How effective is horror, a genre defined by tricky edits and Neve Campbell's harried grimace, when its thrills are conveyed in one continuous shot? Gustavo Hernández's 2010 Cannes selection The Silent House -- which comes out in the UK this April -- wants to answer that. In the new trailer (which, counterintuitively, is a patchwork of quick cuts) young actress Florencia Colucci tries to flee an ominous house in rural Uruguay, but some dark-ass force has her number.
more »
When it was announced that Paul W.S. Anderson -- the auteur behind Resident Evil and AVP: Alien vs. Predator -- planned to direct a big screen reboot of The Three Musketeers in gloriously overused 3-D, you would have been forgiven for suffering a slight stroke. How does this seemingly terrible idea look now that a trailer for the October action film has been released?
more »
One would think that after the imaginative B-movie glory of Sharktopus, Roger Corman would find a way to go even more insane and spectacular for the follow up. But instead, we've got the trailer for Dinoshark, a giant, prehistoric fish that frankly, just isn't as cool as a shark with tentacles. It's great that it can eat boats and everything, and the movie may be fun, but I guess I was just expecting more from Corman. But hey, at least the legendary producer himself plays a Dinoshark expert, right?
more »
America, when are you going to get tired of CGI animals dancing to dated pop hits? We've already gotten Yogi and the Bear, Alvin and the Chipmunks and a "squeakquel" to that (with Chip-wrecked on the way). Now, the marketing wizards in Hollywood have taken a beloved children's book, cast Jim Carrey and added a penguin dance sequence set to Vanilla Ice. I would have loved to see the high fives when they thought of that one.
more »
The summer of 2011 is poised to be an important one for the Marvel brand -- and from the way Thor looks (which is to say, kinda bad), that means the pressure is on Captain America: The First Avenger to succeed. Well, good news! Based on the new trailer for the Joe Johnston film, that might be easier than initially anticipated.
more »
Unless you have a Google Alert set for "Antonio Banderas, Sam Elliott, James van der Beek, Snoop Dogg, Autumn Reeser and missing stripper" you probably haven't heard of The Big Bang. That's OK, because your official introduction to the dark thriller -- due in theaters May 13 -- awaits you ahead and, thankfully, this feature promises to be nothing like the similarly-named CBS sitcom.
more »
The most prolific actor thus far in 2011? Try Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson. Following his "critically acclaimed" performance-turned-comical Internet meme in Things Fall Apart, the rapper/actor (raptor?) is back again with yet another movie that no one will ever see: Setup. And this time he brought Bruce Willis.
more »
ET has premiered new footage from the Captain America trailer, complete with a concise plot summary courtesy of Mark Steines. Thanks Mark! Besides the fact that Captain America finally throws his shield, I'm mostly interested in is this marketing trend of premiering previews for trailers, or in Michael Bay's case announcement trailers. How long until our comic-book movie marketing is condensed into ten-second spots comprised of split-second shots? Oh wait, that already happened?
more »
When a trailer starts with attractive white people partying and laughing at danger in war-torn Africa, it's pretty clear that the electric guitar score will fade and things will get serious around the halfway point. And indeed, it's about one minute into the trailer for The Bang Bang Club when the war photographer played by Ryan Phillipe starts to realize that maybe a war zone isn't all fun and games. But the plot seems to take a potentially interesting route from here.
more »
Well, at least Universal got the message that positioning the heir to the Easter Bunny as a borderline sexual predator was a little creepy. True, Russell Brand's CGI character still poops jelly beans in this new trailer for Hop, but for the most part the marketing team has switched the focus to a far more family-friendly angle: War.
more »
Fox Searchlight's new trailer for Wayne Wang's Snow Flower and the Secret Fan is luscious, warm, and emotionally stirring -- kind of like Wang's other opus about familial Chinese legacy, The Joy Luck Club. The new movie reunites him with Ronald Bass, who co-wrote that screenplay and this adaptation of Lisa See's novel. It comes out July 15, but will you be bothered to forsake the summer diet of skanky blockbusters in its honor?
more »
Given that Disney is already developing two more Pirates of the Caribbean sequels, I'm guessing that Jack Sparrow finds the fountain of youth he's looking for in this film. Then Disney will be free to make sequels for all of eternity! Expect Pirates of the Caribbean: The Quest for the Identity-Changing Stone when it comes time to finally replace Depp. In the meantime, check out the preview for On Stranger Tides, which actually looks like about two and a half movies by itself!
more »
With everything in the world going to pot, sometimes it's hard to remember that documentaries can be fun. Not everything has to be a downer like Restrepo or a outrageous indictment like Inside Job! Banksy knew this all too well, which is part of the reason why Exit Through the Gift Shop was so well-received last year. Morgan Spurlock knows it, too, which is which The Greatest Movie Ever Sold will be so well-received this year.
more »
If you've been wondering what the people of Russia would think of Everybody Loves Raymond now -- five years after the family sitcom wrapped production -- you're in luck. A new documentary called Exporting Raymond answers just that question as it follows creator Phil Rosenthal to Russia, where he tries to adapt a local version of the series amidst wild dogs, enema balloon musicians and kidnapping threats. Cue: laugh track!
more »
Confession time: I love Justin Timberlake. Not his music career, mind you -- though who doesn't love a little "Rock Your Body" every once in a while -- but his acting one. You can grumble that he jumped the shark with endless appearances on SNL and his performance as himself -- er, Sean Parker in The Social Network, but for my money, Timberlake constantly hits it out of the park. He even makes something as disposable as Bad Teacher look moderately watchable in a "Let's wait to see it on a Wednesday night on HBO2!" sort of way. All of which is a long way around saying that his presence in Friends with Benefits is key to making this summer rom-com look positively charming.
more »
