Tropic Thunder Trailer
Summary: A crazy cast of actors go out into the jungle to shoot the most expensive war movie ever made. Dudes that are there think they are invading, and the actors have to go to war for real.
Whose flexing their comedic muscles? With a cast like this, it better be funny - Ben Stiller, Jack Black, Robert Downey Jr., Nick Nolte, Brandon Jackson, Steve Coogan, Danny McBride, Bill Hader, Jay Baruchel, Matt Levin, Andrea De Oliveira, Reggie Lee, Matthew McConaughey
Directed by: Ben Stiller - He wrote and directed one of my favorite comedies of all time, Zoolander. He’s one of the biggest comedic stars on the planet, and I have to say, this one looks good to me based on the trailer alone. Like really, really, ridiculously good looking.
The Incredible Hulk Trailer
Summary: A scientist becomes a really big green monster when he gets angry, and is scouring the lands for a cure. Another big monster pops up, this one a little less cool-headed, so the scientist must attempt to save the good people of Earth from its terror.
Who signed up for this comic book romp? One of my person faves is tackling the role of Bruce Banner, hopefully my boy Edward can make this movie pop - Edward Norton, Liv Tyler, Tim Roth, William Hurt, Tim Blake Nelson, Christina Cabot, Lou Ferrigno, Martin Starr, Ty Burrell
Directed by: Louis Leterrier - Shot some good action in The Transporter movies, it’ll be interesting to see how his style translates to a special effects heavy film. I wasn’t part of the popular opinion for the recent Hulk flick with Eric Bana, I thought it was pretty good and a passable attempt. Certainly was on the slow side and could’ve used some more action, and I have a feeling that’s what we’ll get having commissioned the talents of a guy who helped make Jason Statham an action star.
Speed Racer Trailer
Summary: Dude is awesome at racing cars, gets a big money offer to race for a company, turns it down. Evil owner doesn’t like it and doesn’t want dude to win any more races. The racer dude decides to enter some crazy cross-country race that killed his brother to defeat the evil owner. Lots of hot computer generated racing action.
Whose showcasing their green screen acting chops? Well stocked cast - Emile Hirsch, Christina Ricci, Matthew Fox, Susan Sarandon, John Goodman, Kick Gurry, Paulie Litt, Roger Allam, Ji Hoon Jung, Melvil Poupaud, Richard Roundtree, Christian Oliver
Who gets to yell “CUT?” The Wachowski Brothers - We pretty much all know these guys, creators of The Matrix trilogy. Neo would totally find a way to win this race.
Box Office Results for March 14th-March 16th 2008
***New releases are bolded***
|
Movie
|
Weekend
|
Cumulative
|
Comment
|
| 1. Horton Hears A Who | $45.1M | - |
Very solid opening! |
| 2. 10.000 BC | $16.4M |
$61.2M
|
. |
| 3. Never Back Down | $8.6M |
-
|
If I rake in almost $9M off of a teenage fight flick, I’m happy. |
| 4. College Road Trip | $7.9M | $24.3M | |
| 5. Vantage Point | $5.4M |
$59.2M
|
|
| 6. The Bank Job | $4.9M | $13.1M | |
| 7. Doomsday | $4.7M |
-
|
I’d say this was on the low end of expectations. |
| 8. Semi-Pro | $3M | $27.8M | |
| 9. The Other Boleyn Girl | $2.9M | $19.2M | |
| 10. The Spiderwick… | $2.4M | $65.4M |
10,000 B.C. Review
What’s this movie about? A small tribe of hunters is attacked by an unknown civilization, many of said hunters are captured and taken away. A young warrior of the tribe (Steven Strait) must set out to save his people and his love interest (Camilla Belle).
What went right? The best thing I can say about this movie is that it did get better as it progressed. This is relative of course, as the first half was a complete disaster of surprising proportions. I still can’t believe how bad it was, and found myself contemplating how bad it was more often than I could pay attention to the movie. I don’t think I expected a masterpiece, but I thought I was going to attend a passable movie experience that satisfied my desire to see a big budget flick with some solid action. Needless to say, that’s not what this movie is. It’s just bad.
What went wrong? I guess I’ll start with the effects, because you probably need really good effects shots to make a movie like this work. I’ve seen some other reviews online praise the effects work, and there are some good shots, but for the most part they lacked the punch to make the movie look authentic. The worst offense is poor green screen shots, making certain scenes look completely unrealistic and destroys any chance of being engrossed in the story. I don’t want to complain about the acting, because I think the lack of an authentic feel probably made the actors look worse than the performances they delivered. The story is thin, as one would expect out of a popcorn flick, but if your story is going to be thin you need to make up for that in other areas or it stands out even more than it would have otherwise. I think this movie made me realize that I don’t like narrators all the much, I noticed myself being annoyed at this moderately used element for whatever reason. I won’t go into any specifics regarding the story, if you’re like me you’ll probably watch the movie anyway no matter how many negative reviews you read. Speaking of which, this thing has pulled of a fairly epic bad-reviews-to-budget ratio. It’s currently sitting at 8% on Rotten Tomatoes, which is quite impressive given the effort put into it.
The Bottom Line: If you’re on a budget, feel safe in your decision to skip this one. Bad effects and a bad story do not a good movie make. 2/10.