I was looking for a movie to catch tomorrow, when I found this new ‘Avengers’ trailer via Fandango. It shows all sort of interesting stuff–most of which I haven’t yet seen–and as far as I am aware it’s not available anywhere yet.
It’s not embeddable yet, so I am posting a link to it.
“Wrath of the Titans,” officially premiered today, and I have to say that I have not seen it–nor intend to–for a few reasons:
One of which is that I still remember “Clash of the Titans.”
Then there’s the participation of Greg Berlanti, who’s I think was a huge contributor to the mess that was “Green Lantern,” a superhero that I always thought was (almost) screw-up proof.
He was also one of my favorite DC characters, and seeing that that list is really, really short (There’s the Question, The Phantom Stranger, John Constantine (Hellblazer)–to this day I have not seen the movie based on the character. Keanu Reeves is not John Constantine, nor does he possess the range to play the character–and that’s it, off the top of my head).
So I took that a bit personal.
Rotten Tomatoes gave it a 26 percent, and the four or five reviews that I have read have been decidedly mixed. It also has a $150 million dollar budget. Not exactly “John Carter” territory, but I’d be a bit nervous if I were Warner Bros because its window to earn some money is limited, with “The Hunger Games,” and “The Lorax” playing so strongly, and “The Avengers” on the horizon.
That being said, Deadline expects pretty big things from it.
I like this trailer because Guillermo Del Toro is credited as an executive producer, and as far as I know he isn’t one of those ‘executive producer in name only‘ types.
Besides, anything with his name on it instantly gets bonus points, redeemable toward thought-provoking, kick-arse cinema (in my humble opinion).
We’re introduced to Santa Claus, who I call, “Santa, the Avenger.” No, he didn’t go out and join Marvel’s group of superheroes, but there’s something about a tatted-up Santa with a Russian accent that strikes me as subversive in a very cool way.
Then there’s that Easter Bunny, who looks like he may be a few steps closer to nightmare than any I have seen short of the Twilight Zone movie. The Sandman could have been more interesting in a visual sense, and I don’t quite get what appear to be gills on the Tooth Fairy.
Other than that, very interesting.
Because what we needed was a reboot of “Total Recall,” the original a Paul Verhoeven film that, as far as I could tell, was done pretty well the first time. The new version is being directed by Len Weisman, who’s every film looks like huge set pieces with occasional character interaction thrown in.
Netflix has done plenty of stupid things, but their latest decision isn’t among them. They have decided, in a burst of sanity, to not take on “Terra Nova” after it had been cancelled by Fox.
Netflix doesn’t have the deep pockets of a Twentieth Century Fox–and “House of Cards, and the participation of David Fincher, doesn’t come cheap–so they have to be careful in taking on expensive properties.
Here’s the trailer for Tim Story‘s “Think Like A Man,” which I am interested in seeing–not because it looks entertaining–it does–but because it’s directed by Tim Story. Story directed “The Fantastic Four,” and “Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer,” among others, two films that weren’t that great, but whose weakness was due more to the writing–I will never forgive the ‘Galactus cloud‘–and the casting, which was almost pitch-perfect, till you get to Jessica Alba as Sue Storm, that is.
What bothers me is that, as an African-American director, it feels sometimes as if they’re quick to get “exiled” into doing films that cater primarily to an African-American audience.
There’s nothing wrong with making films for a select audience; and some people, like Spike Lee and Tyler Perry, have managed to turn it into a lucrative career.
But it’s somewhat limiting, and way beneath what most African-American directors are capable of (Spike Lee has begun to expand his repertoire, with films like “Clockers,” and “Inside Man,”) but it almost feels like it’s something that he has to continually earn, as opposed to what he has already proven.
That being said, there are some African-American directors that manage to transcend being typecast, such as Ernest Dickerson, who was formerly Spike Lee’s cinematographer before he went on to direct films like “Surviving The Game,” “Bones,” and becoming the go-to director for “The Walking Dead.”
Here’s the second in my “Films That Need Remakes,” series, something that I started because no film has to be a bad one, yet way too many are exactly that.
But, I don’t only want to point out what makes a film mediocre–it’s too easy to do, and fairly obvious–but also offer some advice could, potentially, improve the film markedly if it were going to be remade.
Today I am writing about Mike Marvin’s “The Wraith,” a film that, underneath its extreme mediocreness, hides a taut horror film just waiting to get out. The plot of the film–someone seemingly comes back from the dead to seek revenge upon those that did them wrong–is a common one, and has been the engine that’s powered many successful films, like “The Crow,” for instance.
“The Wraith” stars Charlie Sheen, Randy Quaid and Nick Cassavetes, son of John Cassavetes.
You would think that with such a basic and well-tested premise that you could just sit back and let the film direct itself. While it’s never that simple, director Mike Marvin for some reason felt the need to write as well, and his awful execution snatches defeat from the jaws of what could have been an intense, glorious victory. It should have played like a version of John Carpenter’s “Christine,” but instead ended up a dumber version of “The Dukes of Hazzard.”
This ‘Host’ has nothing to do with the (more than likely) far superior movie by Korean director Bong Joon-ho. Instead it comes to us courtesy of Stephenie Meyer, the writer of the ‘Twilight’ books.
I am assuming that these aliens work by possessing an individual, if the trailer is any indicator.
Lionsgate’s “The Hunger Games,” is making box office history, with the fifth best opening ever. Worldwide receipts have reached $214 million, on a budget of $78 million.
This is what happens with you take a popular book–one aimed primarily at teenage readers–with a smart (and relatively inexpensive) advertising campaign by Lionsgate.
Hopefully Disney and other film studios will us it as a textbook example of how to promote a film.
I haven’t read any of the Suzanne Collins‘s books, but I might catch the film just to see what all the hype is about.
And speaking of Disney, their advertising campaign was better focused, and much more effective, for “Tron: Legacy,” than it was for “John Carter,” which may have had something to do with the former being a moderate box office hit.
Why “At The Mountains Of Madness’ Is, By Design, Difficult To Film
Don’t take that to mean that Guillermo Del Toro couldn’t have made an engrossing and terrifying film; I think the man could make a horrifying movie based upon the content of a telephone book.
My problem lies not with Del Toro’s abilities, than the material itself.
A lot of Lovecraft’s Cthulhu Mythos revolved around the concept that we shouldn’t be ignorantly venturing into the vast unknown, because if we have no idea what terrors, in our naiveté, lie in wait for us.
This unknown is exemplified in beings like Cthulhu, Yog-Sothoth, among others, who once held dominion over this world, and wait patiently to reclaim that which was once theirs. We measure time by the clocks of our relatively short lives, while for Lovecraft’s creations, millennia are barely the blink of an eye, or the beating of a heart from one frenzied moment to the next.
And that which can eternal lie can afford to be patient.
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