The teaser poster for Kill Bill (pt. I) makes it online. More appealing than the first trailer, at any rate. Also, in movie news, the trailer for Matrix: Revolutions is now available in Quicktime. I haven’t seen it yet, but word is it’s similar to the footage from Enter the Matrix.
Category: Cinema
Fractured Mirror.
Shut him up or shut him down.
Speaking of Chewbacca, Rick McCallum seems to be spilling a lot of Episode III knowledge these days, including who dies in the first reel and who (sigh) doesn’t die. Megaspoilers, if you care.
Good Namor Hunting.
Matt Damon as the Sub-Mariner? No, no, no…that’s just plain goofy.
Ditch the Speeder.
TF.N gets a first look at Episode III Obi-Wan…and his ride. Help us make Ep. 3 decent, Ewan, you’re our only hope.
The other franchises.
Lost in the hubbub over yesterday’s RotK footage were these two fanboy nuggets: the new Spiderman 2 poster and lots of new shots from Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkhaban. Well, ok then.
Just a Fool’s Hope…
A special treat today…At long last, a Return of the King trailer! Judging from the lines and the lack of New Line stamp at the beginning, this looks to be the trailer included on the theatrical version of the Two Towers DVD, to be released August 26. And it looks GREAT!
Update: They’ve stolen the preciousss! Fortunately, I was one of the lucky ones who obtained a copy before New Line dropped the hammer. ‘Tis really a beauteous thing.
Update 2: I’m getting a number of e-mails from people asking me to send them the trailer. This won’t happen. My advice is (a) go here or here, (b) if they don’t work, check out the comments in this AICN thread for a new location (beware major spoilers), and/or (c) fire up Kazaa.
Avast!
For those of you desiring more creaky ships and cannon broadsides in the wake of Pirates of the Caribbean, the trailer for Master and Commander is now online. Speaking of Pirates, its success has helped make Johnny Depp the frontrunner for Tim Burton’s Willy Wonka remake. (Michael Keaton, another Burton favorite, had been previously rumored as the lead.) I say, if you’re going to do it, Depp’s the best bet.
Taller Towers.
“The land had changed. Where before the green dale had lain, its grassy slopes lapping the ever-mounting hills, there now a forest loomed.” A lucky AICN spy from down under has seen the extended Two Towers, and he’s compiled a list of the major additions to the film. Massive spoilers here…spoilers that make me very happy.
Ballad of a Thin Man.
So I went down to the Angelika yesterday afternoon (always a strange experience – you can hear and feel the subway running under you during films) to catch Masked and Anonymous and, well, I can only recommend this film to two types of people: Hard-core Dylanologists, and those cinema completists who need to see Ed Harris in blackface. I consider myself a pretty heavy-duty Dylan fan, and even I was a bit bored at certain points. The movie is basically Dylan’s version of Waking Life, or what might happen if Bob had entered his own portal a la Being John Malkovich. All of the characters in the film speak in Dylanistic soliloquys (You actually get a very good sense of this from the website), and thus you end up with Giovanni Ribisi’s disquisition on war, Val Kilmer’s take on animals, etc. The movie takes place in a strange alternate present, where (I’m guessing) the revolutions of the Sixties went sour and ended up tearing the nation apart. Dylan’s dad seems to be the ailing leader of the Bearflag Republic or something, and…well, there’s no point in trying to explain it.
The movie is basically an extended riff on Dylan and Dylania…at (brief) moments it has the scope and absurdist grandeur of “Desolation Row,” “Idiot Wind,” or “It’s Alright Ma.” And some of the renditions of Dylan’s music, from the new “One More Cup of Coffee” to the acapella “The Times, They Are a Changin’” are truly beautiful. Most of the time, however, it fails to capture Dylan’s spark, and comes off flat and, well, embarrassing (particularly in some of the more questionable racial choices.) I think the extended monologues on life, death, and humanity are meant to have you dwell on the fundamental questions, but as the movie wore on I found myself contemplating altogether different queries: Did Chris Penn eat one of the Baldwins? Who would win in a caged deathmatch between Penelope Cruz and Audrey Tautou? Who knew it would end so badly between Walter and the Dude? When did Mickey Rourke turn into Billy Bob Thornton? So on, so on. I guess I’d recommend that Dylan fans see this film (particularly if you’ve sat through Renaldo & Clara), just to see where our man is at these days. (In fact, some Dylan fans seem to love it.) All in all, though, I can’t say I recommend the film as a film.
On another note, in the two hours I had to kill between this movie and seeing a friend’s (very good) band at the Baggot Inn, I stumbled upon a huge line at Tower Records, dutifully waiting to get Dave Gahan‘s signature. Times change, I guess. Ten years ago, I probably would have staked out this line with a handful of vinyl 12″ DM singles. Nowadays, I just skipped it in favor of Forbidden Planet and The Strand. Must be getting old.