Trailer Hitch
By Eric Hughes
November 4, 2009
I don't know about you, but CGI usually takes me out of a particular movie, and I have a feeling the effects in The Wolfman would do exactly that to me.
It's been a long time coming for The Wolfman. Universal has notoriously flip-flopped over its release date more than John Kerry ever did with his political platform back in the day. Originally scheduled for a November 12, 2008 release, Wolfman's bow date then changed another four times for reshoots and marketing purposes. (Of course, this can never be good). For now, we can expect to see it in a few short months.
Grade: C
Green Zone – Opens March 12th, 2010
With the trailer to Green Zone opening on a misplaced, albeit powerful looking Matt Damon being scooped up by a foreign enemy – complete with quick edits and cinema verite camera techniques – you'd almost for certain put good money on the fact that you're watching footage from the next Bourne movie. His captor even asks: "Who are you." To which Damon replies: "Roy Miller." Wha??!
It's Roy Miller because it isn't Jason Bourne 4, but Green Zone, a movie based on the 2006 book Imperial Life in the Emerald City by journalist Rajiv Chandrasekaran. Besides a familiar visual style, star (Damon) and director (Paul Greengrass), Bourne and Green Zone's similarities basically end there.
Action movies just may be my least favorite of the lot, but this project excites me. Its main story seems to revolve around uncovering the mystery of this dude named Magellan before war escalates in Iraq's Green Zone. Alongside Damon, who I've really grown to like over the past couple years, are the fantastic Amy Ryan (who needs to work her way back onto The Office pronto), the reliable Greg Kinnear and Brendan Gleeson, who was basically perfect as Colin Farrell's sidekick in the 2008 black comedy In Bruges. I'd likely go see all of these actors carrying separate movies; so to see them together here is pretty awesome.
Grade: A-
How to Train Your Dragon – Opens March 26th, 2010
Maybe animation aficionado Kim Hollis should weigh in with her two cents on this one, but DreamWorks – obviously behind the Shrek franchise and one of my all-time favorite animated movies, Kung Fu Panda – appears to have digressed with How to Train Your Dragon. I just didn't find much to like about it. To me, it all felt rather awkward, right down to the casting choice to bring in Jay Baruchel to voice lead character (and Viking teenager) Hiccup. He just didn't sound right to me.
The project, based on the 2003 children's book of the same name by Brit Cressida Cowell, is set in a mythical world where vikings are raised to battle dragons. When Hiccup is of age to be included in dragon training, Hiccup encounters and unexpectedly befriends an injured dragon, flipping his worldviews – and what he's been taught – upside down.
Grade: D+
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