Trailer Park: Part 2- Cowboys and Aliens

Somehow I overlooked this trailer yesterday. I think it's because I heard the title a while ago and thought "That sounds fucking stupid." I watched it today and found myself quite wrong. And pleasantly surprised. This trailer is easily the best out of the three I saw. It is also now my second most anticipated movie of next year, right behind Sucker Punch. Which by the way, looks like 10 buckets of AWESOME. Back to Cowboys and Aliens, whoever had the idea of putting James Bond and Indiana Jones in the same action movie is a damn genius. Despite how dumb the title is. On a side note, I saw Harrison Ford on Conan last night, and he looked like he had wandered in to Conan's studio while getting lost on his way back to the retirement home. It's sad really, Harrison Ford used to be one the best actors in Hollywood. Not to worry sir, I'll always remember you as Han Solo. He really holds his own well in this trailer. Unless the movie is somehow completely different than what's in the trailer, it should be a good time.

Trailer Park: Green Lantern and Red Riding Hood

Green Lantern
I'll be honest right off the bat- I know very little about this character. So, already I'm kind of filing this under "Movie news I barely care about". I think superhero movies have hit the bottom of the barrel. After doing comics that everyone knows about, like Superman, Batman, X-Men, and Spider-Man, they're down to these, that only the biggest of nerds will know anything about. Eh. As a movie, Green Lantern looks...silly. Not sure if that's what they meant. It seems like they're trying to go for a breezy Iron Man kinda feel here, but I have a feeling this is going to go the way of the Fantastic Four movies. By that, I mean it's going to suck. I couldn't tell you what this is about from watching the trailer, but I can tell you that this Green Lantern is what it would be like if Stiffler from American Pie became a superhero. Maybe that's what he's like in the comics, I don't know. I'm not sure if I will be seeing this or not.

Red Riding Hood
This trailer made me laugh the whole way through. It's an obvious attempt by the studios to cash in on the Twilight audience, the same way they did with Remember Me. This movie looks ridiculously stupid. Why, Gary Oldman, Why? Are your mortgage payments that bad? Also, there already was a movie where they "re-imagined" Little Red Riding Hood. It's called Freeway and Keifer Sutherland is a rapist in it. I'm not kidding, IMDb it. Since this movie deals with Werewolves, I wonder if said lychan is going to walk around the whole movie with his shirt off, and change in to a wolf that is 10 times bigger than he is. Granted, I know the director of this flick didn't do those Twilight movies, but those fx were awful. I wonder if this will be like the version of Little Red Riding Hood where the wolf eats the Grandma and then they shoot the wolf and cut her out. Don't remember that ending? Ask your folks. Anyway, I need to go to bed. It is late and I'm rambling. If you're so inclined, both trailers are up at the apple.com/trailers website. In case you didn't know, they have Beatles music now.

Due Date

Hollywood seems to run on a single rule: if something works, do it again. And again, and again, until the market is over saturated with whatever or whoever they're trying to shove down our throats at the moment. For example, I'm already getting tired of Zach Galifianakis. I saw him a few months ago in the bland Dinner For Schmucks. I suspected then that he may be a one hit wonder, and Due Date kind of proves me right. From here, it's only a matter of time until The Hangover 2 comes out, which is now shooting. It's a weird circle of life thing, where I loved the guy in The Hangover but may be tired of him by the time its sequel comes out.
It's nothing against the guy personally, it's the way Hollywood uses him. By throwing him into everything and having him play the same character every time, it gets tiring. He's funny, and in this film he even has some convincing dramatic scenes. Even so, it's like hearing the same joke told over and over. The same is true of his co star, Robert Downey Jr. When he was in Tropic Thunder a few years back, he hadn't been in a movie in a while. Seeing him in that was "Oh yeah, that guy. Hey, who knew he was funny?" Now we know. And we get it. This may sound crazy, but I think when someone is really great in a movie (as Galifianakis was in The Hangover), they should go away for a few years. Then come back with something and everyone would think "Oh yeah, that guy!" The film does have a great supporting cast as well, including Jamie Foxx and Juliette Lewis, but they're underused.
On the other hand, the movie itself is a tired formula. Remember that Kid Rock song where "Werewolves Of London" and "Sweet Home Alabama" are playing in the background? There is a similar effect going on here. Only this time, it's movies playing together in the background and they are Planes, Trains, and Automobiles and The Hangover. Both of which are vastly superior films to this one. Due Date has a few funny moments, and even some where I laughed out loud. In the end, those moments don't string together well enough to make a great film. It's not a terrible film, it's just not great. It's mediocre and forgettable. Certainly not one I would go out of my way to see again.

10 Most Disturbing Scenes

Sometimes around Halloween I do a list of my favorite scary movies, but that gets old. I saw a list on the internet today featuring the 10 most disturbing scenes in film over the last decade. I thought that list was kinda lame, so here's mine. Although, admittedly, I'm doing mine "overall" and not "the last decade". I'll try to indicate spoilers as I go. This list is mostly in order, but some of it is "as I thought of it." Enjoy.

1. Sweeney Todd (Spoiler)
Scene: The Oven Scene
What happens: Sweeney finds out that Mrs. Lovett was lying to him the whole time about the death of his wife, so he throws her into an oven and burns her alive.
Why it's disturbing: The whole throwing her into an oven part. That's brutal.

2. Reservoir Dogs
Scene: The Ear Scene
Why it's disturbing: For absolutely no reason other than to cause physical pain, Mr. Blonde (Michael Madsen), cuts off a cop's ear. And then talks into it. It's hard to watch.

3. Psycho (Spoiler)
Scene: They find the rotting corpse of Norman's mother in the cellar.
Why it's disturbing: It shows the depth of Norman's insanity. Killing your mom is one thing, but digging up her corpse and keeping it around because you can't accept the fact that you murdered her is a whole different bag of crazy.

4. A Clockwork Orange
Scene: Alex rapes a woman to the tune of "Singing in the Rain."
Why it's disturbing: See above. That song will never be the same for you after that. Unless you're an unfeeling sociopath.

5. The Dark Knight
Scene: The Joker's Press Tape
Why it's disturbing: I almost went with the "Magic Pencil" scene, but this scene, where The Joker kills an innocent person on tape and threatens to kill more unless Batman reveals himself is scarier. "Look at me!" Jesus.

6. Drag Me To Hell
Scene: Christine murders her cat.
Why it's disturbing: Christine is really a nice person and doesn't deserve a demon curse. It happens, and she ruthlessly murders her cat as a sacrifice thinking it will get the demon off her back. It just goes to show how far even the nicest person will go when their ass is on the line.

7. Saw (Spoiler)
Scene: Jigsaw stands up, he was alive the whole time.
Why it's disturbing: The whole movie, which takes place mostly in a shitty bathroom, these two guys who are chained there go through some awful stuff trying to escape. Also, there's a dead guy in the middle of the room, who you think shot himself during a failed "game." But it's really the guy who put them there, wanting a front row seat to the madness. Messed. Up.

8. American History X
Scene: The curb stomp scene
Why it's disturbing: Derek murders a guy by making him put his mouth on the curb and stomping down on the back of his head. It's a really messy way to do it, but it speaks volumes about the hate Derek has in him, which is very disturbing.

9. Seven
Scene: Sloth
Why it's disturbing: Because the victim here has been trapped in a room, chained to a bed, for an entire year. It's a horrific way to go, to slowly decompose while you're alive. It says something about John Doe, the killer, as to how patient and meticulous he is. Definitely a disturbing quality in a serial killer. It's not about the glory or grandstanding, it's about how much pain he can cause.

10. Silence of the Lambs
Scene: Hannibal's escape
Why it's disturbing: Hannibal kills a guard and then smuggles himself out by wearing the poor dead bastard's face. I can barely even comprehend it. It's just....ew.

There you go- the most disturbing scenes ever. See you in your nightmares!