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Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs – Trailer 1
Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs was a book first, and is now being fleshed out into a full-length movie. It won’t retain the book’s original illustration style; for better or worse, you decide after viewing the trailer.
There are bright neon colors, physical gags, scientific explosions, and cheeseburgers raining from the sky. What more could a kid want from a preview? It’s fun to see such fantastic ideas animated (though I may have been okay without the ratbird illustration, considering New York’s pigeons) and the implications of diving into a giant Jell-o mold being explored, even more so as this will be available in 3D. However, one just wishes the animation quality were perhaps a little higher, though I’m sure that won’t matter one bit to the children watching giant pancakes raining down and canceling school!
Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs releases September 18th, 2009.
Visit the official website.
Filed under Adaptation, Animation, First Trailer, Preview
Little Ashes – Trailer 1
Robert Pattison is trying to follow in the footsteps of Heath Ledger, Daniel Radcliffe, or any other pretty boy who just wants to be a real actor. After being cast in his first leading role as teen heartthrob Edward of Twilight, Robert Pattison is trying to break out of his typecast and is looking for legitimacy.
So, as Heath Ledger did with Brokeback Mountain and Daniel Radcliffe with Equus, Robert Pattison took a hardcore, edgy role that would take him as far away as possible from the “teen dream” image he has already conquered. And boy has he picked a doozy.
Robert Pattison is one hot mess in this preview for his new movie, Little Ashes. We get a look at him in a multitude of costumes that form our historical image of Salvador Dali, as well as in an array that ranges from the conventional to exceptional. It’s an indie film, so expect copious amounts of artistic, surrealistic and indulgent imagery. Cue dramatic music, probably “O Fortuna.”
The preview doesn’t give us a clear sense of the plot, Pattison’s Spanish accent is poor, and inter-cutting the trailer with old archive footage feels awkward–but nobody is going to notice any of that because <i>Robert Pattison</i> is in it and the movie amps up the focus on Dali’s homosexuality. It’s an edgy role that apparently involves swimming nude and gay sex, which will make the gay fans of Twilight happy. Yes, he’s going to alienate his core fanbase of tween and teen girls, most of whom are far too young to see this R-rated movie, but it’s his first giant leap out of the teen-star ghetto. Pattison’s 22 and looking to move forward. Who knows if this movie will do to his career what he wants it to, but I do think it’s better to dive into the deep end than tiptoe through the shallow water.
Little Ashes opens on May 8, 2009 in limited release.
Visit the official website.
Filed under First Trailer, Preview
Angels and Demons – Trailer 1
Being a book nerd, most book-to-movie adaptations pique my attention because it’s always fascinating to see how the director chooses to do it. The latest and arguably one of the most highly anticipated book-movies is the prequel to The DaVinci Code: Angels and Demons
Now, many have ragged on the first Da Vinci Code movie–and I will admit, it wasn’t as good as the book (though, I have quite a few opinions about the book as well)–but the boatloads of money it assured the green light for Angels and Demons.
There’s no hint in the trailer that the movie is actually a prequel to the Da Vinci Code, so those poor souls wondering where Audrey Tautou (who played Sophie Neveu) went will be left hanging. Once again, Tom Hanks returns, and from the trailer, it looks like this movie will do what the movie before it did well: showing off the actual locations and the art.
The diverse sets and the fantastic locations Ron Howard obtained for this set of movies allows people to get surprisingly close to art and locations that would otherwise be foreign to laypeople. That’s not to say some sets aren’t fabricated or CG, but The Da Vinci Code was given unprecedented access to landmark locations, and it looks as though Angels and Demons got similar treatment.
Say what you will about the books and the movie, if you put together Dan Brown’s books, Tom Hanks, a (different) pretty brunette sidekick, shadowy religious conspiracies, fantastic Roman architecture and classical art sprinkled with a healthy dose of pyrotechnics, it all spells another blockbuster.
The most interesting thing of all, though, is that Ron Howard announced Dan Brown had completed his third manuscript, The Solomon Key. Turns out that was news to Random House, the publisher, who quickly denied the existence of the manuscript. That goes to show that this may have been Ron Howard’s push at Brown to get him to finish the manuscript so he would have the material for his third movie. Perhaps if Dan Brown, JK Rowling and Stephenie Meyer could all just publish a fresh new book this year, not only would all of the big publishing companies be saved, but so would the big movie studios as well!
Angels and Demons releases on May 15th, 2009.
Who knows when The Solomon Key will release.
Visit the official Angels and Demons website.
Filed under First Trailer, Manga, Uncategorized
Monsters Vs. Aliens – Final Trailer
One thing Pixar doesn’t do much of is the slapstick humor. They leave that up to most Dreamworks movies, such as the upcoming Monsters Vs. Aliens.
The humor portion is made clear by the hand, foot, tongue, elbow and butt scans required to get into the Presidential bunker and the human characters are all charicatures, from the screaming general and the useless President. We’re then introduced to all of the motley crew of monsters.
The trailer is nonstop gags, and while the trailer is cute, it doesn’t hold the depth that the first Shrek movie and the more recent Kung Fu Panda held. I’m sure there will be subtle jokes that exist as easter eggs for the parents that have to accompany their kids, but for the most part, Monsters and Aliens looks like it’s firmly in the children’s movie category.
Monsters vs. Aliens releases on March 27th, 2009.
Visit the official site.
Filed under Animation, Final Trailer
Up – Upisode 1
So here’s something clever! In addition to traditional trailers, the movie Up is releasing small sections of the movie in the form of “Upisodes.”
Here’s the first one:
It’s a cute look at the “odd couple” of Carl and Russell, who seem entirely mismatched in their polar opposites. We get a better look at Russell’s overeager personality and Carl lightens up a bit when he hears Russell’s snarl–which isn’t a Russell at all.
I’m not entirely sure if these upisodes are clips from the movie or not. I have a feeling they’re online only, which I think is a great idea for the movie. If there’s anything Pixar knows about, it’s characters and animated shorts. There’s not much going on in the background of the upisode, but it’s a good start at fleshing out both Carl and Russell.
Upisode 2 has already been released, and continues the jungle adventures of our two “heroes”:
Up releases May 29th, 2009.
Visit the official website or the Apple Trailer page to wait for more Upisodes.
Public Enemies – Trailer 1
Continuing my not-so-secret love of Christian Bale, let’s take a look at Public Enemies starring Johnny Depp as a bank robber and Christian Bale as the cop who has to chase him down.
Honestly, just having Johnny Depp and Christian Bale in the trailer is enough of a sell for most people, so mark that down as one thing Universal did right. Even more than the visuals of the actors and the solid period costumes and details is the timeliness of the story itself. There’s a “war on crime” being waged against John Dillinger, a bank robber who becomes a Robin Hood character who takes from the rich banks, but not the regular lay people: “We’re here for the bank’s money, not yours. Put it away.”
If you read the the description on the official site, it describes the American psyche as an “American public who had no sympathy for the banks that had plunged the country into the Depression.” If the character of John Dillinger isn’t fantasy escapism for most of America right now, I don’t know what is. Even better, the movie is “Based on a true story.”
It’s all so appropriate, it makes you wonder if Universal predicted the Recession. Hmm.
Public Enemies releases on July 1st, 2009.
Visit the official website.
Filed under First Trailer, Prequel
The Preview Reviews 
