TRON: Legacy Teaser Trailer

Disney has finally released the teaser trailer for Tron: Legacy, the long awaited sequel to the 1982 cult classic Tron.  The film stars recent Oscar winner Jeff Bridges, Garrett Hedlund, Olivia Wilde, Bruce Boxleitner, James Frain, Beau Garrett, and Michael Sheen.

I wrote up a detailed description of the teaser trailer a few weeks back and tried to give my best recap from memory. Needless to say, I was wrong with about 40% of it.  My biggest mistake was thinking Michael Sheen was the red suit: it’s actually CLU 2; a younger version of Kevin Flynn (Bridges). Director Joseph Kosinski recently did a Q & A session for Legacy and let slip two very interesting tibits: Jeff Bridges would be digitally de-aged to appear as his younger self in the movie. Bruce Boxleitner will be going through a similar process showing up as TRON himself.

What’s cooler than this teaser trailer?  The fact that it’s a just a teaser trailer and that we can expect an even longer one before the movie premieres this winter!

The trailer (which is available for download here) is currently playing in 3D with Alice in Wonderland.

TRON: Legacy hits theatres December 17, 2010.

No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle Review

Travis Touchdown and the Rose Nasties. Sounds like a band.

Looking for a game where bloody assassin massacres and cutesy kitten playtime are equal priorities?

No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle is one of the biggest, and strangest, releases for the Nintendo Wii in the first quarter of 2010. Its predecessor No More Heroes won critical acclaim back in 2008 for its adult themes and stylish visuals, but the sequel hopes to match and exceed the former in both overall design and unit sales.

Let’s get one thing straight: Desperate Struggle is about as adult a game as you can find on the Wii System – a system generally designed with Family Game Night in mind.  Before you can even save for the first time the game features blood fountains, self-mutilation, sexually suggestive weaponry, and about half-a-dozen or so ‘questionable’ pieces of language not fit for print in this website (Okay, that’s a lie, but hey, there are kids around). Not a bad list. Only potty humour could make the opening any more visceral, and for that, well, just wait for the first save point. It won’t disappoint.

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The Crazies Review

Radha Mitchell in The Crazies

Breck Eisner’s The Crazies is a film that makes no bones about what it is. I had expected another run-of-the-mill horror film going in, but left the theatre pleasantly surprised. The Crazies is a tightly wound ball of suspense that will manage to unsettle and entertain you. The film is loosely based on George Romero’s 1973 movie of the same name; that film focused on both the civilian and military response to a deadly outbreak in a small town. Like Romero’s other work the film contained timely social commentary, in this case the film was a satire of the Vietnam War. The 2010 version of The Crazies is a little different, with the focus on squarely on the civilians, their dealings with the infected and the brutal military containment of the town. Now I’m sure you could draw out some kind of analogy relating to the wars in Afghanistan or Iraq, but if there is any underlying message it doesn’t feel nearly as ham-handed as some of Romero’s efforts. The Crazies is a rare example of a Hollywood horror film that is not only a good genre film, but a pretty decent flick period. Unlike many other horror films, you’ll feel invested in the movie and actually root for the characters to survive.

Spoilers to follow.

Welcome to picture perfect Ogden Marsh, an ordinary farming community in rural Iowa. This is a town where nothing really exciting ever happens, and that’s just the way the residents like it. Here we meet the local Sheriff David Dutton (Timothy Olyphant) and his pregnant wife Judy (Radha Mitchell), the town doctor. When a local man unexpectedly shows up to a high school baseball game wielding a shotgun, Sheriff Dutton is forced to shoot him in self-defense. In the wake of this incident, more townsfolk begin to acting strangely; what was another painfully normal Spring in Ogdgen Marsh slowly begins turning into a nightmare for the residents. As things spiral out of control, Dutton and his Deputy (Joe Anderson) discover that a military aircraft containing a biological weapon recently crashed into the reservoir, contaminating the local water supply. Before the two are able to warn the residents the military cordons off the town and begin rounding up the infected families with brutal efficiency.

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Shutter Island Review

Martin Scorsese is a name that is synonymous with great films. It is impossible to call yourself a cinephile and not appreciate the man’s filmmaking. It’s also seemingly impossible to review one of his films without a lengthy preamble discussing his legendary oeuvre; so I’ll spare you that. We all know the great movies he’s made, mentioning how great Taxi Driver and Goodfellas are doesn’t really tell you anything about his latest film. That being said, Shutter Island is bound to be compared with his earlier work; not because it’s not of the same calibre as those other films, but because it’s so different from them.

Before I talk about the film itself, I have to comment on the trailer for the movie. The trailer for Shutter Island gives away far too many details about the film. If you’ve seen the trailer, you’ll have a pretty good idea of exactly what is going to happen in the film. Seeing the trailer made the film less enjoyable for me.

Spoilers to follow

Based on the novel Shutter Island by Dennis Lehane (Mystic River, Gone Baby Gone) the film tells the story of two U.S. Federal marshals sent to investigate the escape of a patient from an isolated mental hospital off the coast of Massachusetts. Marshal Teddy Daniels (Leonardo DiCaprio) and his new partner Chuck Aule (Mark Ruffalo) immediately sense that all is not as it appears when the hospital’s administrator (Ben Kingsley) is less than forthcoming with information the marshals need for their investigation. Daniels, who has his own motives for taking on this case, believes that there is more going on at the hospital than just a simple prisoner escape. He and Aule begin to unravel what they believe to be a government conspiracy involving sick experiments being conducted on the patients of Shutter Island. Between a hurricane, patient escapes and an evasive hospital administration the marshals have their work cut out for them.

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Saw: The Video Game: The Review

Editor’s Note: This review was originally intended for publication late last year, but was misplaced by yours truly. My apologies to Zack – Will

Do I want to play a game? Yeah sure, why not? I’m always down for a good bout of Tetris, but with Fall winds rattling my bones, scary games are definitely on the menu. Saw? The game? A game of Saw? Now I know the high brow savant in me wants to slide this concept away and move on to something… European, I need to honestly admit that Saw, the obnoxiously successful torture porn series of films that have a new entry annually if only to prove how much thought and effort is needed for the next installment, is not nearly as offensive as a video game. In fact I find that most things that tend to make you groan in films are usually the very same things you’ll fist pump for in a video game. So perhaps, conceptually, Saw: The Video Game may have something going for it. Thus begging the question, do you want to play THIS game?

You are Detective Tapp, one of the detectives aggressively hounding Jigsaw, the main antagonist of the franchise. Tapp was apparently shot in the first Saw film, though I’m no expert on the subject. So instead I have come to the conclusion that Detective Tapp was on his way to his buddy’s Bill Cosby dress up party when he was shot and kidnapped by the Jigsaw killer then awoken in a house o’ nightmares. If I have to give the writing team one medal it is for coming up with a great reason for complete strangers to want to tear Tapp a new one. You discover that Jigsaw has surgically implanted a key somewhere in Tapp’s body, and it is this key that so happens to be the path freedom for every other victim in the building. The way the encountered enemies incorporate Jigsaw’s lore is also fairly clever, from blinded brawlers who have steel boxes mounted to their head, to some with their hands bound to a stick of dynamite. Things descend into dumb pretty quickly though. To every victim of Jigsaw’s torture is some kind of justification, though they are really stretching it with this one. Tapp’s moral failing is that he’s just too obsessed with Jigsaw, and so Jigsaw decided to punish him. It just feels like the needle wagging its finger at the junkie. I guess the obvious cure for Tapp would be for Jigsaw to stop, y’know, killing people, but Jigsaw acts above it, and in this game especially rubs off as more hypocritical and smug than interesting. Tapp’s carrot on a string is to use this opportunity to figure out who Jigsaw is once and for all, though since the films have already treaded on that ground, it’s not nearly as tantalizing for the player.

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Holy Invasion Of Privacy, Badman! What Did I Do To Deserve This? Review

What is it to be bad?  Is it because you do bad things? Do you have to intend to do bad? Is one only bad because they find themselves at ends with good? Is bad only just a constructed concept to begin with? NIS America brings you the tale of a frustrated bad guy, whose private life is in constant barrage of pesky noblemen sneaking into his dungeon. He comes to you, the player, to help him design a lair with solid enough foundations to put an end to his unusual pest problem. Through playing this title the player will discover a new sort of cruelty. It brings into question who is truly the villain. Could it be the bad guy, the hero, their politics, or the sadists who created this game?

The Playstation Portable seems to be the new ark for quirky Japanese titles. While I eagerly await my purchase of Half-Minute Hero, I am glad to see that Badman can satisfy my hunger in the meantime. The presentation is adowable. The dialogue charming. The Badman rambles on about your greatness, even when your decisions make him a little uneasy. The heroes all chant their battle cry before stepping into the fray, each being progressively weirder than the last. All is sprite rendered. The frantic, flute based soundtrack will keep you humming with a smirk. It’s not all original per se, but the overall effect feels cozy. Which is good, seeing as the game has you dealing with a lot of cramped spaces. Your evil monsters, all as itty-bitty sprites, live, die, and reproduce in the ant-farm-like environment you build for them. You need to create a layout that functions on two levels: One, complex and winding enough to busy and disorient the meddling heroes hunting for your Badman; and two, they also must be competent and structured in order to support the ecosystem of all the deadly monsters within. It’s not the first evil-dungeon sim by a long shot, but it’s definitely unlike any of the others that came before it.

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Daybreakers Review

The end is nigh, or so many on the planet believe. Whether it be terrorism, climate change, plague, or war, many people believe the human race has not long to live. Unless we adapt and fast, we’re pretty much screwed. Is it even possible for us to adapt? And should we adapt to suit the society we have created (inadvertently or not), or should we try to change that society presumably for the better?

In Michael and Peter Spierig’s second feature film Daybreakers, the year is 2019 and due to a plague ten years previous, 95% of the human race have become vampires. The few remaining humans are either in hiding or farmed for blood. But that blood is running out and fast. Ethan Hawke plays Edward Dalton, a hematologist working for a large blood corporation in search of a blood substitute. They have discovered that if vampires do not get regular doses of human blood (or an appropriate substitute), they will become strange human-bat hybrids with purely animal instincts. Most of the vampires are content with the way things are (after all they are now immortal), but Dalton is not. His sympathies align him with one of the large groups of humans, who believe they have found a cure for vampirism.

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Sherlock Holmes Review

When I was a kid Young Sherlock Holmes was one of my favourite movies (it still is). The young detective cut his teeth not on finding the family jewels, but on cults and devil worshippers. I have a feeling the screenwriters of the new Sherlock Holmes may have been as well. Which is not a necessarily a bad thing; the majority of the original Holmes stories would not be big enough for the big screen (the main exception being The Hound of the Baskervilles, another supernatural tale).

In director Guy Ritchie’s foray into the Holmes canon, he presents a detective (played with immense glee by Robert Downey Jr) who is pompous, filthy, dismissive of official authority, conniving, and a desparate genius. His right hand man, Dr. John Watson (Jude Law) is soon to leave him for quiet married life. There’s only one problem: Lord Blackwood, whom they thought had been hung for his crimes on their last case, apparently has risen from the grave and plans to take over the world.

Purists are not going to like this Holmes, though. While many of them ignore the darker aspect of the original Holmes (mainly his drug addiction), they insist upon Holmes as an intellectual rather than physical genius. But that kind of genius usually comes with a price: a kind of madness, often strange obsessions, a reluctance to observe the niceties of day-to-day life and society. The screenwriters and Ritchie have updated Holmes as this kind of genius madman. One whose understanding of the world is so unique and intricate it makes it almost impossible for him to live in.

Not that I wish to grant the film deeper meaning than it has. This is a popcorn film; A better than average one, of course. Ritchie might be a one-note director, but he plays that one note very well. His strength lies in director scenes with clever dialogue in such a way that the camera is part of that dialogue; his action sequences make excellent use of slow motion; and he knows to give his actors room to breathe. His style works well with the script, which is, while perhaps not the most engaging story, interesting and fun enough to sustain the film.

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Avatar Review

James Cameron's Avatar

You may have heard of James Cameron’s new film, a little movie called Avatar.  Cameron and others have hyped the film to no end, claiming that it will change cinema as we know it (and for $250 million, it had better!).  Avatar features all the hallmarks we’ve come to expect from James Cameron: great action set pieces, amazing effects, evil corporations and cool creatures. Despite its many shortcomings, Avatar is impressive as sheer spectacle and a genuinely exciting experience

In 2154, Earth is overpopulated and starved for resources.  Mankind is beginning to explore the galaxy, and discovers the resource-rich planet Pandora. SecFor, a military-industrial conglomerate has setup shop on Pandora, eager to exploit its natural resources.  There is just one problem: the Na’vi, 12-foot-tall, blue feline–humanoids and the natives of Pandora, don’t take kindly to outsiders. The Na’vi are a tribal society who seek to live in harmony with their planet, but as the humans continue to encroach on Pandora the age old conflict between nature and technology comes to a head.

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Girl Number 9 Review

To slightly skew Marshall MacLuhan’s famous saying “the medium is the message”, I think it’s also fair to say that art should be designed for the medium for which it was intended. For example, a film like Where the Wild Things Are is meant to be seen on a big screen, where it is arguable that a movie such as Love Happens has no real big-screen advantage. I’ve always considered it plus when a story comes to be through whatever medium by utilizing that medium to the story’s advantage. And such a story is Girl Number 9, that latest work by Dan Turner and James Moran (writer of various Doctor Who and Torchwood episodes, as well the brilliant horror-comedy Severance).

According to an interview with Scott Weinberg, Moran and Turner decided on the format first and built the story around it. They built it around the internet, which was a good move considering the viral marketing that can get your work seen by millions in the blink of an eye. Girl Number 9 is told in six episodes coming to a total of a little under thirty minutes. So about the length of a TV show, or a longish short film. Gareth David-Lloyd (who played Ianto Jones on Torchwood) is Detective Matheson; he and the police has finally caught a serial killer they believe is responsible for the horrible deaths of seven girls. Apparently the killer only wants to talk to Matheson, for reasons that turn out to be core-chillingly frightening. I won’t give away any  more of the plot, considering the length of the film. The key to writing for the internet seems to be to keep it tight, keep it fresh, keep it to the point and don’t meander, lest you loose the attention of your audience. And keep that attention tightly in your grasp.

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Breathless Review

I met Breathless director Yang Ik-June over dim sum in Montreal when his film played at the Fantasia Film Festival. He seemed such a nice, quiet, unassuming young man. Who knew that behind the modest exterior lay a writer-director-actor who pulls no punches, literally and figuratively, with his first feature length film. I heard praise for the film for months before I saw it this past Sunday at the closing night of the Toronto Reel Asian International Film Festival, and the praise is certainly well earned.

Yang plays, Sang-Hoon, a thug who uses his fists as his employment, extorting protection money from hapless victims for his friend, and occasionally doling out his own brand of fist-vengeance on those he feels deserve it (both perpetrator and victim alike). He is constantly aggressive, no matter how good or kind those around him are, including a half-sister, to whom he gives most of his income to look after his nephew. Sang-Hoon one day meets a schoolgirl who is just as rough as he is. It’s no wonder why, for they both come from violent homes where the only response is violence and screaming. Growing up in such an environment, whether physical and emotional violence are bread and butter, it seems almost impossible that anyone coming out of that would not automatically function in the same manner.

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Sitges ‘09 Reviews Part Two: Doghouse, Macabre, Heartless

To see Shelagh’s first batch of  reviews from the 2009 Sitges Film Festival, including Splice, Amer, Cargo and TiMER be sure to click here.

Probably the best night I had at Sitges was not at a film, but at a party (like all good festivals, the parties are great). This one was set up by the Film Festival Mafia, a group of film festival hounds of which I am now a proud member. But this was no ordinary party – it was karaoke. You have not lived until you’ve seen the guys from Fantastic Fest in Austin tear their shirts off and rock some Guns ‘n Roses. Oh, such memories. But back to the movies.

Doghouse – Directed by Jake West. Starring Danny Dyer, Noel Clarke

The British have a knack for combining horror and comedy. And while this zom-rom-com is not in the same league as Shaun of the Dead, it certainly adds a fun new twist to the becoming-tired-at-lightning-speed zombie subgenre. A group of male friends, in an effort to cheer up one of their lot as he heads for a painful divorce, go to a small town in rural England where the population is 75% female. But as they arrive, it turns out that that 75% have turned into zombie-like creature who will attack anyone with an excess of testosterone.  Politically correct, this film is not; but that’s a good thing. Indeed, it makes as much fun of the way men stereotype and generalize female behavior as much as exposing some of that behavior, which I can say as a woman, is accurate and embarrassing. While the film strays into certain cliches (all the men represent a type, and you couldn’t see these varying types actually hanging out together for example), there are enough laughs and originality to sustain the 90 minutes.  Apparently there’s a “cathouse” script in the works. Now that I will see.

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