*I started this post months ago, but never finished it, cause I assumed that the moment had passed and I would be writing about stuff people already knew about.... well it turns out that I was actually way ahead of the curve and I should have just finished, cause many of these movies hadn't really been hyped but at this point, many of them are out, and I've seen them.

So, what I'm going to do, is publish my original post but ammend my reviews with my current knowledge from the future.... hopefully it will make sense.

Heres Goes…

I don’t get to go to the movies as often as I’d like, but I sure do like ’em. I can blame my lack of movie attendance on several things but I will point primarily to the fact that i never see any trailers anymore. I barely watch network television and most of my TV watching comes via Hulu and Netflix, which definitely limits the amount of movie trailers which my eyes can take in, so I have no guage on what is coming out, much less on what might be good. If it’s not mentioned in a podcast I’m listening to or having a mega internet blitz campaign or if it’s not something that everyone I know is excited about, then I just plain miss it. Even if there is a movie that I somehow become aware of, I usually don’t catch it in theatres. I don’t know how many times I walk past a redbox and I’m like “What!?! that movie is already out on DVD?”

*Case in point, I assumed most of these films were already common knowledge, but many weren’t… and a few weren’t actually movies…

Well anyways, for all the reasons mentioned above, plus so many more, I will occasionally spend a considerable amount of time watching movie trailers on YouTube. and today happens to be one of those days.

I’d like to share some of the trailers I watched today with my brief opinion on each of them, just in case anyone wants to base their decisions upon my feeble thoughts formed from a movie trailer.

 

First of all,

Guardians of the Galaxy:

I heard about this movie a long time ago and was kinda confused cause I’d never heard of them before, but apparently it’s a Marvel property and from what I’ve heard it’s supposed to be pretty awesome…. Now that I’ve seen the trailer, I’m confident that it will be awesome. Chris Pratt  is in it, you might know him from his work on Parks and Recreation, and he’s a funny guy. Zoe Saldana is in it too and she’s been crushing it as Uhura in the Star Trek reboots and the other three actors involved as characters have some interesting pedigrees as well.

I will try to see this one in the theatres if I can.

*The hype was there, and it grew and the movie lived up to it. We all know by now, this was the blockbuster of the summer. I drug my GF to see it with me, and we enjoyed it. It’s one of the few movies I’ve seen in a while that I wanted to watch again as soon as it had finished. I can’t wait for the DVD and all the sequels.

 

Ninja Turtles:

I’ve heard rumblings on this one for a while as well. I was a big fan of the original live action release in the early 90’s and even hung in there through the third insallment of it. While I didn’t know it as a child when first introduced to them, I have known for quite some now that the Ninja Turtles started out as more of an adult oriented comic book and it looks this upcoming live action film is going to return to those roots with a much more gritty and action movie based version of the story.

It looks pretty cool, but I’m probably not gonna go out of my way to see it in theatres, unless I happen to be hanging out with my brothers and they want to go.  I will most likely just watch it when it comes to Redbox or Netflix.

*A friend of mine posted a scathing and disappointing review of this one via Facebook Status Update…. He’s a huge TMNT fan and a pretty dramatic guy, so I’m not sure how much stock I’d put in his opinion, but he didn’t like it. That said, since I was already on the fence, I trust his judgement enough to say that I will likely only watch this movie if it comes on TV and I have nothing else to do… or if my brother is watching it while I’m home visiting.

 

Big Hero 6:

The thumbnail is of a weird balloon guy. Of all the videos recommended to me under the TMNT trailer this one seemed the most interesting… It’s a CG animated feature and the trailer doesn’t give us too many details apart from it’s about a highstrung kid with a weird sidekick, although maybe there’s more background covered in the first 5 “Big Hero” movies…. It’s a typical setup for a lot of kids movies. It’s probably going to be a typical kids movie, which is fine with me.

If you forced me to watch it, I’d probably enjoy it, but I’m not going to go out of my way to see this one anywhere.

*There was a trailer for this one on Guardians in the theatre. I’m more intrigued, but it’s still not worth spening my movie date credits to see it. I’ll see it one day and probably become a huge fan.

 

Selfie:

I got to this one from a recommendation under Big Hero 6… As soon as the female lead revealed her name to be “Eliza Dooley” I knew it was going to be some sort of riff on “My Fair Lady.”  And then they announced the next character named “Henry Higgins” and started making references to the aforementioned broadway/ early musical cinema classic and I was certain of it.

It seems to be trying to lampoon the social media makeover culture that has sprung up recently, wherein a “nothing” girl has made herself over with strategic selfies and social media strategy, but has consequently ended totally crass and prone to behanvior that is inappropriate for the world at large.

I’m gonna let this one pass me by, unless it’s playing on an Airplane that I’m riding in and the alternative is to chat with the stranger next to me about the virtues of properly grooming your dog.

*Alrighty… It turns out, this is a TV show. I came home one day and my GF says “I watched this early realease of a new show that’s coming out, I think you’ll like it. It’s called ‘Selfie.'”

I watched the first episode with her, cause I love her and long to share an entertainment experience with her. I was skeptical. The dialogue was very rhymey at points and I swear it’s in iambic pentameter at other points. I didn’t pass judgement yet.

She watched the second episode without me, and we watched the third together. I won’t say I’m hooked, but I enjoy it enough to not complain about watching it. It’s fun and clever, and while it is one of three romcom style tv shows out that relies heavily on social media tropes, I think it has staying power.

The Flash:

I got excited for a moment, but then I realized it’s a new TV show on the CW. Since I don’t get the WB and my HULU cue is already over-flowing, I can already say I’m not gonna watch this show…. So I’m not sure why I’m even bothering to make mention of it here… I don’t know, maybe you’ll like it. It does seem like it could cool…

 *We improved our cable package. I could watch this show now if I felt like it, but for some reason, I just don’t feel like it. I’m too busy to get sucked into another TV show…. but my comics nerd friends seem to be enjoying it.

I think Gotham is probably better though.

Dumb and Dumber 2:

I heard rumblings of this via one of the Farelly Brothers’ guest turns on the Nerdist Podcast, then I forgot about it till I saw the trailer pop-up amidst other reccomendations.

IT LOOKS HILARIOUS!

It all seems to begin with Harry visiting Lloyd, who’s been sitting in an asylum for the past 20 years pretending be catatonic over losing Mary and then it all snowballs from there.

I’m gonna try real hard to see this one in theaters cause I think it will be worth it, but I’m trying to temper my expectations. It has all the ingredients to be another comedic masterpiece (great writing, directing and acting) but it’s also got a fair amount of hype around it so I know better than to expect too much. I’ll caution all of you to also not expect too much. I believe it will be funny because i want it to be funny, but I’m not gonna expect the funniest movie ever. As long as it has dumb jokes and some physical comedy that wasn’t telegraphed in the trailer, I’ll be happy with it

*my opinion remains unchanged

 

Into The Woods:

Before there was “Grimm,” “Once Upon a Time” or “Wicked” or any of the other re-imaged fairlytale mashups there was “Into The Woods.” It’s a story that turns common fairytale elements on their ears and weaves a thread between them and it began as a broadway musical by Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine.

I first saw it on stage when I was probably about 10 years old and the High School in my town did a production of it. It’s a great show with great music that still gets stuck in my head even though it’s been over 20 years since I’ve seen it. I was super impressed with the modest HS portrayal of the story and have long wanted to see a more professional treatment of it. Actually I’ve missed a few opportunities along the way, so hopefully this cinematic version will not let me down.

Anna Kendrick is cast in it so I’m assuming they’ll be using her above average pipes to include at least some of the music into the film, which could be a deciding factor for when I watch it. If they use all of Sondheim’s music I’ll try to hit a theatre for it, but if they leave it out, I will make numerous irrate and disgruntled tweets about it and then patiently wait for the DVD.

*I still feel the same way. I don’t think this is coming out until christmas or something. I haven’t seen trailers on TV yet so it’s still a ways off. The only thing I can really add is just to say that, this story and my HS’s production of it, might be responsible for my continued interest in theatre… so they better not screw it up!

 

Skindar:

After “Into The Woods” I wasn’t happy with the recommendations I was getting so I just hit up a search for “Movie Trailers 2014.” This one was near the top of the results. It looked like it might be weird satire actiion film riffing on the b-movie action films of the 80’s…. Well it’s actually a Tollywood film so I guess I wasn’t far off. It’s all in the Telugu Language, which I don’t speak, so I’m not entirely sure of the plot, but it starts off strong with a crunchy guitar riff and there are a great deal of explosions and car chases and guns not to mention a few glimspes of hypnotic indian dance numbers…

I’ll put this one on a maybe list. If it ends up in a format/ distribution network that is accessible to me I’ll consider watching it after I finish the backlog of projects I currently have and if I don’t have anything else to watch, and at that point, I bet I’ll enjoy it immensely…. but I’m not going to go out of my way to see it.

*This movie will probably win an academy award…

 

The Maze Runner:

It’s a dystopian future and more teenagers are being forced into mysterious life or death situations with a choice between accepting it or risking their lives further by exploring a thing in order to fiugre out what the deal is with all of it…. It’s tapping into the vein that was first opened by Hunger Games.

I think I could get into this one… I’m not going to burn any movie night points with my GF over it, unless it turns out that she really wants to see it (which I’m almost certain she won’t). You see that’s one of the previously un-mentioned reasons why I don’t see as many movies…. I’m at a stage in my life where I only really hang out with my family and my GF. My family all lives three to 5 hours away so they’re out of the picture most of the time which leaves my GF as my only movie date option and she just doesn’t like going to as many or at least not the same types of movies as me…. “Guardians of The Galaxy” and “Into the Woods” are worth dragging her to, but “Maze Runner” is not. I just don’t get enough opportunities to hit the theatre to waste one of them on this movie, but I will probably watch it later on Redbox if I remember to.

*This entry hopefully explains any previous references I made… There was teaser for this movie when we saw Gueardians, and just as expected my sainted GF didn’t leap out of her seat with excitement. She does like hunger games though, so she might be down. But I still say that it won’t top our list.

 

Interstellar:

I like Mathew McConaughey and I like Outer Space so this should be a no-brainer, but I’m not so sure about it…
maybe it’s just cause of the choppy signal on my phone that I watched it on or maybe they emphasized the Father Daughter relationship dynamic too much, but I’m not very excited by this one.

I’ll probably let it pass me by.

*a friend of mine also pointed out that it’s directed by Christopher Nolan, whom I also like. The critics are buzzing. People are excited about this one. I’m still not sure about it. I just don’t think the trailer is doing a good job for me. I need to see more.

 

Horns:

I heard something about this one at some point. It was probably while in an internet click hole, but I can’t remember much about what I’d heard….

Harry Potter plays a guy whose GF dies and he gets accused of it, and then grows horns for some reason and starts to experience weirdness because of that. I’m not sure what sort of movie it’s meant to be…. I’ll probably have to wait till more reviews are out on it before I make a decision.

*Not much else to say on this one. I think Harry will probably win an MTV movie award if not a Kids Choice Award…. hell he might even get a hot new GF out of the deal….

I think it’s based on an acclaimed book that I didn’t read.

It’s probably awesome.

Time will tell.

There were several other movies…

that I watched trailers for that day, but I never got around to actually saying anything about them, and I can’t remember them now. One of them was Birdman, which is out right now and one of my Movie and Comics Nerd friends really really liked it, so I’ll add that to the upcoming que of films to check out someday.