This week has been the most thought-out entry into the Trailer Park series….

BOTTLE ROCKET. I trace all my interest in quirky nerd cinema to BOTTLE ROCKET. I believe it was the moment when Dignan, played by Owen Wilson, was being chastised by the bigger brother of Bob Mapplethorpe. Dignan is wearing a bright orange jumpsuit, the uniform for all employees of the Lawn Wranglers landscape business, and Bob’s brother just lays into him about how gimpy he looks. You can see that Dignan really doesn’t stand up to him and there is a look in Luke Wilson’s face that just breaks with sympathy for his misguided and belittled friend…

This was a very good week for trailers. Sometimes the best part of this gig is finding trailers for films I would have never known about had I not been trolling the Internet looking for five discussion-worthy trailers a week. I’ve seen films from our Nordic brothers to the north, our Chinese buddies to the east and, once again, our neighbors across the pond, England…

Another week goes by in August and I just happened to find the new trailer for HERO. Some of you may have already had a small taste of it on the television (it’s always good to get exposure of any kind) but I have found a different trailer than the one that’s been making the rounds since March at the official site. Big ups need go out to Quentin Tarantino who probably saved this movie from becoming an obscure blip that would have been detained in the Miramax vaults for who knows how much longer…

Another August, another scary portent for films that are usually find their way into the late Summer dumping grounds for all the crap studios want to unload before the fall gets underway at the end of September…

What a nerdfest. I have never had to endure so much concentrated geek in one place than I did at this year’s Comic-Con in San Diego. It was great…

Yup, I’ve decided to make trek as a fan of the comic art form in the 20 years or so of actual collecting, I think I’ve amassed a bigger collection than Brodie, and am actually indulging in the spectacle that is the San Diego Comicon. I have no clue what to expect, no idea what I’ll see (if I don’t see someone dressed as a Stormtrooper/X-Men/Lady Death I’ll be sorely upset), and am ramping my anticipations up to finally find a copy of that FANTASTIC FOUR bootleg that seems to be more prevalent in the comic book community than any STD…

One thing I noticed as the Cubs (GO Cubs!) rallied for one win against the Cardinals in last Sunday’s night game on ESPN was the recurring commercial for the new BOURNE SUPREMACY flick. It was great. Every commercial break they had I had the chance to see it again, and again, and again, and again, and again, but I noticed something tacked on to the end of the trailer. Universal was using some time after the trailer finished to pimp its new double dipped DVD edition of the BOURNE IDENTITY…

I absolutely hated having to time my movie-going a few years back to sneak into a theater I knew was playing the new STAR WARS trailer. The movie it was attached to was not what I wanted to spend my money on and I sure as hell didn’t want to completely ruin an evening and be a really sad sack nerdite by seeing the thing and leaving. I did manage to catch it before my intended film started that very same weekend and since then I have noticed studios doing this every so often, attaching anticipated trailers with films that aren’t worth going to see in the first place, which brings me to CATWOMAN…

4th of July Weekend. This is a great time to catch up on all the summer fare that’s out there for your viewing pleasure but I thought I would give a little independent trailer love for those of you who find enjoyment in sitting on your dead ass for a few hours watching a baseball game in the form of UP FOR GRABS…

What’s to say as we get closer to the opening of SPIDER-MAN 2?

The Japanese get all the good stuff. They get the sweet electronic gadgets before we do, have impeccably clean cities, have all the great seafood, make insanely great cars (can I get a Bubba Rubb woo woo on this?), and they actually posses a trailer for I, ROBOT that does not invoke any hatred, whatsoever, from me against Will Smith’s character…

There is a battle of wills going on here…

There have been some great follow-ups lately in the land of Trailerdom. Usually, as is the case most of the times, there is a revamp of trailers that first run with films to the ones that are playing on the television the week a movie is released. There are trailers that will never improve, some that needed a serious re-cut, and others that are fine just the way they are…

This week, like a crazed mutant toddler hopped up on kiddie Quaaludes, consisting of a 64 oz. big gulp of Hi-C Fruit Punch and a couple packets of Pop Rocks, washed down with a box of Nerds, I’m taking the room down a notch to bring you all some out of the way fare. I have some new stuff from Spike Lee, a movie in the vein of the Coen’s (when they were good), a new flick from Doc Ock, an indie about Mexicans that’s actually supposed to be funny, and a gritty crime flick starring The Punisher.

I don’t know what kind of sticky cheeba was being smoked in or around the Disney negotiating table when it was time to talk business with the Pixar people but I’m feeling that somehow, someone might have actually thought, “Oh yeah. We can do this alone.”

Without messing around, and with the exception of paraphrasing some Ice Cube above, the trailer that is running for THE BOURNE SUPREMACY has some great weight behind it. Without a doubt there is car chasing much gritter-looking than anything in THE ITALIAN JOB and a little more explosive action than in RONIN. While the latter mixed foreign cities with 4-wheel action with great effectiveness, I do hope BOURNE replicates its sleeper status as a great, well-thought-out action pic. If you do yourself a favor this week and have the chance to look at least one of these movies, make it this one. Trailers can only tell so much, and can hide a lot, but the advertising for this flick sells a pile of crap well if that’s the case.

This week’s No-Prize goes to reader Donovan K. who illustrated, not to severely pun here, the difference between traditional animation, computer animation and where the new film, APPLESEED, reviewed last week, falls in-between…

Translators are so much fun. I wanted a really good Japanese translation to “stick it up you’re a$$” in this week’s theme of Why I’ve Been Thinking About The Trailer For APPLESEED For The Past Seven Days and what I think of those who believe otherwise about the viability of animation in today’s thrill and chill landscape.

Some really great trailers broke this week and Spielberg’s TERMINAL was not one of them. What a disappointment. The man who gave MINORITY REPORT and CATCH ME IF YOU CAN to the world within six months of each other produced a big goose egg if the trailer is to be believed.

I’m issuing a Mea Culpa here: I am incredibly and unabashedly biased towards the new SPIDER-MAN 2 film. As you can see by the length of the review I felt a slight leaning towards the positive ends of things. I believe it has everything going for it and in these times of vapid and hollow summer blockbusters this may actually have something riveting enough to classify as a comic book movie with heart. But you can read all of that at the bottom of the page.

$39,167 is what SHAOLIN SOCCER made last week in its debut across America. Was it that bad? Was it so unwatchable that people chose weeks old offerings like DIRTY DANCING: HAVANA NIGHTS and SOMETHING’S GOTTA GIVE (which is out already on DVD) because it sucked so bad? No.

So, ShoWest was last week. For those that don’t know, ShoWest is a convention that features “a variety of studio sponsored events, informative seminars” and is, “a trade show filled with the latest and greatest innovations in motion picture technology.” It’s essentially way for your local mega multiplex owner to come see what’s new and improved in the world of the movie theater business. One of the nice things about this whole thing was that many new movie posters surfaced from the hallowed halls of the studio’s marketing department and it also gives a good look at what to expect this summer season.

Another week, another set of four trailers to read. Yes, only four as you people are going to step in and offer some advice to some up-and-coming auteurs of cinema. There was some good response to the request for filmmakers who needed some exposure to their projects. When you watch these you can easily feel the work that went into making them and I am happy, at the very least, to offer a soap box to stand on and be judged on their trailers. Obviously, the trailers are but a sliver of the entire completed project but this is what sells a film and everyone needs your help in giving feedback about what works, what doesn’t and what could be better.

I am reminded of Martha and her catchphrase she uttered with resounding conviction, before her conviction, when I see the early reviews coming in for DAWN OF THE DEAD. On top of that, getting an extended ten-minute preview on USA this week was all that was needed to seal the deal. I applaud Universal for not only taking the ballsy move to secure the time to show the first ten minutes of the film, but that they believe enough in the picture to even give a thought to doing something like this. Obviously, there are some drawbacks to showing an insight into the pacing, cadence, camera work and acting of those in the picture. One of the drawbacks is that some people could see that you made a crappy-ass movie and you could possibly lose what little support you could have garnered by simply sitting on that jive turkey until a nameless Wednesday comes across so you can drop that bomb like Billy Zane in a Memphis Belle.