The Good, The Bad and the Ugly Films

Archive for May, 2009

We continue our discussion about movie trailers, including some good and bad examples as well as some of our favourites. Check out some of them below.

…And if you haven’t had enough trailers, have some fun over at Trailers from Hell where you can see some great old trailers with, or without commentary from some genre-related directors including Eli Roth, Mary Lambert, Joe Dante, John Landis, Alison Anders and many many more! I love this site!

Of course, the easiest way to find a trailer for a particular film you may want to see is by clicking the “Trailers and Video” links on the film’s page on the IMDB, or searching Google Video.

A couple of blogs to download or view new trailers in High Def are HD-Trailers.net & Trailers Unleashed.

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WOW! It seemed we had so much to talk about, but we blew through it in 30 minutes! And Ross and I almost throw down over Kevin Smith… again! ¦¬)

Discussed this week:

• Box Office (Night at the Museum 2, Terminator 4)
• Coming Out This Week (Up, Drag Me to Hell)
• Sherlock Holmes Trailer

• Dan Lin Interview
• 3D coming to BluRay
• Inglorious Bastards reaction
• Terminator Salvation gets motion control seats
• Fox remaking American films for Foreign Markets
• King Kong returns to Universal Tour
• Can a Pornstar cross over to the mainstream?
• Feature Commentary for theatrical films

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Blu Ray Review: “Slumdog Millionaire” (2008)

Release Date: March 31, 2009

The recent Oscar Awards Ceremony was a complete disaster – even worse than Rob Lowe cavorting with Snow White nearly 20 years ago. A stuffy, bloated ensemble of Hollywood back patting that promised to offer a recession sensitive show. A recession sensitive show? Who comes up with this junk? And if America wants to flaunt its homegrown movie empire, why out-source its emcee job to an Australian?

Danny Boyle, Third World Saviour

And before someone wants to debate me on the point that the Oscars are not an international tribute; you simply need to rewatch this year’s Oscar presentation of the ‘Best in Animation’: Basically a montage of 5 movies (all from big Hollywood studios). You know something is terribly wrong when you are subjected to endless clips of ‘Clone Wars’ and ‘Kung Fu Panda’ with nary a mention of the fantastic ‘Waltz with Bashir’.

I guess Hollywood wants to at least try… or pretend… they have international flair. Is it a coincidence that this year’s ceremony was all about India; when the ink has yet to dry with all those billions of dollars in recent production deals with Bollywood? So Danny Boyle steps to the plate with his latest directorial effort: A convenient little production (barely surviving straight to DVD) that basically appeases the Big Studio Gods on both sides of the world.

Not chocolate pudding

I didn’t see ‘Slumdog’ in the theatre, and hadn’t spent much time reading about it either. My money was on ‘Benjamin Button’ for Best Picture; and I stayed with that prediction to the bitter end… even in light of the ‘Slumdog’ momentum. I saw the Pussy Cat Dolls video for ‘Slumdog’ and it was so dirty and sexy I felt like the Goddess Shiva was giving me a multi-handed happy ending. Now there’s all the celebrity drama of the ‘Slumdog’ stars – Are they dating in real life? Is one of the kids getting auctioned on Craigslist? Will the ‘Slumdog’ shantytown fall victim to a bulldozer? So I decided to see what all the fuss was about. The Blu Ray had an impressive amount of Special Features. How could FOX be so crazy? They actually included 2 commentary tracks on a first-run home release. Whatever happened to double dipping, FOX?

‘Slumdog Millionaire’ may take place in environments that Western audiences may not be accustomed to, but it definitely smacks of Danny Boyle’s direction… Attention deficit style editing, inappropriate techno garble musical cues, a disturbingly continuing trend in toilet imagery. Actually, the ‘Slumdog’ toilet scene easily dethrones (no pun) the toilet scene in Boyle’s breakout hit: ‘Trainspotting’. The story follows the travails of two brothers growing up in the armpit of Mumbai. It actually felt like I saw this story already. Oh that’s right… ‘City of God’. Different locale, same third world coming of age story. The young actors in this movie are extremely talented, and I was saddened to see the profoundly lesser talented adult stars get all the positive publicity in this film’ release.

This scene was a huge spoiler - Why'd they use it during publicity so much?

We get to see all the horrific living conditions in this part of the world – almost like one of those Save The Children commercials where you can feed a kid for less than a cup of coffee – but without misty eyed Sarah McLachlan warbling out one of her sad songs in the background. There were lots of brutal and disturbing scenes involving the children, but many times I was left scratching my head over the context of the situation. Why was there an angry mob? What’s the deal with the kid in blue paint? As usual, Danny Boyle is too busy deciding which Top 10 hit he’s going to play over the soundtrack to really care about the little stuff. By the way, his Top 10 Hit this time is MIA’s “Paper Airplanes”… And if there was a totally stereotypical choice for a song, that would be it.

The first ever Disney picture without a single white person

Not to say Boyle’s plip plop storytelling (no pun) occasionally works on the big screen. I really liked his 2000 effort ‘The Beach’. I think the fact that the island in that movie was so uprooted from the ‘real world’ that it felt OK to hear Moby break into song amongst the palm trees, or DiCrapio suddenly turn into a trippy video game mode. Even ‘Trainspotting’ had better chances – Because heroin addiction can create all sorts of loopy film styles.

It just doesn’t work in telling the ‘Slumdog’ story. We follow the progress of the children from one terrifying ordeal to the next. They grow older, and there are glimmers of promise in scenes around the Taj Mahal – but we’re quickly drawn back into Boyle’s desperate sense that we need to see human subversion in all its twisted ways. By never coming up for air, Boyle suffocates the viewer in a cavalcade of disturbing scenes.

Good: Child actors do a great job

Bad: Story didn’t explain many pivotal scenes in enough detail

Ugly: Why did this win Best Picture?

Overall: BAD

“My Bloody Valentine 3-D” on Blu Ray

Release Date: May 19, 2009

I haven’t seen a good genre ’slasher film’ in a very long time. I kinda liked “Hatchet”, which came out a few years ago; but very few people got to see that one: Largely due to the fact that modern horror films seem to rely more on stupid torture puzzles (SAW) and… well… just plain torture (Hostel, Devil’s Rejects). When you see something break this depressing trend, it’s usually due to the fact that the source material is a remake of a franchise from decades past. Just about every popular horror film from the 70s and 80s has (or will have) a remake or reboot: “Friday the 13^th”, “Prom Night”, “Halloween”, “Carrie”… and so on. “Nightmare on Elm Street” will soon get an overhaul too. And I’m sure it’s just about time to dust off such ‘Dawson’s Creek Teen Lite’ fare like “Scream” and “I Know What you did Last Summer”. I’m sure the bottom of the barrel will also be scraped (with a bloody carving knife) , to revision such Z-Bomb fluff like “Happy Birthday to Me”, “Terror Train” and “April Fool’s Day”. Something that I always envisioned sitting near the bottom of the ‘horror plot barrel’ was a little film called “My Bloody Valentine”. I yawned at the notion of a remake. Boy was I wrong.

This First 3-D Movie was a Prequel to 'Lion King'

I’m a sucker for gimmicks. If something flashy or cool comes with a product, I’ll be likely to purchase it. For example: This week I bought a bottle of Absolut Vodka because it came in a disco ball casing and was called Absolut Disco. The vodka was the same old stuff. And it totally made me bomb the recent podcast (luckily my co-hosts are pretty forgiving… for now). The new “My Bloody Valentine” Blu Ray came out this week, and I wouldn’t in a million years buy it – But – It had this gimmick. 3-D !!! While most Blu Rays use the gimmick to encase their discs in flashy packaging (example: last weeks Terminator release, Hellraiser), the discs themselves have been totally devoid of extras. It’s like wrapping crap in expensive gold paper. The 3-D concept got me interested though… Was it really gonna work on my TV?

Our lame BC Hospital system means this girl will be asked to leave shortly to make way for the elderly lady with a runny nose

The discs come with four 3-D glasses… that’s pretty cool in itself. How many products actually pack enough of anything for a whole group to enjoy? And the glasses were pretty well made; not cheap paper or anything. They even had an advertisement on the side for “Saw 6 – Coming this Fall”. Oh geez, “Saw -fricking- 6″? Another curious thing was the fact they were using the Red Lens/ Green Lens concept which has been employed for almost 50 years. Recent TV specials and movies have used the Polarized Lens which is a little different. The 3-D effect was pretty good, though. Especially in a 1080p quality picture. Sometimes the backgrounds would get a bit blurry. Or an object in the foreground would lose its focus. Or maybe it was because I was half-drunk.

You can't do 3-D Horror without an Eye Ball Popping scene

While indulging in this 3-D extravaganza, a funny thing happened – I actually began to enjoy the movie! It was pure slasher fun. The director didn’t adorn any characters with ass witty contemporary dialogue like Josh Whedon would do – This stuff was straight to the point: Throw in a bunch of kooky kids, watch them get killed. The actually killer is a pretty cool creation too. He was dressed like a miner (mask and all), and had that superhuman strength factor that’s so predominant in the slasher archetype (like Jason and Michael Myers). So you basically got a guy who can take numerous bullets and shovels to the head and keep on slashin’. Awesome stuff. Another staple of a ’slasher film’ is gratuitous nudity, and “My Bloody Valentine 3-D” delivers a hearty serving. LOL ‘hearty’! We don’t just get a brief flash of nudity… we get totally nude victims running around screaming for minutes on end. Yeehaw.

"Let's go have a keg party in that abandoned mine shaft... Oh, snap!"

By the second hour, I turned off the 3-D option and just watched the rest in 2-D. I loved how this movie just takes the raw primal elements of the typical ’slasher film’ and amp them to the max. Check this one out if you like cartoonish gory antics… If you’re wanting more puzzling torture devices… Well, I’m sure “Saw 6″ will feed your hunger.

The Good: Classic Slasher Film that you rarely see nowadays

The Bad: The 3-D Effect didn’t work in some parts.

The Ugly: The lack of a plot… if you really care about plot in a film like this.

Overall: GOOD!

We begin our look at films trailers with some history of the evolution of the modern movie trailer, as well as some defining of the difference between trailers and teasers, and Ross breaks down the types of trailers for us.

Next week we will finish with part two of our discussion.

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… Or so this Funny or Die behind-the-scenes short would have you believe. The Proposal was on my list of movies I am looking forward to this summer (though with some reservation), and this really makes me want to see it more. Hope you have a laugh with it too… is there anything cuter than Betty White cursing? ¦¬)

This week I start complaining about the amount of commercials before movies and somehow beavers eventually end up in the mix… Lots of movie news to talk about this week, including…

• Box Office (Angels and Demons)
• Opening this Week (Night at the Museum 2, and Terminator 4)
• Terry Gilliam making second attempt at Don Quixote
• Peter Berg to direct film version of board game Battleship
• I Love You Phillip Morris gets distributor
• Mad Max 4
• Halcyon developing Phillip K Dick’s Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said
• ET2???
• Abel Ferrara Making a Jeckyl & Hyde film
• IMAX Screen Rip-Off
• Studio Canal rebooting Cliffhanger
• Thor Casting
• DVD Release announcements of Watchmen Natural Born Killers Director’s Cut

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We decided to postpone the Trailers Spotlight for a week and took this opportunity to have a short chat about movie marketing.

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WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD!!!

Ross: Hey, pretty cool flick. Really liked some of the effects – especially the ghost. Story was a melding of ‘Disturbia’ and ‘The Fury’. I wonder why it didn’t get a wider release? I think the title of the flick ruined its chances. Very lame title; if you hadn’t told me what it was about, I would have missed it entirely.

Allen: I really liked it. I would have said Disturbia VS The Entity. The title is weak, but there are some very genuine scenes of suspense and the scene where the guy is killed is just brutal without going to the overkill lingering shots so many horror films do now.

Ross: Oh right, The Entity… I was thinking of The Entity. The guy who was killed is Jimmy Fallon’s brother I think LOL. The ending was a little weird, why didn’t the cop just change his story to protect her? Blame the kid who they had a warrant for, or something…

Allen: I wasn’t even sure why she thought she had to hide Joey’s body – there was no way in hell she could have killed him and forensics would easily prove that – but then again Cannavale already had the theory about a third person killing her husband so maybe that is where her head went – i would have liked some clarification about that, but the movie had me by then  and i was forgiving everything! LOL Another thing too was why wouldn’t the priest bless the house after she gave him an ass-load of money? The movie has holes, but still diggable

Ross: I actually looked up the Priest query on the message boards this morning Hehe. People are saying it was because the house was a scene of a crime that she committed – You can only bless a building if the crime happened prior to your arrival. Killing is one of the Ten Commandments, and you can’t be forgiven for that. But he sure took off with that assload of blood-money pretty fast!

Allen: ya gotta love the church eh… and you know he was certain that the TRASHBAG full of CASH he was handed was not earned in any nefarious manner! LOL. The movie is done by Eric Red, an old Kathryn Bigelow collaborator – they did Near Dark together. He is definitely a capable film-maker – i would be interested to see what he could do with a budget. any final thoughts? LOL

Ross: Final thoughts… NOT Jimmy Fallon’s brother! Why’d this movie not get a release, when there’s crap like ‘Last House on the Left’ out there? Famke Janssen is 45!? Why’d her sister call Famke’s New York brownstone a dump? You know how much it would be worth? When Famke finds the money, there’s the sound of flies buzzing around – Was there other stuff down there?

Allen: LOL – so, good? bad? ugly?

Ross: I’d say GOOD until the last 5 minutes… then a very BAD denouement. Plot points were questionable, acting a little clunky, but the suspense and delivery of shock effects were very good. Like the scene where they’re screwing, and she sees the dead husband floating on the ceiling in this weird disjointed angle, and she continues to fornicate to fuel his angst – that scene seriously goes into my all-time classics! That was brilliant.

Allen: I would say Good for sure… It had me jumping and talking to the screen and that is what a horror flick should do – make u react! regarding the sex scene – i loved the look of defiance in her eyes as she looked over Joey’s shoulder up to the ceiling! I (heart) Famke!

• ROSS: until the last 5 minutes… then a very denouement.
• ALLEN: – It had me jumping and talking to the screen

“100 Feet” played on the Sci-Fi Channel and will be coming soon to home video

Discussed this Week:

Box Office (Star Trek)

Ross’ Star Trek Review

Opening This Week (Angels & Demons)

Roman Polanski Will Still Be Jailed If He Enters the US

Dead Pool Movie Announced

Guy Richie Compares Sherlock Holmes to Indiana Jones

Warner Expands Archive Project with new titles

Pixar Opening Studio in Vancouver

Brett Ratner is NOT directing Conan Reboot

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