Click here to watch the teaser trailer for Transformers: Dark of the Moon

Here is the premise, according to IMDb’s Transformers page:

The Autobots learn of a Cybertronian spacecraft hidden on the Moon, and race against the Decepticons to reach it and learn its secrets, which could turn the tide in the Transformers’ final battle.

Looks like it’s gonna be another standard robot action movie. Michael Bay returned as director. Ehren Kruger (Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, Scream 3) wrote the screenplay. Shia LaBeouf returns as Sam Witwicky. Megan Fox (the hottie from the first two Transformers movies) was fired shortly before filming started. John Malkovich and Frances McDormand appear to have bit parts. I’m having a hard time imagining why those two would agree to be in a movie like this. Must be a big paycheck or some irony factor. Maybe both.

Due to the overall crappiness of the past two transformers, I am going to give this a “1″ on the Potential Meter. I am expecting this to be an annoying digital noisy mess. Prove me wrong, Michael Bay. Prove me wrong, please.

Peter Pan will be making a comeback to the big screen, but this looks like it will be a dark and moody adaptation. According to Variety, the story will follow Captain Hook as a “haunted former police detective in pursuit of a childlike kidnapper.” The planned title for this remake is “Pan.”

Ben Hibon, who directed the animation sequence in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part I, is set to direct.  Hibon’s previous directing credits include Codehunters and the video games Heavenly Sword and Killer 7.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer

The rights to Buffy the Vampire Slayer have been picked up by Warner Bros.

The original movie’s director, Fran Rubel Kuzui, is involved in the production of the reboot; while the creator of the televised Buffy, Joss Whedon, is apparently not involved.

The Hollywood Reporter quotes producer Charles Roven as saying that “while this is not your high school Buffy, she’ll be just as witty, tough, and sexy as we all remember her to be.”

Is it just me, or does this look like it’s just a cash-in on the current vampire craze?

Thirty-five years after making its last Pooh film, Walt Disney Animation Studios is returning to the Hundred Acre Wood. For the first time since 1976, Disney will be using original A. A. Milne stories as the basis for a Winnie the Pooh film. Stephen J. Anderson (Meet the Robinsons) and Don Hall (writer of The Princess and the Frog) directed the film and IMDb lists its release date as July 15, 2011.

Craig Ferguson (The Late Late Show) voices Owl, Jim Cummings (accomplished voice actor) voices Pooh and Tigger, and Tom Kenny (Sponge Bob Square Pants) voices Rabbit.

It appears as though the story revolves around a hunt for a new tail for Eeyore. I love that the backgrounds look hand-painted, but I can’t say that I care for the digitally-sanitized look of the characters in the trailer.

Anybody remember Planes, Trains, and Automobiles? The movie that had an uptight guy traveling with an annoying fat guy? Well, Due Date is basically an updated version of Planes, Trains, and Automobiles. Robert Downey, Jr. plays the uptight guy and Zach Galifinaminadingdong plays the annoying fat guy (update: Zach’s last name is apparently spelled “Galifianakis”). The uptight guy is forced to hitch a ride with the annoying fat guy so that he can get to his laboring wife in time for the arrival of his baby.

Due Date co-stars Juliette Lewis, Alan Arkin, and Jamie Foxx. Comedy director Todd Phillips (The Hangover, Starsky and Hutch, Old School) directs.

Robert Downey, Jr. showed his comedic chops in Tropic Thunder, and Zach Galifianakis stole the show in The Hangover. I would consider them both to be fine comedic actors. The “odd couple” premise and the “road trip” premise both seem pretty tired, but the trailer is pretty funny and seems like it might have breathed some new life into the genre. I’ll give it a “2″ on the Potential Meter.

Click here to watch the official trailer for Yogi Bear

Yuck. A sub-par trailer for a sub-par movie based on a sub-par television show from the late 50′s and early 60′s. This trailer features the CGI characters Yogi Bear and Boo Boo alongside live action characters such as Ranger Rick.

Dan Aykroyd voices the smarter-than-average bear, while Justin Timberlake voices his height-challenged sidekick. Director Eric Brevig’s only other directed feature film is Journey to the Center of the Earth (2008), so you can tell that he holds a high standard of quality for his films. (Sorry, I forgot to use the sarcasm font in that last sentence)

I think that it’s obvious the Yogi Bear movie is going to be a steamy pile of bear doodoo. I’ll give it a “0.5″ on the Potential Meter. Hold on tight to your pickanick baskets, because Yogi is coming to a city near you in December, 2010.

The Crazies. Director: Breck Eisner. Starring: Tim Olyphant, Radha Mitchell, Joe Anderson, Danielle Panabaker, Christie Lynn Smith. Written by: Scott Kosar, Ray Wright, George Romero

In an era of flu scares, this remake feels timely. It doesn’t seem entirely out of the realm of possibility that some virus could spread through a town and turn everyone batty. While the original played on people’s fear of the government, the remake of The Crazies wisely plays on people’s fear of widespread diseases and nasty viruses.

The residents of the small town of Ogden Marsh are being plagued by a virus that causes insanity. When the government swooped in to put the town on lockdown, Sheriff David Dutton (Tim Olyphant) and his wife (Radha Mitchell) try to escape along with two other uninfected friends. Mystery and horror ensue.

Is The Crazies a zombie movie? I guess that depends on what you consider a zombie. To me, zombies are reanimated corpses. There are no reanimated corpses in the movie. However, The Crazies has the look and feel and most of the tenets of a zombie movie. The classic zombie movie has hordes of mindless lurchers. The Crazies‘ lurchers aren’t mindless, they are just homicidal and crazy. They may not technically be considered zombies, but they are close enough.

This was one of the few occasions in which the remake surpassed the original film. It’s not because the remake was some sort of masterpiece, it was simply because the original was so inept. The remake is an adequately competent zombie movie, not great but pretty good.

So remember, no double dipping! You never know what nasty viruses you could be spreading in that salsa.

two fishbones out of four

]]> http://straycatcinema.wordpress.com/2010/08/06/review-the-crazies-2010/feed/ 3 Jon Teegarden the crazies 2010 jail the crazies 2010 jail II fish-bone2 http://straycatcinema.wordpress.com/2010/08/05/coming-attraction-dont-be-afraid-of-the-dark/ http://straycatcinema.wordpress.com/2010/08/05/coming-attraction-dont-be-afraid-of-the-dark/#comments Fri, 06 Aug 2010 03:38:26 +0000 J. Marshall http://straycatcinema.wordpress.com/?p=698 ]]>

Click here to watch the trailer for Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark

First time director Troy Nixey brings us Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark with a little help from Guillermo del Toro, who co-wrote and produced it. The original Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark was a made-for-tv movie from 1973.

I’ve never seen the original, and I’m not sure what to expect from Troy Nixey, but Guillermo del Toro has shown that he is a decent writer with Pan’s Labyrinth and Hellboy. Katie Holmes and Guy Pearce star.

Guessing at the quality of this movie is going to be a shot in the dark (pun intended). I have no idea what to expect from the director, and Holmes and Pearce could either be really good or really mediocre, depending on the material and direction. I’ll give it a “two” on the Potential Meter.

Click here to watch the trailer for Morning Glory

In Morning Glory, a young beautiful television producer is having troubles with the aging co-hosts of a morning talkshow. Finally, there’s a movie we can all relate to.

Rachel McAdams (Mean Girls, The Time Traveler’s Wife) stars as the spunky go-getter producer. Harrison Ford (Han Solo!) and Diane Keaton (Annie Hall!) star as the  feuding anchors who might be too much for their producer to handle. Boy, that spunky go-getter producer has some life lessons to learn!

I’m not a huge fan of heartwarming comedies that are filled with life lessons, but I would love to see Han Solo and Annie Hall duke it out. I’ll give Morning Glory a 2 on the Potential Meter.

It looks like Warner Bros. has director Carl Erik Rinsch on board to direct the remake of the 1970′s Dystopian classic Logan’s Run. Rinsch has never directed a feature film before but has opened many eyes with his five minute short film, The Gift, which was made as a commercial for Phillips televisions. (Source)

Child’s Play

Brad Dourif, the original voice of Chucky, has signed on to reprise his role as the bloodthirsty doll. That is a good thing. Don Mancini, writer of the awesome 1988 chiller Child’s Play, and writer of all the crummy sequels, has signed on to write and direct. That is a bad thing. Mancini may have had a stroke of genius when he wrote the original Child’s Play,  but since then he has turned the  iconic evil toy into a 3  foot joke. If Mancini can have a major turnaround and get back to the basics, maybe this could be good. (Source)

Plan 9 From Outer Space

The film regarded as the worst movie ever made is getting a remake. The remake will simply be called Plan 9 and it has a teaser trailer on youtube. Plan 9 will be directed by indie filmmaker John Johnson. (Source)

Click here to watch the trailer for Super 8

J. J. Abrams’ new project, Super 8, is being kept largely in the dark. In the age of the internet, you can read a movie’s script, watch the trailer as many times as you want, and know every actor that is in a movie, all before the movie even is released. But Super 8 is different. A quick glance at it’s IMDb page will show you that no actors are listed and the movie’s premise isn’t even known. An even quicker glance at google’s Super 8 results shows that no one else really knows what the premise is either.

The teaser trailer gives a few indications as to what the heck this is all about. A train that is carrying “material” from Area 51 is derailed, and “something” is banging on the door of a large freight train container, presumably trying to bust out. Is it an alien? Is it some government biological experiment? I guess we won’t know until it’s leaked onto the internet the movie comes out. All we know for now is that it is from Area 51, and it’s big and strong enough to do some major structural damage to a freight container from the inside.

Will you like the film? To find out, you’ll have to ask yourself these two questions: Do you like monster/horror/sci-fi films? Do you like the work of J. J. Abrams (writer of Lost and Alias, director of Star Trek, and producer/creator of Cloverfield)? Personally, I love horror/sci-fi, and I think Abrams is perfectly suited to deliver a thrilling mysterious alien movie. That is why I’m going to give Super 8 a 3.5 on the Potential Meter.