Last Friday I went to see Iron Man on opening night at the Odeon on Leicester Square together with a big group of fellow geeks and bloggers, including Cristiano (of course), LJ, Sizemore, Whatleydude and a whole bunch of others. Suffice to say that it was a pretty great experience and this is one movie you must see in the cinema.

Robert Downey Jr. plays Tony Stark, a genius playboy millionaire and CEO of the weapon developing Stark Industries. While he is the brain behind his company inventing many of the high-tech items himself, Tony is the stereotype millionaire: a hard drinking, gambling ladies man without a care in the world. That is, until he gets captured by terrorists in Afghanistan and is forced to reproduce one of his own missiles. Stark instead secretly develops a way to free himself, which puts him on his path to become Iron Man.

As a lot of people have been saying, I do think Iron Man is one of the best comic book adaptations so far. Unlike most superhero movies it stayed true to the comic books, without trying to make it more grittier and real, yet also without making it look cheesy. That being said, the visual effects in this movie are stunning. Not once did I have the feeling I was looking at CGI; everything seemed fluent and realistic. There also weren’t any unnecessary CGI scenes in it; sometimes with other movies it seems to me as if certain battles go on forever or that certain scenes are in it, pure for the sake of doing “some cool CGI”.

I don’t think this movie would have worked with anybody other than Robert Downey Jr. in the role of Tony Stark. This is one character he was born to play and, boy, does he play that character well. Downey brings a lot of his own personality to Stark, playing the millionaire-turned-superhero pitch perfectly. With Iron Man in the cinemas and Tropic Thunder coming up, I think we’ll remember 2008 as the year Robert Downey Jr. became a movie star.

While it is Downey’s movie, the performances of the other actors are also all top-notch. Gwyneth Paltrow is cute (although perhaps a bit smiley) as Stark’s assistant Pepper Pots and makes their relationship believable. One question: was it all makeup or does Paltrow really have freckles, but always covers it up? Jeff Bridges is almost unrecognizable as Stark’s mentor Obadiah Stone, even shaving his head for the role. Then there’s Terence Howard as Stark’s military friend Rhodey. While he isn’t featured that prominently in this movie, I know we’ll be seeing that character and his alter-ego War Machine in future sequels.

My only small gripe with this movie is parts of the plot. At times it was a tad predictable and to me the science sometimes seemed a bit off (although I’m sure a true Iron Man fan will be able to explain it all to me). The largest problem I had though wasn’t with the movie at all, but with it’s trailer. Seriously, how much can you give away? Besides showing a lot of the action sequences, most of the funny moments were featured in the trailers. Then they also took a bit of a scene from the final scene in the movie! Why?!

On a personal note (please don’t hurt me now), I didn’t love this movie as much as almost everybody else I’ve heard talking about it. It’s not that I don’t like Iron Man or that I don’t find it a great movie, but for me something was missing and I can’t seem to pinpoint exactly what. Typically when I love a movie, I come out of the cinema with this childlike glee and giddiness. And with Iron Man I didn’t get that feeling. Not sure why, cause it ticked off all the right boxes (maybe I’m just more of a Batgirl).

All in all, though, Iron Man is a great blockbuster movie. It’s up there as one of the best superhero movies ever. Plans have already been announced for a sequel to be released in 2010, so Tony Stark is here to stay. Try to catch it in the cinema, cause this is one movie where you’ll want the big screen experience. One more tip: stay seated until after the end credits, there’s a brilliant little extra you can’t afford to miss.

Episode 56: “Awesometeen”

The more I hear about it, the more I can’t wait for Dr Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog. This video is a short interview Neil Patrick Harris did with EW. He not only talks about Dr Horrible, but also his role in Harold and Kumar 2 and what he thought of Jason Segal (his How I Met Your Mother costar) in Forgetting Sarah Marshall.

Episode 55: “Never think I need backup plans”

This video was featured on /Film yesterday and it’s too good not to repost it here. And having rewatched Raiders of the Lost Ark myself only just last night, it seemed appropriate.

Episode 54: “Cute bike, aww”

In my previous post I talked about The Dark Knight ARG event, which led to a showing of the newest trailer (which I missed) in 12 major cities. At each screening one lucky person won a reel with the trailer on it and everybody thought it was only the trailer they had just all seen. And it is. Kind of.

The reel contains the exact same trailer, only every single frame in it has been defaced by the Joker! Chris Presswell, the winner of the London reel, discovered this first and you can find photographs of almost every frame on his blog. Some of the “comments” of the Joker are pure brilliance (I had to laugh at the “Me me me” and “Boring part”).

Now some of the other reels have actually been played in a projector and for our convenience been put on YouTube. So far we’ve got the Chicago reel and Dallas reel, and I’m sure the reels from other cities will follow soon. The cool part is the defacings were all done by hand and they differ between the featured reels. I’m curious to see if there’s also something of a hidden clue in this all.

The Chicago reel:

The Dallas reel:

I’ve been following the marketing campaign for The Dark Knight ever since their first “stunt” appeared a couple of months ago. Sadly most ARG related real-world activities had been previously only arranged for the US, forgetting (as usual) there are over seas fans just as willing to participate in these crazy events. Last Saturday I discovered the Joker’s website had been updated with countdowns to special events in 12 differet cities, including London. Yeah! Finally an event I can participate in!

The timer for the London event was counting down to Monday 28th of April 9:00pm and had this message along with it:

Gather with 300 of your closest friends at this exact spot on April 28th.

You’ll need to be in contact with a partner-in-crime who has online access to relay your instructions once you’re there. These instructions will give you the TRAIL to follow, but be sure to look both ways when crossing the street; we wouldn’t want you to make an unscheduled visit to the ER now, would we?

Put on a smile and plan to spend about an hour or so bonding with your fellow clowns.

Notice the TRAIL and ER? Chances were we were going to get to see a new trailer! The coordinates on the page led to this spot, a 5 minute walk from Piccadilly Circus. So at 7pm I arrived nice and early at the meet-up point, where I met up with some of the guys from the SuperheroHype forum. I had also arranged for another member on the SHH forum to be my online oracle, who would phone me all the clues through. For two hours we waited patiently and (of course) it started raining. A couple people were hard core enough to paint their faces Joker style and convinced several others to do the same.

I guess there were about 150 people gathered together, when we got the first clues in:

Step 1: By the “ubique-itous” statue with the alien friend, face forward and count every ground floor column to your right. Beware the policemans’s black and blue stare.

Step 2: Up the stairs prepare for battle. You’ll be greeted with open arms. On the island, discover those who died in war and divide by the woman who surround them.

Step 3: Go to the place of the frilly collar and count the number of steps you see in stone and light.

The first one took some time to figure out what we were supposed to do. The “ubique-itous” statue with the alien friend was clearly the memorial where we had gathered (it had ubique engraved on of it’s pillars). If you stood in front of it and looked forward, you were facing steps leading to Nelson’s Column with The Mall stretching out on both sides before it. On the right side, you can find the Carlton House Terrace with (well, wouldn’t you know) a long line of columns. Some people counted them and we got two different tallies: 34 or 35.

The second clue took us north, past Nelson’s Column to the Crimea memorial that featured a statue of a woman with open arms. After standing there for almost 15 minutes, nobody could figure it out so we continued to the third clue. This one was easy: the frilly collar had to be the fountain at Piccadilly Circus. Once there we counted the stone steps leading up to it (9) and discovered the neon lighted musical “The 39 Steps”, leading to number 48.

By now we found out we needed three two-digit numbers to open up a (online) safe, which would lead to more clues. Together with a couple others, I decided to walk back to the Crimea memorial to try and figure the second clue out. Still no luck and I made my way back to Piccadilly Circus. I then got phoned by my online oracle, who told me the safe combination was 35-90-48 and that there was a fourth clue:

Around the bend from the Miserable People is an exotic gate. Your contact will be waiting there. He will give you your final set of instructions.

By the time I made it back to Piccadilly Circus, the big group of people were of course all gone. Now around this time I kind of started bumbling around. Remember, I had been walking/running around for 40 minutes (on too high heels) and apparently my brain doesn’t work that well under exhaustion. Looking back the clues seem so straightforward and I’m kicking myself that I could mess this up so enormously. I’ll first describe what I should have done.

I was supposed to go into Shaftesbury Avenue, where I would find the theater with Les Miserables. Two corners away from that is China Town, whose entrance is marked by two large oriental gates. There I was supposed to find two of the Joker’s henchmen who were giving out raffles, Joker cards and instructions to the final destination: the Odeon at Leicester Square. Where I would see the newest trailer.

Ehm, yeah. I didn’t do all that. Instead I blundered around Shaftesbury Avenue, having no clue where to go. I came across some others who had lost the large group too and I ran along with them. We actually did pass the gates at China Town, but I’m guessing we were already too late, cause there weren’t any clowns there. Eventually we heard we had to be at the Odeon, raced over there, got into the cinema… only to discover we were too late. It was over. We had missed the trailer.

I’m still a bit disappointed with myself that I managed to miss what the whole quest was about. Maybe I shouldn’t have walked back and tried to figure the clues out and just have followed the big large group. Maybe I should have gotten the phone number of one of those big large group people, who could have told me where I should have gone to. Maybe I could have been a bit smarter and actually figure the (stupidly simple, now I know them) clues out. I know, I know, a lot of maybes.

Was this a waste of time? No. I actually don’t think it was. I may have not seen the trailer, but it should show up online in these next couple of days, right? I haven’t really missed out on anything; I just won’t see it as soon as I had hoped. It’s mainly about the experience: meeting other fans, figuring out the clues, and the thrill of the quest. That’s something I wouldn’t have gotten to do, if I had stayed at home.

From what I heard the trailer is intense and extremely awesome. It appears the rest of us will have to wait for it till Sunday though. I mentioned before that everyone who had gotten in to see the trailer had received raffles. After the trailer there was a draw and one person won a can with the reel with the trailer. Everybody kind of assumed there must be a DVD also in it, so that it could be put online. Now I’m not that sure. The Joker site has a new page called Happy Trails, showing an advertisement for a projection system (using reels) available this Sunday. So I guess we’ll all have to wait.

Even though this didn’t go exactly as I had imagined (now that’s an understatement), I love participating in these type of games. After We Tell Stories and this event, I can only hope I’ll be seeing (and doing) more in the future. Anyone want to join me next time?

For more photos, check out my Flickr.

Where was the kicking, people? Sigh, I’m seriously behind with these trailers and I’ve got long list to share with you all. I’m going to try to do my next post in two days time and then keep this up as a weekly post.

Fugitive Pieces
An indie film, that’s been picked up for a limited release, Fugitive Pieces is about the life of a World War II survivor, attempting to deal with his experiences. While it seems as an interesting enough film, the trailer goes in full blown dramatic mode, with orchestra blazing sentimental musics, snippets from raving reviews of movie critiques and the big trailer voice booming: “…a story about finding ourselves…”. Tone it down a bit, please? [Trailer]

Meet Dave
There used to be a time when Eddie Murphy was actually funny. Why does he continue making these type of movies? Meet Dave is about a crew of miniature aliens whose spaceship has a human form. Murphy plays the spaceship and the captain of the aliens. This just looks so bad and unfunny, I really don’t want to waste my time on it. [Trailer]

Wargames: The Dead Code
Again another lesson in ‘How not to make a trailer’. Not that there’s anybody out there, who even cares about this movie. It’s a direct-to-dvd sequel of the classic Wargames, but they could have very well just left the Wargames part completely off of it. Yes, both of the films are kind of about the same thing, but this isn’t a sequel. It’s a cheap and easy way to try and attract more simple-minded buyers, who don’t take the time to read the back of the dvd. [Trailer]

Bangkok Dangerous
Even though Nicholas Cage’s movies have been lately more Miss, then Hit, this one seems actually more than half decent. Cage is a hitman who has a “job” in Bangkok, but can’t pull it off and gets all these nasty people after him (of course). I somehow get the same vibe off of it as some of Cage’s older action movies, like Con Air and Face/Off, and I can only hope this movie is anywhere near as good as those. [Trailer]

Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs
Weren’t the dinosaurs extinct before the Ice Age? But now we’re seeing them in the 3rd Ice Age movie? Anyone else see the flaw there? This is only teaser trailer featuring the beloved Scrat, so we haven’t seen anything real about the plot. Except of course that it involves dinosaurs. The 2nd movie wasn’t actually as bad as I had expected, so I’m gonna wait and give this 3rd one also a chance. [Trailer]

The House Bunny
A movie about a Playboy mansion bunny (Anna Faris), who becomes the house mother of a group of socially inept sorority girls; that’s doomed to fail, right? And yet, after watching the trailer, I wasn’t completely appalled by it (unlike Amanda Bynes‘ Sydney White). It even reminds me a bit of Legally Blond and Clueless. This isn’t going to be a great movie with a good plot and maybe not even good acting, but I think it will be a bit of simple fun entertainment. [Trailer]

Surveillance
Interesting. And potentially good. That’s what I felt when I saw this trailer. It’s directed by Jennifer Chambers Lynch, daughter of David Lynch and you can see she’s inherited her father’s fondness for weirdness. The description of the movie is “An FBI agent tracks a serial killer with the help of three of his would-be victims - all of whom have wildly different stories to tell.” It’s a German trailer, so the text is in German (luckily it’s not dubbed), but I missed that when I was watching: I thought it was just some weird quirkiness of the film. [Trailer]

Hellboy II: The Golden Army
I didn’t like the first Hellboy, but this trailer has got me psyched for it’s sequel. The plot and background mythology look cool, the visual effects look wicked (although I have to admit sometimes a bit wonky, but that could also be the small screen I got) and some of the creatures look fantastic. My only gripe is with the bad guys; they look a bit too much like the Wraith from Star Gate: Atlantis for my liking. [Trailer]

Blindness
Based on the book by Jose Saramago, Blindness is about a doctor’s wife (Julianne Moore) who becomes the only person with the ability to see after everyone in the city is struck with a mysterious case of sudden blindness. This teaser trailer is perfect, slightly lifting the veil so that you know a bit about what the movie is about, without giving anything away. One of the films on my Must-Watch list of this year. [Trailer]

Anamorph
This could be another ’same old, same old’ serial-killer movie, but by using the concept of anamorphosis we could get a very interesting movie. Anamorphosis is a painting technique where there’s a part of the painting that’s only discernible when using a distorting mirror or when viewed from a specific position. I’m not really sure how this is applied in the movie, but I’m guessing the killer is posing his victims and creating real-life anamorphic crime scenes. [Trailer]

Thanks to Sizemore, I got an invite for a bloggers screening of Forgetting Sarah Marshall last night. I had seen the trailers and read early reviews on it, so I went in with the feeling I would like this movie. I didn’t expect though that I’d be laughing so much! It’s by far one of the funniest films I’ve seen in a long time.

Peter Bretter (Jason Segal) is devastated when he gets dumped by girlfriend Sarah Marshall (Kirsten Bell), star of a hit TV show. In an attempt to get over her he takes a vacation to Hawaii, only to discover Sarah is there too… with her new boyfriend, rock star Aldous Snow (Russell Brand). While trying to avoid and forget about Sarah, Peter enjoys the companionship of the laid-back resort employee Rachel (Mila Kunis) and a myriad of other characters.

Let me get one thing clear first: the movie seems as if it’s a romantic comedy, a chick flick, a boy-meets-girl story. It isn’t. While Forgetting Sarah Marshall does have a couple of these elements, it is first of all a solid good comedy. Initially I was surprised to see that more than half the attendees of the screening were woman (which for the geek crowd is still quite rare), but I’m guessing most guys are thinking this isn’t a film for them. Trust me when I say it is. There’s a sliver of an emotional message in it, but don’t let that put you off and miss the hilarity that takes up most of the film.

That being said, the movie is funny. Very funny. As I said before, I don’t think I’ve laughed this much during a film in ages. At times the audience was so in stitches that I couldn’t hear some of the next lines. A lot of the jokes are sexually laden, but in a good way. The jokes are more mature than the standard bodily fluids, high schoolish, There’s Something About Mary type of jokes you normally get in comedies from recent years.

Almost all the main actors are fairly unknown in the realm of movies, but they all prove they have the caliber to belong on the big screen. I like Jason Segal in How I Met Your Mother, but I didn’t think he could carry the weight of a movie as a leading actor. This role though is tailor-made for him. Literally. Besides starring in the movie, Segal also wrote the screenplay, weaving his own experiences throughout the story. No big surprise then that he fits so right in the role. One of Segal’s next projects will be to revive the Muppet movies and after seeing this film, I’ve got confidence he’s the perfect person to take that on.

Kirsten Bell (Veronica Mars, Heroes) and Russell Brand are great as the ex-girlfriend and her new boyfriend. Both characters avoid falling in the predictable stereotype roles and are more nuanced than you would expect. Sarah Marshall isn’t a complete spoiled, pampered Hollywood starlet and Bell manages to make her likable and hatable at the same time. Russell Brand really surprised me. For those of you who don’t know him, he’s an English comedian and I know quite some people who thoroughly dislike him. Here he plays a similar character to how we usually see him and yet, it works. I couldn’t imagine any other person playing Ardous Snow and he delivers some of the best lines of the movie.

Mila Kunis (That 70’s Show) is adorable as the easygoing Rachel and her chemistry with Segal works really well. The supporting characters are also brilliant with a wide range of familiar faces: Bill Hader (Superbad, SNL), Jonah Hill (Superbad, Knocked Up), Paul Rudd (Knocked Up, The 40 Year Old Virgin) and Jack McBrayer (30 Rock). Looking at the names you can clearly see it’s a Jude Apatow produced movie and in this case that’s not a bad thing.

I could tell you a lot more about Forgetting Sarah Marshall, but I don’t want to give too much away and spoil the movie for everyone. There are certain scenes that are just unforgettable and outrageous, describing them would never do them justice. This is a movie you have to see and I recommend it to anyone who wants a couple of hours of pure fun. Again: don’t leave your seats when the credits start rolling. There’s a little scene during the credits you’ll also want to see.

Rating:

First off, there has been a lot of Iron Man news these past weeks: new clips, new photos, even six actual scenes from the movie have been released. If you’re curious, go ahead, take a look. Me? I’m already convinced I’m going to see this movie, so why bother with all this stuff? In the end they’ll only potentially ruin the movie for you.

Anyhow, it’s been a month ago since I did my last Trailerrific post and a lot of trailers have come out since then. I’ve been meaning to do this much more regularly (like every week), but I never get around to doing that (yeah perhaps I’m just lazy). I’m going to split this all into three posts with the second and third parts appearing sometime at the end of this week. I promise though: from now on this will be a weekly post. Any volunteers into kicking me when I don’t?

Pathology
Remember the previous two trailers? This trailer is a Red Band version of that first one, meaning more blood and more sex (a lot more sex). Strange enough though by adding the Red Band stuff to it, they’ve cut away more of the parts that would spoil the movie. It still gives a tad too much away and in my opinion they could easily make an interesting trailer without revealing so much. Then again I guess the movie’s pretty predictable anyway and nobody’s going to see it because of the brilliant intricate plot. [Trailer]

The Life Before Her Eyes
The teaser trailer came out in January and I already said then that this will be a 2009 Oscar contender. And after seeing the full length trailer I stand by that. Evan Rachel Wood plays Diana, a teenage girl who experiences a high school shooting. Years later the grown-up Diana, now played by Uma Thurman, is still traumatized by the event. [Trailer]

Mamma Mia!
I’m not an Abba fan, never was, never will be. But I have a feeling I will see this movie (not in the cinema), just because of Colin Firth and Pierce Brosnan. The film is based on the Broadway musical about a bride-to-be trying to figure out who her father is. If you like cheerful musicals, this is the film for you. [Trailer]

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Undead
What do you get when you mix vampires, Hamlet and the Holy Grail? Apparently, this movie. I’m not kidding. This movie seems to mix the those three subjects in a weird and unique way. Definitely going on my Must-See list. [Trailer]

The Strangers
I want to say this film seems interesting, but looking at the horror movies Hollywood has lately produced, it all seems to be repeats and rehashes of older films. The Strangers looks like it might have a slight original angle, but tell me how many masked faces did you count in the trailer? I’m just getting a feeling of “been there, done that, next movie please”. Although it does have Liv Tyler (without pointy ears), so that should get the geeks going. [Trailer]

Tropic Thunder
This film could be the dark horse of 2008. In short: it’s Galaxy Quest in the jungle. Three big actors working together on a big-budget war movie are dumped in the middle of the jungle, thinking everything that happens to them is part of the movie. You’ve got the action star (Ben Stiller), the comedy star (Jack Black), the method actor (Robert Downey Jr.), the crazy director (Steve Coogan) and the war hero (Nick Nolte). If you haven’t seen the trailer yet, you should. This will definitely be a must-see this summer. [Trailer]

Stone’s War
The premise of this movie is Nazi Zombies fighting in World War II. That alone would make see this movie, which made be think there would at least be an interesting trailer, right? Now I know it’s not an official trailer yet (it hasn’t even got a release date yet), but couldn’t they come up with anything better? Something without the standard ‘Requiem for a Dream’ tune? Something that actually shows ‘Nazi Zombies’? I’m not asking too much, am I? [Trailer]

Deception
Any film with both Hugh Jackman and Ewan McGregor in it, gets my stamp of approval. Deception is about an accountant (McGregor) who gets introduced to a secret sex club called The List by new lawyer friend Jackman, but of course not all is as it seems. Again a potentially great movie and a trailer that reveals too much. Given the (what I believe will be) intricate plot, maybe it doesn’t actually spoil anything, but do we really all those “surprises” and “reveals” in the trailer? My tip: watch half of the trailer. If you’re convinced, stop watching. If you remain unconvinced, watch it all. [Trailer]

Special
I’m not sure about the release dates of this movie. It was made in 2006 and has been released in some countries, but from what I’ve heard there might be a wide release of it this summer (please contact me, if you have some more info). The film is being described as a superhero spoof, but don’t think this means it falls in with the silly parody movies like Scary Movie, Epic Movie, etc. Michael Rapaport plays Les, a metermaid that has a psychotic reaction to his medication and starts believing he’s a superhero. [Trailer]

Episode 51: “Isn’t it time to give back?”

I’ll be going to a screening of Forgetting Sarah Marshall tonight, so to celebrate that here’s a bit of Kirsten Bell funniness for you all:

If you thought the Beverly Hills series couldn’t get any worse, guess again. Here’s the poster for the upcoming movie:

I wish I could tell you this was all a joke, but from what I can gather it’s a real movie coming out next year. The plot outline of Beverly Hills Chihuahua on IMDB is:

While on vacation in Mexico, Chloe, a ritzy Beverly Hills chihuahua, finds herself lost and in need of assistance in order to get back home.

Chloe will be voiced by Drew Barrymore and her owner will be played by Jamie Lee Curtis. Other voice talents will include Salma Hayek, Edward James Olmos and Andy Garcia.

Right…so judging by the poster somehow this dainty little chihuahua ends up in a Aztec tribe of chihuahuas? And they’ve got temples with chihuahua figures on them? And the tagline is The chihuahuas will rise? The worst thing on this poster though? The chee’ WOW wa under the title.

Seriously?

[Via /Film]

Update: There’s also a trailer out on Apple.com.