Category: Movie Previews

Christmas with The Kranks

MPAA Rated – PG
It’s 1:38 Long
A Preview by:
– The Dude on the Right

Christmas with The Kranks
Movie Stats & Links
Starring: Tim Allen, Jamie Lee Curtis, Julie Gonzalo
MPAA Rated: PG
Released By: Sony Pictures
Release Date: 2004
Directed By: Joe Roth

What a bummer for John Grisham. Alright, I guess it won’t kill his pocketbook, but you write a book called “Skipping Christmas,” it’s pretty popular in the story circles, and you license the story to a movie studio. The problem is the MPAA folks tell the studio folks that they can’t name the movie “Skipping Christmas” because it is too close to the Ben Affleck movie “Surviving Christmas,” a matter of first come, first named. I suppose, in the end, it might be better for the “Kranks” movie people because of all of the crappy press “Surviving Christmas” has gotten.

Anyway, Tim Allen, who is quickly cornering the “if it’s a Christmas movie it better have Tim Allen in it” market, plays Luther Krank. When their daughter decides she won’t be home for Christmas, and being a little dismayed with the entire Christmas scene, Luther convinces wife Nora (Jamie Lee Curtis), that a tropical climate is a much better place to spend Christmas. She reluctantly agrees, much to the dismay of the neighbors, who always looked forward to the Krank’s Christmas displays and general yuletide cheer. Then, at the last minute, Blair, the daughter, decides she can’t be away from home for Christmas, and mom and dad only have hours to set up the beautiful Christmas they are known for. Oh, and yea, hilarity ensues.

Rated PG, this looks like a really cute family film for Christmas time. Grisham is always a great storyteller, even in his branching away from legal stuff, so this has tons of potential to be tons of fun.

That’s it for this preview! I’m The Dude on the Right!! L8R!!!

Children of Men

MPAA Rated – R
It’s 1:54 Long
A Preview by:
– The Dude on the Right

Children of Men
Movie Stats & Links
Starring: Clive Owen, Julianne Moore, Michael Caine
MPAA Rated: R
Released By: Universal Pictures
Release Date: 2006
Directed By: Alfonso Cuaron

Right now I don’t know who to believe. I suppose I’ve got to believe the official web site, because it says “Children of Men” opens December 25th, but IMDB shows it opening on September 29th. It does seem like a weird movie to open on Christmas day, unless of course you tie-in the “birth that will save the world” thing, but here’s the basic story…

It’s a few years from now, and for whatever reason that no one can seem to figure out, no one can get pregnant, and that means we are facing our own extinction. Science is baffled, the public is going crazy, and the cities are not safe places to live. Then some underground folks find a pregnant girl, and they must get her to the safety where the public won’t tear her apart, and scientists can safely study her and make sure she actually delivers that child.

Looks like a wacky futuristic movie, but nothing to fantastic at this point. I guess this is on my “wait and see” list right now.

That’s it for this preview! I’m The Dude on the Right!! L8R!!!

Cheats

MPAA Rated – PG-13
It’s 1:26 Long
A Preview by:
– The Dude on the Right

Cheats
Movie Stats & Links
Starring: Trevor Fehrman, Elden Henson, Matthew Lawrence, Martin Starr, Mary Tyler Moore
MPAA Rated: PG-13
Released By: New Line Cinema
Release Date: 2002
Directed By: Andrew Gurland

In my younger days I heard stories about students in high school and in college who cheated. These were the days before the internet, before pagers, before cell phones, and before technology. These were stories of one dude who would pencil in equations on his calculator for a class where he knew the teacher wouldn’t walk during the test, so, basically, the dude had all of the equations he was supposed to memorize written on his calculator. The dude even had a plan to easily swipe away the pencil marks with his finger between the keys smudging the evidence if need be. Then there was the story of the “Flying V”. I was told it was a simple plan, only really able to be done in an auditorium setting, and only done without assigned seating, where the smartest dude of the group would sit in the middle, towards the front, while all his buddies would sit at an angle to him, going towards the back, simply giving the group an easy line of copying answers off of their smartest friend and passing those answers to the friend behind them. Then there was the class where the friends knew the professor didn’t care if you shared your eraser with your neighbor, so, well, answers easily went from friend to friend. And lastly there was the graduate class where the Dean would leave during the exam and the group of Asian friends would start talking to each other in their native language so they could get the right answers while the American dudes in the class couldn’t benefit from their cheating ability. My only advice is to always go to the last day of class because the tricky professor will base 90% of the final exam questions on what he said the last day of class where he knew 60% of the class didn’t show up.

That was the old days.

“Cheats” deals with the new days.

Now you can get answers via pager, now kids try to hack into teacher’s computers to get the tests, now kids become more devious in the masterminding to get the grade, and this seems to be the movie “Cheats.”

Basically, for this movie, things have turned a little more high-tech (although the drop-ceiling still isn’t a great hiding place) in the student’s recon missions to get the answers, or at least the test questions, and thus get the grade. It isn’t so much about learning things to pass the test; it’s about finding the easiest way not to learn, about finding the answers, even if an all-nighter could have probably helped more than the spy tactics used to get the answers. But, in any case, this looks to be a movie where many a student will go to see looking for a way to get that edge while many a teacher will see to spot the warning signs.

In a way this movie will should relate to just about any person who tried to sneak a peek at their neighbor’s paper, and hit a higher note for those with well-planned missions to pass a test. This could be a good one.

That’s it for this preview! I’m The Dude on the Right!! L8R!!!

Charlie Bartlett

MPAA Rated – R
It’s 1:37 Long
A Preview by:
– The Dude on the Right

Charlie Bartlett
Movie Stats & Links
Starring: Anton Yelchin, Robert Downey Jr., Hope Davis
MPAA Rated: R
Released By: MGM
Release Date: 2008
Directed By: Jon Poll

Here’s a tricky movie to promote, kinda like “Superbad,” where even though some of the core group of folks who might want to see this movie are high-schoolers, it’s rated R. In any case we get Charlie (Anton Yelchin). He comes from a wealthy family and doesn’t fit in at his new school, the new school he is at because he gets tossed from all of the private schools. Going to therapy himself, one day he helps a fellow student and suddenly Charlie is the “psychiatrist” for his fellow classmates. Suddenly Charlie is cool, falls in love, and the Principal sees that things are amuck and that Charlie must be dealt with.

A dark comedy with what looks like clever writing, Charlie Bartlett looks like a fantastic character and this might be fun for adults who were the snooty kids in high school but have since grown up, kinda like us nerds could relate to the boys of “Superbad.”

That’s it for this preview! I’m The Dude on the Right!! L8R!!!

Catch a Fire

MPAA Rated – PG-13
It’s 1:41 Long
A Preview by:
– The Dude on the Right

Catch a Fire
Movie Stats & Links
Starring: Derek Luke, Tim Robbins
MPAA Rated: PG-13
Released By: Focus Features
Release Date: 2006
Directed By: Phillip Noyce

The trailer says this movie is based on a true story, so I’ll take its word for it. In any case, the trailer shows Derek Luke playing Patrick Chamusso. It’s South Africa in a time when things aren’t that great for the black population, in fact it pretty much sucks, but he’s been flying under the radar just trying to raise a family while working at the oil refinery. When there’s an explosion at the refinery, he gets taken in as a suspect, and while being held, and in trying to make him spill any beans, the bad folks fuck with Patrick’s wife. Low and behold they are both let go, but Patrick now knows that he has to now stand up for the rights of those being persecuted, so he takes the cause of the folks fighting the oppressors, because he knows that is the only way the blacks in South Africa can finally be recognized as people.

This looks like a really good movie, and Tim Robbins as the Secret Police dude looks great, but things are getting busy on the movie front (as they always do in the fall), so I have to sometimes decide between good films and popular films. I would like to catch this one, though, no matter what.

That’s it for this preview! I’m The Dude on the Right!! L8R!!!

Cast Away

MPAA Rated – PG-13
It’s 2:23 Long
A Review by:
– The Dude on the Right

Cast Away
Movie Stats & Links
Starring: Tom Hanks, Helen Hunt
MPAA Rated: PG-13
Released By: Dreamworks SKG
Release Date: 2000
Directed By: Robert Zemeckis

You’ll see it because it has Tom Hanks. That might be the only reason. Here you’ve got the story of a dude who gets on a Fed Ex plane, the plane goes down, he ends up stranded on a desert island, and unlike the TV show “Survivor,” this dude is left alone to figure out how to make shelter, find food, and make fire. His survivor challenge is simply to stay alive. On the island he seems to have two friends – his pocket watch with a picture of the woman he loves and a volleyball which he colors to look like a face. He finally gets sick of the island, builds a raft, heads back out to sea, is found, and looks to find out what happened to the years he missed.

This looks like a movie that will see if Tom Hanks can carry a movie all on his own, especially when I’ve heard that about an hour of the movie is Tom Hanks on the island.

If he can make the movie it should get him another Oscar nod, and if not, well, we’ll just wait till the next one. No matter what he does he is always in the running.

That’s it for this preview! I’m The Dude on the Right!! L8R!!!

Casanova

MPAA Rated – R
It’s 1:48 Long
A Preview by:
– The Dude on the Right

Casanova
Movie Stats & Links
Starring: Heath Ledger, Sienna Miller, Oliver Platt
MPAA Rated: R
Released By: Touchstone Pictures
Release Date: 2005
Directed By: Lasse Hallstrom

Heath Ledger is Casanova. Hooray. Really, there’s not much more to say about this film. The trailer shows that Casanova falls for another dudette, yet she puts off his advances. Not good news for Casanova’s rep, but maybe he wants more in a relationship this time, instead of just being Casanova. Looks like an R-rated movie for the dudettes to me, for us dudes, all we can home for is that it’s Sienna Miller that gets naked and not Oliver Platt.
That’s it for this preview! I’m The Dude on the Right!! L8R!!!

Blindness

MPAA Rated – R
It’s 2:01 Long
A Preview by:
– The Dude on the Right

Blindness
Movie Stats & Links
Starring: Julianne Moore, Mark Ruffalo
MPAA Rated: R
Released By: Miramax
Release Date: 2008
Directed By: Fernando Meirelles

So we’ve got a creepy movie where people are suddenly going blind, and now it just might be up to Julianne Moore, I think, to figure out what the hell is going on. Social order breaks down, with people not being able to see of course, but if she is the only person who is able to see, and sure she might love her husband, wouldn’t it just be easier for her to just get the hell out of town?

The movie does have a more artsy side to it, at least for the trailer, and I’m assuming Julianne doesn’t bolt town because she loves her husband, that and it looks like the government seals off the town, but maybe that now all of these blind people are getting super-human hearing because they can’t see, and maybe they can sense Julianne can see.

The movie is in the middle of the Fall movie season and it looks creepy enough, and sometimes I’m all about a creepy movie. We’ll see what opens against it, but I might try to catch “Blindness” if it hits my gigaplex.

That’s it for this preview! I’m The Dude on the Right!! L8R!!!

Alexander

MPAA Rated – R
It’s 2:55 Long
A Preview by:
– The Dude on the Right

Alexander
Movie Stats & Links
Starring: Colin Farrell, Angelina Jolie, Val Kilmer, Anthony Hopkins, Jared Leto, Rosario Dawson
MPAA Rated: R
Released By: Warner Bros.
Release Date: 11/24/2004
Directed By: Oliver Stone
Produced By: Moritz Borman, Jon Kilik, Thomas Schühly, Iain Smith, Oliver Stone

Quite honestly I’ve forgotten about the story of Alexander. I mean, that was back in high school, so many moons ago, and really, do I care? Should I care? I guess there’s always that theory of we need to study history so we don’t repeat it, but should that take place on the big screen. I guess, sure, why not, but as great as a filmmaker Oliver Stone is, can we always believe his historical accounts? Who cares, this movie’s got Angelina Jolie, who hopefully will wear some revealing outfits, so I suppose I’m there.

Alrighty, so Alexander, played by Colin Farrell, is a great warrior and conqueror in a time when one really could be a great warrior and conqueror. He’s got his problems with his parents, always trying to please them, and why would a great warrior get married to anyone when he can get anyone when he’s out conquering the world, but I guess he could do worse than Roxanne (Rosario Dawson). Things aren’t always easy for a world conqueror, and the movie will most likely show this, but you can expect grand sets, giant battles, and another epic film which will probably go down as “is it better than ‘Troy?’”

Oliver Stone can probably make an epic movie as good as anyone, so this should be a winner, just probably don’t take the story as totally true.

That’s it for this preview! I’m The Dude on the Right!! L8R!!!

The Alamo

MPAA Rated – PG-13
It’s 2:17 Long
A Preview by:
– The Dude on the Right

The Alamo
Movie Stats & Links
Starring: Dennis Quaid, Maurice Ripke, Billy Bob Thornton, Jason Patric, Patrick Wilson, Emilio Echevarría
MPAA Rated: PG-13
Released By: Touchstone Pictures
Release Date: 4/9/2004
Directed By: John Lee Hancock
Produced By: Brian Grazer, Ron Howard, Mark Johnson

Umm, the movie tells the story of the big old battle at The Alamo, as well as some other battles down in Texas. It’s a little early for wondering if this could be a big old action film, but the trailer does show some promise and with the likes of Billy Bob Thornton, Brian Grazer, and Ron Howard attached to it, well, that adds a little more potential.. I’ll write more about this one as we get closer to April.

That’s it for this preview! I’m The Dude on the Right!! L8R!!!