Monthly Archives: January 2005

Quick Takes: 1/25/05

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Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith

  • The opening crawl has been released. Reports surfaced a while ago that the upcoming third season of the Clone Wars animated series would show us what is contained in the text, so if you don’t want that spoiled don’t click. The page also contains the crawl text for the first five movies.

Monster-In-Law

  • The cinematic return of the ex-Mrs. Ted Turner has been posterized.

Man of the House

  • Tommy Lee Jones is really stretching playing a government agent, as can be seen in this poster.

The Cave

Constantine

  • Anyone want to check out the Australian one-sheet?

The Corpse Bride

  • We get our first glimpse at Tim Burton’s return to stop-motion animation via this new trailer. I’m completely on board for this one.

Mirror Mask

  • Visit the official site for a look at this trailer.

The Jacket

  • It’s not available (at least not that I could find) on the official site, but here’s a link to the trailer. This movie is almost on my “To See” list.

Unleashed

  • JoBlo has links to a new poster and trailer for this Jet Li flick.

Strangers With Candy

  • Click above for the official site to a comedic ensemble movie that will hopefully do better than Kids In The Hall: Brain Candy (still one of my favorites) did.

War of the World

  • Word is the first promos with footage from the movie will air during the Super Bowl.

View from the Rental Counter: 1/21/05

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Mainstream
Alien Vs. Predator
MPAA: PG-13 (violence and language)
Budget: $65M
Gross: $80M
Market: Fans of the two movies apparently ate this one up but it’s about five years late to really capitalize this one. It seems more like the result of someone attempting cash in on the success of Freddy Vs. Jason. Anyway it did reasonably well theatrically and will probably do likewise on video.

Sky Captain & The World Of Tomorrow
MPAA: PG
Budget: $40M
Gross: $37M
Market: It’s hard to figure out who this one was marketed to. Action/adventure fans seemed more likely to stay home and watch their new Indiana Jones DVDs. In the end all the features and news stories on the groundbreaking special effects couldn’t save it but the documentaries on said effects that appear on the DVD will likely be a big draw.

Off The Beaten Path
When Will I Be Loved
MPAA: R (sexuality, language and nudity)
Budget: N/A
Gross: $159,000
Market: First – People who enjoy offbeat and interesting character driven movies. Second – People who want to see copious amounts of Neve Campbell’s body. I think those two pretty much cover it.

Television & Box Sets
Warner Gangsters Collection
Market: This is a great set of some of the great gangster flicks back when they knew how to make gangster flicks and didn’t feel the need to include Sean Penn sporting one of the all time greatest afros in history. These titles are available individually as well, but why not just get your James Cagney, Edward G. Robinson and Humphrey Bogart shopping done right here?

Batman: Animated Series – Vol. 2
Superman: Animated Series – Vol. 1
Market: These two volumes contain some of the best superhero animation ever. DC characters have done so well in animated form but have languished so badly since the early 1990’s. Hopefully Batman Begins will turn that around.

MacGuyver: Complete First Season
Market: Patty and Selma Bouvier primarily. Also those who want to take notes on how to escape should they find themselves in a cargo container with only a piece of string, some chewing gum and a tin of axel grease (again).

Coupling: Complete Fourth Season
Market: Very funny and very raunchy Brit-com. If you like British humor in general and think Brits obsessing and talking endlessly about sex then this will be right up your alley.

Quick Takes: 1/21/05

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Fantastic Four

  • The official site has now “officially” launched with F4 content, including links to the trailer. Fox continues to make their trailers available in QuickTime.

Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

  • The first poster for the Douglas Adams adaptation is now online. Can’t help but dread this one for some reason.

Herbie: Fully Loaded

  • ComingSoon also has the poster for this Disney remake.

The Jacket

  • First trailer and poster are now making the rounds.

Guess Who

  • Sony craps all over the memories of Spencer Tracy, Sidney Poitier, Stanley Kramer and Katharine Hepburn and now you can view the poster. The site also has the trailer. Shame.

Duece Bigelow: Male Gigolo

Batman Begins

  • Not big news but the official site has new versions of the trailer and posters, along with a synopsis.
  • Apparently there will be a TV spot airing during the Super Bowl.

Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith

  • TheForce.net reports the theatrical trailer for the final Star Wars movie will debut in front of the animated flick Robots. They also have an unconfirmed description of said trailer here.

The Cave

  • There’s a trailer on the official site now.

Madagascar

  • JoBlo has a look at the new posters for the best flick to feature a talking zebra since Racing Stripes.

Into the Blue

  • Jessica Alba goodness can be found at this link.

Are We There Yet? – Marketing Recap

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You can read my full recap of the marketing campaign for Are We There Yet? at Film Threat.

Ice Cube seems to idolize Eddie Murphy. That’s the only explanation I can think of for his career track in movies. He starts off in the successful and well received “Boyz N the Hood”, moves on through “Friday” and its two sequels and then starts doing over the top action vehicles like “Torque” mixed with family friendly flicks like his new one, “Are We There Yet?”

View from the Rental Counter: 1/18/05

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Didn’t do one of these last week. My bad.

Mainstream
Catwoman
MPAA: PG-13 (action/violence and sensuality)
Budget: $85M
Gross: $40M
Market: Surf on over to FilmThreat for my full column on this one. This is the type of movie that will likely find a bigger audience on DVD than it did in theaters as its easier to distract yourself by, say, pulling your eyebrow hairs off.

Cellular
MPAA: PG-13 (violence, terror, language)
Budget: $25
Gross: $30
Market: This movie seemed to market itself as a thinking-man’s thriller so it might do well with someone looking for a decent flick. Kim Basinger seems to be trying to re-re-re-vitalize her career by pulling a MacGyver with a smashed up phone. Might be worth checking out with a sweetheart who will grab your hand every time something conveniently scary pops up.

Forgotten
MPAA: PG-13 (violence and language)
Budget: $42M
Gross: $66M
Market: Full disclosure – I’m a huge Julianne Moore fan so I really want to check this one out. This and Cellular might cannibalize each other’s audience to some extent as they’re likely to appeal to the same group.

Friday Night Lights
MPAA: PG-13 (sexual content, language, rough sports and action)
Budget: $30M
Gross: $61M
Market: Jocks and the girls who love them. That’s pretty much it. If you can’t get enough of high school football on public-access cable then this one’s for you. Looks like it follows the Hoosiers mold pretty closely in being all inspirational.

Off the Beaten Path
Rosenstrasse
MPAA: PG-13 (mature material, some violence and mild drug content)
Market: This is another tale to come out of World War II and the Holocaust so if you’re a History Channel buff and always head for the WWII section at Borders this is one to check out.

Television & Box Sets
Curb Your Enthusiasm: Complete 3rd Season
Market: This is one of the funniest shows on television. It’s accomplished this feat by being intelligently written (to the degree that it is, since much of the dialogue is improvised) and cleverly plotted. Fans of not only Seinfeld but The Office and Fawlty Towers will enjoy Larry David’s world.

The Return of Jafar/Aladdin and the King of Thieves
Market: Enjoying Disney’s feature films is understandable. Yes, they may be overly saccharine of late (pretty much after Sword in the Stone) but they are designed to appeal to a broad audience and they hit that big target. Enjoying their crappy straight-to-video sequels is less understandable and you should probably see some about that. Keep in mind this package does not contain the original for no good reason I could think of.

Battlestar Galactica: The Miniseries
Market: You know who you are. This is timed to come out just as the new miniseries is hitting airwaves.

Elektra – Marketing Recap

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You can read my full recap of the marketing campaign for Elektra at Film Threat.

Jennifer Garner is hot. Jennifer Garner looks really hot while kicking ass.

The first statement above is an empirical truism. The second statement is something we have all come to learn through three seasons of “Alias” and from watching 2003’s big-screen adaptation of Daredevil. In that she was but a supporting character, second-fiddle billing-wise to Ben Affleck’s title character. The role wasn’t that much of a stretch from her TV persona Sydney Bristow, but she did a good enough job there to warrant a spin-off.

Quick Takes: 1/6/05

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Catching up on things from the last few weeks so this is going to be a long one. May want to settle in with a cup of coffee.

Sin City

  • The new trailer is up at Yahoo! Movies and has immediately put this one on my “To See In 2005” list.
  • ComingSoon was given high-res versions of the posters so go on over to check those out.

Fantastic Four

  • Rumors are the first trailers will be attached to next week’s release of Elektra (also a Fox production).

Kingdom of Heaven

  • Not only is the official site now active, but it also contains a trailer (only in QuickTime – go to Yahoo! for a Windows Media version) which, despite my better judgment, I actually thought worked pretty well. Maybe with Ridley Scott on this one I just have a better sense of it.

The Ring Two

  • The official site is now up and has a fair amount of content, including the full trailer.

Hide & Seek

  • Fairly cool and interactive official site for the new, non Ben Stiller-starring Robert DeNiro movie is now up and running.

War of the Worlds

  • ComingSoon has the first official photo from this up comer.
  • The official site has also been updated with a new look.

V For Vendetta

  • There’s a first look at the poster for this adaptation (which reportedly will star Natalie Portman) here. I can’t tell you how much I don’t like the “An Uncompromising…” line at the top of the poster.

The Pacifier

  • Urm… Vin Deisel in a Disney family comedy? See the poster here. Remind anyone else of Hulk Hogan in Mr. Nanny?

Sahara

  • First one-sheet for this one is also now available. Three words: Big. Red. McConaughey.

Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith

  • Cast members from all six films got together for this Vanity Fair cover. Very cool for geeks such as myself.

Boogeyman

  • Yet another official site has launched.

Elektra

  • The site has updated with a bunch of new content, just in time for the release date.
  • So has the soundtrack’s site.
  • The first four pages of the comic adaptation have been posted online (spoiler warning).
  • A lot of stories have been making the rounds on star Jennifer Garner having some sort of viral infection that caused her to bow out of some publicity activities. Apparently whatever it was has cleared up just in time.

Batman Begins

  • A hi-res version of the trailer is now at the official site.

Danny the Dog

  • Never heard of this movie before, but it looks pretty cool. Here’s a link to view the poster and trailer.

Alone in the Dark

  • This one is just flying onto my radar. Here’s a link to the trailer at IGN.

Tideland

  • Official site = now active.

The Longest Yard

  • New poster with Sandler’s big scary head front and center.

View from the Rental Counter 1/4/05

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Mainstream
Troy
MPAA: R (violence and some sexuality)
Budget: $185M
Gross: $133M
Market: Did you enjoy the other 17 sword and sandal epics that included thousands of CGI arrows flying through the sky? Are you a woman (or a man) who enjoys seeing guys like Brad Pitt, Orlando Bloom and Eric Bana all sandy and sweaty? Then this one’s for you!

Harod & Kuman Go to White Castle – Extreme Unrated Edition
MPAA R (language and a host of other reasons)
Budget: $9M
Gross: $18M
Market: People who can’t get enough of Dazed and Confused but still feel insulted by the American Pie movies. There’s a fine line there but I get the feeling from everything I read about this one that it treads it very well.

Little Black Book
MPAA: PG-13 (sexual content and humor)
Budget: $35M
Gross: $20M
Market: It’s interesting because as I watched the commercials and the trailer for this I think I actually saw Holly Hunter wondering what the hell she was doing there. If you are looking for a simple romantic comedy on a weekend night than this one may be up your alley.

Television & Box Sets
CSI: Miami – Complete Second Season
Market: I’m personally not into these shows but they do seem to be huge so I’m sure there will be a large audience ready to snap this up.

God the Devil & Bob
Market: The five people who remember this when it aired for about 12 minutes. Maybe the producers are hoping for a Family Guy-esque rebirth.

Las Vegas: Season One
Market: Isn’t the first season of this show still being aired? Are we already in season two? Does anyone think James Caan doesn’t cry himself to sleep most nights?

Millenium: Season 2
Market: Chris Carter was once Fox television’s golden boy. He had done the X-Files and this was his first attempt at branching out from that. Never got into it myself but knew it had the same sort of arc-heavy style that X-F did.

Question to ponder: When will J.J. Abrams fall the way Carter, David E. Kelley and Aaron Sorkin have? Remember, though, that Sorkin was pushed.