... And I'm not quite sure how I feel about it.

(I'll spare you the obligatory Richard Gere joke.)

It’s no secret that I’m a huge admirer of Quentin Tarantino’s films, to the point where I generally avoid the subject in public – lest I come off as some kind of obsessive drooling fanboy who tosses aside all critical objectivity every time someone says word one about QT.

But, since the teaser trailer for Tarantino’s latest, the Dirty Dozen-style WWII adventure Inglourious Basterds, was released earlier this week, please allow me to toss aside all critical objectivity and come off as some kind of obsessive drooling fanboy for just a moment:

OMFG I CAN’T WAIT TO SEE THIS MOVIE!!!




Okay, rational Nick is back now. And rational Nick remembers that he found QT’s last film, the half of Grindhouse known as Death Proof, deeply disappointing on a whole lot of levels (not so Robert Rodriguez’s half, the delightfully disgusting zombie epic Planet Terror, which I loved). So even a guy like me has to take the hype for Inglourious Basterds with a grain of salt, despite how exciting this well-put-together teaser trailer may be. I’m not saying that QT has lost his mojo or anything – heck, a lot of folks really liked Death Proof – but the war-film genre is untested territory for him, and already there’s been a low rumble of complaining from fans on the web who aren’t quite buying Brad Pitt’s “I want my scalps” bit from the trailer.

But I’m confident that Tarantino will surprise us all once again with Basterds, just as he did with the Kill Bills – a pair of films I wasn’t entirely sold on when I first read about them, but have come to appreciate just as much as all his others.

A few assorted things about the trailer:

1. This flick looks violent. Like, seriously violent. I know over-the-top bloodletting has been a staple of QT’s cinema from the grue-spattered opening of Reservoir Dogs onward, but something in this trailer makes me think that Inglourious Basterds is going to significantly up the ante even for him. Aside from Pitt’s character’s “disemboweled, dismembered, and disfigured” speech – which elicits a sick little smile from co-star Eli Roth – we also get a baseball-bat-to-the-head bit that’s tough enough to watch even in TV-sanitized form, a character charging through a building with minigun blazing, a guy with a swastika carved into his forehead (yowch!), and so on. Some will argue that stylishly horrific violence is all QT had going for him in the first place, but I strongly disagree – and I hope that this film offsets its nastiness with humor, intelligence, and personality just as skillfully as his earlier films did.

2. The teaser trailer offers only a few quick glimpses of Melanie Laurent’s character, a Jewish girl who has fled from the Nazis, even though her role is supposedly a pretty big piece of the overall story. I’m really interested to see what Tarantino does with this character, since it seems as if she appeared rather late in Basterds’ very, very long development cycle. If anybody can successfully shoehorn a hard-boiled heroine into an otherwise testosterone-drenched Dirty Dozen/Magnificent Seven-type setup, it’s Tarantino, and his knack for crafting memorable female characters (The Bride, Jackie Brown, Mia Wallace, etc.) bodes well for Laurent’s contribution to the film.

3. That Hitler thing at the end is really, really corny. If that’s the payoff to something, I hope whatever it is is very well set up.

Darren Aronofsky is one of my favorite filmmakers in the world, but even I balked a year or so ago when I heard that his next film would be the story of an aging professional wrestler.

I mean, sure, Requiem For a Dream wasn’t really groundbreaking in terms of its subject matter, either, but the theme of drug addiction allowed Aronofsky to let loose with some truly striking and surreal visual ideas – and the film turned out to be a masterpiece. But how, I wondered, could the spandex ‘n suplex crowd possibly hold any appeal for such a visionary filmmaker, especially since his last movie (2006’s glorious metaphysical sci-fi drama The Fountain) was essentially a huge-scale meditation on the nature of human existence itself?

Well, whatever drove Aronofsky to make The Wrestler, the trailer is now out, and let me just say one thing: it looks great (you can view it in beautiful HD here at Apple.com). Yes, it’s a much less ambitious movie than The Fountain, and no, the visuals probably aren’t going to blow anyone out of their seats, but the drama, humor, and most importantly, humanity on display within the few short minutes of the trailer lead me to believe that all those glowing early reviews weren’t just hype – this might end up being the best film of 2008. I mean, heck, Aronofsky’s pulled off some pretty amazing cinematic feats before, but actually making notorious sleazeball Mickey Rourke seem like a sweet, warmhearted guy? That takes a filmmaker of very, very significant talent.

So when this film finally comes out next month, I’ll be there. And when Aronofsky announces that his next movie will be about an aging roller derby queen (played by Rourke’s ex, Carre Otis) who straps on her skates for one last bone-crushing ride around the rink, I’ll be looking forward to it from the get-go.

One of the most promising-looking movies that you probably won’t get to see in theaters this fall is the indie dramedy Humboldt County, the feature debut of writing/directing duo Darren Grodsky and Danny Jacobs.

I checked out the trailer (here it is over at Apple.com) knowing little about the film, and was very impressed with what I saw – everything from the cinematography to the performances look to be pretty spot-on in this small-scale but seemingly heartfelt tale of a mentally burned-out med student (Jeremy Strong) who winds up in an off-the-grid California community of tightly-knit medicinal marijuana growers. Director Peter Bogdanovich, a guy I always love to see in front of the camera, plays Strong’s hard-nosed doctor father; the talented but not exactly name-brand supporting cast also includes Fairuza Balk, Frances Fisher, and Brad Dourif.

According to the directors’ blog, the film is slated for a select-cities release on September 26 that will probably bypass our area entirely, although it will be available to HDNet subscribers in “exclusive airings” starting on September 1.

Yes, Humboldt County does seem to have a familiar, Garden State-ish ring to it, but something about this movie – and, no, it’s not the pot-related plot – seems pretty special, and I hope it makes its way to our corner of the world before too long.

Here’s a low-res look at the trailer, though the HD version at Apple does the film’s gorgeous visuals a lot more justice:

Well folks, the most eagerly anticipated movie of 2008 is finally upon us this week. Yes, that’s right, I’m talking about the Adam Sandler cinematic classic-to-be You Don’t Mess With the Zohan.

What, you’re not soiling yourself with excitement for Sandler’s turn as an Israeli Mossad agent who longs to be a hair stylist? Yeah, me either. It’s not any particular beef I’ve got with Sandler, but even with Judd Apatow listed as a co-writer and the great John Turturro showing up for yet another supporting role, Zohan looks to be one of this summer’s most misguided movies, vying for that dubious honor with Mike Myers’ The Love Guru.

Personally, I think Sandler’s big-screen comedic aptitude peaked with his first major movie, Billy Madison (yes, it’s an orgy of crude, juvenile slapstick hijinks, but hey, who doesn’t love an orgy?), and for years now I’ve been wishing he’d just scrap the juvenile stuff and do some more worthwhile film work – his 2002 collaboration with Paul Thomas Anderson, Punch-Drunk Love, is one of my favorite movies, and proved that Sandler has what it takes to transition to “serious” roles if he were willing to make the leap.

Until that day, though, I’ll leave you with four Sandler movies that ended up being a heck of a lot better than anybody could have predicted – in the hopes that Zohan might somehow manage to bring this list up to five.

Click

It’s a Wonderful Life it ain’t, but this potentially horrific (possibly unintentional) homage to Frank Capra actually ended up being one of the most bearable – and kinda-sorta lovable – Sandler comedies of the past decade. The plot, which wouldn’t have seemed out of place on The Twilight Zone, has workaholic architect Sandler purchasing an enchanted remote control from kooky scientist Christopher Walken that allows him to control time by simply clicking its buttons. As he uses it to fast-forward the “boring” parts of his daily existence – and occasionally ogle some jiggling cleavage in slo-mo – he begins to inadvertently skip over the important moments with his kids and his wife (Kate Beckinsale, clearly the kind of girl you want to pause, not fast-forward). Mostly sacrificing huge laughs in favor of sentimentality, Click is still markedly better than the average effects-driven big-budget comedy, thanks to its occasionally inventive script and a winning Sandler performance that has his character aging almost a half-century (aided by Oscar-nominated makeup effects) over the course of the film.

Reign Over Me



I’ve never cried during an Adam Sandler flick – thought I may have shed a tear or two after having wasted eight bucks seeing Mr. Deeds – but this 2007 film, from writer/director Mike Binder, came the closest to making that happen.
Sandler, in his riskiest role to date, plays an average family man who became a withdrawn eccentric after losing his wife and daughters in the 9/11 attacks; his old dental school roommate (Don Cheadle) bumps into him one day, and takes it upon himself to reconnect with his old friend and bring him out of the depressed, lonely stupor he’s been suffering through.
Binder has a knack for character-driven films with engaging little touches of comedy (a combination he nailed in his previous film, The Upside of Anger), and Reign Over Me gets a lot of dramatic mileage out of its Cheadle/Sandler pairing without crossing the line into exploitation – an impressive feat, considering the subject matter. Had the film been released in November instead of March last year, Sandler might have even landed an award nomination or two.

Airheads



Dated as this grunge-era comedy is becoming, it’s still got laughs to spare – and features the kind of once-in-a-lifetime cast that’ll make it worth seeing no matter how painful the hairstyles are.
Sandler plays the dimwitted drummer of headbanger Brendan Fraser’s terrible hard rock trio The Lone Rangers (which also includes a very scraggly Steve Buscemi), who resort to extreme measures to get their demo tape played on the radio: they break into the radio station with plastic Uzis and hold the staff and d-bag DJ Joe Mantegna hostage. Coming off like a lighthearted cross between Wayne’s World and Die Hard (it’s even shot in the same L.A. highrise they used for the Nakatomi Plaza), Airheads offered Sandler one of his first major movie roles and surrounded him with the funniest lineup of supporting players he’s had to date – including Chris Farley, Michael McKean, Judd Nelson, Harold Ramis, and, in a particularly entertaining turn, a pre-Seinfeld, pre-career suicide Michael Richards.

Spanglish

Though Sandler’s finest performance to date can still be found in Punch-Drunk Love, he’s no slouch in this overlong but endearing culture-clash dramedy, directed by small-screen legend James L. Brooks.
Sandler plays a successful celebrity chef whose high-strung wife (Tea Leoni) has been making life difficult for him and his two kids; into their affluent household comes Mexican-born, mostly Spanish-speaking maid Flor (Paz Vega) and her daughter (Shelbie Bruce), good-hearted immigrants who gradually begin to affect their employers’ unhappy lives in some unexpected ways.
Brooks’ film is a bit messy and chaotic – sort of like real life – and Leoni’s character can be tough to take, but Sandler shines in his scenes with Vega (making her American film debut), and Spanglish manages to find some moments of real resonance in its dysfunctional but thankfully not soap-operatic portrayal of upper-class misery.

Normally here in Movie Match I’m all about looking back on films you might have missed, but this week – it being the unofficial start of summer movie season and all – I thought, just this once, it might be more fun to look forward.

I’ll tell you exactly what I’m looking forward to: the awesome-looking comic book adaptation Iron Man, which finally arrives in theaters tomorrow after tantalizing fanboys like myself for the better part of a year with its Robert Downey Jr. wisecracks and cooler-than-Transformers-looking robo-slugfest action scenes. Early reviews – even some of the more negative ones -- have pegged this film as a surefire start to a lucrative new franchise, and that’s probably a good thing for comics-to-screen fans. Why? Because Hollywood lately seems to have exhausted all the superheroes your mom might be familiar with (Spider-man, Batman, Hulk, that blue tights guy, et al) and is soon going to have to rely on lesser-known comics properties like Iron Man to keep butts in the seats. That may actually end up being a positive, since it frees filmmakers up from having to pay lip service to the well-worn origin stories and character traits of the heroes everybody already knows and allows them to cut loose with unique and original visions of less-famous characters, like Guillermo Del Toro did with his Hellboy series. I’m not saying all second-tier superhero flicks are necessarily worth catching (Elektra, anyone?), but here are just a few of the ones coming out in the next year or so that should give the genre a shot in the arm.

Wanted
This eye-popping adaptation of Mark Millar and J.G Jones’s comics miniseries is sure to be one of this summer’s hot tickets – if the film can live up to one of the coolest trailers I’ve seen in a while, that is. The story of an average office drone (James McAvoy) who discovers that his murdered father belonged to a super-secret, superpowered band of assassins who now want to recruit him, Wanted promises over-the-top action by the truckload, as energetically directed by Timur Bekmambetov – the guy behind the stylish (if not entirely coherent) Night Watch trilogy. The cast is a big asset here, with Angelina Jolie stepping into familiar bad-girl territory as the veteran hit-woman who shows McAvoy the ropes; co-stars Morgan Freeman, Common, and Terence Stamp should give the flick a big boost, too. You can catch it starting June 27 – if your local multiplex is willing to pull a few screens away from The Dark Knight, that is.

Punisher: War Zone
2004’s Punisher movie, starring Thomas Jane as vengeance-driven antihero Frank Castle, was not one of the better adaptations out there, but the film’s impressive dvd business and the character’s enduring popularity still paved the way for a sequel that’s set to drop this fall. Jane’s out as Castle this time – “creative differences,” so he’s said – so Ray Stevenson of TV’s Rome will be taking his place as the new Punisher, with 300’s Dominic West joining the franchise as disfigured villain Jigsaw. The film is reportedly darker, bloodier, and more in the spirit of the “adult” Punisher comics than the somewhat sanitized (but still pretty violent) 2004 film, and director Lexi Alexander’s rough and critically acclaimed soccer flick Green Street Hooligans proved that she’s definitely got a handle on this type of testosterone-soaked material. The tentative release date is December 5.

The Spirit
The solo directorial debut of comics guru Frank Miller, The Spirit takes a character created by late comics guru Will Eisner and throws him into a very cool-looking live-action/animation hybrid a la Robert Rodriguez’s Miller adaptation Sin City. Relative newcomer Gabriel Macht plays the title role, a dedicated cop who’s resurrected as a darkness-dwelling crimefighter who has a way with the ladies and a Batman-like bond with the city where he does his bidding. Samuel L. Jackson handles villain duties as The Octopus, while a rather amazing lineup of female costars – Scarlett Johansson, Eva Mendes, Jaime King, and Paz Vega – play the many women in The Spirit’s life, both good and evil. The film releases January of next year, but to whet your appetite you can check out the short but very promising teaser trailer at the film’s official site, http://www.mycityscreams.com/.

Billy Batson and the Legend of Shazam
This one’s still in the scripting stages, but actually, that has a lot to do with why I’m so excited about it. A take on the not-exactly-well-known Captain Marvel saga, this clunkily titled adaptation (expect that to get shortened by the time it’s actually done) comes to us from super-scribe John August, best known for working with Tim Burton on films like Corpse Bride, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and my favorite, Big Fish. Since the Cap’s story is one of the cornier ones in the comics universe – Billy Batson is a teenager who becomes the superpowered Captain Marvel when he utters the magical word “Shazam!” – you can expect August to have some tongue-in-cheek fun with the adaptation; this sure as hell ain’t gonna be Batman Begins, but I think a more lighthearted, campy, self-aware kind of superhero movie could be a blast if done right. No word yet on when we’ll get to find out, but the film does already have a director (comedy guy Peter Segal) and a lead villain: Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, who’s agreed to play the Cap’s nemesis, Black Adam.

Post-apocalyptic action movies may not be as trendy now as they were in the 80s — I guess that's one of the downsides of the Cold War being over — but every once in a while a filmmaker comes along and reminds us of how cool Mad Max and all its many imitators could be.

This time around, it's Neil Marshall, director of The Descent, who'll be unleashing his end-of-civilization thiller Doomsday on March 14. The trailer is up now at Yahoo! Movies — you can check it out here — and, from the looks of it, this one's taking a decidedly old-school approach to the post-apoc genre, tattooed psycho-punks and all.

I have faith that Marshall, who whipped up some very well-orchestrated scares in The Descent, will knock this one out of the park. Still, the trailer seems a little scattered thematically, recalling both the grim, super-serious, politically inclined approach of most recent post-apoc movies (Children of Men, 28 Weeks Later) and the comic book thrills offered by Escape From New York, the Resident Evil series, etc. If Marshall can successfully combine the two angles, as George Miller did so successfully in The Road Warrior (also an obvious influence here), then Doomsday could very well end up being a genre classic.

Plus, Bob Hoskins and Malcolm McDowell — you just can't go wrong with those guys.