Sometime yesterday the teaser for Michael Bay’s Transformers, which is set to come out July 4 of next year, was leaked onto the internet prior to its scheduled launch next week. In response to this, the folks at Dreamworks decided to just put the trailer up on the Transformers Official Site a few days early. The teaser has turned out to be mostly anti-climactic, but it will be enough to continue the building of excitement for next year’s release. Maybe I am wrong, but this is probably the number one film that fanboys have been yearning for since the 80s. I know everyone has been anxious for Superman Returns and we all loved X-Men, but Transformers has a huge following; and when you combine that with the team of Steven Spielberg and Michael Bay, the anxiety is only increased ten fold. If you would like to watch the trailer just click here or click the poster to the right. If you are looking for some more news and whatnot on Transformers, here are a few links: JoBlo’s Preview Page (a 9.2 on the Popcorn Meter! Wow!) Rottentomatoes.com, as always, has solid coverage. That should be all you need for the moment, I will update with anything new that should arise… Technorati Tags: Transformers, Dreamworks, Movies, Special Effects, Teaser, Comic, Cartoon, Anxiety

What defines a great superhero movie? Of course this is a topic that would spark a very heated and potentially violent debate if brought up in any comic book shop across America. It is also something that is very subjective, but there are a few things that very successful and beloved superhero films of the past have in common. In fact, I have narrowed it down to three specific elements that I believe to be necessary in making a great superhero flick. The first is that the film must have great action. Not good action, not lukewarm action, but GREAT action. It must contain the kind of action sequences that cause your back to stick the seat because you are sweating (and the sweating can not be related to any pre-existing conditions, a la obesity). A great superhero movie must also have performances by their lead actors that make us believe that these characters whom we loved so much in print are really coming to life. We cannot survive on actors who just look like our favorite heroes, they must also be able to walk in their shoes. And lastly these successful superhero films must have a story that keeps us yearning for more. We have read every comic, seen every animated episode, and we even have the bootlegged director’s cut of the 1970′s serial edition; we need more than just a rehashing of yesterday’s saga. All of these elements are absolutely necessary in making a superhero movie that will [Due to Content Scraping and Theft, we have been forced to try abbreviated feeds. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause and woud very much appreciate you clicking through to view the full article on FilmSchoolRejects.com]

As if this week is not already chalked full of superhero excitement with the long awaited release of Superman Returns, the Spiderman 3 trailer has just been released online today. It is just the teaser, I know, but it gives me goosebumps. This is what every fan-boy in the world is really waiting for: the introduction of Venom into the mix with star Topher Grace, Harry Osborn (James Franco) takes over as the Green Goblin, and we get to see the Sandman (played by Thomas Hayden Church.) Three villians could mean too much story for a 3 hour flick, but I smell one hell of a ride on the horizon! Click the picture to the right to check out the trailer… Technorati Tags: Spiderman, Superman, Trailer, Teaser, Movies, Comics, Spiderman 3

Click Image for Trailer Here is another Oscar friendly film that I heard about recently and looks awesome. The cast is absolutely stacked with talent. Steve Carell stars alongside Greg Kinnear (who seems to be making a comeback) and one of the most unappreciated women in Hollywood, Toni Collette. I can’t wait to see the film and watched the trailer at least a half dozen times, especially because it features one of my favorite songs, “Chicago”, from Sufjan Stevens.

This summer I’m sure you can’t wait for the newest installment of Pirates of the Caribbean or the highly hyped Snakes on a Plane, but why wait for those to hit theaters when you could see Pirates of Treasure Island or Snakes on a Train? Pardon my bad Dr. Seuss impression. Did I lose you? I hope not. When I was looking for some films to rent at my local rental store I ran into a few movies with titles that were eerily similar to films that would be appearing in theaters soon. The production company’s name is The Asylum. It would seem that the company’s strategy is to produce a cheap copy of a guaranteed blockbuster, name it something similar to said film, release it on DVD around the same time as the theatrical release and rake in some home video revenue. Is it cheesy? Yes. Is it shrewd? Yes. Is it smart? Definitely. Not saying that The Asylum preys on stupid consumers, but when you aren’t paying attention When a Killer Calls sounds a lot like the theatrically released film, When a Stranger Calls. It was amusing to hear people walk by and say “honey let’s get The Da Vinci Treasure…I thought this was still in theaters!” While I remain amused by this stroke of marketing genius, I will try and get my hands on some copies of these films so I can let you know how Snakes on a Train measures up. Make sure to take a [Due to Content Scraping and Theft, we have been forced to try abbreviated feeds. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause and woud very much appreciate you clicking through to view the full article on FilmSchoolRejects.com]

Any great movie has to eventually become a trilogy, or even have a trilogy of prequels. Well, sometimes not so great movies become trilogies too. First came The Fast and the Furious, then came 2Fast 2Furious and then came The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift. At least the studio didn’t try another clever alpha-numeric sequel title like 3Fast 3Furious or maybe even I Know What You Did the Furious Before Fast. When Shawn Boswell (Lucas Black) keeps landing himself into trouble with the law, and forcing his mother to move from new town to new town, his mother forces him to move in with his father for his own good. The only catch, Shawn’s father lives in Tokyo. Shawn can’t find a single reason to like Tokyo until he meets Twinkie (Bow Wow) who introduces him to the Tokyo racing underground. Shawn’s love for cars is what landed him in trouble in the first place. In Tokyo Shawn finds trouble when he starts talking to a girl from his high school, Neela (Nathalie Kelley). When Shawn finds out that Neela is taken by the Drift King, he not only challenges him for the girl but also for respect behind the wheel.

Jack Black has no shame, of that we can be sure; but we cannot help but to love him for it. His brand of comedy is spastic, abrasive, and often dances along the fine line between funny and annoying; but his fans are loyal and his eccentricities (for the most part) make us laugh. The same can be said for writer/director Jared Hess, who burst into the mainstream with the odd but intriguing Napoleon Dynamite. The fact of the matter is that with either of these two, you either love them or you hate them; but if you love them, you really love them. So wouldn’t it make sense to combine the talents of two such people in order to make a summer release comedy that will draw huge crowds and possibly a large following? If you answered ‘yes,’ then apparently you are on the same page as the folks at Paramount Pictures. And this is the premise upon which the film Nacho Libre was made, the awesome drawing power of Jack Black and Jared Hess. Libre is the story of a jaded Mexican priest (Black) who dreams of becoming a famous luchador, or wrestler, in order to earn the respect he feels that those around him have never given him. Unfortunately for him, he is stuck in the kitchen of the monastery, cooking slop for all of the little orphans who live there and is told that wrestling is a sin. Of course in the world of slightly predictable [Due to Content Scraping and Theft, we have been forced to try abbreviated feeds. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause and woud very much appreciate you clicking through to view the full article on FilmSchoolRejects.com]

Don’t you just hate it when your cross country vacation is ruined by nuclear fallout mutated cannibals? How often is it that a remake tops the original? Furthermore, how often is it that a horror remake tops the original? When’s the last time the Buffalo Bills won a Superbowl? While you ponder the answer to those mysteries, let The Hills Have Eyes show you that some films don’t age well and a tune up can do some good. When an all-American family decides to drive cross country from Cleveland to San Diego, they expected an adventure…hey anything is better than Cleveland. When Big Bob (Ted Levine), an ex detective, and his family arrive to a gas station in the New Mexico desert things turn for the worst. The misleading gas station attendant directs Big Bob to a shortcut. What he doesn’t tell Big Bob is that the shortcut only leads to the end of the road for the family. When Doug (Aaron Stanford) finds himself near the closest thing to hell on earth, he must make a decision on whether to let things happen or to make them happen. Forced to step up and make a daring rescue, Doug must face something more horrific than anyone should ever have to lay eyes on.

I was lucky enough to catch Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang in the theater during its all-to-short run. I’ve been waiting impatiently for the DVD ever since! Watching the movie the first time really caught me off guard and it’s just as pleasantly surprising on the small screen at home. I originally got excited due to the extreme lack of publicity that this “secret” Val Kilmer flick was getting. Kilmer’s low key projects seem to be some of his best work. Remember The Salton Sea? What I didn’t expect was to be blown away by an awesome story, incredibly fun (and funny!) dialogue, and fantastic performances by Kilmer, Robert Downey Jr., and a pre-MI:3 Michelle Monaghan! Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang is a murder mystery in the best old fashioned, pulp detective story sense possible. Taking that into consideration, I naturally can’t give away too much of the plot here. It should be sufficient, however, to say a few things. A guy makes his living as a petty thief on the east coast. One night, a job goes bad and he gets chased by cops. During the chase, he decides to duck into a building and suddenly finds himself in the middle of a movie audition. The thief aces the audition and immediately gets whisked away to the west coast to become a big star. The studio execs assign him to shadow one of L.A.’s finest private detectives in order to research his new part. After witnessing a murder, the detective, the [Due to Content Scraping and Theft, we have been forced to try abbreviated feeds. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause and woud very much appreciate you clicking through to view the full article on FilmSchoolRejects.com]

Chappelle’s Block Party appeals to a limited audience, but doesn’t let that hold it back from being a wonderful mix of music and comedy. “All comedians want to be musicians, and all musicians think that they are funny.” – Dave Chappelle Unfortunately for most comedians they don’t have the deep pockets of talented musician friends that Dave Chappelle seems to have, making a vanity project such as Dave Chappelle’s Block Party completely unthinkable. Thankfully for fans of Mr. Chappelle’s brand of comedy and fans of hip-hop music everywhere, Dave does have the right friends and all the right ambitions necessary to bring some of the finest musical talents together on the silver screen. In the fall of 2004, Dave Chappelle set out to throw his very own once-in-a-lifetime block party for 5,000 of his biggest fans. He spent days combing the streets of Southwestern Ohio, passing out golden tickets that would send hundreds across the country to Brooklyn, New York for what would become a monumental musical extravaganza. There these lucky few would hold witness to an awesome show, with performances from the likes of Kanye West, Mos Def, Talib Kweli, Common, Dead Prez, Erykah Badu, Jill Scott, and the Roots. They would also be treated to the historical reunion of Wyclef Jean, Pras and Lauren Hill – formally known as the Fugees. With a spectacular concert and a little bit of sketch comedy to fill in the holes, Chappelle and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind director Michel Gondry [Due to Content Scraping and Theft, we have been forced to try abbreviated feeds. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause and woud very much appreciate you clicking through to view the full article on FilmSchoolRejects.com]

Something New, is a romantic comedy with heart, honesty and substance, but isn’t all hearts and flowers. The film centers on Kenya Denise McQueen (Sanaa Lathan) who almost has every aspect of her life in order including the purchase of a new house, supportive friends, family and a prestigious job at a top accounting firm, all except when it comes to finding order in areas of the heart. At the start of the film she hasn’t found that special someone yet due to family pressure of finding someone who is socially acceptable in her upper class life, combined with her own long list of requirements for the type of man she wants to marry and she’s not having much luck finding someone who fits the bill. She’s especially dispirited after hearing that over 42% of African American women never marry and impulsively agrees to a blind date with Brian Kelly (Simon Baker), a sexy, free-spirited landscape architect, who isn’t exactly what she pictured for herself especially the fact that he’s white. While not the man she had in mind for romance, she hires him to fix up the yard of her new house and finds herself irresistibly drawn to his earthy, laid-back charm and pursuit. The two enter into a romance that she tries to keep a secret due to the fact that they are an interracial couple and because it seems everyone including her girlfriend has an opinion about the relationship. Her socially prominent parents Joyce and Edmond (Alfre [Due to Content Scraping and Theft, we have been forced to try abbreviated feeds. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause and woud very much appreciate you clicking through to view the full article on FilmSchoolRejects.com]

Not quite fast or furious…more like slow and stylish. Produced by Rockstar Games, primarily known for their Grand Theft Auto video game series; Sunday Driver is an in depth look at the cars and lifestyles of low riders. Follow one of southern California’s oldest car clubs, Compton’s The Majestics, as the origin and purpose of their mission is realized. Promoting low riding as more of a lifestyle than a hobby, club members try to portray a much less negative perception of the low riding community. The Majestics treat their club members as family and take care of their own. Pride is a necessity with low riding and Gangster, the president of The Majestics, gives his family and neighborhood something to be proud of in the Santana. The Santana is Gangster’s life dream realized in the form of the ultimate low-rider. The Santana was featured on the cover of Lowrider magazine and further centered Compton as the home of low riding.

A person going in to see A Prairie Home Companion and not knowing who had directed it would quickly suspect it was Robert Altman or a clever imitator. The overlapping, impromptu-feeling dialogue is all there, as is the realistic, almost documentary style of the scenes. It is a return to more familiar stuff after his venture into more standard territory with Gosford Park. The plot, to the extent that there is one, revolves around the popular NPR radio program Prairie Home Companion, hosted by Garrison Keillor who plays himself in the movie. Several other actual crew members of the show are mixed in with more familiar actors to form a somewhat fictitious radio performance troupe which is giving its last performance. The real Prairie Home Companion is doing just fine, but the fictitious one in the Altman movie is being cancelled by a large evil corporation (are there any other kind in Hollywood?). The movie takes place almost entirely during the last performance as seen by the various contributors to the show.

After the young Louis Malle gained fame as a cameraman for Jacques Cousteau and co-directing The Silent World but he quickly found even more by winning the Prix Louis Delluc, the highest award bestowed in French cinema, at the age of 24. The story begins on a Saturday afternoon in Paris, with a conversation between lovers. Julien Tavernier (Maurice Ronet), an ex-paratrooper, is on the telephone with his lover as she professes her love and begs him to meet her at the cafe when he is finished with his task. Being a Saturday, his office building is barely occupied so Julien stages a daring ascent up the exterior of the building only to arrive at the private floor of his boss Simon Carala. At first Mr. Carala is delighted to see his colleague, but becomes annoyed with his presence as Julien pulls out a pistol. Mr. Carala realizes that the pistol is his before Tavernier pulls the trigger and stages the scene to look like a suicide. Quickly and carelessly descending down the office building, Julien arrives to his office and informs his secretary and the security guard that it is time to go home. The secretary and security guard assume that Mr. Carala left the building undetected, and Tavenier has a perfect alibi in that his secretary assumed that he was in his office the entire time. It is not until Julien notices the grappling hook that he left on the exterior of the building, that he realizes his [Due to Content Scraping and Theft, we have been forced to try abbreviated feeds. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause and woud very much appreciate you clicking through to view the full article on FilmSchoolRejects.com]

While searching through DVD titles at your favorite place of business have you ever noticed a title that has the words “The Criterion Collection” near the top of the jacket? Once you noticed the fact that these editions generally retail for $10 more than the average, did you immediately put the copy back or did something possibly spark your curiosity? When some of my favorite Wes Anderson films were being released as a part of The Criterion Collection and I found my beloved Rushmore to be retailing for $39.95, I had to know why. When visiting the Criterion Collection’s website, I found that they have hundreds of titles (currently 350 DVD releases). For the answer to my question about the price tag of Criterion’s releases, I looked no further than to their mission statement:

Release Date: June 13, 2006 I have not always been a history buff, but often a film will inspire me to do a little research and take a look back at a key point in time. To this effect, I have learned most of what know about one of my favorite historic events, the Apollo space program, from an HBO mini-series. And up until today I was not aware that a man by the name of Burt Munro ever existed. But thanks to wonderfully crafted film starring Anthony Hopkins, I am now well aware of an underdog story like no other. In the 1960s, a man by the name of Burt Munro lived in New Zealand. His obsession, cultivated over a 25 year period, was the rebuilding of a 1920 Indian Scout motorcycle into a machine capable of speeds well over 200 mph. His dream was to take the bike all the way to the other side of the world, where he would make a run at history on the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah. His story, while not widely known by most, is one of resourcefulness, creativity and an irrepressible spirit and drive that embodies what it is to be a “kiwi” from down under.

To make movies this good, Pixar must have sold their souls to the Devil… uh, Disney. It is the last race of the season and the Piston Cup is tied three ways between a legend, a constant runner up and a hot new rookie. Lightning McQueen (Owen Wilson) has lit up the tracks ever since he got his big break but has got his work cut out for him as he heads towards the finish line. When Lightning passes the finish line in a dead tie with The King (none other than Richard Petty) and Chick Hicks (Michael Keaton), officials decide to have a tiebreaking championship race in California. Lightning takes a ride with his only pal Mack (John Ratzenberger) to be the first competitor to reach California so he can woo the best racing sponsor on the circuit. After some unexpected events, Lightning takes some wrong turns and ends up in the small town of Radiator Springs off Route 66.

(via AICN) Two days ago we were teased a little as the makers of 2007′s Transformers updated their official site with a countdown to the first official teaser trailer. And now we can all be witness to the first poster! What can I say about this that will not make most fanboys wet themselves even more than they have already? This is already being penciled in as the most anticipated release, at here in my office, of 2007. Just click the poster to see the much larger, slightly more impressive version. Technorati Tags: Transformers, Movies, Posters, Movie Poster, Teaser, Countdown, 2007, Film, Michael Bay, Dreamworks, Steven Spielberg

And no this is not an expose on what “adult” films are being released this summer; I do have a little, if only a little, tact when it comes to my writing. So far during my Seven Days of Summer Movies we have seen all of the family fun, fanboy mania, sequels, remakes and mindless amusement that is to be had this summer at your local cineplex. But what about the grown ups? When is it going to be their turn? Now seems like as wonderful a time as any. We begin, as we have all week, in the month of June; writing its way into our lives first is a very cool documentary by the name of Wordplay. Directed by Patrick Creadon, Wordplay is a celebrity packed and in-depth look at New York Times crossword puzzle master Will Shortz and his legions of crazy, crossed up fans. And when I say “celebrity packed,” I am referring to appearances from Jon Stewart, President Bill Clinton, and Ken Burns. Being heralded as a fantastic documentary is one thing, but being heralded as a fantastic documentary about crossword puzzles is a completely different story. Even with a very limited release (NY and LA), this one still makes me want to track it down and see what all the fuss is about.

Going to the movies during summer months is about many things, the most important of which is having a good time. Summer, for so many, is a time to escape the mundane details of our day to day and relax, enjoying the great weather and a little extra free time. Such a great theory, at least for those of us who do not live in the real world and have real jobs, right? With that in mind, I got to thinking, “What kind of Summer Movie Preview would this be if I neglected to mention all of the mindless fun that is to be had at the theaters this year?” And the answer is clear; it would be less than acceptable of me to neglect these humorous escapes from your average film. Throwing all rational dramatic elements and any hopes of Oscar’s grace to the curb, these films bring us a different level of entertainment: mindless, carefree fun.