Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps Scores a Trailer

Wall Street was the cinematic exclamation point to the slick “Me,me,me” greed of the ’80s. An Oliver Stone film that’s as accessibly mainstream as they come, Wall Street famously introduced “Greed is Good” to the American lexicon. It also gave us a Michael Douglas performance (as the charming douchebag Gordon Gecko) that didn’t show flabby ass cheeks or the Douglas O-face.

20+ years later, Wall Street lands a sequel courtesy of Oliver Stone– one that perfectly coincides with greed’s 2008-2010 economic consequences. Gecko’s back after a 20 year prison stint and, apparently, ready to atone for his sins with the help of Shia “No-no-no-no-no…OPTIMUUUUUUUUS!” LaBeouf and a huge cell phone. Still, important questions remain: Will Gecko deliver a geriatric beatdown to Charlie Sheen, the guy who ratted him out in the first film? Will LaBeouf make the transition from teen actor to adult heavy-hitter? Will we see a Michael Douglas ass-resurgence?

I can’t tell you, but this sucker (stacked with acting awesomeness courtesy of Carey Mulligan, Josh Brolin, Frank Langela, Susan Sarandon and Vanessa Ferlito’s lips) landed on our top 10 for 2010 on last week’s KVNU movie show and after watching the trailer, my anticipation for April 23 hasn’t changed.

Movie Review: When in Rome

When in Rome is an absolute travesty of a movie and so painful and upsetting that a night of reveling in latex and sadomasochistic groin clobbering would be a preferred alternative to the sheer misery of this so-called romantic comedy starring Kristen Bell (Couples Retreat) and Josh Duhamel (Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen). 29 days into 2010, it is now cemented as the worst movie of the year thus far and easily the crappiest thing to come to multiplexes since I Love You, Beth Cooper.

I know, right? This is supposed to be a cute little romantic piece of celluloid sugar, loosely based on the 1954 movie Three Coins in the Fountain, but instead it turns out to be a poop flavored stick of stale gum the director, Mark Steven Johnson (Ghost Rider), and screenwriting tandem (who wrote Old Dogs, by the way) of David Diamond and David Weissman, gleefully force feed the audience. Frankly, I probably would have been more forgiving if literally every single scene of When in Rome didn’t feel cheap, uneventful, dog-eared and pointless. I am pretty forgiving when it comes to romantic comedies (see my review of Leap Year), so that I hated this speaks volumes.

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Movie Review (Dan’s Take): Edge of Darkness

As a parent, there’s no prospect worse than that of losing your child. To have the soul you’ve nurtured from innocence to independence stolen– even worse, violently– is the stuff that inspires the inkiest thoughts of revenge in the most law abiding of citizens. How much closer to darkness would an individual be if they had the means and wherewithal to do something about it?

Edge of Darkness wants to explore that grief-born fulcrum and a host of other potentially compelling themes and characters, but resigns itself to trudge, heavy-footed, through less interesting convention procedures. The movie takes a mopey pace that plods its way to unsurprising, plot-servant answers when it’s really pining to spend its time cutting a blood-soaked rug of justice.

Mel Gibson, after a directing and crazy-man hiatus, returns to the screen as Ronald Craven, a Boston police detective with no connections to anyone but his daughter. When she visits, grows ill and is graphically shotgunned on the front porch of his home, Craven finds himself with nothing left to lose and primed to ballistically perforate cranium and appendage of those responsible.

Craven’s steely, burning focus on retaliation takes him from low-level goons to middle management and straight to the top of an Eco-terrorist, nuclear-political conspiracy. A conspiracy that, like all other ill-founded political conspiracies, enlarges its web with the body count of those who know about it.

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Why Nobody Cares About Independent Movies

If an independent movie plays in an independent cinema and no one goes to see it, did it really exist?

On last Friday’s KVNU Movie Show, we were asked why a community like Logan, Utah couldn’t have a successful independent cinema. Moving away from Logan, the heart of the question was really: “Why don’t mass audiences support independent film”? I gave some quick answer about how it’s marketing and awareness and word of mouth and when independent films have almost none of the above, no one cares.

In many cases, blissful ignorance in the face of something awesome is a bummer. Specifically, EVERYONE missed The Hurt Locker in 2009. Sure, it’s now harvesting eyeballs on home video, but two months ago even the mention of The Hurt Locker left most people looking dumbfounded. Thankfully, in the background, the movie raced to the top of the Oscar nomination list, which is sure to open it to more of the curious.

So what kept people from seeing The Hurt Locker when it was screening at indie  theaters (and megaplexes) across the country? And why don’t larger audiences, in general, give three craps about seeing anything that’s not hogging up at least three screens at the agoogleplex– especially when everyone says they “looooove movies”?

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Trailer Tuesday: Ryan Reynolds in Buried

I figured I’d follow Dan’s lead today and post a trailer for a film playing up in Park City, Utah at the Sundance Film Festival. This one, Buried, stars my mancrush, Ryan Reynolds, as a contractor in Iraq who is buried alive after his convoy comes under attack in Iraq. I’m assuming his kidnappers/gravediggers are nasty terrorists because they only leave him with a cell phone and a shitty flashlight, instead of fruit snacks and a juice box that would become anyone with a heart. Word out of Sundance is Rodrigo Cortes’ movie is tense and absolutely fantastic. Lionsgate must agree, because they snatched up Buried in record time, reportedly paying $3 to $4 million for the picture.

Trailer Tuesday (Dan’s Pick): Boy

Sundance is lame. And I don’t mean that in a general sense– I mean that in the specific way people use attendance to the film festival as a fabricated measuring stick for their own coolness. The “look-at-me-I’m-at-Sundance-and-you’re-not!” types who use their presence among famous film folk as an empty ego boost.  Fact is, in the end, unless they’re buying a movie or making a movie that can be purchased and turn a dollar, nobody else cares.

In all other aspects, however- Sundance is awesome. A one week wall-to-wall event filled conversational films that may never have seen the  light of day otherwise. Films that might just get the bump they need to get talented heads above water– films like (500) Days of Summer, Little Miss Sunshine, The Usual Suspects and perhaps this year, Boy.

Directed by Sundance regular (Eagle vs. Shark) Taika Waititi, Boy gives us the world of a poor New Zealand boy circa 1984, as fleshed out and made awesome thanks to the idolization of his deadbeat father. Heartwarming and sweet (apparently not unlike the charming 2008 Sundance entry Son of Rambow), this coming of age story looks fantastic. Boy isn’t assured pick-up by a distributor and will most likely see DVD release before mass screenings at the multiplex, but that’s what Sundance is for: giving light of day– even if a pinhole– to the little guys. Some deserve it and some inevitably collapse under their own pretense but all have, in one form or another, merit in their arriving.

And in the purest sense, that merit isn’t in an attempt to make their Facebook friends envious. It’s in the attempt to enlarge the world of film and that’s a good thing.

Go, Boy, go.

Trailer Tuesday: Reliving my MLMS days with “Diary of a Wimpy Kid”

When I was a student at Mount Logan Middle School during the tender years of 1995-1998, I hated it. I (almost) everything about it.

But after seeing the trailer for “Diary of a Wimpy Kid“, I want to go back. I want to relive it, because now I FINALLY realize how meaningless and stupidly funny it all was.

We’ve needed a movie like this for a long time. Honestly, cinemadromes have been devoid of juvenile junior high-level humor since the mid 1990s with gems like “Camp Nowhere.“

Will I actually end up seeing this movie? Hell no. If I did, I’d probably be mistaken for a pedophile, and really, this movie, which I’ve seen as a “Superbad for kids not old enough to see Superbad,” looks incredibly stupid.

But if it happened to end up Netflix insta-viewer one night after a night of dropping acid…would I watch it then? Hell yes.

Avatar Set to Sink Titanic’s Longstanding Box Office Reign

So three weeks ago on the KVNU Movie Show I stupidly claimed Avatar would be hard pressed to beat Titanic’s longstanding box office record of $600,788,188 and wouldn’t even come close to the iceberg-doomed ship’s grip on the all-time worldwide box office of $1,842,879,955. Sure it was making some noise in December, but recent box office trends suggested it would drop by 50% or more in consecutive release weeks. I was confident in my opinion.

Color me corrected. As, Tyler notes below. Avatar wants me to suck it.

Avatar will break both records and break them quite handily, most likely in the next two weeks, if not sooner. Considering James Cameron’s space odyssey will get nominated for – and possibly win – the best picture Oscar, would it be insane to suggest Avatar could come close to the $700 million mark domestically? More importantly, what is the driving thrust behind all the interest? Is this the work of more expensive tickets (3D and IMAX), or is this simply a magical movie?

Listen, I gave Avatar a B plus. I loved it. But did I think it would be the eventual all-time box office champ? Not in a million years.

Please, discuss – I’d like to know everyone’s thoughts on the matter.

‘Avatar’ to Andy: Suck it!

Andy, three weeks ago: “Avatar has no chance of upending Titanic.”

Andy, two weeks ago: “It’s very unlikely that Avatar will replace Titanic as the top grossing movie of all time.”

Andy, one week ago: “Avatar could beat Titanic.”

Andy, today: “Pwned.”

The socialist Canadian Broadcasting Company reports:

James Cameron’s 3-D blockbuster Avatar has toppled one of the many records set by his earlier epic, Titanic.

Kapuskasing, Ont.-born Cameron’s science fiction extravaganza spent a sixth consecutive week atop box offices in markets around the globe.

Its total haul of $1.288 billion US internationally (not including North America) has knocked Titanic (with $1.242 billion) to No. 2 — after the historical romance had reigned as champion for more than a decade, according to estimates from Avatar distributor, 20th Century Fox.

zOMGWTFBBQ!!!!!1111111one.

I guess it could be said that Titanic‘s record has sank like…well…

“Red Dawn” goodies get you giddy for a Chinese occupation

On KVNU’s Movie Show Friday night, Andy and Dan delivered a brief preview of the biggest movies that will come to theaters (unless the movies, you know, make you think, in that case Westates won’t bring them to Logan) in 2010.

One of the movies they mentioned, the remake of “Red Dawn,” reminded me to start doing a little Googling to find morsels of information about the updating of the 1984 Cold War thriller that made every teenage boy in America shout out in pride, “Wolverines!!!!!”

Here’s what I found:

and…

As you can tell, unlike the 1984 original, which featured the Commie Russians invading the U.S., the update will have the Chinese as the antagonists.

Here is a video that someone posted on YouTube from the outdoor set in Detroit. It shows a lot cool posters and imagery that, presumably, will be seen in the movie.

Red Dawn 2010

The remake doesn’t have any super major name stars as far as I can gather, but that might be OK for a film like this.

The new Red Dawn is scheduled for a November 24 release.