The trailer for The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is very careful not to give away any major plot points. But when the premise of your movie is the story of a man who ages backwards, I guess you don’t need to reveal too much to get people interested.

Brad Pitt stars as Benjamin, and Cate Blanchett is the woman he knew as a child, when he was an old man, who he falls in love with as an adult, when he’s a young man. Confusing, yes, but after seeing the bizarre old-man child in the trailer, I am indeed curious to see how Benjamin looks as a young-child old man. I’ll eventually RENT IT.

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is not yet rated and opens December 19. (Official site)

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)

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.

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)

I attended an advance screening of Stardust last night, and I still stand by my RENT IT review. It was better than I was anticipating, and actually quite funny at times, but I really can’t think of any reason to encourage you to shell out $11 to see it.

I’ll keep this brief since the movie actually opens today, and honestly, I can’t think of anything too remarkable (either good or bad) to comment on. But the one item I have to draw attention to is Robert De Niro. His role is relatively small and he doesn’t even appear until midway through the movie, but his performance as Captain Shakespeare, the airborne pirate, makes the entire movie. I don’t want to give anything away, but even if you’re not a fan of fantasy movies, or even of De Niro (do such people exist?), Stardust is worth a viewing for his part alone. Just wait for the DVD.

A few years ago when the novel The Kite Runner was a huge hit, I avoided it like the plague, despite several people telling how good it was. My reasons were twofold: one, I was sick of hearing about conflicts in the Middle East, so I had no interest in reading a novel about them, and two, the last book that was recommended to me so highly was The Da Vinci Code, which I hated once I read it. I eventually found a copy of The Kite Runner in a used book store for $2, so I bit the bullet and got it. And I was pleasantly surprised to see that for once, something had lived up to its hype.

If you’re turned off by the Middle East setting like I was at first, give it a try. It’s just the backdrop; the actual story is an unbelievably moving tale about two Afghan boys, raised like brothers, who lose each other in a devastating way. Themes of friendship, loyalty, loss of innocence, cowardice, retribution, and redemption run throughout the story and you find yourself empathizing with characters you initially thought you had nothing in common with.

If done right, this is a definite SEE IT. I just pray this is an adaptation that doesn’t get lost in its translation to film.

The Kite Runner is rated PG-13 and opens November 2. (Official site)

Here’s a combo trailer/movie review for you. And the trailer review is quite simple: This movie looks pretty stupid.

But then I got passes to a free screening, and like any New Yorker worth her salt, I rarely turn down anything that’s free. After the movie was over I was left thinking, “That movie was pretty stupid. And friggin’ hilarious!” I honestly can’t remember the last time I laughed so hard and repeatedly asked, “What the fuck…?” at the same time.

The story is the age-old tale of a young man trying to prove himself…by kicking his stepfather’s ass. Evel Knievel-wannabe Rod Kimble wants nothing more than to earn the love and respect of his stepfather, Frank, and to do so, he must beat Frank in a no-holds barred fight. Unfortunately, Frank is played by Ian McShane (a badass to beat all badasses), so Rod doesn’t stand a chance. Suddenly Frank needs a heart transplant to live, and the family needs $50,000 they don’t have for the operation. So Rod decides to raise the money by performing the ultimate stunt, then Frank can get his new heart so Rod can “beat him to death.”

Hot Rod borrows every ‘triumph over adversity’ movie cliché: there’s an extended training montage, overly dramatic speeches of inspiration, a love interest that comes out of nowhere, and a crew of misfits who must triumph in the end. But it all plays out hilariously thanks to the comedic skills of Andy Samberg as Rod, who is never afraid to look like a moron or take a punch (or twelve) in the name of getting a laugh. The movie feels like one of Samberg’s digital shorts from Saturday Night Live (often the only funny parts of SNL) combined with stunts from MTV’s Jackass.

Now the tricky part…what rating to give this movie. If you enjoy the irreverent humor that Samberg has brought to SNL (or The Lonely Island, his pre-SNL claim to fame), I have no doubt you’ll find this movie hilarious. But I’m not sure it’s worth spending $11 on to see in theaters. So I have to give Hot Rod a RENT IT, but if you’ve had your fill of all the summer epics and are in need of a good laugh, you may want to consider seeing it.

Hot Rod is rated PG-13 and opens August 3. (Official site)

Remember all the hubbub about the new J.J. Abrams production, where Manhattan is mysteriously attacked by some ominous roar? Supposedly it had a fake working title of Cloverfield, but Vulture is now reporting that the movie is (most likely) named Monstrous. Grainy camera-phone pictures show the title on posters for the movie, and Paramount has bought the domain TheMonstrousMovie.com.

Monstrous? That’s the best they could do? Really? Well, I guess Chtulu would be a little hard to pronounce. Judging by all the excitement this movie has already generated, the movie could be called Reading From the Dictionary and it would be a hit.

Previously:
Transformers Comes With a Mystery “Cloverfield” 1-18-08 Trailer
Comments From a Cloverfield Insider

Update (11-19-07): A new, longer trailer just hit the internet. Check it out here.

Update (07-16-07): Since the debate still seems to be going strong, I thought I’d add this poll, just so that I can quantify exactly what you guys think this movie is really going to be about. Please take a second and place your vote.

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Update (07-09-07): It looks like Paramount is taking the “if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em” approach, because they just officially released the trailer through Apple. I’ve embedded an HD version of it below. On the other hand, if you get nostalgic for the grainy cell-phone camera versions, you can still find them here.

Update (07-08-07): Check out our TrailerSpy exclusive: Comments from a Cloverfield Insider!!

Update (7-24-07): The movie has a title! And it’s lame!

Want to create a viral marketing campaign for your untitled movie? Run a trailer for it before a hot summer blockbuster, and only mention the new movie’s release date. That’s right, before showings of Transformers, a mysterious trailer says little except that it’s a J.J. Abrams film that will open on 1-18-08.

I have my own (very strong) opinions about this trailer, but I’d rather hear your opinions first. Thoughts? Let’s hear ‘em.

Untitled J.J. Abrams movie (with a fake working title of Cloverfield) is not yet rated and opens on 1-18-08. Thanks to Defamer for the tip. Also, check out the movie’s official site and IMDb page.

If I had to pick a pair of actors that I never thought I’d see together in a film, Nicole Kidman and Jack Black would probably be at the top of my list (somewhere near Dame Judi Dench and Borat). But yet here they are, together in the latest portrait of a dysfunctional family from writer/director Noah Baumbach. Baumbach also wrote and directed The Squid and the Whale, a portrait of one of the most dysfunctional families I’ve ever seen, so the man knows what he’s doing.

Kidman is Margot, the disapproving and judgmental older sister of Jennifer Jason Leigh’s Pauline, who is engaged to Jack Black’s Malcolm, a role that’s far more serious than what we’re used to seeing him play. Pauline is perfectly happy in her relationship, until Margot arrives and plants the seed of doubt in her brain by bluntly stating that Malcolm is “like the guys we rejected when we were 16.” That seed starts to grow and blossom, causing strain and anger between all three characters.

I liked The Squid and the Whale and I like family dramas that don’t involve my own, but I’m going to wait and RENT IT. Now, if my Judi Dench/Borat vehicle ever gets picked up, that would be something worth paying to see…I’m thinking a comedic update of a Dickens’ novel…

Margot at the Wedding is rated R and opens October 19. No official site yet, here’s the IMDB page.