Tag: Trailers Without Pity

  • Trailers Without Pity: The Expendables

    This one had been on our list of movies to do for a while. The mix of over-the-hill action stars, ridiculous title and even more ridiculous trailer beckoned like a lit, beckoning thing over on the horizon of a hill or something.

    The Expendables looks like it might be just enough fun to watch on video, but not quite enough fun to make much money in theaters. I mean, look at The A-Team. That faded quickly and looked way more interesting.

    Anyhoo, here’s our Trailers Without Pity for The Expendables. Ka-blooey!

    We’re not sure what movie we’re doing next yet, but that new Machete trailer is looking ripe for the pickin’.

    The embed code seems to be working again, but it’s a little flaky. If the video doesn’t load, try reloading or following the direct link to TWOP.


  • Trailers Without Pity: Piranha 3-D

    In case it hasn’t been made obvious by comics I have published or by the recap I did of Aquaman, I like a good fish joke. Hell, I like a bad fish joke. If there is a fish in the joke I will probably find it amusing. Fish are funny. I hope you agree.

    So when we looked at the schedule and saw that Piranha 3-D was on its way to theaters, we could not resist. It was as if it was being dangled in front of us like something you put at the end of an object so that an animal will come and eat it. What’s the word for that?

    You know, you use it to catch something? It’ll come to me.

    Oh yes. Cheese. In a mousetrap.

    So, here we are devouring Piranha 3-D for Trailers Without Pity. Embedding has been flaky lately, so if the video below doesn’t play, go to the direct URL at TWOP.

    This was a very fun one to do.

  • Trailers Without Pity: Scott Pilgrim vs. the World

    trailers w/o pity presents: Scott Pilgrim

    The first time Pablo and I saw the Scott Pilgrim vs. the World trailer, we were wowed, but in the course of putting together the new Trailers Without Pity video, you could say we got a little disenchanted.

    For one thing, I couldn’t get over the Michael Cera-ness of the proceedings and for another, surprising, eye-catching special effects often wear out their welcome when it seems that’s the most interesting thing going on.

    Nevertheless, it’s directed by the guy who did Hot Fuzz and Shaun of the Dead, so you gotta give it the benefit of the doubt. Or, I mean, I do. You might not give a damn.

    I’ve embedded the video here, but if it doesn’t work for you, but do us the favor of giving this link a 64-hit combo click and watching it for yourself on the TWOP site.

    Next time, we’re doing Piranha 3-D.


  • Trailers Without Pity: Knight and Day

    Trailers w/o Pity presents...

    (This was previously posted on the old Terribly Happy site. The movie is in theaters this week.)

    We made a list recently of our next six Trailers Without Pity movies, a task we’d neglected until we had exhausted our last 12-week-old list. We gazed upon the list of summer bonanzas — action, comedy, super-hero drama (check, check, check) — among them, we had this odd-duck movie with Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz. It’s due out in just a month and except for a few commercials, this movie has almost no buzz.

    The press site: barren of even a smattering of images that might flesh out our idea of this movie.

    Tell me if you can figure this trailer out. While I’m sure the production values will be high and the movie will be professional in its format output, I don’t know if I see a movie that humans want to consume in there. Maybe I’m off and this will made $100 million+ in its first week, but my gut, the one that also likes gourmet donuts, tells me this will not come to pass.

    If there is buzz on this movie, it’s anti-buzz, the kind that comes from a flying attention-hungry vampire insect, one that is not striped in black and yellow, but in the very colors whose lack of pigment cause you to turn away, bored.

    Knight and Day, folks:

  • On iPad uses and library tech woes

    My second column for CNN ran this morning, surprising me a bit. It’s the second one I’ve written and I haven’t gotten any word yet on whether there’ll be any more. This one’s about alternative uses for an iPad, including audio recording, photo editing and bedtime storytelling.

    Also yesterday, I did a segment for NPR’s All Things Considered about a new national study on public libraries and the challenges their digital services (free Wi-Fi, computer access, etc.) face. Here’s the blog post (with audio embedded) and a transcript of the segment.

    I’m working on a digital divide/mobile story for the Statesman, so the reporting I’ve been doing matched up nicely with the piece. My story is due soon and it’s been a very, very tough one to get my head around, but things are starting to fall into place.

    Other new stuff: had a great Father’s Day with my girls and also got to spend time with my mom, dad and brother. I blinked and Carolina is already starting to scoot around on her belly and roll over. I swear she was just a immobile infant a week or two ago. Lilly loves it, of course, and can’t wait for her sister to crawl and walk. We’ve been through this before, but I still find this stage absolutely amazing.

    We have a new Trailers Without Pity that I haven’t even had a chance to post and just finished scripting and recording the next. I’ll get that up sometime later today. We’re weighing our options right now on the future of the videos beyond the end of our current contract, but Pablo and I have both been so slammed we haven’t had much time to make any decisions.

    That’s it! Back to the grindstone (with my nose).

  • Trailers Without Pity: Inception

    Inception

    We’ve been big Christopher Nolan fans since Memento and damned if we weren’t blown away by Dark Knight, so it’s not hard to get worked up over his new summer movie, Inception. It features Leonardo DiCaprio and more stars than I care to name and looks pretty fantastic.

    Our Trailers Without Pity for Inception concludes that it will probably be amazing if it doesn’t get too far up its own dream colon.  I mean, it has to be. Have you seen the other movies that are out this summer? It’s like navigating a yard full of poop where a St. Bernard lives.

    You can view it here on the TWOP site or below if the embedded video works for you.

    The video just went up and we’re already working on the next one, for Scott Pilgrim vs. The World.