I love Jon Hamm, but I gotta be honest- this Neighbors meets True Lies ripoff looks pretty terrible. Actually, watching this trailer, what concerns me most is Gal Gadot, not so much because of whatever she's doing in this movie, but because if this is a better look at her acting ability than Batman v Superman gave us....oh boy, is Wonder Woman in trouble. Seriously, can this woman act at all? Yikes.
Tom Hanks on a New Quest in 'Inferno' Trailer
A longer look at this movie actually makes it look worse than the first trailer did. Is it more or does this remind anyone of some crazy episode of a procedural CBS show or something? Or an even more low rent version of National Treasure, but without the benefit of the special Nic Cage brand of crazy. Yeah, this looks pretty boring.
'Star Wars' Leads the Saturn Awards Winners
Star Wars: The Force Awakens continues its roll in the genre and people's choice awards shows, picking up eight prizes from the Academy of Sci-Fi/Horror last night. Some of these other winners are pretty suspect though- I mean, Harrison Ford for Best Actor and Costumes for Age of Ultron? Really?
Best Science Fiction Film: Star Wars: The Force Awakens
Best Comic-to-Film Motion Picture: Ant-Man
Best Fantasy Film: Cinderella
Best Horror Film: Crimson Peak
Best Action/Adventure Film: Furious 7
Best Thriller Film: Bridge of Spies
Best International Film: Turbo Kid
Best Animated Film: Inside Out
Best Independent Film: Room
Best Actor: Harrison Ford, Star Wars: The Force Awakens
Best Actress: Charlize Theron, Mad Max: Fury Road
Best Supporting Actor: Adam Driver, Star Wars: The Force Awakens
Best Supporting Actress: Jessica Chastain, Crimson Peak
Best Performance by a Younger Actor: Ty Simpkins, Jurassic World
Best Director: Ridley Scott, The Martian
Best Writing: Star Wars: The Force Awakens
Best Production Design: Crimson Peak
Best Editing: Star Wars: The Force Awakens
Best Music: Star Wars: The Force Awakens
Best Costume: Avengers: Age of Ultron
Best Make-Up: Star Wars: The Force Awakens
Best Special Effects: Star Wars: The Force Awakens
Nat Turner Rises in New Trailer for 'The Birth of a Nation'
Nate Parker's Oscar contender is out with a new trailer today, one that gives you much more of the story and heavily emphasizes the religious roots behind Nat Turner's slave rebellion in the 1800's. This is expected to be a major awards player already, but the initial reaction to it in Sundance was very positive, so I expect it to get good reviews when it comes out in October as well.
Shia LeBeouf in the Cannes hit 'American Honey'
It's probably a stretch to call this a "hit," as it actually got mixed reception in Cannes. The reaction was apparently very divisive, with some critics loving it and others hating it. It's a three hour epic about lost youth and from this trailer I can tell it's going to have a lot of montages of partying, drug use, etc. One of those. The director is Andrea Arnold though, who made one of my favorite films of the last decade, Fish Tank, so there may some good stuff mixed in there with the overindulgent.
New Look at Tim Burton's 'Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children'
Another trailer for this movie continues to make it look like X-Men for babies, but who knows- maybe Burton's got one more good movie in him somewhere. I still get the feeling that whatever might be interesting about this will be blocked out by some kind of haphazard, explosion-and-fight scene at the end of it though. It's a common problem in Burton's filmography, even with his good ones. I see hints of that in this trailer.
Trailer for Ron Howard's Beatles Documentary 'Eight Days a Week'
The Beatles might be one of those topics you think couldn't possibly need any more documentaries made about them, but...how 'bout one from Ron Howard about their touring years in the mid-60's? Let's be honest, if you're a hardcore Beatles fanatic like myself, you will be watching this. For completion's sake.
Movie of the Day: "Paper Moon" (1973)
For Father's Day, I'm recommending this '70's classic for which the 9-year-old Tatum O'Neal won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress (which is really a crime in itself, because she's the clear lead of this movie and carries the whole thing on her shoulders, but as usual, the Academy rarely recognizes lead performances from child actors). In this Depression-era story, Tatum stars as an orphan who teams up with a con man who may or may not be her father, and the two of them scam their way through the midwest, posing as bible salesmen. The magic of this movie comes from the chemistry between the real life father-daughter pairing, which is genuine, funny and completely charming, but especially because Tatum O'Neal is just so perfect as the street smart, cigarette smoking, wise beyond her years urchin who really wants to hang out with her dad and will stop at no lengths to do so. Peter Bogdanovich directed it as a kind of throwback to road movies from the 1930's, and the gorgeous black and white cinematography is a tribute to that as well. Enjoy this one. It's pretty much impossible not to.
Original 1973 Trailer:
Anton Yelchin 1989-2016
Some horribly tragic news today, as 27-year-old actor Anton Yelchin was found dead this morning, after apparently being pinned between his own car, a mailbox pillar and a security fence in his driveway. The police are describing it as a freak accident, as the car seems to have rolled down the driveway and onto Yelchin after he had gotten out of it briefly. Anton Yelchin was probably best known for the recent Star Trek films, where he had taken over the role of Chekhov from original series actor Walter Koenig. But he also had a long resume of other films in his too short career, including Terminator Salvation, Fright Night, Charlie Bartlett, Like Crazy, and Only Lovers Left Alive. He co-stars for the final time as Chekhov in the upcoming Star Trek Beyond, which is being released just next month.
BOX OFFICE 6/17-6/19: 'Finding Dory' Crushes the Competition
It was expected to be huge and it did not disappoint. Thirteen years after the original Finding Nemo, Dory arrived in theaters with a record breaking haul of 136 million over the weekend, the biggest opening ever for an animated film. Nemo has become such a classic of the Pixar filmography over the years that the long gap didn't seem to hurt it at all. It easily beat out Shrek the Third by about 15 million, which had held that record since 2007.
In second place was Kevin Hart and Dwayne Johnson's Central Intelligence, which actually surpassed its own expectations, opening with 34 million on top of fairly decent reviews, at least for a Kevin Hart movie. Both new releases earned Cinemascores of "A" and "A-," which will allow them to hold up over the coming weeks against films like Independence Day, The BFG and The Secret Life of Pets. Rounding out the top five were three films that tumbled big from their openings last week, as The Conjuring 2, Now You See Me 2 and Warcraft all plummeted dramatically.
Top 5:
- Finding Dory- 136 million
- Central Intelligence- 34.5 million
- The Conjuring 2- 15.6 million
- Now You See Me 2- 9.6 million
- Warcraft- 6.5 million
Obviously, the mega popular overseas Warcraft hasn't caught on even a little bit here, despite becoming a global phenomenon everywhere else. And next weekend it's the release of Independence Day: Resurgence, along with the Blake Lively vs a shark movie The Shallows and Matthew McConaughey's Civil War-era drama Free State of Jones. I have a feeling Dory can hold up against Resurgence, which isn't generating a lot of buzz recently, surprisingly enough.
New Trailer for Animated Movie 'Storks'
I was not impressed by the teaser for this film, and this new trailer actually makes it look even worse. Honestly, are these movies just getting stupider by the day? WB's newly formed animation unit looks off to a rough start, if this is their first effort after The Lego Movie. This one comes out September 23rd.
Teaser for Tupac Biopic 'All Eyez On Me'
This is just a glimpse of the upcoming Tupac movie, so the most I can say right now is boy, does this guy look like him. It's an eery resemblance actually, which is always a good start when it comes to biopics. It's coming out November 11th and directed by Benny Boom, who comes from music videos, but I'm betting there's going to be a lot of interest in this one.