Entries Tagged 'Movies' ↓

At first glance, Interview looks like a vehicle for Sienna Miller to prove whether she is actually an actress, with Steve Buscemi along for the ride. I was on the fence about Interview until I learned that it was directed and adapted by Buscemi.

Interview is the tale of a political journalist (Buscemi) sent to interview a movie star (Miller). After he is slightly injured in a car accident that she indirectly caused, they end up in her loft for a booze-filled night. That’s when things get interesting.

Part of the Triple Theo project, Interview honors the legacy of Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh. After van Gogh was murdered in 2004, his producing partners approached New York filmmakers about remaking three of his Dutch-language films in English. Blind Date, directed by Stanley Tucci, is next in the project, followed by a film helmed by John Turturro. All three films will use van Gogh’s crew, cameras, and methods.

I am intrigued by this character drama and the Triple Theo project, so I will definitely RENT IT. Interview is rated R and opens in limited release on July 13. (official site)

Ah, Lindsay, Lindsay, Lindsay, why do you keep making movies that look like they stink? Why? Unlike your (ex?) buddy Paris, you can’t get away with making crappy movies because people know you’re actually talented.

I mean, come on, who didn’t like Mean Girls? Freaky Friday was a gem of a remake. The best part of A Prairie Home Companion was your song at the end. Aside from those movies, you’ve taken some awful career advice lately. It turns out that you cannot open a movie on your own unless it actually has a good script. People can smell “Lindsay Lohan” vehicles coming from a mile away. And boy does I Know Who Killed Me reek. (That is, unless your fans just want to see you as a stripper. That’s right folks, Lilo goes pole dancing in I Know Who Killed Me.)

So, please, Linds, hole yourself up in Vancouver and make an independent ensemble movie for no money. Or star in a big-budget musical adaptation of a Broadway smash. (If Spring Awakening gets made in the next two years, you’ll still be young enough to play the female lead.) You could still become your generation’s Jodie Foster if you play the cards right.

I Know Who Killed Me is rated R and opens on July 27. SKIP IT. (Official site)

Russell Crowe + Denzel Washington + Ridley Scott = Oscar Bait. Like The Departed, American Gangster is a gritty mob movie with a shot at Oscar gold and big bucks at the box office. This trailer was just released, and boy am I excited.

Denzel Washington has made a career playing good guys, but as the trailer proves, he’s at his best when he’s playing the bad guy. Washington and Russell Crowe are working together for the first time since Virtuosity in 1995, when Crowe was a virtual unknown in the States. Crowe is reuniting with Gladiator director Ridley Scott. Throw in Brian Grazer, who produced A Beautiful Mind among others, and it’s one big happy Oscar-winning family.

Sometimes Oscar bait can be horribly disappointing, but if this trailer is any indication, we’re in for one damn good movie. The song at the end is a perfect example of how much music can add to a trailer. (See the comments for details about the song in the trailer for American Gangster. I asked, and you answered. )

SEE IT because American Gangster could go down as one of the great crime dramas.

American Gangster is rated R and opens on November 2. Thanks to Ben for the tip. (official site)

We here at TrailerSpy would be remiss if we didn’t tell you about the 2007 Golden Trailer Awards. (Or I would be remiss, since it’s my turn to post.) On Thursday, Tal, Rachel, and I attended the Golden Trailer Awards, aka the Oscars of the trailer industry. We ate some shrimp puffs, met Mr. Steiner of Steiner Studios, and saw lots of 25-second trailers.

The big winner of the night was Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, winning the award for 2007 Summer Blockbuster trailer. Harry Potter beat out Spider-Man 3, Transformers, Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, and Live Free or Die Hard.

Fur won the Golden Fleece Award, which honors the trailer that is better than the movie it promotes. Other winners:

Best Action, and Best of Show: 300 – We loved this trailer from the start
Best Animation/Family: The Simpsons Movie
Best Drama: The Departed – The use of Gimme Shelter sealed the deal
Best Comedy: Borat – This was a tough category that included Blades of Glory, Knocked Up, Stranger Than Fiction, and Talk To Me
Best Thriller: The Descent
Best Horror: 1408
Best Independent: The Science of Sleep
Most Original: Bee Movie - Trailer director Christian Charles was nice enough to answer my questions
Trashiest Trailer: Black Sheep – Best acceptance speech of the night

The 2008 Golden Trailer Awards will be in Los Angeles, so it’s a good thing we went this year. Congratulations to all the winners and nominees! (Official site)

This weekend, we’re going to do a slightly different Weekend Roundup. For those of you who are already in blockbuster sequel fatigue, we’ll tell you what else is in theaters this weekend, if you look carefully.

At this point, you’ve already decided whether you’re going to see Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End. But be warned. THIS MOVIE IS THREE HOURS LONG. That’s right, not including trailers and seat-saving time, Pirates 3 is 167 whopping minutes.

Bug is the only other major release opening this weekend. Since horror films really aren’t my thing, here’s the summary from Fandango: At a rundown desert motel, Agnes (Ashley Judd) begins a tentative relationship with a newcomer named Peter (Michael Shannon). He has a strange charisma, one that offers fearful and unstable Agnes a flicker of hope. When Peter reveals that the military deliberately infected him with a bug and that he has tiny insects crawling under his skin, paranoia begins to envelope the desperate pair. Early reviews have been good. Horror fans, SEE IT.

Away From Her: Oscar season starts now. Critics are salivating over this atypical love story from writer and director Sarah Polley. Away From Her is the story of Fiona (Oscar-winner Julie Christie) and Grant, whose 45-year marriage is being torn apart by Fiona’s Alzheimer’s. After Fiona moves into a nursing home, she falls for another patient. Grant seeks out the other man’s wife, played by Olympia Dukakis. It’s much more complex than my summary, of course. Even the trailer is haunting. SEE IT.

Don’t forget about those films that have been out for a few weeks. Disturbia, aka Rear Window for teenagers, was number one for two weeks. Fracture fizzled at the box office, but it is still a cat-and-mouse thriller starring Ryan Gosling and Anthony Hopkins. The Namesake is my favorite film so far this year–you’ll love seeing Kumar in moving a story of Indian-American identity. Finally, Waitress deserves to be seen, not just because it’s Adrienne Shelley’s farewell. See it for Keri Russell’s performance and for the take-charge ending. SEE THEM!

Want to know the pros and cons of buying movie tickets online? How about a definitive guide to movie etiquette? Curious which NYC movie theater sells samosas? All those questions and more can be answered at New York Magazine’s Everything Guide to Moviegoing.

Everybody has one summer blockbuster they can not wait to see. For some, it is The Simpsons. For others, it is Pirates of the Caribbean. For me, there is only one must-SEE IT movie this summer: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. I just finished re-reading all the books in time for the July 21 release of the final book, and in the meantime I can’t wait to see the next movie. I am a total dweeb, and that’s ok.

This is the second trailer released by Warner Brothers. (For the first trailer, click here.) I continue to be amazed at how this franchise just continues to get better and better. The story is becoming more layered and the younger actors have become so skilled that they can go toe to toe against their Oscar-winning co-stars. Judging by both trailers, Order of the Phoenix looks like a suspense-filled movie that can stand on its own and entertain even non-Potter fans (such people exist?) who find themselves in the cinema. (How scary is that shot of Voldemort in a three-piece suit?)

And now, a casting question. The sixth Potter film, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, is in pre-production and there is one small but juicy role to be cast. Narcissa Malfoy, mother of Draco and wife of evil Lucius, makes her first appearance in a pivotal scene at the start of the story. Narcissa is described as having blonde hair, blue eyes, and “a look on her face as if there were something smelly under her nose.” She has a sixteen-year-old son, so she would be at least 36 years old. Like the rest of the cast, the actress that plays her must be British. Naomi Watts’ name has been bandied about (she grew up in the UK), but she looks a little young and is identified as Australian. So who should play icy Narcissa Malfoy?

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix is rated PG-13 and opens on July 13. I can’t wait! (Official site)

These poor, poor movies. Based on last weekend’s box office receipts, they’ll all be rolled over by the Spider-Man juggernaut.

The Ex: It’s really too bad that Spider-Man will just flatten this movie. We here at TrailerSpy are looking forward to this comedy starring Zach Braff, Amanda Peet, and Jason Bateman. Three of our favorite actors in one movie? Rock on! I felt a tad guilty laughing at the guy-in-the-wheelchair jokes, but they are funny. We can’t wait to SEE IT.

28 Weeks Later: This is the follow-up to the smash hit 28 Days Later, which made a star of Cillian Murphy. This time around, London faces a second deadly outbreak of the rage virus. Horror and sci-fi fans, run and SEE IT.

Georgia Rule: More people will see the photos of Lindsay Lohan snorting cocaine than will see this movie. Early reviews are scathing. To quote the AP, “With Georgia Rule, Lindsay Lohan has made her Gigli.” Ouch. Lilo is overpriced and overrated, and maybe now studio heads will stop hiring her. (But if studio heads stop hiring her, then we won’t get to read any more warning letters blasting her penchant for calling in sick due to “exhaustion”.) I love Felicity Huffman and I’d love to see her do well, but she’s playing third banana to La Lohan and Jane Fonda. I originally said I wanted to rent it, but now I plan to SKIP IT.

For Mother’s Day, go take Mom to see Waitress instead.

2007 is the year of the sequel, but The Golden Age is not your typical sequel. It is the follow-up to Elizabeth, which, despite the title and the period dress, has more in common with Braveheart than with Shakespeare in Love. (If you haven’t seen Elizabeth yet, run and rent it right now. You can watch the trailer here. Cate Blanchett was robbed and should have won a Best Actress Oscar for Elizabeth, but Gwyneth Paltrow won that year.)

In The Golden Age, Cate Blanchett (she who can do no wrong) reprises her role as Queen Elizabeth I. She is rejoined by Geoffrey Rush as a trusted adviser and new additions Clive Owen as Sir Walter Raleigh and Samantha Morton as Mary Queen of Scots. The Golden Age depicts England’s battle against the Spanish Armada. Once again, Queen Elizabeth shows who’s boss, fights off threats to her reign, and enjoys the company of dashing men. Despite the petticoats, The Golden Age looks like it will have tons of battle action and double-crossing. Though The Golden Age is a sequel, it looks like a movie that can stand on its own. It’s total Oscar bait, and I’m drooling.

The Golden Age is the sequel to one of my favorite movies, so naturally I can’t wait to SEE IT. Don’t forget about Elizabeth–RENT IT immediately if you haven’t seen it. The Golden Age is not yet rated and opens on October 12.

Spring has finally arrived in New York City, which means that it’s time for the Tribeca Film Festival! If you live in or around NYC, this two-week event is not to be missed. Neighborhood movie theatres open their doors to big, blockbuster premieres (such as Spider-Man 3) and indies hoping to find a distributor. (Transamerica and Air Guitar Nation both found audiences at past TFFs.) Best of all, most events are open to the public for an $18 ticket.

Two years ago, Jen and I saw a live-action version of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs that was originally shot in German but had been dubbed in English. The movie was one of the funniest things I’ve ever seen, and the entire cast had flown from Germany for the screening. You just don’t get that in Iowa.

Check out picks and daily coverage from New York magazine. Fly Away Cafe has a list of free festival events. And of course, don’t forget the Festival’s official site for synopses on all 150-plus movies.