system.

Scream out loudly about how it’s such in poor taste and how it’s so lazy that someone’s decided to remake John Carpenter’s classic in a shameless attempt at cashing in on a property like this. How it’s such a bad idea to tinker with something that should’ve been left alone. Now, I understand where the initial defiance comes from but the DAWN OF THE DEAD remake of last year should’ve been a good sign to a lot of purists out there that there can be solid reinventions of movies that many cultists revere.

After seeing this trailer, though, I have to admit that the rest of you can scream all you like but I think I may have to miss the protest in favor of seeing Maggie Grace walk around in her Victoria Secrets. Honestly, this really looks like a grand day out.

From the moment the trailer opens, and I am thankful, thankful, there isn’t a voiceover involved, the trailer takes its time. We get established early on with the place we’re talking about and the threat of what’s about to come.

The little man who is stationed at his radar, and you’ve got to give it up to all those bit actors who are the ones who sit at the radar screens, the one who tells everyone else about the impending doom (Consult for further reference: the guy from INDEPENDENCE DAY, the guy from TOP GUN, the dudes from THE HUNT FOR RED OCTOBER and CRIMSON TIDE, all sweaty from their time at the controls), informs who is probably going to be the first victim: Selma Blair. She looks like a late night disc jockey who questions why the fog bank that’s coming towards their sleepy little hollow of an island is doing just that. I mean, she’s a disc jockey. Hell, I wouldn’t know that fog doesn’t roll in. You could tell me that fog spontaneously appears wherever it wants and I’m pretty sure I’d believe you. But, whatever, she’s voicing the reason that causes us all to stir in our collective Underroos.

We get a little late night wind chime action to show how the wind’s picking up (Ooo”¦how spooky! Wind chimes!) and some fog outside a four pane window; I have to admit that the later is creepier than all shit as I get flashbacks from SALEM’S LOT. That scratching on the window from those two brothers who turn into vampires still scares the hell out of me.

From here Superboy and Maggie Grace, the two of them looking indelibly lost from an Abercrombie and Fitch catalog shoot, stir from their late night sleep. Maggie has a vision in her sleep; it looks like sunny pond water and algae but it wakes her up, scares her.

Flash to Selma driving home, still at night, and the fog forces her to stop her car. She can’t understand the fog’s appearance. As she’s wondering and hoping to her God to get out of it, her beater is slammed into by a semi (isn’t that always the way?) and it’s really sweet. The effect is nicely done as she’s jettisoned into a deep body of water and her panicky cries for help are just faded to black as Superboy, Maggie and a little kid, one you know won’t be killed (and what gives little kids the right in movies to stay alive? I was, and still am, pissed that Jason didn’t get to whack at least one in Part 6: Jason Lives.), wander the empty streets, Superboy knowing full well that the fog has already killed some people. How does he know that? Dunno, but we’re quickly hurried to our requisite crazy priest who asks that Maggie get herself off the island quickly. He looks like he, himself, has been hitting the blood of Jesus a little too much but when Maggie seems unconvinced I would have to agree.

And after we see a brother get it (Is that always the way in horror movies? Robert Townsend got that right a long time ago.) and even a kid seems in danger, we get it.

Maggie Walking around in her skivvies. Yes, while I have to admit it’s wholeheartedly needless and out of place and sexist and only proves that we live in a world where physicality and objectification of women’s bodies is still alive and well, I do also say it works. Shame on me, yes, but damn, that’s hot.

The doling out of the money shots work well, too, as there really does seem like a lot of work went into creating an experience that is at the same time enjoyable and a bit on the spooky side. Now, using the remake of Kevin Dillion’s THE BLOB as a point of reference, the genre of making films that all take place in the nighttime is a small but complex genre. You have to find ways of using the dark to your advantage as there is really only so many ways your DP can help light “dark” but when remaking something like this you not only have to execute the retelling really well you have to also come correct with a new way of envisioning a single tone.

The parting shot of a victim to the spooky fog, all frozen-like and mummified, is a good one and I hope it’s only prelude to some genuine thrills. The remake to THE BLOB wasn’t very entertaining but I hope Superboy and Maggie can add something that Drama couldn’t.

Director: Lexi Alexander
Cast: Elijah Wood, Charlie Hunnam, Claire Forlani, Marc Warren , Leo Gregory
Release: September 9, 2005 (Limited)
Synopsis: A wrongfully expelled Harvard undergrad moves to London, where he is introduced to the violent undeworld of soccer hooliganism.

Prognosis: Positive. Favorite deranged character from a modestly budgeted film which launched the career of a virtual unknown into the stratosphere of big films and even bigger flops? That’s tough but I would have to go with Begbie from TRAINSPOTTING.

One of the things I liked about Robert Carlyle’s performance as the kind of sod who should have been tossed on his ass by his mates was that he was crazy insane and no one seemed to mind. The part where he tosses his pint glass over his shoulder and nonchalantly couldn’t have cared less about its trajectory? Pure class. I still find that moment one of the best ever captured on film. Ok, not the best but it sure is funny.

That brings us to this little film with Elijah “Homoerotic or Homosocial, You Figure It Out College Boy” Wood. You can tell immediately that the production value isn’t LORD OF THE RINGS but it’s nice to see him again after his very solid, very awesomely executed role in ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND. Elijah thankfully takes the voiceover reigns on this one as he explains who he is and why he’s in the UK; he was kicked out of Harvard, for reasons we’re not given, but he’s there and he’s looking to go to a proper football match.

Now, his host, who is sharply dressed, bribes a member (maybe?) of the family to take Elijah to a game but the near skinhead objects about bringing a Yank to a match. Here’s where things get interesting. The reluctant tour guide has a little go at our diminutive envoy from the US. They’re play fighting, again for reasons which we’re not given, and Elijah is even kicked to which he responds that was the 1st fight he’s ever been in. He seems amused by this admission and our surly chaperone obviously points out that was no fight.

It’s game day and pints of beer, hopefully Guinness, are clinked together in a celebratory fashion. Everything about this scene in the pub denotes certain edginess. You’re not quite on even ground with the way things are going but you can see that things are going to get rough.

Thankfully, it doesn’t take long for the thugs in this football pep squad to devolve into a horde of ass kicking troglodytes. It’s awesome. Elijah protests ever so subtly that the dozen or so dudes who are swaggering in their general direction are probably going to start some shit. His minder doesn’t care and even yells at him to stand his ground.

Elijah comes correct as he swings his fists and just lets loose into the crowd. Here we were, thinking our boy was the innocent one, as the skullduggery just proves us wrong. He just melts into the fabric of his new crew and he takes part in their wanton, destructive acts and even tattoos his allegiance to these people into his chest.

The rest of the trailer drops some notable notables from a few publications, giving this movie some unneeded pimping as the product here sells itself to the right consumer. You’ve got a nice electronic beat behind everything, some violence mixed in for piquant of shock value and the lure that Elijah may take these things way too far by the end of the film.

Director: Paul Provenza
Cast: Jason Alexander, Hank Azaria, Steven Banks, Shelley Berman, Lewis Black, David Brenner and a veritable ton of others”¦
Release: August 12, 2005 (Limited)
Synopsis: One hundred superstar comedians tell the same very, VERY dirty, filthy joke–one shared privately by comics since Vaudeville.

Prognosis: Positive. Note to self: Sarah Silverman is in this trailer and I imagine I could watch an entire movie of her lounging around, like she’s doing here, on her couch in a snug fitting tank top.

However, this is an awkward trailer but it still works.

In David Mamet’s wicked awesome movie, THE SPANISH PRISONER, Scott Campbell creates something that’s worth a lot of money. The thing is, you’re never really told what it is or how much it’s worth even though he writes the figure down. See, the amount is shown to everyone else in the movie except the viewer. That’s brilliant. That’s good filmmaking.

Essentially, that’s the same thing going on here and so it’ll either be frustrating to some people or lure some people into what the hell everyone’s talking around, but never stating.

I could do a Google search and yield something but I don’t want to because the idea of deliberately not being told something is playful. I like that.

Drew Carey leads off what must be an in-joke with every comedian known to man. He starts off with the premise.

“A guy goes into a talent agent’s office and says, “˜I’ve got the greatest act in the world”¦”

Bill Mahr continues:

“‘It’s a family act”¦’”

Bob “Blue” Saget follows:

“And the agent goes, “˜Well, what do you people do?’”

The whole time this joke is being set up, countless names of performers in this movie flash and dissolves by on the screen. Whoopi Goldberg chimes in with aside about how it’s tough to shock people nowadays.

Quotes from established press are pimped out to show how darn hilarious this movie is.

George Carlin states his modus operandi for comedy.

What seems to be materializing, though, with everyone who is appearing on the screen is how comedy seems to function from those who have been doing it for so long. Andy Dick’s comments not withstanding, it’s good stuff; seriously, Dick was great when he was part of Newsradio’s ensemble but, on his own, he seems like a man desperate to hold onto just the premise of his own funniness.

Jake Johansson, another great comedian, comes back into the original topic of discussion and states that people could be put to death for some of the variations of this hardly told joke. I admit, I want to know what in G-d’s name they’re all talking about but it’s working me into a crescendo.

“I actually was an aristocrat.”

Sarah Silverman comes to tell us how she embodied the aristocrat persona but what is it?

I don’t know what’s so funny about this joke but to see that Rolling Stone say that I’ll laugh till it hurts is quite the kind of hyperbole that’s usually reserved for Stephen Segal movies. The classical music delicately playing in the background as Jon Stewart, Billy Connolly, Eric Idle, Paul Riser and Gilbert Gottfried all continue the joke’s narrative is just aggravating because I’m simply tempted to go to Google to find out what could be so uproarious.

I haven’t read what it could be but in the time that I’ve written this critique and have endured the onslaught of publicity this film has received I am already knowledgeable about the whole thing but I can’t figure out, for the life of me, what could be so damn funny about one joke.

Director: Jonathan Jakubowicz
Cast: Mia Maestro, Ruben Blades, Carlos Julio Molina, Pedro Perez
Release: August 5, 2005
Synopsis: Every sixty minutes a person in Latin America is abducted, and 70% of them do not return. This is the story of a young couple who fall victim to some ruthless Venezuelan kidnappers, and the traumas they endure in captivity.

Prognosis: Negativo. I really did give SIN CITY a chance. I gave it a few chances. I sat there and I tried to find something good that could’ve stayed with me.

Ultimately, though, it fell prey to what happens when you cross written pulp with the conventions of humanistic speech and the oddity of people actually talking in a way that’s queer to the ear.

I’m glad Robert Rodriquez is so active in making films even though it would’ve taken me a few squares of pot brownies to induce me to see THE ADVENTURES OF SHARK BOY AND LAVA GIRL in 3-D. He’s prolific and even here in this film, where he plays the part of producer, that nebulous nether region of being able to take all of the credit or none of the blame, there is flashes of that sweaty headiness that made his low-budget foray into film so exciting.

What I think this trailer lacks, though, is confidence.

What I mean by this is when I watched the whole thing from start to finish there is definitely a need by someone to amp up the action to the point of making me believe this is going to be a “non-stop thrill ride.” Usually one likes to save the quick cuts feature, where you essentially blow your load and cobble together unrelated scenes to punch up the idea to people about what the movie is going to be.

This whole trailer is a quick cut. I damn near get motion sickness from the sweeping camera moves and ostentatious aping at trying to be this slick, cool movie. It doesn’t work.

“In the most dangerous city on earth”¦”

I am thankful, thankful, that Voiceover Guy is here narrating the whole trailer. I would’ve goofed on the guy for having to state such an untrue fact about this being the most dangerous city on earth, as I not only think his tune would change if we stuck him in the middle of Baghdad in the middle of the night with a strobe light attached to his forehead and an “I (heart) U.S.A.” patch stuck to his back, but he is the only stabilizing force in this trailer. You’ve got to watch your superlatives, kids, remember that.

We are quickly flashed moments of people under duress. I think we’re supposed to get that many folks are kidnapped and that crime is out of control and there is nothing the po-po’s can do and it’s a bad place to live. I get it. Flashes of money, masked perpetrators and scared citizens help me to complete the picture he’s trying to paint. It’s a Paint-by-Numbers but it’s still painted just fine.

Rodriguez’ name, well, his likeness anyway as “The producer of”¦”, established big credibility and, like it or hate it, the reason why big names get on to small projects like this isn’t so much because they were so actively involved in the production per se but that the famous cache helps to get a small picture like this noticed a little easier.

From here we meet the people who will be the prey in this film, a hot looking lady and her equally cool looking male model fiancée, a real Barbie and Ken power couple of South America, and the cards on the screen that tell us this flash quicker than a pervert in New York. You are not allowed to stabilize on anything.

So, these hot young’uns are kidnapped and are held for ransom. I wait to see what really makes this film different from any other show on A&E where they reenact kidnapping footage to tell how a cop really saved the day but the funny thing is that I think that’s it.

This is a movie about where, and I quote Voiceover Guy, “outlaws call all the shots.” Oy vey. For reals? Is this all there is? You’re telling me this is a movie about a kidnapping and you don’t have like a Denzel Washington type character getting all sorts of pissed, blowing people up in a rage?

Nope.

What’s redeeming about the trailer, though, is after we’re given a better introduction to the thugs of this film, I still don’t understand why, I think I am able to see that what really adds something else to the film is that the fiancée escapes but his girlfriend is left to fend for herself and he has to find her before they slash her face and give her a Columbian necktie or so I think.

It also appears this film was shot in DV but I can’t really say for sure. I see that they do one of those camera tricks where the camera is mounted in front of the person and they stay stable no matter what they do, kind of like that wisenheimer who terrorized that convenience store in the Smashing Pumpkins’ “1979” video. But, just based on this footage here, I can’t in good conscience recommend anyone see this film.

Director: Marcos Siega
Cast: Evan Rachel Wood, James Woods, Ron Livingston, Adi Schnall
Release: August 12, 2005
Synopsis: The film centers on a sexual harassment scandal that engulfs an exclusive Beverly Hills private school. Wood plays a teen who frames her teacher for sexual harassment. The teacher has yet to be cast, but Woods plays the girl’s father, Applegate is a reporter for a local news station and Livingston plays a fellow teacher who also is a lawyer representing his colleague.

Prognosis: Positive. Hmm, social satire?

I always appreciate when movies want to try and explore the more ambiguous lines that are drawn between the high school experience, bitchy teen girls, racism and the ever present fear that teachers could be sued for doing nothing more doing than their jobs; I love that genre. Now, in ELECTION, you had a lot of things going on and Alexander Payne did a glorious job with infusing a story like that with some seedy elements and making it all worth watching. It is, perhaps, one of the only movies with Reese Witherspoon that doesn’t make me too angry with incredulity as I question what the hell I’m watching.

That said, then, the trailer for this flick, though, has a lot to prove if it plans on making a statement while being entertaining.

This thing starts off rather odd. We have a reporter who’s doing a remote from the grounds of a prestigious prep school. It’s all very leafy green with trees and grass but I don’t know what she’s doing out there. The strange thing is we’re not left to linger on the reason.

We’re introduced, however, to our white protagonist girl who tells her obviously ethic and dark friend that she’s glad she was born white. Stack this image on top of the visage of Johnny Cracka, a boyfriend possibly, who stands next to his Aryan goddess while pointing a finger at said ethic friend and laughing. Well, ok, if that’s the way things are going to go. The shock and awe campaign of being as offensive as possible is in full blitzkrieg. It doesn’t let up.

Our pasty pale girlfriend now sits in the dean’s office sitting next to a male student who just happens to wear a yarmulke and is being told by the dean that her racial remarks won’t be tolerated. I believe her comments, as they’re shown, to the boy are, and I quote, “Well, at least my father isn’t a money grubbing Jew shyster.”

Yeah, we’re really swinging for the blatant and patently derogatory fences here.

James “The Donger” Woods pops up as the girl’s father and scolds her for being so obviously hateful against the world and the multiple ethnicities that are contained within it. An R. Kelly joke is made that falls flatter than Julianne Moore’s chest and even I’m ashamed at having mentally constructed an obvious offense of my own.

We’re shown this was an official selection at Sundance which is nicely placed and well-executed. And, you know, while I’m thinking of it, how many fucking movies are shown there anyway? Seems every movie I’ve seen has been an Official Selection in some way or form. Voted Best in its Class to Self-Flagellate To, Sundance Film Festival.

After this, my man Ron Livingston pops up as the ubiquitous teacher who not only wants to tap that girl’s cooch, and I haven’t a clue why as her forehead alone is wide enough to comfortably serve Thanksgiving dinner, but who is in danger of being in the cross-hairs of the young minx as someone who she decides deserves to be taken to court for no good reason. We’ve been here before in movie territory, haven’t we? Teacher accused of something they didn’t do seems more like fodder for a Law and Order episode than a full fledged movie but, whatever.

Seems our harlot is doing all this because she wants to become an actress. She’s a whore who wants to lay the country with her ability to cry on command.

This all eventually escalates into a lawsuit being filed against Ron for sexual assault and, what’s really weird, our racist high school girl has a lusty dalliance with the reporter from the beginning: Jane Krakowski. At first they almost kiss but a few scenes later they are both shown, on a bed, recovering from a passionate, well, I don’t need to explain as you can go to Penthouse Forum to fill in any blanks I’m leaving. I’m thinking there’s some lesbianism goin’ on. Not that it’s a bad thing, I’m just here to point it out and say I hope there’s an explicit examination into this most natural of acts.

We get jerked back into the court where Ron is trying to defend himself against a fake description of the events leading to his appearance in said court but when one of Cook’s friends says that he did something to her as well, using the word “boob” to describe what Ron said to her, Ron gets indignant. He stands up and yells he would never use “boob,” he’s an English teacher. I would have to agree; there are far more graphic and fun words to describe a chick’s mammaries.

The whole trailer feels like this John Waters movie that wants to add some introspective issues into its fabric. It’s an odd mixture of impossible people and the possibilities for what might be said through situations that are more emblematic than what they appear to be. I just know I felt a little dirty after watching this.

Director: Cameron Crowe
Cast: Kirsten Dunst, Orlando Bloom, Susan Sarandon, Judy Greer, Jessica Biel
Release: October 14, 2005
Synopsis: A rich ensemble comedy with two central leads. The project is intended to be a love letter to the resilience of the life force and is a story of an unexpected romance that develops against the backdrop of a Southern patriarch’s hilariously elaborate memorial.

Prognosis: Negative. I never met a hot chick on an airplane.

I never get seated to anyone that even remotely comes close to the definition of “hot.” In fact, case in point, I was on a plane from Milwaukee to Phoenix and was seated next to who would’ve been classically defined as a woman under species laws and regulations, but was closer in fact to the crazy French woman from Lost. I was sitting in the middle seat, she was the window, her ass pressed right up to the arm rest. She even had her own saliva stained bed pillow pushed up to the side of the plane but it was all just indicative of the kinds of ladies I meet on flights.

Orlando Bloom, however, gets Kirsten Dunst. Figures.

I do like the way this trailer eases you in. It drops you gingerly into the middle of a 972 million dollar dissolution of a company that Orlando either owns, works for or has a part in. Either way, Alec Baldwin does a knock up job of quietly voicing the severity of the situation. Add on to this a card that says his day is about to get worse and you can already see how this will get worse. A snotty call from Bloom’s sister doesn’t betray any secrets that couldn’t have already been guessed by watching multiple episodes of Eight is Enough, Charles in Charge or a very special Small Wonder.

So, Kirsten is a flight attendant and gives Orlando, who’s sporting a quite smooth American accent, a lesson in grammaticism when it comes to pronouncing words like “Louisville.” There’s some of that coffee, tea or me stewardess sexiness sparking between the two of them but nothing really comes to fruition immediately.

Now, the difficult part of this trailer seems to be that there is a dense back-story to this film but it is way too cumbersome to deal with here so the feeling I’m getting is that the trailer seems to say “Why not just give the funny before getting to the serious?”

Orlando, it seems, is stepping into an extended family situation not unlike the McCallister’s the night before they all left for Paris in HOME ALONE. Compare Crowe to Hughes? Sure did, but it’s all played for the same effect in both the films. We get these obnoxiously created familial characters where everyone’s related and everyone has that certain quirkiness you only find in movies. Oh, but Orlando isn’t quirky like any of them and that’s what separates our protagonist apart from these bumpkins. It almost feels condescending, the way Orlando moves in-between these people, but the movie needs a brooding, deep thinking guy and he’ll just have to do.

This deep thinking, and gravely postulating, individual uses his James Dean-like indifference for all things human to interact with the stewardess he met on the plane and who he decides will do just fine for a phone friend. You don’t get really any sense of whether Orlando is feeling anything as it all feels kind of wooden. I guess we’re supposed to swoon at the idea that he decides to tell this woman he just met all these really deep and personal things about himself, about the relationship he’s had with his dead father and how this is the moment when he’s really going to “come of age.”

It just feels very hollow to me and Orlando especially looks indifferent and stiff as he moves through this thing. If you’re trying to create a protagonist who’s really cut off, emotionally, from everyone else then you have to show some hope he’ll snap out of it but there’s nothing here that would prove that’ll happen. That’s the real bummer of a film, let me just state that up close. Did I like ABOUT SCHMIDT? Not really, because Jack just bummed me the hell out. How am I supposed to be engrossed in a story when you have such a miserable misanthrope at its center?

I especially don’t appreciate Tom Petty’s “Learning to Fly” chiming in the background as it’s a rather false and manipulative ploy for me to subconsciously think, “Ooo”¦Tom Petty. I wonder if Orlando is learning to fly, too, after the moving loss of his father?” Probably, but the sight of Kirsten in a bubble bath makes me forget any of the pent up frustration I feel, like I’m wearing wool pants in South Carolina on a salty summer’s day and I just decide to let it go.

Does Cameron deserve a pass for a trailer like this? Hell no.

Director: John P. Whitesell
Cast: Martin Lawrence
Release: December 16, 2005
Synopsis: Martin Lawrence returns as FBI agent Malcolm Turner, a master of disguise who again goes deep, deep undercover as the corpulent septuagenarian “Big Momma.” To avert a national security disaster, Big Momma becomes a nanny housekeeper in the suspect’s household ““ only to find him/herself becoming attached to the three children of the dysfunctional clan.

Prognosis: Radioactively Negative. I can’t imagine why anyone would offer to greenlight this movie.

I know I’ve wondered aloud this very same thought on a few projects but for all that’s holy and unholy in this world, Lord Jebus, why was Martin Lawrence allowed to make another BIG MOMMA’S HOUSE?

And so it was said from on high: “Because, my child, it only cost Fox 30 million to make and it quadrupled that amount at the box office. And if that’s not enough to give you solace then you don’t want to hear the amount that turd’s made in the secondary market on DVD and VHS.”

And so it was written. This is the word of the Lord.

Okay, so the first one made a lot of cash. That led to this movie’s sequel but that doesn’t mean I have to sit idly by and let this trailer run free without calling it out on the carpet for its sheer awfulness.

“Orange County, California. Home of privilege”¦”

Alright, so we open up on snippets of all the beautiful things in the OC like we’re watching one of those “Come to California” ads by the tourism bureau, except you don’t get Clint Eastwood slicing one into the clubhouse from the 3rd tee because he’s, like, 90 and swinging a golf club and you don’t get Governor Arnold twisting the English language as he tried to annunciate “California.” No, here you get lush looking real estate, a Rolls Royce dealership, and chicks lined up on their beach towels in their bikinis catching some sun. Here’s a fact about the latter: you never see a dozen chicks lined up on their beach towels in their bikinis. No, you get maybe one good looking one with some meathead who’s sitting up next to her, scanning everyone’s eyes to see if their looking at his “girl” and hoping to start some shit and even then it’s not really worth the peek unless you have mirrored shades.

What I do like about the next scene is that Voiceover Guy talks about all the really opulent things in Orange County and then it ends with a remark about some criminal plot that threatens national security. The two things just don’t jive, you know? It’s a piss poor setup on top of the fact that these threats to “national security” are all meeting in the open, late at night, in the parking lot of some well-lit office building. I love it when criminal masterminds meet and congregate together, standing up while dealing in secrets that are threats to national security with a laptop. It’s kind of like when Bill Sadler caught Steven Segal peeping in on his criminal activities, down at the wharf no less, in HARD TO KILL. I somehow believe the reality of Steven Segal but have a real hard time with this.

In both instances the premise is fairly stupid. No one meets out in the open but there seems to be this romanticized idea that criminals love to do this sort of thing on a regular basis.

Anyway, the FBI’s top agent is going undercover and that person is Lawrence in a fat suit. I’ll give props to the effects people for making such a convincing looking suit but how is this disguise related to going undercover? I don’t know and I imagine the explanation would hurt my brain if I dwelled too long on the plausibility of it all.

So, you get Martin prancing around the beach, in full corpulence, wearing a yellow one-piece swimsuit, jogging on the ocean’s edge in slo-mo so you all can have a laugh at the funniness that is a fat person trying to run.

Then, we hear Lawrence make a comment to a guy who’s stretched out on his own towel who’s also wearing a Speedo about putting on some pants. Oh yeah, and Big Momma then makes a comment to the dozen chicks lined up on their beach towels about wanting to put some lotion on them.

I hope it’s obvious why I could never make it as a screenwriter. I just don’t have the comedic “edge” when coming up with thinking of really old and tired situations that I could put on screen that would make people lose a spleen or two from laughing so hard. Ass.

Director: Tim Story
Cast:Jessica Alba, Michael Chiklis, Chris Evans, Ioan Gruffudd, Julian McMahon
Release: In Theaters
Synopsis: Marvel’s first family of comic superheroes takes the world by storm as the longest running comic book series in history comes to the big screen. Reed Richards / Mr. Fantastic, who can elongate his body; Susan Storm / Invisible Woman, who not only can become invisible at will but can render other objects invisible; Johnny Storm / Human Torch, who can shoot fire from his finger tips and bend flame; and Ben Grimm / The Thing, a hideously misshapen monster with superhuman strength, together battle the evil Doctor Doom.

Prognosis: In Another Dimension This Would’ve Been Positive. You could have got me at hello but you’re too goddamn late.

This is what frustrates me at times about all the writing and ranting I do. I watch something and have it completely pegged. I got it. I know I got it. But then something like this comes out and it’s like if the WIZARD OF OZ started with everyone seeing the midget working the controls but then trying, for the rest of the movie, to make you forget what you just saw.

I watched the first trailer for the FOUR and loathed it. I was ashamed to have even come near its presence or even avowed its existence. The production values looked laughable at best and hideously scary at the worst. It was like if the trailer for CHARLIE’S ANGELS and the original FANTASTIC FOUR movie starring that man-child from NOT QUITE HUMAN were mashed up to create something that even little kids would snicker at. Not that I know what a snicker, or even a chuckle for that matter, sounds like but I am guessing it comes pretty close to what happens when one watches that trailer. I almost feel apologetic for that first one because of all my purchases of the Brian Michael Bendis envisioning of this new geek squad at my local comic book store.

Way too long story, short, is that this is the trailer everyone should have been locked, stocked, baited and caught with.

Without a doubt, this is a wonderfully produced trailer and my golf clap goes out to the magician who was behind the transformative effects that good editing can do. Let me share in the glory that is this trailer.

The beginning. It sets up the conflict between Reed Richards and Dr. Doom. You know what, fanboys? Yes, it’s shitty that Doom is now relegated to corporate baron status but there’s a little bit of somethin’ that you always have to compromise on if you want blockbuster values on your film. And it’s not too big of a compromise as you can see that any suit with money to burn can quickly be placed into bad guy territory by any hard working stiff who sees what Corporate America likes to do to the downtrodden.

The relationship is established and our fantastic four are launched into outer space. This is where the glossing by the editorial crew really starts shining. My original beef with the trailer was that the “space station” moments really looked bad. I mean, it was the kind of bad that the nearly bald guy uses when complaining about Elwood Blues in THE BLUES BROTHERS at Chez Louis, harping on about the stench rolling off of him, that I compare it to. Here, though, none of that. It’s quickly, with a capital q, run through in favor of showing the blast that makes our team so fantastic. The hits each one of them takes feel weighty. You can sense that “Ahh” moment when you can understand how they went from geeks to Gods. The guy from Nip/Tuck (is that show really any good?) is a bit into his whole bad guy thing but, whatever, he’s the bad guy, right? Right.

Then we get how everyone finds out that they’re a little different. Here, though, we start to feel the nice foundation we’ve worked so hard to pour start to sway a little. The Thing, though, still looks about as believable as the Marvel Superheroes they have pimping the Capital One card in those ridiculous commercials but it’s, again, quickly gone through.

Things click up a notch with the absence of voiceover when we’re given a set piece, Dr. Doom’s arrival onto the scene as an evil superhero set to wriggidy-wreck havoc unto the poor innocent bystanders of this busy metropolis. The effects, again, are a delight to look at. Even Jessica Alba’s “moment” is visually appealing.

I really like the quiet pause of this trailer as well. Doom shoots something out of his corporate penthouse through his window, a projectile of some kind, and both Johnny and Sue see something way off in the distance. Johnny runs and leaps off the building and it’s eerily silent. You see him descend without saying a word and out of nowhere you hear him scream out, “Flame on!” Right on. That’s the money shot.

Johnny also seems to be the centerpiece for the latter half of the trailer but it’s easy to see why. He exudes the kind of ADD energy that’s needed in a role like this and he does it well here in the trailer. The editors got it right and it’s really a wonder where the hell it has been.

This could’ve been the trailer that got my money but, instead, it got everyone else’s this past weekend at the box office.

Director: Peter Jackson
Cast: Naomi Watts, Jack Black, Adrien Brody, Andy Serkis, Colin Hanks, Thomas Kretschmann, Kyle Chandler
Release: December 14, 2005
Synopsis: A remake of the 1933 classic in which an expedition exploring a remote island capture a gigantic ape and bring it back to New York for exhibition. A beautiful actress who accompanies them is menaced when the monster’s love for her causes him to break out.

Prognosis: Positive. My sister actually cried at the end when we watched the original KING KONG as kids. I admit that I was emotionally caught by the elements that made the classic just that but let’s not confuse my sister’s hysteria with what I see developing here. I happen to be smitten by the possibility that this could be a rather entertaining night at the talkies.

One of the things that you notice, though, as you watch this thing is that everyone’s clothes are impeccably pressed and are looking particularly sharp. It only really detracts your eye if you concentrate on it but I do take contention with the film for so obviously taking the Hollywood approach to rendering an environment as sterile as possible. Now, I could be talking out of my ass but did every single person really have that straight from the cleaners look back then?

But, never mind that.

Another thing you notice about the roles, though, is that Jack Black is perfectly cast as the hook or by crook movie director who is trying to get another of his films made. He’s fast talking and fast walking and he honestly just exudes the right elements. Naomi Watts, as well, is just the right person to channel made so famous by Fay Wray. I do apologize for bringing that name up as I know that Harry Knowles is probably grabbing a tissue at the mere cosmic mention of that screen siren that recently passed away but it’s good to see such a dashingly beautiful woman placed right back into Kong’s palms.

So, Jack and Naomi get in a boat and head out onto the open seas to film Jack’s latest opus. The dock where Jack’s boat awaits everyone’s presence, where you see how fake looking the shop is and the fake sea they’re going to be traveling on, looks all sorts of, well, fake. It’s a bit disarming but, I too, soon forget the plastic-ness of it all.

Hey, there’s the guy from those bouncy Coke ads, Adrian Brody! He comes and goes out of frame with saying nothing and it’s just as well for what he did to the world with THE JACKET.

Jack then takes over the voice overing duties by cluing us all in on the idea that he found an old map, possibly the one One-Eyed Willie from the GOONIES used (Yar!), that’s going to take him to an island no one knows about. Now, here’s where things get good.

The island is fortified. It’s like a WATERWORLD dry dock without the people drinking their own pee. Quick flashes of half skulls and the ominous feeling of trepidation comes across subtly but firmly.

The ship eventually stops at the island’s rocky harbor. The flash of an island native, with long, stringy white hair and a bad attitude, comes and goes. An extra from Darryl Hannah’s CLAN OF THE CAVE BEAR, a kid who’s still waiting for their cut of the VHS royalties perhaps, flashes on the screen with their muddy body serving to inform us of the island’s inhabitants.

Jack starts filming on the beach. He asks Naomi to scream for her life. The response of the scream is reciprocated with one of Kong’s. No one knows what or where that came from. It’s played out beautifully. No one says anything and there isn’t a soundtrack to disrupt the silence. Nice.

This is when things get exciting. The same natives from When Mud People Attack! start to close in on our film crew and abduct Naomi. What you can see, in the sets used for the mud people, is that Jackson seems to be borrowing a lot from the community construction of the Orcs of the RINGS trilogy and must’ve figured that if it looked creepy there it’ll look just as good here. It does. Scaffoldings made of wood just litters the visual landscape. It’s like Bob Villa came in and just rebuilt the same damn thing. Naomi is put into a X formation as a hostage not unlike Willie was in TEMPLE OF DOOM; they’re both just as hot and in need of some male rescuing as it is written in the playbook for all patriarchal tales of misogyny and male needs to feel virile and powerful. Seriously, someone write a paper on it before I get bored and do it myself. Kong appears and it makes me forget Sociology 303: The Male Dominion and Their Obsession About Their Small Penises. (See?) Kong looks rough and bad ass, just the way it should be.

This island playground all of a sudden turns into JURASSIC PARK. Seriously, I know that Universal has a stranglehold on the PARK films but their hunt for Naomi results in some acid flashbacks of 1993. Kong knows Kung-Fu, though, as he goes toe to toe with a T-Rex. This is the kind of cage match I’ve needed since Hulk Hogan went against Rowdy Roddy Piper at Wrestlemania.

Director: Brad McGann
Cast: Emily Barclay, Matthew MacFadyen, Miranda Otto, Colin Moy, Jimmy Keen
Release: June 10, 2005 (Seattle Int’l Film Festival)
Synopsis: Paul (Macfadyen), a prize-winning war journalist, returns to his remote New Zealand hometown due to the death of his father, battle-scarred and world-weary. For the discontented sixteen-year-old Celia (Barclay) he opens up a world she has only dreamed of. She actively pursues a friendship with him, fascinated by his cynicism and experience of the world beyond her small-town existence. But many, including the members of both their families (Otto, Moy), frown upon the friendship and when Celia goes missing, Paul becomes the increasingly loathed and persecuted prime suspect in her disappearance. As the violent and urgent truth gradually emerges, Paul is forced to confront the family tragedy and betrayal that he ran from as a youth, and to face the grievous consequences of silence and secrecy that has surrounded his entire adult life.

Prognosis: Positive. Why aren’t there more imports like this?

You know, once in a while, man yearns for a good, old-fashioned mystery done right without the trappings of red herrings, obvious clues and poor resolutions. This seems like such an easy thing to bring to the marketplace but in the age of Bigger, Better, Louder these kinds of films are now relegated to the fringes of the cinematic radar for most people.

And that’s fine, really, because when you see a trailer like this you get interested in what it’s all about and this will, hopefully, be the second best movie to come from the land down under. (I tell you what, I can’t write that line without thinking of the dude with the lazy eye from Men at Work. Creeped me out completely as a kid. Still does. Sheesh. I can’t even watch that episode of Scrubs without wondering which way he’s looking”¦) The first real good mystery to come out of AU, and one I implore you to check out, is THE INTERVIEW with Hugo Weaving. Top notch. I still like going back to that movie and watching the way the storytelling drove that film more than anything else.

This movie, though, looks to do the same thing but it’s not quite apparent when things open up.

“17 years ago he went away”¦”

We launch into a tale of a boy who moves out of his house; this being New Zealand I guess he decided to just mosey on down the island road to another ostrich farm but I guess he’s done something a little more rewarding. We don’t know the how, when, where or why but we just accept that this boy vanishes as are quickly thrown into a classroom where he’s introduced, years later, as someone important who’s about to speak to a gaggle of students.

The only bump in the quick way we’re getting a lot of information is two-fold. One, he’s in front of a class full of kids and we really can’t infer that it’s because he’s taken some pictures judging by the quick shot of some woman with blood on her hands. It’s too quick. Slow down. It’s ok to take some time to explicate. Two, we start in with the quotes from all those fabulously famous of New Zealand’s newspapers. It’s great and all but they come awfully quick, too. Slow down.

Now, apart from all this, we get the point that the guy who’s talking to the students has been away from his family. The first blood relative we meet is this guy’s brother who is shocked as shit to see the man. The music and direction and pacing are perfect. I love it.

There is friction there between the boys and I can only assume that this would’ve been the case if he left the family and never bothered to ringy-ding once in a while.

Next, after some real quick cuts of the family farm and pastures, we meet up with a young, teenage girl. She’s pretty and she stands sheepishly in front of our wayward brother. She tells him that she found this small space, ostensibly the family farm that’s possibly been abandoned for some time, and she explains what she’s been doing there.

There is some real intimacy, social intimacy between two people you pervs, between the two and she goes on to talk about her life’s dreams with this guy. He listens and she tells him about where she wants to be someday. It’s affective and presented well because it takes its time to explain.

And then the mood changes. The teenage girl goes missing.

Whups.

You can see where things are going from here. He’s the only person to have seen her last, he’s implicated in her disappearance and there’s more than enough suspicion to go around.

The clips at the end are too confusing to put into a coherent order but it’s enough that I feel like I want to know what happened to her. Did the drifter brother kill her, did he help her leave the country, did his brother do it or was it Shakey, the town drunk, who let a pack of rabid ostriches peck her to death?

I don’t know but what I do know is that I am going to have to wait an extraordinarily long time to find out as there’s no way in hell this will be playing in this part of cactus country and that’s the real shame.

Director: Bob Gosse
Cast: Lili Taylor, Courtney Love, Mischa Barton, Noah Emmerich
Release: July 1, 2005
Synopsis: A woman attempts to realize the dreams she never knew she had.

Prognosis: Negative. Man, would I wouldn’t give to hit Courtney Love in the head with a large red brick.

I wouldn’t want to hurt her, per se, but if there was anyone who desecrates the memory of their dead rock n’ roll husband more than anyone else in this world Courtney would be at the top of that list. At least Yoko Ono had the business savvy to realize that John Lennon’s music should live on, has been more than a tad generous with the musical library John had left behind and has managed to not make public spectacles of herself on a near constant basis. Courtney just needs to relegate herself to Attention Whore status and stop with the tucks, lifts and augmentations.

Do you see what’s happened here? She’s the first thing I saw in this trailer and I am already riled up with things that don’t have anything to do with the flick itself.

However, beyond that, Lily “I Know it Looks Like I’ve Just Woken Up All The Time” Taylor seems to play a put-upon wife who has aspirations. Judging by her make-out session with Courtney in the beginning I am assuming lesbianism is the first thing on that to-do list. Higher education seems be relegated to number two as she eye-spies a form that talks about getting one’s GED.

Lily’s home life seems to be consumed with taking care of a couple of rug rats who are old enough to know what it means when daddy says “Hell no” to Lily’s request to go back to school. I’m not sure if it’s just my hippy sense of openness and realizing the value of getting educated but her husband’s passionate response to Lily’s request to obtain her diploma seems a bit played out. Are there still dudes out there that feel threatened by a woman getting smart? Are there Neanderthals who are so insecure that they would vehemently deny their ladies the chance to do something with their lives? I guess there are as when Lily’s husband leaves her in a rage of disappointment that he does so because he can’t keep his wife barefoot and stupid.

I almost hear the sounds of “Gloria” in the background and I start thinking that this will be a movie about female empowerment but the ding-dong at her apartment door when she has to start all over on her own reveals Courtney Love in all her trashy, exploitative glory hole-ness.

It looks like the two of them will be a modern day Laverne and Shirley with the exception that this duo seems to be inspired by the Isle of Lesbos and the poetics of Sappho and Catullus and the other seemed to be inspired by Milwaukee and Bratwurst. Seriously, there is a lot of female on female kissing going on in this thing and I wish to hereby proclaim a pox on Love for making it the most asexual experience I’ve ever been privy to. It really is gross in a $2 hooker kind of way. Made me ill, it did.

What’s neat, though, is that Lily goes on to get her education and we get a pre-suicidal, pre-freak-out Spaulding Grey who is no doubt going to be the impetus for the catalyzing change in Lily. He will fill the “Wise old man” role that will show Lily that there is more to life than just taking care of kids who will no doubt break your heart by stealing money out of your wallet, doing drugs, sleeping with the opposite sex under your roof as you’re out working and who will pretty much run roughshod over everything you hold dear.

This does seem like a “Gloria” kind of film, though, but I am unsure how the mix of her sexual awakening with a dirty ho, her yearning to better her intellectual life and how this all fits into a paradigm of the modern family will come off.

For all the shots I am taking it I can say that it looks like a pretty good movie with a lot to say. I just don’t know, though, what to make of Courtney. I weep for the future.

Director: Roman Polanski
Cast: Ben Kingsley, Barney Clark, Jamie Foreman, Harry Eden, Leanne Rowe
Release: September 30, 2005
Synopsis: An adaptation of the classic Dickens tale, where an orphan meets a pickpocket on the streets of London. From there, he joins a household of boys who are trained to steal for their master.

Prognosis: Bi-Polar. Just so we all agree: Roman Polanski is still wanted in this country for the drugging and raping of a 13- year-old girl in 1977 at Jack Nicholson’s pad, right? He hasn’t ever stepped foot in this country because he knows that he would more than likely be sent to a federal Pound-Me-In-The-Ass prison where they take care of pedophiles like him with some prison justice? Raped a girl? Right?

Right.

So, what I see here, in this teaser is really good.

I like that instead of a lot of quick clips that pretty much confound the hell out of everyone there is a drawn out scene that not only establishes the time and place but gives us an idea of what this story is about.

As an English major I know this probably should’ve been part of my literary canon but it wasn’t as I’ve concerned myself with other literary fare so it’s nice to see I can do a little “catch-up” with this flick.

It opens up on a wonderfully painted scene of old-time England. It looks like it’s at the dawn of the industrial age where soot, black-lung and child labor were the Holy Trinity’s. You can see just in the first few seconds that it’s a gloriously painted palette of dinginess, bustle and commerce. The cobbled streets, the horse drawn carriages and the costumes are absolutely engaging. The time is captured on the screen and you believe you’re looking into the way things were.

We get a scene with a young boy standing in the middle of the street who obviously doesn’t care about possibly getting struck by a thoroughbred that might come tearing from around a stone corner or a fruit cart that could possibly be driven by someone who’s busy talking on their megaphone.

The wayward lad looks on as a couple of kids pick the pocket of a well-to-do gentleman who is patronizing the storefront of some bookseller. It looks like all the thieves get is a yellow snot rag but I guess those things might get you a lot on the black lung market.

Anyway, the shop owner comes tearing out of his store, yelling at the boys that they’ve been had. They go off running and the young boy who watched it all go down just stands there, dumbfounded. He didn’t do anything yet he feels the need to scamper like the cur he’s being labeled as by Old Man Winter who runs the shop. The kid almost gets taken out by a Mercedes Mustang carriage, with a black exterior and velvety red goodness inside for open-air seating up to 2 passengers, and takes off through an obvious back lot that stands in for this British city.

It seems like the whole town is after the young kid as dozens are shown running after him and he’s about to get away too but, out of nowhere, a really old guy, I am talking Old Man Winter’s brother, Old Man River, cold cocks the kid on the chin. Just flattens the fucker right on the cobble road. It’s hilarious.

This trailer is worth watching just for the technique the dude employs. Comedy at its best. Needless to say, I’m interested. I really would like to see how this thing is executed.

And speaking of execution, what is the penalty for drugging and raping 13 year-olds anyway? Just curious.

Director: Michael Showalter
Cast: Michael Showalter, Elizabeth Banks, Michelle Williams, Justin Theroux, Peter Dinklage
Release: August 12, 2005
Synopsis: The film chronicles the anxiety-ridden two weeks leading to the marriage of Elliot Sherman who is the quintessential “Baxter” ““ the nice guy who never gets the girl.

Prognosis: Negative. I was a fan of The State.

I know that at the time when it was getting some decent numbers, audience wise, I knew I was seeing something fairly different when compared to its SNL and Mad TV counterparts. It was funny in some places, strange in many others, but it was good for a laugh. And before it really had a chance to develop, it went away.

Enter, stage left, WET HOT AMERICAN SUMMER. That movie really secured me as a fan of their work if, for no other reason, than Christopher Meloni’s crazy ass chef. The members went their separate ways after this and, for the most part, have been very successful at keeping themselves in front of the American public. From I Love The 80’s, 90’s, 70’s and whatever the hell they feel like lovin’ on VH1, Michael Ian Black has made a dime or two playing the deadpan commentator. Ben Garant, Kerri Kenney and Thomas Lennon have done splendid work as members on Reno 911, a solid comedy that’s flown gently under the comedic radar for many people out there.

That’s why I’m confused at this really odd, weirdly formulaic and not very amusing trailer for THE BAXTER.

What’s nice, though, is the set-up. It comes right out of the gate in letting me know that Michael Showalter is this Louis Winthorpe III type with an obnoxiously flimsy sense of character. It starts to grate on my nerves 20 seconds in. Elizabeth Banks, the starlet who just seems to be everywhere nowadays, plays his obnoxiously hot fiancé and who, I might add, I can’t really get a handle on because what kind of a lady like her would be seen with an obvious social and personal retard like Showalter? I’m not sure myself. Michelle Williams plays the obviously shabby temp who works with both Showalter and Banks and who, as most of you can guess within the first 10 seconds, will have something to do in catalyzing a change in Showalter later on. Also, Justin Theroux, a guy who, when he gets older, will probably be the go to guy for all villains, pops in as Banks’ old high school boyfriend and makes some trouble for the couple.

The problem I have, though, is that the further we get into establishing all these quirky people the trailer is essentially not doing its job. I want to be lied to, I want to work hard in finding reasons why I think I’m being manipulated but, at halfway through the trailer, I already know that Showalter’s obvious hack at making a character that’s obviously prim and proper and completely the opposite of everyone else is just annoying and false.

The rest of the trailer just confirms this as Justin moves in closer to Banks and Showalter, in retaliation, as is most movie and television guys are want to do in cases like this, try to eschew their old selves in favor of new ones; more hipper selves; more selves that are the simulacrum of what they believe “cool” should be. And it’s just sad to see the wheels burning off of this bike.

There’s nearly an additional twenty seconds that’s wasted on showing us how “cool” Justin is. Banks and him did the ubiquitous sex weekend during a snowstorm which, as a dude pushing 30, has never happened to me but seems to have happened with every other person in film and TV who has ever had to go through inclement weather for longer than two days.

I guess I expected something a little more funny and not so awful.

Director: Dean Parisot
Cast: Jim Carrey, Tea Leoni
Release: December 21, 2005
Synopsis: An update of the 1977 comedy, where a married couple turn to robbery to pay the bills.

Prognosis: Middle-America Approved. My parents would love this kind of film.

It looks wacky, zany, a little “edgy,” and even, dare I say, slapsticky?

Yes, it looks like all these things and I certainly can’t fault the filmmakers or Jim Carrey who did great work last year in ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND. It’s just obvious that Jim needs this kind of picture that lets him revert to some of his more profitable talents. And, you know, it’s not such a bad thing when an A-lister like him sees his house payments going up and has to do a little somethin’ somethin’ to offset some of his living expenses.

Not that I think the trailer does anything special for me, per se, but for those who like their comedy in a milquetoast offering I say, here’s your movie and you will love it.

The opening is almost straight out of THE TRUMAN SHOW. Jim lives on the back lot of a Hollywood studio where everyone, even though they have garages, still park their car in the driveway and have exactly the same schedules so they can have some witty repartee with one another; garages must be where they keep their opium drug dens in these parts of Southern California.

So, after Jim walks out of his house he kicks a stray rubber kickball that’s strategically sitting in his yard through someone’s window off-screen. Judging by the trajectory it should’ve been the same neighbor he ends up talking to but it’s not and who gives a crap anyway, right? All that matters is that he talks to his neighbor and mixes it up with him a little; it establishes that Jim is Jim in this movie and that’s a good thing for Middle America.

The physical humor continues when we cut to Jim and his nuclear family, or for all you red states I should say “Nook-u-ler,” as he straps on a device to keep his dog from barking. The electric shock collar is always good for some laughs. I liked it in Jackass and I like it here. It’s goofy and it’s the kind of giggles that are done at the expense of animal cruelty.

Then it happens.

At one of those fun backyard parties that most suburbanites like to have with each other, a neighbor asks Jim how he’s been so successful.

Cut to a black screen and play “Free Ride.”

Jim and his wife are thieves. They even have a comedic verbal exchange before robbing a coffee house. He yells out, instead of “This is a robbery,” he wants, “Two iced mochas.” He feverously waves his gun around as Tea leaps over a counter, Dukes of Hazzard style, only to take out a coffeepot and various pieces of detritus littering the serving counter. He even thanks the barista for making the mochas. The humor just keeps coming and coming.

The trailer ends with Jim mistakenly trying to hold up a friend of his. The funny comes in when they all just sort of play it off as one big goof and they all just laugh about it like it’s so darn funny he “got” his friend.

Sigh, it takes all kinds.

Director: Jim Jarmusch
Cast: Bill Murray, Jessica Lange, Sharon Stone, Julie Delpy, Chloe Sevigny
Release: August 5, 2005
Synopsis: Bill Murray stars as the resolutely single Don Johnston. Dumped by his latest lover, he again resigns himself to being alone. Instead, he is compelled to reflect on his past when he receives a mysterious pink letter from an anonymous former lover that informs him that he has a 19-year-old son. Hesitant to travel, Don nonetheless embarks on a cross-country trek in search of clues from four former flames. Unannounced visits to each of these unique women hold new surprises. Won the Grand Prix at this year’s Cannes International Film Festival.

Prognosis: Positive. Required reading for the summer? “Live From New York: An Uncensored History of Saturday Night Live.” It’s a quick read so don’t let the double-bible thickness of it scare you off. While it’s comprehensive in ways that other look-behind-the-scenes tell-alls could never hope to match, there is a feeling of expediency when it recounts some of the more catty moments of the show’s long history. One of those things that I wish was lingered on for a tad longer, I think, is the general dislike many SNL players had for Chevy Chase. In a recent interview, around the time of Chevy’s roasting, Chase actually came close to implying that he hadn’t a clue why many of his ex-cast mates found him an incredibly unlikable asshole. What’s even better, in my opinion, that in a real school-like compare and contrast moment you see that guys like Bill Murray were and still are successful because of their ability to get the job done, consistently, without ever having to give-in to the idea that their gravy train will be chugging forever. This trailer shows why Murray is simply on the top of his game.

Sure, can you forgive him for QUICK CHANGE or that really dank elephant movie that doesn’t even get love from late night broadcast line-ups he made years ago? I think all of that can be easily erased as you see how nimble this man can be when the trailer opens up and you see him applying that same wry and deadpan style that’s made him so endearing in these last few years on screen.

The trailer is exquisitely crafted in that the whole plot is easily laid out within the first 10 seconds. He reads a letter from a woman with whom he’s had sex many years ago, bore a son he never knew about, ends up not knowing who the woman was and recites it all to the gravedigger from HAMLET: YET ANOTHER SCREEN EDITION. The uppity beat of the music keeps things light and it eases us into the issue at hand: Should be go find his son or should he sit back and let life pass him by? But of course he should find his son, say Mr. Rhetorical’s audience.

His buddy hatches a plan to find out what woman wrote the letter by matching a list of ex-girlfriends he’s been with and finding the exact typewriter it was written from as there’s some old bag out there that has yet to come into the 21st century; and what the hell is what those pompous writer types out there who are so down on the computer? I mean, I don’t see those same people down at the river and slapping their unitard long underwear on a big wet rock but, crap, oh no, don’t you be comin’ “˜round here no more with your alien technology that seeks to sink the purity that is typewriter writing. I hate those people. Now, where the hell was I? Oh, yeah, the plot. Well, it’s a bit strange but I’ll bite. Murray spends a little time with his buddy’s little girl at a tea party on a beautifully green front lawn and we’re left to linger there just long enough to see Murray just doing what he’s always done best: finding the perfect angle to amuse in whatever situation he’s in.

And that’s when I see Sharon Stone. My nads recoil at the sight of that blonde vacuum of talent and ability. It takes my will to live to not feel disappointed at the casting. He has a moment with her before moving on thankfully and quickly.

The stop on this magical trip is no better when the other maternal possibility is brought into full focus: Frances Conroy. You can interject the same nad recoil here. We move along, as well, from her and onto the next woman.

The whole time this is going on there isn’t so much as a peep from Murray’s need to seem lively or star worthy. The guy is so sure of what he needs to do there is a near unbearable relaxedness in his acting. It’s wonderful to watch as he tries to get through woman after woman, his look of despondency framed perfectly on his face, and even when he gets a fist in the face near the end of the trailer, and he has to act behind some sunglasses, it doesn’t matter.

The mood that Jim Jarmusch’s direction evokes pops right through this trailer and even as we head into the final moments of this thing I am actually surprised at the way the whole movie sort of seeps into my skin as I feel drawn in by the premise and its execution.

Director: Don Roos
Cast: Lisa Kudrow, Steve Coogan, Jesse Bradford, Bobby Cannavale, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Jason Ritter, Tom Arnold
Release: July 15, 2005
Synopsis: An ensemble cast telling 10 stories with intertwining characters. One story is about a father and son who are dating the same woman. Another features a woman who long ago gave her baby up for adoption but is now being blackmailed by a documentary filmmaker who claims to know the now-grown child’s whereabouts.

Prognosis: Negative. Too much information. Seriously.

If you have to spend the entire trailer yammering on and on about what the movie’s about don’t you think that there might be too much for the average person to synthesize properly? Maybe it’s just me but when I try and follow the directions each one of these characters are going, based on Voiceover Guy’s verbal assistance, I am left feeling confused and ambiguous about everything and that’s just box office death.

At first I think something’s amiss when I hear Lisa Kudrow’s voice asking whether she should be face up or face down on the massage table and all I hear is some garbled mess that seems coming from the mouth of Tony Shalub’s foreign cab driver character from Wings. I’m not thinking about the current plot, I’m actually thinking, “That’s nice that Antonio Scarpacci has found a new line of work.”

After breezing through what I know is a masseuse applying a “happy ending” on a female client, I am yanked to Maggie Gyllenhaal trying to seduce a guy who doesn’t seem that into what she’s doing. Something weird is happening but before I have a chance to even assess who the hell these people were and what they mean to the flick I am hurried into a restaurant where some guy talks about how something wasn’t meant to be and there’s this strange person that’s present and said person would’ve been a great dad. Who? What?

Then, Tom Arnold pops up as the dad of a gay son who was shown “getting his swerve on,” I guess you could say, with Maggie Gyllenhaal a few scenes prior. I guess the dad doesn’t know or something but before we can get comfortable again we’re taken to Laura Dern’s place where Steve Coogan, who I am thinking is also gay, is really distressed about sperm and its viability in a frozen container. He even, at one point, helps himself to Dern’s freezer to see if she keeps any on reserve. By this time I am confused out of my skull. What the hell is happening to any of these people and is it worth it to me to stick around? Sure it is. I like to see a trailer completely down itself like some deranged psychopath in a little pond skipper airplane who suddenly decides to plunge himself downward into an open field. This trailer is doing a wonderful job sustaining that kind of vibe.

So, Voiceover Guy tries to chime in but is way too late on this pick-up game. He tries to start tying some threads together and all I see is Maggie and Tom Arnold hooking up, which is really sinister in ways that transcend some kind of cosmic boundaries, Lisa talks to the guy who gives pleasure to old women with his massage technique, and I am just floored as we hustle our asses to the ending only to have it end up falling apart at the seams.

I just don’t get the trailer at all. I don’t. I know there is something happening but I can’t tell you what it is because I couldn’t even begin to tell you who the protagonist of this story.

Director: Louis Leterrier
Cast: Jason Statham, Amber Valletta, Keith David, Matthew Modine, Hunter Clary, Jeff Chase
Release: September 2, 2005
Synopsis: Jason Statham returns in his signature role: ex-Special Forces operative Frank Martin, aka “The Transporter.” Now retired in Miami, Martin makes a living driving for a wealthy family, including twin brothers with whom he has unexpectedly bonded. But when the boys are abducted, Martin must use all his skills to bring them to safety and discover the kidnapper’s master plan.

Prognosis: Decent. Not quite sure what top make of this sequel but it jumps off the blocks even before the pistol’s gone off.

One of the things that made the first TRANSPORTER so much fun was Jason Strathmore’s dedication to a chatacter that could’ve easily been made goofy and plastic if put into the wrong hands. Do I think it’s a great movie? No. Do I think the plot’s any good? No. But what a movie like that does, apart from the “unplug” factor that the movie invokes upon each viewing, is show you how well a few bucks and a few shaky cameras can get you when you really try and craft an action movie.

This trailer pops with every cut scene offered in the first five seconds. Too fast to even catch with every blink of an eye is Jason in all his car driving, stunt doubles’, glory.

I am pleased they’ve gone with the same black import car to keep with the continuity. What shakes me to my core, though, is the inclusion of a child.

It seems that the big baddie in this movie is threatening to do kill the kid that he’s been chauffeuring around for a rich family. Our man has gone straight and got himself a respectable job. Pimping himself out to be used like a Mr. Belvedere isn’t what I want out of my European heroes and to add a kid in there seems like a very Jump-The-Shark kind of thing to do. Oh, and I forgot to mention the hideously dressed but oddly attractive woman who is accompanying Jason on a very odd mission to do whatever it takes to not get this little boy killed; the woman just looks like a model who is a character in a movie that’s SUPPOSED to look dangerous. Instead, she just looks derivative. Now, I know and you know that the kid isn’t in any real danger, if he were this may the best movie ever (has there been a quality kill of young boys under the age of 10 in cinema? I think that’s a no), but the movie is moving too fast for its own good, I think.

It’s hard to keep track of a plot that’s not very well explained, even when it has Jason in it just being a bad ass, but when I see some shirtless dude, who also looks like a model (probably underwear, judging by the physique, not that I am paying that close attention, not that there’s anything wrong with making a statement, and am only making a professional opinion based on my impression of seeing a shirtless dude with sweaty hair and pecs). This guy, as well, is a “bad guy” but at the center of the discussion between everyone is a virus that looks exactly like that green shit from one of the best 80’s movies evar, THE MANHATTEN PROJECT. It’s lime green and I guess it’s pretty toxic. Come to think of it, I’ve also seen that green crap in THE ROCK, a not too awful Michael Bay film.

And just when I have this thing figured out, Matthew Modine pops up. Hell, that guy hasn’t made a good film since VISION QUEST. I’m kidding but I had to bring that up for two reasons: 1) No matter where that guy goes there will always be video of him sniffing a girl’s panties. 2) I seriously can’t look at one of those plastic workout outfits without imagining Louden Swain working out to the point of getting freak nosebleeds. Anyway. Mr. Thong Sniffer arrives, providing even less context to the film, but we get some really odd snippets to the film.

We get Jason taking his shirt off, that was for the ladies, Jason scowling as hard as he can because he wants that boy back and, dammit, he’ll get him back, Jason about to get into a street fight with ten different dudes at once but asking everyone to hold on because it’s a nice jacket he’s wearing, Jason impaling a part of a gun into a bad guys throat (Cooooollll”¦), the crazy blonde comes back into the scene as she invokes the acting spirit of Brigitte Nielsen, and Jason gets wicked with a fire hose before turning it on (you’ve got to see what happens). You even get a bit of bad language and a sweet kill with actual squibs; you’d never get that by the MPAA in the States.

And by time you get through more of the car crashes, car chases, improbable stunts that could never ever happen, more naughty language, some T&A shots and every angle worth getting of a speeding Lamborghini, you realize that you have to see this film. It may not be until it comes out on DVD but there are some gnarly set pieces that may be worth the price of the rental.

A little bit of BEVERLY HILLS COP II, a bit of MISSION IMPOSSIBLE III, some MAN ON FIRE and more of the same from THE TRANSPORTER. In all, it’s about as good as one can ask for in a bland European action movie that’s trying to play to as many audiences and conventions as possible.

Director: Terry Gilliam
Cast: Matt Damon, Heath Ledger, Monica Bellucci, Jonathan Pryce, Lena Headey, Peter Stormare, Mackenzie Crook, Richard Ridings
Release: July 29, 2005
Synopsis: A fictional action-adventure tale about folklore collectors and brothers Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, called Jake (Ledger) and Will (Damon). While traveling from village to village pretending to protect townsfolk from enchanted creatures, they encounter a real sorceress with terrifying powers and are put to the test.

Prognosis: Negative. Man, you know you’re in for some crap when you not only have Voiceover Guy’s first words being “In a world”¦” and that one of the characters in the film saying “I’m getting to old for this”¦”

Not a good sign.

Also, and this is something that’s rather perplexing, the opening of this trailer is rather odd. At first I’m not even sure what I’m looking at. It seems like it’s a commercial for something but I don’t know what it is. I damn near think it’s an ad for some Summer’s Eve product. Seriously, go with me on this.

You’ve got a girl prancing around the forest in a big red cloak; Little Red Riding Hood, to be exact. She’s prancing around in a forest, all alone, and she stops for a moment. She bends down to smell a rose of womanhood and she ends up pricking herself on the thorn of puberty, blood seeps from her finger. All of a sudden, the wafting of her broken innocence is enough to drive the wolf, representative of each and every lecherous man out there, into hemoglobin frenzy. The wolf gives away his presence and silence from the periphery and lunges at the now christened woman. She drops her basket of childhood and tears off out of the forest and tries to run free into the open space of adulthood where there is nothing to hide behind. She almost makes it to the sanctuary of a castle which no doubt represents every woman that puts up walls higher than a castle to defend herself against the evil that is manhood.

This new woman, though, looks like she’ll be a causality as she stumbles mere yards from the castle and the camera closes in and will, no doubt, be one of those girls who ends up on the cheerleading squad in high school only to give it up her maidenhead to the entire wrestling team at a Schlitz party, celebrating their victory over the high school from down the street.

Fairy tales always have a subversive meaning and I’ve always believed that.

Here, though, it’s pretty bad because there isn’t that same wonderment. After “˜Hood no doubt gets “eaten” by the Wolf, we’re whisked to the dreariest looking town this side of London. Matt Damon, who looks like a deformed elf, and his buddy Heath Ledger are con artists. They defeat wicked looking specters, which I have to say look pretty damn sweet, for people who think they’re being haunted by them and they receive muchos ducats for doing so. Only what happens is that the scam is that their buddy is all dressed up as the freaky looking ghost and they prey on stupid townsfolk. His make-up, though, is odd considering the time period. I had no idea they invented spirit gum before developing the tooth brush.

Thing is, and it’s nearly laughable if it weren’t such a grand production, there really is ghosts out there in the Enchanted Forest and the Brothers Grimm are suddenly asked to do what they’ve been doing all along. The exposition and dialogue and all the events that lead into the forest are nearly too much to take. The only thing that provides some unintended levity is that the set pieces to make this look like an Enchanted Forest only really look like a back lot that was built to make it look like an Enchanted Forest. It’s piss poor, really, and it’s rather distracting.

But, lo and behold, all is not lost, friends. The last 20 seconds of the trailer are indeed something to take delight in. Monica Belluci shows up in full Technicolor and my worldview changes. The set pieces begin to shift from dreary to exciting. All in a matter of moments the money shots are unloaded and, yay, it was good. Action abounds and there is actually something for me to look at.

Director: Fernando Meirelles
Cast: Ralph Fiennes, Rachel Weisz, Pernilla August, Danny Huston, Hubert Kounde
Release: August 26, 2005
Synopsis: Based on the best-selling John le Carré novel and from the Academy Award-nominated director of “City of God.” In a remote area of Northern Kenya, activist Tessa Quayle (Rachel Weisz) is found brutally murdered. Tessa’s companion, a doctor, appears to have fled the scene, and the evidence points to a crime of passion. Members of the British High Commission in Nairobi assume that Tessa’s widower, their mild-mannered and unambitious colleague Justin Quayle (Ralph Fiennes), will leave the matter to them. They could not be more wrong. Haunted by remorse and jarred by rumors of his late wife’s infidelities, Quayle surprises everyone by embarking on a personal odyssey that will take him across three continents. Using his privileged access to diplomatic secrets, he will risk his own life, stopping at nothing to uncover and expose the truth – a conspiracy more far-reaching and deadly than Quayle could ever have imagined.

Prognosis: Positive. Ralph Fiennes will always be that fat gutted Nazi minion in SCHINDLER’S LIST to me. Always will. He was just that good at inhabiting that character.

I am glad to see the guy more often on the screen as I think he’s really a silent star that has so much to offer to parts but just isn’t used as much as he could be.

In this movie, though, he gets to play a tender, sweet loving man and he virtually pops off the screen with his charisma. The opening of this trailer, which at first I think is some soft-core, Vaseline-on-the-lens, kind of porno is actually just him and what I assume is his wife making some of that sweet sweet baby-making kind of love.

The music in the background sounds worldly which is perfect because the plot is meted out slowly enough for people to understand that his wife is asking to tag along with him to Africa. The Dark Continent. The place where every Amazing Race contestant believes that God forsake on his way to creating the Mall of America.

Well, Rachel Weisz, who could easily be the bumper Oreo cookie in my Kate Beckinsale sandwich, is all smiles and giggles until she tells her man something of great importance. Ralph appears to be acting in a doctorial capacity and Rachel, in a voiceover, whispers to him that she thinks one of the women being cared for by a band of doctors is being slowly murdered.

Interesting, as is the music. Tension is perfect, the pacing is right on and my interest is sustained.

What’s more is that Rachel’s bump indicates that she’s preggers, due in a week when last we see her talking to her husband’s video camera, and it just crushes me when the gig is up and the screen goes black. One of Ralph’s friends tells him and catches him completely unaware that Rachel has been killed. What a waste.

But, that’s a good thing because that’s usually the emotional buy-in a screenwriter has to get from you to make it that much more personal. Not only is the direction just nice to watch along with the cinematography, the direction coming from the same guy who gave the world the stupendous CITY OF GOD, but the screenplay is based on a book by John le Carre. Now, while I am a book snob, no question about it, I do have to concede that guys like that make great, superficial movies. Who here liked PATRIOT GAMES, CLEAR AND PRESENT DANGER, THE FIRM, and all those other flicks that you can either take or leave but somehow rise above average fare? I did and I am really into the trailer.

The music picks up, the percussion leading the charge in what seems to be Ralph’s battle cry, and we see Ralph just trudging through the mess that led to the murder of his wife. He doesn’t know what or who exactly to go after but there’s enough cloak and dagger mysteriousness, with everything from fisticuffs to anonymous motorcycles of death, to show you that this isn’t going to be a boring romp.

The percussion kicks up, Wes Studi pops his head in, the “conspiracy” is labeled as global, there are the ubiquitous corporate trolls who are simply hated universally the world over and are a convenient stand-in, we hear how the pharmaceutical companies are just like illegal drug cartels and that there’s a contract on Ralph’s head for digging “too deep.”

All the superlatives aside, I would have to say, based on this trailer, I would immediately see this movie just based on what I saw.

Director: Judd Apatow
Cast: Steve Carrell, Catherine Keener
Release: August 19, 2005
Synopsis: 40-year-old Andy Stitzer (Steve Carrell) has done quite a few things in his life. He’s got a cushy job stamping invoices at an electronics superstore, a nice apartment with a proud collection of action figures and comic books, good friends, a nice attitude. But there’s just one little thing he hasn’t quite gotten around to doing yet–something most people have done by his age. Done a lot. Andy’s never, ever, ever had sex–not even by accident. So is that such a big deal?

View Trailer:
* Small (QuickTime)

Prognosis: Negative. Not a fan of Steve Carrell.

My feelings aren’t really out of dislike for his brand of comedy as it is just an overall feeling of disinterest whenever I see him laying down his schtick. That’s ok, though, as this movie actually piques something in me that I think all his other forays into the comedic genre have failed to do.

The Spandau Ballet song “True,” which is really the best go-to song ever laid down on cassette that lets everyone in the house know we’re talking about the 80’s, its greatest power displayed in SIXTEEN CANDLES, is superbly played here as we are no doubt going to be shown the failed attempts Steve has made on his way to ever getting some from the ladies. The gag of him trying to undo his date’s bra and turning it into a weapon against his lady, I admit, is funny. It made me laugh. The next woman, who is inexpiably, but understandably from a marketing perspective, even hotter than the last one, tries to lick his toe in a sensual manner only to have the Monkey Foot of Pain applied to her face as Steve recoils his leg and juts it forward because he’s ticklish. Again, this visual gag is good because what you’re going to have happen is all the dudes who grew up to appreciate Three Stooges humor will no doubt respond to the physicality of how this trailer opens; it’s slapstick and it’s still alive.

Fast forward 20 some-odd years and Steve is still a virgin and is trapped, in his clothing and appearance, in an era when Members-Only was just laying its larva as the required outerwear for dweebs everywhere in years to come, and helmet hair wasn’t an option, it was a requirement. What’s odd is that Carrell, who, if he was a real dude, would probably be one of the most scary humanoids walking the earth.

The movie plays this with Steve being a sympathetic character but I see some pretty rote story construction as I see his buddies are all out to help him get a woman and all are pretty colorful characters themselves. His one friend, Romany Malco, seems to be That Guy in films who purports to know everything there is about sex and gets Steve to go along with the more extreme and bizarre methods to getting a date. This includes: using the Suzanne Summer’s Thigh-Master, a joke that’s already been used in a few other comedies years ago when it was funny; waxing Steve’s really hairy body, which starts out promisingly enough but ends flat; having him start a conversation with a woman using the technique of asking a question when asked a question, never minding the woman is really good looking and would no way in real life find this conversational technique as hot as it’s shown; and then it’s off to something called Date-A-Palooza which, for it’s name sake, I can’t really think of anything else that uses that suffix anymore other than old white people who want to seem really “with it.”

Well, he meets a woman at the Date-A-Palooza, the same blonde from CABLE GUY, and ends up being a complete freak. Psycho. She flips out on Steve as they’re driving back to her place hoping, at the very least, to seal the deal. This part of the trailer actually makes me laugh. There’s something about hot crazy chicks that always strikes me as being honest and funny at the same time.

Now, after these “failed” attempts to find the one, Catherine Keener pops up into Steve’s life and what I fear the most about this movie starts to happen: he’s shown blossoming into a man who cares more for her package than for her, well, package. There’s the requisite laughing over a fun and jaunty soundtrack, the way he seems to beam with her as he’s being himself but the whole thing makes me ill. This movie seems to be straying too close to the romantic comedy and I just can’t appreciate that.

I was hoping this trailer would’ve at least lied to me somehow by making the trailer end on a wild note but this thing just peters out, shooting its funny load way too early and leaving me feel limp, dejected and ashamed.

Director: Sebastian Cordero
Cast: John Leguizamo, Leonor Watling, Jose Maria Yazpik, Alfred Molina, Damian Alcazar
Release: July 8, 2005 (Limited)
Synopsis: A Miami reporter (John Leguizamo) travels to a small Ecuadorian village to cover a series of brutal murders and get the biggest story of his career, tracking a possible serial killer dubbed the Monster of Babahoyo.

Prognosis: Positivo. Hot damn.

I would say on a one to ten, this trailer deserves a 9 for its construction. Everything about how foreign films can be sold to Americans should be found all in this trailer. What, initially, I like about this trailer is the air of immediacy that’s given to the subject matter. Everything pops quickly and we don’t have a lot of lingering back story to get caught up in to drag us down.

The screen starts black and you can hear a throng of people in the background. It’s muffled but you just notice the “From the producers of Y TU MAMA TAMBIEN” glide across the screen. John Leguizamo’s face is shown briefly, in slow motion, before it fades away.

The Official Selection card where it was shown at Cannes, Toronto, and Sundance all help to quietly lend the legitimacy that’s perfectly placed. It’s quick enough to keep your attention and, I feel, stay with the trailer.

The action begins with a news report saying that John, a reporter for a news agency in some Latin country, saves a guy from instant flammable death by gasoline. He gets involved in a bad situation. The screen fades out.

A lilting guitar plays in the background as John explains his role as a reporter. He mentions words about truth and his job as one who reports on it. It’s a little grandiose and it’s slightly aggrandizing as I think that most reporters feel in some way that they’re out there doing God’s work but it is just a job, after all. John takes the long way around saying he’s an investigative journalist. Small quibble, no worries.

“On the trail of a serial killer”¦”

Throaty Voiceover Guy drops into the action and cranks this already interesting movie up a few notches with even more exposition. John’s on the path to finding out something about a killer on the loose. He’s running, dodging the popo’s for reasons unknown, and there’s even some mass grave action going on. The camera work is palatable and its cinematography feels like it’s dirtying my computer screen. It’s wonderful.

What’s more is the interesting way subtitles are used. I would explain it but it’s so much more fun to see it for yourself. It’s one of the more engaging ways to get gringos into the mix with Spanish speaking peoples and it makes you pay attention to the words.

The screen jumps to black as we get snippets of glowing reviews, which is helpful 90% of the time as long as it’s done right, along with some real interesting quick clips of what’s going on in the movie.

The direction seems to meld wonderfully with the story and as long as there hasn’t been too much manipulation with the direction of the movie to the trailer I think this could be a really good movie.

Director: Roger Allers, Jill Culton, Anthony Stacchi
Cast: Ashton Kutcher, Martin Lawrence, Debra Messing, Paul Westerberg
Release: September 9, 2006
Synopsis: A deer buddies up with a domesticated grizzly bear when the two animals are alone in the woods during hunting season. Meanwhile, Beth, a forest ranger who raised the bear, embarks on a desperate search to find her friend.

Prognosis: Positive. I love it.

I absolutely love this trailer which, by all intents and purposes, ought to be labeled a teaser. I don’t know why you’d want to generate interest nearly one year and three months plus put but I don’t run my own marketing department so who the hell am I to make a peep?

However, and first off, I was slightly skittish from the opening. What has Sony Animation ever put out into the fray? I wasn’t sure either and I can’t think of a single CGI, animated movie that they’ve done. This being the first time and all I thought it might look a little rough, getting one’s footing in the genre and all. Turns out, though, things just explode in a good way. You’ve got a rabbit that’s running for his life through a thicket of grass, obviously very upset that there’s something chasing him. This certainly ain’t BROTHER BEAR.

“Since before the beginning of the beginning of time”¦”

You get Roscoe McHiggins and his hillbilly mode of transport tearing through the forest trying to get this little rabbit. The camera is pulled back and you see the two of them plunging into a plume of trees. Our hunter churns some dirt as he pulls over and runs on foot after the little mammal; he’s carrying a shotgun. The animation draws me in. As an aside, movies like SHARK TALE should have understood that even though you have fish and sharks and different animals you don’t need to attack the color palate with every ROYGBIV combination you could think of. Use some sense is all I’m saying and this one looks like it has.

Right before the plaid hunter caps the rabbit in the face with serious amounts of buckshot, the requisite fingers in the bunny’s mouth to whistle, the universal help signal that transcends every culture and age group, blares out and it produces a small squirrel. The squirrel, who ends up being Scottish, and, while I’m talking about it, what is up with Scottish accented beasts ruling the animated market anyway? He yells out to his European counterparts, dozens of other squirrels who all heed the command by giving a rousting “Oy!” along with bagpipe music blurting over it all. Annoying as it is, with beating a cultural convention into the proverbial ground, it still made me laugh.

And, from out of nowhere, no longer is it just squirrels but the whole damn forest comes alive with bloodlust as other creatures essentially show off their homemade weaponry. I, myself, appreciated the large buck with a bra spread between his antlers, ostensibly to create a makeshift catapult I assume, and the one woodchuck who, like a deranged serial killer, wields a speeding chainsaw. It’s great. It’s cheeky and draws me in to its odd little world.

The promo does everything that it should with the only downside being that the movie doesn’t come out until next fall and it seems that Ashton Kutcher is voicing one of the leads.

Question: Is it really that necessary that Hollywood turn to actors to voice these things instead of using someone who may actually be useful in the part? I mean if I am going to work on a movie for YEARS would I want a voice that will really do something for the character or am I happy with whatever star has the highest Q score rating that month? Obviously, the answer is popularity wins out every time but whatever. Of what I saw I would definitely see this movie. And, it looks like the kids would enjoy it as well.

Director: Chris Columbus
Cast: Rosario Dawson, Taye Diggs, Wilson Jermaine Heredia, Jesse L. Martin, Idina Menzel, Adam Pascal
Release: November 11, 2005
Synopsis: This is the film version of the Pulitzer and Tony Award winning musical about Bohemians in the East Village of New York City struggling with life, love and AIDS, and the impacts they have on America.

Prognosis: Negative. Look, I am going to say something and I don’t want the wrong part of the audience to not get where I am coming from, and I am usually more erudite in my explanations when I don’t appreciate something, but this movie looks pretty shitty.

Now, to give you some idea of where my blind scale of justice sways, Broadway-wise, let me state that I was enamored with CHICAGO, thought that Hugh Jackman’s performance in both OKLAHOMA! and THE BOY FROM OZ was spectacular when compared to other Hollywood actors who try and fail wonderfully when they make a run at it, enjoy the spectacle shows like LION KING and BEAUTY AND THE BEAST but have an affectionate bone in my body that gravitates towards classics like MISS SAIGON and PHANTOM OF THE OPERA whenever I need something to reestablish my baseline for fruitiness in the eyes of my peers.

That said, though, I can’t even look this trailer in the eye without feeling all sorts of effeminate. I almost can’t even bear to recount the actions in this trailer without sensing my nads creeping into my sac but I will go on with the show and try to do what’s best for this column.

The trailer opens. I AM interested. I have never seen Rent live or heard it on CD but, from what I know, there are people who swear by its power as a musical. I know of individuals who see this show again and again, trying to get in with last minute, student or cheap seating.

The skyline for what I think is New York comes into daylight. It’s a bit passé and clichéd to start something with the beginning of the day but who the hell cares, right? The stage is all about keeping with convention and most people just want conventional so it’s ok.

A piano starts. I think for a moment this is the opening for Taxi or Cheers or any number of other television shows that used a piano to kick things off but I know we’re in for a song.

“Five-hundred twenty-five thousand six hundred minutes”¦”

I am being serenaded by a gaggle of people and all I see on the screen are good looking urbanites trudging though the streets and subways of this city. The music grows in intensity as our choir booms into life. The action on the screen shows a powerless Rosario Dawson who is having a burned out candle lit by some strange dude who no doubt has something other than passionate romance on his mind; after all, she wore leather and chains, she wants to party.

We get snowy street corners, we see some dude riding a beater old ten-speed, a relic that even the dudes from BREAKING AWAY would eschew, and we get a sickening display of those slow-mo shots of people smiling, having a good time, and living a life you and I won’t ever know because we just aren’t that pretty enough. What’s more, and what I think, is that the slow-mo shot of people laughing like they’ve never laughed before is because someone just cut one and they’re trying to pin it on someone, you get the affective hardship slow-mo shot which is what drama queens do when they put their hand on their forehead as if to say “I just can’t go on living anymore,” and then you get the slo-mo shot of a happy couple dancing in the streets which, if were to be sped up to normal time, you would quickly see other people shouting offensive epithets in protest against such egregious PDA.

I will admit that the music is good. I was jiving in my chair as I heard it but this all feels, seriously, like the intro to the Rent television show on the Lifetime network where it’s lead-in is probably Thirtysomething and, right after it, Hill Street Blues.

It’s about here that we get the Spotlight Choir.

Each person wants to add their own special somethin’ somethin’ to this little song and I say God bless “˜em. They want to show the world that they’re able, someday, to be Ricky Martin’s backup singers or David Cassidy’s chorus when he’s singing at the Flamingo Hilton every Tuesday through Sunday, Monday’s always being black; singers need rest too.

It’s all very dramatic in a way that rubs me the wrong way. I guess you can put me in the category that thinks it all feels false. It shouldn’t, I know that, but it does. I am manly enough to admit that I like a good musical but I just can’t condone this trailer. You are effectively alienating a significant portion of your audience by having a trailer like this. Look at CHICAGO’s filmic campaign, with the trailer, and tell me what’s different about the two of them. I’ll tell you this: there isn’t a call-attention-to-yourself musical number that’s dragged out for 2+ minutes.

Director: Miranda July
Cast: Ellen Geer, John Hawkes, Brad William Henke, Miranda July, Jordan Potter, Brandon Ratcliff, Jason Rice, Natasha Slayton, Miles Thompson, Najarra Townsend, Carlie Westerman
Release: June 17, 2005
Synopsis: Me and You and Everyone We Know is a poetic and penetrating observation of how people struggle to connect with one another in an isolating and contemporary world. Christine Jesperson is a lonely artist and eEldercab driver who uses her fantastical artistic visions to draw her aspirations and objects of desire closer to her. Richard Swersey (John Hawkes), a newly single shoe salesman and father of two boys, is prepared for amazing things to happen. But when he meets the captivating Christine, he panics. Life is not so oblique for Richard’s seven-year-old Robby, who is having a risqué internet romance with a stranger, and his fourteen- year-old brother Peter who becomes the guinea pig for neighborhood girls – practicing for their future of romance and marriage.

View Trailer:
* Large (QuickTime)

Prognosis: Positive. I had to throw my artistic bad self a bone here and indulge in some really deep moviemaking. Well, it may not be deep but there is something brewing in this trailer and it’s not Sanka.

What I think is most admirable about this trailer is that it really isn’t trying to be something that it isn’t. For examples of things that try too hard, just flip through any number of movie magazines to see how certain movies are played up for their “romanticism” or “action” or how a certain demographic is aimed for with its use of money shots or what kind of narrative is being pimped.

This one definitely has its own voice, for better or worse.

What’s odd about the way this thing starts is that you have some woman who looks like Maggie Gyllenhall’s middle aged sister who is caressing a microphone in a way that makes my nards quiver. She’s talking to herself, modulating her voice as she has a pseudo conversation with no one else but she, and the camera captures this woman’s singularity in a way that makes me curious yet completely wierded out by the whole scenario. Luckily, we don’t linger long in this universe.

Our next obviously broken and shredded human being comes in the form of what looks like 1/3 of the super alterna/electronica group, Le Tigre; “˜Cept this is a dude who is a dude and not some woman who looks like a dude. Anyway, this guy is an Al Bundy who works in women’s shows and our two anti-heroes meet whilst he helps to slip on a pump to our maiden. She has a laceration on her ankle to which our man lets slide, as if it doesn’t slightly smack of pretentiousness, “You think you deserve that pain but you don’t.”

Groan.

Ok, I understand. It’s a deep movie. Thankfully, this is just tossed out casually and we never hear another word like this again. We’re thrust, swiftly, into this man’s universe as he regales us with what he hopes for his kids and for his life. He honestly comes off as a guy who’s trying to support a family and who dances not only to a different drummer but to a whole variant style of rhythm.

And this is also relevant to the discussion but the kids in question are showcased a little more here and you see that they’re not idealized Hollywood brood. They seem like kids who are also living a life that’s askew from the normalcy of what’s expected of today’s youth.

We meet up with our fumbling duo once more in the shoe department as our shoe guy tells the weird chick that he severely damaged his hand while trying, unsuccessfully, to save his own life. Huh? Yeah, I don’t get it either.

The quotes from Entertainment Weekly and Roger Ebert and the small seals of approval from Sundance, and it’s inclusion in it, all help to shore up the credibility of this odd, little, quirky film.

There’s some parts GHOST WORLD, some elements of THIRTEEN, a little PUNCH DRUNK LOVE and some shimmers of Todd Solondz in the editing that’s going on. I can’t say for sure if I’m going to rush out quickly to see this movie but I can say that the trailer kept me hooked.

Director: Mike Newell
Cast: Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, Rupert Grint, Robbie Coltrane, Michael Gambon, Alan Rickman, Maggie Smith
Release: November 18, 2005
Synopsis: In Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Harry (Daniel Radcliffe) must contend with being mysteriously selected to compete in the prestigious Triwizard Tournament, a thrilling international competition that pits him against older and more experienced students from Hogwarts and two rival European wizarding schools. Meanwhile, supporters of Harry’s nemesis, the evil Lord Voldemort (Ralph Fiennes), send a shockwave of fear throughout the wizard community when their Dark Mark scorches the sky at the Quidditch World Cup, signaling Voldemort’s return to power. But for Harry, this is not the only harrowing news causing him anxiety”¦he still has yet to find a date for Hogwarts’ Yule Ball dance.

Prognosis: I’ll Wait “˜Till Video. I can’t imagine what it must be like to have the world finally know you’ve grown pubes.

Sheesh. Awful.

Daniel Radcliffe, though, must love that knowledge being out there as much as pedophiles must hate that their time is running out to snap up that young Emma Watson, who actually is maturing very well after cruising through young adolescence just fine in front of the camera, is drawing to a close.

I would have to go on record as saying the PRISONER OF AZKABAN really was a blessing to kid’s movies everywhere. When you have source material like the Potter series you could’ve kept with the Chris Columbus route and rode that wave to gravy train box office boffo. Instead, like directorial musical chairs, Warner’s goes from using one of the most artistic directors of recent years and now places the series in the hands of the man who gave us FOUR WEDDINGS AND A FUNERAL and PUSHING TIN. I don’t understand why one would go for someone who is, lack for a better adjective, good, but why?

The last movie was great in its capacity to capture the mood that the other two films did a so-so job in executing. I am not the one who signs the checks but if I were I don’t know why I would take two creative steps forward only to retreat five back in a declaration of mediocrity. I just don’t. This doesn’t mean that I am not eager to see this new interpretation, far from it, as what I see in the trailer here is really catchy.

This trailer, which is nearly a teaser as no one says squat until the middle point of this thing, starts off much the way I would’ve: show the progression.

I think it’s fabulous that we get a look at Harry and Co. as they transition physically from the weak little children they once were into the teens that they are now. It’s so utterly simplistic in its silent execution of showing all four phases of their lives that I applaud the decision not to just jump right into things. The effect that time has had on my boy Rupert Grint isn’t so delightful that he has the perennial look of someone who has constantly been woken up from a nap.

After we’ve established that we’re all coming-of-age we get our plot foundation. And good thing too as the trailer already has burned half its running time on our characters with no mention of where this narrative is going.

Fear not, true believer, as it gushes out in cut scenes and Michael Gambon’s oration of how this movie is all about the Mr. Wizard Tourney that’s being hosted at Hogwarts. While I don’t understand jack about any of this I do understand that what the narration does effectively is to showcase all the glorious money shots that yearns to spend its wealth into the imagination of kids everywhere.

Some of the stuff looks hokey, the “wizards” who compete against Harry have that prototypical bad guy look about them which really does a disservice to the story as you know all the angry scowls these people wear all negate their “chance” at besting young Harry, but I am grooving on the image of the dragon that comes at the end of our video presentation of the trailer. It’s wonderfully rendered and I hope to see more of that in trailers to come. The narration over the cards before it all goes to black?

Director: Gary David Goldberg
Cast: Diane Lane, John Cusack, Elizabeth Perkins, Dermot Mulroney, Christopher Plummer, Stockard Channing
Release: July 29, 2005
Synopsis: Based on the novel by Claire Cook, MUST LOVE DOGS stars Oscar-nominated Diane Lane as Sarah Nolan, a newly divorced woman cautiously rediscovering romance with the enthusiastic but often misguided help of her well-meaning family. Elizabeth Perkins stars as one of Sarah’s incorrigible matchmaking siblings who do everything they can to energize her love life, including posting a personal ad for her with an online dating service; while John Cusack and Dermot Mulroney star as two hot prospects who might just prove too good to be true. As she braves a series of hilariously disastrous mismatches and first dates, Sarah begins to trust her own instincts again and learns that, no matter what, it’s never a good idea to give up on love. MUST LOVE DOGS also stars Christopher Plummer as Sarah’s widowed Dad, who has recently launched his own search for a soul mate with surprisingly successful results, and Stockard Channing, as one of his free-spirited dates who likes to keep several online personalities in circulation.

Prognosis: Does Lane Meyer Need Money This Badly?. Okay, I admit it; I reviewed this one to see what it would be like to not have any testosterone.

It worked. I’m a fully functioning woman after seeing this trailer.

Now, before you all get up in my grill about this, I wanted to review a trailer for the ladies, as this is an equal opportunity showcase, but also try and think like a woman. (I could insert a crack I heard about how to this is in a quite pejorative manner but I’ll save that for later) Women want to be excited to see films too, as they do represent a large percentage of the movie going audience, so I looked at this film with the idea in my melon with the following question: Would I be dragged to see this if my wife caught this between watching Oprah, The View, reruns of Desperate Housewives, and any commercial starring babies, dying grandparents or feminine hygiene products.

First of all, there isn’t a voiceover to be heard anywhere; bold move if you ask me but this is pretty smart on the marketing side of things. The angle is all about letting Diane Lane, who is just supa fine looking as a mature woman of Hollywood and kudos for her still getting some choice parts, just play things out. Show her character. Show who she is. The best way to do this, from watching the opening moments, is to let some poor slob of a dude make the mistake of doing his job at the meat counter. The guy recommends that by buying a little more meat she can save a little money to which she flips out. Seriously, the chick goes off the handle and I can already see why she’s a divorced woman. In fact, I quickly take my Would-I-That? pulse and on a scale from catching a woman on the rebound from a really long relationship after she’s had a few too many beyond a few too many to loony bin, asylum types of woman I would have to say, no, I would have to pass on tappin’ that. Any woman who freaks out too easily could easily be a few glasses of Courvoisier away from”¦.well”¦you get the idea.

So, we’ve established she’s a nut and is divorced for reasons we can see as clearly as any lighthouse at sea.

Now, check this out, Diane’s best friend, Elizabeth Perkins (those who would hit that sandwich, raise both your hands. Nice.) puts her face and profile online. Let me repeat that: her best friend shoves her onto the Internets, whoring her out, for any guy who comes along. That isn’t even the best part. The best part comes when, after Elizabeth tells her what she’s done, instead of flying for the metal skillet to break her friend’s hands, she nods in acquiescence. She thinks this is a good idea! Awesome. This woman is getting crazier and crazier.

As is the case for any movie where you have a protagonist looking for that special someone, kind of like at a rock concert where you have real crappy opening bands to make those you did pay to see that much better, you have the obnoxious sub-species of male, the Hollywood envisioning of odd blind daters who have readily apparent flaws, before you get the obvious choice: John Cusack.

What pulls me in, as a guy, is that he recognizes how crazy she is. He even mentions the word “mess” to describe her current condition. Now, we all know he’s not going to hit it and quit it but at least we’re dealing on a good honest playing field.

Things go a little awry when Dermot Mulroony shows up and effs everything to high hell but this has still kept my attention to bravo to that. You have the set up, the situation, the twist and are leaving things open to interpretation even though we all know how this will end.

I weep a little on the inside when Natalie Cole’s “This Will Be,” one of the most prevalent chick movie soundtrack songs, montages over scenes with Diane trying to wrestle with which guy she’s going to choose to make a living hell out of.

Director: Andy Byatt, Alastair Fothergill
Cast: Michael Gambon as Narrator (voice), Pierce Brosnan as Narrator (Voice)
Release: June 17, 2005 (Limited)
Synopsis: The natural history of the oceans.

Prognosis: Positive. Quick, name one of Luc Besson’s best movies from the mid-80’s that starred a not yet washed out Rosanna Arquette and a dashingly brute Jean Reno that every person should watch for no other reason than the cinematography?

THE BIG BLUE.

Without a doubt the film is one of my personal favorites as I actually saw it on Beta, I’m so dating myself, on a night when my buddy Brandon Murphy also rented SPINAL TAP. It was one crazy night for filmic greatness, let me tell you. What attracted me so much to BIG BLUE were its moments of breathtaking shots of guys who deep dive, without air tanks, as far as they can hold their breath while descending insane levels into the ocean. It was at the same time claustrophobic and exhilarating.

What I see in DEEP BLUE, then, is that same feeling of claustrophobia and exhilaration as this documentary starts off with rattling off some very basic facts about the amount of life inside the ocean.

I nearly click stop and move on to something else before the following card pops up:

“”¦more people have walked on the moon than have seen the ocean’s deepest floor.”

The Vangelis/Yanni/New Age titter of the harp relaxes me as the sweet images of crashing waves, curling surf and of frolicking sea life turns dark and foreboding. The music is stopped for something with a little more of an edge.

Creatures I have never seen before, kind of like that little sprite fairy from THE ABYSS, pull into focus and I have no words that go on and describe what the hell they are. They look fake, they do. They’re independently illuminated by their own bodies and they are shaped in a way I am not anatomically used to seeing. It really is a sight to see.

Then, abruptly, the music speeds up only to slow down as we have a predator/prey thing going for a bit. The fragility of the things with wings is replaced with savage ocean dwellers looking for a snack.

National Geographic gets their own blurb tossed on the screen, appropriate for the kind of picture we have here, and even Voiceover Guy drops in for a shout-out, inviting us on behalf of Miramax, how sweet of them to do that, while an amazing cone of fish swirl like a tornado in the background.

Movies like this are perfect for little ones who are, no doubt, attracted to these kinds of things. Plus, on the upside, this also looks like a movie that won’t bore you to death.

Director: Steve Boyum
Cast: Steve Howey, Mike Vogel, Sophia Bush, Cameron Richardson, Robert Patrick
Release: August 10, 2005
Synopsis: Faced with the suspicious death of their father, two brothers must motivate one another to get back on their bikes and take the Las Vegas Motocross Championships by storm.

Prognosis: Negative. I love it.

“Risk Everything.”

After doing reviews of some really worthy trailers this week, I was in the mood for something like a chocolaty snack. Something that would satisfy my carnal, base needs for an edible foodstuff that wouldn’t do anything more than make me portly. What I found in this trailer, admirably enough, did all that. Still doesn’t change that this film looks like it was made with a budget cobbled together with a few tax returns and a winning box top from a Cap’n’Crunch “Find the Cap’n” sweepstakes.

“Your girlfriend dumped you”

Alright, I was a little harsh in the intro but, begrudgingly, they’ve got the mood down; you need frenetic quick cuts with very little for people to focus on and they succeeded in doing that. The passionate kiss between a guy and chick, who are no doubt in the throes of passion on a Sealy, gets the adolescent horn-dog demographic all riled up.

“Your car was stolen”¦Your rent is overdue”¦but these are the least of your worries”

So, it’s kind of like a pseudo serious HAPPY GILMORE set-up, right? Guy needs money, guy seems down on his luck, has “one last shot” to make a name for himself? Am I getting warm? No, because that film’s a comedy and this seems like a drama without the dramatics.

The trailer hasn’t yet shown us our protagonist but that is of little concern when you’re busy showing the asses of young ladies in cut-offs, dudes signing ladies’ stomachs, and displaying all sorts of handlebar-twistin’, helmet donnin’, knock-down fisticuff pushin’ as you round some corners, before ever getting to the narrative. The target audience doesn’t need a whole lot of exposition.

When we do finally get there we’re given a verbal exchange between a shirtless dude and a female rider who make some double-entendre small talk; what that had to do with anything I haven’t a clue. What’s more is that Voiceover Guy pops in to do the job that the slackholes who made this trailer obviously thought was important to get into halfway into the trailer.

“Two brothers”¦who have never been given a chance”¦” This is pretty much all you need to know. You can insert eye rolling right about here.

The machismo gets all sorts out of control as we are introduced to our “bad guy,” a meathead to end all meatheads, who tells our “brothers” to watch themselves cuz their in whay over their headz. I’m just surprised to see that this guy’s knuckles aren’t touching the ground as he walks; the things medical science of Hollywood can do to troglodytes is simply amazing.

You get more ladies getting their breasts autographed, there’s lot of shiny bike porn for those who are into that sort of thing, more useless ass shots of women for reasons I am all too cognizant of, but there is some shred of redemption here, kids.

The last few seconds of crazy clips that are pieced together with a block rocking beat are, oddly, well done. They really are. For a movie like this I am a believer that it’s better if no one in the trailer opens their fat, lunk-headed mouth any further than to display their “O” face as they bang some nameless starlet. Just focus on all the action.

As it stands, I am sure this one will survive a week in the theater, promptly making its way to my Blockbuster in two months, and will then languish among all the other DVD’s that will never get rented by anyone else than 13 year-olds who’ll get it because all the other copies of BIKERBOYZ are gone and some foolio done rented all the remaining copies of TORQUE.

Director: Henry Alex Rubin, Dana Adam Shapiro
Cast: Keith Cavill, Joe Soares, Mark Zupan
Release: July 8, 2005 (Limited)
Synopsis: A film about (not quadriplegics but PARAPLEGICS) who play full-contact rugby in Mad Max-style wheelchairs – overcoming unimaginable obstacles to compete in the Paralympic Games in Athens, Greece.

Prognosis: Positive. My friend, Aime Boekhout, plays rugby.

The woman, seriously, and this is no joke, could jack me up hardcore if she wanted to. She’s wickedly fast for her size and incredibly athletic. That’s why I always try to get a running start when I have anything to say about who she’s currently dating.

I saw the trailer for this and thought that no matter where you fell on the fence about this sport, which is played full contact without the aid of girly maxi-pads that are secured all over one’s person, this looks like a great time at the movies. For a documentary, keeping the attention of the audience is key, and things just hit the floor spinning as this thing opens up.

The main participants in this docu are introduced quickly as they explain to all of us how they ended up in wheelchairs. The stories themselves are like little morsels of fascination, one of the guys got into a fight at a party with another dude and his opponent decided throwing him off a deck and snapping his spine was the next best thing, but we see them all in action as they’re ramming the crap out of their wheelchairs into each other.

“You can’t really market murderball to corporate sponsers”¦”

The intensity of the introductions take a back seat to the delicate piano music that plays in the background as our guys explain how Team USA has risen to a plateau of such prominence in the sport itself.

We get the delegations of other countries showcase, albeit briefly, but you see the kind of intensity that’s stoked in so many of these guys who want to mix it up. Smack talk plays a small role in this but you don’t even think, cognitively, anyway, that these guys can’t walk. I would be scared to play against this pack of people based on the moves employed in this trailer and the trailer does a superb job with invoking the sense of physical impact.

Instead of being told a story, how it starts and ends, you get a snapshot of what this sport means to these men, what this time means for them, in a way that doesn’t so much inspire as it does reaffirm that those limited in physical ability are still voracious and energized to take anything head on with the same machismo bravado as their able legged counterparts.

What’s more is that there is a lot of usage of quotable quotables which, to be fair, helps to showcase how well this movie is being received by some high end critics. I mean, usually, you get some reviewer from The Bunghole Arkansas Times who says it’s the best movie “evar” but not here. You get great comments from Ebert, Premiere, New York Times, and others. It really does help to have this kind of ammunition in one’s back pocket to toss out there.

As the trailer enters its decent into landing, the music gets slightly more manipulative, using “Follow the Day” from The Polyphonic Spree, as our rugby team heads off to Greece to compete on the proverbial world stage; I wonder how tasty the gyros are over there. You get a real flavor for the things that people say and do that show how we all still haven’t gotten the memo that wheelchair bound doesn’t equal helpless gimp but we get the idea that what these men are competing for doesn’t just come in a medal around the neck but that it’s the pursuit of complete dominance of their selves and desires.

That’s a lot of crap to pick up on a few glances but I’ll be dammed if I’m not almost 100% right.

Director: Craig Brewer
Cast: Terrence Dashon Howard, DJ Qualls, Ludacris, Taryn Manning, Anthony Anderson, Isaac Hayes
Release: July 13, 2005 (Limited)
Synopsis: Djay is a pimp suffering a midlife crisis, yearning to be a rap star, and after being galvanized by a gospel song, he gets to work, finding it a very hard road to fame and respect.

Prognosis: Positive. Man, it just feels hot.

It looks like this movie was filmed in the hottest part of the South and that no one even thought to wipe themselves before each take.

When you watch a trailer like this, one man trying to make something of his passion, you wonder how it is for that same person when they find out they’re not ever going to be regarded in the way their dreams have led them to believe.

Terrence Howard, who plays DJay, blasts right out onto the screen in the beginning of this trailer as he explains for himself about what he’s feeling and what he wants. The man is obsessed with the noise in his head which no doubt consists of beats and rhymes. He’s laying it all out for a friend of his and I am immensely satisfied at the opening salvo for this trailer.

I am disturbed, however, as our man is in his flow that I see Anthony Anderson in the background providing support. Now, I am not really trying to be down on Anderson but when my man comes out with a movie like KING’S RANSOM and KANGAROO JACK, both of which should be treated like radioactive steamers that were left to kill audiences with their wretched stink in theaters, and you’re trying to sell this picture on an already fickle public it may or may not be in your best interest to highlight his role so prominently.

That’s just me, though.

“It’s hard out here for a pimp”¦”

You can see Terrence’s devotion to his craft as he tries to construct rhymes and beats that he thinks will sound well on a record. That comes off real well in the exposition we’re given about this man.

This is only explored further, giving a welcomed short shrift to some of the more exploitive moments that could have been chosen in lieu of this, what this man is desperately trying to make. This isn’t so much about a man trying to make a rap record but you feel that this is a movie trying to show how a man sees his future with regard to how his past and present experiences inform his motivation.

DJ Qualls, one of the oddest anomalies working in pictures today, arrives to provide some much needed levity, Anthony providing some of his own along the way, which, in short dollops, is quite fine; reference HAROLD AND KUMAR for a good example on this.

The narration quickly, but efficiently, moves to showing how, after our man cuts his album in his ramshackle recording studio, wants to get it heard by the clichéd hot “IT” hip-hop artiste of the moment, Skinny Black, who is played here by Ludacris. You can feel the need of Terrence, trying to get Black to just listen to his cd because he knows the value of what’s on there.

The rest of the trailer just explores this a little further, eking out his chance to shine, and what it will all come down to as it plays out in a single night.

I’m hopeful that the development of this man’s character remains true through the story as anything less than honesty and a well thought-out resolution of how this man’s story “ends” by the final reel would do a disservice to anyone who has come close to fulfilling their dreams.

Director: Martin Campbell
Cast: Antonio Banderas, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Anthony Hopkins
Release: October 28, 2005
Synopsis: It has been six years since the last Zorro film. Now, he’s back with an all new installment where he has been quietly settling with his own family in San francisco. His little boy, Jouqauin, is now 10 years old and contains no information of his father’s secret life. When these angry tyrants come with plans of their own, Zorro is called upon to save the day against his new nemesis, Armand. Also Elena will be in mask as the try aspiring wife and new partner of Zorro.

Prognosis: Negative. Was there really that much money made on the first installment of this movie that someone else thought it would be a good idea?

Seriously. Who thought this was a good idea?

I want to remain impartial to what seems like a train wreck that’s just a stack of pennies away from jumping the tracks but it’s hard to be so non-judgmental.

I start the trailer and really do expect the worst but who would have thought I would be impressed by the opening shots of this thing? None more than me, let me tell you.

I actually like the non-voiceover that’s regulated to the back in favor of a more zippy, shot after frenetic shot, showcase of some of the action pieces.

You have a fast tick-tick-tick beat riding underneath a near train explosion (how appropriate), Antonio flying through the air like a Spanish Superman (sans tights), Antonio mixing it up in a fisticuffs with some guy on the outside of a train, more physical impossibilities with Antonio using his thin sword with the flourish of a crazy matador (Ole!), and we pause only ever so slightly as 2005’s MILF of the Year, Catherine Zeta-Jones, buxomly displays the goods to our Latin savior who yearns to tap that as well. Sloppy seconds? Yes, please.

So, I get it that the Gay Blade isn’t nearly as Gay as I thought: he’s a dad. Well, he could be one of those “progressive” fathers but I’m getting ahead of myself.

What seems to me that what’s happening is that pop goes out to far off locales to fight evildoers while his woman stays home to watch the young lad. It stinks too much of family entertainment that won’t end too much in tragedy (a la THE USUAL SUSPECTS where the wife and child are spectacularly done away with) but I sit on my hands to see what else might appear. I’m disappointed we don’t get Anthony Hopkins donning dark face again, which I still think is an egregious error in racial judgment if ever there was such a thing in filmic history, but we trudge forth anyway.

I don’t get Hopkins but what I do get is pretty lame in comparison. The world doesn’t seem to need Zorro “The Gay Blade” (man, I do like writing that) any longer as progress is proving the swordsman to be obsolete.

So, instead of spending time with his family and hanging his gay blade in a place where he could probably enjoy it he begs Mary, Mother of Jesus, to help him find a reason, any reason at all, to skip out on his familial obligations. She says something as he goes back to his house and suits up, and it’s hilarious to watch, like Batman putting on the cowl and outfit, except here it’s a black pirate shirt (Yar!), pantaloons that would make my grandmother giggle, a sword that would better be used as a skewer for steak and chicken fajitas on the grill, and dons a sombrero that would be a lot more funny if it had dozens of those little red dingle berries around the rim.

There’s some shots of Antonio using his hat as a weapon like he was trying out for Oddjob’s replacement in a new Bond sequel, and gets some wicked air time with it to boot, some more trains blow up, he’s amazed when an adversary unsheathes two blades compared to his one, more physical improbabilities abound, and the whole thing ends in a cavalcade of discordant sounds, images and eye-candy that will no doubt excite the Antonio Banderas Fan Club in ways that would be immeasurable by today’s standards.

Director: Jeff Wadlow
Cast: Julian Morris, Lindy Booth, Jared Padalecki, Jon Bon Jovi
Release: September 23, 2005
Synopsis: Nobody believes a liar – even when they’re telling the truth. When a young woman is found murdered, a group of local high school students decide to further scare their classmates by spreading online rumors that a serial killer called “The Wolf” is on the loose. By describing “The Wolf’s” next victims, the students’ game is to see how many people they can convince – and if anyone will uncover the lie. But when the described victims actually do start turning up dead, suddenly no one knows where the lies end and the truth begins. As someone or something begins hunting the students themselves, the game turns terrifyingly real.

Prognosis: Negative. You know that “bleerdeebeep” that chimes whenever your mother, sister or brother are using that sad ass AOL IM software? That’s the opening chime in this trailer.

What got me thinking briefly off-topic is that we’re thrown into this set-up because AOL seems to have their Time-Warner fingers in the promotion of this film. Now, I can be all about corporate synergy and product placements when done right, even X2 was a bit blatant with theirs, (Who knew Wolvie was so into the Dr. Pepper I guess I missed that Comics 101 column”¦) but I just hate it when it’s tossed in front of me like a tranny selling his/her wares on a West Hollywood street corner.

Anyhow, after the initial anger wears off, we have some faceless nerd who’s using AOL for Broadband technology when he gets an instant message from someone he doesn’t know.

The clicka-clacka of the keyboard hasn’t even registered so much as a word before these two people are “chatting” with such speed that I am amazed by their keyboard prowess. In fact, all the words are spelled correctly and I am freaking out of my head in shock that the convo goes so fast. It goes from a hello to a “I’m killing everyone you know” in a matter of moments. Ah, the economy of time, but I understand the need for expediency.

What I do like, though, about the trailer is that there are no voiceovers, no cards, and no dialogue whatsoever. I really do appreciate that and commend the makers of the trailer for this. It will be the last sort of compliment, however, that I will bestow on this thing.

So after we establish that we have a really good H4X0R who’s infiltrating the computer of one of our killers’ targets by getting to him via an IM conversation which, as we all know, is classic M.O. for any loony looking to off some college-aged co-eds, we are treated to a split screen presentation of the killer establishing a location for where he is taking his bodies to the IM sentence that spells it out for our future victim. I mean Jason or Freddy could only walk around their respective kill grounds killing their prey indiscriminately but this is taking the killing genre into the mid-1990’s!

This all feels very Fear Dot Com-ish but I still got a little love for it being able to schizophrenically toggle between words and kills. The music helps the trailer along as well so it’s got the right thing going for it.

We get knifes, ski masks, heavy jackets, running, some chick who’s alone in an indoor pool (huh?), and then the obligatory “Run!” being shouted by someone who’s most likely going to be sacrificial lamb so the hot girlfriend can run away without so much as getting a scrape.

I just don’t know, though, I don’t. I think I might’ve been into this when I was 13 or 14 but I can’t help but feel that the whole murder/campus/good-looking and nubile kids/who-is-it behind the mask has been done to point of boredom.

Maybe it’s that damn bleerdeebeep.

Director: Ruth Leitman
Cast: Penny Banner, Bill Cosby, Lillian Ellison, Gladys Gillem, Judy Grable, Cyndi Lauper
Release: May 20, 2005 (Seattle International Film Festival)
Synopsis: Ring legends such as The Fabulous Moolah and Gladys “Kill ‘Em” Gillem Long provide candid insights into the history of women’s professional wrestling.

Prognosis: Positive. I appreciate the art of wrestling.

There’s something that’s inherently close to the comic book format, of villains and heroes, which really meant something to me as a kid growing up. It’s nearly sad to admit publicly but I don’t know if I really understood how fake it was until much later on in my youth.

This movie looks like a real hoot and holler for anyone who might be a fan of the mythos of wrestling as a spectator sport and for the theatrics it employs. Not only that but this movie is all about the old school ladies who used to pile drive but it explores the nuances of womanly empowerment that allowed ladies to be physical and rough in an era when demure and fragile were buzzwords of the time.

I am really unsure of my footing, so to speak, when the trailer opens with a black and white clip from To Tell The Truth that, as you can see, was prominently underwritten by Camel. Now, seeing how we find out that the professional wrestler in question is a woman, all dolled up in her flamboyant gear I would make a camel-toe joke, to tie it into what’s on the screen, here but that would be crass, juvenile, and completely derail the point of this movie.

I laugh anyway.

The trailer launches straight up into the air as more black and white video and photographs show how these lovely ladies dominated a sport that only men enjoyed participating in. One of the women who we don’t see says that the men were actually resentful of women who were professional wrestlers as they garnered more attention than the dudes.

After passing along that factoid I am glued to the presentation here as the cuts are quick, I’m shown lots of chicks having it out with one another in all different sorts of positions, I even get some midget wrestling tossed in but I am mostly in awe of the thunderous ways these women are hurting one another. I start to revert to my little boy youth and think that maybe these women DID hurt each other inside the ring. The footage is fabulous.

The subsequent Voiceover Guy is really useful here in establishing some direction of things as this isn’t all about wrestling. What we have is a sociological portrait of a very real time for women in professional sports and how their physicality allowed for the inclusion of women in an area that no one had dared tread before.

Now, the footage moves to modern day WWE wrestling and I feel completely lost. I am positive that one helped the other but I don’t know if, when these ladies started to break though the glass ceiling of brutality, they had Macho Man Randy Savage’s Ms. Elizabeth in mind as someone who’s furthering the cause but I have no doubt they would’ve been pleased with Chyna’s success as a female (I know that could be debated by some…) in the sport.

The trailer even mixes in some hot roller derby action and some woman wrestling an alligator and it completely pleases me. The quotes from other publications that have seen the movie sell me a little more on how well, overall, the product is put together and I have to even give it up for the on-screen graphics that use the barker poster style, back when people promoted events like this with full color flourish, to really tie it all together.

Director: Steven Spielberg
Cast: Tom Cruise, Dakota Fanning, Miranda Otto, Tim Robbins, David Alan Basche
Release: June 29, 2005
Synopsis: A contemporary retelling of H.G. Wells’s seminal classic, the sci-fi adventure thriller reveals the extraordinary battle for the future of humankind through the eyes of one American family fighting to survive it.

Prognosis: Stop with the cock tease, please. Know what I learned last week? Tom Cruise is really short. Katie Holmes towers over that “short statured” man, I hear they don’t like being called midgets nowadays, in a way that honestly did shock me. I mean I knew he was small but his being able to cuddle up to pillows without being in bed has really lingered with me ever since I saw the two of them together; c’mon, didn’t some of you think that Katie kinda looked like his babysitter? Heck, never mind that the “relationship” is falser than Tom Cruise’s protestations he’s not now, nor ever has been, a man who is into platform footwear but, c’mon, did we have to wait all this time between the teaser trailer to get this in return?

The trailer explodes upon starting as you get Cruise addressing the camera, all washed out in Spielberg’s cinematography and looking ever so dashing in that full frame sort of way, with his narration feeding into the visuals as you’re slightly off-put by what’s happening.

He says, to whoever the hell he’s talking to, to keep our eyes forward and to stare at him even though we don’t know who or where we are.

There does seem like there’s panic in his voice and as the trailer goes on a little further we see he’s talking to Dakota. (Man, do I ever wish that our alien invaders get a shot off and get that little whirligig of a girl. She escaped it in MAN ON FIRE but I am still holding out for a quality kill”¦)

Now, the subsequent images of an entire town that seems to be fleeing its borders, like a mass migration out of Dodge, don’t really connect with the opening images of what was so dammed important for us not to see in the first place. The po-pos and even the Army are out in force so this must be the point at which people are starting to panic. The card in between the scenes tell me that on June 29th I should prepare for the event that will change my world forever and I just have to call these trailer people out on “Shenanigans!” for dropping that line on me. I mean, really, this is just a film and not a local news bump that they so often like to use, to tell why an expose on why my smoke alarm could be the very thing that will kill my entire family but I have to wait until 10 to get the information that’s so important but not important enough to tell me right now, is just a weak and lazy ass way to get me to see your film. Because you know what? This film is not going to change my world forever and unless you’ve hired people to leap out of the screen a la BACHELOR PARTY when Rick is trying to save Tawny Kitaen then it’s just lazy writing.

So, after getting myself all sorts of worked up, I continue to watch and am rewarded to two movies: TITANIC and SPIDER-MAN 2. In the mass exodus that seems to be happening, when our alien brethren come a knocking, a ferry that’s shuttling people across a river gets “attacked” by the John Holmes version (a little longer on the length for those keeping score) of Dr. Octopus. No wonder Doc Ock was angry, he had to compete with some other creature that got him beat by a good 10 foot or so of pure alien tube steak. These baddies tip over the ferry which, I have to be honest, looks like a sweet effect, Tom somehow isn’t involved in it but it gives a vague look at what these crawlers look like up close.

After our passengers get sent to a watery grave we get a whole lot of destruction on a mass extinction level and there really does seem to be litter everywhere. The sets are all clogged with apocalyptic detritus that includes freeways, highways, newspapers, and the cast of screaming thousands. While it’s nice to look at, it really doesn’t give me a clue as to what I can expect in this new installment.

If I had to write an essay I could factually back-up that this movie has a lot of Tom Cruise looking very rugged with all that strategically placed dirt and grime with his “˜do looking dashingly ready for action, Dakota looking like a doe-eyed space cadet and there’s a damn high number of destructive and wicked awesome looking explosions.

Director: Mike Mitchell
Cast: Michael Angarano, Danielle Panabaker, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Kurt Russell, Kelly Preston, Dave Foley, Kevin McDonald, Steven Strait
Release: July 29, 2005
Synopsis: Set in a world where superheroes are commonly known and accepted, young Will, the son of Commander Stronghold and Jetstream, tries to find a balance between being a normal teenager and an extraordinary being.

Prognosis: Positive. Can someone out there answer one quick question for me? It won’t take more than just a moment, I promise: Did Kurt Russell sign a lifetime contract in blood with Disney? Did he slit his own aortic veins open and, in a glorious spouting of viscous red platelets, forever sign allegiance to the Mouse House? I mean, not that I care or anything, but I am just curious to know.

The short review on this trailer is that it looks the way it should. You have more exposition than is really necessary, shots of most any notable person in the flick, and you have Voiceover Guy helping to move things right along at a rather comfortable pace. It looks like the kind of safe family entertainment that many parents will make their cinematic pick for Movie Night. And, you see, that’s not a bad thing, and I am trying hard not to goof on that, but that’s as far as things go for this movie. I don’t even need a review of this movie to tell you that as soon as you are done watching this trailer you know pretty much every in and out of the plot, character, situation, crisis, and eventual ending to the movie. Again, not a bad thing, but it’s par for Disney’s style of marketing movies.

What should tip anyone off, and this is good for those of you who will ever have to take a test about identifying origins of films just based on seeing the opening 10 seconds, that this is a Disney movie is the idyllic suburban setting for the film. The tinkling of the happy piano and the exterior shot of a way too manicured front lawn, and the real unnatural bedroom stylings of a kid who’s about to go to high school is a dead giveaway. Plus, it’s the first morning of school and, judging by the lighting, it’s high noon with the morning glory wattage seeping in through the window. Where are the neighbors down the street who have friends that feel the need to honk their friggin’ horn every time they pass by the home? Where are the douche teenagers who like the sound of glass breaking and, thusly, shatter anything with a silica base on the blacktop just because it “sounds cool”? Nowhere in this Disney picture, that’s where.

Anyway, Kurt is all proud of his son who is starting his high school career at his old alma mater. What’s more is that when the kid gets on the ol’ cheese wagon the wackiness kicks into Ensue mode as the short bus turns into a rocket ship and blasts its way to a flying city of sorts. At first I think it’s a S.H.I.E.L.D carrier (high five to all the nerds in the house who know what I’m talking about) but when I see Lynda Carter acting in an administrative capacity I am hoping Kurt has done his boy right and is sending him off to stay with Wonder Woman and all her Amazon girlfriends. Again, I realize it’s Disney and tuck it back in.

The effects work of all the superhero kids who display their powers, especially after one of the sexaholic nerds pulls a Scott Baio ZAPPED! on some poor fraulien, is fun in a roustabout way and it’s kind of cheeky to see girls getting into the antagonizing act as well.

Bruce Campbell is as solid as ever in his stint as a high school coach of sorts as he determines if his young wards are either going to be superheroes or sidekicks. I dig that. On a kiddie level, that’s funny, and that would sell me on deciding to take my eight year old if I had one.

Of course, though, the son of Kurt doesn’t have any powers and is regulated to sidekick status and his parents play the part of concerned caretakers who look like they’re trying to deal with just finding out their boy likes other men. But, whatever, this is what superhero parents worry about, right? Kurt’s wry comment about dipping his son in a vat of toxic waste just to trigger some sort of power gets a PG laugh from me.

From here, and this has to be my favorite moment, we see that these kids at the high school participate in a HARRY POTTER game of widget, wicket or whatever the hell those wizard kids played. It’s played kids who have powers and those who don’t. The sport is all well and good but that isn’t the best part. Dave Foley and Kevin McDonald of Kids in the Hall fame appear as onlookers. I’m not shy about admitting to a man-crush on all things Foley so I hope his comedy in this film isn’t just limited to just a couple of lines and an extended cameo. The man is genuinely funny and I’d actually make my way to the video store to rent this just to see a little bit more from him. Now, having said this, the rest of the trailer just decides, “Aww, what the hell…Let me just show you the rest of this movie.”

And then you see the rest of this movie play itself out. The bad guys are clichéd bad, the bully in the high school is clichéd bully, and even the ending seems trite and hackneyed but this should be nothing compared to the amount of good, clean fun Disney has planned for the entire film.

Director: David Cronenberg
Cast: Viggo Mortensen, Maria Bello, William Hurt, Ed Harris
Release: September 30, 2005
Synopsis: An average family is thrust into the spotlight after the father commits a seemingly self-defense murder at his diner.

Prognosis: Positive. Want to know why I really didn’t like KISS OF DEATH?

Apart from David “My Middle Name Has Always Been “˜Awesome Career Moves’” Caruso’s problematic acting I just couldn’t take Samuel L. Jackson’s constant eye wiping. The way it was leaking, that hanky he used to sop up the tears, all of it, I just kept on getting that sympathetic response from my own eyes and I damn well didn’t appreciate it. Here, though, I think Ed Harris’ wicked eye problem won’t be much of an issue as long as nothing oozes out of it.

Now, SCANNER and THE FLY. Two great movies. I think with a pedigree like this from a long-standing director, and you open a trailer with an odd hold-up of a diner that ends rather heroically, we may actually have something going here. It’s like pouring a foundation and the purpose of getting the catalyzing thrust of the action out so swiftly only helps to keep people’s attention. However, it’s not very exciting, it’s not exactly gripping, but it simply does not waste time in getting to where things need to go in order to cram everything in and make it dramatic.

The deal is that Viggo runs an extremely clean diner in Whitesville, U.S.A and he’s about to close up for the night. A couple of really old hoods straight out of Deadwood come in and try to stick up the joint. After trying to reason with the gentlemen Viggo pulls a Brad from FAST TIMES, utilizing a Mr. Coffee in his plan of attack. I’m sure he was thinking, “Damn, I’m sure happy I paid attention to how Judge Reinhold got his wrist into it,” and promptly dispenses with the whoop ass. Even shoots a dude.

The town rejoices but (insert dramatic music) he has a secret.

Later, Ed Harris comes by, donning TERMINATOR 3 shades, to talk with Viggo a little bit.

On a side note, Harris oozes the kind of eeriness and hardcore manliness that makes me sit in awe of his prowess as a strong actor and, as he obviously has something to say about what Viggo did, you can sense Ed’s presence as an intimidator.

We’re led to believe that there’s shared history. When Ed, with his blind eye all milky and glassy from whatever impaled into his ocular cavity, casually asks Viggo’s wife, the so-so Maria Bello, why it seems that her husband is so good at killing people I get intrigued. In fact, the booming bass shot that punctuates the scene is perfect.

And the fact that the trailer people keep Voiceover Guy at arm’s length and just let things slowly burn out on its own is great. While not even close to being on any top 10 of mine of the year I am very impressed by the get-in, get-out and leave them wanting more attitude. They could’ve shown so much more and I appreciate the restraint shown in not doing so.

Director: Guy Ritchie
Cast: Jason Statham, Ray Liotta, Vincent Pastore
Release: September 14, 2005 (France)
Synopsis: Revolver is a Vegas-themed gangster film with characters named The Caddy, French Paul, Fat Dan, Howard The Indian, Johnny Walker and a guy named Dorothy. Several groups of individuals try to screw each other over for a lot of money. It’s the story of a hotshot gambler who becomes tangled in a game with deadly consequences.

Prognosis: Positive. Jason Staham in a Guy Ritchie film? Really? How original.

I say this in jest only because I completely think that Jason has the unique ability to either dissolve into the background of a movie like SNATCH and has the power to bring it all forward if he has to step up in a lead like THE TRANSPORTER. I like both movies for what they are but Jason adds that star quality that you can’t really teach. But, you know, Guy Ritchie isn’t getting off as easy.

The guy can make a good gangster film. LOCK, STOCK AND TWO SMOKING BARRELS, SNATCH, and even his wee film, THE HIRE, bristles with Michael Bay-ian repetitiousness. You can look at this way: Guy Ritchie is like a good DH on a baseball team. The guy is never called up to do anything more than hit the ball. He’s not asked to play the field, he’s not asked to make great plays. His only job is to hit the ball the way he seems to know how to do. Guy Ritchie is that DH. I can’t honestly see any glimmers of talent that can extend beyond the British gangster flicks that he’s so fond of making.

And that’s fine by me because he is so good at it.

The trailer here is presented in a unique way that’s usually only reserved for foreign films: no one gets to say a word.

It’s all about the movement and direction of the characters of this film but, without knowing who is who, you don’t quite know if there’s a bad guy who you’re trying to root against or if this is one of those movies where no one is above reproach.

When the screen opens up and you see Big Pussy from The Sopranos you know, without even having to think about it, that this is going to be another one of Ritchie’s gangster movies. It’s like seeing someone who comes to visit every once in a while; whether you enjoy having that person come around is another matter entirely.

The metaphorical needle scratch comes right after this as we get an oddly indented quote about chess on the screen that lingers there all on its own. I mean, look at it. It’s like the quote was too damn small but they had to figure out a way to make it seem bigger. “Oh, I know what we can do,” Trailer Maker says, “We can just fill the top of the screen with the quote, leave a while lot of black space in-between, and then shove the name of the person who said it all the way down to the bottom like I’m trying to squeeze an extra pair of flip-flops into an already bursting piece of luggage.” “Brilliant” is the only answer that I assume came back. It’s jarring, though, to the eye.

Next scene is a bulb poppin’ flood of light. It’s a casino and as the camera pulls in quickly to a couple of people who are standing in front of it we see it’s none other than Ray Liotta. It’s always a pleasure to see that a guy in front of a camera. He was always meant to play in these kinds of movies, no doubt about that.

The guitar riff that rolls through the various cut scenes, one is a shot of Jason walking out in the middle of the rain outside of some correctional facility, thugs abound, a chess match plays itself out, some guy pops another, and some skuzzy ho dangles her taco, protected by some delicious pieces of white silkiness. The lollypop the lady sucks on is, I take it, some visual reference of how well she can pleasure a guy? I always think that about chicks who suggestively slob on some Charms Blow-Pop goodness but I’m fairly dense about these matters.

The other thing you’ll notice in the second half of this trailer is that this new movie from Ritchie seems a bit bloodier than recent productions. There is lots of it in the subsequent scenes of the many gunning downs that seem to be happening on the screen along with the number of guns that are brandished. There are a LOT of them and I am genuinely curious to know if the events in this picture are going to take place from across the pond or whether these guys are just good at getting armaments.

And that damn lollypop chick shows up again but, this time, her lollypop is gone, I wonder for a moment if she’s able to get to the Tootsie-Roll center of a Tootsie-Roll pop because she likes to felliate so many men. Just wondering.

I do, also, have to give up props to how this trailer ends. Two things: 1) When the guitar is wailing, showing us all the groovy money shots of the guns going off, and it just stops abruptly, with Ray walking away from the camera, his heels clicking off the hard floor with long taper candles flanking him, that’s money. I liked that. 2) The card that tells me that this movie isn’t coming to me until “Autumn” is funny. I don’t know why. My Americanisms limit that word to “Fall” and anything beyond that get just me thinking how much more formal that sounds. I like that too.

Director: John Singleton
Cast: Mark Wahlberg, Andre 3000, Ice Cube, Tyrese, Garrett Hedlund, Dax Ravina
Release: August 12, 2005
Synopsis: Four brothers look to avenge their mother’s death.

Prognosis: Negative. Was this the same guy who did BOYZ N THE HOOD? If it is, indeed, the same guy I want to know what alien symbioyte invaded that man’s head and is currently preventing him from making quality films instead of this cookie cutter action flick.

I have high hopes for Singleton as a director and I couldn’t wait to see his newest directorial effort. I hear that Tyrese Gibson is in it and I say, alright, the guy did his thing in 2 FAST 2 FURIOUS: WE’RE SO FUCKIN’ FURIOUS THIS TIME. I hear Mark Wahlberg is in it and I give him the benefit of the doubt. I loved THREE KINGS but thought that ITALIAN JOB was just a showcase to display his ability to memorize some lines with such hollowness I wondered if it was the hypnotic lure of his well-built pectorals and well defined mid-section that got him the job. Then, I see it: Andre from Outkast. I give up. I’m sure he’s great and all but, damn, Andre was that powerful of an actor, who, by all accounts, is really a musician? I’m talking to every actor very seriously here like I would if I was that South African guy when he tied up Sgt. Murtah in LEATHL WEAPON 2 in those hushed tones: I would be going nuts. I would be going out of my head just thinking of how messed up things must be when the guy from “Hey Ya” gets a major supporting role while you’ve been busting your ass doing Shakespeare in the Park and shilling for Bank One in those Maximum Checking ads I keep seeing. It must suck.

Anyway, back to the trailer.

Things open up with a toast to an old lady. Mark, Tyrese, that “Hey Ya” guy, and some other white dude are giving praise to their adopted mom. They’re from “the street” but they got hearts as big as skyscrapers. It’s all very sweet. You get a white joke tossed in there for kicks, as you’ve got two brothers who are white, two who are black, and it’s all very sweet. Loving, you could say.

As we all know from Trailers 101, class, whenever you start a trailer with people smiling, you can expect that to be filled with something else after just a few moments.

Luckily, we don’t have to wait that long.

Ol’ mom’s gets popped in a convenience store (See??? A couple of weeks ago I told you my theory on convenience stores and the inherent evil of them and I am ashamed to see what I thought was a goofy theory just get played out by someone who I thought was a creative director.) and it’s here that I’d like to test the water for a reaction for an idea I have. What would all of you think if there was a concerted effort to see chicks bite it just as hard as guys do in films. Guys seem to be the only ones deserving of squib treatment and seeing this old woman get shot, off camera, raises an issue with me. I want to see that shotgun blast take her out along with some Big Grab sized Doritos and a display of Pepsi 12-packs. I call for equal treatment but I can understand if I’m the only one out there who thinks this.

Anyway, back to the trailer.

So, mom is shot dead and everyone has that filmic kind of scowl on their face. It’s that, “Eeee yar! I won’t rest until you’re avenged, mother!” along with, wouldn’t you know, one of those strident walks where everyone is walking in a long line and it’s all in slo-mo. Isn’t this also kind of hackneyed? I thought we goofed on it in SWINGERS and that was going to be the end of it? No? Ok, never mind.

So, the trailer shows our guys taking the law into their hands, acting all sorts of shot crap as they play Columbo and try to figure out, with steely bravado, whodunit. The language and speech with which these guys talk is rough to listen to without checking IMDB to make sure, absolutely positive, that John Singleton directed this movie.

Oh, and there’s some more laughter at the expense of the white actors in the film, so I appreciate that as well.

The rest after this is just more exposition about how these little detectives are going to figure out who killed their ma.

Now, I appreciate the effort to make a movie that is part whatever and part whatever else but I can’t watch a trailer like this and not feel that there is something seriously missing that would make me want to see this film. As it stands I just wouldn’t be able to recommend to anyone that this looks like an enjoyable night at the movies. It looks like a fairly good matinee but that’s about it.

Director: Wong Kar-Wai
Cast: Tony Leung Chiu Wai, Li Gong, Takuya Kimura, Faye Wong, Ziyi Zhang
Release: April 23, 2005 (Tribeca)
Synopsis: He was a writer. He thought he wrote about the future but it really was the past. In his novel, a mysterious train left for 2046 every once in a while. Everyone who went there had the same intention…..to recapture their lost memories. It was said that in 2046, nothing ever changed. Nobody knew for sure if it was true, because nobody who went there had ever come back- except for one. He was there. He chose to leave. He wanted to change.

Prognosis: Nervous. This trailer does a real disservice to itself.

The movie, ostensibly a sequel of sorts to IN THE MOOD FOR LOVE (one of my top 25 of all time), is about how two people collide with one another in a resplendent splash of requited and unrequited love.

What you see on the screen, though, doesn’t even come close to getting this across. You really do need to have some of these people talking to one another so we can get the point of what this film is all about. It starts off wonderfully enough, though.

You have a woman and man looking at each other in a dingy apartment hallway, longingly, as the narrative is right on track. You “get it,’ you know? These are two individuals who are more than likely going to hook up with one another. A card in-between shots rightfully states that this move won some awards. Best Actor and Actress at the Hong Kong Film Awards is a good way to establish that all-essential credibility people look for before investing in a foreign flick.

However, all that momentum is replaced with BLADE RUNNER.

The scenery changes, the mood shifts and we kind of get that it’s far in the future from when these people first met. We can get that much, thankfully, but there should most definitely be more than that. People need to feel that they can identify with these people on the screen but the trailer keeps us at arm’s length. Every person in this trailer looks despondent and we don’t know why.

We deserve to know what’s going on as the whole idea of a movie is to tell a story but what we get in return are people making out, and we don’t quite know who these people are as we’re “in the future” and the lightening isn’t helping me any with putting my fingers on who is who.

There’s a lot of making out, which I can appreciate and get excited over, and the effects are sublimely sad. I feel my mood sinking to these people’s level.

There’s a whole lot of people closing their eyes tightly as they toss their heads back, like they’ve just been kicked by a chimp in the nards, and a handful of artistic shots that start to stray into the realm of artistic expressionism which, if I could be so bold as to make a statement on, is not a good idea when trying to sell this movie to the greatest number of people. It goes to that area that’s best reserved for when you finally have people sitting in front of you, but that’s just me.

That all said, though, the lens through which all of this is being filtered is unadulterated joy. Wong Kar-Wei appears to have made a visual delight of a film that I know won’t be like BLADE RUNNER, won’t be too heavy on existentialism, although there will be some, and hopefully the smoky and slow style with which he directed IN THE MOOD will make its way into this newest chapter of love between two people who could never seem to take the step towards love that can finally be everlasting.

Director: Les Mayfielde
Cast: Samuel L. Jackson, Eugene Levy, Luke Goss, Miguel Ferrer, Anthony Mackie
Release: September 9, 2005
Synopsis: Federal Agent Derrick Vann (Jackson) walks the walk, while affable dental supply salesman Andy Fidler (Levy) talks and talks in the odd couple action comedy The Man. A case of mistaken identity forces the mismatched duo to team up and sets off an intense and hilarious adventure as they speed through the streets of Detroit to pull off a sting operation and solve the murder of Vann’s former partner. Along the way, they uncover much more than they could have ever anticipated.

Prognosis: Holy Crap, It Can’t Get Any More Negative Than This. As things began I hoped for something other than something incredibly unbelievable with Samuel L. Jackson playing the clichéd hard ass with Eugene Levy playing the incredibly white, and racially inept embodiment, sidekick.

I am wrong on both accounts as Voiceover Guy gets right to it by letting us know that Sam Jackson just lost a partner on the night of a big gun cache heist. Jackson’s all tough with his hair all mused with a big scar on his lid to show how smooth he is as an undercover cop. The thing is these undercover cops never look like dudes who should be undercover cops. They’re always looking like Hollywood envisionings of what an undercover cops should be but, whatever, right, this is the movies, who gives a crap? Fair enough.

Now, these weapons that were stolen in some part by some Eurotrash looking playboy, and, again I wonder, what is with this horrendous characterization? Look up any recent story on arms dealers and I can bet you that none of them look like Aryan demigods that women would easily slide open for, like a good looking gynecologist, oh no. But, again, who cares, as Eugene is “mistaken” for someone who has inside knowledge about what happened with these weapons as the comedy starts rolling in from the hills from there.

Um, yeah, so Eugene is eventually cleared as someone who was involved in masterminding the big plot but he is somehow roped into helping Jackson find out who IS behind it all. Things devolve quickly from here as Eugene protests helping the cops out in this sensitive police manner to which Jackson shoots Eugene in the ass as he tries to run away from the whole situation. Huh? How is this supposed to be amusing? Some dude gets caught up in a case of mistaken identity and he gets to be someone’s bitch? Oh, and let’s not forget that a few scenes later show Eugene getting released from the trunk of Jackson’s car for whatever zany reason the screenwriters have come up with as to why Eugene deserved to be placed in there in the first place. I bet it’s wacky!

And yeah, as KC and the Sunshine Band strikes up with that Vanilla Ice favorite (I still have that cassette somewhere, too.) “Play That Funky Music” I am loathe to see how horribly Eugene attempts to set race relations back with his “characterization” of an inept white person because, as we all know from movies like BRINGING DOWN THE HOUSE (which also starred an inept white guy who doesn’t know shit about black culture in the form of, whada know, Eugene Levy), white people wouldn’t be able to live in a major metropolitan area without the help of keen, street-wise folk.

Anyway, against all my better intentions I hope everyone sees this movie and makes it successful like every other stereotypical yarn of this breed. It will do well because no one cares about what makes sense but only what looks “zany” and what seems to have the sheen of commercials that star midgets or apes or half naked chicks who get wet at the sight of an overweight everyman who knows that Keystone Light is the king of all beers.

So, get to it, America. Vote with your dollars. Let the studios know you want more of these kinds of movies. I sure would appreciate seeing more of these trailers.

Director: Greg Harrison
Cast: Courteney Cox, James LeGros, Michael Ealy, Nora Dunn, Anne Archer
Release: July 22, 2005
Synopsis: After a dinner out, photographer Sophie Jacobs (Cox) and her boyfriend Hugh (Le Gros) stop at a corner store for a late night snack. While Sophie waits unaware in the car, Hugh is murdered in a violent robbery. Haunted by guilt, Sophie goes on with her life as best she can: teaching photography at a local art college, meeting her mother (Archer) for lunch, and visiting her therapist (Dunn). But one day at school, a slide mysteriously appears in the projector’s carousel: an image of what looks like her car in front of the corner store the night of the shooting. Are these paranoid visions stemming from her grief and guilt, or does someone know something about the murder?

View Trailer:
* Large (QuickTime)

Prognosis: Begrudgingly Positive. “There is so much life in you and so much”¦emotional larceny in all these others”¦”

Sorry, but when I see James LeGros speaking his first words to Kyra Sedgwick from SINGLES this is the first thing I think of and, most likely, will always think of from here on out.

What we have here, though, isn’t what it seems at first.

You get a poppy reggae organ in the background as James and Courtney Cox are driving home from a wonderful evening on the town. He’s kinda creeping me out with the way he is totally turned to her as she’s driving, with thoughts of sexual deviation probably bounding from every synapse, and they end up stopping in front of a quickie mart. The exchange goes on way way too long as Cox orders her man inside the “˜mart to get her something with chocolate.

It’s a New York minute before our boy hops to and gets the hell out of the car and, just as he does, you hear the indomitable and unmistakable sound of an event that is about to head south very quick. The change in mood approaches forcefully like an oncoming cloud bank.

And, while I have everyone’s attention, why is it that really bad stuff always happens in a quickie mart? If there is one plot device what screenwriters use more often than starting a movie with someone waking up in their bed is that the quickie mart is a place for bad shit to go down. Take your pick of any movie from REGARDING HENRY, BLUE STREAK, GROSSE POINTE BLANK, THE REF, and on and on, I could list movies all day. Damn, makes me want to avoid one like it did the ocean after I saw JAWS.

Anyway, her dude is shot in the quickie mart, big surprise, but things take an interesting turn as we get the word that this film was an official selection at Sundance, Los Angeles, Seattle and many other festivals and it presents this information in a very delicate way. So, thumbs up for that. I like knowing this is the kind of story that has some appeal to others; I’m confident in my own likes but it’s so much easier when you get the approval of some people you can trust.

The editing even gets creative as the camera blurs out, some visual media pieces are tossed in, as it jars everything slightly, creating and evoking a mood that’s very discombobulating. I like it.

Courtney lies on a hardwood floor, looking up, distant.

Nora Dunn returns to the silver screen as a serious therapist as she talks to Courtney in a dark room, which I don’t quite understand as to why that’s really necessary to proactive mental healing, but we get the impression that the shooting has jarred her sensibilities to the point of a full-on scramble.

She’s an art teacher. At one point she’s back in a dark room where she’s using a projector to comment on a student’s project. A slide comes on the screen and it’s the outside of the quickie mart the night her dude was gunned down. Oooo! How spooky!

The trailer starts to quicken from here on out as her old memories of ol’ Andy trying to get his mack on with his little lady start to conflate with new information regarding the shooting.

The editing gets quicker and more chaotic as, I think, we are being led to believe that Courtney is either not all there or that there is something about this murder that she may know but isn’t letting on.

Can I take Courtney Cox serious as a dramatic actress? Has the decade long pummeling of her behavioral and un-funny retardedness with the rest of the anti-intellectual goon squad numbed every fiber of my being? Almost, but, in her defense, she does have hints that she’s trying and that does count for something with regard to a low-budget outing like this.

Director: Alice Wu
Cast: Michelle Krusiec, Joan Chen, Lynn Chen
Release: May 27, 2005
Synopsis: For 28-year old New Yorker Wilhelmina “Wil” Pang (Michelle Krusiec), life is a juggling act between a promising career as a surgeon and her responsibilities as a dutiful daughter. Like the #7 train she takes to visit her Chinese family on a weekly basis, Wil is perpetually in transit between two worlds. The expectations of the Flushing, Queens society she is from and the desires that alienate her from it have made Wil content to live below the surface — even if it means playing an inadvertent game of charades with her widowed mother (Joan Chen) and the old world Ma represents. The masquerade is comic even in its pain as Wil tolerates Ma’s weekly set ups with eligible Chinese-American boys at the Friday Chinese socials; but it quickly becomes a farce when Ma’s mask cracks first.

Prognosis: Positive. While at the Key Art awards a couple weeks back I remember Don LaFontaine saying that there really should be room for more people in the voiceover business and that encompassed having more women in this game.

I never really thought this was an issue until I heard the Voiceover Woman for this trailer. It’s odd to hear. My ear felt jarred by the switch-out. Although, it fits right in with the mood of this story and I see why they went with it.

That being said, though, it should be noted that since this is advertising and you’re trying to reach as wide an audience as you can you risk alienating causal males who may or may not want to see the film. It doesn’t matter, I think, as the mere mention of a movie that only really stars women will get the Chick Flick label no matter what.

For me, because I am really in touch with my femme side, I really want to see this movie. The story that unfolds quickly from the first frame is presented wonderfully and even though it doesn’t give away all the nuances of where the story is going to end you still get the idea that this will be a film that will be filled with substance and you really couldn’t demand any more from your lesbian/Asian/mother-daughter/absent father genre movies.

The trailer opens delicately with a run rising over a waking city.

You have two stunning ladies talking about how they met. One of the women can’t believe she hasn’t met the other one until now (they look like they’re in their late twenties) but she is reminded that they, indeed, had met once. It was back when they were children. There is instant chemistry synergizing between the two of them and you quickly realize it’s because they’re in love with one another.

Will, one of the ladies, has come out to her mother about her love for her partner and you can tell this relationship is one where one is proud to be a lesbian while the other has some issues of dealing with her public displays of Sapphic love. Not that 50% of the world would have any issue with it (insert rim shot here) but you can tell there is some inner friction.

The story progresses in this trailer as we are shown examples of how one of the girls’ parents, her mother to be exact, doesn’t want to believe her daughter is a lesbian and tries to keep setting her up on dates with dudes; she intentionally sabotages every attempt. Now, had this been the entire story, woman struggling with her own sexuality and how she makes her mother understand she likes the beav and hates the meat, I would’ve done a Men on Film “Hated it” and moved right on. But this trailer surprises me.

Her disaffected mother comes to her daughter’s doorstep and essentially lets her know that she’s pregnant. What’s a daughter to do?

The resulting moving in of the mother and the really nice silence that’s employed in the trailer when her daughter, girlfriend, and her are all sitting having dinner together in her daughter’s place screams volumes. When the mother asks her daughter’s girlfriend if she has a boyfriend, oblivious but not really, the story starts to metamorphose into something else entirely.

This becomes a movie about how a daughter tries to get her own mother back on the romantic track in finding someone who will appreciate her and, hopefully, get her on solid ground.

The ubiquitous cut scenes of her mother going on blind dates with dudes who are obviously not right for her is a bit hokey but the premise is still solidly kept afloat.

The ending for the trailer is bittersweet and humorous but if I had any main issues is that the music is wretchedly weak and I am not left with anything really solid to hang onto as my last impression.

The Asian American experience with regard to issues of homosexuality and having to deal with a rigid matriarchal support system is one, and I am going on a limb to declare this, hasn’t really been dealt with before.

This movie looks to tackle a lot of issues and I only hope it doesn’t treat them lightly. For me, because I am really in touch with my femme side, I really want to see this movie. The story that unfolds quickly from the first frame is presented wonderfully and even though it doesn’t give away all the nuances of where the story is going to end you still get the idea that this will be a film that will be filled with substance and you really couldn’t demand any more from your lesbian/Asian/mother-daughter/absent father genre movies.

Director: Robert Schwentke
Cast: Jodie Foster, Peter Sarsgaard, Sean Bean, Erika Christensen
Release: September 23, 2005
Synopsis: Flying at 40,000 feet in a cavernous, state-of-the-art 474 aircraft, Kyle Pratt (Foster) faces every mother’s worst nightmare when her six year-old daughter, Julia, vanishes without a trace mid-flight from Berlin to New York. Already emotionally devastated by the unexpected death of her husband, Kyle desperately struggles to prove her sanity to the disbelieving flight crew and passengers while facing the very real possibility that she may be losing her mind. While neither Captain Rich (Bean), nor Air Marshal Gene Carson (Sarsgaard) want to doubt the bereaved widow, all evidence indicates that her daughter was never on board resulting in paranoia and doubt among the passengers and crew of the plane. Finding herself desperately alone, Kyle can only rely on her own wits to solve the mystery and save her daughter.

Prognosis: Apathetic. You know what, for a while the MSN network had a corner on the exclusive trailer for FLIGHTPLAN.

Now, I think it’s absolutely pants that I had to sit through a dammed Listerine commercial before being able to watch the preview for Jodie Foster’s latest flick. Crap holes, the lot of them. I had to sit through that Listerine commercial where you’ve got that guy who looks like Matt LeBlanc’s younger brother who’s all “look at me swishing this stuff between my cheeks!” I didn’t need new mouthwash as I don’t use the stuff but, even if I did, I wouldn’t buy a product that’s being shilled by some guy that looks like he’s swishing around man juice between his molars. Buttheads.

Now, where was I?

Oh yes, Jodie Foster has been absent from American audiences who haven’t yet checked out A LONG ENGAGEMENT, which you should because it’s awesome and I’m telling you it is and you should believe me, but she’s back in a role, through no fault of her own, that makes me think this is PANIC ROOM at 37,000 feet.

For those who don’t want to fully read the description of the flick it’s easy for me to break down: mom designs huge ass plane, takes her daughter aboard it, they’re flying home to New York at night, they grab their seats, take a nap and when Jodie wakes up for some reason or another the kid is gone. She tells someone they tell her she never brought the kid on in the first place and the race is on to either find her or to get an air Marshall to Tazer her hysterical butt before she makes a go at the cockpit doors.

The scroll that runs at the bottom of the trailer as it’s telling you the first part of this is rather lame and you’d think they could be more creative than using Word 2003 but whatever. This isn’t my campaign.

So, when Jodie wakes up, finds her kid has been missing, the hubbub she makes is slightly freaky as the story starts to play with our minds, trying to think if she really is making this whole story up or if there is something else going on, but when someone makes the comment that they’ve received word that her daughter died 6 days prior almost seal any notion that there might be something more to the story.

I am uplifted, though, by Sean Bean. I am still holding out for a Sean Bean, Vinnie Jones Ultimate Marvel Team-Up as Sean is always good to have in your corner when it comes to people losing tempers which he looks close to doing in this one. The man exudes that kind of ass-kicking vibe that he could go off at any moment. Also, there are guns, a few of them, along with some explosions as Jodie goes wild like some crazed Mr. Peepers as she scourers the innards of the plane for evidence of her daughter’s existence. I’m not sure what exactly she hopes to find as all points seem to finger the direction of her being a wacky loon job.

I do hope she gets Tazered at some point, though.

Director: George A. Romero
Cast: Simon Baker, John Leguizamo, Dennis Hopper, Asia Argento, Robert Joy
Release: June 24, 2005
Synopsis: In this new tale, Romero creates a harrowing vision of a modern-day world where the walking dead roam an uninhabited wasteland and the living try to lead “normal” lives behind the walls of a fortified city. A new society has been built by a handful of enterprising, ruthless opportunists, who live in the towers of a skyscraper, high above the hard-scrabble existence on the streets below. But outside the city walls, an army of the dead is evolving. Inside, anarchy is on the rise. With the very survival of the city at stake, a group of hardened mercenaries is called into action to protect the living from an army of the dead.

Prognosis: Positive. Damn do I love a good zombie movie.

If I could recommend a good viewing position for this trailer I would have go with the Mackenzie brothers’ advice before they screened their film, which I believe was shot in 3-B: So sit back and get some corn, and let’s have..uh..it’s movie time.

With an audio sample from the original NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD which still gets me every time “I’m going to get you Barbara” and a real moody, dark presentation we are hitting the proverbial ground running, er, slowly sauntering while moaning in this case, by using video clips that bring us all up to speed with what’s happened since we last left George. Night turned to dawn, then night became dawn, dawn became day (two thumbs up for the double and literal entendre) and the screen goes black and silent.

It’s great. Perfect.

I’m thrown backward as a zombie head comes up off a glassy pond in the middle of the night as hard rocking A chords, and quick editing do the rest.

We’re not really sure where the plot is at this point, how things began or brought us to be or why Dennis Hopper has arisen from his own catatonic state of major motion picture making but no worries as we get lots of zombie action and some sweet weaponry to fight off this new pack of the undead.

Now, the vehicles these peeps are using do look a lot like the ones utilized in DAWN OF THE DEAD, last year’s version, but who the hell cares when you have George Romero at the helm of this fast moving ship. The entire story seems to take place at night, upping the scare factor in any movie, and there does seem to be a localization of where the narrative will unfold.

Again, since the only person who talks in this thing is Dennis, who announces his displeasure for Zombies, it’s a wonder why he makes this joke. Is he somehow involved with this new breed of brain eaters or is this somehow tied in with the zombie mythos? Who cares, I say, as it’s been too long since George’s last foray into the genre that has bred so many imitators that I hope this one school’s them all in the form of how not just to do it well, but how to do it right.

Director: Michael Dowse
Cast: Paul Kaye, Mike Wilmot, Beatriz Batarda, Kate Magowan, Pete Tong
Release: April 29, 2005 (LA)
Synopsis: Its All Gone Pete Tong is a comedy following the tragic life of legendary Frankie Wilde. The story takes us through Frankie’s life from one of the best DJ’s alive, through subsequent battle with a hearing disorder, culminating in his mysterious disappearance from the scene. A genius in his own right, he clawed his way to the top of the DJ ranks, now living the opulent life of a superstar, he resides in his trophy villa in Ibiza with his trophy wife. This is when tragedy hits. Born with a hearing disorder he is rapidly going deaf with only one functioning ear to complete the new Ibiza season. How is he doing behind the decks? Horrible. How is he doing in the studio where he produces his remixes? Frankie dives into a low period, struggling with deafness in utter depression. After a year of locking himself away he emerges on the other side with a fresh attitude towards his affliction. He accepts his deafness and learns to function without sound. Will Frankie make it back to the DJ booth? Will his new single be any good? Will he get back his opulent old life or does he even want it back? When you can’t hear, things look very different.

It starts off like it’s going to be a very interesting bio-pic of sorts.

The static of a record loops over and over with the words “”¦I don’t know where he is”¦” slowly echoed in blackness.

You get interview, documentary, style footage of people speculating where this once prominent DJ is about whom this movie is based. It’s intriguing, sure, as a character portrait of someone who was immensely popular and then, literally, dropped off the human radar with no trace.

The filmic portion of our film comes from Paul Kaye, playing the part of our lost DJ in question, Frankie Wilde, who starts party people up by spinning some beats. We’re treated to various forms of adulation this man was given for his work inside indoor clubs to outdoor events. Interposed with the fictional portrayal of Wilde are more interviews from people who knew him, worked with him or were inspired by him. I’ll admit that I was intrigued by the premise of this movie and can’t tell if Wilde was a real person of this is all just improvised.

Next, as there is always an element of substance abuse in any effective Behind the Music-style of story, we’re shown his decent into drug addiction. From licking hallucinatory toads to just abusing his body we come to the portion of the film where it starts with the words, “”¦and then it was gone.”

Wilde is standing on a majestic mountainside, somewhere very warm and expensive looking, and is cupping his hands over his ears as he screams out to no one. We’re given a few different angles of “The Scream.” It leads us to the quote that pretty much tells us how this process of self-destruction speeds up.

“There’s not much you can do as a DJ if you can’t hear.”

Wilde is shown tearing his world apart, destroyed by his inability to communicate in the way he was best known for doing. He was useless as a DJ. He was useless to everyone or so it seems.

The interview footage speculates on what this deafness drove him to do. Is he really just a record clerk in some store in the middle of nowhere? Did he kill himself? Is he even still around?

Even though we don’t get any answers there is a really poignant moment where Wilde is sitting in a restaurant where a woman, Spanish perhaps, dances to a classical guitar solo. She’s wearing a vibrantly red dress and holds part of it up as her legs start to move. Her thick black dancing shoes rap tap tap, rap tap tap, rap tap tap on a hardwood floor. There’s something in the vibrations he can feel that transcend auditory sensations (kind of like that one episode of Quantum Leap where Sam is “Rod the Bod” and he finds this hot deaf girl who uses bass from a speaker to help her dance and he really digs her but he doesn’t know sign language but he wants to because you know he wants to hit that like it was 1999) and you can see it in Wilde’s eyes that there is something there that he can respond to. It’s a wonderful trailer moment that’s pure and speaks for everyone who hasn’t done so already.

The trailer eventually just trails off into a heavy mix of snippets and scenes but that’s what you’d expect to see out of a movie about a DJ whose life was all about BPM’s and getting people up to let them get down. Again, it’s probably a good pseudo bio-pic but it’s just not my thing.

Director: Lars von Trier
Cast: Bryce Dallas Howard, Isaach De Bankolé, Willem Dafoe, Danny Glover
Release: May 16, 2005 (Cannes)
Synopsis: A story of slavery, set in the 1930s American South.

Now that’s out of the way, I see MANDERLAY, a title I thought would show me an insight to Las Vegas showgirls, via some Dogme movie making technique, that would show just how seedy that town is and finally give me a good reason to plan a trip but was sadly let down when I realized I didn’t read correctly. This film is an important piece in Trier’s trilogy of sorts that really began with DOGVILLE.

This piece here, set yet again in America, stars Willem Dafoe, Danny Glover (Good to see he’s making a concerted effort to come back into the cinematic fold) and everyone’s favorite nepotistic IT girl for the moment, Bryce Dallas Howard. The context is the 1930’s and the exact geographical location is a bit ambiguous but it’s stated that it is the South.

A foreigner cobbling together a racially based film, one that will no doubt raise the cackles of Mama’s Family U.S.A., shouldn’t be that much of a hot button, right? The trailer, though, is very good at capturing what the rest of the world already knows about our past. As simple as it sounds, this installment of Trier’s insight into human nature around the 3rd decade of the 20th century eases us gently into exactly what’s happening. There is no ambiguity and I appreciate its straightforwardness.

There is an orchestral string movement that paces the action of this trailer and it opens up on the small, physically, plot of land where all the action takes place. Yes, it looks like a stage production at some moments just like in DOGVILLE but when Willem enters the scene as the wealthy white guy, riding in style, while black people are depicted hurling cotton bails into the back of a truck as they labor away, you can feel the powder keg that’s being packed.

The subsequent narration of the events that transpire in this film talks about our main characters. The slave system in all its hideous glory is given context by introducing us to our cast. Unfortunately, even though it’s effective in lighting the wick all on its own without anything more elaborate, the word “nigger” is used to describe all of the black characters and I can’t imagine this trailer will ever be seen on PAX TV. The word is pejoratively used, obviously, to show the kind of environment everyone exists in and, ostensibly, to let everyone in the audience know that this isn’t going to be a very feel-good experience.

What’s odd is that all of our players are given numbers. These numbers correspond, according to the narrator, to the person’s personality. I don’t know the real meaning behind it but when it’s stated that this number system was used to keep a psychological grip on the slaves that our heroine, Bryce Dallas Howard, is going to come save the day on her own I am at the same time not impressed nor have any belief that a pale and hot looking white cracka’ like her is going to be anything else but a target for the white rage that will no doubt erupt when she tries to upset the status quo of the land.

Director: Joss Whedon
Cast: Nathan Fillion, Gina Torres, Alan Tudyk, Morena Baccarin, Adam Baldwin
Release: September 30, 2005
Synopsis: The feature-length adaptation of Joss Whedon’s TV show “Firefly”, set five hundred years in the future, aboard Serenity, a transport ship captained by Capt. Malcolm “Mal” Reynolds.

I wouldn’t be caught so much as flipping past Angel on my way to watch a Cubs game on a Sunday afternoon.

I’ve never watched, or had an interest, in checking out Firefly.

But if you got a movie with that dude from MY BODYGUARD (man, the way he bitch slapped Matt Dillion is the true stuff of movie magic”¦) and D.C. CAB (the touchstone of my youth that taught me that Mr. T deserved more acting roles and that it is possible to get a fire going in one’s home with a flamethrower) I am all in. It’s been forever since I’ve seen Adam Baldwin and he looks really engaged with this material. It’d be hard not to be as the one thing I do consume of Joss’ is his take on the X-Men franchise. God bless that man for that and it allows me to understand what this guy is doing with the script.

Now, keeping in mind I’d rather click over to C-Span if an Andromeda or an X-Files episode comes on, I am pretty engaged with this trailer from the very first moment. The spaceship that is carrying our mixed crew in the opening sequence (is it the same one from the series?) looks like one of those Ertl model jobbies I used to find at KB Toys as a little kid; you know, those bulbous white shoebox looking thingies that had various antennae sticking up and seemed awfully ill-designed for space travel but were sold as space ships.

It’s alright, though, as it somehow piques my interest in what’s happening off-screen as we get the captain’s subdued, but still bombastic, in that captain sort of way, speech about how everyone’s come aboard for different reasons but now’s the time to, well, just suffice to say that he’s getting everyone ready for a fight of intergalactic, interplanetary, Beastie Boy, proportions. Cheesy as it may be I am sure someone gets all goosey when they hear him say that.

The effects are what really get me. They’re really well done. Even though there’s no air in space and you can’t really hear explosions, and that anything that blows up would implode, I’m fine with putting that aside for some good space battling.

The lines here are also pretty heavy handed. “I’m taking your sister under my protection,” and the way our captain inflects that line, makes me laugh and roll my eyes, but the subsequent crash landing effect using a very real shot of some rural American location more than makes up for it. The juxtaposition is welcomed.

“Whoa,” I yell, and I do yell “whoa,” as a crispy looking zombie pops up for a wee second on the screen, our captain with a pistol at his side does an Indiana Jones hip shot and takes it out.

We get a Wesley Snipes/Blade guy with a sword that seems to be in pursuit of the previously mentioned girl because there is something obviously up with her. This is just made more apparent during the sound stage kung-fu demo she gives us as she moves and gives carefully blocked martial arts ass kickings. Again, it looks choreographed by Bob Fosse but whatever.

What I do have a problem with, though, is the written fellatio heaped upon Whedon’s work on this movie and past endeavors. Yeah, he’s great as a writer, no doubt about it, even not having ever seen a Buffy or Firefly episode, the man is demand I get that but, slow the pole smoking a little.

You get my positive vote but turn that volume down a notch.

Director: Vadim Jean
Cast: Martin Short, Jan Hooks, Linda Cardellini, Janeane Garofalo, John Michael Higgins Elizabeth Perkins
Release: May 6, 2005 (Limited); Soon to be playing at a dollar theater near you
Synopsis: “La La Wood” follows the legacy of Jiminy Glick (Martin Short in a fat suit), first introduced on “The Martin Short Show,” who went on to get (non)-critical acclaim for his talk show “Primetime Glick,” where Mr. Glick interviewed countless celebrities (which usually ended in verbally–sometimes physically–insulting/assaulting them). Now comes “La La Wood”–Jiminy Glick’s home. This is his story (sort of).

In the annals of moviedom I would imagine other properties out there could be made better use out of than this wholly useless film. Here’s my sincere mea culpa about how it pains me to kick this a little: I like Martin Short. Big fan of his work in INNERSPACE and his first stint in FATHER OF THE BRIDE and Glick is a fairly amusing sideshow act in small doses but this is the whole bottle compared to a sip or two.

When this trailer begins, selling itself in a wholly different way, one of those “Gotcha!” things that studios are so fond of doing for some reason, you think that this could be a horror movie of some kind.

“Beyond your deepest fears”¦”

I mean you have some knife wielding woman walking down a dark hallway, ready to slice and dice, and you have throaty Voiceover Guy doing his best to be all creepy with the tense wood instruments flailing in the background. The joke that’s supposed to make all of us guffaw is that the biggest terror in Hollywood is Glick. Get it? Yeah, stupid, I’m sure Joe Bob Montana will think, “Man, I done thought it was goin’ be “˜orror movie. Dem suits sure is smarter than me.” Smart one, Chief.

So, it seems that Glick is going to the Toronto Film Festival. He’s starry eyed, and says so a few times before he actually makes it to the red carpet where he’s knocked over by a horde of women who run to get Brad Pitt’s autograph. Now, Brad is nowhere to be seen, the women are obviously not clotheslining Glick, which would be funnier than all get out, but there’s nothing genuinely slapstick-y about the pratfall. The only real display of what Martin Short is known for with this character, making asinine comments or asking questions that don’t even come near home plate, doesn’t even clock in until the trailer is nearly half way done. That’s not smart, that’s just plain ignorant.

My spirits rise a bit with none other than Pat “Leave a Horny Message at the Beep”¦Allegedly” O’Brien as he makes a faux Hollywood Insider report on Glick being catapulted to media fame from obscurity; it’s was like seeing O.J. Simpson after his run-in with the law when watching NAKED GUN. The rest after this, though, just doesn’t evoke any laughs whatsoever. I’m not trying to be callous but, damn, it’s just not funny. There’s even a Scooby-Doo style mystery sub-plot that’s hinted at but I’m not sure I get what is happening as I’m too enthralled with trying to wonder how much it cost to make this film and how it will do in the secondary market.

I do have to say, though, that seeing John Michael Higgins in this was like finding a life preserver on a burning ship; I’m not so sure he’ll be able to do anything with what’s given to him but John is an actor that I wouldn’t mind seeing week in and week out doing informercials or playing the part of a recurring attorney in the on-again, off-again series Arrested Development. The man is just good.

As for the trailer? I can’t find anything worth salvageable. If this were a record review I would have to put this entry into the “Recommended only to fans” and even then I would probably write the article under a pen name.

Director: Jay Chandrasekhar
Cast: Seann William Scott, Johnny Knoxville, Jessica Simpson, Burt Reynolds, Willie Nelson, David Koechner
Release: August 5 2005
Synopsis: Cousins Bo (Scott) and Luke (Knoxville) Duke, with a little help from their cousin Daisy (Simpson) and Uncle Jesse (Willie Nelson), egg on the authorities of Hazzard County, Boss Hogg and Sheriff Coltrane.

It’s en vogue to be a hater against a band that has so obviously and completely “sold-out” and no longer makes the kind of music that really elevated them to rock star status back when Joshua Tree was huge; those bitches have really given it to all of us since then with their arena tours and iPods. People engender a kind of myopic definition of purism when it comes to explaining what makes a true rock band and I, for one, don’t understand a note of it.

I say fuck-all to that.

People want rock stars to be larger than life. Fans want someone to give them a show, to give them something worth paying their money to come out and see, and people, ultimately, want their rock stars to be nothing more than entertainers but somehow they want their rock stars to be gaunt, emo-self-loathing paragons who would eschew stardom and all it’s trappings. However, critics need to take their spotlight of shame and direct it at talentless, here-today-gone-yesterday, preening and vacuous bitches of corporate manufactured music and leave the contemporary masters of public ceremony alone. It’s not enough that Rob Thomas of Matchbox 20 is still selling CDs to a willing public who celebrates mediocrity like it’s manifest destiny but yet there’s something inherently wrong to keep a gravy train chugging after more than 25 years.

That’s a long way around of trying to say that DUKES OF HAZZARD looks like big fun the movies, isn’t it?

Yeah, I have to admit it: this is a really nice trailer for a summer movie and among all the people who will rally against it I was one of those voices until I saw this trailer. I’m usually wrong about these things but I feel alone, again, in my support for a film that’s looking at an uphill battle.

Things start off on the right foot as the “countdown” beings. Throaty Voiceover Guy booms in with a serious tone as he comments that the countdown is beginning for the movie event of the summer; we all know how facetious that comment is but its purpose lays in the way the countdown begins at 05 and works its way down to, yup, 01, in all its orange glory.

That at least shows a little creativity if nothing else; thank god that’s not all.

The “yee-haw” that blares out of the screen as the General Lee clears a long ravine takes me back to Seann William Scott’s last car clearing, ROAD TRIP, but its obvious here when the car doesn’t blow up a few seconds after it crashes into the ground that we’re in a whole new realm of physical probabilities. (Translation for those residents of Macon County, Alabama: The car ain’t done blown up af’er it should’ve went up like a ro-man candle; he-haw, git “˜er done!) And that’s fine because the car sequences look fabulously executed. Not only that but we oddly saved from any more voiceover work and are treated to a nice musical interlude, a little Southern rock to get the feet a-tappin’, and it’s much appreciated because we, the viewer, can watch some of the car work that this movie will revolve around.

Jessica Simpson’s introduction, even though I am not a fan of that blonde Barbie who may or may not be as dumb as she appears and acts, is actually not entirely disruptive.

After we get that she’s going to be an empowered member of the Duke threesome, we get the very classic theme song of the old TV show and get more stunts. And that’s what really this movie should be about, you know? Nothing but car chasing and some old school Burt Reynolds SMOKEY AND THE BANDIT moves with a dash of T&A that the children really like nowadays. As the song is playing the graphics on the screen introducing everyone is a nice touch as well, a wink to the standard way our guys came to us every week on CBS. It’s cheesy, grainy and looks put together by 1st year film editors, but with a kind of irony that really works.

Problems? Yeah, a few. When Scott and Knoxville open their mouths there are few old and busted things that come drooling out. Like when Scott makes a “shrimp on the barbie” joke when introduced to an Australian hottie I immediately think back to DUMB AND DUMBER. Boss Hog walks into the screen, pimped out in the old school creamy white suit, resplendent in the form of Burt Reynolds himself, at one point offers up a C-note to anyone who can knock out some perp in a jail cell, which is also holding Bo and Luke Duke, who is taunting Hog. What’s really funny is the delivery of some anonymous goon as he immediately clocks the guy out. The goon who does the hitting rushes to the bars to say, “Don’t you you’re not supposed to wear white after Labor Day?” in a way that’s oddly appropriate and funny.

It’s dumb, stupid, but I loved the tone and delivery of the joke. And that’s why, people, when I see that Jay Chandrasekhar, one of the main minds behind SUPER TROOPERS and CLUB DREAD, might be making appreciators out of haters.

Might.

Director: Christopher Nolan
Cast: Christian Bale, Michael Caine, Liam Neeson, Katie Holmes, Gary Oldman, Cillian Murphy, Tom Wilkinson, Rutger Hauer, Ken Watanabe, Morgan Freeman
Release: June 17, 2005
Synopsis: BATMAN BEGINS explores the origins of the Batman legend and the Dark Knight’s emergence as a force for good in Gotham. In the wake of his parents’ murder, disillusioned industrial heir Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale) travels the world seeking the means to fight injustice and turn fear against those who prey on the fearful. He returns to Gotham and unveils his alter-ego: Batman, a masked crusader who uses his strength, intellect and an array of high tech deceptions to fight the sinister forces that threaten the city.

One of the best compliments I can bestow on a trailer like this is that it doesn’t use Voiceover Guy and it doesn’t rely on cards to set up exactly what we’re looking at.; things are just allowed to coalesce naturally.

Also, the trailer utilizes Nolan’s script as Liam Neeson’s near whisper narration brings us to one point, that one intersection in Bruce Wayne’s life, where the costume became the joi de vie of his whole being.

I like the bat dissolve of the WB logo in the beginning which almost seems ironic since it’s been a long goodnight in a cave since that company decided to do something smart with the franchise but you can now can see why. The direction of this movie appears to be handled with such delicate confidence that you half wonder why it has taken this long to get the Batman movie made which everyone said needed to be done.

We see young Bruce falling down a well, finding that cave where those little bats dwelled and struck fear into his young boy’s heart, cutting to him standing over his dead parents, to the now ubiquitous Sherpa shot as he quests for knowledge of where his life is going.

The sweeping views and vistas of this far-off place where Bruce trained to use his body and mind as a weapon is captured beautifully in the scenes chosen. Michael Caine breathes life into the new Alfred incarnation; he exudes the caring, confident, yet subordinate, role as his butler and there really does seem like there is a believable history between these two men.

I find enjoyment of Bale rolling up, after his eventual decision to shower, shave and come back to Gotham, in a big pimp daddy mobile which shows us the true playboy that Bruce Wayne was. This was something that was overlooked or glazed over in previous episodes, I believe, and I like he has some arm candy to show that he is Master Bruce, King of All Poon. He is young, rich and I like that there’s some shallowness that’s being put on display.

As an aside, this could be something or it could be nothing but if this is supposed to be Gotham then why is he driving a car with Illinois plates? Freeze it in QuickTime. I did and think it’s hilarious. That license plate is from Illinois. Holla, Chi-town! Now, it could be that Bruce just likes to take advantage of the tax benefits of plating his cars out-of-state but I just find it amusing.

His subsequent bump into Katie Holmes is a nice touch and, again, something that wasn’t explored in any of the other trailers. Bruce is vulnerable and this is the moment that speaks volumes. When Val Kilmer and Nicole Kidman were paired up in the previous Batman incarnation I didn’t really believe the sparks that were artificially created between those two flint rocks. Here, though, you believe that these are two people who really do have a past with one another.

Seeing how this is a summer tent pole after all and that Batman needs to get his Batgear- on before he gets his groove-on we need weaponry. Lots of it. Morgan Freeman comes to our rescue as the resident creative weapon expert. He’s doesn’t look as good as Michael Pollard in TANGO AND CASH but he’ll do as he shows Christian all the neat toys he’s going to have at his disposal.

I am especially drooley at the sight of the new Batmobile. That thing is an outback nightmare that I am sure will have lots to do in the streets of Chicago, er, Gotham. The quick clips of it working live and in action make me believe that there was a reason behind its chunky design.

Right after the car is shown, and this but a small thing, Christian is standing with his eyes closed in a very dark spot as hundreds of bats race by his face and person. I can only imagine the dry cleaning bills to get that bat shit off his clothes and shoes. Also, and I knew my nature channel watching would pay off in some nerdy way someday, what about all that crap that sits in that cave? I hope there’s a good ventilation system down there.

One word, five syllables, Bruce: Histoplasmosis. You should be less worried about The Scarecrow and more worried about lung health, my man.

Also, I am really keen on the taikos that play just underneath the action on the screen. It’s perfect.

Batman suiting up, Christian testing out some bat-shaped throwing stars, Batman standing stoically on a rooftop with his cape flapping at his ankles, the sky a sepiatone that seems to be the color palate by which all the action will be pasted against, and even Cillian Murphy’s skeevy bad guy musings are a delight when he says “the Bat Man” gets me all sorts of geeky.

The ending clips are way too good to even try and transcribe in a meaningful way but seeing the Scarecrow and Ra’s Al Ghul in full-on head-on shots with the hell that will be visited upon the people and goons of the Loop in Chicago, er, again, Gotham, is too much to be contained in this small trailer; fanboys couldn’t have asked for a better one.

Director: Gus Van Sant
Cast: Michael Pitt, Lukas Haas, Asia Argento, Scott Green, Nicole Vicius, Ricky Jay, Ryan Orion, Harmony Korine, Kim Gordon, Andy Friberg
Release: July 22, 2005
Synopsis: LAST DAYS is filmmaker Gus Van Sant’s meditation on the inner turmoil that engulfs a brilliant, but troubled, musician in the final hours of his life. Michael Pitt (THE DREAMERS, HEDWIG AND THE ANGRY INCH) stars as Blake, an introspective artist who is buckling under the weight of fame, professional obligations, and a mounting feeling of isolation. LAST DAYS follows Blake through a handful of hours he spends in and near his wooded home, a fugitive from his own life. It is a period of random moments and fractured consciousness, fused by spontaneous bursts of rock & roll. Expanding on the elliptical style forged in his two previous films, GERRY and the Palme d’Or-winning ELEPHANT, Van Sant layers images and sounds to articulate an emotional landscape, creating a dynamic work about a soul in transition.

What really happened to Kurt Cobain? Was it suicide, a hit, an attempt by Courtney Love to bring her hysterical oafishness and lumbering idiocy to the center stage where she thought it belonged? I don’t know the answers to the first two but I am 100% sure of the latter.

I admit I am infinitely curious to know what happens to people in the last days of their lives when it comes to suicide. Are there warning signs that people just don’t see or is it something so intrinsically quiet and muted that no one would ever be able to see it manifested in any physical way? Now, seeing how this film is all fiction, the man in the movie named Blake but who seems to be Kurt’s doppelganger, it’s striking to me that Gus would go to the trouble of making someone look exactly like Kurt”¦if this isn’t a movie about Kurt. If he wanted to really make the conceit a little more thrilling he would’ve had our “protagonist” take his double-barrel pump action shotgun in slo-mo, mowing Courtney down in a spray of millimeter sized metal spheres, the heavy orbs stenciled with the words “Hack bitch” all over them, but his vision not mine, right?

The trailer, though, is quiet. There is a certain delicate balance between something going on and nothing really happening that’s apparent to the viewer as this thing unfolds.

A phone rings off camera. It rings a few times and goes quiet. The man playing fake Kurt lights a cigarette in one of the dankest and most forsaken kitchens.

The next scene shows someone fumbling with a shotgun. The scene after that shows a ragtime festooned Cobain/Blake, draped in a long overcoat, sloppily trying to run around a banister with said shotgun in one of his hands. What is this, an episode of Kurt Get Your Gun?

Some guy comes to Blake’s door, we don’t even know what our strange man looks like, but we hear him talking about business and what Blake’s business is and would like to get a better idea of it as our strange man is from the Yellow Pages sales office. The placement of this guy seems odd and the silence from Blake is disquieting. And hey, I don’t understand it either and Cobain/Blake hasn’t even said word one at this point, but it’s interesting at the very least. It’s hushed in a way that intones some sense there’s something distressingly wrong with the man we’re looking at. But, reading this far, I think the response to this is “Duh.”

The next scene seems has a woman, Courtney?, opening a door and finding a slumping Cobain. We quickly move from this to a scene where Blake is statically listening to someone on the phone asking him what’s happening over at his house. He doesn’t say a word. He just lets the person ramble on as we wonder why he seems to be so verbally constricted.

We get some rather stark images of a wandering Blake, once of him naked in a river and another one of him walking aimlessly in a forest (Symbolism alert!) as a woman who doesn’t quite look like Courtney says to Blake that he could leave and get away from his situation.

Now, I don’t read French, but if my ability to decipher means anything to anyone I believe this trailer ends with a statement that the movie is a work of fiction and not really true. What’s more and, I believe, more insulting, is the fact that the very last few moments of this trailer is spent pimping the soundtrack to the film which you can buy on the 9th of May in French music stores everywhere. Shamless.

Director: Alex Ferrari
Cast: Daniel Samantha Jane Polay, Paul Gordon, Amber Crawford, Derek Evans, Tony Gomez, Ruben Gomez, Eric Townsend
Release: Coming Soon
Synopsis: A gun blast, a flash of light, and a young woman awakens to the comfort of her own bed. Bonnie Clayton has it all, a great relationship, a challenging career, and the burden of a dream that grows more vivid and disturbing with each passing night. But when Bonnie is abducted by a sadistic stranger and his colorful entourage, she discovers that the key to her survival lies within the familiar realms of her recurring dream.p> View Trailer:
* Medium (Windows Media, QuickTime)

We start off with a woman, gagged, being pushed in a wheelchair. The location seems unimportant but it definitely is industrial. The music is perfect. It’s a mix between someone beating on a thin oil drum and a stopwatch. It creates mood, which is good, and also sets up tone, two vital parts to a story like this.

Quickly, we see an odd object being pulled off screen, a bloody implement is dripping with its latest kill, and we see our gagged woman having the tape on her mouth forcibly removed. I’m sure it would’ve been more painful looking if it was due to a Brazilian wax.

A man, impeccably dressed in a crisp white shirt, vest and tie, asks our frizzled haired woman if he looks familiar. The music changes.

The song then becomes the song from THE MATRIX RELOADED, “Teahouse” by Juno Reactor and Gocoo. It’s a great Taiko drum composition and one that easily raises the excitement level for anything it plays underneath. The primal and visceral mode this trailer shifts gears into just launches it to the next step of keeping an audience’s attention.

Here, in this trailer, it works beautifully to play against the images of wanton and merciless violence being perpetuated in every which direction. There are guns, knives, big dudes with bigger arms, scopes, night vision and every other clichéd, albeit necessary, element to a short film where you want to create the illusion that it is possible to have mass amounts of people converging on one location to either save, kill or abscond with a woman at the center of it all.

The trailer even ends with the woman crying out that she wants her life back as the camera violently shakes side to side, which looks like the effect employed in FIGHT CLUB when, at the end, Ed and Brad’s characters quake in the same physical space. It’s very crafty and I can appreciate the time it must have taken to get this one just right with regard to timing and scene placements.

This has to be one of the better made action trailers I’ve seen in some weeks.

Director: Richard Ledes
Cast: Michelle Williams, Tim Guinee, Meat Loaf, Merritt Wever, Louis Zorich, Bill Raymond
Release: May 6, 2005 (Limited)
Synopsis: Set in small-town America circa 1953, A HOLE IN ONE is a screwball-noir starring Michelle Williams as Anna, a young woman whose desire for mental health leads her to covet its latest fashion–transorbital lobotomy.

Prognosis: Positive. I’ve never watched a single episode of Dawson’s Creek and the first time I did see Michelle Williams in a big budget production of a movie was her “performance” in HALLOWEEN: H20. It was my first exposure to Josh Hartnett as well and it soured me completely on the two of them and rightfully so. I didn’t come off my high horse until I saw DICK and BLACK HAWK DOWN, respectively.

This trailer, though, warms me up further to Williams’ acting abilities and, to add a little more to it, the editing of the trailer itself is simply alluring.

Usually, right before I see a trailer I get an idea of what I’m seeing. Other times, though, I just like to see if I am able to “get” what they’re selling by having no hints about the plot or who’s even in the film.

Michelle pops with flavor as she narrates the opening shot of this advertisement; she is standing on a beach, alone, with a head scarf wrapped around her head.

“My memories of the time leading up to my decision to get a lobotomy are fragmented”¦”

It’s a period piece and, just like a page ripped from ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO’S NEST, deals with the subject of using medieval and savage science to treat and diagnose a problem that’s not easily solved with a pair of alligator clips and a DieHard car battery from Sears; the only place where it was done to good effect, making for some great comedy, was in STRANGE BREW and I believe the premise of shock treatments is comedic, albeit black, in nature here as well.

Since everything happens around 1948 it’s funny to note that you’re not quite sure if it’s all supposed to be amusing or wickedly on the mark with how medical science was back then. In fact, the trailer has some doctor giving a speech to a gaggle of simpletons who are being new schooled on modern lobotomy techniques. Michelle nearly swoons at the idea of having her head scrambled as she says she’s already absent-minded. This can only help, right? All the while she’s stating on how she wants to have this done to her we suddenly get introduced to her boyfriend, Meat Loaf. Disregarding the really churlish comments one can make about her and him being an “item,” the years between them are nothing compared to the obvious absurdity of their pairing. It’s bizarre, in a John Waters kind of way, to hear Loaf validate Williams’ wish to get a lobotomy in a romantic statement of support.

The plot doesn’t get any easier to decipher than that.

She ends up getting one, something goes screwy where she ends up more withdrawn than before (imagine that), she hooks up with a young doctor who wants to give her another lobotomy along with a good rogering, and her life seems to schism on these different experiences.

“To pursue forgetfulness is to pursue happiness”¦”

The film is listed as a comedy and I can’t see how you could construct such a film in any other way. You could go for the dramatic angle but something like this, where a woman is steadfast in her desire to lobotomize her problems and only ends up creating more, but seeing Loaf again in a role where he plays the unintended heavy like he did in FIGHT CLUB just makes this black comedy that much more appealing.

Director: Michael McGowan
Cast: Adam Butcher, Campbell Scott, Shauna MacDonald, Gordon Pinsent, Michael Kanev, Tamara Hope, Jennifer Tilly
Release: May 13, 2005
Synopsis: Set in Hamilton in 1954, Saint Ralph is the unlikely story of Ralph Walker, a ninth grader who outran everyone’s expectations except his own in his bold quest to win the Boston Marathon. Ralph is a fatherless 14-year-old with a seriously ill mother, who knows he’s a time bomb waiting to explode into greatness, except that he has no idea where that greatness will manifest itself. An unfortunate incident of self-abuse in the community pool inadvertently sets him on this road when, as penance, Ralph is conscripted to the cross-country team. Desperate to believe a miracle will bring his mother out of a coma, Ralph becomes a convert to the church of running, and determines to win the Boston Marathon.

Ever since SINGLES I’ve been a quiet fan of the guys work. He’s nearly, completely, off the mainstream Hollywood radar but yet his stints in ROGER DODGER and THE SPANISH PRISONER are simply the kinds of performances that make you believe he’s just that good.

The trailer here starts out amusingly enough. You’ve got your standard boy who can’t do anything else but think of impure thoughts about women. The fact that after he stares at a woman bending over, revealing ample cleavage that would easily make the baby Jesus cry, and runs straight into a tree just shows us the kind of kid who we’re dealing with here. Add in a little Catholic school where he’s having problems fitting in with the program, disregarding the hideous cards in-between the scenes that are simply useless and distracting, and punctuating everything with a little showboating to the girls he’s trying to impress, you have all the markings for a fairly standard coming-of-age story.

However, things take a sharp turn to the left when our protagonists’ mother falls into a coma for reasons we’re not quite sure of. What is clear, though, is that event awakens something in this pre-pube, pre-pubescent lad and gets him thinking more about the big picture than of big mammaries.

Campbell Scott plays the inspirational educator who mentions that faith requires you to truly believe in something that doesn’t make any logical sense. Campbell is the motivator here and, unlike his Hollywood contemporaries who, in a coaching role, teach their wards the value of winning by working hard and striving for blah blah blah, I actually believe Campbell’s interest in this boy’s trajectory is genuine.

Then, something else happens. Our young lad feels the need to run. More specifically, he feels the need to run the Boston Marathon. When Scott mentions that the young boy actually winning the marathon would constitute a miracle the “ding” of the Please Ring For Service bell clues us in on how this meshes with the kid’s notion of his mother needing a miracle to come out of her coma and, ta-da, you have our goal that needs a resolution.

I’m usually good with my Crap Detector when I think I’m being artificially manipulated into feeling all goosey for something so obviously done out of pseudo sympathy and dripping with treacle but I’ll be dammed if I didn’t start to get all gooey as this kid trains his heart out. Campbell Scott has his own issues to deal with as he helps the young boy on his quest to win the marathon, as there is some bombastic yelling from the head priest/deity/headmaster/potential pedophile/whatever when Campbell is admonished about helping the kid along any further, but you really do think there’s something to this story right before the gun goes off at the start of the race.

You just have to know that the kid’s not going to win the race but here is an example of a movie where the obvious outcome, the protagonist winning it all in the end, is supplanted with the possibility of an ending actually fitting in with some sort of reality and, for a film of this size, I sure do hope it’s more about the journey than the goal.

Director: Hayao Miyazaki
Cast: (Voices) Emily Mortimer, Jean Simmons, Christian Bale, Billy Crystal, Lauren Bacall, Blythe Danner, Josh Hutcherson
Release: June 10, 2005
Synopsis: A distinguished cast of actors, under the direction of Pixar’s Pete Docter (“Monsters, Inc.”), lend their vocal talents to this English-language version of the film. Sophie (voiced by Emily Mortimer), an average teenage girl working in a hat shop, finds her life thrown into turmoil when she is literally swept off her feet by a handsome-but-mysterious wizard named Howl (voiced by Christian Bale), and is subsequently turned into a 90-year old woman (voiced by screen legend and two-time Oscar® nominee Jean Simmons) by the vain and conniving Wicked Witch of the Waste (voiced by screen legend and Oscar® nominee Lauren Bacall).

Prognosis: Positive. HOWLS MOVING CASTLE had me frothing popcorn kernels from the sides of my mouth.

As you watch the opening scene from this trailer you can start to see why CGI hasn’t yet dominated everything that’s colorful and exciting with regard to animation.

I was all wOOt’s and claps when Miyazaki won the Academy Award for SPIRITED AWAY and this trailer, as it unfolds, possesses that certain charm that animated movies, great ones, exude.

The music is jaunty as tanks and war machines roll through a small European town with a beautiful but sad looking woman watching this all unfold. She’s quiet but the colors and animation are doing all the communicating. The scenes, background, and weather pop off the screen; it’s nearly kinesthetic. It’s a world I can see existing.

The real and normal, though, in true Miyazaki fashion, bends and shifts into the unnatural.

Our beautiful young woman hooks up with a Danish looking Dutch Boy representative, wearing a very fey short coat and open Fabio-style shirt where a small amulet hangs from his neck. The guy/eunuch turns out to be doling out witchcraft instead of high glossy house paint.

What this relationship has to do with her being cursed as she’s subsequently turned into an old woman, and her fleeing the safe confines of her town, I haven’t a clue. I do know, though, that the vagabonds she eventually gets hooked up with, looking like extras from the much failed RETURN TO OZ flick from the 80’s, are all sorts of crazy. I mean that in a good way, though.

Wizards, spells, magic, faerie dust, most unnatural creatures, and various other mythical elements pop off the screen with a pizzazz and subdued glee that kids everywhere would no doubt put down their PSP’s for. Obviously, almost being 30 myself, I can’t help but feel wonderment at the imagination that is whirling the real with all too surreal together in a blending of mythos and traditional storytelling.

As for the voice talent, well, Billy Crystal? I’m not so sure about that guy. If you can keep him from being a parody of himself I think I’ll be able to ride the wave for the hour and a half this thing runs and wait for the DVD version where I’ll be able and turn the subtitles on. Christian Bale, however, is perfect. In the trailer you can feel his power as a narrator. His talking in AMERICAN PSYCHO, best exemplified in the scene where he’s ruminating on his business cards with his other cronies, is hands-down the best example of why I could listen to that guy rattle off the contents of the letter M in an Encyclopedia Britannica and why he’s great here.

The trailer ends on a whimper of sorts and the lame presentation of the movie’s website doesn’t really help things to end well but the fact this is Miyazaki’s newest addition to the canon of good animation the chances of this stinking are less than that of guaranteeing that Disney’s next home-grown animation entry will pale in comparison to this and is worth the risk of seeing this sight unseen.

Director: Alex Gibney
Cast:Ken Lay
Release: April 22, 2005 (Limited)
Synopsis: Inside story of one of history’s greatest business scandals, in which top executives of America’s 7th largest company walked away with over one billion dollars while investors and employees lost everything. Based on the best-selling book “The Smartest Guys in the Room” by Fortune reporters Bethany McLean and Peter Elkind and featuring insider accounts and incendiary corporate audio and videotapes, Gibney reveals the almost unimaginable personal excesses of the Enron hierarchy and the utter moral vacuum that posed as corporate philosophy. The film comes to a harrowing dénouement as we hear Enron traders’ own voices as they wring hundreds of millions of dollars in profits out of the California energy crisis. As a result, we come to understand how the avarice of Enron’s traders and their bosses had a shocking and profound domino effect that may shape the face of our economy for years to come.

Enron, that unholy machination of a mega corporation, that barreled though the economy like an amped up Ron Mexico on his way to touchdown, or STD, ingloriousness, was publicly taken down with a panache no one had ever seen before. This is a story that needed to be told, from start to finish, and I sure as hell want to see how the corporation rose to prominence, crested and then crashed into the national economy.

This trailer sets things up nicely with a snippet from an interview with a guy in a very proper suit and tie, laying out the financials. It had taken Enron 16 years to build their financial empire and then, from their apex, lost it all in 24 days.

“The greatest innovation in the new economy was greed”¦”

From here, and in the kind of documentary style that many have come accustomed to, interviews from people on the inside and analysts who knew about the situation, we get some real key things about what really caused this company’s downfall. It didn’t help that the traders of electricity, which I still don’t understand how one can really trade futures in something intangible like power, are caught on tape laughing about they’re stealing money from old grandmothers. The tenor of how which this story is going to be told is set.

What I especially like about this trailer is that we get some real great evidence presented that shows you the kind of gentlemen who will, ostensibly, be visiting some sort of federal “pound me in the ass” prison in their near future. Jeffrey Skilling, at one of the federal hearings looking into this matter, is shown being asked the question of whether he converted, cashed-out, stock worth 66 million dollars. Skilling affects one of the least effective “what, me worry?” poker faces as he responds, “Uh”¦I don’t know.”

Words from another Enron guy, you’ve probably seen his mug on the TV a bit, Ken Lay, is looking all serious as he says that Enron deals with everyone with absolute integrity; obviously, it’s an old interview.

What’s also remarkable about this trailer is that, at a real quick clip, it pushes you through Enron 101. You had former nerds who were all of a sudden really rich and powerful; they wouldn’t let their importance in the market be diminished so they did whatever they had to do to retain that power; they had California in their own stranglehold; they used the rolling blackouts to increase their profits; and they even have an Enron trader on tape saying that for every day that the blackouts continue they are able to skim a million or two, who’s counting, into the coffers of the corporate execs.

The blistering sound bites from the many involved with this company come fast but you begin to see the tangled mess this turned into when deregulation was allowed to happen. Whether deregulation was ultimately a good thing or a bad thing I don’t know but I like how this kind of documentary seems to be more prevalent nowadays; the kind that uses some of the most recent video, audio, documents, etc”¦ to establish continuity and liven up the whole documentary experience. I’m sure the chances this documentary would fare much better, though, on the small screen, rather than the big one if only for the reason that we all know big business is screwing us so why spend the money to confirm it?

Director: Hans Weingartner
Cast: Daniel Brühl, Julia Jentsch, Stipe Erceg, Burghart Klaußner, Peer Martiny
Release: July 22, 2005
Synopsis: Jan, Peter and Jule are living out their rebellious youth. They are united by their passion to change the state of the world. Jan and Peter become “The Edukators,” mysterious perpetrators who non-violently warn the local rich their “days of plenty are numbered.” Complications follow when vulnerable Jule ends up falling for both young men. Reckless choices result in danger. An operation gone wrong and what was never intended to be a kidnapping brings the three young idealists face-to-face with the values of the generation in power.

Usually I’m all for foreign films as they sometimes inform my experience as a world citizen in ways that, not intentionally, American cinema sometimes lacks.

However, this isn’t one of them.

When you first watch this trailer you wonder what the hell is happening. Some really rich people, a nice nuclear family, arrive home to find all their possessions have been rearranged in the home. Now, I’m not talking a Queer Eye transformation but some people broke into this family’s home and put everything that was in its place into a radical new one. A note taped to a mountain of furniture says that their days of “plenty” are numbered. Ok, even though I don’t know what days of plenty mean, I get it, and the quick card that comes after this note saying “You’ve been Edukated” only makes me think that Ashton Kutcher is going to jump out with his hat all askew on his head and acting like an obnoxious twit.

Instead, we see that some punk kids are the ones behind this. In fact, it’s those kinds of roustabouts who are out, not protesting, but throwing chairs through the windows of any nearby Starbucks at any G8 meeting in the world. I am sure there is a fine line with peaceful protest and violent opposition and these people seem to be the latter and with nothing else on their mind but general mayhem and wanton destruction to property.

In fact, what I see happen in the next few scenes are moments of these “protestors” shouting the words “capitalist pigs” as the po-pos drag some of these youth away in what looks like a pretty heady moment of a fairly violent altercation. It’s these varieties of global pin heads that make trying to protest the system of unfair imbalances of the world that much more difficult. I really don’t want, and don’t have, any sort of empathy for these kinds of people and that’s what makes watching this trailer that much more difficult.

When next I see that some chick wants to get involved with them I feel sorry for her, not happy that someone else is joining the “resistance.” When they are attempting to “edukate” some rich fellow’s home the guy comes back early. The homeowner grabs the chick, who is clad in the clichéd outfit of black clothes and black stocking cap, but the gimp boyfriend who convinced her to go along with this whole thing sneaks up on the apprehending suburbanite and knocks him out.

The people end up kidnapping him and take him to one of their socialist log cabins.

After they take his gag off and let him sit down at their communist table the “edukation” continues as they try to tell him that amassing nice things with the money he’s earned is a bad thing, a wrong thing. He’s very casual as he says he’s the wrong scapegoat for their misery.

He’s right but we don’t really get anything else here that would say that the people who’ve kidnapped him really evolve in any meaningful way. Things just seem to go on with no real clear direction of where I should be going and I don’t like it. Should I be sympathizing with the plight of these “revolutionaries”? No, obviously not, but I can’t say for sure with the trailer I’ve been given. It leaves me confused and a confused customer is not likely to pay to see your film.

Director: Iain Softley
Cast: Kate Hudson, Peter Sarsgaard, Gena Rowlands, John Hurt, Joy Bryant
Release: August 12, 2005
Synopsis: Set largely in the dark atmospheric backwoods just outside of New Orleans, The Skeleton Key stars Hudson as Caroline, a live-in nurse hired to care for an elderly woman’s (Rowlands) ailing husband (Hurt) in their home…a foreboding and decrepit mansion in the Louisiana delta. Intrigued by the enigmatic couple, their mysterious and secretive ways and their rambling house, Caroline beings to explore the old mansion. Armed with a skeleton key that unlocks every door, she discovers a hidden attic room that holds a deadly and terrifying secret. Peter Sarsgaard portrays Luke, the local attorney working on the couple’s estate, and Joy Bryant plays Jill, Caroline’s best friend.

This looks like ass.

The opening is good, though, I have to give it that. Even throaty Voiceover Guy sounds like he huffed on a few extra packs of Camel non-filters to get that mysterious and creepy pitch just right as he talks about where our story takes place. And, sure enough, when you’re talking about anything weird, odd, and just way off the norm, you’re talking about the South. Louisiana, to be exactly right.

We’re told that there are people who still use witchcraft, sacrifice, conjures, and spells as their religion and we even see some really “creepy” images of hand-drawn circles, burnt out candles, chicken legs and anything else you could associate with witchcraft. You know, things you’d find in the bedroom of your average, coming-of-age, Cure or CROW fan circa 15 or 16 years-old.

I know what the trailer makers are trying to do is to be all Joe Flaherty SCTV Count Floyd “Ooo”¦it’s spooky!” and it works to a certain extent. I’m even pumped up when I see it’s written by the original guy who did the American version of THE RING; hey, say what you will but there was a reason why the 2nd RING, as god awful as it was, was made and this will really show whether Ehren Kruger really just got lucky or if crappiness is just his style. For further examples of said awfulness, and potential train-wreckage for this film, see his work on REINDEER GAMES and SCREAM 2.

Now we get Kate Hudson into the mix. She’s going to Louisiana to take care of some old coot that was rendered paralyzed by a stroke. The house is really old and in the old manse style that populated so many Southern yarns in literature at the turn of the century and, of course, the home is in some disrepair which adds to its “spookiness.” So, she’s there to be a home health aide to this sickly man and, judging by the tight violin music, when her patient suddenly grabs her arm in a Kung-Fu pebble sort of way, that should have been the universal sign for drop everything and leave quickly.

Instead, what seems to happen is that Kate then employs witchcraft or, at the very least, starts to dabble in it. Huh? If you’re working somewhere and you suddenly feel compelled to begin taking Wiccan steps to ensure your safety against “evil” that might be around you it’s either time to take a 3 day break on a Carnival cruise line and stay rip roaringly drunk or it’s time to see someone and have a chat about other professional avenues in your life.

What really chaps my hide about this trailer is that we go from things getting slightly weird to things getting out of all sorts of control in less than fifteen seconds. First some woman tells Kate to get the hell out of the house, Kate then finds some really effed up witchcraft swag in her employers’ attic, the wife of her patient isn’t all there and is dangerously close to looking like she herself is in a permanent psychotic state, and we see some really odd clip of Kate using a compact mirror like she’s trying to determine whether the old guy she’s taking care of is a vampire, to which the guy flips out when he sees his visage.

There’s some really crazy things going on in this movie and I can tell you it’s not intentional. I just can’t see why I would even want to get close to this unless there was some kind of lesbianiac séance to awake the healing powers of female love to protect her. Even then I would be hard pressed.

Director: Jun-hwan Jeong
Cast: Shin Ha-Gyun, Baek Yun-Shik, Hwang Jung-Min, Lee Jae-Yong, Lee Ju-Hyeon, Ki Ju-Bong
Release: April 20, 2005 (Limited)
Synopsis: Lee Byeong-Gu (Shin Ha-Gyun, JSA) is a sensitive, blue collar sad sack hopped up on conspiracy theories and sci-fi films whose life has been derailed by one bad break after another. Yet he knows there’s no such thing as bad luck. The only thing that could have made such a mess of his life are…aliens. Nasty, disgusting aliens who have infiltrated human society. Sly aliens who are planning to destroy our planet at the next lunar eclipse. The one alien possessing the Royal Genetic Code needed to contact the Crown Prince and stop the destruction just happens to be his old boss, CEO of Yuje Chemicals, Kang Man-Shik (Baek Yun-Shik).

Prognosis: Positive. Resist the urge to stop this trailer a few seconds into it.

It will be the oddest thing you see today, I swear it. (This’ll be a good thing)

It’s hard not to roll your eyes when the first images we get of this Asian import are of some dude with a construction helmet on his head with assorted accoutrements and gizmos stuck on it and who is also wearing a trash bag as a coat. Its silliness is only rivaled by its sheer visual stupidity, I know.

It seems our new friend, who is either a danger to himself, society, others or all of the above, thinks his boss is an alien. The yellow cards that state this claim look like they were designed by someone who just discovered the joys of making fonts as big as the screen.

The bag man in question walks up to the boss in question and asks if he’s from his hometown. The bossman, who is awfully calm for a man being questioned by a trash bag wearing weirdo, says that no, he grew up in Seoul. “Not Andromeda?” our fruit loop asks.

“He may be right,” the next card says. What?

I realize that it’s about here where you would go off and clip your toenails but stick with it as the next scenes just assault you with some of the oddest situations that I have ever seen come out of Korean cinema.

First, we see that our garbage man knocks out his boss with some sort of gas. Then, in a series of chronological events, boss guy is taken to some kind of abandoned industrial park, he’s strapped down to a chair, his head is shaved, we see trash guy has a similarly dressed associate with him, and the card that flashes at us states that this film, “is not horror.”

Well, who would think that? Before I get to the “who would” of my question we see that boss guy has his right leg extended on some kind of ottoman, as a real punky version of “Somewhere Over The Rainbow” jams in the background, and his crazy abductor wields an ax that is being slammed into the dude’s leg. What the hell is going on?

I still don’t have a clue but I know I can’t look away.

The next card says that this isn’t science fiction. No shit? Really? I can’t see how that would be as all my favorite sci-fi movies have forceful amputations of body parts with garden tools in them.

Next, an ethereal and more mellow singing of “Rainbow” lilts softly as animated math equations take over the narrative storytelling of this trailer. Streams of impossibly definable X’s and Y’s and =’s confound me even more than what comes at me in the follow scenes.

The punk “Rainbow” comes back as we get a wholly different set of people fighting at a bee hive. What? Some guy, in a really funny/odd/crazy moment, tosses a jar of what looks like honey on a potential assailant causing bees to gather in a cloud right above his drippy head. What does our honey boy, wielding a pistol, do to defend himself? Shoots at the bee swarm. With every shot that goes off you see a single bee drop. It’s completely surreal.

“This is something you’ve never seen before”

I can’t even tell you what I think of the quick clips that follow in this movie’s desperate attempt to make a cohesive reason why I should see this film. The fact that it was an official selection at Toronto and a multitude of other film festivals in the past year really starts to scramble my synapses as I wonder why, now, garbage man is having a kung-fu battle in the middle of the street where the laws of physics don’t seem to be a concern for anyone involved.

The one thing that makes me even think of investigating further into this film is the recommendation of some fairly good press outlets which include a glowing proverbial thumbs up from Film Threat. I can’t imagine anything stranger I’ve seen in the last few months as odd as this movie but it did make for an interesting couple of minutes.

Director: Sean Anders
Cast: John Angelo, Greg Behrendt, Sean Anders
Release: April 15, 2005 (Limited)
Synopsis: Shawn is the founder of the Mesa Frozen Entree Enthusiasts Club. He has inspired this group of fanatical collectors to attempt to host the world’s first Frozen Entree Enthusiasts Convention. Shawn also sings for a local punk band that has recently converted to Christian Rock as they find the Christian fans much easier to shock and impress. Milo Binder, a local Christian rock promoter and owner of an anti-abortion themed Christian cafe, assisted the band’s conversion. As Shawn pursues the convention and Christian fame, Al (the bass player) pursues Shelly. Shelly is a mousy virgin who’s infatuation with Shawn may be more than AL can overcome. NBT is a dark, edgy warts-and-all comedy that leaves nothing sacred.

Not literally, as I could maybe accommodate a small production of Waiting For Godot, and someone would have to bring the tree, but this film was constructed with Phoenix hands and I feel like I can share the positive vibes I get from this ad with the rest of you.

The premise is strange but the trailer sells this lo-fi budgeted comedy with smashing aplomb; let me explain. At the beginning, we’re introduced to a collector. The guy isn’t just your normal collector, mind you, as the object of his desire is frozen dinner entrees. It’s the coveted collectible of all the hoarders at the center of this film as are the freezers that populate these people’s homes which are used to store them. Some people have long boxes, others, GE deep freezers. One of the guys who boasts a collection of some 900 different varieties is absurd but, when you watch it, it really is amusing.

We next meet a concert promoter. The man, who talks to the camera in a documentary style, clad with a fetus eraser tip on his pencil, says he has been a part of the Christian rock scene for the past 10 years. Quickly, we cut to a performer in a local club where he says that the next song they’re going to play is about”¦well”¦Jesus.

I laugh.

In a Lou Pearlman, Backstreet Boys style machination, we are introduced to the man who creates a Christian rock band and tells the members how they’re going to be successful. It is, in this order, man has problem, man finds Jesus, Jesus fixes problem. Repeat.

The obnoxiousness of the band’s lyrical content and performance on the live stage is readily apparent as is the meeting of the losers who all gather to talk about Swanson’s newest frozen dinner entrees that is near release to the general public. Is this what it looks like to people when I tell people how excited I am of an impending Jim Mahfood release?

We next get introduced to our other players and find out a little bit more about each one. In particular, we are presented Shelly. Shelly works at the William Jefferson Clinton Abstinence Center. The Center is a hotline where people can call up and get talked down from having premarital relations, with themselves. Her conversation with someone who is in mid master-coitus stokes the laugh track inside of me.

The quick clips that follow show all sorts of odd things: refrigerated display cases, a la baseball cards, that herald new offerings of frozen dinners for sale, a guy who spills a copious amount of shampoo into his palm while showering right before treating himself like “an amusement park,” a dog humps the hell out of a disaffected guy’s leg who drinks a beer in his underwear, and there is even a moment between friends which show how mean some of our very friends can intentionally be.

Without any way to see exactly how any of this could be very entertaining I can see why it would be hard to get excited about this kind of a movie. I do know, however, that having to sit through an inordinate amount of trailers submitted by first time moviemakers, which fail to do anything, that this one really shines above a lot of them for being able to excite me.

Director: Tony Scott
Cast:Keira Knightley, Mickey Rourke, Mena Suvari, Delroy Lindo, Lucy Liu, Christopher Walken
Release: August 12, 2005
Synopsis: Based on the true story of Domino Harvey, the daughter of actor Laurence Harvey, a former Ford model, who rejected her life in Beverly Hills to become a bounty hunter.

When you’re talking about true stories and Tony Scott is the man directing a film based on one you might be well inclined to think, if nothing else, it’ll be pretty to look at. The truth will most likely bend as far as a Chinese acrobat performing the triple-lindy but, again, the visuals will no doubt be in high ocular overload. Watching MAN ON FIRE last year secured my faith in a man who has shown remarkable prowess as someone who is good behind the lens and adept enough to deliver a visual story if nothing else.

That said, though, I don’t know how well I believe Keira Knightly as a bounty hunter. Sure, Boba Fett takes all the glory for the galaxy’s root-tootinest gun slinger, until Lucas gave him one of the weakest ass exits if ever there was one, but Keira? Like RuPaul said, “Girl, you better work”¦” Further, I assert that there’s something oddly too feminine about a bounty hunter looking like she does. The root of my concern stems from watching too much DOG The Bounty Hunter on A&E. Have you seen that woman, Beth Smith? That girl could crack me like a walnut and have me begging for sweet mercy where if Keira was the bounty hunter I would WANT her to crack me like a walnut. See the difference?

Keira introduces herself by means of a voiceover, the action on the screen muddled by cinematography and the blaze of twin machine guns, rattling off ammunition into some space that Keira is screaming into, and it is all good. She’s hot with an automatic, I’ll give her that, and the trailer doesn’t let us sit idly by for a moment.

“I am a bounty hunter”¦”

She says that what she is about to say determines whether or not she goes to prison. So, we already know she’s been caught, that there is no real risk to her person throughout this entire movie and that she’s going to be alive by the end. That sucks to know because maybe I would’ve wanted her to go out like a Vasquez in ALIENS. Maybe I wanted her to go out with bullets shredding her innards like a beef jerky machine but for the sake of being able to see her last throughout this movie that’s alright and I realize I’m thinking way too much for an action movie.

What’s really screwy, though, is that we see her pre-Alias transformation and, of course, she has long hair to juxtapose with her current short bob and she has a real bad attitude to go along with it. The vibe is like that of Bridget Fonda before that hit squad turned her into a hottie assassin in POINT OF NO RETURN. Then, next scene, she’s all experienced with the weaponry.

We go from point A all the way to point Zeta on the Greek alphabet without so much as an explanation. All is forgiven, I guess, as she looks pretty good holding the firearms, unbelievable as it is.

Next we get some more jarring video of people getting all sorts of crazy with their guns and Christopher Walken pops up as a network executive. What one has to do with the other I still have no clue.

“Did you just say Blacktino?”

We get more clowns out of this car of characters and, from what I see, there isn’t a whole lot connecting anyone to anything. We get people popping up on the screen to only really point out that they exist somewhere in the narrative but we’re not really clued in to how they shoehorn into Domino’s past, present or future. I’m nearly feeling trapped by these multiple personalities with nothing to ground any of them.

The end of this trailer is just a lot of quick clips that leave you breathless and cockeyed from the exposure of film going in and out as many times as it does. Keira’s voiceover letting us know again and again that her name is, indeed, Domino Harvey, and that she is a bounty hunter, skirts the line between repetition and annoyance.

Director: Patrick Read Johnson
Cast: John Francis Daley, Steve Coulter, Christopher Lloyd, Kenneth Mitchell, Colleen Camp, Emmi Chen
Release: Sometime in 2005
Synopsis: Pat Johnson has things get in the way of him seeing Star Wars.

I knew nothing about this film’s existence but then, stumbling into it like a urinal at Oktoberfest, I saw the trailer and thought that it was a great trailer for being so under the radar. You’ve got nerds, nerd love, geek infatuation with popular cinema and a little independent ingenuity behind it all.

Things kick off like any good movie paying homage to a great time in cinematic history, 1977, with the playing of the theme to 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY. Things usually are ironic in scope when that tune is inserted into a flick and this is no different. What sets this trailer apart, though, is that instead of telling you, explicitly, this is a movie from 1977, although the title is enough of a giveaway, we’re offered scenes from that year that set things in their proper context. We get a game of Pong, some Six Million Dollar Man, a clip from JAWS, and even Farrah Fawcett.

We’re introduced to our protagonist as he works on a large scale model, definitely a nerd in whatever decade we’re talking about, as a friend off camera asks who the hell Steven Spielberg is. Our man is nearly infuriated at query.

What happens next is that we get a slew of quick clips, usually reserved for the send off of every other trailer that I see, but it’s effective insofar as it gets me acquainted, real quick, to this nerdy guy’s life. He loves movies, he’s a moviemaker himself, he likes, no surprise, Steven Spielberg, enjoys making homage flicks like JAWS and there’s some obsessive behavior going on with his envisioning of CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND and even his version of PLANET OF THE APES.

What draws me in closer is that there is a real spirit to this flick and to the filmic persona of a man who is trying to recreate CLOSE ENCOUNTERS with aliens who can’t see out of their masks and fall off the ramp leading to the fabricated spaceship. He convinces a young boy, possibly his brother, to be a victim of a shark attack. The kid holds his own fake intestines out for his mother to see in the bathroom and, judging by her expression, she seems all too familiar with this kind of behavior.

The movie picks up more steam as it nears its end with the opening images of STAR WARS: A NEW HOPE, an obvious benchmark in the hapless lives of geeks everywhere. Christopher Lloyd even pops up in a moment of amazing surprises with regard to the level of quality this movie might possess should it ever screen beyond festivals.

Obviously, with no way of knowing anything more than what this trailer tells us there isn’t a way to really determine how thoroughly good this movie may be. From what I can tell, though, this does look like a great entry into a festival where its goodness or badness can really be tested.

And you know, even for a movie like this, you just have to be rooting for the little guy, even the nerdy ones.

Director: Michael Spierig, Peter Spierig
Cast: Felicity Mason, Mungo McKay, Rob Jenkins, Lisa Cunningham
Release: July 1, 2005
Synopsis: Peaceful, rustic Berkeley is a charming fishing community where life is sweet and the people friendly. All that is about to change. After losing her childhood farm to the bank, local beauty Rene decides to leave town and head for the big city. Suddenly, an avalanche of meteorites races through the sky, bombarding the town and bringing an otherworldly infection. Departing is going to be much more difficult than she had planned. The living dead are awakened and Rene is now caught in a nightmare of zombies hungry for human flesh. She manages to find salvation in a small isolated farm house owned by the town loony, Marion. There she is met with four other desperate survivors. Together they battle their way through a plague of walking dead and discover that there is more transpiring than just an infection.

What we have here is a fairly well made trailer for a movie that only metes out the information in slow drizzles. It’s intriguing to try and figure out what the hell is actually going on in this thing.

“In the town of Berkeley”¦Where life was simple”¦”

Essentially, yes, with the choral singing and the kids with their fishin’ sticks, and the old grandmas looking for yarn at the ye olde store. Life seems quaint and cheery. Only in the movies could life be so idyllic and we, as an audience, gullible enough that one exists. That is, until, you hear the booming noise over your head in the sky.

Large meteors streak against yellow clouds. The music stops. The atmosphere literally turns dark and evil.

We get a small girl aping the scary factor, which is fine, of the dead pre-teen of THE RING and that crazy bastard child that took a bite out of Sarah Polley’s husband in DAWN OF THE DEAD. I like it when kids are involved with the whole zombie ethos. It just makes the decision to blow their heads off with a pump-action shotgun, you know so they don’t bite anyone else and become zombies “˜cause you’ve got to protect yourself in these kinds of situations, that much more tenuous.

The screen goes black.

People start screaming, the obligatory news guy (who, even in the face of a plague, as they call it in this trailer) seems calm and disaffected with the panic that’s ensuing everywhere else, people douse themselves with water for some unknown reason, and some dude, who looks like Rob Zombie playing the part of the heavy, is out to tell everyone exactly what’s up with this situation.

It seems like this is going to be another sort of NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD as all the players who are still alive exist together in a house as a zombie horde closes in on them.

“Those things you saw out there? Those are only the beginning.”

I don’t care if it comes close to Romero’s original idea of zombies + house + people defending the castle = profit. It looks visually pretty close to what I demand of my scare flicks: screaming chicks, big guns, attitude, near nudity if possible (I did see a bra ever so briefly), good looking zombies and a strong female lead to school all the foolios who think they’re better than she is (because it’s important for women to have strong action heroes too”¦) if at all attainable.

I’m putting this one on the radar. If I haven’t seen the best bits in this trailer I am definitely making the time to see this one, otherwise, I am waiting for DVD.

Director: Jorge Furtado
Cast: Lázaro Ramos, Leandra Leal, Luana Piovani, Pedro Cardoso
Release: April 22, 2005 (Limited)
Synopsis: André, relatively poor, falls in love with Silvia, a neighbor whom he spy’s with a telescope. Falling more and more in love with her, he begins to follow her around the city and realizes she works in a clothing shop. He works in a Xerox place and makes a copy of a brand new 50 real bill in order to buy a dress from her store. This becomes a vice and he begins to photocopy more and more money, until it gets out of control. However, things begin to go wrong when he decides that photocopying is not the only way to make money.

The premise is real simple: you have a dude who works in a copy store (man, I love that Pop Copy sketch on Chappelle’s Show), he has a couple of friends who he hangs out with, he likes to spy on chicks with a pair of binoculars across the way from his own apartment building (MEN AT WORK, anyone? Man do I love that movie in ways I should be embarrassed for admitting), and he eventually sees one he likes and wants to get to know better. He seems fairly normal beyond just being a guy who makes copies for people”¦and who likes spying on unsuspecting women. In fact, this seems like a pretty normal movie except that our protagonist is the one narrating this trailer, a rarity I like to see more often as it intimately informs the action on the screen, but we do have a love story where the words “didn’t even know I exist” are uttered. I really hate that line when I hear it anywhere else outside a Lizzie McGuire or Even Stevens episode but I let it slide here because it’s all in the translation.

What gets me here, and what people will take notice of, is that the guy is a cartoonist. He animates like Savage Steve Holland did in BETTER OFF DEAD and ONE CRAZY SUMMER. The artwork is nice to look at but it helps to define things as well and that’s a plus. What’s more is that our protagonist gets the idea that he’s a damn good copier. He thinks he’s the 1984 Mary Lou Retton gold medal champ at making copies so good that he could probably make counterfeit money and not get caught. He goes for it.

“You know what I say? Money is only paper that people believe is worth something.”

From here the riches, pun intended, natch, start to spoil him. With a CCR’s “Travelin’ Band” playing in the background and with some nice video and audio effects that create the appearance of a copier as we go from one scene to another this story is easily told in the actions of the people we see on the screen. It’s an absolute delight to see a foreign language film glide so easily along the lines of understandability to an American audience.

This movie won some awards, although this information is really helpful to people if you put it at the beginning of a trailer as it helps them make an empty value decision that only helps a movie out immensely, but what’s really nice is how this kid starts to spend lavishly because you can just feel the eventual outcome of this situation coming to a head quicker than an approaching tsunami.

The decadence is too much to last too long without something bad happening and this film doesn’t look like it’s going to disappoint on that level. With guns, officers in bulletproof vests and shotguns, lots of running, an apartment explosion and even the possibility of some hooker action I am all in for this ride.

Director: Timour Bekmambetov
Cast: Konstantin Khabensky, Vladimir Menshov, Maria Poroshina, Galina Tyunina, Victor Verzhbitsky, Dima Martynov
Release: July 29, 2005
Synopsis: Set in contemporary Moscow, NIGHT WATCH (NOCHNOJ DOZOR) revolves around the conflict and balance maintained between the forces of light and darkness — the result of a medieval truce between the opposing sides. As night falls, the dark forces battle the super-human “Others” of the Night Watch, whose mission is to patrol and protect. But there is constant fear that an ancient prophecy will come true: that a powerful “Other” will rise up, be tempted by one of the sides, and tip the balance plunging the world into a renewed war between the dark and light, the results of which would be catastrophic.

I don’t think I’ve had the pleasure of looking at a Russian made film in this space before and what a shame that is. You’d think with the kind of money that the new oligarchic infrastructure is infusing into that once crumbling house of cards we’d be getting all sorts of crazy ass movies like IVAV AND ERIK GO TO RED CASTLE, REVENGE OF THE BOLSHEVIKS or even something where we could get a nice car chase through the center of Red Square in Moscow or a Russian mafia original using real Mafioso’s who no doubt still loiter along the Russian promenades.

This trailer, though, looks just great as we get our protagonist, a young boy, having fun in the local swimming pool. I can’t say for sure that it is a swimming pool, as that might be reactor water he’s wading in, this being Russia and all, but it’s all very peaceful. The camera cuts away to a little girl swinging by herself against a backdrop of a dark sky and housing projects.

Our kid shows up again, doe eyed and innocent, and he walks slowly to his front door where he no doubt heard a knocking. It’s quiet and he slowly steps to his peephole to see who’s there. There’s no one.

The surprise that follows scared the living shiat out of me and it’s a red herring at that. Sneaky bastards.

Here’s where things get weird. The screen gets black and when it comes up again we see some dude’s face. Only, what happens next is that it gets all veiny, like he’s turning into a zombie or like he just had a tongue session with a young Rogue, and it cuts away. Quickly we see some blonde, some older MILF-ish lady, with her hair blowing straight up into the air in a wave of follicles. Then we get a lot of bats flapping around. The word huh doesn’t even begin my confusion but, and I have to be honest, I’m intrigued to know why all this weird stuff is going down. I’m not upset, I am hungry for information.

Next, we get some people dressed up like Vikings. They’re sort of like those gimps who dress up here in the States doing battle recreations of civil war era fights where the results are always the same, except in this flick they’re going hand-to-hand on a small stone bridge. And here’s something that’s interesting: this movie has Voiceover Guy. It’s an actual American voice that’s narrating this thing. Again, this is something I don’t hear everyday and it’s really interesting to have this kind of verbal backing.

It helps, too, because from what he’s saying and what I am seeing, it’s sort of like an Eastern Bloc version of UNDERWORLD. Expect here, in this movie, you have people who possess some pretty odd superpowers in addition to kung-fu. At one point one of the factions, the rulers of the night no less, put their hands up to a kid’s head only for the child’s melon to go completely invisible with the exception of all the kid’s red subcutaneous veins in his head. Sweet!

There are a lot of sunglasses worn in this movie, more than in all the THE MATRIX movies combined it seems, but there’s no mention of vampires or any of that goth wannabe hippie Anne Rice crap. There’s lot of rundown buildings in this thing too but I bet you dollars to doughnuts that those are real places and not just cleverly decorated soundstages with the way their economic situation has been plodding along since Communism took a header.

Not only that but the scenes that are given up in this trailer just rock the block. At one point you have a woman walking in her nightgown down a busy Russian highway. Cars bump her out of the way, as they go by at full speed, and she seems disassociated with anything relating to pain. It’s a nice effect to look at and wonder how they did it.

Also, the music used, by M87 near the end? It’s haunting as it is emotionally perfect for what this film seems to be about. It looks like a violent movie, a fun movie, but has that tinge of Russian stoicism that I thought was forever lost after the release of RED HEAT; that opening fight in the snow still induces shrinkage in me. There is so much more going on in this thing I just have to implore someone to see it and report back quickly. It’s not for everyone but it’s packed with gorgeous imagery and it’s on my Geek Watch 2005 list of anticipated movies.

You just can’t go wrong with this trailer. In fact, let me say, for the record this is perhaps the best trailer I’ve seen for a movie so far in 2005.

Director: Nora Ephron
Cast:Nicole Kidman, Will Ferrell
Release: June 24, 2005
Synopsis: An all-star cast led by Oscar-winner Nicole Kidman and Will Ferrell cast their spell on the movie version of one of TV’s most memorable and guiling shows, “Bewitched”. Will Ferrell plays an actor taking on the role of Darren in a new version of the classic television show, while Nicole plays the actress hired to play Samantha in the show…except that she’s really a witch!

Sans the coconut macaroon part.

I’m not seeing exactly why I would want to see this movie, even after Nicole Kidman’s entrance into the movie’s trailer. Ferrell is looking at all kinds of unknown actresses for this new show of his, focusing on the nose wiggle of course, and it’s only when Will sees Kidman wiggle it inside a bookstore that his senses are overwhelmed and thrown off kilter, taking a pratfall over stacks of books. Ahh, good ol’ Will.

What’s odd about the scene immediately following this is when Will tells Nicole she would be great as an actress, assuring her that if he can act surely she could to which a waitress quips, “Amen.” Ha-ha, very amusing. I get it, Will’s a terrible actor. What’s genuinely funny, though, and what makes that lame ass line better is Will’s follow-up that includes the word “humus” that’s sharply annunciated and works to great comedic effect, pedestrian as it is.

From here we get Kidman’s display of power. She likes her broom, although she drives a VW bug, and how appropriate it is that the incarnation of pagan evil drives a machine that was fully realized by German Nazis, and she even tosses out comedic quips with the speed of your average sitcom actress. Michael Caine seems awfully reticent in his role here, and probably with good reason, but things progress just the way something like this should. I’m not saying that’s bad but there is an understanding by all involved as to what this movie is and it’s perfectly executed. Even the music’s harmless.

Ferrell ends up having so much success from the show he announces to the world that the show is going to be “retooled” to focus only on him. So, a witch scored fights back. It’s all very WITCHES OF EASTWICK but without the pasty belly of Jack Nicholson or the horse-ish cranium of Cher getting in the way as Nicole takes her “revenge.”

So, keeping with this theme, much like the Steve Carrell news reading scene made so infamous in BRUCE ALMIGHTY, one my father would have the world believe was comic genius, Will has a spell cast upon him which makes him speak Shakespearian, Valley Girl, and then back to a high brow monologue, about a dog while at a dinner party. It’s good. I mean, there’s not much more you can do with something like this besides playing it for up for scary screams but that’s obviously not what you’re going to get here.

And then, near the end of the trailer, we see that Will realizes that Nicole is a witch and tries to get everyone to believe him which doesn’t work and, of course, makes him look crazy. He even goes on a paranoid rant about the old Darren/Dick replacement that I am sure some segment of the population will find amusing.

I don’t know what I could honestly expect out of a movie like this but it’s clear that this one isn’t going to tear the roof off people’s expectations. Instead, it looks like it’s going to play right into them.

Director:Nimród Antal
Cast: Sándor Csányi, Zoltán Mucsi, Csaba Pindroch
Release: April 1, 2005 (Limited)
Synopsis: A tale about a strange young man, Bulcsú, his fellow inspectors, who are all without exception likeable characters, a rival ticket inspection team, and racing along the tracks… And a tale about love.

If you see the description of the film then, great, you have an idea of whether or not you would pay to see this movie but I dare you, in true CHRISTMAS STORY fashion, to watch this trailer and tell me what is going on in this movie.

I have no idea.

What I do know is that there seems to be a wonderful blending of noir and genuinely affective emotional connections between some downtrodden and forgotten people but let’s see if I can’t describe this trailer with some insight in to what’s being communicated in this piece of advertising.

A techno beat slowly drives beneath the action as we get our protagonist, sleeping on a subway station floor. Is he homeless? Hung-over from a night of wild debauchery and whoring? Dunno, but an owl lives down there with him. Huh?

Next, we are reassured, and thankfully so, that this movie won some awards at the Cannes Film Festival and the Chicago Int’l Film Festival. This establishes some credibility right away. It’s perfectly placed and, in hindsight, helps to reassure me.

Next, we get some blonde bimbo with a bouffant haircut, a cigarette teetering on her lips, who decides to single-handedly pop open a bottle of well shook champagne. What is doing and why is she there? Exactly, kids, I don’t know.

Our protagonist chases some thug through the subway, some more awards this movie has received are flashed in front of us, and then, in a really show stopping moment, we seem to have a WARRIORS moment as dudes with matching face paint square off against some other dudes who aren’t so”¦facially”¦painted. Seeing how this is a foreign flick I think I can almost assume this has less to do with gang violence than it does with soccer hooligan fanaticism. People over there love to paint their face in obnoxious ways just as the Raider Nation’s uncivilized ilk think it’s cool to have skulls hanging on their shoulders, wearing helmets with spikes drilled on them and acting like barbarians. I get it.

A more upbeat song starts spinning as we get a cavalcade of people. There is a chick dressed up from head-to-toe in a pink fuzzy bear outfit, some dude strikes a kung-fu attack position, the same pink bear lady leads someone somewhere using a road flare (huh?), there’s the owl again (symbol alert!), and we get a plethora of domestic critics from the States who, again, assure us that this is a movie that is supposed to rock everyone’s world. For reals.

There are people partying, some hot chicks are seen here and there, some old lady screams at a pack of our characters in German with no subtitles to see what she’s saying (probably, “Don’t see that Bewitched movie that has that woman driving a Nazi approved mode of transport! Eich bin ein Berliner!”), some more quotes from the press, there’s a Chun-Li BLOODSPORT moment where a woman blows some white powder into a dude’s face, and there is a lot of sliding on the subway floor. Crazy Germans.

Director: Steven Soderbergh, Wong Kar-Wai, Michelangelo Antonioni
Cast: Robert Downey Jr., Alan Arkin, Ele Yeats, Gong Li, Chang Chen, Christoph Buchholz, Regina Nemni, Luisa Ranieri
Release: April 8, 2005
Synopsis: EROS is a three-part anthology film about eroticism and desire by a trio of world cinema’s outstanding directors, Wong Kar Wai, Steven Soderbergh and Michelangelo Antonioni. The film also serves as an homage by two younger directors, Wong and Soderbergh, to Antonioni who has informed and inspired their work. The Italian master has extensively examined this terrain in such classics as L’AVVENTURA, BLOWUP and THE PASSENGER.

THE DANGEROUS THREAD OF THINGS: The story of a ménage-a-trois between a couple and a young woman on the coast of Tuscany. Directed by Michelangelo Antonioni (Co-written by Tonino Guerra.

View Trailer:
* Medium (QuickTime)

Prognosis: Negative. Michelangelo Antonioni?

Never heard of him, but I sure have heard of Steven Soderbergh and Wong Kar Wei and that would pretty much seal any deal for me.

The idea of this film being directed by three guys appeals to me right from the word go because when you have a common premise and it’s being looked at through the lens, pun intended, of three different people you have a Rashomon-like story and I am always in the mood for something like this.

I know that FOUR ROOMS doesn’t get a lot of the love out there but it should. You had multiple narratives swirling around one main one and I thought it was a delight. Well, I could’ve done without Madonna’s little witch bit in the beginning, thus the reason why it probably isn’t as referenced as much as it could’ve been, but something like this gets me excited.

One of the more interesting things about these three short vignettes that wrap around the theme of love and sex is that the English portion of the program only stars Alan Arkin and Robert Downey Jr. Other than that, that’s about as American as you’re gonna get. The rest of the movie is set in other parts of our global village.

I like, first of all, the red restricted trailer banner. Seeing it only puts me on the offensive, and gets me eager, to find what it is about this trailer that’s so offensive to the MPAA. I don’t get a very good hint with Arkin and Downey talking in the opening seconds of this thing. It’s, in fact, very muted and very quiet. They’re just talking.

After Downey says his piece we get everyone else’s name in this project, blocking my view of all the stocking-pulling-upping going on in this thing, along with the very slow walks that some nice legs are doing across the screen, I get a little more whetted for our other participants to start showing what they have to offer. The background music is a mellow techno beat which actually fits in perfectly with the accompanying scene of our man Antonioni’s part of the film that stars a woman with swollen mammaries. I swear I wasn’t looking to be a perv but when you have a giddy brunette in a tank top, galloping down a flight of stairs, who obviously doesn’t have a predilection for an under wire, that’s just like trying to keep a dog from devouring a Milk Bone that’s been accidentally dropped on the floor.

We come back to Downey, who we understand is obviously a patient of Arkin’s in a psychological therapist capacity, quickly killing the femme buzz I was gettin’ on, as he tells us what he sees when he has “the dream.” This prompt sends cut scenes at me at too fast a rate to even try and pin down. From what I can see there are lot of people running away from one another, dudes and chicks are throwing out their “O” face, many more are rolling around in bed like it’s a steamrolling championship, and, get this, the last image we’re left with is a shot of a woman’s bust in a dress. No head, no legs, just full on bust action.

Now, I like to be tempted in my advertising if it’s done slutty enough but this trailer leaves me confused, doubtful and only the slightest bit interested in what’s going on in this film. All I know about it is that Downey has a recurring dream and that there’s a woman who wears a tight tank top; not the best way to leave someone who is trying to figure out whether to spend an hour’s wages on your little art film.

Director: Wes Craven
Cast: Rachel McAdams, Cillian Murphy
Release: August 5, 2005
Synopsis: Lisa Reisert (Rachel McAdams) hates to fly, but the terror that awaits her on the night flight to Miami has nothing to do with a fear of flying. Moments after takeoff, Lisa’s seatmate, Jackson (Cillian Murphy), menacingly reveals the real reason he’s on board: He is an operative in a plot to kill a rich and powerful businessman”¦and Lisa is the key to its success. If she refuses to cooperate, her own father will be killed by an assassin awaiting a call from Jackson. Trapped within the confines of a jet at 30,000 feet, Lisa has nowhere to run and no way to summon help without endangering her father, her fellow passengers and her own life. As the miles tick by, Lisa knows she is running out of time as she desperately looks for a way to thwart her ruthless captor and stop a terrible murder.

Growing up watching NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET I was convinced of Craven’s abilities as a superb horror storyteller. I was freaked out of my mind watching the original NIGHTMARE when I was a wee lad, the perfect Friday night movie after a hard week in middle school, but then I started to grow up and saw the proverbial Icarus flying too high to the sun.

I don’t know if it was UVA or the UVB that damaged the man’s cerebral cortex and allowed him to make THE PEOPLE UNDER THE STAIRS, VAMPIRE IN BROOKLYN (what in the hell was that one all about? He has yet to formally apologize for that hideous entry.), and the SCREAM trilogy. The latter I am taking him to recent task for because of their pitch to America in the advertising that they were somehow real “horror” movies. They weren’t. You know that, I know that, but their obvious fiscal success proves us all wrong. They were disappointing because it wasn’t really horror but essentially a teen thriller. Horror is reserved for wanton destruction of life, really good blood squibs that pop and burst on cue, and, at the very least, something that makes you worry about the fate for the protagonist if for only a moment.

This new film could be a step in the right direction if nothing else but, unfortunately, it’s got nothing to do with body transformations or mass mutilation.

Cillian Murphy, who really did a bang-up job in 28 DAYS LATER, is back as a smooth talking ladies man evidenced by the opening montage of this trailer.

At first I think of this movie’s title “RED EYE” and its main set, an airplane. Without hesitation I think of TWILIGHT ZONE: THE MOVIE where that freakish gremlin beast starts to rip out parts of the wing while it’s up in the air. I seriously still have issues with staring outside my window on any flight that’s in the air after dark and I credit that to the way the story was told, shot and executed.

Unfortunately for me, Cillian is just trying to chat up a young lovely in the airport terminal. If you had no clue this was a Wes Craven picture you would think you were watching a new romantic comedy. Everything points to it. Their chance encounter, the way they share drinks in the airport bar and even the way it seems like kismet when they have their seats next to each other on the plane. Then, it becomes all the more clearer.

“Sometimes fate isn’t what it seems”¦”

Now, these two talk a little more on the plane and as soon as our woman asks Cillian what he does professionally, his eyes get red (Just like the title of the movie! Woo!), and we know this isn’t going to go according to formula. I like the mystery it throws up for us to ponder. I, too, wonder what the hell is going down and before I actually read the synopsis of the film after having seen the trailer, I would’ve never guessed that’s what this film’s all about. I was expecting some sort of transmutation of some sort or even some sort of growth in the man’s canines but the desperate hand scratching at the side window of the plane is a really nice touch.

I’m finally able to say I’m actually interested in one of Wes’ productions. This is, perhaps, the first time I have been in many years so I hope this one actually delivers on the promise of thrills this film may have.

It’s not horror, but it is a start.

Director: Robert Brinkmann
Cast: Stephen Tobolowsky
Release: February, 2005 (SWSX Film Festival)
Synopsis: In Stephen Tobolowsky’s Birthday Party filmmakers Robert Brinkmann and Andrew Putschoegl follow Stephen on his birthday and document a performance he gives for the cameras and a group of friends, during which he tells stories about his experiences in Hollywood. Instead of his regular role as a supporting actor, Stephen takes the stage in Birthday Party and shows that he has the charisma to hold the audience’s attention without the help of a script.

One of the things I am always amazed at is how well movies can come together when you have exactly the right kinds of people in them to accentuate the performances of others. Without a man like Stephen Tobolowsky, the guy who plays some of the most key parts in films without you even being aware of it, you just have other nameless, faceless people taking up the space that should be filled by guys like this. Sure, others like Clint Howard, Leon Rippy, and others like them don’t receive the kind of appreciation they deserve but this movie looks like a comedic delight.

Things start off on the right foot as well with the trailer.

“Once in a generation comes an actor”¦Who has been in more movies than Tom Cruise”¦Is linked to more movie stars than Kevin Bacon”¦And is taller than Danny Devito and Verne Troyer”¦combined.”

Immediately you know two things: one, this movie isn’t taking itself too seriously and two, the man in question, Stephen Tobolowsky, has been in a lot of damn flicks.

When we first get the opening scenes of this documentary you see Stephen, clad in a classic coonskin cap, in someplace that’s obviously very cold and snowy. He’s talking to people on the street, holding a real old school Bob Barker style silver microphone, and is asking them if they’ve ever heard of the man they’re talking to. I would like to think if I was one of the people asked I could at least call him out as Ned Ryerson and have a good giggle as I bear hug the guy, lifting him off the ground.

He’s been in a lot of movies I haven’t seen but no one knows who the guy is when they’re asked point blank with him standing right in front of them.

What’s even funnier is when he says, “If you had to take a guess of who he is”¦”

The responses come as varied as some say a politician, launcher of a new magazine, playwright, chocolate maker, serial killer and even a porn star. He appreciates the latter one.

Once someone finally fingers him as the man asking the questions the screen goes black and a fury of the original graphics for the movies he’s been in go flashing by one after another.

“If you celebrate only one birthday this year make sure it’s Stephen Tobolowsky’s.”

I am enthralled with the premise of this film and really cannot imagine why anyone thought to make this movie but I am glad they did as Stephen deserves a little credit.

Director: Michael Bay
Cast:Ewan McGregor, Scarlett Johansson, Djimon Hounsou, Steve Buscemi, Sean Bean, Michael Clarke Duncan
Release: July 22, 2005
Synopsis: Lincoln Six-Echo (McGregor) is a resident of a seemingly utopian but contained facility in the mid 21st century. Like all of the inhabitants of this carefully controlled environment, Lincoln hopes to be chosen to go to the “The Island” – reportedly the last uncontaminated spot on the planet. But Lincoln soon discovers that everything about his existence is a lie. He and all of the other inhabitants of the facility are actually human clones whose only purpose is to provide “spare parts” for their original human counterparts. Realizing it is only a matter of time before he is “harvested,” Lincoln makes a daring escape with a beautiful fellow resident named Jordan Two-Delta (Johansson). Relentlessly pursued by the forces of the sinister institute that once housed them, Lincoln and Jordan engage in a race for their lives to literally meet their makers.

Letting that name sit there like that almost feels like setting up a bulls-eye for people to take a shot at. It would be easy to tear the name apart. With half-baked crap like ARMAGEDDON and the laughable hysteria fest that was PEARL HARBOR (Did the former really deserve a Criterion release and, the latter, really warrant its multiple disc DVD double-dippings?) it wouldn’t be hard. It’s akin, I believe, of smacking the stack of books being precipitously carried by a high school freshman though a crowded hallway.

However, he does fill a niche. We all have friends who don’t share our love for well-written movies like LOST IN TRANSLATION or even the sweet Asian action flick TIME AND TIDE but they do respond to shit that blows up. And lots of it. Que sera sera, right? Whatever makes the world go “˜round I think they would say but we know they’re right.

This trailer looks to continue that hallowed man’s tradition of making big explosions, running roughshod over common-sense like it was an ATV in a wet field of sod as it does doughnuts but, as I watched the trailer, there seems to be something else going on.

I like the opening.

It’s very soothing with the sea crashing in the background.

“What if there were a place where you could live forever?”

The glassy sea waves curling over on top of the ocean’s face just induce a spring-time itch in me to go directly to the nearest tropical locale with a pina colada in tow. As Scarlett Johansson comes into delicate focus, I realize what else needs to be in tow with me.

Things get a little kooky as she’s seen kissing Ewan McGregor one minute and then we find ourselves surrounded by a freaky set of shiny steel hypodermic needles. This would be the point where someone, even voiceover guy, would be chiming in with some idea what is going on. It’s odd that we’re left to guess what’s up. It’s almost disconcerting.

We next get some dude walking down a cave-like hallway, while another dude is getting off a helicopter (I am a fan of the way Bay likes to shoot helicopters, with their blades ever so gently turning in slo-mo. Very tell-tale. I think he could trademark that shot), there’s a shot of a city, there’s Scarlett looking like a real temptress as she saunters down a white walled hall, but this is all prelude as it leads up to the science fiction stuff.

It looks like it’s a mix between THE MATRIX (with dozens and dozens of people all lined up on slabs instead of in cocoons, technology really at the root of all evil, just like in LOOKER from 1981), RUN (Patrick Dempsey was the 80’s, friends, and don’t let Carrot Top from I Love the 80’s tell you different), and a smidge of THX 1138 with the way it draws some storytelling elements of a future where people are being experimented on. The last comment is only really validated when Michael Clarke Duncan is hauling some ass as he’s booking like a man running from the cops with muscle stimulator pads stuck to his boobs.

Steve Buscemi pops in to tell our fleeing, whatever the hell they are, people that the lives they thought they led really didn’t happen and some groovy looking floating speed bikes whip quickly across the screen. Next, a whole bunch of people who look like the kids in INDIANA JONES AND THE TEMPLE OF DOOM run for their lives into the bright light, not knowing what’s really going on and some car rips another one in half a la Bay’s memorable chase in Frisco from the ROCK. Lastly, Duncan is dragged back to his captors as he’s crying out like a little girl knowing full well the gimp is probably awake and ready for some fun.

I have zero idea what the hell is going on in this movie but I can tell you it does poke at the more base sensory synapses in my mind.

Director: Ken Kwapis
Cast: Amber Tamblyn, America Ferrera, Blake Lively, Alexis Bledel
Release: June 3, 2005
Synopsis: The movie is based on the young adult book, The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, by Anne Brashares. As four best friends spend their first summer apart from one another, they share a magical pair of jeans. Despite being of various shapes and sizes, each one of them fits perfectly into the pants. To keep in touch they pass these pants to each other as well as the adventures they are going through while apart.

First of all, big big fan of the xylophone music that opens this trailer up. It reminds me of the moments after Clarence almost gets his face shot off in TRUE ROMANCE (a movie you won’t find me offering my girl until we get to the lesson on Gary Oldman’s oeuvre which will come when she’s around 23), and for what this film is, an exploration into the lives of four girls, it fits perfectly.

So, the voiceover of one of the ladies lets us know these four girls will be spending their first summer apart. Boo-Hoo. It’s called life, girls, welcome to it. Anyway, we’re told that a mysterious pair of pants that the girls find in a thrift store will be the one thing that keeps them together whilst apart. Three of them are svelte enough that the jeans fit each one of them with ample ease while one, who looks healthy but is certainly not a size 4, comments on the jeans not exactly being this great sign from the Lord or something but I can’t help noticing that they’re showing one of the girls in her underwear as this is going on. She’s standing there nearly all of her B&P showing and I can’t help but feel like a skeevey perv. Isn’t there a law about this somewhere?

About the time when I wonder if I’m going to go to jail for watching this trailer, we get to the meat of the story. The girls will pass the jeans to each other all summer, all over the world. The first girl, Lena, is in Greece, some regional specific music plays in the background just so you know, and she is wearing the jeans when she tumbles into the sea. She narrates over her letter to her other friends about how this may not have been a good thing. Does anyone else smell a plot straight out of the Brady Bunch? I love that Hawaii episode.

Then we come back to another friend who is working in a Wal-Mart-like store, she’s utterly resplendent in her gauche looking vest, and wants to shoot a film. She gets a lippy assistant who reminds me of an annoying younger sister, in a good way, and you just see how little girls will eat this stuff up like Quaker Apple and Cinnamon oatmeal.

Our underwear model from the beginning of the trailer is in Mexico and plays soccer. No jeans were on display in her introduction but she seems to be the lusty sexpot of this feature.

Girlfriend Carmen is darker skinned, played by America Ferrera who was just kick ass in REAL WOMEN HAVE CURVES (growing up in Illinois and exposed to the ladies there I can attest that is a true statement), but she’s spending quality time with her dad who is, and I am going on record here, one of the best movie villains in history, Bradley Whitford; homeboy was just plain ol’ mean to the Tri-Lambs in REVENGE OF THE NERDS 2: NERDS IN PARADISE.

Carmen is probably having a bad day after she learns her divorced dad not only met someone new but he’s getting married to her in relatively quick order. There are some issues with her weight that are raised by her future stepmother that come up after trying on a bridesmaid dress for her dad’s wedding. This is a seriously good topic of exposure to girl’s who are growing up with impossible images to live up to in their glamour magazines but the real plus here is that there are real emotional issues here with regard to her father moving on with a family that doesn’t jive with the one she knew growing up.

The filmmaking chick’s assistant collapses and has to get carted away in an ambulance, with Kelly Clarkson’s “Breakaway” jingling in the background, the girl in Greece finds a dude she likes, much to the outbursting distain from family members there (probably because he’s an older dude and she’s literally fresh off the adolescence farm team), Carmen’s throwing big rocks at a window pane where, just beyond it, her father eats dinner with his new Aryan looking family, but the girls come together by the end for one large group hug.

I know, I know, but what I like about this movie, the way it’s being sold, is completely smart for the audience it’s intended to reach. You have a soundtrack that young women can dig, you give them a little bit of funny, a while lot of drama and end it all with their ephemeral “sisters” vibe still intact. These movies serve a purpose in much the same way tent pole pictures help dudes calibrate their manhood every summer when the explosions get bigger, badder and bloodier. Even young women need some Hollywood lovin’ too.

Director: Chris Wedge, Carlos Saldanha
Cast: Queen Latifah, Denis Leary, Ray Romano, John Leguizamo
Release: March 31, 2006
Synopsis: Sequel to the animated hit about talking animals in the prehistoric age.

Now, the animation was good, the ending was predictable. However, for me my money would rest on that crazy ass squirrel being the big draw throughout that entire flick that most parents would say kept them entertained. I know it’s not quite a squirrel but even though it didn’t say one word the whole film I was enthralled with the sub-plot of him trying to get into that nut and I think I was perhaps more interested in that than I was in the actual film.

If I was a heartless, soulless movie executive trying to make a quick buck I would’ve had a direct-to-video release of nothing but that squirrel doing his thing. To me anyway it hearkened back to the Weasel in those Foghorn Leghorn cartoons I watched as a kid. That Weasel was tenacious, insane and you could sense his deep rooted desire for a chicken even though he never said a word. That’s why, here, it was very smart to lead off the sequel for the first movie, which came out 3 years ago and doesn’t qualify as a quick cash in, with my man the squirrel.

We open with a large glacier wall. It’s fractured in some spots but its mammoth size is apparent as we hear the sounds of ice splintering, on the verge of breaking off. The camera sweeps back and forth around the corners of this thing until we come to our star, our little squirrel skitch-skitching up the vertical edifice, trying quickly to get to the top.

His desperate climb, clinging upside down to the glacier, is compounded by his desire to lick the ice. It gets stuck, hilarity ensues, but he loosens it before finally getting to a plateau. His bug eyes get wider as he sees the object of his desire: an acorn. It’s stuck in a glacial wall but he runs straight up, grabs a hold of it and starts to pull backward with all his might. What I think is going to happen, that he’ll pull it out only to freefall off the side of the mountain, doesn’t. Instead, after he pulls the acorn out he opens a spout of water that comes gushing out. He stops it only for it, as we all know from watching cartoons, only sets off another spout. He manages to stop them both, in his nutty-eyed own way, but it starts a swelling spigot that doesn’t stop. And, by the time he puts his mouth over the hole and fills up with water, it’s just a matter of time before he spins out like a deflating balloon and is jettisoned from his mountainside.

The end really is funny only because I like that sort of thing and because I know that even though computer animation doesn’t always ensure repeat business I can say with some belief that I think they’ll get mine if it’s anything like the first one.

But, damn, 2006?

Director: Catherine Hardwicke
Cast: Emile Hirsch, Victor Rasuk, John Robinson, Michael Angarano, Heath Ledger, Nikki Reed
Release: June 3, 2005
Synopsis: In Venice, California, in the mid ’70s, the sport of surfing brought together a group of teenagers from a rough neighborhood. Riding the waves at the Pacific Ocean Park pier, a graveyard of a former amusement park, the boys from “Dogtown” joined the Zephyr skate team (or Z-Boys). Known for their aggressive style, awe-inspiring moves and hard street attitude, the Z-Boys spent mornings surfing and afternoons skateboarding. Taking the death-defying moves of surfing and applying them to skateboarding, the Z-Boys became overnight sensations — local legends — and revolutionized the art of skateboarding, transforming youth culture forever.

I’m not so sure about him, but the original documentary DOGTOWN AND Z-BOYS, was perhaps one of the most interesting examinations into a cultural phenomenon of the 20th century. Thus, when the opening shots of this movie, which really appear washed out and dank, show some dudes skulking around the docks of an abandoned amusement park, Heath Ledger making his way through a maze of wooden stilts to get to some choice waves, I am at once trying to understand why the documentary needed to be remade in the first place and whether I believe that Heath was a good choice for the role as someone who was really an outsider just looking for some endless summer.

Now, and I know this is a small detail, but when we see the Columbia Tri-Star logo, with the sounds of a whirling movie projector whiling away in the background as the “film” dissolves away, I have to give props right away for a most creative way in implying the events we’re looking at happened in the past. It’s the thought that counts here with regard to setting the scenes up. The card that explains we’re looking at Venice Beach, 1975, really puts the events that follow into context and establishes the frame in which we see what’s happening before us.

What’s great/crappy about the first third of the trailer is that it just goes over the same events as they happened from the documentary. I know that this film will reach out to a larger audience, and the look of the film is really trying to capture that, but I’m just itching to see something that will convince me this isn’t just a paperback version of a hardcover story I’ve already read.

It goes on this way for a while, events transpiring as I understood them in the docu, but there does come some moments that are nice attempts to make things fresh and add something to the story that just interviewing and photographs couldn’t capture.

The assembling of the first real threat to laid-back boarders everywhere is shown with quick and dirty ferocity and I appreciate the care that’s taken to not make these guys’ stories works of Hollywood fiction but, rather, something in-between reality and flat out crap.

There’s a point where I cringe as Green Day’s “Boulevard Of Broken Dreams” plays as some maudlin speech given by one of the Z-Boys characterize their crew as important, the melodrama dripping from the forced moment and I am equally sure I don’t like the words “They Risked It All” and other cards that try to encapsulate these guys’ lives. So far as I knew it, these kids liked to surf and they wanted to do something that would extend that year-round and all-around. Did they have 9 to 5 gigs they ditched in order to see if this “skating” thing was going to work out? No, they didn’t and the documentary showed how they were just all looking out for number one and trying to have a good time doing it. So, it’s not that they were risking it all but, rather, just seeing what they could get away with.

I am really comforted, though, that Stacey Peralta is credited as the one who wrote the screenplay. If nothing else this should help keep the inaccuracies to a minimum.

Director: Steve Box, Nick Park
Cast: Peter Sallis, Helena Bonham Carter, Ralph Fiennes, Peter Kay, John Thomson
Release: October 7, 2005 (Limited)
Synopsis: It’s ‘vege-mania’ in Wallace and Gromit’s neighborhood, and our two enterprising chums are cashing in with their humane pest-control outfit, “Anti-Pesto.” With only days to go before the annual Giant Vegetable Competition, business is booming, but Wallace & Gromit are finding out that running a “humane” pest control outfit has its drawbacks as their West Wallaby Street home fills to the brim with captive rabbits. Suddenly, a huge, mysterious, veg-ravaging “beast” begins attacking the town’s sacred vegetable plots at night, and the competition hostess, Lady Tottington, commissions Anti-Pesto to catch it and save the day. Lying in wait, however, is Lady Tottington’s snobby suitor, Victor Quartermaine, who’d rather shoot the beast and secure the position of local hero-not to mention Lady Tottingon’s hand in marriage. With the fate of the competition in the balance, Lady Tottington is eventually forced to allow Victor to hunt down the vegetable chomping marauder. Little does she know that Victor’s real intent could have dire consequences for her …and our two heroes.

You can’t help but remain slack jawed during THE WRONG TROUSERS if for nothing else than that one bit with the toy train getaway. It goes by so fast that I am still amazed at how long it must have taken to complete the entire scene. Here, though, I am delighted to see that Nick Park is doing this first feature-length adventure with the two of these guys all these years later.

This teaser trailer could have easily started the name pimping early with how this film is being brought to you by the same guy who did CHICKEN RUN, another fabulous entry from Aardman Studios, but it doesn’t.

In fact, it launches into the story quite fast and I am nearly taken off-guard as we try to piece together the idea that this human/dog combo are now bringing security systems to the fine people of England. They’re the equivalent of a two person ADT crew, except Wallace is a bit daft and the dog can’t do much more than look after Wallace and be the brains of the operation at the same time.

I like the idea, though, that instead of the po-pos coming to nab whoever tried to break into a person’s home Wallace and Gromit spring into action themselves to catch the perpetrator themselves. The world that Park has created is one where you would believe that this could very well happen; it’s engrossing and feels completely feasible.

As this trailer progresses I end up feeling that props have to be given to Park who takes a small stereotype of people who live in England, that their teeth are jacked up so bad that you don’t know whether to laugh or to start thinking what kind of beer bottles could reasonably be opened with them, and magnifies it to an amusing level. An English woman calls in distress about a yard full of rabbits that seem to be literally consuming her yard, this plot revolving around some sort of deranged bunny, and the toothy expression that is smeared over her mug is worth the price of the preview alone.

I am also a big fan of the demonic lawn gnome, his angelic doppelganger being that twit in all those lame Travelocity commercials, and it seems to serve a nefarious purpose to the plot although I am not sure how. There’s a subsequent scene of people from the town, all gathered around to yell about what could be invading their gardens, saying how they’re eager to get whatever it is that’s eating all their veggies. It’s cheeky fun.

And the end, with the 50’s style spooky organ music, that tries to instill a sense of dread into the presentation of the monstrous bunny who’s out to eat all their goodies, only gets a send up when the local constable shouts at the old bag who’s working the organ to quit it. It’s childish, breaks the 4th wall of narrative structure, but it’s innocent and everything you’d expect from a Wallace and Gromit feature.

I would say that I hope Nick Park hasn’t lost what made his first three ½ hour adventures such enjoyable, and amazing, displays of clay animation, but I just have to believe that someone who has to physically move a character nary an inch again and again for days, months and years on end to get just a minute’s worth of action has to believe in the product they’re selling.

Director: William Bindley
Cast: Jake Lloyd, Mary McCormack, James Caviezel, Bruce Dern, Reed Diamond
Release: April 22, 2005
Synopsis: A story about a man’s personal struggle to victory in the 1971 Madison, Indiana hydro-plane regatta.

Look, I know what this movie is all about.

After you see the trailer you can see this seems like a very by-the-numbers film that will be manipulative, sappy, sugary and will no doubt have our hero giving it one more try to win it all. I almost feel like Chet in WEIRD SCIENCE when he makes those gacking noises after he tells his brother that he loves him as I think about how false this story’s actually going to go off, knowing full well that people will eat it up like ice cream in the middle of a Louisiana summer. I mean, when I saw the original premiere of this movie, way back in January of 2001, I began to see why a studio might hold back on this film for as long as they have.

These films, though, like it or not, satisfy a need inside the movie going community. People like these kinds of yarns because it gives them hope that there is something to believe in even if the story being told is slightly, nay, sharply, fabricated in order to fit a certain movie studio’s vision and marketing plan.

The beginning of this trailer is really effective, though. The noise from a speed boat racing by the screen fills the sonic landscape. Then it all goes silent.

“At 180 miles an hour”¦”

Jesus steers his boat next to another and comes in real close.

“Your pulse races”¦”

Water sprays everywhere.

“And everything can change”¦”

Uh-oh.

“In a heartbeat”¦”

The boat flips and disintegrates on top of the water.

Jim comes back to racing, years later but not a whole lot brighter, with that old sounding country plucking music to show how he’s dedicated to just helping others achieve their boating goals and is focused on perfecting the art of speed boating while on dry dock.

Of course, you have the inquisitive kid who will, no doubt, be used to plug at the motivational strings of our protagonist in an unfair manner, but there’s, get this, a town on the verge of disappearing off the map. The trailer actually makes it seem like the town will fold like a bad hand of poker if the townspeople don’t come up with the $10,000 they owe old man Caruthers. I made the last part up, but you get the idea.

“This boat is all that this town’s got and I ain’t going to turn my back on that.”

Ooo boy. Jim, who goes by the same name in the movie, I take it is going to save the town from complete ruin. Call me stupid and a Yankee and someone who don’ no nuthin’ “˜bout the Speedvision channel but I didn’t think there’s that much money to be made in a single race that could save a town from complete ruin. I could be wrong.

To break up all this talk of the town defaulting on itself the wackiness ensues, just like it did in ONE CRAZY SUMMER (geez, Jeremy Piven, Demi Moore, John Cusack, Joe Flaherty, Curtis “Booger” Armstrong, Bob “Bobcat” Goldthwait, what an awesome cast that was) when they steal that preppie’s Ferrari engine, as the local hillbillies help Jim out by stealing the engine of a WWII fighter jet to put into the boat; that’ll git “˜em, Jimbo!

We even get some clip of the race itself. Of course our man is lagging behind everyone but don’t let that get you sad or thinking he’s gonna lose because he has some old school NOS in his tank that’s most likely going to help him get across the finish line first or have him finish second where he will learn the real value of friendship. Gack.

People are going to flock to this one if an inspirational tale of Hollywood endings is what they’re looking for in a weekend trip to the movies as sordid as the story is.

Director: Scott Caan
Cast: Scott Caan, Jeff Goldblum, Shawn Hatosy, Kelly Lynch, Selma Blair
Release: March 25, 2005
Synopsis: Rusty (Hatosy) starts to pursue a path to a more meaningful life, thanks to his connection to Bob (Goldblum), the boyfriend of his mother, Mary (Lynch). His new take on life causes friction with his best friend, Dallas (Cann), and both men find their friendship pushed to its breaking point, causing them to make life-changing decisions.

I know I was slightly against Scott Caan in that PG boob fest called INTO THE BLUE a few weeks ago but he was, I concede, really good in the cast of BOILER ROOM and OCEAN’S ELEVEN. I have to give him credit and the guy deserves as much.

Now, as this trailer opens some guy protests too much to the person he’s with in a dark car, both looking like nothing more than your basic, criminal, element, about leaving said car in order to rob someone. I’m pulled into what’s happening even though I am not quite sure I’m following what’s happening. One of the guys says an unnamed man who we don’t know yet only needs a driver and a $1000 bucks to do what he needs to get done. What this is or what it has to do with him has yet to be seen and I’m starting to lose interest.

What happens next borders on schizophrenia.

The premise gets me so pumped, with that little red rated “R” label, and all I get for my excited goodness is a pack of quick clips that almost tell me something about the people in the movie but stops just short of making any sense.

Literally, the camera blasts past all of the people who I assume have something to do with this story, giving me only images instead of information, which is not a good sign if you are looking to get people to go see your film and by the time I see fly guy Jeff Goldblum, and get excited, I am almost ready to leave this movie behind for something else that may make more sense. It’s frustrating, almost like sitting behind a pillar in an arena to see a Clay Aiken show; you’re really excited you decided to take a chance but how are you supposed to really enjoy it when you have a concrete pole in your field of vision?

I do get that one of our almost felons moved from Texas and went to live with Goldblum who doesn’t seem all that thrilled or hopeful at the prospects that this kid has. Scott Caan seems to exist in some hyper zone of activity that borders on a tweaker who’s amped up on Ritalin, ephedrine and Jolt Cola but since he is the man who is also directing this film I have to give him credit for shooting this thing in a way that seems very pulpy, in a noir crime sort of way, and for taking some chances with the narrative.

There does seem like an exorbitant amount of fighting that’s going on in this movie but Scott’s proven himself more than capable in front of the camera to really carry that tuff guy sort of visage about himself. I do hope, though, that the quote that’s dropped from Variety, about how this is supposed to be a great debut from Caan is, in reality, very supportive of the movie on the whole.

From what I’ve seen, though, it seems like someone needs medication in order to understand exactly why people are getting the crap knocked out of each other and why there doesn’t seem like a whole lot else going on besides hoods being hoods. And that wouldn’t even be such a bad thing if I wasn’t already confused as to who the hell is doing whatever the hell and not making much sense while doing it.

Director: Joshua Sternfeld
Cast:Anthony LaPaglia, Aaron Stanford, Mark Webber, Allison Janney
Release: April 8th, 2005
Synopsis: In this suburban drama, a widower (played by Anthony LaPaglia) confronts his older son’s (played by Aaron Stanford) decision to leave home and his younger son’s self-destructive behavior.

Now, I’ll have to preface this review of the trailer with the following opinions :

I. Anthony LaPaglia is an actor’s actor. The man is understated but yet brings any production to a slightly higher level. True, he’s never starred in anything that’s garnered tons of dough at the box office but his style is genuinely affective and completely has bought my respect.

II. I don’t like Allison Janney. I don’t. I am not a fan of West Wing because of her. Plus, she has that prey look to her. For those not in the know, I classify some women on whether they look like predators or prey depending on where their ocular cavities sit on their face. Women who have their eyes sitting comfortably in the middle of their faces are predators, see: J. Lo, Hillary Duff, the woman who inspired Hall & Oates’ “Maneater,” while women like Janney and, for reference sake, Rebecca Gayhart, look like they can see 360 degrees to be on the lookout for anything sneaking up on them.

That totally degrading and ignorant remark said, I really do like the prospects of this film.

I appreciate the laid back plunka plunka of the guitar that eases us into this trailer, the seconds long display of all the film festivals this movie was selected for almost goes beyond acceptable but we get right into things.

Anthony’s wife is dead because of an accident and he’s really despondent. He’s built his life around the notion of having her in it and now his direction is unclear. This is all done, set-up, established, within the first twenty seconds of the trailer. Bravo. I’m telling you it’s such a rare thing to have something set up so early and I am a big fan of that.

He has two sons and they’re obviously conflicted in a Timothy Hutton, ORDINARY PEOPLE, sort of way, but they seem genuinely lost in a fog in their own listlessness. Our main man Ron Livingston, a flat out great actor, plays a teacher but we’re not given much on him. What we do know, however, is that both sons are trying to work their way though life and are not having a good go at it.

We get some friction in the family, even some possible father on son cage fighting after a bombastic display of rage in the family garage, but things seem to cool down with the addition of Allison. She actually works here in this setting. It’s so full of me to say that, I know, but as quickly as she comes on screen I believe the things that start between her an Anthony are genuine. It feels real in a way that many Hollywood filmic romances are not.

After the dad declares that he’s having dinner with the older lass, the boys giggling at this prospect, the dad seems to have to go it alone and that’s really where things end with the narrative.

We’re introduced to everyone via cards and silent smiles or real reflective moments to show how “deep” these people are with bits and pieces of other moments strung together to create the happy ending this film may have.

It’s a slower kind of film, no doubt, but every once in a while I do declare I appreciate something that might be able to honestly explain how people can go on after losing someone they love. Hopefully this story, at the very least, ends up being a well-made movie.

Director:Jon Favreau
Cast: Tim Robbins, Dax Shepard, Kristen Stewart, Jonah Bobo, Josh Hutcherson
Release: November 23, 2005
Synopsis: ZATHURA is the story of two young brothers who are drawn into an intergalactic adventure when their house is magically hurtled through space. The story is based on the book Zathura by children’s author Chris Van Allsburg.

Was a sequel to JUMANGI really necessary? I have little to no idea about where this movie is coming from but if I was to be sitting in a theater where this trailer played I would bet there would be some confusion about whether this is a stand-alone movie or just a cleverly disguised second installment to the first film starring Robin Williams.

The thing starts off generically enough with Tim Robbins, beatnik and bird-flipper-offer extraordinaire, living in his all-too generic looking suburban house with a lawn that looks torn right from the pages of the Brady Bunch How-To guide. Here he plays one of those standoffish kind of fathers who actually tells his two young sons, who don’t know anything more than baseball cards and how to wipe their butts without leaving dingleberries, that they’re coming upon a day when they’re going to have to grow up all at once. The foreshadowing is deafening, and the obvious distant father character is too much of a common staple in today’s film, but, whatever, right? Right, so, these young boys are left alone inside this quaint little manse of suburbia.

The boys, who really are up to no good, ever, get involved in a little rabble rousing around the house where one of the young lads finds a game. Now, like Jumanji, this one comes alive. One of the cards warns of a meteor shower and, sho’ “˜nuff, little meteors start puncturing holes in the ceiling. The kids have no idea what’s happening but here starts the idea: the boys are now playing for their lives.

Sigh.

This film is being marketed, no doubt, to the kiddies and the idea that the trailer gives us, after the initial set-up, is that they are adrift in the middle of a solar system and have no discernable way of getting home. Now, I’ll admit, this is a slight departure from Jumanji insofar as that the action that is taking place is taking place in a completely different realm of reality.

I do know, however, that this film has a lot of comparisons that it’s going to have to contend with, how could another game come to life where hell breaks loose happen to some other kid, and with really no other discernable major star present in the trailer it’s going to have to fight for that box office dollar if they’re going to try and convince parents why they should take their brood to see this. I can’t see why they would other than the excuse that there’s nothing else playing at the local Cineplex.

Director: George Lucas
Cast: Ewan McGregor, Natalie Portman, Hayden Christensen, Christopher Lee, Samuel L. Jackson, Frank Oz, Ian McDiarmid, Jimmy Smits, Anthony Daniels, Kenny Baker, Peter Mayhew
Release: May 19, 2005
Synopsis: After three long years of relentless fighting, the Clone Wars are nearly at an end. The Jedi Council dispatches Obi-Wan Kenobi to bring General Grievous, the deadly leader of the Separatist droid army, to justice. Meanwhile, back on Coruscant, Chancellor Palpatine has grown in power. His sweeping political changes transform the war-weary Republic into the mighty Galactic Empire. To his closest ally, Anakin Skywalker, he reveals the true nature of power and the promised secrets of the Force in an attempt to lure him to the dark side.

The first visual impressions one gets as a bright planet comes into view, planes flanking what will eventually become the main spaceship that Luke will eventually crouch down beneath to see his father’s face, is that this could be good. If nothing else, Lucas spent time on the effects and, damn, does it show.

The Emperor as he will eventually be known as gives a brief soliloquy about a kind of power that will never be taught by a Jedi and, no, it’s not the power of Barry White and a couple glasses of Chivas Regal. Yeah, it’s cool in a way because this is the beginning of the end for Anakin but the dialogue, and its delivery, scares me in a way that makes me think that, again, people were too busy cleansing Lucas’ balloon knot to not mention that he could’ve made even more money by getting a few fresh scribes on the script.

You can feel the friction between Obi-Wan and Anakin getting to the point where there’ll be fisticuffs later but I do have to credit Lucas, whether intentional or not, with interposing the strife between Jedi and the dark side with some sweet ass battle sequences. Crap is blowing up, smoke is billowing, lasers are teeow-teeowing (even though there is no air in space, but who gives a crap, right?) and storm troopers are flailing and flinging all over the place.

Samuel L. Jackson is prepping his own exit when he says he doesn’t trust Anakin anymore, with good reason, and is even the one who tells him to his face that he isn’t granting passage?, bastile?, Camille?, Pasties?, Camille? What’s homeboy saying? Who knows! I don’t know and don’t care. The music is starting to tense up.

The Emperor speaks again about embracing the dark side, how Anakin can become more powerful than any Jedi if he does. Sweet. This is the kind of dialogue I need. Keep it nice and simple, Gramps.

Now, here is one of my favorite bits of the trailer: Samuel goes to arrest the Emperor. The Emperor strikes an angry pose in his chair. Lightsabers are all unsheathed and ready to take that sack of wrinkles down. When the Emperor sneers and leaps out of his chair, getting wicked with his own “˜saber, I am caught way off guard. I just thought he only had the power of lighting. Like that one guy from the Misfits of Science TV show? You know, the guy with the bolts of electricity? Guess not.

The Emperor, though, lets out a primal gurgle and moves like the wind. I’m floored in amazement.

The drum beats that come in next with their quick clips of things that happen, of ships going vertical, all hell breaking loose, hey, there’s Victor Sifuentes of LA Law, there’s the lava pits where Anakin will eventually lose his ability to get his mack-on with his lady, Obi looks like he’s getting into a fight with a large robot (Darth Sidious?), hey, a Wookie, and a real big building is smoking like a chimney as we get a voiceover from the Emperor.

And then we get his visage. We get to take a look at the Emperor as we come to know him with that pasty complexion, vampiric eyes, and menacing presence. It’s not only him, but Anakin walking with the stormtroopers underneath his control, walking slowly behind him, evokes some nice anticipatory feelings.

We get some Yoda-isms about how Anakin has come to this state, with complete mayhem going on all around him, everyone is fighting and the whole trailer crescendos without knowing whether or not this will be the movie that will make up for the previous two.

I hope so. I really do.