I admit I shouldn't be parsing the effectiveness of marketing materials for movies I utterly despise, but even a hater can and should be fair: The trailer for Blue Valentine is adorable. It makes great use of arguably the best scene in the entire film, splitting blips and threads of the rest in a manner echoing the story's fragmentation. You will laugh, you will cry, you will not be admitted if you are under the age of 17. Any questions?
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Normally, you expect limited release December films to be stuffy awards bait, but Peter Weir is determined to change that. OK, yes, the trailer for The Way Back -- Weir's prison escape epic hitting theaters in Los Angeles on Dec. 29 before going wide in January -- hails the film as being "From Six Time Academy Award Nominee Peter Weir," but that doesn't mean you'll need to bring a pillow. A tolerance for Boris and Natasha-like Russian accents, maybe. But, no pillow. Seriously, check out those wolves!
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These days, movies about the future warn of unprecedented surveillance technology, cloning, genetic engineering, and other scary stuff, but back in simpler times, the only thing that anyone expected out of the future was jetpacks. And maybe laser guns, extra-terrestrial life, and flying cars. Now, after everyone has pretty much given up on those lofty goals, one company is manufacturing and selling jetpacks to consumers. Well, rich consumers. More information and video demonstration after the jump.
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Cementing his reputation as one of the most likable actors ever, Johnny Depp showed up unannounced in full Jack Sparrow costume after receiving a letter from a nine-year-old girl at a British school near the set of Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides. The letter asked for help staging a mutiny against the teachers, but Depp advised her against that since there were cops outside watching him. The letter did not ask for a lesson in dental hygiene, but the kids got one anyway. Bonus! The video is after the jump -- prepare for your heart to melt.
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With copy boasting that James Franco gives "one of the greatest performances of all-time," the full-length trailer for 127 Hours arrives to officially welcome its star to the Oscar party. Not that he needed any welcoming -- Franco sits third on the list for Best Actor in this week's edition of Movieline's Oscar Index -- and, sure, he's trailing Jesse Eisenberg and Colin Firth in the entirely-too-early-to-call race for Best Actor, but do those men have their trials and tribulations scored with Band of Horses?
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Aaron Sorkin's dislike of bloggers goes all the way back to when Al Gore invented the Internet. Or, failing that, to the "Lemon Lyman" episode of The West Wing, when Josh finds out that he has a fan site, posts a comment on there, and gets immediately flammed (something similar happened to Sorkin on Television Without Pity). So consider this clip from The Social Network -- where Rooney Mara's character Erica dresses down Mark Zuckerberg and every other blogger ever -- par for Sorkin's course.
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I've suspended disbelief for years of revenge movies, but for some reason one question wouldn't leave my mind during the Faster trailer: Why do murder gangs always mess with the families of ex-cops, ex-marines, or guys as huge as Dwayne Johnson? Do they get some masochistic thrill from the challenge? Or is it sheer stupidity? Any guesses? Whatever the case, in Faster an apparently huge gang kills Johnson's brother, and so they must die. One by one.
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I imagine most of America would buy a ticket to see Johnny Depp and Angelina Jolie run around Europe in cool clothes while reading street signs out loud. But not only does The Tourist feature the two mega-stars in a beautiful setting, it also adds guns, romance, intrigue, some very funny dialogue, and Johnny Depp in his pajamas. My natural inclination when movies look this irresistible and universally appealing is to resist. If it's too good to be true it probably is! But preliminary research suggests that resistance is actually impossible.
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In what appears to be a direct protest of George Lucas's announcement that the six Star Wars films will be released in 3-D, Jeremy Messersmith and Eric Power (some people just have the coolest names) created a song and music video, respectively, retelling the entire Original Trilogy using construction-paper animation. Yes: Construction- paper animation. I know what you're thinking, and I was hesitant to watch the two-minute video as well, but seriously, I'm a bit moved the whole thing. The Force is strong with these guys. One can only hope they give the same treatment to the prequels -- it could only improve them.
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Just a week after Rutgers University freshman Tyler Clementi jumped to his death from the George Washington Bridge, a team of celebrities are rallying behind "The Trevor Project," the number one national organization devoted to preventing suicide among lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning youth. The latest personality to join the campaign is author, Project Runway guru and friend to Movieline Tim Gunn, who confesses his own teenage suicide attempt in a shockingly frank video.
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The makers of Paranormal Activity have undertaken the inevitable franchising of their blockbuster horror title not only in America, where it's arguably still scary/creepy, but also in Japan, where a hilariously banal new trailer features legions of petrified young Japanese women reduced to puddles of tears. Why? Your guess is as good as mine.
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Ick. On a list of things that make me uneasy, the human organ black market would definitely be top five. Maybe Diane Kruger and Dermont Mulroney's characters in Inhale feel the exact same way. But their daughter needs a lung! They are somewhat wealthy, but not rich enough to bypass the waiting list in the U.S. And did I mention that their daughter is going to die without this lung? So it's a tough spot to begin with, but when Sam Shepard and Rosanna Arquette come along with some intriguing news about organ availability in Mexico, things start to get really messy.
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Unless you have DirecTV or know someone who does, you won't be able to watch the final season of Friday Night Lights until it airs on NBC next spring. Speaking as a member of the show's ardent fan base: Boo! (Psst, DirecTV, send me the screeners.) For now then, this new promo for Friday Night Lights is the closest thing we'll get to game action for a few more months. Which makes you wonder: Just what show is being sold here?
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If it seems like Helen Mirren is the only esteemed British thespian who has never passed through the gates of Hogwarts, that's probably because she might be. So leave it to Julie Taymor to allow Dame Helene to embrace all of her Harry Potter fantasies in the latest incarnation of The Tempest. Accio trailer!
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Based on the latest campaign ad for Christine O'Donnell, absolutely. You might know the Republican nominee for a U.S. Senate seat in Delaware, because of her affiliation with the Tea Party movement and her endorsement from Sarah Palin. (Naturally.) Or maybe you know O'Donnell because of her anti-masturbation thoughts and the fact that she once said she "dabbled" in witchcraft. It's that last "issue" that her newest campaign commercial attempts to tackle, with the grace of a farmhouse falling on the Wicked Witch of the East. Potential Delaware voters: Please pay no attention to the witch behind the curtain.
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