Quentin Tarantino disappointed me for the first time with Death Proof, so I'm hoping INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS will be a return to form. This is another grindhouse-esque story about a ruthless gang of Jewish soldiers in WWII (the titular "basterds") who are sent behind enemy lines in '40s occupied France, tasked to terrorized and slaughter as many Nazi's as humanly possible. I'm a little disappointed QT's movies seem to be devolving into violent, adult cartoons (a tone that was justified for Kill Bill, but WWII?) The trailers for Inglourious Basterds, including this one, haven't really grabbed me by the throat, but I'm curious. I guess I'm just waiting for the reviews to trickle through, from sources other than Cannes.
Released: 20 August 2009 (AUS), 21 August 2009 (US/UK)
Downloads: 480P (45MB) | 720P (122MB) | 1080P (165MB)
Ricky Gervais is a smart guy. I love how he's taking his time in Hollywood and picking good projects, to do on his own terms. Even his cameo's in the Night At The Museum movies are done with an eye on ingratiating himself on his co-stars, or repaying professional favours. He's a shrewd networker. So far, he seems to favour fantasy comedies for his solo projects; first with the Sixth Sense-lite Ghost Town and now THE INVENTION OF LYING (formerly This Side Of The Truth), where Ricky plays a man living in an alternate universe where lying isn't done and totally unheard of. The trailer's quite light and fluffy (ELO's the backing track), but the potential for humour is obvious when Ricky's character learns how to tell lies and uses his newfound "super-power" to his own advantage. The fact Ricky co-wrote and co-directed this has me very excited. No word of a lie.
Released: 25 September 2009 (US), 2 October 2009 (UK)
Downloads: 480P (44MB) | 720P (115MB) | 1080P (162MB)
Yes, it's another vampire movie. These things are almost as ubiquitous as zombie films, aren't they. The trick to them putting fresh twists on established vampire lore. In DAYBREAKERS, the premise is that vampires have successfully come to dominate the planet, so much so that only a small pocket of humans exist and are harvested for their precious blood, in Matrix-style battery-farms. But what will happen to vampires if humanity go extinct? Throw Willem Dafoe into the mix as a bad-ass vampire-hunter and Sam Neill as a fanged leader, and you have my undivided attention. Certainly, the trailer looks very slick and exciting, although my interest began to wane in the second half. Very promising, though.
Released: 8 January 2010 (US), 21 January 2009 (AUS)
Downloads: 480P (47MB) | 720P (116MB) | 1080P (173MB)
Richard Kelly needs a hit. His breakthrough, Donnie Darko, is almost a decade old already and follow-up Southland Tale was dogged with problems and released to negative reviews and dismal box-office. THE BOX is based on a classic Richard Matheson story called "Button Button", and stars Cameron Diaz and James Marsden as a couple who are given a box containing a button by Frank Langella. They're then told that pressing the button will grant them a wish, but at the cost of a random stranger's death. Would you push the button? Well, yes. Well, maybe. My main concern here is that the premise is very limiting and I still can't see how Kelly can get a whole movie out of it, but... the trailer here does look very good, so I'm hopeful this will be the hit Kelly needs. I'm a little concerned because The Box has been delayed for months and months, but there's nothing here that puts me off.
Released: 29 October (AUS), 30 October 2009 (US), 4 December 2009 (UK)
Downloads: 480P (37MB) | 720P (66MB) | 1080P (100MB)
If Richard Kelly needs a hit, then M. Night Shyamalan really needs a hit. I actually enjoyed The Village and think it's underrated, but Lady In The Water was terrible and The Happening not much better. THE LAST AIRBENDER is based on a very popular cartoon that I have little to no knowledge of. This teaser is intriguing, but just an appetite-wetter, showing a staff-wielding boy extinguishing a circle of candles with cool martial arts moves in a cave, before the camera pulls out to reveal a fleet of ships on the ocean, flinging balls of flame at the kid's mountain hideout. Ooh. Shyamalan is directing and worked on the script, but this is the first movie he's tackled that's someone else's brainchild, so I hope that shakes him into life again. Although, worryingly, he still insists on putting "An M. Night Shymalan Film" as the first credit before the title, believing that's still a positive thing in peoples' minds. The Sixth Sense was 10 years ago, MNS.
Released: 2 July 2010 (US), 9 September 2010 (AUS)
Downloads: 480P (28MB) | 720P (65MB) | 1080P (110MB)
