Trailer Review: The Losers

"Outstanding"
-Clay from "The Losers"

"The Losers" is directed by Sylvain White and will be in theaters on April 23, 2010 and I'll say it, it looks pretty Outstanding.

Sylvain White's most recent film as a director is 2007's "Stomp the Yard", which aside from Fraternity aspect of it, its probably one of the better dance films out there. I say this because although a major part of the film is about dance or stepping there is a good balance of focus on the characters and their development as well as the stepping, which when directing an ensemble piece like "The Losers", is what you want.

"The Losers" is written by Peter Berg and James Vanderbilt. Peter Berg is a writer/ director whose writing credits include the movies "Friday Night Lights" and "The Losers". He's also directed "Hancock", "Friday Night Lights", "The Rundown", and "The Kingdom". James Vangerbilt's writing credits include "Zodiac", "The Rundown", "Basic" and the as yet untitled "Spiderman Reboot"

Its obvious these two artists like to work together which is already a good sign. Vanderbilt's very smart and calculated scripts "Zodiac" and "Basic", not to mention his Spiderman Re-boot being chosen as the new direction to go for the series and Berg's grittiness and action savvy mindset tell me that this property was researched very thoroughly and that the action and characters will live up to what we've seen in the graphic novel.

As mentioned before this is a movie based off a graphic novel and stars Jeffery Dean Morgan, Idris Elba, Zoe Saldana, Columbus Short, Chris Evans, Oscar Jaenada, and Jason Patric. Personally I love that Hollywood is recognizing the awesome stories is these relatively unknown graphic novels and I'm glad to see a cast that is filled with most actors we've seen in "that movie". Much like "Watchmen", its nice to see a group of actors chosen for their skill as an actor or actress and not just their name.

As you can already tell I'm really hoping this movie does well. I've read the graphic novel which is excellent and believe me when I say that almost most of the tag-lines from the trailer are actual lines from the book. Very good sign. Now this story is very similar to another movie coming out called "The A-Team", now I've already been talking a lot anyways but all I'll say is that when you compare both trailers, "The Losers" handles the action and comedy in a more realistic way and in "The A-Team" it just feels very very forced.

Based off the trailer I'm definitely going to see this movie because it looks action packed, smart, funny and all round fun. I say go out and read the graphic novel to get a bit of a background on the property, trust me you won't be disappointed.

dueces!
Bobby

Trailer Review: Death at a Funeral

"Its like someone telling you a joke and then another person telling you the same joke and it just doesn't deliver".


So lets just say it, "This is One Sad TRAILER"! Death at a Funeral is a remake of a 2007 British black comedy of the same name. The original being directed by Frank Oz and the remake directed by Neil LaBute. The basic plot of the movie as you've already seen is the father of this family has died and during the wake crazy shit happens.

Neil LaBute's filmography includes more recently "Lakeview Terrace", "The Wicker Man" and "Nurse Betty". Yup! Haven't seen any of 'em. So it is definitely safe to say that, that streak will continue with "Death at a Funeral". The film is written by Dean Craig who also wrote the original. Already I'm very very upset.

The cast of this movie is...a lot. Chris Rock, who serves as a producer, Martin Lawrence, Danny Glover, Tracy Morgan, Kevin Hart, Uhura..oops sorry I mean Zoe Saldana, Keith David, Luck Wilson, James Marsden, Columbus Short and Peter Dinklage, who plays the same role he did in the original.

I listened to a Podcast today on the art of making a good trailer; who to market it to, how much to include, etc. I LIVE to see trailers! GOOD TRAILERS! So I'm glad that some people/studios actually take pride in taking the time to make good ones. This is not one of them. My curiosity for this one is, did anyone watch the original trailer to the original movie, because its almost exactly, frame for frame, the same thing!!!! I'm sure at some point Chris Rock saw the original and because he doesn't have any original ideas of his own said to himself, "wow this would be more funny if it was an African American family", wave the magical wand and poof! Add a few jokes about how all Asians look the same and you've got yourself a hit on your hands! Right?

Is this really where the remake has gotten to? To not even attempt and make the movie unique and the actors and filmmakers own, is just a pure lazy-ness. And I'm sure you might be asking; "Bobby! How do you know its not different?" If you've watched both trailers you'll realize what I'm talking about. There are even exact lines that are the same in both trailers!!

Anyways my final thoughts on this movie are just that its sad. Stay away from this movie at all costs and take the money you would have spent on seeing the movie and go treat yourself to renting the original on DVD. Now I know the possible reason for the remake might be that, there may not be a whole bunch of people who have never A. Heard of British Comedy or B. Have simply never seen it. Well take this opportunity to expose yourself to something new and open your mind to a different kind of comedy and stay away from this remake that sticks to the same old thing and doesn't even attempt to be original aside from changing the color of skin.

Normally this would be the part where I would determine how much money this movie will make opening weekend but I'm so enraged that I'm hoping that it makes no money! Again guys thanks for reading and....


dueces!
Bobby

(down here)


Here is the trailer to the original movie.