The Watchmen Trailer

 

Looks pretty sah-weet.  Seems like the soundtrack might be pretty good, too.

See... it's not just me... Hilarious Joker/Batman spoof

Why I didn't really think Dark Knight was all that great

I seem to be the only human being in the world, but I was kind of disappointed by the Dark Knight. It was still a good movie, but definitely wasn't as good as Batman Begins. I don't know if it tried to do too much, but midway through the movie, I kept thinking that there was just too much plot going on here. I thought that truck flip scene was going to be the "final standoff" but there was still like an hour left in the movie.

It wasn't so much that there weren't good parts, but there were too many things that bothered me for this to get anything more than a 7, whereas the first one was close to a 10.

 

Here's what I didn't like:

1) Who is the Joker? In the original movie, we get the Joker backstory. The Joker was Jack Napier--an ambitious thug who falls into a vat of chemicals and gets a backalley hack to try to fix his face--only to leave that ridiculous smile on him. This time, we get nothing but the Joker keeps asking people "Wanna know how I got this scar?" and keeps coming up with new versions of the story. That's completely annoying because these new movie versions are all about the backstory. I wanted to know.

2) The whole Rachel Dawes character is a failure. What exactly did she do to warrant the love of two great men?  Why does Bruce Wayne love her?  Because they played together as little kids?  She's kind of vapid in this one--barely even caring that Harvey Dent nearly gets blown away in the courtroom. (The gun just happened to misfire right? Am I the only one that thought everyone should have reacted a little more to that?) I didn't care at all when she died. Not only is she no MJ from Spiderman, who I think we all fell in love with, but Maggie Gyllenhaal looks distractingly like Kirsten Dunst.

3) I really hate the Batman voice. Why is Christian Bale doing his worst Al Pacino impression under the cowl? It didn't bother me so much in the first one, because Batman doesn't really have a ton of dialogue, but in this one, it just gets silly.

4) The Batcycle is Bat Feature Creep. I was waiting for the back wheel to get blown off so it could get converted to the Bat Segway.

5) Too much obvious foreshadowing. How many "face" references to Dent were there? Face of Gotham? Hmm... I wonder if he becomes Two Face at the end? Lucky for him that Two Face was already his nickname!

6) Phone sonar: We've seen that effect before--in DareDevil, when it rains.

7) The Bat copycats expose us to the silliness of the idea of a guy running around dressed as a bat. What I thought was amazing in the first one was how believable the origin story of a guy in a bat costume was... Like I could actually see it happening and not being silly. When the copycat asks Batman what the difference between him and Batman was "I'm not wearing goalie pads" can't be the answer, otherwise Batman really is just a guy with a boatload of cash and military equipment.

8) Since when do all of the killings in a superhero movie have to be accounted for?  I hate the idea that Batman has to take the blame for Dent's murders.  Did he really kill 5 or 6 people?  I wasn't counting?  Are they counting Morone's limo driver, too?  Who cares who killed a mob limo driver?  Can't they sweep that under the rug?  Leave it as a cold case?   

9) His death was tragedy--no doubt. But, just in terms of his performance, I honestly thought it was kind of understated. When I think psychopath in clown makeup, I'm thinking REALLT creepy. Robin Williams was once mentioned as a potential Riddler before Jim Carrey got it, and his performances in 24 Hour Photo and Insomnia were beyond creepy--they were downright disturbing. I just didn't feel like the Joker was really that unpredictably nuts in this one. I did get my hopes up in the beginning, though. Between the "What busdriver?" line and the amazing disappearing pen, I thought we were in for a real sicko... in a funny kind of sick way. Didn't get him again until he walks out of the hospital in the nurse outfit...not much in between.

Best Independence Day Speech Ever

Bond Trailer for Quantum of Solace

Sah-weet!

Rocky Balboa: There's still some stuff in the basement

When I saw that they were coming out with another Rocky, I was... um... skeptical.  Rocky V, to me, should have never been made the same way that Godfather III is dead to me.  So, why come back for another one?  Especially since Sly is 60!!

Then I saw the trailer...    Hmm... wow... actually looked pretty interesting.  It totally plays into the aging boxer story, which was somewhat believable since we saw George Foreman do it in real life.

Well, the movie was even better than I could have imagined.  If you liked any of the Rocky movies, this is a must-see.  If you love America and apple pie, this is a must see.  If you go to sleep at night and wake up in the morning, this is a must see. 

Even though this isn't a true "reset" like Casino Royale and Batman Begins, the movie accomplishes the same success for a franchise that had jumped the tracks a bit.  It is a back to basics plot with a lot of character exploration and development.  Oh, and did I mention Adrian was dead?  In fact, Rocky's memories of Adrian are so touching that, for a split second, we almost... miss her character.  Almost.  Nice jobs all around by supporting characters playing Rocky's son, "Little Marie", and Rocky's Trainer.

You can't help but get goosebumps when the Rocky theme plays.  The fight scene is probably the most realistic of all the Rocky fights, too, and when it's over, you couldn't have asked for the frachise to end on a better note.... a lot better than fighting that Tommy Morrison in the street.

Once again... the trailer:

The Prestige, good, but with a plot hole... WARNING... SPOILER

In case you didn't see Christian Bale and Wolverine... um...   Hugh Jackman in The Prestige yet, stop reading.    I am going to give away a major plotline here.   Don't blame me if you keep reading... you've been warned.

As far as I can tell there are only two scenarios that make sense with this movie.... two explanations that neither of which are entirely satisfying.

1)  Christian Bale has a natural twin that he has grown up with all his life.  He makes "Telsa" the key to his book because Telsa is attempting a cloning machine that doesn't work, sending Hugh Jackman on a wild goose chace.  (Because, if he was aware of it working, he would have essentially given his one advantage, being a twin, over to his arch rival.)   By sheer dumb luck, the machine actually turns out to work.  Now, actually, I believe Tesla was more likely trying to invent a transporting machine... and that happens to be the wackiest glitch in the world... that it doubles you.  But, either way, Bale could have never thought it to work.

2)  Telsa actually did make the machine work for Bale and he used it once, to clone himself a twin.  The second Bale doesn't seem to exist very early on in the movie, like when he's a stagehand.  Where was he all those years if they weren't doing the magic act routine?  Plus, it's just too random that the key to the diary is Tesla, a man that, in reality, has nothing to do with his trick, b/c Bale already has a twin and doesn't need a transporting or cloning machine...   of which Telsa actually winds up, ironically and accidently, creating a cloning machine that works.  Of course, this doesn't make sense either, b/c Telsa doesn't even know his machine works until Hugh Jackman comes to visit him.  If that was the case, though...  why would Bale have anything to do with Tesla?   

Infringement... Copyright Infringement

Sony has yanked all of the Casino Royale  trailers from YouTube.

Huh?

We're not talking the whole movie here...  we're talking the advertsing trailer.

Aren't they incentivized to get this thing playing in as many places as possible??

I had this playing on my blog and my MySpace profile for months leading up to the opening. 

If you're in charge of movie trailers, no matter how big or small your movie is, and you don't have them uploaded to YouTube, you're an idiot.  That's it.  You're just an idiot. 

Avatar... Shaken, not Stirred

I changed my avatar's look to something a little more...suave and sophisticated.  Click the play button to hear him introduce himself.  :)

Casino Royale Rocks

Saw a sneak preview of the new Bond movie, Casino Royale, last night.  I'm a huge 007 fan, so I've been looking forward to this movie for just about after the credits of the last one started rolling.

Well worth the wait.

I saw in the paper that Daniel Craig brings the franchise back, but I don't want to say that because I think Pierce Brosnan was the one who actually did that... bringing it back from License to Kill, which was, in my opinion, the worst Bond ever.  (A View to a Kill can't be the worst, because it has Christopher Walken.)

Casino Royale starts out with Bond even before he was a "00" agent...  resetting the story just like they did with Batman Begins.

Daniel Craig reminds me of Connery's Goldfinger performance.  Rough around the edges, but every now and then he flashes a smile without being cheesy.  

The story, and their actually is one, is well thought out and not predictable at all.  Just go see it... even if you're not a Bond fan... it's a great action movie for anyone.