How much is Ghostbusters a part of the American culture? It’s such a part that the decoration pictured above was the most popular thing in the neighborhood last Halloween. All through the month of October, people young and old drove up and down the street just to see the Stay Puff Marshmallow Man.
Well, come August 29th, those same people will have a chance to see him again because, in honor of the film’s 30th anniversary, Ghostbusters is going to be re-released. And, speaking as someone who has only gotten to see Ghostbusters on television, I can’t wait to watch it on the big screen.
And, since I love trailer, what better way to commemorate the re-release of Ghostbusters than be sharing the trailer?
So, apparently, somebody out there was very smart and realized that, as far as titles go, Hercules: The Thracian Wars was incredibly unwieldy. As a result, the film’s title has been shortened to simply Hercules, which is what everyone was going to call it anyway.
(Except for maybe the people of Thrace…)
Having watched this trailer, I really can’t say that I am in any way excited about the prospect of watching Hercules. I like Dwayne Johnson and this would seem to be a perfect role for him but the trailer just feels so generic that it could just as easily been a trailer for The Legend of Hercules.
Or, to put it another way, if I hadn’t already known that this film was directed by Brett Ratner, I would have guessed on the basis of the trailer.
Personally, I’d like to see a movie about Pandora and the box.
Here’s the second trailer for the 7th season of True Blood. It appears that the world might be ending but that’s not going stop Lafayette from going out with style.
Just put yourself in my 4 inch heels for a moment.
You’re a film blogger who, though her tastes may be quirky, can usually defend her opinions fairly well. You make an effort to see films that others may have missed and you pride yourself on your willingness to take and defend unpopular positions.
And let’s say that you’ve defied the conventional wisdom of so many of your fellow bloggers by declaring that Nicolas Cage is still a good actor and he still has something to offer the film world, beyond bad movies and weird performances. You’ve even reviewed a film called Joe and triumphantly declared that this film proves that Nicolas Cage is a “great actor.”
And maybe, when certain people on Facebook laughed at you for using the terms “great” and “Nicolas Cage” in the same sentence, you argued that Cage is about to make a Matthew McConaughey-style comeback. How? By playing challenging roles in intelligent indie films. You might have even said, “McConaughey had his Killer Joeand Nicolas Cage has Joe.”
And then this trailer for an upcoming film is released:
Nic, I still believe in you but, oh my God, you do test me sometimes.
Here’s the official trailer for Kill The Messenger, a film that has been getting some early Oscar buzz.
Apparently based on a true story, Kill The Messenger is about a reporter (played by Jeremy Renner) who writes a story accusing the government of selling cocaine in order to fund right-wing guerillas in Central America. Some awards bloggers have predicted that Jeremy Renner will be nominated for best actor, largely because he’s Jeremy Renner. Judging from the trailer, it looks like Renner gets to be intense and deliver a lot of passionate monologues, which is usually a pretty good strategy as far as getting Academy recognition is concerned.
That said, the trailer feels just a little bit generic. In fact, as I watched it, I was reminded of last year’s ill-fated box office bomb, The Fifth Estate. Every year, there’s an overtly political film that’s expected to change the world and win a lot of awards that then ends up sinking into obscurity because most people don’t go to the movies to learn a lesson. They go in order to escape from the very world being detailed in films like The Fifth Estate and, possibly, Kill The Messenger.
Will Kill The Messenger be this year’s Fifth Estate?
I really can’t claim to have the slightest idea what’s going on in this trailer but I still think it’s adorable, nonetheless. This film is scheduled to be released in November and it’ll be interesting to see how it compares to its potential Oscar rivals, The Lego Movie and How To Train Your Dragon 2.
Not only is he a great actor who can seemingly play just about any role but, by all reports, he’s also apparently a pretty nice guy off-screen as well. He has such a natural and likable screen presence that he can even make a potentially problematic film, like last year’s Flight, compelling and watchable. My friend Jake Moore once said that Denzel was the closest thing that we have to a modern-day Jimmy Stewart and I happen to agree.
Yes, I love Denzel. I just wish he wasn’t always killing people in the movies.
Don’t get me wrong. Denzel makes for a believable action hero and it makes sense that, if your hero is going to be killing everyone he meets, you would want him to be played by an actor who can actually be likable while murdering.
It’s just that Denzel Washington is such a good actor that sometimes, it’s a shame to see him in generic action films where he often seems to be playing characters that could be played by just about any actor. Washington always gives a good performance and brings a lot of charm to the proceedings but that doesn’t change the fact that his role in Safe House could have just as easily been played by Jason Statham.
Add to that, I’m growing bored with film violence. Whenever I see a trailer for a new action film, I often have the same reaction that I had when I first saw the trailer for Jack Reacher. “Really?” I think to myself, “Am I supposed to pretend to be excited about this?”
My feelings aside, it doesn’t look like things are going to change anytime soon. And perhaps as proof, here’s the trailer for Denzel Washington’s new film, The Equalizer. Don’t get me wrong. I’m sure Denzel gives a great performance here and the film might even be entertaining when taken on its own terms.
Here’s the trailer for Woody Allen’s latest film Magic In The Moonlight.
For the longest time, a lot of film bloggers (myself included) have been predicting that Emma Stone might be Oscar-nominated for this film. This was largely because actresses who appear in Woody Allen films always seem to end up getting nominated and we all know that Emma Stone is going to be nominated at some point in her career.
However, having now seen the trailer, I’m no longer quite as sure. It looks like it’s going to be a perfectly charming little comedy and the trailer is gorgeous to look at but the film itself doesn’t look like it’s going to be the type to resonate as strongly as Blue Jasmine or Midnight In Paris.
On the plus side, it doesn’t look like it’s going to be another To Rome With Love, either.
Jean-Luc Godard, that iconic and frustrating pioneer of the French New Wave, has a new film. Goodbye to Language is 70 minutes long and it’s in 3D. Knowing Godard (but does anyone really know Godard?), it’s probably going to be a film that’s going to be loved by many and hated by even more.
Goodbye to Language premiered at Cannes yesterday and, perhaps surprisingly given Godard’s lack of concern with traditional narrative, much of the response has been both positive and baffled. Speaking as someone who hasn’t seen the film but who is somewhat familiar with some of Godard’s films, I think the best review so far was posted by A.A. Dowd over at the A.V. Club. (Dowd also makes a very important point about why it is necessary to properly reflect on a film before passing judgment and why so many other critics fail to do just that. Seriously, read the article.) Dowd usually gives letter grades to the films that he reviews. For Goodbye to Language, his grade is “?????”
All of this, needless to say, makes me very much want to see Goodbye to Language for myself. Though I haven’t been able to find a release date, the film is apparently being distributed by 20th Century Fox so maybe it will eventually make its way over here to the States. (That said, I’m a bit worried that even if it does, it will only be shown in New York and Los Angeles and will never make down to my part of the country. There seems to be an elitist belief that people in middle America aren’t interested in seeing the latest from Jean-Luc Godard and, unfortunately, that’s probably true…)
But until it does, here’s the NSFW trailer for Goodbye to Language. Can you figure out what’s going on? I can’t and I speak French. But that impenetrability is a part of what makes me want to see the film.
And here’s a version of the trailer with English subtitles.
Through the Shattered Lens 