Hey, who doesn’t love spiders?
With the exception of the video’s thumbnail image, this trailer is actually pretty smart about not showing us the actual spiders. I wish more trailers would take this approach and not give away the entire movie.
Abyssal Spider is scheduled to be released on September 11th.
Awwwwww!
Dinosaurs!
Now admittedly, this old dinosaur isn’t running for President but he still looks like he’s got a lot to say. Or eat. Well, he has at least four people to eat, judging from this trailer.
Anyway, enjoy the trailer for Claw:
In Let Him Go, Kevin Costner plays a retired sheriff who tries to rescue his grandson from a family that’s living off the grid.
This looks like a typical Costner film. It’s always easy to imagine Kevin Costner as being the pickup driver who pulls up next to you at the gas station and who says, in the most disappointed of tones, “Your back tire is low, did you know that?” As I’ve said in the past, I’ve never been a huge Kevin Costner fan just because he seems like he’d be a pain to live next door to. “When you mowed your yard, you clipped some of my grass, did you know that?” “I was up all night listening to your music. I work in the morning, did you know that?” And so on and so on.
That said, those of you who are into modern day westerns might get a kick out of this film. Here’s the trailer:
Over the past few years, I’ve seen some extremely depressing animated films.
I cried during the first fifteen minutes of Up. I cried during the final ten minutes of Toy Stories 3 and 4. Actually, now that I think about it, I think I’ve sobbed through every single PIXAR film, with the exception of the movies about the talking cars and the one about the good dinosaur. My point is that I’m not one of those people who automatically assumes that, just because a film is animated, it’s necessarily going to make me laugh. I fully understand that not all animated films are for children and that a cartoon can be just as serious and dark as a live action movie.
That said, I don’t think anything could have prepared for the 1986 film, When The Wind Blows. To say that When The Wind Blows is bleak would be an understatement. Is When The Wind Blows a depressing film? Yes, you could say that. It’s a film about an elderly couple facing the end of the world with optimism and a never-ending faith that things will turn out okay. This is the most trusting couple in the world and, in the end, they end up crawling into their own separate potato sacks, where they struggle to recite the Lord’s Prayer as they both die a slow and painful death. It’s not just that When The Wind Blows is depressing. It’s also that it’s a film that takes place in a world bereft of hope. It’s a film that has a message but, at the same time, it also seems to be convinced that it’s a message to which no one will bother to listen.
Jim and Hilda Bloggs (voiced by John Mills and Dame Peggy Ashcroft) are a loving couple who own a rather nice cottage in rural England. They’re very content in their life and more than a bit complacent. They have faith that both the milk and the paper will be delivered every morning. Hilda has a nice garden going. Jim regularly takes the bus down to the library, where he reads the newspapers and picks up pamphlets about what to do in case of a nuclear attack. When the news comes over the radio that Britain will probably be attacked in 3 days, Jim industrially sets out to make a shelter for himself and Hilda.
It’s not much of a shelter. In fact, it’s really just two doors leaning against a wall. However, Jim and Hilda are simply following the instructions that they found in a government-printed pamphlet and both of them have a good deal of faith in the “power that be.” As they wait for the war to break out, they remember just how much they enjoyed World War II. Everyone was in it together during World War II! And Jim has faith that everyone will continue to be in it together during this latest war.
The bomb eventually drops. The animation, which previously had the feel of an old school Christmas special, becomes dark and ominous as the world around Jim and Hilda’s house erupts into flames. Jim and Hilda hide in their little shelter. Though the pamphlets say that they shouldn’t leave the shelter for at least two weeks, Jim and Hilda leave within a few hours. They walk around outside and look at the charred remains of the garden. Hilda wonders what fallout looks like. Jim isn’t sure.
And, at this point, we know they’re both as good as dead. (Interestingly enough, it does appear that they survived longer than their neighbors, who perhaps did not hide behind a door.) The rest of the film is essentially watching Jim and Hilda waste away while remaining convinced that someone from the government is going to come and save them. You find yourself wondering if the two of them are really as naive as they seem or if they’re both in a shared denial about what’s happened. It’s probably a combination of the two.
It’s an undeniably effective film. It not only works as an anti-war film but also as an anti-government film. Both the Left and the Right will find things to appreciate in the film’s story. But my God is it ever a depressing movie. It’s a well-made film that I’ll probably never voluntarily watch again.
The Personal History of David Copperfield has finally made it over here to the U.S. It opened in the UK back in January and its release here in the States has been continually delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic. Originally, it was supposed to open in May. Then it got moved back to August 14th and then it was moved back another two weeks to August 28th.
Personally, I’m really looking forward to seeing the film. Apparently, there was some controversy over the casting of the lead role but I personally think that casting the terrifically talented Dev Patel as David Copperfield is a way to bring some new life to an old story. The film was directed by Armando Iannucci, who, along with creating Thick of It and Veep, also directed The Death of Stalin, one of the best films of the past ten years.
This featurette about the film was released today and here it is:
When I first heard that there was a documentary coming out about the final days of Robin Williams, I feared for the worst. I worried that it would be one of those exploitative programs that featured reenactments and tabloid reporters sharing every sordid rumor that they had ever heard about the man.
However, the trailer for Robin’s Wish seems to indicate that the film is actually meant to be both a tribute to Williams and an educational tool about Lewy body dementia, the disease that is believed to have led to him ending his life. Let’s hope that it is.
Robin’s Wish will be released on September 1st.
On the Rocks is the latest film from Sofia Coppola. Featuring Bill Murray, Rashida Jones, and Marlon Wayans, it’s a film about a daughter who teams up with her impulsive father to discover whether or not her husband is cheating on her.
In other words, it’s a Sofia Coppola film.
And I can’t wait to see it!
On The Rocks will be released at some point in October. Here’s the trailer:
Kenneth Branagh is back with another Agatha Christie adaptation and, again, he’s brought along an all-star cast. I will definitely see Death on the Nile because seriously, how can you go wrong with a murder mystery featuring Gal Gabot, Armie Hammer, and Russell Brand? It should be fun if nothing else.
The movie comes out on October 23rd and here’s the trailer:
It seems like whenever there’s any sort of disaster, people are advised to seek shelter. Often, if the disaster is national news, people are told to take shelter in their basement, as if everyone in the world has a basement. This is a bit of a pet peeve of mine because I live in North Texas, where the land is completely flat and no one has a basement, a cellar, or any other sort of underground shelter. (We also don’t have mud rooms and, in fact, I’m not even sure what a mud room is.)
That said, there’s a part of me that’s glad that it would be impossible for me to take shelter because, from what I’ve seen in the movies, it appears that spending months in a shelter can actually be worse than dying in a disaster.
Take the 2011 film, The Divide, for instance.
The Divide opens with several people watching while a mushroom cloud blooms over New York City. Eight of those people all end up taking shelter in the same basement. While that means that they don’t get incinerated by the nuclear blast, it also means that they now have to figure out how to live together. That’s not going to be easy because it doesn’t take long to realize that none of these people should be anywhere near each other.
For instance, there’s Mickey (Michael Biehn). Mickey’s the one who built the shelter. He says that he specifically built it so that, in case of a nuclear war or a terrorist attack, he could safely sit underground and laugh at everyone dying above him. That’s not a nice sentiment but Mickey is played by Michael Biehn so he’s still one of the more likable characters in the film.
There’s Josh (Milo Ventimiglia) and his brother Adrien (Ashton Holmes) and their friend Bobby (Michael Eklund), three idiots who are clearly destined to end up going crazy before the ordeal is over.
There’s Eva (Lauren German) and her boyfriend, Sam (Ivan Gonzalez), who are both obviously destined to be the voices of reason to which no one is going to listen.
And then there’s Marilyn (Rosanna Arquette) and her daughter (Abby Thickson), who are there because it’s not a shelter-movie without a child being put in jeopardy.
Lastly, there’s Devlin (Courtney B. Vance), who is there to be the older authority figure who ultimately fails to exercise much authority.
After an effectively chilling scene where the basement is briefly invaded by some mysterious men in Hazmat suits, The Divide settles down to be a fairly predictable and, to be honest, rather unpleasant examination of a group people going crazy from the stress of being trapped together. It may seem odd to complain that a film about the aftermath of a nuclear apocalypse was unpleasant and I guess it is. But The Divide runs a little over two hours and it’s so relentlessly bleak and everyone is ultimately so nasty that it becomes a bit of a chore to sit through. By the time the torture scenes begin, The Divide has slipped into Hostel territory and it’s hard not to feel that the film is being grotesque simply for the sake of being grotesque.
That said, the film does have its strength. The shelter is an effectively claustrophobic location and Michael Biehn does what he can with the role of Mickey. When some of the characters end up getting radiation sickness, it creates some effectively scary visuals. I mean, if you ever thought it would be cool to poison yourself with radiation, this film will change your mind. That’s a good thing, I suppose.
The Divide is a very long movie about some very unpleasant people in an even more unpleasant situation. It’s well-made but not particularly entertaining to watch. In the end, it’s easy to feel that everyone would have been better off just staying above ground and getting it over with.
This one is coming out on December 8th. Basically, a bunch of doctor witness an illegal robot raid and then end up getting pursued by the robots themselves. My money is on the robots but we’ll see who wins in December.
Here’s the trailer:
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Through the Shattered Lens 