Author: Bob Westal (Page 38 of 265)

Another Saturday trailer: “The Green Hornet,” the gay panic edition

If there’s one recurring theme in Seth Rogen‘s career so far, is that he thinks that straight male friendships and straight male fears of being perceived or perceiving themselves as not so straight, not-that-there’s-anything-wrong-with-that, are hilarious. He’s right, of course, but anything can get a little old.

Fortunately, that’s not quite only the only arrow in the quiver of this latest trailer which provides us with more gadgetry, more of the very real martial arts skills of Taiwan’s Jay Chou, and a bit more of the apparent go-to-baddie of the next several years, Christoph Waltz. See what you think.

H/t Deadline where the schadenfreude brigade in comments has declared it horrible, horrible, horrible because Seth Rogen lacks abs of steel and because everything is horrible, horrible, horrible — because they said so. Not saying it’s going to be director Michel Gondry’s best, or even necessarily good, but I liked parts of this trailer a lot, particularly the gas gun gag right at the end. Also, I still think Rogen is funny, though that the internalized homophobia shtick feels forced.

“Please, can’t I at least save the hot one?”

In what looks like another engaging science fiction drama from Duncan Jones (“Moon“), Jake Gyllenhaal is forced to relive the same unfortunate eight minutes, via computer-assisted time-travel, in search of a railway bomber in “Source Code.” For some reason, he seems to want to save Michelle Monaghan from her already past death. The rest of the passengers on the train aren’t weighing on his mind as much. Jeffrey Wright and Vera Farmiga costar.

Thanks to noted writer, cartoonist, and filmmaker Peet Gelderblom for this one.

Box office preview: Harry Potter and the potentially record-breaking weekend

Daniel Radcliffe and Emma Watson in

Like Stephen Colbert’s frequently posed query about George W. Bush, the question for this weekend is: will “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part One” have a great box office weekend, or the greatest of all time — not adjusted for inflation, of course. Short of the kind of the Hitlerian magic-driven apocalypse that Harry, Hermione Granger, and Ron Weasley try so hard and so emotionally to avert in the final Potter volume, there is certainly no way it doesn’t top the weekend. “Hallows” has already sold out a bunch of midnight shows already happening nationwide as I write this, according to Ben Fritz. With decent-to-good reviews and the legions of Potter fans still growing, the $400 million total gross figure posited by jolly Carl DiOrio seems more than reasonable. As for the totals of the 3D second half of the conclusion of the saga coming this summer, the sky appears to be the limit.

Russell Crowe in The only other major release that dares to rear its head this weekend is a potentially canny bit of counterprogramming. The very grown-up oriented, if not necessarily all that grown-up, “The Next Three Days” is a sort of character-study-cum-prison-break tale starring Russell Crowe and written and directed by Paul Haggis (“Crash“). It’s getting ho-hum reviews both over at our linked-to-above sister-site and elsewhere. DiOrio’s talking “teens” as in millions, not viewers.

Among limited releases, this weekend sees significant expansions of two bits of prime Oscar bait based on real life ordeals. Taking a look at the Box Office Mojo theater count, we have “127 Hours,” about a guy who sawed off his own arm and “Fair Game,” about a power couple whose (metaphorical) legs were cut off by the Bush-Cheney administration, adding a number of screens. Meanwhile, this weekend also sees the 3-screen debut of that ultimate rarity — a feel-good movie about politics showing that, sometimes, ordinary people really triumph in a democracy. What will a disbelieving world make of “Made in Dagenham“?

Sally Hawkins, Bob Hoskins, and Geraldine James in

Once again, it’s Red-Band trailer time: “Love and Other Drugs”

I don’t know whether it’s the liberating effect of the magic naughty NSFW red band, but this trailer is a lot more fun than other trailers for this possible awards contender I vaguely recall seeing and ignoring.

“Love and Other Drugs” is the latest from the reliably engaging and Oscar-friendly, but also wildly uneven director Edward Zwick (“Glory,” “The Last Samurai,” “Courage Under Fire,” “Blood Diamond“), who sadly tends to sell his own material short but occasionally makes really solid movies. The director’s latest has Zwick getting closer to his “30 Something” roots with an apparently fact based tale of a horndog Viagra salesmen played by Jake Gyllenhaal, who might have been born for a part like this, and Anne Hathaway who, whether she means to or not, presents an outstanding argument for monogamy.


Love and Other Drugs – Exclusive Red Band Trailer – Watch more Movie Trailers

Another trailer: Close encounters of the cowboy kind

Considering the title and the involvement of director Jon Favreau, whose pre-“Iron Man” background was mostly in comedy, I had assumed it was going to be a science-fiction comedy along the lines of “Men in Black.” I was apparently wrong. Anyhow, watch as Daniel Craig, Harrison Ford, and a bunch of mysterious whatsits face off in the first trailer for the long-awaited, and apparently quite tense, “Cowboys and Aliens.”

Speaking of tension and Harrison Ford, I’m a little bit afraid to watch what might become Mr. Ford’s rather legendary “Conan” appearance last night, in which most viewers agreed Ford was in some way altered — perhaps by booze, perhaps something prescribed as medicinal.

All I can say is that, if true, it wouldn’t be the first time. L.A. science fiction geeks of a certain age remember a radio interview given by a young Ford and Mark Hamill before the release of the very first “Star Wars” in which the twosome, who apparently were convinced they were the stars of a movie that might, at best, become an obscure cult item, were fairly obviously under the giggly influence of some pretty good cannabis. The late host of Pacifica station KPFK’s  “Hour 25” radio show, Mike Hodel, often said it was a low-point of the program.

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