Trailer Bonanza

A few trailers came out this week. I thought I'd give them all short reviews:


Shutter Island : the new Scorsese/DiCaprio collaboration. Looks moody, creepy and totally fun. Love that Scorsese is back to making genre movies. DiCaprio should be good as a put-upon grown-up a la Departed & Rev Road. Mark Ruffalo doesn't appear much in the trailer but I hope this a good showcase for this under-rated actor. Ben Kingsley is heavily featured in this: hope it is not another hammy performance for this way over-rated actor.


The Time Traveller's Wife : this could be very poignant and romantic or pure schmaltz. Rachel McAdams and Eric Bana look delicious but for some reason I'm not buying that they are in love. I miss the Mean Girl Rachel! I think it will be totally schmaltzy and a big miss.


Creation : Or THIS IS A VERY IMPORTANT MOVIE ABOUT IMPORTANT THINGS. Just looks totally awful. Don't think I need to say more.



500 Days of Summer : I've posted about this movie before. Can't wait. It looks so charming. I just want hug it, if i can. I still think this will be loved by many people. This new international trailer gives more context to the story and characters. Who would've thought that the kid from 3 Rocks from the Sun would grow up to be a romantic lead. Mark your calendars July 17th, we have a cute date.

Catching up with Summer Movies

For a movie blogger I've been very bad this summer. Hardly saw any of the summer movies. But finally catching up. Saw Hangover last week. Review coming soon. This weekend I'll get to Star Trek (finally!) and Away We Go. More and more it looks like Terminator:Salvation & Wolverine will have to wait for DVD. And I will never see Pelham 1,2, 3 or the Eddie Murphy kiddie flick, whatever it's called.

Looks like a very blah summer season.

What are you going to see this weekend?

NPH closes the Tony fabulously!

Did you catch the Tonys last night? If you haven't you didn't miss much. Billy Elliot won almost everything, including best actor in a musical for its 3 young stars who were charming and awkward in their acceptance speech; they are 14 & 15 after all. God of Carnage was best play while its star Marcia Gay Harden won best actress in a play and gave a gracious speech correcting the show's director who mixed up her competition; the stars of Mary Stuart.

The musical numbers mostly underwhelmed plus there were major mic problems. The opening number was huge and included participation from almost every musical currently on Broadway. Besides Bret Michaels maybe breaking his nose, the highlight was the number from Hair. It was riotous, loud and glee inducing. The cast came back later in the show and brought the house down. Everybody on that show has hair, including the producer!

But the best thing about the show was Neil Patrick Harris' closing number. I kinda was wondering why they chose him to host when he wasn't really used that much during the show. Besides a few jokes here and there, the best thing about him was his shiny suit. Then he closed the show with a parody of the show set to the tune of Tonight from West Side Story. Everything was up for a joke, from Elton and Liza to the Golden Globes. Watch it and laugh.

Review : Star Trek

We have our first ever guest reviewer : Jean Tsai of Mindful Eats.

Since Murtada hasn't seen Star Trek yet, he has given me the honor of reviewing it.

Star Trek is fun! It is usually torture for me to be inside when the weather is nice, and it was a PERFECT spring evening when I saw the movie. But it was so fun, I let go of my anger - I was so involved with the movie I was sad when it ended. Star Trek isn't a classic - but it's great, nonstop action with likable acting and an engaging storyline. You definitely want to see it on the big screen for the full special effects. I liked the original TV series, but it doesn't really matter if you did or not. Zoe Suldana does a knock out job as Uhura, and all the other actors are solid and adorable. Having Leonard Nimoy back is enjoyable too, even if it's not his best performance. Some people might complain that it's derivative of Star Wars, but I think it's just allegorical. There are definitely nods to the Jedi classics, but I see them as homages rather than rip-offs. The plot has a certain cleverness to it. SPOILER ALERT AHEAD: The time travel element is rather tiresome, so don't get in a twist about it and just overlook the trite annoyingness so you can enjoy. The one good thing about the time travel is that cleverly invalidates all the TV series (including the originals) and the movies before it as an alternate reality. So now we can look forward to the sequels! Live long and prosper everyone.

New Julie and Julia poster

It's cool. Not as inventive as the first poster but highlights the stars i.e the main attraction.


Thanks Bill for sending.

Warms My Heart

Apparently Maya Rudolph is the best thing about "Away We go". She's getting rave reviews. I've always liked her and thought she was the most natural and inventive actor of the SNLers.

Hope this is the start of a brilliant cinematic career.

June Movies

Looking forward to The Hangover and Away We Go this month. Besides the buzz and the reviews, I'll tell you why.

The Hangover just looks like dumb fun, every summer has one of those: There's Something About Mary, The 40 Year Old Virgin, Wedding Crashers. I never saw Old School, because i don't like Will Ferrell's juvenile humour but I'm willing to give director Todd Phillips another chance. The trailer of course looks very funny. And happy to see Bradley Cooper get a lead role.

Sam Mendes is the number one reason I'm looking forward to Away We Go. True American Beauty has not stood the test of time. But Jarhead was underrated and The Road to Perdition a moody unique piece of cinema. And Revolutionary Road is a fantastic truthful film that contains the best acting of both Winslet's and DiCaprio's careers. All this plus Maya Rudolph in her first major film role and a script by Dave Eggers makes this a must-see.