FINAL TRAILER: "The Interview"

The final trailer for The Interview still makes it look pretty funny to me. I hope it's good but it's hard to tell with comedies (although I did love This is the End, which was the last Seth Rogen/Evan Goldberg movie). It's coming out on Christmas, and let's just hope the rumor that the movie underwent edits after the freak out response from North Korea isn't true. Would undermine the whole thing, wouldn't it?

TRAILER: "Cake"

Jennifer Aniston takes on a dramatic role here- very dramatic, as a woman with drug addiction and depression. The movie hasn't gotten great reviews yet, but she herself has been out there promoting it like crazy, campaigning for an Oscar nomination, even. Frankly, after spending the last ten years in the tabloids and in bad movies, it's a little tough to buy Jennifer Aniston of all people as such a seriously troubled person. I bought it once in 2002's The Good Girl, but her image since then has been a very specific thing, and the awful comedies haven't helped.

TRAILER: "Jurassic World"

Whereas the Pan trailer actually looked surprisingly intriguing, this looks just as dumb as I expected, aside from maybe Chris Pratt's likability, but the premise of this seems really weird. Ok, so the park is open and running smoothly, ala John Hammond's original vision, but because of that they have to create a weird hybrid monster dinosaur that's going to terrorize everyone instead. As if there isn't plenty of actual dinosaurs already in existence here. And why do the robots they created in 1993 still look better than the CG ones they're using now? That makes no sense.

TRAILER: "Pan"

I was thinking that the new Peter Pan origin story would probably be awful, but I have to say, this trailer gets me interested. The production sure looks amazing, but I guess that should be no surprise, given that Atonement and Anna Karenina director Joe Wright is at the helm of this film. Maybe that will mean this one has some promise, unlike the annual Disney live action films that come out every year now. I still object to Rooney Mara being cast as Tiger Lily though. I mean, come on, really?

Blu-Ray Pick of the Week: "The Long Goodbye" (1973)

This week's pick is a classic from the 70's, an adaptation of Philip Marlowe's novel but in Robert Altman's style, which as any Altman fan can tell you is a pretty inimitable, unique vision (although many have tried to imitate it over the years). This is a moody, atmospheric noir that takes place in the present day rather than Marlowe's world of the 1950's, and that pretty much changes everything- this isn't Humphrey Bogart's Marlowe from The Big Sleep. No, it's Elliot Gould, who's infinitely cooler and more relaxed as the private eye who practically stumbles on to the case, making his way through the Los Angeles hippie crime scene of the early 70's. Personally, it's my favorite adaptation of a Marlowe story by far, topping even the classic 40's and 50's noirs. There's nothing else like it.

Original 1973 Trailer:

TRAILER: "Far From the Madding Crowd"

I can be a pretty big pushover for period romance costume dramas, so you can count me in for this one, which is another version of the classic Thomas Hardy novel (it was filmed before in 1967 with Julie Christie). It's also from Danish director Thomas Vinterberg, who made The Hunt, which was a really good movie with Mads Mikkelson just a couple of years ago, so I think this looks pretty good. It's coming out in May of next year.

TRAILER: "Pitch Perfect 2"

I have to confess that I'm really out of the loop on this whole Pitch Perfect thing. I vaguely remembered that this was a movie that came out a couple of years ago, but I had to look it up to remind myself what it was even about. But I guess it was kind of a hit and people liked it? Enough to get a sequel made anyway. I guess I should probably check out the first one now, huh?