If you haven’t seen this already, be sure to check it out – a superb (and oddly, rejected) submission for the Doritos Crash the Superbowl 2012 contest made by some friends of mine.

If you like this video please help us see if we can get Doritos to reconsider by tweeting this: http://clicktotweet.com/dlO2L

Written by: Jack Dreesen, John Ramsey & David Ward
Directed by: David Ward & John Ramsey
Produced by: Jack Dreesen, John Ramsey & David Ward

Starring: Byron Brown

To check out more of their work (and the list of ingredients) head over to the video’s YouTube page.

You’d think that after seeing this I would be bursting at the seams with excitement! And I am – for the most part (more on that in a bit). This is only a preview, but from what we can see it looks like the tone and atmosphere of LOTR has been carried over well to The Hobbit. These stories are going to make sense and feel like they fit in the same world, and that’s not just good, that’s great! With a decade in between, I think it was legitimate for all of us to be concerned as to how well the stories would fit together visually.

Honestly, there’s not much to say, just keep watching this thing over and over because this glimpse looks promising as can be. My only doubts relate to the 48 frames per second rate at which they decided to film (due to the 3D gimmick) and how that will change the movie-going experience. I haven’t decided whether or not I’ll actually go see this because of that. If the next few trailers improve on what is already a stellar preview, there’s a strong chance I’ll be visiting the theater and giving it a shot.

The first full trailer for closing chapter of Nolan’s Batman story is here! First of all, watch it, and then, wow.

We have a hulking, intimidating enemy in Bane – though his brute force isn’t on display in this trailer other than in brief glimpses of what looks to be an epic fight downtown, it’s clear that he’s got a massively destructive plan and it involves a lot of moving parts. From the freed prisoners to the camouflage tumblers – and especially the football field – Bane is going to be a huge, oppressive force coming into Gotham. And remember Alfred’s words in the beginning of this trailer. He’s worried about Bruce, something is wrong here. The stakes will clearly be high.

And Selina Kyle/Catwoman? Her dialogue is suitably ambiguous in this preview. She’s talking about Wayne Enterprises and the few rich vs. the many poor, but does she also do any fighting against criminals? Maybe steal stolen things back? Does she have any idea that Bruce is Batman? I’m intrigued, and happy with the fact that I still don’t really know whether she’s bad, good, or both.

And how awesome is Bane’s single line? “When Gotham is ashes, you have my permission to die.” He’s being portrayed as such a threatening figure in this campaign, and with so much emphasis on “the legend ends,” that I can’t help but think that by the end of this movie Bruce Wayne will no longer be Batman. Whether that means he dies and another takes up the mask, or he dies and Catwoman or others take the reins of Gotham’s vigilante justice, I don’t know. But from the looks of it, it’s going to be pure spectacle and the movie event of the summer, if not the year.

 

 

This trailer is for Hammer’s latest best chance at revitalizing the brand. Over the last year or two they’ve released The Resident, Let Me In, and Wake Wood. While I’ve been dying to see Wake Wood, I haven’t had the chance yet. I own a copy of Let Me In, and encourage fans of vampire stories to check it out. If you were a fan of the original adaptation of the book, Let The Right One In, I doubly encourage you to check it out. It’s alike and different in all the right ways. As for The Resident…well…let’s just ignore that one, okay?

The Woman In Black has a great advantage going for it already – its star. Daniel Radcliffe can single-handedly breathe more interest into this project from his Harry Potter recognition than any of those previous films were able to drum up using the names involved. That’s not to say that Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Hilary Swank can’t pull in an audience, but they can’t when it’s a generic creepy-stalker/slasher movie that doesn’t have good word-of-mouth to count on as backup. (For a good example of this type of movie, see Peeping Tom).

I don’t know the story this is based on, but purely from watching the trailer, I’m hooked. I love the tone of it, it features some standard moments in a haunted house movie but some are executed in a way I’ve not seen before. I really love the use of darkness and shadows, particularly in the shot of the darkness pounding and moving its way gradually closer down the hallway. Radcliffe seems to play the part well, at least based on the limited shots of him being curious and scared out of his mind featured in the preview. The music sets the tone well, the composition of the frame looks great in a lot of the shots. Very promising.

My only complaint with this trailer is that there are three uses of the title screen with the text over what’s supposed to resemble a dark scary window. It’s nice, but it feels like it starts way too late in the trailer, and then there is only one line shown before we arrive at the end and see the title and release month.

That being said, I really like this trailer and you can count on me being in the theater to see this movie. Long live Hammer films!

Take a look at the trailer above for the fourth entry in the Underworld series. While fourth installments tend to have a lot of negativity associated with them (see: Indiana Jones, Pirates of the Caribbean, Die Hard, Terminator, etc.), we clearly keep going back to the theater for them and more. Most of the series you’d think of (and that I mentioned) have additional entries in the works already, even if at just the developmental stages. This one may prove no different.

The Underworld series took a turn with the third and went the prequel route, and while it was by no means a great movie, I happen to really enjoy it for what it is. It’s probably because I love the Underworld series (so far) and I find werewolves to be awesome. So really, when you have a field full of werewolves charging a castle and vampires with swords, yeah, I get behind that.

The world of this series does have its limits, however, and after the second flick any continuation of that storyline is definitely questionable. So I was hesitant to celebrate when the fourth was announced — but this trailer isn’t the worst thing I’ve ever seen. It’s got its flaws and points that worry me, but there’s hope.

First of all, the look and feel is still there – this will be an Underworld movie. Will the 3D be worth the extra ticket price? Hard to say. There’s room for a lot of action shots with hokey 3D effects of weapons and people flying out at you, so it might be fun. I will more than likely see it in 2D though, unless I read reviews beforehand that really praise the added dimension.

As far as story goes, it makes sense to me that humans have caught on to the supernatural creatures living amongst them and have started a war. That follows the original’s themes of racism/xenophobia well, and with the vampires vs. lycans and vampires vs. themselves plots that we’ve already seen, it feels organic to me that now it turns to vampires-must-team-up-with-lycans vs. humans. Or maybe it turns to vampires vs. lycans-teamed-up-with-humans. Either way, the trailer hints at a bigger type of lycan at the end, perhaps something resulting from human experiments on the supernatural? Hard to say, but after the hybrid and super-original-monsters from the first two (and how awesome that was) I’m skeptical as to how well another suped up version of one of the monsters might play out for us in this story. Sure, it adds another layer of conflict to the plot, but to what end? Does it really make for an even cooler villain? Does it raise or answer new thematic questions for us as an audience? Something like this may really be necessary to heighten the tension, because after all, when you consider the previous films, humans haven’t posed much of a threat themselves.

Maybe I’m thinking too much. It is Underworld, after all. But I’d love for the story to make sense and be fulfilling and worthy of having been made. I like the idea of Selene coming back and having been imprisoned (though we need to see why she was suddenly able to escape after so long) and the child that’s shown in some of the other previews. Is she Selene’s child? Is she a hybrid? And where is Michael, as Selene asks in the trailer above? I’m wondering if that question is central to the plot, or if it’s answered in a throwaway line near the beginning.

So while I have concerns, the action looks cool, as it has before in the series, and the look and feel are there. I am cautiously optimistic after seeing the previews, and will be revisiting the series prior to seeing this installment in the theaters. Will it break the trend of negativity associated with fourth movies? Time will tell…

This week brought us the trailer for the other new Snow White adaptation. And man, this thing looks awful.

First of all, let’s look at the tone – it’s whimsical and silly. That’s cool, though it doesn’t gel well with what I’m seeing. The most obvious disadvantage this flick has going for it is Julia Roberts – she’s either completely miscast, or terribly directed.

I’m somewhat of a fan of Tarsem’s previous work that I’ve seen – I absolutely love The Fall, and while Immortals was visually impressive through most of the film, the story was more fluff than plot and really needed some work. With Mirror Mirror it looks like Tarsem’s visual sensibilities will be well employed, even though from the footage shown it looks like his style is very subdued for this film. I expected a lot more fullness and vibrancy to the visual palette. Honestly, I had expected from Tarsem what the visuals from the preview of Snow White and the Huntsman turned out to be!

All that being said, I’m not sure how well Tarsem does with actors, based on the two films of his that I’ve seen. I assume he has some talent in directing performances and not just visual storytelling, but every line that Julia Roberts delivers in this trailer makes me queasy. Nothing she says is consistent as far as accent, intonation, or purpose – and none of the dialogue matches the scenery or her wardrobe. It’s like they wanted to step into the slightly anachronistic speaking world of Your Highness but chickened out and tried to dance in the middle. And it doesn’t work.

The lameness of some of the jokes and gags in the trailer go without saying, but an interesting point to consider with this trailer is that once again, the snow white character is featured minimally. She’s shown quite a bit, and actually has a few lines, but the featured character is definitely the Queen. And whereas Charlize Theron was able to come off as sinister and intimidating through her words and the visuals shown, Jula Roberts stumbles through a barrage of cringeworthy lines and not once does she appear to do anything but stand around or scold her subordinates. She’s never doing anything villainous!

While I had previously been interested in this flick due to Tarsem’s visual style, I have to say that after this trailer I have zero interest in seeing this movie and will be encouraging others to check out Snow White and the Huntsman instead. Or go back to the good stuff and watch Disney’s animated classic. Let’s just pretend Mirror Mirror never happened.