Trailer: Dexter Season 7

Posted on August 16, 2012 by Lisa Marie Bowman

I have to admit that I wasn’t a huge fan of the previous season of Dexter. Colin Hanks made for a boring villain, the secret behind the character played by Edward James Olmos was obvious from his second appearance, and, for the first time, Michael C. Hall seemed to bored with the title role. Yes, the sixth season of Dexter was a huge disappointment but it did end on a good note, with Deb discovering that her brother is a murderer.

(Of course, in the Dexter novels, Deb discovered the truth about her brother a long time ago. Plus, Rita’s still alive…)

The question is how will the show handle this change in Dexter and Deb’s relationship. (And will the show continue to explore the idea of Deb being in love with Dexter or will that be one of those plot points that will be quickly forgotten before it can do permanent damage?) Season 6 did not leave me with much hope for the future of Dexter but I’m still going to gife the new season of Dexter a chance and hope for the best.

This just-released trailer for the seventh season of Dexter gives us a hint of how the show’s new season might play out.

Trailer: Skyfall

Posted on July 31, 2012 by Lisa Marie Bowman

The Dark Agent Rises.

That’s what some people are already calling the upcoming James Bond film, Skyfall. Based on the just-released official trailer, you can see why.

Despite the fact that the trailer seems to highlight everything that annoys me about Daniel Craig’s interpretation of James Bond as being a humorless thug (and yes, I know that’s the way he was presented in the original novels but dammit, I don’t care!), I still have to admit that Skyfall looks like it’ll be a more memorable film than Quantum of Solace. Javier Bardem seems like a perfect choice to play a Bond villain, though I want to slap whoever did that to his hair.

Skyfall will open in the U.S. on my birthday, November 9th.

Trailer: The Dark Room

Posted on July 26, 2012 by Lisa Marie Bowman

No offense to anyone who read or writes for this site but if I have to choose between watching The Dark Knight and the Room, I’m going to choose the Room every time. It’s not that I don’t think that Christopher Nolan’s Batman films make for a good trilogy. I enjoyed all three of the Dark Knight films. It’s just that The Room is a film that I can watch over and over and over again. This is largely because The Room is only 90 minutes long whereas the Dark Knight trilogy is closer to 8 hours.

Anyway, for those of you who simply cannot accept The Room’s superiority to the Dark Knight, check out this trailer for The Dark Room.

Trailer: Life of Pi

Posted on July 25, 2012 by Lisa Marie Bowman

One of the upcoming films that everyone’s been predicting will be a major Oscar contender is Ang Lee’s Life of Pi. To a certain extent, I thought some of that hype might be because everyone knows that, even though Lee was named best director, Crash totally stole the award for best picture from Brokeback Mountain.

(Seriously, even my cousins from South Texas — the majority of whom wear cowboy hats and take the term “real man” quite seriously — have commented to me that Brokeback Mountain was a better film than Crash. And you know what? I agree with them but I also think that Capote was a better film than both of them.)

However, I’ve just seen the trailer for Life of Pi was I have to admit that I was blown away and, by the end of it, I was nearly moved to tears. In many ways, this trailer feels less like an advertisement for a movie and more like a touching and powerful short film that could easily stand alone as a work of art. After seeing this trailer — despite the fact that, as I’ve probably mentioned before, I’m just a little bit terrified of the water (or, more specifically, drowning in the water) — I can say that Life of Pi is a film that I’m very much looking forward to seeing.

Trailer: Man Of Steel (dir. by Zack Snyder)

Posted on July 21, 2012 by Lisa Marie Bowman

I have to admit that I don’t really get the appeal of Superman. From what little I’ve seen of him, he appears to be capable of doing just about anything and therefore, he’s always struck me as being a little bit boring.

Let’s put it like this — if you’re going to spend all of your time wearing a costume, then you better have some pretty big and sexy issues to deal with. Just being super isn’t going to cut it.

That said, Zack Snyder’s upcoming Man Of Steel will apparently attempt to do for Superman what the Dark Knight did for Batman.

Personally, I would rather that Snyder devoted his time to making a sequel to his underrated masterpiece, Sucker Punch.

Trailer: The Master (dir. by Paul Thomas Anderson)

Posted on July 21, 2012 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Finally!

Following the release of two intriguingly vague teasers, the official trailer for Paul Thomas Anderson’s upcoming film, The Master, has been released!

There’s not another film coming out this fall that I’m looking forward to seeing as much as The Master. And that’s saying something, considering that the fall is also going to see the release of The Hobbit and Django Unchained.

I’ll just let the trailer speak for itself.

Trailer: Jack Reacher

Posted on July 10, 2012 by Lisa Marie Bowman

So, when Jeff and I went and saw To Rome With Love on Friday, one of the trailers that played before the film was for the upcoming Tom Cruise action film, Jack Reacher. The audience started snickering the minute that Cruise first showed up in the trailer and was openly laughing by the time Cruise was saying, “Remember, you wanted this.” I’ll admit that, while I didn’t laugh, I did smirk a little because, seriously, we all know that Cruise has probably said the exact same thing at least once to Katie Holmes.

On a perhaps more serious note, the laughter highlighted the central question of Tom Cruise’s career right now. Will audiences continue to take seriously a man who apparently accepts the existence of Evil Lord Xenu and who strikes many people are being just a little bit creepy? True, it didn’t keep people from seeing the latest Mission Impossible film but then again, that film was sold less as a Tom Cruise film and more as the continuation of an established franchise.

I’ve never read any of the Jack Reacher books but they’ve apparently got a pretty devoted fan base* and, just to judge from some of the comments that I’ve seen online, a lot of that base is not that happy about Cruise playing the title character. Apparently, the literary Jack Reacher stands 6’5 and Tom Crusie … well, Tom Cruise doesn’t. In fact, Cruise appears to be the shortest person in this trailer.

Paramount is planning to release Jack Reacher on December 21st, presumably hoping to draw in filmgoers who are looking for an alternative to snooty Oscar contenders.

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*Apparently, Stephen King is a huge Jack Reacher fan which, to be honest, doesn’t fill me with hope. Just judging from his occasional columns for Entertainment Weekly, Stephen King has terrible taste.

Lawless: Trailer #2

Posted on July 6, 2012 by Lisa Marie Bowman

As I’ve mentioned on this site before, Lawless is the movie that I’m most excited about seeing later this year.

It’s not necessarily that I think it’s going to be a great film or because I’ve suddenly managed to figure out the appeal of Shia LeBouf (though he does look about as appealing as I’ve ever seen him look in the previews for this film).

No, I’m looking forward to Lawless because it looks like it’s going to be a stylish and sexy throwback to the classic gangster films of the past. As I’ve been saying for a few months now, Lawless captured me the minute I saw Gary Oldman firing that tommy gun and smirking at the camera. Add to that, this film’s original trailer also featured Tom Hardy at his Tom Hardiest and Guy Pearce with one of the weirdest movie haircuts (not to mention accents) ever.

(Plus, the film apparently features dancing! Yay!)

A second trailer for Lawless was released earlier today and you can view it below. While this second trailer contains many scenes that should be familiar from the first trailer, it also puts a lot more emphasis on the film’s violence in general and Tom Hardy in specific. I have to wonder if that has anything to do with all the buzz surrounding Hardy’s villanous performance in the upcoming Dark Knight Rises.

Lawless opens August 31st and I know I’ll be there.

Trailer: Anna Karenina

Posted on July 2, 2012 by Lisa Marie Bowman

So, earlier today, I saw a movie called Seeking A Friend For The End Of The World and … well, it wasn’t very good.

But, fortunately, it was preceded by a trailer for a film that’s got me very excited about the future of 2012. That film is Joe Wright’s adaptation of Leo Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina. Just judging from the trailer, it looks like this is going to be a visually sumptuous and intriguing adaptation of Tolstoy’s novel.

It doesn’t hurt that Joe Wright’s last film was my personal favorite of 2011, Hanna.

2 Trailers: The Sessions and Alex Cross

Posted on June 30, 2012 by Lisa Marie Bowman

A frequently asked question: When is John Hawkes going to win an Oscar?

Ever since I first saw Winter’s Bone back in 2010, I’ve wondered just when exactly John Hawkes is going to finally win an Oscar. Unfortunately, he did not win for Winter’s Bone and his chilling work in Martha Marcy May Marlene was ignored. This year, however, he’s back with The Sessions. In this film, Hawkes plays a 38 year-old man who is confined to an iron lung and who is attempting to lose his virginity with the help of William H. Macy and Helen Hunt.

The Sessions has been getting a lot of buzz since it premiered on Sundance. That, quite frankly, makes me wary because I’ve come to learn that you have to take Sundance acclaim with a grain of salt. If Cannes is where people go to be insanely critical, Sundance has a deserved reputation for going overboard when it comes to praise. However, I will take a chance on anything featuring John Hawkes and, just judging from the trailer, it looks like both The Sessions and John Hawkes could be contenders when it comes time to hand out Oscar nominations.

A less frequently asked question: When is Tyler Perry going to win an Oscar?

Most people would probably answer that question by replying, “Never,” and they could very well be correct. I have to admit that I’ve never actually sat through any of Tyler’s Perry’s films and, to be honest, I’ve never really had any desire to. That said, I’ve always been fascinated by Perry’s success and I can’t help but admire the fact that he’s not shy when it comes to self-promotion.

In the upcoming Alex Cross, Tyler Perry will step into a role that was previously played by Morgan Freeman and, if nothing else, it’ll add fuel to the debate as to whether or not Perry is a legitimate acting talent or just a smart businessman. To be honest, the trailer for Alex Cross plays less like a movie trailer and more like a commercial for a movie on Chiller. I think that’s largely because of the presence of TV-movie mainstays like Matthew Fox and John C. McGinley. Still, chances are, Alex Cross will be the first exposure that I (and a lot of other people) get to Tyler Perry as an actor as opposed to just a personality.