John Cusack needs to get out of whatever artistic funk he’s been in since about High Fidelity. There was a brief moment of hope after I watched Max but other than that it’s been a steady stream of studio flicks that have done nothing to stretch him creatively or live up to the promise of his earlier films.

To that steady stream of hogwash we now add Must Love Dogs, a romantic comedy starring Cusack and Diane Lane, who’s enjoying the career rejuvination she began with Unfaithful. Not that she was suffering in the doldrums to that point but it really reminded people she was an actor to be reckoned with.

The Poster

Not much here to comment on other than that the one-sheet is remarkably boring. Showing just Cusack and Lane sitting on a park bench it sets up the romantic comedy angle only by showing slightly amused looks on their faces. There is the requisite dog but that’s about it. It’s a brightly colored poster and easy to look at but other than that it’s not very visually interesting.

The Trailer

It’s not so much a trailer for the movie as it is a commercial for PerfectMatch.com, an online dating site. See that’s how Cusack and Lane meet. There’s the requisite meet-cute sequence and some fluff about a love triangle with Dermot Mulroney but not much else. Cusack looks like he’s doing the best with the material given to him but since we all know he can do so much better there’s no reason for him to be taking this in the first place.

The Website

Like most major studio sites the one Warner Bros. has assembled for Must Love Dogs doesn’t really push any boundries or do much that’s original. I wasn’t able to access the Flash site but WB is very good about duplicating most of the content on the HTML site so I don’t think I’m missing much content.

There’s the usual Trailer, Photo Gallery and Downloads. Most of the Downloads are dog-related with just a few showing the stars. There are also some goofy Games & Activities, a list of Partners and a Sweepstakes. Both of the last two heavily emphasize PerfectMatch.com The Book provides an excerpt of the source book and it’s nice to see some love being given to the original material for a movie. Finally there’s Email Updates, allowing you to register for updates and showing they still don’t get RSS and the concept of ceding some control to the end user. Oh well.

Overall

Cusack is really the only reason I am even remotely interested in this movie. The campaign hits all the usual romantic comedy notes. One final question: Is the only reason Jeremy Piven does not appear in this movie because he was filming Entourage?

Oh my God, Michael Bay is back. We tried exiling him to the island of Elba after Armageddon. We tried spinning three times, throwing a shaker of salt over our shoulder and hoping he’d go away after Pearl Harbor. Unfortunately, like Michael Myers (or, for that matter, Mike Myers) he keeps coming back to prove just what a big pain in the ass he actually is.
“The Island” looks like some sort of mash-up of “Soylent Green,” THX-1138 and “Parts: The Clonus Horror.” Ewan MacGregor and Scarlett Johannson play drone-types living in a utilitarian society whose residents long to be chosen to live on The Island, billed as Earth’s last remaining pristine environment. These two, though, are destined to find out the truth and, in true Michael Bay fashion, dodge lots of shit that’s blowing up.

The Posters

Initially there were two teaser posters released. Why they were treated as teasers is beyond me since they didn’t really tease anything. One featured McGregor running away from something and a picture of an island, the other was the same background only it had Johannson fleeing. My point is that by showing the stars, including taglines that hinted at the ominous nature of the island and showing the thing there really wasn’t a whole lot left to the imagination.

The theatrical one reinforces that this is going to be a very glossy movie with two beautiful people running for their lives. Johannson gets more of a full facial shot while McGregor is relegated to profile. It’s better than the teasers but not by much.

The Trailers

There are three trailers and a teaser which, like the poster, doesn’t really tease. They contain about 75% similar footage so we see the same big CGI sign fall off a building, we keep seeing Michael Clarke Duncan be hauled off against his will and we keep seeing Boromir act shady. It occurred to me that Scarlett Johannson looks more objectively hot in this than she has in her previous movies, where she’s played the pretty girl who doesn’t think she’s pretty. Here she’s got the straighter hair and raccoon eyes thing going meaning her agent now thinks it’s time she got more adult roles.

The Website

What I found interesting on the site is that, right after it loads, you’re greeted by the option to read some glowing reviews of the movie. Prominent display of gushing qulurbs (quote blurbs) brings to mind images of Lady Macbeth and someone protesting too much. “Really! Look at how great these people think our movie is! Has Harry Knowles ever been wrong?” The audience is savvier than that, folks.

While the site is very pretty to look at there’s not a whole helluva lot there. Also on the main page are links to enter two contests. First is the chance to win a private screening of the movie, which immediately brings to mind scenes from “A Clockwork Orange.” Next is the chance to win a PC painted by members of the cast. I think it would be cool to surf the internet for pictures of Scarlett Johannson naked on a computer painted by Johannson herself. Anyone else?

“Media” contains all four iterations of the trailer as well as an international version that wasn’t any more inspired than the others. There’s also an Exclusive Clip from the movie, begging the question of what constitutes an “exclusive”? I mean this is an official site so it’s not like providing an exclusive represents any sort of journalistic coup on their part. Maybe I’m being nit-picky but I’ve about had it with breathless hype over nothing at all.

You can learn all about the film (or at least those parts the publicists want you to know) in “About the Film”. There you’ll find a Story synopsis which gives away most of the movie, an Image Gallery consisting of about 12 pics and something called Perspectives. That last one is actually kind of interesting in that it provides some character background in the form of intercepted email communication or magazine coverage from the world the characters inhabit. It’s an interesting concept but not executed fully, like they had a good idea but couldn’t quite make it work. And a 12 picture photo gallery for a visual-intensive movie is just sad and shows a lack of commitment.

“Behind the Scenes” contains a lot of footage showing Michael Bay giving blowjobs to studio executives as they hang his future career over his head. I mean a lot.

Finally there’s a commercial for Merrick Biotech, the company behind the sinister goings-on in the movie that seems pretty cool.

Overall

Look, we all know Michael Bay movies aren’t good for us. Occasionally something like “The Rock” is alright but that was made before Bay really hit his stride as a talentless hack. Even that has more to do with Nicholas Cage’s performance than anything Bay might have done.

“The Island” is marketed as thinking-man’s summer escapism, but probably won’t live up to those expectations. Instead of being a philosophical exploration of genetics tampering, it is a showcase for visual effects artists to show off the latest in CGI fireballs and for Ewan McGregor to afford going back to making non-studio movies.

Three friends, two guys and a girl, run rampant through Germany terrorizing (in a playful, anarchistic type of way) the rich and society.

The Poster

Pretty cool. Yeah, it’s just the three leads, including Daniel Bruhl from Goodbye, Lenin, but it works. Kind of reminds me of an album cover more than a movie poster. There’s not much plot setup but that’s alright by me in this case.

The Trailer

It’s pretty short – only about 1: 45 or so – but does a nice job of laying out the plot and the relationships. We get they gist of what these characters are up to with their reign of merry mischief that goes off-track when they wind up kidnapping a businessman. We also are shown the love triangle that will no doubt play a key role in how these people get themselves into and out of various jams.

The Website

This is very much an interactive website and I mean that in terms different than what mainstream studios mean. They think interactivity means playing a game or entering an email address in order to get to exclusive content. IFCFilms’ site for The Edukators, though, really seems to want to get viewers involved.

“Become an Edukator” gives people the opportunity to write to IFC to see how they can help promote the movie, an intriguing move toward creating a grassroots marketing network. “Read our Press” is just what it sounds like, containing qulurbs from a few reviews of the movie.

Director Hans Weitgartner provides some real-life context for the movie and explains his reasons for making it in the “Get Edukated” section. It’s pretty extensive background from the director and seems to show an understanding that giving people fodder for discussion is directly proportional to how much they want to discuss it. “Meet the Edukators” contains bios on the three lead actors.

Finally, “About the Film” is a brief synopsis and “Tickets and Showtimes” is a quick guide to where around the country the movie is playing. Hint: Mainly at art houses in big cities.

Overall

Pretty good effort on the part of IFC to create a solid campaign. The trailer is strong and the website is robust with plenty of opportunities for people to dig into the movie a bit. I like this one.

While on a flight across Antartica, a young man, played by Kieran O’Brien, thinks back on a relationship consisiting of primarily sex and music with a girl played by Margo Stilley.

The Poster

In the foreground of the first poster we see the underwear-clad rear end of a woman standing to left, from our point of view, of a young man who looks like he’s lighting a cigarette. That’s only the top third or so of the poster. The rest is devoted to the names of the bands appearing in the movie. The two concepts are setup that the movie is very much about sex and rock and roll. Nothing wrong with either of those two either on their own much less together.

The second poster has Stilley lying on a bed and seeming to be in the middle of pulling her shirt back on, which is exactly what she shouldn’t be doing. Again, the names of the bands are given prominent placement. I prefer the first one but this one is cool, too.

The Trailer

Sex. Music. Sex. Music. Repeat. Intersperse with occasional scenes of loving banter between the two leads. It’s a very cool trailer and it gives the impression that 80% of this movie will consist of sex and music. While watching it I finally remembered what movie this seemed to remind me of: Better Than Sex. Not exactly comparable plots but having the same sort of focus on physical intimacy between two people that leads to greater emotions.

The Website

Unfortunately this is a real waste. There’s almost no movie content here, just videos for the bands in the movie and an almost non-existent photo gallery. No trailer, no synopsis, no nothing. Is the point of this movie to tell a story or just to act as a marketing vehicle for the bands? Considering you have to go through three “are you over 18?” and “warning-this site contains adult content” points there’s nothing particularly shocking about the site.

Overall

Cool, hip trailer and posters but it falls apart on the internet. Too bad.