Comic-Con Trailers

Whether or not we are nerds, movie lovers, or television fans, everyone has heard about the event known as San Diego Comic-Con. I have a goal to make it out to the west coast for that spectacle one year, attend all the events I can in each hall and see the stars of my favorite films and shows. I want to partake in the excitement of seeing the footage of coming attractions, but until that day comes, I just have to watch them as they are released online. 

First, we have an origin story of an classic cinema character that continues to overcome the test of time in Kong: Skull Island

Next, a literary character's story is retold as Charlie Hunnam trades in his Sons of Anarchy leather for a tunic in King Arthur: Legend of the Sword.

The woods of a 1999 horror classic spurs a sequel in Blair Witch, coming to theaters in September.

The Wizarding World made an appearance at Comic-Con as a new full-trailer for Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, coming out this November. 

Saving some of the best for last, we FINALLY get a preview for one of next summer's biggest movies. An Amazon princess leaves her island home to explore the world, and becomes the greatest of its heroes. Gal Gadot returns in Wonder Woman.

Finally, we get a small tease of the DC's Expanded Universe next big-budget film; an ensemble film that has been years in the making. Coming off the heels of the events in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, Bruce Wayne (Ben Affleck), fueled by his restored faith in humanity and inspired by Superman's (Henry Cavill) selfless act, enlists the help of his newfound ally, Diana Prince (Gal Gadot), to unite a team of outcasts to face an even greater enemy. 

We get live action shots of Barry Allen (Ezra Miller) as the Flash, Victor Stone (Ray Fisher) as Cyborg, and a mute but aggressive Arthur Curry/Aquaman (Jason Momoa). After Dawn of Justice, I'm still hesitant on this film but I'm optimistic for now. 

 

That's all of the film that have had trailer releases in San Diego. Which ones catch you eye? Which one do you need to see more to get on board? I hope you all enjoy these videos. 

A diverse band of outlaws assemble in newest 'The Magnificent Seven' trailer

Westerns used to be all the rage a generation ago. From John Wayne's plethora of Western films to Sergio Leone's Dollars Trilogy that starred Clint Eastwood, they were well-received and happened almost as regular as today's Superhero films. Now, they come rarely and appear mediocre in comparison to those of the past. Some parodies have come along like Adam Sandler's Netflix original, The Ridiculous Six and one or two prove to be good like Tarantino's snowy western, The Hateful Eight. Soon, viewers will be staring down the barrel of Antoine Fuqua's The Magnificent Seven, a remake of John Sturgis' iconic 1960 Western (itself, a remake of Akira Kurosawa's Seven Samurai).

Denzel Washington stars as Chisolm, a bounty hunter recruited by a vengeful Emma Cullen (Haley Bennett) to settle the score against oppressive industrialist Bartholomew Bogue (Peter Sarsgaard). Understanding he'll need help, Chisolm recruits a strikeforce of desperadoes. The seven are vastly outnumbered by Bogue army of cronie but seem up to the challenge.

From the trailer, this team seems to get along fairly well for a band of misfits that includes: gambler Josh Farraday (Chris Pratt), sharpshooter Goodnight Robicheaux (Ethan Hawke), trapper Jack Horne (Vincent D'Onofrio), assassin Billy Rocks (Lee Byung-Hun), outlaw Vasquez (Manuel Garcia-Rulfo), and Comanche warrior Red Harvest (Martin Sensmeier). They seem to think on their feet and love to blow stuff up. I think it'll be a fair fight to watch.

The Magnificent Seven rides in on September 23.

Emily Blunt is terrifying in new 'The Girl on the Train' trailer

The second trailer for The Girl on the Train came barreling into the online station today, giving viewers a closer look at Emily Blunt's depressed, alcoholic heroine, Rachel Watson.

But it seems like she is anything but helpful in this preview.

Based on Paula Hawkins' surprising best-seller 2015 thriller, The Girl on the Train follows Rachel (Blunt), a depressed, unemployed woman who invents a fantasy life for a couple that she spies from the train on her morning commute - then she grows dangerously involved in the police investigation when the wife (Haley Bennett) turns up missing, an event that she witnessed from the window of her train.

In this trailer, we get a deeper look at the details surrounding the case: the fantasy couple, Megan (Bennett) and Scott (Luke Evans), live a couple of houses down from Rachel's ex-husband, Tom (Justin Theroux) and his new wife. Naturally, suspicions eventually turn to Rachel herself. She was stated to be seen in the area the night of the disappearance and, as the trailer reaches its conclusion, Rachel seems to become more unstable as she searches for answers.

But Rachel has another thing to fear: herself.

I love this trailer and its chilling tone, effectively setting up the mystery in the film's story. Emily Blunt seems to own her flawed and, apparently, fragile heroine. It still echoes Gone Girl to me and it could also be a sleeper hit of the fall season, especially considering the popularity of the film. It's definitely a film I will spend money going to see.

The Girl on the Train comes into theaters on October 7.

'Ghostbusters' and its female cast spooks up an impressive reboot

Hey, everyone! As usual, life gets in the way but I'm back with another review!

When the Ghostbusters reboot was announced, the all-female leading cast revealed, and the first trailer released, let's just say that the reviews were less than positive. The first trailer was probably one of the most polarizing of this year. Personally, the jokes were mildly funny and didn't impress, not even being bothered by the cast. However, the cast seemed to be the main reason why the film wasn't hitting it off with critics. Personally, I think it was more of the nostalgia from the fans that caused problems more than the cast. 

There is only one way that you can tell if a film is good or bad: See it for yourself. 

Ghostbusters introduces Dr. Erin Gilbert (Kristen Wiig), a teacher at Columbia University and the co-author of a book which poses the existence of paranormal phenomenon such as ghosts. Because of the book's unpopularity, she distances herself from the work. Learning the book has resurfaced, Gilbert visits the other co-author and former friend, Dr. Abby Yates (Melissa McCarthy). Yates has continued the study of the paranormal at a technical college with eccentric  engineer Dr. Jillian Holtzmann (Kate McKinnon). With Gilbert grudgingly tagging along, the trio is recruited to assist on a paranormal investigation. When this proves Gilbert and Yates' theory on the paranormal, they decide to open a department to study the paranormal. Drawing the attention of MTA Patty Tolan (Leslie Jones), who had her own experience with ghosts of New York City, and she joins the team to save the city from a paranormal event.

I'll admit that I wasn't completely high on this movie but, after viewing it, this reboot is a lot better than I thought it would be. The four main cast members had great chemistry and the focus on the characters and how they worked as a team, making them more three-dimensional (always director Paul Feig's strength) helped strengthen the film. As far as the characters overall, Kate McKinnon's Holtzmann was hilariously creative and owning her character, showing that her work on Saturday Night Live gave her the needed foundation in her first big film. Chris Hemsworth, more known as Marvel's resident God of Thunder, Thor, certainly showed off his comedic chops by playing the handsome but dim-witted secretary Kevin Beckman. Out of the main cast, those two roles stood out to me. Melissa McCarthy was her usual comedian self along with Kristen Wiig. Leslie Jones was marginally funny to me, only providing a few gut-busting laughs. 

The CGI really works in 3-D but it does drag the film down a little, especially when they were testing out their weapons. There were cameos by the members of the original cast with Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Ernie Hudson, and Sigourney Weaver but this film does a good job of standing on its own, setting itself up for a future sequel. Even through it is difficult to not compare it to the original, which it pales in comparison, the film and its marvelous cast does a great job in honoring the past. 

Now, we can only hope that the sequel doesn't follow the same course as Ghostbusters 2. 

Blake Lively delivers a sleeper of a good movie with 'The Shallows'

At the halfway point of the summer, I think it's safe to say that it has been a bit of a letdown after the start of the movie season in May. The box office has been buzzing wonderfully so far, but there are very few movies that people are actually talking about at work, around water coolers, etc. After the release of the superhero blockbusters like Captain America: Civil War and X-Men: Apocalypse to sequels like Finding Dory, there were very few original films that you could talk about later after the summer is over. When I heard about Blake Lively's shark movie The Shallows, I didn't think anything of it. I didn't expect Jaws - or even the occasionally "good" open water film that involves the ocean's greatest predator. But after watching the trailers, you already have the sense that it could be a guilty pleasure film that you take a chance on. Which it exactly turns out to be. Lively's not here to break new ground. And it's disappointingly light on great white-caused slaughter. But if you are looking for a 90-minute, check-your-brain-at-the-ticket-window distraction from the world, this is your surprise hit.

The Shallows stars Lively (The Age of Adaline, The Town) as Nancy Adams - a resourceful med school who travels to a secluded beach in Mexico that her late mother spoke about with beautiful admiration. After her traveling companion flakes on her due to a hangover, the solo Nancy decides to go alone. The beach is just as she was told by her mother and shown in pictures. After meeting up with some local surfers, she surfs until they leave her in the water. After a 20-foot predator takes a chunk of her and her surfboard, Adams makes it to a tiny rock that gets smaller and more precarious as the tide comes in. From there, we see Adams using her resources and an unintentional assist from the surfers in the form of a Go Pro camera to survive. 

Directed by Jaume Collet-Serra, this movie had the same pulpy absurdness that was seen in Liam Nesson's Unknown and Non-Stop. The Shallows tries to be the actress' 127 Hours but it just comes off as an easy-on-the-eyes, bikini-clad woman in peril. The movie doesn't try to overthink or make itself out more than what it actually is. You're not rooting for the shark but you are not rooting against it either. It is a game of cat and mouse between human and animal; Nancy using her wits and MacGyvers her way through this movie while the shark circles for his next opportunity to capture his prey. While the film knows its audience and the attention span of the people they were trying to attract, Collet-Serra and writer Anthony Jaswinski could have added in some more comedic lines for Lively and maybe amped up the action with the shark. There is a small nod to Cast Away with a cranky bird Nancy names Steven Seagull keeping her company. Overall, it was a surprise hit for me and for Rotten Tomatoes, who has certified the movie 'Fresh'. I would recommend this shark film for anyone looking for a quick but enjoyable film. 

'Independence Day: Resurgence' doubles down on action but story fails unneeded sequel.

Twenty years ago, director Roland Emmerich put out a little world ending movie known as Independence Day. The lead for this movie was Will Smith, who at that time had the fame of classic television series The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air and had one big budget film, Bad Boys. Independence Day was Will Smith's coming out party for Hollywood to see him as a bankable star, especially in the summer. Along with Jeff Goldblum and Bill Pullman, the world was saved from alien invaders and science fiction films officially made a comeback in Hollywood.

Rumors of a sequel was long discussed for years, languishing in developmental hell and becoming forgotten while the script went through rewrite after rewrite. After a long process, it became unknown if this movie would even happen. This year, Emmerich was finally able to release his long-awaited sequel on the world.

Twenty years after the War of 1996, we find the world united more than ever and finally at peace. The remains of the alien technology has been reverse engineered and used to protect the world on global scale. The veterans of the war include now Earth Space Defense Director David Levinson (Jeff Goldblum),Judd Hirsch as his proud papa, former president Whitmore (Bill Pullman), who seems to be broken and half-crazy in the aftermath of the war, and Brent Spiner as the nutty professor who snaps out of an unexplained 20-year coma at the right time in the film. Vivica A. Fox even makes a return (who's so unimportant that if this was a Star Trek film, she could have been wearing a red shirt). A distress call (that took twenty years to find out by the way) sent into deep space has brought the aliens major fleet back to Earth for vengeance.

I'll put this out there first: the movie was not the same without Will Smith. Since Smith is too savvy (and too rich) these days to be seen near this sequel, the first third of the movie is a roll call of the old and new faces - there's the stoic and unmemorable Jesse Usher as the heroic second-generation flyboy of Smith's dead Captain Hiller; Liam Hemsworth as a cocky space pilot that tries to channel Tom Cruise from Top Gun...and fails at it miserably; Maika Monroe plays his love interest as the now adult daughter of Whitmore. I could really only care about the female Whitmore because it seemed she had more to do as far as the new cast and seemed more passionate in her scenes, trying to make her character more three-dimensional.

I went to see this movie in IMAX 3D so I will vouch for the spot on special effects but overall, there is nothing completely impressive about Resurgence. It's a complete popcorn flick but even popcorn flicks have to be decent. I have never felt less invested in the survival of the human race. Landmarks are destroyed as always, which is basically Emmerich's signature in his films. It turns out they want more than to just wipe us out this time. They want to get their slimy tentacles on something else. Why? What? Who? How? Insurgence does make some sense but is just not that enjoyable. I'm not completely against the film but I feel like it could have been better given the time it was taken to work on the sequel. There is a serious lack of wit and charm in this film that was missing from the original. The best idea of wit is Liam Hemsworth taking a leak on an alien spaceship while giving them the finger. In a sense, that's exactly what Independence Day: Resurgence did for those smart people that said a sequel was not necessary, needed, or wanted.

Comedic chemistry helps overcome a dull script in 'Central Intelligence'

Hey, everyone! I know I've been gone for a while but things have been crazy in my life! New job, new member of my family, and just trying to get my life more in order. But I'm sure you all might not want to hear about that! While I've been busy, the movies I've seen has been piling up so I think it's time for me to return with some new reviews!

I figured a comedy is the best way to start, starring two of the hardest workers in Hollywood right now.

The story of Central Intelligence starts in a high school in 1996, Calvin Joyner (Kevin Hart) is the popular kid in school: the all-american high school athlete and dating the popular girl. Meanwhile, Robbie Weirdicht (Dwayne Johnson) is the overweight kid with no friends. After a nude Robbie is embarrassed by a couple of bullies during the last high school pep rally, Calvin saved him by giving him his Letterman jacket. Twenty years later, Calvin is an accountant and married to his high school sweetheart and he never heard from Robbie Weirdicht until a friend request from Bob Stone, who turns out to be an bigger, built Robbie, reunites high school hero with high school loser.

While at school, Calvin was on top of the world and Robbie was at the bottom of the social totem pole. Years later, Calvin is unsatisfied with where his life has gone; he was passed over for a promotion that was given to his former assistant while his wife, Maggie (Danielle Nicolet), is a partner at her law firm and very happy. With their 20 year high school reunion approaching, Calvin is not planning on attending but Bob forces Calvin to change his mind once Bob reveals he not only works for the CIA, but hunted by the agency as well.

Now, the plot is not that strong at all. I'll put that out there right now. It's very thin, where the threads do not cohere. It switches from a slow build to full on action on a moment's notice while still making time for Hart to be hilariously clumsy and Dwayne sticking to his usual fist-to-face action while still trying to stay in character as the 90's loving CIA agent. The chemistry between Johnson and Hart definitely carried the film and chemistry is something that needs to be apparent in a buddy comedy like this Hart and Johnson played off of each other, hilariously helping their characters develop during the 107 minutes of movie time and helping them overcome their personal fears. Again, if you have seen one buddy comedy, you have probably seen them all. Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson has mostly stuck with action over the past few years and brought some dry humor along with him. This film really showed that he can be as entertaining in an action-comedy movie. Whether or not his comedy chops will be expanded upon in an R-rated comedy with the upcoming Baywatch movie remains to be seen.

Overall, this film directed by Rawson Marshall Thurber (We're the Millers) was a breezy, undemanding summer comedy flick that is coming in at the right time and you can watch over and over again...on cable television on repeat. It's not a terrible, God-awful movie but it's in the middle ground as far as being a decent film.

I have other movies to review so everyone stay tuned!