Get There Early: August 18, 2009

Yes, we’re doing our movie-loving best to cover all the bases for you, even if it’s slightly disturbing.  Click away – there are a few surprises!

Twilight: New Moon

I’m trying to imagine how I would feel about this trailer if I didn’t know that it was a Twilight story, and the answer is not comforting. Anytime vampires and werewolves are together, it smacks of so many other derivative works such as the whole White Wolf universe, the Underworld series, and the Laurel K. Hamilton books, just to name a few. If I try to put myself in the mind of someone who does not know what the underlying story behind the Twilight universe is, the trailer is… well, disjointed and confusing, like a big in-joke that’s neither funny nor compelling enough to make us want to know more. It might’ve been more impressive if the short flash of special effects had been on par with even mid-range movies of the season. Oddly, there’s another trailer for “New Moon” with direct commentary by Sharkboy Taylor Lautner that I found more entertaining and actually made me want to consider seeing the movie voluntarily. Go fig.  Look for it November 20, 2009.

Fame

There’s a lot of talk about remakes around the Red Carpet Watercooler right now, and not a lot of it is good.  However, this new updated “Fame” might just have to go on the “someone got it right” list.  If you were alive in the 80s (or you are close to people who were), you might remember how the original 1980 movie and subsequent television series (which started in 1982) inspired an entire generation to wear leg warmers and try to do something besides work in factories or study to be lawyers.  It also broke a lot of hearts when the arts programs didn’t keep up with the demand years later, but maybe what this segment of society needs is a good boost of WOW to the art gland.  I’m not sure how much promise the trailer makes, but I didn’t cringe.  We’ll find out September 25, 2009.

Extract

I… I don’t know what to say.  I’m… quite nearly… speechless.  “Extract” appears to be a movie that has Ben Affleck in the cast and it isn’t a monument, shrine, or even small altar to the Affleck Ego.  In fact, from the trailer, it looks like something that I might actually want to see!  The plot, as presented in the trailer, follows a factory supervisor (Joel Bateman) who is having some kind of marital issue with his wife (Kristen Wiig).  Somewhere in the mix, a new temp worker (Mila Kunis) turns up the heat, in his pants.  And then there’s Ben Affleck, and maybe it’s just a trick of the trailer edits, but I swear it looks like he’s actually a member of the cast! “Extract” is due out September 4, 2009.

Untitled

And now for something completely different:  a movie about artists that 1) is not an art flick and 2) does not have Woody Allen attached to it in any way.  According to IMDb, there are no less than 18 movies that are titled “Untitled”, but this one has something that I guarantee none of the others have:  Vinnie Jones.  You may remember him from “Snatch”, “Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels”, and “Midnight Meat Train”.  And now he’s working alongside the quintiessential moping neurotic, Adam Goldberg, who either does not have a name at any point in the movie or is somehow playing himself.  Parodies of ridiculous subcultures can be done well (“This is Spinal Tap”) or they can be painful (“Bruno”).  I suspect this one may be quite the exciting time when it comes out October 23, 2009.