Comic book fans are still giddy over The Dark Knight, but undoubtedly a few are looking ahead. Well for those lucky folks, here’s the trailer for X-Men Origins: Wolverine that played at ComicCon:
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What is the true test of a comedy? Should it be well-crafted, have a tight script, and smart humor? Or should it just make you shoot your soda out of your nose? I suppose there’s really no answer to this question, and there are certainly merits to both sorts of comedies. Being a Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly collaboration you’d probably expect more from Column B, and not much of Column A from Step Brothers, and you’d be right. It’s not fine art, and it’s not going to win any awards for Best Screenplay. But it has moments that are ludicrously funny. I walked into the theater in a bad mood and left in a good on. And that’s good enough for me.
One note though: I’d wait to see it on DVD. Not because it’s not worthy of seeing in the theater. Just because I bet there will be a ton of deleted scenes. There was stuff in the trailers that didn’t make the final cut, and almost all of the scenes from the job interview clip aren’t there. Plus for the much of the second half of the movie Ferrell and Reilly wear what look like walkie-talkie watches, but there’s no explanation. I bet it’s a deleted scene, and I’d bet it’s funny.
Rating: 
We had a nice little diversion last week with The Muppets, but it’s time to get back to the “white folk covering gangsa rap” genre. And this one from and Irish duo called Ugly Megan may be the best of the bunch. The fine folks at the Analogue Magazine Blog probably said it best:
Covering Snoop Dogg on nothing but an acoustic guitar and a Yamaha transcends art; it is, rather, utter genius. I can only imagine Ugly Megan pulling it off with such aplomb. Their hallmark breathy boy-girl vocals and simple melodies rework D Oh Double G to an undiscovered level of tweeness, though an unconscious tweeness at that.
Snoop Dogg + twee = genius.
“Who Am I (What’s My Name)?”
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If you’ve been following the Harry Potter series of books or movies you undoubtedly know we’re due for the next big-screen installment of the young wizard’s tale. This November we get Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, the sixth film in the series. The whole cast is back, and director David Yates also returns after leading the last installment. Assuming the movie follows the book pretty closely, fans can expect more of the dark tone set by the last couple of chapters. Here’s the first trailer:
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince comes to theaters November 21.
The fine folks behind Lost have traditionally been very good at posing questions, but not too keen on giving answers. With online games, podcasts, and of course the episodes themselves they give us just enough information to keep us hooked, but not really enough to know what’s going on at any given time. Despite this fact, there are those Lost fans that scramble to get their hands on anything the producers will let slip. It’s for those folks that I present the video they showed at the San Diego ComicCon:
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Remember, “Time is not just of the essence. It is the essence.”
They’re not bluegrassy enough to be a real bluegrass band. They’re not rockin’ enough to be a real rock band. They’ve got too much bluegrass and rock to be a folk band. So what kind of band is The Avett Brothers? Doesn’t matter. Their music will work its way into your head and setup camp.
So who are these unclassifiable musical siblings? Well the name isn’t just for show. Two of the three full-time members of the band are actually Avett brothers. Seth and Scott Avett’s first attempt at a band was Nemo, and it was more of the punk persuasion. When that didn’t work out they recruited upright bass player Bob Crawford and started playing something a little rootsier. A little more harmonic. With a little more banjo.
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Oliver Stone certainly isn’t the type of director to back down from a challenge or shrink from controversy. So it’s pretty fitting that for his next movie he’s taking on his second unpopular president. This October we’ll get to see Josh Brolin’s portrayal of George W. Bush in Stone’s W.. It’s been 13 years since he gave his perspective on Richard Nixon, but from the first trailer it doesn’t look like he’s softened any.
W. hits theaters October 17th.
Remember for a moment back to the end of last year. TV was mired in a writers’ strike, casting uncertainty on the fates of everyone’s favorite shows. One of the casualties was Heroes. The producers decided to cut the season short, reshoot the one of the episodes to make it the finale, and prepare for next season. Fans were understandably disappointed, especially since the first half of the season had been lackluster at best. While anticipation has been high, many fans have still been wondering what might have been. Soon they’ll get a glimpse.
At the Heroes panel at San Diego’s ComicCon the producers announced that the season 2 episodes that had already been filmed last year will be included on the season 2 DVD
via SlashFilm and Ain’t it Cool News
The first half of the summer was all about the action, with big-budget movies like Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk, Hancock, and The Dark Knight leading the way. The summer’s second half is setting up to be about the comedies. Step Brothers opened yesterday and Tropic Thunder is coming. In between the two is Pineapple Express, which looks like it could be in the comic/action vein of Midnight Run. Check out the latest international trailer, which really plays up the action and the cool 70s vibe:
August 6th
I’m not sure how I feel about this: Will Ferrell and Adam McKay, the writers of the brilliant Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgandy, have started work on a sequel that will follow Burgandy into the 80s. On one hand, it’s the original team, and the first one was hilarious, so it has the potential to be great. On the other, it’s a sequel of a movie that really doesn’t need a sequel, so it could completely blow. Time for a poll:
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If you’ve been reading this site for a while you probably know I love me some Calexico. They’re releasing a new album this September, and the first single is out now. It’s called “Two Silver Trees”, and it’s classic Calexico, full of wide open spaces, lots of snare drum, and whispered vocals. Check it out:
“Two Silver Trees”
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The new album is called Carried to Dust. It’s due out September 9th, and it has a guest appearance by Iron & Wine’s Sam Beam. Kick Ass!
This is about as far away from white boy gangsta rap covers as you can get. It’s various Muppet characters singing classical music hits. I have to warn you, I laughed until it hurt watching these. Without further ado, here’s Beaker, The Swedish Chef, and Animal’s take on Bizet’s “Habanera”:
More after the jump…
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Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly are reunited (and it feels so good) this weekend in Step Brothers. The trailers and tv commercials have made it look pretty funny, but haven’t really given us a feeling for its profanity level. Well this clip does. So what level would it be? Fucking awesome.
via SlashFilm
If you saw The Dark Knight this weekend, there’s a good chance you’ve already seen this. It’s the first full-length trailer for Frank Miller’s The Spirit, and it features all the exotic women in the hero’s life. It also gives us a look at Samuel L. Jackson as The Spirit’s arch-enemy, Octopus. Check it out:
Another note, The Spirit’s release date has been pushed up to Christmas Day, 2008.
Turn up the tremolo, turn on the black light, and turn up your headphones, because it’s time to get psychedelic. The Asteroid No. 4 is a modern day throwback to both the 60s and early 90s, mixing the spaced out psychedelia of the flower children with the introspective navel gazing of Morrissey-spawn. Around in some incarnation for over a decade, Philly’s favorite space rock is getting stronger as it ages.
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The ending of Batman Begins clearly set up a sequel, with Batman’s arch-nemesis The Joker being the villain. Fanboys were skeptical when Heath Ledger was cast as the Clown Prince of Crime. Early reports from the set created a buzz that Ledger’s performance was unlike any previous take on The Joker. Ledger’s sudden and untimely death only heightened the anticipation for the film. Early critical reviews of the movie were glowing, building an Oscar buzz for Ledger. With all of the hype surrounding the film, it seemed unlikely that The Dark Knight could possibly live up to expectations. Would Christoper Nolan’s latest effort set a new standard for both comic book movies or succumb to the standard sequel problem of bigger, louder, more?
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Did you like Fight Club? Do you like Sam Rockwell? Or do you like satire, historical reenactments, or sex? If you answered “yes” to any of the above you’ll probably like Choke, the upcoming satire starring Mr. Rockwell, based on a novel by the writer of Fight Club. Check out the very not-safe-for-work red band trailer:
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I just finished reading the book, and from what I can tell in the trailer, the movie gets the tone of the novel right. The story follows Victor, an admitted sex addict who works as a tour guide in a historical village. What’s not to love about that?
Choke hits theaters September 26th.
Hollywood loves comic books these days. There’s just something about folks with super powers that gets them all fired up (ok, it’s probably all the cash these movies bring in). On top of this, it seems like they’re in love with graphic novels, even if they don’t involve super heroes. See 300, Sin City, and V for Vendetta. So it’s really no surprise that Warner Bros. is set to release a movie based on the highly acclaimed Alan Moore graphic novel, Watchmen.
Watchmen is very different from the other recent graphic novel movies in one important way: I’ve actually read it. And it was good. I didn’t find it earth-shatteringly good like many people have, but it had a good story and good characters. And I think it will translate very well into a movie. The first trailer is out, and it seems to indicate that I’m right:
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Watchmen is set to be released March 9th.
via FirstShowing
I think many people would agree that the world doesn’t really need another Terminator movie. The first one was a classic. The second was groundbreaking fun. And the third kind of sucked. So maybe they should just leave the series there.
But wait. What if they get Christain Bale to come and reboot the Terminator franchise like he did for Batman? Would that make it better? Yeah, that might help.
Here’s the teaser trailer for Terminator Salvation, which stars Bale as John Conner, all grown up.
Terminator Salvation helps kick off next summer’s movie season, hitting theaters May 22nd.
NBC has released another preview of the upcoming season of Heroes, subtitled Villains. The video shows us Level 5, where the nastiest of bad guys are kept. The only problem is the they’ve all escaped. Oops. Check it out:
Heroes: Villains premieres September 22nd on NBC.
Continuing our recent trend of whacked out covers of gangsta rap songs, here’s a bluegrass band called The Gourds covering the Doggfather’s “Gin & Juice”, set to Snoop’s video for the song. Great combo!
In case you didn’t know, Rock Band kicks a wee bit of ass. Which means that the forthcoming Rock Band 2 should kick even more ass. Well, as long as the tracklist is good it should. Well, the tracklist is out, and it rocks. Hard. Wired has the full list, but here are some highlights
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For those of you going through M. Ward or Zooey Deschanel withdrawal I have good news: they’ve released a new video. Here’s the video for “Why Do You Let Me Stay Here?”, from the She & Him album Volume 1. It’s cool in a creepy, morbid sort of way. Of course just about anything with Zooey in it would be cool…
via StereoGum
One of these days I’m going to have to go to Sweden. The women are hot. Ikea rocks. And they seem to crank out an almost endless stream of good pop bands (ABBA excluded…). My latest Swedish discovery is a band from Norrkoping called Speedmarket Avenue.
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Tropic Thunder is still over a month away. In the mean time, here’s a new international trailer to tide you over:
Calexico, our favorite masters of capturing the American southwest in musical form, is preparing to release their next album. Carried to Dust hits shelves September 8th, and includes guest appearances by Douglas McComb, Pieta Brown, and Sam Beam (aka Iron & Wine). If you just can’t wait until September to get a taste of Calexico, the band has put together a video preview of the album. Check it out below:
I was looking for something completely unrelated on YouTube when I rediscovered Sad Kermit. I had forgotten how great his cover of Nine Inch Nails’ “Hurt” was. To celebrate my rediscovery, let’s check out his cover of Radiohead’s “Creep”:
For all the covers, head on over to SadKermit.com
Three men, their motorcycles, and revenge. That sounds like the recipe for a good grindhouse film. In fact, it is, because Quentin Tarantino presents: Hell Ride. Ok, so Tarantino didn’t write or direct Hell Ride, but he did produce it, and it does look a lot like one of his movies. In truth, it’s written and directed by Larry Bishop, who also stars in the film. Check out the red band trailer below:
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Hell Ride comes out in limited release August 8th.
Recent Sunday Music Spotlight alums Fleet Foxes have just released a video for their song “White Winter Hymnal”. It’s a very cool claymation joint, and its forest setting perfectly matches the tone of the song. Check it out and let me know what you think:
Imagine Grand Theft Auto mixed with a comic book and The Bourne Identity and you’ll have a pretty good idea what to expect from Wanted. Angelina is hot. James McAvoy is a decent action hero. And Morgan Freeman is Morgan Freeman, but with a goatee. The cars are fast, the dialogue is cool, and the guns cause major damage. It’s as much testosterone as you can cram into 110 minutes. Don’t think too hard, ignore the big action scene on a European train, and accept that in this world bullets don’t fly straight, and you’ll have a good time.
Rating:
They must put something in the water in Woodstock. The tiny little hamlet just keeps churning out bands rooted in classic Americana. The latest to cross my path is Stoney Clove Lane.
Jeremy Bernstein and Adam Widoff form the basis of Stoney Clove Lane, and they bring an interesting mix of styles to the band. The end result is a mash of rock, folk, and funk that sounds familiar, but not in any way you can put your finger on. It’s kind of like what you would get if Bootsy Collins replaced Rick Danko in The Band. Or put banjos into P-Funk. Or something like that.
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Will Smith is the reigning king of summer blockbusters. Over the last few years he’s starred in two Men in Black movies, Independence Day, and I, Robot. His latest offering, Hancock, is a different spin on the superhero genre.
Smith plays John Hancock, a hero with powers similar to Superman, but who lives on the fringes of society. He saves people and stops criminals, but takes little care to minimize damage to property along the way. The public is split in their opinions of Hancock, with some appreciative of his help, and others furious over the damage he causes in the process. When the police decide to press charges against him he must choose: give himself up and try to change the public’s perception of him, or continue fighting crime and pissing people off.
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What better way to celebrate the independence of your country than to recap it’s founding with a little clip from Schoolhouse Rock:
Happy Fourth everyone!
Hollywood has been churning out remakes lately. Most of them suck. This week we even found out that Red Sonja is being remade. 100% chance of suckage. But there’s hope. Once in a while a remake comes along that actually makes sense. Where modern technology can actually help tell the story in a more convincing way. I know humbly present one of these rare opportunities: Clash of the Titans.
Incredible Hulk director Louis Leterrier is set to direct an updated version of the 1981 classic. If his last film is any indication, Leterrier knows how to use special effects, which should greatly help improve the story’s presentation.
Admittedly there was something charming about the special effects in the original Clash of the Titans. Ray Harryhausen’s stop motion effects are great, but they look dated. Really dated. If the remake can keep the same spirit as the original, but update the effects to modern standards, the result could be fantastic. If they try to go overboard and rely on effects at the expense of the story, it will suck hard. I guess we’ll just have to wait until 2010 to find out.
Following up on last week’s white-boy-gangsta-rap cover, here’s Nina Gordon’s take on N.W.A.’s “Straight Outta Compton”. You may remember Gordon as part of 90’s rockers Veruca Salt. Now she’s a solo artist, more in the singer/songwriter vein. There’s something strangely hot about a woman using this much profanity, and doing it so casually…
Thanks to Gareth at Analogue for reminding me of this.
This new trailer for The Dark Knight is brought to us by Dominos Pizza. They make shitty pizza, but the trailer is fresh and tasty. It features some new dialogue and footage, and focuses heavily on Batman’s psyche. Is it July 18th yet?
There’s apparently no end to the marketing for The Dark Knight. Here’s yet another poster, and this one is good. It shows the connection between The Joker and Batman by making an image of the hero out of the villain’s trademark playing cards. Awesome.
As always, click to enlarge.
I’ll be the first to admit I’ve never been a huge James Bond fan. Sure, the movies are fun, and have their exciting moments, and everyone loves Sean Connery. But for some reason they never really grabbed me. Until Casino Royale that is. I really liked the re-imagining of the Bond franchise. The grittier feel. Daniel Craig’s darker spin on the character. They make for a far more interesting storyline.
So it’s with a fair amount of anticipation that I present the first trailer for the next chapter in the Bond series: Quantum of Solace:
I’d say so far it looks pretty good. Almost like a Bourne movie. Which can only be a good thing.
Quantum of Solace hits theaters November 7th.
Ah, you’ve gotta love the unintentional comedy. I mean, they’re lighthouses, right?
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