Saturday, December 03, 2005

The Gospel

The Gospel. Great movie trailer or greatest movie trailer, ever? The latter.

Synopsis. “A young singer turns his back on God,” A DEFINITE MOVIE, NAY Life, FAUX PAS, “and his father's church when tragedy strikes” – AWESOME! “He returns years later” FUCK YEAH YEARS LATER! “to find the once powerful congregation in disarray” I LOVE DISARRAY. “With his childhood nemesis,” FUCK YOU, NEMESIS “creating a "new vision" for the church, he is forced to deal with family turmoil, career suicide, and relationship issues that send him on a collision course with redemption or destruction” WHOA.


Boris Kodjoe, the uber hero of African American cinema is back! You probably remember him from the rather Lynchian film Brown Sugar.



“It’s your father’s legacy. Who’s gonna fight for it if you don’t?” I would comment more on this trailer if I hadn't accidentily stapled a condom to my tongue earlier in the day. Check out the trailer, check out the Gospel.

Friday, December 02, 2005

First Descent


"Snowboarding is the worst sport ever, blah blah blah, we're a bunch of snowboarders, big dumb deal, we, like, jump off mountains with, like, boards on our feet man."

That about sums up the first half of the First Descent trailer. Not a promising start, unless you like snow, boards, and bad haircuts. The second half is where they get you. The tone of the trailer changes, the dumb rock music, the stupid announcer, the TV interview style titles - all gone, replaced by amazing cinematography, perfect music, and the best killer shot I've seen in a long time. I think whoever cut this trailer was really happy with that last part, because it rocks. More than anything, the killer shot (which I won't spoil, go watch the trailer) reminds me of the Night Watch trailer. But it's real, so it's better. I'm impressed.

Trailer (Apple)

Wednesday, November 30, 2005

Munich


In 1972 the King of Jordan called the Munich Olympic disaster by the Palestinian terrorist group Black September "a savage crime against civilization...perpetrated by sick minds." He also said something in Arabic that I couldn’t make out, however it sounded like detailed information on how to make low grade crystal meth, or rice pudding. Initially I was mad at Spielberg for choosing to make a movie like this and about this —it was as if he was doing exactly what I always expect him to do: not raise one important question, but pander to the moron in me. Most of his movies, while entertaining, are pretty cut and dry, and usually have a happy, stupid, condescending and dripping with treacle type of an end (War of the Worlds, The Terminal, even Saving Private Ryan). Sometimes I wish the last scene of War of the Worlds had Tom Cruise just getting smashed with a shovel in the back of the head by, oh say, Bette Midler.

This movie, hopefully, will be different. While it will be a meditation on the stupidity of unnecessary conflicts, we will probably see Bana get caught in the relentless cycle of murder upon murder, as if Spielberg picked up Macbeth and decided to not succumb to his normal audiences by having Lady Macbeth and Macbeth walk off into the sunset, talking about getting her therapy and him a new dog and to quit smoking. This movie can matter, especially as the United States gets ready to invade about twenty other places including Hawaii because President Bush thinks God’s light doesn’t hit islands outside of the United States.

On another note, the story will also make Germans look like raving retards, as Spielberg always seems to enjoy. Besides Indiana Jones, Saving Private Ryan, Shindler’s Wacky List, even episodes of "Amazing Stories,” this movie portrays German snipers killing five of the kidnappers in the botched gun battle that also destroyed two helicopters and caused the deaths of all the Israelis. Three terrorists escaped. Many claim the German snipers actually shot some Israeli athletes. The German government later let the three surviving terrorists go free after a Lufthansa hijacking later the same year. I'm not a German enthusiast (an Alemaniac as some say), I don’t even like German soccer and Octoberfest sort of creeps me out cause I once saw a man eat two pounds of lederhosen and then talk to me about how "“America is so big! So girl! So big! So girl! Cannabis?"”

Spielberg will focus on the aftermath of the Black September group's attack when "Operation Wrath of God" took effect: the Isreali Defense Committee made a secret decision authorizing the Mossad, Eric Bana's Jewish wrecking crew of assassins, to kill Black September and PFLP operatives wherever they could be found. These revenge operations continued for more than 20 years. Do I think the director will use this terrorist attack and its repercussions as a metaphor for what is currently happening in the U.S. and around the world? Do beer bottles also make really great "wife-silencers?” Yup.

The script is written by Tony Kuschner, the Pulitzer Prize winning writer of Angels in America, and the score is of course by Jon Williams. The film is slotted to come out on December 23rd, but Williams hasn't finished working the music. On November 7th reports said that Williams hadn't even started the score! Of course I read that in my company bathroom under "“Fuck you, Matt,"” but still. It turns out that one of the original Black September terrorists, Mohammed Daoud, is still alive. I went to see him last week, he lives near Graceland. When asked why he didn’t star in the movie, he replied again in Arabic and I didn’t understand a goddamn word. I tried to wink at him to get his attention and a response, but he continued eating the cigar I gave him as a peace offering and looking for the ribs waitress. My hope is that this movie will be great, the trailer is gripping and makes me really hope Bana has a topless scene, maybe Geoffrey Rush will debut those wonderous manboobs too, like he did so bountifully in Shine.

Munich Trailer (apple)

Monday, October 17, 2005

Jarhead: Trailer vs. Teaser



Maybe its was a natural thing. Maybe it will be one of those situations where we try to make sense of it and say: "Its nobody's fault really, these things just happen. A snip there, a tuck here, Mr Mcferrin said he didnt want his music associated with war. Tom had brough in his copy of Electric Warrior and so we just threw on some T. Rex...I think it works...right? I mean, it's nobody's fault really..."

They took a trailer and made it bad. The original trailer is now called the teaser. Don't believe the hype. A "teaser" is a black screen accompanied by the theme from Termintaor 2 (Duhn Duhn Duhn DUHN DUHN!) as it slowly pulls back to reveal a giant steel "T3". It "teases" you with what you think the film might be.

The "teaser" for Jarhead is one of the most finely crafted movie advertisements I have seen in a very long time. The narration is pitch perfect, Messrs Fox and Cooper are perfectly summed up in one or two lines each, and the imagery chosen is powerful and surprising. I am watching it for the first time in a while and i would just like to offer a list of perfect images from the trailer:

- Gyllenhaal looking up as he leads the line of grunts fresh of the bus.
- G sitting surrounded by soldiers clutching his M16 as Foxx explains the situation
- G Looking back and laughing as he leaves the plane
- Soldier asleep in the foxhole
- Sniper G cracking his gum
- Numerous shots of soldiers and flaming oil wells
- Foxx and Jake face to face as he splashes water on a picnic table (in perfect time i might add)
- Honestly, final montage of imagery is perfect.

It doesnt need to be said, because everything about the trailer is wrapped up in it, but THE MUSIC IS SO PERFECT. HOLY SHIT.

For anyone who doesn't know. It Bobby Mcferrin's "Dont Worry Be Happy" and Kanye West's "Jesus Walks." This trailer is a perfect example of how music and film can work together so well I get goosebumps everytime I watch the damn thing!

The new trailer...well as one gentlemen so aptly puts it in the original, "Welcome to The Suck."
First of all, bad choice on the music. I love Bolan just as much as the next guy, but this is not an appropriate trailer for "Bang a Gong."

Secondly, a large part of this trailer has been devoted to showing the world that Peter Sarrggessaard is is this movie. Who the fuck is this guy?! Huh? Weird, i dont see any hands out there. That's because no one has ever heard of him.

The second half of The Suck is almost the same, but just different enough to be inferior. Vastly inferior.

Dogtag name plates? Stupid.

No gas mask football? Poor.

Back of the head instead of profile?...Jesus.

A perfect example of the old adage about fixing those things not broke.

Wednesday, October 05, 2005

Domino


Let me start off by saying that I find a lot to like in Tony Scott's movies where a lot of people either hate him or just don't care much. I was reading the Ain't it Cool News talkbacks the other day (a dangerous passtime) and I came across someone who said something that got me thinking.

Basically what they said was that Tony Scott sets the tone for a decade by making a pitch-perfect blockbuster (or two) for those years. If you look at his record it certainly isn't bad.

1980s
Top Gun
Beverly Hills Cop II

1990s
Crimson Tide
Enemy of the State

2000s (so far)
Spy Game
Man on Fire
Domino


There are others that I've left off, but look at that list and tell me if those movies don't really define the blocbusters of their era. I think they do, and I love blockbusters.

About the trailer: I love this trailer - it reminds me of the BMW "Beat the Devil" short, which was basically a ten minute trailer for a movie that was never made. The thing I like best about Tony Scott's (current) aesthetic is the love of small incidental images that (to me) are stronger than anything conventional. Just in this trailer:

The freeze frame for "based on a true story". The tight zoom on Domino's eyes along with a snare drum and a cut out in background sound. The domino necklace and cuffs, all green and yellowed out. Spinning the necklace in slow shutter speed bleached out color. The three-shot montage introducing Mickey Rourke. The shots and music while introducing "Choco". Et cetera for the whole trailer, and I won't waste your time except for of Kierra firing two MP5s to her open mouth. Genius.

The voice over is pitch-perfect. Christopher Walken did great stuff in Man on Fire, and I expect he will do it again. The cast is good, the look is flawless, and if I could, I would reserve a ticket.

I am entirely taken by this trailer. It was either cut by Tony Scott's personal editor or Tony Scott's personal while he was sleeping, but it works, it's sharp, it's beautiful, and I can't wait to see the movie.

Trailer (Apple)

Saturday, October 01, 2005

Yours, Mine and Ours and Cheaper By the Dozen 2


I am not one to shy away from the so-called "family fare." In fact, I would say that I see more films that your 8 year old sister would enjoy than films that your 22 year old Shin's listenin'-side bangs wearin'-Garden State lovin'-hipster doofus of a brother would like. But this? This is terrible.

There are many things wrong with this picture. Sound of Music meets Brady Bunch meets Cheaper by the Dozen ends up being the least original idea to come down the pike in a long time. Perhaps it's based on some old Cary Grant film, or beloved children's novel. Who gives a shit. The kid actors are lame, Rene Russo looks like a mummy, and no matter how many things you drop on him DENNIS QUAID IS NOT FUNNY. And because I really feel it isn't said enough: NEITHER IS RANDY QUAID.

This trailer makes me feel bad. I guess on this blog we kind of narrow our scope, so I wont speculate on how close the director was to tears on the 13 th take of Quaid getting nailed by a bucket of paint. Or Denny's abysmal attitude towards children that you know left him painfully uncomfortable in those all too frequent "down moments." I will instead think about the poor trailer editor who, as if in apology, turns to me and says in a voice, strong, but on the verge of breaking: "I work with what they give me."


Since it came up earlier, I thought I would throw in my two cents about the Cheaper by the Dozen 2 trailer.

I will admit, I enjoyed the first one. It was sappy and obvious but it made my sister and I laugh when we saw it together. And as much as it both pains and shames me to say it, Ashton Kutcher was quite funny in it.

The trailer for the sequel is bad. I worry about Steve Martin sometimes. He was so good for so long. He took the leap and played drama in the stellar The Spanish Prisoner. Since then, it has been a slippery slope downhill. And CBTD2 is not a step in the right direction.

Lastly, in keeping with the trend of once cute girls looking hideous, get a load of Ms. Hillary Duff. Jesus. She looks like she's forty years old. And boring.

Wednesday, September 14, 2005

Lord of War


Ah, the delight of a tight, clean trailer. The voice over uses that perfect Nicholas Cage bored voice to perfect effect, reeling off facts and plot as though they are the most boring things in the world, juxtaposing some pretty rough imagery with dry, dark humor. I guess this movie comes out tomorrow in the States, but that doesn't much help me here in Japan.

Even withouth seeing the movie, I have a feeling I'll love the main character. The smug way he's smiling when making his business deals, the confidence when dealing with the authorities - he just seems like a cool-under-pressure guy in the traditions of Bogart and McQueen, but with a darker twist. The world-weariness is now a bit more cynical, the look is less strength and more behind the scenes work, but the feeling that everything that happens to this guy, he expects it. That's the same.

The music, the occaisonal use of split screen all work well, and the few funny lines in the preview are genuinely funny, well delivered, and well timed. The "thank you, but I prefer it my way" at the end gets a smile out of me every time.

Trailer (Apple)

Tuesday, September 13, 2005

V for Vendetta


I cant say that they haven't hurt me before.

The bros Wachowski and I have had a long and stormy relationship.

It starts, of course, with The Matrix. Awesome trailer, better film. When the early teasers were released for Reloaded, I was intrigued. When the full blown theatrical trailer dropped...well, lets just say that my Girlfriend still hasn't forgiven me for making her sit through half a hundred viewings of that one.

So, it's been with great trepidation that I have been getting steadily more excited for V for Vendetta. Yeah, maybe they didn't direct it, but i am confident they have had their fingers in the pie in a very major way.

The trailer's got a lot to like. We see how cute Ms Portman is with her head shaved. We see a totalitarian future done right (you could learn from this Aeon Flux). And who is that as our brutal overlord? Why it's none other than Winston Smith himself, Mr. John Hurt.

This could conceivably be another in the long line of filmic dreck that Alan Moore's comic works seem to inspire (e.g. the lofty but flawed From Hell, the entertaining but terrible LXG, and the punishingly unwatchable Swamp Thing), time will tell.

But does anyone else get a little chill at the end when V says "Remember, remember the 5th of November"?



Just me? Fair enough.

Trailer (Apple)

It's a good trailer. I particularly like the scenes that hint at a government gone wrong (v/o about hundreds of thousands of dead, the shot of someone spreading lyme over what we assume is a mass grave.) As opposed to Aeon (stupid) Flux which hints at a government gone wrong with one floaty scarf and what appears to be pointy grass.

The fifth of November had the same effect on me too - reminds me of the Two Towers trailer, but not nearly as potent.

-Ben

Wednesday, September 07, 2005

Thumbsucker


OK, so before I go on a rant about this trailer I'd like to first point out that I actually do like it. I think it's a well put together trailer. It's funny, touching, well shot, original and all kinds of other things that one would normally associate with a good trailer and thereby a good movie. However, I'm going to defy expectations. I'm worried about this movie and how it seems to be fitting into this new breed of hipster cinema that I think Wes Anderson and Garden State have spawned.

Now, don't get me wrong. I love Wes Anderson's films. I adore Garden State. But I think we're in for a new style of films that Thumbsucker and Chumscrubber will be a part of. Earlier this year Jim Jarmusch contributed to it with the vastly (vastly, vastly, vastly times infinity) overrated Broken Flowers. In these films the protagonists will be completely emotionless, detached outsiders who silently look on as the world moves around them. We are supposed to feel sorry for these people because they don't fit in. However, as these films become popular they will immediatly lose their effect because the feeling of being an outsider will be appropriated and glamorized into popularity. Each of these protagonists will have some quirky little trait like sucking thier thumb (or creating bad conceptual art like in the other overrated film Me, You and Everyone We Know). They will be filled with imagery that reeks of said character's loneliness (for example, trash falling out of the sky and protagonist crawling out of it and dusting himself off). And the characters will come to learn that thier differences are what makes them beautiful and unique and triumphant hipster music will play as it does in this trailer.

I think Garden State was an excellent start. But let's face it, what made that movie was not Zach Braff's lonesome, depressed self. It was Natalie Portman. The disaffected thing was never really that interesting but just at the right time he introduced a bright, exciting character who actually MADE CHOICES throughout the film. They were not always the right ones, but were always somehow endearing. Once these films start to focus on the disaffected people who just beg the audience to love them while the rest of the world is populated with characters whose sole purpose is to understand them by the end of the film, these movies will become boring and tedious.

That said, I do like the trailer. It looks like something I'm actually going to like Keanu Reeves in. Sometimes I forget that he's been quite good before. And not just in Bill and Ted. Watch him in My Own Private Idaho and you'll see what I'm talking about. I'm excited about the rest of the cast as well. Tilda Swinton has always been really good, but after Broken Flowers and this she may be heading back to the hipster video-art world where she got her start. I've always been convinced that Vince Vaughn and Vincent D'Onofrio were somehow the same person. I don't know whether this movie will confirm or deny that. We shall see. I'll see the goddamn film inevitably. In fact, I'll probably like it unless we're supposed to feel sorry for our poor thumbsucker because he doesn't fit in and is thin and has no hips.

Fucking Hipster.

Trailer (Apple)

Kiss Kiss Bang Bang


I wonder what the purpose of my life is. I wonder what my purpose in this world is. I wonder what the purpose of most of the components inside my computer is. I do not wonder what the purpose of a movie trailer is. The purpose of a movie trailer is to make me want to buy a few scanty hours in the theatre with a given film.

This trailer does not do that.

This trailer highlights some jokes that aren’t all that funny, and some characters that aren’t all that lively, and some plot points that seem both tired and unrelated. I notice that by the end of this trailer, it seems to have forgotten the initial device: a small time crook accidentally gets cast in a movie. If the voice-over (dreadful, incidentally) were to address that, it may sound something like this:

“Harry was a small time crook….who got cast in a movie and then did some other things that were totally unrelated to this initial plot hook.”

Based on other things I’d seen and heard about Kiss Kiss Bang Bang I was under the impression that it was going to be a fairly likable film. I was looking forward to it. This trailer heaps some evidence on the “crap pile,” so to speak.

Of course there are some comical explosions and accidental deaths, all things we should expect from “the creator of Lethal Weapon and The Long Kiss Goodnight.” Shane Black, it would seem, finds high comedy in unlikely pairings with tragic results.

Ultimately, this just feels like a retread of the things he did in the Lethal Weapon movies (of which there were four, in case anyone reading this wants to compile them for a weekend film fest that will start funny and end tragically). [As an aside, anyone looking to define the phrase “phoning it in” needs only to watch Lethal Weapon 4] You have two characters who are put together in difficult circumstances and yell at/punch each other ‘til the problem is solved. Sounds like Americana to me.

Trailer (Apple)

Good Night and Good Luck


OK, so this is my first time posting on a blog ever so it's going to take me a little while to get the hang of it. In fact, I'm not entirely sure what this particular blog is all about. Are we discussing the trailers themselves? Are we discussing whether or not we think the movies will be any good? I mean, the two do not necessarily go hand in hand. The trailer for The Skeleton Key was amazing, but the movie, well...the movie hurt my face on the inside. And like Ben mentioned about the Bourne Identity in his previous post, the trailer was horrible. In fact, so horrible that I haven't seen the movie no matter how wonderful everyone else says it is.

Wait a minute. This brings up a few more questions about blogging etiquette. Who reads this? When we write, are we addressing the anonymous reader who has traversed cyberspace to find out what us three idiots think about the most recent ad campaigns for upcoming motion pictures? Or am I addressing you, Ben and this other person I don't know. Hmmm. Now that I think about it, I don't know whether we're supposed to address each other by our real names or by our Blogger Code Names. You see, I have conveniently created a username which is quite identical to my real name. Some may say I lack originality, but secretly I'm only doing it for your peace of mind. However, I don't know if I've blown Ben's (Spiffae's) cover now. I don't know if it's a secret and now we'll be on some government list and we examined in great detail by the FBI depending on our trailer preference.

I will use that as a brilliant segue into my choice of trailer today. I would like to discuss for a moment why I think Good Night and Good Luck is now on par with Jarhead as my most anticipated movie of the year. It's really an incredible trailer. This movie came out of nowhere for me. I hadn't read about it or heard about it and all of a sudden there was this trailer online. I'm a huge fan of Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, George Clooney's directorial debut. In fact, the more I think about it George Clooney has really been doing interesting work throughout his career under the radar of his movie stardom. He was the one who pushed so hard for that live episode of ER when he was still on the show. And after that he produced that live version of Fail Safe that was on TV. Live television like that hadn't been done in decades. He's proved to have a great deal of range and comic timing in the movies he's done with the Coens and Steven Soderberg. Basically what I'm getting at is that I had no idea how huge of a fan I was of George Clooney until this moment. There are directors who make good movies and then there are those that really work hard to break boundaries and change cinema. I think that Clooney may become on of those people. He should just make sure he keeps hanging out with Steve-O (Soderberg, that is).

So yeah, George Clooney is awesome. We got that down. But let's take a look at how daring this movie is in almost every way shape and form. First of all, there's the black and white. Nobody shoots in black and white anymore. It's thought of as a box office kiss of death. When Man Who Wasn't There came out, the studio made them shoot it in color and then process it in black and white in case the test screenings were bad. Oh, and Sin City doesn't count as black and white. I mean, maybe it counts as black and white. It just doesn't count as a movie. Really it's better described as an appropriation/bastardization of a truly classic movement in cinema used to punish it's viewers for Frank Miller's feelings of insecurity about his own masculinity. But maybe I shouldn't get into why I think Sin City is the symbol of the death of American civilization.

Anyway, bold choice Mr. Clooney, that black and white. Also the choice of casting. He could have easily put a big movie star in that role who would have been a magnet for heaps of awards. The Academy would have been like "Keanu Reeves as Edward R. Murrow? Wow, he's showing such range. Impressive." If he put on some kind of prosthetic nose he would have been a shoo-in. Because making yourself ugly for a part is the new acting. In any case, I've always thought David Strathairn was one of those great actors who has never really gotten an amazing part to sink his teeth into. And my guess is that most of the world doesn't even know who he is. I'll have to wait to see this trailer in the theaters to see if there are gasps of "Oh, David Strathairn is in that film. You know, The River Wild changed my life." Anyway, about everyone else. I've decided that Patricia Clarkson should be in every movie ever made. And she's not doing too badly at this point. Now she's just in every independent movie ever made. I could still see more of her. And it's nice to finally see Robert Downey Jr. in movies again. It's been a long time. I missed you Bobby.

But let's face it. It all boils down to this: finally, there's a movie coming out that seems like it will ferociously and gracefully tackle our current political situation. All year films have put forward half-hearted attempts at containing political messages. There was George Lucas tossing in a line about "only a sith thinks in absolutes." But Georgie will jump on any political bandwagon if it will make people think his films are more than just a geeky fantasy. A few years after Star Wars came out he "revealed" in interviews that Darth Vader was supposed to be Richard Nixon. But really he was just a little jealous of his buddies Copolla and Scorsese and all of them tackling very difficult and political subject matter. Then there was War of the Worlds which tried to be "thought provoking." At least in that HG Wells' story was originally an indictment of imperialism and Speilberg somewhat disgustingly appropriated imagery from September 11th. It would have been OK if he'd followed through with it, but ultimately the film just became a highlight reel from his earlier movies. Then you have Batman, which actually was quite excellent and very forcefully dealt with the concept of fear, but very vaguely dealt with how that relates to what's going on now and what we should think of its message. Should we fear a corrupt government that is run by the ruthless immoral businessmen? Or should we fear Liam Neeson with a strangely Arab sounding name running a moving object filled with poison gas into the major building of our city. I don't know and the movie didn't either. Although maybe its ambiguity was what made it so good.

But finally we're getting a film that will point out the strange similarities of what's going on now to the Red Scare in the 50s. I'm thrilled that Clooney is tackling such material and that films like this are finally going to start coming out. I bet it'll win tons of awards. Here's my prediction for the nominations: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Screenplay (which Clooney WROTE too. That man's a monster!), Best Actor, Best Supporting Actor and Actress, Cinematography and a few other random awards here and there. It won't win 'em all, but I'll give it two or three. But that's enough of that. I think I'll just sit here and wait for the film to come out for a little while. Until then,
Kevan.

Trailer (Yahoo)

Aeon Flux

Come on now. Coming from an awesome cartoon with very little story and - if I remember correctly - no spoken lines, we get a stupid, talky trailer? This trailer is stupid. It's really stupid. It's boring, poorly edited, has a terrible voice over ("People disappear as though they never existed" - is that even a sentence?), and full of terible sound effects ("Government control is total. BANG BANG).

The worst part, the thing I can't get past, even if I were to overlook the fact that entire trailer is stupid (hard to do, trust me), is that Charlize is simply not an action actress. There isn't a single shot, not even a single frame, where she looks like she's actually kicking ass. And for "a ruthlessly efficient" "perfect assassin," that's a problem.

I remember thinking the same thing when the trailer for The Bourne Identity came out, and I was wrong then. This time though, every bone in my body says this is going to be a stinker.

And the music is so terrible, so bland and generic that I'm not going to post it.

Yeah, I never saw the show but the trailer definitely sucks. I would like to remind you, however, that the movie was directed by the woman who did Girlfight, which was an excellent film. She's also a Brooklyn resident.

BROOKLYN!

That said, I'm not exactly dying to see the movie. But I'll at least wait until the review to come out before I make my final judgement. And besides, I know the woman who edited the movie. She worked at Indigent when I was there and she was really cool and friendly to me. I hope she didn't edit this trailer though. Or is reading this. Oops.

- Kevan.

Come on guys! Am I the only person who watched the show Aeon Flux?
Well, it looks that way. The show did have dialogue, Ben, but most of it was as incomprehensible as the plotline.
Peter Cheung (creator of Aeon flux and, in my opinion, the vastly superior Phantom 2040, as well as the largely unseen Reign: The Conquerer) seems to not have had any involvement with the film. This could be a good thing or a bad thing.
The trailer makes me think it was probably a bad thing. The film looks to have none of what made the show great: extreme stylization, grotesque sexuality, or the bizarre incidental music. It’s a shame.

- A.D.

Sunday, September 04, 2005

Night Watch

Whoever is cutting these trailers knows what the hell they are doing. I don't know the first thing about this movie, but the combination of some pretty incredible and original CG along with a perfect soundtrack make for two and a half well-spent minutes.

Will the movie be good? I doubt it. It looks like all the cool stuff is in the trailer, though you never know. Those Russian-action-horror-special effects bonanza directors truly are an unknown quantity here, as the Russian-action-horror-special effects bonanza is truly an untested genre.

The music for the second half of the trailer is "Unrecorded" by M83, if you were wondering.

Trailer (Apple)