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.
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.
Time for a quick “Song of the Day”. This time the song chosen is courtesy of Kari Kimmel and her country-inspired song “Black”.
The song could be recently heard as part of the San Diego Comic-Con exclusive Season 3 trailer for AMC’s The Walking Dead. It begins playing a little past the halfway mark in the trailer as David Morrissey’s character of the governor introduces both Michonne and Andrea to the safe haven that is Woodbury. As fans of the comic book will attest to this town of Woodbury becomes a major player in the original comic book source and should remain as important in the upcoming season.
I’ve never heard of Kari Kimmel until I heard this song played as part of the trailer, but that’s the great thing about music. One never knows when one will discover something great to listen to and the country-blues sound of Kimmel’s song is right up my alley when it comes to what I enjoy listening to.
Black
when everything has turned to black
you don’t know where to go
you need something to justify your soul
silences are broken
confidence is gone
when everything you’re holdin onto falls
(yeah)
every body’s selling truths
on every corner now
they wait until fear has knocked you down
all the rules are changin now
you’re livin in sin
everything around you’s cavin in
and all you hold onto’s slipping
like water through your hands…
BREAK
CHORUS
And you sing- lalala, lalala, lalala
far off in the distance
somewhere you can’t see
allegences have formed your destiny
opposition all around
feedin off your soul
trying hard to swallow up your hope
and demons all around you waiting
for you to sell your soul
Halo 4looks to be another mega-blockbuster hit for Microsoft and the Xbox 360. Every sequel in this critically-acclaimed video game franchise has always had some very well-made (award-winning as well) live-action tv spots and trailers to help market each title weeks prior to it’s release. For the 4th sequel to the series things haven’t changed and Microsoft looks to expand on their popular live-action shorts by financing a mini-series of live-action shorts that tells the events that will lead up to the story of Halo 4. The mini-series will also introduce a character that will tie-in to the game.
Forward Unto Dawn is the name of this live-action mini-series and will air weeks before the release of the game on both Machinima.com and Halo Waypoint on the Xbox Live.
It’s one thing to create a couple of live-action trailers, but this latest marketing blitz by Microsoft Game Studios looks to take things to a whole new level. Fans of the franchise are still nursing the disappointment over the cancelled attempt to create a Hollywood blockbuster film-adaptation of the Haloseries. A film adaptation that had some major heavy-hitters in its corner from Peter Jackson, Neill Blomkamp and WETA Studios. Forward Unto Dawn (depending on its overall quality and how well the public receives it) may help bring new interest in finally getting the live-action film-adaptation up and running again.
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.
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.
One thing that seemed destined the moment RZA (with his hip-hop group the Wu-Tang Clan) arrived on the scene in the early 1990’s was him finally making a martial arts film. Not just a martial arts film, but a wuxia kung fu film that he and the other in the Wu-Tang Clan had watched as kids and cotinued to obsess over as adults. RZA’s own brand of hip=hop was infused with many sound bites and track beats from the classic kung fu flicks of the 70’s and 80’s. Even the group’s name was taken from one of those very kung fu classics, Shaolin and the Wu-Tang.
Now RZA has teamed up with genre filmmaker Eli Roth to make his dream to a reality with the upcoming martial arts film The Man with the Iron Fistswhich RZA has directed from a story written by both him and Roth. It also stars RZA (making him a triple-threat in this production) with Russell Crowe, Lucy Liu, Rick Yune, Jamie Chung, Daniel Bautista and MMA fighter Cung Le. The fight choreography was handled by renowned martial arts fight choreographer Corey Yeun.
The first official trailer has now been released and it’s in awesome Red Band which shows just a hint of how ultra-violent the film will end up being. All I can say is that near the end of the trailer we get eyeballs!
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.
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.
I have to admit that I’m not a huge fun of Tim Burton’s and I found Dark Shadows to be a bit forgettable but I am looking forward to seeing Frankenweenie. To be honest, I suspect that Burton’s vision is better translated in animated form and, if nothing else, it looks like this film might inspire me to shed more than a few tears.
Here’s the 2nd trailer for Tim Burton’s Frankenweenie.
