Oooh, cheesy thrillers! New trailer: Beyond A Reasonable Doubt

Damn, I'm a sucker for cheesy thrillers, especially those, like this, that feel like they should have come out in the '80s. This is probably because i grew up entertained by the '80s batch themselves.

And among such wonders were The Star Chamber, Running Scared (which i think of as an comedy really but it was still great), Narrow Margin, The Presidio and of course "High Noon in space" Outland. I loved every one of these and they all had one thing in common, director Peter Hyams. Add to those the "Muscles from Brussels" most entertaining effort TimeCop and the criminally entertaining The Relic (plus classic Capricorn One) and i think we can agree (or agree to disagree) that Hyams knows how to make a damn fun piece of daft entertainment. Well, Hyams is behind the lens of this Beyond A Reasonable Doubt and frankly that would get me into the cinema.

Add to that that it also has Michael Douglas (reteaming with Hyams for the first time since 1983's Star Chamber) in one of his shady characters that are always his most watchable roles. Okay so it stars "rent a handsome face" Jesse Metcalfe who couldn't act his way out of a paper bag but then acting ability is hardly a pre-requisite for this time of movie.

It even has a gloriously '80s poster!

So chalk this one up to a must-see piece of hokum in my book.

http://www.apple.com/trailers/independent/beyondareasonabledoubt/

It's official - I am NOT watching the movie of The Road

That's it, the trailer is out (below and on side trailer bar) and i am NOT watching The Road.

I've been nervous about this one since it was announced, largely because what i loved about the book (one of 3 all-time favourites along with A Christmas Carol and 1984) was the knowledge it could never be made into a movie - it's too internal.

Then someone i know who had read the script but not the book gave me their impressions of the story and i started to get the idea the adaptation might be going places that would make me unhappy.

Last year i re-read the book only a year after i had read it for the first time because i wanted to make sure i read it again before my memories were sullied by the movie (if that occurred). Then it was delayed. Then it was delayed again. Now i plan to read the book again.

Now the trailer has hit and worst fears appear manifest. One of the greatest things about the book is the fact it takes place in a post-apocalyptic world but the events preceding the story in the book (solely about the emotional, spiritual and physical journey of a father and son survivors) are not gone into. We don't know what happened, why it happened and we don't need to. It is NOT IMPORTANT. The only things that are important are the father; the son; their survival - their story!

But this trailer suggests we are going to get the explanation, that the mother character (Charlize Theron here) has been significantly enlarged; that the brooding danger of the books rare close-shaves with cannibalistic survivors has become a much more in your face fight for survival from them.

I wish i could go back and stop myself watching this trailer as the images from it are already bothering me but at least i can still stop myself from watching the full film and ruining my experience of the book.

So that's it, i shall go on re-reading and loving the book but now i know for certain i shall not be watching this film.

http://movies.yahoo.com/movie/1810037227/video/13468775/

Stupid trailer of the week: Gamer

Everything tells me i should keep as far away from this nonsense as possible but damn it i know i'll watch it. This comes off as Running Man meets Death Race meets Surviving The Game (Rutger Hauer/Ice T) with all the insanity that implies but hell Michael C Hall's in it!

Okay that's pretty much why i'll watch it. It could be fun, it could be awful and Butler isn't worth the bother but Michael C Hall in a villain lead role? I am so there. I'd watch any movie they put that guy in after Six Feet Under and Dexter, the guy's fantastic.

So count me in for this stupid looking movie, i just pray it's fun.

http://gamerthemovie.com/

Frustrating trailer of the week: Precious

I really feel this is under-selling this movie. This trailer is clearly tailored specifically for the US African American audience, fronted by the Oprah Winfrey and Tyler Perry presents tag and then proceeds to look merely okay. In fact this is one of those trailers that if i didn't know what it was for i would say, "nah, won't bother with that".

But Precious is the renamed Push which met with huge acclaim at Sundance and sounds fantastic. I think this trailer has hints of that and i pray they recut to cater for international audiences because otherwise i'll never convince my mates to watch this, and this is one of my must-sees for this year. Anyway, in the meantime the fairly generic and undersold trailer:

http://www.oprah.com/media/20090506-tows-precious-trailer

Hang on... a damn minute (remake madness hits 90s)!

Okay so now they are solidly in the 90s! Cliffhanger is being remade. That’s 1993 for crying out loud!

The bit I love is that it is being remade by Neal Moritz under his fantastically ironic production company Original Films (currently remaking Escape From New York and Total Recall and responsible for the remakes of Prom Night and I Am Legend, the TV-show based S.W.A.T. and endless Fast & Furious and I Know What You Did Last Summer sequels!) Who says Hollywood producers have no sense of humour?! – oh, but then, maybe he doesn’t get it’s funny.

This follows news that the latest horror to get the remake treatment will be Fright Night, but i've been expecting that for some time. What 80s horrors are there left to remake? Sleepaway Camp i suppose.

New trailer: Nine

It is destined to be one of this year's awards front-runners but i have to say i find this trailer for Rob Marshall's Nine fairly uninspiring:

http://www.apple.com/trailers/weinstein/nine/

Here you have a musical full of big names with more Oscars to there names than probably any other cast in history and yet you cut a trailer that features not a hint of any of the performances (except for a couple of lines by Judi Dench) and none of the songs! Does this scream lack of confidence to anyone else?

This trailer comes across more like an agent provocateur advert!

Still, Kate Hudson must be happy. I don't envy being her in this cast once the inevitable awards-season trailer hits with all it's "Academy Award winner..." proclamations. In a cast with DDL, Dench, Kidman, Penelope Cruz, Marion Cotillard and Sophia Loren who are all Oscar-winners and many multiple nominees her "Academy Award nominee..." proclamation is going to read like "LOSER!!!"

Loving this Up poster

So Up is greating a lot of coverage today from its Cannes premiere last night and the trade reviews in Variety and Screen International are glowing (naturally, it is Pixar after all!)

So i decided i'd add to the Up flow today and just say i love this character poster for the film. I really really want to make this my screen saver but for political reasons I won't go into that's not possible.

Still, go Pixar! (Can't believe we have to wait until October in the UK)

New trailers: Whatever Works, Princess And The Frog

Okay so any new Woody Allen (with the possible exception of Cassandra's Dream) is cause for celebration with me, but the combinations of Larry David and Woody Allen is too good to be true. Add a cast that includes Patricia Clarkson, Ed Bedley Jr and Michael McKean and a great looking performance from the always excellent Evan Rachel Wood (amazing in last year's The Wrestler) and this is a must see - which is way it was in my 10 most wanted to see films of 2009 back at the beginning of the year (see bottom of blog main page).

Here is the trailer for Whatever Works, which my sources tell me is hilarious and lives up to how funny it looks:

http://www.apple.com/trailers/sony/whateverworks/

And while we are talking about great looking trailers feast your eyes on the beautiful trailer for Disney's long-awaited return to feature hand-drawn animation, The Princess And The Frog:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h6DmEgtibOg

I don't know how good the story is going to be on this one, will it be fun but largely forgettable like The Emperor's New Groove and Lilo & Stitch, woeful like The Rescuers and Oliver & Co., or timelessly stunning like Dumbo, Beauty & the Beast, The Jungle Book, Snow White, Bambi, The Lion King, etc? One thing's for sure the animation itself looks awesome. I hope Disney knock this one out of the park.

New trailer: District 9

Suitably intriguing trailer for apartheid allegory sci-fi film District 9:

http://www.apple.com/trailers/sony_pictures/district9/hd/

essentially seems to be a feature exploration of the themes the director had in his 2005 short film Alive in Joburg:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iNReejO7Zu8

Still, promising.