"The Day of the Doctor" Trailers Released!

Hi, all. I'll keep this one short. The Beeb has released a couple trailers for the 50th Anniversary Doctor Who special The Day of the Doctor. Check out the epic goodness below:

First the short TV trailer:

And here's the extendo-rama one:



Now the wait is even more excrutiating!

Trailer Park - Movies For Grownups Edition

Welcome to another edition of trailer park, where I roundup some interesting new trailers for upcoming movies. This time out, we're looking at movies for grownups. Is it just me or does it lately seem like American films are only capable of putting out movies for teenagers and/or people with the attention span of Quentin Tarantino on cocaine (so, I guess, regular Tarantino, then).

Anyway, it's a relief to see summer winding down and some more adult subject matter coming to the fore.

Like David O. Russell's next film, American Hustle:

A few thoughts: Man, the 1970s had a truly godawful collection of hairstyles, didn't they? I mean seriously, what the hell are those things on Bale's, Cooper's and Renner's heads? Also, I get that Jennifer Lawrence is a sex symbol (I don't see it, personally, but whatevs) but when did Amy Adams get crazy stupid hot? Remember Doubt? Still, I really like David O. Russell's films, and this is a pretty damn strong cast.

Next up is Ben Stiller's remake of The Secret Life of Walter Mitty:

This is based on a short story by James Thurber, and it was already a classic film starring Danny Kaye. Some people will cry foul, and proclaim we should never remake classic films, and these people will probably have never seen the 1947 version. It's a good film, but by no means sacrosanct. And I much prefer Flirting With Disaster and Greenberg Ben Stiller over Meet the Fockers Ben Stiller, and this looks like the former, so I'm looking forward to it. We need more fantasy for adults, and I don't mean Game of Thrones.

Next we have Martin Scorsese's latest attempt to win Leonardo DiCaprio that Oscar, The Wolf of Wall Street:

First off, how do we live in a world where Jonah Hill has an Oscar nomination and Matthew McConaughey doesn't? It's nice to see McConaughey wake up and start making good movies. After that Surfer, Dude movie, it was like he hit rock bottom and said, "I have to put on a shirt and start actually acting again."

So there's three movies coming out from mainstream Hollywood that at least try to cater to adults in the room, and they look pretty damn good. Hope to see you at the box office.

Trailer Park - Tiger Beat Edition

Welcome all, to another edition of Trailer Park, where I round some trailers and present them to you for your mockery or admiration.

This time out, I thought we'd take a look at some teen movies, seeing as how it's summer vacation. Wanna guess which one will be the next Sixteen Candles and which one will be the next Don't Tell Mom the Babysitter's Dead? Let's fire up the projector!!

Let's start with The Spectacular Now:

Okay, that actually looks spectacular. It's got what looks like two solidly authentic and nuanced performances from two actors that look like they may be in hooting distance of actually being teens. It's got one heck of a great supporting cast (Bubbles! Coach Taylor! Saul Goodman!) and it's written by the team who brought us (500) Days of Summer, which some people found insufferable but I found really great.

"The Newsroom" Returns July 14th With More Self-Righteousness!

Feeling like there's not enough self-righteous indignation on our airwaves? Do you think that all the American media is missing is a show where journalists can see how great the news would be if they just did it with integrity, darn it? Think that the liberal way is the best way?

Then rejoice, because The Newsroom is returning to HBO for a second season on July 14th!

I'm kidding, I actually love this show, and I'm psyched that, after its rocky reception, it's coming back.

I'm an Aaron Sorkin fan, and an unapologetic one. There are tons of criticisms you can level at the guy's work, for sure. It is arrogant. It is unabashedly liberal. He does recycle dialogue and ideas. There is a nostalgic paternalistic streak to it. And I can even see how people can call his stuff a little misogynistic, though I also think he created CJ Cregg, one of the great women characters in the last twenty years or so, so I'm not sure more isn't being read into this issue than actually exists. I do hope they make Maggie a better character this season though. She was written like a complete moron last year, and she is probably the single biggest fuel to the whole "Aaron Sorkin hates women" thing when it comes to this show. He's a better writer than the stuff he was giving her to do last year.

But I don't care. He's a master of the rhythm of speech, not in a realistic way, but in a musical way. He can structure a story exceptionally well. He has a love of screwball comedy, particularly the romantic aspects of that genre, and if you love that as I do, then it's a very good thing.

Here's the trailer for the second season:

I'm excited. And for all those who hate this show and it's liberal bias, feel free to not watch it.

Superman Won't Just Be Lifting Stuff In This Film

I've kind of been avoiding the massive deluge of Man of Steel stuff that is all over the interwebs right now. But I had to look at this new trailer, which seems to be 2 minutes of relentless action. It's sort of like Zak Snyder is mocking Bryan Singer's Superman Returns through marketing.

You remember Superman Returns, right? You know where Superman is a deadbeat Jesus-dad who basically spends the movie lifting really heavy things? Okay, I actually kind of like Superman Returns, but Man of Steel looks like a film that actually takes full advantage of 21st Century technology to tell the kind of big scale story the Big Red S deserves.

Check it out below:

Awesome-Sauce. Still think the costume looks.......really weird. Off. I think Supes really does need the red underpants. Otherwise he looks a little bland.

Also, Michael Shannon is terrifying. My favourite comment about him came from my friend Scofe who once told me, "I saw Michael Shannon on the street today. He stared into my soul."

Will We Learn "The Name of the Doctor" This Weekend?

This Saturday brings the 50th anniversary season of Doctor Who to a close with the airing of The Name of the Doctor. If you aren't excited by that sentence then I don't know what you're even doing on this site. Seriously. Doctor Who is incredible.

While the show runners have hinted that the finale will solve the mystery surrounding new companion Clara Oswald, the title also suggests that the viewers may learn the answer to the show's longest running mystery; Doctor Who? It's a plot point that has been set up by show runner Steven Moffat for a long time, most explicitly at the conclusion of the previous series.

"Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D." Ordered to Full Series

In the no-brainer decision category, ABC has ordered Marvel Studios' first TV project, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., to full series.

Taking place after the events of The Avengers, and tying into the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the series follows a team of S.H.I.E.L.D. agents, led by Phil Coulson (Clark Gregg), who investigate "unclassified" cases. The series was developed by Marvel's current creative mastermind (and Avengers writer/director) Joss Whedon, who also directed the pilot episode. The pilot was written by Joss Whedon, Jed Whedon and Maurissa Tancharoen.

The series will also star Ming-Na Wen, Brett Dalton, Chloe Bennet, Iain De Caestecker and Elizabeth Henstridge. You can see the 30 second promo for the series below:

So, that looks pretty epic. Obviously this is a no-brainer for ABC, I mean who wouldn't want to tie themselves into probably the biggest franchise going right now? And for Marvel, it's another platform for them to integrate into. Although Whedon has said that the series will focus on the periphery of the Marvel Universe, I'm sure Marvel is looking at this as a cheap way and lower risk way to introduce characters that could conceivably launch new film franchise or bolt into existing ones.

Trailer Park - Grumpy General, Magic Butler, Not Bob Dylan and Gump vs. Pirates

Starting a new feature here on the Nerd Report that I'm calling Trailer Park. If you're like me, and you love watching trailers, even bad ones, you'll hopefully enjoy. So, let's dive right in!

First up is Ender's Game:

So, I've never read Ender's Game or any of the novels in that series. There's a few reasons for that, and only some of them have to do with Orson Scott Card's homophobia, which has cost him a number of things, inlcuding a job with DC writing some Superman stories. I will say that this trailer made me somwhat interested in the film, and as my interest level prior to this was absolutely zero, that's an effective trailer. It's very nice to see that someone has slipped Harrison Ford the Geritol he sorely needed. He still looks grumpy, but at least he no longer resembles the other dwarf; Sleepy. Also, man, they are pimping the Acadmey Award nominations in the cast, huh? Pretty shameless attempt to scream, "We're classy!"

"Drive" Trailer Looks Badass

Below you'll find the trailer for Drive, a new low-budget thriller starring Ryan Gosling as a stunt driver who moonlights as a wheelman for criminals. And yes, while this looks a lot like every other movie about a monastic, disciplined and honorable crook who gets in over his head, it's been a while since I've seen a really good version of that particular story. This one could be it. The cast looks great, and holy shit, is that Albert Brooks? Awesome.

Explosions! Shooting! Punches! DeNiro! Facial Hair!

Wow, okay, the trailer for Killer Elite has come out. Now, from what I can decipher from this trailer, Jason Statham is a Killer, being hunted by a mustachioed Clive Owen (also a Killer). To up the ante into "aw no, you di-in-n't" territory, Owen kindaps Robert DeNiro (Statham's father figure. Oh yeah, also a Killer).

There are so much balls in this trailer that women may become pregnant simply by watching it. The only way this film could be more manly is if someone opens a closet during the film and the corpses of Lee Marvin and Steve McQueen fall out, shooting rocket launchers. Check out the manliness below:



The best part is when they show Statham, tied to a chair, leaping out a third story window in slow-mo, and then flash the title card, "Based on a True Story". That actually had me laughing out loud.

Still, it does look like it would be a good time at the movies. It's just so over the top insane that it might be a blast to watch. Also, it makes me sad for Clive Owen. Remember when he was a big-time Oscar nominated super-star? Closer? Children of Men? The many thought was perfect for James Bond? Someone should introduce him to the concept of saying no to things like Shoot Em Up. Then maybe he wouldn't have to do movies where he's second fiddle to our generation's Jean Claude Van Damme and forced to grow a hideous perv 'stache.

UPDATED - Trailer for "Dragon Tattoo" Hits The Interwebs

Okay, so obviously I took most of this month off, but I think now I'm ready to resume transmissions. Amd I will do so with a very cool video. I don't know how long this will stay up on the World Wide Webs, but here's the first teaser for David Fincher's adaptation of the mega-hit novel The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo. The trailer is only playing in Europe right now, but the American version is expected to hit theatres next week.

UPDATE: So, the version I originally posted was completely unauthorized, which you could guess from how it was from footage of someone pointing a camcorder at a movie screen. Go figure. Here's the actual trailer, though it isn't a red band one. That one is gone, daddy, gone. Still a very good trailer.




How awesome is that? I love the music (Karen O from Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Trent Reznor from Nine Inch Nails covering Led Zeppelin), I love the cast, and David Fincher is an incredible director. I even love the tagline. Looking forward to this one.

Trailer for Upcoming Season of "Doctor Who" is so Boss.

Below you'll find the latest trailer for the new season of Doctor Who. There's not much to say aside from that it kicks....fucking.......ass.




How cool does that look? I think that last season the show stumbled a bit, even though I think Matt Smith, Karen Gillan and Arthur Darvill have been great. But they had a big job to do last year, what with both David Tennant and Russell Davies having left. Now I think they'll be more confident and more bold. I for one can't wait to see what happens.

 The new season debuts in Canada on the SPACE Channel on Saturday, April 23rd at 8:00pm ET.

"X-Men First Class".......God, Really?

Also, that's a terrible fucking poster.

So, I cover a lot of comic book related things on this site. I mean, like, 90 % of articles on this site are about comics and comic book films. Marvel Studios should be paying me, with all the love I've rained down on Captain America, Thor and The Avengers, etc. I even posted on the new Spider-Man film, even if every shot of that costume looks more and more awful; it's like Spidey went to Vegas and wore a fat old Elvis jumpsuit version of his classic duds.

But there's been no love for the upcoming X-Men flick. Why? Because I really can't wrap my head around the whole concept. First off, there's the fact it takes place during the Cuban Missile Crisis. That's actually a pretty cool idea, but the mathematical gymnastics you have to go through is insane.

Okay, so the first X-Men film was released in 2000, and supposedly took place "in the near future". Let's be conservative and say it took place five years in the future, so that's 2005. Now, when that movie starts, it shows Magneto in a concentration camp in WWII. Let's say that he was thirteen at the time, and that the year was 1944. That makes Magneto 74 when X-Men starts! Some of you may argue my using 13 as his age during the concentration camps scene, but mutant powers, we are told, typically manifest during puberty. Even taking three years off still means Mags is 71 when X-Men takes place. Following this logic, in X-Men First Class, Magneto should be 28 years old, but he's being played by Michael Fassbender, who's 34.

Now let's take Professor X. In X-Men First Class, he's played by James McAvoy, who is 32. I'll shave a couple years off and say Charles Xavier is supposed to be 30 years old in 1962. This means by 2005 he would be 73 years old. That's older than Patrick Stewart is right now.

Superbowl Movie Trailers...

I love the Interweb age. It used to be that if you wanted to see the ads that ran during the Superbowl, you had to actually, you know, watch the Superbowl. As I have explained, I'm most assuredly not a sports guy. My obsessions are comics, movies, TV, and robophobia, I don't have time to get invested in sports. I'm barely involved in my real life as it is.

Except baseball. Baseball's cool.

Anyway, now that we live in an instant gratification society combined with the most advanced information sharing technology in the history of mankind, I no longer have to slog through a three hour sporting event to see cool commercials. There were a boatload of cool movie spots during the game, and I have compiled the best ones for your enjoyment. All except Transformers: Dark of the Moon. Why? because Transformers fucking sucks. The first one was awful and the second one (which I only saw a few weeks ago because I was able to see it for free) was abysmally, diabolically bad. If things keep progressing the way they have been, this one should induce seizures and vomiting. So, this is the last time I'm going to mention it.

Anyway, here are the best of the movie spots:

Fringe's Next Episode gets a Movie Style Trailer

This season of Fringe has been consistently blowing my mind. And, due to Fox somehow thinking scheduling it on the uber-crowded Thursday night was a good idea, it's also been consistently slipping in the ratings. Seriously, it was cleaning up in its previous Tuesday time slot, and now it's sucking hind teat. Why not move it back?

Anyhoo, the season has been incredible. And now Fox has released this kick-ass movie style trailer to hopefully entice some new viewers. If you haven't given this show a shot, why don;t you tune in on Thursday. I think you'll be glad you did. This is one of the smartest, most thrilling pure sci-fi shows around right now.

Giant Fist Alert! Green Lantern Trailer Debuts

As I've reported before when Entertainment Weekly released a picture of Ryan Reynolds in the suit, I'm a little nervous about Green Lantern. And this recently released trailer is most definitely not reassuring me, sad to say. Take a look and see.



Look, I love the whole GL mythos. I'm a comic book geek, and this is basically superheroes meets Star Trek, which is very cool. There's a great central character; Hal Jordan, a womanizing test pilot whose fearless quality is what gets him the job as a GL, but that same quality can also make him come off as a cocky jerk at times. The concept of space cops with magic rings that can basically create anything you will them to is great and hugely visual.

So what doesn't work for me in this trailer? Well, first of all, the costumes still look silly. The effect is nice, I guess, but they look.....wrong. Off. The mask looks terrible, and the whole thing looks, well, dainty. Like he should be doing a dance recital, not facing the extremes of space travel and cosmic battle. I thought the idea of a suit created by CG was novel, but the result as far as I can see so far is that they look flimsy. Only one guy has ever pulled off a skin tight body stocking super-suit and that guy is Christopher Reeve. I don't know exactly how he did it, but he did. No one else. And Reynolds is the most fit human being on the planet right now.

Next are the effect themselves. Nothing here blew me away, with the possible exception of the giant green fist, and even that didn't look as cool as it could have. The effects all looked a little too CGI. You all know what I mean. Great CG can create a reality that feels totally authentic and yet still fantastic and unbelievable, resulting in audiences seeing things they had never thought they could see. Cheap or unimaginative CG makes everything look like a video game or a cartoon, and therefore robs the film of any suspense or feeling that these things are happening in areal world. Sad to say, and I hope I'm wrong, but this trailer feels more like the latter to me.

Finally, Blake Lively should get a an award for worst single line reading in a trailer for 2010. She was great in The Town, so I'm not writing her off yet, but man that was godawful.

What did I like? Well, Reynolds seems to have captured Hal's spirit, his attitude and his swagger. He's a guy who's incapable of not being charming, even in the truly awful movies he sometimes does. He also got across some of Hal's awe at being introduced to a larger universe, which is hard to communicate in a trailer. Also, Peter Sarsgaard looks great as Hector Hammond.

So, hopefully I'm wrong. Hopefully, the effects aren't entirely finished, and I'm not getting the whole shebang. Maybe on a big screen that costume will work. I hope all that is true, because it could really be a great franchise.

And Tron: Legacy Just Keeps Looking Better and Better

I've written before about how nuts I am for Tron. Me and Mrs. Nerdlinger watched the original not so long ago, and even though it treats computers like they are magic boxes inside which anything could be going on, it's still a blast to watch.

Below you'll find the latest Tron: Legacy trailer. And holy shit, it looks incredibly beautiful to behold. Yeah, young Jeff Bridges is still a little off, but it's so damn close that it's actually spooky. Anyway, this could be the best popcorn movie of the year.

Feast Your Eyes on This:

It's Not TV...

Okay, let's leave aside that The Pacific is currently airing on HBO, and that's reason enough to get that channel, but here's a couple of trailers for two new shows that are starting up soon on the cable giant, and they make me want to order it right now.

First up is a trailer for Boardwalk Empire, which is based on the non-fiction book about the crime-filled, gangster-run, Prohibition heyday of Atlantic City. It's being run by Terrence Winter, one of the best writer The Sopranos had, it stars the always great Steve Buscemi, and the pilot episode is directed by Martin Scorsese.





Next we have Treme, a series about New Orleans in the brutal days following Hurricane Katrina. What makes this show so special is that it's being run by David Simon. You know, Homicide: Life on the Streets, The Corner, The Wire, Generation Kill David Simon. So it should be intense, lacerating, complex and brilliant. And more than a little depressing.

"Inception" Teaser

What is it, Leo DiCaprio day here at the Nerd Report? Maybe it is. He's dreamy.

In all seriousness, the teaser for Christopher Nolan's next film, entitled Inception, has been released and it looks really fascinating to me. Nolan has apparently said that it's set within the architecture of the mind. While I have no idea what the fuck that means, it just sounds cool doesn't it?

By the way, I love that photo there. It's a photo of three guys who are all saying, "Hey, it fucking rocks to be rich and famous doesn't it? Yes it does. Who's up for cocaine and blow jobs?"

The cast is awesome; DiCaprio, Ken Watanabe, Ellen Page, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Marion Cotillard, Cillian Murphy, and (because Nolan seems incapable of making a film without him) Michael Caine.

Gordon-Levitt had this to say recently:

Here’s the thing… I cant wait to talk to you about [Inception] but I’ve been very specifically asked not to talk about it. I want to respect [director Chris Nolan's wishes] because I love his movies and I’m so honored and grateful to be working with him. He’s got a really specific idea and way he wants people to be presented with this thing.

It just sounds cool. The last movie Nolan made in between Bat-flicks was the underrated The Prestige, so I'm looking forward to this:

Inception @ Yahoo! Video

Cold Souls Trailer

Okay, first things first, I love Paul Giamatti.

He first gained notoriety as Kenny in Private Parts, but I first really noticed him in an otherwise crappy film called The Negotiator, in which he worked overtime to steal the movie away from everyone. And when you consider that the cast featured not only Kevin Spacey and Samuel L. Jackson, but a line up of character actors like JT Walsh, John Spencer, David Morse and Ron Rifkin, that takes some doing. That was in 1998, when he also appeared in The Truman Show and Saving Private Ryan, and became one of the distinguished "that guy"s in the pantheon of character actors.

That year he also appeared in a very bad TV movie called Tourist Trap, directed by Richard Benjamin and also starring Daniel Stern. It also featured yours truly in a small role. I sat next to Mr. Giamatti during lunch one day, and much to my eternal chagrin and regret, never spoke a word to him.

Over the next few years, the parts got bigger and bigger, with co-starring roles in Man on the Moon, Duets, Storytelling and Planet of the Apes, among others. But it was the one-two punch of his performances in American Splendor and Sideways that made everyone sit up and take notice. Somehow he was totally screwed over by the Oscars and wasn't nominated for either one of those (and it's really egregious for Sideways, since the film was nominated for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Supporting Actor, Best Supporting Actress, and won Best Adapted Screenplay, and the fucking movie is ABOUT Giamatti's character!). They tried to make the snub right by nominating him for Best Supporting Actor the following year for Cinderella Man.

Still, now he became a name, a guy who can headline movies, in the indie world at least. I have loved him in pretty much everything, though it was hard in the case of The Lady in the Water (he was great, movie was terrible). He was unbelievably great in the recent HBO miniseries John Adams, which goes to show that while he may look like a character actor, he's got the magnetism of a leading man.

Now comes along Cold Souls, and judging by the trailer, we're going to see another great performance, possibly one that's better than the movie. Still I'm excited: