Burton’s Alice in Wonderland

If this is the first place in which you see the early trailer for Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland, then I assure you that you do not spend enough time on the internet. Yes, there is a qualifier for “enough”, and this is it.

Since reading additional information on it, my fears that this was simply a retelling of the oft retold tale were kindly abated. It’s not Burton’s vision of the Wonderland that was but his vision of what happens to it later.

To be honest, I’m not the biggest fan of Tim Burton or Johnny Depp. I’ve already spoken about my dislike for this film to people I know – without even looking at the trailer! I know, it’s horrible of me and hardly fair. So I’ll give it a shot. But there’s a part of me, having watched Disney’s Alice in Wonderland multiple times in childhood and having read both books in middle school, that feels taken aback by a film that seemingly focuses more on the Hatter than any other character. He had fairly bit roles previously, most notable for possibly being responsible for the murder of time and for being one of the White King’s messengers. If they have Depp’s Hatter (bonus if he’s called “Hatta”) murder time, then that might be most intriguing.

Regardless, it will be a year before we can all see it. I’ll do my best to avoid being a jerk about it until after the film is released.

The Box [trailer] – a Richard Kelly film

Richard Kelly’s Donnie Darko is a remarkable film. Not so much for its content but its polarizing effect it has on people. His follow-up, Southland Tales, is similar – save for the fact that even fewer people actually like it. To be honest, I loved both. Darko was an unconventional science fiction tale involving time travel that makes less sense than the usual time travel, and Tales was basically a science fiction comedy that was played so straight that few realized how firmly planted in cheek the tongue was located. (To be fair, the movie also makes little sense, even with the supplemental comic book.) I look forward to the weirdness produced by Kelly.

The Box looks great so far, featuring the voice of Shrek’s ogre bride and Scott Summers. The two fall on hard times and are offered a button in a box that will deliver money to them only after someone in the world is killed. I’m sure the movie will make no sense, but a premise like that is enticing enough. I just hope the film lasts more than a week in the theatres.

It’s possible that, if this is good, Diaz might actually earn her star.

Trailer Trash – Cold Souls

With the summer movie season fizzling into a dull pile of grey BLAH the studios are prepping their post summer films early. We already showed you the incredibly creepy trailer for Martin Scorsese’s Shutter Island with Leo DiCaprio, now we have a look at a fil called Cold Souls. The film stars the ever brilliant actor Paul Giamatti as actor Paul Giamatti. No, that’s not a fucking mistake, though I don’t know how the films setup came to that. The story centers on a man who decides to put his soul into cold storage in order to relieve himself of the burden it carries. When he realizes how empty he is without it(ha ha) he decides to get it back, only there is a mix up in the soul fridge and he finds that his has been absconded with off to Russia, where the hapless thieves thought they were getting the soul of Al Pacino. The film is the third from writer/director Sophie Barthes and also stars Emily Watson (yum) and David Strathairn. You can see the hi-res trailer here. Thanks to AintItCool.Com for heads up.

Scorsese Gets Creepy On Shutter Island

This is, quite simply, one of the creepiest trailers I’ve seen in a while. It looks like this flick is gonna be all kinds of fun. You can check out the trailer in high-def here.

Up – Pixar’s latest success

There is something magical that Pixar manages to include in everything it makes. I would be hard-pressed to find a misstep that they’ve made (well, Cars…). They’re amazing, and everyone knows it. It’s clear what part of the magic is – they don’t treat their audience like it’s simple, despite the fact that their target audience is children. There is so much that the other major studios could learn from Pixar.

Up’s trailer slightly misleads as it doesn’t spell out the whole plot, which is rare these days for Hollywood films. All the audience is given is a cantankerous old man named Carl who lifts his home away with balloons and accidentally takes a young scout with him. Why does he want to go away? Where is he going? The explanation is in the first 10 minutes of the film, but it’s all shown and not told. We get exactly why he wants to take that house to South America and stay there until he passes. He’s not an angry old man – he’s a romantic.

Which brings up one of the clever themes integrated into the movie, devotion versus obsession. Carl crosses paths with his old hero whom he had always thought simply fell off the face of the Earth. No, the man disappeared because the world didn’t believe in his discovery, which he has been tracking for the better part of the past forty or fifty years – and ending anyone he believes might be getting in his way. There’s something obviously Ahab about him, and he works wonders as Carl’s foil.

This review isn’t as full of spoilers as I usually like, but like the first act of this film, it’s all better when seen rather than explained. This film is art at its finest – an experience that appeals to your senses and emotions. If you don’t feel something at least during the beginning of the film, you either know too well how to separate yourself from fictional experiences or you simply need to learn how to feel.

I should make a special mention about the dogs. Anyone who has ever had a dog or spent time with dogs will find the dogs hilarious, especially the joke that Dug shares with his new friends – whom he already loves. And the cone of shame…you have to love the cone of shame. And yes, I am understating everything. There’s a reason. Go spend your money on the film.

Bechdel Rule: Failure. There are no two women who speak to each other. Not that it matters. There’s nothing NON-feminist (masculist?) in this film, so no one should care. This film is good for the whole family – period.

Gamer – a science fiction film by the guys who made Crank

Since Crank was basically the essence of video games made into a movie, it makes sense that the guys who made it would be interested in making a movie more blatantly about video games.  Not only is the premise interesting, but the casting looks to make this that wee bit more promising.

New Wolverine Trailer

Like everyone else on the internet, I just have to ask where the hell is Deadpool in this commercial?  He’s supposedly a bigger and bigger deal in this movie, especially with the rumor that he is going to end up with the powers of almost ALL of the mutants and fight Wolverine in a (losing) battle at the end, so why is Ryan Reynolds absent from this commercial?  Maybe they wised up and removed that side plot altogether.  One can only hope.