Pulling Focus

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Star Trek

A summer blockbuster in space. J.J. Abrams, dazzle us. Earlier this year we suffered through a high profile project from a cult creating director... and Watchman did nothing but disappoint (and staggeringly bore). J.J., you’ve got lots to live up to and from the look of the trailers, we’re biting back our pessimism to go along for a ride we’ve started to really enjoy anticipating.

Angels & Demons

A summer blockbuster at the Vatican. Hanks is back and Ron Howard’s got him. Well, no news there. What is news is that this time out, the movie looks better than the trailers. Or we should say, that the promise of the trailers looks far more grounded in what we’re expecting to show up on screen. Minus the goofy hairdo of The Da Vinci Code, Hanks looks solid. We’ll throw caution to the wind and bet on a great mystery.

The Merry Gentleman

Night at the Museum 2

Release: 5.22.09

Terminator Salvation

Release: 5.22.09

Release: 4.24.09

Making the case for independent films being more widely accessible, Michael Caine’s latest played in art houses and independent minded theaters in only a few major cities and generated zero publicity or interest anywhere else. To be denied access to a film from an actor with the pedigree of Michael Caine seems like a flat out cheat.

The residual heat...

A summer blockbuster set in the future. Christian Bale - haven’t we seen this guy in a big summer movie before? Warner Bros. wisely gets a much earlier jump on the summer box-office by loading their big gun in May this year. Forget target audiences, they’re a given. The real target’s the competition. First casualty? That indestructible guy with the hand fangs.

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Hot off of...

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The residual heat...

Looking forward to...

The residual heat...

A little nervous because...

Looking forward to...

The residual heat...

A little nervous because...

A film that would likely embarrass even Tyler Perry, NDA looks as cliche ridden as it gets. With no talent in sight and no originality, Next Day Air should have been refused back when the script was delivered. Mos Def’s mumbled line delivery finally serves a project well, it helps save us from more bad jokes.

This one’s been kicking around since last September and has finally found a US release date at the end of May - a time when the stars should hope no one will notice. Though the glaring lack of chemistry in the cast is impossible to miss. Not so the gags - which are as dimwitted as loosening the lid on a sugar jar. And that made the trailer.

Please step away from the Box-Office!

the Final take.

Anyone remember Kurt Russell as a mail clerk at a TV network who’s chimp picks the next television hits? That was ‘71 at Disney and the movie was The Barefoot Executive. This June Eddie Murphey’s daughter’s blanket can predict the stock market. See if you can imagine how this somehow will make for an entertaining trip to the movies.

Pulling Focus

Michael Caine dazzling us - again. Not every film Michael Caine appears in is a classic, but Caine certainly is. As we’ve watched this amazing man perform over the years, we’ve come to expect a singular experience that can only be delivered with that signature accent and uncommon delivery.

Last time out: There was this little superhero movie called The Dark Knight that did some business last summer. The fact is, along with all of the other fine performances in The Dark Knight, Michael Caine has also redefined the under appreciated role of Alfred, Bruce Wayne’s devoted man servant. Caine brought a humanity and intelligence to the role that was enormously welcome and long overdue.

This is the first feature film for both director John Crowley and writer Peter Harness. They certainly didn’t miss on casting but will they hit with a compelling story? Out of the gate, before a single frame was shot, they definitely had the odds in their favor. We’ll bet on Michael Caine to at least keep us in our seats.

The residual heat...

Home/Previews Pulling Focus Trailer Takes Sprocket Holes the Archive

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Pulling Focus on Documentaries

Real life on film, or at least the filmmaker’s view of real life. Documentaries take on all subjects in any location from endless points of view. We’re not endorsing the message, only the medium. To check out the latest crop of documentary trailers just click on the poster image and experience part of what can be so moving about making movies.

Any director that would turn an idea for a clever marketing campaign into a feature film without the bother of casting talented actors, considering production values or, hmmm, writing a story - not just a decent story, an original story or a coherent story, but just a damn actual story, should be a huge cause to be nervous. We are.

The first film way under-delivered. But for Dan Brown fans, Angels & Demons may be the better book and looks to certainly be the better movie. And don’t ya just love when the Catholic church gets all riled up about movies? It’s such a bitch when you’re own history comes back to bite your ass.

Release: 5.01.09

Release: 5.08.09

Release: Pope allowing, 5.15.09

Though Wall•e wowed critics a little more than movie audiences, those critical notices helped earn it an Oscar for Best Animated Picture. There’s just not much Pixar does that doesn’t give off heat. Even with grosses on their films in slow decline, Wall*e scarfed 223 million stateside and blew past half a billion total. And all with nearly no dialogue.

No one will ever be able to accuse Jack Black with taking too many career risks. He has to be the laziest actor in Hollywood. Then there’s Harold Ramis who wrote & directed, ending the discussion on whether Ramis has lost his touch from the glory days of Groundhog Day. Surprise - IMdB reports his next writing project is Ghostbusters, The Video Game.

Michael Keaton directing, himself. Michael Keaton is one of America’s easiest to like actors. Since the earliest days, the everyman casualness wrapped around a college wiseass personality has had us won over. He’s just fun to hang with, even when we only get to do it on rare occasions. With this latest project, we not only get to enjoy his acting but we’ll get to see the story truly through his eyes as an artist, and we can’t wait to see the result.

A summer blockbuster that will dazzle us. Pixar goes for a perfect ten. So far, nothing this team (led by John Lassiter, now the creative driving force of no less than Disney), has created has failed to open at number one. With it’s top competition on opening weekend being Drag Me to Hell, I’m guessing there’s not much to threaten the streak. We’ll congratulate them now.

Poster Gallery

We’re not in the slightest. Our only trepidation here is the certainty that The Merry Gentleman will be hard to find outside of New York and LA. Like so many independent releases, no matter how gem like the film, they’ll be a lot of digging to find it.

How’s having the bragging rights to the number 2 box-office flick of all time for throwing off heat? Both Warner Bros. and Bale can headline their resumes with The Dark Knight and that won’t be lost on any fans looking to watch a future battle zone on Earth rather than getting their summer action fix on the Enterprise, though we bet both will be cemented on Box-office charts all summer.

Ben Stiller owned the laughs last summer (albeit it, late last summer) with the Oscar nominated Tropic Thunder. The guy hasn’t exactly been squatting on success, lending his voice and comic timing to last summer’s Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa, while also listing a half dozen new projects currently in the works.

Cool Posters...

Bad Movies!

Sometimes the poster is as good as it gets. We are, after all, an audience of consumers who most often buy a movie ticket based on nothing more than the marketing campaign and the name of a favorite star or director.

Unfortunately, there are times when we should have just admired the poster art and gone into the other theater. It’s telling here, that many of our favorites are advance posters, the first glimpse of films we should likely have never given a second peek.

None the less, here are some of the best, err worst, well you be the judge, all released in 2008.

Clicking an image takes you to the IMPAwards.com page for each poster. IMPA offers a link to purchase poster art.

In 2008, war movies just didn’t play. Lots of studios, directors, writers and stars tried, but no one captured the quintessential story that convinced audiences there was a story beyond anger and resentment for wars we wanted no part of. With a new angle and perhaps less attitude, director Kathryn Bigelow and writer Mark Boal (creator of the story for 2007’s The Valley of Elah) will try again this October with The Hurt Locker. The cast includes Jeremy Renner, Ralph Fiennes, Guy Pearce, David Morse and Lost’s Evangeline Lilly.

Each day at Moviedozer we’re busy searching through new studio trailers. Most major releases wind up as reviews on our Trailer Takes page, some get featured as a “play on the page” Spotlight and some get posted as a fair warning to moviegoers in “the Final take” just below. But every now and then, there’s a trailer released that we’re just not sure about.

Big studios, major stars, serious directors, but questionable prospects. Then sometimes we’re just so amazed that someone’s made the thing, we have to show you the trailer in disbelief. We’ll also be creating a blog post at Moviedozer Dailies to coincide with each entry. After you’ve watched the trailer, just click the title link above or the Moviedozer Dailies logo below and let us know -

Will you pay to see this movie?

Released: 4.17.09

Forget TV’s Fringe and the hype on 100 episodes of Lost, we lost interest long ago. Whatever movie heat there might have been got dumped on big time with the ridiculous crap that was code named Cloverfield. One of the worst ideas ever put to film - the best we can say is, let’s all just move on and try to forget.

We’re just not. This is a story & characters that will hold up. Add first class production values and you have the elusive sequel that will reclaim the franchise from the scrap heap it was dumped on with Rise of the Machines (Claire Danes, really?), it’s a sure 200 mil in the bank.

A summer blockbuster that’ll let us laugh with old friends. The best cinematic Christmas present of 2006 was Ben Stiller as Larry Daley watching over the Museum of Natural History’s treasures as a night guard. A night we love to relive time and time again on DVD. Inviting us to another sleep over, and this time at the Smithsonian, is truly Christmas in May.

Never. Smartly reassembling the creative and performing talents of the first film, Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian promises more of the same with a couple of pluses just to keep things fresh. Among the new faces is Amy Adams as Amelia Earhart. The whole idea just keeps getting better. This will be the top grossing comedy of the year.

When you’re pulling down that kind of cash off of a cute squeaking robot, nerves don’t enter into it. Add in the fact that this one’s got a goofy kid, a pack of comic relief dogs and an old man that looks like Spencer Tracy and the gorgeous backgrounds will be dripping in money green. A sure bet.

The title must have been taken from David Paymer’s request to his agent, otherwise what the hell is he doing in this crap? The set-up seems almost comical - a wicked curse uttered by a witch who looks to be straight out of Grimm’s Fairy Tales. Sam Raimi wrote & directed. His family and friends should be planning an intervention.

You can’t forget his voice as Chick in Pixar’s Cars. A perfect foil to Owen Wilson’s distinctive nasal, Keaton hit the right note of taunting and arrogance that made us enjoy the competition on the track that much more. And for the renters out there, he was superb in 2002’s Live from Baghdad for HBO Films.

For Howard and Hanks it was just 2006 that the publishing phenomenon of Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code was brought, with much hype and hoopla, to the screen. With only Frost/Nixon since for Howard and Charlie Wilson’s War for Hanks (as the lead), it’s a pretty quick turnaround to get back to Brown’s novels.