September Dawn: Anti-Mormonism?

I came across this trailer when looking at some random movies that are on ComingSoon.net. The trailer itself is rather lame in acting and did not at all get me excited about the movie. But I was amazed at how much it hated on Mormon people. The trailer makes the movie look like propaganda to get people mad at the Mormons. Kind of like antisemitism I would call this antimormonism. Watch the trailer below:



The trailer portrays the Mountain Meadows Massacre as religious terrorism implying direct involvement of Briggam Young. This one won't be winning any Key Art Awards coming up on June 15th I'm sure of it. The only good thing about this trailer is that it has an interesting topic and a new view at the Mormon religion. I will not see this movie in the theater when it is released on June 22, 2007. I give this trailer a 2/10 .

Links:
The Mountain Meadows Massacre
Official Site for September Dawn
IMDB for September Dawn

Knocked Up: Movie Review

I was a bit surprised when my wife was the one trying to talk me into seeing this movie. Going into it, I knew very little about the movie other than it being directed by Judd Apatow (Anchor Man, 40 Year Old Virgin) and therefore, definitely a comedy. My wife was excited that it starred Katherine Heigl (Izzy Stevens from Grey's Anatomy) because she is a huge "Grey's" fan. I knew that in a series of movies which cries out "Questionable Content," this one would hold the same.

First thing to know going into Knocked Up is that you should expect clips of nudity, sex scenes, drug use, watching a birth, and more F-bombs than "The Departed" and "Boondock Saints" (Watch the summaries of these movies). I knew none of this. Despite all of this (and due to some of this), I laughed more at this movie than I have in a long time. The mixture of comedy between Seth Rogan and Paul Rudd (remember the "You know how I know that you're gay..." while playing Nintendo64 scene from "40 Year Old Virgin")



and the other cast in this movie brought the audience to tears in laughter. I witnessed some of the biggest laughs I have ever heard at a movie last night. Well, in the end, it turned out to be a great movie with some parts I could have done without. The funny thing is, going back to watch the trailer so I could write up my report, the previews make the movie to look pretty tame... almost like a chick flick comedy, which is why I think my wife wanted to go see it so bad in the first place. Check it out below.



With the exclusion of a few nudity clips, I give this movie an 8.5/10

Off Topic: Microsoft Surface - the computing platform of the future?

This video was posted on a blog that I read. Its real cool to think about where computing is going in the future? Where is our technology going to next? I believe that we are advancing on how we can apply the technology we have rather than trying to create new technologies. This is just one example of how a mixture of technologies we have today can be applied for tomorrow. Check out the video below.

Off Topic: Three Funny Shorts from "On The Lot"

In case I don't have time to post later, here is a short post to give you something techewan (remember that joke Dragon Slayer?) for today.

There is a TV show on Fox called "On The Lot"

The show is basically an American Idol for directors of movies. Right now there are 15 directors left on the show. They have time limits (anywhere from 1 to 24 hours so far) to produce short films that are critiqued by real directors (judges) and voted on by the public. I don't watch the show, but I do watch the shorts that they put out. Here are three funny ones from this past episode I thought were funny.

Dance Man
by Adam Stein <- This guy is my favorite director on the show

Replication Theory
by Sam Friedlander <- This on was funny, but lacked a good ending

Spaced Out
by Andrew Hunt <- I just laughed at this one... no substance... no story... just funny

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Review of yesterday's post

Dragon Slayer was kind enough to remind me that I didn't write my opinionated review of yesterday's Harry Potter Order of the Phoenix trailer. So here is what I have to say about it:

I am glad that there is a large emphasis on action in this film. The other films have lacked great action scenes. The cinematography looks to be very Batmanish... it looks to be very dark in most scenes as the setting is growing more scary as Lord Voldemort is on the rise. The movie begins to lose its childish tint that it had in the first 4 movies. Harry and the others are not kids anymore, but decide to rise up and establish Dumbledore's Army. Harry Potter is getting older and seems that by the time the last movie is set to come out (2010) he should be well past the age of wizarding school.

Mostly unknown David Yates comes on board for the next 2 movies as the 4th director of the Harry Potter movies. It looks like he does a pretty good job with the acting and the sets from what I can tell so far. I am excited to see. The soundtrack should be good as well, but is also a stray away from the usual John Williams and Patrick Doyle, bringing in the unheard of Nicholas Hooper who has worked with Yates in the past. The soundtrack has done a great job of getting me excited for the upcoming movie. I love the clarity of the high definition trailers, so be sure to check those out with the link provided at the bottom (of the previous post).

BMTR Ranking:
9.5/10

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

Today's trailer is for Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. This is one of my most awaited movies or this summer as I am a Harry Potter nerd. I have been getting back up to date by reading all the books again and going back and watching the movies so I can be ready for the fifth movie (Release: 7/11/2007) and the final book (Release: 7/21/2007).

Watch the trailer below:

Here is a brief summary of what will go down:

Harry Potter returns to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry for his fifth year. He quickly learns that the Ministry of Magic and the wizarding community believe that Harry's story of his encounter with Lord Voldemort at the end of his previous year is a lie. More problems arise with the new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, Professor Umbridge, who was appointed by Ministry of Magic officials to teach a "misistry approved" curriculum. With Voldemort on the rise and his Death Eaters (Voldemort's followers) lurking around corners, Harry and others take matters into their own hands and put together "Dumbledor's Army," a magical defense class taught by Harry. The Order of the Phoenix, a secret society set out to defeat Voldemort and his followers, is also introduced and grows into plenty of new adventures for Harry and his friends.

Links:
Harry Potter OOTP Unofficial Site
IMDB for Order of the Phoenix
More Apple Trailers
Harry Potter Official Site
Buy the Book

Back again... with a new theme.

I suspect that Ryan will be the only person to read this post... at least for a little while. I am going to see what kind of audience I can collect by focusing all of my efforts on reviewing and posting on new and upcoming movie previews.

As you will notice. I had 2 measly posts in 2006 while I was still a student. One was about a short film (Lots of Robots) which still hasn't been continued since my original post. The other was on Nacho Libre's preview when it was first released.

All in all, I believe that focusing on movie previews and getting my readers excited about upcoming movies will be an easier task than posting on entire movies. Since I don't have time to watch a movie a day, a movie review of the day is an impossible task. I can post on one movie preview a day much easier and it is more of an enjoyable task for me anyways at this point of my life.

Enjoy my blog.

Weirded out, but Intrigued... I couldn't stop watching it...

So I haven't had a bunch of time to watch a movie over the last couple of days, but I thought that I would do a little bit of short film browsing. I was trying to find an old short that I had watched 3 years ago that was very interesting, but I couldn't remember the name of it. I stumbled across this short animated film by Andy Murdock. The short is called "LOR" or Lots of Robots. I had watched the beginning of various different other short films, but this one was different from the rest. I am amazed by 3d graphics. I love Pixar and Dream Works films, this one reminded me of those. I began watching and was very weirded out. The beginning scenes are a little strange, but as I kept watching I grew more and more intrigued. Its the type of film that will make your head spin. It is about 14 minutes long, so if you have the time, check it out. Its very interesting.

Click the Picture to Watch the Short

The Beginning

This is me. The beginning. I have been talking about this blog for about 2 months now and finally I am getting this started. Stay tunned to the blog to hear my comments about movies I am watching now, upcoming movies, or just random comments on who knows what... I didn't watch a movie today. I set this thing up. I need to learn some tools to use. If anyone reads this that has a good quick way to learn blogging methods or tips let me know.

Ok... so here's something. Check out this new movie trailer of Nacho Libre. Jack Black stars as a Mexican Priest/Professional Wrestler on a mission to save an orphanage. This film is brought to you by the director of Napoleon Dynamite (Jared Hess) and the writers of School of Rock. The movie is bound for horrible reviews and Jack Black fans running to the theaters.

Click the Pic for the Trailer