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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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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While this past week had a few fun trailers, unfortunately there wasn’t anything that I’m going to be waiting in line opening night to see.  It seems that we have fully transitioned out of the exciting summer films and are now getting prepared for the mediocre releases that didn’t quite make the summer block.

This week we have a couple big budget films that I feel obligated to talk about, a couple smaller indies I’m a little more excited for, and — Moon Nazis!

Real Steel

Click to see the trailer

There was an early teaser that came out for this last year, but this is the first chance that we really get to see the story of this film.  On one level you instantly want to dismiss this film as “Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em Robots: The Movie,” sure to be filled with terrible dialogue and cheesy one-liners.  But on another level you hope that this interesting premise might actually turn out to be a fresh take on inspiring boxing films.

Hugh Jackman (X-Men, The Prestige) is usually pretty decent in whatever he does, but who I would be most interested to see is Evangeline Lilly in this role, who is most famous as Kate from Lost.  Although she was in The Hurt Locker for a bit, this will definitely be her biggest step into features.

While part of me is excited to see some fun robot violence, I feel ultimately this film has to disappoint.  Everyone is going to be expecting Transformers quality CGI, but there is no way they had the budget to pull that off.  And, I get the feeling that people are going to want this film to have more heart that it will end up having.

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While there were plenty of large Summer blockbusters to preview this week, they all seemed to fall short on originality and just show us the same overdone action styles that have become popular over the past few years (Conan the Barbarian).  Instead, I thought it was the perfect time to do a spotlight on some of the more obscure independent films coming up, right in the middle of this year’s Sundance hits finding distributers and buzz beginning to form around the film showing at Cannes.

This week we have two breakout hits from Sundance, one disturbing foreign thriller premiering at Cannes, and a documentary that is food for your soul.

Martha Marcy May Marlene

Click to see the trailer

Yes!  There is a third Olsen sister and she can act!  While this is only Elizabeth Olsen’s second feature since appearing that in Mary-Kate & Ashley videos as a kid, this film could definitely be a break-out role for her.

The other performance to watch in this trailer is from John Hawkes, an underrated but diverse actor that always delivers solid work in some great projects.  You may know him from his comedic role on HBO’s Eastbound and Down, or from his Oscar nominated role as Teardrop in Winter’s Bone last year.  This lesser-known cast could be set to become of the strongest ensemble performances of the year.

This film is going to be a hard one to miss, combining strong storytelling with powerful performances.  LA Weekly describes the film as “a triller that shifts nearly imperceptibly between dream, memory, and reality.”  The subtle psychological element of this trailer is sure to make for an intriguing film.

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Cinematographer Jack Cardiff, 1929

There is only one word to describe the multitude of trailers rolling out this week: epic.  Stunning visual effects, powerful film scores, and, most importantly, long run-times, are what make audiences flock to the theater summer after summer.

Honestly, it was hard for me to narrow down this week’s selection, but I have included as much as possible.  This week also brings two new features designed to break up the monotony of Hollywood blockbusters.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part II

Click to see the trailer

As a fan, I couldn’t be more excited about this trailer.  I literally watched it three times in a row.  Honestly, as much as I love these books, I have always been cautious of the film franchise.  Terrible pacing and poor character development were what was normally found in the Harry Potter films year after year, almost as if they were never designed to stand alone, but made exclusively for people who where already fan of the books.

But splitting this last book into two parts was a brilliant move.  Even though it was most likely purely a marketing move to milk this franchise as long as possible, having two feature films has finally given the screenplay the room it needed to breath and to take the time to explore the relationships between the characters that make this fantastic world believable.

Looking directly at the trailer itself, we find it properly utilizing this new “epic trailer” structure that has been emerging recently, which consists of a 90 second theatrical trailer which ends with a dip in the music and poignant one-liner, only to explode into the final minute of epic montage footage set to the most powerful moments in the score, purely for the sake of being flashy.  It is almost like the trailer is saying, ” This movie is too epic.”

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Welcome to the first Trailer Tuesdays where you’re sure to find the best highlights from film trailers released theatrically or virally in the past week.  Plus, we throw in one trailer that’s so ridiculous that it’s awesome.

This week we found two major summer blockbusters that will hopefully prove to be good, not just cool, as well as one indie horror that will hopefully prove to be as scary as it is original.

Cowboys and Aliens

See trailer here

This film is a perfect example of a terrible premise with a cheesy title that is executed so well that it might actually turn out to be good.  The best quote I’ve heard about this film was when director Jon Favreau was being interviewed about why he chose to do this concept, he replied saying that since lots of people believed that aliens visited ancient cultures such as the Mayans and Egyptians, why can it not be believable that aliens visited the Old West?  So as long as he’s sticking by the idea, I’m down.

Certainly the best choices that were made for this film were getting Daniel Craig for the lead and Jon Favreau of Iron Man fame to direct.  This combination is certain to bring some real credibility to this film.  Craig seems to bring an old-school “bad ass-ness” to this part that has been lacking from most modern westerns.

No one could draw an alien side-arm as cool as him.  And Favreau has an uncanny ability to make even the most ridiculous action scenes seem somehow grounded in reality.

Of course you can’t forget Olivia Wilde, who is quickly becoming the hottest female action star; Sam Rockwell, who popped out of nowhere in this newest theatrical trailer but is nothing short of amazing in everything he does; and Harrison Ford, who just goes without saying.

Overall, this trailer is exciting and gets you pumped on some great visuals.  Hopefully this will be even better than Iron Man, as well as the coolest graphics of the summer.

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