Posts from — June 2008

Hancock opens this Wednesday, probably aiming to clean up on the 4th of July holiday.

Trailer Check:

The reviews so far are so-so, but I wanna hold out hope since it stars Will Smith & Jason Bateman. Will Smith has been on my good side ever since seeing I Am Legend, there’s no way I can turn a cold shoulder to him now.

The director, Peter Berg, did do a nice job on The Kingdom (also starring Bateman), but maybe the superhero comedy is simply a hard nut to crack? I can think of a few superhero comedies that sort of fell flat with the audience. There’s bad pacing (My Super Ex-Girlfriend) or the tone of the movie is too hard to follow (Spiderman 3).

Best of luck to Hancock, maybe Smith’s charisma can prove to be a profitable summer movie experience.

“And Hellboy II is exactly that: truly brilliant. Whatever your thoughts about the original (some love it, some like it, some are decidedly cool about it), this is light years ahead. This is Wrath Of Khan to its Star Trek: The Motion Picture. It’s that much of an evolution. It’s that good. ”

No way! That’s just crazy talk. I wanna believe Empire Magazine, I really do. But you can’t just throw out a ‘Wrath Khan’ comparison lightly, man? But y’know, if they’re letting Guillermo Del Toro do The Hobbit movies, maybe it is that good.

The trailer did get me quite excited when I saw it before The Incredible Hulk. The Mummy 3 trailer really made me lose faith in all movies, so watching Hellboy do his thing sorta brought me back from the edge. =) It gave me hope that Hollywood can actually make a movie with wild special f/x and CGI AND an intelligent plot.

Hellboy II: The Golden Army hits theaters on July 11th.

As most of the world knows (unless you’ve been living under a rock), Pixar’s latest bid at world box office domination is Wall-E.

I’ve never been a giant Pixar fan, but it’s hard not to succumb to their smart and charming movies. I didn’t bend over backwards to see Ratatouille, but once I did, I realized that these guys really know this animation thing. Basically by now, all they have to do is say it’s a Pixar film to get the audience.

Still, they do love feeding the fans a few extras. Find a cool Wall-E featurette on /Film.

I predict that the Pixar fans are gonna place Wall-E at the top spot, since Wanted is rated R. Plus, the family film always wins in the summer since kids are out school.

Pajiba.com is celebrating classic films of the 1970s this week. Today they featured TK’s review of Chinatown, one of the best screenplays ever written in my mind.

So far this week they’ve featured Harold and Maude, Don’t Look Now, Badlands, The Jerk, The Godfather, and The Friends of Eddie Coyle (which I had never heard of before!).

They’ve covered lots of the majors, so I’m sure a feature on Star Wars or Jaws is imminent, since those were the first summer blockbusters ever created.

If I had to do a review, it would be quite hard for me to pick just one. I tried to find a favorite on the 70s Movie Rewind’s menu, but that proved useless. I suppose that just means that the seventies were simply a prolific era for cinema.

My dvd pick for this week is In Bruges.

It stars Colin Farrell as a hit man on the lam in (you guessed it) Bruges. Brendan Gleeson plays his partner in crime and all around mentor. And Ralph Fiennes plays the boss who has quite the twisted sense of morality. The tag line says it all: “Shoot First, Sight see later”. I would akin it to a darker toned After Hours crossed with Grosse Pointe Blank. It’s sorta the action-comedy for the existentialist.

Other notable dvds (which are already in the netflix queue) out today are The Spiderwick Chronicles, Charlie Bartlett, and Persepolis.