Disney’s A Christmas Carol: Trailer

Click on the rather unfortunately expressive poster below:

(picture from IMPAwards)

Inspired Fake Covers

Over at the forum for TheAuteurs.com, some of its members have been doing their own covers for Criterion discs. Some of them are truly inspiring and even better than the originals. I can not for the life of me understand how the marketing department at Warner Bros did not go with this image for the poster of Benjamin Button. I recommend checking out the entire thread here.

To see some even more original covers check out the NeoGAF forums GAF collection of fake videogame covers here. To see all their covers collected (warning, there’s a lot of them) click here. Some of my favorite GAF covers after the jump.

‘Marley & Me’ Factor

Fox desperately attempts to recoup losses on Australia by misleadingly adding likable co-star for Hugh Jackman on in-store displays.

This Poster is Stupid

Star Trek Teaser Posters / First Images of Cast

The somewhat uninspiring teaser posters for JJ Abrams’ reboot of Star Trek have been released:

Not sure what to think.

As the cast is comprised of near-unknowns, it seems like the logical course of action would be to sell the iconic nature of the characters.  Instead, they seem to be stressing the actor’s youth and attractiveness (or in Bana’s case, possibly his “star” power.  Haha) over anything that would actually be interesting to the masses.  The Spock/Zachary Quinto would be the only exception, and that’s just because of the ears/hair.

It just seems like an odd marketing decision for something that is probably one of the most important releases in Paramount’s history.  Billions are on the line here and I’m starting to think they’re a little unsure about how to properly push it to the masses.  That 5 month delay is starting to look like a smart decision.

It’s going to be a long Fall.

The Dark Knight poster

Could you call this evoking 9/11 imagery? Or is that reaching, and probably unintended?

The Grindhouse effect

A year has come and gone since the Tarantino-Rodriguez Grindhouse film was released. Expectations were high for it pre-release, posters were awesome, the fake trailers by well-known directors, and the love for the experiment was great (currently occupying #218 on IMDb’s Top Movies), but apparently mostly on the net. Don’t know what the final gross was, after the disappointing US reception and being divided when released internationally, but I doubt it covered even the official $53 million budget. Which is a shame, because at least I would have liked seeing the films (since I’m abroad) as they were supposed to be seen on a big screen. Death Proof by itself was a very good film, though. Planet Terror, all right, maybe not so much (Josh Brolin’s turn as mad doctor excepted).

The wild (and hubris-filled) experiment seemed doomed to become a wildly expensive special edition box. Yet like many experimental horror films, there appears to be a trickle-down effect going on. Barely noticeable, and perhaps I’m just imagining it, but the signs are there.

The above remind you of anything? No? Take a look at the left side of the Grindhouse poster. Coincidence? I mean, it might be. Could be a whole history of people with guns for limbs, going back all the way to Mega Man. Besides, there’s more to the film than that. It has all the things a film needs to be good: ninjas, tempura, sushi, chainsaws, a flying guillotine and a drill bra. That’s what the the trailer claims, anyway (very NSFW, by the way). The film seems to be done in the Grindhouse spirit, but on the other hand films like this were made long before Planet Terror came along, and it doesn’t have any zombies or strippers in it.

Zombie Strippers quite obviously does, though, and believe it or not, it’s coming to a theater near you. Not a porn theatre. An actual movie theatre, April 18. And why wouldn’t it? With stars like Robert Englund and Jenna Janeson headlining it. It’s even got its trailer up on Apple. Now with this film you can’t not say it’s been influenced by the Grindhouse films. It’s such an obvious rip-o… homage of Planet Terror that Rodriguez should be given some form of writing credit (barring that, lap dances). What’s great about this film are the obvious meta-consequences of having actual strippers play strippers that in the film they’re making a cheap genre knock-off off which served as an homage to the kind of cheap genre knock-off they’re making the actresses playing the strippers weren’t really strippers but were trying to act as how actual strippers who were playing strippers I need to lie down.

Nonetheless, having this kind of esoteric effect on adult film is doubtfully what Tarantino and Rodriguez intended (still, they must be loving it). I’m guessing they longed for the days of double-features and having that old form of cinema given some acknowledgement. And that could still happen.

Later this year Steven Soderbergh will release two films based on the life of Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara, Guerrilla and The Argentine, both films starring Benicio del Toro and both expected to be Academy awards calibre. Chronicling the early and later life of Guevara as a rebel in Cuba and Bolivia, respectively, supposedly they’ll be released only a short while apart. Having them set up as a double-feature seems like the natural way to go. Call it Guevara Grindhouse, put up some old political Cuban posters, invite people to come dressed in their best revolutionary gear (be it a Che t-shirt or functional military khakis) and have some propaganda films from the era playing in the break between the films.

Who knows where this will end.

And even if it is too late for Grindhouse the movie, when the inevitable offensively expensive Grindhouse dvd deluxe box is released, the Weinsteins can start lighting their cigars. On the commentary tracks they’ll say that the experiment was ahead of its time, that it was misunderstood, and look at the effect it has had. The cult film it has become.

Best Posters of 2007

The IMP has picked their best of 2007 over here. I’m not sure I agree with their choices, but I can’t remember any others that stuck out this past year. (Alvin and the Chipmunks notwithstanding)

Hype Killer

This poster for January’s mysterious Cloverfield/1-18-08 is easily the best yet. Kudos to Paramount Marketing for truth in advertising.

Live Free or Die Hard Trailer

I consider the original Die Hard to be the best action film ever made, so it’s an understatement to say each new installment starts off with a massive handicap.

Die Hard 2 is a simple, by-the-numbers retread best left forgotten. Die Hard with a Vengeance manged to achieve some of the greatness of the original (mainly thanks to the return of John McTiernan and Sam Jackson) but peters out after the 50 minute mark.

12 years later, we have July’s Live Free or Die Hard:

Full Domestic Trailer

And the vastly different International Version

Positive Thoughts: Despite a dozen years away, Willis appears to have settled back into the McClaine character nicely. Both versions of the trailer are significant improvements over the fairly terrible teaser released earlier in the year…and uh, that’s it.

Negative Thoughts: Over-stylized, XXX-style action + bad CGI + Len Weisman + a plot more suited for “24″ or “James Bond” = potential disaster.

I’ve read multiple versions of the script, but absolutely none of them were able to retrofit WW3.COM’s premise to fit the Die Hard mold. Despite best efforts, time ran out and they went with what they had.

I’m still willing to reserve judgment until the film product, but this is looking grim…

Best Movie Posters

By way of Jeff Wells, here’s the link to Premiere’s 25 greatest movie posters of all time:

Premiere’s 25 greatest movie posters of all time

Some good choices there, but I would add a few:

This is a very cool poster

It’ll probably never be anywhere near as big as South Park, but this is still a damn nice poster. Always good to see someone strive for art in a poster. I’ll add a scene from the series that gets me every goddamn time.

Now if only the film was as good

Why is it that, nine times out of ten, the poster for a horror movie is much better than the film itself?

I Dig the Tagline