And we all figured we’d have to wait until this weekend to see it.  Those rascally Brothers Warner!  I thought the previous trailer, while compelling in the sense that I’m dying to see this in general, was a little lackluster in selling the actual film.  It felt like it was coasting on the love for the previous two, if you will.  I don’t get that feeling here and I love what I’m seeing.  To paraphrase Lucius Fox, “Now that’s more like it, Mr. Nolan!”

EDIT: This is of course payoff of the viral efforts earlier today, with the TDKR07202012 site coughing up a result much faster than many expected! The trailer can be downloaded in every res and format at that site now, FYI. –Renn

Enough with the babbling though.  Feast your eyes…

Thoughts?  Give us your impressions on the forums or in the comments section below.

Source | ComingSoon

I have 498 movies in my Netflix Instant queue. I tend to watch one thing for every five that I add, but now my library is close to being full and I have to make room. So, every Monday I’m going to pick a random movie out of my queue and review the shit out of it. But (like Jesus), I’m also thinking of you and your unwieldy queue and all the movies in it you want to watch but no longer have the time to now that you’ve become so awesome and popular. Let me know what has been gathering digital dust in your Netflix Instant library and I’ll watch that, too. One Monday for you and the next for me and so on. Let’s get to it.

What’s the movie? The Woman (2011)

What’s it rated? Rated R for unbound misogyny, the worst aspects of human nature on full display and making me feel mad and dirty.

Did people make it? Written by Jack Ketchum and Lucky McKee. Directed by Lucky McKee. Acted by Pollyanna McIntosh, Sean Bridgers, Angela Bettis, Lauren Ashley Carter, Zach Rand, Carlee Baker and Shyla Molhusen.

What’s it like in one sentence? It’s a metaphor about what it means to be civilized.

Why did you watch it? I was going to watch Ink, but then I saw this had just become available and I went for it because I’d heard good things.

What’s it about in one paragraph? Lawyer and family man Chris Cleek (Bridgers) goes out into the woods behind his house one early morning to do some hunting and finds a feral woman (McIntosh) bathing in a stream. He throws her in a net, knocks her out and takes her home. He then chains her up in an outdoor cellar and (after The Woman bites the top half of his ring finger off and eats it) decides she needs to learn how to be civilized. Once he introduces his wife, Belle (Bettis), his son, Brian (Rand) and his two daughters, Peggy (Carter) and Darlin’ (Molhusen) to The Woman, things get a little ugly.

Yet her armpits are shaved.

Play or remove from my queue? It’s three-quarters of a great movie, but leaves a little to be desired by the finale. First and foremost, the performances by Sean Bridgers and Pollyanna McIntosh are incredible. Bridgers creates one of the most profoundly evil screen villains of all time. He has this carefully crafted mask of friendly affability that he shares with the public, but when he comes home to his family, there is a menace that arises that is chilling to behold. It’s not that as soon as he’s behind closed doors he’s violent or anything, he just has some issues with women, and his complete disdain for the female species is scarily accurate to some of the misogynists I’ve met in my life. Everything is fine until a woman tries to tell him what to do, and then he loses his shit completely, but then even his cruelty is combined with an Aw-Shucks sort of sensibility that actually made me feel a bit sick to my stomach. McIntosh plays The Woman with such ferocity, mixing alien tics and throat ripping guttural murmurs that I found myself unable to take my eyes off of her anytime she was in the frame. I haven’t seen Offspring yet (which has the origin of The Woman and is also based on a novel by Jack Ketchum), but I’m certainly going to track it down now just so I can see more of McIntosh inhabiting this character.

The performances are what sucked me in and Lucky McKee’s steady and simple direction kept me interested. Plus, the way he uses music in the film is pretty excellent, as well. There’s a half-dozen pop songs that are great songs by themselves, but mixed with some of the truly depraved imagery it creates a surreal juxtaposition that made the film irresistible to me. The film builds tension expertly and, since the film moves at such a brisk (almost hypnotizing) pace, I was shocked when the finale crept up and it was already time to say goodbye to these characters. I really enjoyed McKee’s May and I enjoyed parts of The Woods, but couldn’t really stand his episode of Masters of Horror, Sick Girl, so I figured The Woman could go either way. For about 75% of the running time I felt like I was watching a new genre classic, but right around the point where the oldest Cleek girl’s concerned teacher shows up to the house, the film started to lose me.

I can’t go into the specifics until we get to the spoiler section next week, but let me give some vagueries anyway. The final 20 minutes of the film abandons all the subtlety of the majority of the film and becomes sort of a grand guignol bloodbath. Now, if you’ve read this column before you know that I am a pretty big fan of bloodbaths, grand or otherwise, but by descending into what almost amounts to a slasher film in the final scenes, The Woman loses all of its thematic resonance and becomes just another horror film. Which is fine, but McKee didn’t seem content with just being another horror film for 2\3 of the running time. As it stands, The Woman is an entertaining and grisly piece of horror, but it could have been so much more.

"Does anyone else feel like some barbecue and a quick rape?"

Do you have a favorite line? My favorite line is a spoiler, so I’ll drop it next week.

Do you have an interesting fun-fact? The novel The Woman was released to coincide with the film. I haven’t read any Ketchum yet, but I think I’m going to now. Any recommendations?

What does Netflix say I’d like if I like this? Outcast (I’m becoming a fan of the Bloody Disgusting label of horror films, so I’ll add it to the queue), Chop (same for this one), Wake Wood (even with Littlefinger, this was a snooze), The Lost (also based on Jack Ketchum’s work. Added.) and Parents (I love this movie with all of my heart and soul).

What does Jared say I’d like if I like this? Boxing Helena? Watching Sean Bridgers be hilarious and awesome on Deadwood?

What is Netflix’s best guess for Jared? 2.8

What is Jared’s best guess for Jared? 3.0

Can you link to the movie? Sure!

Any last thoughts? I guess I never said whether to play it or not. It’s worth watching with realistic expectations, but don’t expect the landing to be stuck. Go ahead and play it with reservations.

Did you watch anything else this week? Safe was entertaining, but frustrating. Statham is awesome beating ass for the first half of the movie, but then in the final few action beats and the finale, all he does is shoot people. Don’t cast a martial arts badass in a movie just to have him go “Pew-Pew” at the end. Dicks.

Any spoilerish thoughts about last week’s film, A Town Called Panic? It’s slipping away from me like a strange and beautiful dream. There are no spoilers because it’s a film that exists outside of the ability to be spoiled.

Next Week? Ink. I swear this time. After that I’m thinking Fish Story.

Agreed!

Two weeks ago we looked at an interview with Mark Ruffalo with the question, “might Hulk go solo again?” In it the actor boiled things down to his own personal enthusiasm for doing more, and that any fleeting conversations aside, he didn’t expect to hear much for a while with everything else Marvel’s up to. That said, he’s recently dropped that he too signed one of Marvel’s monstrous actor contracts that’s sealed him up for six total film. Since it would take about 30 years for Marvel to make that many Avengers films, surely they see some possibilities for Hulk having another go?

Cut to Feige responding to all of the Avengers hype and enthusiasm for the big green guy by stating that changing the character’s reputation was the goal, not priming him for a new franchise.

“Well, no. This was the other shot. Right? I mean, this was the third appearance of Hulk and everything that we had and were going for, we put in to Hulk’s appearance in “Avengers.” So, I love that people are saying that and are feeling that way about Hulk, but mission accomplished at this point. And the way we go forward, we’ll see. But it was a long road to get to this point. … But we’ll be very careful about it and deliberate — as we were in how we wanted to bring him back in “Avengers.”

But despite that pretty cut and dry answer, we all know if there’s any force Feige, Disney, and Marvel will ultimately answer to, it’s the almighty force of MARKETING. It is the conglomerate God, and it laughs at the best laid plans of mortal producers.

This is relevant because the president of consumer products, Paul Gitter, has just recently revealed to Forbes that the run up to The Avengers has already buried the needle on Hulk sales. The green guy has apparently become quit the mover of units, and thus his priority in Marvelsphere goes up quite quickly. And as anyone who has seen The Avengers will tell you, that’s not likely to subside as The Hulk shines in the film. I’d even go so far as to say he owns many of the film’s most memorable gags, and there are many. Which leads Gitter to say some very positive things about Dr. Banner.

“His sales are up in a major way. We repositioned him from where he was always misunderstood to now depicting him in a more heroic and aspirational manner,” says Gitter. If Hulk’s successful turnaround continues, Gitter says Marvel “will spin him off to a stand-alone program next year,” supported by a big budget franchise movie in 2015. The entertainment studio is also exploring ways to promote Hulk as a “corporate icon,” similar to MetLife’s usage of Peanuts’ Snoopy, where The Hulk’s image conveys a message about channeling strength to overcome workplace challenges.

Of course one thing doesn’t necessarily contradict the other, as Feige is mostly saying that increased hype does not equal a plan-upending immediate greenlight on a new Hulk film, and the marketer is simply saying the character will get an increased focus for the time being. A film hitting in 2015 could start as late as third or fourth quarter of next year- plenty of time for Marvel to smash up their roadmap a little bit.

Expect a lot of this kind of talk, as The Avengers is certainly living up to its financial promise and doing big things for its team even before it starts tearing into the box office.

Twitter
Comment Below
Message Board

Source | HuffPo, Forbes, Collider (via /Film)

Apparently somebody finally tapped on Hollywood’s shoulder and whispered in its ear, “hey assholes, dinosaurs are cool,” which is solid advice if there ever was any. Now between with the long-rumored possibilities of another Jurassic Park film as well as the 3D conversion of the original, Pixar’s mysterious dinsoaur film, and Grant Morrison’s Dinosaurs Vs. Aliens, we’ve got a certifiable wave of scaly action flicks coming. Fortunately, dinosaurs are much more awesome than aliens (the last common wave of films Hollywood is in the midst of crapping out), and all of these films seem diverse enough to not bore audiences.

Now it turns out WB wants in on the game, and has become so excited by a developing web series about “about a rapidly evolving species of dinosaurs who attack modern Los Angeles,” that they’ve picked up as a feature film project. The first entry in our Cockblocked list from last year covered a similar film that was shut-down because of Jurassic Park, but would have been a Burton film based on Dinosaurs Attack! cards from the same company that made the Mars Attacks! cards on which Burton’s film was based.

The film will most certainly be in 3D, as the co-writer and director John Clisham is a James Cameron employee who worked on the Titanic conversion. Perhaps 48fps will be in the equation as well, which if the reports (even from those who hated the presentation) are true that the format makes CG beings look more naturally integrated into a scene, perhaps it might be a good/better fit. That’s just topical spitballing though.

Of course I can’t fail to mention a little project I’m tied to that hits this summer, as the Jurassic Live: Dino Action Show will be a perfect summer primer for the coming deluge of ancient creature features we’ve got coming. I’d like to see lots of chewers at the shows, so if you didn’t already get tickets, keep an eye on the twitter or FB page to get details on how you’ll be able to soon. It’s your best way of keeping on the cutting edge of dinosaur-related entertainment.

Twitter
Comment Below
Message Board

Source | Deadline

Prometheus, for those unaware, is about a group of people discovering the meaning of life on an alien planet. They share some laughs, some life experiences and (spoiler) grow as people in the end. They even make some great new alien friends. Looks like it’ll just be a really chill, heartfelt film. At least that’s the vibe I got from this new international trailer.

Source: 20th Century Fox

It’s possible, if unlikely, that we’re dealing with some spoilers for JJ Abrams’ Star Trek 2, so if you’re ultra purist about the new iteration of the franchise, I’d suggest passing on the entirety of the article. That said, there’s nothing here that won’t be spoiled by a toy or a promo image or a set picture long before the film even cuts a trailer, so I wouldn’t sweat it.

In any event, AICN is reporting new Trek stuff from a source that they say “feels” right. That’s not condescension, that’s their own clarification, along with a big “trust us guys, this could be legit” dance without spoiling their source. So grain of salt and all. Either way, the news their source brings is not monumental, but would definitely confirm some suspicions you may have.

They basically boil down to the idea that Cumberbatch’s villian is, either in name or in spirit, the Kahn of this film, and that Leonard Nimoy will be returning for a significant role. There’s also word that Khan will battle Kirk in flying space suits, and that Nimoy’s costume suggests he’ll have taken on a “stately” role in this new timeline.

That’s it, and while the Cumberbatch as Khan would definitely be a bit of  a reveal, I doubt there’s many that haven’t suspected it from day one, in the even that they care at all. As in all things, Batman has somehow become the pattern by which all others must follow, and there’s now this sense that branded franchise’s major villain must enter in the second film, be he Moriarty or Sinestro or Kahn or whoever. The thing is… the Joker’s the Joker. Nobody in the mainstream gives a shit about Khan (or Sinestro or Moriarty for that matter), and the success of the new franchise was not built on the supportive shoulders of Trekkies. So while Abrams may certainly exploit one of the franchise’s most interesting villains and also pay tribute to fans simultaneously, I don’t suspect a public mandate would be driving the decision.

So the Kahn thing will just have to develop, but the Nimoy rumors have been bolstered by Leonard’s own brief admission that “we’re talking,” at a NASA event yesterday and a set visit prior to that. He then tweeted today, “I enjoy conversations with JJ Abrams and Zachary Quinto. Keeping up on their work. They are my friends. LLAP” which could be just as easily read as a, “calm down guys, dems my bros and I’m just checking in on shit.” All of that said, he’s going to cameo at the very least, because duh.

My brain already hurts. Live long and rumor less.

Twitter
Comment Below
Message Board

 EDIT: As DirtyRatBastard so kindly noted, I very consistently fucked up Khan as “Kahn.” That’s what happens when you proof thinking 2+2=5. Apologies.

"You see... I've got a REAL mutha fuckin' actor." Mendes then looked in the camera with a maniacal smile and upraised middle finger... "That's for your Brosnan!"

I don’t know that Sam Mendes was specifically going out of his way to shit on all the previous Bonds as he complemented Daniel Craig’s ability for thoughtful, emotionally complex performance in an interview on the set of Skyfall. That said, Brosnan, Connery, Nelson, Moore, Niven, Lazenby, Dalton…

Ya burnt!

You see, Mendes was simply confirming that his film would indeed follow the path charted by the previous two Bond films that’s taken the character down a road of more internal turmoil and self-reflection. So far the addition of moodiness to Bond has been relatively light, but accentuated by a more punishingly sharp-edge to the violence as well. Now we’ve got the moody director of such films as American Beauty, Road To Perdition, Jarhead, and Revolutionary Road tackling Bond, so most of us already expected a heightening of some of those headier themes. And in confirming that direction, Mendes said the following to Yahoo!.

In Fleming’s last novels, Mendes said, Bond suffered from a “combination of lassitude, boredom, depression, difficulty with what he’s chosen to do for a living, which is to kill. That makes him a much more interesting character, and some of those things are explored in this movie, because Daniel as an actor is capable of exploring them.”

Cue me running around like Cartman on the playground yelling about burns, meanwhile cut to Sean Connery who grunts and rolls back over on the couch.

“You always go back to the Fleming because the character Fleming created over a number of novels was incredibly complex… Some people sometimes forget in the cliche of Bond, which is the international playboy, and someone who’s always untroubled, and almost never breaks a sweat, that actually what he created was a very conflicted character.’

Immaturity aside, it’s true that Craig is uniquely up to the challenge of hitting that slight edge of darkness without losing credibility in the action scenes or stripping the fun out of the proceedings entirely. Mendes himself hasn’t often demonstrated those same skills, even if I happen to like his brand of melodrama in many cases, and appreciate his abilities at creating iconic imagery. The reaction to the first batch of footage from his film was positive, if measured by the fact that not much could be seen. The production diaries and stills have been fun though.

Expect a full trailer for the November 9th release soon.

Twitter
Comment Below
Message Board

Without the anarchic momentum of a still-mysterious Joker character and the backdrop of an all out-election in full swing, there’s no recapturing the magic of the ’08 viral campaign for The Dark Knight. That being said, as anemic as the viral efforts have been for its follow up thus far, it looks like WB (more specifically their hired firm) is ready to step up to the plate on this one, if the scale of the latest viral effort is any indication…

We’re approaching the release of a new Bat trailer on The Avengers, and to scare up excitement for its debut, www.thedarkknightrises.com has updated its site with a Gotham PD notice demanding that all individuals who find signs of “bat graffiti” report evidence to them (by way of email or convenient hashtag!). In the document is literally hundreds of addresses across the globe, where tiny chalk bats await intrepid fans. For example, here’s one found not too far from me in Atlanta:

By sending and email or a tweet to right place, you help unlock one individual frame of the new trailer. The finished collection of which can be viewed here, at their TDKR07202012 site. There are so many addresses that if you act fast, I bet you could go find one near you and maybe even be the first!

Twitter
Comment Below
Message Board

Source | Coming Soon (via ThinkMcFlyThink)

What is this? Every single day of the week at 11 EST, a new Graboid, a single moment grabbed from a random movie, appears on this site for you to guess the name of the film, share with your officemates, or discuss on our message boards. Sometimes the Graboid will be very easy and sometimes it’ll be as obscure as obscure gets. So read the news, read the reviews, and enjoy a screencap each and every day for your guessing pleasure.

I won’t lie to you, dear reader, this week has been pretty slim in terms of exciting indie releases. That said, it certainly has not been slim in terms of exciting news coming from NYU in the form of next month’s No Quarter Exhibition to be held May 18th at 7pm. The exhibition itself is geared toward celebrating indie development, while also fostering groundbreaking narrative and innovative design choices. I will be attending this event (which, coincidentally is the day after Indie Game: The Movie debuts at the IFC Center, another event I’ll be covering), so if you see me (either at the IFC Center or at NYU), by all means, swing by and say hey. I’ll be the handsome devil probably wearing a superhero sweatshirt and my Mario Brothers “Game Over” hat.

Okeydoke, with that exciting news out of the way, onto what I’m thinking will be the slimmest Indie Roundup ever!

Indie Flop:

Curse of Shadows is a game with so much promise that fails in just about every way imaginable. 1BlockEast have really attempted to bring us something fantastic, but in the end, they trip up and fail miserably. The game itself is a relatively simple platformer, with an interesting mechanic involving a light source and the lead character’s ability to turn into her own shadow in a world where no other living creatures cast a shadow (something to do with a menacing threat “from the mountains” who has stolen mankind’s shadows).

The game has beautiful, colorful visuals, an interesting storyline that didn’t develop much in my time with the game. Unfortunately, the weak music, terrible animations, life-ending glitches and lack of proper spelling (“theif” instead of “thief” in the game’s intro) keep this game from being anything more than shovelware. At this point in the game, indie developers really need to step up their game, especially in terms of providing an experience on the Xbox’s Indie Marketplace.

Indie Darling:

The Walking Dead and Telltale Games are a match made in heaven. We’ve seen, over the past few weeks, the release of huge indie titles on various platforms, from Fez to Botanicula and now, with The Walking Dead (based on the comic series by Robert Kirkman and the hit AMC show, obviously), there’s so much going on with the indie scene, there’s literally something for everyone. I have to admit, I’m not the biggest fan of the comic series, nor did I enjoy the first season of the series, however; the second season is, in my opinion, fantastic and kept me enthralled week to week.

Telltale’s game seems like the kind of thing that I will absolutely be coming back to as each episode releases. From the beautiful visuals and tight action to the characters I immediately began caring about the moment they appeared on-screen, I’m chomping at the bit to play more. The controls felt a tad sticky using my 360 controller, however; it’s not something I couldn’t get used to almost immediately. I imagine that using mouse and keyboard or some kind of touch interface via an iOS device (which is listed as a platform on the game’s Wikipedia entry, though is, as of this writing, not available on the App Store) is far simpler, but, as I said, the “sticky” learning curve of the controller wasn’t daunting.

If The Walking Dead game series from Telltale can deliver the thrills associated with the comics and series, while also delivering on Robert Kirkman’s promises of engaging character development over action, I can’t imagine a more interesting adaptation of a comic or television property. Zombie games are nothing new. Throw a dollar on the Indie Marketplace and you’re bound to hit one. Left 4 Dead and its sequel are the preeminent kings of the hill (let’s just ignore Resident Evil, please) in terms of zombie or “horde” gaming, however; it’s easy to see The Walking Dead vying for the throne.

Overall, a slow week in indie gaming, with the exception of the announcements of Indie Game: The Movie at the IFC Center and NYU’s third annual No Quarter Exhibition, along with a lackluster Xbox Indie release and a masterful stroke of character development and gameplay from the mad geniuses at Telltale Games.

Indie Game: The Movie trailer: