t r a i l e r s - h y p e

Hollywood has a way with hype during the holidays or big events. Whether it's releasing teasers during the Super Bowl or bombarding and repeating trailers everywhere during the July 4th. It seems that this winter holidays we are treated to next year's 'must see' sequels, prequels & adaptation blockbusters. From 'Prometheus' to 'The Dark Knight Rises'.

It seems that these 'event-trailers' are tied to films that don't belong to the same studios. As in, 20th Century Fox's 'Prometheus' with Sony Pictures' 'The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo' & Warner Bros.' The Dark Knight Rises (trailer 1) is the opening act to Paramount Pictures' Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol. Even the 6-8 minute prologue is screened before the IMAX version of Mission: Impossible. Which is reasonable, seeing how 'Mission' is the only film to open in the IMAX format this month and The Dark Knight Rises has portions of the film shot in the same format.

Non-Spoiler-
The 6 to 8 minute prologue which gives us a taste of The Dark Knight Rises, includes a scene that I think belongs somewhere in the first 20 minutes of the film. Afterwards it just gives us brief glimpses of thrilling scenes from the film, some not in trailer no.1. Where the montage of clips failed for the prologue actually succeeded in the actual trailer. In trailer no. 1, the clips are voiced over with Ann Hathaway's Selina Kyle confronting Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale) of what's to come to the 1% (there seems to be heavy references to Occupy Wall Street.)

This comes in the style of most Christopher Nolan films, where dialogue is placed over a dramatic montage. A device he uses at the end of 'The Dark Knight', 'The Prestige', 'Memento', etc. Unfortunately, trailer no. 1 falls into the traps of big Hollywood action/comic book movie trailers. Apparently, it's protocol for these genre trailers to include an epic CGI effects laden scene. Where footballer Hines Ward runs through the field not realizing his playmates tumble into a massive crater that is formed in a series of explosions.



The trailer for Peter Jackson's 'The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey' will open before his co-production with Steven Spielberg of 'The Adventures of TinTin'. The trailer seems to be a warm reminder of what 'The Lord of the Rings' trilogy looked like and how the next two movies in the world of Tolkien's Hobbits will be. Returning are Cate Blanchett, Elijah Wood, Andy Serkis, Ian Holm & Ian McKellen.

This trailer works because it is familiar with it's fan base and it doesn't exclude newcomers to the world of the One Ring mythology because this is the prequel to 'The Lord of the Rings' trilogy. The trailer starts with Ian Holm's Bilbo Baggins explaining to Frodo that he hasn't told him the full story of his adventures with Gandalf. Then the trailer proceeds to flashback to the young Bilbo Baggins this time played by Martin Freeman (The Office UK, Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.) Gandalf introduces us to new characters that will join in their party, cut to a scene of the only human singing and the rest follows, then a montage of their journey (just like old times.)



Ridley Scott's highly anticipated return to science fiction since 'Blade Runner' with 'Prometheus' has been cleverly teased throughout this past week, with daily countdown teasers and twitter tweets of images from the film. Although the film has not debuted online yet (it is said to go online today), it has already screened in front of 'The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo' since December 20th. I'm planning to catch the film tonight, so I will be posting an update on my review of the trailer.


Courtesy of Coming Soon.net


Other trailers that have all the hype following them are 'Clash of the Titans' sequel 'Wrath of the Titans' , Adam Shankman's film adaptation of Broadway hit 'Rock of Ages', Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones' return in Men in Black 3 & Dwanye 'The Rock' Johnson's turn in 'G.I. Joe - Retaliation'. These trailers don't offer anything special, they feature your typical spectacle of action, movie stars and over the top music. One thing is clear from all of this, next year promises to be bigger than the one before it. Hopefully, we won't feel bloated from all the camp.

UPDATE: 'Prometheus' Teaser

So having seen the teaser to Ridley Scott's widely speculated Prequel/Not Prequel of 'Alien', 'Prometheus' seems to be one exciting science fiction film of 2012. There is many evidence in the teaser the points to it being at the very most related to the Alien films. The trailer starts with the eponymous string of lines that as the teaser progresses forms the film's title, there are also clips of familiar set pieces such as the crescent shaped space craft, a field of jars (?) that resemble the field of Alien eggs and a scene of one of the crew attacked through their helmet and possibly burning from acid (?) Even the unmistakable Jerry Goldsmith score with it's various plucking of strings comes from the first Alien film.

So maybe the film won't directly link itself to the Alien series, but it certainly comes from that world. The teaser does an excellent job in "teasing" the audience, each clip is shown for now more than three seconds each. Even the premise as revealed in the title cards are compelling, "They went looking for our beginning, What they found could be our end."Almost reminiscent of the 1970s kitschy marketing with 'Alien' with the tagline, "In space, no one can hear you scream."

Best of Director John Woo

Continuing my list of favorite Hong Kong directors and their best films, is famed "Gun-Fu" director John Woo (Face/Off, Mission: Impossible II)

John Woo is famous for his gun action films, his trademarks are double wielded guns, ballet-like choreography, slow motion, themes of brotherhood and justice, tragedy and of course doves. Just think of him as the thinking man's Michael Bay. Even though his action is described as "high-octane" and "roller coaster ride", Woo knows hows to inject irony into his films. Whether it be a 'killer' caring for a victim in The Killer or a huge shootout in a hospital in Hard Boiled, all of these conflicting images work in a bigger poetic narrative.

Woo is a master of timing. His action sequences are cut in a way where it flows smoothly, his protagonists know exactly when and where to shoot. Violence is glorified and yet at the same time it becomes a shock to the viewer. We get to see the blood in plain sight and it's not pretty, we can sense the fear and pain in Woo's victims. John Woo has stated that he doesn't encourage violence, this can be apparent in his films when an innocent bystander gets hit with a bullet or the fact that no good comes to any character firing a weapon.

Although John Woo has had a string of critical successes in the late 80s and early 90s, his career has been shaky in the 00s. After the success of Face/Off, Woo could not replicate that with his other American films such as Windtalkers and Paycheck, and several failed attempts at the television industry. Woo later returned to China to tackle a big budget historical war epic with Red Cliff. The film includes Woo's previous themes, in addition 'politics' is something he hasn't tackled before in his films.

t r a i l e r s, p t. 6

The Muppets (2011)
With Jason Segel, Amy Adams and the Muppets crew.

Kermit, Miss Piggy and co. are finally back! This time with the help of Flight of the Conchords series co-creator James Bobin and writers Jason Segel and director of Forgetting Sarah Marshal, Nicholas Stoller.

Disney's marketing strategy (or more like Muppet Studio's) is to turn out faux trailers that mislead the audience into thinking that the film has nothing to do with the Muppets and turns out to be the Muppets. I like this approach and I think it is a smart one. This helps to gain new audience while enhancing the interest of the former audience.

The first teaser to come out of this is a faux Romantic Comedy film called Green With Envy, it stars Jason Segel and Amy Adams as school teachers who fall in love and move to Los Angeles. It also features the typical heavy voiced narrator, cheesy uplifting score and of course the boy-loses-girl plot.



The second trailer, which is a straight-forward parody of the recently released The Hangover 2, The Fuzzy Pack emulates the anti-promotion critics' quote.

Films to watch, pt. 2

One film that I have the most anticipation for is Kelly Reichardt's Meek's Cutoff. Starring Michelle Williams, Paul Dano and Zoe Kazan. Reichardt's previous film Wendy & Lucy, also starred Ms. Williams and that was one of the best independent film I've seen in the past few years. Very meditative and natural in terms of performances, editing and camerawork. I cannot wait to see how the director and actors handle a period piece, and it seems interesting to me that the filmmakers decide to choose the 4-by-3 format to compose their frames. I want to see the reason behind that decision.

Upcoming documentary on fashion photographer Bill Cunningham, titled Bill Cunningham New York

I'm always interested in discovering famous photographers, I love Henri-Cartier Bresson, Robert Frank and William Eggleston, and I discover them through museum trips and trips to the photography section at the Strand Bookstore. Rarely would I chance upon a documentary about them and from what I've seen of the trailer, Mr. Cunningham looks like an exciting figure.

I have a love/hate relationship with Gus Van Sant's films. They're photographed beautifully and the acting and direction is minimal. My problem is that sometimes his films can be a little boring, they meditate too long on its characters or the thought doesn't come through clearly. Examples can be found of Elephant, Gerry and Paranoid Park. Don't get me wrong, I love those films, but they're just a tad bit too long for my tastes. Van Sant is an interesting director in that he studies characters and styles, and he gives off an obsessive quality to his work which makes me respect him.

Restless appears to be a small attempt by the director to make a quirky independent film, like that of Juno or Little Miss Sunshine. This film could've easily been picked up by Fox Searchlight, famous for turning aforementioned indie films into Award winners and Box Office champions. But Sony Pictures got to it first and hopefully they can turn out a smart marketing plan just as Searchlight would.

Yesterday was a good day

And it truly was, for a while the weather was good. The sun came out and gave New York City a break. I spent the day watching Rango with my friend, Ying, which wasn't too bad. The visuals are super realistic and the filmmaker's take on the Western genre was brilliant. It was perhaps 20 minutes too long?

After the film we went to SoHo to have lunch at Cubana Café, one of my favorite spots in New York. It's a bit small, but the food is great and the value feels right. They treated us very well and even gave us dessert, a brownie, on the house for being patient (It was busy that day). We both had Hanger Steak sandwich, which we've never tried before and it was superb! It was cooked medium rare and the cheese melted with tomatoes, it was just a great combination of flavors.

Afterwards, Ying went to have her spa treatment and I dropped by Top Man to say hi to a friend.

Films to watch in 2011, Pt. 1

Just viewed a couple of trailers for 2011, some I'm super excited for and others not too hot about. Here's what I'm looking forward to so far:

Submarine (2010)
Just been purchased by The Weinstein Company for US distribution at Sundance 2011. Made by first time director Richard Ayoade, a music video director for Arctic Monkeys.

The music featured, "Quand On N’A Que L’Amour" by Jacques Brel, is very choice.



Sourced from "Twitchfilm.net"

Ceremony (2011)
Starring Uma Thurman and Michael Angarano. In this is romantic comedy about Sam Davis (Michael Angarano) attempting to get back with his ex, Zoe (Uma Thurman) who is about to get hitched to an absurd documentary filmmaker. The trailer looks promising, has your typical assuredness humor, things go wrong in a important event and wrong directions (from the characters, not the director). Complete with your trendiest bands to provide for the trailer's soundtrack.



It seems that this is the year of the Alien invasion. JJ Abrams' Super 8, Michael Bay's Transformers: Dark of the Moon and Jon Favreau's Cowboys & Aliens. All of which are produced by extraterrestrial advocate Steven Spielberg. The most promising of the three is Super 8, previously released information on plot and story were limited to an effective teaser of a freight train accident and possible monster unleashed.

The super bowl teaser provides a glimpse to a bigger and possibly emotional story behind all the sci-fi action. As with all the other bloggers of the net are claiming, this appears to be JJ Abrams' nod to the Spielberg films of the 80s that shares the awe and wonderment of aliens. I.E. Close Encounters of the Third Kind & E.T.



Beginners (2011)
Directed by Mike Mills, Installation artist/graphic designer/music video director, as his second feature after Thumbsucker. This film appears to be sentimental (but not as sentimental as Ewan McGregor's Big Fish, where Thumbsucker was more extracted in its view on the strangeness of its characters. This film is about a non-traditional father/son relationship, coupled with romance with a young woman and a dog that speaks in subtitles.