Entries Tagged 'trailer' ↓

One month, eight days, and counting. One month, eight days and counting…

Are You looking forward to the new Bond? If not, why do you have a death wish? Just kidding, but seriously, why do you want to die?

The Changeling is the story of Christine Collins’ missing son in 1928. The Los Angeles Police department was desparately looking for good publicity, so when they found a boy claiming to be her son they gave him to her. She then set off to try to find out what happened to her real son. Check out the trailer below.

Hopefully this role will made up for some of Jolie’s well…crappy roles, namely Wanted. It opens to a limited engagement October 24th.

Bias Alert: This news comes just I have recently finished Michael Moore’s Election Guide 2008, thus having read every published word he has ever written including those from the obscure Adventures in a TV Nation.

That waskly old Liberal Michael Moore is rocking the vote (and the boat) with his new film Slackers Uprising. Much like in The Big One (1997) which chronicled Moore’s book tour for Downsize This!, this documentary follows Moore across the country’s universities and colleges. With young adults in attendance months before the Presidential Election of 2004, Moore beseeched the Slackers of America to find their shorts, scarf down their Fruit Loops sans milk and VOTE! The race was between Bush and Kerry and arguably over half the country felt the stakes were near-apocalyptic over four more years of the Sitting Duck in Office.

This caused some ridiculous controversy by the right-wing pundits who spoke out against Moore’s tactic. Now Moore didn’t outright demand to the twenty-somethings which candidate’s name they had to puncture in the ballot. What did Bill O’ “DO IT LIVE!” Reilly and the gang have to fear of young voters participating in their right to democracy. They could very well have stuck it to old man Kerry and gone back to suckling the warm, freedom-flavored teat of Dubya.

Starting September 23rd, Michael Moore is generously releasing his new film Slackers Uprising as a free download for three weeks in North America. As a Canadian, this cheers me greatly. Usually downloadable media from the US is unavailable to your Neighbor of the North - I’m looking at you NBC (30 ROCK), CBS (Swing Town) and Comedy Central (The Daily Show + Colbert Report)! Being the first mainstream film to reach personal computer screens for the admission of bupkis, Michael Moore is not only a pioneer but truely appreciates his fortune in turn by his audience: “This is being done entirely as a gift to my fans. The only return any of us are hoping for is the largest turnout of young voters ever at the polls in November.”

This may very well tip a close presidential race away from the Republican Party’s John ‘Hot Head’ McCain and that media-trashing, earmark-embracing hockey mom Sarah Palin.

A DVD of the said film will also be released. It’s Special Features include:

Go Obama/Biden 08′

Two years ago, Hungarian filmmaker György Pálfi made a darkly comic familial splatter film based on the short stories of absurdist writer Lajos Parti Nagy. A vomtorium that dissects the inner workings, obsessions, and gluttonous fetishes of the Kálmán’s past three generations. A timeline laced and dripped into the warm, spent human ooze from Dante’s Circles of Hell. This film Taxidermia (2006) sounds like John “Se7en” Doe’s cup of tea.

The three generations syndrome by German novelist Thomas Mann follows the scheme that the grandfather starts the family on its course, then his son, the father, raises the family to the pinnacle of success so that the last generation’s son would waste it and start anew.

Dutch, once upon a time English, filmmaker Peter Greenaway applied this three generation scheme to filmmaking and concluded that the bold grandfather of the cinema was D.W. Griffiths who made the first narrative-sophisticated feature film Birth of a Nation (1915) - a pity it is irredeemably racist. The renegade father of the cinema was Orson Welles who perfected the medium with the towering Citizen Kane (1939). Then the mutinous son of the cinema being Jean-Luc Godard broke and rearranged cinematic conventions by way of the French New Wave with Breathless (1960).

I was about to summarize the plot but I think the trailer does a better job than I ever could.

Fair warning: the trailer gets pretty freaky.

I really dig that smash cut with the crying rooster.

Here’s the international one: it’s quite vivid.

A round of applause for the sickly fascinating website with the droning music and the decadently gruesome images. When you get to the spinning pin wheel, click on the same image twice to navigate to a new link in the site. Montreal-based Brazilian musician/DJ Amon Tobin scores the film and it sounds subterranean.

Taxidermia was Hungary’s official entry for the Academy Awards’ Best Foreign Film.  I wonder how long before its judges walked out of the screening room to get a bucket. Roger Ebert, after watching it at the Cannes Film Festival wrote, “I am sure Taxidermia is an important film and certainly a brave one, but I doubt if I know anyone who would thank me for recommending it”. European art critic Boyd van Hoeij called it the best film of 2006.

I have not seen this film just yet, not for a lack of stomach mind you. I’d have gladly bought a DVD released by Tartan outside of North America had I not found out about the Hungarian produced two-disc special edition. It is packaged like a slab of meat wrapped in cellophane - “Cause you can look right through me. Walk right by me” (couldn’t help myself!) - sold in supermarket.

Disc One features the film in an anamorphic widescreen transfer with Dolby 2.0, Dolby 5.1 and DTS 5.1 soundtracks. Optional English subtitles are included. Supposedly there is a DVD version that includes a director’s commentary but is not included here.

Disc Two has a 42 minute production, 30 minutes of deleted scenes, with optional director’s commentary, 8-minute visual design and concept gallery, 3 minute stills gallery, Hungarian and International trailers, two music videos by the band Hollywoodoo, Taltosember vs Ikarus - a 20 minute short film by György Pálfi, storyboards, and an interactive game.

Unfortunately, the Hungarian retailers are keeping this DVD edition a secret from the rest of the world. Anyone who knows how I can get a copy of this special edition would be greatly appreciated.

Calling all agnostics, come November 5th have plenty of body armor on because the unapologetic documentary Religulous is hitting theaters. That all heart, brainy and quick-witted political commentator, Bill Maher, takes us around the world to prod people about that hot button called God. There’s already some right-wing evangelist backlash against it. One wonders if there will be a boycott for the likes of Kevin Smith’s underrated Dogma (1999). Thank (insert your diety here) there are people out there willing tackle the bully boys that ram literal readings of the Old Testament down our collective throats.

It’s funny how defensive some (er…most) people get when you even suggest plausible doubt that takes them out of their theological comfort zone. That’s what Maher is doing and I applaud him for it. Questioning is good for achieving a moderate and curious society. This keeps the threat of evangelical movements that want to conquer and not listen at bay. I know people who think that world peace would be realized had everyone become a devout Christian as well those (like John Lennon) who believe there would be no wars without religion. I think people will use any excuse to find prejudice and make enemies whether religion is existant or not because it is the easiest to exploit.

Now I believe in a healthy open mind. I’m willing to entertain the plausibility of a conscious and omnipresent being surrounding our wacky universe so long as others don’t deny that our surroundings are governed by scientific means. It would be just as depressing to have worldly people obliterate their personal beliefs and histories for a unified one decided by a majority as would the option of obliterating them altogether. What appeals to me about all religions, popular as well as obscure ones, are the imaginations and the varied identities made possible for individuals around the world. It would be downright boring to be so certain about one outcome. It only becomes a problem when others are harmed in the name of an idea.

Lions Gate is distributing Religulous. No surprise, this studio often releases heady and controversial films like Fahrenheit 9/11 (2004), The Passion of the Christ (2004), Hard Candy (2005), American Psycho (2000), and Shadow of the Vampire (2000), as well as Repetitive Vomitoriums and Spoofs For The Lobotomized.

Throughout Maher’s theological search, I’ll have time to muse why I find atheism so sexy.

My sister thought the man on the toast looked like Jeff Bridges.

Number one, how did I miss this information, and number two, for god’s sakes why? Why make another? Also, why is it a prequel to the third one? Does that make any sense…no it doesn’t. NONE.

Role Models is one of those movies that could either be amazing or horrible but not in between. Watch the trailer and then cross your fingers firmly.

Poor, poor Dubya. With only half-a-year of his presidency left, Oliver Stone has him in the cross hairs and is ready to fire October 29th.

Two months since we have gotten the all-type Bushism poster, now here is the trailers that have official hit:

Trailer #1:

Trailer #2:

Looks like we’re going to see Dubya as all too human here. Much like how Stone saw Nixon in his excellent 1995 feature as a tragic figure worthy of Hamlet.

Hamlet: A man may fish with the Bush that hath eat of a king, and eat of the fish that hath fed of that Bush.

Just don’t skimp on the flaws, Oliver!

Switching faces from tragedy to comedy, here is the new trailer for Mike Leigh’s upcoming Happy-Go-Lucky. This one is made for the North American audiences so be sure to take a shot of Insulin Glargine.

Now this trailer is just dying to make this bittersweet British comedy come across as a sweet-and-low Julia Roberts vehicle. A desperate attempt turning indie gold look like mainstream schmaltz. It has the banal Disneyesque-pop music cues, the kid-friendly editing wipes (swooshing sound effects are not optional), the garishly bubblegum-polished graphics, and the voice-over narration of Don LaFontaine in syrupy mode. Is Miramax really stooping this low for a Best Picture nom?

News Flash: a dozen years ago Mike Leigh’s Secrets and Lies (1996) got the coveted nomination, so have a little faith!

The international trailer that I wrote about 3 months ago is far superior and actually feels like it has the fingerprints of Mike Leigh on it. The sophisticated animated graphics with the cute and gritty edge - check! An editing aesthetic that does not condescend - check! The quirky yet somber soundtrack by Gary Yershon - check!

Question: Am I the only one waiting for the melancholy soundtracks of composer and Mike Leigh regular Andrew Dickson (High Hopes - 1988, Naked - 1993, All or Nothing - 2002, Vera Drake - 2004) to be released?

Happy-Go-Lucky will speak for itself (in limited release) on October 10th.

The final trailer for The Dark Knight has just been released to the public. It was initially shown at Wizard World ‘07. Enjoy.

Nearly a month ago, the trailer for the next highly anticipated film David Fincher film The Curious Case of Benjamin Button debuted before the fourth Indiana Jones movie on May 23rd. The Spanish version of the trailer was briefly available online that day. Now Fincher and Paramount Pictures have officially launched the trailer today in High Definition over at Apple.

This is as good as it gets.

My first viewing of the trailer on the big screen was a transcendent experience. Maybe greater than the one for The Dark Knight coming July 18th. Hell, it’s on par with There Will Be Blood.

The angelic and somber score comes from Saint-Saens’ Carnival of the Animals - Aquarium sans the choir that has been used in Terrance Malick’s Days of Heaven (1978) and a few Ren and Stimpy cartoons. Except for the odd line of dialogue that bookends the trailer, the music is dominant like a silent picture. It reminds me of the eerie, dialogue-free Dark City Trailer.

Best of all, it doesn’t overstay its welcome clocking in at one minute and forty-six seconds. Too many trailers go to the trouble of cramming in every cool visual along with the final confrontation into two minutes and forty seconds. Over-eagerness does not suit a seducer.

The F. Scott Fitzgerald short story makes for a compelling hour’s read. It draws parallels to Daniel Keyes’ Flowers For Algernon. A baby is born wrinkled, decrepit and frighteningly able to talk candidly about the indignity of being given a milk bottle. As the time passes, Benjamin Button (nearly named Methuselah, referring to the son of Noah who reached the age of 969 years old) must contend with living a unique life of regressing to youth both psychically and mentally. He is always withheld from the conventional human experience, but strives for it anyways.

Within Fincher’s command after Zodiac (2007), his most successful feature, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button could become an instant classic. I hope.

The film stars Brad Pitt (12 Monkeys, 1995), Cate Blanchett (The Talented Mr. Ripley, 1999), Tilda Swinton (Young Adam, 2003), Julia Ormond (The Baby of Macon, 1993), Elias Koteas (The Thin Red Line, 1998), Jason Flemyng (From Hell, 2001), and Taraji P. Henson (Hustle and Flow, 2005)

Christmas looks promising this year.