Movie Journal Quick Takes 11/22/05

Heights (11/7) – Nice little character drama about people waiting to start or accept their lives. Great performance by Glenn Close and others make this a must see if you’re a fan of character-driven stories.

Sanjuro (11/8) – The sequel of sorts to Yojimbo and another in my on again, off again Kurosawa movie education. Funny and stirring, it’s a fantastc movie, as are all by Kurosawa.

The Hulk (11/9) – Do I love this one or hate it? I can never tell and my opinion changes seven or eight times within the course of the movie. There are parts of it that are great (most of the scenes with Nick Nolte) and parts that are awful (Hulk dogs) but I think most of it is pretty good. That being said it’s very much a paycheck job for director Ang Lee. There’s nothing of the director’s vision in this movie, sorry. The comic panel presentation is pretty cool, though.

Charlie & The Chocolate Factory (11/10) – This was really good. I expected to at least be somewhat disappointed in it, seeing as how I didn’t know how anyone could play Willy Wonka after Gene Wilder basically made the part his for all eternity in the original film. Johnny Depp, though, took the underlying misanthropy of Wilder’s incarnation and made it overt with a sense of glee. It’s not even that he’s so much misanthropic, it’s that he has no discernable social skills and so dislikes being around people. That’s what makes his revelation at the end all that much more moving. Very good outing for director Tim Burton as well. Nice to see him back on his game.

Ghostbusters (11/11) – “I’ve seen shit that will turn you WHITE!”

Real Genius (11/14) – One of the movies whose quotes pretty much got me through high school. Still a favorite. Also stop number two on my unofficial William Atherton movie marathon.

Ghostbusters 2 (11/16) – Not as good as the original (how could it be?) but still pretty good.

Intolerable Cruelty (11/16) – Very funny entry from the Coen Brothers. Not their strongest but plenty solid.

Constantine (11/17) – Not quite as awful as I thought it was going to be. The main problem is that Keanu Reeves is not a good enough actor to pull off “world-weary.” Instead it just comes off as “borderline comatose.” Never read the source comic but from what I’ve heard it’s quite a departure in terms of style and substance.

Dr. Strangelove (11/17) – “But he’ll see the big board.”

High & Low (11/19) – Excellent noir-ish entry by Kurosawa. Extremely moving.

The Idiot (11/22) – Probably the Kurosawa film that worked the least for me but still plenty worth seeing.

Begging for TWI contact

I’ve been pinged repeatedly – and for long periods of time – by a person or persons using the TWI.com domain. If you indeed do, as my researcy would suggest, work for Time Warner or any of its affiliates please drop me a line. moviemarketingmadness-at-gmail-dot-com.

–Chris

Movie Marketing Madness: Syriana

If there’s a more versatile actor out there than George Clooney I’d like to know who he is. The guy goes from comedy (Intolerable Cruelty, the Ocean’s movies) to drama (Good Night & Good Luck) without batting an eye and is successful – artistically if not always financially – as he does so. His latest flick most assuredly falls in the drama category. Syriana tells the story of how the CIA tragically misjudged the situation in the Middle East and how the power vacuum there led to the terrorists gaining a foothold.

The Poster

Fantastic, graphically. It shows a blindfolded and gagged Clooney in a very washed-out and rough looking color scheme. It really does a good job of setting up that there is a definite element of danger in the movie and that the stakes are just about as high as they get. It’s a wonderful poster, especially in the placement of the name and the tag line on the black elements. The first time I saw it I actually got the chills.

The Trailer

God, that’s good. Fast-paced, well edited and gripping this is an absolutely great trailer. Clooney plays some sort of freelancer (it’s never made quite clear) who a “unique skill set” when it comes to sticky situations. The deal he gets in the middle of, involving the rapidly diminishing amount of oil in the world and the interests of the U.S. government in keeping the oil coming, goes sour for him professionally and personally. Meanwhile, Matt Damon plays a corporate exec who also is trying to keep the supply of oil open to U.S. interests. I don’t know how else to put it, but my heart races every time I watch this trailer, that’s how good it is.

The Website

No real surprises here, just the usual categories. Filmmakers, Cast, About the Film, Photos and such. There is the ability to download a high-quality version of the poster and that’s a good thing. There are still a couple sections that are labeled as “Coming soon”, which is a bit disappointing. On the plus side, though, the site does carry over the look and feel from the poster. This is a smaller-tier release so I’m not surprised by the lack of attention. Still good if you’re looking for movie info.

Overall

Even a weak website can’t kill my love of the poster and the trailer. Just absolutely fantastic stuff on those two counts. Warner Bros. really outdid themselves on those two aspects of the campaign.

Hoodwinked poster

Check out the new poster for Hoodwinked. It’s not very original but it’s bright and shiny for the kiddies and is really trying to attract adults by looking all clever and such.

Even more Narnia tidbits

Over at AdJab Adam blogged about how advertisers are working with Disney to promote The Chronicles of Narnia. Over 80 brands signed on to cross promote the movie, all of whom were asked to use British voiceover talent for their tie-in commercials. In addition, most of the promotions will focus on the literary roots of the book, a decidedly different tack than Disney is taking in other areas where it’s focusing on the religious allegory the story serves as. The efforts even include, according to this story, huge Narnia-themed snow globe attractions at a series of shopping malls.

Take it from me: This and King Kong are the two 800-pound gorillas (one literaly) of the winter box-office race in terms of sheer marketing force. You’ll be so sick of Kong and Narnia come January it won’t even be funny.

More on Geisha/Medium tie-in

Karina at Cinematical has a little bit of the back-story on the recent episode of NBC’s Medium that featured prominent placement and mentions of Memoirs of a Geisha.

King Kong TV spots

ComingSoon has put up three new TV spots for King Kong. You can view all three here. There are two versions of a spot titled “Unknown”, one 60 and one 30 seconds, and another labeled “Tremble.”

The shorter format of TV spots really detract from the movie. Both spend a good amount of time reminding us that Kong comes from director Peter Jackson and and with the same shot of Kong taking a swipe at an airplane. Between that they both focus on running and chasing and shooting. There isn’t the time for the shots to breathe that the long form trailers have allowed for. This is a perfect example of why it’s completely unnecessary for movies like this to buy TV commercial time. If it’s only going to allow for less of an argument to see the movie, cost a ton of money and ultimately be pointless (since there’s no possible way you can raise the level of awareness for this movie) then why bother?

Lady in the Water official website

Warner Bros. has launched the official website for Lady in the Water, the upcoming movie from director M. Night Shyamalan. Only a synopsis there for now, which includes the word “narf.” Isn’t that what Pinky used to intone all the time?