Entries Tagged 'Trailer Reviews' ↓

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!

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.

The Nanny Diaries was originally scheduled to open this weekend, but instead MGM decided to move the movie to September to better position it for the Golden Globes. What’s left to open this weekend? A bunch of movies aimed at guys and one really awful chick flick.

Fracture: As Tal wrote back in February: Hopkins and Gosling? ‘Nuff said. Anthony Hopkins is accused of murdering his wife and Ryan Gosling is the hotshot District Attorney sent to put him away. Gosling’s character discovers that the case isn’t as open-and-shut as he’d thought, and then things start to get interesting. Ryan Gosling’s career is on fire right now, and you can’t go wrong with Hopkins’ chilling stare. SEE IT.

Hot Fuzz: Did you ever notice how when an English person says something funny, it’s even funnier? Hot Fuzz would be funny set in any country, but add British humor to the mix and it looks downright hilarious. A big city cop is reassigned to Podunk, UK, and he must lead the small town cops. There is something fishy about this town, though, and City Slicker cop sets out to investigate. As the trailer says, this one is “brought to you by the guys who watched every action movie ever made.” RENT IT.

In the Land of Women: The official site for this film is myspace.com/itlow, and that’s just stupid. Really. First off, not every film is meant to be promoted on MySpace. Secondly, itlow? (I get that it’s an acronym, but itlow is still lame-o.) That was the best they could come up with? Anyhoo, In the Land of Women stars Seth Cohen, oops, I mean Adam Brody, as a dumped guy who somehow meets Meg Ryan and starts dating her young daughter, played by Kristen Stewart of Panic Room. With a title like that, the film is obviously aiming at women. As a woman, I say yuck–and I love a good chick flick. SKIP IT.

Vacancy: I’ll admit that I really don’t like horror films, so it is hard for me to be impartial here. Luke Wilson and Kate Beckinsale that are stranded and check into a motel for the night, and then realize that all the room’s previous occupants have died horrible deaths. It seems like these two bonafide movie stars have wandered into a movie that should be starring Chad Michael Murray and Sarah Michelle Gellar. SKIP IT.

Which actors will win an Oscar in the next ten years? That was the question posed by Oscarwatch, and Don Cheadle was on the top of nearly everyone’s list. Sooner or later, the man will win an Oscar, it’s just a question of when. This year alone, Cheadle is starring in Reign Over Me, Ocean’s Thirteen, and Talk to Me. In Talk to Me, Cheadle plays an ex-convict who becomes a controversial DJ in 1960’s Washington D.C.

Could Talk to Me be the movie that lands Cheadle his overdue Oscar? Possibly. Cheadle is portraying a real person, which the Academy always loves. He’s been nominated before (for Hotel Rwanda) and the Academy will often award Oscars to actors who were overlooked in the past. On the other hand, Cheadle’s character, Ralph Waldo “Petey” Greene, is an ex-convict who peppers his dialogue with enough colorful language to get Don Imus fired several times.

Only time will tell what awards season has in store, but either way Talk to Me is a definite SEE IT. It’s a biopic (good) that will make you think (even better), and it has a great soundtrack (sign me up), and some really funny lines in the trailer (just take my $11 now). The trailer does a good job of highlighting the supporting cast–and telling you where you’ve seen them before.

Talk to Me is rated R and opens on July 13.

Disturbia: I am generally not a fan of thrillers or horror movies, but this one looks interesting. Shia LeBeouf is under house arrest, so he spies on his neighbors from his bedroom window. When he becomes convinced that he is watching a murderer, he and his friends take the investigation into their own hands. It’s a teenage Rear Window. RENT IT.

Perfect Strangers: Halle Berry and Bruce Willis are playing cat-and-mouse in this predictable thriller. $11 bucks says they are only in it for the easy paychecks and the movie will tank. SKIP IT.

Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film for Theaters: Fans of the Adult Swim cartoon on the Cartoon Network will be running to SEE IT. The rest of us aren’t as sold. Ryan has already bought his ticket for the 10pm show in Williamsburg.

Lonely Hearts: File this one under “why don’t more people know about this movie?” After all the movie has a great cast, and it is based on true events. Jared Leto and Salma Hayek play the “Lonely Hearts” killers, who got their name by luring their victims via the personal ads. John Travolta and James Gandolfini play the detectives who are hot on their case. The trailer looks intriguing, but the lack of a big distributor could be a bad sign. RENT IT.

Year of the Dog: Rachel saw this one so you don’t have to. Molly Shannon stars as a lonely dog lover in the new film from Mike White, who wrote The Good Girl and The School of Rock. John C. Reilly, Peter Sarsgaard, Regina King, and Laura Dern round out the cast. Although the trailer looked promising, the movie is a dud. SKIP IT.

Even though the new movies aren’t the best bunch we’ve seen in a while, there are still some good films in theatres. Blades of Glory is as funny as you’ve heard it is, The Namesake is a true work of art, and The Lookout has received some major kudos from our friends at Oscarwatch. SEE IT!

When I first saw the teaser for Ocean’s Thirteen, I could only think back to how disappointed I was in Ocean’s Twelve. From the teaser, it looked like Thirteen was going to be another lackluster movie from Clooney and the gang. But then, I saw the new trailer, and that good old feeling came back.

Guys, you’re forgiven for Ocean’s Twelve! Really! I’m sorry I doubted you, and I now can’t wait to see Ocean’s Thirteen!

Sheesh, what a difference a new trailer can make. Maybe the teaser just wasn’t long enough, but it didn’t show enough of the crackly dialogue, enough of the heist, enough of the comedy that I’ve come to expect from the Ocean’s franchise. Now that I know what Danny Ocean and his (yummy, delicious) gang are actually trying to pull off, I’m intrigued. Really, could I ever go wrong with George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Matt Damon, Don Cheadle, Bernie Mac, Carl Reiner, Elliott Gould, Scott Caan and Al Pacino? Maybe I just love the idea of Matt Damon playing the comedic role with his giant prosthetic nose.

Whatever the difference is, I am now counting the days until June 8. SEE IT! Ocean’s Thirteen is rated PG-13 and opens on June 8. (Official site)

After seeing him in Munich and Troy, Eric Bana has become one of my favorite actors. (Troy wasn’t exactly a cinematic masterpiece, but it’s worth a look to see Bana’s performance. And his abs.) Bana has joined the rank of actors that will motivate me to see just about any movie they make. Drew Barrymore has always been in that club, but for different reasons. Now they are working together on Curtis Hanson’s latest project, Lucky You. The director of L.A. Confidential, 8 Mile, and Wonder Boys, Hanson’s films are generally a safe bet.

In Lucky You, Bana portrays Huck, a high-stakes poker player about to enter the World Series of Poker. To quote his on-screen father, played by Robert Duvall, Huck leads his life the way he should play cards, and he plays cards the way he should lead his life.

Now really, who doesn’t love a good game of poker? Or Curtis Hanson? Or Drew Barrymore? And don’t even get me started on Eric Bana.

Lucky You comes out the same weekend as Spider-Man 3, and it will probably get lost in the shuffle. I, for one, can’t wait to SEE IT. Lucky You is rated PG-13 and opens on May 4. (Official site)

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