Trailer Tuesday: The Fog of War

Former Secretary of State (under President Kennedy and Johnson) Robert McNamara, the whiz kid who helped the military optimize bombings of Germany and Japan in World War II and who later ran the Ford Motor Company and World Bank, died yesterday at the age of 93. He will forever be linked to the controversy, devastation and tragedy that was the Vietnam War. In 2003, filmmaker Errol Morris won the Oscar for Best Documentary for “The Fog of War:  Eleven Lessons

Continue Reading

Trailer (Eh, Video) Tuesday: Michael Jackson’s “Thriller”

Regardless of his legal troubles and his innate weirdness, Michael Jackson was one of the greatest entertainers of all-time to grace the pop music landscape. I was a huge MJ fan in elementary school and enjoyed most of his music, even the more recent stuff that didn’t quite have the velcro-stick of his “Thriller,” “Bad” and “Dangerous” recordings. I remember wanting a “Beat It” and “Thriller” jacket in 4th grade and having to settle for sparkly socks that just didn’t

Continue Reading

Trailer Tuesday (Dan’s Pick): The Last Airbender (aka: That’s a Crapload of Candles)

So the last few years haven’t been good for one Manoj (that’s “M.” for short) Night Shyamalan. The trouble all started with The Village, which was genuinely creepy but lost audiences with bait and switch marketing and yet another twist ending that deflated almost all of the preceding narrative. Lady in the Water, commendable for its intent, failed to connect with anyone but the actors, ego and monkey tree-things it cut paychecks for. The Happening… wince. So yeah, yeah, M.

Continue Reading

The World Ends the Day After Tomorrow

So, according to the Mayans, the poop is going to hit the fan for good on December 21, 2012 and everybody on Earth is going to get flushed down the giant doomsday toilet via some terrible catastrophe. What the Mayans didn’t predict is that director Roland Emmerich would get a second shot at a punch-the-earth-in-the-soft-parts movie after his “The Day After Tomorrow” was a critical and box office failure in 2004. No offense to Emmerich, but he hasn’t made anything

Continue Reading

Trailer Tuesday (Dan’s Pick): The Cove

I’m no activist, but I always find seeing dock fulls of culled sea animals or impotently flailing sharks as they sink to the bottom of the sea, their fins cut off for a meager bowl of soup, a little unsettling. At the same time, I’m usually turned off by the shrill tunnel visioned and radical conservationists who do ram boats, who do destroy property and who seem to exude more self-obsession that’s usually mistaken for passion of cause…which is why

Continue Reading

Trailer Tuesday: Ghostbusters II

20 years ago on June 16th, I was preparing to enter my sophmore year of high school, had a mullet that made the ladies swoon and was rocking out in acid-washed tight jeans to Winger, Ratt and Bobby Brown. Yes, Bobby Brown. Fresh off his “Every Little Step” and “My Prerogative” chart-topping success, the future Mr. Whitney Houston would dress in super fruity spandex and don the late 80s trademark off-center aphro for the “On Our Own” music video, the

Continue Reading

The Descent 2 Trailer Intrigues and Infuriates

There are certain movies that should never get a sequel, regardless of how beloved the film is or how well it did at the box office. This declaration can be a tough proposal, because selfishly I want some stories to continue, however convoluted and stretched they might become. On the flip side, I also know that my selfishness can lead to crappy sequels and the pollution and tainting of the original. That’s why my feelings about “The Descent 2” are

Continue Reading

Site Footer