Did everyone have a great weekend? I finally spent it taking care of odd and ends and not thinking at all about what was going on in the world? Strange but also comforting. Finished unpacking, updated the back end of the website (and still working out the kinks and adjustments), went to see Liam Finn and Laura Veirs on Saturday night (look for a brief review since it was unexpected and I didn’t have a camera or notebook with me) and then Sunday was relaxing in the morning, gardening in the afternoon sunshine and then caught a late showing of Iron Man. (Yes, it’s as good as advertised. Again look for some brief thoughts soon.)
But let’s take a look at some of the trailers that I was digging on this week that didn’t make it to post. A few of these broke over the weekend.
The Dark Knight
We got a glimpse of this in a shitty bootlegged version early in the week. But this one manages to reaffirm it’s ass-kickory without giving away too much. No matter what, I can’t get over Heath Ledger’s strangely pitched delivery as The Joker. It’s um, hypnotic, and weirdly comforting.
The Happening
M. Night Shalam-a-ding-dong has burned lots of his fans recently and deservedly so. He’s made five well-known movies and only two of them have been better than good. He’s been coasting on his reputation since Unbreakable. Possibly the crash and burn nature of Lady in the Water has made him realize that he can’t coast on his name and a snazzy out-of-nowhere ending. We still don’t know what to expect out of his new picture, but it boasts a great cast and it looks ominous as shit.
Swing Vote
So there’s an election and it comes down to … egats! Kevin Costner? Holy cow, this looks like the worst movie ever and yet I’ll still watch it at some point because, um. Remind me again? I guess I’m the one person in America who doesn’t hate Kevin Costner. So yeah, they floated out this shit ship for me.
Bangkok Dangerous
It’s impossible to take Nic Cage seriously, especially now that he’s rocking the balding mullet look that’s so popular in Hollywood. Anyway, this time around he’s a super assassin in Thailand. Shenanigans and hijinks no doubt ensue.
Indiana Jones and the movie that sells itself
Wouldn’t you love to be the marketing department behind this movie? But still, their trailers have been flawless. The first time around they played up Indy’s iconography and this time around they sell us on the adventure. It seems so obvious and yet they nailed it.
Some new movie trailers have hit the web and most of them are for movies you no doubt will want to see. Among them are the restricted red band trailer for Forgetting Sarah Marshall, which doesn’t have anything new or different from the original trailer, but if you love Kristen Bell and we sure as heck do, then she has a funny faux-sex scene this time around. This one stars Jason Siegel, Paul Rudd, Jonah Hill and Kristen Bell. With a cast like that you’re probably thinking, hey is Judd Apatow involved? Yup, he produced the whole shebang. [view]
Also, the new documentary from Morgan Spurlock, Where in the World is Osama Bin Laden? also gets a trailer. This one got great reviews and buzz coming out of Sundance, even if Spurlock never actually found Osama. [View]
Liam Nesson is starring in a thriller from the director of District B13 and Luc Besson. There’s no stateside release, but this still looks pretty darn good. The pedigree behind the movie is pretty outstanding. Liam Nesson goes on a manhunt after his daughter is kidnapped in Paris. [View]
MTV Movie Blog has the exclusive trailer for the remake of Funny Games , starring Naomi Watts, Tim Roth, Michael Pitt and Brady Corbet. Watts and Roth play a vacationing couple who are taken hostage. This one got razzed at Sundance. Seems director Michael Haneke has the touch only once, as he remade his own movie.
And M. Night has a new film, that looks kinda creepy with Mark Wahlberg. It’s called The Happening. You can watch below.
M. Night Shyamalan started his career in Hollywood strongly with the double punch of The Sixth Sense and Unbreakable. He followed that up with a large dose of hubris and the pedestrian Signs, then the misfire of The Village and the trainwreck of Lady in the Water.
It’s been a slow and steady descent into irrelevance and mediocrity for a guy who seemed destined to become one of Hollywood’s legendary filmmakers. Though he may have been derailed by his own ego, there is no denying that M. Night has a visual pallette and sense of creative storytelling that few in the business seem to possess.
Let’s hope he flies under the radar and rebounds with his next flick, The Happening. It has a strong cast and the premise sounds pretty intriguing.
The movie stars Mark Wahlberg as a man who takes his family on the run, in an attempt to survive a natural global environmental crisis that presents a large-scale threat to humanity. Mother Nature is sick of our polluting ways and has decided that we must go. An invisible neurotoxin is admitted into the air which causes people to become suicidal. John Leguizamo and Zooey Deschanel also star.
This will be his first R-rated movie and Mark Wahlberg seems to always make interesting and very good career choices. The writer/director has something to prove this time around. Not sure if Hollywood plays by the same conventions as the sports world, but when someone with talent has something to prove, well you usually end up with Randy Moss torching every team he plays as a member of the Patriots.
The taglin on the poster is pretty lame, but that’s the marketing team’s fault. “WE’VE SENSED IT. . . WE’VE FELT THE SIGNS . . . NOW IT’S HAPPENING”
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