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Trailer Trashin’: Cancel the Apocalypse with Pacific Rim

2013-05-23T03:38:22Z

Written by Timothy Monforton for CinemaNerdz.

Memorial Day weekend is always one of the prime release spots in the summer movie season, and this year there are three films coming out this holiday weekend – The Hangover Part III, Epic, and Fast & Furious 6 – none of which I care one whit about. Instead, I plan to finally see Star Trek Into Darkness, which I missed this past weekend. And speaking of movies I do care about, this week’s installment of Trailer Trashin’ takes still another look at my most anticipated film of the summer, Guillermo del Toro’s Pacific Rim.

Premise: In the near future, giant monsters identified as “Kaiju” have risen from a crevice in the Pacific Ocean, resulting in a war which takes millions of lives and quickly consumes humanity’s resources. To combat this new threat, a special type of weapon is designed: massive robots known as Jaegers, which are controlled simultaneously by two pilots whose minds are locked in a neural bridge. But as time passes, even the powerful Jaegers prove almost defenseless in the face of a relentless enemy. On its last stand and on the verge of defeat, the remaining defending forces of mankind have no choice but to turn to two unlikely heroes – a former pilot (Charlie Hunnam) and an untested trainee (Rinko Kikuchi) – who are teamed to pilot a legendary but seemingly obsolete Jaeger from the early trials of the mechanical titans. Together, they must stand the human race’s last hope against the mounting apocalypse.

My take: Yes, we are here yet again, dear readers. I wasn’t lying when I said that I would examine and analyze every trailer released for Pacific Rim, but even I didn’t expect that I would write four separate Trailer Trashin’ columns about one single movie. At this point, I’m possibly running the risk of over-hyping it in my mind to a degree that it could never live up to, so I’m trying to keep my expectations somewhat in check. This is the fourth, and presumably final, trailer for the film, and it just reiterates everything that has me so jazzed about it.

There’s really nothing to say about the human cast that I haven’t already said. I’m still surprised that we haven’t heard any dialogue from Rinko Kikuchi, and it’s always nice to see Ron Perlman show up.

Every bit that has been revealed of the action in the film is just amazing. The back-and-forth punches and blows exchanged by the Jaegers and Kaiju look as brutal and powerful as you would expect. And that money shot of the Kaiju being hit by a container ship wielded like a kendo sword is still totally awesome. I appreciate that this trailer shows off more of the Jaegers besides Gipsy Danger, the blue American mech. In particular, we get a beautiful close-up of Crimson Typhoon, the red, three-armed Chinese robot. We also see that the Jaeger getting ganged up on by two Kaiju is Cherno Alpha, the Russian mech with a head like a nuclear cooling tower. And I like that this trailer also shows that the Jaegers and Kaiju can do much more than just pound on each other. The shot of Gipsy Danger falling from the sky shows some sort of blade extended from its left arm, which is apparently a giant chainsaw. The Australian robot Striker Eureka also sports a quartet of extendible blades, two on each arm. And one of the Kaiju, apparently nicknamed Leatherback by the humans, is able to release a massive energy pulse of some kind.

As incredibly excited as I am about the movie, there are a few points that I have some qualms about. I find it odd that the trailers have shown so little of the human part of the storyline. Obviously, the main focus of the film and the reason why most people, myself included, will be going to see it is the action; but I still want to care about these people and root for them to succeed. But on the other hand, I love most of the films in the Godzilla series, and a fair number of those don’t have great human stories. Ultimately, the thing I’m really concerned about is how the film will be received in this country. I feel confident in saying that the film will be hugely successful overseas, especially in the East Asian markets. But I really want it to be a success here in America, and my biggest fear is that general audiences will just think it looks lame or stupid and write it off completely, regardless of what the word-of-mouth is like from critics.

But that’s just me fretting about what other people will think. This is a movie that seems like it was made just for me, and I feel like I’m going to love it. While there are certainly other films this summer that I want to see – Star Trek Into Darkness, Man of Steel, Elysium, and The World’s End – I don’t think that any of them embody the spirit of summer movies as much as what Guillermo del Toro and company have created here. For huge-scale action and sheer entertainment value, I don’t know if any other movie this year could top this. No matter what, you can be certain that I will be seeing Pacific Rim at my local theater on opening weekend.

ANTICIPATION: The monster war is almost here, and I will be on the front lines.

Release Date: July 12^th, 2013

Starring: Charlie Hunnam, Idris Elba, Rinko Kikuchi, Charlie Day, Burn Gorman, Robert Kazinsky, Max Martini, Ron Perlman, Clifton Collins Jr., Diego Klattenhoff, Robert Maillet, Heather Doerksen, and Ellen McLain
Director: Guillermo del Toro
Writers: Travis Beacham and Guillermo del Toro

P.S. Was anyone else able to make it out to Motor City Comic Con in Novi this past weekend? I did, and I had a great time, especially because I got to meet both Edward James Olmos and Alex Winter.

Box Office Weekend: Star Trek Into Darkness Less Than Expected, Still Warps Past Competition

2013-05-20T12:50:18Z

Written by Seth Paul for CinemaNerdz.

When a four-day weekend expected to bring in $100 million only gives an estimated $84.1 ($70.6 million for the three-day), chances are an investor might be a little disappointed. But for most, an opening that big is a good thing, and critics and audiences alike are enjoying their forays to see Star Trek Into Darkness, the sequel to the J.J. Abrams’ reboot of the classic franchise. It was enough to drop Iron Man 3 to the second place slot, but even so Marvel is in no way disappointed, the estimated $35.2 million a wonderful addition to a film that has broken the $1 billion barrier in worldwide sales. In third, while getting nowhere near the acclaim or dollars of its competitors, The Great Gatsby is by no means a failure, its estimated $23.4 million still one of the top draws of the weekend.

For the third week in a row, the remainder of the top ten cannot break the $10 million mark in weekend earnings; but even worse, they did not even break the $5 million mark. Pain & Gain was the best of the rest, with an estimated $3.1 million, and while profitable still falls well short of blockbuster earnings. The Croods, the longest lasting film in the top ten (now that Oz the Great and Powerful seems well and truly done), still has a nice trickle of income with an estimated $2.8 million even after nine weeks. The biopic 42 also has quite the nice box office performance, as six weeks and an estimated $2.7 million weekend resulted in $88.7 million total income, well over its $40 million budget.

It is a close race between three of the four at the bottom of the list. Oblivion (estimated $2.2 million) enters week five without much to say…while not a bomb (counting foreign sales), it has not made much of an impact. Mud, on the other hand, opened to little fanfare and is doing fairly well for its independent status, an estimated $2.2 million giving it a total of $11.6 million, enough to make it break even. The same amount is nowhere near enough to make Tyler Perry Presents Peeples a success, as the film’s estimated $2.2 million weekend grab dropped it to ninth from fourth last week. The film, costing $15 million, has just barely made back half of its costs and one the first real busts for Tyler Perry, though it is fair to say it is the least involved he has been with any project with his name on the credits. It is not alone, though…The Big Wedding made an estimated $1.1 million, and remains a bust despite its big name cast.

Weekend Box Office (May 17^th – May 19^th)

Star Trek Into Darkness…$70.6 million ($84.1 million for four-day weekend)
Iron Man 3…$35.2 million
The Great Gatsby…$23.4 million
Pain & Gain…$3.1 million
The Croods…$2.8 million
42…$2.7 million
Oblivion…$2.2 million
Mud…$2.2 million
Tyler Perry Presents Peeples…$2.2 million
The Big Wedding…$1.1 million

Trailer Trashin’: The Three Flavours Cornetto Trilogy Concludes with The World’s End

2013-05-14T18:39:22Z

Written by Timothy Monforton for CinemaNerdz.

In the spirit of summer movies, this week brings the third-ever Trailer Trashin’ Double Feature, as I examine the new previews for White House Down and The World’s End. Now, let’s take a look at the UK teaser trailer for director Edgar Wright’s sci-fi comedy The World’s End.

Premise: Twenty years after attempting an epic pub crawl, five childhood friends reunite when one of them becomes hell-bent on trying the drinking marathon again. They are convinced to stage an encore by mate Gary King (Simon Pegg), a 40-year-old man trapped at the cigarette end of his teens, who drags his reluctant pals to their hometown and once again attempts to reach the fabled pub, “The World’s End.” As they attempt to reconcile the past and present, they realize the real struggle for the future, not just theirs but humankind’s, and reaching “The World’s End” is the least of their worries.

My take: I am a huge fan of Edgar Wright, the English director who helmed Shaun of the Dead (2004), Hot Fuzz (2007), and Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (2010). He is responsible for some of my favorite comedies, and is a director whose work I will always support. Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz are the first two parts of a thematic trilogy of genre comedies, one not connected by narrative but instead by shared traits and motifs, all directed by Wright, written by Wright and Simon Pegg, and starring Pegg and Nick Frost. The trilogy is alternately known as either the “Three Flavours Cornetto Trilogy” or the “Blood and Ice Cream Trilogy” – because of the shared elements of gory violence and a running joke about the British ice cream product Cornetto and its supposed effectiveness as a hangover cure. For a number of years now, Wright and company have talked about The World’s End, the planned third film which would take on the genre of science-fiction, but it kept being put on hold because of other projects. But now, the film is finally on its way. The first UK teaser trailer for The World’s End has arrived, and I think it looks like it could be another laugh riot.

A big factor in why the first two films of the Trilogy worked so well is the excellent casts, and that definitely seems to be the case here as well. In the lead roles, as always, are Simon Pegg and Nick Frost, who here play, respectively, Gary King and Andy Knight. They’re both incredibly talented, and I like that Wright and Pegg have kind of flipped the dynamic between the two this time around. In both Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz, Pegg played the more level-headed of the two while Frost was the bumbling but well-meaning one. But here, Pegg’s Gary is the irresponsible one while Frost’s Andy is serious and buttoned-up. The gang of five friends is rounded out by Paddy Considine, who worked with them in Hot Fuzz, Martin Freeman, who had brief appearances in both previous films, and Eddie Marsan. Rosamund Pike plays a woman apparently named Sam, who will probably be a love interest for either Gary or Andy. And the cast also includes Reece Shearsmith, Rafe Spall, Alice Lowe, David Bradley, and Michael Smiley, all of whom have appeared in one or both of the previous two films.

Judging from this trailer, the humor looks spot-on. So much of the laughs in the Cornetto Trilogy come from having these sort of momentous events happening in mundane settings, and the whole idea of a potentially apocalyptic alien invasion happening as the backdrop to five guys trying to complete a pub crawl is just inherently funny. We’ve got hilariously skewed priorities (“We are gonna get to The World’s End if it kills us”) and funny wordplay (“…to the bitter end. Or lager end.”). Even the names of the pubs make me chuckle and, given Wright and Pegg’s love of symbolism and foreshadowing, it’ll be fun to speculate about what we can expect based on those names. And the final moment shows that they are keeping up the running gag of each film having a scene where a character tries, and usually fails, to jump over a fence.

Simon Pegg in “The World’s End.

I also like what we see of the sci-fi elements of the film. While we know that it’s an alien invasion story of some kind, the exact nature of that invasion is not clear in this trailer. It’s also not clear whether the villagers are people who have been taken over by aliens or just aliens disguised as people, but I’m onboard with either scenario. And given the quick shot of Nick Frost dodging between three pointy metallic legs that stretch past the top of the screen, it looks like we might be getting some War of the Worlds-style alien tripods.

All in all, I think this is a great first look at what could be one of the best comedies of the year. I’ve been excited about The World’s End ever since it was announced, and this teaser has only increased my anticipation. I love both of the previous films in the “Three Flavours Cornetto Trilogy,” and this looks like a worthy conclusion. When the latter part of August rolls around, you can be sure that I’ll be checking out The World’s End on opening weekend.

ANTICIPATION: This looks brilliant, mate! Better go grab a pint and watch it!

Release Date: August 23^rd, 2013

Starring: Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, Rosamund Pike, Paddy Considine, Martin Freeman, Eddie Marsan, Thomas Law, Zachary Bailess, Jasper Levine, Flora Slorach, Reece Shearsmith, Rafe Spall, Alice Lowe, David Bradley, Mark Heap, and Michael Smiley
Director: Edgar Wright
Writers: Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg