Sure, it only makes my job tougher sorting through a slew of successful promotional material in an effort to narrow down the top three, but that’s a painstaking process I’m beyond thrilled to tackle as it suggests the feature film future is looking good.
Sadly, that also means some impressive pieces won’t receive their due honor. Captain America: The First Avenger was on the verge of snagging two spots in the promotion section courtesy of its incredibly thorough and exciting new trailer, as well as an amusingly clever Dunkin Donuts commercial. There’s also the new trailer for Mission Impossible – Ghost Protocol, which blew me away, not necessarily because it’s a well cut piece, but more so for its ability to make me curious when I’m not the slightest bit interested in the franchise.
Settling in somewhere in the middle of the spectrum are the new trailers for War Horse and the teaser for Brave. If you’ve been keeping up with this feature, by now you likely know I’m big on story, and while the visuals in the War Horse trailer are stunning, without reading a synopsis I get nothing more from this footage than it being a film about a boy and horse — and that’s certainly not enough to get me to buy a ticket. Similarly, Brave continues to flaunt its stellar animation, but has yet to deliver that emotional clincher to create a connection to the film’s heroine.
As for our weekly dose of demotions, one genre managed to snag them all. Check out the new Best/Worst Movie Promos of the Week for the breakdown.
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The Hunger Games is filming – fast. Willow Shields, who plays Katniss Everdeen’s (Jennifer Lawrence) little sister, is already wrapped, which means so is much, if not all, of the material that takes place in District 12. Meanwhile, the tributes are hard at work – well, sort of. Hopefully these young stars are good actors because based on the photos tweeted by District 3 tribute, Ian Nelson, and District 10 tribute, Jeremy Marinas, they all look like they’re anything but at each other’s throats.
With so many quirky coming-of-age movies out there, not only is establishing a unique and engaging lead character vital, but the same goes for the general tone of the film, too. While Terri does make use of some of the standard genre conventions, it packs so many innovative broad strokes and tiny details, it rises above the usual shtick, becoming something that makes an impact for all the right reasons.
I love chocolate cake. When I eat too much chocolate cake, I feel sick and don’t love it much anymore. I like visually stimulating imagery in movies. When I see too much visually stimulating imagery, in 3D nonetheless, I feel sick and don’t love it much anymore. Hopefully Michael Bay doesn’t love chocolate cake as much as he loves tracking shots and dizzying robot battles or he’d have a morbidly obese problem on his hands.
As someone currently testing the filmmaking waters, speaking to a director like Azazel Jacobs is incredibly encouraging. For lack of better terms, Jacobs’ work isn’t motivated by the fame and the fortune, rather a passion for storytelling. Jacobs has already delivered a few well-received features all getting their due praise on the festival circuit and, while Jacobs is confident he’s made it, I’d like to see him take it one step further as his latest feature, Terri, is certainly deserving of more widespread attention.
We’re just two episodes into Season Two of Pretty Little Liars and things are heating up, fast. “A” doesn’t give the show’s leading ladies a second to breathe after their dangerous run-in with Ian during the finale of Season One. While things get tougher for Emily and the gang on the screen, actress Shay Mitchell is reaping the benefits. Sure Mitchell had a bit of television experience prior to the show, but ever since the start of Pretty Little Liars back in June of last year, not only has Mitchell’s fan base grown quite a bit, but she’s become a stronger actress and gained some great new friends, too.
Michael Bay has made quite the name for himself for his work demolishing everything on his sets. We’ve got the treacherous asteroid of Armageddon, the reenactment of the attack on Pearl Harbor and, most recently, cars that transform into alien robots and smash big cities and monuments.
Think you had some bad teachers in school? Well, Cameron Diaz’s character in Bad Teacher is above and beyond. This is a movie though, so above and beyond can work, right? Of course, but it can also backfire big time and, oddly enough, Bad Teacher manages to do both with its incredibly preposterous titular character. (Keep those minds out of the gutter, please.)
After going through years and years of schooling, how many in-class lessons do you actually remember? Now, after years and years of moviegoing, how many big-screen lessons do you remember? While I can barely recall my French vocabulary words, standard high school mathematics or chemistry formulas, I’ve got no problem recounting some of the best of the best from on-screen educators like Harry Potter’s Professor Dumbledore and even School of Rock’s so-called Mr. Ned Schneebly.
After a week packed with new trailers and clips, mostly courtesy of the MTV Movie Awards, this week turned out to be one overflowing with posters. Quite a few images came through the Licensing Expo in Las Vegas, but as most were mere snapshots and consisted of incredibly simplistic designs, as most promo posters do, not many stood out enough to make the list – whether it was for good or bad reasons.