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Trailer Watch: The Road
How many roads must a ghost walk down?
The Road
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Plot Summary: A lonely road where heinous events have occurred leads more than a few travelers into a deadly game of survival. Release Date: May 11, 2012 |
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Rating: B Commentary: It sticks closely to modern horror film poster designs, but has enough style and detail to make it stand out from the crowd. The faint image at the right and the figure in the rearview mirror are the two best examples. |
Rating: C+ Commentary: Foreign horror films have frequently been better than their American counterparts and this one could be, but the trailer design is so stale that I'm not sure it will be embraced out of the gate. |
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Preview Link: CLICK HERE for link to the trailer, more posters (if available) and other commentary not featured here. Oscar Chances: None. |
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Trailer Watch: Ruby Sparks
Paul Dano as a lovelorn writer? I can see it, but didn't he already play a writer this year?
Ruby Sparks
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Plot Summary: A blocked writer finally discovers a subject that he can wrap his mind around only to discover that he has inadvertently given life to the character he's writing and she's not just in his imagination. Release Date: July 25, 2012 |
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Rating: None Commentary: Poster was a placeholder at the time this post was written. |
Rating: C+ Commentary: There are parts of the trailer that look like they might be fun, but for the most part, everything about the film seems old hat, lacking a narrative creativity that might sustain an otherwise interesting plot. |
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Preview Link: CLICK HERE for link to the trailer, more posters (if available) and other commentary not featured here. Oscar Chances: The film's directors managed to earn their prior effort, Little Miss Sunshine, several Ocsar nominations, but can lightning strike twice? I'm dubious at this juncture. |
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Trailer Watch: Step Up: Revolution
See it for the dancing, turn off the volume for the plot.
Step Up: Revolution
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Plot Summary: A group of performance artist street dancers are engaged in an effort to put their creativity to work to save a small urban area from a ruthless developer. Release Date: July 27, 2012 |
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Rating: C Commentary: At first, I wasn't sure if I was looking at a design from any number of other similar films. Then I realized that it was because it is virtually the same...that realization only took a fraction of a second, thoguh. |
Rating: B- Commentary: If it weren't for the rather glorious dance routines on display in the trailer, this would be a rote exercise in paint-by-numbers storytelling, hitting every plot convenience we've seen thousands of times over in similar films. I might watch it just for the dance numbers, though. |
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Preview Link: CLICK HERE for link to the trailer, more posters (if available) and other commentary not featured here. Oscar Chances: None. |
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Trailer Watch: Hysteria
Once called a feather duster? Let's hope the film isn't as lame a joke as that line.
Hysteria
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Plot Summary: A handsome doctor discovers a new device that enables women to pleasure themselves, but can't seem to find the pleasure he seeks himself except with the bizarre sister of a colleague's daughter. Release Date: May 18, 2012 |
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Rating: C- Commentary: I would have expected more from a poster designed for a period drama. This leaves a great deal to be desired and there aren't even any names that will make this a must-see event, so their inclusion seems further perplexing. |
Rating: B- Commentary: Hugh Dancy and Maggie Gyllenhaal could be fun here, but the film looks quite a bit similar to any number of period-set seriocomedies about situations, events and inventions that some would simply find too risqué. |
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Preview Link: CLICK HERE for link to the trailer, more posters (if available) and other commentary not featured here. Oscar Chances: It could be an Art Direction or Costume Design nominee, but other than that, I wouldn't expect much from this film. |
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Trailer Watch: That’s My Boy
It's Adam Sandler. Do you really need to know anything more about it?
That's My Boy
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Plot Summary: A child father learns nothing about raising a child while he's doing it, but when he comes into a need for money, his well-off son becomes the perfect bucket for him to sponge off of by pretending to be interested in making up for the rough childhood. Release Date: June 15, 2012 |
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Rating: D Commentary: There's a point where generic just doesn't adequately describe the painfully uninspired design being presented. This is one of those times. |
Rating: C- Commentary: There comes a point where you just grin and nod because it's just so inane and pointless that going to any great length to discuss it's other idiocy is a waste of breath. |
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Preview Link: CLICK HERE for link to the trailer, more posters (if available) and other commentary not featured here. Oscar Chances: None. |
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Trailer Watch: House at the End of the Street
Jennifer Lawrence won't make any friends in critics' circles with this choice.
House at the end of the Street
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Plot Summary: Mysterious noises and situations occur when a mother and daughter move into a new house where the events must be unravelled backwards. Release Date: September 21, 2012 |
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Rating: None Commentary: Poster was a placeholder at the time this post was written. |
Rating: C- Commentary: The trailer is at once irritating and imaginative. Although this doesn't look like the kind of film to bolster Jennifer Lawrence's rising star, it also doesn't look like the kind of film anyone's going to pay much attention to. |
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Preview Link: CLICK HERE for link to the trailer, more posters (if available) and other commentary not featured here. Oscar Chances: None. |
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Trailer Watch: Lovely Molly
When a genre tries to reinvent itself, you have to look, but sometimes you don't want to.
Lovely Molly
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Plot Summary: The makers of The Blair Witch Project try their hands at a new genre-redefining endeavor. Release Date: May 18, 2012 |
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Rating: C+ Commentary: It has that distressed creepiness that so many horror poster designers are trying to evoke. It's a rather painful attempt that doesn't succeed that well here. |
Rating: C Commentary: Trying to understand the plot of this film is a challenge from this trailer, so it could be inventive like they are describe, but there's virtually no evidence in the trailer to suggest it's truth. |
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Preview Link: CLICK HERE for link to the trailer, more posters (if available) and other commentary not featured here. Oscar Chances: None. |
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Trailer Watch: Looper
I like science fiction and I like Joseph Gordon Levitt, but even this stretches my interest a bit.
Looper
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Plot Summary: A sci-fi tale where futuristic mafia men send victims back in time to be killed and disposed of, but when one "looper" as they're called, must kill his future self, trying to contain the cunning and knowledgable self becomes a challenge. Release Date: September 28, 2012 |
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Rating: B- Commentary: The poster, although somewhat inventive, is still rather plain and limited in space usage. Having too much blank space isn't a positive in most design situations. |
Rating: B- Commentary: The concept is interesting, but the trailer makes this look like grade D science fiction, which is a shame considering the talent involved. |
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Preview Link: CLICK HERE for link to the trailer, more posters (if available) and other commentary not featured here. Oscar Chances: None. |
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Trailer Watch: Womb
So many levels of wrong with this premise. That wouldn't stop me from watching it, though.
Womb
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Plot Summary: In order to save her late lover, a young woman decides to get pregnant with his reincarnated spirit. Release Date: March 30, 2012 |
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Rating: C+ Commentary: It's evocative, but not very attractive. It makes sense, but are most average audiences going to get it? Certainly not without seeing the trailer or film first. |
Rating: B- Commentary: The trailer's a bit confusing at first, but you eventually get the idea. And it's a very strange idea, which might appeal to some of the more curious individuals out there, but for most people, I don't see this making much of an impact. |
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Preview Link: CLICK HERE for link to the trailer, more posters (if available) and other commentary not featured here. Oscar Chances: None. |
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Trailer Watch: Breaking Dawn, Part 2
If you aren't already sold on the franchise, then this won't change your mind.
Breaking Dawn, Part 2
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Plot Summary: The final chapter in The Twilight Saga finds Bella testing out her new vampire powers and learning what it's like to live life as she decided. Release Date: November 16, 2012 |
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Rating: None Commentary: Poster was a placeholder at the time this post was written. |
Rating: D Commentary: More of a teaser than a full-blow trailer, they got all the three principle actors in there, but neglected to do anything useful with their time, except alienate anyone who likes deer. |
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Preview Link: CLICK HERE for link to the trailer, more posters (if available) and other commentary not featured here. Oscar Chances: None. |
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Trailer Watch: Bel Ami
A beautiful friend, this film is not.
Bel Ami
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Plot Summary: A young soldier returns home and begins affairs with three married women in an attempt to find love, satisfaction and security. Release Date: June 8, 2012 |
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Rating: C+ Commentary: Without making it seem stuffy, this is probably the best they could come up with while highlighting Robert Pattinson. |
Rating: C Commentary: Pattinson's should-be-trademarked growl/grimace is back and it doesn't look like it's been put to better use. The film looks painful and while I thinkt it would be interesting to see Kristin Scott Thomas, Christina Ricci and Uma Thurman in a costume drama, this probably won't be it. |
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Preview Link: CLICK HERE for link to the trailer, more posters (if available) and other commentary not featured here. Oscar Chances: With this kind of film, Costume Design and Art Direction are always possibilities, but I wouldn't hold my breath. |
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Trailer Watch: Men in Black 3 (trailer #2, poster #1)
Josh Brolin may be the only worthy thing about this movie.
Men in Black 3 (trailer #2, poster #1)
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Plot Summary: K has gone missing and J must go back in time to unravel the mystery. Release Date: May 25, 2012 |
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Rating: C- Commentary: Selling the film, it will do. Defining the film, it will not. |
Rating: C Commentary: A little more information does make it more compelling and getting to see Josh Brolin's dead-on impersonation of Tommy Lee Jones is fun, but the film looks not only like more of the same, but more of the same that wasn't very good to begin with. |
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Preview Link: CLICK HERE for link to the trailer, more posters (if available) and other commentary not featured here. Oscar Chances: See Previous Preview |
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Trailer Watch: Rock of Ages (trailer #2)
You must always give an Adam Shankman musical a chance.
Rock of Ages (trailer #2)
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Plot Summary: The acclaimed Broadway musical, about two young lovers trying to make it big in the big city, makes its way to the big screen. Release Date: June 1, 2012 |
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Rating: N/A Commentary: See Previous Preview |
Rating: C+ Commentary: Everything seems so formulaic in the second trailer. The humor's very shallow, though the music is engaging. It's still going to be something to see, but I'm not as interested as I was originally. |
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Preview Link: CLICK HERE for link to the trailer, more posters (if available) and other commentary not featured here. Oscar Chances: See Previous Preview |
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Trailer Watch: Ted
A Seth MacFarlane movie can't be all bad.
Ted
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Plot Summary: A young boy's wish gives voice to his teddy bear. Both of them get older, but will either of them grow up? Release Date: July 13, 2012 |
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Rating: B Commentary: It's an amusing design that will certainly snag all of the intended audience who happen near a movie poster display at any time. |
Rating: B Commentary: Seth MacFarlane's humor is all over the trailer and there's absolutely nothing wrong with that. It looks a bit predictable, but the fun promises to make up for that. |
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Preview Link: CLICK HERE for link to the trailer, more posters (if available) and other commentary not featured here. Oscar Chances: None. |
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Trailer Watch: Buzzkill
This ain't the Second City I remember.
Buzzkill
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Plot Summary: A road trip sex comedy about an unlucky and self-conscious man whose ability to function is continually in doubt. Release Date: January 20, 2012 |
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Rating: C- Commentary: I don't really understand how this is meant to entice people into the movie. Apart from the "Second City" mention, there's nothing even remotely tantalizing about this. |
Rating: D Commentary: The reason I even checked this trailer out was the tagline "The Second City presents". In its day, Second City's variety show SCTV was better than Saturday Night Live, but didn't last as long as it should have. Today, the comedy troupe seems at a loss to field a worthy effort on the big screen with the tiny cameo of Andrea Martin the only bright spot in an otherwise unfunny trailer. |
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Preview Link: CLICK HERE for link to the trailer, more posters (if available) and other commentary not featured here. Oscar Chances: None. |
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