It’ll be interesting to see what the reception of Kevin Smith’s new relationship-sex comedy Zack and Miri Make a Porno will be.  Partly, one wonders if his latest movie will be called a Judd Apatow rip off and also wonders if it will be as commercially viable as a Judd Apatow comedy - what with starring Seth Rogen and Elizabeth Banks.  

Using a red band trailer is probably the best way to promote a filthy Kevin Smith movie.  The movie premieres next week at the Toronto International Film Festival and then opens stateside on October 31.  

Peter over at Slashfilm has seen the movie, lucky bastard that one, and all he’ll say is that “the first 30 minutes of Zack and Miri has more laughs per minute than any of Smith’s films thus far.”  Other than trying to sound like a poster quote, that’s pretty positive and awesome to hear, since um, well, Kevin Smith has made a few funny movies in his day.  

Though you might not recognize his name, you certainly would recognize the voice of Don LaFontaine.  The man who makes everything exciting, the man who has provided his voice to more than 5,000 trailers and 350,000 commercials.

Yes, Don LaFontaine is best known as “the movie voiceover guy” but also as the man who coined the phrase “In a world…” but that’s probably not the best thing to put in an obituary.  He died of complications from pneumothorax yesterday at the age of 68. 

LaFontaine most recently spoofed his own image for Geico, perhaps lending himself the most notoriety of his career. It is said he would record about 60 promotions in a week, sometimes as many as 35 in one day. The guy was a beast, the highest compliment I could give someone.

His deep and thrilling voice and particular diction could make any crap movie seem important and the good ones seem legendary.  His voice was one of the reasons to watch and love trailers in the first place.  Not surprisingly, he narrated a video about his own biography.

Aint It Cool has rounded up a nice sampling of his work. He will be missed. [via]

Danny Boyle is one of those filmmakrers, who when you look at his impressive CV, wonder how is it that no one mentions him in the discussion for best filmmaker alive.  He might not warrant that title, but he at least belongs in the conversation, right?

With the exception of The Beach and the final act of Sunshine he’s had hardly a misstep to his career, which began with his first feature film in 1995.  Even his lesser films Alien Love Triangle and Life Less Ordinary have a certain charm to them.  But it’s his major works like Shallow Grave, Trainspotting, 28 Days Later, and Millions which warrent his reputation.  He always manages to go against the conventional grain and breath new life into genre material.

His latest flick, Slumdog Millionaire, which was picked up by Fox Searchlight and Warner Brothers, debuted this weekend at the Telluride Film Festival and has gotten boffo reviews.  The movie took film journalists by surprise, but has left the greatest impression.  Most people were expecting the snippets of David Fincher’s The Curious Case of Benjamin Button to knock their socks off, but that movie fizzled.  It seems like Danny Boyle’s movie is at the top of everyone’s list of favorite flicks from the festival.

The movie, based upon the book Q and A by Vikas Swarup, tells the story of Jamal Malik, an illiterate boy from the slums of Mumbai who makes it to the final question of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?.  No one believes he could have answered any of the questions without cheating, but through the use of flashbacks we learn how Malik came to learn those trivia questions.  We also learn that he isn’t on the game show for the money, but rather to reconnect with the girl he loves from childhood.  She watches the show religiously.

Slashfilm was surprised he liked the movie as much as he did, writing: “The police arrest and torture the 18-year-old, hoping to uncover some kind of illegal motivation, but instead they get the heartwarming story of his life so far. And that’s why Danny Boyle’s Slumdog Millionaire is really clever. The film is not really about winning 10 or 20 million rupees on Millionaire, it’s a love story, told through flashbacks.”

I’ve been trying to find some bad reviews, but instead I get nothing but lines like this from Alex Billington at First Showing, “However, it’s still one of the most excitingly cultured mainstream films that’s all about life, love, and destiny.”

Or how Steven Zeitchik is comparing it favorably to Little Miss Sunshine and Juno, writing that he wouldn’t be surprised to find box office or Oscar success for the film.

The list goes on and on from Cinematical’s raving review to Variety’s Todd McCarthy writing, “Driven by fantastic energy and a torrent of vivid images of India old and new, “Slumdog Millionaire” is a blast. Danny Boyle’s film uses the dilemma of a poor teenager suspected of cheating on the local version of “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire’’ to tell a story of social mobility that is positively Dickensian in its attention to detail and the extremes of poverty and wealth within a culture.”

It is both exciting to see that Danny Boyle may have truly hit one out of the park, one that may become embraced by more than just film freaks.  There is no trailer yet for the picture, but it’s scheduled for a November 28 release date.

For a movie that comes out this Friday, you would think today would not be the first day you discover a trailer for the film. But alas, that’s the case with Anne Hathaway’s latest suspense thriller Passengers.

The movie, despite its strong pedigree with actors like Patrick Wilson, Andre Baugher and David Morse should have more buzz surrounding it. Instead it looks like this movie will disappear rather quickly.

What has me intrigued to think this could be more than say, just a simple paycheck cash grab, is that it’s written and directed by Rodrigo Garcia.

Garcia is the son of Gabriel Garcia Marquez, yes the famed magical realism writer, but also an accomplished writer/director in his own right. He’s directed television episodes for HBO and a few decent movies no one has probably seen. Still, the trailer looks a bit ho-hum.

Everybody who saw The Dark Knight knows that the movie was almost flawlessly executed and built from a cornerstone of exquisite story telling.  The movie built and built and built suspension from the dynamics of The Joker and Batman.  For me, I’ll always think the movie was about the conflicting duality of Harvey Dent’s personality manifested between The Bats and The Joker.  Regardless, it seems as if the movie and the screenplay were both exceptional.  Mystery Man on Film has the comparison.

For the past decade or so, sports movies have pretty much been relegated to the touchy-feeling Disney variety.  They have a very specific formula and often times they’re not bad, it’s just there’s something saccharin about them.  It’s like watching one constant rip off of Hosiers after another.  The best example of this is Miracle; how do you sort of screw up one of the greatest sports stories ever?  You know?  The movies okay, but it wasn’t great.  And when it comes to sports movies I want greatness.

The rare exception was a little seen movie called Goal: The Dream Begins. It’s about a kid from Los Angeles, Santiago Munoz, the son of a Mexican immigrant, who gets the chance to play soccer for Newcastle United.  It bucked convention because the character that would normally be his “antagonist” actually became his mentor in the movie and the entire story was about Santiago working hard and trying to make the most of his opportunity.  It worked because it wasn’t played as one of those underdog-overcomes-all-odds-to-win-when-noone-thought-otherwise sports porn flicks that Disney purveys in.

So you can imagine my surprise when I learned they turned it into a planned trilogy and actually went ahead and made part II.  This time Santiago (Kuno Becker) gets transferred to Real Madrid to play with Becks and soak up the big time, which of course strains his relationship with his special lady friend (the irrepressibly cute Anna Friel).  If the movie keeps the smarts and reality of the first movie we’ll be in good hands.  If you’re looking for a decent sports flick then rent the first one and catch the second one when it rolls into theaters on Aug. 29.

Also, it should be noted that I’m not a huge football soccer fan and I enjoyed the hell out of the first movie. Though I can imagine it’s possible an actual soccer fan might find it hokey or the action scenes on the pitch unrealistic.

Our little Veronica is all growns up now.  Bell, the star of Forgetting Sarah Marshall and our bored office day dreams will be voicing the female lead in Imagi Studios CG-animated Astro Boy.

She joins a voice cast that includes Nicolas Cage, Donald Sutherland, Bill Nighy, Nathan Lane, Eugene Levy and Freddie Highmore.

Set in futuristic Metro City, Astro Boy is about a young robot with incredible powers created by a brilliant scientist to replace the son he has lost. Unable to fulfill the grieving father’s expectations, our hero embarks on a journey in search of acceptance, experiencing betrayal and a netherworld of robot gladiators, before he returns to save Metro City and reconcile with the man who had rejected him.

But um, Kristen Bell you guys. Even if she will be behind the camera. She’s a plucky one.

The only thing that anyone should care about in regards to this Fox lawsuit over the property rights to Warner Brothers Watchmen adaptation is whether or not the film is going to be released in March.  Unless, of course you’re the studio heads at either Fox or WB and a shit ton of money is at stake.

We’re not, so the devilled details matter nothing, except of course, whether we’ll be seeing the movie in March. Not to worry, former comic editor and copyright law professor Andrew Steven Harris says the movie will come out. The fiduciary interests of both studios will always win out in the end.

In that respect, fans should be encouraged that nothing about this litigation will realistically keep the movie out of theaters next year. At the end of the day, Fox wants money; it doesn’t want an unreleased and unreleasable film canister.

And, yes–while it’s true that Fox has also filed for an injunction to shut down the film’s release, that too should give the fans no alarm. It is, like Fox’s other maneuvers, just a negotiating tactic; a successful injunction simply represents the fastest way since God invented light of getting a settlement offer on the table.

I do know that Fox’s attorney’s say they’re not looking for cash; that copyright infringement is a serious matter and they’re litigating the entire thing to enforce their rights and their principles. But I think we have to call shenanigans on this one; if that were the case, then they’d have filed their lawsuit sometime well before this past February.

As always, it’s about the money.  After the trailer hit to a feeding frenzy, Fox saw a cash grab green light and took their chance.  Bravo to them.  For the movie goer, all that’s important is that the movie will come out.

Perhaps John Cusack should’ve kept only one Stephen King adaptation on his resume, unfortunately, he made this turd of a movie.  If you’ve never watched John Cusack go crazy in a hotel room for two hours, I suggest you keep it that way.

On the bright side there was one moment when Sam Jackson shows up in the hotel minibar and I thought, you know my refrigerator could use a mini-Sam Jackson to hand me groceries and make my lunch in the morning and just, you know, raise the awesomeness of my otherwise condiment-laiden ice box.

Short story movie anthologies are a pretty tough sell even when you’re attracting big time talent both behind the lense and in front of it.  I could see this format lend itself nicely to internet distribution.

Following up on Paris, Je’taime, the producers are tackling love in the burroughs of New York City, with appropriately enough New York, I Love You.  There are several stories from noted directors Zach Braff, Mira Nair, Park Chan-Wook, Yvan Attal, Wang Xiaoshuai, Emanuele Crialese, Andrei Zvyagintsev, Albert and Allen Hughes, Joshua Marston, Fatih Akin, Jiang Wen, Brett Ratner, Randall Balsmeyer, Shunji Iwai, Shekhar Kapur, Natalie Portman, and Scarlett Johansson.

Besides having only heard of a handful of directors, none of them are intricately linked to the Big Apple (not like say Woody Allen, Martin Scorcese or even to a significantly lesser extent Ed Burns, okay much lesser but you get the idea).  Plus, Brett Ratner.  What’s up with that?

The film’s ensemble cast includes: Kevin Bacon, Maggie Q, Orlando Bloom, James Caan, Hayden Christensen, Blake Lively, Julie Christie, Chris Cooper, Drea de Matteo, Carla Gugino, Ethan Hawke, John Hurt, Shia LaBeouf, Natalie Portman, Rachel Bilson, Christina Ricci, Olivia Thirlby, Robin Wright Penn, Anton Yelchin, Burt Young and more.

And despite loving the Parisian version of this movie, which inherently lends itself to romanticism and love in a way no other city does, I’m not sure I’m going to swallow a glossy wet kiss to New  York.  Yeah, I get that it’s a great city and I love visiting, but it’s not quite on par with other US cities.

It’s the logical choice for a follow up in this type of anthology I’m just wondering if there’s going to be a love letter to the congestion, bus fumes, rudeness, snobby center-of-the-universe mentality, rat cage claustrophobia, et cetera.  New York’s great and all, but seriously - Brett Ratner?

The movie, which is just about complete, will debut at the Toronto International Film Festival and then hit stateside sometime in February 2009. Word on the street is that Shanghai will be next.

I’m not much of a Fantasy Football person, despite A) loving football like it was my adopted child and B) being an uber stats nerd.

You would think the two go hand in hand, but alas, I don’t have the patience for it. I come out of the gate fast and furious, not unlike Vin Diesel, and then like the actor about a few weeks into things I sputter out and trade off all my players worth anything. This has also been known to happen during the baseball season.

I think, mostly, it’s that getting obsessed about the fantasy side of the sport takes away from my enjoyment of actually watching and following the games. Don’t get me wrong, that makes absolutely no sense at all, but that’s how it is. Still, I love listening to my buddies’s glory stories. How last year someone changed their team name to “Tom Brady” or how one guy almost ran the table or how one person doesn’t draft anyone on the Colts because Dungy is notorious for bagging the final two or three games of the season.

So more than anything else, Fantasy Football is about your dude(tte) friends. The documentary 10 Yards celebrates all of this.  Though it’ll be available on DVD at the end of September, you can watch it now for free thanks to SnagFilms (the Hulu of documentaries).  The filmmakers decided to eschew a traditional release platform, releasing it for free on iTunes (next two weeks only) as well.  Oh wait, but that’s not all.  You can also download music from the soundtrack for free at OurStage.com.

The film includes interviews with current and former NFL players including Shannon Sharpe, ‘Boomer’ Esiason, Desmond Clark, Chester Taylor, Ryan Longwell, Jarrod Cooper, Bernard Berrian, Artose Pinner, Steve Beuerlein and Andrew Walter; with footage from from Lansing, Detroit, Oakland, Birmingham, San Diego, Raton, NM, Denver, Seattle, Washington DC, Philadelphia, New England’s Gillette Stadium, Miami, Minneapolis and Concrete, WA.

“10 Yards is a movie about bonding with your buddies,” said Hunter Weeks, director of the film in a press release. “We’re excited to release this movie in a way that gives fantasy football leagues and curious fans the chance to view it immediately and everywhere.”

Though the movies captures the phenomenon of 20 million fantasy football fans it aims its lense on the whacked-out j.fred’s Intergalactic Championship League, where the top prize is a box of Twinkies.

In many ways, you can feel the cracks of traditional theatrical release beginning to widen.  Not necessarily because of this movie, but just in general.

This a creepy, gloriously gory and sorta funny quasi-silent film about zombies. The claymation reminds me of the Nickelodeon cartoons I used to watch as a kid or even to a degree Wallace and Gromet.

Though, this claymation cartoon is the kind of thing I would want to watch today or even as a kid. [via]

There are also plenty of other videos made by the artist, which can be viewed here.