Is it me or have there been about twenty superhero movies in the past two years? What does Hollywood think we are, a bunch of idiots? I mean, it’s not like we’re just going to watch any superhero movie they throw at us, right? Right????

Well, unfortunately Hollywood has us by the balls on this one. Fight as we may, we all know that superhero movies are box-office gold. Even when all the critics warn us that the movie is awful, we still seem to watch it in droves. Hell, even when we don’t particularly care for the superhero being portrayed, we still watch, if only just to see what all the hype is about.

Take this new Iron Man movie for example. It’s a guy in a metal suit with a jet-pack. I mean, I could think up a more creative superhero in my sleep. And I’m about as anxious for another superhero movie as I am for my next dentist appointment. And yet, I have no doubt that I am going to SEE IT in the theaters.

Why, you ask? Why don’t I just stick to my principles and boycott this thing? Well, because I know I’ll be entertained. Even if the dialogue is cheesy (which it certainly will be) and the story is formulaic (ditto), I know that it’ll still be action packed from beginning to end, which is more than I can say about most films.

Plus, I love Robert Downey Jr, and I think he’ll make a great superhero. The Iron Man character is somewhat of a poor man’s Batman, and Robert Downey Jr. fits the bill perfectly. He’s playful, irreverent, and suave in a kind of dorky way. And from watching this trailer, you can tell that they gave him the necessary creative freedoms.

Yeah, I guess I am a bit of an idiot, but I’m not going to miss a good flick just because I’ve got principles.

Iron Man is not yet rated and opens May 2. (Official Site)

Riddle me this: Why is it that a trailer featuring a young couple in love, whose time together is cut short by his death, leaves me with a warm fuzzy feeling?

No, it’s not because of my schadenfreudic nature, but rather from a rather eclectic and promising cast. There’s Hilary Swank and Gerard Butler as the young couple in question (you know him from 300, I know him from The Phantom of the Opera. Let’s just agree to disagree). He’s a goofy Irishman, she’s a somewhat uptight American; naturally they’re going to make an adorable pair. Then, after he’s dead, a series of letters he prearranged are delivered to her that instruct her to go on crazy adventures, thus helping her to start her life anew without him. (Methinks this means he was aware of his imminent doom for awhile, though the trailer makes no indication of what sort of tragedy ended his short life.)

And who better to grieve and have crazy adventures with than Gina Gershon and Phoebe, I mean, Lisa Kudrow? And what better eye candy to make you get over your dead husband than Jeffrey Dean Morgan (Denny!) and Harry Connick, Jr.? And the icing on the cake: your mom is Kathy Bates!

P.S., I Love You is definitely not going to shake the foundation of modern cinema, but it certainly looks charming enough for my Netflix queue, so I’m going to RENT IT.

P.S., I Love You is rated PG-13 and opens December 21. (Official site)

Well, the bad news is that our offer to host people’s indie trailers hasn’t quite taken off yet. As of today, we only have one independent filmmaker who has uploaded his trailer to the site. However, the good news is that there are a slew of other good independent movies whose marketing campaigns seem to be reaching a national audience, even without the help of TrailerSpy.

Of those, I am particularly interested in the movie Wristcutters: A Love Story. In addition to having a really great title, Wristcutters also has a really interesting story line. In a nutshell, the story is about a guy who commits suicide and soon finds out that the afterlife is just as depressing as his normal life (not to mention the fact that you keep the scars from your suicide when you cross over).

This story excites me for a variety of reasons. Not only is it really creative and unique, it also proves that just because a filmmaker has a low budget, that doesn’t mean they can’t make a movie with a high concept. Also, I love the idea of a movie reinventing our concept of the afterlife. It reminds me a lot of Defending Your Life, which I really loved (and I don’t say that about many Albert Brooks movies).

Although I’m probably going to wait and RENT IT, I am definitely excited to do so. I definitely need more independent film in my life (and more independent film trailers on our site!)

Wristcutters: A Love Story is rated R and opens October 19. (Official Site)

I only had to hear one thing to make Juno a SEE IT for me: that it re-teams Arrested Development alums Jason Bateman and Michael Cera. Granted, going by the trailer it looks like their characters don’t really have any interactions, but who cares?

Ellen Page (who in Hard Candy managed to scare men everywhere in ways a bunny boiling Glenn Close only wishes she could) is Juno, a teenage girl who finds herself pregnant after a misguided attempt at first-time sex with her awkward male friend (Cera). Rather than terminate the pregnancy, she decides to have the baby and then give it to a couple unable to have children. And what better place to find such a couple than in the local Penny Saver?! It’s there that she finds her ideal couple, played by Bateman and Jennifer Garner, who she attempts to build a friendship with before giving birth to her/their child.

The trailer for Juno gives off a very Little Miss Sunshine vibe in that it looks to be a mixture of quirkiness, bizarre charm, and a little bit of melancholy. The combination definitely worked for Sunshine, and with a cast like this being directed by the Thank You For Smoking director, Jason Reitman, I definitely think that Juno has more than a good chance of making the formula work for itself.

Juno is rated PG-13 and opens in limited release December 14. (Official site)

Those of you who saw my Live Free or Die Hard post a while back know that I’m a sucker for sequels, if only because I just can’t get enough of certain movie characters. However, Rambo isn’t necessarily one of those characters.

I understand that the only real point of a movie is to entertain people, but in my eyes, all of the Rambo movies have seemed even more pointless than most. To me, it feels like the Rambo character was invented as an excuse to create a violent movie, as opposed to what it should be, which is that a movie’s violence is necessary to tell the character’s story.

And yet, despite my indifference about the Rambo franchise, I find myself strangely excited about this latest edition.

I guess when I think about it, this has more to do with my respect for Sylvester Stallone than for his Rambo character. Sure, Sly may be sixty-something and hopped up on HGH, but there’s also something about him that reminds me of a little kid who refuses to stop playing with his favorite toy. I mean, you’d think that Sly would be satisfied with his successful career and would just accept that he’s too old for this s**t, but no. It doesn’t matter what the critics say, Sly simply refuses to go quietly into the night. And why the hell should he? Who cares what the critics say; if you love doing something that much, you shouldn’t let anybody stop you.

Even though I don’t really care what excuse they’ve come up with for Rambo to start killing everyone again, this movie is still a SEE IT for me. Sly really impressed me by what he did with Rocky Balboa, and there’s no reason to think that he won’t impress me with John Rambo, as well.

John Rambo is going to be rated R and it won’t be opening anytime soon (which is why these teaser trailers keep leaking out, instead of being officially released).

The full length trailer for There Will Be Blood is now available, and I stand by the SEE IT I gave the teaser. This looks to be a great and very tense drama, and I will probably shell out 11 of my hard-earned dollars to see it in the theater.

Slight change in the release date: There Will Be Blood is rated R and opens in limited release December 26.

After a couple months of hard work, I am proud to announce the official launch of the new and improved TrailerSpy!

I’ve had a lot of fun since joining Julie a little less than a year ago to work on TrailerSpy. However, one of my biggest frustrations has been our inability to post the full compliment of movie trailers that arrive online every week. In addition, with only Julie, Rachel and I writing part-time for the site, it was impossible to expand the site to include other types of trailers, such as game trailers and fan-made trailers. With these issues in mind, there was really only one solution going forward: to recruit the help of our visitors.

As you’ll notice from the “Upload!” tab above, we’ve transformed TrailerSpy from a blog into sort of a blog / video-sharing-site hybrid. From now on, visitors will be able to upload trailers directly to the site, just like on YouTube or MetaCafe. And like YouTube, you’ll now be able to rate each trailer, as well as sort the trailers by most viewed, top rated, etc.

This upload feature also allows us to finally expand the site to include game trailers and fan trailers (notice the snazzy new tabs). And perhaps the most exciting part (to me at least) is that independent filmmakers will now be able to upload trailers for their own films, as well (in my opinion, there’s a lot of good indie films out there and not nearly enough avenues to promote them).

Of course, TrailerSpy will still be a blog, as well. As before, Julie, Rachel and I will continue to give our opinions of each upcoming movie and whether to SEE IT, SKIP IT or RENT IT. However, now you’ll only see the newest post displayed on the home page, while the rest of the blog posts will be accessible by clicking the “Featured Trailers” tab up top.

Granted, this new and improved TrailerSpy will probably take a little while to catch on, and I’m sure that there won’t be a whole lot of trailers hosted on the site in the beginning. However, I’m hoping that our visitors (that’s you guys) will help us add to our collection and perhaps even spread the word a bit, and hopefully in the near future TrailerSpy 2.0 will be as fun for you guys to participate in as TrailerSpy 1.0 has been for us.

Anyway, that’s all for now. If you encounter any quirks in the new site, please let me know. And I’d love to hear what you think of it in general.

As a movie fan, I’ve noticed that I often give up my own free will at random times. For example, when I come across one of my favorite movies on television, I have no choice but to watch it, even though I’ve seen the movie a million times before. Also, even though I despise celebrity gossip, I find that I have no choice but to pay attention to it, if only to hear what’s being said about my favorite actors. But probably the clearest example of me giving up my free will is when one of my favorite directors makes a new movie, giving me absolutely no choice but to go and see it in the theater.

For example, when Francis Ford Coppola comes out of hiding to direct his first movie in 10 years (yes, 10!), I don’t even try to fight it. In these situations, I find it’s best to just go limp and give complete control to the power of the Coppola…just tell me when and where, Francis…I am at your command.

For those of you who didn’t know that Francis Ford Coppola was working on a new movie (his first since 1997’s The Rainmaker), well, now you know. Unfortunately, this teaser trailer doesn’t show much, but it delivers the message it’s supposed to: Francis Ford Coppola has a new movie. Youth Without Youthis based on the book by Mircea Eliade, and it stars Tim Roth. Apparently, Coppola shot the movie on an extremely low budget, and unfortunately, the word on the street is that the movie is good, but not necessarily the most entertaining thing to sit through.

But screw it, I’m still going to SEE IT as soon as I can. After all, who knows when the director of The Godfather is going to direct another film again (unless of course you believe IMDB, which says that he’s working on another one as we speak).

Youth Without Youth is rated R and opens in limited release on December 14. (Official Site)

I don’t know about you, but I’m pretty disappointed with the selection of trailers coming out for the fall. Let’s start toting out the big holiday film and Oscar bait trailers! So rather than continuing to struggle to find a trailer I’m into enough to do a full length review on, here are three big dramas coming out with just a brief recap of each.

Up first is Eastern Promises. There are several things I would never want to come face to face with in a dark alley, and two of them are the Russian mafia and Viggo Mortensen. So a movie that stars Mortensen as a member of the Russian mafia is bound to be a tense one. Naomi Watts also stars as a midwife who attempts to translate the Russian diary of a young girl who dies while giving birth under her care. Apparently, she should learn to just leave well enough alone, since translating said diary seems to really upset some pretty scary Eastern Europeans. David Cronenberg, who directed Mortensen in A History of Violence, directs, and if Violence is any indication of what these two men can do together, Eastern Promises should be a very intense drama. But still not one I’ll be paying $11 to see. RENT IT

Eastern Promises is rated R and opens September 21 (Official site).

Next is Reservation Road, a drama that centers around the tragic death of a child and is based off a novel I have yet to read. Joaquin Phoenix and Jennifer Connelly are the couple whose son is killed by a hit-and-run driver. Mark Ruffalo is the hit-and-run driver, as well as a law associate. Ruffalo then finds himself helping in the hunt for justice when his law office is hired by Phoenix to help find the driver who took his son’s life. With this cast and this subject matter, make sure you keep tissues nearby. RENT IT

Reservation Road is rated R and opens October 19.

Finally, is When Did You Last See Your Father? As I’ve stated before, I love family dramas and I love Colin Firth, so I’ll definitely be checking this one out. The father in question is Firth’s, and is played by Jim Broadbent. There doesn’t seem to be much more to this film than a strained father-son relationship and a trip down memory lane when the father is dying of cancer…kind of like Big Fish, but without the fantasy element. Nevertheless, I plan on eventually checking it out, all for my love of Firth. RENT IT

When Did You Last See Your Father? is rated PG-13 and opens in February 2008 (Official site).

It’s possible that I’m alone on this one, but I am VERY excited about this film.

There is a certain type of story that only a book seems to capture properly and just never seems to translate well onto film. Stories like Siddhartha and The Fountainhead, where the action primarily takes place inside the character’s head, as he struggles to find personal enlightenment. Hollywood has tried many times over to recreate these types of stories on the big screen, but the movie versions always seem to bomb (Peaceful Warrior is the most recent example).

I suppose that’s why most people were been betting against Sean Penn when he decided to make a movie based on the very popular book, Into the Wild, the true story of a rich kid who turns his back on his parent’s money and instead seeks out adventure and enlightenment in the vast wilderness of Alaska. And it’s not hard to see why some people thought Penn was crazy…I mean, a kid alone in Alaska doesn’t seem like a very exciting movie.

However, the word on the street is that Penn pulled it off. According to the early buzz, the movie is supposed to be as good as the book was, which is a hell of a feet for this type of story. And judging from the trailer, it does look pretty great.

Granted, all of the hype may be just that…hype. But I plan on being one of the first to find out when I SEE IT on opening weekend. I love these kind of stories, and since I rarely get a chance to read a book anymore, I’m excited to watch a competent translation of one on the big screen.

Into the Wild is rated R and opens September 21. (Official Site)