Well, here it is guys! At long last, the first trailer for Star Wars: The Force Awakens has arrived, and it's mostly pretty cool, right? We hear Mark Hamill narrating, some of the new characters appearing, and the best is saved for last, with the pop up of Harrison Ford as the one and only Han (with Chewie by his side), and John Williams' music to boot. The only thing that bugs me is how fan service-y this whole thing seems. This is obviously a slavishly devoted fan's tribute to what he loved about the old ones rather than something new entirely- I could almost see this whole trailer as a fan-made Youtube video. But for what it is, I'm sure it's going to satisfy the fans, because what more could they ask for, right? I mean seriously, is that Darth Vader's burned helmet? What Star Wars fanboy hasn't dreamed of being able to buy that for his personal memorabilia collection?
George Clooney and Brad Bird on Disney's 'Tomorrowland'
For some reason I hadn't quite noticed that Tomorrowland was actually based on the Disneyland attraction, but I guess what else would it be, right? Does that make it seem like just another commercial for Disney product? At least it has an original screenplay, but can Disney be inspired to produce anything completely original at this point? This featurette goes into the history of Tomorrowland with appearances from Walt Disney himself, as well as the people involved in the film.
'The Avengers' Play Family Feud on Jimmy Kimmel
In light of the imminent Avengers: Age of Ultron release, check out the cast on Jimmy Kimmel Live last night, where they played a Family Feud game. I'm a little annoyed though, that Kimmel has basically co-opted Fallon's playground celebrity game routine (didn't he used to be cooler than this? It feels like he's gone completely mainstream now).
Blu-Ray Pick of the Week: "Sullivan's Travels" (1942)
A confession, since this is my third Preston Sturges pick and I'll probably end up recommending every movie he ever made at some point, since his run in the 1940's as a director was relatively short, and he only has about five or six films in his filmography- but what a run it was! Just about every one of those films is a full on classic, with this one topping them all for most movie buffs (I prefer The Lady Eve, but just by a hair). Sullivan's Travels is a Hollywood satire, a screwball comedy, a road movie and a meaningful treatise on the power of comedy to affect people's lives- it's perfect in nearly every way. Joel McCrea stars as a big time director of comedies out to make an epic drama and be taken "seriously," but of course he's got to learn his lesson and team up with a beautiful blonde (1940's bombshell Veronica Lake, one of cinema's biggest sex symbols) along the way. Every line is clever, witty and fast- no one put together words and dialogue quite like Sturges, and it's a joy just to listen to it and hear the words roll off the actor's tongues in a way you never could now. See this movie as soon as you can- as TCM would say, it's an essential.
Original 1942 Trailer:
Old Arnold Battles Young Arnold in 'Terminator Genisys' Trailer
That's the most notable part of this new trailer, although something about it looks a little bit off. I'm thinking not so great CG. I also haven't seen all the Terminator movies (just the first two), so I have no idea what's going on with the new timeline, or why young Sarah Connor now knows everything about her future son, and has fixed up the new Arnold model, etc. I have a feeling I'll be totally lost while watching this movie. It opens July 1st.
Paul Rudd is a Pint-Sized Superhero in Marvel's 'Ant-Man'
So, this movie still looks like it's not sure what it wants to be exactly- is it a comedy or a generic action flick? There's hints of both in here, yet it's hard to see how we can take a tiny little ant-sized man beating up regular sized men seriously. That train at the end made me laugh though. It's out July 17th.
'Fault in Our Stars' Tops the MTV Movie Awards
Ha! Remember when I said these nominations were fixed, because these are the same awards who picked the Twilight movies to win every single year in every category they were nominated in? Well now, this is more like it- at least we know they couldn't do anything about the winners. Hello, Twilight people- you've now migrated to The Fault in Our Stars for stupid, corny, ridiculous pre-teen fodder you can spend every night wetting yourselves to. It's more suited to this embarrassing joke of an awards show anyway.
Best Film: The Fault in our Stars
Best Actor: Bradley Cooper, American Sniper
Best Actress: Shailene Woodley, The Fault in Our Stars
Best Scared Ass Shit Performance: Jennifer Lopez, The Girl Next Door
Best On-Screen Duo: Zac Efron and Dave Franco, Neighbors
Best Shirtless Performance: Zac Efron, Neighbors
Best Fight: Dylan O'Brien vs. Will Poutler, The Maze Runner
Best Kiss: Ansel Elgort and Shailene Woodley, The Fault in Our Stars
Best #WTF Moment: Seth Rogen and Rose Byrne, Neighbors
Best Villain: Meryl Streep, Into the Woods
Best Musical Moment: Jennifer Lawrence, Mockingjay Part 1
Best Comedic Performance: Channing Tatum, 22 Jump Street
Best Onscreen Transformation: Elizabeth Banks, Mockingjay Part 1
BOX OFFICE 4/10-4/12: 'Furious 7' Stays on Top in its 2nd Week
Furious 7 dropped 60% this week as expected, but still stayed on top for a strong first place finish, coming in with $60 million for a new total of $252 million, which coincidentally is already more than any other F&F movie ever earned here at home in its entire run. Overseas it's a different story entirely, as the movie has already ratcheted up more than $800 million globally- pretty astonishing, as you realize it's going to be up there with the Avengers and Star Wars movies by year's end. As always, I remain at a loss to explain the appeal of this franchise.
DreamWorks' Home held pretty well in its third week, falling just 30%, likely due to its being the most family-friendly of the recent releases in theaters, while the weekend's only new wide release, The Longest Ride, or Scott Eastwood's (son of Clint) bid for movie stardom, opened in third with $13.5 million, on the lower end of Nicholas Sparks adaptations. Get Hard and Cnderella rounded out the top five, but expect both to fall out of that group when Paul Blart 2 opens next week (yeah, that's another inexplicable family audience hit that I will never, ever catch up with).
Top 5:
- Furious 7- $60.6 million
- Home- $19 million
- The Longest Ride- $13.5 million
- Get Hard- $8.6 million
- Cinderella- $7.2 million
In limited release this week, the sci-fi flick Ex Machina had the biggest bow of the year so far, opening on just 4 screens to $250k, or a $62k per theater average. While We're Young continues to hold nicely as it expands, and both that and Ex Machina are the two specialty releases to have success at the box office so far this year, while Clouds of Sils Maria (a movie from last year's Cannes film festival starring Juliette Binoche and Kristen Stewart) had a much smaller debut, opening with just $70k on three screens. Next week, like I said, it's the long awaited (?) Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2, and the horror movie Unfriended- both will probably be terrible, as we wait for the Avengers earthquake to shake things up on May 1st. Until then everyone!
Hillary Announces for 2016
So I know this isn't movies, but so what? It's big news. As expected, Hillary Clinton announced her second bid for the White House in 2016 via a video message- what do you think, guys? 2nd times the charm? I think so- I mean, seriously, who wants to vote for another Bush, right? I'm in. Go Hillary!
Movie of the Day: "Field of Dreams" (1989)
Kevin Costner kicked off and he returns to finish out baseball movie week with this fantasy love letter to the game and the literal magic it can inspire. Costner owns a farm he's not sure what to do with until he starts hearing voices telling him that if he builds it, they will come. What he builds turns out to be a baseball field and who they are turn out to be the ghosts of legendary and long dead ball players who come out to play the game for all eternity. Now if that's not a story that absolutely reveres the sport itself I don't know what does. The movie works though, as an old-fashioned fable and an emotional tribute to American's pastime as the stuff dreams are made of. A perfect cap to our week of baseball films.
Original 1989 Trailer:
Reese and Sofia On the Run in New Trailer for 'Hot Pursuit'
I really hope this isn't as dumb as it looks, because you can kinda tell that these two might have some decent comedic chemistry together- but Reese's track record for comedies since Legally Blonde is pretty awful. Lots of sitcom-y schtick here. Comes out May 8th.
'Live From New York' Documentary to Open Tribeca Film Festival
In case you're still not tired of all the celebratory SNL activities this year, this new documentary is based on the oral history of Saturday Night Live, which was compiled by Tom Shales and James Andrew Miller, and documents the show's 40 year history through various interviews. It's set top open the Tribeca Film Festival on April 15th, and for SNL junkies, it's probably going to be as essential as the 40th anniversary show itself.
