Theatrical trailers are supposed to entice viewers to want to see an upcoming film, but lately, they’ve become a little annoying.

It seems that a few problems plague these promo pieces – not only do they show the viewer most of the film, but they also show scenes that end up on the cutting room floor or, most annoyingly, dialogue out of context.

I understand how these problems can happen. A lot of times, promotional materials such as trailers have to be ready long before the movie itself is, meaning that sometimes stuff slips in that isn’t actually in the movie.

But even though I understand why, I still find it annoying. Today, trailers aren’t just on the big screen; they’re also on videotape and
now Digital Video Discs (which almost always have them as an extra feature).

Recently, I watched “Varsity Blues” on DVD. The disc, like most, had the trailer included. Several times, it showed a scene where James Van Der Beek and his girlfriend (Amy Smart) are talking about football in what looks to be in a forest on top of a parked car. It really looked interesting and made me wish briefly that there was a “Varsity Blues” director’s cut or something similar.

In a different “Varsity Blues” trailer, shown on television mainly, a high school girl asks for an autograph on her body during a pep rally. This didn’t end up in the film, either, although the pep rally was present. If the film was running a little long, it’s disappointing that the filmmakers considered this a place to make up some time.

The first time I noticed this phenomenon of seeing things not in the movie was when “Hot Shots!” came out in 1991. There was a part where Cary Elwes is shooting pool, and he does a trick shot where the cue ball ends up landing in his front pants pocket. Later, there’s the cliched line about, “Is that a (fill in the appropriate object here) in your pocket, or are you just happy to see me?”

The scene in which this happens is still in the movie, but this actual part never made it to the theater, just like the “Varsity Blues” autograph scene.

Another problem that plagues trailers is that they exploit every good scene and/or joke in the movie. But now that I think about it, maybe that’s saying less about the film than the trailer. Regardless of the quality of the movie, I feel cheated when I come out of a movie, realizing that I had already seen the movie through a combination of theater and television promotional spots.

The third and most annoying problem with trailers is one that can be avoided. It really doesn’t matter how bad a film is or what ends up in the final cut of the movie. I despise previews that take dialogue or action out of context. Often, I’ve seen where one actor’s reaction or dialogue is spliced after another’s, yet the scenes are spliced from scenes that are 40 minutes apart. Usually, the only damage is a puzzled look on my face when I see the movie and realize that things were taken out of context, but sometimes these splices can really misrepresent a film and its premise.

None of these problems are the end of the world, but they are annoying and it seems that a lot of the incidents could be avoided easily with a little planning and a just a bit of common sense.

Originally posted at NandoNext.

Originally when I saw the preview for “The Matrix” a couple of months ago, it seemed to be just another big-budget flick, lots of special effects, little plot. Initially, I had no desire to see it. I’m not sure what changed my mind, but I’m glad I did.
Every facet of “The Matrix” was rich and enjoyable, from the visuals and action sequences to the plot itself. Machines received artificial intelligence and enslaved their creators, the humans. The Matrix is the delusional world the machines created to keep the humans content. It is basically a complex computer program that re-creates the late 20th century.

A group of rebels, led by Morpheus (Laurence Fishburne) has disconnected from the Matrix, and using a ship, hacks into it in an attempt to free humanity from its unknown slavery.

Hacker Thomas “Neo” Anderson, played by Keanu Reeves, is approached by the rebels and also by the Matrix’s creations, being inserted into the Matrix program to try to eliminate the rebels. The twist is that because the Matrix is a big program, the agents can insert themselves anywhere and as anyone, meaning that the rebels are constantly in danger when they are hacked into the Matrix, a very cool concept.

Reeves’ character has be recruited because Morpheus thinks that he is the chosen one who can thwart the Matrix. Probably the first half of the movie is dedicated to Reeves’ character testing out his abilities. A very cool scene takes place between Reeves and Fishburne, where they are in training within a computer-simulated dojo. The two are sparring, but as the scene progresses, the sparring gets better and better. Fists and feet fly at incredible rates, and the two start doing graceful flips and twists at high speed. This also sets a precedent for the rest of the movie.

A lot of the cool effects used in the movie can be seen in the previews, but that doesn’t mean it’s not worth seeing. The best sequence is when a couple of rounds are squeezed off by an agent. Time seems to slow as Reeves arches backward, and the bullets react as if they’re moving through Jell-O. While sequences like these are used throughout the movie, they don’t oversaturate the film as I had feared they would. The effects are used as they should be in any such action film — to create a believable fantasy environment.

Although the plot is your basic sci-fi “man vs. machine,” the combination of effects and the richness and detail added to the basic concept make the film very enjoyable on the big screen. Like so many action movies, to get the full experience of its sights and sounds, catch it on the big screen, not when it hits the local rental store.

Originally posted at NandoNext

“Dogma” got dogged by Catholics, forcing Miramax to drop the picture from its distribution list. As a subsidiary of Disney, Miramax feared another boycott by angry religious folks. Canadian distribution company, Lion’s Gate picked up the film and released it Nov. 12 to American audiences.

The Catholics boycotting the film hadn’t even seen the film and were angry and, ultimately, overreacting. At this point, the only people that should be angry are the officials as Miramax/Disney who let the film go.

“Dogma” is director/writer/actor, Kevin Smith’s fourth major film. Already under Smith’s comedic belt are “Clerks,” “Mallrats” and “Chasing Amy.”

All four films feature the duo of Jay and Silent Bob. Silent Bob is played by Smith himself, while Jay is played by Smith’s real-life buddy, Jason Mewes. Jay and Silent Bob play a major role in “Dogma,” which is just one of the many reasons while “Dogma” is Smith’s best picture yet.

“Dogma” is not anything like his other three feature films, though there are obvious elements that run through all of them.

The combination of a good, original story and a great ensemble cast makes for a completely enjoyable film. The cast includes Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, Chris Rock, George Carlin, Linda Fiorentino and Salma Hayek.

Great casts do not always equal great films (look at “Mars Attacks”), but in this case, it does.

The premise is that Fiorentino (”Men in Black,” “Last Seduction”) plays Bethany, the last descendant of Jesus. Bethany is forced to stop two renegade angels (played by Affleck and Damon) from re-entering heaven after they find a loophole that can get them readmitted through a church in the home of Springsteen, Bon Jovi and, of course, Smith himself. Bethany’s only help comes in the form of the not-so dynamic duo of Jay and Silent Bob, a pair who has alsobeen fan favorites in Smith’s other flicks, Clerks, Mallrats and Chasing Amy.

Rock also assists. He is great as Rufus, the thirteenth apostle, who’s campaigning to get the Bible rewritten to include his presence, which he claims was ignored because he was black.

Damon and Fiorentino give the best performances, which are both convincingly sincere, and enjoyable.

Smith is known for his love of comic books, which carries over into “Dogma,” with its epic-quest-type story and the crossovers that refer to his other films, a common occurrence in the pages of comics.

There’s very little to criticize, though God being played by miss Canadian angst herself, Alanis Morissette, was disappointing and pretty dumb. Half the audience groaned, and half the audience laughed upon her appearance. But at least her part is less than five minutes long.

The biggest tragedy, and really the only thing that should upset people is the fact that the film isn’t in more theaters, though “Dogma” is Smith’s widest release yet, and rightfully so.

Originally posted at NandoNext.

It seems like yesterday that the University of North Carolina campus was torn up under the sweltering sun, with “Patch Adams” cameras and crews swarming around, blocking off areas. Students attending summer camps at Carolina or summer classes talked about sightings of Robin Williams on Franklin Street or autographs snagged between takes.

But now the campus is back to usual, with the blue-lit towers of the emergency call boxes and the no-longer broken red brick paths. In fact, “Patch Adams” is now in theaters, and besides being an enjoyable film, it’s really cool to sit there and recognize so much.

As the film starts, Patch Adams is in a mental hospital, but he soon finds he can get past his own problems and inadequacies by helping other patients. So he decides to go to medical school, a fictitious campus known as “Virginia Medical University.” In reality, that campus is made up mainly of UNC buildings.

Currently, UNC’s School of Journalism and Mass Communication is housed in tiny Howell Hall. But over the summer and even now, renovations are being made to the immense, white-pillared Carroll Hall, which used to house the Kenan-Flagler Business School. This building was used as one of the main classroom exterior scenes in “Patch Adams.” I found it funny that the movie would show medical students streaming out of the building, when only weeks earlier, bright yellow signs barred entrance to students and faculty members because of concerns over possible asbestos.

Again and again, the movie shows scenes of the campus, with its green quad and the historical and familiar buildings. It’s hard to describe the feeling of seeing all these buildings that I’m in every week of each semester, taking courses such as political science and economics. Here they are, on the big screen displayed all over the country in theaters.

I realized, sitting there, that the average person watching the newest Robin Williams flick didn’t have the foggiest clue about some of the little things that my friends and I knew that made the watching the movie so fun. For instance, several times Williams and fellow med students ascend the large front steps of Carroll Hall to attend class — only to emerge later from Saunders Hall.

Little things like that were amusing, but the real thing that struck me is how much effort went into so little screen time. This summer, I stood there, watching a scene in which a nurse brings Patch a letter. They filmed it over and over and spent hours setting up the cameras, and Williams must have walked the same few steps 30 times. The scene on the big screen was about 10 seconds long.

The same thing is true for the scene that caused a little bit of talk and controversy this summer — the two legs spread in stirrups from the doorway of Murphey Hall. My best friend and I saw them covered for days with black tarp to cover their true form, then revealed off and on for several days of shooting. Then a final day, they were seen being dismantled and trucked, piece after flesh-colored piece, off campus.

There’s also the fact that in every scene, there are countless people moving about the campus — extras. I never really took notice of this small but significant addition to increase realism tenfold. All those people were hired to walk countless times back and forth. I never really thought about it before, but here’s another example where people take days out of their lives to say they were a part of a film for relatively little compensation.

Overall, it’s just really cool to see something that I’m a part of, up there for so many people to see. It’s also a great feeling to kind of have an inside track and an angle that the general public doesn’t know.

The real Patch Adams was on the set a lot. Williams throughout the film is seen wearing very bright, wild clothes. Most people watching the film will pass this by. But at Carolina we saw that this was the way the real Patch dresses and that “based on a true story” meant more than a few names and events were borrowed. The story was certainly based on a true story and its setting based on a real place — a real place I call my home and my alma mater.

Originally posted at NandoNext.

Life as we know it is going to end due to an asteroid the size of Texas, taking out all life on the planet, from bacteria all the way up to humans. We’re not exactly talking a new premise here. But this is the stuff summer blockbusters are built on.

“Armageddon” is the typical summer action blockbuster: packed full of impressive and extraordinary visual and audio effects, lots of action and a commendable storyline. The story’s no Academy Award winner, but as action movies go, "Armageddon" is strong a ll around.

I sat through the movie, my eyes and ears completely satisfied with the film, as long as I suspended belief about certain aspects, such as the number of to-the-wire close calls. The visuals and audio special effects completely bring the film to put on a level higher than others of its genre (and completely blowing away the earlier summer disaster movie, "Deep Impact").

As soon as the burning title came on, I could tell the effect crew put in overtime on this film. The logo explodes, and the shards fly in all directions. The DTS sound system made the shards sound as if they were flying all around the audience. When I hea rd this and realized this was but the beginning, I knew I was in for an audio/visual treat.

Harry Stamper (Bruce Willis) is an expert oil driller, with a crew around him that he trusts and confides in, plus A.J. Frost (Ben Affleck). Stamper doesn’t like Frost because of his attitude and the fact that he is in love with Stamper’s daughter, Grace (Liv Tyler).

Tyler comes across as a bit of a spolied brat and adds nothing to the so-called drama of the picture. Her attempts at being sensitive yet strong make her come off as shallow and self-centered, though I feel sure this wasn’t the way the script wanted her t o be portrayed. It’s difficult to entirely put the blame on Tyler, though, as she’s put in commendable performances in the past in films such as “Stealing Beauty,” “Heavy” and “Empire Records.”

I went into the film, not knowing much more than that the world was in danger of extinction and a crew of astronauts were to save the day, but as the film starts, it’s about a group of normal blue-collar workers on an oil rig. I was really intrigued and c urious as to how this group was to be linked to NASA later in the film.

It turns out that Stamper and company are sent into space because they know drilling the best. While it’s a simple thing, it’s something that’s not seen too much in the genre. Instead of the heroes being guys trained to be such, they’re closer to normal g uys thrown into a situation. I guess that’s been done before, but not as well.

While the story had too many close calls and too many things coming down to the wire, overall, the film had a decent story. The writers should also be commended for keeping one-liners to a minimum, one my biggest pet peeves about summer blockbusters. Laug hs can be achieved without resorting to lame lines of dialogue.

If you wait for it on video and watch it on a 13" TV with a mono VCR, you won’t be impressed half as much. The film is really watchable because of the effects. Take the impressive special effects away, and it can be lumped with just about any other action movie that’s been released the past few years. More than anything I’ve seen recently, the sound enhances the film. Ambient noise was constantly hovering in the background: from the underwater noises of the crews’ training to the beeps and hums of the shuttles, the surround sound gave a sense of being there and helped make the impressive effects even more imp ressive.

My only real complaint is the number of close calls, lucky breaks and down-to-the-wire sequences. The cliche of a timer counting down to the final second before being disarmed is present and really shouldn’t be. (The heroes were disarming a nuclear bomb, and it was obvious the writers weren’t going to end the movie with everyone dying.)

Affleck’s character in particular seemed to posses a rabbit’s foot, horseshoe or something that kept him alive and driven through the film (the writer’s may want you to believe it was the love for Grace that drove him to continue, though I don’t buy it). Affleck’s character survives a nasty crash landing on the asteroid’s surface, a weightless jump across a huge valley in a tanklike drill machine (imagine "Knight Rider" in a vaccuum) and a huge, explosive fire that destroys an entire Russian space station . Suspend your belief through all this, and the movie is completely enjoyable and entertaining.

The film was a little long, though I didn’t realize it until after we had left the theater. The action is constant and time flew in the theater as fast as the rock and rubble on the screen. The effects and technology used in the film is seamless. Never o nce did the environment look like a set or a computer-generated environment. This genre continues to rake in audiences and the big bucks because of production like this. Also, I’m sure "Armageddon" makes George Lucas proud, as the THX/DTS sound system is used to its fullest, from subtle noises to big explosions.

Originally posted at NandoNext.

Ticket stubs can be worth more than you think. Recently, I went with two friends to review “Disturbing Behavior.” The ticket stub read, “Disturbing.” Little did we know, it was not just an abbreviated title, but a warning of what was to come in the theater.

Everything about this movie was disturbing, from the acting to the dialog to the premise. But I guess this is what I get for reviewing a film I know nothing about. I’m a fan of Dawson’s Creek, and Katie Holmes does a decent job as Joey Potter on that show, so I figured a film with her in it would at least be up to those standards. Boy, was I wrong. Holmes does an OK job as Rachel Wagner, considering the script and actors she’s surrounded by. Her performance wasn’t anything special, but compared to any other actor in the film, Holmes was superb.

The premise of the film is that the Clark family has relocated to Cradle Bay, a remote island, accessible from the mainland only by ferry. The Clark parents see the move as a way to get away from the bustle of Chicago — and from the suicide of their oldest son.

But Steve Clark, played by Jimmy Marsden, doesn’t want to be in Cradle Bay and resents the fact that he’s there. The younger Clark son, maybe 17 years old misses Chicago and isn’t willing to start from scratch in Cradle Bay

Even to get this far in the film takes forever, though, thanks to an annoyingly long set of opening credits — whose length is equaled only by the interminable credits which follow the 80-minute film. And when you finally reach the first scene, you find a disappointing horror film clich&#eacute;, a young couple making out in the parents’ car. The scene is even clich&#eacute;d to the point that the boy, who belongs to the evil bunch, reveals his affiliation with eyes that glow red.

As the “story” unfolds, the island has become a place where people are becoming brainwashed by an implant that Dr. Caldicott (played by Bruce Greenwood) has been putting into people in the town. The brainwashed group is signified by a clique at school of ‘A’ students who all wear the same letterman-like jackets and participate in bake sales and blood drives.

During our introduction to the school, Steve meets one of the other main characters, Gavin Strick. Strick (played by Nick Stahl) lays down the school in the most stereotypical of terms, with four distinct groups: the motorheads, nerds, the outcasts and the brainwashed perfect students.

This scene exemplifies one of the things that is so wrong with the film: Everything is black or white, right or wrong. You have your evil and you have your good. There’s no in-between character or dialogue here, just a lot of overacting, predictable lines and uninspired visuals. Not surprisingly, the film ends as clich&#eacute;d as it began: Steve misses the ferry he was supposed to catch with Holmes’ character, his younger sister and an albino. To remedy that situation, Steve, having just battled it out with the evil doctor, hops on a motorcycle, jumps from the dock and lands on the ferry, toppling over the bike and doing a side slide I’ve seen in only about 100 other movies.

All the characters, in fact, were over-the-top. The janitor is probably the worst. The guy is supposedly a genius who pretends to be an idiot so that he can get the inside scoop on the plans of the evil bunch.

The soundtrack also did nothing to enhance the film or its mood. Don’t expect to hear any hit singles on the radio from this film.

The thing that disappointed me more than the film itself, though, was the audience. I went on opening night, so I guess it’s acceptable that the place was packed, but people were cracking up at the jokes and lame dialog. I laughed one time — and lost track of how many times I groaned.

I really have little good to say about this film. I regret dragging my friends to see it and making them pay full price for something that isn’t even worth a video store rental. About the only compliment I have for the makers is that they spared us after 80 minutes. I don’t think we could have taken much more.

Originally posted at NandoNext.

I can’t claim that I’m a diehard James Bond fan, nor am I willing to accept just anything with 007 in the title. I think I’ve seen five of the Bond flicks at the most. But the latest film, "Tomorrow Never Dies," with Pierce Brosnan as 007, truly makes me want to go back over the collection and check them all out.

There are several things one accepts going into a James Bond film: Realism doesn’t exist in the fictional world of 007; Bond is quite sexist, or to put it nicely: quite the ladies’ man; and enemies are terrible shots. Putting these three things aside, "Tomorrow Never Dies" is a great entry into the action genre, overflowing with explosions, constant energy and endless creative chases and action.

From the moment the film starts, Bond is a true genius of espionage and technology. The opening depicts him spying on a black-market bazaar of weapons and vehicles which he promptly destroys, with a cruise missile on its way in. Since it’s only two minutes into the film and also you know the nature of action films, you know Bond will persevere. Yet, simultaneously, there’s a constant scream within the mind telling him to hurry up. Although we’re not talking academy award stuff here, we’re talking entertainment that complete enthralls the viewer, losing track of elapsed time.

It’s amazing that action films can still allow one to lose themselves, as it seems action can do only so much, but “Tomorrow Never Dies” is creative in this respect. Rather than having the usual helicopter gunman shooting at a motorcycle, the film adds little twists such as the fact that Bond and Wai Lin (played by Michelle Yeoh, also seen in Jackie Chan’s “Supercop”) are handcuffed together, making maneuvering and dodging the enemy on a motorcycle that much tougher.

Another aspect that makes the film better than the others I’ve seen is Yeoh, whose character teams up with Bond to thwart the plans of media mogul Elliot Carver (Jonathan Pryce). He plans to start war between Britain and China so that he can cover it and have exclusive rights to the coverage through his global satellite news network. Although it’s doubtful Ted Turner is plotting such devious acts, in a lot of ways, it seems more of a possibility than some villain looking to take over the world.

Yeoh, though, is just amazing, with her display of martial arts. The way Wai Lin and Bond play off each other and work as a team to defeat Carver is amazing, while at the same time, isn’t completely the tired buddy-buddy team butt-kicking.

Also, though it isn’t a major part of the film, the introduction of the film deserves compliments. The combination of computer animation of combinations of female and technology was amazing and smooth. X-ray-like displays showed the innards of guns firing and silhouettes of women dancing from within bullet casings. The whole display is very surreal and reminds me slightly of computer animation found in “The Lawnmower Man.”

Probably the weakest link of the film was Teri Hatcher. She plays an old flame of Bond and the wife of the current antagonist. Her performance is fairly flat and really adds nothing to the film, save an extra credit at the beginning and end of the movie.

Also, while I noted that realism has to be ignored in this genre, one thing just completely bugged me. Bond’s super BMW is remote-controlled by his digital phone, using a pad not that different from a laptop’s touchpad. Bond controls the vehicle from the car’s backseat, swerving and dodging bullets using this control device. Personally, I have trouble navigating a touchpad in a word processor and can’t even imagine using the pad to control a bike, much less a super-charged BMW.

Aside from nit-picking things like this, “Tomorrow Never Dies&” is an amazing thrill to see on the big screen. If “Tomorrow Never Dies” is representative of the rest of the series, I’m going to be hooked completely. Any Bond fan will be completely satisfied with this film, and any action fan will find it enthralling as well.

Originally posted at NandoNext.

Alicia Silverstone plays a spoiled rich brat, starved for attention. “Clueless II” right? Just about. Silverstone plays seemingly the same role in her newest flick, “Excess Baggage.” That is only the beginning of the problems with this film.

The movie’s whole premise is that Silverstone’s character, Emily Hope, is an attention-starved girl, trying to get her father to acknowledge her existence. She stages her own kidnapping, locking herself in the trunk of her car. In the meantime, her car is broken into and stolen by car thief Vincent Roche, played by Benicio Del Toro.

After getting away with the car, Vincent finds Emily in the trunk. Rather than just simply getting rid of her, he leaves and calls for help. In the meantime, Emily somehow gets of the trunk but cannot escape the warehouse she’s in. Vincent returns and finally decides to drive her out in the middle of nowhere. He drops her off on the side of the road, only to return after finding his warehouse has burned down.

Somewhere soon after this, the two begin to like each other and fall in love. Hello! Where does this come from? There’s no reason why these two go from enemies to lovers. It’s just not feasible.

In fact, most of the movie isn’t. In movies, often we have to take things for granted. But there’s only so much you can take for granted. For example, the bad guy (Christopher Walken) is able to find Vincent’s hideout in the backwoods because he happened to have coffee at a restaurant that Vincent frequents, where the waitress just happens to have a postcard from Vincent hanging on the wall.

Another thing that bugged me was the soundtrack. Don’t bother getting it, either, because it seems that it is basically Dave Matthews Band’s “Crash” played about five times. Sometimes, even when the movie stinks, the soundtrack is acceptable. (”Last Action Hero,” “Twister,” etc.) Not here, though.

There’s very little to say good about “Excess Baggage.” The characters are flat. The jokes aren’t funny, and Silverstone always has that stupid pouty look on her face.

The movie has too much talent associated with it for it to be such a flop. Both Walken and Harry Connick Jr. have way too much talent and range to be associated with such a terrible film. I’m wondering why the two, after seeing the sketchy script, would agree to work. The other films in which I’ve seen Connick, he’s been pretty humorous. But here, he’s just bland, like the movie as a whole.

Don’t waste your time or money on this one; it’s not even worth waiting to see on video. Go see “Contact” again instead.

Originally posted at NandoNext.