Trailers

If you ask me Up in the Air looks really good. George Clooney plays a man whose job involves flying all over the country to fire people. As he approaches his one-millionth frequent flyer mile he begins to question his way of life. By itself that plot doesn’t sound that interesting, but factor in Clooney as the star and Jason Reitmen, whose last film was Juno, directing, the total package could be great. I’m not alone in my anticipation either. The National Board of Review just named it the Best Film of 2009, and it’s already starting to get Oscar buzz.

Check out the latest trailer for the film, and let me know what you think:

Up in the Air opens is out in limited release now, but comes to theaters everywhere on Christmas Day.

If you’ve seen Blue Harvest you know that Family Guy does a pretty good job lampooning the Star Wars universe. Well, they’re at it again. Family Guy: Something Something Something Dark Side comes to DVD on December 22nd, and it spoofs the best Star Wars of them all, Empire Strikes Back. Check out the trailer, which is chock full of Family Guy inside jokes:

If you’re somewhere in the 30-35 ballpark I’m guessing you saw Clash of the Titans as a kid. And you probably thought it was AWESOME. If you don’t remember it, here’s the original trailer:

Of course, since Hollywood is determined to remake every movie and tv show from the 70s, 80s, and 90s, they’re coming out with an updated version. The teaser trailer for it just came out, and it’s a bit different from the original:

Where are the low-tech stop motion special effects? Medusa? The Kraken? The stupid mechanical owl thing? And is that the weird statue from Lost I saw in there?

Still, I’m intrigued. If they called it something other than Clash of the Titans I would probably be even more intrigued. Even so, I’m pretty sure I’ll go see it. How ’bout y’all?

Clash of the Titans hits theaters March 26th, 2010

Sorry comic fans, but in real life there are no superheroes. This is a problem that one man attempts to solve in Kick-Ass, a movie based on a comic by the guy who wrote Wanted. Dave Lizewski asks the question “Why are there no superheroes?”, and decides to become the answer. Only he doesn’t have any powers. No biggie.

The teaser trailer is out, and I’m intrigued. It looks like a great mix of tongue-in-cheek superhero stuff and decent action. And it’s got McLovin! Check it out:

Kick-Ass swoops into theaters April 16, 2010.

I have to admit, I’ve never actually read one of Cormac McCarthy’s novels. But I did see No Country for Old Men, which was based on one. And now I’ve seen the trailer for The Road, which is based on another. Based on this second-hand exposure to his work I think I’m qualified to say he’s probably not a happy dude. The Coen brothers’ adaptation of No Country for Old Men, while brilliant, was bleak as can be. Not a lot of chuckles. The Road is a post-apocalyptic father/son road movie. By “road movie” I don’t mean a charming Bob Hope film where he traipses around Europe. I mean the father and son are on a road beset with obstacles like bandits, starvation, and dehydration. Not exactly Tommy Boy. But it stars Viggo Mortensen, and he tends to make pretty good decisions about movies to be in. And the trailer looks pretty interesting, so I think I’ll give it a shot. Check it out:

The Road comes to theaters November 25th.

Remember a while back when I posted the first trailer for James Cameron’s Avatar? I was confused and underwhelmed. Well there’s a new trailer out, and it’s much longer and give much more insight into the plot. Take a look and we’ll discuss:

So, what have we learned? It’s about humans invading another planet to steal their natural resources. When the natives won’t just give us the resources we decide to destroy them all. Is this a sci-fi movie or a criticism of Bush-era foreign policy? Anyway, this trailer does show off the film’s special effects, and they are very good. But overall it just doesn’t do anything for me. What do y’all think?

If you liked the Matt Damon in the Bourne movies you’re gonna love this trailer for Green Zone. Damon plays an Army warrant officer in Iraq, hell bent on finding someone and willing to kick ass along the way. That’s pretty much all you need to know. Oh, plus this: it’s directed by Paul Greengrass, who also directed the last two Bourne movies. Awesome.

Green Zone comes to theaters March 12th, 2010.

Remember back when Mel Gibson was just an actor that showed up in good movies? Before he was directing movies in ancient languages. Before he was getting drunk and calling cops “sugartits”. Before he started spewing anti-semitic comments. I do, and I would like to go back there. I enjoyed Lethal Weapon, Braveheart, and Ransom. I even liked Conspiracy Theory and The Patriot. In short, the movie world is better when Mel Gibson is keeping his mouth shut, shelving his artistic and religious ambitions, and just acting in fun movies.

Well with Edge of Darkness we may be getting back to those days. Gibson plays a cop whose daughter is murdered. In the process of investigating the murder he uncovers a bunch of conspiracies, and generally gets to be a badass. Sounds simple. No dead languages. No heavy religious overtones. Just some mystery and some action. Perfect. Check out the trailer and let me know if you welcome Mr. Gibson back to the land of normal movies:

Edge of Darkness hits theaters January 29th, 2010.

I didn’t know this before today, but it turns out there are two famous Charles Bronsons. The one I knew of was an actor, mostly in action films like The Dirty Dozen, and the Death Wish series. The other is “the most violent criminal in Britian”, a man so dangerous he’s spent over 30 years in SOLITARY CONFINEMENT. Slightly different. When I saw there was a movie coming out named Bronson, I assumed it was about the actor. Then I watched it and got very, very confused. Turns out it’s about the prisoner, and that’s actually a good thing. This movie looks like it could be awesome. Check it out:

Bronson is out in limited release in the US now.

Fact: Movies starring wrestlers are usually not good. Fact: movies starring wrestlers and MMA fighters are almost guaranteed to be bad. Fact: movies starring Sylvester Stallone, a wrestler (Stone Cold Steve Austin), an MMA fighter (Randy “The Natural” Couture), Jet Li, Jason Statham, Dolph Lundgren, and ERIC ROBERTS is guaranteed to be mind-blowingly, epically, and hilariously bad. Go ahead, re-read that list real quick. It’s unbelievable. Enter The Expendables, a film about an elite team of commandos trying to take down some kind of South American dictator or something. Honestly, it doesn’t matter what it’s about. By the time it got to Sly doing his best John Wayne impression the trailer had me hooked. This thing looks like a direct-to-Cinemax movie from the 90s. In other words, classic so bad it’s good.

Unfortunately The Expendables doesn’t hit theaters until August 10th, 2010.