Mr. Brown Versus

A trailer is tailor made to do a few things: 1. Get the audience excited for the film the studio is marketing. It should give you an idea what the story is about, but give little away as possible, something many trailers seem to forget these days. 2. Get a buzz going about its release. The more people talking about it, via word of mouth or by social media, the better. 3. Get the fanboys and/or fangirls (the built-in audience who read up on movie sites every nugget of information on the movie or film series that they can find) excited about what is coming their way in months or in a year's time. That's the job of a trailer. A teaser, on the other hand, works the same way, but with one big difference: A teaser is like foreplay (for lack of a better word); it's designed to get you excited and whet the appetite for the audience. A teaser is basically something the filmmakers want to show off. The effects aren't completely done yet, the final product is still in the ...

Toward the end of The Hunger Games: Mockingay - Part I , Madam President Alma Coin (played by the wonderful Julianne Moore), she gives a rousing speech to her citizens of District 13 about a great victory they have just won under her direction. The monologue basically tells her comrades in arms that soon they will storm the Capital with the backings of the other Districts, that a new world will be born where they will become one people, once voice, and that all will share in the wealth and prosperity in this new Panem. And then....cut to black. Time to go home, tweet about how awesome this installment was, tell your BFF's to see this movie, and make sure you come back to spend more money on Part II now! The speech about unity and sharing among each other in a new, harmonious community comes off feeling hollow and empty; not because Moore doesn't sell this brave new world well, because she's one of the bright spots in Part I of this two-part finale. The reason this feels hol...

I've watched some strange, disturbing and messed up movies in my time. From the Saw series and Human Centipede: Full Sequence , to this year's God's Not Dead , I'd like to think that there isn't a whole lot that can honestly get under my skin and have me shaken. Leave it to director David Fincher and first-time screenwriter Gillian Flynn to have, what I feel, is the final word on watching a fucked-up movie. Gone Girl  is not just your standard kidnapping thriller/whodunit murder mystery. Calling it twisted and disturbing really doesn't do the film justice. All I can say is that what you see in two hours and twenty-five minutes will shock you and have your jaw hit the ground. Based on the bestselling novel by Flynn herself, Gone Girl begins innocently enough (well, about as innocent as a Fincher movie does): Nick Dune (Ben Affleck) comes home in preparation for his wife, Amy's (Rosamund Pike) five-year anniversary, only to discover his wife is missing. H...

First things first: I've got a backload of films I've seen that I need to review, including Christopher Nolan's Interstellar , David Fincher's Gone Girl , and The Judge , among others. There's also Marvel's Phase III lineup that was announced last week and how excited I am over two new heroes entering the fray, its significance, and what it means going forward & preparing my annual list of the Best and Worst of 2014. Today is a day for celebration for both Star Wars fans, and fans of musicals and/or Stephen Sondheim. J.J. Abram's Star Wars Episode VII  (due out December of next year) has a new title! And.... .....yeah. That's the title, folks. Star Wars: The Force Awakens . What, did the Force get smashed last night and now it has a massive hangover? Did it awaken only to learn that it had a one-night stand with a Trekkie cosplayer at a sci-fi convention? Or did it wake up in a musical with Rapunzel, the Big Bad Wolf and Cinderella? Elaborate...