Blog Archives
Trailer Time: Man Of Steel – New Trailer!
This just dropped. And then so did my jaw.
It’s been a busy day for trailers hasn’t it? Well, this is the fourth official trailer for the upcoming Man of Steel film, released upon this world on June 14. Entitled “Fate of Your Planet”, the 1:47 second trailer ups the ante by showcasing the size of the threat that Superman – and the earth – must face. Zod, played by Michael Shannon, is indeed meancing. Destruction abounds. Kryptonian supermen and superwomen run rampant. Millions will die. And are those laser beams shooting out of Supe’s eyes?!?
Can anticipation for this assured summer blockbuster get any more frenzied? You bet it can!
Watch the trailer and then let us know what you think!
Saturday At The Movies: The Greatest Gatsby
The summer movie season is in full swing and our next entry is Baz Lurman’s The Great Gatsby. This is a supposedly unfilmable novella. Other productions have been somewhat cursed. Even the Robert Redford version fell flat. In an interview with Stephen Colbert, Baz stated box office sales were of no concern. The truly artistic director saw this as a challenge to his creative yen and that was satisfied just by making the movie. This attitude prepares you a bit for what you will see on the screen. The love and reverence for which Baz holds Fitzgerald’s actual words is obvious. Not only do they literally float across the screen in some places, we see Nick Carraway’s narration literally rips quotes from the book.
Saturday At The Movies: It’s Worth the Pain and Gain
I did not have high hopes for this Michael Bay film. I don’t have high hopes for any Michael Bay film. He’s a fine tent pole, summer blockbuster director but the previews of this movie suggested this was something with a little more finesse – not a lot but a little. Boy, were my socks blow off!
The Grind: Starkers Digs Deep for CineCoup
For over two months, I’ve been buried alive.
As it turns out, being buried alive is actually pretty exciting. All-consuming for sure. Back in February, when director Paul Thompson pitched me the idea for a porn-star-mom stalked by a psychotic fan, and said, “let’s make a trailer for it and try to win a million bucks”, I thought, why not? Let’s go for it! I’ve done dumber things for much less motivation.
And so we plunged into the CineCoup Film Accelerator, competing with 91 teams across Canada to earn a million dollars in funding for our feature film ideas. Making the trailer itself was an exhausting rolling disaster, with locations pulling out upon learning the subject matter, a constantly changing crew, and only Paul and producer Rick Jang’s drive to finish holding our fragile enterprise together. With only two days to go before the competition entry deadline, they finished shooting our trailer for a thriller that doesn’t exist. Paul then madly edited it together, the first of what would turn out to be many marathon sessions with Final Cut Pro and a case of Coca-Cola.
Since then we’ve made countless videos, one a week, for two months. We’ve pitched our team. We’ve talked about the importance of soundtrack, post-sound and colour correction, relatively cheap tricks that give your film so much character. We’ve made posters for people to vote on (and a ridiculous ad-man noir vid as a very silly companion piece). We’ve made a silent(ish) sequence, with no dialogue, delving into our characters in a short but moving vignette. And it doesn’t stop there.
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Trailer Time: Man of Steel
We’ve been waiting a long time for a proper Man of Steel trailer. Well, wait no more. It’s finally dropped!
This trailer seems to have everything you could possibly want in a Superman film: slices of Americana, high action, super-speed flying, Kryptonian lore, a viable villain, and…punching! YES!
So now, with a little more context, has Zach Snyder hit Man of Steel out of the park?
The now-famous question near the end of the trailer is asked of mankind – but we here at Biff Bam Pop! ask it of you: what do you think?
Saturday At The Movies: G.I. Jane (1997)
Over the last few weeks, this column has seen two different reviews of the new G.I. Joe: Retaliation film – one by “Joe” fanatic, Andy Burns, which you can read here and one by regular Los Angeles cinema-goer, Emily McGuiness, which you can check out here.
It’s safe to say that the two movies in the franchise are pretty cheesy viewing. In private circles, I’ve been known to mercilessly rip the first flick – yet I still have an interest in viewing the second. Call it nostalgia for the cartoons I watched and the action figures I collected and played with as a kid.
Still, as we’re experiencing military grandstanding in North Korea, active operations in Afghanistan, and political machinations back home in North America, it’s a great time to curl up on the couch, ditch the cheese, and watch a great G.I. film that carries a weighty and important philosophy.
I’m talking, of course, about the underappreciated G.I. Jane.
No Rest for the CineCoup’ed
Two more weeks down, and twenty-five more teams have exited the CineCoup contest. I’ve been blogging about being part of Team Starkers in the CineCoup Film Accelerator, a grueling socially-driven contest to award one three-person team $1 million to make their feature film. We started at ninety-one teams from all over Canada. Now there’s fifty-seven. And this weekend they’re voting on the Top 40, so another seventeen teams will be shown the door.
The competition’s been heating up, and the best teams are definitely raising their game to earn a shot at that Cineplex money. There were two challenges to deliver over the past few weeks. The first was to create two possible movie posters for your film. I was surprised to see how professional and well designed the results were, once again showcasing the talent so many of these teams possess. There’s a great gallery of all the posters you can check out on Pinterest. (You can still vote for your faves, if you click on the images, taking you through to each poster’s CineCoup page.)
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Saturday At The Movies: Identity Thief
Identity Thief – the new comedy starring Melissa McCarthy and Jason Bateman. The previews put this one over the top, showing off McCarthy and her delightful banter. But once again, clever trailer editing has shown us all of the best parts of this far-fetched comedy and left the rest of the movie as filler.
Check out the trailer and then read my review after the jump!
