Trailer Tuesday: The Smurfs

No, it's not Avatar 2...

Yeah, The Smurfs have got a movie! The little blue creatures are hitting the big screen this summer, in their 3D theatrical debut. Prepare to see a lot of blue. Here's the synopsis:

 "When the evil wizard Gargamel chases the tiny blue Smurfs out of their village, they tumble from their magical world and into ours -- in fact, smack dab in the middle of Central Park. Just three apples high and stuck in the Big Apple, the Smurfs must find a way to get back to their village before Gargamel tracks them down."

  - Columbia Pictures




And here's the trailer:

A bit of a "back-to-basics" breakdown:

• 0:17 - OMG Smurf Village! Mushrooms an' all!  
• 020 - Smurf riding stork - their preferred method of transport.
• 0:24 - Slightly Incredibly creepy Gargamel breaks into Smurf land. I'll be honest, this shot/acting looks incredibly cheap...
• 0:31 - And then the douchebag lets his cat, Azrael, free on the poor Smurfs.
• 0:40 - Of course! All water-hyperspace travel leads to NYC!
• 0:42 - A good shot of the main Smurfs - From left to right - Brainy Smurf, Gutsy Smurf, Jokey Smurf, Papa Smurf, Grumpy Smurf and Smurfette.
• 0:53 - Neil Patrick Harris (NPH) discovers his new found Smurf buddies. On a side note, inside the box is a Belgian/French magazine - a possible reference to the Smurfs original creation?
• 0:57 - Jayma Mays also stars alongside NPH, as his wife.
• 1:12 - Modern Family's Sofia Vergara also joins the cast as Patrick(NPH)'s boss.
• 1:15 - Clumsy/Jokey (I'm not sure which) gets busy in the bathroom.
• 1:39 - This Blue Man gag always stifles a chuckle out of me...
• 1:43 - Papa Smurf goes Rambo.
• 1:58 - Hat-chutes FTW!
• 2:04 - Smurfette is actually voiced by, would you believe it, Katy Perry!
• 2:07 - And there's some more stork riding for you.
• 2:16 - And, in true Smurf fashion, the little guys recite the classic theme tune.
• 2:27 - You can get your Smurf on, August 11th in 3 Dimensions.

So that's The Smurfs. Very Smurfing Smurf but not a lot of Smurf Smurfing going on however. But the Smurf of the CGI is very Smurf. I will admit I'm not a big fan of the whole "Gargamel gets smacked by lots of different things" stuff, which makes me fear that we're heading down the Yogi Bear angle of classic cartoon ruining Hollywood-ism trying to make it funny for kids. Sigh... When will they learn that kids aren't always into that kind of thing. I mean look at the Pixar movies; great kid-friendly films with tons of charm and little to no pain distribution. Fingers crossed for not too much of this slapstick then...  

  

   However, the rest looks pretty awesome especially NPH's time with The Smurfs, (which looks to contain far more chemistry than Jason Lee with Alvin and The Chipmunks *shudder*) and plus the fact it's set in New York, where I have been, and I love that "I've been there" feeling I get. And I'm hoping for some proper time with the Smurfs Village, because it did look pretty sharp from that small section in the trailer.   

Anyway, that's all for today's Smurfarific trailer, but before I Smurf out, I'd like to give a big shout out to my Uncle Sean: A life-long Smurf fan who will most likely never speak to me again for this. Ha ha, here's to you Sean! Over an out.

The Sunday Supdate: 29/05/11

The Return.

Yes, I'm back after a week of un-supdated-ness. Apologies if you missed me, but don't be too worried because you're in luck with this considerably monster-sized update! (Assuming that I can find enough things to talk about - I do make this up as I go along, after all.)

  Okay, so "WHERE THE CHEESE BALLING THUMPER CATS HAVE I BEEN!?!?!"?. In short, nowhere. The lack of a Supdate last week was in fact wholly unnecessary, and should be blamed solely on my shoddy, uninterested brain. In even shorter terms: CBA. No matter, comrades; I will work harder!

  Anyway, here's the first picture of Tom Hardy (Inception, Bronson) as Bane in The Dark Knight Rises:

Pretty sweet, huh? The mask design looks very contemporary and thankfully non-camp (ala Batman and Robin)and director Nolan's style is flawless, as ever. I know it's a bit old now, but absence is absence, and I really wanted to include it; especially for those of you who's eyes haven't graced its presence as of yet.

           On the topic of movies, I saw Pirates 4 (after a bit of a Hangover 2 cuffufle)  today and was pleasantly surprised by it.  Depp was as good as ever, and there was a great showcase of  recognisable faces on screen (Richard Griffiths, Stephen Graham). In all honesty, it was far more enjoyable than I had expected and reminded me a lot of Indy's The Last Crusade, what with the "hunting down of a mythical object" angle of the plot line. RE:View? Stay tuned...

  I also seem to be getting really into Joss Whedon's works at the moment. As you know, I expressed interest in his sci-fi/western series, Firefly, a couple of weeks ago (of which I am now in love with) and have since expanded into some of his other stuff. Namely: Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog. Possibly the only good thing to come out of the writer strike of 2008, this delightful tragi-comedy musical web-series has been stuck in my head for the last two days. Here's a taster: 

Yep, it's the openly awesome Neil Patrick Harris!

You can actually find the whole thing on YouTube if you want to check it out in its entirety, which I implore you to. Seriously, you'll thank me. You may even want to buy this after:
Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog: The Book 

          Now I know the hits have dived this month, and you can't blame really blame the little guys. There's been very little activity and nothing new has flourished yet. But hold onto your savoury snacks, because I'd like to (try to) introduce the new WTF (What The Fridge) weekly feature. It could be a picture, video, track or generally anything that makes no sense and just makes you question humanity, the world or even yourself. Suggestions would be nice too, if you ever have anything in mind. And the best thing; it's not going to be restricted to a certain day of the week! It could be anytime! Okay, so maybe that's not the best thing, but it certainly helps me out having no commitment deadlines (Tuesdays can be a tough squeeze).

Stuff like this? I think so.

  That's all for now, so come back in the week for the first WTF, a new trailer, maybe an RE:View and if you're really lucky, perhaps a special feature. Stay safe now.  

Trailer Tuesday: The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of The Unicorn

As you may remember, a few weeks back I was heavily praising the new Tintin movie, due out this October, directed and produced by Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson respectively. Well, here's the first trailer and it's looking mighty fine. Taking a great leap forward in both animation and motion-capture, Tintin might just end up as one of the best movies of the year.
 Here's the synopsis:

"Combining the stories of The Crab with the Golden Claws, The Secret of the Unicorn and Red Rackham's Treasure, the film depicts Tintin's (Jamie Bell) first encounter with Captain Haddock (Andy Serkis) and the discovery of a clue to the treasure of his ancestor Sir Francis Haddock. They set out to find it with protection from a prison escapee who tried to get the treasure as well as Detectives Thompson and Thomson (Simon Pegg and Nick Frost)." - Wikipedia

Trailer Tuesday: Real Steel

Because men boxing is just so 1980's!

Like Rocky, but with more steel.

Real Steel is the new boxing movie hoping to make its way onto the scene; with a twist. We're not talking about humans sparring it out here, oh no: Real Steel is a robot boxing-movie. Set in the near future, it stars Hugh Jackman as Charlie Kenton, the retired boxing-champ from the old days trying to build up a new robot to become the next fighting-bot champion. Here's the synopsis for you:

"A future-set story where robot boxing is a popular sport and centered on a struggling promoter (Jackman) who thinks he's found a champion in a discarded robot. During his hopeful rise to the top, he also discovers he has an 11-year-old son who wants to know his father." - IMDb

 And now for a breakdown:

• 0:10 - Looks like Charlie's in a spot of money problems and his trailer home suggests no different. Nice phone though... 
• 0:20 - Some nice black and white shots of his old boxing days. 
• 0:21 - Charlie's son there, played by Dakota Goyo who recently appeared as the young Thor in Thor.
•  0:22 - Turns out Charlie was No. 2 in the world at boxing. That's my opinion of him lowered...
• 0:24 - First look at the robot battle arena, with metal railings and reinforced floors I'm guessing. Note the "WRB" logo in the background, which I presume stands for World Robot Boxing. Or We Race Bums. 
• 0:27 - 2-headed red bot.
• 0:28 - Mean looking blue bot.
• 0:29 - Mohawk bot goes for the nut shot on a lavishly painted purple bot.
• 0:30 - Champion bot. Lots of bots in this trailer, in case you hadn't noticed.
• 0:33 - Take your son to work day? Or not.
• 0:40 - Looks like dad gives in as the two lead a Japanese looking bot to the ring. Loving the old-school Transformers feel to this one.
• 0:45 - Nice phone device.
• 0:46 - And the mohawk bot goes to town on the shiny new oriental model.
• 0:53-1:00 - Charlie gets in deep with some lone sharks. Never a good idea...
• 1:04 - Scrapyard time!
• 1:11 - Who'd a'thunk it! They found a full robot, what are the chances?
• 1:14 - Iron Giant, anyone?
• 1:16 - The new-found bot awakes. 
• 1:20 - Sparring-bot, aye? Sounds like the perfect setup for some character development to me.
• 1:25 - "I'm Adam, bitch!"
• 1:31 - Adam gets the smack in a street fight. 
• 1:36 - And some more blows from a red-rimmed bot in what looks to be a garage battle.
• 1:52 - Training looks to be on the menu for Adam, as Charlie builds him up, Rocky-style.
• 1:55 - Ah, the classic uppercut.
• 1:58 - And the money starts flowing...
• 2:00 - Adam's making the big time, baby!
• 2:09 - WRB comes to Madison Square Garden.
• 2:10 - "You're in the big leagues now, kid"-kind of look from a tough bot to Max.
• 2:14-2:17 - Max slips and Charlie saves. Father and son bonding, no less.
• 2:24 - Highly appropriate looking title there, in the chrome steel typography.
• 2:28 - 7th October release... And not in 3D, would you believe?

So there you have it, Real Steel or as I like to call it, Rock'em Sock'em: The Movie. It's a new take on the boxing-genre, that's for sure, and it looks to be trying to give that mainstream/family friendly appeal with the use of robots; very cool. Anyway, that's your fix for the week, but come back next Tuesday for some more trailer gnarliness.  

The Sunday Supdate: 15/05/11

Reservoir Dogs; Countryside Style

God, am I knackered.
Well the majority of my weekend was spent walking. Walking up hills, walking by rivers, walking on roads; even walking down "mountains". And why did I do all this? The Duke of Edinburgh Award, of course. Just a practice hike to prepare us for the real one next month. But despite all the hardships, it was on the whole a good laugh. From my times as the newly coined "Hydro-maniac" and some rather interesting DIY baseball games (involving sombreros and a sleeping-mat), to the many big-balled sheep and the midnight medic duties, the entire time was worth it. So cheers to everyone who was there, who are most likely sharing in the various aches and pains with me.

Also this week I saw Attack The Block, which turned out to be great and hopefully I'll find the time to review it next week. As I said last week, things are moving slowly lately and the hits counter has taken a dive due to the lack of articles. But just hang on in there, I'll return to full capacity soon enough. Plus I really want to write some more fiction to put on here, just to give a creative flair to the site.

 But I digress. It's late and I'm tired so that's all I'm putting for today, readers. Feel free to vote on the polls to the right, now with more POTC. Have a great week and I'll be back here this time again next Sunday, with hopefully a decidedly longer post. Over to you, Baby Monkey:

Over and Out.
ATR

Trailer Tuesday: 30 Minutes or Less

Unfortunately I don't have the time for a fully fledged breakdown today, so it'll only be a trailer for now. But never fear because this is 30 Minutes or Less, the new action/comedy from the makers of Zombieland. Starring Jesse Eisenberg (The Social Network, Zombieland). Danny McBride (Your Highness, Pineapple Express) and "That awesome Indian intern from season 8 of Scrubs (Ed)": Aziz Ansari!

Here's the synopsis:

Two fledgling criminals kidnap a pizza delivery driver and force him to rob a bank within 30 minutes. 

- IMDb

Short and sweet there from IMDb. Now here's the trailer:

Well, what do you think? I'll agree this trailer isn't really as hilarious as you'd want it to be, but hopefully the real thing should come off a lot funnier. Plus Aziz Ansari and Jesse Eisenberg is a killer combo which'll be interesting one to watch, and if it's anything like Zombieland then it's sure to be a blast. Hitting theatres August 12th.

P.S. Hope you're digging the new layout. ; )

The Sunday Supdate: 08/05/11

Well, the word of the week was absence (not to be confused with abstinence). I'm aware that there hasn't been much movement this week, and I apologise to those craving some ground-breaking weekday blogging. Why, I hear you ask? Well, I don't know to be honest, just haven't had the time or the ideas. But don't go expecting a sudden surge in activity now though, as I've still got various exams and the like to be dealing with, and you know how priorities go. I'll still keep the Trailer Tuesdays and occasional RE:Views in, and the odd piece if I have the time.

But I am still endeavoring to keep it all fresh, and recently brain-stormed some ideas. I'm toying with the idea of a couple new weekly features that could or couldn't go ahead in the coming weeks. There's also this field-study/research thing I want to kick off if I can get the commitment for it in. But I must keep my silence on it all if I wish to pertain the dramatic hype or whatever you want to call it. Stay tuned...

Attack The Block invades cinemas this week, and for those who don't know what it is, check out this trailer here. A friend and I have been disputing whether it'll be any good throughout this week, me saying yes and him saying no. However, I hope to prove him wrong come this Wednesday(opening day!) when I go see it. After all, it has been described as the next Shaun of The Dead, so I have high hopes. RE:View? You'll just have to wait and see.

What do you think about ATB? Have a say on the poll >

Also started watching Firefly last week, the hugely popular sci-fi show from 2003 which gained a cult-following for it's inventive combination of the sci-fi and western genres. However, the SOBs over at FOX cancelled the show after one season for some bizarre reason, but it's a mistake many fans will not forgive them for. So I decided to see what all the fuss was about and even though I'm only a couple of episodes in, I am loving it. Everything is just so bang on, from the characters and dialogue to the sound and action. Pure awesome. So, taking inspiration from a HSSS video, what shows were you pissed to see cancelled? Vote on the poll to the right.

Yay, more polls! Good to see them return after a little hiatus. Right, that's all for now, so here's a song I've been listening(and playing) to recently. Enjoy!

Trailer Tuesday: Transformers 3: Dark of The Moon

Yep, so this Summer sees Michael Bay's Transformers trilogy come to an end with the anticipated Dark of The Moon. Hopefully it won't be a bull-crap action fest like Revenge of The Fallen, and can return the franchise to it's former glory, set by the first film. I'm remaining hopeful as I think Bay along with Spielberg can learn from their mistakes and pull another gem out of the bag for this one. Here's the "short 'n' sweet" synopsis:

"The Autobots learn of a Cybertronian spacecraft on the Moon and must race against the Decepticons to find it and learn its secrets, which could turn the tide in the Transformers' final battle" - Wikipedia

The Trailer: 

And the return of the breakdown:

• 0:07 - Opening shot of the Moon. A crucial destination in this one, as the title suggests.
• 0:10 - Here's what I presume to be a Cybertron ship crashing into the Moon. Carrying some auotobots/decepticons no doubt...
• 0:15 - Looks like the crash will coincide with the 1969 Moon landings, as seen by (most likely) Neil Armstrong looking toward the wreckage.
• 0:17 - And then exploring it with buddy Buzz.
• 0:19-0:22 - Listen to the narrating dialogue here - "The entire space race of the 1960s was in response to an event.". Looks like we're rewriting history in this installment with a neat little twist.
• 0:27 - Neil is astounded by the finding.
• 0:30 - Present day now I think, in what looks like a military base of some kind.
• 0:34 - Good ol' Shia LaBeouf returns as the lovable Sam Witwicky.
• 0:41 - Enter the bots. No new additions here as far as I can see, presuming those heli's are just military.
• 0:47 - Optimus is getting tetchy. You can also see BumbleBee and Ratchet looking shiny as ever.
• 0:54 - Electronic power beacon of some kind shines out of the heart of LA (?). That's never a good sign...
• 0:58-1:09 - Looks like the crashed ship left a little extra baggage. Lot's of mean looking decepticons(?) emerge from the Moon's surface... Epic SFX on display here by the way. And that really big one getting out at 1:07 is called Trypticon, I believe, and is a Godzilla-like transformer of pure dinobot destruction.
• 1:09 - More beacons of electricity, this time coming from outside the Lincoln Memorial in D.C. telling from the Washington Monument out front.
• 1:10-1:17 - And here come said evil decepticons, laying waste on a global scale by the looks of things.
• 1:24 -  Holy $*%#! Pretty bad-ass looking bot-ship flying around there. 
• 1:26-1:27 - Shia tries to calm Megan Fox replacement, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley as the whole world goes kaputz. As you may have heard, Fox dropped out after arguments with director Michael Bay. Never fear though, as Whiteley was just crowned Maxim's No. 1 hottest woman, so the eye-candy will very much still be intact. Rosie here will play a new character, named Carly and apparently they're just running with the story that Sam and Mikayla broke up.
• 1:33 - Sweet looking decepticon standing upright here, with what looks to be a big effing gun on his arm.
• 1:36 - Some military dudes in flight suits make a sharp drop.
• 1:40-1:45 - Optimus kicking some butt, with a shiny new jet-pack and those awesome machetes which come from his arms.
• 1:46-1:51 - Some BumbleBee free-running action.
• 1:55 - Now here's a new one. What appears to be some sort of dragon-bot, wings and everything. Very cool, and ties in nicely with the dino-bot angle of Trypticon.
• 2:03 - Looks like we can expect some more sentimental Sam/BumbleBee scenes that made the first film good.
• 2:07 - Note the annoying agent guy from the past two movies in the background in this shot. He's in a wheelchair, so it'll be interesting to see how he comes to that.
• 2:09-2:22 - Okay, now this is awesome. Remember Trypticon from earlier, well he isn't just a goddamn T-Rex robot, but he can also use these huge tendril things to lacerate and destroy. Seen here, he's taking down a whole goddamn building! This looks freaking off the chain with effects!
• 2:25 - Comes out July 1st (USA anyway) and it's going to be in, wait for it......... 3-D! But don't worry, because it's been 70% shot in 3-D it should look more Avatar than Clash of The Titans. 

Alright, yet another Summer cinema trip in store for this one I suppose. Just please, please, don't cock it up this time... See you next week, trailer fans.

The Monday Supdate: 02/05/11

Or should that be Mupdate?

Anyway, it's another week and another update and the biggest story today; Mr Bin Laden. Yep, as I am sure you know, big-bad-Osama has finally been found and killed in Pakistan. Now obviously this a great thing, that the world's most wanted man has been brought to justice. But is it really justice though? The man responsible for killing 1000s of innocent civilians gets his comeuppance by a couple of quick, near-painless bullets to the face? Surely that's getting off a little easy for a man capable of such evil? But then again, I guess torture or drowning or having him ripped apart by wolves would cause a lot of disruption through the Al-Qaeda community... Oh well, at least we can all be thankful that the murderous SOB has been finished once and for all. I did hear an interesting quote on Twitter though: "This weekend's been a lot like a Disney movie... The princess gets married and then the villain is defeated.". Very true, methinks.

Moving away from "World Hide and Seek Champion 2001-2011" now, and this week also saw... well not a lot as far as this blog's concerned. My Thor RE:View went live, picking up quite a few hits, largely due to it being posted before the actual movie came out. HIGH-FIVES FOR PREVIEW SCREENINGS! All professional-like! Anyway, apart from that there was the piece on HSSS and the triple trailers. And this weeks trailer will be a proper breakdown by the way.

Anyone been watching Doctor Who? Because seriously, that two part series opener blew my mind! Steven Moffat (writer) has reached a new level of excellence in my opinion and I can't wait for more of his stuff. And if you've seen the first episode of the modern-day Sherlock, you'll know how good Moffat is. Which reminds me how psyched I am for the upcoming animated Tintin movie. I'm not really a fan of the quippy-haired boy adventurer, but have you seen the line-up for this? Spielberg and Peter Jackson producing/directing, Edgar Wright and Moffat writing and John Williams composing while Pegg+Frost, Andy Serkis and Daniel Craig all star alongside Jamie Bell as Tintin. I don't know if that means anything to you, but for me this is awesome. Can't wait for December.

Don't worry, It's not as creepy as it looks.

But that'll have to wait as I do believe I've got a Summer to enjoy first. Have a good week now and I'll meet you back here next Sunday for more Sups. Chow now everybody.