Trailer Park: The Dark Knight (2008) ["Happy Trails" Trailer]

[Video deleted by Youtube: Visit http://whysoserious.com/happytrails/trailer.htm]

After the first full trailer landed, the Internet was abuzz. It seemed you couldn't go anywhere on the Net without hearing one of two things - "Heath Ledger is amazing!" and "Why didn't we see any Aaron Eckhart yet?"

This new trailer responded to those notions in spades. After the truly tragic passing of Heath Ledger in January of 2008, The Dark Knight was receiving even more buzz, if fathomable. In spite of ridiculous accusations that the role of The Joker had killed Ledger, the marketing campaign went on, albeit with a new focus on Harvey Dent, the lawyer who (spoilers) becomes villain Two-Face.

So "Happy Trails" (again named for a viral marketing site) amps up the Harvey Dent content, as well as giving us more Joker. But this Joker is more menacing than any previous incarnation, and this Harvey Dent is by comparison entirely more innocent than any other version we've seen thus far. He seems genuinely concerned with doing the right thing, being Gotham's white knight.

So his descent into darkness is going to be all the more tragic because of that. The standout feature in my mind (that is, excepting the all-too-awesome "Kill... the Batman.") is the lighting. Quite an esoteric pick, but watch Harvey Dent throughout the trailer. Notice the lighting on his face - the left half (the half that will be scarred by acid in the comics and Lord-knows-what in this movie) is almost always lit darker than the right half. That is a brilliant touch.

And is that Maggie Gyllenhaal being thrown off a building by The Joker? This movie just gets better and better.

PS: Hi-def version at http://whysoserious.com/happytrails/trailer.htm

Trailer Park: The Dark Knight (2008) ["A Taste for the Theatrical" Trailer]

[Video deleted by Youtube: See http://atasteforthetheatrical.com/deathtrap/default.htm]

Though I've been waiting for The Dark Knight since the end of Batman Begins (in which Batman examines an evidence bag with a joker card inside), I think this trailer really solidified in my mind the notion that this movie was going to rock. After a lackluster teaser, I was ready for something more substantial.

"A Taste for the Theatrical" (so named for the viral website on which the trailer was found) is one of the best trailers I've ever seen. I think the reason this one works so well is that it preys on the audience's common thought - "Is Heath Ledger going to be any good as The Joker?" Notice how The Joker doesn't really clearly appear on-screen for almost a minute, when we get that eerie shot of "Evening, commissioner!" With that shot, I forget entirely the whole Brokeback Mountain thing and instantly know that this interpretation is going to make me say "Jack who? Who Romero?"

Oh, yeah. And there's some good shots of Batman, accompanied by a goosebump-inducing score by Hans Zimmer and James Newton Howard. My only lament is Maggie Gyllenhaal, who seems even more numb than Katie Holmes.

But hey, I was wrong about Heath Ledger. One question, though - where's Harvey Dent?

PS: I know that the YouTube video isn't the best quality, so visit http://atasteforthetheatrical.com/deathtrap/default.htm for the high-definition video (available for download!)

Trailer Park: The Dark Knight (2008) [Teaser]

Now it should come as no surprise to anyone that The Dark Knight is my most anticipated movie of the summer, and perhaps of my life. So it's only natural that my first few excursions into the Trailer Park should be the brilliant marketing campaign surrounding Christopher Nolan's second Batman movie.

The first teaser trailer landed in late 2007 (I want to say around October, but it might have been summer). I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a little bit disappointed in this one, but props to the marketing team for originality here. Most teasers are quick flashes of action scenes and too-cool character shots, but this one is unique in being totally blank except for The Bat logo and a few lines of dialogue.

If I had only this teaser to go on, I wouldn't be optimistic about Heath Ledger's Joker. The voice doesn't sound distinctive enough, and the laugh falls flat when compared with Mark Hamill's.

Thank God Nolan has "A Taste for the Theatrical."

Get Smart (2008)

Would you believe "best movie of the year"? No. Would you believe "funniest movie of the year"? No. Would you believe "so-so espionage farce with a few good chuckles"?

That's approximately my assessment of Get Smart, a movie that unfortunately let all of the good parts out of the bag with its marketing campaign. A sequel/update of the classic television series of the same name, Get Smart is a spy farce in the tradition of Austin Powers with Steve Carrell as the imperfect Maxwell Smart, Agent 86 in CONTROL.

When Smart is promoted by The Chief (Alan Arkin, perhaps the funniest actor in the movie), he teams up with sexy superspy Agent 99 (an incredibly gorgeous Anne Hathaway) and the suave Agent 23 (Dwayne Johnson, who is still "The Rock" even if he drops the nickname from his credits) to fight the forces of KAOS and its pseudo-leader Siegfried (Terence Stamp, who's again as out of place here as he was in Elektra). Obligatory references to the original TV show, half-hearted laughs, and spectacular explosions ensue.

Something tells me this movie would have been funnier if I hadn't seen the trailers, although call that the "Cinema King Paradox" - too-good trailers ruin a movie, but I wouldn't see a movie if I didn't like the trailers. Go figure. The problem here is that all the funny moments, punchlines, and slapstick choreography have been spoiled by the trailers, which contain the best parts of the film. One notable exception - Alan Arkin delivers a line near the end of the film that made me about fall out of my chair. Oh, yeah, that and crunchy pudding. And a hysterical cameo by Patrick Warburton (Puddy) as... well, I won't ruin it. Best casting since Heath Ledger as The Joker, though.

(Speaking of The Joker, I was inordinately thrilled by the presentation of the "Happy Trails" trailer for The Dark Knight which appeared before my screening of Get Smart. Available at http://whysoserious.com/happytrails for those poor folks who haven't seen it yet.)

Perhaps part of the problem is that Get Smart tries to be a serious espionage story with injections of comedy. What's then disorienting about that is that the film falls into all the spy tropes - feuding partners who fall in love, a surprise double agent (whose identity I predicted even before the story introduced the threat of a double agent), the villain's henchman who develops a conscience, &c - without adequately poking fun at these cliches --- something the Austin Powers scene did brilliantly. [I still crack up at the scene where Dr. Evil's son asks him of Austin Powers, "Why don't you just shoot him?!"]

There aren't as many laughs as the trailer would lead you to believe, and if you've seen the trailer, you've already seen the best parts of the movie. But there's something to be said for a movie that contains a ton of explosions, something a filmgoer such as myself can always appreciate. It's just that I was looking for something a little more substantial in a movie this weekend. Of course, it was between this and The Love Guru, so I think my choice was fairly obvious.

Oh, well. Missed it by that much.

After the Thin Man (1936)

I can only think of a few sequels that were better than the original - The Empire Strikes Back, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Goldfinger, High School Musical 2 (joking, of course - the first was better). Now we ought to add W.S. Van Dyke's sequel to The Thin Man - the appropriately titled After the Thin Man - to that list.

Is this the first sequel in film history? Mmm, probably not - Bride of Frankenstein predates this one by a year. But the degree to which this movie improves on the original is something for which modern-day sequels could learn a thing or two; pay attention, Joel Schumacher, because your Batman movies were the lousiest sequels this side of Caddyshack II.

Capitalizing on the popularity of Nick & Nora Charles (William Powell and Myrna Loy), After the Thin Man takes the focus off the mystery and shines a spotlight squarely on the never-inebriated Charles detectives. Upon being invited to a dinner party, the Charleses learn that Nora's cousin's husband has gone missing. Though he's found easily enough, a murder mystery quickly develops with a shady cast of suspects through which Nick has to wade at his wife's insistence - despite their promise to leave sleuthing behind.

While I said I laughed the whole way through Planet Terror, it's a different kind of laughter that permeated my experience with this movie. The dialogue is smart and witty, effortlessly funny, and fueled by engrossing performances. Based on a story by Dashiell Hammett, After the Thin Man realizes that the magic of the first movie wasn't in the nail-biting mystery surrounding Clyde Wynant, but it was the interplay between Powell and Loy, which is successfully amped up here. This is a formula that Blake Edwards would repeat with A Shot in the Dark, realizing that the key to The Pink Panther's success rested not with David Niven's suave jewel thief but with Peter Sellers's hysterically bumbling turn as Jacques Clouseau.

The supporting cast is great, too. James Stewart is the stand-out name of the back-up cast, since he went on to a much larger career than most anyone in the movie, but the movie is populated with character actors and incredibly slippery suspects. Asta the terrier gets a pretty solid role, too; I don't want to spoil his subplot, but let's just say I'm surprised the filmmakers got away with this joke in 1936. *wink wink*

But the stars are unquestionably Powell and Loy, whose chemistry is something that today's supercouples can only envy - sorry, Brangelina. You can tell these two really love each other - even though Nick has Nora put into lock-up after he doesn't acknowledge her as his wife. The banter between the two of these is delightful, snappier than most of the dialogue in Juno, and the film's last line - "And you call yourself a detective!" - is the cleverest set-up for a sequel since "Luke, I am your father!"

Planet Terror (2007)

Director Robert Rodriguez has never been known for high cinema; indeed, most of his movies pride themselves on being ridiculously over-the-top and purely for entertainment value. Planet Terror (originally paired with Quentin Tarantino's Death Proof in the 2007 commercial disaster Grindhouse) is no different, with the exception of being the best of the unique genre of "trash film."

That's not to say that the movie is trash; it's an homage to the trash films of the 70s. Rodriguez's love of garbage culture really shows here, but I'm not sure he realizes that he's doing those movies one better.

Planet Terror is, in a way, the zombie movie to end all zombie movies (in fact, if I never have to see another "...of the Dead" movie at the box office, it'll be too soon). When Lt. Muldoon (Bruce Willis) and his men unleash a concentrated nerve gas on a small Texas town, a few distinct characters struggle for survival - former go-go dancer Cherry Darling (the absolutely stunning Rose McGowan), who's short one leg; the mysterious El Wray (Freddy Rodriguez - no relation), who's too good with a loaded gun; Sheriff Hague (Michael Biehn), who's after his brother JT's (spot-on Jeff Fahey) barbecue recipe; and Dr. Dakota Block (Marley Shelton), who's just managed to escape from her villainous husband Doc Block (Josh Brolin, who's better here than he is in No Country for Old Men).

Though the plot is clear and crisp, you'll probably be paying more attention to the intentionally grungy visuals, the strikingly hysterical dialogue, and the flashbulb-photographic memorable images. The entire film is digitally "enhanced" with scuffs, scratches, and pops on the screen, so it looks as though you're watching a degraded film reel. That sounds like an annoying effect, but its execution is nothing short of mood-setting brilliance.

Rodriguez, who always writes his own screenplays (with the exception, of course, of Sin City), is at the top of his game with this one. Planet Terror is fast-paced, action-packed, and funnier than a Jim Gaffigan marathon (okay, maybe not that funny, but you get the picture). A lot of the humor comes from the intentionally corny dialogue, with lines like "I'm gonna eat your brains... and gain your knowledge!" and "It's go-go, not cry-cry" among the many that have entered my own personal vocabulary.

Then there's the iconic image of Cherry Darling, her leg replaced with a machine gun. We return to that old Godard-ism that "All you need for a movie is a gun and a girl." Somehow, I doubt this is what Godard had in mind when he delivered that famous aphorism, but darned if it isn't a fulfillment of that theory! Ignoring the impossibility of the physics involved in Cherry shooting her leg, there's just something damned cool about her. Points to Rodriguez for a brilliantly cool shot where Cherry, after decimating an army of zombies, blows the smoke from her gun-leg's barrel and later dons a pair of tinted sunglasses with a tremendous explosion behind her. Phew... cool.

High cinema it ain't, but Planet Terror is most certainly one of the most entertaining movies of 2007. A wild ride from start to finish, the most fun I've had at a movie since I-can't-remember-when, Planet Terror is one of those movies that tries so hard to be liked - and succeeds.

Boom Town (1940)

There Will Be Blood - Lite is perhaps the best way I can think to describe Jack Conway's oil tycoon epic Boom Town. Certainly less taxing on the senses, Boom Town is something that P.T. Anderson's oil epic isn't - intentionally funny.

Boom Town is the story of two Johns - "Big John" McMasters (Clark Gable) and "Square John" {"Shorty" for short} Sand (Spencer Tracy) - with Claudette Colbert as Betsy, the woman they both love. Big John and Shorty are wildcatters, oilmen prospecting in sketchy territory. When Shorty's girl comes out west to see her beau, she ends up marrying McMasters. The grudge Shorty bears eventually kills the partnership, but the ill will doesn't stop there. It all builds up to an anti-trust federal case... and a surprise exercise in making things right.

Now, any movie with these three stars - and Hedy Lamarr thrown in for good measure as one of the oil men's lovers (I won't reveal whose) - can't be all bad. And it's true: Boom Town isn't all bad. The Gable/Tracy chemistry (for lack of a better word) is stellar, with Tracy as the perfect straight man to Gable's jovial amigo-to-all. Ditto for the Gable/Colbert chemistry, which panned out so well in Capra's 1934 It Happened One Night, the screwball comedy/road picture to end all others.

The special effects are, for the time, enthralling, but there's never a moment where we really believe Gable and Tracy are approaching a burning oil derrick - something I suspected Daniel Day-Lewis really did in TWBB. But you don't come to this movie for stellar special effects; it's the acting firestorms you'd be looking for, and the movie delivers. Unfortunately, though, the film builds to a climax that comes too early, in a fistfight that precedes the court battle. Maybe it's the jaded filmgoer in me, but I was expecting a tragic Wuthering Heights-esque ending to the Big John/Shorty partnership, but the movie outdoes Ian McEwan in terms of atonement here and ultimately disappointed me, the guy looking for an unhappy ending.

Ah, the simpler times, when buddies were buddies no matter what. Kind of makes me nostalgic. Kind of makes me want to go build an oil derrick. Who's with me?

The Incredible Hulk (2008)

Undoubtedly and by leaps and bounds, Louis Leterrier's 2008 reboot-slash-sequel The Incredible Hulk is a vast improvement on Ang Lee's 2003 Hulk, which left an empty feeling in the pit of my stomach.

But, as Spencer Tracy remarks of David Wayne in Adam's Rib, "he wouldn't have far to go, either." With Ed Norton as Dr. Bruce Banner, aka The Hulk, and Tim Roth as villain Emil Blonsky, the film has a good headstart as it leaves the gate.

There's not a whole lot in the way of exposition in the movie, which from a "slugfest" point of view is a great adrenaline rush. The movie finds Banner in Brazil, with General Ross (a mustachioed William Hurt) trying to find the gamma-radiation-infected scientist. Each time the two encounter each other, Banner transforms into the not-so-jolly-green-giant Hulk and tears apart every army platoon thrown at him. Banner ultimately wants to cure his condition, while Ross wants to dissect it.

Mercifully, this incarnation is more "Hulk smash!" than Lee's "Hulk angst!" In a large way, The Incredible Hulk is a great deal like Terminator 3 - it's a chase film, plain and simple, with one party chasing another until the ultimate confrontation, replete with hand-to-hand combat, reversals of fortune, and gobs of property destruction. The special effects are, well, special and (appropriately enough) incredible. Amazing what five years can do; rather than Lee's big green blur of a Hulk, this Hulk is defined, as is his hulking adversary Abomination. The creatures, between which we're sandwiched during the epic final battle, seem more real - but not quite, yet. Give it a few more years; maybe by the 2011 Avengers movie we've been promised, we'll have a totally realistic Hulk.

I've commended Norton and Roth for the intensity and depth they bring to their characters, but the weak link in the acting chain is Liv Tyler, who replaces Jennifer Connelly as the love interest. Worst recast since Roger Moore? Probably. Tyler is boring, and we wonder what Norton could possibly see in her. Then again, Norton has a history of on-screen romances with dull women: I cite Jessica Biel's vapid turn in The Illusionist as proof positive of this unfortunate trend. Speaking of superhero girlfriends, this summer we've got a line-up of Gwyneth Paltrow (Iron Man), Tyler, and Maggie Gyllenhaal (The Dark Knight); what's next, Katherine Heigl as Wonder Woman? (Oh, please, God, no.)

All that said, there's something... off about this movie. I'm not sure what it is. Maybe it's Tyler's lackluster performance. Maybe it's the frustration I get at Banner's oft-repeated mantra, "I don't want to control it. I want to cure it." That's equivalent to Superman saying he would rather live in a red-sunned solarium all day rather than learn to use his powers. Or maybe it's that I expect something more from a superhero movie than constant running. Shouldn't a hero confront his problems?

The film strikes a curious final note, with an ambiguous ending for Banner. At least, the director intended it to be ambiguous. Then comes one of the best cameos in movie history - Robert Downey Jr. struts in as Tony Stark, giving that "Marvel Universe" feel to the movie. Heck, it's almost worth it to see Downey Jr. playing the role for which he was born.

Take that, Tropic Thunder.

Superman: Doomsday (2007)

Mark it, dude - the first cartoon reviewed by The Cinema King.

2007's Superman: Doomsday, which recounts the wildly popular early-90s comic book plotline (The Death of Superman) in which Superman died. The Bruce Timm/Paul Dini partnership, which brought us those great Batman and Superman cartoons from the 1990s, is not playing their best hand here, but it's a good college try.

The basic plotline is about all the movie shares with the source material. Doomsday, an unstoppable killing machine, is unleashed by an unorthodox drilling experiment led by Superman's nemesis Lex Luthor (as voiced by James Marsters, Buffy's Spike). Superman (the voice of Adam Baldwin) confronts the creature, and the two kill each other. While the rest of the world mourns, Lois Lane (Anne Heche), who had been dating Superman, begins to piece together his secret identity as Clark Kent... until Superman returns from the grave, with a new darker look on life.

One thing the movie does really well - in prefect adherence with the comic book - is its depiction of Doomsday as a brute force of nature, every bit Superman's equal. The "slugfest" scenes (such is the official terminology in the comic book writer's world) are perfect in casting Doomsday as the one creature strong enough to kill Superman and capture beautifully the wanton destruction it took the comic books several issues to establish.

The voice acting is getting a bit of critical applaud, especially Baldwin and Marsters. Yet I felt disoriented by the voice cast, probably due to the fact that I'm inured to the voice talents of Tim Daly, Dana Delaney, and omnipresent Clancy Brown as Superman, Lois, and Luthor (respectively). Not that the voice talents on display are subpar in any way; it's just unnerving to hear the "wrong" voices coming from familiar faces.

The most unnerving element of this movie is the implied sexual relationship between Lois Lane and Superman (who has not yet revealed his secret identity to the woman he loves).

What?

In the comics, it was always the other way around, with Clark Kent in love with Lois but holding back because of his super alter ego. Yet the reversal in this movie is almost intolerable, losing the movie its credibility in my eyes by making such a huge alteration to the comic book conventions. This goes beyond replacing The Joker's acid-scarred paleness with make-up (as Heath Ledger seems to be doing) and making The Sandman Uncle Ben's killer (as in Spider-Man 3's monumental mythology retcon). This is on a par with James Bond marrying... oh wait, that happened too. This would be on a par with Troy and Sharpay hooking up in High School Musical 3 - which, as much as I would prefer that, can never happen because of strongly entrenched story archetypes. Some things you just can't change.

Perhaps more interesting than the film itself is an accompanying documentary on the DVD entitled Requiem & Rebirth: Superman Lives! This is an enlightening look at the behind-the-scenes decisions that led DC Comics to kill off their oldest and most beloved icon, as well as examining the public and media frenzy that surrounded Superman #75. This documentary affords a rare glimpse into the backroom discussions, including video (a comic book fan's dream) detailing how storylines are mapped out years in advance.

So in a lot of ways, the documentary featurette comes more highly recommended than the feature film. For diehard fans of the Man of Steel (like myself) there are worse ways to enjoy the legacy of the Big S (Superman IV, anyone?). For casual fans of comicdom, this might be one to skip. But don't miss Requiem & Rebirth, which is more than worth the price of admission.

Kill Bill, Vol. 2 (2004)

I've made no bones about my gripe that the Kill Bill duology should have been one film. I think that, as independent films, the series is total rubbish, a series of uneven vignettes, and much like watching any ten consecutive episodes of 24.

Watching them back to back is a more liberating experience, giving the more even feel that I'm sure Quentin Tarantino intended when he made his ten-chapter revenge epic. On its own, though, Kill Bill, Vol. 2 is much more even than its predecessor.

After dispatching the first two names on her list, the still-unnamed Bride (Uma Thurman, who flexes her acting muscles here more than in Vol. 1) has three more to go - retired Budd (Michael Madsen), who had some sort of fall-out with his brother, presumably over the killings at El Paso; "hateful bitch" Elle Driver (the brutal Daryl Hannah), who is every much the Bride's match sans one eye; and finally Bill (David Carradine), Budd's brother, the leader of the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad. Flashbacks tell the story of the killings in the El Paso wedding chapel that "put this whole gory story into motion" and the training that the Bride endured under the merciless white-eyebrowed Pai Mei.

Vol. 2 is certainly more judicious in its use of nondiegetic music than Vol. 1, which at times felt more like a songbook of Tarantino's favorites (I'm thinking specifically of his use of Santa Esmeralda's "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood" during the final battle with Lucy Liu's O-Ren Ishii, which should be a tense battle scene between equals but gets thrown off by the catchy/hip Latin beat). Malcolm MacLaren's "About Her" doesn't seem to fit in Vol. 2, but the rest of the soundtrack - which is dominated by Ennio Morricone's spaghetti western scores like A Fistful of Dollars - lends the film that epic feel that perhaps the more modern Vol. 1 was lacking.

The acting is also... well, it's present. Vol. 1 is more of a popcorn film, with samurai swords and quick action cuts, while Vol. 2 relies on acting and character development to move the plot forward. With the flashbacks, it feels more like a complete story, especially since the "Last Chapter" gives us the ultimate confrontation between Bill and the Bride (who, yes, is finally named in Vol. 2) and closes the story [even though QT has said he's got plans for a third film]. The dialogue, too, is more even, with characters consistently remaining in a set speech pattern, without the fluctuations that made Vol. 1 so distracting.

If I have an overarching complaint about Vol. 2, it's that Bill, the assassin mastermind we spent so much time hating, becomes too sympathetic - or at the very least, too interesting of a character to kill off. Maybe that's my own personal hang-up, but Bill seems to be the only character who expresses any degree of remorse over what he did to the Bride (Budd does say that she deserves her revenge, but he's not above shooting her with rock salt and burying her alive... so that negates that idea). Plus, the Bride has tears in her eyes as {perhaps this is a spoiler, but the movie is four years old, as well as pretty much telling you how it ends in the freaking title of the film} she delivers the killing blow to Bill. What should have been a moment of finality is instead an ambiguous note of "Is this the right way to end?"

Perhaps the Bride got her emotions too involved with Bill. Ah, well. Revenge is, after all, a dish best served cold.