Trailers and Clips »
You Say 'Twilight,' Taylor Swift Says 'Firelight'
Filed under: Drama, Romance, Trailers and Clips
They're hit and miss, but I always try and catch any new digital short from Saturday Night Light. Pop / country singer Taylor Swift hosted last night's show, and the 19-year-old star really surprised me, and I'm sure a lot of other people who don't necessarily follow young pop / country singers. Her song during the opening monologue (pictured) got in digs at her ex-boyfriend, made clear her feelings on Kanye West and his MTV Video Music Awards disruption, and commented amusingly on her supposed romance with Taylor Lautner, one of the stars of the upcoming The Twilight Saga: New Moon.
That was followed up by Firelight, the SNL parody of the first Twilight flick, with Swift taking on Kristen Stewart's role of Bella Swan, complete with hair fixing, downward-cast eyes, and lip-biting. The new boy who catches her eye at school is not, however, pasty-skinned Edward Cullen but green-skinned Phillip Frank of the Frank clan. The short captures the key moments from the first film, provides a different excuse for the "good / bad boy" not to kiss the "good / good" girl, and includes a cameo from a very concerned mummy. All in all, a solid little short.
I thought Swift was pretty hilarious throughout the show. I'm not sure if that's because of lowered expectations on my part or because of better than average writing from the staff, but, in any event, Swift displayed a flair for comedy. Check out the video to get a taste.
Watch 'Firelight' after the jump!
Trailer Park: Despicable Dragons
Filed under: Animation, Documentary, Horror, Trailer Trash, Games and Game Movies, Trailers and Clips
Despicable Me
Second trailer for this 3D animated comedy, and this time it's focusing on arch villain Gru (voiced by Steve Carell) trying to break into the headquarters of a rival bad guy. This looks like fun and the bit with the shark had me howling. Check it out on July 9.
Sherlock Holmes
A second trailer for the new Holmes fllck with Robert Downey Jr. in the title role aided by Jude Law as Watson. Pretty sure this will have awesome written all over it. Plan a trip to Baker Street for Christmas day.
Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time
There's some serious spectacle at work here. Jake Gyllenhaal stars in this adaptation of a video game I've never played, but I'm pretty sure that's not necessary. It seems tailor-made to be a summer blockbuster, which is good because it comes out on May 28.
Best Worst Movie
Speaking as someone who has watched and enjoyed some truly awful films in his time, this one really speaks to me. This documentary examines the phenomenon/train wreck that is Troll 2, a 1990 horror flick whose badness has become legendary. No release date yet and I suspect this will be hard to find in theaters.
How to Train Your Dragon
In this new animated comedy from Dreamworks, a viking teenager is trying to learn the ways of his people including hunting and killing those pesky dragons that are plaguing them. He soon learns, though, that everything his people know about dragons is wrong and sets out on his own path. Training begins on March 26.
New this week on AOL Moviefone:
- Splinterheads - A young slacker falls in love with a beautiful carnival worker.
- Invictus - Morgan Freeman stars as South African President Nelson Mandela who urges the captain of the national rugby team to strive for the World Cup for the sake of unifying their nation in the days following apartheid.
- Eichmann - Historical drama based on the confession of Adolf Eichmann.
- Mammoth - An intricately woven family drama starring Michelle Williams and Gael García Bernal as a married couple whose lives begin to spin out of control.
- Shake Hands With the Devil - Based on true events surrounding a 1994 U.N. peacekeeping mission to Rwanda that failed to prevent the slaughter of 800,000 Rwandans.
- Avatar - Second trailer for James Cameron's epic 3D science fiction extravaganza.
- Did You Hear About the Morgans - A couple on the verge of divorce can't escape each other after they witness a murder and must enter the witness relocation program.
The Worst Movie Biopics and Five That Are Pretty Darn Good
Filed under: Casting, Fandom, Home Entertainment, Trailers and Clips
Watch enough movies and you learn pretty fast that they aren't about reality, they're about entertaining us. Which sometimes makes the world of the biopic a little tricky, because not only do you have to work in the truth, but you still have to keep those butts in the seats -- and the results are not always good. Over at Moviefone they've compiled some of the worst movie biopics, and no one was safe -- with films earning a spot for mixing up their facts, ridiculous casting, or just downright lazy filmmaking.
So who made the list? Well, you've got your usual suspects like Oliver Stone's Alexander, a film that has so much wrong with it I don't know where to put the blame (oh, that's right, on everyone). Other films that made the cut for the less than flattering title of 'Real Life Catastrophes' were Kevin Spacey's Bobby Darin flick, Beyond The Sea, Luc Besson's The Messenger, and Alan Parker's Evita. But don't think the classics made it out unscathed either, because both Captain Eddie and The Babe Ruth Story also earned a mention.
As a genre, I love biopics -- especially the bad ones. I've watched everything from made-for-TV movies on The Beach Boys to high art flicks like I'm Not There. So no matter what kind of biopic it might be, I will usually give it a chance. Over the years, I've seen movies that bend the truth and those that just mess it up entirely, but that doesn't mean I didn't enjoy them. Besides, if you're looking for unadulterated facts, you should probably head to the library and not the multiplex.
After the jump: five of my favorite movie biopics...
Check Out The Real-Life Men Who Stare at Goats
Filed under: Comedy, Fandom, Trailers and Clips
By: John Gholson
I'm not sure why, but Overture Films has chosen to downplay the "based on a true story" aspects of their high-profile new satirical film The Men Who Stare at Goats. The film finds Ewan McGregor as a journalist looking for a story in Iraq who stumbles across a former member (George Clooney) of a special platoon of psychics employed by the U.S. military. While many moments in the film seem outlandish and ridiculous, they become even more jaw-dropping with the knowledge that the film is based on fact.
Author Jon Ronson first explored the topic of remote viewers and psychic super-soldiers in a three-part Channel 4 television documentary, The Crazy Rulers of the World, the first part of which ("The Men Who Stare at Goats") he turned into a book in 2004. It's amazing to see the very real people behind the First Earth Battalion (renamed the New Earth Army in the film) recounting the bizarre stories that are brought to life on the big screen in the quasi-fictional movie by writer-director Grant Heslov.
It's a must-see if you plan on catching the film, and absolutely fascinating. There's a cynical side of me that would like to assume the members of the First Earth Battallion all are crackpots, but there's too much fact mixed in with the weirdness for me to dismiss it outright.
You can see the first episode of Jon Ronson's original documentary, in its entirety, over at SciFi Squad.
Watch This: Movie Titles That Slip Into the Dialogue
Filed under: Fandom, Trailers and Clips
Watch a lot of movies, and you'll get conditioned to look for that special moment when it all comes together and someone utters the words that also happen to make up the title of the movie. Sometimes it's inevitable -- if the film is titled after a character's name, or the flick's main theme, then it's going to make its way into the film. A lot. Other times, writers cleverly slip it in as that tongue-in-cheek addition for the audience's amusement.Having a little fun with movie clips, Videogum has whipped up a mosaic of scenes where characters say the film of the movie in the film. From Katharine Hepburn's distinct voice stating: "Guess who's coming to dinner?" to Dances with Wolves, to things being "gone, baby ... gone" and Sharon Stone writing about "basic instincts," there's a good range of those little pithy and inevitable moments. Most of them are all-too-brief, although there's a good blip of time granted for the build-up of The Breakfast Club.
Check out the video after the jump and weigh in below: Which title-in-dialogue moments do you remember most?
Stars in Rewind: Tom Waits, Crystal Gayle, and Francis Ford Coppola
Filed under: Drama, Music & Musicals, Romance, Trailers and Clips, Stars in Rewind
Know what this trio of names has in common -- Tom Waits, Crystal Gayle, and Francis Ford Coppola? They collaborated on the music for Coppola's 1982 film One from the Heart. Waits was the creative mind behind the film's music, he performed a number of duets with the country singer, and he also earned an Academy Award nomination for his efforts.
However, that was about all the notoriety the film got. As Roger Ebert wrote in his review some 27 years ago: "This must be the first movie in history to arrive with more publicity about its production techniques than about its stars," describing the film as "a major disappointment." Heart focused on two people in love (Teri Garr and Frederic Forrest) who get swept away by the throes of passion with Raul Julia and Nastassja Kinski. But rather than simply tell the story, it was an art piece for Coppola, using creative filming techniques and a carefully plotted score that interacted with the characters.
After the jump you can see a behind-the-scenes look at the music from the film, mainly focused on Waits, but also revealing footage from initial discussions about the project, and how the music came together. It might sound old-hat in a world where we are saturated by DVDs with special features, but I love seeing the old process -- minds coming together in the back yard for a "musical summit," how each piece of a film can be so carefully plotted, and the utter strangeness of seeing someone like Gayle collaborating with Waits.
A Peek at George Clooney Voicing 'Fantastic Mr. Fox'
Filed under: Action, Animation, Comedy, Fox Searchlight, Family Films, George Clooney, Trailers and Clips
Yahoo! has posted an incredibly cool video of George Clooney acting out his role as Mr. Fox in the freakin' adorable Fantastic Mr. Fox. The video shows cool side-by-side comparisons of Clooney acting out different scenes on a farm with costar Wallace Wolodarsky, who voices loopy sidekick Kylie, as well as just running around pretending to be Mr. Fox, down to rolling around on the ground and doing his super cool whistle. This behind-the-scenes peek at Mr. Fox also offers mini-interviews with director Wes Anderson, producer Allison Abbate, and Bill Murray (Badger) about working with Clooney on the film. The funniest part shows an argument between Mr. Fox and Badger, which involves growling and swiping, split-screened against the actors themselves doing the voices in an office.
As Abbate notes, "There couldn't be a more perfect Mr. Fox, because he has the Cary Grant suave, debonair sparkle where he can talk his way out of any situation, which is so our Mr. Fox character. He's just got a great voice."
Clooney's got a rather full docket this season, with The Men Who Stare at Goats coming out this week, Fantastic Mr. Fox coming out at the end of November, and Up in the Air out on Christmas day.
Click through to see the video itself, then let us know which Clooney feature you're going to be lining up for at the theaters this season, by cuss!
Fan Made: 'Avatar' Halloween Costume Looks Impressive
Filed under: Fandom, Trailers and Clips, Fan Made
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Usually the Internet has to wait for something to become popular before its denizens start dressing up like it. Alas, further proving that there is little typical about James Cameron's Avatar, it has broken that cycle by inspiring an enthusiastic YouTuber's Halloween costume nearly two months before the movie is set for release.
Attempting to pull off Sam Worthington's character of Jake Sulley, the fan in question explains that it took countless days of planning and roughly five hours of makeup on the final day, which sounds like a lot of a devotion, but if you ask me it was worth it. Baring the necessary facial reconstructive surgery to make it look like he was born with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome and taking some Skele-Grow to bump his height up another two feet to truly complete the look, I'd say this is a damned impressive bit of cosplay; particularly considering he would only have been able to use promo materials as his sources and not the end product.
His tail could use a bit of work, but the modded Nerf gun he has more than makes up for it. Plus the guy has a good sense of humor, as evidenced by a picture of him in front of a toy display at a store.
Watch the video and see the full costume over at SciFi Squad
Reminder: Cinematical's Fifth Annual Halloween Costume Contest is still accepting entries till this Friday, so keep sending them in.
Angelina Jolie Jumps All Over the Place in 'Salt' Trailer
Filed under: Thrillers, Trailers and Clips
Once upon a time, Tom Cruise was going to star in an espionage thriller that had him getting into some heavy action MI-style. But that didn't last long and Mr. Edwin A. Salt got a sex change and a sexy new lead with Angelina Jolie. One would think the Edwin A. would become Edwina and all would be well, but now the character is Evelyn Salt, the movie is Salt, and you can check out the first teaser trailer after the jump.Salt focuses on a CIA officer who's in for a shock when a Russian captive tells her that a Russian agent will head to Manhattan to kill the president. The spy's name: Evelyn Salt. Rather than let her co-workers detain her, she escapes, striving to prove that she's no spy. She's a patriot. "Using all her skills and years of experience as a covert operative, she must elude capture and protect her husband or the world's most powerful forces will erase any trace of her existence." (Sony IMDb summary)
The action chaos is just what any good adrenaline thriller needs to thrive, and the flick seems to have it in spades with Jolie jumping around in Live Free or Die Hard style. Unfortunately, it also has a good dose of fake hair with Angelina sporting a distracting blond wig, and later, a jet-black 'do. It's amazing how wigs can stay on in high-pressure situations, yet still look so damned fake. Nevertheless, this should be a fun ride. Are you ready for more hardcore Jolie action?
What if 'Empire Strikes Back' Included a Power Ballad?
Filed under: Fandom, Trailers and Clips
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A little known fact about Empire Strikes Back was that George Lucas had popular singer/songwriter L.B. Rayne put together a righteous power ballad for the film's soundtrack, and supposedly the song -- titled "Skywalking" -- was to be featured throughout the film and over the credits as well. Lucas, however, scratched the idea at the last second, later admitting that it didn't really fit with the film's themes. Rumors suggest there's a lost cut of Empire Strikes Back that contains "Skywalking" in the film, though I've personally never seen it, nor do I know anyone who's seen it.
Back in the late 80s, I remember my friends passing around a bootleg cassette tape of "Skywalking", but that was the last I heard of it ... until now. Yes, folks, the power ballad that was at one time a tall tale Star Wars fans shared with one another around a late night campfire has finally arrived online in music video format. Of course this song would never have worked in the movie, but it's great to have it out there again so that younger Star Wars fans can enjoy a little piece of galactic history.
As far as L.B. Rayne goes, his career pretty much ended in 1985 when he lost to a one-legged mule in a drinking contest ... but his legacy lives on! After the jump, check out Rayne's power ballads for Empire Strikes Back and Indiana Jones (another one Lucas commissioned but never used).
You Say 'Twilight,' Taylor Swift Says 'Firelight'
Robert Pattinson Talks 'Breaking Dawn' & 'Unbound Captives'
Gwyneth Paltrow Joins Nicole Kidman in 'The Danish Girl'
Discuss: The Movies That Haunt You_thumbnail.jpg)
'Yogi Bear' Will Cry Me A River With Its Cast
