Raise your hand if you remember the movie Screamers. OK, keep your hand raised if you remember anything other than "Peter Weller," "Philip K. Dick," and "box office failure." Yeah, that's what I thought. It's not that Screamers is that rotten of a sci-fi horror movie ... more that it's just OK. Not awful, but certainly not cool enough to warrant a full-bore cult following. But that hasn't stopped a bunch of Canadian filmmakers from unleashing Screamers: The Hunting.
I'll embed the trailer clip in just a sec, but since Quiet Earth did the leg-work on this item, we'll refer you to their site for more info. Screamers: The Hunting looks pretty plain across the board, but of course I'm always interested in seeing a video sequel to a 14-year-old sci-fi flick that nobody talks about anymore. (I'm weird that way. Someone kick me if they ever find a trailer for Galaxy of Terror 2.) Digging a little deeper I learned that Screamers 2 was directed by Sheldon Wilson (Kaw, Shallow Ground) and written by Miguel Tejada-Flores, who used to write fun flicks for Filmax, so I'm feeling 10% better about Screamers: The Hunting than I was ten minutes ago.
Except ten minutes ago, I had no idea Screamers: The Hunting even existed. (Oh wait, yes I did.) Expect the flick's arrival in the next month or two. Probably on Sci-Fi Channel, but I'll just wait for the DVD.
For those of you who spend a great deal of time roaming the halls of indie hipster-ville, you may have noticed that the brief window of empty space prior to awards nominations has been filled with a whole bunch of Prop 8 speech. Not that there's anything wrong with that, of course, since it's an important issue in this country and the very influential "indie community" can help provide a large voice of support against Prop 8. If that's your thing. However, now that awards season is beginning to heat up, Prop 8. is being replaced by "So who got which screener today?", and it's slowly becoming "that thing we got really upset about in November."
Hold on! Funny or Die has come to the rescue with this very funny video called Prop 8 - The Musical, featuring all sorts of comedic talent like Jack Black, John C. Reilly, Craig Robinson, Neil Patrick Harris (who's absolutely hilarious), and many more. Watch as this ensemble cast sings and dances their way through the issue at hand, and maybe you'll learn a bit more about what's at stake here. Enjoy.
It was inevitable that someone would eventually make a documentary about the folks who upload videos to YouTube, and it's kinda fitting that we get to watch a trailer for said doc on, well, YouTube. Directed by Chuck Potter, I Want My Three Minutes Back "examines the phenomenon of online video through the stories of YouTube video creators." I'm not very hip to the whole YouTube scene (then again, I'm not very hip to any scene), so the following names might not mean much to me, but they may mean a whole lot to you. Among the folks who participated in the doc are Tay Zonday (Chocolate Rain), Judson Laipply (Evolution of Dance), Michael Buckley (What The Buck Show), Phillip DeFranco (sxePhil), Christine Gambito (Happy Slip), Terry Roth (Zipster), Katie Graham (K80Blog), Paul Robinette (Renetto) and Travis and Jonathan (Jackie and Dunlap of Red State Update). I Want My Three Minutes Back is currently attempting the film festival route, and depending on the final product this is totally something I could see premiering at SXSW. Check out the trailer below, and answer this: You may waste time watching these YouTube videos, but are you really interested in the people who created them?
Forget about the Clone Wars, because here we have an impressive three-minute trailer for a film that tells of one pen's journey to defend the enslaved pencils from their evil masters, the straight-edge rulers. Described as an "action-packed-epic-romantic-war-thriller -drama-saga starring ... office supplies," The Pen Is Mightier was created for the 2nd Annual Trick 17 Stop Motion Competition where it was awarded the Best Editing prize. According to its little blurb on YouTube, this sucker was "made in 52 hours on 2 dozen redbulls." Now someone get Michael Bay on the horn -- we need to see this epic realized in live-action on the big screen, like, yesterday.
Now that we've entered the final month of the year, look for our site (and several others) to spend some time looking back at 2008. We here at Cinematical will kick off our year-end festivities real soon, but in the meantime Yahoo Movies was first out of the gate with a list of the most popular movie trailers of 2008. Keep in mind this is only according to Yahoo's numbers and represents the most watched, not necessarily the best (we'll have that list later this month).
As expected, a good majority of this list is made up of big summer blockbuster-type stuff, and guess which flick leads the pack? Yup, the one with that damn bat. The top two (Dark Knight and Indiana Jones) don't surprise me in the least, but the next two are ... Twilight (3)and The Incredible Hulk(4)? Really? Those vampires even beat everyone's favorite boy wizard, Harry Potter, who came in at a disappointing sixth on the list, behind Iron Man. Check out the titles below -- anything surprise you? Did you expect Twilight to take the third spot behind whoppers like Dark Knight and Indy? Sound off ...
1. The Dark Knight 2. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull 3. Twilight 4. The Incredible Hulk 5. Iron Man 6. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince 7. Wanted 8. Hancock 9. Sex and the City 10. Kung Fu Panda
Cinematical has received this exclusive clip from the film Let Them Chirp Awhile, directed by Jonathan Blitstein, and starring a pretty impressive cast of indie talent like Justin Rice (Mutual Appreciation), Brendan Sexton III (Welcome to the Dollhouse), Zach Galligan (Gremlins) and Anthony Rapp (Dazed and Confused).
From the synopsis: "Let Them Chirp Awhile follows three twentysomething artists as they juggle their careers, relationships and emotions in New York City. Bobby (Rice) is a struggling screenwriter who tries to get romantically involved with a woman by agreeing to take care of her dog. His friend Scott (Sexton III) is a depressed, womanizing musician with a sweet and innocent girlfriend while Hart, (Galligan) Bobby's nemesis, is a successful playwright whose campy play about 9/11 has won awards and a run at an off-Broadway theater. What begins as a quirky comedy about relationships and writer's block becomes a coming-of-age tale about competition and self-reliance among the "me-generation."
Let Them Chirp Awhile opens in New York on December 5 (Cinema Village), Chicago on December 12 (AMC Loews Pipers Alley) and Los Angeles on January 2 (Laemmle Sunset 5).
Hollywood, please. Leave The Fountain's soundtrack alone!
Somehow, in the course of my writing, I neglected to ever watch the Frost/Nixon trailer, something now rectified thanks to it being attached to Australia. I was into it right up until a familiar theme started playing ... and then I just felt an inexplicable disgust. I wondered what, exactly, Ron Howard (or whoever at Universal put together the trailer) was thinking. Why on earth would you use The Fountain for that movie? What about the music is appropriate for the mood and story you're trying to convey? (A similar problem plagues Mansell's Lux Aeterna piece from Requiem for a Dream -- for every trailer that uses it beautifully, like The Two Towers, there's one that just cheeses it up, like Babylon A.D.)
I confess, I have a weird, protective feeling towards this soundtrack. It's one of my favorite films and scores, one I listen to constantly. I'm convinced that even if you didn't see the film, or hated it, Clint Mansell's score is music enough to stand on its own -- something few soundtracks really are. Honestly, if you don't own it, put it on your Christmas list -- you won't regret it.
The trailer for The Ugly Truth, the romantic comedy starring Gerard Butler and Katherine Heigl is up at the film's official website. The premise of this film sounded downright terrible -- a television producer is forced to deal with a chauvinistic correspondent, who decides to teach her what men want so that she can find love, with the pair discovering "an unexpected result" along the way. Could that result be ... love? Yeah, probably.
But you know what? The trailer's not half bad, and it really does seem like an updated and raunchier Pillow Talk. Plus, it's rated R, which gives me a lot of hope that it could be something akin to a Judd Apatow movie. I really expected a lot of PG-13 chauvanism, not lessons on how to sexily eat a hot dog, or Butler using the phrase "ladygarden."
Maybe I'm just a sucker for a Butler movie after all. I slagged him off a bit last week, but he's just so darn charming, even when he's being a total sleaze. Then again, 2 hours of him saying things like "Get on a Stairmaster!" might be an emotionally unpleasant experience. I like escapism in my movies. If I wanted to hear guys saying that kind of stuff to me, I'd just go to a Denver bar and wait ten minutes. It'd be cheaper than a movie ticket. The Ugly Truth opens April 3rd, 2009.
You know, I was content with thinking that blax-ploitation send-up Black Dynamite was merely a very creative fake trailer (we've included the red-band version post-jump, just to stay safe). But every indication seems to suggest that Michael Jai White's funky fight against The Man is a feature-length affair -- and one that's been accepted to the next Sundance Film Fesitval to boot.
I don't care if Grindhouse didn't make much at the box office, because the world is still better off for having that film (or those films) in it, and I can't help but think there's room on our '70s throwback shelf for a little African-American TNT. Those feeling the vibe might want to check out the official website for a soulful theme that would do Isaac Hayes proud, some fittingly bad-ass posters and anything you might want to know about the film and its influences.
So, without further ado, help yourself to some NSFW goodness after the jump...
It's amazing how much can change in a small handful of years. These days she's bringing back the fashions of the '80s (tight-rolled jeans, Dirty Dancing shorts) as she graces every tabloid and website, works on stage, and hangs with Tom and Suri. But she used to be pretty busy with the holiday that is Thanksgiving. Just five years ago -- Katie Holmes' hair was red, she was young and spunky, and she was starring in Pieces of April. (The trailer is above.)
Usually, holiday-centric films just get the basics -- turkey, family, matriarch in the kitchen. They don't focus on young, punky girls who are determined to bring together estranged family members and make a traditional Thanksgiving meal. Yes, April definitely has the obligatory family trauma to make the drama we have all come to expect, but it also shows just how far and wide tradition can reach, and that not all the cooks in the kitchen are smiling moms in aprons.
Go back a few more years, and you can find a second Thanksgiving-themed film. Change her name to Libbitz, make her the object of Tobey Maguire's affections, and you've got The Ice Storm. Personally, I prefer the latter, but it all boils down to what you're looking for -- the possibility of bringing a family together and lots of food, or retro dysfunction laced with black humor.
Okay, maybe I'm being a bit tough on the film and the trailer. After all, it seems every few years we need one of these films -- the kind that reminds us how hard it is to connect and communicate with the opposite sex. Or do we? Maybe it's the star-studded cast that's turning me off, then, or maybe it's just that I feel like we've been down this road time and time again; relationships are tough, we know, and they're painful, unfortunately -- so does throwing in a blackberry joke and a few lines of dialogue about MySpace make it all seem fresher?
Anyway, there's a new trailer out for the rom-com He's Just Not That Into You (in theaters February 6), which itself is based on a book full of relationship advice and not a real, solid story -- and so what you get is pretty much what you see in this trailer: A mish-mosh of different romantic situations and people (ie: pretty famous faces) looking for advice from other famous faces. "Should I call? When should I call him back?" I don't know, didn't we decide this, like, 37 movies ago? Ben Affleck, Jennifer Aniston, Drew Barrymore, Justin Long and Scarlett Johansson star. Check out the trailer below, and let me know if I'm being too rough on this one.
Reuniting after 2004's Closer, it appears that stars Julia Roberts and Clive Owen, along with Bourne writer Tony Gilroy, are all out to have a bit more fun with Duplicity; the trailer just went up over at Apple.
If anything, it comes off as more of a zippy heist film of sorts than the thriller I took it to be from the earliest synopsis on, even though corporate espionage remains the name of the game. Then again, maybe we're overdue for another Thomas Crown Affair-like outing, and between the cast (which also includes Tom Wilkinson, who was in Gilroy's Michael Clayton, and Paul Giamatti, who shared the screen with Clive in Shoot 'Em Up) and the crew, I'm pretty much sold.
(If Billy Bob Thornton is still in this, though, as Monika reported last January, he sure isn't showing up here, and IMDb remains mum.)
Duplicity opens on March 20th of next year -- about a month after Clive's bang-ier espionage efforts in The International.
It almost pains me to post this simply because The Shawshank Redemption is one of favorite movies of all time, and I hate to promote a video that alters (in a spoof-ish sorta way) the wonderful feelings I have for this film. But it had to be done! Those basterds over at Funny or Die have created a new video that shows you what the last twenty minutes of Shawshank Redemption would've looked like had the flick come out in 1983. Don't worry, it's nowhere near twenty minutes long -- let's just say this little bundle of fun may include an 80's-style montage. If, like me, you're a complete sucker for the ending of this film and draw tears just thinking about it, something tells me this might not be your cup of tea. Not much more to say other than ... thank God this didn't come out in 1983.
A new trailer for J.J. Abrams' Star Trek has just debuted over at AICN, but be warned that it's exactly like the other trailer save for one particular scene that comes right at the end. Yup, I won't tell you exactly what happens, but one look at the image above and you can imagine what you'll see. This particular scene was part of the four Cinematical screened last week, and it takes place on the icy planet where Kirk (Chris Pine) gets sent to. It's there where he meets an older version of Spock (played by Leonard Nimoy) and a younger version of Scotty (Simon Pegg). Check out the trailer over at AICN. Star Trekhits theaters on May 8.
Also, a brand new motion poster for Terminator: Salvation just arrived online (check it out at this link). Really digging these flash posters -- this particular one begins on an overhead shot of Los Angeles before slowly transforming into the face of our favorite robot via explosions and fire. Oh, and don't forget that memorable score. Sweet. Terminator Salvation hits theaters on May 22.
It's pretty much impossible to not have some expectation of a film, whether it comes from buzz and media, your own hopes and tastes, or critical response. Hearing so many great things about Slumdog Millionaire, I couldn't help but check out /film's recent post titled: "Worst Movie Trailer Ever: Slumdog Millionaire's International Trailer." What? That film Kim Voynar called " Boyle's best film to date"? That has a supremely impressive 92% freshness? With the worst movie trailer ever?
Well, I don't know if I would say "worst" ... actually, I think I would -- not because it's the worst ever made, but because a film so good (I hear) should never get a trailer advertisement so bad. I would almost bet that whoever whipped this up actually hated the movie and wanted to curse it. /film said it best: "It feels like a 1980's film advertisement, complete with cheesy voice over, an upbeat song, and the best moments from the film edited into the worst possible order."
Go check it out and then weigh in below (note: we've included the original trailer after the jump): Do you think it does the film justice, or reflects the buzz and appreciation that it has inspired? And more broadly: When else have you seen the Powers That Be of the film advertising world miss the mark. (Like the atrocity that is the DVD cover for Saving Face.)
Raise your hand if you remember the movie Screamers. OK, keep your hand raised if you remember anything other than "Peter Weller," "Philip K. Dick," and "box office failure." Yeah, that's what I thought. It's not that Screamers is that rotten of a sci-fi horror movie ... more that it's just OK. Not awful, but certainly not cool enough to warrant a full-bore cult following. But that hasn't stopped a bunch of Canadian filmmakers from unleashing Screamers: The Hunting..jpg)
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