Well, this Thursday is anyway. Maybe you can find them at Apple and put them on those brand spanking new iPods that were released yesterday. Damn those are sweet. But I digress. Here are 3 trailers that I saw for the first time today. Some of them might be old, but I just found them and felt I should post them up for others’ delight. Have a gander and let us know what you think…

     I remember last year Kevin Smith had announced that he would be recording an audio commentary fro Clerks II that you could download and then listen to on your iPod while in the theater during the film. I remember thinking it was a cool idea; except for the fact that I wanted to watch the movie first, so I’d have to pay again to see the movie while listening to the commentary. So although I think it’s a cool and novel idea, I doubt it’s something I would actually partake in, unless I really, really, REALLY like the movie.

     So thanks to filmstalker, I got the heads up that John August, director of the upcoming film,The Nines has teamed up with star Ryan Reynolds and recorded an audio commentary for this film that opens in limited release this weekend. Alas, not in Minneapolis.

     You can download the commentary (47MB) over at John August’s personal blog, along with some of his guidelines and other tid bits of information. It looks as though he personally responds to some of the comments left by readers. Seems like a cool guy. I look forward to checking out his picture; though most likely without the commentary (at least until the DVD is available).

     If you listen though, let us know how it is.

     Why the hell do I keep posting these? I have zero interest in this film. Anyway, here they are anyway….

What is this; like the 15th poster for Saw 4 released?

Another crazy, death contraption somehow set up by Jigsaw who is dead…

     Woody Allen has always been a director that escapes me. I never found his humor all that amusing and putting his damn self in every one of his films got to be just annoying over time. The cherry on the cake of course, was finding out (when I was about 10 years old) that Annie Hall had beat out Star Wars for best picture kudos at the Oscars. This cannot stand. So I have not really been a hater of Allen, but most certainly not a fan.

     All that changed in 2005 when he made one of the best and most underrated films of the year: Match Point. It was one of the only films without Allen in it; and it had almost none of Allen’s tiring humor. It was straight up drama with intensity and deep meaning matched by nothing else of that year (other than maybe A History of Violence).

     It seemed Allen had a learned a lesson and I looked forward to his next piece. Then he made Scoop… **sigh**

     Now however, it appears Allen is back on track with his next film, Cassandra’s Dream, starring Colin Farrell, Ewan McGregor and Tom Wilkinson. It appears to be another intense drama with possible murder and suspense. And thankfully, Allen’s name doesn’t appear anywhere in the cast credits.

from IMDb plot summary:

The story of two Cockney brothers (Farrell and McGregor) in south London and their relationship with a young woman (Atwell) who lands in London on her search for fortune. She crosses the two men by accident on her path and when one them falls in love with her, she becomes aware of her power to attract the opposite sex and uses this to the point of leading the two brothers, who are in financial difficulty, into crime, and creating a dangerous rivalry between the two men.

     I am now HIGHLY looking forward to this one. Thanks to Twitch, I’ve been alerted to the new trailer online. Forgive the French subtitles. This is the only embeddable version I could find.

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     Yes, it’s 3:30am but I HAD to post this. Can’t believe I missed it. I now know what I’ll be doing for about the next 15 years. Siskel and Ebert, at one time, were THE reviewers that everyone paid attention to. The whole “thumbs up, thumbs down” thing became stuff of legend and is on countless movie posters and video boxes.

     Everyone thought they were crazy back in the day for saving miles of footage of their TV show well before the home video age. Well not anymore. Now it is all online and archived for all to see. And the best part? It is completely free. Just head over to atthemoviestv.com to catch all their reviews from the early days and even including all the newer episodes with Richard Roeper (a critic I agree with quite often).

     You can search the database by title, director or actor. It’s bloody amazing. Hours of fun right online and totally free. This just went online today, so have fun. So much for the Top 100 movies I was going to catch up on, now I have over 20 years of Siskel and Ebert to catch up on.

     Unfortunately, it looks like most of the tapes pre-1985 were lost or destroyed to save space. but Buena Vista preserved everything from 1985 on. On the site, there’s a special introduction from Rober Ebert which explains the details…

“Gene and I knew those old shows would be worth saving, but for a long time nobody agreed with us. In the years before home video, it seemed like a waste of expensive video tape to preserve hundreds of episodes of our earlier incarnations on “Opening Soon at a Theater Near You,” “Sneak Previews” or “At the Movies.” After all, the movies we were reviewing weren’t going to be opening again, and who’d want to watch a show of old movie reviews? Right?” asks Ebert. “all of that changed, and the current era of DVDs and Blockbuster and Netflix and streaming online content began to unfold. Today, there would be an audience for the original Siskel & Ebert reviews of, say, “Batman” or “Jurassic Park,” or Ebert & Roeper trading opinions on “Crash” or “Brokeback Mountain,” or Martin Scorsese and I picking the best film of he 1990s.”

     A big thanks to /film for pointing this out! Now, I gotta go watch their review of Back to the Future Part II

     Usually not too into talking about movie that are more than two years away, but this sounds interesting. Avatar has been mentioned and rumored about on the net over the past year or more, so I’ve stayed away from talking about it. But there’s one thing in this “inteview” that has me intrigued.

     Laz Alonso, co-starring in the picture, got caught a screening of Captivity the other day by MTV reporters. Here’s a couple snippets of things he said:

“I had to sign something that swore me to secrecy; to be honest with you, I don’t know what I’m allowed to talk about or not — so just to be on the safe side, I ain’t saying jack. But it’s just a sci-fi movie that’s going to blow your socks off.”

From MTV.com:
This much we do know: Cameron loves to unveil new technology with his films. The filmmaker has already confirmed that the flick is being shot in 3-D and will combine live-action and computer-generated characters and environments. We also know they are filming in New Zealand and Hawaii; as well as the green-screen shoots in L.A.

More from Alonso:

“The technology that he’s using is something that hasn’t been done before, the way that he’s doing it. When you see guys like Marilyn Manson coming through, and Peter Jackson and Spielberg coming through to see what this new cutting-edge technology is, you know you really have something special going on. What we’re seeing right now as far as technology [in today’s blockbusters] is level one. What you’ll be seeing when this movie comes out is roughly like a level 20.”

     Those are some bold statements. Of course actors of upcoming films always say stuff like this; but with Cameron at the helm (who hasn’t done anything for 12 years) it really has me intrigued as to what this is going to be. A 3-D film with half live-action and half CGI sounds pretty wicked. Especially in space with aliens and what not - I’m pretty jazzed up. Sounds like a real fun treat and I have no problem with Cameron and trust him completely. From Aliens to Terminator 2 to The Abyss to Titanic, we know the guy can make some great movies and has a creativity level that goes though the roof. I’m officially interested.

     Others in the cast include the stunning Zoe Saldana, Michael Biehn, Sigourney Weaver and Sam Worthington.

     New fun poll over to your right. The last question, “Which is your favorite Star Wars character?”, was easily won by, not surprisingly, Han Solo with over 49% of the vote. This time, tying in with Transformers’ success, we ask a simple little Michael Bay question. Take a minute to submit your vote for which you “prefer”.

     Vic over at Screenrant just sent me this new poster from John Favreau’s new movie, Iron Man (is it two words or one?). Over there, he explains how he manipulated an image of this poster taken at a gallery screening to create this much more “webfriendly” version. Pretty cool Vic. Check it out…

     I gotta be honest, I still have no idea what the hell Iron Man is. Everysite on the internet has been posting news and rumors about it for months. I’ve still never heard about Iron Man or even know who or what he is. Comic book movies suck 99% of the time, so I’m not holding my breath on this one either. To be honest, I don’t even know when it comes out; not do I really care.

     Having said that, after Ross posted the first casting photo on here a few days ago, I have to admit I’m at least intrigued by Bridges’ Lex Luthor hair job.

Check it out. I actually like it.

Source: Movies Online

     It looks like we are all going to be subjected to DOAead Or Alive in theaters. DOA so looked like it was going to be another direct to DVD flick that we could all ignore. I hate to admit this but I have already seen it and to tell you the truth in a bizarre way I actually enjoyed it. It is no where near anything like a good movie but it has a certain camp value. I mean how often are you going to see Eric Roberts with long hair and in pajamas doing martial arts against 3 beautiful women. I kid you not, that is the final fight scene.

     The news over at Movies Online is that DOA is actually going to be released on June 22nd. I’m not recommending you run out in see it but it is fun in a very very bad way.

     One final side note. I linked the thumbnail of the poster up to a larger version of it. The guy on the left should actually have a green piece of hair sort of like the Alfalfa’s hair from the litte rascals but at the front of his bald head coming out of it. I’m wondering if the poster designers just felt that it would drive people away from seeing DOA so they removed it digitally.

     The Dark Knight website is now up. Currently it consists of only one picture. I’ll keep watch and let everyone know as soon as there is more actually there. You can check it out here: http://thedarkknight.warnerbros.com/

     I am trying to remember where I read the recent rumour that the Scarecrow was going to be back for The Dark Knight. Unfortunately I can not but that might be a mute point anyways. I did a bit of looking at the code for the site and the following keywords are used:

The Dark Knight, Batman, Christopher Nolan, Jonathan Nolan, Christian Bale, Maggie Gyllenhall, Heath Ledger, Gary Oldman, Aaron Eckhart, Morgan Freeman, Michael Caine

     It may just be me but when I see the majority of the main actors names but do not see Cillian Murphy I start to think that the Scarecrow rumour is false.

     Michelle Yeoh has been added to the cast of the upcoming Mummy sequel. Yeoh has always been great in action flicks and I think she will fit right in here. I’m not expecting a perfect movie or anything from this new Mummy movie. I’m simply expecting it to be a fun mindless action flick. The one thing I’ll give both Mummy movies is that they did not try to be more than they actually were. With both Jet Li and Michelle Yeoh I think we can expect another action filled popcorn flick.

It has been confirmed that Michelle Yeoh will star in the upcoming Mummy 3: Curse of the Dragon. You will recall the film also stars Brendan Fraser and Jet Li. Rachel Weisz was offered a role and reportedly turned it down. Jet li will play the first emporor of china, and when Father and Son team unearth him they must not only fight him, but also his entire army of mummified warriors. Filming begins July 27th.

(Source: Movies Online)

     Joseph Gordon-Levitt is a guy that has slipped into stardom more or less under the radar. I predict a HUGE career for him in the future. We’re talking Christian Bale caliber or maybe even Tom Cruise’ type of star power. If you haven’t see The Lookout yet, go check it out. It’s not perfect, but for an evening at the theaters, believe me, you could do a lot worse. Or check out some of his older fare that is equally terrific (Brick or Mysterious Skin).

     Anyway, I really like him and I HATE the paparazzi. I boycott all of those types of magazines and tabloid crap. But this gives me even more reason to hate them and even more reason for me to like JG-L. Thanks to Jonathan over at Cinema Fusion for the link.

     The Screen Actors Guild have announced their winners for outstanding achievement in acting. Not really any big surprises, but here they are anyway…

Actor: Forest Whitaker, The Last King of Scotland

Actress: Helen Mirren, The Queen

Supporting actor: Eddie Murphy, Dreamgirls

Supporting actress: Jennifer Hudson, Dreamgirls

Cast: Little Miss Sunshine

     Aside from the cast category, this is pretty much how I expect the Oscars to go as well. And by the way, I did manage to finally see The Last King of Scotland last night. Wow. Forest Whitaker needs to buy some gold polish right now.

     This isn’t really movie related (unless you watch Movies on your iPod), but this is one of the coolest products I’ve ever seen. You must watch this iPhone introduction by Steve Jobs. Un-frakkin-believable!

HERE’S THE LINK TO THE KEYNOTE ADDRESS AND iPHONE UNVEILING

Steve Jobs: “We’re going to make some history together today. This is a day I’ve been looking forward to for two-and-a-half years.

“Every once in a while a revolutionary product comes along that changes everything…one is very fortunate if you get to work on just one of these in your career…today, we’re introducing three revolutionary products. An iPod, a phone and an intercomunicator. This is one device and we are calling it iPhone! Apple is re-inventing the phone.”

This is a must see piece of technology…

Touchscreen interface — no physical buttons.
Runs Mac OS X — Apps, syncing, networking, multi-tasking, video, etc.
Everything synced — iTunes music and videos, Mac data, email, notes, etc.
Hi-res screen — 160ppi.
Thinner than any smartphone — including Motorola Q and Samsung BlackJack.
2 megapixel camera built-in.
Dock connector port, headphone jack, SIM tray, speaker. Cingular is carrier.

iPod portion of iPhone offers widescreen video, Cover Flow interface. 3-D effects. Full-screen album art.

Phone portion has “visual voicemail.” Excellent audio quality. Quadband GSM+EDGE. WiFi and Bluetooth 2.

All this author can say is, “WOW.”

     Thanks to AICN, a likely illegal shot of the Transformers movie has hit the web. Here we have three humans running from an obviously angry Decepticon. Probably the image won’t be around long, but here you go…

     Winner of the audience choice award at Toronto After Dark Film Festival, Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon has officially been given a theatrical release! According to a myspace bulletin I received this morning from director Scott Glosserman, Anchor Bay distribution has picked up Behind the Mask and it will screen in 12 cities in North America on January 5th!

     For any horror buff, this is a MUST-SEE film. It will easily make my year-end top ten list and Movie Patron gave this film the silver medal at Toronto After Dark. You can read my full review and see the trailer HERE - it includes links to the official site . Please make an effort to see his film if it comes to your area. If Minneapolis is included in the 12 cities, I guarantee I’ll be there for a second screening and will try to bring as many people with me as possible. Glosserman has done something truly unique here and it deserves all the attention it can get.

Here’s the official announcement at Behind the Mask blog

     Ok, I admit it. I like the MTV Movie Awards. Not enough that you’ll actually see me sitting down and watching them, but I still enjoy them for what they are, even though I’m not a screaming teenager. I’m always at least interested in the nominees and winners. It’s not the true greats of the year, mostly just the popular crowd, but it’s still fun and there are a lot of deserving people and films in the nominee list. No one takes these awards seriously, of course. But still, they have some redeeming features.

     First off, I like the fact that it’s the people who get to vote on the nominees and not some corrupt academy or judges. Even though I don’t agree with many of the nominees, I also like the different categories that they have. It’s not the normal award show with actors, actresses, cinematogrpahy, costume design, etc. They have some interesting categories that although really mean nothing, are still fun to check out for movie fans; very similar to the Movie Patron Reader’s Choice Awards. I also think it’s interesting that they don’t differentiate among the sexes. It’s best leading role, not actor or actress.

     So anyway, here are the nominees along with my vote (in bold maroon, as always) and some other commentary I may choose to leave. There are instructions and a link to follow at the bottom of this post on how and where to vote, should you choose to do so.

BEST MOVIE
* The 40-Year Old Virgin
* Batman Begins
* King Kong
* Sin City
* Wedding Crashers
     This was a tough call for me. King Kong was amazing, but really, it was just a really good special effects movie with major intensity. I was also very pleasantly surprised with Batman. But Sin City was so original and great, I have to give it my vote for best movie. If it was favorite movie, it’d be an even more difficult decision.

BEST PERFORMANCE
* Joaquin Phoenix - Walk The Line
* Jake Gyllenhaal - Brokeback Mountain
* Rachel McAdams - Red Eye
* Steve Carell - The 40-Year Old Virgin
* Terrence Howard - Hustle & Flow
* Reese Witherspoon - Walk The Line
     Of these particular nominees, she wins hands down. Phoenix is a close second though.

BEST COMEDIC PERFORMANCE
* Owen Wilson - Wedding Crashers
* Adam Sandler - The Longest Yard
* Steve Carell - The 40-Year Old Virgin
* Tyler Perry - Tyler Perry’s Madea’s Family Reunion
* Vince Vaughn - Wedding Crashers

BEST ON-SCREEN TEAM
* Steve Carell, Paul Rudd, Seth Rogen & Romany Malco - The 40-Year Old Virgin
* Johnny Knoxville, Seann William Scott & Jessica Simpson - The Dukes of Hazzard
* Jessica Alba, Ioan Gruffudd, Chris Evans & Michael Chiklis - Fantastic Four
* Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson & Rupert Grint - Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
* Vince Vaughn & Owen Wilson - Wedding Crashers
     I hated all the other films, so this was a no-brainer

BEST VILLAIN
* Cillian Murphy - Batman Begins
* Hayden Christensen - Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith
* Ralph Fiennes - Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
* Tilda Swinton - The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
* Tobin Bell - Saw II
     Toss-up between Hayden and Tilda, but c’mon…it’s Darth Vader. Is it really even a question?

BREAKTHROUGH PERFORMANCE
* Andre “3000″ Benjamin - Four Brothers
* Isla Fisher - Wedding Crashers
* Nelly - The Longest Yard
* Jennifer Carpenter - The Exorcism of Emily Rose
* Romany Malco - The 40-Year Old Virgin
* Taraji P. Henson - Hustle & Flow

BEST HERO
* Christian Bale - Batman Begins
* Jessica Alba - Fantastic Four
* Daniel Radcliffe - Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
* Kate Beckinsale - Underworld: Evolution
* Ewan McGregor - Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith
     Sorry Obi-Wan, Bale took over this role…FINALLY!

SEXIEST PERFORMANCE
* Beyonce Knowles - The Pink Panther
* Jessica Alba - Sin City
* Jessica Simpson - The Dukes of Hazzard
* Ziyi Zhang - Memoirs of a Geisha
* Rob Schneider - Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo
     She is such a HORRIBLE actress, not to mention her singing inabilities, but it is sexiest; not best acted. Weird too, because I’m normally a brunette kinda guy.

BEST FIGHT
* Kong vs. The Planes - King Kong
* Stephen Chow vs. Axe Gang - Kung Fu Hustle
* Angelina Jolie vs. Brad Pitt - Mr. & Mrs. Smith
* Ewan McGregor vs. Hayden Christensen - Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith
     The dumbest set of nominees in the show. Where the hell is Yoda vs Emperor? And Kong vs. Planes instead of the T-Rex? Please.

BEST KISS
* Jake Gyllenhaal & Heath Ledger - Brokeback Mountain
* Taraji P. Henson & Terrence Howard - Hustle & Flow
* Anna Faris & Chris Marquette - Just Friends
* Angelina Jolie & Brad Pitt - Mr. & Mrs. Smith
* Rosario Dawson & Clive Owen - Sin City
      You gotta love any kiss while people are being shot to shit right below you. Heath & Jake would come in a close second (the only slightly intense moment in the film in my opinion).

BEST FRIGHTENED PERFORMANCE
* Rachel Nichols - The Amityville Horror
* Jennifer Carpenter - The Exorcism of Emily Rose
* Derek Richardson - Hostel
* Paris Hilton - House of Wax
* Dakota Fanning - War of the Worlds
     I don’t know about best frightened performance; but easily the best death of the year. If you haven’t seen Hilton’s head stuck on a metal pole, you’re missing out.

mtvU STUDENT FILMMAKER AWARD
* Joshua Caldwell (Fordham University) - A Beautiful Lie
* Sean Mullin (Columbia University) - Sadiq
* Stephen Reedy (Diablo Valley College) - Undercut
* Jarrett Slavin (University of Michigan) - The Spiral Project
* Landon Zakheim (Emerson College) - The Fabulous Felix McCabe
     I haven’t seen or know anything about any of these. That’s right, I’m not the 100% movie genius you thought I am.

     The ceremony will film on June 3rd and be shown on June 8th. You can vote in the following ways:

By visiting movieawards.mtv.com before May 19. Fans can also vote from their mobile phone by texting “MOVIEAWARDS” to 91757 to receive a ballot. Voting is also available by dialing toll free to 1-877-MTV-VOTE where fans can support their favorite nominees with a different category available for voting each day.

The winners will be posted here as soon as they are announced.

- Drewbacca
MoviePatron.com

     I just got word that Angelina Jolie has agreed to reprise her role as Lara Croft in the video game genre film, Tomb Raider. She will be waiting until after she is settled from the birth of her next child.

     I haven’t played the new Tomb Raider game yet, but if it turns out to be good, principal photography for the project may begin as early as next year as they’ll want to capitalize on the success of the game.

Here is the quote I read from creator, Ian Livingstone:

     “Paramount has optioned it and Angelina has agreed to star in the third. If the (new) game is as successful as the others it’s likely Paramount will put the third movie into production soon.”

     I personally didn’t think too much of the previous two films, but that’s just me. That can be just good fun on a summer evening for sure, I just never got into them. I’ll see the new one when it is released and have a full review at the main page of course.

-Drewbacca
MoviePatron.com

     This is the best news I’ve heard all year! The critically acclaimed (by me) “Bubba Ho-Tep” is going to have a sequel! Writer/director Don Coscarelli spilled the beans to Bloody-Disgusting.com, that indeed Bruce Campbell will don the Elvis get-up one more time to defeat evil vampires and werewolves while shooting a film in Louisiana. Whether this is a prequel (hence a younger Elvis) or a sequel (an even more elderly Elvis than before) is not clear at this time, but rest-assured I will be tracking this one. This new film will be entitled:

Bubba Nosferatu: Curse of the She-Vampires!

But wait…. just look what else you get…

     PAUL GIAMATTI HAS SIGNED ON AS CO-STAR!!!! AAAAAAAA! I’m going ape-shit. My current favorite actor is apparently a huge Bruce Campbell fan and he has signed on to play Colonel Parker.

     A shoot-begin date has not been set and I haven’t confirmed the date of release; although IMDB.com claims 2006, while other sources (Joblo, Bloody-Disgusting) claim 2007.

     Either way, I can’t wait.

Click HERE to read my original review of BUBBA HO-TEP

- Drewbacca
MoviePatron.com