Guys, is this the first video game movie that might actually be good? (Sorry Super Mario Bros. and Doom). It looks like it could break the curse. Maybe this summer’s Warcraft will, but I kinda doubt it.
Assassin’s Creed is based on the video game series of the same name. In it you play as two characters, one in a near future, and one in the distant past. Your future self is hooked into a machine called the Animus. Through the machine you are able to live out (read: play the game as) the inherent memories of your ancestor, who just so happened to be part of the Assassins Guild. Obviously. The Assassins are locked in a centuries long war with the Templar Knights, and this war rages on through modern times and has incorporated a group called Abstergo Industries. But, using your Assassin skills and parkour (no, seriously) you protect the world from an alien threat. Wait… what? Oh yeah, there is also some sort of weird back story about alien artifacts and stuff. It’s really confusing.
There are some great installments of the series, Assassin’s Creed: Black Flag is a swashbuckling pirate themed version. And then there are some real clunkers, Assassin’s Creed: Unity I’m looking in your direction. Let’s hope this flick falls closer to the former than the later. So without further ado, let’s talk about the Assassin’s Creed trailer. Continue reading →
Hey everyone, for our Bad Moms trailer breakdown, we’ve brought in a guest contributor. So let me introduce you to resident HPN “bad mom” (but not “bad” mom), Jen.
Hello Readers,
I’m Jen, friend and fan of the Hollywood Picture News (as in “Jen really wants me to watch Twin Peaks”). I’m here to talk to you about the trailer for what is sure to be this summer’s “girls night out” hit, Bad Moms.
First off I’d apologize for the lateness of this post (the trailer was released a few days ago). Between conference calls, cleaning up toys, and cooking dinner, timing was a challenge. But I took a cue from these “Bad Moms,” gave my toddler some Benadryl, handed the laundry to my husband, poured myself a bourbon, and here I am…
First thing to note, this is a Red Band trailer. It’s NSFW and certainly not safe to listen to without headphones around a 2-year old (NSTLTWHAA2YO). I appreciate the ovaries this marketing team has to lead off with a red band, immediately setting it apart from the likes of bland mother-loving (not that kind of mother-loving) comedies like Mother’s Day, the latest addition to the GMCU (Garry Marshall Cinematic Universe)
The trailer hits the standard setup notes for your traditional snobs v. slobs comedy, with Mila Kunis as the put-upon every-mom struggling to live up to upper-middle-class society’s rigorous expectations of working mothers. Christina Applegate and Jada Pinkett Smith represent the “Omega House,” if you will, of moms who likely make their own GMO-free baby food from scratch, sew their children’s own Halloween costumes, and don’t give their kids Benadryl to get them to sleep.
Kunis’s character, Amy, reaches her breaking point when Applegate hands out the over-the-top restrictions for the PTA’s bake sale. She finally speaks up about the challenges of being the “perfect mom” and wins over two comrades to her cause in the form of a mousy Kristen Bell (as mousy as Veronica Mars can possibly be, anyway) and Kathryn Hahn, literally one of the funniest people on the planet.
From there, the moms are in full-on Delta House mode, drinking, driving a motorized shopping cart without visible injury, wasting cereal, bringing store-bought, gluten-filled desserts to the bake sale, and engaging in a raucous house party featuring girl-on-girl make outs, whip-its, and a third-trimester dancing queen.
There’s a clear female-bonding angle here with the final three glimpses of the film. First, the scene that ensured that 15 of my hard-earned dollars will end up in the Kunis/Kutcher baby college fund: the mom bra. Kunis reveals her utilitarian undergarment to her pals and they are merciless. “You’ve got a very ‘Boys Don’t Cry’ thing happening right now,” says Bell, causing me to pause the trailer a full 15 seconds till I’ve sufficiently finished laughing.
This is followed by some graphic, and hilarious, sex talk from Kristen Bell regarding her “never hard husband” (in the movie, that is; in real life, I’m sure Dax Shepard gets hard at the drop of a hat) that earns this trailer its raunch-movie cred.
The trailer wraps with a familiar scene to many a mom, as each woman describes the terrible things their child does while crying about how much they love them.
All-in-all I’m sold on Bad Moms, but I am 100% the target audience. My husband chuckled exactly once while watching it over my shoulder, so some word of mouth might be needed. But I’ve already got a date with some mom friends to drink heavily and see this movie and it doesn’t open for another two months. The success of female-driven comedies (ugh I hat writing that phrase) is no longer a one-off situation, just ask Melissa McCarthy’s on-site personal masseuse. These movies make money. What sets this one apart is tying the idea of “motherhood” into the mix of traditional bro-comedy antics. The success of blogs like “Scary Mommy” say that there are a lot of members of the target audience out there, but I’m curious to see how this crosses over.
Now, if you’ll excuse me I have a diaper to change, thank you notes to write, and several talent agreements to proofread.
It looks like the “Famous Character vs. Other Famous Character” trend has made its way to Japan.Although, to be fair, if you put the Godzilla franchise in the mix the Japanese have been doing it longer than anyone. Regardless, we now have another franchise mashup: The Ring vs. The Grudge (Sadako vs. Kayako).
Tallying it up, this marks the twelfth entry in both series. Considering those numbers, Sadako vs. Kayako is basically the Japanese equivalent of Freddy vs. Jason. Not sure that there was as great a demand for this pairing as the former, but just based on the sheer amount of films in each series this seems to be the next logical step. At least they haven’t set them in space. Yet…
Ringu (and its US remake) kicked off the J-Horror boom of the late 1990s/early 2000s. Of its many imitators, the original Ju-On (The Grudge) was one of the best. Do their antagonists really need to meet and throw down? I’m not sure, but it’s happening. Frankly, based on this trailer, it looks like the filmmakers didn’t skimp on what made those originals so unsettling to begin with. Give it a watch and leave your thoughts in the comments below!
*Side note – I totally want the Kitan Club edge-of-cup figures advertised at the end of the trailer.
First and foremost this is a MUCH better trailer. In fact, every trailer for this has been better than the last. I was having trouble getting into this flick for some reason, which is pretty weird seeing as how I have very much enjoyed the X-Men movies. You know, except for the absolutely terrible X-Men: The Last Stand and X-Men Origins: Wolverine. Those two are garbage. This trailer has gotten me back on track.
Since the dawn of civilization, he was worshipped as a god. Apocalypse, the first and most powerful mutant from Marvel’s X-Men universe, amassed the powers of many other mutants, becoming immortal and invincible. Upon awakening after thousands of years, he is disillusioned with the world as he finds it and recruits a team of powerful mutants, including a disheartened Magneto (Michael Fassbender), to cleanse mankind and create a new world order, over which he will reign. As the fate of the Earth hangs in the balance, Raven (Jennifer Lawrence) with the help of Professor X (James McAvoy) must lead a team of young X-Men to stop their greatest nemesis and save mankind from complete destruction.
The last two films have been an interesting take on the whole series, staying in the same continuity while simultaneously rebooting the franchise. It does leave a whole lot to be desired when it comes to trying to figure out the timeline. Luckily for them though, X-Men: Days of Future Past went and retconned a lot of the weirdness/bad decisions from previous installments. This does make watching the whole series of movies a lot more confusing, however.
X-Men: Apocalypse will most likely be the end of this prequel trilogy. These movies have gone through three decades, setting up the version of the X-Men we saw in the first film from 2000. This won’t be the last X-Men movie we’ll get, though. We still have the final Wolverine movie and Deadpool 2 with Cable and most likely double the X-Men we got in the first one. There’s also talk of an X-Force movie, as well as an X-Factor television series, and more than likely more traditional X-Men movies.
But for now, we should focus on this one so let’s talk about the final X-Men: Apocalypse trailer. Continue reading →
The Bourne movies are a strange thing. I really liked the first one, but the sequels left something to be desired. Both Ultimatum and Supremacy had really cool action sequences and helped open up the mythos but lacked a little in the story elements. That’s kinda ok though. I mean, I actually dig the idea of a rogue super-agent trying to just be left alone and being pulled back in to stop his former employers.
Legacy is a whole other story (literally). It falls into that thing I like of world building, but overall is kinda mediocre. I will say this, Legacy is 100% head-canon the solo Hawkeye movie we’ll never get. Think about it. Or don’t, your life.
This trailer sort of gives us more of what we have come to expect from Bourne movies, but again that’s not necessarily a bad thing. So let’s talk about the new Jason Bourne trailer.
The trailer opens with Bourne (Matt Damon) laying in bed. His voiceover tells us that he remembers everything. So, I guess his amnesia from the first 3 movies has cleared up.
We get flashbacks of Bourne’s training at Treadstone and someone playing Brian Cox‘ role. How you gonna deprive the people of B.Cox Jason Bourne?
Bourne shoots a man with a bag over his head in the flashback and we get the window jumping, throat-crushing-with-a-book scene from Supremacy.
Then we get the shot of Jason looking through his sniper scope from Ultimatum. This trailer is like 30% flashback.
Bourne repeats that he remembers everything. Except telling us that he remembers everything. He forgot that.
Hey everybody it’s Julia Stiles! Is it weird to anyone else her character Nicky has been the through line for 4 of these movies? She tells Bourne that just because he remembers everything, doesn’t mean he knows everything.
Bourne tells her to tell him.
Ato Essandoh‘s character is on the phone. Says they’ve been hacked. “It could be worse than Snowden.” If it’s worse, jesus, what kind of secrets are you guys hiding?
Movie style facial recognition software gets a hit on Nicky, the CIA uses their Big Brother cams and see she’s with Bourne. Essandoh is dumbfounded.
We see Alicia Vikander‘s unnamed character and then Tommy Lee Jones‘ Robert Dewey asks, “Why would he come back now?” If I had to guess, it’s because he remembers all the terrible shit you did to him. But that’s just a guess.
Directed by Paul Greengrass title card. He’s directed 3 out of 5 of these.
Keeping it super topical Vikander tells us there’s a demonstration in front of Greek parliament, as we see riot cops and protesters. They think Nicky will use this as cover.
More riot footage, as Bourne notes that the CIA has tracked Nicky and they have to move.
In a super slick move, Bourne grabs a molotov cocktail from a rioter just before he throws it and uses it himself, by throwing it to the ground as cover.
Bourne, Bourne-fights the two guys tailing them as Nicky escapes on a motorcycle.
Actually, it’s both of them on the motorcycle. They are being shot at by a sniper and driving around explosions. A typical day.
Vikander states to Dewey that Bourne knows things and ponders if perhaps Bourne isn’t coming after them.
Bourne angrily says that he volunteered because of a lie and looks to be going after the Treadstone (whatever they are calling themselves now) people. The hacking was most likely someone else but Bourne is being blamed for it.
Jason is shot at on a roof but uses a human shield, before jumping and catching a wire to break his fall.
Bourne calls in to Dewey. This seems to be like a superpower of his, calling the people that are hunting him.
Over a montage of Bourne improvising weapons and beating dudes down, Dewey says, “32 kills, people are safer because of what you did.”
A SWAT van crashes through the doors of the Riviera in Las Vegas.
A car chase down Las Vegas boulevard in front of casinos like Paris and the Belaggio. This is one of those things that will always bother me about car chases in movies set in populated places. There is no way Las Vegas boulevard is that empty. It’s like when they do them through Times Square, IMPLAUSIBLE!
Matt Damon either loves Las Vegas or hates it. I can’t tell.
To make me eat my words about car chases, the SWAT van crashes through cars stopped in traffic.
Dewey tells Bourne that he’ll never find any peace until he admits to himself who he really is.
Bourne takes off his shirt in a desert fight club and one-punches a guy cold. Always remember that Jason Bourne is a badass.
And that’s it. To be honest this looks like a perfectly serviceable continuation of the story they’ve told us so far. I’m sure I’ll see this, probably in the theater… like a matinee.
Whoa. I’ve never gone on record, or off record for that matter, as a fan of Westerns. I haven’t seen too many, and they don’t usually pull me in. I think my favorite may have been a video game (thanks Red Dead Redemption) but that just took a bunch of tropes and homages from all types of Westerns, Spaghetti or otherwise. This looks like a hell of a lot of fun though. It’s got a great cast, a competent director (Antoine Fuqua), and is based on a damn good couple of movies.
Remakes get a lot of ire, most of which is deserved, but every once in awhile we get something great. For every Psycho (1998) there’s The Thing (1982),every Rollerball (2002) has Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978). This looks to lean much more into the category of the good over the bad. The remake here is of the original 1960 film of the same name, which in turn was a retelling of Akira Kurosawa’s The Seven Samurai.
With the town of Rose Creek under the deadly control of industrialist Bartholomew Bogue (Peter Sarsgaard), the desperate townspeople employ protection from seven outlaws, bounty hunters, gamblers and hired guns – Sam Chisolm (Denzel Washington), Josh Farraday (Chris Pratt), Goodnight Robicheaux (Ethan Hawke), Jack Horne (Vincent D’Onofrio), Billy Rocks (Byung-Hun Lee), Vasquez (Manuel Garcia-Rulfo), and Red Harvest (Martin Sensmeier). As they prepare the town for the violent showdown that they know is coming, these seven mercenaries find themselves fighting for more than money. (official synopsis)
So let’s not waste anymore time and get right into it. Here’s the breakdown of the first teaser trailer of The Magnificent Seven.
A lone silhouetted figure is seen atop a horse in a field. If there is a more “Western” image, I’ll be surprised.
Haley Bennett‘s character tells Denzel Washington’s Sam Chisolm that she has a proposition. Her face looks pained, and a bit scared, so get your heads out of the gutter.
She goes on to say that they are decent people being driven from their homes as what looks like a gang of bandits are terrorizing a typical looking old west town.
Men are being punched in the stomach and churches burned. This is to show you that these are REALLY bad guys.
Peter Sarsgaard’s Bartholomew Bogue is shown gunning a man down, which leads his men to do the same.
We see him walking down the streets of the town with a lawman. His character is a wealthy industrialist, so it’s safe to say he’s got the law in his pocket.
Chisolm asks Bennett if she seeks revenge, she replies with “I seek righteousness.” as we see a shot of her mourning in a graveyard, then firing a rifle as she states “but I’ll take revenge.” Cool.
Everyone likes a gun twirling montage, so we get one here.
Chisolm sets out to pull together his mercs.
First stop, Chris Pratt’s Josh Farraday. A hard drinking, wisecracking, good looking guy that’s good at what he does. You know, Chris Pratt.
Then there’s a gold plated, crank powered minigun, shooting up the General Store, with Chisolm in it.
Farraday asks how many Chisolm’s got so far. He responds with “You and me.” Farraday smirks.
We get a montage of the other five members being recruited. Ethan Hawke’s Goodnight Robicheaux. (Which is a TOTAL badass name, and I’ll be naming my first child that… or at least my next pet). Vincent D’Onofrio’s beard playing Jack Horne. The, uh, others all doing cool cowboy things.
Chris Pratt winks and there’s a little bell that rings. This isn’t really important but I thought it should be noted.
One of Bogue’s men says this group is quite a bunch of strays, Robicheaux doesn’t think this will end well, Farraday isn’t sure.
A version of House of the Rising Sun plays.
The trailer really wants us to see how good a gunslinger Josh Farraday is. Going so far as to have him tell us. “God dang it, I’m good.”
Lots of explosions and gun pointing. I’m ok with this.
Followed up with cool horse tricks and knife wielding.
Bogue asks how many men? Seven man, it’s in the name of the movie.
The Seven are highlighted in a series of shots ending with one of them walking up Rose Creek’s main street. More classic Western iconography.
Close out on The Magnificent Seven title card.
All jokes aside this is a really cool looking and fun trailer. I’m actually pretty optimistic about this movie. As for now, count me in.
The Magnificent Seven opens everywhere September 23rd.
This is shaping up to be Trailer Week, which I have no quarrel with. I love me some trailers. The latest out of the gate stars Japan’s biggest movie monster: Godzilla. After a brief teaser last December, we’re finally given a look at the latest version of the famous titan. Officially titled Godzilla: Resurgence, this is Toho’s 29th film in the series and the first produced since 2004’s Godzilla: Final Wars.
In a move that may come as a surprise, this latest incarnation of Godzilla will be a combination of CGI and traditional special effects techniques used for decades by Toho (read: man-in-suit). Regardless of how it’s brought to life, the new design is a nice throwback to the original 1954 version with a dash of modern menace. So many pointy teeth…
Godzilla will stomp his way into Japanese theaters on July 29th. There’s no word on a US release just yet, but the aforementioned Final Wars had a brief run stateside, so there’s hope for US kaiju fans.
Give it a look and let’s talk about the new Godzilla: Resurgence trailer.
Right off the bat, I need to get this out of the way: I don’t know TOO much about Doctor Strange, other than he’s awesome facial hair buddies with Tony Stark. So I’m sure there is plenty in this trailer that I missed or misconstrued. I will say, however, that it’s a pretty cool look into yet another facet of the MCU and I’m looking forward to seeing how this style of magic will play out and differ from Asgardian magic/science.
There isn’t much to say beyond that, so let’s get right into the breakdown of Marvel’s Doctor Strange teaser trailer:
The trailer opens up with scenes from a car crash and a voice telling Stephen Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) to forget everything that he thinks he knows. If he’s a medical doctor that’s a lot of knowledge that he’s being told to forget, let alone all the cost from medical school right out the window.
Marvel Logo with glimpses of Doctor Strange comic images in the flipping pages.
We start to see images of Strange traveling intercut with images of him in a hospital. We’re told he’s looking at the world through a keyhole.
We get a quick glimpse of Rachel McAdams‘ as of yet unnamed character. She appears to be an ER nurse who is tending to Strange after his car accident.
Back and forth shots of Doctor Strange’s life before and after his accident culminating in a shot of his once steady surgeon’s hands now shaking after being crippled in the accident.
This is why he’s on the journey that he’s on. The comic origin tells us that he is traveling, looking for any way to fix his hands (legitimate or not) and get back to his old life.
The mysterious voice tells Strange that the reality he’s searching for is one of many.
New York flashes to a mystical looking city, most likely in the Himalayas. This is where Strange will meet the Ancient One and begin his training.
We hear that Strange doesn’t believe in chakras, or energy, or the power of belief as we see him tailing a man in odd clothes with a sword walking down an Asian looking street.
So much beard on Cumberbatch.
Tilda Swinton’s Ancient One asks Strange, “You wonder what I see in your future? Possibility”. She then punches his Astral Form right out of him. Which looks around in disbelief. Everything gets a little weird from here on out.
We get lots of Inception-esque world bending shots as Strange asks “Why are you doing this?”
We see other characters who may be other villains Doctor Strange has to face.
The Ancient One says there are other ways to save lives, inferring that he will become the Sorcerer Supreme that he is meant to be.
We get a full shot of Chiwetel Ejiofor‘s Baron Mordo. The man he was tailing earlier in the trailer.
The Ancient One puts her hand on Strange’s forehead and sends him flying back as it appears to open his eyes to his true magical surroundings. He’s told that there’s so much he doesn’t know.
More Inception style world bending.
Strange lands at the feet of the Ancient One and pleads with her to teach him.
We get the title card and hear footsteps walking up stairs. This fades up from black to show Doctor Strange wearing his Cloak of Levitation and presumably the Eye of Agamotto, walking towards the classic window in the Sanctum Sanctorum.
And that’s it, an interesting trailer that does its job. It gives you the story beats you need (though I’m not sure if you’re unfamiliar with the character that you’d get them all) but leaves enough out to be intriguing. All in all, I have a pretty good feeling about this one.
Marvel’s Doctor Strange opens in theaters everywhere November 4th, 2016.
So the MTV Movie awards is a thing that happened last night. I won’t lie to you guys, I didn’t watch, I don’t think I’m the demographic for MTV anymore. But a nice side effect of these awards is a bunch of new trailers dropped. I’ve grouped them together here for you, because I’m a great guy.
First up, Suicide Squad:
A bit of a deeper look into this movie, possibly showing off some of the reshoots that they did to add in some humor.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2:
We’ve gone on record here at The Hollywood Picture News saying we didn’t hate the first Turtles movie and this one looks somehow better. This trailer features more April O’Neil and Bebop and Rocksteady. Continue reading →
Once again let me get this out of the way so we can get into it: AAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!1!One!!!!ExclamationPoint!! *Ahem* Better.
I’ll get into the actual breakdown in just a minute, but first I just want to say how exciting it is to get a new Star Wars movie that (as of right now) doesn’t have anything to do with the Skywalker story. I love the world that George Lucas created and between Star Wars Rebels and this we’re starting to really open it up. Even though this (and Rebels) take place just before the events of A New Hope and are about the start of the rebellion they feel fresh and, I don’t know, bigger than the galaxy we’ve been dealing with for 7 previous films and other tv series.
And let’s not sleep on the fact we’re getting what looks like another super badass lady in the leading role. I always felt that Padmé left something to be desired in terms of being a character, but between Rey and Felicity Jones’ Jyn Erso, I feel like we’re getting back on the path that Leia started us on.
I love the look and feel that we get from this teaser too. It’s heavy and dark but without being Grimdark like our much maligned DCEU. This looks like a war has been raging and the people have been beaten and oppressed for too long. It’s time for rebellion.
Without further ado, here’s a brief rundown of what we saw in this teaser:
It all starts with that familiar score.
We see Felicity Jones’ Jyn Erso in handcuffs being escorted through a rebel base. Why the handcuffs? What did she do to get her “arrested” by the rebellion?
Overdubbed list of Jyn’s crimes. Including: Forgery of Imperial documents, possession of stolen property, aggravated assault, and resisting arrest.
While her crimes are being listed we get a great shot of the interior of the rebel base with troops running about, droids (GONK!) and even an X-Wing. Is this the base on Dantooine or maybe Yavin-4?
Next we have our first shot of Genevieve O’Reilly as Mon Mothma. Standing in front of her glowing star map. It’s pretty much the only place she ever is.
A quick shot of Diego Luna’s unknown character as Mon Mothma says that Jyn is reckless and undisciplined. Will he be the love interest? Will there be a love interest? It’d be pretty great if there wasn’t one. No time for love Doctor (Felicity) Jones.
Jyn being a badass and taking out a group of Stormtroopers as she’s saying to Mon Mothma, “This is a rebellion isn’t it? I rebel.” Mothma smiles. F*ck yeah!
Jyn is told of her mission to gather intel on a new super weapon, as we see the focusing dish placed onto the first Death Star while it absolutely dwarfs a couple star destroyers. People will now complain that we’re getting another Death Star, completely missing the point that this is a prequel. The world will keep turning.
We hear an alarm going off at the rebel base as the troops scramble. We get our first full shot of Diego Luna running beside Jyn.
Next we get an absolutely stunning shot of Ben Mendelsohn’s Imperial character in a white uniform with a long white cape. Rad. After doing a little internet digging it may be that he’s part of the ISB (Imperial Security Bureau) or maybe it’s a Grand Admiral uniform like the former EU character Thrawn.
We get a shot of storm troopers patrolling a city (Lothal?) and the feeling that Empire has gotten control of every nook and cranny in the galaxy.
We see Forest Whitaker’s character walking through a pipe/entrance. He gets voiceover now asking someone, “What will you do when they catch you?”
A group of rebel pilots are shown in Imperial custody.
Jyn and Luna are running through an Imperial base perhaps with a droid. The stormtroopers are scrambled. Some might be camouflaged.
We’re treated to the badassery of Donnie Yen space samurai-ing (it’s a thing) a group of Storm Troopers.
Next there’s a large beach battle with a shuttle blowing up, and troopers shooting at rebels.
We see Mendelsohn’s character trailing his dope cape in the water (that shit’ll stain dude) walking up to the battle aftermath with dead Storm Troopers in the water.
A cloaked figure enters a room with Crimson Guard members and kneels. Is this Vader? Maybe an Inquisitor type character that’s going to speak to Vader? Maybe this is Mads Mikkelsen’s character, but I thought I read that he was a member of the squad. I may have the most questions about this one shot.
Next we see the squadron running down the same beach from before but being shot at by new (old) and frankly scarier looking AT-ATs.
This is all over dubbed with Forest Whitaker’s character saying “If you continue to fight, what will you become.” Closing on a shot of Jyn in a Tie Pilot/Death Star trooper uniform.
The last thing we see/hear is the title card with a very cool mash up of the Light Side theme and the Imperial March.
And that’s it, a fantastic trailer that leaves me a bit breathless. I might be more excited for this movie than I am for Episode VIII. What about you guys? Let us know in the comments what you think about this teaser.
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story opens in December in Real D 3D and IMAX 3D.
