I’m back with yet another installment of every film geeks favorite feature of mine: A Tale Of Ten Trailers. Today, I decided to mix in some international trailers with some summer blockbusters and a fe independent films I’ve been looking forward to. The thing that really sucks is that IMDb is pretty useless as far as helping me find trailers for movies that’ll be out this summer. This means that I have to search around that much more to find trailers to review and feature.Due to this (and the fact that I’ve pretty much shown every interesting trailer online already), there will probably be no trailers included in my next Dartflix post either. Hopefully someone will step up and some new trailers should start popping up soon once it turns Spring. Enough with the intro, let’s get to the trailers:
The first trailer is of the long awaited movie “The Forbidden Kingdom”. This film marks the first time ever that legendary martial artists and Asian cinema icons Jackie Chan and Jet Li have ever appeared in a film together. Since this film will be backed by a major studio and given the Hollywood treatment it may have a chance to be marketed and become a huge hit. Read my take on the trailer below.
Dart’s Take: You may have noticed that this trailer was way different than the ones they play on other sites. That’s because I detest that trailer. The draw of the movie (in my biased opinion) is that Jackie Chan and Jet Li are it and and that it’s yet another adaptation of the ancient Chinese legend “Journey To The West”.
Not that some White kid from South Boston magically appears in China and turns out to be the hero and main character of the film (although he does end up in Son Goku’s place with the magic staff). I hope that this movie turns out to be pretty good and that they don’t try to make the White kid the star/hero of the movie to draw in the North American audience because that’s just fuckin’ corny.
This is the newest “Iron Man” trailer. It’s been getting shown since the Super Bowl happened and it’s been all over the internet and television. Let’s see my take on it below.
Dart’s Take: Yeah. I’m going to see the hell out of this movie when it finally comes out. It seems that somebody has actually decided to find the happy medium between entertainment value and staying true to the original source material. This might be up there with the best comic book adaptations ever made when it’s all said and done.
“Smart People” was one of the most popular films of this past movie festival season and it was well received at Sundance. While it was being screened, Miramax bought it and will bring it to theaters in the near future. What’s my take on it?
Dart’s Take: Hmm. Yet another movie about a dysfunctional family of geniuses with humor and a family black sheep thrown in. This looks like it would make for an interesting rent once it comes out on DVD but I’m not itching to see this even though the cast seems to be a pretty good one and I really liked “Sideways” and this seems to be along the same vein. *Puts on Netflix queue*
The new “The Incredible Hulk” trailer has recently been making the rounds on the internet and the bloggerverse. It seems that a lot of people really hated Ang Lee’s film and feel that this one could be a lot better. They finally gave Hulk somebody he could fight for once. Read my take below:
Dart’s Take: Although there were a lot of things wrong with Ang Lee’s version of Hulk, he did a lot of things right. For one, he made it a film. Sure there were a lot of useless and convoluted plot lines but it wasn’t just a CGI fest with no acting involved in it at all. With Edward Norton as Bruce Banner, this should be an actual film as well. I’m glad that they introduced Abomination to fight Hulk. Hopefully, Hulk’s fights are as good as the ones in Ang Lee’s version (the fights were one of the things that were well executed in it). I’ll give this one the benefit of the doubt and check it out, too.
“The Grand” is the brand new offering from writer/director Zak Penn (also known as the man who butchered the X-Men). He wrote the new Hulk movie and is developing the scriprt for the upcoming Avengers movie as well. Between these projects he made a clever indie film about a huge poker tournament and the wacky characters that converge on it and participate in it. Read my take below.
Dart’s Take:
This looks it’ll be really funny. Nice ensemble cast, clever lines. I’m kind of shoked in a way because his comic book movies don’t have this much heart. It’s almost like he can’t write comic book characters like real people. This looks like it’ll be good but I’ll still put it off for a DVD rental because it looks like that kinda flick. With Woody Harrelson, Richard Kind, David Cross, Cheryl Hines and Judy Greer all in it it’s definitely something I want to see. I just hope Zak Penn doesn’t butcher “The Incredible Hulk”.
“Sukiyaki Western Django” is the new Takashi Miike film that he collaborated with Quentin Tarantino on. Miike decided to make an action film that blended the Western film that dealt with mostly gunfights and blends aspects of Asian action films to make a unique film experience for the viewer. How did I feel about it? Read below.
Dart’s Take: I’m sold on any time Miike decides to experiment rather than do the same super gory films that don’t get released in theaters. When he reigns it in and tries to make a film a wider audience can enjoy, his movies actually get a lot better (which is odd because usually the opposite is true with most people). This looks like it’s a must see.
I’m not looking forward to seeing the “Americanized” version so more than likely I’ll be watching the original version with subtitles and avoiding the dubbed version. Does it look like it’s 1984? Why would I ever watch a dubbed Asian film? The action sequences are gonna be bananas in this...I’m talking Johnnie To bananas. Consider this flick copped/seen.
“Babylon A.D.” is an adaptation of a French sci fi novel and Mathieu Kassowitz (La Haine, Assassins, Gothika) is helming this ambitious project starring Vin Deisel and Michelle Yeoh. This film has been in the works since 2006 and experienced several delays. Will it all be worth it? Read my take below.
Dart’s Take: This movie has had several recasts and work stoppages since it started production. Vin Diesel replaced Vincent Cassell in the lead role and Diesel dropped out of “Hitman” to take on this project. “Babylon A.D.” has gone over budget a few times and experienced some issues with various filming locations.
Roles have had to be recast during shooting but according to the studio, producers and directors it’s will be ready for theaters this summer. Based on the several behind the scenes videos that are on the web this movie looks like it’ll be interesting. I’ll reserve judgment until I see a proper trailer released and endorsed by the studio itself.
Al Pacino is in a brand new film called “88 Minutes” where he plays a psychologist who admits that all the time he spent as an expert witness for the prosecution in trials that he lied on the stand under oath and sent numerous men to jail. After that the shit hit the fan. Read my take below.
Dart’s Take: Let’s not kid ourselves here. Al Pacino’s in it so it’ll get seen. I like the trailer and nothing in it gives me the impression that this movies gonna suck. Might it possibly be “meh” or mediocre? Yes. Suck outright? I highly doubt it. Al Pacino is guaranteed box office. Woo hah!
The next film trailer up is called “Stop Loss”. It’s about a group of veterans of Operation Iraqi Freedom or whatever the fuck this war is being called nowadays. One of the vets goes back home to Texas and tries to settle back into the groove of civilian life. Out of nowhere, the U.S. Army recalls him back to duty. This movie takes a different look at another serious problem regarding the war in Iraq and Afghanistan. Read my take below.
Dart’s Take: This film looks like something I’d like to see. It has an excellent cast anchored by Ryan Phillipe and starring Joseph Gordon-Leavitt, Channing Tatum, Rob Brown, Victor Rasuk and the criminally slept on Abbie Cornish. This movie looks like it’s gonna be something extremely serious. The writer/director Kimberly Peirce also made the critically acclaimed film “Boys Don’t Cry”. I’m on the fence between going to see it or just waiting to see the rental.
The final trailer we’ll be viewing is the new historical epic named “Wu Bi” or “Red Cliff”. This ambitious project is being helmed by legendary director John Woo and it’s been commissioned in a way by the Chinese government because they want directors to make a bunch of films that are patriotic and highlight the greatness of Chinese culture.
The film tells the now legendary story that was recalled in the tomes “Chronicle Of The Three Kingdoms” and “Romance Of The Three Kingdoms”. It’s rumored that this film is so long that it will be split into two parts and the first will premiere in China this summer. What’s my take on it? Read on.
Dart’s Take: The rumor is that this film cost in excess of $85 million US dollars. That would make it the most expensive ever made in Asian film history. The Chinese government isn’t worried at all because they see this film as part of it’s marketing campaign to go along with the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing.
This looks like it’s going to be an amazing piece of cinema. It’s too bad that Chow Yun-Fat couldn’t come to terms with the producers and participate in it as well. I’m also glad that this film will stick more to the historical records rather than the romanticized version of the events that took place.
Anyone that’s ever played “Romance Of The Three Kingdoms” or the “Dynasty Warriors” will be familiar with the key players in this film and should be somewhat familiar with the history regarding Cao Cao’s army invading Wu and Sun Quan and Lu Bei’s legendary win at The Battle Of Red Cliff against an army that reportedly totalled one million soldiers (but it was actually more like 250,000 according to estimates). I’ll definitely be needing to see this one as soon as bloody possible.
Look out for the new Dartflix edition coming next week. If I can find some more good trailers I’ll be back with another one of these between the 15th and 20th of April.One.
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