It’s been said that if you screw up once, it’s a mistake, but if you do it three times it’s a style.

Don’t get me wrong, Submarine is a good film with a strong voice, but that’s not to say it’s not without pros and cons.  With a unique tone, interesting characters, and distinctive editing, director Richard Ayoade obviously had a strong vision for this film from the beginning.  The only problem was with the main character, Oliver Tate, who was written as such an offbeat character that there were times at which he was hard to relate to.

Submarine is a film full of feature film newcomers.  Ayoade makes his narrative feature debut as writer/director, a departure from his career as a TV actor and director.  Both of the young actors, as well, come fresh to the big screen.  Craig Roberts, playing Oliver Tate, takes on his first feature lead in this film (he has since starred in Jane Eyre), and Yasmin Paige, coming only from small parts in obscure films, gives a surprisingly beautiful performance as his love interest, Jordana Bevan.

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Daniel Day Lewis is a badass. The There Will Be Blood star is infamous for never breaking character during a film’s production, and it seems that his latest portrayal of the iconic American president in Steven Speilberg’s Lincoln is no exception.

Spotted at a local cafe in Richmond, Virginia by Michael Phillips, this image has been making the rounds as the first glimpse of what this film could look like.  Even though he’s enjoying his meal in jeans and a turtleneck, his hair an makeup certainly make a spot-on Abraham Lincoln.

Take a look at the candid image in full after the jump.

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Never underestimate the power of experience.  Fresh off directing a couple episodes of King of Queens, Michael J. Weithorn make his feature film debut with A Little Help. I’m all for new talented writer/directors (Mark Webb), but unfortunately, while I do see potential for some creative ideas in this film, he probably should have tried out a few shorts before diving head first into a feature.

It felt like highly produced sit-coms episodes strung together.

In the film, Jenna Fischer plays Pam…. sorry, Laura, a dental hygienist who must deal with the aftermath of the sudden death of her unfaithful husband.  With her family almost forcing comfort and support down her throat, she soon discovers that her son has been lying about his father’s death to his friends at school to make him sound cooler.  The film has all the elements in place, a solid story with good casting, but ultimately fails to come together as a cohesive unit that keeps the audience engaged the whole time.

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When they first seated the cast and crew of the new Adult Swim animated comedy Black Dynamite at my table, I don’t think they realized we were there for the roundtable discussion.  Spending the first 5 minutes of the interview talking about YouTube videos and their co-star J.B. Smooth spitting all over the recording mic, I honestly was just enjoying seeing them hang out.  Eventually, they realized I was there for the interview and we got down to business.

Among those at the table were executive producer Carl Jones, best known for producing The Boondocks on Adult Swim, co-executive producer Brian Ash, and cast members Kym Whitley and Michael Jai White, who you can check out  in Matt Raub’s video interview later.

Quick background:  the Black Dynamite animated series is actually a spin off of a 2009 blaxploitation spoof.  Starring a lot of the same cast including Michael Jai White and Byron Minns, the film premiered at Sundance that year.  Director Scott Sanders shot the movie on Super 16 film as a direct homage/satire of the cult genre from the 70s.  Here is where I would give a quick plot recap, but I will never word it better than the description found on the official website:

“When ‘The Man’ murders his brother, pumps heroin into local orphanages, and floods the ghetto with adulterated malt liquor, Black Dynamite is the one hero willing to fight all the way from the blood-soaked city streets to the hallowed halls of the Honkey House.”

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Tucker & Dale vs Evil is a comedy horror film about two hillbillies on their dream vacation to a cabin in the woods who get mistaken for kidnappers when they try to help out a girl that fell into the lake.  Completed in 2010, this film has had a tough time finding a distributor after it premiered at Sundance.

I sat down with the director, Eli Craig, to talk about his experience with this film.  The conversation started off light, with him telling me about the new trailer that was premiering that weekend at their panel in Hall H.

The Flickast: So are you having a good weekend?  Have you gotten to experience Comic Con at all?

EC: I haven’t.  I’ve just been doing these interviews.  But I do want to go check it out.  My 5 year-old son is in there somewhere running around with a chainsaw and a hillbilly costume.

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Jason Mewes has to be one of the busiest nerds working today. Although he is and will always be best known as Jay of Kevin Smith’s Jay and Silent Bob infamous characters, Mewes actually keeps himself very busy with a surprising number of projects he is currently involved with.

From filming the second season of a Canadian TV show to recording two live podcasts a week, all the while preparing for a jam packed Comic Con weekend, it just shows how much dedication Mewes has to find time to schedule an exclusive interview with The Flickcast.

Just to give you an idea of his crazy schedule, when I called he was currently on set of Todd and the Book of Pure Evil, a comedy/horror series in which he plays Jimmy the Janitor, and had just finished recording an episode of Jay and Silent Bob Get Old, his weekly podcast he does with Kevin Smith, for which he had a mobile studio set up in a closet on set so that he never has to miss an episode.

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If there was one week for forget to check Apple Trailers  it was definitely this past week.  Usually there is at least one interesting trailer coming out everyday, but for some reason this weekend only had new cuts for films we already had seen trailers for, and has hardly anything new premiering in theaters or online.  Is this a preview of what we can expect in the fall?  At this rate, at the end of the summer we will have quite a boring couple months until Oscar season.

This week we have a franchise spin-off, a quirky indie comedy, and one documentary to throw in the mix.

Planes

Click to see the trailer

Yes, this is a spin off of the popular Pixar movie Cars, who’s sequel is set to come out this month.  No, this one is not being make by the talented team at Pixar, and is instead being brought to us by Disney alone.

In all honesty, the mere fact that this is only a Disney film really scares me as to the quality of this film.  I would have normally thought that this is a terrible spin-off idea for this franchise, but if I hear that Pixar was still doing it, I would hold onto my hope just because of their impeccable track record with animation.  Disney, on the other hand, while I admire their effort in acquiring Pixar to stay on top of the animation industry, has had a long string of bombs in the past few years when it comes to producing feature animations by themselves.

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Guys see movies for a lot of different reasons. Most will only admit to getting excited for the newest raunchy comedies or fast paced action movies, but how many of them are secretly enjoying themselves when they get dragged to a date movie and are forced to see something a little more “girly”? Everyone has a few guilty pleasures hiding in their DVD collection, and it takes a real man to admit that he’s popped in Love Actually just as many times as the Bourne Trilogy.

This week’s theme is both a literal and figurative.  We have one crazy movie about a girl, two movies to see with the girlfriend, and a documentary to check out when she’s not around.

The Girl with a Dragon Tattoo

Click to see the trailer

Stop the presses!  Here it is, this is the movie to watch for in 2011.  Based on the literary phenomenon The Millennium Trilogy, this film is a remake of the 2009 Swedish film of the same name.  Already dubbed “The feel bad movie of Christmas”, I think this film has a lot more in store for us than even this exciting teaser shows us.

Director David Fincher has been pumping out masterpiece after masterpiece the past few years, sending him on the fast track to becoming one of the most legendary filmmakers of our generation.  With an early track record including such film school favorites as Se7en and Fight Club, he has since settled into a core group of creative collaborators that he has worked with on The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and, most recently, The Social Network, which has propelled him to the front of critical acclaim, box office success, and Oscar recognition.

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When does a film not need a trailer to get you excited to see it?  While most people need to see what the film is about before deciding whether it is worth their time, I can sometimes be satisfied knowing that there is strong  talent that going into making the film.  If a film has a talented director with a reliable track record, or has managed to pull together a unique cast, that should be reason enough to want to go and see that movie.

Each of the trailers this week has an element that alone should get you intrigued enough to watch it.  We have a couple independent films with strong casts, a sequel to the great animation, and a fun 3D experience.

50/50

Click to see the trailer

Right off the bat this film feels like a great feel-good indie with strong characters and honest performances.  Joseph Gordon-Levitt (Hesher, 500 Days of Summer, Inception) alone is one of the most talented young actors working today.  And Seth Rogan (who is also producing), while fresh and talented in everything he does, could use this type of role to break out of this Apatow comedy type-casting.

Additionally we have the under-appreciated Anna Kendrick (Up in the Air, Scott Pilgrim vs. The World), who is simply enjoyable in everything she does, as well as Bryce Dallas Howard (Hearafter) in some strange Twilight reunion.  Not to mention the incomparable Anjelica Huston (The Royal Tenenbaums) rounding out the supporting cast.

I get a strange feeling that this could be a strange mixture of 500 Days of Summer and Up in the Air.

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Breathtaking.  Profound.  Beautiful.

I can see why this film got mixed reactions at the Cannes Film Festival this year, yet still managed to win the Palm d’Or, the most prestigious award of the festival.  To some, this film might seem a bit melodramatic and abstract for their taste.  But to others, like myself, I found Terrence Malick’s The Tree of Life to have a rare and honest beauty to it that can only be described as fine art.

What you have to realize going in is that this feels more like a visual poem than a film.  A cinematic ballet that brings together stunning imagery with powerful storytelling.  Writer and director Terrence Malick is only one of the few remaining auteurs left in filmmaking, meaning that all his films consistently reflect his personal creative vision.

Sure, some could argue that a little more dialogue added to the film could have made it more relatable to a wider audience, but that is not the film Malick wanted to make.  His film is elegant and sophisticated, told both with expertise and creativity.

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When people talk about movies they are most excited to see, they will normally stick to the big budget action adventures, raunchy comedies, or thrillers.  It is rare to see a grown adult get publicly excited about the newest children’s animation or cheesy chick-flick.  But when all is said and done, and we are alone in our living rooms browsing Netflix, most of the time we are actually in the mood for something light and fun.  Just admit it, we all love the occasional cartoon for family comedy.

This week we have two classic family franchises getting rebooted, a trailer for a superhero film that just doesn’t seem to want to ever come out, and a guilty pleasure indie flick.

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The Company Men is a corporate drama by first time writer, producer, and director John Wells that first premiered at Sundance in 2010.  Starring Ben Affleck (The Town, Good Will Hunting), Tommy Lee Jones (Men in Black, No Country for Old Men), and Chris Cooper (American Beauty, Adaptation), this film obviously has a strong cast of seasoned actors that together couldn’t make a bad film if they tried.  With it’s high production value, timely script, and strong cast, the question isn’t whether this is bad film, but rather if it is as relatable or socially relevant as the filmmakers want it to be.

Personally, this film is just not my usual genre.  I understand that there definitely could be a sizable market for this film, but what some people might find to be a relevant story about the hardships of today’s economy, I find to be lacking in realism and slightly melodramatic.  It is one of those films where every few lines the audience is suppose to be nodding in agreement thinking, “Yes, I feel your pain.”  Don’t get me wrong, I completely understand the need for films to comment on the troubles of society, but this just seemed forced and exaggerated.

The film is about the effects of corporate downsizing, how it ultimately effects people the same way regardless of job title or salary, and what is really important to treasure in your life.  Affleck plays Bobby Walker, a white-colar corporate employee who gets laid off in the first round of downsizing at corporate giant GTX.

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